Let me ask you a question: Do you want God to be on your side? That’s a pretty easy question to answer. I wouldn’t be surprised if we all unanimously responded, “Yes!” Who wouldn’t want the only all-knowing, all-powerful God on their side? Romans 8:31 - “If God is for us, who can be against us?” You’d be a fool to say, “Nah! I don’t want any help from God. I’m just fine on my own, thank you very much.” And yet, it’s not enough to simply say, “Yes, I want God on my side.” The question should not be, Do you want God to be on your side? but rather: Are you on God’s side? Everyone wants God on their side, but Who is on the Lord’s side?
In II Chronicles 15 “The Spirit of God came upon a man named Azariah” and God sent him to King Asa with this message: II Chron. 15:2 King Asa, “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.”
God had just helped King Asa and his armies win a great victory against their enemies, the Cushites. It’s no surprise that they won when you read Asa’s prayer prior to the battle (found in the previous chapter.) II Chronicles 14:11 – “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 men prevail against you.’” And God heard Asa’s prayer, crushing his enemies before him.
On the heels of this great victory, God inspires a man to go to the King he loved and say, “The secret to victory is not to assume God is on your side, but to make sure you’re on His.” That verse and one other that comes from the “life and times” of Asa are really what I would call the “key verses” or the two most important pieces of advice that God shared with us through his life. The second verse is found one chapter later in II Chronicles 16:9 – “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” Let’s break down these two verses:
II Chronicles 15:2
1. “The Lord is with you when you are with Him.” Illustr. – Wife who complained that her husband no longer put his arm around her when they were in the car together. If there’s distance between you and God, guess who moved? Not the, “friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Not the one who said, “Never will I leave you or forsake you. I am with you always to the end of the world.” God hasn’t moved! He is there for you, completely available every day. His mercies are “new every morning.” Any distance between God and me was created either by sin or neglect on my part. And even then, God is quick to “close the gap” between us the instant I reach for Him.
In Acts 19, a group of Jews called the Seven Sons of Sceva learned there’s a big difference between calling on the name of Jesus and truly having His power working in your life. They tried to cast demons out of a man and got in over their heads. They used a religious formula without knowing the Man. They confronted this demon-possessed guy and said, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” The evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, BUT WHO ARE YOU?” And the demon possessed man jumped them and gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
What happened? Demons recognized Jesus and Paul because they instantly knew whose side they were on in the spiritual realm – but these guys were imposters! They were spouting religious formulas but they were not with God so He was not with them and they got their physical and spiritual rear ends kicked! If you walked into spiritual confrontation today, whose side are you on? Would demons recognize Jesus in you and tremble or would they kick your you know what?
2. “If you seek Him, He will be found by you…” The best way I know to describe this is to tell you what it’s like to play “Hide ‘n Seek” with your little son or daughter. You know if you hide too hard, they’re not going to find you, so the object really isn’t to hide, but to MAKE IT EASY TO BE FOUND. You’re making noises. “Pretend” to hide behind the leg of a table or something. You can’t wait for them to find you. You laugh and act surprised when all the while you couldn’t wait for them to come looking for you just so you could see the joy on their face when they “caught you.” “There you are Daddy! I see you…”
God is not hiding from you! He’s so obvious! He’s just waiting to be “caught” by you. “If you seek Him, He will be found by you.” We get looking for all the wrong things in all the wrong places. God’s right there in the middle of your situation. Let the Holy Spirit adjust your vision and you’ll be saying, “There you are Daddy! I see you…”
3. “…but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” How do we reconcile this verse with God’s promise in Hebrews 13:5 – “Never will I leave you or forsake you.”? Is God contradicting Himself? No. If it called for Him to contradict Himself, He wouldn’t do it because “God is not a man that He should lie.” If you leave God, He has no choice but to leave you. They way we leave God is through sin. We come to Him through humility, we leave Him through pride and rebellion. I’ve met people who honestly expect God to stay committed to them no matter what they do. I’m not one of those people.
I believe you can backslide. I believe if you spit in the face of God, you shouldn’t expect Him to save you a place in heaven some day. God will forgive any confessed sin, but I fear for those who live as though they can do anything they want and it’s “OK with God.” In Matthew 27, Jesus hung dying on the cross. Not only was he a physical mess, (beaten beyond recognition), he was also a spiritual mess, having taken on himself the sins of the world. Jesus became the biggest sinner who ever lived. He was so filthy with all our sins that in that moment, His own Father had to turn His back and look the other way as Jesus cried out Verse 46b – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
If there were ever a moment in all of history when God was tempted to break His own rules, that had to be the moment. That was His Son hanging there, bleeding and dying. But sin had to be paid for so God had to turn His back and look away. God cannot tolerate sin. He will freely forgive it but if you choose your sin over Him He will forsake you. Have you forsaken God for sin? Then you can’t blame Him if He looks at you some day and says, “Depart from me, for I never knew you…”
II Chronicles 16:9
4. “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” How many things can you be “fully committed to?” I don’t know that it’s possible to be “fully committed” to more than one thing. Certainly, that is the case spiritually. Jesus knew it. In Matthew 6:24 He said, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” You’re not “fully committed” to God because you’re in church this morning. It’s how you live when you leave here that answers that question.
You’re not fully committed to God just because you’ve got a “Shout to the Lord” CD playing in your car on the way to work Monday morning. It’s what you were playing in the back seat on Friday night that tells Him whether you’re “fully committed” to Him. Illustr. – Man giving his girl a diamond ring and being rejected because she “Doesn’t want to make that kind of commitment right now.” “Here’s the ring, will you marry me?” “I’m sorry, I don’t feel the same level of commitment.”
On the cross, God came down to earth, knelt on one knee and said, “I have a proposal for you. I give you my best – the crown jewel of heaven - to show you how much I love you. Will you accept the free gift of salvation?” Many of us made a commitment to God. Some of you still have not. Some of you who did make a commitment aren’t living “fully committed” to Him. Why not? How do you think that boy down on one knee is going to feel if he hears anything other than, “Yes! I accept!”? He’s going to know she doesn’t feel the same way about him as he does about her. No excuse can cover her lack of commitment.
The Lord is looking for those who will make full commitments to Him and when He finds them, He will strengthen them.
1. Whose side are you on? “The Lord is with you when you are with Him.”
2. How hard are you looking for God? “If you seek Him, He will be found by you.”
3. Have you forsaken God for sin? “…if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”
4. What is it that you’re committed to? “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.”
