How to Make 2004 the Most Meaningful Year of your Life
2 Chronicles 14-16
Introduction:
Are you a Christian whose spiritual growth has stagnated? Are you a Christian who wants to make 2004 the most meaningful year of your life. Tonight we look at a life of a king who started so strong yet ended so tragic. If you die and someone is assigned to write you biography what would it say about your life.
James tells us that our time here on earth is not only fragile but short: Here it tells us that our life are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James 4:13-17 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." [14] Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. [15] Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that." [16] As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
Paul instructs us in Ephesians to be very careful and to make the most of every opportunity (to seek to do God¡¦s Will).
Ephes. 5:15-17 Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, [16] making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. [17] Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
1. Asa¡¦s Commitment to the Lord
2 Chron 14:2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.4 He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands.
„Ð Asa did what was good. The Prophet Micah tells us What is Good and Right in the eyes of the Lord His God
Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
(O man means any person in Israel) exactly what God did desire from them. God did not want them to be related to Him in only a creation way only, but God wanted them to be related inwardly¡Xto obey Him because they desired to, not because they have to. That relationship, which is good (beneficial), involves three things: that individuals
(a) Act Justly (be fair in their dealings with others)
(b) Love Mercy (¡§loyal love¡¨; carry through on their commitments to meet others needs)
(c) Walk Humbly with¡K God (fellowship with Him in modesty, without arrogance). ¡§Humbly¡¨ translates to be modest.
„Ð Verse 4 tells us that He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers. In Daniel 3:1-7 King Nebo (verses 4-5) force the people to worship an image made of gold. Now Asa gave the people of Judah a law to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers.
Is 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
Deut 4:29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
15:2 He went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and 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. 15:4 "But in their distress they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought Him, and He let them find Him. 15:12 And they entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul;
„Ð And to obey his laws and commands.
Luke 11:28 But He said, ¡§More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!¡¨
James 1:25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
„Ð Verse 11 tells us a lot about Asa¡¦s Prayer Life.
Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, "Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O Lord, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you."
I love how Asa prayed Lord, there is no one like you. Here he acknowledge God as the almighty one. He gave the Lord His rightful place. No one can be compared to you. Then he prayed for help, acknowledging that God alone can give them victory. He continued his prayer by saying we rely on you. Finally, Asa tells us you are our God no one is more powerful than you are.
„Ð In 2 Chronicles 15:16
And he also removed Maacah, the mother of King Asa, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah, and Asa cut down her horrid image, crushed it and burned it at the brook Kidron.
„Ð Perhaps the most striking evidence of Asa¡¦s reformation was his removal of his own
grandmother Maacah from being queen mother. (As ¡§queen mother¡¨ she may have been Asa¡¦s mother; if so it is coincidental that his grandmother was also named Maacah (cf. 11:20).
She had made an Asherah pole, a Canaanite fertility symbol (cf. comments on 14:3), which Asa destroyed and burned¡K in the Kidron Valley (cf. 29:16; 30:14), just east of Jerusalem. So Asa eradicated foreign worship from Judah, except for some high places that remained (cf. 14:3)¡Xusually sites of pagan altars.
2. Asa¡¦s Sin
After 35 years being good and right in the sight of God, Now Asa
„Ð Betrays God ¡V When King Baasha of Israel assaulted Judah, who built a fortress at the Israel-Judah border at Ramah, about six miles north of Jerusalem. Baasha¡¦s purpose was to prevent further movement of Israelites south to Judah. Instead of praying and trusting God like he did earlier in his reign. Remember the prayer 14:11.
Here Asa bribes the King of Aram to break his allegiance with Baasha and attacks Him instead and Benhaded did.
2 Chron. 16:2 Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying,
Asa took his eyes off the Lord who earlier when he asked God to help him, destroyed the Ethiopian (14:8-15). Hanani the prophet rebukes Asa ¡§you blew it.¡¨ How foolish can you be?
2 Chron. 16:7-8 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, "Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand. [8] "Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand.
Hebrews 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
„Ð Verse 9 is probably one of the most remarkable insight about what the Lord is looking for;
2 Chron.16:9 "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars."
Right Now the Lord is looking around this room, and he say¡¦s who¡¦s heart is fully committed to him (completely his.) Who totally trust me, because I want to strengthen that person. He wants use us, he wants us to trust in God completely in Him for everything.
Moses in Deuteronomy 8 tells the people of Israel not to forget the Lord but remember Him always.
„Ð After Hanani¡¦s rebuke instead of repenting to God, seeking His face again, but verse 10 tells us
2 Chron16:10 Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.
„Ð Verses 11-14 Asa suffered a foot disease in his 39th year of rule (872 B.C.) he refused to seek God¡¦s help but only turned to the physicians. Two years later (870) he died and was buried with an impressive state funeral. The fire was not a cremation. Though Asa was generally an upright king, his reign was marred by his reliance on the ungodly Ben-Hadad and his failure to trust the Lord in his illness.
Conclusion:
Asa after all he did, now he will be known as someone who started so strong but ended so tragically. How would the end of you story be like?
As I look back to this past year, 2003 was a difficult year, but this is also the year that I got closer to God. The Bible says, "David served God’s purpose in his own generation." I can’t think of a better obituary. That’s what I want for my life - that when I die people will say, "He served God’s purpose in his generation." And that’s what I want people to say about you, that you served God’s purpose in your generation.
This message tonight is telling you turn your life around. Make 2003 the most meaningful year of your life. I am begging you finish strong, Make it this year that it would be my last. Make this year be the year that you turn it around.
