Our Gospel lesson text this morning comes from 2 Chronicles chapter 28 and we'll look at the first 8 verses this morning of this God's Word. Please turn there in your own Bibles or if you're using the Bibles that are in your seats It's found on page 325 Give you a moment to find that We last week looked at chapter 27 and they the very faithful life of the very faithful King Jopham Who was a son of David and brought two God's people Numbers and numbers of blessings because of his faithfulness And this morning we read of his Less than faithful very unfaithful son a has Second Chronicles chapter 28 begin in verse 1. This is God's Word internally true a has was 20 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 16 years Unlike David his father he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and also made cast idols for worshiping the Bibles He burned sacrifices in the valley of Ben Hanam and sacrificed his sons in the fire Following the detestable ways of the nations the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites He offered sacrifices and burnt incense At the high places on the hill tops and under every spreading tree Therefore the Lord has got handed him over to the king of Aram The Aram's defeat the Aramans defeated him and took many of his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus He was also given into the hands of the king of Israel who inflicted heavy casualties on him In one day peccus son of Ramalia killed a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah Because Judah had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers Zickry and Ephraim a warrior killed Maasea the king's son Azrakom the officer in charge of the palace and Al-Khana second to the king The Israelites took captive from their kinsmen 200,000 wives sons and daughters They also took a great deal of plunder which they carried back To Samaria Hereins are reading this is God's word. Let us give thanks to the Lord for giving us this is word through our response of thankfulness printed for you in your bulletins The word of the Lord Let us pray Our God and our father we are grateful that you do not leave us as orphans without direction about how life works about The kind of things that we can do that lead to our benefit and the kinds of things that we could do that would lead to our detriment You're not a God like that you're an active father playing an active role in our lives and you play That active role in part by giving us your word and giving us specific instructions on how to live and what our attitudes Should be and what to do and how to think about things you give us truth And for this we are grateful We ask Lord that by your spirit which lives in each believer in your son Jesus The by your spirit you would grant us understanding of this Your words which you spirit of God have inspired through the hands of holy men We ask that you would in live in our minds and hearts Causes to respond in repentance and faith Not in resistance and hardening and anger Causes to be pliable Multiple into your image so that we might be people that display your character In our souls in our actions in our words Jesus preached to us by this your word we ask in your name Amen Some notes of explanation about this text as we as we begin this text as we bob in parachute in out of the sky Down upon this one text or some things that that aren't explained that have been explained in the past one is at this time God's 12 tribes the 12 tribes of Israel are divided into two separate kingdoms There was a northern kingdom which kept the name Israel And that kingdom was to the north and its capital city since Jerusalem was taken by the south It's capital city with Samaria An in Samaria reigned various kings from various families And one of these kings here is peca son of Ramalia and you see him mentioned there in chapter six and and peca this King over the northern ten tribes of Israel brings Israel who sometimes also known as Ephraim Ephraim was one of the ten tribes He brings his tribes down in war Against the southern kingdom of God's people, which was the kingdom of Judah It was known by it had a contain the contain the tribe of Judah and also the tribe of Benjamin Which was located right around Jerusalem and Jerusalem remained the capital city of the southern tribe of of of the southern kingdom known as Judah And Jerusalem continued to house as its kings Person after person sons of David descendants of David And ideally God's people under David were all together all 12 tribes that were all ruled by David and his sons And they were able to worship correctly because God said he should worship in Jerusalem at the temple and offer incense and sacrifices There and nowhere else but in Jerusalem and so God's people could do that during the united kingdom But they couldn't do it at this time At this point in history that is the northern ten tribes Were shut off they'd shut themselves off they had stomp off mad When David's grandson was their king And so they were wicked they never had a good king up north um, and some of you native southerners say yes, of course duh And up in the north they worshiped the bales and and various different other gods that were gods of the canonites Who lived in the promised land before them And also gods of neighboring nations uh, erum is uh, basically Syria uh, today And it's capital city was Damascus and so we see erum and Damascus mentioned here We see that the southern king a has Is attacked by a coalition of northern israel under peca son of ramalia And as well he's attacked Uh By this the other half of the alliance by erum and the eramans and they come down and attack gods people in the south And do great damage there So that's the the setup and we see that a has though he had had a faithful father Jotham who led gods people and in righteousness and had as much of an impact on gods people as he could there in the south um The jotham was faithful a has was Most unfaithful greatly unfaithful and this has consequences for four gods people So that's the that's what's going on in this passage, but this passage isn't just about ancient history This passage has things that are relevant For us today Jesus said that all scripture speaks of him and uh, he was speaking in the Old Testament as he said this and of course That's true in the New Testament So we look at this passage in the Old Testament. We say how does this speak of Jesus and how does this speak of our own lives Uh, well this passage tells us um Two areas and we'll look at a third one next week, but uh two major areas that are very a practical for our lives and the first thing that we're going to talk about is What does this passage teach us about our overall mindset in life Which of my overall goals in life be my mindset what should be my fundamental base From which I make all decisions. That's part of this passage Secondly in this passage. We'll talk about how do I live that out then in my daily life How can I do that in other words if you're uh goal and uh business is is that eventually you'll become a millionaire You still need to do things in day-to-day living like Get out of bed and go to work If you want to meet that goal and this passage here tells us what we can do in our daily living That will help us Follow what should be our fundamental goals uh in our in our lives So first of all in your point one in your outline overall in your life mindset There's something to know And knowing this something there's something for us to do and what we know is this what we need to know is this And it's your a point there that the source of satisfaction the source of fulfillment our source of joy our source of security All these kinds of things Things we would name if we would say you know, I want my life to include this Fundamentally to include this all these things the source of these things Is guess what it is it's God the source of these things Is God and and the way I stated here. It's it's one of these dust statements. Of course uh Uh, but it's something that Our lack of of practicing in my life and your life uh is where we get where we get off and why we don't Experience these things More than we do and God shows that not only in this chapter, but he shows it in the chapter before jotham a has his father who served as king of juta before a has Experience this in the positive light jotham understood That satisfaction joy security well-being peace in life Came from God God was the source of all these things and jotham understood this and this affected the way jotham lived his life in the way he led God's people But we find out rudely and in a very stark and in sudden way as we roll into chapter 28 um That Not everybody understands this not everybody lives this out and that's your b point here um We say but he that is but God is not where your here's your blank neighbors God is not where your neighbors are looking To get these things And we say that we say again duh, but we think about this a little bit um So that it wakes us up So that we would truly see God as the source of all these things um Our society our neighbors are saying that for instance sexual fulfillment comes from promiscuity Uh, I saw an advertisement a few times for a new movie that's out. It was on during the unfortunate game last night Um, and it's a guy that from my old favorite show Freaks and Geeks is the main guy and someone else from Saturday night live and that guy thing That's a funny movie, but the underlying message of the the movie is that when you really have it made You've got this promiscuous lifestyle Uh, and that's what the world is throwing at us and we as Christians have to have to identify that and think that's saying that my fulfillment in this area of my life maybe my total life fulfillment comes Not from the Lord The Lord said I give you fulfillment in this area of life Through one life Through one husband To whom you are faithful Your maximum joy and satisfaction will come to you in this area of life By following me I'm the giver of satisfaction And here's how you get it Um, the world tells us if we are Uh, treated poorly by another That we should get that person that other back That we should dole out retribution to that person who has done us wrong That's the message of the world world and so you have Neighbors talking to you you have um movies and tv and all the like radio shows all all saying You know, I got my revenge and it was sweet. We know that expression sweet revenge But the Lord says there's not satisfaction in that Joy in that is hollow It's only a momentary happiness and if we pursue Revenge against those who have done us wrong in our lives It will destroy us The process will destroy us And in contrast to that god says I am the source of your satisfaction in life in terms of Living in harmony and peace and love with one another with other people and I say To forgive as I have forgiven you If I want to be satisfied in my relationships God says don't pursue revenge Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord Romans 12 19 to Quote the the beginning of Anna Karenina which uses the Old King James so God says Um, vengeance Is mine I take care of the people that do you wrong That's my department and not yours Your department is to forgive as I have forgiven you Ephesians 4 at the end 29 through 32 Jesus on the cross saying uh father forgive them For they know not what they're doing And so these are modern day examples of how we could seek other things To bring us satisfaction, but the Lord says I am your source of satisfaction I am your source of joy I am your source of security in life Think about that in your job If you treat your boss with the kind of respect the Lord tells you to treat your boss If you treat your co-workers with the love that God tells us to treat our fellow human beings loving our neighbors If we treat our our customers are those who are underneath us with that kind of gracious forgiving love Guess what it comes back to us And even when it doesn't it's satisfying to our souls To treat people in love To not wield over them our authority to their detriment But to use our authority in our jobs For their good God says that will satisfy your soul That will bring your soul joy A has this mistake was that he looked at the tribes in the north And they looked at the nations around them and he said my joy my security militarily my Satisfaction The respect among my own people and among the nations will come from other sources than God himself He looked around at what the nations were doing what other people did To use our terms what non-Christians do and he just accepted those things is truth And so neighboring God God of nations to to the east of him It was a god named Molec and Molec said you need to sacrifice your children by causing by building a big fire in a field And having your children walk through this field to their death So A has does that as a way of worshipping the god names Molec A has sacrifices his own sons some of them To Molec why because he was seeking satisfaction and joy and security and he thought Molec would give it to him He believed what the air man's and what other nations believed about Molec and he looked at the tribes of the north and and Bale was a false god who was a god said to ride in the clouds And to send down thunderbolts and to bring the rain And so he had says well I want my land to have abundant crops and have plenty of rain And so he worships the bale's he Missed took where the source of rain was Where the giver of all good and perfect gifts Well who the giver of all perfect gifts was and James makes that clear force in the pastors that Larry Red Force James chapter 1 God the father of lights is the giver of every good and perfect gift He is the source of what our souls long for And so here we say at this point when we contrast joth him with a has we live in similar days Everything around us when we leave this sanctuary area here everything around us the same joy Satisfaction security and the way to live has its source Other in a place other than god And so when we hear from outside the church how we are to live how we're to treat our co-worker What our attitude is to be toward our boss? You know what your attitude towards your boss is to be in the world that jerk He's always making me do his work Okay, but God says do all your work as into the Lord And so we go to our boss and we say is there anything else I can be doing for you Am I doing this okay is this According to you know the way you'd want this to be done God says you're not the boss your boss is the boss Interact with your boss because I have in a in a way that's loving and respectful Do your work as unto the Lord as unto me because guess who puts your boss there The sovereign God me Sometimes that boss is terrible and sometimes that boss is good sometimes that boss is in between But whatever it is God says I have put him there Your responsibility your role is not to cast judgment on whether he's good bad ugly or whatever Your your role is to do your work as unto the Lord So know that the Lord is your source of satisfaction fulfillment joy security and the like
And realize that you're not going to get encouragement from your neighbors To look to the Lord for your satisfaction to look to the Lord in how to live your life So know this that our source of satisfaction is like God that our neighbors are not looking toward God As to figure out how to be satisfied and and joyful and secure in life And so knowing this we do this we walk in the Lord's way that's your blank lords And we see that in verses one and two in a negative way A has was 20 years old when he became king and he reign in Jerusalem 16 years Unlike David his father he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel the bad kings up in the north And also made cast idols for worshiping the bails David and jotham walked in the Lord's ways and one of the ways we know that the writer of chronicles here considered a has to be About the worst king there ever was in Judah was this is the only time when David has mentioned in the negative Where it's actually set of somebody he did not walk in the ways of David Where the the writer of chronicles is so specific And that's the case with a has here. He doesn't walk in the Lord's eyes You know my brother had a different my older brother mark Five school years ahead of me was a great that coach an older brother and protector and defender Defender and and most of all He prepared me For the stuff he had been through that he knew I was going to head into And so he he was a good guide For me, but one of the things my brother would say and if you knew my brother and we're around him very much You'd know that he's very intense. He's so intense. It gets him in trouble He's intense about things he gets in just you didn't want to face him In anything Because he he had such intensity, but I remember time and time again one marks phrases is trounced You know that phrase trounced And john john if you go out there with that lack today to go ask You're gonna get trounced That's that's a look on his face You're gonna get trounced and he would say that man we're getting trounced. Let's go see the wake up You know he was I'll have a state won the NIT basketball tournament Thursday night Which we're number 65
If you're not in the first 64 and you pick for the NCAA tournament you get invited to the NIT And then it's 12 losses, but they won all the way through and they won the NIT Championship but he was so mad about something That was going on in the game he called my mom after the game and I talked to my mom after the game And she said sorry I didn't pick up the first time I was on the phone with mark He said I had she said I had to hold the phone out away from my ear because he was so mad The announcers would not stop talking about how great you mass was and how they were still going to come back and win this game So that's that's mark, but what when I read this passage just weak I just think you know if mark had been there and been a profit of god He would have gone up to a has similar to what Isaiah actually does Not in this passage, but we see it in other passages and say hey man If you don't see god is your source of satisfaction, you're going to get trounced Um, and that's what happens to a has and that's got this message for us Understand and know that god is your source of satisfaction and joy Walk in his ways or expect to get trounced We find and in the book of Hebrews that god is a good father to us one of the things that god does is a good father as he disciplines us When we're not walking in his ways and a has his son of David as a member of gods kingdom gets the heavy discipline of the Lord Because his ways are not the Lord's way so that's your blank there If you don't you'll get trounced That's spelled TR-O-U-N-C-E-D If you don't you'll get trounced like a has look at verses 5 through 8 Therefore the Lord has got handed him over what an expression The Lord took a has in his hand and he gave him to this pagan king It's that as a as an active my discipline against him do with him what you will He handed him over to the king of ahram airman's defeated him and took many of his people's prisoners and brought them to Damascus Strip of any pretence of power Of any pretence of potency He was given into the hands of the king of Israel So though the wicked kings of the north prevail against him Um, they inflicted heavy casualties on him in one day peck of the king of Israel Killed a hundred and twenty thousand of his soldiers in Judah why because Judah had forsaken the Lord the god of their fathers Zickry and Ephraim might warrior a warrior from the north killed the king's son He killed the officer in charge of the palace and he killed the person who was second to the king to king a has The Israelites took captive from their from their kinsman 200,000 wives sons and daughters The most vulnerable in a has's kingdom were not protected by a has he was shown publicly to be weak To be inadequate to be weighed in the balance and found wanting And this is a warning to us as believers We follow our king we follow we seek to walk in the Lord's ways We say god. What is it that you want me to do? How do you want me to be in my life? Jesus? How can I imitate you in this situation that I'm in Uh, and as we think about this and as we think about a has been a king getting trounced here We can also see how this reflects Jesus how this looks forward to Jesus in two ways The first way is this Jesus gets trounced on the cross
Theologically that's true physically that's true and why does he get trounced on the cross Because we do not walk in the ways of David Jesus takes our sins First Peter 2 22 through 25 our declaration the good news of the gospel He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree Jesus doesn't get trounced because he's unfaithful Jesus gets punished Because we are unfaithful and that's the gospel That's the good news the trouncing we deserve the discipline the punishment that we deserve for our sins all gets spilled out upon Jesus our king Now Jesus didn't commit our sins like a has Jesus was like joth him Jesus deserves the blessing the full blessing of God the Father And in fact we see that on the facts out of the cross happen too because Jesus is righteous like joth him Jesus is exalted But to fill in your blank here Jesus appears to get trounced at the cross and does for the sins of believers That's your blank For the sins of believers Jesus does like a has He takes the wrath of God down upon himself. He's willing to be viewed as impotent as weak as an unworthy king as a king who can't protect the least of these in his kingdom But in so doing your next line Jesus saves us He saves us from getting trounced at judgment What happened to Jesus at the cross what happens to a has the gospel says is what we deserve
But the good news is Jesus becomes a has For us by taking our sins upon himself And then because Jesus himself was sinless. This is your next blank He is blessed by the Father in the resurrection in the ascension and earns for himself and for us The here's your blank the blessing of God Because he was righteous because he was like joth him because he did walk in the in the ways of David His father Jesus being son of David he earns for himself and for us the blessing of God He earns for us resurrection. He earns for us ascension He earns for us the favor of God and that's the gospel But also Jesus gives us here's your next blank an example Jesus gives us an example by his life of how not not to get trounced in our lives by the discipline of God and it's by this By following the moral law of God We've been talking about in sunny school how the moral law of God the ten commandments is the summary of the moral law of God The ten commandments are summarized in the the two statements of Jesus love God with our heart soul mind and strength And then love your neighbor as yourself that's the summary of the ten commandments the summary of the moral law And as we follow this seeking to love God with all our heart soul mind and strength As we look at our neighbor and don't seek vengeance but seek To love them and to forgive them for their wrongs This is The example of Jesus that we're following and so as we do this We begin to display Jesus We begin to display the character of God To those who are around us we become as Jesus would say Whites The light of the world And through our good deeds Nonbelievers may come to glorify our father in heaven as they come to faith In our God Through perhaps having seen his character first through us So that's our life mindset to walk in the Lord's ways and to know There's nothing good outside of doing that If I want to think there's something good outside of walking in the Lord's way I need to think of a half. I need to think of Jesus being on the cross. That's where that leads To getting trounce to so to speak and the number two How do we do this and our daily lives and your daily life? How do you do this? Know this first of all keep in mind that God's Eyes are on that's your blank God's eyes are on you And that's first one and that might sound like a threat at first and certainly for the nonbeliever that would be a threat God's eyes are on you But we know from scripture that God is not a fly swatter God He's not sitting up in heaven you know waiting for us to do the least thing wrong or have the the least bit of wrong thought So he can just whack us, you know, got him God's not a fly swatter God. This is not a threat for us But it's something to encourage you in the direction of doing what's right How do I do in view of the fact that satisfaction comes as I live out my life as Jesus lived out his As I live out of my life in a way that reflects the the moral character of God. How do I do that? God gives us a picture here. It's actually throughout First and second chronicles and other parts of scripture He has this phrase repeated over and over again in the eyes of the Lord We see it there at the end of verse one Unlike David as probably he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord When God's people experience radical disobedience during the period of judges the recurring phrase over and over again Was everybody did what was right in his own eyes And that's why they were in trouble And there was no king in Israel is the rest of that we have a king Jesus over us is real, but we're a good Uh Well reminded to think about how God's eyes are upon us What if God didn't see you What if he didn't know It has Didn't realize this he didn't keep this in mind that God saw Everything he was doing So we think about this and we see this is our do this and our passage here Knowing that the Lord's eyes are upon us When temptation that's your blank there when temptation comes When temptation comes remember that God is with that's your blank there with you When temptation comes remember that God is with you and let's think about that For a minute God is there with us He's everywhere we read it about about that in Jeremiah 23 23 and 24 this morning don't think that God is only in a certain place He's all over God says don't I fill the heavens and the earth Don't think wherever he is where you're being tempted to say something nasty back to the person who said something nasty a year You're in some kind of temptation to do something wrong remember this the Lord is with you He's there He's present He's in that room or in that yard or in that car or wherever you happen to be the Lord is with you And use that as an encouragement to yourself You know different things you would do and not do with probably everybody in your life If so and so we're here I wouldn't say this You know how that affects you in fact when it doesn't affect people they don't have any friends Because they just defend they just defend everybody But we say to ourselves God is with me here now in this room It's not even merely that he's going to get a report about this in five minutes think about that when you're being tempted you know if God's just going to get a report about this in five minutes It's easier to walk into sin But if he's here now with us if he's here now there now with you in that room Then it's easier to obey Isn't it we can think about that with a boss or a coach or a parent or a teacher Um if they're there, it's easier to be doing what they would want us to be doing God is with us at all times present with us Seeing everything we see as we see it with an even better view and this helps us This helps us as we seek to be faithful as we seek to be people who live out the fact That all joy and satisfaction and security and peace and relationships and all things come From him this strengthens us a has didn't believe this And he didn't practice this so we say practice this Live this out live this idea that God is with me And every room I enter and every hallway I'm walking down he's there with me Present he lives in me by his spirit and he's everywhere in his omnipresence He is everywhere this helps us and this can transform our lives Really believing That God is here Wherever that here is wherever we are So we say this in conclusion live as if you believe Which we do The God is always with you. That's your first blank there and always Seeing Always seeing what if a has had cared About the right set of eyes That was his problem he cared about other people's eyes What other people were thinking about him instead of doing what was right in the Lord's eyes and saying if it's not right in the Lord's eyes I don't care to do it Would have transformed his whole kingship and we'd be reading about him now as an exemplary son of David But instead we read about him as perhaps the worst So God gives us and his graciousness and mercy to us a good example in Jesus a good example in joth I'm people who walked in the Lord's ways and were resulted for an experienced joy and satisfaction But he also warns us and says If you think you're going to be halfway on this Don't kid yourself Do not be deceived As James says the father above the father of lights is the giver of every good and perfect gift Jesus understood this and that's what got him to the cross
Our call the worship this morning. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith who for the joy set before him Jesus had his eyes on the father on the joy set before him believing that God was with him Believing that God would raise him from the dead and bring him up next to the father again at To his heavenly throne at God's right hand For the joy set before him endured the cross scorning its shame And sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Let's pray Our God and father we are grateful to you that you give us examples of lives and scriptures some that are good to follow and Some that are bad so that we don't follow in that way Help us to be ever washful and guarding our souls and minds to the fact that the world our neighbors Do not understand that joy and satisfaction and peace and fulfillment Are good and perfect gifts that come from you So they're pursuing a joy and peace and fulfillment in ways that are To your law Help us strengthen us by your spirit in your word That we would really believe in therefore practice That every good and perfect gift is from you And taken hold of by walking in your ways We pray Jesus in your name