VIDEO RECORDING OF THIS SERMON
AUDIO RECORDING OF THIS SERMON
In 2 Chr 29:3-5, Hezekiah told the priests and the Levites to sanctify themselves and to sanctify the house of the Lord. He said, “Carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.” In 2 Chr 29:17, “they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify.”
Start on the first day – 2 Chr 29:17 – Hezekiah told the priests and Levites to start and they started right then. They started on the first day of the first month, 2 Chr 29:17, in the first year of his reign, 2 Chr 29:3. When God shows you something that needs to be cleansed out of your life, don’t dilly dally around. Get to it on the first day. I laid Joe West’s hat on top of his Bible at supper one day. He stopped me and said, “Nothing on the Bible, Brother. Nothing on the Bible.” From that day to this I have never forgotten what he said and on the first day I changed my habit.
Keep working on it everyday – 2 Chr 29:17 – “they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days.” They didn’t stop once they got started. They kept at the task until they completely cleansed the temple. I think most people fail to get some stuff out of their lives because they start but they don’t stay with it. They try a day or two and then wait till the next time they hear a sermon on it to try again. You never get the house clean like that. You start and stop and there’s always stuff lying around. It’s like you’re maintaining stuff, rather than just getting rid of it all together. Don’t quit. Don’t give up.
Don’t stop till you finish – 2 Chr 29:17 – “”in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.” In 2 Chr 29:18-19, you see that they had to they also had to clean the altar, the table of shewbread, and their vessels, and they had to prepare and sanctify the vessels that Ahaz cast away and put them before the altar of the Lord. When you clean up your house, you also need to put things in order and get things in there that are good for the Lord.
When a fellow asked Stonewall Jackson how he prayed without ceasing, he replied that he never even took a sip of water without first thanking God for it and he never penned a letter without asking God for direction on his choice of words. And when he sealed the letter he asked the Lord to accomplish with his correspondence that which would help the recipient and glorify God. And on and on through everything he did, said, wrote, drank, ate, thought, planned and so forth, he prayed. Wow, I’ve been working on that for days now trying to get make a change in my prayer life. That’s quite a task. How many times have I caught myself with an almond or a sip of water in my mouth for which I had neglected to pray. You know what I’m doing? I’m trying to finish this job until prayer is habitual in every aspect of my life throughout everyday.
Conclusion: when you see or hear of something that needs to be removed from your life or when you have something that needs to be added to your life, get on it the first day, keep working on it everyday, and don’t stop till you finish.