Wednesday Night Service 7PM - 2 Chronicles 13-16, Pastor Ryan Nichols

Good evening. How are y'all doing? If you want to stand with me, I'll open us up in a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this time just to spend with you. God, I pray that you would just soften our hearts, open our ears, Lord. And as we're singing these songs, God, I just pray that it would be a sweet sound to you, God, that we would just be not just saying words, but that it would be the prayer of our heart this evening. I just pray this in your name.

In the name of the world, you step down into darkness. Open my eyes, let me see this heart adored for life. I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. And you're altogether lovely, altogether.

Altogether, you're my together.

Here altogether, altogether worthy. Altogether, you step down. You all can be seated for these next two if you'd like.

The is running, creating us in your image. God, giving us a way that we can know and have our identity found in you. Not in anything that we have or anything that we can do, but God, knowing that everything that we are, exactly how we were created all the way to the things that you work through our lives every day. Every good thing is from you. We thank you so much for all of your blessings, Lord.

I just pray that you would just continue to help us to find our identity in you and to follow you. God, I pray as Ryan comes up, Lord, that you would speak boldly through him, that your word would penetrate our hearts, God. That whatever... You have to say to us tonight, Lord, I pray that it would be heard in your name.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 13. 2 Chronicles 13.

Tonight, we continue on with some of the kings of Judah. We're going to cover two of them tonight. One of them's name is Abijah. The other one's name is Asa or Asa. I've heard it pronounced both ways. I've heard it both ways. So, we pick up in chapter 13. Remember? Solomon, because of his sin, God had divided the kingdom. The ten northern tribes had gone with Jeroboam.

The two southern tribes had gone with Rehoboam. And so, we looked at the reign of Rehoboam, which was not a good reign. Now, we come to this guy named Abijah, who is his son. It says this, chapter 13, verse 1. In the 18th year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Micaiah. Micaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.

Now, there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. Abijah began the battle with an army of valiant warriors, 400,000 chosen men, while Jeroboam drew up in battle formation against him with 800,000 chosen men who were valiant warriors. Now, the writer of the Chronicles doesn't give a lot of detail about Abijah, other than he had a short-lived reign, three years. In the margin of your Bible, it may say this.

If not, you might write, 1 Kings 15, because that's what tells the story of this guy in a little bit more detail. Remember, the purpose for the writer of the Chronicles was to remind them of the line of David and God's promise and maintaining the line of David, so they don't always include as much of the negative. But if you were to read the very beginning of 1 Kings 15, you would find that it says that Abijah walked in the sins of his father and did not follow the Lord wholly. And we're going to find that there was a small portion of him, that had a moment of trusting the Lord, but it was not wholehearted devotion to the Lord.

And so there was always war between the ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes. And so a great battle came about. There's one specific battle that this chapter is going to talk about. And, of course, he's outnumbered two to one. So this is what it says, verse 4. It says, It says, It says, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said,

It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, It said, But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him, and the sons of Aaron are ministering. to the Lord as priests. The Levites attend to their work. Every morning and evening they burn to the Lord burnt offerings and fragrant incense. The showbread is set before the clean table.

The golden lampstand with its lamps is ready to light every evening. And we keep charge of the Lord our God, but you have forsaken him. Now behold, God is with us at our head and his priests with the signal trumpets to sound the alarm against you, O sons of Israel. Do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers, for you will not succeed. If I were to sum that speech up in

one phrase, it would be like, uh, kind of, right? Like there's a little revisionist history that goes on with this speech of Abijah. Did God promise the kingdom to David? Yes, he did. And we see God's continued faithfulness to the promise that he made David and that two of the tribes still belong to the household of David. Have they always followed the Lord their God faithfully? Probably not.

Did Jeroboam drive out the priests of the Lord from the northern kingdom? Yes. Are they doing everything that they're supposed to do? No. Did Jeroboam take over the ten northern tribes? Yes. Is it because Rehoboam wasn't strong enough? No. Right, so it's one of those speeches where you're like, he's rallying the troops, he's got this great feeling going, but a little of the details are kind of off here. But there is one thing that he's

going to do that's going to be really good. He does remind himself and the people of Israel, this is still the place where God resides. We are still God's people and we are still maintaining the worship of God. See, his issue was that he didn't follow God wholeheartedly, right? Well, it goes on from there to say this, but Jeroboam set an ambush to come from the rear

so that Israel was in front of Judah and the ambush was behind them. When Judah turned around, behold, he was in front of Judah. He was in front of Judah. He was in front of Judah. He was in front of Judah. They were attacked both front and rear. So they cried out to the Lord and the priests blew the trumpets. And then the men of Judah raised a war cry. When the men of Judah raised the war cry,

then it was that God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. When the sons of Israel fled before Judah, God gave them into their hand. Abijah and his people defeated them with a great slaughter so that 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain. Thus the sons of Israel were subdued at that time. And the sons of Judah conquered because they trusted in the Lord, the God of their

fathers. Jeroboam had come up with a plan, a pretty good battle plan, really. Probably a battle plan that would have won if it wasn't for the intervention of the Lord. He set an ambush to where all of a sudden they were surrounded on both sides with the enemy. And the only thing that they could do when they were surrounded on both sides with the enemy, all military tactics had failed. All the ways of man

had failed. There was no other God to set them free. They did the one thing that they knew how to do, and they cried out to the Lord. And in that moment of them crying out to the Lord, God answered. Maybe sometimes you feel a little bit like the children of Israel here, the children of Judah here, and you found that some of the ways of the world weren't working, and pretty soon you're

surrounded on both sides by the enemy. And you find yourself in the precarious position of going, there's really no way out. I only have one hope, and that hope is to cry out to the Lord. If you asked yourself if perhaps you ended up in that position because God wanted you to cry out to him, have you ever thought to yourself, maybe I landed myself in a spot where there were no other ways to get out other than crying out to God, and God actually allowed that to happen so that my one hope was to cry out to him. And you find that when you finally do, when you finally say, Lord,

I need some help, it's amazing how he shows up for you. It's interesting because Abijah was not a good king. Read in the summary of his life, I think it says in the summary of his life, that he was not a good king. He walked to the sins of his father. But in this one moment, in this one moment when everything went wrong, he did the one thing he was supposed to do, and he was supposed to cry out to the Lord.

And we are reminded that God is waiting for anyone to simply cry out to him. We're told in the book of Romans, I believe it's chapter 11. It might be chapter 10. I may have my reference. I may have my reference off on that. That anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's really only one requirement for coming to Jesus, and that's that you have to come to the end

of yourself. And sometimes he will allow you to be surrounded in front and behind to where you will finally go, okay, I give up. There's nowhere else I can go. It reminds me of another story of the children of Israel much earlier in their history when they had escaped from Egypt. And as they escaped from Egypt, they had to go to the Lord. And they had to go to the Lord. And they had to go to

Egypt. They thought, great, we're finally free. But God led them by the way of the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea. And as he led them by the way of the Red Sea, he led them right up to the edge of a body of water that they could not cross. Kind of like I told today at a funeral that I did. It's kind of like the going on a bear hunt, you know. They came to the big cold river, and they couldn't

go over it, and they couldn't go around it, and they couldn't go under it. Their only hope was to go, well, through it. But the problem is, they couldn't go under it. They couldn't go under it. They couldn't go under it. The problem was, not only did they have the Red Sea sitting in front of them, that was an impenetrable body of water, that unless God parted it, there was no hope for them, but they also had

Pharaoh and his army behind them. Because Pharaoh had decided, wait a second, I think I want all of those slaves back. I think I want to bring them back to the land of Egypt. That feels like the right thing to do. And so in that moment, they cried out to the Lord. And Moses goes, God, what am I going to do? And God says, stop crying. Start crossing. Hold out your rod,

and watch, and I will part the waters in front of you. And he parted the waters in front of them. He said, because the Egyptians that you see now before you, you will see again no more forever. They had to come to the place where their only hope was God. Because God is longing to answer the prayer for anybody who says, you're my one shot. So Lord, I need you to answer in this moment. And God's always faithful to come through.

So, verse 19, So Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured from him several cities, Bethel with its villages, Jashana with its villages, and Ephron with its villages. And Jeroboam did not recover strength again in the days of Abijah. And the Lord struck him, and he died. But Abijah became powerful and took 14 wives to himself. He became the father of 21 sons and 16 daughters.

The rest of his family, he became the father of 21 daughters. And the rest of his family, the rest of the acts of Abijah and his ways and his words are written in the treatise of the prophet Iddo. Well, now we come to the next king. So Abijah slept with his fathers, chapter 14, verse 1. And they buried him in the city of David. And his son Asa became king in his place.

And the land was undisturbed for 10 years during his days. Why? Because Asa did good and right. And the sight of the Lord his God. Isn't it amazing that when we begin to obey the Lord, that peace usually follows after that? Because the safest place to be is in the will of God. And this king Asa comes along. And finally, after an incredible amount of time of kings leading in

a very evil sort of way, along comes a king who finally says, this is not what we're supposed to do. I'm going to lead in the proper way. And he begins the first of five revivals that will take place in the land of Judah. And this is what it says. He removed the foreign altars and the high places. He tore down the sacred pillars and he cut down the Asherah. And he commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to observe

the law and the commandment. He removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah. And the kingdom was undisturbed under him. He built fortified cities in Judah since the land was undisturbed. And there was no one at war with him during those years because the Lord had destroyed them. And he removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah.

And he said to Judah, let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers and gates and bars. The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God. We have sought him and he has given us rest on every side. So they built and they prospered. And Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah bearing large shields and spears. 280,000 from Benjamin bearing shields and wielding

bows. And all of them were valiant warriors. There's two things I'd like to point out to you about the revival that takes place under Asa. One of them is what he gets rid of and one of them is what he builds up. The first thing he does is he begins to clear the land of all of the things that had led them into idolatry, not the least of which were the idols themselves. But not only did he clear out the idols, but he cleared out every

aspect of the worship of the idols. He did a wholesale cleansing of the land to get rid of all of the things that were keeping the people from worshiping the Lord. And he did a wholesale cleansing of the land both in the lands of Israel and in my church. And he went on to choose the land of Israel through which he sowed his seed and his seed of約s and everything he knew best over his life. And in the same way he himself fell to his own fault. As an

idol he could not hide his right hand at all. And he believed that something was working for him on this earth that he had had a chance to do. So Jesus allow him to come. He said if only a man could become my ruler as I can possess your land, I would not be able to generals. He said I have no doubt in the nature of my very mind that in my heart, the only way I may pass through the world is to continue with

I couldn't say yes or no. Do you understand what I'm saying? the things that we have grown the most accustomed to in our lives. They're what I like to call your emotional support sins, right? They're the things that you always fall back on because they're comfortable for you, and it's like, well, let's just slip back into this because, gosh, that's sure going to make me feel better in this one moment, forgetting the fact that it's what led

you into slavery to begin with. And the first step that takes place in a revival in the life of an individual, in the life of a church, in the life of a nation, in the life of a family, is to get rid of the things that led you into idolatry, to get rid of the things that led you away from the worship of the Lord. There is a cutting off of the things that have kept you from knowing God. It's fascinating to read the second half of the book of Ephesians because in the second half of the book of Ephesians, after he has told them who they are in Christ, their identity in Christ, he says, now put off the old, all of the old things, the lying, the stealing, the foul language, the impurities, all of the things that were who you were,

but then he tells them to do something else. He says, but put on the new man who has been renewed in Christ. And did you notice, that's the second thing I want to point out to you about his revival. You see, it wasn't just the destruction of everything bad. That was an important part, but that is only half of revival. Half of revival is getting rid of the things that keep you from knowing the Lord.

The second half of revival is building the fortified cities. Since the land was undisturbed, let us build up these cities and surround them with walls and build up an army. You see, if you only tear down, then there's no real strength in your life. You now have to build up. It can't just be the getting rid of idols. You have to fill that with something. You have to fill all of those places with the good,

good things. For instance, in the book of Ephesians, he says, let him who steals, steal no longer. Instead, let him work with his hands so that he can have something to show for his life and something to give to others. Let him who speaks with impure language now only speak words of edification. You see, we have to replace the bad things and build up the good things.

Building up the good things in our lives means building up our faith, building up our knowledge and understanding of the word, building up our prayer life, building up our serving life. Because if revival takes place, it starts with the destruction, but it continues with the construction. That's what building up a healthy walk with Jesus Christ looks like. So I don't know which stage of revival you need first to take place in your life. Maybe you've already gotten rid of the bad things

and you're going, great, so does this mean that all there is is walking with Jesus is just a whole bunch of saying no? No, now it's a whole bunch of holy yeses, right? Now it's saying yes to all of the good things that we do. Now it's saying yes to all of the good things that we do. Now it's saying yes to all of the good things in life. I'm going to say yes to serving God and having my life be

full of the excitement of serving him with everything. I'm going to say yes to worshiping God with all of my heart. I'm going to say yes to spending time in God's word and good fellowship with fellow believers. And so it starts with the tearing down, but it continues with the building up. And that's the revival that he brings about in this land. But I'll remind you that with revival

comes strength. And that's the revival that he brings about in this land. But I'll remind you that with revival comes strength. And that's the revival that he brings about in this land. But I'll remind you that with revival comes strength. And that's the revival that he brings about in this land. Now Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots.

Now Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots. We are in a similar situation of being outnumbered two to one. And 300 chariots, that's like a whole bunch of tanks against some horses. And he came to Marashah. So Austin went out to meet him. And they drew up in battle formation in the valley of Zephathah at Marashah. And Asa called to the

Lord his God and said, Lord, there is no one beside you to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength. So help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you and in your name have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God. Let not man prevail against us. Before we get to the conclusion of this battle, I want to point out to you how foolish it might

have felt in that moment. Here you're outnumbered two to one, and they have far superior military technology to you. You are fighting an army that has guns with slingshots. That's what's going on in this moment. And as you're outnumbered two to one, and they have way more military technology than you, they stand in battle array, and the first thing that he does is not make a battle plan.

The first thing he does is he has a prayer meeting. And I just kind of wonder if he was like, you know, why don't you? leaders join me for just a minute, and let's just pray about these things. And they're like, listen, we've been to military school, and prayer was never part of the plan, okay? We have a plan. Let's execute the plan. And he said, unless we do this first, we have no plan. He says, Lord,

who else is there besides you who can help when we are a weaker army against a stronger army? I think it's so important when you go to God in prayer in a situation where you are outnumbered, where you are outgunned, and where you have less than adequate ability to face whatever it is that's in front of you to say, Lord, I have less than adequate ability to face what's in front of me today. It's important to own our weakness before the Lord, because when we are weak, then we are strong. I don't like coming to places where I feel weak in my life, but it is so important to come to that place. I'm coming to that place in a physical way right now.

I wasn't going to tell the story, but this lends itself to it. So there I was. I'm not getting any younger, and that is told to me over and over again, and it was told to me 17 times on social media this week. But I still want to be a 25-year-old guy. I work with young people all the time, and I want to be able to hang with the young people, right? This is just me being honest.

And so I try to keep up in the gym. I really don't try that hard to keep up in the gym. I lift around other old guys, but I'm like, I'm going to prove myself. So I'm working out Monday, and I've been building up to this, and I slap a couple of extra plates. Not a significant amount of extra weight, but I slap a little bit of extra weight on there, and I grab myself a spotter, a very large man. I'm really glad. I'm so thankful for that large

man. Otherwise, I would probably not be talking to you right now. It would be a much different situation. But I hit one last. I'm like, I got this many reps in me. He says, great, let's do it. No problem. I'm doing it. I'm doing the reps. Not a big deal. I'm going up on two or three, on this amount of weight. And as I'm on my way up, something just gives in my shoulder.

Actually, it was in my muscle right here. It literally just tore, and I could feel it. It was the strangest feeling I've ever had in my life to feel that way. And imagine a piece of fabric just being stretched out. That's what it felt like in that moment. And I was like, well, that's not good. I think that's my exact words. That's not good. And the guy goes, no, it's not. And he picks

the bar up off of me. And I stand up, and I'm walking around trying to figure out exactly what's going on. And I go, whew, I'm pretty lightheaded right now. And I go, and I sit down on this block up against the wall. And the next thing I know, they're picking me up off the floor. I go, Ryan, are you okay? Because I passed out, which is why I look like Mikhail Gorbachev on top of my head

right now. And Nora said, so, Dad, what is that? Like, what did you hit? I said, wall, floor, right? Because that's pretty much what it was. This side of my head hit the wall. I think this hit the floor. And now I'm in a place where I can't do anything. I have to ask everybody to do things for me. One of the ladies was down here getting some of the little new person bags ready,

and she needed another box of coffee cups. And I said, they're back here, but I can't carry them for you. We've either got to find somebody or you get it. Listen, there's nothing more humbling than a woman having to carry a box because you can't. But I literally couldn't because there's no strength in my left arm. And it's a really humbling moment to go, I genuinely can't do that

because I have no strength. And in that moment, I'm just like, wow, this is actually where God wants us to come to in our lives. Or we go, I just can't. I would like to pretend that I can right now, but the fact of the matter is my left arm doesn't do much. If you need me to push something out like that, I'm your man. If you need me to pick something up, find somebody else. And God's like, good. Now you understand where I want you to be.

I want you to be in a place where you say, I can't do it, God. And then he's like, but I got you. And that's where he was here. So he's like, Lord, that's a much stronger army, and my left arm is missing right now. So Lord, I'm outnumbered two to one, way more military technology that I don't have. Lord, you're going to have to do this. He says, you are God.

Lord, you are God. Let not man prevail against you. And once you notice how God responds in verse 12, so the Lord routed the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. I love how short of a verse that is. Giant army builds up. They have all these chariots, long prayer, and God won, right? Because it's really not that big of a deal for God. What we think is hard for God

is not hard for God. And so he defeats this army. And it says in Asa, the people who were with him pursued him. And he said, I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to pursue them. As far as Gerar, verse 13, and so many Ethiopians fell that they could not recover for they were shattered before the Lord and before his army. And they carried away very much plunder

and they destroyed all the cities for the dread of the Lord had fallen on them all. And they spoiled all the cities for there was much plunder in them. They also struck down those who own livestock and they carried away large numbers of sheep and camels and then returned to Jerusalem. I would say we call that a decisive victory. A decisive victory. God sends someone to remind Asa where the victory came from. And we're going

to see at the end of chapter, we're going to see in chapter 16 why this is important. But I want you to notice what happens. It says, the Spirit of God came on Azariah, chapter 15, verse 1, the son of Oded, which is a terrible name. And he went out to meet Asa and he said to him, listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin, the Lord is with you when you are with me.

And he said to him, listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin, the Lord is with you when you are with me. And he said to him, listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin, the Lord is with you when you are with me. And if you seek him, he will let you find him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. Listen, if you're an underliner, you should underline that verse. If you like to highlight,

you should highlight that verse. If you want to circle it, circle that verse. Because this is an important verse. Let me read it to you again. The Lord is with you when you are with him. And if you seek him, he will let you find him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. This warning is going to ring very clear in chapter 16. But it's important for us to pay attention to in chapter 15.

If you're with him, he's with you. If you seek him, he'll let you find him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. Listen, I think if we've seen anything in the books of 1 and 2 Kings, and so far 1 and 2 Chronicles, it's that God is always looking to show himself strong. And we're going to read this in just a minute. But he shows himself strong for those who are fully dependent upon him. To those who say, I can't do it, I need you.

As a matter of fact, he's going to go on to say that. He said, For many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without the law, speaking of the time of Rehoboam and Abijah. But in their distress, they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought him, and he let them find him. And in those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all of the inhabitants of the land. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them,

with every kind of distress. But you, be strong, and don't lose courage, for there is reward for your work. Verse 7 of 2 Chronicles 15 is like a cold drink on a hot day for anybody that serves the Lord. Again, I actually have this underlined, and I have a little star next to it. The star is not very neat because I can't write very well. But I know that's the first I should look at.

But you, be strong, don't lose courage, for there is a reward for your work. And I don't know who that's a word for tonight. It was a word for me today. I don't know who that's a word for tonight, but I want to tell you, be strong, and don't lose courage, because there is a reward for your work. Listen, walking with Jesus, serving the Lord, is sometimes work that you go,

Lord, I'm putting in a lot, and I'm not seeing a lot come out of it. Lord, I'm putting in a lot, and I'm not seeing a lot come out of it. Lord, I'm putting in a lot, and I'm not seeing a lot come out of it. not seeing a lot of result from it. And we have to be reminded sometimes, keep doing the work because there's a reward for the work. Keep doing what I've called you to do

because there's a reward for what I've called you to do. Same verse comes up in the New Testament when he says, and let us not grow weary in well-doing for in due season we will reap if we do not grow weary. Keep putting in the time. Keep putting in the time with your kids. Keep putting in the time with your grandkids. Keep putting in the time of devotions.

Keep putting in the time of serving in the Sunday school ministry or the ushers ministry or whatever ministry you're involved in. If you're not involved in a ministry here at the church or within your family, then today's the day to start and start putting in the work to see what God's able to do because I promise you it's rewarding. And so he says, but you be strong and do not lose courage for there is a reward for your work. When Asa heard these words and the prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded the prophet spoke, he took courage and he removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin from the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim.

He then restored the altar of the Lord which was in front of the porch of the Lord and he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who resided with him. For many defected to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. And they assembled at Jerusalem in the third month in the 15th year of Asa's reign and they sacrificed to the Lord that day 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoil that they had brought. They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul.

And whoever would not seek the God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. Moreover, they made an oath to the Lord with a loud voice. With shouting and with trumpets and with horns. And all Judah rejoiced concerning the oath for they had sworn with their whole heart and had sought him earnestly and he let them find him. So the Lord gave them rest on every side

and he also removed Maaka, the mother of King Asa from the position of queen mother. Let me read that to you again. He also removed Maaka, the mother of King Asa. Now there's some conjecture as to who this is, what it is. Was it actually his mother? Was it his grandmother? Either way, this woman was idolatrous in her nature and he removed her from his position.

Listen, I'm here to tell you right now, there's scary people and then there's your mom, right? And when you go remove mom, that's a pretty serious, or grandma for that matter, it's a pretty serious situation. That's breaking some family ties. But he said, you know, I don't care if you're family. If you're leading people astray, you can't be a part of this. You can't be a part of this anymore.

So he even removed the queen mother from her position because she had made a horrid image in Asherah, as in Asherah, and Asa cut down her horrid image, crushed it and burned it. But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless, Asa's heart was blameless all his days and he brought into the house of God the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things, silver and gold and utensils. And there was no more war until the 30th century.

The 35th year of Asa's reign. I want to point something out to you. God laid a message on the heart of a man, on the heart of a prophet, who came to Asa and said, you're doing great work. Don't give up the work. Keep doing the work that God has called for you to do. Keep seeking God. Keep listening to God. Don't forsake God. Stay strong. And Asa took those words of encouragement,

and he went and continued the work of reform in the land until the land was completely reformed. I tell that to you because you need to hear this. Sometimes God gives you an encouraging word for somebody that you see is putting in the work and not seeing the results. Sometimes God gives you an encouraging word for someone and you think, that's dumb. I'm not gonna tell them that.

That would sound silly for me to go to them and tell them that. Listen, go tell them that. Because you have no idea and I'm telling you this from experience. You have no idea how much an encouraging word energizes an individual. You see a mom out there who's putting in the work with her kids and it feels like, because I know what it's like raising these kids,

and it feels like you're the only one doing the work and it's not making any difference whatsoever, but to have somebody else come alongside and say, hey, I see you. I see what you're doing. I see how you're pouring into your kids. I see how you keep pouring into Jesus. Don't give up, okay? I promise. You're gonna see the reward. You may not see it today. You may not see it tomorrow,

but I promise you're gonna see the reward. You see one of these kids out there continuing to walk with Jesus. Listen, even if a kid's not walking with Jesus in the most perfect way, but you see them trying. You see them trying to get into the word. You see them here in worship. You see them showing up every Sunday. You go tell them, I see you. I see you showing up every Sunday.

And I love that. I love what God is doing. That you showing up every Sunday is what's, is what you're doing. What's changing your life. You keep putting in the work. God laid this on my heart one time about a year and a half ago. I saw a young lady reading her Bible. My wife and I kept seeing her in there reading her Bible. My FCA boss and I, we'd see her in there reading her Bible.

So I go up to her and I say, hey, I love this, okay? You keep doing this. This is good stuff, college kid. So you keep doing this. This is good stuff. I love to, I love to see kids reading their Bible and journaling about what they're reading. You keep up the good work. Well, that young lady ended up, ended up helping me start FCA on this campus over here. All because of an encouraging word.

You never know what God's gonna do in the life of somebody by telling them, hey, God laid this on my heart to tell you. I'm just, I'm just throwing this out there to you. You keep doing what you're doing because God's using you. And so, so this prophet brings this word to Asa and he carries it and he goes and he continues this movement of God. And Asa's heart was blameless.

It says in chapter 16, verse 12, verse one, in the 36th year of Asa's reign, Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and he fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa, king of Judah. And Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king Sassanid sent them to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, let there be a treaty between, between you and me as between my father and your father and behold, I have a treaty between you and me and I have sent you silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me. And so Ben-Hadad listened to king Asa and he sent the commanders of his army against the cities of Israel

and they conquered the Ihon and Dan and Abel-Maim and all the store cities of Naphtali and when Baasha heard of it, he ceased fortifying Ramah and he stopped his work. King Asa brought all Judah and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timber with which Baasha had been building and with them he fortified Geba and Mizpah. Now this doesn't make any sense. Ethiopian army, twice your size, more military technology than you, no way on God's green earth you ever defeat that army.

You draw up in battle array and you go out and you pray and God routes the army before you. You have brought reforms like no other to your land and yet the king of Israel begins to build up fortifications against you and what do you do? Well, in my mind, you go back to God, right? That's where you saw the success. But you see Asa, Asa started gaining a little bit of success himself.

He started coming up with some worldly ideas and he thought, you know what the best thing to do right now is? Best thing to do is make a treaty with Ben-Hadad, king of Aram and he can come against Israel and that'll draw them away from me and that'll draw them away from me and then I don't have an army that I have to fight. I wonder why he didn't ask God. I wonder why he didn't pray about this.

Why did he choose this? And you know what the unfortunate thing was? It worked. You know, sometimes the worst thing that God can allow to happen in our lives is for our plan to work. Sometimes that's the worst thing for us because we just went, ah, my left arm may not work but I came up with another plan.

Well, God saw it and when he saw it, he knows what it says. At that time, Hanani, verse seven, the seer, came to Asa, king of Judah. He said to him, because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand. Were not the Ethiopians and Lubim an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen?

Yet because you relied on the Lord, he delivered them in your hand. For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on, you will surely have wars. Ah, God saw it. So God sent someone to say, what are you doing, dude? Remember those other armies?

They were like twice your size and you were like, I'm gonna die and then you cried out to God and God delivered you. Don't you think God could have done the same thing? You let an enemy army that's gonna end up causing you problems escape out of your hand. Don't you know, and I love this. Again, if you're an underliner, you should underline this. Don't you know that the eyes of the Lord

move to and fro throughout the earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. God is looking for people to support. God is looking for people to show himself strong on behalf of. God's like, who can I help today? Who can I do something miraculous through today? Who can I do something amazing through today? He's just looking for people

whose hearts completely belong to him, whose hearts are loyal to him. That's another way that word completely given to him is translated, whose hearts are loyal to him so that he can show himself strong on their behalf. So that he can show himself strong on behalf of those who are loyal to him. I praise God for the stories that I have in my life. I praise God for the times

when God has shown himself strong on my behalf. My greatest fear is that one day I'll think I've got a plan. Is that one day I'll go, I think I've figured this whole thing out. Because in the moment that we think we've figured this whole thing out, we have not, in fact, figured this whole thing out. We have actually, in fact, shot ourselves in the foot. Because that's exactly what happens to Asa.

Now you would think in this moment, Asa would go, dude, you're right. What was I thinking? And I think if that happened in that moment, everything's great. We go back to good things. Asa finishes out his life great. But that's not what happens.

Verse 10, Then Asa was angry with the seer. He put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. And the acts of Asa from first to last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And in the 39th year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his disease was severe.

Yet even in his disease, because he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians.

So Asa slept with his fathers, having died in the 41st year of his reign. They buried him in his own tomb, which he had cut out for himself in the city of David. They laid him in the resting place, which he had filled with spices of various kinds, blended with the perfumer's art, and they made a very great fire for him. Usually, what we talk about with the fall of a king is we talk about him falling into some sort of moral impurity, some sort of idolatry, some sort of idol worship, some sort of a moral issue in his life.

The interesting thing about Asa is it wasn't a fall in his morality. It wasn't a fall in idolatry. As a matter of fact, and I struggled with this as I was reading this. Look back at chapter 15, verse 17. But Asa's heart was blameless all his days. Now, I struggled with this verse. How could Asa's heart have been blameless all of his days if this ending incident happened in his life?

Well, because Asa would be able to stand up and say, I never gave into the idolatry. I never gave into the immorality. I actually 100% followed God in my worship of God. Except he did not really trust the Lord in the end. He began to trust in everything but God. He trusted in his military understanding. He trusted in his military might. He even trusted in the doctors

more than he trusted in God. Now, I'm not trying to say you shouldn't go to a doctor, okay? Do not misunderstand me here. I'm a big fan of doctors. They really helped me out the other day. But what I'm saying is God has to be the ultimate trust in our lives. There is more than one way to fall. And it's not just, in moral things. It's in our faith as well. What is your faith in?

Because you, maybe like Asa, can say, I didn't give into any of the idolatry. I didn't give into any of the immorality. But I trust way more in my retirement account than I do in God. I trust way more in my job than I do in God. I trust way more in my intellect and my knowledge than I do God. And we have to remember, the eyes of the Lord, search to and fro throughout the earth.

And he's simply looking to show himself strong on behalf of those who are loyal to him. On behalf of those who say, I ain't got what it takes. Lord, this one's got to be all you. Sometimes the greatest thing and the hardest thing to repent of in our lives is trust in other things besides God because it's the easiest to justify. It's the easiest to justify because it looks the best

on paper. I didn't do anything bad. No, but you also didn't trust the Lord. God desires wholehearted trust in him. The good thing about God is he will usually bring us to a place where all we have is him. The question is, if all you have is God, are you willing to trust in him? Brothers and sisters, God wants to do good things in your life and God wants to do great things through you.

But it's going to require complete trust in the ability of God and the complete abandonment of God. It's going to require complete trust in the ability of God. It's going to require complete self-discipline and the complete fulfillment of our own strength and our own ability. Amen? Father, we come to you now and I thank you for these stories and these examples.

And Lord, I pray that we would be those who would trust in you. Lord, that we would be strong, that we would not lose courage, but that we would continue the work knowing that you are the one who ultimately brings us success. And so Lord, keep our hearts true towards you. We just thank you, Father. you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.