[0:00] Well then, get your Bibles open please to 2 Chronicles. We'll be in chapter 26 in a little bit. Let me review briefly with you last Sunday. I gave you some thoughts about some dangers, that there are potential dangers in growing old and getting older in life and moving from one stage to another.
[0:23] And we saw some men, some good men, some positive figures in the Bible that as they got older they blew it. And the end of their story is an ugly ending.
[0:34] And we remember some things about their goodness and their walk with God, but what we studied last Sunday, we saw Gideon delivered God's people from the Midianites and the Amalekites and wrought a great victory where he was called a mighty man of valor when he didn't perceive himself to be anything like that.
[0:53] And yet God used him with an army of 300 to just completely annihilate and to chase down and whip and completely outnumbered they were.
[1:04] You know that. So Gideon had an opportunity then to rule over Israel. They came to him. They wanted him to lead them and guide them and to rule over them. He, his sons, his sons' sons. And he said, I will not rule over you.
[1:15] The Lord shall rule over you. And it sounded kind of like a noble thought for Gideon to say that. But the truth was he rejected an opportunity that God placed him in, a position he placed him in of leadership and authority.
[1:28] And the Lord would have ruled over them through Gideon either way. But God, Gideon kind of had a cop out saying, really what I see is him saying God will take care of it.
[1:40] I'm not interested. I've already done my part. And Gideon went back home. And what we see the next thing he does when he rejects the opportunity that God gave him, he gets earrings of gold of the prey of the battle.
[1:53] And he goes and makes an ephod and it becomes a snare unto him and to his household. And things go downhill from there. Gideon rejected an opportunity to serve God thinking that he had already put his time in.
[2:05] And he was just going to coast the rest of the way through life. And I think that's a bad place. It's a dangerous place you could be. It's looking back as if you've done enough. You've already done what God has called you to do.
[2:17] And, of course, God wasn't going to call Gideon to deliver Israel from the Midianites again. He was giving him an opportunity to do something different. There was a transition, a shift that was there and available to him.
[2:28] And he didn't want it. And he ended up getting stale and doing nothing and wasting his life. Then we studied Solomon, King Solomon, and what a character he is.
[2:39] The wisest man and given knowledge and wisdom and understanding from God Almighty. Just directly inputted that into him. He woke up the next day seeing the world a little bit differently.
[2:50] And Solomon had riches and wealth uncomparable. And at the beginning of his life, we read that he says in chapter 3, verse 3 of 1 Kings that he loved the Lord.
[3:04] And as a young man, he needed God. And he prayed and he sought the wisdom of God. And he walked in the ways of God. But then when he's old, in chapter 11, it says that he loved many strange women.
[3:14] And they turned his heart from the Lord. And the danger of getting old is you don't need God anymore like you did. And when he was young, he relied on God's understanding and wisdom.
[3:27] He needed that. He didn't seek the wealth. He sought the truth of what he needed in his heart to rule God's people. But now he's a little more complacent and disinterested in that because he's been there and done that.
[3:37] And his heart was turned away. It's a dangerous place to be where you don't feel like you need God anymore. Or to where you can handle it because you've done it. You've got experience now. You've got wisdom now.
[3:48] They come to you for wisdom instead of you begging God. And it's a dangerous place. The children get older. They move out of the house. And you're not seeking God to help you to raise them and to guide them and to supply your needs.
[4:02] Now you're good. And there can be a bad place in life where you can be tempted to not rely on the Lord and not to seek him. As Solomon, his heart got turned away from God towards something it shouldn't have.
[4:13] Then the final king we looked at was Joash in 2 Chronicles 24. And Joash started off great and he repaired the temple and he had Jehoiada, the priest that was guiding him.
[4:29] And all the days of Jehoiada, he served the Lord and walked in the ways of David. And he was upright before God. But the danger of him getting older was the generation that was his leader passed on.
[4:42] And there's absolutely a danger there that if you don't have a personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, that you can stand on your own and you're just following a leader, when that leader goes on and it will happen, it will absolutely happen.
[4:56] Change is inevitable in life. And leadership falls and dies. And sometimes it's just they go to the grave. They go to the Lord. Sometimes they mess up. And what are you going to do?
[5:09] And it generally doesn't happen to the younger generation. It happens as they get older. And the leadership falls and disappears. And now it's up to them to stand on their own.
[5:20] And the question is, are you strong enough? Are you prepared? Is your relationship with Jesus Christ what it ought to be? So that you can stand and you don't need the help of others holding you up and encouraging you and keeping you in the fight.
[5:34] You will fall if you're not prepared. So now I want to look at three other kings. And we're going to begin with King Uzziah here in 2 Chronicles 26. And this is an interesting guy here.
[5:49] He doesn't have a whole lot to say, but there's always more in the text than we perceive if we'll look into it. In 2 Chronicles 26, let's just read verse number 3, where it says 16 years old was Uzziah when he began to reign.
[6:05] And he reigned 50 and 2 years in Jerusalem. 52 years. Now we're not going to get 52 years worth of material in this chapter of this man.
[6:17] Understand this spans some time. And so what he does, as we'll read, doesn't just happen overnight. And it doesn't happen in the first two years of his reign. But this man is a successful man.
[6:29] And he's a successful king in several ways. Continue reading. Look at verse 4. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did. He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God.
[6:41] And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. And now we get a description of some of his prosperity. It's in military success.
[6:53] In verse number 6, he went forth and warred against the Philistines and break down the wall of Gath. Anybody know anything about Gath? Philistine city, yeah.
[7:08] And who came from there? I heard it over here. Goliath of Gath. Yeah, that big giant. David was down there in Gath, too. Got himself in Gath with the sword of Goliath when he was running from Saul.
[7:19] And that's when he was scraping on the gates. Yeah, so this king goes down there and just wipes out their wall, their defense.
[7:30] There's a few more cities. The wall of Jabna, the wall of Ashdod. And built cities about Ashdod and among the Philistines. Building cities inside of Philistine territory.
[7:43] So he's militarily strong. He's not intimidated by the Philistines. God helped him, in verse 7, against the Philistines and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gerbiel and Mahunims.
[7:55] And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah. Now that's on the other side of the river, up a little bit toward the north. And now they're subject to him as well, giving him gifts.
[8:06] And his name, verse 8, his name spread abroad, even to the entering in of Egypt. For he strengthened himself exceedingly. Continues in verse 9, he built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate and at the valley gate and at the turning of the wall and fortified them.
[8:22] And he built towers in the desert and digged many wells. That's smart. For he had much cattle, both in the low country and in the plains. Husbandmen also and vinedressers in the mountains and in the carmel.
[8:33] For he loved husbandry. So this guy puts his hands to so many things. Up in the elevation where things can grow, they've got a similar climate to this. And in that elevation, he's growing some things.
[8:45] Husbandry, what did it say there? Vinedressers. And that's a very valuable crop in that time and era. And they didn't have Pepsis.
[8:57] I know. Hard to imagine, huh? Or bottled water. I mean, the Perriere. So none of that. But they did have vinedressers and the best.
[9:11] And that was something big. And so he does that up there in the lower countries. He's using that as well with his cattle, digging wells to sustain all of that. This man is spreading out and growing and prospering all over the place.
[9:24] And in verse 11, moreover, Uzziah had a host of fighting men that went out to war by bands according to the number of their account. These are special forces.
[9:35] And in verse number 12, the whole number of the chief of the fathers of the mighty men of valor were 2,600. And under their hand was an army, 300,000 and 7,500 that made war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy.
[9:48] It talks about some of his preparation for his battlements and for his defense. In verse 15, he made in Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows and great stones withal.
[10:04] And his name spread far abroad, for he was marvelously helped till he was strong. Now, that didn't take place in the first two months, right? That took time for him to build and to prosper here and to there and to gain there.
[10:18] And in those 52 years of his reign, he continued to grow and establish himself, marvelously helped till he was strong. His name spread abroad even to Egypt.
[10:30] He strengthened himself exceedingly. So he's growing and growing and growing and further establishing himself in the kingdom and putting down enemies. He's a very successful man.
[10:41] Everything he's turning to and doing, he's finding success. He's very strong. And yet there's a problem. Though he's industrious and though he's feared and honored and there's success at every turn and there's enlargement to this king and his kingdom.
[10:59] In verse 16, but when he was strong, that wasn't when he was 16 years old. It was older. It was much later in life. When he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.
[11:14] For he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. King, you're royalty, but you're not a holy man of God.
[11:29] You don't go into the temple of God and touch that stuff. That's for the Levites. That's for the priests that are consecrated and have the holy oil on them. That God laid that out and he knows better.
[11:42] God expressed that clearly throughout these books previous in Exodus. He laid it out in Leviticus. The duties described to that priest and his order. He knows better than to go into the temple of the Lord.
[11:54] Why is his heart lifted up to feel like he can go do that? Because he's strong. Because he's got mighty power. Because he's successful. Because he feels like he's arrived.
[12:06] And like he's somebody. In chapter 26 and verse 5, we read, That as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. That tells us that his destruction is here now.
[12:19] That tells us he's not seeking the Lord anymore. This man's got lifted up in pride. And the result is in this chapter that he gets leprosy from the Lord. And it shows up in verse 19.
[12:31] It rose up in his forehead. On the spot. And he gets thrust out. And in verse 21, Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death.
[12:42] And he dwelled in a several house. Not the king's house. The throne room. Now he's somewhere else. He's even kicked out of everything. And his son takes over. Now what happened here?
[12:54] It wasn't when he was young. That his heart got lifted up. It was when he was old. It's when he's done that. And when he's successful, he's got accomplishments. And there's a danger in that age.
[13:04] There's a danger in that time to lose sight of who you are. And where your limitations are. And there's a danger that his king shows us. He is royalty, but he's not holy before God to where he's allowed to do those things.
[13:18] And he got to thinking, I can do whatever I want. I'm the biggest, baddest guy around. I do that. I am established. I'm the king. Nobody tells me no.
[13:28] Now as a young man, you come up under others, correct? Even at work, you come up underneath your superiors. In the home, you're underneath parents.
[13:39] You're always under somebody. But there comes a day and time in life where you become the one on top. Maybe it's not the president of the company or those things. But you understand. You move up in life.
[13:51] You look back and all of a sudden, everybody looks so young. Everybody looks so young. And the truth is, it's because you're changing, okay? You're changing.
[14:03] Come to Philippians chapter 3. I want to keep your place here, but come to Philippians. I want to point a verse out. The apostle Paul tells us. Chapter 3 of Philippians.
[14:14] When that pride shows up, God shows us something about his nature. He dealt with it quickly. He dealt with it on the spot.
[14:25] And he removed him. In Philippians chapter 3, look at verses 13 and 14. Paul says this, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.
[14:39] But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
[14:51] What's Paul saying? He's not trusting in himself or in his accomplishments, which he kind of brags about a little bit earlier in the chapter. He's acknowledging, as what we might think of as the greatest Christian ever, the one that we're told in the Bible to follow.
[15:08] In verse 17, Brethren, be followers together of me. And as we're following him, he says, I'm not done. I haven't arrived. I haven't attained or apprehended.
[15:20] I'm pressing forward. I'm still going forward to God. There's plenty in me that needs to be cleaned up and fixed. Plenty. But when a king gets lifted up in pride, he looks around and says, I'm the guy.
[15:33] I'll do what I want. There's a difference in that mentality from the Apostle Paul to what we see in King Uzziah. Both were leaders. But the one felt like he'd arrived. His success got to his head.
[15:45] And the tendency in growing old is looking at your successes and in your accomplishments and your experience and forgetting, like we talked about in Sunday school, that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a sinner that is dead in your trespasses and sins.
[16:03] You're on your way to hell. You're going to suffer the vengeance of God against your sins and you deserve it. And that's what you're, that's case closed, apart from Jesus Christ. And if you forget that you were purged from your old sins, you might be like Uzziah and get lifted up in pride.
[16:20] And again, it just generally doesn't happen in this case when you're young. It can be when you're older. It can be when you don't think you need it. Now the Bible will remind you of what you are.
[16:32] And the preacher, God willing, will remind you of what you are. But when you get your heart lifted up, you're not going to hear that. You're not going to read that. So be careful.
[16:43] If you're getting older in life, be careful that you don't look at your success and see how you've become established. Be careful. There's a danger there. Look at 2 Chronicles again.
[16:53] Now move to chapter 29. Here's another king that we all know. King Hezekiah. And if you read through your Bible, you know Hezekiah may be that name more than others.
[17:10] One reason is because people think that's a book of the Bible. They like to joke Hezekiah chapter 2. But that's not true. He's mentioned three different times. He's mentioned in 2 Kings.
[17:20] He's mentioned in 2 Chronicles. And then Isaiah gives a story of Hezekiah several chapters in the 30s. So you read through your Bible, you read three different times accounts of this king.
[17:33] And you get a little bit of information from each one. Now let's read the first three verses here to get introduced to him. Hezekiah began to reign when he was 5 and 20 years old. And he reigned 9 and 20 years in Jerusalem.
[17:44] His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 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.
[18:01] And he brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them together into each street and said unto them, Hear me, ye 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.
[18:16] For our fathers have trespassed and on he goes. Now that's a good start. In the first year, in the first month, he didn't sit around too long before he realized, I've got to take care of the house of God.
[18:29] You know, that, as goes the leadership, goes the nation. And this guy is sitting here looking at the nation and realizing there's a cause. And the house of God has got some abominations inside of it.
[18:45] And that thing is, God is not there. And so what he decides right away, first things first, I'm cleaning this thing up. And he gets off to an incredible start, wasting no time, offering sacrifices and through the next chapter or so, I call it nothing short of revival in the land.
[19:03] He keeps a Sabbath day, a feast of seven days. It goes further than that. Look at chapter 29 and look at verse 36.
[19:20] Hezekiah rejoiced and all the people that God had prepared the people for the thing was done suddenly. And that is, he's quickly turning the entire tide of the nation, spiritually speaking, and getting the Lord's worship going again, getting the Levites set up with their songs and their psalteries and harps and cymbals back in verse 25.
[19:42] They're standing, they're singing, they're praising. Like this was all just falling outside. And he just gets cleaned up, gets things moving, gets them right back in line where they ought to be.
[19:53] And keeping that Passover in chapter 30 and in 31, it describes how, what a cleansing that has taken place. This man prospered.
[20:04] Look at 31, the very last verse. Verse, I'll read 20 and 21. And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah and wrought that which was good and right and truth before the Lord his God.
[20:18] 31, 21. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God and in the law and in the commandments to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered.
[20:30] Now you've got to understand that things have really changed because he took the throne and cleaned up and made some changes right away. And wouldn't that be a blessing? Don't hold your breath on this, but wouldn't it be a blessing to get a man in office in this land that said, first things first, let's clean it up.
[20:48] Let's repeal all this garbage to where he tries to take out Jesus Christ and the word of God and prayer and all the sin and out. Out now. Out.
[20:58] All of it. Wouldn't that be a blessing? Could you imagine the enjoyment that we would have the reprieve, but don't hold your breath? You know better. You should. Now anyway, this king has done some stuff and God's with him.
[21:14] And he's so wealthy. Look, where is a reference to this here specifically? I don't think I have it marked.
[21:26] Okay, look at 32. Yeah, 32.27. And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor and he made himself treasuries for silver because he couldn't keep it in his house, how much he was just building up.
[21:46] Treasuries for silver and for gold and for precious stones and for spices and for shields and for all manner of pleasant jewels. Storehouses also for the increase of corn and wine and oil and stalls for all the manner of beasts and coats for flocks.
[22:02] Moreover, he provided him cities and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance for God had given him substance very much. This same Hezekiah also stopped at the upper watercourse in Gihon and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David and Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
[22:21] So you got the picture. You understand the man and his ruling and his spirituality and the blessing of God on his kingdom both kingdom wide but also personally.
[22:33] And so he's in that spot and God has He's even miraculously given him years of his life. He'll even do something with him a little bit. However, the king of Babylon hears of the wealth of this man and says, I could take him.
[22:51] I know I could take him. And so he sends down his general. He sends down a word that says, well, first of all, he sends some ambassadors down in verse 31. He sends some ambassadors to go inquire, find out, is it as true as I hear?
[23:07] And in verse 31, how be it in the matter? In the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, this is mentioned in a little bit more detail back in 2 Kings 20. In this business, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart.
[23:29] So the king of Babylon, the Assyrians come down and they check him out. And what Hezekiah does is they ask about his wealth and about all this prosperity.
[23:40] And he says, yeah, come on, let me give you a tour. Let me show you everything I have, everything I own, and God was supremely displeased with this action.
[23:52] And it might sound innocent just giving them a tour of the land, but it was something else going on as we just saw there. God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart.
[24:03] And apparently, there's something in the king's heart there that he's trusting in his riches or he's elevated that stuff so high in his heart that when an outside of the land heathen comes to him and wants to talk about it and see it, he doesn't see that as a problem.
[24:21] He doesn't say, get lost. He doesn't say, this is none of your business. He says, come on in here, friend. Let's have a cup of coffee. Let me show you what I got. Let me treat you. It's my treat.
[24:32] And King Hezekiah, though he was spiritually minded in his youth, he gets prosperous. And here he gets to where he slips.
[24:44] He lets his guard down. And he says, come on in and I'll show you how prosperous I am. And in this situation, God says, that's it. And we read it twice that the Bible says he was prosperous.
[24:56] And that's the very thing that displeased the Lord was his prosperity, showing that off. Now, what can we learn from this? Well, it didn't happen when he was young. Because when you're young, how prosperous are you?
[25:11] When you're young and dumb and they say you don't have two nickels to rub together. It's when you're young and raising a family that you're not tempted with things with money that well, are you? You don't have any.
[25:23] At least, am I just preaching to myself here? When you're raising kids, when you're trying to fix, you don't have that. But when do you start to get established?
[25:35] When are you comfortable, typically speaking, in life? When don't you have the stress of the bills, the stress of it? It's when you're older. It's when you're prosperous.
[25:46] It's when the kids are gone and they're on their own. It's when you're in the golden years. You can accumulate things over life, but be careful because God might leave you and He might try you to see if they have your heart.
[26:01] Look at a guy in Luke chapter 12. I want to just read a verse from Luke chapter 12 and herein, a statement he makes reveals to us the danger of growing old.
[26:16] It has something to do with prosperity. It has something to do with things being a little bit easier. In Luke chapter 12 and we'll read verse 16 down through about 20.
[26:32] He spake a parable unto them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself saying, what shall I do? Behold, I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do.
[26:43] This is what Hezekiah did actually. I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods and here's the problem. Verse 19, And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
[26:57] Take thine ease. We say today, take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool. God's not pleased with a man that he's blessed, that's prosperous, that says, I'm just going to take it easy now.
[27:16] I don't have the stress anymore. I'm set up. I'm established. I've got my retirement. I've got my property. I've got things lined up and laid out. Soul, finally, you can just take it easy.
[27:31] You don't got to fear. You don't got to worry about the stability of the market or things that you stress. You don't have to worry about paying school bills or providing and buying clothes or hospital bills or births or any of those things that come with that with raising a family in those younger years.
[27:49] Now your pay is not the base pay that you started at. Now your pay is the top of the ladder in business.
[27:59] Things change. The older you get, the more prosperous you can become. And there's a danger because it can be those things that take your heart from God. He can allow you to have them. I wonder if he ever tested you with them like I said earlier.
[28:14] What if he wanted to take it away from you and you had a decision to make? Are you truly here to serve God or does something else have your heart? To avoid this danger don't let these things take your heart.
[28:27] Give them to God. That's the best way to show that they don't have your heart is when you show God I'll give it to you. You can have it. You say the word Lord and he may not.
[28:39] He may not require it of you. But I wonder if you could get on your knees and think about everything that you own and everything put it all in one pile one piece of paper and say God if you want it you can have it all.
[28:53] You are my savior. I'm content with that. If you want to take all of this it's yours. I wonder if you can think even sitting here if that makes you nervous to think I don't know if I would do that.
[29:09] King Hezekiah let his prosperity get to his heart. And it's in the older years of your life where the prosperity is most likely the best when it's the easiest.
[29:21] I recommend you work on laying up treasure in heaven. I recommend you find something that your money can do for God for the kingdom of God rather than leave it here.
[29:33] I just read of somebody I read of a it's probably a generation ago of a man that was wealthy and he started giving it away and I'm trying to put the words together in my mind the phrase that he used it was something to the effect of I do not want to die and leave this behind having never used it for God was his thinking and he started giving it away giving it toward churches toward ministry toward missionaries toward things of that nature just trying to to lay up treasure in heaven because he realized if I leave it here I'm going to give account for that I should do something with it and he gave it to the Lord and I'm not here to call on you for your money believe me I just want you to please God and I don't want money and prosperity and things to have your heart make sure that God has your heart now after King Hezekiah some wicked kings go by and then pops up this beloved king chapter 34
[30:39] Josiah and Josiah is a beloved character in the Bible he's an 8 year old when he began to reign and he pleases the Lord in verses 1 and 2 you can see he's 8 years old you can see in verse 2 that he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of David his father he declined neither to the right hand nor to the left and this young man had some the note in my Bible says reformation under this king Josiah he did some things again with the temple when the wicked kings get in they just that's one thing they don't have any use for and so as you see this cycle of getting the temple of God back up and functioning again this is what Josiah did he's definitely somebody special in 2 Kings 23 verse 25 it says like unto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him so as much as we've heard some good things about previous guys this guy's heart exceeded them in his love and devotion and sincerity for seeking after God they find the scriptures in the house of God they find the word of God he's never apparently seen it in his life and they find a copy of the law and bring it to him and they obey what was in that book he took it to heart he believed the words of that book and they kept a Passover look at chapter 35 this was more than what Hezekiah did a few generations earlier they got things cleaned up and kept the Passover this Jewish feast prescribed by God it says in verse 17 35 17 and the children of Israel that were present kept the Passover at that time and the feast of unleavened bread seven days and there was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel that were present and the inhabitants of Jerusalem yeah it was something special whether you can envision it or understand it or not he was doing something incredible as he followed the word of God with all of his heart more than anybody before him and yet he gets a little bit older and as we've seen that's where the problem falls look at verse 20 a couple verses here five verses after all this when Josiah had prepared the temple
[33:30] Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates and Josiah went out against him but he sent ambassadors to him saying what have I to do with thee thou king of Judah I come not against thee this day but against the house wherewith I have war for God commanded me to make haste forbear thee from meddling with God who is with me that he destroy thee not isn't that wild a heathen king is rebuking God's king over Israel because he's out of his he's stepping across the line God's telling me to do this so verse 22 nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him too proud but disguised himself that he might fight with him and hearken not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo and the archers shot at Josiah and the king said to his servants have me away for I'm sore wounded his servants therefore took him out of the chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem and he died he died why did he die he died fighting a battle that wasn't his to fight wasn't any of his business it's interesting that it was of the Lord the Lord is moving and working in the Gentile nations and this proud king sees that he's accomplished some things and has a good heart and reforms the land and really incredible stuff of this king a special special guy maybe too special because he died fighting a battle that wasn't his why did he go against them
[35:03] I'd say he lost his focus on what God had called him to do and he decided I'll go fix somebody else's problem I've fixed all of this I can fix that too I'm an influencer I have great influence over people in this land if I show up they'll do what I say and it ended up being his life he tried to keep peace when God ordered a war now if this stuff doesn't land in your right between your eyes where you sit today in this country then you better wake up and I think some of you need to wake up I think a lot of Christians need to wake up they've been programmed to think a certain way for generations and they're oblivious that God has called some people to make some wars he's putting some pieces together God has always had a timetable that he moves on and if you don't see it there's things lining up that seem to be very strongly headed toward the end toward what the scripture tells us is going to happen for somebody to stand up and say
[36:12] I can fix this our land's going down but I can fix it we can fix it if we'll just donate to the Republican Party that's who's going to help fix this land we want it back we want it to be great and the heathen would look at you and say why are you coming to fight this battle Christian why are you getting involved in this God's doing something and I'm not just here to trash our land I please don't misinterpret my feelings and my understanding and I know where I come from and I am thankful to stand at liberty and to preach and to have a Bible I understand but the day that you think that this Bible is red, white, and blue you're deceived you think Jesus Christ is wearing a MAGA hat no he'd spit on that that's not even in his conversation he's somewhere else but this king here thought he could fight a battle and a war that didn't belong to him and he left off from what he was supposed to be doing to get involved with something and go against God because God was lining some things up and moving like he does the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he moveth it whithersoever he will and the king said no I'm going to stop that one from happening and he was wrong and I'd say there's a danger in growing old here because you can lose focus as you get older in life it's not the younger crowd that cares so much about the politics and that's so deeply ingrained and talks and talks and talks about it it's an older generation that has seen it different in their day and see
[38:04] I've seen it different in my youth to where we are today and they see it differently and know that it's changed and they talk about getting it back and talk about what we used to be and they spend their focus and their time and even donate their money to these causes that are not the kingdom of God they're not of the Lord they're fighting a battle that's not to be fought the church's job is still to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to disciple converts to edify the body of Christ and to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and there's no nationalities there there's no boundaries there there's neither Jew nor Greek bond nor free the Lord Jesus Christ the body of Jesus Christ does not keep our borders safe it's go ye into all the world so if you want to want to fight the battle you're supposed to fight and put your money where it's supposed to go put it into the efforts of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and winning lost souls before this thing is over but there's a tendency to try to fix things there's a tendency of an older generation to try to put their efforts into getting things better and the security that we once had whereas the instability just seems to grow stronger and stronger what do you think somebody's going to fix it so sayeth the scriptures somebody's going to come in and bring everybody together and make it all believable and even so come Lord Jesus but let's focus on what we're here to do now if I was if we were in let's just say we were in Germany or we were in Yugoslavia if we were in South America in a country there and that's where we were and I was looking at this king this Republican Democrat stuff wouldn't even be on our radar would it?
[40:05] we'd be focusing on the scriptures there'd be probably economic and social justice issues and all of that going on all over the world should your heart be wrapped up in that?
[40:18] is your heart wrapped up in the political landscape of Bolivia right now? are you married to what's going on with Russia and Ukraine?
[40:28] has that really got your gut twisted what the gas prices have done? or are we focusing on the wrong battle? so there's plenty of dangers in growing old there's and everybody grows old this is not just if you're above 75 this is for you this is everybody's going that direction and you're going to transition from one phase of life into another slowly be careful and most of this if these positive godly men from Gideon to Joash or Josiah could fall take heed you think you stand take heed lest ye fall and folks these men I'm saying they're the cream of the crop they're some of the best guys there is and they fell when they got older there's something to that there's something that we need to be aware of god recorded that portion of their life for us to learn from
[41:30] I don't want this church to be stale and I believe we need the older generation to be strong I believe the older generation is like a backbone the youth the younger can be the strength but they can't do it if the backbone falls they need the backbone to stand up and be strong can't be falling aside you can't be falling into traps of money and snares of money in this age you can't get distracted by politics and care about that and give your heart to it Solomon loved the Lord you need to love the Lord when you're old and let him have your heart let's bow our heads together with your heads bowed and your eyes closed in the minute we're going to dismiss