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But let's look at Hezekiah and his prayer life this evening, because Hezekiah made a couple of prayers that had some pretty positive results in his life. Go back one chapter to verse number 19, and we're studying prayer and famous prayers in the Bible. So what we're going to do this evening is look at this great king, Hezekiah, and look at these two prayers that Hezekiah prayed. Look at the results of those prayers and see what we can learn from those patterns as far as our personal prayer life and our personal relationship with the Lord. Look at 2 Kings chapter 19 now, one chapter back. Let's look at the first prayer. We're going to look at two prayers from Hezekiah. The first one is this, verse 15. And Hezekiah, a little history lesson before we even get started. At this same time, Hezekiah, of course, is a king of Judah, the lower kingdom. The northern kingdom has just been carried away by this invasion from the Assyrian Empire, and now the Assyrian Empire is threatening the lower kingdom of Judah as well. Look at 2 Kings chapter 19, look at verse number 15. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, so he's under siege at this point, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. Again, we see this pattern we learned last week of always approaching God with respect and just showing in that introduction of a prayer of the respect and the title that God has. Lord, bow down thine ear and hear. Open Lord thine eyes and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. They're driving over everybody, including the northern kingdom of Israel, at this point. Look at verse 18. And cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone, therefore they have destroyed them. Now it's interesting that whenever you see lowercase g in the Bible, look, they aren't gods. People worship them of wood and stone, they make idols, they're not gods. But we see from this morning's sermon that the problem really is the abominations that come along with worshiping those gods. Now look at verse 19. Now therefore, O Lord God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. So of course, God used the kingdom of Assyria to judge the northern kingdom of Israel that was much more wicked than the kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel didn't have any good kings. They didn't have any good kings that started well or ended well or served the Lord. They went basically false doctrine, false gods right away. Okay. And the first prayer that we see Hezekiah pray here is he prays to God to deliver them from this invasion. He prays for protection. He prays for protection. Look at 2 Kings chapter 20 and let's look at verse number one. So we have this army that's invading, they're under siege. He's praying to God to protect them. It's a bigger army. He says in verse number, he says, you know, basically in the first part that we just read in chapter 19, he's like, they're running over all the kings. They're just destroying all these kings and now they're coming for us. Please help us or protect us from this. Look at verse one of 2 Kings chapter 20. Now we see a second prayer from Hezekiah. Look at what the Bible says in verse number one of 2 Kings chapter 20. In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos came to him and said unto him, so Isaiah, the book of Isaiah, that was during the time of this prophet, Isaiah was during the time of Hezekiah. He came to him and said unto him, thus saith the Lord, set thine house in order for thou shall die and not live. So it's interesting in verse number one that Hezekiah, he was sick unto death. It says at the very first part of verse one, he was sick unto death and even God said he's going to die. Okay. So God sends his man, God sends the man of God to Hezekiah and saying, he's like, put your house in order. He's like, get things going, who's going to take over because you are going to die. This is what God tells Hezekiah. Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed unto the Lord saying, so now Hezekiah prays again. He says, I beseech thee, O Lord. So he's, you know, beseech, I strongly, you know, I beg you, I strongly plead with you Lord is what he's saying. Remember now how I've walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass before Isaiah was gone into the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him. So we see two prayers from Hezekiah. He prays for deliverance for the nation from an overwhelming invasion and overwhelming siege that is upon them. And then he prays for personal health, personal, for God to personally heal him. Now both of these directions were going in a bad way is what I need you to understand before we get into the sermon this evening. But both of these directions, both the invasion and his personal health were going in a direction that Hezekiah did not want them to go. So we need to think about that. Think about that when you're thinking about prayers that you might pray that are, you know, you're praying to God about a situation in your life that is currently headed in a bad way, in a bad direction that you would like to change. That's the type of prayer that we're talking about this evening. First of all, before we get into more detail on that, go and look at verse number four of 2 Kings chapter 20. Let's look at the answer that God gives to Hezekiah because should we even use this as a model? Did it work? You know, is it something that didn't even work anyway? Why are we looking at King Hezekiah? Look at verse number four. And it came to pass before Isaiah was gone out into the middle of the court that the word of the Lord came to him saying, turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, thus saith the Lord, the Lord God of David, my father, I have heard thy prayer. I have seen thy tears. Behold, I will heal thee. On the third day thou shall go up unto the house of the Lord and I will add unto thee 15 years and I will deliver thee in this city out of the hand of the King of Assyria and I will defend this city from mine own sake and from my servant David's sake. So there's a lot there and we'll cut that up here in just a few minutes. But the point is we're talking tonight about prayers of intervention. We're talking about prayers that we would pray to God to get God to intervene for us. As a matter of fact, you know, we're talking about situations where it seems like, it seems like things are set in motion and they're going in a direction, if left alone, they will go in a direction that we do not want them to go, that we would not desire. In Hezekiah's case, his country would be invaded, his country would be destroyed by the Assyrians and he was facing imminent death with this sickness. So much so that God told the man of God to go and tell Hezekiah that he's going to die. All right. But in both cases, in both cases, in Hezekiah's case, God intervened. God intervened. And in one case for sure, God intervened because if you read all of chapter 19, it appears that God was going to intervene anyway on the invasion. It appeared at least in one case, maybe both, at least in one case of his sickness. We know this for sure because God told him he was going to die in verse one and then God told him that he would give him another 15 years just a few verses later. God actually changed his mind. God changed his mind because of this prayer. So that is something that is super valuable for us to understand this evening is that God can change his mind. God, as a matter of fact, changes his mind all the time in the Old Testament. In Genesis chapter 6, you guys turn to Exodus chapter 32. Let's look at a couple of cases in the Bible of God changing his mind. In Genesis chapter 6, God regretted. He changed his mind about whether or not he should have even made man. And that's why he destroyed man with the flood aside from Noah and his family. But in Exodus, let's look at a couple of cases in the Bible where God actually changed his mind. So God is not this God that just has things set in motion and no matter what the way it's going to be. Otherwise, why would Hezekiah's prayer have even made a difference? God changes his mind and he can change his mind on things that affect us as well. Look at Exodus 32. Exodus 32, look at verse number 11. The Bible says, and Moses besought the Lord as God. So, of course, Moses was up in the mountain and the people made the golden calves and they started, you know, worshiping the golden calves and partying and doing all kinds of sinful things. And Moses besought the Lord as God and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou has brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth. Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. Evil in the Old Testament meaning hurt or, you know, punishment is what evil means here when it comes to God doing evil to His people. But he says Moses is asking, he's praying to God to intervene and to change his mind about what he plans on doing to punish these people. Look at verse 13. Then he says, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants to whom thou swearest by thine own self and sets unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it forever. And look at verse 14. It says, and the Lord repented of the evil. The Lord repented of the punishment of the hurt, which he had thought to do unto his people. Now, turn to Jonah chapter 3, we'll look at one more example. There's many more we could look at, but we'll just look at one more. But it's really interesting to notice, and you're going to have to remember this to get this pattern because Hezekiah does the same thing. He points out to God, Moses doesn't just say, God, don't do this because I don't want you to. Moses says, God, don't do this because of this will be the benefit for you, God. He basically tells God, he says, if you do this, the people of Egypt, the people outside in the world will not understand it. They will think that, what did He save them out of Egypt for? Just so He could destroy them out there in the wilderness? Moses appeals to God's will. Moses appeals to what God would want for His kingdom. Look at Jonah chapter 3. He says, it will look bad. The people in the world, Egypt, they won't understand why you did this. They won't understand why you saved them and you want to be a witness to them as well and God changes His mind. Look at Jonah 3, verse number 10. Very famous verse to show how repenting of your sins is not required for salvation, how repenting of your sins is works, how turning from your sins is works, but that's not how we're going to look at it this evening. Let's just read it for what it says. Of course, the people of Nineveh, they were about to be destroyed. They were going to be judged by God. God was going to destroy them. He sends Jonah to tell them, to warn them, hey, you better get right, you're going to be destroyed. This case in Nineveh is one of the very few cases in the Bible where the people actually got right. They actually got it right. In verse number 10, look what the Bible says, and God saw their works. What were their works? That they turned from their evil way, thus repenting of your sins is works. God repented of the evil, of the hurt, of the punishment that he had said he would do unto them, and he did it not. Look, the Lord saw what they did. The Lord saw that they responded to the preaching, that they responded to the man of God, and he changed his mind. It's very simple. He changed his mind. They turned back to the Lord, and he changed his mind. Look, this is something to remember. God has free will. God has free will that interacts with our free will. If you look at ... Turn to Isaiah chapter 43. Turn to Isaiah chapter 43. Turn to Isaiah chapter 43. Actually you ... Yeah, turn to Isaiah chapter 43. Look, God has free will that interacts with ours. Here's one thing you have to remember about God. There's a common denominator with all of these people that ask God to intervene. There's a common factor that they used. They appealed to God's will. They appealed to God's will. Look at Isaiah 43, and look at verse number seven. The Bible says this. It says, for everyone that is called by my name, for I have created him ... For what? Everyone's looking for the meaning of life. Why am I here? Why am I on earth? Why is everyone so confused about this? Why did God ... If there's a God, why did he create us? Well, it's right here in the Bible. Isaiah 43, seven. The Bible says, everyone that is called by my name, for I have created him ... For what? Why did God create you? For my glory. God created you for his glory, not yours, his. You were created for God's glory. I have formed him, yea, I have made him. Go to Revelation chapter four. Go to Revelation chapter four. Look at the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter four. Look at verse number 11. For everyone that's confused on why God ... Why did God create man? Why did God create ... Look at verse number 11 of Revelation chapter four. This is why. This is why Moses and Hezekiah, and this is why they were so smart in their prayers, because they understood this. They understood what God is all about. They understood why God created man. Look at verse number 11 of Revelation chapter four. Revelation chapter four, verse number 11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory. There's that glory and honor and power, for thou has created all things, and for what? They are and were created. Why were all things created? It says, and for thy pleasure. God created things for his pleasure, for his glory. You'll see somebody that maybe isn't saved or doesn't believe in God, and they're like, oh, God just created man for his own pleasure? What does it matter what you think? That's why he did it. God created man, guess what? Because he wanted to, for his pleasure and his glory. That's one of the most successful men in the Bible. That's why Daniel and Moses and these great men, David, in the Bible. That's why they're so successful, because everything that they did, they were just constantly just giving glory to God no matter what. All these huge successes they had in their life. Look at Daniel. Daniel rose to the top of two kingdoms, of two empires, and everything was just glory to God. No matter what great, amazing miracles he was doing, just glory to God right away, because he understood this. He understood that God created man for his glory. He created us for his pleasure. That's why. That's why Moses, that's why Hezekiah were so successful in their prayers of intervention, because they appealed to God's glory, to God's will. They didn't just say, God, I want this because I want it. They appealed to what God's will would be. That's why it was so smart. So look, how did Hezekiah do it? Let's look back at what he actually said. Let's look back at the answer that Hezekiah got. All that to say this, God can change his mind, and smart people that have prayed to God successfully, they appeal to God's desires, not their own, when they pray for this intervention. First of all, Hezekiah, Hezekiah, go back to 2 Kings chapter 20, go back to 2 Kings chapter 20, Hezekiah appeals to God's will, but how does he do it? Look. Look what he says. He turned, he prayed, he said, I beseech Thee, O Lord, look at verse number 3, chapter 20, remember now how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Thy sight. He reminds God how He served Him in the past. Go back to chapter 18, go back to 2 Kings chapter 18. He says to God, God, remember what I have done for you my whole life. He doesn't say, God, I want to serve you going forward. He says, look what I've done in the past. Look at 2 Kings chapter 18, and look at the first part, look at verse number 2, 2 Kings chapter 18. This is the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. 20 and five years old was when he began to reign, and he reigned 20 and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abby, the daughter of Zachariah. Did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David, his father did. He removed the high places, break down the image, break down the groves, and break the pieces and pieces, the brazen serpent that Moses has made, because they were worshipping it. Somebody said that, I think Jacob said that in my family the other day, Jacob's really into his archeology and everything, and we're driving back from rocket day the other day. He says, you know dad, I think maybe it's good that we haven't found the ark, not the ark of the covenant, but Noah's ark. People would probably start worshipping it, and I'm like, that's exactly what they would do. They would probably start worshipping it, and they'd probably start sacrificing their children to it, or something stupid like that, or something wicked like that. That's people. Look what they were doing here. He had to break up something that was used by Moses, because they were worshipping it. They turned it into a wicked thing. Anyway, he's doing all these great things. Look at verse five. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him, look at this, look at this, for after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. This is how much he was working and serving and doing the will of the Lord, right here. What he does when he prays is he reminds God of this. He reminds the Lord, he's like, God, he's like, please intervene for me because of my past loyalty to you. This is what he says. This is a good lesson for us right here. What's the lesson? God rewards loyalty. That's the lesson here. Then, look, why did God answer the first prayer positively? Look at what he says here. God says in the answer to this prayer. First of all, he says that I will answer the second prayer or the first prayer of invasion. He says, and I will defend this city. Look what he says. I will defend this city for my own sake and my servant's David's sake. Again, God rewards loyalty of you and God can reward loyalty of people from the past. This is a super powerful testimony for David right here. I preached a whole sermon on this for David's sake, how God did all these great things for future generations for the great things David did, for how loyal David was to God. Imagine if your track record was so good in your life that, I mean, David's reign was 200 years before this. This is written. He says, I'm going to save this city for David's sake. David was 200 years before. Imagine if you had such a track record for the Lord that the Lord was intervening for your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren. Imagine that. That's what's happening here. 200 years earlier was David. So look, you know what Hezekiah is doing here? By pointing out his past, he's appealing to God rewarding loyalty and he's also saying to God, he's like, you know what, he's inferring to God, he's like, you know what, God, since I've done these things in the past, he's like, obviously I will be a force for you in the future if you allow me to live longer, if you give me more years. So he could still do more is what Hezekiah is saying. Look, there's no better indication of future performance than looking at someone's past. And that is what Hezekiah is doing here. He's smart, but look, not everybody can do this because nobody, not many people, look at the kings. I mean, he's on a short list of kings that have served loyalty his whole life. But that's how he did it. Moses did the same thing. Moses appealed to what God's will would be. So what have we learned so far? Number one, with prayers of intervention, we have to remember that number one, God can change his mind. Just because things seem to be set in motion in a certain way does not mean that that's how it has to go. God can change his mind. And number two, turn to Matthew 19. You're like, I just don't see how this could possibly be changed. The situation as it sits, whatever situation you're thinking about in your mind right now, I don't understand how God, look, God has the power, this is the second thing you need to understand, God has the power to alter all things. God can change or do anything. Look at Matthew 19. Look at Matthew 19. While you're turning to Matthew 19, let me read for you Jeremiah 32, 27. The Bible says, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me? Let me read for you Isaiah 40, 28, Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. God can do anything. Look at Matthew 19, verse 24. Matthew 19, verse 24. And again, I say unto you, it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter in the kingdom of God. It's impossible to be rich. It's impossible to be rich and go to heaven, because that's what his disciples said when he said that. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Anything's possible with God. Job 42, 2, I know that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Look, God can change his mind and God can do anything. Right there. So, prayers of intervention are super powerful, because God can change his mind about any situation that you're going through, just like Hezekiah was going through, and God has the power to change any of those situations. The question is this though, and this is the real question of the sermon tonight. So we know, you say, I agree with you. Pastor, I agree. God has the power to do it and he can change his mind if he didn't want to do it before and he can change his mind. I get it. I'm with you. But here's the real question that we need to ask ourselves tonight. Every single person listening to this needs to ask themselves this question. Why should he? God can intervene. God can change his mind. God can fix anything, can change anything, can move anything, can make any circumstance different in your life. The question is, why should God intervene for you, is the question that we need to ask ourselves tonight. Hopefully when you pray, because look, we've all made prayers like this. Maybe these are the most popular prayers that we make, maybe. But when you pray, hopefully you have a better reason when you talk to God about wanting him to intervene for situations than just, God, can you do this because I want you to. And I think that that's maybe what we do a lot of times. You need to think about how your prayer that you need God to intervene, how you're asked to God, you need to figure out, before you pray, you need to figure out how does this ask align with his goals, not mine. That's the question you need to ask yourself. How does this, turn to 1 Timothy chapter 2, how does this prayer where I'm asking God to change his mind and I'm asking God to intervene on a situation in my life, how does this prayer, how does this prayer align with his will and not mine? That's a great thing to put in your prayers, by the way. Just your will be done, God, not mine. But what I'm talking about is you have to mean it. You have to mean it. You have to figure out how does this intervention, how does it benefit the Lord? How does it benefit God's kingdom? Because that's what these two men, that's what Hezekiah did successfully here. He successfully showed the Lord that intervening will benefit you, Lord. It'll benefit you. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2. Let's look at an example of this. Here you have Paul talking to Timothy. You have Paul getting advice to a young preacher here. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2, let's start at verse number 1. 1 Timothy chapter 2, look at verse number 1. How does our prayer of intervention, this is what we're looking at, align with God's will and not just ours? Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 1. I exhort therefore that first of all, this is Paul talking to Timothy here, supplication, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks, be what? Be made for all men. Paul is saying that you should have prayers of intercession for all men. Let's look at more detail here. For kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior. So he's saying, doing these things in verse number 1 and verse number 2 is what God wants. Why? Then he gives more detail. He's saying, praying for all men, praying for intercession, for God to intercede with all men is what God wants. Why? Look at verse number 4. He gives the details of why that is. He says, who? This is God. Who? The who is God. Will have all men to be saved. He's saying that you should pray, Timothy, you should pray for God to intervene with all men. Why? Because God wants, that means will, it's God's will is what verse 4 means. God wants all men to be saved. Look, are all men going to be saved? No, but that's not his fault. God wants all men to be saved. God wants every single door we knock on to have somebody that has an open heart to the gospel and accepts it right away. God wants that. Is that going to happen? No, but that's their choice. Not God's. It's God's will that everyone would be saved. Everyone would come to repentance and believe on his son who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. We see an example of this right here. He's telling Timothy that pray for all men because that matches God's will. You see what I'm saying? He's saying God will intercede when it aligns with his will. If you're sitting there and you're saying, I have some things I would like God to intercede on in my life, but you can't think of how that would align with God's will, maybe you need to rethink that ask. Maybe you need to rethink that because look, it's a good prayer by the way, 1 Timothy chapter 2. You have people in your life that aren't saved, that's God's will, pray. That's a freebie here. Be praying all the time. It's like, oh man, all these people in my life that I love are not saved and they're going to go to hell. Hey, pray for those people regularly. That's something. Look, that's got high chance of success. Why? Because it's God's will that they would be saved. Here your prayer of intercession matches God's will. Win. You got to win there. If you're not using that prayer in that case, as Paul's telling Timothy here, that's a huge wasted opportunity. Huge wasted opportunity. But back to the point, back to the point, we need to find out how our ask aligns with God's will and that's how we need to bring that to the Lord. Especially praying for people to be saved is such a great example. Now think this through before you pray, okay? Think this through. Before you make that prayer, like God, could you intercede and let me win the Powerball? Get that through. God, could you please give me this thing that I think I want that will really ruin my life? That's not a good ask. That's not something that God intercede on. But if you want something, if you have something you want God to intervene on and it does literally nothing for him, including it will probably take you out of the Christian life. Hmm, why are you praying for stuff like that? It's a good little thought experiment before you even make the prayer in the first place. Rethink those things. So in conclusion, look, we need to be the type of people, here's the big one right here, we need to be the type of people that God would intervene for. Let's go back to Hezekiah. Hezekiah says, look at my past life. Look at the life that I've lived for you, Lord. We need to be the kind of people that are profitable, that God would intervene for. Hey God, I'm seriously profitable down here. Could you keep me around for a while? That's what Hezekiah did. I mean, think about the little video that we made of the abandoned Christian life with the road that was overgrown by shrubs. Look, it'd be better not to look back and see a road overgrown with shrubs in your life. It'd be better to look back and see a clear road. God, look at the clear road. Look at the clear road and you know what the road's going to be going forward. That's a good, I mean, that's a part of your testimony right there. You say, God, I'll keep furthering your kingdom if you keep me around. I mean, it was the value of the life that Hezekiah had already led. It counted. Like I said, past evidence is future, I mean, the past is evidence of future performance. Obviously, Hezekiah could have said, you know what, God, I've lived a bad life. I'm sorry about that. I'm going to get it right from here forward. If he has lived a bad life, it's the best thing. The best time to plant a tree is yesterday. The best time to get it right is right now, but it's better to have that years of service that God can live back on. That's a hard thing to do. He could have lived a worthless life, a selfish life, a wicked life, and then told God when he got sick. God will change, but that just wouldn't have carried the power that he had. It's like you have anybody that's ever hired somebody and say if they look at a resume and they see somebody that's just worked at a different place every single year and they're like, man, you're just going to do the same thing to me. You're going to work here for six months and you're going to go somewhere else. It's hard to hire somebody like that because it doesn't mean that they can't start working where your place is and then at that point go forward. That's what they're doing. They're doing the same thing that Hezekiah was using here. Jesus even tells us this. Turn to John chapter 15. Jesus even tells us this. Look at John chapter 15. Look at John chapter 15. There's a definite correlation, folks, to your testimony, to your successful service in your Christian life and prayers of intervention. I'm telling you. There's a definite correlation. Look at John 15. Look at verse number 16. John 15. Look at verse number 16. John 15, 16. The Bible says, you have not chosen me. Jesus says, you've not chosen me but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. We see a connection right here. Turn to James chapter 1. But we see a connection right here of someone who's fruitful and he says, hey, be fruitful and then he says, ask me for stuff. He's like, be fruitful and ask something and he's like, I'll give it to you. That's what Jesus is saying. He's making that connection of a fruitful person that Hezekiah was and, you know, ask my Father and he'll give it to you. Jesus makes that connection. Look at James chapter 1. Look at James chapter 1. Look at verse number 3. James chapter 1 and verse number 3. This is the power of the fruitful Christian life right here. Look, we don't get saved this way but there's a definite power in our relationship with God and God intervening for us by having this strong Christian life to look back on and, you know, look forward on. Look at James chapter 1. Look at verse number 3. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Now look, if your faith is tried, if your faith is tried and you quit and walk away, there's no patience required there at all, none. But God is saying that when your faith is tried, when people push on you to get you to stop practicing your faith, to get you to stop serving the Lord in your life, that that will build patience in you as you resist that. Look at verse 4. He says, but let patience, let patience, this is such a great phrase right here, but let patience have her perfect work. You know what that's saying? That's proper patience right there. Perfect work, meaning people push on your faith and it doesn't shake your faith. And then that just works on your patience perfectly and you become a more patient person and you get stronger. Look it's, if things get hard and you quit, there's no patience there. But he's saying, but if patience has her perfect work, meaning you get pushed on and it doesn't waver you, that you may be perfect and entire, oh, look what it says there at the end. It says wanting nothing. It's saying a faithful, patient person. Somebody that pushed on in their life that doesn't waver, that builds patience, they'll want nothing. Why? Because God will just answer their prayers. God will intervene for them. You see the connection here? God will intervene for these people. Look, look at verse five. If any of you like, in this case he's talking about wisdom. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that give it to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given unto him. Notice how he's saying, he starts out in the first two verses saying, your faith will be tried and tried and it will work this patience and it will perfectly work this patience in you. And then he just starts talking about how he's just going to just give to you liberally. You'll want nothing. He'll give to you liberally. You'll want nothing. I used to be the kind of person, I'm telling you, before I was saved, I used to be the kind of person that would listen to people talk and be like, well, you know, I'm just waiting for God. I'm like, pick yourself up, moron. You got to do for yourself. God doesn't come down here. This is how I used to be. God doesn't come down here and just tell you what to do and figure things out for you. People that would talk like, oh, it was just God's will that I did this and it was just God's will. People would just use these phrases all the time. You got to make your own decisions in life. This is the kind of person I used to be. I didn't think that God really moved in people's lives. I wasn't even saved. So, I mean, whatever. What did I know? But the point is, God will move in your life. God will move mountains for you. I've seen this. I've had it happen. God will move mountains for you, but it's got to match his will. It's got to match his will. You've got to have this faithful life that you can look back on, show the Lord, look at Hezekiah. He's like, look at the life I've lived. And then God says you'll want nothing. If you become patient, you'll want nothing. He'll give liberally to you. It shall be given to him. End of verse 5. We'll look at verse 6. But let him ask in faith, what does this guy do when he gets pushed on? Nothing wavering. For either wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. Right there, verse 7. Circle that in your Bible like 50 times. Because he says if you're faithful and you build patience and you don't waver, I will just give to you liberally. And then he says the exact opposite in verse 7. He gives the opposite proof where he says the guy that wavers, the guy that's like the wind being tossed around, he's like, that guy will not receive anything of the Lord. Doesn't say he's not saved, he's just not going to get anything from the Lord. God's not going to intervene for somebody that's worthless, somebody that's not done anything. Then, of course, says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Well, look, this is huge right here. Everybody needs to recognize this in their lives. Be someone that's solid in the faith, not wavering, patient in your life with that perfect work of patience, be able to know where you're going and you'll be unwanting. That's a big deal. That's a big key to the Christian life right there. That's a big reason to serve the Lord all the time there. Look, folks, slow and steady wins the race. I mean, I don't know, you know the tortoise and the hare? You've all heard the story, but consistency wins the race in this Christian life. We were out launching rockets the other day. You don't want to be that. That doesn't want to be your Christian life, you know, really just super excited at the beginning and pop and the parachute doesn't even come out. You want to be like a Falcon 9 rocket that just can come land itself and refuel and just keep going in this Christian life. Look, that is going to be such a huge deal with your relationship with the Lord. When you need those prayers of intervention, look, we all are going to need these prayers of intervention. We all are going to pray these prayers of intervention and this is what God needs to see. He needs to see, why should I intervene for you, brother so and so? Why should I intervene for you, sister so and so? How does that align with my will? Because look, God's ultimate will is that all men are saved. God's ultimate will is love towards us, that He would have us all in heaven. How does your prayer of intercession, how does it further that goal? If it doesn't, it's probably not something you should be asking. Maybe put it in your pocket and wait until you need a prayer of intercession that aligns with God's will. God is watching our works, folks. Our works don't save us. We know this, but they are super important in our lives and they are super important that they align up with God's will. Why? Because that will come back and it will affect those around us. It will affect those in our families, those in our communities, our kids, this whole thing. That's why we're doing this thing. And it will affect, ultimately, it will affect whether or not when you pray to God, when you pray to God for intervention, it will affect whether or not God changes his mind. You think about anything that's going on in your life and you think, look, God has the power to change anything for you and you better believe that. But why should he? Is the question. And that's the question that Moses answered successfully. That's the question that Hezekiah prayed successfully and that's why God changed his mind and answered those prayers. So it's super valuable that we understand this lesson. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.