Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello. We are tearing down VBS and we are coming back up to Prosper. We got church tomorrow morning. It's gonna be, it's crazy. It's been a busy week, I'm sure. Y'all, y'all are tired. You've earned some rest. You've earned some. We hope you take it. Yeah. We also need you at please show up tomorrow. Yeah, please show up. Please be there. Yeah. No, it's it's, this is our big last event, our big last push. And we've got revival kicking off though this next week. That's right. And so at Latham Springs. Yeah. It's gonna be fire. So give us an understanding. What are some ways you've led plenty of revivals back in California and then last year you were out there? It's a, it is a different era this year 'cause Lewis is spearheading this, Lewis is the man, so he's gonna be spearheading the team and he's done a great job so far. You say so far? Yeah, I'd leave room for potential. Yeah. Areas of necessary input. Yeah, let's put it that way. Put it nicely. Yeah, for sure. It's been doing a great job. Good. But you were gonna say probably ways to pray. Ways to pray. Yeah. I'm guessing that's where you were going. Yep. Man, there are so many things, details and plans that go into something like this, and thankfully part of the burden has been alleviated because we're still partnering with our sister, church Compass, Bible Church, new Braunfels, they're in the Hill country. Some people have asked if they've been affected by the floods and I thank God that is, it is the case that they have not been affected. They've been protected because of where they are geographically. There's a place where the water would hit and move away from them before it would actually enter their area. So thank God for that. I did ask, we did follow up with them, but we are planning to do this camp together. And so Pastor Evan and Pastor Caleb, their newest student pastor. I'm not sure what else he's doing, but Caleb is his name. Pastor Caleb will be working with us and allowing us to attend their camp. They're largely spearheading most of it, so ways that you can pray. Number one, this is one of the most important weeks of the year for us because of how spiritually impactful it can be. We don't take that for granted, though we know that there's a million distractions that could always take place and steal their minds away from something. Productive. So please pray that it is spiritually effective. Pray for the preaching. They're gonna hear four sermons that are gonna be well prepared in advance with the intention that they provoke a life change. And so we need you to pray that the Lord would make them effective unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it labor in vain. Psalm 1 27. Unless the Lord. Empowers the sermon by his spirit. The preacher preaches in vain. I believe the same principles at work here. So please pray for that big part of it. It's huge. And we desperately rely on your prayers. We need God to operate. We need God to work and we know we can't do without. Number two, there's always issues of physical safety. Part of what makes games really fun is that they're dangerous. Yep. They're not so dangerous that we're being reckless, but there's always a chance that you could get hurt in some way. So please pray that our students would get. Protected. Would we be protected and would avoid any major physical injuries? I remember we had a couple really gnarly dudes, dude, when I was on games for one year for revival back in California. That's when the kid broke his femur. Oh yeah, femur, yeah. Ryan. Yeah. And then Luke, I think it was Luke Larco. Luke Larco got a concussion because his head broke his femur. His head was so strong. Talk about hardheaded. Yeah. That was only one year. Thankfully that doesn't happen all the time, but there's always a chance that something like that could happen. Yeah. So please pray for their physical safety. Number three, there's always something about. The food you never know what's gonna happen. There was one year where I think it wasn't under my administration not that it couldn't have happened, they were serving burritos and I guess there was something in the burritos that really did a number on people. It might be something like after eating Taco Bell. Yeah. Yeah. One of those things. I'll leave it. To your imagination, but so please pray that the food would be good to the people and that it, the hands that prepare it are clean and that all the environment is well kept and well provided so that they're able to be energetic and get good rest and have good attention during the services themselves. So there's a million things. I've only given you three big categories, but if you just thought about it for more than a few seconds, you'd be able to say, oh, but that needs, that means this needs to happen. Well-rested leaders and lots of caffeine flowing for those leaders and times of recovery and sleeping in bunkhouses, that could be problematic because. Some people don't like to sleep. I'm looking at you, junior hires, and sometimes they come up with a 12 pack, a 48 pack of soda and chewy gummies and all sorts of snacks. Thank you parents for sending those snacks up to 'em. And then they're up all night. Yep. And they're giggling and laughing and all those things. So anyway, there's so many things that are fun and exciting and good. Please pray that it goes well and that God does a great work in the lives of these students. Yeah and I, the only addition to that, just based on how powerful and impactful I know this week has been back in, in California as well, and maybe it's different here, but there's a lot of testimonies that begin at revival. Oh yeah. And be praying for those that may be right there on the precipice of. Putting their faith and trust in, in Christ with their Lord and Savior. We're not about, harvesting big salvation numbers. We're not doing massive altar calls during this time, but it's significant. And and so be praying for those that God might choose, that this is the week that he's gonna change their eternity, that they'd be ready for that. Yeah. And it happens a lot by God's grace that has been our past and we hope that's our future. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Let's jump into Second King's 18. By the way. Maybe you're wondering, hey, is there anything we can do to help with what's going on down in New Braunfels? And I did reach out to Pastor Evan and Pastor Hayden down there. They sent a whole truck of supplies on to alleviate some of the needs of those that were impacted by the flood. And he told me, Hey, if we're gonna do this again, we'll let you guys know and you guys can partner with us in that. So as of right now, there's not really anything that we need to do other than be. Continuing to pray. There are still families missing their kids right now, I cannot imagine. Yeah, just the immense heartache that they're going through right now. So be praying. Praying for comfort, praying for the churches down there that are ministering to these families. But if there's any tangible needs that come up, we will certainly let you guys know on that. Second Kings 18, and then we're gonna be over in Second Chronicles, and then I think in the Psalm 48 again. Yeah. So Second Kings 18 is about Hezekiah. Hezekiah is the son of Ahaz, and Hezekiah does what is right in the eyes of the Lord in a big way. Notice in verse four, he even removes the high places so many of the other kings said he did what was right. But he didn't remove the high places as the guy is going full bore. And so he's taking those down and he's really gonna be a guy that, that does a lot of good for Israel. And yet in chapter 18, he's going to have to deal with the Assyrians. And the reason he's gonna have to deal with the Assyrians is because of his knucklehead dad. Ahaz was a king that did not rule well, was not a king that did right in the eyes of the Lord. And as a result, he had put Israel and Judah specifically. In a position of being subject to the Assyrians and having to pay them basically protection money if you wanna put it that way. And so Hezekiah comes on the scene and says, we're not doing that anymore. This is where we get all the way down to 7 0 1 and this is the besieging of Judah under Rab. And Sins gonna come and basically through his messenger, say, who do you think you are, Judah, that you're gonna be able to withstand Assyria? No God has ever delivered his people from Assyria. You think your god's gonna be able to do this? Who are you kidding? And this goes on and on and there's really not a lot of resolution for this in chapter 18. In our reading today, we're gonna see the resolution of it eventually in chapter 19. But in today, what's notable is that though the Rap Shaka comes out and. Rips into the gout of Israel and into the king. To Hezekiah says your king is deceiving you. I find it fascinating that it says this in verse 26, but the or verse 36, it says, but the people were silent and it answered him not a word for the king's command was, do not answer him. That is such a small thing that we might overlook, but that shows you the type of leader that Hezekiah was. That though this. Foreign army that had surrounded the city and things were going really bad for Judah though. They were standing there taunting them, saying, we're going to destroy you and wipe you out. Still here. Hezekiah has such an influence on his people, that the people don't even, they don't fear, they don't panic, they don't respond. They don't say, oh no, you're right. What should we do? They obey the king because that was the influence the king had. Yeah. Hezekiah's legacy is pretty remarkable. He's one of the few people in scripture that has the appendage to his name, all that he did all that was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father David had done. Yeah. So when it comes to the line of Davidic Kings, David is always the preeminent one. He's the one who is the standard for the rest, the way that Jarone functions and the northern kingdom on the bad side. Yeah. David is the corresponding. Virtuous King of the Southern Kingdom. And here you have Hezekiah who does remarkably well. In fact, that's the way that Second Chronicles 29 begins. Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Verse two, according to all that his father David had done. So this guy is head and shoulders above the rest in so many ways. I think the only other king that gets that designation Asa but Hezeki has a lot more ink here and you get to see some of the things that he and. In instituted as a result of his commitment and faithfulness to the Lord. And by the way, because of this righteousness, it is Hezekiah that God used to preserve the kingdom of Judah until 5 86. Yeah. Ju Hezekiah's life and leadership came at a critical time. If it was anyone besides Hezekiah. I think the Southern Kingdom would've been taken by Assyria in the same way that the Northern Kingdom was. As we jump over to Second Chronicles chapter 29, remember the book of Chronicles is only dealing with the Southern kingdom, so we're gonna get more information on a lot of the kings in Chronicles than we do in the book of First and Second Kings. 'cause you're dealing with both sides here. So the second Chronicles 29, the author dives into a little bit more detail about some of the things that has. Did, and a lot of that had to do with the temple because of Ahaz his father had, and the idolatry that had crept in and the the defilement of the temple that we talked about recently. Hezekiah was left with a temple that really was not fit to worship the Lord. And so Hezekiah ordered that the temple should be cleansed and he had the priests cleanse themselves and he had them go into cleanse it of the idols and the filth that it accumulated there under the reign of his. Of his father. He even had the utensils and the vessels remade and or reconsecrated, depending on what the needed to be done, to be ready for service. And then he had the priests prepare themselves to resume their own proper roles there. So Hezekiah understood that the temple needed attention because it lay in disrepair and we're even gonna be talking about. The significance of the temple. Tomorrow in at church, we're gonna talk about what was the big deal about this. And I think it's appropriate here too, to point out that this was about Israel's relationship with God. That without the temple and without the temple order restored, the main relationship of between God and his people was interrupted. And this was not a situation where God was gonna accept the worship from a defiled temple. And so Hezekiah went about cleansing it, not just because of spring cleaning. Or even because, hey, we need to get idols out, but because we need to do this to resume that right relationship with God. Amen. And part of that right relationship is in verse 25, he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with symbols, harps and liars among some of the first acts of his administration. And cleansing the temple is to install the musicians once more to resume the worship of God. And he says here it was according to the commandment of David and of Gad, the king seer, and of Nathan, the prophet, four, the commandment was from the Lord. Through his prophets. In other words, even though David is usually the guy who is understood to be the spearhead for installing worship in the temple, this was God's plan. God wanted his people to sing to him, and this is why Hezekiah is held in high regard because he does this. He facilitates the people returning to him in their singing. You're about to go to church soon and you're gonna do the same thing you're joining with the Saints of Old to sing to the Lord. It's right, it's good. This is what God desires and that's why we still do it today in the church. Hey, here's a curve ball for you. Some people may know that there are. Maybe their family members, somebody else, friends that are part of Church of Christ, and they argue that the precedent for worship should be simply the instruments of our voices, that we shouldn't have any instruments in church. And they would even go so far as you don't see any biblical command that you need to have instruments in the church. And it's wrong to have the guitars. It's wrong to have the drums. It's wrong to have the pianos out there. So a bit obscure, maybe you haven't heard that argument, but it, there's universities out there that are. Church of Christ Uni Pepperdine University was Church of Christ. Is that right? I didn't know that. Yeah. I thought they were always Catholic. Wow. Yeah, they were Church of Christ. And there's others out there as well. So talk to the person that says why is it okay that we have guitars and pianos and things? Is there a parallel that we can see here with the command to use these instruments? That we can pull over to the church, even though this isn't the church per se. Yeah. The issue at hand is the distinction between the regulative and the normative. The question is whether scripture regulates or norms, does scripture regulate our worship expression by saying, you must use these instruments, or you must approach God in these precise ways? Or does it norm our worship in saying this is how it should function? Do you see the difference? The Regulat says it must be done in these precise ways. Versus normative tells us this is the way it's supposed to work. One gives you a lot more freedom to approach God, and the other says, no, it's gotta be in these particular ways. Let me just start by saying there's good arguments on both sides, and there's Godly people who believe that the regulative principle governs the way that they approach God. In fact, some churches will only sing Psalms to God. Yeah. They will only use Psalms. No, Phil Wickham, no. No Gettys, none of that. They only use the Psalms themselves. The Psalms proper. That is the book of Psalms, and for some of them, they'll only sing acapella because they don't believe that it's helpful to bring in instrumentation. They wanna hear the voices of God's people. On and on it goes. Now, obviously if you go to our church, you know that we fall under, not the regulative, but the normative principle, which is to say that God establishes the pattern for worship that he loves and accepts. And that pattern for us is adapted to our cultural context. So in our case, we don't use liars and harps. We use guitars and basses and drums and things like that. There's a lot of similarity more than there are differences, but we think that God allows for this because you see the expression of worship all throughout scripture. And we see God appealing to his people according to their specific context. Even think about this, when we talk about the future of God's rulership and rain, we talk about gates. You talked about this on the last podcast. Gates does God's kingdom of gates. What kind of gates are we talking about? Are we talking about electric fences where the gates open because you hit a button and they open from side to side or they gates that someone has to actually use, like in the first century where there's a lock that they build, they, ropes and they, there's some iron bars. Often we look at scripture and we say, God is speaking to us in our language, at our level, almost like he's using baby talk. And so our job is to take what Scripture says and then to apply it to our specific context. And we believe that God allows for us to have freedom in our expression in so far as it does not violate scripture in so far as we're not doing things that would actively dishonor God. So for instance, if we're in the heart of Africa, we might use. Different kinds of drums and flutes and instruments that we may not use in our current Western context. If we are in one of the Asian countries, we might use an entirely different set of instrumentation because it's a way to express God's glory. So here's what I mean by that. When we go to heaven, every tribe, tongue, and nation is gonna be represented, giving glory to God, and I bet our instrumentation and our approach to God in our worship is not going to just be our voices. I think God is glorified through the multiplicity of instrumentation that's used to bring glory to his name. And I think that's an expression of God's character. God himself is a varied God. Think about when you go outside, different flowers and different trees and different different kinds of grasses. Even. I found out I was trying to fix my grass recently, and I found out there's seven different types of grass you can plant in your yards here in North Texas. I have always, I've always understood, there's only been like a couple in my mind that I could even count off. God is a God of variety and variety speaks to his beauty and that beauty is best represented in our worship. And so that's why briefly we will subscribe to the. Normative principle as opposed to the regulatory. But there's arguments on both sides. We're not mad at you if you believe in the regulatory principle, but we're probably not gonna go to the same church. And that's okay. Yeah. And that's, this is a second tier issue. Maybe even third tier issue. This is not one the problem comes when somebody tries to take what their church does and apply it and say, this is the only way you have to do it this way. That's what you're saying. If you're unfaithful. If you don't do it the way I think you should do it. Yeah. And we have to be super careful about that, that there's very few things that we, as Christians can say, you're out of bounds. If you don't do things this way, and there are some, but very few things on that front. Chapter 30 as part of this reformation that has the kind of institutes here, he's in the rest of chapter 29. They're sacrificing, there's parallels even to the Day of Atonement. It's almost like he's saying, let's do all of the big feast to all the same time here. Let's do all of these things. And because it had been so long, I appreciate his el. Yeah chapter 30, he says, we need to do the Passover too. And you were even talking about God's God's permission and even flexibility here because. It they're not able to observe the Passover at the date and time that they were supposed to according to the law. Why? Because the priests weren't ready yet. They hadn't consecrated themselves yet. And so as AKI declares, let's still do it, but we're just gonna do it on a different day. And that's what they do. And this is such a win for the people that it says that there was never, that the amount of joy that was present there, there was no passer that had been celebrated like this since. The time of David that this was the ultimate for the people. And that's even gonna be surpassed later on again, as we're gonna see here. But for now, this was a banner day for the people of Israel. This was the feast. This was the pinnacle of their religious observances because it remembered. God's faithfulness to bring them out of exile in Egypt. And you gotta think that's something that was so significant for them that was only really gonna be sur surpassed later on after the people returned from exile again, this time, not in Egypt, but in Babylon. We're not to Babylon yet but Hesi does really well here in chapter 30 with this remembering the Passover. Yeah. What's really interesting here is that God wants their Passover sacrifices, even though they're not the right way, they're not done in the precise way that he tells 'em they should be doing it. Which is fascinating because under the Old Covenant, God was really precise. He was particular about the way that he wanted them to approach him. But what makes this acceptable is that their hearts are in the right place. Yeah, it is. Almost as if God is saying it is by your faith that you're gonna be right with me. It's almost as if God is highlighting the fact that the, even though the prescription matters how God wants him to worship him, what he really cares about is not their sacrifices but their heart. And that's why, even though it's not the right way, he accepts it. Even though prior to this they would offer sacrifices to God perhaps in the right way, but he didn't accept it. Yeah. Do you see the interesting parallel there? On the one hand, he accepts it. If it's imperfect. On the other hand, he didn't accept it, even though it was quote unquote perfect, perfectly timed, perhaps the perfect animal, but didn't accept it because her heart wasn't there. What God cares about is your heart. Yeah. Yeah. Chapter 31 then hezeki begins to put things in order. And so they had celebrated, they had consecrated, everything was good, but now they needed to be able to sustain this. And so that's what chapter 31 is about, is as Hezekiah begins to reorganize and commission the priest for their regular duties. So along with this, he commands that the people resume their offerings and tithes to support. Of priests and the people respond in such a super abundance that the priest had to make extra storehouses to, to supply the thing. So this is a godly leader has such a great impact on the, his people when they see Hezekiah really take the lead and say, Hey, we're gonna, we're. We're gonna be serious about our relationship with the Lord. The people respond and they respond in a way that, that they are eager for this and longing for this. And you can see that even just in the response that the fact that they have to build storehouses for these offerings that are being brought because the people are so excited to be consecrated once again, back to the Lord, faithfulness of the leader. We'll reflect in the faithfulness of the people. We sometimes will hear this phrase, the, as the leader goes, so goes the people speed of the leader, speed of the people, that kind of thing. And that's true as far as it goes. But I love the idea of saying it's the faithfulness of the leader that really sets the tone and the tempo for the faithfulness of the people. And here you see this act. Acted out through Hezekiah's leadership. This functions all the way down the chain. It's not just the king and his people, it's the father in his people. It's the employer in his people. So keep that in mind. If you have any influence in your family or in your community, recognize that you're setting an example that other people will largely follow. Yeah. Yeah. That a great word. I was thinking of the same thing, especially about dads in the home. Yeah. Psalm 48. Is connected here because it seems like this would've been perhaps one of the songs that was being sung during the dedication of the temple. It's a psalm of celebration. It's a psalm of joy and it fits well in the context of everything else that was happening during Hezekiah's Reign. So this is a psalm that is simply attributed to the Sons of Cora. So we don't have a, an. A specific author or specific man there. But it does include these elements of celebration, like verse 11, let Mount Zion be glad, let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments. And so these 14 verses are verses of a, of people that are excited about what God is doing. And so I think that the editors of this plan said, man. This seems to fit really well here with Hezekiah's reforms. Was this Psalm immediately? Do we know that for sure? No, we don't know that for sure, but it does fit the context. Yeah. Thematically, it's a great fit and then I think it works really well because this is one of the things that Hezekiah, again, focused on. It was his installation, his reinstallation of the musicians and the worship leaders that make him such a remarkable man on top of all these other things. It was the heart, it was the worship, all the, all of it was there. It was the whole package, which is again, why he is. He is compared to David as being one of the few people in terms of the Judean Kings who did all according to his father David had done. Yeah. Yeah. Hezekiah's a good one. And if you're looking for a name for your next kid to be born, your next son, male or female, maybe has Hezekiah, has, he has pj, and then enter your last name there, Roderick Marcus. What's Mark's middle name? I don't know. Probably Tom or something. Mark, what's your middle name? Mark. We don't know. Pastor Mark, what's your middle name? It's Pastor Mark. That's probably what his middle name is. Pastor. And then Mark. And then Mark. That's prophetic for his parents. Yeah. Alright, y'all, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. G, we thank you for lives like Hezeki that we can look at and want to emulate and desire to to model and mimic. And we just pray that you'd raise up more godly men like Hezekiah in our families, in our churches, in our workplaces, that we would find more men willing to lead this way and to say, we are gonna do things the way that God wants us to do things. And that's the end of the story. God, we pray that you would make us a church full of men like this, men that, that lead this way Lord, that we would have. Women that are zealous for you to this degree as well, that, that love you, that want to do things in the right way, to do things in the biblical way as well. God, we wanna be a people saturated with this kind of commitment to you that overflows into a joy. We want our church to be a place that people rejoice in being because they love that we are all about Christ and all about our relationship with you. So we ask that would be true of our church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep reading Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See ya. Bye.

thanks for listening to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about ourChurch@compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review to rate to share this podcast on whatever platform you happen to be listening on, and we will catch you against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.