Life Lessons of Judah’s Kings – Part 2 (Pastor Jeff Shipley)

Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.

It wasn't the type of people they were going to be. Why are we going over and talking about dead guys from 2 ,300 years ago?

2 ,500 years ago? Why are we talking about these schmucks? Why are we talking about these guys, for the most part, who were bums?

Well, Romans 5 .4 says this. It says that scripture, Old Testament scripture, was written so that we may learn from other folks' actions.

Both their mistakes and their victories. I know in my life, I have so many mistakes.

I'm not talking about I sped on Germantown Road. Don't you just love those

Christians? You ask them, what are they struggling with? And the height of their spiritual struggle is, well,

I'm just trying to obey the speed limit. And the first thing that goes through my mind is, you liar.

But in reality, every little mistake we do, and in my life,

I learn something from it, from the repentant aspect of it.

Let me say that again. From the repentant aspect of it. You see, ladies and gentlemen, it's easy to show up on church on a

Sunday morning. It's easy to sing Hallelujah. But man, that day -to -day grind when

Rocky Balboa music ain't playing in the background, and you're being tempted. It's those moments, even in that failure, where God's grace can heal, and that scar tissue can be a battle scar of victory.

This morning, we're going to look at the life of Asa. The great grandson of Solomon. The grandson of Rehoboam.

And he has become king of Judah, which at this time was a split nation.

The two tribes of Israel in the south and the ten northern tribes were involved in a civil war.

And Asa was one of the five godly kings that ruled Judah. And so we're going to learn some things from him.

We're going to learn how we need to be consistent in obeying God. How we need to be consistent in overcoming threats.

And how we need to be consistent in consistency. So let's look at a couple things.

Starting in 2 Chronicles chapter 14. 2 Chronicles chapter 14.

Let's start with verse 1. Abijah, Asa's father, died.

He slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David, i .e. Jerusalem.

And Asa, his son, reigned in his place. In his days the land had rest for ten years.

Verse 2. And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the

Lord his God. I know this sounds oversimplified.

But I want God to be able to say that about me. More than anything else in this world.

Pastor Jeff was the greatest pastor in the whole world. We need one of those amen signs in the back.

Pastor Jeff was the perfect specimen of the male species.

Pat, all that stuff doesn't matter to me. Man, I want to hear attaboy when

I get home. I want to hear, son you did what was right in the eyes of God.

Now how do I do that? Because I have failed so much. And I'm not talking about when

I was a drug addict loser. I'm talking about last week. Right? I'm talking about this past weekend.

I'm talking about this morning. I have failed so miserably. How do

I keep from doing that and do what is right in the eyes of God? Well, the first thing we have to do is we need to learn the blessing of obedience.

Let's learn the blessing of obedience. Look at verse 3. It says this. It says,

He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the ashram.

Guys, in obedience. You need to understand that the first thing that you have to obey is

God and God alone. It is an absolute necessity that God has a preeminence in your life.

I had a lady that was in my office and she was talking about obeying her husband. And she was like,

Why do I have to obey him? That sounds old fashioned. I'm like, well, yeah it does.

It was written, oh I don't know, around Genesis 1 sometime. And I asked her this question.

Do you have a job? Yes. Do you have a boss? Yes. Do you do what he says? Yes. So what you're saying is you'll obey for money but not for the

Word of God. That makes you a whore. You've whored yourself out to this world.

You're willing to obey a man who does nothing but pays you a paycheck.

But one who has entered into a covenant before God. You're not willing to obey.

You see, we've got to obey God. And obeying God is doing what

He's asked us to do. And it's not obeying culture. Look at this, verse 5.

It says, He took out all the cities of Judah, the high places, and the incense altars.

You see, He first cleaned His own bowl. He first looked at His own life.

And then when He was done with that, that which He had authority over, He also made sure that was right with God.

Ladies and gentlemen, we get that backwards sometimes. We get it backwards to where we want other people to do right and obey and do all this.

But inside our own hearts, we're not obedient. You ever wonder why children grow up and think the church is full of?

It ain't the church they're really condemning. It's your home. It's your home.

If you want to obey God, you've got to obey God alone. But then you've got to obey God rather than what culture is telling you to do.

Some of the music you let your children listen to, and some of the TV shows you allow them to watch, is not obedient to God.

I don't care if it's a little cartoon. It's just a kid's show. Man, do not make the mistake that Satan and this world have figured out.

If they start with the children early, by the time they get to college, no matter about you brought them up in church, some tofu

HD will go, there is no God. You evolved from an egg. Oh, well, okay.

Let me write that down. Stop listening to what culture says. Stop believing the lies of this world.

Stop all the black and white, conservative, Democrat, Republican. Stop eating the pill.

Culture. Your number one culture is God and God alone. Third thing in obedience is we've got to understand that there is no favoritism.

The parallel of 1 and 2

Chronicles is 1 and 2 Kings. Kings was written more in a contemporary fashion.

Chronicles was written post -exilic. Some of you don't know what that means. It's cool. Ask the local

MIT kid. Here's what we've got to understand. I want you to read verse,

I wrote it on your little papers, 1 Kings 5, verse 13. Here's what else

Asa did. He also removed Maka, his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah.

And Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook of Kedron.

Husbands, can I talk to you for a second? We all know your wife, now this is especially for you young men, you young men, especially you young men who are fitting to get married.

Okay? You ready? Your wife does not cook like your mom. Don't ask her to.

Okay? For you young men who want to replace your mommy with a woman, do not do that to her and you need to mature and grow up before you're ready for marriage.

But, I want you to understand this. Asa was a stud because the queen mother of his country, his own mommy, was not exempt from the truth and the standard that God had set and Asa was going to maintain.

Do you have favorite people in your life who you sometimes let slide with things? Do you have a favorite child?

You do? Really? I never really had one. I really never did. I mean my daughter was perfect in every way and she gave me the least trouble out of all five of them.

But, she really wasn't my favorite. Josiah, eh, his food bill was too high.

Joshua, he was getting hurt all the time. Jeremiah, whoo, he was ADD. Little Jeff, oh

I hated Little Jeff. I hated him. Oh my gosh. He would wake up in the morning and he'd walk down the stairs and he'd go, good morning everyone.

I wanted to punch him right in the face every morning. Don't have favorites.

Don't be a respecter of people. We train pastors all over the world. If you chase, love, minister, and respect only the people that can serve your church financially, you are an apostate and you need to leave.

You see, it's all God's sheep. All God's people. When you obey God, listen to me, when you obey

God, you need to obey God alone. You need to obey God and not culture and you need to obey

God and not have favorites. One more verse out of 1 Kings real quick.

I think it's important and I think I wrote it on your paper as well. Going back to culture, I want you to actually read

God and Asa's mentality against a certain segment that is gaining in popularity in our culture today.

Verse 12, He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

Guys, you younger generation, and the average age of this church is 28.

28. 28 years old. But I'm telling you, it's the babies that I feel for.

The little Avas, the little Nene's, the Jazzy's, God, the Everett twins, you know.

You see, because they're going to have to undo, they're going to have to undo what their fathers allowed to happen.

I need to just say this because I love you. If anyone here is struggling with the whole trans thing, please, come get help.

Now listen, I'm not being mean to you. Okay? I'm saying you are deceived and you are going to make mistakes that you cannot unmake.

Okay? It is a lie. It is a delusion. And you are being fed from the culture of this world, from the pit of hell, something that you will not be able to recover from.

Okay? And our children are going to have to fight against what their fathers allowed to happen in churches.

They will. But I praise God, not here. Second thing, not only in obeying

God, how do you overcome stuff? How do you get closer to God? How do you learn more?

Well, I have some bad news for you. If you want to grow in maturity in Christ, if you want to grow in strength in Christ, this is how

God does it. He doesn't do it supernaturally when you just pray. Lord, make me stronger in Your Word.

You're there. Right? It doesn't work that way. Trust me. Okay? I've met pastors from all over the world, especially

Puerto Ricans. They don't know nothing, right? And they pray a bunch. I mean, they do the whole...

Don't work. Don't work. How do you learn to be mature in Christ?

Well, guys, you have to overcome some things. I hate this season of life.

Literally, I do. I hate this time frame, but I hate being 56. I do.

I have hearing aids in, but I also have these rubber things on my glasses to keep my glasses falling off my face.

But the hearing aids and the things that hold my glasses on won't both fit, and so the hearing aids are flopping around on the side of my head.

I feel like my wife. I have to reach in and pull my suspenders back up, you know, like I'm wearing a bra or something.

Everything in my body is falling apart, you know? I hate this season in life.

Oh, thank you. See? I can't even wear a mic right. But guys,

I'm learning more now than I ever have before. It's through the trials and tribulations of life.

Is that right? It's through the trials and tribulations of life we learn. Look at chapter 14, verse 6.

He built and fortified cities in Judah for the land had rest. He had no war in those years for the

Lord gave Him peace. So He was at peace. But read verse 7.

God had given Him peace in verse 6, but in verse 7 He said to Judah, Let us build these cities and surround them with walls, towers, gates, and bars.

The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God. We have sought

Him and He has given us peace on every side. Now watch. So they built and prospered.

Guys, I want us to understand. That in our matriculation to a more mature

Christian, there is no such thing as neutral buoyancy. In other words, if you're not going up, guess where you're going?

Down. You can't stop still. There ain't no neutral in the Christian life.

And even though you may be strong right now, you can't rest on your laurels.

You can't rest in the state of peace that you're in. You need to build yourself, your family, your church, and your community because I promise you a battle is right around the corner.

And if you aren't preparing, if you aren't preparing to overcome threats in the future, you're going to be in the slugger that Proverbs and Psalms talks about where winter will overtake you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are constantly in this place improving, figuring out, asking questions.

What can we do? We have to. We have to. We live in a 100 -year -old building.

Our electrical system looks like I did it. Matt and Brandon went in there and went, oh, no, shut the door.

We are guiding the plan for that. Well, Pastor, how are we? I don't know yet, but we're going to come up with a plan.

We're going to look at individual things. Well, Pastor, what are we going to do with this group? How do we do this? How do we do this?

We don't just sit around and go, well, the Lord will guide us when we get there. That's a cop -out.

That's laziness. That is apathy. Husbands, fathers, if you run your house,

I promise you, start doing this because that's what you're going to be doing to your 14 and 15 -year -old daughters.

Bye. Bye. Because they're going to try to find security and peace because they can't find it in you.

They're going to find it somewhere else. You need to plan already.

Now watch this. So in this passage, they're all at peace.

They're building up the cities. Everything's fine, but they're just preparing. And then all of a sudden, the

Ethiopians show up. Oh my gosh! Those Ethiopians. Can't trust them for nothing.

I got a whole mess of them worshiping God over there, them Ethiopians. We have an Ethiopian church here.

I don't know if you all know that. We got a Mexican one, but we also have an Ethiopian one. I always ask the pastor if he's going to let me go to his homeland and stab a zebra or something.

And he thinks it's funny, but I'm actually being serious. I want to go hunt over there. But anyways, the

Ethiopian army comes up. And they come up through Egypt. They were actually a client state of Egypt at this time.

And they're marching towards Judah. And Judah's like, Oh my gosh!

Here's our first big test. Read v. 11. And Asa cried to the

Lord his God, O Lord, there is none like You to help.

Between the mighty and the weak, help us, O Lord our God. For we rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude.

O Lord, You are our God. Let not men prevail against You, so the

Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the

Ethiopians fled. Now I want you to understand something. You overcome things by planning, but ladies and gentlemen, if your prayer life is non -existent as a

Christian, you're going to be like a pinball in a pinball machine. Sorry. Wrong age demographic.

You're going to be like a piece of trash blowing in the wind. Wherever the wind pushes you, that's where you're going to go.

You have to have a prayer life that is commensurate with the day and times in which we live.

Now I know that some of y 'all are thinking, oh no, I pray. I ain't talking about over dinner. Good Lord.

Good meat. Good bread. God loves to eat. Or whatever you rednecks say. I'm talking about where it's just you.

And this is something I struggle with as your pastor. I pray.

I pray those prayers. I'm talking about the prayers in your closet.

You know what my best prayer time is? In my truck. That's my best prayer time.

Because I'm not focused on other scarce people because you're on the same road as I am. I really don't focus on a whole lot else.

I mean, there will be times, you know, where like, you know, welcome to Fayette County.

Oh crud. You know, I was going home and I'm thinking about everything and I end up in Fayette County where I get a ticket.

But I gotta come back. Right? Guys, it is prayer. You've got to have a prayer life to overcome these things.

But I want you to notice something else. And this is for the hippie Christians. Okay? It's not just by prayer.

Look again at that verse. It says, And we have come out and met them.

If you go back to verse 10, it says, And Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up their lines of battle in the valley of whatever.

You know what you need before you have prayer? Is you've got to have faith. How many of y 'all just thought it?

You've got to have faith. You've got to have faith. Listen to me, kids.

If you're relying only on prayer, Jesus told the disciples, Watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation.

It's not just praying. If pornography and the internet is wearing you out, don't just pray about it.

Right? If you are drunk, don't be going to bars. Okay? Well, I'm there to share

Jesus. No, you're not drunk or a drug addict.

Quit drugs and drug addicts and start hanging out with those who are reforming and have more maturity.

In other words, you've got to step up to the plate to fight.

I know a lot of Christians want to go by feelings. And oh Lord, you deliver me.

I'm so in this seed of faith, God. I'm proud of this prayer. But I'm not actually going to engage anything.

That's not faith. Show me your faith without works. James said that.

Your faith is not something tangible unless it is put neutral.

It's got to be in drive. You see, if you want to overcome threats, you've got to plan, you've got to prayer, but guys, you've got to have faith to fight.

The last thing is this. It's consistency in, you need to be consistent.

Turn with me to 2 Chronicles 15. Just the next chapter over. 2 Chronicles 15.

We're actually going to be in chapters 15 and 16 more next week, but I just want you to talk about seeing consistency.

In verse 15, I'm sorry, in chapter 15 verse 3. Chapter 15 verse 3.

It says this, For a long time Israel was out the true God without a teaching priest and without a law.

You have to be consistent in seeing the real problem. Let's just stop for a second.

Let me explain. Judah and Asa had just come off a massive victory.

They chased the Ethiopians all the way back down to Ethiopia. And son, they were scooping up the treasure on the way.

You know, they were taking gold, they were taking horses and chariots and armor and weapons.

I mean, it was like the Ethiopians were just and they were just collecting it on the way. They chased them so far down that they were literally on foot running for their lives.

For days and days they chased them. They had just come off a great victory.

And what does God say after that great victory? Does He sit there and go, Hey, attaboy, good job.

Go sit back down and rest now. No. In all of chapter 15, what He does is

He does this. He reminds them that if they're joining this moment of peace and they want this peace to continue,

He goes, You've got to obey. You've got to obey. You've got to follow me.

One of the consistent things in my life that I need is I need to continue to see the real problem and the real problem is me.

Husbands, you need to protect your wives. You need to protect your wives. You do.

You need to have the AR -15 and the AK -47 and 432 magazines and all the little prepper thing and the little light that you can shake and the little fire starters.

You need all that garbage. No. You're spending all your time, resources, money, thoughts about living like freaking

Rambo in the woods somewhere shooting communists falling out of the sky. Come on.

Grow up. We've got a real invasion. There are Puerto Ricans everywhere like cockroaches.

We need to envelop a spray or something. Guys, you don't need to protect your wives and your family from North Koreans or Russians or Democrats or liberals.

You need to protect them from you. Your mouth and your actions set the tone and the pace in your households.

Talk to a young man who's dating a young lady. He's like, Man, I really love her. I'm going to marry her.

I go, Are you sleeping with her? Well, well. You're setting the wrong pace, son.

She's supposed to follow you. Not you follow her. You're supposed to set the tone and the pace.

And guys, I'm preaching to the choir here. Okay? I get it. It's hard. It's difficult.

But that's why God made you a man. Buck up. Stop whining and see the real problem as the real problem.

And look, it says here in verse 3, you want the answer? For a long time, Israel was out the true

God without a teaching priest and without a law. Let's just boil that down into a modern conception.

We were without God. We were without churches who have real pastoral leadership.

And we're without the Word of God in our lives. If you are an individual and want success in this life, for you and your family as a

Christian, and you forsake God, you forsake the assembling of God's people together, and you forsake the reading and obeying of God's Word, I give you a 100 % chance of absolute abject failure.

Oh, I don't agree with that. Well, you take your opinion and come see me in about 15 years.

Because your arrogant self, your kid is going to be on my couch, and you're going to look at me and say,

I don't have a Christian home. No you don't.

But see, that's what church culture has fed us. It's fed us that we're not

Catholic. We're good. You know? I'm Baptist. I'm automatically going.

My God, if the rapture happened now, 80 % of Baptist churches wouldn't even know it on a

Sunday morning. But at least we're not black. You know?

We're white, Anglo -Saxon, Protestant Republicans. You know? We're automatically there.

Trump forever. Someone actually wrote on the pastor's notes, oh, I love Pastor Jeff, but maybe don't use so much shock value.

It freaks people out. Freak out! The church is like a dead body that I feel like we need to take the little things, you know?

Give me 300. You think you're good.

Watch. You think you're good because you believe in God.

You think you're good because you ask Jesus and your heart is your

Lord and Savior. And nothing's changed in your life. Guys, I'm not trying to shock you.

I'm not here to entertain you. I'm here to warn you. You are on the road to hell. Well, I don't feel that.

"...to your faith, the assembling of yourself."

Pastor Jeremiah read it this morning. If you claim to be a Christian yet hate your brother, well, that offends me.

Oh my gosh! I can't deal with that much stupid! "...yourself

in repenting, you become offended at the truth that's trying to save your life."

God's Word's not there for your feelings. It's there to save your soul. Guys, please learn the consistency of God, the assembling, and the

Word of God itself to save your life. Second thing, let's talk about repentance. Verse 14, "...but

when in their distress, they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought

Him. And after enough songs and groveling and donations to the local pastor's helicopter fund,

He was found by them." A couple of lies we need to dispel here.

First of all, a lady broke my heart.

And if we only finish with this, I'm cool. A lady broke my heart last week. A young lady.

This is what she said. I've already repented, and I did it again.

What do I do now? And I'm not making fun of her. Listen to me.

In her little brain, she thought repentance was a one -time deal. How many of you older mature

Christians know that's not true? You know the last time I repented? I'm not joking when

I say this. Saturday night. No, Friday night. Two nights ago.

I screwed up. Again. Again. My gosh.

I am such a loser. You know what I mean? I mean, at least I'm not Robert, but I am a loser.

How many times do you have to repent? Every day. You see, we were brought up, and some of you older Baptists, we've run most of you off, but older Baptists, you know, this was their time of repentance.

Just as I am without one plea. And they come up here, Jesus come into my heart, and then they go over here, they get dunked in water, they're a member of the church, and that's it!

They're good to go! That's your big poo -poo face.

But see then, here's what happens. I don't want to give too much truth here, but here's what happens. You start feeling like you and God are this far apart.

Wait a minute, here's the other one. You feel like your prayers don't get further than the... You feel cold and dead.

You feel like that piece of pizza, two weeks old in the refrigerator, you throw it in the microwave and it's half cold, half hot.

But you eat it anyway, because you're too lazy to warm it up. Some of you drug addicts in here hit that one right on the...

Oh yeah, that's me! At least I wouldn't be so stupid to try to make pizza with ketchup,

David Stanley. But anyways, you forget that it's the joy of the

Lord that's our strength. Not preaching, not music, joy.

You know how you get that joy again? Let me quote a guy who murdered a friend, who committed adultery again and again and again, and then lied and covered it up, and didn't repent.

And because he wouldn't privately repent, he was publicly condemned. He said this,

God, restore unto me the joy of my salvation.

Cast me not away from Your presence. You see, the same truth...

Remember, truth is truth all the time. Some of y 'all in this room right now, that's exactly where you're at.

That's exactly where you're at. And I ain't making fun of you. And I ain't yelling at you. Big poo -poo face.

All I'm telling you is, dude, we get it. We're losers too. Come on down here and repent and get some accountability.

The cookies are so much better on this side of the line. Life is so much better living without the constant conviction of God.

Oh, child of God, if you're living in sin, I can tell you for a existence.

Miserable! I mean, it's just kind of like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. It's like a two -year -old.

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? God's Holy Spirit is like that. It's like, hey, buddy.

Hey, I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. And it's like, we'll not leave you alone. But after a while, he'll stop.

You want to know fear? It ain't the living in sin.

It's when you stop feeling the conviction. I just got sick in my stomach.

That'll eat you up. Guys, let me tell you something cool about repentance.

It's one humble heart away again. That's it. Well, I've gone too far.

God's not speaking. God doesn't love me. God doesn't want me. Well, yeah, He kind of does because He already said it and God's not a liar.

You are never too far from the grace of God. How many times do you have to repent?

As many times as you sin. As many times. How many times can you be restored to Christ?

Until the day you die. I praise God for that.

Last thing is this. We have to come to a place where we are consistent in that repentance in verse 11.

They sacrifice to the Lord on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 mother -in -laws and 7 ,000 sheep.

Oh, I'm sorry. 700 oxen and 7 ,000 sheep. It never gets old.

Where are you at in sacrificing? Focus. Guys, it's only been 32 minutes.

Focus. We're almost done. Will the music people come up? Pavlovian, that should chill you out that it's almost over, okay?

There you go. Start salivating. It's almost over. Okay, now, focus. Okay, focus.

Guys, wonderful pastoring in ADD church. Where are you sacrificing?

Here's the thing about repentance. You see, repentance is a two -fold action. You turn to God and away from that which you know is not right.

But here's what is always is truth with it as well. It's going to cost you something. It is.

It's going to cost you something. It's going to cost you that codependent relationship.

It's going to sting, but it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you the comfort of that drug or that alcohol or whatever else that you think is making you feel in control and feel safe.

It's going to cost you that. Because here's the thing, God knows it's a lie even though you don't.

It's going to cost you sometimes your happiness to give you joy.

Let me say that to you again. It might cost you your happiness so that you can experience joy.

It might cost you this. It might cost you your life. Well, yeah, but pastor,

I don't want... Man, don't pull your hand back from the plow, Christian.

Don't pull your hand back. Whatever God requires of you, you've got to come to a place where you literally go,

I'm done. I'm done. I surrender everything.

I'm done. I'm done trying to figure it out. I'm done trying to lie to myself.

I'm done manipulating me and everybody else. I'm done relying on feelings.

I'm done relying on people. I'm done relying on churches and religion.

I'm done with all that crap, God. It is You and You alone that I want to serve.

It is You and You alone that I want to belong to. It is You and You alone that I will bow my knee.

And you need to do it every day. I close with this. Jesus said, If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself daily, pick up his cross, and follow me.