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Kingmaker: A Bad Leader and a Good God
July 23, 2024 · 37 min
John Mark explores the story of King Manasseh, the worst king in Israel's history. Despite Manasseh's extreme wickedness, Pastor John Mark emphasizes God's forgiveness and mercy.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton July 23, 2024 · 37 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
John Mark explores the story of King Manasseh, the worst king in Israel's history. Despite Manasseh's extreme wickedness, Pastor John Mark emphasizes God's forgiveness and mercy. ...more Show the full description Show less John Mark explores the story of King Manasseh, the worst king in Israel's history. Despite Manasseh's extreme wickedness, Pastor John Mark emphasizes God's forgiveness and mercy.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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The Worst King and God's Unending Grace 0:00 Well, amen. You glad you're in God's house today? Give God a hand. If you are new with us in person or online, we're glad that you're here. We've been in the middle of a series entitled, Kingmaker,0:12 where we've been looking at, the kings in the Old Testament and seeing, some of the decisions that they made literally were king makers. They made great decisions and it was good for them and it was good for the people,0:23 but there were also some decisions that were king breakers. And we actually have only 1 more week next week, don't miss it, but today we're literally going to look at the worst king ever. The0:35 worst king yet. And interestingly enough, in everything he does, in this guy named Manasseh, here's what we know. He did 1 good0:47 thing. So the invitation to anyone and everyone in this room, if you think someone you love and you care about has gone too far for God's grace and God's love, can I encourage you with this? All they have to do is0:59 1 good thing. Maybe there's someone in here that in your season of life you're like I have messed up and I've messed up and I've messed up. Will God take me back? Can God forgive me? Can I1:11 just encourage you as we journey through this, 1 good thing? Over the last couple of weeks, we've looked at how to determine God's will, how to fight your battles, how1:23 to overcome certain mistakes. And today, I want to talk to you about this. You've never gone too far for God's forgiveness. Doesn't matter how far you've1:34 gone, you've never gone too far for God's forgiveness. Let's go back to our early verses. We've looked at these every week. Here it is, Proverbs chapter 14 verse 11. Says the house of the wicked will be destroyed and the1:46 tent of the upright will flourish. And we've talked all the way through this series that the idea of the house is that person who is wealthy and the tent is that person who is a nomad and doesn't have much. Says it1:56 really doesn't matter if you are wealthy and powerful and you have a house in those days. If you are wicked, it's gonna be torn down. However, at the same time, if you've got nothing, if you're a nomad, even today, you2:07 think you're a little person. The tent of the righteous will be built up. And so it doesn't matter whether you're in a house or a tent, just honor God and he will bless you in the generations to come. Look at the next 1,2:19 Proverbs chapter 14 verse 34. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people. We looked at this over and over again that there's a pattern in, in2:30 Israel and we're very clearly going to see it today with our king. There's a pattern in Israel when when a king is good and the policies that the king delivers are good, the people are blessed. However,2:42 when the king is bad and the policies are bad, the people are ultimately cursed. From top to bottom, if those who are in leadership make good decisions, the people have a tendency to be blessed. If the top people at the2:53 top make bad decisions, those people at the bottom tend to struggle as we think about our election season right now. That's the ultimate question. Is who's gonna create the most policies and the best policies?3:06 Not who's the perfect candidate, we don't have 1 of those. How many of you know the sad? To allow us to honor God and flourish in a real way. Today I want to talk to you3:18 literally about a bad king. As a matter of fact, if you look in the old testament, you would be hard pressed to find a worse king. This king served as the king of Israel3:30 not for 2 years, 4 years, 8 years, 55 years. This horrible king served. He was not only just a horrible king, he was a prodigal3:42 king because his father was a great king named Hezekiah. If you go look at Hezekiah's life, Hezekiah was a fantastic king. He tore down the high places.3:54 He rebuilt genuine worship and a heart for the Lord. And then all of a sudden, he has this son named Manasseh, who undoes it all. And so Manasseh's not just a bad king, he's a4:06 prodigal king. But interestingly enough, it also tells us that although Hezekiah was a great king, he was a godly king, he was a good king, he was a praying king. If you4:18 remember Hezekiah's story, Hezekiah was leading well and then all of a sudden Isaiah the prophet goes into Hezekiah and he says the Lord has told me that you're gonna die. In other words, Hezekiah was sick and4:30 and and he wanted to cry out to the prophet Israel. Israel the prophet of Israel comes in and says, I'm sorry, the Lord says, this one's terminal. And so the prophet leaves and Hezekiah weeps and4:42 cries and then all of a sudden Hezekiah cries out to God. Said Lord, extend my reign, extend my life, heal me. And as Isaiah is out moving out, God4:54 shows up to Isaiah and says go back in, tell the godly king Hezekiah, I'm gonna give him 15 more years. 15 more years, that's it. Numbers of days. Well5:06 3 years into those extra 15 years, he has a son, his first son named Manasseh. Now my guess is later in the years, he was like, Lord,5:17 maybe you should5:18 have killed me.5:21 Then Manasseh wouldn't have led all of Israel. But 3 years into his extra 15 years, that leaves 12 years, alright, do the math. He has a son named Manasseh. My guess is he's doing5:32 everything he can to raise Manasseh the right way and show him the right way of worship and stuff like that. And then all of a sudden, Hezekiah, his fifteenth year, which happens to be the twelfth year of Manasseh.5:43 Hezekiah dies just as the Lord promised and Manasseh comes to the throne. And let me tell you what, if Hezekiah was a fantastic king, a5:55 good king, a godly king, Manasseh was anything but. Let me just show him to you. Second Chronicles chapter 33, let me just read a few verses for you. It says Manasseh was 12, remember.6:07 Hezekiah prayed for 15. 3 years into that extra 15, he has a son named Manasseh. So when Manasseh was 12 years old, Hezekiah dies, he became king. And he reigned in Jerusalem for6:18 55 years. Imagine, enduring a bad king for a year or 2 years or 10 years or 20 years. 55 years he reigned. Now look at this, he did6:30 evil in the eyes of the Lord, following all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. So here's what we see. This guy was so bad that he basically took all of his6:42 religious practice, all of his all of his moral practices from the people that God had driven out of Israel to bring God's people back into the promised land. Let me tell you what,6:54 Manasseh was evil. He was bad. His father Hezekiah was godly. However, his grandfather was a guy named Ahaz. If you go look at Ahaz, Ahaz was not7:06 a good king. So you have bad king, grandfather, good king, father, bad king, son. If you go down the line in the lineage, his grandson,7:18 Manasseh's grandson, is a guy named Josiah who was a fantastic king. So what does this tell us? There are no generational guarantees of godliness. I just want you to know they're not. There are7:29 no generational guarantees of godliness. Man, we gotta pray, we gotta work, we gotta develop ministries in the church that will do everything we can to encourage and foster godliness in the next generation. But here's7:40 what we know when you look at this passage. Bad, good, bad, good, bad, good. There are no generational guarantees. There's not just some magic prayer that you could say over your children and7:52 everything goes well. So here we see Manasseh, who's a bad king, serves for 55 years. If Manasseh would have called his priests and Levites in, said hey guys,8:04 come around. I just want to ask a question. If I wanted to make God mad, give me a list of everything I could do. And so8:16 the priest say do this and I would do this and I would do this and I would do this. And let me tell you what, Manasseh did every 1 of them. If there's a8:28 list in the old testament where it says and this angered God and this angered God and this angered God and this angered, and the Levites and priests searched scriptures and said, Well here's what I would do, Manasseh. If8:37 you really want to make God man, do these things. And Manasseh said, Let's go. But in spite of how bad Manasseh is, can I fast forward you8:49 to Matthew chapter 1 and the genealogy of Jesus? Let me just simply show it to you real quick. This is the line and the lineage of Jesus here, and we're jumping to it kind of in the middle of the line and the9:01 lineage of Jesus. And so let's start in verse 10. Hezekiah, remember Manasseh's father, good and godly king, makes total sense he's in there. But it says the father9:13 of Manasseh. You know, I would think Manasseh would be a good 1 that you would just say, yeah, let's skip over him. Let's just kind9:25 of leave him out of the mix. I mean, because he was as bad a king as there ever was. He was the worst king in all of Israel. Well served for the longest, by the way. Serve the longest as the longest king in all of9:35 Israel. And you would have thought those who are writing down Matthew would say, God, can we just leave Manasseh out? And God said, no, no, no, put him in there. Why? Because he did 19:49 good thing. Child of God, let me tell you that is God's grace and I want to encourage with it. If you think, man, pastor, I've just got this mountain of sin10:01 and brokenness in my past and broken relationships and broken promises. Can God use me? There's your answer. 1 good10:14 thing. Some of you in here feel like you are so far away from God. You wanna know how far you are away from God? Just 1 good thing. Just 1 good prayer.10:27 Just 1 moment and season of repentance, because that's exactly what we see for Manasseh and he ultimately ends up making it into the line and lineage. Jesus, you say, alright pastor,10:39 how bad was Manasseh? Everybody say bad. Bad. I mean he was bad. He he he was as bad as they come. Well let's just begin to look and you'll see10:51 it. And I want you to know that the good news about Manasseh, he wasn't casually bad, he was purposefully bad. Alright. This was his intent. He set out to literally destroy11:03 Israel and the religious worship of the 1 true God and here it is. First of all, first thing he did, you might wanna make this checklist, write it down, open up your app if you wanna see, there's always more in your app.11:14 Look it, he rebuilt the high places. Alright look at second Chronicles chapter 33 verse 3. He rebuilt the high places his father, the good king, had demolished. Now now let me just stop you right there, think about this.11:26 His grandfather Ahaz had come in and rebuilt all these high places. Led the children of Israel to worship other gods and false gods and the Baals and the Asherahs and everything else. And so Hezekiah,11:38 when he came to power, he says let's get rid of all that stuff and sure enough now Manasseh shows up and says I got an idea, I would rather be a lot more like my grandfather than my father, so what? He rebuilds the high11:50 places his grandfather had built, but his father had torn down. No generational guarantee of godliness. And so here it is, he demolished, he also erected altars to the bells and made12:02 Asherah poles just like his grandfather. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. In other words, he called every psychic hotline he could finally find, right? And he12:14 was just giving them his credit card, just ringing them up. But that isn't the worst thing he did. It gets worse. Remember, he did the whole checklist. What can I do to make God mad? Let's do all of those. Not 1 of them,12:25 all of them, all of the above. Here's number 2, you ready? He put altars inside the temple. Now inside the temple, it was not uncommon for some of the bad kings in Israel12:37 to set up high places out in the hillside and out in the countryside, go find a hill, create an altar, put an asherah, put a bell up there. But notice, and sometimes they would even bring them inside the city, the temple12:49 walls of Jerusalem. But if you look at Manasseh, notice what it says. It says he built altars in the temple of the Lord of which13:01 the Lord had said my name will remain in Jerusalem forever. Here it is, he didn't go outside the city to the hillside. He didn't just go outside the temple wall to build these altars.13:13 He actually went inside the temple. Look at verse 5. In both courts, everybody say both courts. I'll show you why this matters here in a second. In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built13:24 altars to all the starry hosts. Well if you go to the temple, you go all the way back to Solomon's temple, there were 2 courts. When you got into the temple, there was the outer court and the inner court.13:36 The outer court was for the ordinary people, the common people. Those are those maybe like you and me, those that weren't Levites and they weren't priests and they weren't godly enough to get in. Why? Because inside13:48 the inner court, that's where the priest and the Levites and the teachers of the law could go. Why, because that's where the holy of holy was. So here you have Manasseh, not only building altars out in the14:00 hillside or just outside the temple in the city, he's building them in both courts. So it doesn't matter if it's the ordinary people, they show up, they just want to worship the 1 true God. Well guess what, they14:12 immediately get distracted by all the bells and all the Asherah that are set up in the outer court, that's the only place they could go. And then you have the Levites and you have the priest. And they go into the inner14:23 sanctum, the inner place and the inner space, and he built those altars there as well. You say, how can he do it? It's a great question. It's almost14:35 as if he tried and made sure that, man, I want to do everything I can to disobey God, to run away from God, to get as far away from God as I possibly can. And you say, is that14:47 the worst thing? No pastor, it gets worse. Can I just tell you this? He sacrificed his own children to the God of Molech. You've14:58 seen many images in many movies over the years about the image of Molech. And it is pretty accurate in the movies. It is typically a human body with a15:10 bull's head and outstretched arms and they set them up on an altar. And the pagans would take their children, walk them up and sacrifice15:22 them to Molech. You say, pastor why did they do that if you go read the history of Molech? And that false God and that fake God, it says if you are willing to sacrifice something15:34 special, he will bless you, listen to this, not with health, not with good kids, not with with prosperity. So here15:45 you have Manasseh even sacrificing his own children to Molech. Could you get any worse?15:58 Pick it up, let's read it. Verse 6. It says Manasseh also sacrificed his children in the fire in the valley of Hinnom. If you want to fast forward, if you know a little bit about the New16:10 Testament, Hinnom, where Molech was set up, was just on the south side of the city of Jerusalem. Manasseh's grandson, listen to this, we're gonna see repentance here.16:21 Manasseh's grandson put it, made it off limits from here on out for religious practices. As a matter of fact, he said that's going to be the same place where Manasseh sacrificed his kids. That's gonna be the same16:33 place where Jerusalem will dump its trash. So you'd go out in the valley of Hymn. That's where they would dump the trash and they would burn the trash. That's where they dump the bodies of the criminals. So fast forward16:44 into the new testament, you have Hinnom, the valley of Hinnom in the old testament. That translated from Hebrew into Greek, becomes Gehenna. Remember when Jesus was walking around and he talked about Gehenna, which16:55 became synonymous with hell? And he said it was like this place, Gehenna was like this place where there's constant burning and constant worms? It was this same place. Because17:07 they made it off limits for sacrifice, they basically made it a dump. Jesus walks in familiar with Manasseh's story and he says listen, you want to know what hell's like? Just go out there. The17:19 stench, the worms, the burning over and over again in eternal separation from God. That's the place that Manasseh, couple hundred years before Jesus showed up, would17:31 walk out there and instead of serving the 1 true God and seeing every child as a blessing from God, Molech goes out there and he sacrifices his own children17:44 to a God just so he can become more and more prosperous. And my prayer is, God, don't ever let me be like that. That I would17:56 sacrifice my own kids for my own fame or my own popularity or my own prosperity. And you don't ever want to walk down that road again. But but he he didn't stop there. Look at it.18:08 He also sought guidance from the wrong people. We talked about this, psychic hotlines. Look at it, verse 6. He practiced divination and witch craft and sought omens and consulted mediums and spiritists. In other words,18:19 he just began to bring them all out. Remember I talked last week about Saul driving them out? Now he's just bringing them all in. Hey, anybody that's got some sort of word of knowledge, show up. I want to listen to you.18:29 He did much evil, that word much evil, kind of interesting in the Hebrew. A lot of times you'll say he did evil, he did evil. Notice it says he did much evil. There's a word in the Hebrew for multiplication.18:41 That a lot of the other kings did evil. But Manasseh multiplied the works of evil. That's what it says, he did much evil in the sight of the Lord. He he didn't stick around. He said, man, how can I18:53 do more and how can I do more in the eyes of the Lord? Now notice, ding ding, he finally accomplished it, arousing God's anger. Remember what I said? It's almost as if he made19:05 a list. Hey, hey, get the priests and the Levites in and say, hey look through the scriptures and see what I can do to make God mad. Well success. He's now hacked God off. Alright? And so19:17 God's gonna deal with him in a powerful and real way. God is always patient. Remember the story of the prodigal son? It's really about the father who patiently and longingly19:29 waits, wanting that prodigal to turn, to come to the end of his self, turn and come back to him. The father's always looking. What is the father looking for? He's looking19:41 off in the hillside. He's looking off in there, just just waiting to see a silhouette of his son walking through the pasture over mountainside. It's almost as if God, even in the midst of all of19:53 this evil, is just like a patient father longing for Manasseh, that prodigal king to turn and come back. And he doesn't,20:06 and God gets angry. But that wasn't the only thing and this is kind of the whole theme of this entire series. That wasn't the only thing that Manasseh did or the worst thing they did. Notice next,20:19 Manasseh led other people to commit sins. See see it's 1 thing to journey off in your own disobedience, to commit your own sins.20:31 It's another thing to lead others to commit sin. And that's exactly what Manasseh did, and that's why this whole, the whole purpose of this series has been what happens at the top20:44 trickles down to the bottom. The policies made at the top trickle down to the bottom. You say, where do you see this? Pick it up in verse 9, let's just read it. It says in verse 9,20:57 but Manasseh led, there it is, he led. Manasseh didn't just commit all these sins. He actually led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray. He led them astray. Now as he was going astray, I want you to21:08 know, you go read the whole story, you can go over to second Kings chapter 21, you can read it in other places as well, through Isaiah. But but here's what you know. As he began to lead the children of Israel away from21:20 the Lord, yeah he had a lot of spiritists and uh-uh and psychics and and bell worshiping priests who were like, let's go, let's go, let's go. But he did have a lot of prophets of God who said no, we21:32 ought not to be going that way. You know, we live in a day and age that if you speak against public policy or you speak against some of the wrong, you're gonna get canceled, right? How many of you know that? Let me tell21:43 you what, in Manasseh's day, cancel equaled killed. So there were many prophets that went up to Manasseh and said listen, you ought not to be going this way. Here's21:55 what God's word says, zoop. They were gone. So what Manasseh did, he killed anybody that was in opposition to his policy to lead the22:07 children away from following God in a powerful and real way. Man, we see a lot of that stuff happens today. We've seen it happen in the world. Man, you take some of the communist countries, someone rises to power, and22:19 people begin to basically say we don't want to go that direction. What happens? They're eliminated. That's exactly what Manasseh did. So notice he led others astray, but Manasseh led Judah and the people of22:30 Jerusalem astray. So that they, listen to this, it's now from him to them. Remember, from him to them. It starts with him and it ends up with them.22:43 That's the way it always is. He starts sinning and then he wants to make sure they sin. It goes from him to them. They did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. Interesting,22:55 remember earlier I read that he did more evil than the nations he drove out? Now they did more evil than the nations that he drove out. But here's the good news.23:07 You have a bad king, but how many of you know we have a merciful God? Because remember, I told you he did 1 good thing. 1 good thing. So let's go back to Matthew23:19 chapter 1 and let's just think about this. Matthew chapter 1 says Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Ammon, Ammon the father of Josiah. No.23:31 When you know what you know about Manasseh, wouldn't you think this would be a good guy to leave out? He sacrificed his23:43 children, he built altars to bells, not only in the city, but in the outer courts and the inner courts of the temple. But this just shows us how merciful God is. I23:55 want to tell you, Manasseh is kind of an anomaly. It's not uncommon if you look through the kings, first and second Kings, first and second Chronicles, that you'll see a bad king that starts bad and he24:07 finishes bad. It's not that uncommon that you'll see a king who starts well but finishes poorly. It's not uncommon that you'll see a king, David would have been this way, a24:19 king that starts good, has a blip on the screen, has a mistake, a sin he makes, but then comes back and is restored. Manasseh is an anomaly. Because24:30 Manasseh actually starts bad, but finishes well. You say pastor, how in the world24:43 after all he's done, could he finish well? Let's talk about this anomaly for a second. Notice what happened. This is a merciful God. Notice number 1, God allows them, all the24:55 children of Israel, to experience the consequences of sin. See part of God's mercy is to allow us to experience the consequences of our sin. See, if God protected us from all consequences, how many of you ever think we'd25:06 repent? Because I I don't know about you, I remember growing up in student ministry or student camp or something, you'd have a speaker that come in and maybe you've heard that had this experience before. They'll say25:17 sin's not fun. And I used to think, you got the wrong sins. How many of you know sin can be fun?25:30 No 1 raised their hand. How many of you know lying's bad? Let me tell you what, sin's fun. I remember the student evangelist going, sin's not fun. I'm25:42 like, yeah it is. But see, part of God's mercy is to allow us to experience the consequences of our sin so we'll want to turn towards him in repentance. Here25:54 it is, look at second Chronicles chapter 33 verse 10. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, so God's speaking to all of them. He's saying, it says but they paid no attention. God was patient. Over and over, God26:06 would send a prophet to Manasseh, say hey you need to repent, you need to be restored. And what would Manasseh do? Kill the prophet. God would send another prophet. God would send another prophet. So it says the Lord26:14 spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. In other words, God's patience has now run out. The warnings have been ignored. Here it is verse 11. So the Lord brought against them the army of the26:25 commanders of the Assyrians. There's the consequences. Who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him off to26:37 Babylon. God had warned him, warned him, warned him, warned him. God warned him and the children of Israel with prophets. They paid no26:49 attention. God gave a lot of time for repentance. Interestingly enough, if you go read this passage, there are a couple of metaphors used here. God even talks about the soldiers coming27:01 like a band where the cymbals are marching, that when you hear the spears and the swords coming, you're going to know that it is God's drumbeat of judgment on you. His patience is over. There's another27:13 1 in there, you can go read it in second Kings chapter 21. It says, when I send the Babylonians, the Assyrians in, they're gonna wipe you off like dirty dishes. How many of you hate dirty dishes?27:25 God says this dish has been dirty enough. Anybody ever gone away and and maybe your teenage kids were there and you've gone away with your wife or or your husband for the weekend and you say, hey, keep the house clean27:36 and you walk, anybody ever walked in like we have, and Gina's kids have left dirty dishes in the sink. Right?27:45 And And you27:45 walk in and you start screaming at the kids or whatever and eventually you're just, I gotta clean this up. God says, the dishes have been dirty long enough. It is time for me to clean this place up.27:57 And so God begins to judge him. He says, alright, you're gonna go away. Puts a hook in his nose. Not a nose ring, a hook in his nose and they lead him away. Here, look at the next thing about God's mercy. Manasseh cries28:09 out to God for forgiveness. Oh, so now you're gonna cry out for forgiveness. See, and that's a lesson for all of us. Man, don't wait until you're in a28:20 prison of your own doing and Satan's got a hook in your nose and you're in a distant place in a distant land before you turn and cry out to God.28:33 However, the story of Manasseh is still this. If Satan does have a hook in your nose, and you are in the wrong place, and you've gone too far, do exactly what28:44 Manasseh did. Turn now and cry out for God's forgiveness. Pick it up verse 12. In his distress, Manasseh sought God's favor. You almost kind of think, if there was28:56 anybody that shouldn't be seeking God's favor, it's Manasseh. How many of you know what I'm talking about? But he does. He cries out to God, asks for God's favor. What right does he have? None like us.29:09 Of the Lord his God, and notice this, he humbled himself greatly before the Lord. It has been said of religion that religion is,29:21 Christianity is a religion of personal pronouns. Personal pronouns. It's not about they. It's about me. Notice, it says29:33 Manasseh prayed to his God. Manasseh cried out to his god. Manasseh humbled29:45 himself. See, I can't force you to cry out. I can't force you to make God your God. But when you know Him, cry out to29:57 Him regardless of how difficult and hard it is. Man, Manasseh had rejected God, listen to this, in the palace, but he found God in prison.30:10 And and maybe as where some of you are today, that you're in a space, you're rejecting God in your palace, in your prosperity.30:23 You're rejecting God in the midst of the blessings that He gives you. Child of God, don't wait until you're in a prison to cry out to Him. But but Manasseh is a great example of30:35 rejecting God in the palace, but finding him in prison. But I want you to know if you find God in prison, he's not going to leave you there. Everybody say amen. Because that's what we're going to see. Notice what30:45 happens, it's never too late. God was moved to restore Manasseh. Manasseh had worked all of his life to make God mad, to lead others away from God. And all of a sudden, God's30:57 moved? You say where do you see that? Look at verse 13. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea. My guess is, had I been God, that would have been to his plea. My guess is,31:07 had I been God, that would have been time for the celestial Heisman. How many of you know? Right? Oh, is that Manasseh? So now you're praying. So now you want my help. But can I tell you some31:19 good news? I'm not God. God is. So when Manasseh begins to bow his knees and humble himself and cry out to his God,31:32 God doesn't say I don't think so. He goes that's 1 of mine. And he's praying, he's crying out, he's humbled himself. Yes, he didn't listen to me in the palace, but he's looking for me31:44 in the prison. And so child of God, maybe that's where you are, you haven't listened to God in your palace, but you're looking in the prison. Notice what it says, it says the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened31:55 to his plea. So he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom, put him back in the palace. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. Now notice the process. Manasseh prays, God is32:07 moved, he cries out, God restores, brings him back. This whole process has been painful, but it's productive. And so maybe there are some of you in person or online, you're going through32:19 a painful season in your life. Can I tell you? Walk with God through those painful seasons because it will be productive and God will restore you. And here's number 4. Manasseh proved his genuine repentance by his32:31 actions. I think we've all known and we've seen and we've looked around, there have been times and seasons where someone has just gone astray, they've been a prodigal, they've walked away, and they ask for32:42 forgiveness, but then all of a sudden they're doing the same thing over and over again, right? You say, well they said they've repented, but have they? How can you determine we don't ever need to be these people that32:54 were always looking to inspect the repentance of someone else. But I will also tell you that Jesus says you will know them by their fruit. So listen, what happens in Manasseh, you would think man, well of course33:06 he's going to cry out to God. He's now in prison, he's no longer in the palace. Surely he wants God now. But what's going to happen? God restores him, puts him back in the palace. How do we know that it was a real33:17 repentance and a genuine renewal and restoration in Manasseh's heart? How do you know? 1 way. The actions. Notice what he does when God reinstalls him. Pick it up33:29 in verse 14. Afterwards, so God's put him back in the palace, he's no longer in prison. Afterwards, what did Manasseh do? Notice the verbs. The verbs that follow repentance are always real and they're33:41 always active and they're always action. So notice, afterward he rebuilt, there's 1, the outer wall of the city of David, west of Gihon, the spring valley. And then notice what, he also made, there's33:52 another 1, made it much higher. So not only did he rebuild the wall, he made it higher. He made it bigger. Look at verse 15, he got rid of the foreign gods. So he's removing things, those are actions. He removed the34:04 images from the temple of the Lord. He went into the inner place and the outer place, said get these things out of here. When people come to the temple, they're gonna worship the 1 true God. And he goes, man I put them34:14 up and now I'm telling you to take them down. Now notice what it says, and he threw them out of the city. Now he didn't just move them over to a closet, he didn't put them in the attic of the palace. What did he do? He34:25 took them out and threw them outside of the city. He said, I am sorry. I confessed my sin. 1 good thing, all he did is he cried out to God. But then it was followed with a bunch of actions. Continue to34:36 read. He threw them outside. Look at verse 16. Then he restored, notice all the verbs. He restored the altar of the Lord and he sacrificed fellowship offerings, thank offerings on it. And he34:48 told Judah to serve the Lord. Now notice this. Remember Judah and Jerusalem, he had led astray? Now with a repentant and humble and gracious35:00 heart, he's gone from the prison back to the palace and he's now looking at the people and says, listen, for 55 years, I led you to walk away from God. Now I'm encouraging you and35:12 challenging you to walk back towards God. And my guess is, he served for 55 years as king. There were a lot of people that the only king they35:24 had ever known was Manasseh. And the only thing they had ever known was evil. And they probably looked at Manasseh and said, can God take me back?35:36 And Manasseh would say, it only takes 1 good thing. I want to invite you to bow your heads there where you are. Do you know someone that's been running from God35:48 for a long, long time? If you do, I want to encourage you to pray for that 1 good thing. Maybe you're 1 of those people in person or online that you've been running from God for a long, long time. You're no36:00 longer in your palace. You're in your prison. Can I encourage you to do 1 good thing, just to humble yourself and cry out to your God and ask for grace? God,36:12 thank you so much for the testimony of scripture that reminds us that there are some good kings and some bad kings. But regardless of how far we've gone, all it takes is 1 good thing.36:24 God, if there's a person here today that's never trusted Jesus Christ as savior and Lord, let that be their 1 good thing today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.In this video 0:00 The Worst King and God's Unending Grace
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