Skip to content Kingmaker: A Bad Leader and a Good God Jul 23 · 37 min ...more
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 kingmakers. 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, and 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 is 10:59 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 I just1:11 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, how to1:23 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've gone, you've1:35 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 the tent of the1:46 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 it really doesn't1:57 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, you think you're a2:08 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, Proverbs2:19 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 Israel2:31 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, when the2:43 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 the top make2:54 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. Not3:06 who's the perfect candidate, we don't have 1 of those. How many of you know the chat? 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. He3:54 rebuilt genuine worship and a heart for the Lord. And then all of a sudden, he has this son named Manasseh who undo 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. If4:18 you 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 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's 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 should have killed me. 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. He5:29 has a son named Manasseh. My guess is he's doing 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, which5:41 happens to be the twelfth year of Manasseh. Hezekiah dies just as the Lord promised and Manasseh comes to the throne. And let me tell you what, if5:53 Hezekiah was a fantastic king, a 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 for6:04 you. It says Manasseh was 12, remember. 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 became6:16 king. And he reigned in Jerusalem for 55 years. Imagine, enduring a bad king for a year or 2 years or 10 years or 20 years. 556:28 years he reigned. Now look at this, he did 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 so6:39 bad that he basically took all of his religious practice, all of his all of his moral practices from the people that God had driven out of Israel to bring God's people6:51 back into the promised land. Let me tell you what, Manasseh was evil, he was bad, his father Hezekiah was godly. However, his grandfather was a guy named Ahaz.7:03 If you go look at Ahaz, Ahaz was not a good king. So you have bad king grandfather, good king father, bad king son. If you go down7:15 the line in the lineage, his grandson, 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. I7:27 just want you to know they're not. There are 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 foster7:38 godliness in the next generation. But here's 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 you7:50 could say over your children and everything goes well. So here we see Manasseh, who's a bad king, serves for 55 years. If Manasseh would have called his priest and Levites8:01 in, said hey guys, come around. I just want to ask a question. If I wanted to make God mad, give me a list of everything I could8:13 do. And so 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.8:27 If there's a 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 scripture and said well here's what I would do8:37 Manasseh, if you really want to make God mad, do these things. And Manasseh said let's go. But in spite of how bad Manasseh is, can I fast forward8:48 you 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 kind of in the9:00 middle of the line and the 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 says9:12 the father of Manasseh You know, I would think Manasseh would be a good 1 that you would just say, yeah let's skip over him.9:24 It's just kind 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 in9:35 all of 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 did9:47 1 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 mountain9:59 of sin and brokenness in my past and broken relationships and broken promises, can God use me? There's your answer. 110:12 good thing. Some of you in here feel like you are so far away from God. You want to know how far you are away from God? Just 1 good thing.10:25 Just 1 good prayer. 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 line10:37 of lineage. Jesus, you say, alright pastor, how bad was Manasseh? Everybody say bad. Bad. I mean he was bad. He he he was as bad as10:49 they come. Well let's just begin to look and you'll see 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, he11:00 set out to literally destroy 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,11:12 there's always more in your app. 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 just11:24 stop you right there, think about this. 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 Asherahs11:36 and everything else. And so Hezekiah, 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 my11:48 father, so what? He rebuilds the high places his grandfather had built, but his father had torn down. No generational guarantee of godliness. And so here it is, he demolished, he also12:00 erected altars to the bells and made asher upholds just like his grandfather. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. In other words, he called every psychic12:11 hotline he could finally find, right? And he 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 make12:22 God mad? Let's do all of those, not 1 of them, all of them, all of the above. Here's number 2, you ready? He put altars inside the temple. Now inside the temple, it12:34 was not uncommon for some of the bad kings in Israel 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,12:46 and sometimes they would even bring them inside the city, the temple walls of Jerusalem. But if you look at Manasseh, notice what it says. It says he built altars12:57 in the temple of the lord of which the lord had said my name will remain in Jerusalem forever. Here it is, he didn't go outside the city to the hillside.13:09 He'd just go outside the temple wall to build these altars. 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. In13:21 both courts of the temple of the Lord, He built 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,13:33 there was the outer court and the inner court. The outer court was for the ordinary people, the common people, those those maybe like you and me, those that weren't Levites and they weren't priests13:45 and they weren't godly enough to get in. Why? Because inside 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 have13:57 Manasseh, not only building altars out in the 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 show14:09 up, they just want to worship the 1 true God. Well guess what, they 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 you14:18 have the Levites and you have the priest. And they go into the inner sanctum, the inner place and the inner space, and he built those altars there as well. You say14:30 how can he do it? It's a great question. It's almost as if he tried and made sure that, man I want to do everything I can to disobey God, to to14:42 run away from God, to get as far away from God as I possibly can. And you say, is that the worst thing? No pastor, it gets worse. Can I just tell you this? He sacrificed his own children14:55 to the god of Molech. You've seen many images in many movies over the years about the image of Molech. And it is pretty accurate in the movies.15:07 It is typically a human body with a bull's head and outstretched arms and they set them up on an altar. And the pagans would take their15:19 children, walk them up, and sacrifice 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,15:31 it says if you're willing to sacrifice something special, he will bless you, listen to this, not with health, not with good kids, not with with prosperity.15:45 So here you have Manasseh even sacrificing his own children to Molech. Could you get any15:57 worse? 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 a16:09 little bit about the new 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 see16:21 repentance here. 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's16:32 gonna be the same place where Jerusalem will dump its trash. So you 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.16:44 So fast forward 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 about16:55 Gehenna which 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.17:07 Because 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 and 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 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. Man, my prayer is, God, don't ever let me be like that. Then 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.18:09 He also sought guidance from the wrong people. We talked about this, psychic hotlines, look at it verse 6. He practiced divination and witchcraft and sought omens and consulted mediums and spiritists. In other words, he18:20 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. He18:29 did much evil, that word much evil ain't 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 multiplication18:41 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 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 priest 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's19:41 looking 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 of19:53 all of this evil, is just like a patient father longing for Manasseh, that prodigal king to turn and come back. And he20:04 doesn't. And God gets angry. But that wasn't the only thing and this is kind of the whole whole theme of this entire series. That wasn't the only thing that Manasseh did or the worst thing they20:16 did. Notice next, Manasseh led other people to commit sins. See see it's 1 thing to journey off in your own disobedience,20:29 to commit your own sins. 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 has20:40 been what happens at the top trickles down to the bottom. The policies made at the top trickled down to the bottom. You say where do you see this?20:52 Pick it up in verse 9, let's just read it. Says in verse 9, but Manasseh led, there it is, he led. Manasseh didn't just commit all these sins. He actually led Judah and the people of21:04 Jerusalem astray, he led them astray. Now as he was going astray, I want you to 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. But21:15 but here's what you know, As he began to lead the children of Israel away from the Lord, yeah he had a lot of spiritists and uh-uh and psychics and and Baal worshiping priests and21:27 like let's go let's go let's go. But he did have a lot of prophets of God who said no, we 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 against21:39 some of the wrong, you're gonna get canceled, right? How many of you know that? Let me tell you what, in Manasseh's day, cancel equaled killed. So there were21:51 many prophets that went up to Manasseh and said listen, you ought not to be going this way, here's what God's word says, zoop. They were gone. So what Manasseh did, he killed22:02 anybody that was in opposition to his policy to lead the 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 the22:14 world, man. You take some of the communist countries, someone rises to power, and people begin to to basically say we don't want to go that direction, what happens? They're eliminated. That's exactly22:30 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? That's right. 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 will 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,24:19 a king that starts good, has a blip in 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, all24:54 the children of Israel, to experience the consequences of sin. See part of God's mercy is to allow us to experience25:08 repent? Because I I don't know about you, I remember growing up in student ministry, student camp or something, you'd have a speaker that come in and maybe you've heard that had this experience before. They'll say sin's25:17 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.25:54 Here 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 will send another prophet. So it says the Lord spoke26:15 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 the commanders of26:26 the Assyrians. There's the consequences. Who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him all to Babylon.26:40 God had warned him, warned him, warned him, warned him. God warned him and the children of Israel with prophets. They paid no attention, God gave a lot of time for26:52 repentance. Interestingly enough, if you go read this passage, there are a couple of metaphors used here. God even talks about the soldiers coming like a band where the cymbals are marching, that27:04 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 another 1 in there, you can go read it in second Kings chapter27:16 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? God says this dish has been dirty27:28 enough. Anybody ever gone away and maybe your teenage kids were there and you've gone away with your wife or your husband for the weekend and you say hey keep the house clean and you walk in, anybody ever walked in like27:38 like we have? And and Gina's kids have left dirty dishes in the sink. Right? And you walk in and you start screaming at the kids or whatever and eventually you're just, I gotta clean this up. God27:50 says, the dishes have been dirty long enough. It is time for me to clean this place up. And so God begins to judge him. He says, alright you're gonna go away. He puts a hook in his nose,28:02 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 cries out to God for forgiveness. Oh, so now you're gonna cry out for forgiveness. See and28:14 that's a lesson for all of us. Man, don't wait until you're in a prison of your own doing and Satan's got a hook in your nose28:26 and you're in a distant place in a distant land before you turn and cry out to God. However, the story of Manasseh is still this, is Satan does have a28:38 hook in your nose and you are in the wrong place and you've gone too far. Do exactly what Manasseh did, turn now and cry out for God's forgiveness. Pick it up verse28:50 12, in his distress Manasseh sought God's favor. You you almost kind of think, if there was anybody that shouldn't be seeking God's favor, it's Manasseh. How many of you know what I'm talking about? But he29:02 does. He cries out to God, asks for God's favor. What right does he have? None like us. Of the Lord his God and notice this, he humbled himself greatly29:14 before the Lord. It has been said of religion that religion is a Christianity is a religion of personal pronouns.29:26 Personal pronouns, it's not about they. It's about me. Notice it says Manasseh prayed to his god.29:38 Manasseh cried out to his god. Manasseh humbled himself. See, I can't force you to cry out.29:51 I can't force you to make God your God. But when you know Him, cry out to Him regardless of how difficult and hard it is. Man, Manasseh had rejected God, listen30:03 to this, in the palace, but he found God in prison. And and maybe as where some of you are today, that you're30:15 in a space, you're rejecting God in your palace, in your prosperity. You're rejecting God in the midst of the blessings that he gives you.30:28 Child of God, don't wait until you're in a prison to cry out to him. But but Manasseh is a great example of rejecting God in the palace, but finding him in prison. But I want you to know if you find30:39 God in prison, he's not going to leave you there. Everybody say amen. Because that's what we're gonna see. Notice what happens, it's never too late. God was moved to restore Manasseh. Manasseh had worked30:51 all of his life to make God mad, to lead others away from God, and all of a sudden God's moved? You say where do you see that? Look at verse 13. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved31:03 by his entreaty and listened to his plea. My guess is, 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're31:15 praying. So now you want my help. But can I tell you some good news? I'm not God. God is. So when Manasseh begins to31:27 bow his knees and humble himself and cry out to his God, God doesn't say I don't think so. He goes that's 1 of mine. And he's praying, he's31:39 crying out, he's humbled himself. Yes, he didn't listen to me in the palace, but he's looking for me 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're31:49 looking in the prison. Notice what it says, it says the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea, so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom, put him back in the palace.32:00 Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. Now notice the process, Manasseh prays, God is moved, he cries out, God restores, brings him back. This whole32:12 process has been painful, but it's productive. And so maybe there's some of you in person or online, you're going through a painful season in your life. Can I tell you? Walk with God through those painful seasons because32:24 it will be productive and God will restore you. And here's number 4, Manasseh proved his genuine repentance by his actions. I think we've all known and we've seen and we've looked around, there have been times32:36 and seasons where someone has just gone astray, they've been a prodigal, they've walked away, and they ask for forgiveness, but then all of a sudden they're doing the same thing over and over again. Right?32:48 You say, well they said they've repented, but have they? How can you determine, we don't ever need to be these people that were always looking to inspect the repentance of someone else, but it will also tell you that32:59 Jesus says you will know them by their fruit. So listen, what happens in Manasseh, you would think man, well of course he's going to cry out to God, he's now in prison, he's no longer in the palace. Surely he wants God33:11 now, but what's gonna happen? God restores him, puts him back in the palace. How do we know that it was a real repentance and a genuine renewal and restoration in Manasseh's Ark? How do you know? 133:22 way, the actions. Notice what he does when God reinstalls him. Pick it up in verse 14, Afterwards, so God's put him back in the palace, he's no longer in prison. Afterwards, what33:34 did Manasseh do? Notice the verbs. The verbs that follow repentance are always real and they're always active and they're always action. So notice, afterward he rebuilt, there's 1,33:46 the outer wall of the city of David, west of Gihon, the spring valley. And then notice what? He also made, there's another 1, made it much higher. So not only did he rebuild the wall, he made it higher, he made it33:57 bigger. Look at verse 15, he got rid of the foreign gods, so he's removing things, those are actions. He removed the images from the temple of the lord, he went into the inner place and the outer place, said get these34:08 things out of here. When people come to the temple, they're gonna worship the 1 true god. And he goes man, I put them up and now I'm telling you to take them down. Now notice what it says, and he threw them out of the34:19 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? He took them out and threw them outside of the city. He said, I am sorry I confessed my sin. 1 good34:31 thing, all he did is he cried out to God. But then it was followed with a bunch of actions, continue reading. He threw them outside. Look at verse 16, then he restored, notice all the verbs, he34:42 restored the altar of the lord and he sacrificed fellowship offerings, thank offerings on him, and Jud and he told Judah to serve the lord. Now notice this, remember Judah and34:54 Jerusalem he had led astray? Now with a repentant and humble and gracious heart, he's gone from the prison back to the palace and he's now looking at the people and says, listen, for 5535:06 years, I led you to walk away from God. Now I'm encouraging you and challenging you to walk back towards God. And my guess is, he served35:18 for 55 years as king. There were a lot of people that the only king they had ever known was Manasseh. And the only thing they had ever known was evil. And35:30 they probably looked at Manasseh and said, can God take me back? And Manasseh would say, it only takes 1 good35:42 thing. I want to invite you to bow your heads there where you are. Do you know someone that's been running from God for a long, long time? If you do, I want to encourage you to pray for that 1 good thing. Maybe35:54 you're 1 of those people in person or online, that you've been running from God for a long, long time, you're no longer in your palace, you're in your prison. Can I encourage you to do 1 good thing, just to36:05 humble yourself and cry out to your God and ask for grace? God, thank you so much for the testimony of scripture that reminds us that there are some good kings36:17 and some bad kings. But regardless of how far we've gone, all it takes is 1 good thing. God, if there's a person here today that's never trusted Jesus Christ as savior and lord, let that36:29 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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