If you're using the Bibles in your seats, that's found on page 691. I'll give you a moment to find that.
We read this morning in our confession of our faith, how repentance on the life, that is, the repentance that comes about when a person is saved is a repentance that determines in the heart to endeavor, to walk in a way, to live in a way that pleases God. And that was something that was at issue that we'll see in second chronicles in our gospel lesson text this morning. And it's something that Jesus explains when he tells a parable about a sower who went out and sewed seed in a field and this seed fell on different kinds of soil. And Jesus explains to his disciples here how that seed is the gospel, the word of God, and that it falls on different kinds of soil and there are different responses to it. Our passage is Matthew 13 verses 18 through 23. Listen then to what the parable of the sower means. When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sewn in its heart. This is the seed sewn along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and it once receives it with joy but since he has no root he lasts only a short time when trouble or persecution comes because of the word. He quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it making it unfruitful but the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop yielding 160 or 30 times what was sewn. Our second gospel reading this morning is from John 15. Part of what if you were here two weeks ago you had preached to you when will was here.
John chapter 15 beginning in verse 5 going through verse 8. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples just shortly before he was betrayed and crucified. Jesus said, I am the vine. You are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me he is like a branch that has thrown away in withers. Such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples. Our gospel lesson text this morning is 2 Chronicles chapter 15 that is found on page 317 in the Bible that are in your seats and I will give you a moment to find that. We have been talking about Asa. Scripture has been talking about Asa all through chapter 14 and we have seen him for the last two of the last three weeks. We have talked about him and how he did not always get it right. Generally up to this point he has had exemplary responses to the word of God. When a prophet comes up to him he responds in the right way. When a foreign enemy comes into the land to attack him he responds in the right way, turning to the Lord in prayer and saying God this battle is yours. We have come to the battle lines here to protect what you have said as ours but we are without strength. We need your strength as we fight this battle. Now we see coming from this battle in which Asa was facing troops and chariots that were twice or more bigger than his own. He comes back and God has earned this great victory for him and as he comes into Jerusalem he is confronted by this prophet who gives him this encouragement. Essentially says to him, Asa you have done it right and the reason you won this battle was because you turned to the Lord now continue in this good way. Second Chronicles 15, this is God's word eternally true. The Spirit of God came upon Asa Raya's son of Odad. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, listen to me, Asa and all Judah in Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him he will be found by you but if you forsake him he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without the true God without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the Lord the God of Israel and sought him and he was found by them. In those days it was not safe to travel about for all the inhabitants of the land wearing great turmoil. One nation being crushed by another and one city by another because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. But as for you be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded. When Asa heard these words in the prophecy of Asa Raya son of Odad the prophet he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah in Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord's temple. Then he assembled all Judah in Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them. For large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord as God was with him. They assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign. At that time they sacrificed to the Lord 700 head of cattle and 7,000 sheep and goats from the plunder they had brought back. They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord the God of their fathers with all their heart and soul. All who would not seek the Lord the God of Israel were put to death whether small or great man or woman. They took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation with shouting and with trumpets and horns. All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly and he was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side. King Asa also deposed his grandmother, Maaka, from her position as Queen Mother because she had made a repulsive ashera pole. Asa cut the pole down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidren Valley. Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. He brought into the temple of God the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated. There was no more war until the 35th year of Asa's reign. Herein's our reading. Let us respond now to God and thankfulness for giving us this his word. Your response of thankfulness is there located at the top right of your bulletin. The word of the Lord, thanks be to him indeed. Let us pray.
Our God and Father, we are thankful that you've given us this your word and we ask that you would speak to us now. Jesus preached to us your gospel, preached to us about yourself in your ways that we might conform our lives to you and to your ways by the power of your spirit which lives in us. Grant us understanding by your spirit and lighten our minds and hearts and make us by your work in our hearts and minds willing to follow you. Cause us to see the wisdom of it. We ask Jesus in your name.
Sometimes regardless of what it is you're involved in, there may be one thing that is key or critical for the whole project to go on. Maybe it's a project that works. Maybe you're working and doing tests of a new product that's on the line and it could be a great thing for the company but it depends on this product testing whether the evidence comes out. You know if you're have seen the movie The Fugitive with Harrison Ford, one of my probably top five movies. If I see that movie on TV, regardless of where it is in the movie, I just stop and I watch the movie from that point on to the end. I'm just fascinated by it. I love Harrison Ford's acting in that movie. Love the plot line and all these different things going on. But if you remember that movie, Harrison Ford is a doctor and he's been involved in these clinical trials about this. I think it's a cancer drug to stop cancerous growth in the kidneys and he turns in these reports reporting from the slides that he's seen of kidney tissue of these people that have been on this drug that it's not working. This new drug is not working and he reports this and soon his wife has killed and he's framed for this murder that he did not commit but he escapes on the way to prison. The train is hijacked or comes off its track and so he goes and sneaks back into Chicago and where he has worked and he finds these slides and he finds his reports and he finds out that these reports have been altered and that the chief guy in charge of the study has been altering the reports because the drug company has been giving him all these benefits and all this pay to give this drug a positive approval because this company knows if this test doesn't go through all this money we've spent is wasted and we'll have to start again from the drawing board and our stock will go down and all these things. Sometimes it's a particular person on a team if you're rooting for a team there's one key person that needs to perform well. I remember I didn't play football in high school but I remember my senior year in high school we had a guy named Tim Severance and Tim was a big fella and he played tail back on our team and I remember my best friend who was an offensive lineman and others who would joke about how the coach would talk about this one player who's last name with Severance but his nickname was Deceve. He would even Tim would even sign your books Deceve and he kind of knew it was a joke and he was playing along but yet there was a seriousness to it and they knew and that the coach told the team you know we're going to win this game because we got Deceve which kind of made half the guys kind of laugh but anyway one thing that's important that leads to victory or that leads to success. My high school about eight years prior to that had been in sports illustrated under the category ten worst high school football teams in the nation. Couldn't catch a pun. They just let it hit him and then the other team would jump on it. Oh it was awful. This is a passage about one thing that's important and we see it here at the front of this passage when Asa has gotten it right. When he has turned to the Lord in battle he's gone to the line he's ready to fight he's out there he's taken action which we do is Christians in obeying God's word and speaking to others about Christ and performing God's law in whichever way it is we do that but we need to as Asa does then turn to God in the midst of whatever obedience we're involved in which Asa was involved in protecting the promised land that was his role as king to protect the promised land and he goes on and cries out to the Lord he gets it right and the Lord is with him. He invokes God's name as he prays in chapter 14 and the Lord takes over that battle for him and the Lord does not want ace it to lose the lesson of what he's just been through and so he sends this prophet who comes as Araya son of Odad and in the midst it seems like in this victory celebration in Jerusalem as Araya says hold on everybody stop and it's almost like if there's this silence among the crowd among the celebration and as Araya underlines this point here's what won this victory for you which you know about but don't miss it and don't forget the Lord was with you out there and that's why you won this battle you cried out for him you have been with him and he has been with you that's why you have had victory when future battle comes battles come remember this here these words the spirit of God came upon Araya son of Odad he went out to meet Asa and said to him see this urgency he goes out and gets in his face it says listen to me Asa and Judah and all Judah and Benjamin the Lord is with you when you're with him this is the coach in the locker room at halftime when his team had done what they were supposed to do during that first half it's the coach saying now that's how you play basketball this is how you live life the one thing that really really mattered underneath everything is that the Lord is with you it's not to say it's not a positive result in the clinical trial the most important thing about each person's life from the face of the earth is this it all divides down to this question is the Lord with you or is he not that's it you want success you want victory in how God defines success and victory according to his word it all depends upon this are you with the Lord and is the Lord with you that's your blank as we start off here what's important in life what's the ultimate question what's the dividing question about that affects the complete quality of one person's life versus another's that affects who are the sheep and who are the goats Jesus described when everybody becomes before God at judgment the one important issue in life is this that the Lord is your blank with us it's this that wins us victory how's the Lord with believers well Jesus and dwells believers with his spirit that's your blank Jesus and dwells us with his spirit Jesus himself is God with us Emmanuel God with us and Jesus was in dwelt with great power with God's spirit and we see that at the baptism of Jesus with John the Baptist the the dove comes down and bodily form and signifies the spirit of God coming upon Jesus in great power anointing him for service to do his priestly and kingly and prophetic work over those three years of his ministry Ephesians 1 verses 13 and 14 says that the Holy Spirit has been given to believers as a pledge of our inheritance a down payment assuring us that our eternal life upon our death is to come and that it's we have the fruit of the spirit develop in our lives things like love joy peace patience kindness gentleness faithfulness gentleness and self control is these things develop in our lives that is indication that the spirit of God is within us and a promise or a guarantee that when we die we will be with God in the complete sense of the term and that God will be with us Jesus said in John 14 do not let your hearts be troubled they were worried about Jesus not being with them anymore he had told them I am going away from you I will be betrayed I will be killed you will not have me physically with you here anymore but he says do not let your hearts be troubled trust in God trust also in me in my father's house are many rooms if it were not so I would have told you I am going there to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come back and take you to be with me so that you might also be where I am see how this issue is of ultimate importance being with Jesus John 14 15 Jesus says if you love me you will obey what I command and I will ask the father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever the spirit of truth Jesus said to his disciples don't worry I will be with you by my spirit and dwelling in you and like we read this morning Jesus said I am the true vine and you're the branches abide in me and I and you were to be connected were to be with each other and in this way you will produce fruits remain in me and I will remain in you no branch can bear fruit by itself must remain in the vine that's how the Lord is with believers by his spirit now what's the victory what's the success that scripture says that we are to be expecting that we're to be after what's the victory that the spirit of God gives to his people that is over what enemies is this victory as I mentioned to you last week it's not a victory of getting a yellow Corvette or a little red one for your Prince fans out there three main things that are spoken of in scripture that are our enemies as believers the first thing and a blank for you here a sin over what enemies does God's spirit give us victory sin and we see this in the life of Jesus Jesus is anointed with God's spirit by John the Baptist and then he goes out into the wilderness and it's tempted for 40 days and Jesus says no to those temptations by the spirit of God who is within him the spirit of God is within us and the spirit of God enables us to say no to temptation victory when God is with us we have God with us by his spirit just like Asa did the God was with him secondly victory over second enemy death that's your blank death be death and again when God is with Asa he has literally victory over death but for us as believers today by God's spirit we read and some of you were reading in Sunday school this morning first Corinthians 15 by God's spirit within us or Romans 8 by God's spirit within us we have life after death it's the spirit of God that brings to us eternal life and when Jesus returns our bodies will be raised by this same spirit just like Jesus was raised by the spirit of God in him bodily raised from the dead victory over death by the spirit and thirdly we have victory by God's spirit being with us over Satan that's your third blank your C point there Satan Satan held the power over death we read in Revelation 118 but Jesus broke that power over death for those who are his and Satan also roars about like a lion seeking someone to devour and by God's spirit as we mentioned before we have power to say no to this temptation so that Satan will not devour us so that he will not damage us in this life and so as Raya comes to us today and says by God's presence with you you have victory over sin temptation over death and over Satan it's not a victory that you earn it's a victory that you have because you have called out to God as Asa called out to God you said Father I am powerless to overcome temptation in myself because all I have is the sin nature of myself and that wants to do the sin that's presented before me we call out to God and say God I have no power to overcome death my body when it's dead I have no power in myself to overcome death in bodily resurrection and I have no power nowhere near the scale of power over Satan who's a category of being an angel that's a whole category above me and so we call out to the Lord and that's what we've done in our saving faith and repentance unto life we've called out to God as Asa called out to God and said we are powerless and who are we to overcome any of these things these forces of greater might than us and our calling out to Jesus in saving faith our calling out to Jesus in our repentance and the life has earned us this victory that Jesus earned for us over sin over death and over Satan now how do we get this victory and here's your blank how do we get this victory we seek him we need to be with him see there's this back and forth kind of thing that Asa and the people of Judah and Benjamin were God's people and there was this God was God was with them in this sense but God's people had to reciprocate in this when they came to a real circumstance in their life the command to them was to be with the Lord and that gets defined and interchangeably with this is this command to seek the Lord and in 1st and 2nd Chronicles that is a buzz word seek the Lord wholehearted seeking of the Lord is a key term that appears in 1st and 2nd Chronicles it doesn't appear much else in all of scripture and so when we see this term of seeking the Lord with our whole hearts or wholeheartedly that's the Chronicles major point
that we're to be people who are people of wholehearted seeking of the Lord and that this is key this is what it means on our end to be with the Lord this is to put it in Jesus terms this is us not cutting ourselves off from the vine as a branch and going off somewhere else as a branch if we do that we're going to wind up shriveled but we need to be with Jesus always looking to him seeking him that we experience this victory in life and ultimately in death Jesus says to people who were people in covenant with God the Jews during his day that there are some who seem to say yes to the word those that are rocky soils and those who are thorny soils they seem to have said yes and they they come into the church and they've produced some initial signs of growth but Jesus says those were all just them mimicking everybody else around them there was no true root but those who are hears of this word and are good soil those who are true believers those who have come to repentance under life those who when they came to believe in Jesus had this endeavoring unto a new obedience as we read in our confession of our faith this morning those who are elect believers these are the ones who produce a crop they were just one little gospel seed and that's to describe our lives as believers there was one gospel seed that wound up in us believing but through our lives the expectation is that all these other people believe because of us if we have children hopefully all our children come to believe and those are that's fruits that's you know well for none of us 30 fold um none of us have 30 kids but but however many kids you have that's fruit right there but hopefully also friends and relatives and co-workers and neighbors and that kind of thing maybe they come to Christ because of some effect that you've had on them and so the one seed becomes many fruits many grapes so to speak to use the the imagery of the vine now how is it that we seek the Lord this passage names and shows us what asa did that qualified as him seeking the Lord or him being with the Lord here are the things and they're all categorized in other words seeking the Lord is this and it's mentioned in that your a point here eagerly commit your whole heart to God as verses 12 through 15a and then 17 the second half of that say that the people rejoiced in their covenant with the Lord because they committed with their whole heart and their whole mind what is this entail four things four things that this entails um B through E B one is caring about God's word that's her blank word we see in verse three here in this text for a long time this is talking about the period of the judges before Saul and David and Solomon and Asa the period of the judges as Riyah the prophet refers to this is for a long time this was 400 years Israel was without the true God without a priest to teach and without the law this was to be something that God's people when they heard this from Asa Riyah they were to say that's what that's what it means to not be with the Lord to not have the Lord speaking to us through his law being without the Lord not with the Lord means not having someone to teach us the law to instruct us in it so part of being with the Lord part of seeking the Lord with all our heart is caring about his word and we see Asa responds in this way Asa kind of cleans up everything and make sure the priesthood is fully functioning so that God's word God's people could be with the Lord and Asa had done a good bit a bit of that prior to this in chapter 14 Asa had made sure that people God's people got worship right and he had made sure the priests were free and supported in the land so that God's word could be taught so being with the Lord seeking Lord involves you and I caring about his word that's a very important thing some churches here and there don't really care about God's word and that's a big mistake we're to groan when we see in verse three here that God's people for a time were without the word of God secondly how do we seek the Lord we invoke him in prayer that's your next blank there we invoke him in prayer and we borrow back from chapter 14 verse 11 and we see then Asa called to the Lord as God and said Lord there's no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty help us our Lord our God for we rely on you and in your name this is Asa invoking the Lord in your name we have come against this vast army oh Lord you are our God do not let man prevail against you how do we seek the Lord with prayer we say Lord work among us make us to be more and more like you conform us into the image of Jesus Lord help us as we talk to our neighbors and friends and relatives about Jesus in his gospel you have to be the power there you're the power conversion show up by your spirit in those situations work for the glory of you and for the good of your church asa had done that and as arrived the prophet comes out and says yes way to go you have been with him and he was therefore with you in battle you engage the Lord in prayer and the Lord showed up and gave you victory you got it right asa and so we as believers are to get it right in this sense as Freddie was encouraging us this morning and as we pray week after we were to be people who cry out to the Lord and say Lord we're powerless in all this help us cause this to go right for your glory and the burden is lifted from our shoulders and placed upon him in your name Lord we build this building in your name we do evangelism among those who don't know you in your name we try to do think whatever we're doing in the church third thing how are we with the Lord or how do we seek the Lord we care for his church that's your blank care for the church look at two verses here care for the church verse eight when aisa heard these words and the prophecy of azora asana voted the prophet he took courage he removed the test detestable idols from the whole land of juda and benjamin so there were some that were still left over he had kind of swept through the land before and done some of this but it wasn't complete maybe he did it in the major towns but not in the small towns but it goes throughout the whole land and make sure there's not a single idol or a single ash report or single pagan worship site in all of juda and benjamin and two territories uh uh that he ruled and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim Ephraim was part of the region of israel the northern country controlled by jereboam and those who reign from samaria a part of Ephraim had been captured by him and so even in that land which he had come to rule over he went into that land and made sure that these areas were wiped out these pagan worship sites were wiped out because he cared for the church and for worship to be going on properly in Jerusalem he repaired the altar of the lord in Jerusalem that was in front of the portico of the lord's temple so asus response he cares about the church he cares about gods people being able to worship properly he cares about the physical structures of the church he cares about these on site things about the lord and that's the case for us too as believers in jesus we are care about the church because jesus says to us in the new testament that the church is his body so to care for the church is to care for jesus body and we're told in first Corinthians for example that the church is made up of christ's members and that some people are like elbows and some people are like knees and some people are calf muscles and some people are ears and some people are eyes and we care for all these members and we come and and and we we contribute to the good of christ's church we care for the things of the church verse 18 likewise we see here that acea brought into the temple of god the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated acea made sure everything with the temple was okay that it was going well that it was up and running that it was repaired that it was maintained next thing so we care for the churches believers and that's not a message that we hear much in the united states being individuals and and incorporating american individualism into scripture which is not there scripture says christ died for the church that he came the message of the angels to save his people and it's a corporate thing scripture is much more corporate than individualistic and so we get ourselves out of the individualistic mindset and we say i care for the church because who loves the church Jesus loves the church therefore i love the church next thing the fourth thing we see in this passage the thing that it points out to us if you are seeking the lord it means this that you care for here your two words here corporate worship corporate is a big word that means gathering together as a group corporation is a group of people that's like one unit corporate worship is when we come together as one unit a bunch of people forming one unit and worshiping the lord and we're to care for corporate worship and we see that demonstrated for us in a great way in verses 10 and 11 they assemble that Jerusalem wasn't good enough to just go around and remove the ashore poles and say okay everybody in your own homes worship in your own way and be faithful and and reach bible and pray but don't be connected with other people in worship no as it takes care of all the the structural stuff and then as leader of god's people he calls them together to corporate worship and they sacrifice all these sacrifices they come together and they rejoice together and they they vow to the lord to serve him and only him and guess what they're really serious about it they kill people who don't agree how's that for being serious about it now today not not today what we see in the New Testament is we still kill people who don't agree we just call a church discipline and what we mean is we remove their membership from them because we say the session of the church the elders of the church after a long process engaging this person back and forth and seeing no fruit in this person seeing a shriveled vine or shriveled branch that is in giving this person ample opportunity to repent and show faith and be a part of corporate worship when we don't see that person doing that then the elders of of any local church say we're going then to remove your membership and what we are saying and the removal of this membership is we do not believe you to be a member of the church a member of the kingdom of christ we do not see you as one who's connected to the vine there's no spiritual fruit that we're seeing in your life the christian needs to be connected connected to Jesus and connected to other believers in the church needs to care for corporate worship and and so those who don't eventually are cut off as civil authority is not granted to the elders and so we don't kill anybody anymore not that we're itching to do that we're glad not to do that but yet spiritual authority is given to the elders of the church and so we do do that we cut off from those who have essentially said I will not covenant with the Lord I will not seek him with my whole heart and my whole mind to those people who will not agree to that to do that in an imperfect way but still agree to attempt that those folks are cut off so we care for corporate worship verse two as Raya summarizes asa in this way he says that asa had been with the Lord as he had purified the land for worship true worship proper worship and as he had removed the altars and the like all that kind of stuff that we saw in chapter 14 verses 2 through 5 now what are the results what are the results of seeking the Lord what are the results of actively being with the Lord through caring about his word through invoking the Lord in prayer through caring for his church and caring for corporate worship these things what are the results we see them here what are the benefits of these things of seeking the Lord being centerpieces of our lives or these centerpiece through these four means what are the results one verse nine this should be encouragement to us the blessing of church growth growth is your blank there see verse nine very clearly the writer of chronicles connects up these two things one asa's faithfulness asa's seeking the Lord with this whole heart asa's being with the Lord gets connected up with something what does verse nine tell us then asa assembled all Judah and Benjamin and here's what we see church growth so to speak the people from Ephraim is there people from the northern country who weren't under asa's care people that weren't in those who worshiped God correctly people who didn't care about the priesthood and being taught of God's law people from these areas which included Ephraim Manasseh and Simeon these people had come and left their lands left the land of their inheritance to come and live down in the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin they settled among them for large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was keyword with him asa didn't do a marketing campaign in Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon he didn't offer him free donuts all he did was make sure that those who were under his care as the leader of God's people were worshiping the Lord rightly we're caring about the people of God the church were invoking the Lord in prayer and therefore winning in battle and we're caring about God's word having the priests be up and running so that the priests could teach God's people his word and these people from the northern kingdom come down and dwell they leave their homes and dwell under asa and asa's kingdom grows because asa is seeking the Lord and that's an encouragement to assistant isn't it an encouragement in the church when somebody knew comes along and joins us and there's that encouragement that we get that somebody else is saying yes I believe in the same Lord that you have believed in and I want to worship him alongside you that gives us a boost doesn't it I'm sure it gave asa a boost during his day and God's people a boost during their day their kingdom was growing because of their faithfulness to the Lord because they sought the Lord they were careful to be with him secondly there's relief from turmoil relief from turmoil all the nations versus five and six all the nations were in turmoil under the frustration of the curse over which God is sovereign and we see this accounting of the period of judges when God was causing there to be chaos and turmoil not only in Israel but in the nations that surrounded Israel and God brought this about Paul talks about it in Romans 8 that in this world in which we live the whole creation is under frustration and looking forward to that day when Jesus will come back and pull unto himself all of his adopted sons and daughters and they will become known and Jesus upon his return will recreate the heavens and the earth and make it to be a home of righteousness we see this pattern in various stages of Jesus ministry Jesus is in the midst of chaos isn't he when he's on that cross and prior to it there's chaos all around him there's three different trials going on and overlapping people trying to condemn him there are people shouting at him in the street he's carrying his cross for a while and he's been so beaten that they get somebody else's assignment of siren to carry it form there's chaos going on various people the disciples running around absolute chaos and even on the cross there there are people shouting out various things and the two criminals beside him are on the one side mocking him and the other side saying Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom there's chaos there's there's disorder going on and in the midst of that chaos which is chaos like ace of faces in chapter 14 with the armies of Ethiopia and 300 charists coming out against him that ace of cries out to the Lord and then in short time there's peace and that's what happens to Jesus on the cross he says father into your hands in the midst of all this chaos he invokes the Lord his father he says into your hands I commit my spirit and he breezes last and Jesus rises from the dead and there's peace and our lives there's chaos described to us as a mention in Romans chapter 8 there are earthquakes there are fires there are floods there are hurricanes there's relational chaos that goes on our our families of a less serious nature when we're arguing of a more serious nature through major breaks and relationships with whether it's with parents or children or or spouse or or whatever it is their breaks and chaos at work and things don't work out well I was talking and wanting you this week and you're telling me about you know having ten projects on your plate and that's just part of the design that eight projects won't be ever followed up on they'll just pick the management will just pick the two that come to the surface and that's frustrating that's chaos I would hate to be I had a friend named Dan Codill and his dad was a buyer for Kroger and so he was the one that had to decide how many strawberries to put in each store you know that would just drive me nuts if I didn't get it just right you know if there was you know six pints of strawberries that were wasted that would drive me absolutely nuts I couldn't I couldn't do that things are frustrating like that in our lives and this is what's described through the whole book of Revelation the Great Tribulation times when there's persecution when we're not encouraged by the world to be followers of Jesus chaos going on ethical decisions were put in in our workplace or in our neighborhood or when people make a joke and kind of ask us to agree with the joke and we don't know whether to laugh or not to laugh or all that kind of thing that's frustration in our lives
and in our souls we have our sin nature and temptation comes up before and there's chaos and there's crisis every time temptation comes before us do I follow my sin nature do I follow the spirit that's our experience in this life but thanks be to God his spirit is with us and can bring us peace in those situations and we all know times where we followed our sin nature and there was chaos that resulted from that but after that chaos in a later time we followed God's spirit and there was peace and we said boy hope I can be this smart the next time but the good news is that though there will be frustration and chaos until Jesus returns which is what Romans 8 says to us Jesus will return and this third phase of Jesus ministry to us is that he will return and all chaos all turmoil will be removed at the front of that there's chaos for those who have not believed and that's like this chaos that we see in this passage referred to where all the nations are in chaos it wasn't safe to walk in the streets and there's chaos for those who have not found Christ prior to Jesus coming back prior to their deaths that that occurs beforehand and there's judgment and there's a lake of fire that Jesus speaks of but in the midst of this the church has peace for Jesus blood has covered our sins we don't arrive before God's sinless but we arrive with Jesus blood covering our sins and that brings us peace and we enter into the new heavens and the newer earth that Jesus has made for us this house this room that Jesus has made for us that we read about at the beginning of John 16 the room that Jesus has gone to prepare for us a room of peace from amongst the chaos that's what Asa experienced when he was with the Lord when he led God's people to always look at the Lord to seek the Lord they experienced peace rest on all sides north west east and south nobody invading the land at peace at rest and the key for us as believers in Jesus Christ is be with Jesus be with him abide in him he is the vine from him we get our water our nutrients and from abiding in him there's fruit that's produced in our lives that's the message for us the urgency look at your life look at what Christ has already produced in your life and have as or I the prophet this morning say to you it's because you've been with the Lord in as much as fruit has been produced in your life it's because you were with the Lord abiding in Jesus rest peace and safety from here's your last two blanks rest and peace and safety from Satan's threats to take you to hell forever to give you chaos in your life today to not have you overcome death to not have you overcome sin Satan's threats are overcome are relieved by Jesus as we rest in him as we seek him but also rest and peace and safety from last blank disharmony in the church comes from him I'm encouraged as I look at this passage because our church has not had disharmony we just haven't there's peace here there's rest on all sides it's pleasant to be here none of us are worried about seeing so and so when we show up for Sunday school or worship because there's peace between us there's rest this is a safe place and what God's word tells us here is what as Raya has told all of Judah and Benjamin and Asa before them the reason this is the case is not because your relationship experts it's not because you've done a great job working out you've done all the right things in the church in the in the little nickel and dime stuff but you've been with the Lord and he has been with you and that's why you have peace and safety and rest in this place so this message is an encouragement from Jesus to us this morning keep it up seek the Lord have him be the center care about his word which he do invoke the Lord in prayer turn to him in prayer which we do a lot of room for improvement in any of these things but keep on in these things know these are goals that we should have care for the church and care for corporate worship keep these things the center pieces in our lives in our life as a church know what these know that these things are what it means to seek the Lord and to be with him and he will grant us peace as he has done in our own lives as he will do as we die and and meet him we'll see that peace because we have cared about these things by the power of his spirit that he has given us let's pray Jesus we see here that asus kingdom grew because he sought you and we know that your kingdom Jesus grows because you are king son of David you sought the father perfectly you perfectly obeyed him you perfectly worshiped him in your life and that's why the church is grown and that's why we have been added we have been living stones added to the temple of your church and your church is grown because of your faithfulness Jesus now as your living stones as members of your kingdom causes to heed the words of asri the prophet that you now communicate to us that we need to be people who are all about you who have at the centerpiece of our life this concept seeking you of caring for your word of invoking you in prayer of caring for your church of caring for the corporate worship of you so that you are glorified in all things that we do by your spirit work in us Jesus that we would be good representations of you that you would care about these things as you cared about them here when you lived on this earth and through this Lord grow your church through this Lord grant us more peace and more rests more blessing and most importantly Lord we acknowledge the peace and the rest and the blessing that you have given us as a local church is because of you and your spirit because you have been with us forging these things among us keep doing it Lord we ask for your sake and for ours in Christ's name we ask him in