2 Chronicles 29

There are historical books in the Old Testament that recount the history of the people of Israel, all the different kings who ruled in Israel, beginning with King Saul, and that recount the entire history of the Jewish people up to the time when they were taken captive by the Babylonians and carried away from the land of Israel, and were exiled. And these books are First and Second Samuel, First and Second Kings, and First and Second Chronicles. Many of the accounts found in these books are repeated in some of them, always complementing one another; some provide details about certain events that others do not provide. And they have to be pieced together with one another, but they are very interesting books.

Now, why do God’s people use these books for their meditations and sermons? Well, because we believe that what God did was to provide, through the history of a people and the figures who appear in that history, models for living and ways in which we can understand how God works throughout all of history with all the people on earth. That is, Israel is simply, among other things, a model, so that by studying God’s relationship with Israel and His dealings with them, we may understand how we too relate to God and how we should conduct ourselves before the Lord. It is like the case method used in law schools or business schools. Much of the theory of law or business administration is taught by studying cases involving specific companies, and then, by studying how a company undertook a certain financial strategy or what led to a company’s failure, students of law—or, in the case of business administration—or, in the case of law, how a certain case was decided by the Supreme Court and what legal implications that case had for the future of law in the United States. By studying specific cases, general principles are drawn from them that can then be used in the practice of law or business.

Well, the Bible is somewhat similar: cases are studied, and principles are drawn from them for people’s lives, whether in the twenty-first century, the fifteenth century, the tenth century, or the first century. The spiritual principles are the same. That is why the church studies these cases, because from them we can draw biblical, spiritual teachings for our lives.

There is a story, the story of King Hezekiah, in Chapter 29 of Second Chronicles, and I want us to go there for a moment. Hezekiah is a very interesting king, and for years I have wanted to study him with you, and in a little while I am going to tell you why I chose Hezekiah today. His life and his journey are very instructive; they provide a very vivid illustration of some beautiful spiritual principles. So Chapter 29 is quite a long account. I am going to skip here and there because, obviously, I am not going to read all 36 verses of this long chapter, but it says, in verse 1 of Chapter 29: “... Hezekiah began to reign when he was 25 years old, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah, and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all the things that David his father had done.”

Clearly, Hezekiah was an upright man, a man who conducted himself in a way that was pleasing before God, one of those kings—because there were also kings who conducted themselves terribly wrongly before God. He was one of the righteous kings during that period of Jerusalem’s history.

“In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them, and he brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them in the eastern square, and said to them: ‘Hear me, Levites. Sanctify yourselves now, and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the filth out of the sanctuary, because our fathers have rebelled and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God, because they forsook Him, turned their faces away from the tabernacle of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him.’”

Let us go to verse 10. He continues, saying: “... now therefore, I have determined to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that He may turn away from us the fierceness of His wrath. My sons, do not deceive yourselves now, because the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him and serve Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense to Him.”

What follows, then, is an account of how the Levites and the priests arose and did what the king asked them to do concerning the house of the Lord. Let us go to verse 20. It says: “... and rising early in the morning, after these reforms in the temple, King Hezekiah gathered the leaders of the city and went up to the house of the Lord, and they presented 7 bulls, 7 rams, 7 lambs, and 7 male goats as an atonement for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah; and he told the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord.”

The end of verse 24: “... to reconcile all Israel, because the king commanded that the burnt offering and the atonement be made for all Israel.”

And here there is another phase of this revival, of this renewal, in verse 25: “... he also stationed Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, psalteries, and harps”—these were musical instruments—“... according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan, because that commandment came from the Lord through His prophets.

Verse 27: “... then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be sacrificed on the altar, and when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord also began, with the trumpets and the instruments of David, king of Israel; and the whole assembly worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded the trumpets. All this lasted until the burnt offering was consumed. And when they had finished offering, the king and all who were with him bowed down and worshiped. Then King Hezekiah and the leaders told the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the living, and they praised with great joy and bowed down and worshiped.” May the Lord bless His holy word.

Now, Father, bring Your word to life in us, Lord. Give us understanding to expound it; revive our spirits, our minds, Father, so that Your name may be glorified through the exposition of Your word. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen. Amen.

Not long ago, as you know, we finished a series on Chapter 15 of the Gospel according to Saint John. We spoke about that very powerful word of the Lord, “abide in Me, and I in you”; about abiding in Jesus Christ; about the God who prunes us; about bearing fruit; about the benefits of bearing fruit. We spoke about the prayer that God answers and how it is necessary to flow in harmony with the Holy Spirit, with the Spirit of God, so that God will answer our prayers. It was a series that I enjoyed quite a bit. Well, now that business is finished, and we are going to begin another series.

For some time now, the Lord has placed it on my heart to discuss with you what I call “principles for prosperity,” principles for prospering, for being blessed on earth, for living successful lives. We could also call them principles for success, and I began making some notes about this, and I hope to share with you some simple advice about how to prosper in the things we undertake: our businesses, our families, our personal and physical lives, our emotions, our human relationships, and how to live successful lives.

There are practical principles that God wants us to learn, and I began making a list of things, jotting down random thoughts, and one of the things that came to mind was that I want to use figures from Scripture to illustrate some of these principles, and I immediately began making a list of people who seemed important to me in this regard. Joshua came to mind, for example. Joseph came to mind, of whom the Bible says that everything he touched prospered and was blessed. Ruth came to mind, a woman who experienced great loss in her life and who reached a point when she had nothing—bankrupt, without a husband, without children, alone in the world, a widow in the midst of Israel 3,000 years ago—and yet God blessed her and prospered her and helped her get ahead.

Well, I began thinking in this way about different people and also looking in Scripture for the words prosperity and prosper, and there I also came across the figure of Hezekiah. And then, when I began to read a little, I remembered that Hezekiah has been a very interesting figure to me when I have studied him in the past, and as I told you, I wanted to share something from his life and his biography with you. So I decided: we are going to take—there is no hurry with this—we are going to take the scenic route, and we are going to look at the flowers and the lakes, and we are going to take our time. I am going to let go of the agenda I had for how I originally wanted to do this, and we are simply going to search the Bible to see what emerges and what God teaches us.

So I am going to begin with Hezekiah—or rather, directly with a biography of Hezekiah. We are going to study Hezekiah’s biography, and I am going to try always to keep in mind these ideas of prosperity, blessing, and success, and how they relate to our lives and our conduct. You can already see what kind of heart Hezekiah had: it was a heart that was noble toward God, the heart of a man who had a passion for God.

But look, the first passage that actually led me to come across the life of Hezekiah is found farther back in the Book of Second Kings, and there, in Chapter 18, it also deals with Hezekiah’s reign and speaks more concisely about these reforms that he carried out. Chronicles goes into much greater detail. But there is something very beautiful there. Look at Chapter 18, verse 3. It says: “... he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all the things that David his father had done.” It is the same assessment of Hezekiah: an upright man, he pleased the Lord, he did the will of God. But then look at what it says in verse 7, as a consequence of that uprightness of heart and conduct. It says: “... and the Lord was with him, and wherever he went out, what happened? He prospered. Wherever he went out, he prospered.”

You see the connection there between a life that is upright before the Lord, that pleases God, and a heart that loves the Lord and seeks to do God’s will. What happens? Everything he did, wherever he went, God caused him to prosper. What does this mean, that wherever he went out? Well, a king went out to war, went out to engage in trade, went out to visit the nations surrounding Israel, went out to undertake construction projects and the renewal of the nation; he went out, I imagine, to meetings with officials of his nation. The phrase went out means that everything he undertook in his capacity as king prospered, and God blessed it. Again, where did the secret of Hezekiah’s prosperity come from? From that heart that loved the Lord, that heart that honored God, that heart that was passionate for God. It reminds us of David; that is why the connection is made there. It says: “he acted according to the heart of David,” because David was another man who loved the Lord passionately.

Brothers and sisters, there is a mysterious connection, and I have seen it throughout my entire life; I have observed that when a woman or a man loves God passionately, and that person’s heart desires that God be honored, and that person is concerned that God be honored and pleased, that God’s business and affairs prosper, and that God’s church not suffer, that person, brothers and sisters, is blessed and prospered in everything he or she undertakes. Christians do not realize how they deceive themselves and what they lose when they are mediocre and lukewarm toward the Lord. When they are concerned only about their own needs and their possessions, and their time, their money, their sleep, their privacy, their personal agenda, instead of putting God’s agenda and God’s interests first in their lives.

Brothers and sisters, God loves the man or woman who is passionate for Him. The man or woman who loves God above all things is a person who will prosper and be blessed every day of his or her life. Everything that person undertakes, the Lord will bless; that person will have the Midas touch, for everything he touched turned to gold.

Brothers and sisters, that is what I believe. I can tell you that I have proven it in my life, and I can tell you that all the people I have observed who love the Lord with that passion—you see that they are blessed in what they undertake. God honors their efforts, and God causes everything they undertake to prosper. Do you want to prosper in your financial life? Do you want to prosper in your married life? Do you want to prosper with your family and your children? Love the Lord above all things. Love the Lord passionately. Put Him first in your life. And I assure you that God will bless you. God will prosper you. God will never grow tired of pouring grace over your life. Oh yes, Lord, I can tell you, brothers and sisters, that is a reality. The lives of the great heroes of the Bible show this connection between passion and prosperity.

Hezekiah was a man who exemplified this. Look, it says that when he—going back to the text of Second Chronicles—when Hezekiah ascended the throne and finally had control of the nation, what was the first thing he did? First, he did not say, “Well, I have to enlarge my palace, because a larger and more luxurious house is fitting for a man of my dignity.” Hezekiah did not say, “Well, first let us turn our attention to the nation’s economy and make sure that all the nation’s financial and economic affairs are in order.” Hezekiah did not first undertake a reform of the political system. What was the first thing Hezekiah sought to do? To repair and put the house of God in order. Look at it there; if you do not believe me, if you were sleeping when I read it, go back to the Bible now. It says: “...in the first year of his reign, in the first month”—notice that—in the first month of his reign, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.

Brothers and sisters, that is what consumes me concerning... a nation—listen to me—a nation in which spiritual matters are not in order will fail, no matter how much effort it makes in any other area. If the house of the Lord is not in order, if God’s affairs are not being attended to, if God is displeased with a nation, do you think God is going to bless that nation? No matter how hard its leaders strive to carry out economic reforms, establish justice, or implement any kind of political or structural reform, if God’s blessing is not upon the nation, the land is cursed. Listen to that. The Word of the Lord says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.” Listen to me. The spiritual foundation comes first. If only the leaders of this nation understood that. If only we understood, brothers and sisters, that the foundation of a man’s or woman’s life is spiritual first and foremost. We cannot move forward until the spiritual has been resolved in our lives, or in the life of a nation or a city. People are always putting the cart before the horse. It is madness. The foundation—that is why the Lord Jesus Christ said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” God’s righteousness, not righteousness as men define it—God’s righteousness—and all the other things that people kill themselves trying to obtain will come. Do you know how? As an added blessing. You will not have to kill yourself; you will not have to strain yourself.

Brothers and sisters, let me tell you something: when you concern yourself first with the things of God, God obtains for you effortlessly the things that others kill themselves trying to obtain. Your labor pains are painless. That is life’s most beautiful secret. Forget yourself, and become passionate about God and His business and His affairs, and God will bless you again and again and again. That is the most powerful secret of prosperity that I can share with you.

Be upright with the Lord first and foremost. Attend to God’s affairs, because if God is for you, who can be against you? Look, brother, the nation may be experiencing the greatest depression imaginable, yet there will be no lack of food in your home. That is what I believe. Everyone may be suffering from one thing or another, but the Word says that the Lord will keep us; the Lord will protect us. “A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Because he has set his love upon Me, says the Lord, I also will deliver him; I will set him on high because he has known My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him, because he has known My name, because he has set his love upon Me.” Do you understand that? Because he has set his love upon Me.

How many of us have set our love upon God? Love. When I see that image in my mind, I see someone taking a bouquet of flowers and laying it at the Lord’s feet: “This is my love, Father. Here are my affections; here are my aspirations; here are my desires; here is everything I value and enjoy. I lay it at Your feet. Do with them whatever You wish, Father.” When a man or woman comes to love God in that way, brothers and sisters, God never tires of pouring blessings upon that person’s life. Even when that person falls and goes astray, the Lord forgives, heals, and raises that person up. “I will be with him in trouble,” it says. “I will deliver him and honor him; with long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation,” says the Lord.

David was a man with many flaws; he made serious mistakes in his life. But do you know what? David’s passion for God was so great that his love was like a fire that consumed all his imperfections. And that is why, throughout all the centuries of kings in Israel, the standard was that the good kings followed David’s heart. They did as David had done. God did not look at his flaws or his mistakes; He looked at his passion for Him, at the love David always had for the Lord.

And that is what you and I must understand in our lives. Oh, if only our church were made up of men and women filled with passion for the Lord! Not mediocre people, not religious people, not bourgeois people, not people of the spiritual middle class, but people who are fervent for God, passionate for the Lord, because God vomits lukewarm people out of His mouth. Listen to me. In Revelation, that is why, there in the church of Laodicea, the Lord said to it, “Because you are neither cold nor hot, I am going to vomit you out of My mouth.” Have you ever tried to drink a glass of lukewarm water? How many of you have drunk a glass of lukewarm water? What happens? You do not have to tell me. The body naturally rejects it. And there are so many people who call themselves Christians, brothers and sisters, who are lukewarm—so many lukewarm churches. Brothers and sisters, the only thing that touches God’s heart is white-hot passion. There is no other temperature for God but white-hot and passionate. All or nothing. The Lord is a passionate being, and He likes passionate people. If you do not love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength, and all your soul, you are not pleasing to the Lord. Now, love God passionately, and God will be your most faithful ally throughout your entire life. And God will stand behind you and bless you and be with you in your battles. He will give you counsel in your times of need, get you out of trouble, and bless you even as you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The Lord will be faithful to you because God loves passionate people. And wherever there is a man or woman burning with fire for the Lord, the eyes of the Lord turn toward that person.

That is why the Word of God says that “the eyes of the Lord range throughout the whole earth to find those whose hearts are perfect toward Him, in order to show Himself strong on their behalf.” When a person’s heart is committed to the affairs of God, God will bless that person, prosper that person, open doors, bring that person out of dead ends, cause water to spring from the rock, and make the ravens bring that person food, because the Lord is faithful to those who love Him.

Hezekiah was a faithful man. That is why, when he began his reign, the first thing he did was this: he saw that the house of the Lord lay in ruins. Imagine that; decades had passed. Imagine that in this nation—the comparison would be that 50 or 100 years pass, the Christian church stops seeking God, Christians gradually lose their energy and passion, the church becomes irrelevant, as is happening at this time, churches begin to die, as is happening at this time, people become drowsy, and suddenly the churches close. Brothers and sisters, do you know how many churches are closing nowadays? It is incredible. Here in the United States, the Catholic Church, for example, has unfortunately had to close dozens of churches, and there are American evangelical churches with beautiful buildings that are also closing their doors. And who is inheriting them? The poor of the earth—the Latinos and the Haitians—are taking over those churches, because at least a little of the Lord’s fire is still there. As you will remember, more than 20 years ago, we inherited a church building from a church that died in Cambridge, and we were there for 15 years until the Lord brought us here, because that church died. What would happen if, little by little, the churches kept dying and closing, and grass began to grow and the places filled with dust? That is what happened to the temple in Jerusalem—a beautiful temple, but because there was no love for God, the temple was closed, it filled with filth, animals and rats ran throughout the temple, and the priests and Levites and pastors of that time went home to work because they had no money and could not receive their salaries. Worship and service to the Lord fell to zero. There was no worship. And do you know what? When the grass is not tended, weeds grow, and what happened in Israel was that it became filled with idolatry. People no longer went to the temple to worship the Lord; instead, they went to the high places to worship idols, worship demons, and worship the gods of the region, while the worship of the LORD was utterly neglected.

When Hezekiah came to the throne, he said, “This cannot continue. I am not going to take a single step economically, politically, or structurally until I have made sure that there is spiritual renewal and that the house of the Lord is clean, restored, and cared for as it should be.” That is why Hezekiah opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. Doors are like a symbol of the essence of a place, and those doors had been neglected and had fallen down. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said, “I will build My church upon the rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” because gates are symbols of authority in a building. Doors symbolize the strength of a building, and so Hezekiah said, “First repair those doors for me. They are rotten; the locks are broken. Repair them, put them in proper condition, open the house of the Lord, and repair it completely.” Not only that, but he also summoned the priests and Levites who were off in their villages—they had gone away there—and gathered them together. He called them all, held a great meeting, and said to them, “Listen to me, Levites: ‘Sanctify yourselves now, and sanctify the house of the LORD, the God of our fathers, and carry the filth out of the sanctuary,’” verse 5. He called the priests and told them, “Priests, prepare yourselves to fulfill your calling.”

Brothers and sisters, as a pastor, I know the burden that rests upon us. We cannot call the people to revival if there has been no revival in our own lives. We cannot call the people to holiness if there is no holiness in our own lives. That is a heavy burden borne by the Lord’s spiritual leaders, but we must receive it, and we accept the weight of that calling. When pastors and the church’s spiritual leaders put their lives in order, when we have the love of God and the fire of God in our hearts, when there has been an awakening in our own lives, and when our conduct is pleasing to the Lord, then God’s blessing can come upon others. We understand that and accept that responsibility. We do not shrink from it. And the first thing he did was to say, “Bring holiness to the house of the Lord.”

Now, that also extends to the people of God. Each one of you, as members of the house of the Lord, is also called to holiness, to sanctify yourselves. There must be sanctification; there must be cleansing; there must be conduct that pleases the Lord. There must be an upright walk before God. That physical cleansing was a symbol of the spiritual cleansing that must take place in the house of the Lord. We have been called to a life of integrity before God, a life that conforms to the Lord’s commandments.

I believe that if revival is going to come to the United States, it must begin with the house of God. We cannot ask the world to get right with God if we are not right with God first. There is a call to integrity. Hezekiah called the priests and the Levites and told them, “Purify yourselves, sanctify yourselves, consecrate yourselves, become active again, and prepare yourselves to fulfill your duties once more.” Then he called them to a time of consecration, retreat, perhaps fasting, prayer, devotion to the Lord, washing their garments, and preparing themselves to carry out the priestly office once again. And the priests did what the king had commanded them. It says: “...and carry the filth out of the sanctuary.” I believe that revival begins with a movement of God in one man, in a person chosen by God to be a prophetic person. I believe that this is how God has always worked. But after that, it extends to the leaders; after that, it extends to the church; and after that, it falls upon the nation. We see that pattern here: concentric circles, from the smallest to the larger and then to the largest. That is the way God’s call spreads into the life of a nation or an era.

So we see here that first the king, the spiritual and political leader of the nation, experiences revival. Then the priests are called to carry out their duties and prepare themselves. After that, brothers and sisters, I believe that for there to be a true visitation from God in the church and in the nation, there has to be something we see here: confession of sin. There is acknowledgment of sin. Look at verse 6, how “he called the priests, gathered with them, and said to them, ‘For our fathers have rebelled and done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God, for they forsook Him.’” He could have stopped there and simply said, “Our fathers have rebelled and done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God.” But do you know what? Confession is something specific. We have to acknowledge our faults specifically before the Lord. It is not enough for you to say to the Lord, “Father, forgive me for my sins.” You have to go right to the heart of the matter, take that knife and put it exactly where the need is, and there cut loose whatever is holding back God’s blessing.

It says: “...they forsook Him, turned their faces away from the tabernacle of the Lord, turned their backs on Him, and even shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps; they did not burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.” You see? Brothers and sisters, we have to confess our sins before the Lord. God does not require you to be perfect, although He wants you to be perfect, but He does require that when you sin and dishonor the Lord, you go and confess your sins. The Bible says that whoever conceals his sin will not prosper. The Bible also says that God does not despise a contrite and humbled heart. If you and I come before the Lord, humble ourselves, and admit our mistakes, He is faithful to forgive them, says the word of the Lord. But that has to be there. If what we do is a sinful practice, if there is a pattern of continually sinning, continually doing the same thing without experiencing repentance, without experiencing a change in behavior, then the Lord will not be pleased with us, and the consequences of our bad behavior will come. The Lord says, “When you have sinned, when you have erred before Me, come, repent; let us reason together,” says the Lord. You see, you have to settle accounts with God. You cannot disguise your sin; you cannot cover it up; you cannot hide it; you cannot justify it. You have to call it by its first and last name and then say, “Father, now I repent, and I commit myself to being different.” And do you know what? The Lord immediately says, “Child, be at peace; I forgive you; you are clean.” “Come now, and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall become as white as wool,” says the Lord. But there has to be acknowledgment. Do not cover it up, do not practice it, do not turn sinful living into a system; rather, keep short accounts. If you owe the Lord, pay Him at once—your vow of sacrifice, of confession of sin.

Hezekiah did that. He asked forgiveness for the sins of the fathers and of the nation, and he specifically acknowledged where they had failed. “We neglected Your temple; we neglected Your house, Lord. We shut the vestibules of Your house; we did not light lamps for You; we did not offer burnt offerings to You.”

Look, then, at verse 10. We have, brothers and sisters, a call to consecration, a confession of sin, and verse 10 says: “...now therefore, I have determined to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from us.” Here is another step as well for God’s blessing to be able to flow in your life, for a mighty visitation from God to come into your life, or for the visitation God wants to bring to this nation, this country, and this state of Massachusetts to come: there has to be a determination to live differently from this point forward. You see, we have talked about sanctifying ourselves, removing the filthiness, and confessing our sins. All those things are like settling accounts and bringing things up to date. But what happens once you have paid your bills and paid the interest you owed and all of that? Then there has to be something positive. You have to say, “Well, now I am going to work; now I am going to do this; now I am going to do that, so I can have a normal life.” That is what Hezekiah did. Hezekiah said, “Well, we have already settled accounts with God. Now I have determined to make a covenant with the Lord—a new covenant.” I like this man’s words. He said, “I have determined.” This was a serious man; he was an upright man, a man of his word, and a man of firm decisions. He said, “I have made a determination. I sat down at my desk, thought carefully about the way things are, and made a firm decision, and I publicly commit myself, as part of the policy of my reign: I have determined to make a covenant with God.” And making that covenant meant renewing the covenant that had already been established before.

Brothers and sisters, God’s blessing comes into our lives when we make a firm determination to follow the Lord no matter what, to please the Lord in every aspect of our lives, and to walk with the Lord. Many people sort of slide into the spiritual life; they sort of enter the Gospel without pain or crisis, arrive there, sit on a pew, and then begin a Christian life of coming to church on Sundays. But I look at them and notice that months and months go by, and they come from time to time, then do not come; sometimes they do not even sing during the service. Brothers and sisters, forgive me. You know that I am generally not so specific about these things; I like to be a little more courteous. But I want to encourage you in the name of the Lord. Look, praise the Lord; open your mouth. Men, I know that sometimes we men find it hard to sing; we are not used to it. Goodness, brothers, huh? Some of us men do not sing because, when we were children, we were taught that singing was for women or for effeminate and irresponsible men. Not us; we are strong, ugly, and proper—but no singing, because that is not something a self-respecting man does. Open your mouth; dare to do it in the name of the Lord. Forget about your wife sitting there, who will be surprised when you open your mouth and sing; just do it for the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, what I mean is that a person cannot just slide so gradually and informally into the life of the Gospel. There has to be a decision. There has to be a covenant. There has to be a firm determination. Wipe the slate clean and start over. “I am going to serve the Lord; I am going to change; I am going to make a U-turn in the middle of my life, and I am going to be a man—or a woman—who serves the Lord and walks seriously before God. And if anyone does not want to follow me, that is their problem. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” There has to be a change. There has to be a determination. There has to be an experience of crisis in which one says, “I will not continue as I was before. I am going to change my life,” so that people say, “Is that so-and-so?” “Yes, that is so-and-so—renewed, touched by the Holy Spirit, and having made a determination before God, a covenant with the Lord to live in a certain way.” Until a man or woman does that, brothers and sisters, until we go through that experience of crisis, there is no true change in our lives.

I remember that I grew up in the Gospel. When I was five years old, my mother was converted—not when she was five; I was five, and she was already many years older than that—she was converted to the Lord in the Dominican Republic. I grew up in the Gospel, but when I entered a boarding school right here in Massachusetts, Phillips Academy, in 1972, from 1972 to 1982 my life changed. I was not truly behaving like a Christian, although I loved the Lord, served the Lord, and knew that God had a calling for my life; but in many ways those were years of spiritual wilderness. In 1982 God placed a call upon my life. I entered a crisis—that is the only way I can describe it—so much so that I had to take a year off from the university while I was at Harvard. In my third year I left school because God was bringing renewal to my life and told me, “You have to change things.” And I could not continue studying. I actually went into the wilderness for a year, because when God calls you and there are changes in your life... a person can say, “I am a Christian.” I was a Christian. I loved the Lord. I would have given my life for the Lord during those ten years, but I was not living as the Lord wanted. But when God touched me, I entered into an experience of crisis, and from that year onward God completely changed my life. He found me the church I pastor today, more than twenty years later. He found me the woman to whom I am married. He changed my way of being, thinking, and doing things, brothers and sisters, because when a man... there has to be that experience; there have to be changes.

And I remember that a few months later I went to visit a young man whose counselor I had been during his first year at Harvard. He was dying, a young Chinese man, and there on his deathbed, almost dying and barely able to see anymore, when I went to visit him after not having seen him for months because he had asked me to come, he said to me, “I cannot see you clearly, but there is something different about you.” Because in that interval, in the months between the last time I had seen him and then, because of what God had done in my life, the energy within me was different, and in his agony he was able to feel it. Because when a man changes, repents, and puts his life in order with God, it can be felt.

Most people enter the Gospel, and what they do is exchange one membership card for another. Instead of being Catholic, they say, “Now I am an evangelical Catholic.” Do you understand? But they do not change their way of thinking, acting, or being; their way of relating to God; their relationship with God; their way of behaving; or what they feel in their hearts. So all they did was exchange one card for another, but there is no change of heart and mind. God wants a firm determination, a covenant with Him. No holds barred: “Lord, You and I are going to walk through life together, and I am going to be Your puppet. I am going to love You and serve You with all my heart, and I am going to give You whatever You ask of me. Whatever You ask of me, take it, and I will gladly give it to You. I will not look to men, and even if they do not see me, I will honor You.” And when a person walks like that, God blesses them and prospers them; He never tires of pouring out His grace upon him or her. There has to be integrity before God. There has to be passion for the Lord. It is the only way, brothers and sisters.

And that is why Hezekiah said, “I have determined to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from us.” When the spiritual leaders of a nation and the political leaders of a nation make a firm covenant with the Lord, when the leaders of a household—the father and the mother—determine to make a covenant with God, their children are blessed, their finances are blessed, their marriage is blessed, their relationships are blessed; everything is blessed because there has been a firm determination to make a covenant with God. Then the connection is properly established, the cables are securely tightened, and divine electricity flows without interruption through the family. The blessing comes. That is the key: firmly determining to make a covenant with the Lord.

Lastly, it says: “...my children, do not be deceived, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, to be His ministers, and to burn incense to Him.” The Lord says that to this congregation: do not be deceived; do not think that merely coming to church and sitting on a pew is what pleases the Lord. That is a lie. The Lord demands much more than that. Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us not deceive ourselves into believing that if we hide and pretend not to see what is happening out there, the demons will go away and leave us alone. That is what so many pastors are preaching nowadays. “Do not confront; do not disturb; simply preach the Gospel, and that is all.” That is not enough. We have to live passionately. We have to confront the devil; we have to wage war. You will be wounded; you will have a few scares, but the Lord will bring you through. Are we willing to pay the price of truly being the church of Jesus Christ and living as priests of the Lord? Because it says here: “God has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, to be His ministers, and to burn incense to Him.” The Bible says that every one of us is a king and a priest before God. The days when there was only a small, specialized group of priests no longer exist. Today every believer is a priest before the Lord’s kingdom, and God has chosen us to stand before Him, burn incense to Him, and be His ministers. Hallelujah! That is what the Lord wants from every one of us: that we be His ministers. God needs you; God needs every one of us.

Brothers and sisters, that is how revival will come into our lives. Do you want to be blessed? Do you want to prosper? Be passionate about God; love Him above all things. Make a firm covenant with Him; put your life in order with Him. Let us put our lives in order with the Lord.

Let us bow our heads. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God; we worship you, we bless you, Father. To you be the glory and the honor, Lord Jesus. Father, we understand the weight of what we are preaching, and I myself am frightened, Lord, by how daunting, how serious what I have just said is; but it is your word, Father. We cannot water it down, we cannot run away from it; we simply have to submit to it. We have no other choice. Forgive us for not loving you as you deserve to be loved. We repent this morning, Lord. And we want to live a life that pleases you, Father, a life that honors your name. Forgive us for our lukewarm hearts and for the indifference with which we sometimes serve you, Lord. Look upon this church; purify it, remove the filth from it, remove everything that does not please you, Lord; take away everything that is not yours, Lord. Help us to live in a way that is pleasing in your sight, Father. We need you; we need the touch of your Spirit this morning, Lord. We want to have Hezekiah’s victories, but we know that we must also have his attitude, his heart, his passion for you, his willingness to sacrifice everything for you, Lord. Holy Spirit, visit us; visit your people throughout this nation. Lord, your people need revival. Father, send your fire, send your rain, Lord, and make the desert bloom, Father. Thank you; we rest in you this morning, Lord. We repose in you, Jehovah. We need you, Lord. We need your grace.