This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and this is day five or week four of our look through the
book of Isaiah. We're going to look at chapters 38 and 39. It's a story about
Hezekiah's illness, what happened to him when he got some bad news.

This is probably personal to you, it's personal to me as I think about the life
that we walk through and the struggles that we have. There's in all of our
lives, in many weeks, some bad news that we have to face. So how do you handle
it?

We talk a lot about good news at church and we should, but what do you do when
the news is bad in your personal life? I was sitting this week with someone who
just heard some bad news and they asked, how do you handle something like this?
What do you do?

Hezekiah gives us some examples of what to do. He gives us the way, he shows us
the way, what to do when the news is bad. In chapter 38, Hezekiah gets some bad
news, in fact the worst.

38 verse 1, "In those days Hezekiah became ill and he was at the point of death.
The prophet Isaiah of Amoz went to him and said, 'This is what the Lord says,
put your house in order, because you're going to die, you will not recover. '"
That's bad news.

What do you do when you get bad news? Well, in this chapter, Hezekiah teaches us
six things to do. Now that's a lot in one devotion, but we're just going to
touch base on these just to get your mind starting to think about it.

What do you do when the news is bad? Number one, you take inventory. Verses 2
and 3, "Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord,
'Remember Lord, how I've walked with you faithfully and with wholehearted
devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.

'" Hezekiah took inventory of his relationship with the Lord. The bad news
encouraged a fresh look at the priorities of life. That's the first thing you
do.

Taking inventory recognizes that maybe God wants to use this bad news to
encourage me to recommit myself to the good news. Taking inventory doesn't mean
you have to point out every past mistake that you've made. It can mean pointing
to the good choices that you've made.

Hezekiah does this here. I've been faithful. I've had wholehearted devotion.

It's a reminder of where your hope is. That's the first thing you do. Second
thing you do is you express your emotions.

Isaiah 38 verse 3, "And Hezekiah wept bitterly. " Here's a king who's not afraid
to express his hurt when the bad news came. How should a Christian react
emotionally when the news is bad?

A popular strain of belief goes that if you trust the Lord, nothing's going to
really upset you. You'll just smile your way through all your problems. You'll
sing your way through any tragedy.

You'll laugh your way through all your sorrows. The Bible commands us to weep
with those who weep. What does that mean if you can't weep when the news is bad?

The appropriate emotion for the appropriate circumstance is in the will of God.
Emotions are a natural reaction to the circumstances of life. And the proper
reaction for God's people is to express, not suppress, your God-given emotions.

So you express your emotions. It's just that you don't stop there. You then do
the third thing.

You focus on God's care for you. Verses 4 to 6, "Then the word of the Lord came
to Isaiah. " Go and tell Hezekiah.

This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says, "I have heard your
prayer and seen your tears. " God sees your tears. God is a personal God and He
personally cares about the hurt that you're facing.

He personally hears every word of your prayer. He hears your prayers personally.
He sees your tears personally.

He heals your hurts personally. So the third thing you do is you recognize God
cares. God cares for what I'm going through.

And then number 4, as you're walking through this day of bad news, you listen
for God's promise. You are not at the mercy of fate. You are not a victim of
circumstance.

Your life is not a matter of probabilities. Your life is in the hands of God.
Once you listen for God's promises in your life.

In verse 4, "Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah. " Go and tell Hezekiah.
This is what the Lord, the God of your father David says, "I've heard your
prayer.

I've seen your tears. I will add 15 years to your life and I will deliver you in
this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

" In Hezekiah's case, the promise meant extra years of life, 15 extra years.
What is God's promise in your life? If you're facing a physical illness as
Hezekiah was, whether you're healed physically or not, that's in God's hands.

And you're in God's hands, whether you're healed or not. You are in God's hands
no matter what. Nothing can take you out of His hands as a child of God.

One day His care is going to result in the perfection of heaven for you. So you
look to God's promise that extends through this life and all the way into
eternity. That's what you hold on to on a day when you hear some bad news.

The fifth thing you do is you look for assurance. You look for the assurance
that God wants to give of His promise. Isaiah 38 verses 7 and 8, "This is the
Lord's sign to you that the Lord will do as He has promised.

I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on
the stairway of Ahaz. " So the sun went back the ten steps it had gone down. Now
this is a strange story.

Time seems to move backwards as the shadow that had been coming down the stairs
as the sun was setting starts to retreat back up the stairs like the sun was
rising all of a sudden. But that's the sign that God gave as an assurance for
Hezekiah that there would be a future. Now praise God that you and I have an
assurance that's more solid than a shadow.

Throughout the Bible you find people using the strangest methods to be sure of
God's presence, God's direction in difficult times. They used fleeces, they cast
lots, they made deals with God, they watched staffs turn into serpents, they're
always looking for signs. All of that changed on the day of Pentecost.

Our assurance is not in the shadow on the stairs, it's in the indwelling Spirit
of God in our hearts. We enjoy what men like Hezekiah longed for, that God's
Spirit can give an assurance of His promise. So the way that you look for the
assurance is you say, "Spirit, would you give into my heart a confidence that
this promise is from God?

" And He will do that, He will answer that prayer. You look for assurance. And
then as we quickly walk through these things, you do a sixth thing.

You don't become overconfident, you don't become self-confident. Verse 2 of
chapter 39, "Hezekiah received the envoys gladly," this is after he's gotten his
healing, "some envoys come from another nation, and he showed them what was in
his storehouses, the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil, his
entire armory and everything that was found in the treasures. There was nothing
in his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah didn't show them.

Then down in verse 5, "Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Hear the word of the Lord
Almighty. The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that
your predecessors have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon.
Nothing will be left,' says the Lord.

" So he has these envoys from Babylon come in, and he's so confident, "God's
given me fifteen years, He's promised me victory. " He shows them everything,
all the riches and everything that they have for battle. And Isaiah says, "You
need to realize one day you're going to be defeated by these people.

You become self-confident, overconfident, and his self-confidence, he opens the
door to the enemy that someday is going to defeat Israel. " And the same thing
happens in my life, you see it happen in your life. God begins to give victory
in your life.

God begins to give assurance in your life, even in the midst of the bad news.
And you begin to become confident in yourself. And all of a sudden, you're
living in depression again.

And it's come out of the fact that you're relying on yourself again, rather than
relying on him. Now Hezekiah's response to what's going to happen in the future
here is very surprising. Isaiah tells them this is going to come someday, not in
your day, but someday.

In verse 8, "The word of the Lord you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replies,
"for he thought there will be peace and security in my lifetime. " Hezekiah, all
he really cares about is, "Well, I'm king, it's going to be okay. I mean, we'll
be defeated later, but my kingdom is going to be great.

" In his self-confidence, he is focused only on himself. And when you get
focused only on yourself, that is a kind of self-confidence that can defeat you
when the bad news comes. Now, you've got to focus on what God's doing in other
people's lives.

You've got to focus on the message that God's giving you for other people's
lives, even through this. You've got to focus on the promise that God's working
out for you, but also for others. You've got to see beyond yourself, and you've
got to see beyond your time.

And that defeats this enemy of self-confidence that can be so dangerous in a
time of hurt in our lives. So, what do you do when the bad news comes? Now,
you've had bad news recently, how are you handling it?

First, don't forget to take inventory, your trust in the Lord. Don't be afraid
to express your emotions. Don't forget that God is personal, He cares about your
hurt.

Don't forget to rely on God's promise, because that's where your future lies.
Don't forget to look for the Spirit's assurance, and don't become confident in
yourself. Let's pray together.

Father, I wish that bad news never would come. But it does in this world. We're
not in heaven yet.

When the bad news comes, help us to remember to look to you, to do these six
things, to trust in you. Whether it takes a day, or a month, or many months,
help us to walk through the process of trusting in you, because you have, in the
end, good news of your great love for us. That's what we look forward to.

So in that, we pray for a sense of confidence and strength from you. We ask for
it in Jesus' name, Amen. Well join us next week, we're going to turn the page to
Isaiah chapter 40, we're going to turn the page and begin to look at God's
vision for comfort in your life, a different kind of comfort than you've ever
experienced.