 Amen. All right. Well, we're there in Second Chronicles, chapter number 29, an amazing story in the book of Second Chronicles. We'll start reading in verse number one and kind of see where this story takes us. Second Chronicles, chapter 29, verse number one. The Bible says this, Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and 20 years old and he reigned nine and 20 years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. In look at verse two, it says, And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign in the first month opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them together into the East street. And said unto them, Hear me, Levites, sanctify now yourselves and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. So the context here is this is the beginning of the reign of King Hezekiah, who was a good king, did a lot of great things. And he is essentially turning the nation around. The king before him was Ahaz, who was an evil king, who was a wicked king. And right now the state of the country of Judah is essentially a state of disrepair. They're backslidden, they have not been serving God for quite some time. And he becomes king and he goes against the status quo and does what most kings never did and says, You know, we're going to turn this around. We're going to get right. We're going to fix. We're going to right our wrongs and do what God wants us to do. But I want you to notice here in this whole chapter is just a story of him essentially carrying this out. But notice he starts with the temple. He's literally about, there's the phrase cleaning house. He's literally about to start cleaning house. He is in a literal sense going to start carrying the sin and as he called the filthiness out of the house of God. The house of God was full of idols and it makes you cringe, full of idols and alters to other gods. And he says, you know, we're going to get this out. We're going to be done with this and we're going to turn this ship around now as a believer. We're not going to look at all the verses, but you should be familiar with the idea that as a believer, the Bible calls your body a temple. The Bible says you are, we are priests and kings unto God and your body is called a temple. So on that note, what I'd like to talk about this evening is I'd like to talk about New Year's resolutions. Of course, hopefully you already have your New Year's resolutions picked out and you're on your way to completing them, hopefully. But I also hope that you have some spiritual New Year's resolutions. I hope that obviously it's great to have fitness goals. It's great to have financial goals. But I hope that you have some spiritual goals this year. I hope you have goals where you say, you know, I want to get to December 31st of 2023 and saying, you know, I prayed more this year. I read the Bible more this year. I became a better soul winner this year. I hope you have those goals. And of course, we've already heard a lot of stats so far this year on New Year's resolutions. But just a couple of them, about 40% of Americans, or a little less than half, actually make resolutions. And of those 40%, only about 10% of those actually end up completing their goals. That means that at December 31st, a small minority of people, about 10%, 1 in 10, say, I stuck with my goal the whole year. Or I accomplished my goal or I met my goal. And I would profess that the same thing is the same with spiritual goals, where most people who set spiritual goals probably do not complete them. Now, we don't want that to be us. We want to be able to stick with them. We want to be able to fulfill our goals, turn to Hebrews chapter 12, especially our spiritual goals. So the title of the sermon this evening is Cleaning House. Cleaning House. And what I'd like to do is I'd just like to give us a method tonight on how to prime ourselves for spiritual goals in the new year. Of course, this doesn't just apply to New Year's resolutions. Of course, this is just a time of the year where a lot of people have goals. But this applies to any time in your life. Any time in your life where you realize that you need to set a goal or you want to set a goal for yourself spiritually. That should be done at any time in your life. You don't have to wait for the new year to do that. But I would like to give ourselves this evening a method, a methodology for how we can complete our goals, stick with our goals, and get to the end of the year having fulfilled our goals. You're there in Hebrews chapter 12. Just before we start, let's talk about why people don't meet their goals. Why people fail at their goals. There was a study done among people, among the 90% that failed where these people were asked, why did you, why was it that you did not complete your goal? Why did you fail at your goal? And of course, there's a lot of different reasons that people gave. But about half of the people that did not meet their goals said that it was either they forgot their goal or they didn't keep track of their goal. You're there in Hebrews chapter 12. Let's look at verse one. The Bible says this, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight in the sin, which doth easily be set us in. Let us run with patience, the race that is set before us. I believe that, you know, while there's a lot of different reasons, people don't meet their goals. I believe all these, these, these different, these reasons are essentially weights. People want to set a goal. They want to run a race, but they have all these weights that they're dragging along with them that keep them from finishing their goal. These weights can be anything from laziness to complacency, lack of motivation, lack of determination, but whatever they are, they are weights that prevent people that will eventually stop them from meeting their goal. So this evening, how can we clean house? How can we cut off these weights? How can we get rid of them and meet our spiritual goals and crush them in 2023? I'd like to give you three things this evening. The first one is this, turn back to 2nd Chronicles 29. Keep your place there, by the way. We're going to be coming back to it throughout the whole sermon. So maybe use a ribbon or bookmark or sticker bulletin in 2nd Chronicles 29. The first thing we see this evening is this, the conviction. We see this story here where Hezekiah becomes king and he doesn't just say, man, it'd be nice if we could turn back to God or it'd be nice if we could kind of become more spiritual. Things are kind of rough right now. We're not very spiritual. We should probably get around to changing that at some point. No, Hezekiah becomes king and he's determined. And the first reason that he did this is we see in Hezekiah that he had some serious conviction about his goals. What is conviction? Conviction is defined as a strong persuasion or belief. If you want to have your goal and you want to meet your goal, you need to start off just before you do anything else. You need to start off with a strong conviction on what your goal is and why you want to meet it. Let's look at verse 6. Our story goes on here. Hezekiah is explaining why, he's explaining why he is so adamant about cleaning out the house of the Lord. He says in verse 6, for our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God and have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. Also, they have shut up the doors of the porch and put out the lamps and have not burned incense nor burnt offerings in the holy place under the God of Israel. Wherefore? So he's admitting the fault of his nation. He's saying we haven't been doing this. We have not been serving God like we were supposed to and wherefore because of this, he says the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem and he had delivered them to trouble, to astonishment and to hissing as ye see with your eyes. For lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons and daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us. Ezekiah had a very strong persuasion and belief about why he was doing this. He believed very strongly. He says, look, our nation is in a state of disrepair. We've been evaded by other nations. We're falling to pieces and it's because of our mistake. It's because we have not served God. So because of that, here's my goal. Because of that, we're going to make a covenant with the Lord our God and we're going to turn this around. He believed very strongly in what he was doing and more importantly, why he was doing it. Turn to Acts chapter 2. While you're turning there, I'll read you another example of someone with some strong conviction. Psalm 44, 17 and 18 says this, All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten thee. Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back. Neither have our steps declined from the way. So here, the author of this Psalm is describing a very difficult time therein. He's saying, you know, but nevertheless, that doesn't matter. That does not change our conviction. We'll never stop serving God. We'll never back down. Our steps will not decline from the way. That is someone who has more than just a temporary excitement about a goal. That is someone with a deeper conviction on why they are doing what they're doing. You're there in Acts chapter 2. Let's look at verse 37. This is after Peter preaches this great sermon about Jesus Christ. And it says verse 37. Now when they heard this, this is the people at the day of Pentecost who heard this sermon. It says they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Let's get down to verse 41. Verse 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day they were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So all these people, they're pricked in the heart and they get saved. But notice what it says about these people. It says they gladly received his word. You see, someone who receives the word of God, in this situation we're talking about salvation in the gospel, but it applies to everything. Someone who receives the word of God is someone who fears God. This is why someone needs to believe before they can get saved. They need to believe in hell. They need to understand that they deserve it. Because no one is going to receive the word of God if they don't fear God. They don't realize that there's punishment. They don't realize that there's judgment. They'll never receive his word. And on top of that, so someone who receives the word of God fears God. But someone who fears God, this is the same thing for a say believer will have strong convictions. Because the same believer who is wise realizes that yes, you'll never see the flames of hell that he had overcome with will not be heard of the second death. However, there is still the fear of God that you need to have because there will be punishment from God in this life if you don't follow him. So in the same way as if you're saved, you had to receive the word of God and fear God to get saved. In the same way, you need to take that fear of God and let it have a, give you a conviction, a strong persuasion of belief that inspires you to serve him in this life. Turn to Mark 4. Turn to Mark 4. I'll read you one more verse while you're turning there. Psalm 4814 says, For this our God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death. Again, just another very strong conviction that we see there. Here in Mark, this is Jesus talking about the, this is the parable of the sower. He talks about the different types of people and this is him describing the parable to his disciples. Notice this type of person we're reading about here. Mark 14, 16 says this, and these are they which likewise which are sown on the stony ground who when they have heard the word immediately receive it with gladness. So this is someone who gets saved. They receive the word of God. They receive it with gladness. Same language we saw in Acts chapter 2 about those people that got saved. But notice what he says verse 17, these people they're saved however and have no root in themselves and so endure but for a time. And afterwards when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake immediately they are offended. So this is the person who gets saved. They will always be saved. Nothing can change that. But they get saved and they like the Bible thing. They like the whole soul winning and heart Bible preaching thing. They like the promise that the Bible will change your life which is true. They like the promise that hey if you keep the Bible and you change your life it will improve your life and it will fix every problem you have in your life. The Bible has the answer and the Bible has the solution. These are the people who get saved and they like that. That sounds good to them. They like the soul winning and they like the ideas that they're hearing but when it gets hard they quit. You say but why? Why did they do that? Here's why. Here's how we can avoid this from happening to us. Because this is a saved person who this happened to. Here's how we can avoid it from happening to us. We need something deeper in our Christian life. Our motivation for serving God and keeping our goals. We need something deeper than that sounds pretty good. We need something deeper than that makes sense. We need something stronger than that. We need a strong conviction about why we're doing what we're doing. Turn to 2 Timothy 4. Because look, yes, I mean it's good. Of course you need to have confidence in what we're doing and you do need to believe in the promise that the Bible will change your life but it takes more than that. You need to know what you want to accomplish spiritually, how you're going to accomplish it, you need to plan but you need to know why you want to accomplish it. You need to have the end in mind. Have the confidence that you know what happens kind of like we talked about this morning. Although it may not be clear at the moment I know that if I do this at the end there is a light at the end of the tunnel. At the end it will work and you need to have that faith. Actually if you have your hymnals I'll just read you a verse that kind of illustrates this. Turn your hymnals to Psalm 134. Your hymnals there. Turn to song number 134. Get mine here. Here's a good example of this if you look at that song. Look at the third verse. Psalm 134 my anchor holds. The third verse says this I can feel the anchor fast as I meet each sudden blast and the cable though unseen bears the heavy strain between through the storm I safely ride till the turning of the tide. So this verse is talking about the fact that obviously our anchor is Jesus Christ. Our anchor is the Bible and if you set your goals I'm going to set this goal for my life I'm going to change my life I'm going to do this in my life I'm going to change this about my life I'm going to separate I'm going to start going soul winning I'm going to start reading the Bible If you have a spiritual goal that goal is an anchor because that goal if it finds up with the word of God then that goal is an anchor that goal is if it's what God wants you to do that goal is an anchor that will change your life but here's the thing there are times in life where you're sailing along the ocean in your ship going through life and you can see the waters are crystal clear and you can see your rope your ship to the anchor and you can see every single link that goes all the way to the anchor and it makes total sense to you you can see from where you are now all the way to the end result of that goal it makes total sense to you but there are times in life where maybe the waters get murky maybe things get troublesome and you can't see you can't see how it's going to work out but you need to have that confidence that you know what you need to have that confidence because here's what people do people can see the chain that goes all the way down to the anchor and it makes total sense and they can see it all the way down as long as they can see that anchor way down there they're fine but if things get tough and things get confusing and you know the trials and tribulations come like it talked about here in this parable and people can't see the anchor anymore and all they can see is the chain just disappearing and they sail off in their own direction of life very similar to what we talked about this morning you need to realize there's a long game here it's more than just the immediate result of your actions you need to realize that sometimes it requires faith in the Christian life sometimes it takes, you know what I'm just going to do this I'm going to have a conviction that is strong enough in my life that if I follow the Bible and I push towards this goal I may not be able to see how it's going to work out every single day as I go through life but I know that somewhere down there this goal is this truth that I'm following is anchored somewhere down there and you need to have that faith we can't just cut the anchor loose every time we can't see it anymore because we think it's not there so you're there in 2 Timothy 4 because look you should be excited about the cause that you want to devote your life to you need to be convinced of it no matter what happens you need to be convinced of it turn to 2 Timothy 4 this is Paul towards the end of his life many people believe this is the last epistle he ever wrote and here he's writing to a man named Timothy and he's kind of summing up his life here in a way and he's kind of describing what his life was like he says in verse 16 at first answer no man stood with me and then he just has a very great phrase here he says I pray that it may not be laid to their charge that's just a great phrase here Paul all these people did Paul wrong his whole life and just as Jesus Christ on the cross said Lord forgive them for they know not what they do here Paul says you know what I pray God doesn't even judge him for it it's just not laid to their charge but anyway verse 17 notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion and the Lord shall deliver me from ever evil work and will preserve me under his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever Amen look no one could accuse Paul of doing the things that he did just for the fun of it there was very little fun in it for Paul his whole life was I don't know if there was ever a time when Paul could see the chain going down to the anchor through the water his whole life it was not fun that got Paul through the Christian life it was a deep strong conviction of what he believed notice he says this he's just you can see the courage in his voice here he's under house arrest at this time in Rome and you know many people believe that he was awaiting his execution he was about to be executed soon we don't know that but that's what many people believe and here he's saying you know what God's going to deliver me whether I die or in life or in death God has delivered me he will deliver me worse that happens as I go to heaven but notice what he says see Paul knew the end result he said here's why though here's why I'm doing this he said I've done this that the preaching might be fully known he knew why he was doing what he was doing he knew the goal he knew what he was accomplishing and that gave him a conviction that could not be shaken he had because look you know only should you have a mission in your life and a goal and in a purpose you need all those things but those things need to be fueled by unshakable confidence in what you were devoting your life to you won't make it it's not enough another good example this is 1 Corinthians 923 he'll just read it this is Paul also writing he says in this I do for the gospel's sake that I might be more taken care of with you you know what it's hard it's difficult people are stabbing me in the back I'm going through all these people are trying to kill me it's hard it's difficult but I'm doing it for the gospel's sake so it's all okay and so I'm going to keep going to the very end so if you want to clean house in your life and use your temple for accomplishing great goals you need a conviction you need a strong one you need one that's rooted in something deeper than just well it's fun and I'm enjoying it and like I said you should have fun if you never have fun in the Christian life and you never enjoy it there's something wrong deep down inside you however it's not always going to be fun it's not always going to be sometimes it just requires courage sometimes it just requires duty you know what I do it because it's right because I believe in this and I know that at the end of the day somewhere down there in that water there's an anchor that is anchoring but not only do we need the conviction but we need the action I'll go back to the second chronicles 29 we need the action let's continue our story Hezekiah goes on to say this so Hezekiah gets up and he gives his conviction and he lays the groundwork and says here's why we're doing what we're doing and I believe very strongly in this and here's why but he doesn't just leave it at that he has a plan he has action that he's going to carry out in verse 11 my son's for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him to serve him and that you should minister unto him and burn incense then the Levites arose arose skip down to verse 15 we just kind of go over some names and they gathered the brethren as we're reading these couple of verses notice that this isn't just people speaking this is action that's being carried out and they gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves and came according to the commandment of the king by the words of the Lord to cleanse the house of the Lord and the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord in the court of the house of the Lord and the Levites took it to carry it out abroad into the Kedron now it began on the first day of the first month so that's kind of interesting how they started a New Year's resolution they started this on January 1st the first month is when they began this and on the 8th day of the month they came to the porch of the Lord so they sanctified the house of the Lord in 8 days and on the 16th day of the first month they made an end so they start on the first day of the year and it takes a little over 2 weeks the whole process but what I want to focus on is how they took action right away in the Bible you could pick that symbolized action and executing a plan I think if there's any one word that kind of shows this in the word of God I think it's the word arise you see it a lot in the Bible and any time the Bible, God is telling someone do this do that you need to take action, you need to go do this or go do that the word that is used is the word arise I'm just going to read you a couple of examples in Deuteronomy 10 11 says in the Lord said unto me arise and take thy journey before the people that they may go in and possess the land Genesis 13 17 arise, walk through the land and the length of it and the breadth of it for I will give it unto thee and it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him arise, get thee down unto the host for I have delivered it into thy hand we go on for hours reading all these verses God tells someone to do something he tells them he doesn't just give them a plan he tells them get to work, arise, get up get off from out your chair and go and do this specific thing turn to 1 Kings 19 1 Kings 19 we're going to read about Elijah this is a context here Elijah has just had the legendary showdown at Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal and they say we're going to find out who's God if the Lord is God or if Baal is God and the priests of Baal spend all day and it's a whole story and they can't get fire to come down from heaven and Elijah goes and he gets fire to come down from heaven and it shows everyone fears the Lord and it's a great story and then he goes and he kills all the prophets of Baal and because of this Jezebel the wife of Ahab he wants to kill Elijah and so he flees for his life and this story, Elijah's life he's at one chapter he's at the peak of his life and this is how it often goes and then the next chapter he's way down here he's at the worst lowest point in his life and here Elijah is at the low at the bottom of the barrel of his life just after this great victory where he's asking God he's like Lord just take my life away it's not even worth he's at a very low point in his life it says the Bible reads and as he lay and slept under a juniper tree behold an angel touched him and said unto him arise and eat here God sends an angel to Elijah and what does he tell Elijah what's the message God has for Elijah arise get up and he looked and behold there was a cake bacon on the coals and a cruise of water at his head and he did eat and drink and lay him down again and the angel the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said arise and eat because the journey is too great for these so here the message for Elijah is you know Elijah I know it's too hard for you I know you can't do it on your own strength here's what I want you to do I want you to arise I want you to get up I have somewhere for you to go I have a job for you and he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights in the horror of the mount of God you see God is always trying to get us to take action not just sit there and do nothing turn to Joshua chapter 7 this is why a lot of people fail at goals they make a goal which is great you need a goal and they make a plan which is great you need a plan but they never take the action they never put the work in because it's a lot easier to make a plan it's a lot easier to make a goal is to actually take the action and put in the work all these things are necessary it's a lot harder to put the action in than is just to come up with the goal they're in Joshua 7 this is when they're overtaking the promised land and Moses has died and Joshua is leading them into the promised land and there's someone has they went and when they overtook Jericho there was a man who sinned there's a man a man named Akan who went and God told them I don't want you to keep any the treasure you find and someone didn't follow this they took a bunch of the gold they found they buried it in their tent and because of it God put a curse on the whole congregation to where when they went into the next city to overtake it they failed God wouldn't fight for them people died and Joshua is kind of horrified by this and so he goes and he's on he's praying to God and he doesn't know why it happened he doesn't know what's going on he's praying and God says to Joshua notice what he says he's praying to God and the Lord said to Joshua get thee up wherefore lieest thou thus on thy face what are you doing get off the ground there's work to do there's action that needs to be taken verse 11 Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed against the covenant which I commanded them for they have even taken to the accursed thing and have also stolen and dissembled also and they have put it even among their own stuff and so God just explains to him someone didn't listen to what I told them to do and because of it there's this curse upon you right now there's a curse upon everybody verse 13 again up sanctify the people and he tells them the details of what he wants them to do but point being it's not just enough to have a goal look goals are great plans are great prayer is great you need all these things you cannot go without them consideration is great conviction is necessary but if there is no action it's all for nothing and God realizes this he sees Joshua here and it's good for Joshua to pray but God realizes that Joshua needs to take action him laying on his face and praying in this moment is not going to solve the problem I want you to get up Joshua and you need to fix the problem specific action and put some work in to fixing this problem even so with us we need prayer and we need conviction but if we're not willing to take the action it's worthless it's completely worthless and even if you're praying you're saying well but I'm praying and I don't know what to do in my life and I'm praying for direction I don't know well there's still action you can take you can still take the action of serving God reading your Bible the things you do know taking what you do know in your life I don't know what to do in this area of my life but you know I'm willing to put the action in where I can that makes a world of a difference you don't have to turn there but Mark 1619 says this this is when Jesus ascends into heaven so then after that the Lord has spoken none of them he was received up into heaven and sat on the right side of God and they went forth the disciples and preached everywhere the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following amen so here the disciples go out and it says they go out and they put in the work they're preaching everywhere they're putting in the labor we see that in the book of Acts and God it didn't say God works for them God works with them the same thing is in the Old Testament when they would go in and God would win a battle for them he wouldn't just say alright guys watch this you just sit here you stay in your tents you just go about life I'm gonna go over here and I'm gonna defeat the Philistines I'm gonna go over here and destroy Jericho God actually says no you know what you can do it with only 300 people but I want you to go gather people I want you to go find pitchers I want you to go get swords I want you to find trumpets I want you to go to battle I want you to fight and then I'll work with you and then I'll honor that that's how God works we need the action just as much as we need the conviction God will support you he will fight for you he will help you but we need to be willing to put in the action this happens this is a mess of a lot of churches too or Christians it goes both ways but a lot of churches today they'll say you know we need to pray for revival we need to pray that God will just and they have this idea that we're just gonna kind of stumble through the Christian life and meander along our way and pray that God will just one day come down there's this miracle to happen in America where everybody is falling down at our feet saying what must I do to be saved and look that would be great but here's the thing that will never happen I'm not saying that there couldn't be revival in America I'm not saying that the Lord's hand is shortened that it cannot save but if it is to happen it's gonna happen because we need to put the work in first we need to show God you know Lord it's hard right now there's a lot of sin in our nation right now we're willing to go out we're willing to spend hours and go door to door to door to getting as many people saved as we can we're gonna stand up and preach the word of God and not be ashamed of it we're gonna put the work in and Lord willing God will honor that and then work upon that that's what our mindset needs to be so not only do we have the we have the conviction we need conviction in our life this is important but then the evening what will happen if we have these two things we're gonna have the exploits our story continues turn to second chronicles chapter 30 second chronicles chapter 30 so here in this story of course in the rest of the chapter we won't read the rest of chapter 29 but they have this great event where there's offerings it's the biggest great event that they've had in a long time they're offering all these animals to God they're worshipping God they're singing praises to God and they're actually offering so many animals that it mentions that the priests aren't even there's not even enough priests to do it they have to have other people help them just because there's so much there's so many animals that people are offering to the Lord and then it gets even better God honors this they put in the initial work and God honors that and says you know what this is just the beginning it's the beginning of you to do a lot more because here's the thing the more you clean house we'll talk about this later but the more you clean house the more the more great things God will allow you to do in your life you're there in second chronicles 30 look at verse 1 gets even better this is just the beginning and Hezekiah sent to all Judah Israel and Judah so he's sending people to both Judah which is his nation but then he's also sending people to Israel which is much worse than they are he wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord of Jerusalem why? to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel Hezekiah says man this was great this was event was great now let's have a Passover now that was to be even more let's have an even greater event so now they're going to hold for the first time in a very long time they're going to hold a proper Passover look down to verse 13 verse 13 and they're assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month a very great congregation and they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem and all the altars for instance took they away and cast them into the brook Kedrin so in preparation for this they clean house they go in the temple they get all the garbage out all the altars out and they throw it out and then they go even further they have this Passover all these people gather and then they go through the whole city and they do the same thing they clean all the houses they clean every house and they go even further skip down to verse 26 notice this so because of this so there was great joy in Jerusalem see there is joy there is joy but you got to push through the difficulty to get to the joy for sense the time look at this this is a statement for sense the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem so it literally says that they did such great things at this Passover that the joy that they had in the time that this event was they hadn't had an event like this since back during the golden age of Israel when Solomon was king that was how amazing this event was then the priests the Levites arose there it is again and blessed the people and their voice was heard and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place talking about God even to heaven so notice how significant this was and here's the point if you commit to cleaning yes you're going to need conviction and yes it will require action and the hard work but at the end there will be great exploits as well the work will pay off turn to John 15 but here's the thing though everybody wants the exploits everyone wants the anchor at the bottom but no one wants to clean the house first because you see that's necessary you cannot this is a blanket statement but you cannot have the great exploits in your life if you do not clean house first we need to first before we can reach those great exploits before God will allow us to do great things for him in our life we need to first go through our heart and we need to take all the garbage and the trash and the sin and the bad habits and the laziness and the fear and the complacency we need to wipe down every service and take all the trash and bundle it up before God says you know what that looks like a temple clean enough for me to work in I was just talking to someone earlier but I thought it was interesting I was talking to someone earlier this week and how the two times that God will dwell with people the two times in the Bible that God dwell personally God the Father is personally dwelling with man is in heaven when everything is perfect and in the Garden of Eden before sin before man fell the questions with Adam and Eve that God was at the time when he discovered them says he was walking in the Garden in the cool of the day because man was perfect God was able to walk with them and be with them in the same physical location with them and God the Father not just Jesus Christ as he appeared a couple of times as he was here on this earth and other places but it's the same way in this sense where we want to do something great in our temple of our body if we want God to use us we need to clean house first and like I said the better we clean the greater works that God will do with us because I don't care who you are this evening I don't care what you think your strengths are what you think your weaknesses are I don't care what you think your shortcomings are where you don't think you're as great in certain areas as you mightily no matter what your shortcomings are God can use you mightily God uses the weak God uses the incapable way more than he uses the strong and powerful in the Bible God uses the 300 before he uses the millions but you need to clean house first you need to take the faith first and have the conviction and the action and then God will honor that here Jesus in John 15 is explaining this principle he says verse 1 he's setting up an analogy here notice what he's saying he says I am the true vine and my father is the husband man every branch in me that beareth not fruit he takeeth away every branch that beareth fruit he purgeeth it that it may bring forth more fruit now you are clean through the word which I have spoken under you so he's saying you are clean in the sense that you're saved you're washed with the blood of Jesus Christ in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine no more can ye accept ye abide in me I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me he can do nothing so here's the analogy if you have a tree if you have a tree you'll see it growing and the trunk will grow but the branches will grow with it as well the branches will bear fruit but if you go and you just cut a branch off a tree and you throw it in the ground it's like nothing's going to happen it needs to be attached to the tree it has to be attached to the vine to the trunk of the tree and in the same way what Jesus is saying to them he's saying you're clean through the word which I have spoken under you you're saved you believe but if you want to bear fruit if you want to you need to be we need to be on the same team here we need to bear fruit unless that branch is purged and fit for the master's use you have to be purged first turn to Acts 19 in Acts 19 I think this is the greatest example of the Bible that we see of this or in the New Testament at least I think this is a perfect example of this here they go into a city Paul and his team of missionaries goes into a city and they get all these people saved and those verse 18 saved many not all because all it takes to believe is to be saved is to believe but not all those people are going to turn their lives around and many that believe came and confessed and showed their deeds many of them also should use curious arts these are people who they were using sorcery and they were just in all this sin and wickedness many of them also would use curious arts brought their books together and they burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver so all these people get saved and all these people come together and they come to one place and they take 50,000 pieces of silver's worth of their books but represent just the sin in their life and their old ways and they burn them and they got rid of them they literally scorch and burn the sin out of their lives but look what happens next verse 20 this is not an accident there's a reason verse 20 is here so because of this so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed look the hand of the Lord is not short and that it cannot save but the reason that great things do not happen in our lives if they don't is not because God is incapable it's not because he can't if the word of God is not mightily grown and prevailed it's not his fault because we are not willing to clean house enough for him to use us so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed like I said you no matter another blanket statement that is 100% true no matter who you are God can use you to do great exploits but you have to clean the garbage out first you have to clean your temple out first and the more you can clean and the more you can get out the greater things God can do let's turn to one more verse 2 Chronicles 31 verse 1 this is probably the climax of this story you say that Passover thing was pretty cool but that's probably as good as it got it gets better 2 Chronicles 31 verse 1 2 Chronicles 31 verse 1 now when all this was finished it's all over the Passover is done everyone had a great time all these amazing things happened now when all this was finished so Judah is the better nation at this time God judged Israel way before he got to Judah Israel is more wicked Israel is more evil but look at what it says about Israel this whole verse is just about Israel the people who came from Israel to Jerusalem now when all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah so these people are on their way home and they're going through the cities of Judah on their way home and notice what they did they cut down the groves and threw down the high places in the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim also and Manuset until they had utterly destroyed them all then all the children of Israel were turned every man to his possession into their own city so these people go home and they're so filled with zeal they're so filled with with this with courage and with the spirit of God that they go to the temple and then it went to the city of Jerusalem and then Israel on their way home they go through all the cities in Judah and into their own country and they clean house there as well so the house of God is cleaned Jerusalem they clean house and through the whole nation they utterly destroy all they get rid of everything they clean all the sin out and destroy it all you see here's the best part of this not only if you can manage to start a fire in your soul and do these great works if you can just have this strong conviction you can take the action you can put in the work and you can start this fire in your life the best part about it is it doesn't just have to end with you because if you can have the conviction just like Hezekiah this is one man that started this this is one man you can have the conviction put in the action but the best part is if you like Hezekiah can do this you can set a fire in other people's lives to where they will do even greater works than you it's like imagine someone who they just have a filthy house their house is filthy they never clean it it's full of trash it's heaped over with garbage and then they come to your house I want to house this and if you can go to other people and other brothers sisters in Christ people that are also saved like you and you can set this fire in your life and they can see you this is where the lifestyle evangelism comes in if you can we need to preach the gospel to get people saved but once people are saved if they can see the zeal in your life and they can see what you've done you can inspire them to do great works in their life as well just like Hezekiah just like Hezekiah he was one person but because of his conviction and his action he was able to inspire a whole nation and part of another to do great exploits for the Lord so this evening in conclusion we need to have the conviction we need to believe in what we're doing we need to believe that even if the waters are muddied even if times are difficult or hard we know there's an anchor down there and we're willing to put in the work to do what God has called us to do and if we can do that if we can manage to do this then so can we no matter who we are so can we be used to God to accomplish great spiritual goals in 2023 we can get to the end of the year and say you know I got through the whole year and you know I'm a bitter soul winner now and I've read the Bible this year however many times and I learned to pray this year and I grew closer to God this year and he allowed me to do all these exploits and he allowed this to happen and this to happen and all these problems were fixed in my life we can have that in our life we can accomplish these goals if we can clean house just like Hezekiah did and we can accomplish these goals in 2023 and even better than that whenever we so choose alright let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer