[0:00] Well, take your Bibles with me, please, to the book of 1 Kings, chapter 22. No more powerful name. That was beautifully sung, ladies. Thank you very much. 1 Kings, chapter 22.
[0:14] I'm going to do things a tad different. I'm going to give you the whole outline, four little points here, and then I'll go back through it because I really want you to see this. I call this message tonight, The Effects of Becoming Like Them.
[0:29] Have you ever noticed how we want to be like them? We watch TV shows about their houses. We watch about their cars. We watch about the lives of the famous and the successful.
[0:42] And most of us have just a tad of a wannabe like them. In the Bible story tonight, there's a king, a good man named Jehoshaphat.
[0:53] And he's a good guy. He comes from a good daddy. He's done a good job being the king. And prosperity begins to reign in his world. He gets to prosperity and peace.
[1:05] And that's going to get him in trouble. So if you want to jot this down from verse 1 down through verse 4, there's the dangers of peace and prosperity. Because everything starts going good for Jehoshaphat and for Ahab.
[1:18] And they've made friendships. And these two kings are getting along. Now Ahab, for you to understand, Ahab's like the wickedest guy on the planet. So when you say they're getting along, you're saying something pretty strong.
[1:31] I mean, this is like Adolf Hitler. I mean, this is like all the bad guys in World War II all lumped into one guy. Now this guy is a wicked guy. And the man of God has become his buddy.
[1:44] They've even joined families together. Now go down, if you were, to verse 5 and write this down. This is one of the wildest stories in the Bible. In verse 5, you're going to have the story. Ahab and Jehoshaphat are sitting there and they're talking.
[1:56] And they want to go and fight Syria and take back some property that belongs to them. And Ahab wants Jehoshaphat to get involved in that battle with him. And Jehoshaphat, because he has this God stuff in his past, and he knows what it's like to get a hold of God in the past, but when things settle out and smooth out in your life, you might not need to talk to God so much.
[2:16] You know, everything's going good. You don't need to pray near as much as you do when your baby's sick. When your baby's really, really sick and might die, or when you're financially in ruins, or when a whole bunch of stuff's going wrong, you might get a hold of God a lot.
[2:31] But when everything gets really good, our Bible reading kind of slides to the side, our praying slides to the side, our church attendance slides to the side, because, well, we don't need it.
[2:41] And so the first thing you've got is all this prosperity. And the next thing I wish you'd write down there is, are men of God or popular preachers? Because what ends up happening is, Ahab says, Jehoshaphat, will you go down and fight with me?
[2:54] Will you go do this? And Jehoshaphat says, well, couldn't we ask God if he's going to bless this? The one we ask God, what he'd do about this? What he'd say? Ahab said, not a problem.
[3:06] I've got a lot of preachers on my payroll. I've got a whole, I've got 400 of them here. Bring them in. And all 400 come in and they say, man, king, whatever you want, whatever you want, God's going to do it.
[3:18] You're going to win. Victory is assured. You're a great guy. God's on your side. This is your best life now. It's all going to go good. And Jehoshaphat says, well, man, you know, I'd like to know, is there another guy in the kingdom that might have another opinion?
[3:34] And Ahab says, yes, there he is. But I don't like him. He never says anything nice about me, ever. And so if we bring him in here, he's going to say bad stuff.
[3:46] I don't want to bring him. Jehoshaphat says, oh, come on, man, let's listen to this one guy. Well, you got 400 of these. Let's get one more. Won't hurt. And they bring him in. They go get him. And the guys go down to the, they go to get Micaiah.
[3:56] And they say to him, hey, would you come up here? But be nice. Come on, the whole ministerial association's in agreement. We all agree that everything's going to go good. And we'd appreciate it if you could just say a good word.
[4:07] And Micaiah says to him, I'll just tell you, I'm going to say whatever God tells me to say. That's who I am. That's how I work. That's how things are. If he calls me, I'm just telling him the truth. And they say, oh, come on, you can be a nice. One time, could you smile?
[4:19] One time, could you say something nice? Take me up there. They bring up there and Ahab says, all right, go ahead, Micaiah, what do you got to say? He said, oh, king, you're going to win. Everything's going to go your way.
[4:30] And Ahab says, I know that ain't what you think. He said, well, I'll tell you what I do think. You're going to be dead. You're going to be dead before the day's over. When this battle's over, you'll be a dead man.
[4:41] And Israel's going to be beat up and whipped. And that's the real truth. And the other preacher said, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, how in the world could you have such a story to tell? How could you know that? I mean, come on.
[4:52] God spoke to us. 400 of us been in touch with God. And only one of you, you're the guy all by yourself telling the story. And Micaiah said, yeah, well, they was up in heaven sitting around and they were all talking about what was going on with this dumb little game you're about to play.
[5:06] And one of the guys said to God, hey, let me go down and I'll tell a lie in that guy's ear and those prophets ears. And he'll go along with it. And hey, they'll go into battle.
[5:17] God said, all right, go ahead, do that. That'll find it going down there. Tell him. They went down and told the prophets lies. And then the bad leader, he hurts Micaiah right there in front of everybody.
[5:28] Knocks him around a little bit. That's the next thing that goes on. So it was peace and prosperity. And when you're in the middle of peace and prosperity, you can afford to hire preachers. And you can get a preacher like you like. Itch in ear. People get preachers that say what they want to hear.
[5:41] And that's what happens in verse five. Now, if you're going to go ahead and mark your Bible, go on down, if you would, to, to, to, we're going to go to first Samuel 20, first Kings 22 and 29.
[5:54] Mark that in your Bible. And right there, deception and death. That's a funny story in the world to me. After, after, uh, Micaiah gets through telling the story, they agree to go into battle.
[6:05] And they have looks at Jehoshaphat and says, look, let me tell you what I'm going to do. You wear your kingly robes, but I'm not going to wear mine. I'm going to, I'm going to dress up like a peon, like a regular soldier, but I want you to look like a king.
[6:19] And you go out into battle like a king. And I'll go out like a nobody. And Jehoshaphat, I don't know what was wrong with the boy. He said, okay, fine. I'll go be the target for everybody. I'll just wear a big banner. It says, shoot me, kill me.
[6:31] And when they got out into battle, the enemy king said, just killed Ahab, just kill the king of Israel. So when I won't kill him, get rid of him. So they looked up and they saw that guy dressed like a king. And so they came after him.
[6:43] And when they got real close, Jehoshaphat said, whoa, my name's Jehoshaphat. I'm not Ahab. And they said, oh, okay. So they all just turned and walked off. They left him there and they started looking for Ahab. Couldn't find Ahab.
[6:54] The battle's about to be over. And this one guy's got an extra arrow left over or something. And he just fires it up in the air. It flies through the air and it hits him right between the cracks in his heart, in his armor and kills him.
[7:06] He says, well, he ain't dead yet. He says, get me off the field, boys. I'm in bad shape. They pull him off the field. Battle goes bad. They lose. He bleeds out. And the dogs come and lick his blood.
[7:19] You see, he wanted to be like, Jehoshaphat wanted to be like that. Jehoshaphat's going to let his kid, his son, marry Ahab's daughter. So he had that friendship because peace and prosperity and having money is more important than truth and right.
[7:33] So we sell our souls to enjoy their lifestyle. And then we get a preacher that says what we want him to say. But it brings deception and death. And the last thing I want you to look at, if you would, go down, if you would, to 1 Kings 22, 51 and write this down there, if you would.
[7:50] The sins of the parents affect the children. And I'll sum it all up in the last thing I want to say to you tonight. I wish you'd get the story. I wish you'd get it clearly in your head and realize what's going to happen.
[8:03] So 1 Kings 22, 4. We'll walk back through it now. 1 Kings 22, 4. The Bible says, And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth-Gilead?
[8:16] And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, That's Ahab. Ahab the Arab, Ahab the bad guy, Ahab Hitler. He said to him, Well, I'm like you, buddy.
[8:27] We're buddies. Me and you. We're the same guys. We're on the same team. We're working together. I am as you are. My people are like your people. My horses like your horses. I like being like you.
[8:38] Let's go. That just sums up to me where most of us tend to live. We watch TV shows and figure out how they live. We want that. And we quickly move into this first stage that happens, and that's the prosperity and the peace.
[8:54] Oh, Jehoshaphat's a good man and a good king. In 1 Kings 22 and verse 41, the Bible gives his story kind of in the middle of this chapter, and it sums it up, and it says, Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel.
[9:08] And he followed his dad's example. Look at verse 43. And he walked in all the ways of Asa, his father, and he turned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord.
[9:20] He's a good guy. Daddy showed him how to do it, and he followed daddy's footprints. We can stop right there and go home. Daddy, you are making a difference. Jehoshaphat is doing right.
[9:32] He has gone through the kingdom. He's made right steps because he had the right dad. But along the way, as he started prospering and God started blessing, he started making little compromises with the world.
[9:45] Look at 1 Kings 22, 43. Nevertheless, the high places, in other words, he walked in the ways of his dad, and he turned not aside from doing that which was right in the Lord, but, but, at the same time, he left the worship places for the false demon up there in the high places.
[10:02] He let it go. And he made peace with the king of Israel, King Ahab, by letting his son marry. 1 Kings 22, 44. And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
[10:14] All you got to do is go check out a few more verses in the Bible, and you'll find out that that was, they had an affinity, they got together, and his son has married the daughter of Ahab. That's another place we can stop this message.
[10:25] How in the world does a man who knows God, who comes from a family that knows God, let his daughter, his son, marry a daughter of a man who is like demon-possessed, and like the most wicked and vile man on the planet?
[10:39] I'll tell you how. Money. I'll tell you how. Influence. I'll tell you how. Fitting in with this world. And so, that's the move he made. He took difficult stands. He did some right stuff.
[10:50] In 1 Kings 22, 46, he got rid of the Sodomites. He said, this sexual deviancy, this wickedness that's going on, he got rid of it. But when peace and prosperity reign in your life, you're in a time of great danger.
[11:05] And so, before I move on, I would just like to ask you to consider this real quickly. Because we live in peace and prosperity. I read about World War II, and the British people, when London was being bombed, and London was being bombed, and their churches were full, and their building where they worked to get blown up today, and the next day they'd know, and they'd climb across the rubble to go to the next place.
[11:29] And you know, in those times, people really turn out to be who they are. But when it's all so good, like, it's Alpharetta, man. We all came up in nice cars. We live in nice houses.
[11:40] I do too. I'm not saying anything bad about you. Just saying, this is the time of peace and prosperity. I don't know if you've ever had this happen. But 41 years ago, a friend of mine, his little boy was born.
[11:53] We were kids. I mean, we were like 21, 20 or 21 years old. And Andrew was the name of his son, and he was born. We were standing at the window looking in, in the hospital. You couldn't touch your baby back then.
[12:05] You were kept out of the room, all you people. Now you're right there, when your mama's in the room, when your baby's born. I didn't do none of that junk back then. They took your wife in the back room, shot her full of drugs, and you heard her screaming, and you waited, and later they came out and told you what was going on.
[12:17] You didn't know what you were going to have, neither. You just found out when it came out. Amen. You guys know two days after you get pregnant. But anyway, but anyway, so we're standing at the window looking in, and we noticed that Andrew's chest was really weird.
[12:29] We'd never seen, we were kids, but we'd never seen a baby breathe that way. His little chest would just sink all the way to his backbone, it looked like. And so we were looking, and Steve looked at me, and he said, does that look normal to you?
[12:41] I said, yeah, man, it's perfectly normal. What am I supposed to say? You kid looks weird. I didn't know what to say. And so Steve walked over to the nurse and said, is he having a breathing problem?
[12:51] He said, yes, he is. And they rushed in, they grabbed the kid, they put him in there, and they said, we don't know what's going to happen. His lungs didn't fully develop 40 years ago. You know what Steve said? He said, let's go to the chapel.
[13:03] Man, we ran downstairs, and we'd go down there, and we'd pray, and we couldn't pray anymore, and we'd cry, because we were best friends, and we'd cry and pray about that baby. Then we'd run upstairs, and look in the window, and the little incubator sees his little body, and he'd say, can we go pray again?
[13:15] That's what you do when things are bad. You ever been there? When you've got peace and prosperity, here's what happens. We let our guard down about spiritual things, and what might please God, because we're not that worried about it right now.
[13:28] We forget to watch and pray, knowing that Satan is laying weight to destroy us. When you're in the middle of the mess, you're like, at any time he's going to get me, at any time it's going to happen, but when everything's going good, you kind of tend to forget that.
[13:40] We're lulled to sleep spiritually, because we do not feel such a need for God. What we have never is enough. We always want more. No matter how prosperous we are, we thought if we could just make $100 a week, we could live happily the rest of our life.
[13:57] We got to $100, and we knew it would take $150. We got to $150, and we knew it'd take $200 or $300, because we're never going to have enough. In fact, in this story, in 1 Kings 22, 48, Jehoshaphat, after all the stories, he's going to make boats to go get him some gold.
[14:11] Got to get more. Separation from sin isn't as important when you don't see the danger of sin. When it's looking like everything's okay, in peace and prosperity, we forget how our children are marrying the wrong person that might lead them to destruction.
[14:30] How are you dealing with the peace and prosperity in your family? Do you find yourself able to make it without God working in your life? You know, we don't really need him. You ever had, how many of you have ever had one of those times when you had to have God?
[14:44] You needed a miracle. I mean, you were like, I don't know what, God, you got to come, you ever been there, have you been there, say amen. You know, when that's happening, buddy, you don't miss church services. Not then, not then.
[14:55] You're at church. You don't miss Sunday school, you're like, I don't know if I get brownie points or not, but I'm counting on it. If I need to get baptized again, just let me do it. Whatever. God, please. As soon as everything starts going good, we back off.
[15:08] Lazy about our spiritual life. We find the more of the world we have, the more of the world we won't. In the story tonight, you'll find one compromise leads to another. First friendship with Ahab, from the desire to prosper and have peace, then his son marries the wicked man's daughter, and then they go to battle together.
[15:24] Are you allowing yourself small compromises that slowly pull you away from your love for the Lord? Skipping church. Looking at porn. I recently read where 80-something percent of young men in church have porn problems.
[15:47] Partying with those who don't love God or believe Him. Can you not see the story? I don't know if you can picture this, but I've been there. I feel so out of place. Here's Jehoshaphat. His daddy loved God.
[15:57] He loved God. He had gotten rid of the Sodomites. He'd taken out the Queen Mother because she still was worshiping a false god. He was a man of God. And then he goes down to spend a little time with Ahab. And here's old Ahab.
[16:08] This guy's wicked to the core now. This guy's like, I don't just like demons. I build them houses, buddy. I am the bad guy in the flesh. And they're sitting in the room, light and dark.
[16:20] And light's trying to get along with dark. Probably fucked a little weird. But it's all going on. Now, while they've made a friendship, because now they're married together. In Spanish, we even have a word for this called consuegros.
[16:33] It means like, it'd be like co-in-laws. That's if you translate it. Co-in-laws. Me and you, we all got the same family now. My kid married your kid, so we're family too. And they're sitting in the room.
[16:45] They're sitting in the room. My family married your family. They're in the room. And Ahab says, hey, why don't we go down and fight and get this land for us? And Jehoshaphat says, and the second they start in verse 5, he said, well, let's find out what God says about it.
[16:58] I mean, don't forget, I know you just, you're money hungry. I am too, but I'd least like to put a veneer on it and make it look like I love Jesus in the middle of all this. And he says, let's get him, and so he calls in 400 of his prophets and they all say, let's go to battle.
[17:13] I told you the story. And Ahab knows exactly who to call on when he wants to hear a contrary word. The real man of God comes in the room. Ahab's angry. Even the other preachers try to convince Micaiah to get his message right.
[17:29] They just want it to happen. They want to get it going. Micaiah explains how false preachers operate, telling self-serving, self-loving God-haters what they want to hear.
[17:43] That's what they were doing. They were, the wicked preachers, the false preachers, these demon-possessed preachers, these bell-worshiping preachers, these preachers that talked Jesus and the world, were telling self-serving, self-loving, God-hating people what they wanted to hear.
[18:03] 1 Kings 22, 20, it says, and the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall? So God's ready for Ahab to fall. And he says, so go down there and do it. And one of the guys came and said, I'll go tell it, and I'll tell it, I'll put a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets in verse 22.
[18:18] And that's what happened. Zedekiah, in 1 Kings 22, 24, he's a preacher. So that's what I'd like you to understand. There are preachers without number in America.
[18:30] There are preachers without number in the world. There are preachers on every corner. There's every kind of preacher you want. You can find them young and old and slim and fat. You can find them that preach the Bible and don't preach the Bible.
[18:41] You can find them that smile and never smile. You can find what you want. And that's exactly what old Ahab had done. So in 1 Kings 22, 24, Zedekiah went near and smoked Micaiah on the cheek and said, Which way, the Spirit of God, how'd he get from me to you, huh?
[18:58] Like, I know about God too. How'd that happen? And Micaiah, Micaiah, what a man. He looks at him and said, Yeah, you think God left me, went to you, you think God left you, went to me?
[19:10] You'll know I'm right on the day you're trying to hide in your room when this country falls. Look at 1 Kings 22, 25. He said, Behold, thou shalt see in that day when thou shalt go into an inner chamber. You'll be hiding under a bed someday, boy.
[19:22] Because God's gonna do what God's gonna do. That's what's gonna happen. So Ahab said, Well, I don't like what you've got to say, Micaiah. I'm putting you in prison. I'm letting you drink the water and eat the bread of affliction.
[19:35] And you're gonna stay there until I come back. And Micaiah said, as they drag him out of the room, he said, Well, I'll be there a long time because you ain't never coming back. If you come back, I ain't a man of God. That's 1 Kings 22, 27.
[19:50] The popular preacher will preach what the people want to hear. Like, there's no hell. That's become the new thing, hasn't it? Big fancy preachers telling us how there's no hell.
[20:01] God wants you to have success and everything to turn out beautifully for you. Grace is a license to sin. Live any way you want. What God gave us for liberty, they've turned a license to sin.
[20:13] Anything goes sexually. In marriage, in fun, in business, in life in general, anything goes. And if you preach the truth, you suffer. The 400 guys don't like you.
[20:27] And they even punch you in this story. Their message, while true, causes hurt and suffering to them and those that hear. So, Micaiah's message is horrible.
[20:39] I mean, can you imagine? He looks and says, if you go into battle, you're dead and the people you take with you. A lot of people are going to die today. Now, that's not what the president wants to hear right before he pushes the button.
[20:49] And so, he's mad as he can be about that. By the way, you know we love it. When you have a funeral, the preacher you have has a hard time not telling you your loved one went to heaven.
[21:04] We'll preach the worst sinner into heaven so you'll like us. If you were honest about your granddaddy, if you were honest about your uncle, you know he didn't go to church, you know he didn't love Jesus, you know he didn't pray, you know he didn't walk with God, but you make sure you pick a preacher and say he went to heaven.
[21:21] Come on, tell the truth. That's what the story is. So in the next thing that happens in 1 Kings 22 and 29, there's going to be deception.
[21:33] The kings decide to disobey God and go into battle. Ahab disguises himself in verse 30. And the king of Syria in verse 31 says, I got 32 captains running all my chariots. He said, guys, only fight with one guy.
[21:45] I only want you to fight with the king of Israel. Don't even fight with anybody else. Just leave the peons alone. Just go for one guy. Go find Ahab and take him out. And Jehoshaphat's got on his kingly robes in verse 32 and they come to attack him and he says, hey, it's me and they leave him and go off to get Ahab.
[22:04] Can't find him. 1 Kings 22, 34. When God makes a decision to judge your sin, you can disguise yourself all you want.
[22:15] You can hide and you can run, but an arrow will find its mark. This is the funniest verse in the Bible, really. I mean, I just love this guy.
[22:26] The battle's over. He hadn't shot all of his arrows and he's going to come back to home and when he walks in door, all the other men are going to come in, blood on their swords, blood on their knives and no arrows left.
[22:37] And this turkey had one he hadn't shot. He was like, I ain't going home with no arrow. If I go home with an arrow, everybody's going to know I didn't do everything I could. And so the Bible said, look at it, verse 34. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel.
[22:51] And the king said, I'm wounded. And he died that evening in verse 35 and the blood ran down in the chariot. And the dogs licked up his blood in 38. And this is what's interesting.
[23:04] Just like God said. Just like God said. The wicked king was dead and David's godly seed would continue.
[23:20] There's a great spiritual truth illustrated here. You can be sure your sin will find you out. Oh, Ahab had taken Naboth's vineyards and he got away with it.
[23:34] And one day when he was in the vineyard, Elijah came walking quietly through the vineyard and told him, you and your wife are going to be dead. You can imagine.
[23:46] He said, the dog's going to lick your blood. Ahab is going to eat your wife and everything but her dirty hands and feet. You can imagine. So, R.G. Lee used to say in a great sermon, you can listen to it online.
[24:00] You ought to listen to it. It's called Payday Sunday. He said, every time a dog barked, Elijah jumped. Ahab jumped. You can imagine all of Ahab, can't you? He hears them dogs right up. Is that the dog's going to lick my blood and eat my wife?
[24:11] He lives that way. But today he goes to battle and he's smart. He told Jehoshaphat, you dress up like a king like me because everybody knows it's me who wants that land. You do that, buddy.
[24:23] You do that. I'll dress like a peon so you get all the honor today. But you can run but you can't hide. Ahab thought he could hide from the consequences of sin but God's word always comes true.
[24:42] There is only one way to escape the consequences of your sin. And that's when someone else takes your punishment. That's the only way.
[24:55] For all have sinned and come sure of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the only way you can get away from sin.
[25:09] That's the only way. I deserve to die and he died when he didn't deserve to die. And I live when I don't deserve to live. Sin has wages.
[25:20] They are death. It's appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment. I would spend a lot of time but this is a Thursday night cry I'm assuming you're saved but you know Jesus took your place.
[25:33] Bore your griefs. Bore your sorrows and our sin was laid on him. That's the only way we're getting out of this. Because as wicked as Ahab was me and you in the same boat. We were in the same boat.
[25:45] But by the grace of God we're not in that boat anymore. Because we saw our need of a Savior turned from our sin and trusted Jesus and followed him.
[25:57] Let me get to the saddest part of the story. I think it's one thing if you're dumb enough to hurt yourself. But to have a child Bo Carpenter just had a little baby born.
[26:11] Little Thaddeus one of the other missionaries wrote a note and said enjoy the kid nothing like it in the world being a dad. So true isn't it? And they take that little baby home you're not even allowed to leave the hospital unless you got the right kind of car seat you got to take care of this kid.
[26:29] Send you home with formula. Send you home with everything you need buddy. Got to take care of this kid. And you did real good buying diapers. And you did real good buying baby food and taking their picture and a little footprint and saving a little locket of hair.
[26:48] You did a real good job of that. But now they're growing up. And you're not that worried about them. These aren't little pets that just need a little food.
[27:01] Just need a little food a little water a little attention. These are eternal souls God has trusted us with. 2 Chronicles 21.4 Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram married Ahab's daughter and learned to sin like Ahab.
[27:18] Now I want you to get the picture. Asa great man of God not as great as he ought to be but great man of God we'd all been impressed. Jehoshaphat still a great man of God Jehoram Granddaddy and Daddy I mean he's got a godly heritage going here but somewhere along the way Daddy didn't think I don't want my kid marrying a devil daughter.
[27:40] The Bible says Now when Jehoram was risen up to the kingdom and his father he strengthened himself and slew all of his brothers with a sword and several of the princes of Israel.
[27:52] Verse 6 you've got to look at verse 6 22 2 Chronicles 21.6 2 Chronicles 21.6 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel like as did the house of Ahab and this is the telling part of the story for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife good man raised by good parents married a bad woman and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord parentheses we are not to marry lost people.
[28:31] So I'll just throw this out there to make you mad at me. That means y'all not date them either. If you date them you're going to end up marrying them. Y'all not party with them. Just to be blunt honest the more you hang out with them the more you're going to fall in love with them the more you fall in love with them the more likely you are to marry them and missionary dating doesn't work.
[28:49] Most missionary dating works in reverse. In this story maybe Jehoram could have made a difference and he might have even said to somebody I'm going to marry the daughter of Ahab and I'm going to bring her to Jesus.
[29:01] And she said yeah well I'll take you to the devil and before the story's over that's what he did. Ahab's kid was wicked too.
[29:14] 1 Kings 22 51 if you would. And Ahaziah the son of Ahab he began to reign over Israel and Samaria in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat.
[29:25] Verse 52 and he did evil in the sight of the Lord and he walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother. We could stop right there would you underline that? This wicked guy did just like mom and daddy taught him.
[29:39] He walked in the way this is the Bible I'm not saying this this is not Dr. Spock or Dr. Phil speaking. It's the word of God. Daddy and mama taught the boy how to be wicked.
[29:54] Verse 53 he served Baal and worshipped him and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel just like his daddy had done.
[30:05] your sin not only affects you but it affects future generations that come from you. When I was a young preacher I would often talk to drug addicts and alcoholics and adulterers they were all the same group you know basically sin kind of runs together and they'd say I ain't hurting nobody but me.
[30:28] I ain't hurting nobody but me. That was their excuse. I might be getting drunk and I might be doing drugs but I hurt nobody but me. That might be what Ahab was thinking. Might be what Jezebel was thinking.
[30:40] But the grandkids are even turning out bad. Your sin not only affects you but future generations. One thing to do wrong but now look what you're doing. Your children are going to turn out like you.
[30:54] Now that's not always true. They have their own will and a godly parent could do his best to raise the kids and they might turn out bad. But let's just be honest. That ought not be your excuse to let them just live like the devil.
[31:08] They ought to be seeing Jesus modeled. You ought not take home and talk about you ought never talk at your house about junk you don't like about God junk you don't like about the church junk you don't like about stuff because your kids hear it and they pick up on it.
[31:23] You got a bad attitude so your kids got a bad attitude. I tell every missionary I ever work with if your kid doesn't like the country you're working in it's because mom and daddy don't. And whether you say it out loud or not you telegraph it.
[31:35] You telegraph it by skipping church. You telegraph it by making fun of things you ought not make fun of. You telegraph it by what you watch on TV the places you go and the things you do.
[31:53] Someone said that children do in excess what parents allow in moderation. everything about you is having a direct correlation as to how they're going to live and turn out. What are you doing to put Jesus and salvation in front of your children?
[32:14] You're Thursday night crowd. So you're probably doing more than most but it is what the text is about. Why don't you re-read these verses and meditate on them. So let me sum it up.
[32:24] You must see your need. It is easy for us to get caught up in the comfort of the world. And man we got a bunch of it here.
[32:36] We sleep on soft beds. I've just been in Tunisia. Lord help me I got in my bed and it hugged me. That one was a board with a sheet on it. You know I woke up in the morning and it was like somebody hit me in the hip and the shoulder.
[32:49] Like every time you turn over it's like turning over on a sheet of plywood. We're never satisfied with what God's given us and we're making soft compromises.
[33:02] I want my kid to fit in. I don't want to be weird. I want my kid to fit in. If they need to take a little smoke let them take a little I mean I just want them to fit in. Whatever you don't do that. You must hear truth and not just what you want to hear.
[33:19] We want a church that fits our lifestyle not a lifestyle that fits what the word of God says. You must realize and teach your children there's no escape from sin and its consequences but Jesus.
[33:35] Good morality won't get anybody out of trouble. You can't do enough good to outweigh the bad. You must know Jesus. It may take a long time for your sin to catch up with you but it'll get there.
[33:47] Our best bet is to heed the word of God and repent while there's still time. The future of my children depends greatly on me. Godly people have godly influence.
[34:03] Wicked people have wicked influence. Failing to love God may severely affect your children. Give them the example not just what you say.
[34:13] Okay. Okay. I have watched people that came out of the same godly parents and they marry somebody who's not really that in love with Jesus they go along in church for a while then they find a reason to get your feelings hurt and they get out of church then their kids are sleeping together with their partners in their house and having beer parties and put on Facebook their atheist.
[34:57] I know they made that decision but when I look at the family I know that the parents made little compromises that might have contributed to that decision. Jehoshaphat was a great man but he ends up losing badly by associating with a wicked man like Ahab who you planning on associating with?
[35:23] It's dangerous to want to be like them. We're not like them. We're not like lost people. They got a different destiny they got a different daily walk.
[35:35] We are pilgrims and strangers in a world where we don't belong. We don't fit in. Their entertainment is not our entertainment.
[35:49] Their lifestyle is not our lifestyle. Their goals are not our goals. But we can't hardly work with them without it becoming contagious. We want what they want.
[36:00] I said we I didn't say you. There's nothing wrong with the job. Austin said it tonight nothing wrong with the job nothing wrong with but you know what happens is slowly slowly Jehoshaphat pulled down his relationship with God and picked his own self and the story ends badly.
[36:25] Who are you going to associate with? Want to be like them is a dangerous thing. Be like them is a dangerous thing.