Set Your House In Order

“Set your house in order, for you shall die.” Isaiah’s words to King Hezekiah are not gentle, and that’s exactly why they’re so needed. We sit with the reality of mortality and ask the question we all dodge: if your time were short, what would you change right now, and what would you leave behind for the people you love?

From there, we get practical about Christian estate planning and biblical stewardship. We talk about why a thoughtful estate plan brings peace, how it provides for family, and how it protects you in later years by clarifying who will make key decisions. But we don’t stop at documents and dollars. We push into the heart issue: God owns everything, and we’re managers, not owners. That changes how we think about money, generosity, charity, and the motives behind building “our own little empires.”

We also explore Hezekiah’s prayer, the contrast between works and grace, and what it means that God can answer prayers even when our motives are mixed. The bigger question hangs over the whole message: what will you do with the time God gives you, and will your life point people to the gospel?

Subscribe for more verse-by-verse teaching, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. What does “set your house in order” mean for you today?

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

God is the owner of everything, and he's entrusted things to you and I, to, to, to be good stewards of what he's given us. Everybody that uh has the ability to multiply here on this earth has been given that ability to go by God. The question is, are we doing it to his glory or are we doing it for our motivation, our selfish motivation?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

The natural ability to build, create, and multiply your resources is a built-in gift, not something you've manufactured on your own. In today's message, Pastor Carl explains how important your motives behind using that God-given ability is. It's incredibly easy to channel that skill and passion into building your own little empires. But the ultimate goal should be to bring glory to God, not yourself. God hands these things to you with the expectation that you will use them for his glory, not your own. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

We'll be in Isaiah today, chapters 38 and 39. So if you turn with us to Isaiah chapter 38, and we'll get right into it. Verse 1 says, In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, went to him and said, Thus says the Lord. Now, he had been telling Hezekiah some words from the Lord that were very encouraging, that the Lord was with him, that the Lord was going to protect him, that the enemy of Assyria was not going to overtake Jerusalem. And Hezekiah, a man of God, who had been one of the greatest kings in Israel's history, who brought about a revival in his land. The Lord used him to bring down the idols from the mountains. Whenever he says, Thus saith the Lord, it was a good message. But right now, thus saith the Lord to Hezekiah, who was sick, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. That was a message to shake him up. Hezekiah, set your house in order because you're going to die. The sickness that you have is leading to death, and your time is about over, so it's time to set your house in order. Now, one of the things that happens when you teach the word of God verse by verse and chapter by chapter, you get into discussions that are good but are very uncomfortable. I cannot go any further than this before we talk about some other things. Because this is the same message for all of us. Set your house in order because you are going to die. Some of you might die sooner than others. I might die sooner than others. I don't know. Any of us could die today. We could be around for another 20 years, 30 years, 40, 50 years. Who knows, except for the Lord. But are you prepared? Are you ready? Is your house set in order? And so I believe the Lord wants to talk to us this morning about setting our house in order. And um after the sermon today, or when you go home later on today, I'm going to post this um this PDF file on our website underneath the sermon when I post it. It's from Crown Financial Ministries, a ministry that I was part of for 12 years. And it's about setting your house in order, a Christian approach to estate planning. And um there, there this and we could spend hours on this, and I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time. Let this be a guide to you in seeking, you know, have we crossed our keys and dotted our eyes for the sake of others? And I'm just going to read to you four things from the introduction to this article. What are the benefits of an estate plan? Because it is beneficial to set your house in order. But why? Sometimes we don't think about it. The first reason why is because it brings peace. An estate plan is designed to help you provide for those you love and to protect both you and your family. And it's not just writing a will after you die. Estate planning is preparing before you even leave this earth so that you will have peace with the remaining years that you have left, and those that are taking care of you will have peace as well. That's one of the goals of an estate plan. Provision, that's the second thing. You have spent most of your lifetime gathering assets and making plans, but many people spend more time planning their vacation than they're planning their estate. With a good estate plan, you can give loved ones the property you have acquired in the right way at the right time at admittable cost. There are good ways, shrewd ways, responsible ways to pass on the things that you have that you have acquired, the physical things that you've acquired here on the earth. Protection is the third area. In addition, a good plan will protect you in your senior years. It may be important to designate a specific person to manage your property, to help doctors and other medical staff with important decisions, and to make certain that you are receiving the best possible care. An estate plan can increase your lifetime security and also achieve your goals for family and charity. These people get these things. Estate planning talks about, all right, what am I going to do from now until the time I die and after the time I die? And how is God glorified in these things? Am I just helping my family or am I here helping charity that continue to increase the kingdom of God? Am I investing in the things that matter for eternity, not just for the here and now? Because it's more than just stuff. It's more than just possessions. It's what your whole life stood for. And what is how are you going to end your life? What are your last years going to look like? And that brings us to the fourth point: a spiritual legacy. A spiritual legacy. First Chronicles 29, 11 and 12 clearly illustrates God's ownership of all. This is how that reads. For all that is in heaven and on earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord. You are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. God is the owner of everything, and he's entrusted things to you and I. To be good stewards of what he's given us. Everybody that has the ability to multiply here on this earth has been given that ability to go by God. The question is, are we doing it to his glory or are we doing it for our motivation, our selfish motivation? An estate plan acknowledges his ownership, equips the next generation of stewards to manage resources well, and ensures that your final act on earth is one of good stewardship. Will you be able to stand before the Lord and have him say, Well done, good and faithful servant? Do you remember what parable that was from? That was from the parable of the talents. What are talents? It's currency, it's money. What have you done with your earthly possessions in order to multiply the kingdom? Have you multiplied those things? And and it's more than that, though, because as stewards, we are let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards over the mysteries of God. Not only are we stewards over the physical possessions that He's given us, but ultimately we're given that responsibility because of the greater stewardship, and that is the stewardship of the mysteries of God. What are the mysteries of God? Basically, it's the revelation of the gospel, that God became a man for sinful man to die in order to pay for sin and eliminate sin and death so that we would have eternal life, that we would have life everlasting, that we would be uh, that we would never die again, that our spiritual state, our new physical bodies resurrected in the future, would be forever and ever. Something as we look at our lesson later on, uh, it's kind of blurry in the Old Testament. It's a mystery. We've been entrusted with this gospel that reveals the mysteries of Christ. What are we doing with it? It is required in stewards that one be found faithful. It's required if we are believers in Jesus Christ, if we've been given this ministry of the mystery of God, which is proclaiming the gospel, what are we doing with our lives in order to do that? And there are many different ways to do that. And so these are the things that uh are covered in in this PDF file that I'll have posted. I pray that you would would would seriously download it, look it over, and prayerfully go over your estate. And again, not just for your physical possessions to pass them on, but okay, Lord, you've entrusted us with all these things. What do you want us to do with them now and in the future? Now, when we're here and when we're not here, what is your purpose for these things that I have? And even taking it a step further again, it's not just the things that you have, but it's the legacy that you leave. Is God glorified in your life? Does your is your life a picture of the gospel? These are things to to think about, to consider. As you set your house in order, because you will die, the mortality rate is still a hundred percent. We're all going to die. But the question is when. And the question is, what are we doing between now and the time the Lord takes us home? These are things we need to ponder. And there's so many other things that I could cover. I mean, that these are practical things, but how about your house itself? Our house is full of boxes. And if Lorreen and I just passed away in an accident one day, the kids would have to go through all our stuff, let alone the estate things and monetary things. What is this? Do I need to keep this? If you have things that are, you know, stacked up for years, go through them yourself. Give things away, throw things away, but set your house in order so that you'll pass on a legacy of God's grace to those that come after you. Amen. All right. Now we're going to get into how Hezekiah dealt with it. So Hezekiah got the word, and in verse 2, Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the Lord and said, Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before you in truth, with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And in a few words, in a few verses, we're going to see he wrote down his thoughts and what he was feeling at this moment. He wept bitterly before the Lord. Now again, I kind of alluded to this fact that we are stewards of this mystery, right, of the gospel. And in the Old Testament, it just wasn't very clear. And in the Old Testament, they realized that the Lord was their salvation, but they also realized that, you know, what I do, because they were under the law, what I do matters. And Hezekiah had this prayer. Remember all the things that I've done. Remember how loyal I was to you. Because I've been loyal to you, please hear my prayer. How do Christians pray, or how ought they to pray? Lord, because of what you've done for me on the cross, because of your grace and your mercy for me, would you please work in my life? Do you see the difference? Because of the good things I've done, please do these things in my life. Or because the fact that I recognize that I am a wretched sinner, and yet you love me so much that you died for me on the cross, and that you offer me these things, I'm asking for these things. That is the grace of God. And that's the paradigm shift. But that is where Hezekiah was. He was a man after God's own heart. He was seeking the Lord. He did mighty things for the Lord. But he missed the idea of God's grace and his mercy. Although it's in there a little bit. Again, in the Old Testament, it was kind of murky. It was a mystery. But we as Christians today have the mystery revealed to us. And it changes our whole perspective on how we look at life in many ways. So Hezekiah, based on what he's done in the past, which was a true statement, he was used by God in mighty ways, and he was faithful. He appealed to the Lord. After that, the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, Go and tell Hezekiah, thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, and surely I will add to your days fifteen years. And on top of that, I will deliver you this deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. Not only will I give you fifteen more years, Hezekiah, but as I promised, I'm going to still, you know, protect this city. But you didn't see God saying, Because you did these things, I did it. God did it out of his grace, out of his mercy. Why was he redeeming the city of Jerusalem? Not because they were seeking after the Lord. They were for a time, but they were they were falling away. And even Hezekiah was getting a little squishy in his faith. But God in his faithfulness, in his grace and mercy, he said, Okay, I'll give you 15 more years. I heard your prayer, I appealed to you. This this means that when we pray, God hears. What if we pray with wrong motives? God still hears, right? And sometimes he'll give us what we pray because we we're crying out with our whole heart and we have an established relationship with him. But sometimes we'll ask for things that are not his best for us. And yet, because we're so stuck on it, we're so focused on it, God will go ahead and give us what we ask for when there's more, something better that he has for us. And I believe we can make a case that this is what Hezekiah has done. God has given him 15 more years. Now, what did Hezekiah do with the remainder of those fifteen years? And then, you know, just to be even more gracious and powerful, and I want you to know that this is the word of the Lord, Hezekiah, that you will trust in me and not in the works that you've done. Trust in me, Hezekiah. This will be the sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do this thing which he has spoken. Behold, I will bring the shadow of the sundial which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, the sun uh sundial that apparently his father had put up. I'm gonna make that sun go back ten degrees backward. That shadow is gonna go back. So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down. I'm gonna turn back the hands of time a little bit, in essence, Hezekiah, to let you know that I've given you a little more time. To let you know it's it's me that controls the length of your life. And just so you would know it, I'm gonna do this miracle. And and I believe the heart of the Lord was so that it would spark something in you, Hezekiah. So once again you would be on fire like you were years ago, but now you're getting a little shaky in your faith, your your focus is is a little bit off. Come on back, Hezekiah. Come on back. And so now we go into Hezekiah's diary. What happened when God gave him that first word? That word that sets your house in order, because today you're gonna die. This is the writing of Hezekiah the king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness, starting out from when he was sick. I said, In the prime of my life I shall go down to the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the remainder of my ears. Can you hear? I mean, I understand it. There's so much work to be done. I'm I'm I'm losing life, but there's almost this sense that it's my life. I'm going down to Sheol. Sheol represents the grave, and as we go on, we'll we'll again see that that unclearness about what happens after the grave in the Old Testament. Uh they knew the Lord would be with me in the grave, but they didn't know what that meant. And so when they look at the physical body, and you see someone who has passed away, that person is doing nothing anymore. That person isn't working, he isn't laughing, he isn't even sinning, he's dead to sin, right? Nor is he praising God. That's what they looked at with death. I mean, it's like the song from John Lennon imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try, you know. Because when you die, you die, you're dead. And that was the mindset a lot in the Old Testament, even Jews today. A lot of Jewish folks that haven't come to faith in Jesus Christ don't really have a clear hope in eternity, in the future. They they see death and they see it as the end. And that's what Hezekiah was saying. My my life is over in the prime of my life. He got this message when he was 39. He had many, many years theoretically to go. But sometimes the Lord says, It's your time. It's time to come home for one reason or another. And then he said, I shall not see Yah in the land of the living. I shall observe no man no more among the inhabitants of the world. The idea was this is the land of the living. This is life. I don't know about you, but when I look at the life that we live here on earth, aside from the Holy Spirit bringing his peace, his joy, his abundant life in our lives, this life is not the life. This life is is difficult. This life is full of turmoil, especially when you look around today. Life is free from sin and death. Life is when you do work and there are no thorns and thorn bushes to get in the way, no weeds. You don't have to fertilize weeds for them to grow. They just grow, right? There's coming a time when we will be with the Lord for eternity if we've put our faith and trust in him, and we will have real life. This is just a shadow, Paul describes it, of what is to come. But Hezekiah, all he could tell is this life, this life was it. No longer will I be in the land of the living. It's obvious. I've seen people die, and there they are. They're dead, they're not living, they're not among us anymore. Do you see that? Picture between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And some of the heart of Hezekiah coming out where he was. It's almost like, oh, woe is me. Now, if God came to you and said, You have one week left to live, how would you respond to that? Would you be, oh, I want to do this and this and this and this and this? Or would you be, oh, I'm ready now, Lord, take me? Or would you be, I've got a lot of people to talk to before I go. Because my God is telling me I'm going home and I want to be faithful and about the Lord's business until He takes me home. There's people that need to hear the gospel. And and we I I hope you've seen examples of people like that in your lives. That there are people that, even on their deathbed, are ministering to others. Their whole concern is about Others that they might know the Lord and grow in the Lord. May that be our heart. May that be our heart. Hezekiah continues on, my lifespan is gone. Taken from me like a shepherd's tent. I have cut off my life like a weaver like a weaver. He cuts me off from the loom. From day until night you make an end of me. This idea that the Lord is is mean. This idea that the Lord is just harsh and rough. Whatever he had must have been very painful because day and night, and he says that twice, you know, from day until night, you make an end of me. It feels like I'm dying right now. Have you ever had a bad flu? And you're just feeling miserable. I mean, I understand where Hezekiah is coming from. And he's just like, oh, just shoot me and get it over with. It'd be so much better than what I'm going through now. Can you relate to that? And I think that's what Hezekiah was going through here. It got so bad, and he's like, Oh, day and night, you're just torturing me, Lord. What are you gonna do? Are you gonna heal me? You're gonna take me home. What is it? What are you gonna do? I have considered until morning like a lion. So he breaks my bones from day until night. You make an end of me. It is difficult at times for us to gain God's perspective on what he's doing in our lives. Sometimes the things that he's doing in our lives hurts us so much. We're like, how can a loving God do these things to me? But so often the things that we go through in our life is a result of the fall. And we miss the fact that the Lord died for the sin of the world. He died to set us free from the curse. And yet, from this moment of justification when we come to faith in Jesus Christ and are made perfect like Jesus, to this place of sanctification where it's fully realized, and we graduate to heaven, we go through this thing we call death from this life to the next, and we're given a new resurrected body, we're given new life, and we've gotten rid of the sin and the death in our life. We have to keep our eyes on that.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

You're listening to Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross as he teaches through the book of Isaiah on today's episode of Come On Up. Isaiah is an important book for us to read in the Old Testament because this is where we read many prophecies about the coming Messiah. While we now know Jesus as our one and true Messiah, the people who originally read Isaiah's prophecies did not know when the promised Savior would arrive. So while the book of Isaiah calls the nation of Israel to repentance, it also inspires its readers to have hope in the coming Messiah who will establish a new heavenly kingdom on earth. Well, if you would like to learn more about what it means to follow this Messiah we know as Jesus, we have some resources online to help get you started. Just visit us at themountaincross.com and head to our How to Know God tab. You can also find a link to our podcast feed in case you want to catch up on past teachings from Pastor Carl. If you'd like to get connected with us in person, we'd love to have you join us here at the Mountain Cross. We meet every Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville, North Carolina. We also host a Faith Film Night on the first Monday of each month. To learn about our next film, visit us online or search for Faith Film Night on Facebook. Thanks for tuning in today. Well, that's all for today. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come on Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.