INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Last week we saw the fall of the Northern kingdom in 722 BC. It seems as though all is lost with God’s grand idea of creating a nation that would be like no other.
• Things are not looking good and in South either, it seems to be going from bad to worse.
• I cannot imagine how God must have felt as He looked down at His divided nation, with 10 of the tribes now overtaken by the Assyrians and the last two hanging on by a thread.
• As we have been exploring the Bible together through The Story, I hope that we are seeing the big picture that God loves us, has always loved us, and has been in pursuit of us ever since the fall in the garden.
• In The Story as we come to chapter 17 we begin in 2 kings 21.
• God had made promises to Abraham and Moses that He would show His love to all people and call them back to Himself.
• To David, God promised to bring the Messiah.
• Even though God’s people were disobedient and rebellious, and the kingdom was split into 2 smaller, weaker nations, God WILL fulfill His promises.
• Last week we touched on the subject of Judah, today we will dig a bit deeper into that nation since it is the only part of the Nation left.
• The Northern Kingdom was gone after 722, what will happen to Judah?
• SLIDE #2
• Let’s look at 2 Kings 21:1 together.
• 2 Kings 21:1–2 (NIV) Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah (HEF ZI BAH). He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
• Let’s begin our journey be examining first…
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. The good, the bad.
• The year would be about 686 BC, The good King Hezekiah dies and his son takes over the throne in Judah.
• The boy was 12. You think you may have some issues with raising your pre-teen, imagine them being KING!
• As we stated last week, you would think since Hezekiah was a good King that his son Manasseh would be good also, but from verse 2 we see that is not the case.
• As a matter of fact if you keep reading in the chapter, you will see that he reinstated all the idol worship that his father had gotten rid of!
• One wonders where Manasseh came up with all this evil. He did more evil than any other King of Judah!
• The nation continued to be led by evil leaders.
• Of the last 6 kings who followed Manasseh’s 55 year reign, 5 of them were evil in the sight of the Lord.
• The only one who was good was Josiah, a grandson of Manasseh, here is the kicker, he was 8 years old when he ascended to the throne!
• Josiah was an excellent King and in the 18th year of reign which would have been in about 622 BC, he ordered the Temple to be repaired. In the course of doing the repairs the Book of the Law was found.
• Josiah leads many reforms to try to get the people back in line with God.
• But after Josiah’s death, the final 4 kings were evil, including 2 of Josiah’s sons.
• The nation was continuing to spiral out of control, not learning a thing from what happened to the Northern Kingdom.
• As the last King of Judah, Zedekiah takes the throne, the nation is seemingly at a low point morally and spiritually.
• Zedekiah was an evil person, who led the nation deeper into the throes of evil.
• Just before we hit the end of the nation in 586, 2 Chronicles 36:15-15 reveals just how bad it was getting.
• SLIDE #4
• 2 Chronicles 36:15–16 (NIV) The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.
• This put God in an untenable position. This was the nation by which all the promises of the past would be fulfilled, but for God to continue to bless Judah would send a confusing message not only to Judah, but to the surrounding nations.
• The express purpose of God in His relationship with Israel was always to demonstrate that He is the one true God who wants people to come back into a relationship with Him!
• God needed to do something that sent a message, not a message that says “I hate you” or you are too far gone for me the love, but rather a message of hope, a message to try to wake people up!
• God warns Judah of exile, yet through Ezekiel the prophet, God promises to fulfill His purpose that all nations will know God!
• SLIDE #5
• Ezekiel 36:23 (NIV) I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
• Grace means nothing if we do not think we need it. The people needed to know they NEEDED God’s grace.
• People today need to know they need God’s grace and love. That in spite of what they have done, God loves them and is looking for them to come to Him!
• Well, we go from the Good, the bad to now…
• SLIDE #6
II. The ugly.
• Now for the ugly, it is now 586 BC and God raises up the Babylonians to judge sinful Judah, it is time to pay the piper!
• Now the Babylonians were the biggest bully on the block, the conquered the Assyrians and then proceeded to destroy both Jerusalem and Judah, taking the best and brightest into captivity.
• Wow, this is not good, it looks like God’s nation is done, and it looks like His plan has failed.
• How can Messiah come from a nation that is now in captivity? How can God keep His promises to Abraham, Moses and so forth?
• The fall of the northern and southern kingdom are hard stories but they teach us valuable faith lessons!
• We see that as much as God loved His chosen people, there comes a point in which a wake-up call is needed.
• We also see that in spite of all the rebellion, God STILL loved Israel.
• We also see that following God requires us to be faithful to Him, that He is always faithful to His promises.
• Even when God punishes or gives the wake-up call, it is not with an eye toward casting you out, it is designed for you to learn and grow and come back to Him!
• At FCC we do not want to be known for looking for people’s faults, but rather for helping to lead the broken and wounded back to Jesus so He can heal them!
• Our message is that God’s LOVES you, but He loves you way too much to let you live a broken life with a broken spirit and a broken heart!
• The final lesson we see is that in the midst of judgment, God always offers a promise of hope!
• SLIDE #7
III. The amazing faithfulness.
• One would think that God would be so angry over having to use the Babylonians to wake up the sinful nation, a nation that received warning after warning.
• One would think that God would just write them off and go to plan “B”. People who would think that do not know our awesome God!
• If you think God will just write you off because of whatever, no matter how bad you think it was, you do not know our awesome God and His amazing grace.
• God KNEW this was going to all happen, so He was prepared, there was no plan “B”, just THE PLAN!
• God called a prophet named Jeremiah, he would be known as the weeping prophet because of his heart for his country!
• But look at this, God did not just react to Judah, He planned for it!
• SLIDE #8
• Jeremiah 1:4–5 (NIV) The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
• Before Jeremiah was born, He was set apart by God, God has a plan and nothing will stop it.
• Jeremiah is not the only person that God formed in the womb, He formed you in the womb also.
• Look at what Ephesians 2:10 says about us today!
• SLIDE #9
• Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
• Our life is about maximizing our potential in Christ, God has a glorious plan for everyone who will be willing to be used by Him.
• Imagine being Jeremiah, he knew what happened to the other prophets, how they were mocked and not welcomed by the people, he was intimidated so he made up excuses as to why he could not do the job!
• God promised that He would help Jeremiah speak and that He would be with Jeremiah!
• SLIDE #10
• Jeremiah 1:9–10 (NIV) Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
• Even today, God is with us! He will not leave us to try to figure it out on our own! Jesus said He would be with us until the end of the age! Matthew 28:18-20!
• Jeremiah’s task was to call people back, but he will fail, both weeping over Judah’s destruction, but also offering hope for the future!
• The book of Lamentations was written by Jeremiah chronicling his sadness over Judah’s fall, but it also includes Jeremiah’s hope for the future because of God’s amazing grace!
• SLIDE #11
• Lamentations 3:21–23 (NIV) Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
• God’s faithless never ceases.
CONCLUSION
• When God promises forgiveness, you can have it, when God promises eternal life for those who are His, you can have it.
• God re-opened the door for Judah because of His great faithfulness!
• We all face a Jeremiah moment in our lives. I faced mine when God called me to ministry.
• I felt like Jeremiah but worse, I felt I was not good enough to be used by God, but it is by God’s grace that I can serve Him in the capacity I do.
• When your Jeremiah moment comes what will you do, it may not be a call to ministry, but it will be a call to follow and serve Him.
• Will you accept God’s call in your life?
• Judah shows us that we cannot be too damage to serve and follow Jesus!
