The Best Is Yet Come Pray For A Miracle 38:1-10 Pastor Ryan Heller

1. PRAY WHEN YOU DON’T SEE A WAY

About that time became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.’” Isaiah 38:1 (NLT)

2. PRAY WITH SINCERITY AND PASSION

When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly. Isaiah38:2-3(NLT)

You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8 (NLT)

3. PRAY FOR BIG THINGS

Then this message came to Isaiah from the Lord: “Go back to Hezekiah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor , says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will rescue you and this city from the king of . Yes, I will defend this city. Isaiah 38:4-6 (NLT)

Isaiah had said to Hezekiah’s servants, “Make an ointment from figs and spread it over the boil, and Hezekiah will recover.” Isaiah 38:21 (NLT)

When you’re not getting the answer you want…

A. EVALUATE YOUR MOTIVES

B. EXTEND YOUR TIMELINE

C. EMBRACE GOD’S WILL

You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! John 14:13-14 (NLT)

D. EXPECT A SPIRITUAL BATTLE

The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle

Today, I want to talk to you about praying for miracles in your life. Praying for miracles in your life. I don't know what's going on in your life, I don't know if it's the miracle that is before you is a conflict with your spouse or if the miracle that you're praying and believing God for is for employment. You need a job and you got your resume out all over town and nobody's calling you and man, you're just praying and saying, "God, please." Maybe you're going through an illness and the doctor has given you a bad report and you need a miracle. Maybe you're just discouraged or disheartened in your own life and today your miracle is just to get up out of that pit of despair. Maybe you have an unspoken need or request in your life, something's going on in your own life. Nobody else even knows about it, it's just so personal and private and intimate. Yet, in your own heart of hearts, you're crying out to God and you're asking God to do something amazing in your life today.

I want you to know, you've come to the right place because today we're talking about praying for miracles. I want us to open our today to the 38th chapter of the . We're going to look at one of these great passages today. We're going to talk about how the , even though it was written thousands of years ago, still has so much relevance and power for us today. A lot of times, we don't have a problem believing that God did amazing things back then, but we have a hard time believing that God can do something great and amazing in my life today, this year, this week, this hour.

Let's look at Isaiah chapter 38. The scripture says this, "About that time, Hezekiah became deathly ill and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amos, went to visit him, and he gave the king this message; this is what the Lord says, 'Set your affairs in order for you're going to die. You will not recover from this illness," verse one says. Hezekiah's the King of and the prophet comes to visit and he says, "Hey man, you're about to die. You need to get things in order." How many of you know that's pretty discouraging? That's not exactly the word that you want to hear when the prophet comes to see you. You're done, you're over. Lights are out. Look what Hezekiah does in verse 2.

When Hezekiah heard this he turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord "Remember O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single mindedly. Always doing what pleases You." Then he broke down and he wept bitterly. The very first thing that Hezekiah does is he turns to God. When you're going through adversity, when you're struggling in life, what is your first response? Is it to be angry? Is it to call a friend? Is it to jump up and down and yell and scream? Or is it to get on your knees and to pray to God? Look what happens here in verse 4. Then this message came to Isaiah from the Lord, "Go back to Hezekiah and tell him this is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David says, 'I have heard your prayers and I have seen your tears. I will add 15 years to your life and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. Yes, I will defend the city."

This is the sign from the Lord to prove that he will do as he promised. I will cause the sun shadow to move 10 steps backwards on the sun dial of of the shadow of the sun dial move backwards 10 steps. That's pretty amazing. I mean, Hezekiah moves from deathbed to The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle Page 2 of 11

15 bonus years in his life. Hezekiah is a relatively young man at this time. He's 39 years old. He doesn't have any children and he's actually got two problems. Two big problems and a subsequent problem that go with the problems. The first problem is the obvious problem Hezekiah is really sick, he's about to die. The second problem is the Assyrian empire is about to take over Judah.

He has a political problem. He has a health problem. He has a longevity of his kingdom problem and all of these problems that are associate. I love to say this problem comes in packs. Lot of times you don't have one problem, you got several problems that come with the problem. Amen? It's like a six pack, they're all stuck together. I got a six pack of problems God. The Assyrian empire is about to prey on Hezekiah. You know this was true in the modern world but it's really true in the ancient world. When a reigning monarch was about to die and didn't have an heir or when there was political unrest in the kingdom, the enemies would take note of that and they would say, "Maybe we need to slip on over there to Judah and wipe out all the Hezekiah's kingdom." That'll be easy little victory.

Now, the Assyrian empire is under the rule of Sennacherib. He's got all of the bad guys. They're about to take over. Hezekiah is afraid for his people and he's afraid for his life. Sometimes you get in moments in your life where the only thing you can do is to turn to God. The bottom falls out. You got no back up plan. You got no alternative and all you can do is turn to God. In those moments, that is when God does some of those beautiful things in your spiritual journey. Do you know that? Today, some of you are freaking out, you're so scared. You're so uncertain about where you are but you could not be in a greater place for God to do a miracle in your life.

Listen, you don't believe God for miracles when everything is going great. Right? I mean you believe God for great things when you don't know what to do. You're in the perfect place for God to take your faith to a new level. For God to do something amazing in your life that you didn't even think was possible. I want to share with you these three things today that we see from the life of Hezekiah and this prayer that is prayed so passionately from his heart. I hope you have a prayer life. When I'm talking about a prayer life, I mean, I'm not talking about I just pray at church or pray for 30 seconds before a meal or I pray when I do something really bad. I hope that you have a real bonafide, legitimate prayer life time with God, time with God.

You know the first thing Hezekiah did is he rolled over and he prayed, the Bible says. I love to think about that passage, he rolled over and prayed. He wanted to be alone with God. I hope you have a place in your home wherever you live; a corner of a room, a chair, a basement, a room, a place where you can go and get with God. I got a little place that I go and I don't go there any other time, I just go there to get with God. That's the place. Jesus went to the mountainside when He had to get away from all the crazy people. Do you have a place? Do you have a prayer life? The first thing that many of us have to admit is we have no prayer life. You would never see God do amazing things in your life if you never learn to pray. The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle Page 3 of 11

Look what Hezekiah did. Number one is this, if we are going to have a prayer life that sees God do amazing things, we have to pray when we don't see a way.

1. PRAY WHEN YOU DON’T SEE A WAY

Pray when we don't see a way. Now, he got some bad news there in verse one. Look at that. I mean, Isaiah did not makes his words when he comes to the prophet he says, "This is what the Lord says, 'Set your affairs in order you're going to die and you will not recover from the illness." I mean, he didn't say you may make it a little bit longer or it's 50-50. You know, I'm pulling for you. He didn't even say that, he just said, "You're done, man." Some of the greatest prayers that we will ever pray will be when we don't see what the option is or we don't see what opportunities are there before us. It looks like everything is shut down. It looks like there is no way out. If God doesn't show up and intervene, I got nothing. That's what he says right here.

Look at that. Look at that. Pray when you don't see a way. Pray when you don't see a way. I believe this, our most powerful prayers will be prayed in the deepest pits of our life. Isaiah has given 15 more years. One of the great adversaries to prayer when you don't see a way is discouragement. Anybody ever been discouraged in prayer? Maybe you've been praying about something for a while and you're like, "I'm not seeing movement God." You may ever feel that way? "It's not turning out like I thought God. I've been talking to you and God where you been?" We get discouraged sometimes. You know the reason that we get discouraged is because many times we seek and answer but we're not seeking God. There is a difference.

There's a difference between seeking what God can do for me and seeking God. If you will make it the heart of your life to seek God first, the answers will come and haunt you down. The answers will hit you in the face. You'll have so many answers, you won't know what to do. A lot of people are seeking the answer but they are not seeking God. I want what God can do for me. The moment I get that I'm out of here. That's why people are discouraged. Sometimes people come to church, they're like, "Man, I need a husband." You know? I'm sure some of the single guys say this too, I hear this from the single girls, "I need a husband, I need a husband, I need a husband." That's awesome. They're praying for husband. The single girl gets discouraged, six months in she hadn't met anybody. In fact, she didn't got a date. She's like, "I'm praying like crazy, where is God? I'm out of here. I quit. I give up. I prayed about it and it didn't happen."

My question is, are you seeking what God can do or are you seeking God? When you seek God, the answers will come and find you. Gena and I were praying several years ago or months ago about investing in some real estate. We're like, "God we don't know what to do." We're just praying, "God what's going on?" We ended up getting on an airplane sitting next to a lady who is a real estate agent, who works with investors all over town. She's on television, she's kind of regionally famous. It was awesome, sort of helping us. I didn't even The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle Page 4 of 11

know what to pray. I'm just praying, "God help." God's put a relationships in my life. It's awesome.

Seek God and the answers will find you. Seek God. Seek God. I was praying several months ago for our church's finances. I knew there were some things that we needed to do as a church that we need some extra money, so we're praying and praying. Three or four months have gone by, I got a phone call one day, "Hey this is such and such from the charter school. We want to start a charter school. Would you guys be interested and letting us lease some of your space?" I'm like, "You know, that's kind of funny that you guys are calling and asking us, because I've been praying about this. I said, "Let me pray about this, yes." It's amazing when those things happen today. Do you have a prayer life? Are you praying about the things even when you don't see what the answer is, even when you don't know. Listen you don't have to know the answer, what you need to know is God.

When you know God, God will bring the answer. Amen? That's the way it is. You pray when you don't see a way. Listen, when you are seeking God and not just what God can do, you won't be discouraged. That's why a lot of people get discouraged. They're just like, "God didn't do what I thought. God didn't do what I said." Hezekiah turns to God, he prays. Your biggest problem is God's greatest opportunity. If Hezekiah had not prayed he probably would have died, but it was a prayer that changed the fate of his life. The greatest tragedy is not the prayers that God didn't answer. I believe it's the prayers that were never prayed. It's those prayers that were never prayed.

James 4:2 says is "You don't have what you ask. You don't have what you want because you didn't asked God for it." I talk to people sometimes, they're mad that God didn't do this in their life but they never prayed about it. If you have not, the Scripture says, it's because you have not asked you've asked not. Are you asking God? Are you asking God? Do you have a prayer life? Okay? Are you praying? Are you believing God for things even when you don't see? What's going to happen? Hezekiah could have just said "Hey, we're done. I'm out of here." What good is it to pray? Isaiah just said I'm dead. No, it's never too late to start praying and it is always too early to quit praying. How about that? Yeah.

Here's the second thing, pray with sincerity and passion.

2. PRAY WITH SINCERITY AND PASSION

Notice there's weeping, there is ... I mean, Isaiah just pour his heart out. Sometimes when we talk about prayer, people think about like religious formulas. Like if I could just put these two words together and put this in it and say it like that and I could throw in some of those and those, then maybe that prayer will work. Look, prayer is not a formula. Prayer is not a formula. I went to an Episcopalian school growing up. We used to say the Lord's prayer everyday at chapel, and yet nobody ever talked about what the Lord's prayer was really about, what the Lord's prayer meant. The Lord's prayer is awesome but we need to The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle Page 5 of 11

understand the Lord's prayer, not just recite it because we just memorized it and we keep saying it over and over and over again. Right? It's not a chant, it's not a mystical series of words. Okay?

Prayer should come from the heart. Prayer should come from our love and devotion to God. Therefore, it's not just about being more religious. Prayer should not be like so casual like, "Yo God, what's up?" Prayer should be from the heart. There should be a sincerity that's there. There should be a passion for God there. Forget those formulas. We're not trying to conjure up miracles by saying this and that. No, we just want to pour our heart out to God. Pour your heart to God. Invite God to work in every situation and trust Him. That is the formula. Okay? That's the formula. I'm a systems guy, I love systems and I love to put things together. When I first got married, I discovered that my wife like to get cards. I'll speak to the husbands today. Husbands, wives loved to be romanced. You got to get your wife some cards and some flowers. You got to do that, can't forget about that. I know Father's day is coming up but you just got to show a little love to your wife.

My wife loved cards. My wife is like so amazing at writing on cards. When she gets the people birthday cards or anniversary or Mother's day cards whatever, she can write things on there that will make you weep. She can work for Hallmark easy. It's awesome. Whenever I'm writing on a card, I'm always like, "Hey honey, what should I say on this?" because she was got like the best things. I bought all these cards, okay. I went to the store, I bought like 15 cards. I had a study there at the house and I put it in my desk drawer there at the house and I kept them and every week I would pull one out and I'll be like "oh what's this week? Oh okay." I would write something real nice and then I would put it like under her pillow, before she would go to work. She was like, "My husband is the bomb. I mean I've got an amazing amazing husband."

I'm doing this for several weeks. One day she's in the office, she's helping clean out the drawers and she discovers all the cards. She finds all the cards, "Why, what are these cards? Who were this cards for?" I had to fess up. She said, "These cards are tainted. These cards don't have the right meaning. You've got to put thought behind it. I'm not a system. You got to show love. You know love is not a system, love is not an organization. Love is not a formula." I just started to keeping those cards at the office. Working is much better for me. We think about God. We think about prayer. Love is not a formula. Love is not just saying these few words together. Love is pouring your heart out to God. You may think, "I don't even know how to pray, I don't know what to say." Just start pouring your heart out to God. If you pray something that isn't right, God will correct you and He'll show you. Get started in the mean time. Amen? That's what we need to do. That's what we need to do.

The strongest prayers come from the most broken places and we ought to pray for big things.

3. PRAY FOR BIG THINGS The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle Page 6 of 11

You've gotta be praying for big things. Are you praying for some big things in your life? Are you praying for those big things? I mean we gotta pray with sincerity and passion but we also got to pray big prayers. Pray those big prayers. We pray little prayers. Many times we pray about the things that we think are going to happen any way. We pray a little prayers because we don't want to be disappointed. Right? We don't pray big prayers because we don't really think it's going to make that much of a difference anyway so why pray about the big things, I'll just pray about the little things. Pray big prayers.

Hezekiah is praying a big prayer, "God save me and save the kingdom." This is a big prayer. Are you praying about something big in your life? You may think, "Ryan, things are great for me like things couldn't be better." You know things are great for you, pray for something big to happen in somebody else's life, because there's somebody sitting next to you their marriages crumbling. There's somebody sitting around you they can't find a job. There's somebody sitting around you that have doubts about their faith. Pray for somebody else. Pray a big prayer. Pray a big prayer. If you don't have any big prayers to pray, I'll give you a few of them. If you're a parent, you got to pray that your kids know Christ and love Christ with all their hearts. That's a big prayer. If you need another big prayer, you ought to pray that God would use Edge Church to reach a lot of people for Jesus and that we would fill this room up every weekend with people hearing the good news of Christ. That's a big prayer.

Pray some big prayers. Pray some big prayers. I know just by those little prayers are some big prayers. Believe God for some amazing things. I think part of prayer is just imagination sometimes. We need to think. Sometimes we don't even pause to think about, where is my life going? What am I trying to accomplish? What is my goal? Then we ought to pray accordingly, pray big prayers. Hezekiah is praying a big prayer. We seek to be comfortable most of the time. We want a comfortable prayer. I want to make sure I got enough in the bank, I don't want to be sick and I don't want to fight with people. People are like, "I got that, I'm usually pretty good." Do you know that following Jesus is both comfortable and uncomfortable? It's uncomfortable in the sense that God is always stretching us and pushing our faith. Yet, it's comfortable and that we know that the arms of Jesus are around us. When you're following Christ, your life will be uncomfortable. God is stretching you, God is taking you to new places. He can't do that without adversity by the way.

It's comfortable because Jesus is with us. It's both. We just love the comfort part but we don't love to be stretched. If you never pray a big prayer, you'll never have a big faith. Did you know that? Because big prayers, are those moments in life where ... Some of us right now, listen, you're going to defining moment in your life. One of the greatest opportunities is right before you if you would just pray through. You're going to see God do something amazing. You know what's going to happen? Your faith is going to go through the roof. Your confidence in God is going to just explode. That didn't happen when everything is good. That didn't happen when everything is predictable, when everything kind of fits in the box and everything is going like planned. Listen, that's not what happens. What happens is when you The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle Page 7 of 11

have a Hezekiah moment and you don't know what to do.

I love the words of second Chronicles chapter 20. The Scripture says, "We don't know what to do but our eyes are on you." Ain't that a great prayer? God I don't know what to do but I'm looking at You. That's a big prayer. Prayer changes things. The answer to our prayer may not be to change circumstances, it might be to change us. That's the greatest miracle of all is that God would change our hearts. That God would change me. That God would redeem me, that I would call on the name of Jesus and that Jesus would change me by His power and His grace. That's the greatest miracle. Another miracle in your life may be that God will give you the strength to get through what you're going through, not to just end it but to get you through it. That's a miracle. Sometimes that's what God says.

Mark Batterson the author of the book The Circle Maker, a book about prayers says this, "The transcript of your prayers will become the script of your life." Ain't that great? The transcript of your prayers will become the script of your life. You might be one prayer away from a total breakthrough in your life. It's always too early to quit. In verse 21, Hezekiah is healed. Look at the Scripture. Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Servants make an ointment from the figs and spread it over to boils and Hezekiah will recover." That's what happened. Hezekiah's healed. He prays to God and then God gives Isaiah the prophet the wisdom to tell the people how to heal him with the medicine. The point of Isaiah 38:21 and following is that God heals instantly but God also heals through medicine. Do you know that? God uses doctors. God uses physicians. God uses medications. God uses medical technology. That's why in James, the book of James said, "If anyone among you suffering, let him call for the leaders of the church to pray for him and anoint him with oil." The anointing of oil is medicinal.

Another is we ought to pray and we ought to take medicine. If you're sick, pray, take your medicine. Pray, take your medicine. This is what Hezekiah's does. This is right from the Word. This is right from God's Word right here. What do we do when we're praying and we're not seeing the results that we wanted? I want to give you four things that are not on your notes, you can write these down. When you're not getting the answer that you want, okay? Number one, evaluate your motives.

A. EVALUATE YOUR MOTIVES

Evaluate your motives. Whenever you ask God to do something, do it so that you can be a blessing to others. Hezekiah wanted to be healed but he also wanted to take care of his kingdom. In James chapter four says this, "You don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it." Then in verse three, "And when you ask God, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong and you want only what gives you pleasure."

Do you have the right motives? I mean you're praying for this. You're praying for that promotion. You're praying for those resources, that finances, but are your motives right? If you pray, "God bless me," say, "God bless me so I can bless somebody." I don't want to just The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle Page 8 of 11

be a blessing hog. Are we praying with the right motives? Okay. Evaluate those motives. Here's the second thing, extend your timeline.

B. EXTEND YOUR TIMELINE

Extend your timeline. I mean, God does not answer prayers in many regards on our timeline. He did in the life of Hezekiah. God is capable. He is. I'm an impatient prayer. I don't know about you, I'm like, "God I need it yesterday." I don't know if you guys have ever done that. I'm like so impatient with prayer. I was praying one time, I was praying for something like three months, it felt like 21 months.

Sometimes how it feels and what it really is different. Isn't it? I thought to myself that day, "I am praying in dog years." They say that one human year is seven dog years. God, where are you? I'm praying in dog years. One year seems like seven years. You've been praying for that job for six months but it feels like 42 months, it's how it feels. Remember this, extend your timeline. God's time frame is not like ours. I just got through. I prayed about something everyday for six months and the door just closed. Oh man, I was disappointed for like a day, but you know what? I'm good. You know why? Because I know God has another plan. God has another plan. The shutting of that door is going to propel me to the opening of another door. How about that? That's good, so it's progress.

Don't feel like you prayed about something and it didn't happen and all is such a waste of time. No. That's defining the will of God in your life. It's what it is, so pray. Remember this, extend that timeline. Proverbs 19 says impatience will get you in trouble. Sometimes that timeline is God's maturing you. Okay in the meantime, God's getting you ready. Okay? God's preparing something in your heart you're not quite ready for that. God says, "I'm getting you ready." Sometimes God is waiting on us. God says, "We need to stop doing this and I'll open that door." Sometimes God says, "Start doing this I'll open that door." Is God waiting on you today? God has told you to do something, you're not doing it and now you're mad that he hasn't opened the door. Try extending your timeline. Extend that timeline. God's maturing us.

Here's the third thing, embrace the will of God.

C. EMBRACE GOD’S WILL

Embrace the will of God. See, prayer is not so much about getting my will done in heaven as much as it is about getting God's will done on earth. That's what it is. The faster that we learn to get our life in line with God and His purposes and his plans, the more effective and dynamic our prayer life will be because we'll be praying in the name of Jesus. To pray in the name of Jesus means according to the will of God. Look at this in John 14, "You can ask for anything in my name and I would do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes. Ask me for anything in my Name and I'll do it."

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A lot of times we love that ask anything and I would do it but notice this He says ask anything in my name. Are we praying according to the name of Jesus? Are we praying according to the will of God? If something doesn't happen, I'd just say, "You know what, that must not be God's will, maybe I need to go over here." Then he says this also, "so the Son can bring glory to the Father." You see, when we pray in the will of God, God is the one that's glorified not us. In Hezekiah's healing, God was the one that was glorified not Hezekiah. Ain't that beautiful? Those are the prayers we have to be praying in the will of God, according to the will of God. When we we're praying about starting a new church, I called some different church leaders around the country, different cities.

I called a guy in New Orleans and this is right after Katrina happened. This is the church starting organizations there in New Orleans. I said, "Hey do you guys need some new churches?" I was making similar calls to a bunch of different places and I was just doing research learning, asking questions, meeting people. The guy on the other at the phone said, "No we're all good, we have all the churches that we need." I thought, "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of before. The city was wiped out. How do you not need any new churches?" I was angry. I was frustrated with this guy. I was like, "This guy's an idiot," is what I thought. Do you know what? That was part of God's process of bringing us here.

If that guy would have said, "You know what? Yeah, Ryan, come on down." It may have confused me in discerning the will of God to come to Colorado. God uses idiots. How about that? Ain't that good? We need to find the will of God and do it. Listen, everything that you pray about, you don't want to happen. Elijah was the great prophet in the Old Testament. He prayed God would take his life and God didn't. In a very interesting turn of events. When you read the book of first and second Kings, you see that Elijah was one of two people that never died. How about that? The man that never died prayed that God would take his life. Not everything that you pray about is as great as you think it is. Let's pray in the will of God. Let's be focused more in the will of God and the person of God than we are, that individual thing that we're hung up on.

Then finally today, here's number four, expect a spiritual battle.

D. EXPECT A SPIRITUAL BATTLE

You may not be seeing the results that you want to see because there is a spiritual battle. There's a battle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. In Ephesians chapter six it says, If we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and against forces and dark places." If you go to the , Daniel is praying about something for 21 days and the angels are not able to get through because of a spiritual battle that's going on.

You may be in a spiritual battle today and if you're in a spiritual battle, what you need to do is keep praying. Keep praying. Keep pressing through. Don't get discouraged. Pray with a heart The Best Yet To Come- Pray For A Miracle Page 10 of 11

of Hezekiah. Keep praying, keep praying, keep praying. You see, the only way that we can fail is to quit. If you'll keep praying you will never fail. You will never fail. Yes, you'll be frustrated. Yes, you may feel like you're praying through some dog year. But you know what? The God who raised Hezekiah is the God that will also raise you.

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