Revival: Stronger Than Ever
Increasing God’s Power in Your Life
2 Chronicles 14-16
INTRO – One of the questions church leaders should be asking right now
What kind of encouragement does a the church or the nation need when it in or coming out of a national crisis?
That’s the question Ezra is answering for us in the book of Chronicles.
And what kind of encouragement do you need when you’re facing a personal crisis?
That’s the question Ezra is answering for us in the section of Chronicles we’ll be looking at today.
First, a little context:
The book of Chronicles covers a 400-year period of time, called “The Kingdom Period,” because from 1000 B.C. to 600 B.C., Israel was ruled by kings.
Saul was its first king. He didn’t do so well. Ezra doesn’t spend much time on him.
David comes next. David was human in his sins, and amazing in his heart. The author of Hebrews calls him, “A man after God’s own heart.” Two weeks ago, we saw God ask David to build Him and altar. So he built the altar. But first, he bought the field for the altar, and the animals for the sacrifice, and the field in which he built the altar. He said, “I will not offer to the Lord my God that which cost me nothing.”
Next in the line of kings was Solomon. Last week we learned how his gift of wisdom endowed an entire nation.
2 Chronicles 10-13 tell the story of Solomon’s son, whose name was Rehoboam. Rehoboam was not a wise king. When the people asked him to lower their taxes, he raised them instead, which split the kingdom forever.
From that time on, Israel was a divided kingdom. The ten tribes in the north were known as “Israel.” And the two tribes in the south were called “Judah.”
Throughout its history, 19 kings ruled the kingdom of Israel, and not one of them followed the Lord.
And 20 kings ruled in the kingdom of Judah, and many of them tried to follow the Lord.
PURPOSE
Ezra is looking for positive examples to teach uplifting lessons. So, Chronicles majors in the kings of the south.
After David, Solomon, and Rehoboam, come two kings. The first one is Abijah. Abijah reigned for three years, nothing significant for our discussion today, so we will go on to the second king whose name starts with A. His name is Asa.
FORECAST
Asa was not perfect, but he was one of the good kings.
Ezra is going to use the life of Asa to teach us three lessons on the power of faithfulness today.
Asa is going to show us that when we are faithful to God, God is unfailing to us.
Major Point- Asa is going to teach us that the faithful may have setbacks, but never full-on failures, because God is faithful to His faithful ones.
And all that God has is strongly available to the person who is strongly available to God.
OVERVIEW
Asa’s story spans three chapters of 2 Chronicles. Chapters 14, 15, and 16.
The first chapter is a lesson from a ROUTE.
The second chapter is a lesson from a REVIVAL.
And the third chapter is a lesson from a REBUKE.
So if you’re ready to do some learning today, take out your notes and open your Bibles to 2 Chronicles 14.…and while you’re doing that, let’s open in prayer
Prayer
“Lord Jesus, speak to me. Amen.”
Around 900 B.C., the king of “Cush,” which is modern day Ethiopia, was powerful enough to conquer the kingdom of Egypt. The country north of Egypt was Judah, which happened to be ruled by young king Asa.
2 Chronicles 14:8 tells the story:
Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and two hundred eighty thousand from Benjamin bearing regular shields and drawing the bow. All these were valiant warriors. 9 Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of one million men and three hundred chariots.
If you do the math, Asa is outnumbered almost two to one. He does the best thing he can do: he prays. Verse 11…
11 Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God, “Lord, there is no one besides you to help the mighty and those without strength. Help us, Lord our God, for we depend on you, and in your name we have come against this large army. Lord, you are our God. Do not let a mere mortal hinder you.”
12 So the Lord routed the Cushites before Asa and before Judah, and the Cushites fled. 13 Then Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell until they had no survivors, for they were crushed before the Lord and his army. So the people of Judah carried off a great supply of loot. - 2 Chronicles 14:8-13
What does this mean for us?
Imagine yourself as a young king. Maybe 30 years old. You get wind that a million-man army is coming against you.
Everyone under your care, every person you love, every thing, every animal, every building, every field in your kingdom is about to be overrun, broken, killed, ravaged, or stolen.
What do you do?
You do what every person of faith does: you pray
You call on the Lord. “Lord,” Asa says, “there is no one besides you to help us. Help us, Lord, because we depend on you.”
And what does God do?
He answers. He does what you ask, and more than what you ask. He not only protects your kingdom and everyone you love, he gives your enemy over to you, so that his army is destroyed, and can never come against you again.
It may have been this passage the Apostle Paul was thinking of when he wrote that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all you can ask or imagine.
NEED
Remember from past weeks- Ezra is teaching a lesson to a people who are insecure and unsure. They’ve been away from home for 70 years. They’ve just moved back into their land. When you read the book of Nehemiah, you find that other people had moved into the neighborhood while Israel was away in exile, and they’re not happy the Israelites are back.
[Slowly] Ezra is writing to a people who feel insecure and unsure. – Like many of us do right now.
APPLICATION
This world is throwing a thousand different things to worry about at us.
We wonder, “Do I dare to eat at a restaurant?
“Is it safe for my kids to attend classes in person?”
“What about this new president? Is he going to take away my rights?”
Ezra is teaching us a lesson in our faith and God’s faithfulness.
I call it, “The Lesson of the Route.” To be clear, the word route there is not meant to mean road, but meant to be total victory!
Asa prays, and the Bible says, …the Lord routed the Cushites before Asa and before Judah, and the Cushites fled.
The Lesson of the Route is…
1. The Lesson of the Route: Call on the Lord, and He will fight for you. 2 Chron. 14:10-15
Listen: when you work, you get what you can do. Your paycheck is dependent on your efforts.
But when you pray, you get what God can do. And God can do anything.
- He can route a million-man army.
- He can supply all your needs, according to His riches in Christ Jesus.
- He can supply your financial needs. Your physical needs.
- He can give you a job in the midst of a pandemic.
- He can give you a friend.
- He can encourage you.
- He can keep you from falling.
Christian pro-tip (or a truth to realize that will help you grow and become strong in the LORD)
Sometimes He will let you feel outnumbered… so you can know that you count on Him.
The Lesson of the Route is, when you’re in a mess, be faithful to pray, so that God can be faithful to answer.
And if God can defeat a million-man army, He can defeat a virus, or people trying to take our freedoms.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Last week Ezra reminded us that, “If my people, who are called by my name, will pray… I will heal their land.”
The Lesson of the Route is,
If I will be faithful to pray, He will be faithful to fight.
APPLICATION
So what are you going to do first thing tomorrow morning?
Set your foundation– Prayer
TRANSITION
Ezra’s second lesson comes in chapter 15.
The route is over, and Asa and his men are returning to their homes and families. On their way home, the Lord sends them a prophet named Azariah to encourage them.
Chapter 15, verse 1 says…
The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. 2 So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.
3 For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without instruction, 4 but when they turned to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and sought him, he was found by them. 5 In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts. 6 Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress. 7 But as for you, be strong; don’t give up, for your work has a reward.”
8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the abhorrent idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim.
He renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple. 9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 2 Chronicles 15:1-9
On the way home from a great victory, God asks Asa to make it even greater.
During the reigns of his father and grandfather, people had begun worshiping other gods. The gods of the Canaanites.
People built places of worship to Baal all over the land.
Asa thinks about the First Commandment, “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me.” Asa sends wrecking crews out to tear down the pagan worship centers.
And he commissions the Levites to refurbish the Temple.
The people are so inspired by Asa’s leadership that they all flock to Jerusalem for a great celebration.
People from the northern tribes start moving south, just to be under Asa’s leadership.
Verse 10 says… They were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.
The third month of the Jewish calendar is late May or early June. They’ve come together to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost.
Leviticus 23 says that at Pentecost, the nation was to sacrifice a bull, 7 lambs, and 2 rams.
Verse 11 says… At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from all the plunder they had brought.
Why is that significant? Remember last week-
? When David was asked to build an altar to the Lord, he did more than he was asked.
? When Solomon was seeking God’s favor, he sacrificed more than was expected.
? When Asa and his people make a sacrifice, they do 1,000 times more than they were asked.
The take away is this- When people truly love God deeply, they give to Him lavishly.
These people were serious, weren’t they?
14 They took an oath to the Lord in a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams’ horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it wholeheartedly.
Their covenant said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We will serve Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.”
Zeal for the Lord was consuming them.
They took an oath. And not a quiet one. There was shouting, and trumpets, and ram’s horns.
This was a revival! – Everyone rejoiced, because everyone was all in for God.
The Lesson of the Revival is…
2. The Lesson of the Revival: Seek the Lord, and He will be found by you. 2 Chron. 15:1-15
Oh, how we need revival today. I hope you’re praying for a national revival these days. It’s not a man, nor a political party that will save us- it’s an honest revival of repentance that will save this great land.
People are seeking something to hold onto right now.
God is shaking our reality, so that everything not given to us by Him may crumble. The devil doesn’t earthquake proof his counterfeits, so occasionally in our lives God sends a spiritual earthquake.
How do I know?
Heb 12:25-29- speaking of Israel at Mt Sinai with Moses
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." 27 The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken — that is, created things — so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our "God is a consuming fire."
NIV
We need the fire of God seen in a revival
TRANSITION
So Asa assembles the people for Pentecost, and it’s so powerful that people come from outside the nation –
Oh that the world would see America as the beacon and lighthouse of Christianity once again!
The come- from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon. And they get serious about God.
How do we apply this to us?
Will you pray with me for revival in our land?
Will you pray with me for revival in our city?
Revival has to start somewhere. Why couldn’t it start with us?
Well, Ezra has a third lesson for us.
Chapter 14 is about the Route.
Chapter 15 is about the Revival.
Chapter 16 is about the Rebuke.
Because even though Asa was fervent for God in chapter 15, he let his temperature cool down.
All of us have been guilty of this at one point or another in our lives.
25 years after the Revival, the Northern Kingdom, under a king named Baasha, begins to threaten the Southern Kingdom.
In order to stop the migration of his people into Judah, Baasha starts to build a border wall. His wall isn’t to keep people out, it’s to fence people in.
Chapter 16:1 says…
In the thirty-sixth year of Asa, Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to keep anyone from leaving or coming to King Asa of Judah.
Ramah was just 5 miles north of Jerusalem. It was on the main road that everyone had to travel if they wanted to get into the Kingdom of Judah.
If you’ll remember, years earlier, when the Cushites came against Judah, Asa turned to God and prayed for His help. This time he doesn’t. Instead…
2 Chronicles 16:1-3 So Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace and sent it to Aram’s King Ben-hadad, who lived in Damascus, saying, 3 “There’s a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go break your treaty with Israel’s King Baasha so that he will withdraw from me.”
Where once Asa was filled with fervor, now he’s lulled by leisure. Instead of trusting God and leading his people in battle, he pays somebody else to do his fighting for him.
And it worked. Baasha withdrew his forces from Ramah. And you’d like to say, “And Asa lived happily ever after.” But he didn’t. Instead, God sent another prophet to him. This prophet says…
“Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? When you depended on the Lord, he handed them over to you.” 2 Chronicles 16:7
Then he says, “Asa, do you not know that…
The eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on. 2 Chronicles 16:9
To summarize God is saying
“Asa, when you’re in trouble, call on me, and I’ll fight for you.”
Asa, what happened to your commitment to me?”
Asa, what happened to that covenant you signed? I was ready to rescue you. But you turned your head away from Me.”
“Asa, what happened to your faith?”
Listen, listen: God is looking for fully devoted followers. And when He finds them, He fortifies. He adds strength to them. He does great things for them.
3. The Lesson of the Rebuke: Commit to the Lord, and He will fortify you. 2 Chron. 16:1-9
He will make you strong and He will show Himself strong on your behalf.
- Joseph saw this when God provided a way for him from the prison to the palace.
- Moses saw this when his back was against the Red Sea.
- Daniel saw this when God closed the mouths of the lions so he could live.
- Peter saw this when the angel opened the prison door.
You will see this when you commit your ways to Him fully. Not half-heartedly. But fully. When you say, without reservation, “All that I have is Yours. All that I am is Yours.”
Amen?
Before we close, I have to ask:
How’s your heart these days?
? Is it fully on fire?
? Are you praying for God’s leadership in your life every day?
? Are you praying for God’s power to use you to further His kingdom?
? If God is asking you for a bull and some rams and sheep, are you giving him seven hundred and seven thousand of them?
Please rise and Bow your head with me.
PRAYER
Lord, God, like Asa, there are times when we have been on fire for You. And we are lighting that fire again. When You look around the world, we want You to see us.
Friends, pray these words out loud after me:
Lord, if there is an assignment you want fulfilled
Choose me.
Call me.
Nudge me.
Lord, revive me again.
Lord, light Your fire in me again.
Lord, use our church to bring many to Christ.
Revive our city.
Revive our country.
Revive our world.
In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Altar Call
