Want to start the new year in strength and faith? This message teaches us how to do just that. It includes three faith lessons and a challenge to live the life you were meant to live.

Learn how to live your best life!

What will you choose this New Year?

Living God’s best in a fallen world is not easy. It’s difficult. Temptation to compromise, and sin are around every corner. Pain, sickness and death are all around.

Each person has a choice and must decide for themselves how they will live in a fallen world: in rebellion toward God or have faith and live for God Almighty, no matter how things might look in the natural.

This new year, make the decision to put Jesus first no matter what may come. Decide to remove those things in your life that prompt or tempt you to live according to the world and to turn your back on God; instead, choose to fully embrace Jesus with all your heart and soul. Let faith arise in your heart no matter the circumstance.

Victory, spiritual victory, is yours in Christ the Lord as you live God’s best today and always.

King Hezekiah’s difficult choice

The nation of Israel split after King Solomon died. The northern kingdom of Israel had ten tribes and the southern kingdom of Judah had only two. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen to the previous king of Assyria, King Sennacherib, seven years earlier.

Today we learn from King Hezekiah, the king of Judah—southern kingdom of Israel, who chose to turn to the Lord.

“He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.) 5 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. 6 He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 From watchtower to fortified city, he defeated the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory” (2 Kings 18:3-8 , NIV).

In 2 Kings 18 we learn that King Hezekiah attempted to appease the king of Assyria by paying tribute to him and giving him 300 talents of silver and 30 talents of gold. Now to give you a true idea of the amount of money we are talking about based on today’s prices: a talent is equal to 75 pounds. Thirty talents of gold would be worth over $44 million or 2250 lbs. of gold; 300 talents of silver would be worth more than $5.5 million or 22,500 pounds of silver.

That makes a grand total of over $50 million that King Hezekiah gave to the king of Assyria. Hezekiah gave all the gold and silver from the temple and the royal palace.

Church, all the money that King Hezekiah gave to the Assyrians would not buy their freedom.

Sennacherib still wanted the nation to be enslaved and under his authority.

The same can be said of the enemy of your soul. No matter what you do, nothing will be enough. The enemy wants your soul and to keep you in spiritual bondage.

• You will never appease or buy your spiritual freedom from sin and death yourself. True victory and freedom from sin and death is only possible with choosing Jesus and walking in faith and victory.

• The world today will have you work harder and sacrifice more than what you are already doing. You can give all you have, and it will not be enough. Sin, and living according to the fallen world, will cost you everything. Your marriage, your relationships with your children your friends, your health, and your soul.

• It will take more hours in the day than you have, and they will still want more. It will ask you to turn away from attending church and to stop believing in God.

• Whatever you do will never be enough: the more a person succeeds according to what a fallen world claims to be success, the more society and the fallen world demands and will take from you.

The enemy of your soul will strip you of everything and it is still not enough. The lies of the enemy will echo for you to choose pleasure; choose so-called freedom; choose the fallen world’s way of life. Turn your back to God rather than trusting in God.

The words of those who would have you to believe that God does not exist or care about you, or that God can do nothing to alter the present course of the events in your life are false. They are lies straight from the pit.

King Hezekiah chose to put God first and remove the places of idol worship long ago when he first became king, but the enemy still came against them.

Society and/or the enemy of your soul will never stop trying to pull you into spiritual bondage.

We have already read how Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, and how he held fast to the Lord and did not cease to follow him.

You will always be tempted to follow the pleasures of life that the world offers. The world will say, “live in and for the present, live a little; choose to have fun; choose life and do not to listen to what word of God or what other Christians say; don’t waste your time with faith in Christ and believing God can save you.” That is exactly what the Assyrians were telling the people of the northern kingdom. They were saying do not listen to King Hezekiah; his words will only lead to your death.

“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ 33 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand?” (2 Kings 18:31-34).

If you were to read chapter 19, you would find that the people remained silent and said nothing.

King Hezekiah prayed and he chose to trust God and not panic. Hezekiah knew what had happened to the other nations and how the Assyrians took them captive and killed many; but that did not matter to him. Hezekiah still trusted God, no matter how things looked in the natural.

Hezekiah knew what happened to the northern kingdom of Israel and he was going to continue to stand firm in his faith and encouraged the others to do the same. Hezekiah understood that the reason the northern kingdom of Israel had been invaded and taken captive was that they had turn away from following the Lord. They had not obeyed the Lord their God and instead worshiped other God’s.

Hezekiah was not about to shrink from his faith or devotion to God.

Listen to Hezekiah as he ends his prayer:

“Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God” (2 Kings 19:19).

Hezekiah revealed in his heart to be a person of faith who displayed Godly principles and character in his life for all to see, and that set him apart from most of the other kings of Judah and Israel.

Three Faith Lessons from Hezekiah

1. Hezekiah Removed Idol Worship

He smashed the sacred stones and removed the high places of worship. He took steps to destroy the idol worship and lead the nation to trust God. Hezekiah led by example and followed the commands of God, and he was successful.

2. Hezekiah Trusted God and Prayed

He knew God was God no matter what others might say. Hezekiah chose to believe the word of the Lord rather than the empty words of the enemy. The situation before Hezekiah and the people of Judah looked impossible and yet they believed and trusted God.

3. Hezekiah Remained Faithful in All Circumstances

He did not allow the threats of the enemy to change his mind regarding God. Hezekiah remained faithful to the Lord. Hezekiah did not let fear override his faith. Hezekiah did not deny the power or threats of the enemy. He knew the possible outcome; however, he chose to wait upon God’s deliverance and that, through God’s deliverance, others would see the power of God and know that God was God over all things.

Do you have faith in yourself or Jesus?

I believe we can learn from Hezekiah’s decision to stand firm in faith. His faith in God and God’s ability to do the impossible should be an encouragement and an inspiration for each of us.

Today we are living in a time when many have rejected God.

• Some people have never believed in God.

• Others have strayed and have placed their faith in other gods such as money, self, pleasure, a “higher power,” horoscopes, or other gods of other religions and cultures.

• Still others have twisted the truth of scripture to fit what they want to believe such as: God is too loving to send someone to hell; all paths lead to God; a good person will go to heaven whether they believe in Jesus or not.

These ideas may sound nice and comforting to a person living in a fallen world, but they are untrue. Just because a person does good, does not mean the person will not make it into heaven. All paths do not lead to God.

-Yes, God is loving. But he is also just, righteous, and holy. Spiritual rebellion is not rewarded with going to heaven.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

In other words, we cannot do anything to save ourselves. We are powerless in ourselves. Instead, it is by faith in Jesus that we are saved; turning our backs to sin and living according to the spirit of God that we are saved.

Do you feel the pressure to compromise?

We are living in a time that, as Christians, if we stand on what we believe and what the bible teaches, we may be called intolerant, legalistic, racist, sexist, homophobic, or other names that a person may want to use to discredit and label us in a negative way.

Many will use slanderous terms to label, threaten, or badger a person into submission and/or discredit them in other peoples’ eyes even when the accusations are unfounded and untrue.

Society will use any tactic to get a person to compromise what they do or believe; and that includes compromising their faith in God.

Fear, threats, an act of violence; the removal from a position; and attempts to discredit are only a few ways that a person might employ to get someone to compromise what they believe.

The enemy of your soul wants to take away your freedom and place you in both physical and spiritual bondage for all eternity. The enemy of your soul will tell you that to experience true happiness, true freedom, true joy in life, you will need to stop resisting, stop the God stuff and get with the program. Fall in line; obey what society and the seemingly powerful fallen world tell you. Ignore God, shut out the truth and believe the lies of the world. Try using drugs; have a drink and do not worry, in fact have another drink; fulfill that selfish desire, you have in your heart—do what you want.

Live for today:

• Work harder; make more money.

• Get a bigger home; get a car you can’t afford.

• Get a divorce and just live with someone.

• It’s OK to cheat on your taxes; your boss; on your spouse.

• What you do in secret will not hurt anyone. After all, what you do in Vegas stays in Vegas.

• Just give in to the evils of a fallen world and the illusive pleasures of the moment.

The enemy wants you to believe a lie rather than the truth, much like the Assyrian commander who challenged Hezekiah and the people of Judah to choose a life of bondage and not a physical death at their hands. However, in doing so Hezekiah and the people would be rejecting God and the spiritual victory that was theirs in God.

The Assyrian commander wanted them to choose bondage and captivity rather than trusting God to deliver and protect them. Hezekiah knew if they were to make a choice to surrender to the Assyrians that they would be choosing to believe a lie of the enemy. They would be choosing death rather than life. They would be turning their backs to God. They would, by their actions, be saying I do not trust you God to deliver me from my enemy.

Hezekiah chose to trust God and he laid it all on the line. He chose to believe that God was able to deliver them from the hands of the enemy. Hezekiah did not know how, or have a plan to follow; everything appeared hopeless and yet he chose to believe that God would deliver them. Hezekiah began to cry out to God, he began to pray, he admitted how things looked in the natural and yet refused to give in to the attacks and threats of the enemy. Hezekiah chose to believe the promises of God rather than the lies of the enemy.

Hezekiah’s choices displayed:

• Godly character of faith and trust in God.

• Godly character of waiting upon the Lord.

• Godly character of believing that with God all things are possible.

• Godly character that encouraged others to follow and believe.

Hezekiah tried to deal with the Assyrians himself (in his own strength) by giving them the $50 million worth of gold and silver. It would appear that Hezekiah had nothing else to offer, except to accept the terms and conditions of the enemy. That is when Hezekiah cried out to God.

Who will you turn to first this year?

All too often we try to take care of our problems in our own strength and follow the ways of the world, and then when we find we have tried everything else, only then, do we turn to God.

This year, let’s decide to turn to God first and avoid the bondage that comes with following the ways of a fallen world.

Hezekiah understood that the attack against Judah was an attack against the people of God and God himself.

Listen to Hezekiah’s prayer:

‘And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God. 17 It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. 18 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 19 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, Lord, are God.”’ (2 Kings 19:15-19).

Notice: Hezekiah acknowledged who God was; the maker of heaven and earth and he understood that God was able to deliver them from the enemy.

Church, if we are going to live God’s best in a fallen world, we must choose to walk in faith no matter what the enemy threatens. A person has the tendency to try to change things in their own strength, but we cannot. It will not last; the enemy of your soul will not give up and he will always want more.

Do not waste your time or effort fighting the enemy yourself. Call out to the Lord. Declare your faith in the One who holds all things in his hands. Walk in faith and obedience. Wait upon the Lord for his deliverance. Believe that with God all things are possible and look for God’s deliverance. Then begin to thank him, even before you see God moving in your situation and declare the power of God to all who will listen.

You may be facing:

• Sickness.

• Disappointment.

• A loss of some kind.

• A broken relationship.

• An impossible situation.

• Or some sin or bondage that the enemy is telling you is greater than you can manage.

Cry out to God. Put your trust in his ability and power. Let faith arise and your enemy be scattered. It is during impossible situations that the light of the Gospel shines the brightest for all to see. It is during impossible situations that a person’s faith and character as a Christian is seen ever so brightly and people notice.

Hezekiah chose to walk with God. What about you?

Hezekiah chose to display a trust and faith in God even when things appeared impossible. And God did an amazing thing. He struck down a large amount of the enemy soldiers and Sennacherib turned around and went home. Judah was delivered by the hand of God.

Will you live God’s best this year?

Allow your faith to be displayed for all to see. Allow the Love of God, the peace of God, the grace of God to be seen in you. Let forgiveness and mercy be displayed in you each day.

Display Godly character in the midst of trouble and people will sit up and take notice and you will be able to tell them about Jesus.

God can, and will, use you to introduce someone to Jesus. Live God’s best in the fallen world that we live in. Victory over sin and spiritual death is only possible with faith in Christ. Faith in Jesus is what will break spiritual bondage. Do not believe the lies of the enemy.

Start fresh today. Renew your faith in Jesus today.

Let this year be the year of Jubilee. A year of living passionate for the things of God both now and for all eternity.

Suggested Praise and Worship

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