WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.679 Well, it's great to see you all this morning. I want to extend a special welcome not only to 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:11.919 ! graduates, but some family who I see in the audience who are visiting. We are glad to have you here 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:20.400 ! Worshiping with us this morning. It's a good day to be together. And God has blessed us with beautiful 00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:29.120 weather. Amen. Spring is finally here. Yeah, it's good. Our lives are often called a race. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:40.480 And it raises a question of how we run that race to the end. Many who begin don't finish well. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:51.120 Sometimes we fail because of the slow, wearing effect of living in a fallen world, 00:00:51.119 --> 00:01:02.079 of our own sin and failure, of our neglect of our spiritual lives. Some of us don't finish the race 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:10.239 well because we have faced some great trial or disappointment. And it's been a breaking point for us. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:18.799 Some of you are runners and probably know this better than I do, but in the Boston Marathon, there is a 00:01:18.799 --> 00:01:27.359 place. This is mile marker 20 to 21 in the Boston Marathon. And it is called Heartbreak Hill. 00:01:28.319 --> 00:01:36.319 It's only 88 feet tall. It's not actually very high. But if you've been running for 20 miles, 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:42.400 your body is starting to break down. Your muscles are starting to tense up. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:50.400 And this is the last of four hills through the town of Newton in a suburb of Boston that the Boston Marathon 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:57.280 route goes. And when you get to the end, for many, it has become the breaking point. 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:06.079 They lose their pace. They lose their stride. They end up walking. Sometimes they don't even finish the race. 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:16.159 We face that in our spiritual lives as well. And how we respond to these breaking points 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:23.199 makes all the difference. Will we be broken by them or will we run the race to the finish? 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:31.679 This is a fitting topic because it is send-off Sunday, as Alex described earlier. This is our 00:02:31.679 --> 00:02:36.639 day in the life of our church where we celebrate those who have graduated. Obviously, Yale is graduating 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:42.799 this weekend, but there are other universities that others are graduating from. And we have high school 00:02:42.799 --> 00:02:48.639 graduates among us as well. And we're so glad to celebrate with you. And because of the kind of church 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:56.319 we have and the kind of town New Haven is, we also see people come and go. Sometimes they move here for 00:02:56.319 --> 00:03:02.319 a while and then God sends them off. And this is why we talk about being a sending church. A church that 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:07.919 believes that the gospel that gathers us and the gospel that transforms us is also the gospel that 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:16.239 goes with us as we send out to the end of the world. So, wherever we are in the race, whether our race is 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:21.439 launching into something new or continuing in the place that God has already had us, 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:24.719 how do we run that race and what does God's Word say to us? 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:32.879 Fittingly, we're in a series in 2 Chronicles. Well, you might not think this is fitting, but 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:40.160 hopefully by the end you'll be convinced of this. We're in 2 Chronicles chapters 14 through 16. 00:03:40.160 --> 00:03:45.680 If you want to turn there in the Pew Bibles, it's page 343. You might want to keep your finger there 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:52.560 because it's obviously a long passage and so we'll be looking at it in little chunks, not all at once. 00:03:54.480 --> 00:04:00.640 But we're going to be looking at the story of King Asa and how King Asa started well, 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:09.439 but didn't finish well, and what it is that God has to say to us as we look at his life and story 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:16.560 together. So, with that, I'm going to pray and ask for God's help as we look at God's Word, and then we'll dive in. 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:18.240 Please pray with me. 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:25.680 Oh Lord, we do come to you this morning, and we ask for your help. 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:36.240 Lord, by your Spirit, will you open our minds to understand your Word, and our hearts to delight in 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:46.560 your Word, and our wills to submit to your Word, and our hands to do your Word. Lord, help us this 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:54.879 morning as we look at this passage, Lord, to know you better. And Lord, we pray you would help us and 00:04:54.879 --> 00:05:02.079 equip us to run the race that you set out before us. Lord, be my help this morning. Help me to speak as I 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:07.439 ought to say the words that you would have me to say, that your Word would be faithfully proclaimed. 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:16.800 Lord, may all that I do and say be pleasing in your sight. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:27.919 So, what do we have to learn from Asa, the king of Judah? We're going to look at three movements of this 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:33.040 of the sermon. We're going to look at what it looks like to start well. We're going to look at how he 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:39.040 faced later challenges, and then we're going to look, step back a little bit from his life, and look at 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:45.680 God's plan for us in following Jesus. So, that's your outline if you're an outline kind of person. 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:53.600 So, we're going to start in how Asa started, and the fact is he started well. We could read chapters 14 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:58.160 15. That will take too long, so I'm going to dip in and give you a couple of snapshots. So, the first 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:06.720 place is chapter 14, verse 2. This is what it said, as Asa began his reign. And Asa did what was good 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:13.760 and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places, and broke 00:06:13.760 --> 00:06:21.120 down the pillars and cut down the ashram, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:31.280 and to keep the law and the commandments. Asa began pursuing God. The first thing he did was to remove 00:06:31.280 --> 00:06:40.139 idols, right? The high places referred to the places on literally higher up in the mountains in Israel 00:06:40.139 --> 00:06:47.680 where the Canaanite peoples that had lived there before would go up to worship their gods. The ashram 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:55.280 and the poles refer to poles devoted to the worship of Asherah, a fertility goddess in the Canaanite 00:06:55.280 --> 00:07:02.560 religion. And Asa said, this is not the people that we are, and this is not the God that we serve. So, 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:09.120 he went up and he removed them all. And even more than that, it said he taught the people, he led the 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:17.759 people to seek the Lord to hear his law and his commandments and to obey them. And it's interesting 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:23.519 to note that the Lord here, the word that's used in that passage is, you know, there are multiple names 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:29.199 for God, the God of the Bible. He talks about himself in different ways to show all of the diversity of 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:35.120 his attributes. And here it is the Lord, and you see there are little smaller caps in the ESV. 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:42.319 What that means is this is the Lord who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. This is the 00:07:42.319 --> 00:07:48.079 God who revealed himself as the deliverer of Israel from slavery in Egypt. This is the God who also 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:54.160 revealed himself to Abraham and to David, who was a covenant-making God with this people. Say, 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:59.840 I will be your God, and you will be my people, and I will bless you, and I will look out for you. 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:07.439 And so this was the God that he said, this is the one we are to seek above all others. 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:15.599 A heart orientation that included growing in knowledge of the God of their fathers, growing in 00:08:15.599 --> 00:08:21.919 trust when they needed something to trust that God would provide, growing in obedience as they 00:08:21.919 --> 00:08:29.039 understood and knew his word, and growing in a love and desire to please God in all things. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:41.440 This is what we see in Asa. And he attributed God's graciousness to God. He saw that in verse 7b, 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:45.840 if you want to look at it, said, the land is ours because we've sought the Lord our God. We've sought 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:51.840 him, and he has given us peace on every side. He said, as we have sought the Lord, the Lord has blessed us 00:08:51.840 --> 00:09:04.240 abundantly. Now, his life didn't continue with all ease. Suddenly, to the south, 15 years into his reign, a 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:10.160 massive army shows up on his southern border. It probably came from Egypt, might have been from 00:09:10.160 --> 00:09:16.240 Ethiopia. The different translations are sort of guess at where this army came from. But if you look at the 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:21.440 numbers, and in case you're wondering, Pastor Nick mentioned this last week, but it's unlikely that 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:26.399 there are actually a million soldiers on the battlefield. The way that the chronicler talks 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:33.200 about numbers, it's more about units. But however you read those, and so a unit might not be a 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:39.519 thousand, it might be a smaller group of people. But however you read those, what you see is that 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:45.439 he was outnumbered two to one by this massive army with chariots, and suddenly his kingdom is deeply 00:09:45.439 --> 00:09:52.399 threatened. And what did he do? Well, look with me at verse 11 of chapter 14. 00:09:54.799 --> 00:10:01.319 And Asa cried to the Lord his God, O Lord, there is none like you to help between the mighty and the weak. 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:09.439 Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:18.480 O Lord, you are our God. Let not man prevail against you. And that's exactly what happened. 00:10:19.199 --> 00:10:25.460 Faced with this great challenge, he turned to the Lord and pleaded for God's help, 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:32.860 and God blessed him, and God delivered him, and rescued him, and routed this overwhelming enemy 00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:43.659 that was in his face. Asa continued to serve and worship the Lord. When we look at chapter 15, 00:10:43.659 --> 00:10:48.139 it's a long chapter, there's lots of really good rich things in there, but we don't have time. We'd 00:10:48.139 --> 00:10:54.460 be here all day if we looked at it all. But what we see in chapter 15 is that chapter continued to 00:10:54.460 --> 00:11:02.120 seek God after this victory by returning to the worship in the temple and renewing an oath with God. 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:08.379 Right? And so that's what we see in chapter 15. They come together. He calls an assembly. The people 00:11:08.379 --> 00:11:15.980 gather and say, yes, this is our God. We will follow him. We will seek him. And we see in verse 14 of 00:11:15.980 --> 00:11:23.240 chapter 15. This is how the people responded to Asa's leadership. They swore an oath to the Lord with a 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:31.200 loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with horns. And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:38.659 for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire. And he was found by 00:11:38.659 --> 00:11:51.799 them. And the Lord gave them rest all around. The first 15, maybe even 30, we can talk about timelines 00:11:51.799 --> 00:12:00.339 later. The timelines in this chapter are a little challenging. But he began so well. He led the people 00:12:00.340 --> 00:12:10.100 to seek the Lord with all of their heart and with their whole desire. Some of you are graduating from 00:12:10.100 --> 00:12:19.019 high school and college. You've made it. Congratulations. That's awesome. Way to go. As you launch into this new 00:12:19.019 --> 00:12:29.300 season of your life, will you seek the Lord with all of your heart? What does that look like? Well, 00:12:29.299 --> 00:12:35.679 it means a lot of things. But let me pick out two that I think relate to the passage. The first is it 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:45.439 means that we trust God for our everyday lives. That's what Asa did. Faced with this huge challenge, 00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:53.639 he said, God, this is too big for me. I can't do this. So he turned to the Lord, and the Lord helped him 00:12:53.639 --> 00:13:03.319 because he trusted in him. Think of the words from Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 through 7, 00:13:04.059 --> 00:13:09.399 where the writer of Proverbs encourages us to think about our lives in this way. 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:16.840 Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, 00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:24.720 acknowledge him, and he will make straight your path. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:32.820 and turn away from evil. I know it's easy when you've succeeded and gotten to the point of graduation. 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:39.680 You're thinking, all right, I can do this. Maybe some of you are more anxious than that. But sometimes 00:13:39.680 --> 00:13:44.820 we have this senioritis that's… there's a lot of bravado and courage about what's happening next. 00:13:44.820 --> 00:13:52.900 But we must be sure that we do so humbly, not trusting that we can do anything because we're 00:13:52.900 --> 00:14:00.660 invincible, but we can do anything because God is our God, and he will carry us through. 00:14:03.520 --> 00:14:11.560 Trust the Lord with where to live and who to live with. Trust the Lord with where to attend church, 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:19.059 how to find a Christian community. Trust the Lord as you think about how you spend your time and your 00:14:19.059 --> 00:14:29.500 money and your talents. Trust the Lord and acknowledge him. Lean not on your own understanding, 00:14:30.319 --> 00:14:35.599 but humbly seek him and ask him to help you in all of these things. 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:42.259 So that's the first application for this. The second one is to think about how you set your hearts. 00:14:42.659 --> 00:14:48.120 This is the amazing thing about the God of the Bible is that at one level, we often fall into 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:52.920 thinking Christianity is a set of rules that we need to follow, and it's just an instruction manual. 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:58.279 If we can just do the… do the right things and check off the right boxes, then we're going to be fine. 00:14:58.279 --> 00:15:06.639 But instead, God continually says it's your heart orientation that is the foundation. It's the 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:12.399 fountain from which your actions will flow. So where do you set your heart? 00:15:14.379 --> 00:15:19.579 And I'll tell you, one of the things I want to encourage you to do as you want to run this race 00:15:19.580 --> 00:15:28.780 to the end is take time regularly to evaluate your life in terms of what you think your heart really 00:15:28.780 --> 00:15:35.360 values. What do I mean by that? Where do you invest your lives, your time, your money, attention, 00:15:35.580 --> 00:15:44.360 your love? When we look at these things, we see where our hearts really are. Do we make time for God's 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:52.180 Word? Do we daily open it and read it? Do we invest in being a part of a small group where we come 00:15:52.180 --> 00:16:00.639 together to talk about God's Word together? Do we make attendance to church on an every week basis 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:13.039 a goal and a priority for us? How do we spend our time otherwise? Do we give church and God just 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:22.279 the minimum, the leftovers? Or do we think about how we use our time abundantly to serve and to be a part 00:16:22.279 --> 00:16:28.000 of His mission? That doesn't mean you have to be at church all the time. You can be serving God in 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:33.799 the world, but what you're doing when you're out there is not simply going along the way and doing 00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:40.579 what all your peers are doing, but you're thinking, God, how do I spend each day, each hour to glorify You? 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:52.120 Look at your delights. What gets you up in the morning? Is it, this is the day that the Lord has 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:57.879 made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that God has set out good works for me to 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:05.519 beforehand, for me to walk in. Let me find those and walk in those. Or do we get really excited about 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:13.000 the NCAA lacrosse tournament? Okay, that's probably only me in this room, but…or our sports teams, or our 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:22.160 family, or our career aspirations, or whatever it is. What delights our hearts? And if we find that 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:26.660 other things delight our heart more than knowing and serving the Lord, 00:17:26.660 --> 00:17:33.920 Lord, then maybe we need to return to seek Him and let the marvel of our salvation 00:17:33.920 --> 00:17:43.540 bring awe again to our hearts and let the gospel become a treasure again to our souls. 00:17:46.540 --> 00:17:53.540 Now, all of this could be said of Asa in his early years, could it not? But as he continued, 00:17:53.539 --> 00:18:01.500 he faced his own, what seems to be heartbreak hill. And this is what we see when we turn to chapter 16. 00:18:03.019 --> 00:18:08.799 So, this is point two, how he faced later challenges. In chapter 16, verses 1 through 6, 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:14.839 he has another military threat. This is actually half the size of the military threat from before, 00:18:15.019 --> 00:18:22.240 and it's from not the south and Egypt, but from the north, the immediate north. And if you remember, 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:26.980 in Chronicles, we're looking at the story of the kingdom of Israel that God has put together. 00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:32.920 But we saw earlier on in verses…in chapters 10 through 12 that the kingdom of Israel was divided 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:37.059 into two. And the northern part was called Israel, and the southern part was called Judah. 00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:43.620 And Asa is the king of Judah, where Jerusalem is. And Israel and the king there, 00:18:43.619 --> 00:18:55.179 named Baasha, was threatening him. In fact, it was like invading. Think about the civil war. This is 00:18:55.179 --> 00:19:01.339 like the south creeping up to Richmond and starting to cut off the trade routes into Washington, D.C. 00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:06.759 That's basically what they were doing from…but flipped over from the north. They were coming down 00:19:06.759 --> 00:19:14.319 and trying to build this place called Ramah to choke off the trade and the military routes in and out of 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:22.740 Jerusalem. And so, it was a significant threat. And how did Asa respond? You know, it's interesting. 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:29.279 The text doesn't really talk about his heart or motivate…what was going on in his thought process 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:33.400 very much here. But what he does is, rather than crying out to the Lord and saying, 00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:39.200 Lord, this is too big for me. I can't do this. Help me. He says, I've been king for a while. 00:19:39.820 --> 00:19:45.580 I think I've been successful. I know how to do this. And so, he goes to…okay, a little bit 00:19:45.580 --> 00:19:50.860 complicated. So, north of Israel is Syria. So, he goes to the king of Syria and he says, hey, 00:19:50.980 --> 00:19:57.580 if I give you a lot of money out of my treasury, will you attack my common enemy from the north? 00:19:58.100 --> 00:20:02.240 And then that'll distract him from doing what he's trying to do here in the south against us. 00:20:03.400 --> 00:20:11.540 That's the idea. He basically comes up with his own plan, pays for it with great riches out of 00:20:11.540 --> 00:20:18.120 the storehouse of the temple as well as the king. And it works. 00:20:21.740 --> 00:20:23.140 He gets peace. 00:20:23.140 --> 00:20:35.820 It seems like, man, he's a wise ruler. But…verse 7, God comes and speaks to him. 00:20:37.820 --> 00:20:38.960 Let's read it together. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:39.960 Verse 8, 00:20:39.960 --> 00:20:40.960 Verse 8, 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:47.680 At that time, Hanani, the seer, came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, 00:20:48.380 --> 00:20:54.259 Because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, 00:20:54.740 --> 00:21:01.440 the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:08.240 with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hands. 00:21:09.940 --> 00:21:16.299 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those 00:21:16.299 --> 00:21:21.900 whose hearts are blameless towards him. You have done foolishly in this, 00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:34.860 for from now on you will have wars. In this new opportunity later in his life, later in his kingdom, 00:21:34.860 --> 00:21:45.259 to trust God, he didn't. He instead trusted in himself and trusted in his human treaties. 00:21:45.259 --> 00:21:54.220 This is a U-turn, right? Remember, chapter 15 is all about seeking the Lord with all of your heart, 00:21:54.379 --> 00:21:59.819 with all of your desire, renewing a covenant with him. And then in chapter 16, 00:21:59.819 --> 00:22:03.039 he turns around and makes a covenant with the king of Syria. 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:15.460 And even though it's successful in the short term, it seems God comes and says, 00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:21.940 don't you see? I actually had something better for you. Because now you're going to continue to have 00:22:21.940 --> 00:22:28.740 wars, not only with Israel, but with Syria. Your partner will never, will not be a faithful partner. 00:22:28.740 --> 00:22:34.400 And in the end, he will be another enemy for you to have to contend with. I would have delivered him 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:43.059 into your hands, but instead, because of your foolishness, because of your lack of trust, 00:22:44.019 --> 00:22:52.440 they have slipped away. And as you continue, you see that this was not just one mistake. 00:22:52.440 --> 00:23:01.019 And Asa goes, oh, I blew it. You're right. And turns back to the Lord. Instead, if you look, 00:23:01.380 --> 00:23:07.200 verse 10 of chapter 16, do you see what he does? He gets angry at the prophet for telling him truth. 00:23:07.820 --> 00:23:13.980 And he puts him in chains, right? And then you look two verses later in verse 12, it says, 00:23:14.100 --> 00:23:20.840 and later in his life, he became sick, but he did not seek the Lord in it, but instead sought the 00:23:20.839 --> 00:23:29.399 physicians for healing. Right? His heart had turned away from the Lord, and he made these series of 00:23:29.399 --> 00:23:38.599 decisions to show how far he had turned away. Now, I need to say this. Physicians are not all bad. 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:44.919 You should seek physicians if you're sick, but you should always trust in the Lord, 00:23:44.920 --> 00:23:50.519 not in your physicians for your life and your death, for your healing or sickness. 00:23:52.519 --> 00:24:01.420 And when you're in negotiations for your job, it's okay to pull along a supervisor who's going to help 00:24:01.420 --> 00:24:08.519 you get that promotion that you want. It's okay to do that as long as you are trusting the Lord 00:24:08.519 --> 00:24:14.480 and not your mechanisms to try to get the things that you think you want or deserve. 00:24:17.759 --> 00:24:27.799 The heart is the point. What do you rely on? What do you trust in? Asa began trusting in the Lord 00:24:27.799 --> 00:24:36.379 and relying on Him. And in prosperity, he worshiped God. And in adversity, he cried out to God. 00:24:36.380 --> 00:24:46.180 But then he turned away. And I will say, brothers and sisters, that as I've gotten older, and some of 00:24:46.180 --> 00:24:53.840 you have walked many more years than I have and know this even more, it is so hard to keep on seeking 00:24:53.840 --> 00:25:02.980 the Lord. The dangers are constant and all around. Because when things are hard, it's easy to turn away 00:25:02.980 --> 00:25:08.920 from the Lord. We blame God because He doesn't make our life easy. When we face deep pain or loss, 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:15.059 we think He's abandoned us. When we experience rejection, infidelity, or betrayal, we think God 00:25:15.059 --> 00:25:22.980 has not protected us. When we have disappointments or broken dreams, we despair that God has good things 00:25:22.980 --> 00:25:35.160 for us. And even though we might persevere for a long time in pursuing God, there's a danger at each turning 00:25:35.160 --> 00:25:40.860 point, each breaking point for us to say, you know what? I'm done. I don't want to do it anymore. I give up. 00:25:41.819 --> 00:25:43.200 I don't want to trust the Lord. 00:25:43.200 --> 00:25:50.680 One of the things that I've seen is that often when we've persevered for a while through hard things, 00:25:50.940 --> 00:25:56.920 is we can develop in our own hearts a sense of entitlement. God, I've been faithful and now you 00:25:56.920 --> 00:26:03.180 owe me. And we come to that breaking point where we think, but God, I thought you owed me this and 00:26:03.180 --> 00:26:09.799 you didn't give it to me. We've been faithful so long, we develop a sense of entitlement, 00:26:09.799 --> 00:26:19.059 demandingness towards the Lord or his selfishness. And when he doesn't give it to us, we often turn 00:26:19.059 --> 00:26:27.299 away. And that's the danger of trials. But there's also a danger, my friends, in prosperity. 00:26:28.279 --> 00:26:32.440 This is what it seems like happened to Rehoboam in chapter 12. You can look at that later. 00:26:32.899 --> 00:26:38.639 But it seems like it happened… Asa had a great career as a king. He did everything right. It seemed 00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:45.259 like everything was going well. And yet his heart was vulnerable. 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:53.220 It reminds me of the words that Moses speaks to the people on the brink of entering into the 00:26:53.220 --> 00:26:59.220 promised land in Deuteronomy 8. If you remember this, God had delivered people out of Egypt. 00:26:59.580 --> 00:27:04.480 He had delivered them through the wilderness where they didn't have water and they didn't 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:10.460 have food. And God provided miraculously in all of these ways. And now as they're on the brink of 00:27:10.460 --> 00:27:16.819 entering into this promised land where God's going to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:21.599 that where he's going to give them peace from their neighbors and a land that they can call their own. 00:27:22.819 --> 00:27:27.440 He goes on and says, do you remember all the ways that God has been faithful? Do you remember all the 00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:33.400 ways that God's going to do all of these good things for you? And then in verse 17, he says this, 00:27:33.860 --> 00:27:42.500 beware lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have given me this wealth. 00:27:43.980 --> 00:27:48.960 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, 00:27:49.420 --> 00:27:56.059 that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is in this day. 00:27:56.059 --> 00:28:04.079 Maybe some of you have felt this as well. The trials are when we know we need God so much that 00:28:04.079 --> 00:28:13.079 we turn to him all the time. And then when life is good, it's easy for us to forget. And it's easy 00:28:13.079 --> 00:28:17.919 for us to start to think, this is the way life should be. As a matter of fact, this is the way, 00:28:18.099 --> 00:28:22.960 this is the life that I have built. Look at what I have done and look at how great I'm doing. 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:30.200 And God gets pushed from the margins to the exclusion of our lives in our prosperity. 00:28:32.980 --> 00:28:38.299 When we have career success, when our kids are thriving, when our marriage seems happy, 00:28:38.600 --> 00:28:45.360 when our friendships are rich, and when our homes are places of joy and happiness and peace, 00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:51.559 how easy it is for us to say, my hand has gotten me this wealth. 00:28:55.439 --> 00:28:59.659 How easy it is for us to think we rely on ourselves in these things. 00:29:02.740 --> 00:29:07.699 Both trials and prosperity are tests along the way in this race. 00:29:07.700 --> 00:29:17.700 So, what do we do? How do we run this race? Well, God has a plan. But I want to, as we dive into God's 00:29:17.700 --> 00:29:24.539 plan for us in terms of how do we pursue God, I want to expose something that has been in the background 00:29:24.539 --> 00:29:29.880 of our teaching on Chronicles. Because Chronicles sometimes feels like there are two messages going 00:29:29.880 --> 00:29:35.799 on at the same time. And one of the messages is there are spiritual consequences. So, for instance, 00:29:35.799 --> 00:29:43.379 in chapter 15, verse 2 of this passage, what we see is the Lord speaking, and it says, 00:29:43.500 --> 00:29:49.659 the Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you. But if you 00:29:49.659 --> 00:29:57.839 forsake Him, He will forsake you. Or, as we just read in chapter 16, verse 7, 00:29:58.059 --> 00:30:02.799 because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of 00:30:02.799 --> 00:30:09.139 Syria has escaped you. And then at the very end, you have done foolishly in this. Therefore, 00:30:09.419 --> 00:30:16.759 from now on, you will have wars. So, it seems like God brings blessing when we're doing well and then 00:30:16.759 --> 00:30:26.659 cursing when we're not, right? Prosperity when we're doing well and trials and hardship when we're not. 00:30:26.660 --> 00:30:33.860 And look, we need to acknowledge this. This is a spiritual principle. There is a truth in it. 00:30:34.259 --> 00:30:40.900 It's actually throughout the whole of Scripture. So, even Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 through 10 says 00:30:40.900 --> 00:30:47.440 this, don't be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever one sows that he will also reap. For the 00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:56.060 one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the Spirit will 00:30:56.059 --> 00:31:02.700 from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not grow weary of doing good. For in due season, we will 00:31:02.700 --> 00:31:09.339 reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and 00:31:09.339 --> 00:31:13.899 especially to those who are of the household of faith. So, we see, even in the New Testament, 00:31:14.279 --> 00:31:22.139 there is… there are… there is this truth about spiritual consequences, right? There is a sense in 00:31:22.140 --> 00:31:28.780 which God does bless those who follow him and obey him and… and… and… and bring judgment or 00:31:28.780 --> 00:31:35.740 condemnation or trial on those who don't. But it's not the only pattern in this story, is it? 00:31:36.460 --> 00:31:42.060 We kind of like that one because it's attractive to our hearts. We know, okay, if I can do this, 00:31:42.400 --> 00:31:49.300 it… it puts… it feels like it puts us in control. But in fact, there is a different… and I would 00:31:49.299 --> 00:31:58.019 even say a deeper dynamic, even in the story of Asa, where we see God giving not what we deserve, 00:31:58.659 --> 00:32:08.740 but… he acts for our grace. He gives grace to us. He gives blessing and trials without a particular 00:32:08.740 --> 00:32:16.899 cause. So, for instance, in the very first chapter… first verse, chapter 14, it says that rest came to 00:32:16.900 --> 00:32:24.500 Asa. This was before he's described as seeking the Lord. It said God gave him this graciously, 00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:31.040 right? With no cause, right? And then we see in chapter 9 of verse 14 that when Asa is doing 00:32:31.040 --> 00:32:36.460 everything right, what happens? This massive army shows up on his doorstep. That doesn't seem like 00:32:36.460 --> 00:32:45.200 God blessing him, right? In verse… in chapter 16, verse 1, we have the same thing. Chapter 15 is all 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:50.380 about Asa's worshiping the Lord and how good it is. And then suddenly, chapter 16, verse 1, 00:32:51.700 --> 00:32:57.740 Israel shows up and starts to attack them. This isn't… this doesn't seem like good consequences. 00:32:58.180 --> 00:33:07.160 What is this? And then we see, interestingly, that in verses 13 and 14 of chapter 16, 00:33:07.160 --> 00:33:16.180 though Asa did not finish well, he was buried in the city of David and he was celebrated as a good king. 00:33:17.779 --> 00:33:25.700 It's really interesting to see that at the end of the day, the imprint, the impression that the 00:33:25.700 --> 00:33:31.519 writer of Chronicles wants us to see is that Asa was a pretty good king. He was in the line of David 00:33:31.519 --> 00:33:37.859 and the kingdom did pretty well. It's fascinating to see this. And we think, this isn't fair. This isn't… 00:33:37.859 --> 00:33:45.740 this isn't the way it would work. How does this, recognizing these dynamics, help us run the race? 00:33:47.759 --> 00:33:55.980 Well, there's a warning and an encouragement in these dynamics. And the warning is that spiritual 00:33:55.980 --> 00:34:06.980 consequences are real. And that means that we need to be diligent. We need to exercise our wills. 00:34:06.980 --> 00:34:15.019 We need to engage in community so that we will continue to press in to seek the Lord. 00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:24.280 Because when we don't, it will have negative consequences. That is true. 00:34:25.980 --> 00:34:36.800 But the encouragement is that you are undergirded by a grace deeper than that. And that helps us run 00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:43.840 that race too, doesn't it? I think chapter 16, verse 9 is a key verse in this whole section 00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:48.159 to understand what we're supposed to see about God in the life of Asa. 00:34:48.159 --> 00:35:09.480 The very character of Asa's God is a God who wants us to seek Him, yes, but He is actually seeking us. 00:35:09.480 --> 00:35:23.240 He is coming to us and He is looking to be our help. He is looking to be our deliverer. He is looking for us to trust in Him so that He can provide for us. 00:35:25.300 --> 00:35:28.519 And it's fascinating when you think about this, because the verse says, 00:35:28.840 --> 00:35:32.099 whose heart is blameless towards Him. And we all go, oh no. 00:35:32.099 --> 00:35:35.480 Because none of us are blameless, right? 00:35:36.779 --> 00:35:40.119 We probably haven't even made it to church this morning without doing something and we're like, 00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:41.360 yep, that's not blameless. 00:35:44.079 --> 00:35:48.460 But I don't think that's actually the best sense of this word here. 00:35:48.539 --> 00:35:53.579 When you look at this, it actually says, whose heart is whole towards God. 00:35:53.579 --> 00:35:57.460 It's actually picking up on the same theme that we've seen in a number of places, 00:35:57.880 --> 00:36:01.199 seeking God with all of our heart, our whole desire. 00:36:02.380 --> 00:36:08.159 And the word also has some similar connections to the word shalom, 00:36:08.819 --> 00:36:14.279 so that the heart who is at peace or who is at rest with God, 00:36:14.940 --> 00:36:19.340 that is God is the center of them, and they find their peace under Him. 00:36:19.340 --> 00:36:24.780 So how do we navigate these dynamics? 00:36:25.100 --> 00:36:27.940 Well, we have a God who seeks us. 00:36:29.079 --> 00:36:32.420 And is this not, my friends, the very heart of the gospel? 00:36:34.120 --> 00:36:34.680 Right? 00:36:35.240 --> 00:36:41.440 Jesus came to seek and save us when we were lost in our sin. 00:36:41.960 --> 00:36:49.039 He is the good shepherd who leaves the 99 to come out into the woolly, wild world of fears and dangers. 00:36:49.340 --> 00:36:52.780 To rescue the one and bring Him back in. 00:36:53.260 --> 00:36:56.200 This is the heart of God. 00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:01.300 In this, God's love is demonstrated for us. 00:37:01.620 --> 00:37:05.079 That while we were still sinners, He died for us. 00:37:05.740 --> 00:37:07.440 See, this is the amazing thing. 00:37:07.720 --> 00:37:11.960 In the economy of cursing and blessing, of spiritual consequences, 00:37:11.960 --> 00:37:15.659 Jesus, the perfect man who never sinned, 00:37:15.780 --> 00:37:19.320 stepped in and took the consequences of our sin upon Himself 00:37:19.320 --> 00:37:21.619 by dying on the cross for our sins. 00:37:23.059 --> 00:37:27.679 That's ultimately the breaking point of this economy. 00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:34.820 Through grace, in love, He came and took the consequences for us 00:37:34.820 --> 00:37:39.300 so that we could be delivered from the consequences of our wrongdoing, of our sin. 00:37:39.300 --> 00:37:44.039 And so that we could receive from Him a new spiritual life 00:37:44.039 --> 00:37:48.580 and a heart that is finally alive and capable of seeking Him. 00:37:48.980 --> 00:37:51.160 And now that He's given us this heart, He says, 00:37:51.159 --> 00:37:52.579 keep going. 00:37:53.119 --> 00:37:56.539 Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. 00:37:57.059 --> 00:37:59.379 Press on to follow Him. 00:37:59.380 --> 00:38:06.960 And so we end with Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 that Lara read earlier. 00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:11.500 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 00:38:11.960 --> 00:38:16.920 let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, 00:38:17.300 --> 00:38:21.340 and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 00:38:21.740 --> 00:38:28.340 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, 00:38:28.340 --> 00:38:32.600 who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, 00:38:33.120 --> 00:38:39.079 despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 00:38:40.420 --> 00:38:42.820 Friends, this is how we run the race. 00:38:43.400 --> 00:38:48.880 We fix our eyes on Jesus, the one who has come to rescue us. 00:38:49.940 --> 00:38:50.740 Let's pray. 00:38:55.039 --> 00:38:56.720 Lord, thank You for Your Word. 00:38:56.719 --> 00:39:02.319 Lord, thank You for the ways that it challenges us and encourages us. 00:39:03.259 --> 00:39:05.319 We pray, Lord, that You would help us. 00:39:05.500 --> 00:39:06.239 Be our help. 00:39:06.899 --> 00:39:10.259 Lord, to run the race towards You that You've called us to. 00:39:11.599 --> 00:39:15.079 Lord, maybe for some, this message would cause us to repent 00:39:15.079 --> 00:39:17.439 of other things that we have done, 00:39:17.500 --> 00:39:20.099 of ways that we have begun to rely on ourselves, 00:39:20.299 --> 00:39:22.299 or things we have not trusted You for. 00:39:22.300 --> 00:39:27.180 Lord, help us to turn back to You 00:39:27.180 --> 00:39:30.860 because of the grace You've shown us in Jesus. 00:39:31.920 --> 00:39:34.460 Thank You that He has run the race for us, 00:39:34.880 --> 00:39:38.140 and Lord, that when we are His, He will bring us home. 00:39:38.139 --> 00:39:42.559 We pray these things in Jesus' name. 00:39:43.179 --> 00:39:43.500 Amen.