How You Finish Matters

[0:00] Go ahead and take your Bibles tonight and go over to the book of 2 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles chapter 16. And teenagers can head on up to their class here tonight. I apologize, you're going to have to find your own note card.

[0:12] There's some paper in the back if you'd like tonight. We didn't have a chance to get that all worked out here with the short week. When it comes to coming to Wednesday, you know, Wednesdays come pretty fast anyways.

[0:25] Then you take a day away and it comes even faster. So we're going to look at continuing our series here, looking at the kings here tonight. We're going to be looking at the last acts of Asa.

[0:39] You know, and we're going to look here because Asa has a lot of application even for our lives. And to remember as we walk through life because Asa definitely began well in his reign in the sight of God and of the people.

[0:54] You know, Asa, as we learned a few weeks ago, literally transformed the spiritual dynamic within the nation that had plagued them for many years.

[1:07] Because his reforms as a leader of what he put in impacted the nation as a whole. Because remember he removed the idols from out of the land. He did away with the abominations that were within the land.

[1:20] He had reinstated wanting people to come and to worship the Lord in that. It also, he directed the people to that.

[1:31] And we saw great victories early on. If you remember, he went out to face the Ethiopian army. That was almost twice his size. And as he trusted the Lord that God gave a great victory in all that.

[1:44] And we see all this taking place. But, you know, Asa also stands as a great reminder to us that to start well does not guarantee you end well.

[1:57] Because how you start is important. But how you end is even more important. You know, because the dynamic is this.

[2:08] If you think about it, what would you rather do? Begin poorly and end well. Or to begin good and end poorly. You know? The end really makes a bigger impact, doesn't it?

[2:22] And we're going to see here in Asa's life. Because just because somebody starts well is not a guarantee they're going to end well. And we see that throughout life, even today. Because how many times have you witnessed good starts in life?

[2:35] Whether it be a school or career or excited about the future. Only to see those dreams diminish and dissolve because of poor choices. You know?

[2:46] Along the way. You know, how many times have you seen couples excited about getting married. And they get married and they get together and then things taper off. You know?

[2:58] Those things happen because of choices that people make. And we need to guard our choices. And Asa's one that stands. Very stark reminder about our choices.

[3:11] Not only at the beginning, but at the end to make a difference. And we're going to look at some of those tonight. And understand those choices that he made along the way.

[3:22] Because even tonight we find many like Asa who started off well to serve the Lord. They were excited about the opportunity only to slip away from the commitment they made to the Lord.

[3:33] And I think there's some reasons we're going to look at here tonight. Why people let things slide sometimes when it comes to their service even to the Lord. And the priority that he has in their life.

[3:46] Because, you know, causes are varied. You know, I want you to understand there's not just one thing that causes somebody not to end well. Sometimes it might be peer pressure that they fold to.

[3:58] You know, you could have cultural pressures. You know, sometimes just people will make choices for expediency that gets them in trouble. You know?

[4:09] Have you ever seen somebody get in trouble because they take a shortcut? Or what they thought was a shortcut? Not really understanding where it leads them? You know, things like that can get us in trouble along the way.

[4:21] You know, sometimes there's issues of integrity. You know, there's lots of things. A list could go on of reasons that impact. It's not just guard for one. You need to be paying attention to our relationship with the Lord.

[4:35] Because in the life of Asa, we can see his strong commitment to the Lord wane to the point. And we're going to see here, which is really a difficult commentary, because it waned from total trust in God to not wanting to listen to God.

[4:54] And even trusting in men more than God. And Asa here, we see those dangers, because as we examine this, what took place, I want you to remember that Judah had experienced a great revival under Asa.

[5:13] You know, followed by a season that we talked about, you know, that peace and prosperity. The blessing that lasted for a whole decade. You know? Even the thing that had been dedicated to the house of the Lord.

[5:26] If you remember, look here in 1 Kings, back in 1 Kings chapter 15. Because make sure to keep a ribbon there in 2 Chronicles 16, but 1 Kings chapter 15.

[5:38] And you'll find here in 1 Kings where this same account is accounted something interesting that we can make note of, because here in chapter 15 and verse 15, in 1 Kings, there we go.

[5:52] All right, down here in verse 15. Notice what Asa did right before this, as he brought in the things which his father had dedicated. Now, I want you to understand, what Asa did is his father had dedicated things to the Lord, but never took them to the temple.

[6:07] Asa picks up all the things his dad dedicated, and then dedicated things of his own, and brings it to the temple of God, to say these belong to God. These are dedicated unto the Lord.

[6:17] Now, this is an important step in realizing where Asa made some decisions that are contrary. Because he was trying to fulfill all the things, all the things that he would to honor the Lord.

[6:33] But, you know, if we're not careful, we can fall into the same thing I think that Asa did. And one of the things I think we see here in Asa's life that we'll talk about as we go through is two things that get us when we have prosperity and everything's going well is complacency and self-reliance.

[6:52] We think what we have is because of who we are. Now, I want you to understand that we don't have anything because of who we are. We have it because God gives it to us.

[7:04] Now, we're going to see how this plays out here because he had this complacency. You know, everything's going good and self-sufficiency. Our eyes begin to focus on the expectation of blessing instead of obedience.

[7:20] You know, God doesn't call us to be blessed. God says, be obedient and enjoy my blessings. But obedience is important when sometimes, have you ever caught yourself almost expecting God to bless something?

[7:33] You're almost like an expectation like, God, I just expect you to do this. You know, that's contrary to obedience. God doesn't call us to blessing. He calls us to obedience and then he blesses.

[7:46] Those blessings come from obedience. And we see here that he had been enjoying that and he got caught in those things. And I think we can very easily take a good lesson from that because of all these things we're going to see in his life.

[8:00] But what came about after he had had this season of peace, we find that God allows Asa to face a challenge. You know, one of the things you'll find within the scripture is oftentimes God sends something to test your life.

[8:16] Because, you know, it's easy to say you trust God when things are going well. You know, if everything's coasting along without a glitch, it's easy for people to say, I trust God, praise God.

[8:29] But, you know, it's a real test of whether you trust God is when the time are difficult, when the challenges come, when you have to make a decision, do I really trust God?

[8:40] Am I really trusting God or am I not? You know, if you read through the book of Job, you'll see that played out in Job's life, isn't it? Because what did they accuse Job of? Oh, you just serve God because he blesses you.

[8:53] Look at all the great things God did. You know, that's the only reason you do that. Now, we know as we go through the book of Job, did Job just worship God because of all the blessings? No, he truly wanted to honor the Lord.

[9:07] And some of the struggles that come sometimes through that are not comfortable. But we find here that God raises up Basha, king of the northern kingdom here. And after he takes up the kingdom from Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, by force, his aspirations are not just for the northern kingdom, but he sought also to bring Judah and Benjamin back, gathered under that authority.

[9:33] And so in the middle of Asa's reign, Basha moves to restrict the trade and access to Jerusalem. And we're going to see this tension build here and Asa's response because he accomplished, Basha accomplishes this by taking Ramah.

[9:50] And now this city, you know, oftentimes one of the things I encourage you to do is get yourself a good map that's associated with the time that you're reading in the Bible because you'll hear a lot of cities mentioned.

[10:02] And you're like, okay, how does that correlate? Well, let me put it this way. Jerusalem sits here and Ramah sits here right on the trade route. So to plug this up impacts the city.

[10:14] Now the distance was four miles. That's not very far, is it? Basically, Asa's facing the enemy taking a city, blockading a city within four miles.

[10:26] And conflicting trade and issues. You know, we see here this dynamic taking place. So let's look back here in 1 Kings chapter 15 for a moment.

[10:38] Then we'll come over here into Chronicles. But I want you to see here 1 Kings chapter 15. Look down at verse 17. And it says, And Basha, king of Israel, went up against Judah and built up Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah.

[10:57] So we see here Basha's intent was first to restrict the resources, but also to prevent people from going. Because remember what had been happening? All the blessing that God had been given to Judah, there was an impact upon Israel, the northern tribes.

[11:14] We understand 1 Kings chapter 15. Look down in verse 9. Because I think Basha's response to this is, if I get the right, I got the wrong, just a second here.

[11:28] Pat fingered something, got in the wrong one. But 1 Kings chapter 15, that's not the one I wanted, is it? I'll figure it out there. The verse I'm looking for, it talks about it fell out, the people fell out in abundance from the northern tribes.

[11:46] I apologize for that. Got the wrong verse there. But we understand that all of Israel, the priests and those that wanted to serve the Lord, what were they doing? They were coming down into Judah.

[11:58] And they were there. And the pressure from this dynamic of Basha wanting to stop those leaving Israel to go down into Judah and block off all this.

[12:09] And we find the pressure from the intrusion into his territory really marks a turn in Asa's life regarding the Lord. because you'll find either the account here in 1 Kings or 2 Chronicles, neither one reveals the details that are there, both Basha and Israel and to Asa.

[12:29] We understand all the things of taking place there. Ah, that's where it is. 2 Chronicles chapter 15. That's... I told you I fat fingered something.

[12:40] I don't know about you, but sometimes swinging between both of these, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and you get the wrong spot. I had the right verse and the wrong book here.

[12:52] But in 2 Chronicles chapter 15 and verse 9, And gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Asa and the Lord of Simeon.

[13:03] For they fell to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw the Lord his God was with him. And so, in verse 10, So they gathered themselves together in Jerusalem in the third month in the 15th year of the reign of Asa.

[13:16] And so, in other words, we see this gathering of the people come together and Basha wanted to hinder that by taking the city.

[13:27] Now, we see this being laid out here and the pressure that was coming upon Asa from Basha's pressure he was putting upon him.

[13:38] I want you to, we're going to look tonight at the response of Asa. Because we know that Basha and Israel were all evil. They had turned and rejected God.

[13:50] They turned away from God. But here we have Asa who started out well and was accomplishing much but we find something happened. Because Asa here turns from trusting God to trusting himself and trusting others more than God.

[14:10] And we might ask ourselves, how does that happen? You know? Because we see the first thing that he does here. Look over here in chapter 16. Let's look in verse 2 here of chapter 16.

[14:24] It says, Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and the king's house and sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There's a league between me and thee and there was between, as there was between my father and thy father.

[14:42] Behold, I have sent thee silver and gold. Go break thy league with Basha, king of Israel, that he may depart from me. Now notice what Asa does here.

[14:54] I want you to see here because in response to Basha's taking of Ramah, we find here that Asa's response is, I'm going to gather up all the things I dedicated to the Lord.

[15:07] He takes the gold and the silver and the things dedicated to the Lord and sends them to Damascus to buy relief. Now we need to think about that for a moment.

[15:19] What would cause an individual that said they trusted the Lord and not that much time before this, he had gathered all those things that were dedicated to the Lord and set them aside for God, suddenly goes and robs the temple to pay off a foreign adversary to come and relief the pressure that the other adversary was putting on him.

[15:44] It's an interesting plot twist, isn't it? You know, I want you to understand it's more than just a plot that was happening. It was a reality. Daryl, did you have a... Yeah, I think you might have been nervous but very often in the relationship.

[16:00] Yeah, we're going to talk about that in just a moment too. But, you know, he was trying to buy those things off. But, you know, sometimes I think one of the things we'll find from Asa here who was feeling isolated and cut off.

[16:17] You know, one of the things even in our life because remember the Old Testament was written for our learning and for our instruction. Have you ever noticed that when the devil gets you isolated you don't make good choices?

[16:28] When the devil tries to isolate you, if you don't keep your eyes on the Lord, it's easy to start making bad choices. Asa was feeling isolated and so what do you do?

[16:40] He goes and makes evil associations. He makes partnership with those that he shouldn't looking for support from places that he shouldn't have been looking.

[16:54] Because we're going to talk how God deals with him through this. Because he doesn't go without God rebuking him as we're going to find. But I want you to understand that isolation is one of the primary tools that the devil loves to use against us.

[17:10] Think about Elijah the prophet. He called down fire from heaven and the feeling of isolation and you say well how would you think he was isolated? Lord only I only I am left. I'll know about you but that's a pretty isolated statement.

[17:24] I'm all alone. There's nobody with me. It's a reality we can feel like that sometimes. The devil loves to make us feel isolated.

[17:37] You know you can read about David. Did David as you read through the Psalms did you ever see where David felt isolated? You know everybody's against me and all the everybody's forsaken me.

[17:49] But the decisions we make in those moments are important. The decisions that we make because when we feel alone I want you to understand that if you're saved you're not alone. God has promised to never leave you or forsake you.

[18:04] if you feel isolated from God it's because we have moved God hasn't and we need to grab a hold of that reality even in Asa's life he got his eyes on the wrong things.

[18:15] You know the problem is we can look for acceptance and help in the wrong places and make unwise choices in life. And we're going to see that play out in Asa's life because consider remember Asa was a fearless one in the face of even overwhelming things for the Lord.

[18:34] Earlier in his reign he had went out to face the Ethiopian army that had come up from overwhelming forces and now he faces Basha on his doorstep and instead of turning to the Lord for direction and relief he turns to logic and expediency.

[18:55] You know let's look at his attempt of what we're going to call his own self rescue instead of turning to God when the Ethiopians came up we're going to see here that he cried unto the Lord but this time instead of praying unto the Lord he makes a choice to say I'm going to be expedient in what I do.

[19:16] Look back over in 2 Chronicles chapter 14 for a moment. 2 Chronicles chapter 14 look here in verse 11 because this is where we find Asa going out and he faces this large Ethiopian army with overwhelming numbers and notice his response look there at verse 11 and Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no power help us O Lord our God for we rest on thee and in thy name we go against the multitude O Lord thou art our God let no man prevail against thee you know when you're in trouble that's pretty good prayer Lord I'm in trouble but it's not too big a trouble you can't handle Asa goes from that to his response now of self sufficiency and complacency as he presents these things the time of peace and prosperity led Asa to trusting his resources instead of trusting upon

[20:17] God you know today we can fall into that same category very easily when God blesses we can sometimes rest upon God's blessing instead of saying no matter what God has blessed me with I still need to trust him and be obedient God desires those things to keep the right mindset you know think about what David wrote over in Psalm 33 for a moment Psalm 33 in verse 16 you'll find that King David understood something that was always very important because he said this he says there is no king saved by the multitude of a host a mighty man is not delivered by much strength you know he understood that God is the one that's going to deliver us and to keep our eyes on the right thing so Asa here turns in his own self-help methodology to an evil association he turns to the king of Syria he sends a messenger to Damascus and tries to purchase the protection of Benadad the king of Syria do you notice something here that when he starts down this road of self-reliance that the sacred takes second place the things he had dedicated unto God take second place in his life he took the very things he had given to the

[21:36] Lord and took them back to try to be self-sufficient to remove those things and we see here that he sends it to try to buy help you know he sends them there to Benadad the king of Syria that dwelt in Damascus and notice verse 3 here of chapter 16 of 2nd chronicles and there is league between me and thee as there was between my father and thy father behold I have sent thee silver and gold go break thy league with Basha king of Israel that he may depart from me you know we find here we see here as he fears he couldn't overcome he sends money up to Syria knowing that Syria is in league with Israel Basha and Benadad were in league together and you know over here in chronicles we find a little statement as we get into this that the prophet brings out that God was using this what looked like a terrible situation God was using it to provide a victory

[22:37] Asa had an opportunity for a great victory that he missed in his life as king and ruler for Israel because he got his eyes on the wrong things and we're going to look at that here in just a little bit but I want you to see here this dynamic but you know let's look on down here look at chapter 16 look down at verse 7 we'll skip ahead here just a moment because after all this happens look at verse 7 and at that time Hanai the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said unto him because thou hast relied on the king of Syria not relied on the Lord thy God therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand what's Hanai the prophet saying to him he says God was waiting for Syria to join Israel because he was going to put them together and take care of it you know it's a good lesson for us too to realize that sometimes we miss blessings because we're not obeying what God told us to do because we're not trusting him that God has things ready to go for a blessing and we can get in the way you know I want you to remember that no matter how rough it looks that we're not supposed to try to use evil to do good matter of fact we're supposed to overcome evil with good and these unfruitful connections because he went and made league with evil if you want to study a little history you can find out the kings of

[24:13] Syria and what they they were just as pagan and wicked and evil as Israel was matter of fact you probably couldn't tell the difference between the two but Judah stood out in that they had separated themselves under the Lord you know let's look into the New Testament for a moment because this principle applies to us too look over here to Ephesians chapter 5 for a moment Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 11 it says this and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them you know that dynamic of no fellowship with those things that are wicked you know that's to separate ourselves from them you know turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 for a moment 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 we see here in verse 14 and 15 here Paul's telling the church at Corinth this same principle that we see because he tells us here he says be not what unequally yoked together with unbelievers that word unequally yoked means bound together we can see very clearly that was

[25:26] Asa's connection with Ben Hadad was it a equally yoked or unequally yoked connection extremely unequal wasn't it now we want you to understand because notice what it continues says for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel now I want you to understand this applies to a lot of things in life everything from our relationships I want you to understand you need to be friends with you can be friends with people but not but if an unsaved person or somebody is going to bring you to evil you have to make in that relationship that doesn't draw you away and that connection you know you hear a lot of things today you know I want you to understand that people get a you know we talk about relationships and marriage today a lot of people get in trouble with marriage because they're unequally yoked now that goes beyond just salvation unequally yoked is to have a different understanding about what God says that's a problem because you're moving different directions you're opening the door for a big problem you know when you're yoked with somebody you know it's kind of have you ever had a three-legged race this is the picture that you have of being yoked together you know if you watch a three-legged race who wins the race the two that do what work together what happens if they both want to do their own thing you know we can laugh about them falling and stumbling but you know what oftentimes in life when we're unequally yoked

[27:02] I think in God's eyes we look like the two people that are tied together trying to do different things God says don't do it because what will happen is they will bring you to evil you will not bring them to do good it will draw you away notice what Proverbs chapter 2 tells us Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 20 says this that thou must walk in the way of good men and keep the paths of righteousness for the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect man shall remain in it but the wicked shall be cut off from the earth and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it you know think about the psalmist in Psalm 119 verse 63 he says I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts you know that's a pretty good way to find a friend if they're going to honor God that's a friend you want to hang out with because that's going to be an encouragement to you to hang out with the right ones and so we see here why his

[28:04] Asa's scheme was effective in turning Basha's attention to defending his kingdom the means by which Asa chose would cause his faith to continue to falter you know today we live in an age that sometimes expediency supersedes everything else there's some things you cannot take a shortcut to some things have to be meticulously step by step we need to keep those in the right order because notice here we find that God sends a prophet to Asa to rebuke him for not trusting him now let's look back over to 2nd Chronicles chapter 16 here and we already read verse 7 there where he talked where Hanai the seer came to Asa the king of Judah and said unto him because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God therefore as the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand look at verse 8 were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen yet because thou didst rely on the Lord he delivered them into thine hand for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him herein thou hast done foolishly therefore from henceforth thou shall have wars they've had peace and prosperity the enemy was putting a pinch on them in the midst of this peace and prosperity it seemed like things were spooling up there you might say of conflict and what does the prophet tell him he says hey if you had trusted the Lord there would have been a great victory but he says instead of trusting him like he did before you did what that's the important word there how does he describe his actions how does the prophet describe

[30:00] Asa's actions there in chapter 16 what's that word foolishly is it hard to do something foolish foolishness happens pretty easily doesn't it I want you to understand that he's telling him here that Hanai the seer comes to him with a rebuke and whenever we get a rebuke like this there's only two things that can happen you know the Lord sends correction the question is how do you respond to correction because I want you to see a contrast here think about David King David he committed an atrocious sin with Bathsheba Nathan the prophet shows up and rebukes David can you imagine David with Nathan standing there because remember this David was even more his kingdom was even more glorious than what they have at the moment and Nathan standing there before David and say you are the man but I want you to see here if you remember the contrast between

[31:03] David's response and Asa's response because they show you the two directions you can go from correction you'll either accept it or you'll reject it David accepted God's correction you can read Psalm 51 it does a pretty good job of describing David accepting God's correction Psalm 51 gives a great picture of what repentance really looks like because repentance isn't just crying in tears repentance isn't sad because you got caught repentance is remorse because you have violated God's law it's important to realize here that while David repented and turned to the Lord we find Asa's response was opposite you know the prophet made very clear he says because you relied on the king of Syria and not the Lord you know the Lord would have delivered you but notice here verse 9 this is an important part of the lesson for us tonight because notice this for the eyes of the

[32:04] Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him in other words he's reminding Asa what if you're right with God if you're obedient to God if you're following God God says I'm watching I'm paying attention and my heart is bent towards having you protected and successful God desires for us to understand this principle instead of doing foolishly now notice here his foolishness that was going to rescue him from wars caused what more conflict more wars in other words he escalated his own problem in disobedience as a believer we need to be careful that we make choices of obedience to God and don't escalate our problems from disobedience because I want you to understand what God was telling him is here's the outcome of your choice God says I wanted to give you victory but instead you didn't choose to be obedient so I could give you victory we see here that this principle plays out in the New

[33:10] Testament let's go to 1st Peter chapter 3 for a moment 1st Peter chapter 3 look here in verse 12 1st Peter gives us a great promise here notice the promise given here it says for the eyes of the Lord are over who the righteous and his ears are open unto their prayers but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil this same promise applies to us today that if you're saved if you ought to be serving the Lord desiring God says that he's there he's paying attention and he hears our prayers but notice the response to this look down at verse 10 and Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in the prison house for he was in a rage with him because of this thing so what was Asa's response he got upset you know what the one thing

[34:10] I found that's true just as true today as it was then when people are confronted with sin they respond one of two ways they either get mad and upset or they turn to the Lord we have the same two choices today it's no different he gets upset with the seer with the prophet of God he throws him in jail but notice it didn't just his anger didn't just affect him and the seer look at the next part of that verse for a moment notice what it says and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time in other words him being upset of God correcting him made him upset with other people also now you can probably think in your life have you ever seen somebody that God comes and corrects and they get upset and they get upset a lot of people at the same time same thing today you see it play out in lives because notice what happens here we see this progression we've seen this progression of the trusting himself and trusting in men trusting in the things of this world rejecting the word of the

[35:15] Lord I mean that's really what happened here when he rejected the seer that God sent the prophet that God sent to him he rejected the word of the Lord you know oftentimes people when they get upset with God and what God's correcting them they don't like what God said about it and they get upset and they start taking it out on other people that's a great perspective to keep and understand also that sometimes people's response to you has nothing to do with you you know if you're going to serve the Lord you better understand that because you're going to live for God there's going to be people who get upset with you you might not even know maybe find out you're a Christian and they're mad at you let it next look here at verse 11 and behold the acts of Asa first and last lo there are written in the books of the kings of Judah in Israel and Asa in his thirty and ninth year remember he only reigned forty-one years was diseased in his feet until his disease was exceedingly great now notice this last phrase again this is important yet in his disease he sought not the Lord you know the final step of this is a hard heart towards

[36:27] God people's heart gets hardened towards God Asa's heart at the end of his life was hard against God it says he trusted the physicians more than he trusted God now I want you to understand something here because Asa continued to harden his heart against the Lord and his correction you know we don't have time tonight but you can read the Hebrews chapter 12 in verses 3 through 10 you can go home and read that it talks about God's chastening in our life if you're being chastened by God it's because you belong to him because he chastens us as a son you know you can look at those things but I want you to understand something here very important because of his hard heart Asa's departure of this life was one of misery and he had that disease in his feet now we don't know what it is I mean it's funny I often get a laugh out of reading commentaries when it comes to things like this because you get all these guys speculating oh it was this disease or that disease and you know what I'm saying if God wanted us to know what the disease was he would have told us

[37:36] I want you to understand it was something that was very painful in his life it was a disease that was a that but instead of trusting God he trusted the physicians now I want you to understand we glean an important lesson here from Asa's failure because this statement has not a statement against the physicians I want to just make something clear because sometimes people draw wrong conclusions God's not speaking against the physicians trying to help him he's speaking about who Asa was trusting I think you can look in the scripture God gives us people with abilities and science and things that can be beneficial to us but ultimately your life is in God's hands nowhere am I telling you tonight not to use a physician okay I was going to make that clear that you can go to a physician and physicians can help you but

[38:43] I want you to understand your primary trust ought not to be and the physician is going to be my rescue because the only one that can preserve you and keep you is God and our trust needs to be in him I want to understand the condemnation here is against Asa not the physicians okay I just want to make that clear because people hear strange things sometimes I want to understand the focus was about Asa's heart his condition you know how often do we like Asa fail to turn to the Lord and try to trust in our own selves and in others to accomplish something we need to trust God and perhaps our hearts are not hardened or obstinate towards God but when we neglect to call upon for help we are failing to trust him for what's going on in life you know I think Asa gives us a good example of what foolishness looks like he had all the things

[39:43] God was watching over him God was taking care of him and God was saying trust me you trusted me in this situation trust me in the next one trust me in that one move to the next one because all of us are going to face challenges that we don't know or understand but God doesn't say that we're going to have all the answers he says trust me and see what unfolds because that's where you're going to find the victory by trusting God as we walk through let's close in a word of prayer heavenly fathers we just come before you tonight