July 18th Church Notes

"Your present praise, is for ur future prayer"

... Sometimes your praise today will be stored up for a prayer that u might have next year... You gotta praise God in advance. 2 Kings 20 speaks of Hezekiah when God told Hezekiah to get his house in order bc soon he will soon die. Hezekiah then while on his death bed he cried and prayed to God. God listened and told him that he will extend his life for 15 years... Just bc of the praise in his heart. We need to always have a praise inside. God will always see and acknowledge a pure heart. When praise is real, it'll show up in your life. Praise should be some strong in our heart where it will come out of our mouths and come out thru our actions. To bring the background of this story, 2 Chronicles, speaks on the beginnings of Hezekiah, he began his reign when he was 25 (God is looking from praisers at any age, God will not wait for you to be old to use you) and in the first year of his reign opened up the church. He noticed that Judah had lost its praise, so his first duty was to clean out the wicked in the city and bring the city back to church and praise God the way that it should be. Before God can work inside of you, you first have to let go of the wicked inside of you. God will not operate in disorder. God needs to feel welcome to be able to work in something. Hezekiah was praising God with his actions, not just praising with his lips. Verse 20 states after he take out the wicked, he brings offerings to God. When u take something out, you have to fill it back with something. So he took out wicked and brought an offering. He worshipped God and was showing his praise with the sacrifices on the alter. Chapter 30 states in his 2nd month of reign, he brought back the Passover. Passover is a time of reflection and redemption. Not only did he want to bring the Word, but he also wanted to remind us of what alllll God has done and redeem their souls. Once again, showing praise thru actions. Later in the scripture Hezekiah brought back tithes to the church. Tithes aren't about money, its about obedience. You are to give back to God the blessings that He has already bestowed on us. So with all of this that happened we go back to 2 Kings 20 and Isaiah the prophet comes to Hezekiah while he was on his death bed and he told hezekiah that he need to get his house in order bc he will soon die. Then Hezekiah, turned to the wall to pray and said, "Remember when I walked with a pure heart, remember how I cleaned out the church, remember what I've done". What Hezekiah did was praised God thru his life to help with his future prayer. He didn't just take Isaiah word, he went to God for a "Second Opinion". After Isaiah left, he got a word from the Lord that told him to tell Hezekiah that God has heard your cry, go to church in 3 days and He increase his life by 15 years(sometimes your healing will come when you come to church, some times Gods work needs to be done in the church, God wants ur presence, so u can call His name, He wants u in His house so that He can bless you). God wants to increase our life, just bc ur not on ur sick bed, doesn't mean u are close to death, God wants u to come to His house, be obedient and call His name, and He will remember you.
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