Are You really Committed to Him
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A. Commitment is a foreign concept to many in our Western culture. We see this reflected in many
different areas. Not the least of which is in the area of marriage.
1. One major problem in the area of marriage is those who all live together as opposed to committing to the
other person in a lifelong relationship. cohabitation is or living together is quite common in the church as
well.
Illustration: When people do get married more than 50% end in divorce. Again, this statistic is nearly
mirrored in the church in general. 2. According to George Barna only half of people who attend a
Christian Church describe themselves as “absolutely committed” to Christianity, but 92% o
of Evangelicals describe themselves as “absolutely committed
.
3. Among Christians 16% are involved discipleship process of regularly meeting with a group or individual for spiritual growth.
4. We must understand that the word “Christian” is a rather broad word.
5. No matter how you cut it, commitment is a big problem in this country and it is reflected in the church as well.
Let us take a look at our text for today…
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Scripture TEXT
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a. This is a very interesting portion of scripture because Asa was known as a king who did right in the eyes of the Lord.
b. This he did for the first 15 years until 34 years in his reign but then he slowly but surely began to walk away for the Lord until his death. In the 39th year of this reign he contracted a disease and in the 41st year he died.
c. c. In the beginning of his reign he gave heed After the prophet spoke to him he took heart and began to remove the places of idol worship and repaired the temple of the Lord.
There is one point of wavering that may be a sign of what was to come…
d. Not only so but he instituted many reforms in the land of Judah over which he was king.
Illustration: It may be kind of difficult to understand what happened that caused Asa to
turn away from the Lord in the way he did after seeming to be so committed
to him.
We are going to look at this text and see what caused Asa to turn away from the Lord in the way he did.
1. Rejected God’s Rule –
Deuteronomy07:1-4
When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations…seven nations larger and stronger than you – 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.
A. For the first thirty-four years of Asa’s reign he was truly committed to the Lord.
1. As we have mentioned, he instituted great reforms in the nation of Judah which we have mentioned the
2 Chronicles 15:16-17
King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole. Asa cut the pole down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17 Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s heart was fully committed [to the LORD] all his life.
B. Now, the scripture is silent as to what precipitated this
wavering on the part of Asa.
1. For some unknown reason he fails to remove the high places which were the places where the worship of Baal and Asherah actually took place.
2. Whatever precipitates it, we clearly see a slight compromise. And in a few years that slight compromise would grow to a total disregard for
the Word of God.
David knew the importance of God’s Word…
Illustration:A skeptic in London, in speaking of the Bible, said that it was quite impossible in these days to believe in any book whose authorship is unknown. A Christian asked if the compiler of the multiplication table was known. “No!” he answered. “Then, of course, you do not believe in it.” “Oh yes,” was the skeptic’s reply “I believe in it because it works well.” “So does the Bible,” was the rejoinder. The skeptic had no answer to that.
—A. Naismith
Well said…the bible works! But it only works if we use it and apply it!
Psalm 119:11
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Well said…the bible works! But it only works if we use it and apply it!
B. King Asa had clear direction from the Lord that
he was NOT to strike treaties with the inhabit ants
of the land of Canaan but he did so anyway.
1. We cannot intentionally spurn God’s Word and
expect that there will not be ramifications.
B. When we make a covenant with the Lord it is not to be broken.
1. Asa was like a lot of people to day—We will serve you as long as everything is OK—but we must be careful
2. Not to break His promises—The same God –Yesterday-today-and forever.
Hebrews04:12-13
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight, everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. aTo the work of god we me
C. The Word of God is so much more than just a book,
print on a page. It is everything that we need for faith and practice.
David said…
Psalm 119:15-16
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
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1. There was another time in the history of Judah
when the Word of God had fallen into neglect.
2 Kings 22:8, 10-11
Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD." He gave it to Shaphan, who read it…10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. 11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.
2. During this time the Word of God had been so
neglected that they had actually lost it!
a. When Shaphan came to Josiah with the Book of the Law he doesn’t even seem to really know what the significance of it is because he refers to it as “a book”.
b. We must have the attitude that David did…
“I will not neglect your word.”
John 14:15
"If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
b. If we are going to live lives of obedience to our
b. Lord we must first KNOW what He commands!
The first problem with Asa was that he Rejected God’s Rule…
2. Rejected God’s Representative –
2 Chronicles 16:10
Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.
A. Once Asa had strayed off course and done that which was wrong in the eyes of God, the Lord sent him someone to speak the Word of God to him…to warn him.
B. Asa had come to such a place of hardness of heart that not only did he reject what God’s representative had to say and imprisoned him, but he even oppressed God’s people.
C. First instance of royal imprisonment
C. (persecution) of God’s prophet.
1. It is not uncommon for people who are
D. straying from God’s word to then reject
E. His representative.
Luke 19:47-48
Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48 Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.
D. Here were the people who knew God’s Word
F. the best, some of them were experts in God’s
G. law but yet here was the long awaited
H. Messiah and not only did they not see him –
I. they wanted to kill him.
1. The Scribes and Pharasees had long ago
J. rejected the reality of God’s Word
2. False prophets were characterized by their
K. low morality and unethical conduct. They
L. were drunkards adulterous treacherous,
M. liars (and opportunists
3. In contrast, true prophets were morally
uncompromising and above reproach. Christ refers to this test:
“Every good tree brings forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit...By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:17-20).
E. Asa had the clear proof before him that this man
was a true representative of God…
1. People who know that they are at a point
in their life where they are not fully
committed to the Lord really don’t like it
when the Lord sends someone to them to
speak the truth that they are not get
Illust: However, God is gracious and even when we are not fully
committed to Him, He will continue to reach out to us by His
grace in it’s many forms.
Asa had Rejected God’s Rule and he had Rejected God’s Representative…
Rejected God’s Remedy –
2 Chronicles 16:12-13
A. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.
1. 13 Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his fathers.
2. This passage is not saying that it was wrong of Asa to seek the help of physicians per se.
3. This ailment was clearly a judgment from God intended to bring him to repentance and he would not.
4. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD
5. Asa remained too prideful to seek help from the Lord.
B. Less than 200 years later God would divinely strike Hezekiah with an illness to the point of death but when he cries out to the Lord he is healed and given 15 more years of life
1. Asa had clearly suffered a great fall in his faith
to the point that not only was it no longer said
of him that he was fully committed to the Lord
but now he is suffering judgment.
2. This is the unfortunate lot of far too many
saints.
3. But God’s grace makes provision for those who are in such a state…
Acts 3:19-20
19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
Just as with Asa, this man was not too far from God’s grace. Here he was “sick in spirit” but thankfully he went to the Lord instead of a “physician”.
There is another occasion in scripture…
10Corinthians011:27-32
Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
NKJV
B. The remedy for the Corinthian church is the
same for those who might backslide today.
Repent and return to the Lord.
1. Asa Rejected God’s Remedy and therefore
ended up meeting death through the ailment
he had received.
2. We must take heed from the life of Asa
because he…
1. Asa had
2. Rejected God’s Rule
3. Rejected God’s Representative
4. Rejected God’s Remedy.
Remember the Word of the Lord…
2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
