Untitled Sermon (6)

It is a shame to see generations falter between two opinions. One generation serves God faithfully. The next generation exalts another god in place of the one true God.

We have examples throughout Scripture that help us to see what sin does to an entire generation of people, and how what we do with this life, particularly, whether we choose to worship and trust God, affects an entire community and nation.

Don’t be deceived brothers. Do not believe the hellish lie that a group of men like us can’t change the world, and change the entire landscape of the future with the decisions we make here today.

You all know my stance on the Sovereignty of God. We cannot move a muscle apart from his sustaining grace or His permissive will, but when it comes to examining the pitfalls of a generation, the sins that ravage families, the apathy of hearts, the marriages that fail, the physical bodies that weaken and wane, there’s usually only one place to look to find the cause. Ourselves.

There are decisions to be made here today.

If you’ve ever taken the time to read the Kings and the Chronicles in the Bible you’ve no doubt noticed a common occurence from generation to generations of the kings who ruled over Israel and Judah.

Who was the first king over Israel?

Who took his place as God’s chosen king?

David was a man after God’s heart. Not perfect…not sinless, but He pursued God and believed in the eternal King to come who would reign forever on the throne of Heaven.

Who was next after David? Solomon...

A man named Adonijah, another son of David’s, attempted to exalt himself as king before Solomon could take the throne. A group of men conspired with him while he went off an made sacrifices in a separate place, but David’s men and his wife came to him and told him what was taking place, God stopped it, and Solomon was anointed as king.

Listen to what David instructed his son, Solomon, in 1 Kings 2. When David’s time to die drew near, he commanded Solomon his son, saying, 2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the LORD may establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

There’s not much that compares to a man of God and his desire to pass along the faith which God has given him. To desire him to do better and go further. To be a man, and to prosper wherever he goes. To carry on the name. THAT my brothers, is the design of God. You know as well as I do that it doesn’t always work that way.

Good chance that your father did not pass it on to you like he should have. Now you’re fighting to maintain a strength of faith for your family, perhaps your sons, and your daughters…and it’s not easy.

You’re not alone, brothers.

Shortly after Solomon was established as King, the Lord asked him a question.

Anyone remember the question?

“1 Kings 3:5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”

What would you answer if the Lord asked you that question today?

Easier living.

A better job.

Mortgage free living.

Perfect children

The ability to eat whatever I want a stay healthy

See this was a test.

What was his answer?

Look at v7. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people.

He could have asked anything…and what did he ask.

God, make me a righteous leader over your people whom you love.

Brothers, what is a leader?

A leader has followers. A leader is respected. A leader makes hard decisions for the good of others. A leader stands responsible to God for his choices. A leader is humble.

I’m looking out at a group of brothers, all of whom have the potential to change and strengthen the landscape of their homes, their marriages, and the Kingdom of God.

What do you want from the Lord, brothers?

Ask him to make the request of Solomon your very own request…Ask God to make give you the wisdom to discern what is good and what is evil, so that you might govern all that He has given you.

Is it a family? Govern it well.

Is it children? Govern them well.

Is it a wife? Lead her well.

It is a church? Be an example there.

What’s the opposition to this?

It’s the same as it was to Solomon. It’s sin. It’s satan. It’s our flesh that hates the will of God, loves rebellion, and is tempted to go after other gods.

Solomon was given wealth, and wisdom. He built the temple of the Lord, and the Arc of the covenant was there, which was where the presence of the Lord was in Israel.

You know, brother, so much of the blessings and cursings you and I will face in this life are based upon that one thing, are we walking in the presence of the Lord?

Despite the blessings upon Solomon, in chapter 11 something tragic happens.

1 Kings 11:4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

From this point on, we see great tragedy come upon Isreal. The twelve tribes are divided into northern and southern Kingdoms…Israel and Judah. Kings come and go, rising and falling in both kingdoms, and there’s a theme that appears over an over again.

A king would either do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, or he would do what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

For those who did evil, they repeated the sins of Solomon, giving in to perversion, worshipping at the altars of sex and pleasure, erecting Asherah polls on the high places, taking part in the worship of the wicked nations that God has forbidden them to partake in. From the beginning it’s been a war of good and evil, right and wrong, light and darkness.

God is light. Satan is Darkness.

Forever on this earth, ever since the fall, there have been people who exist to rebel against what is good, and to ruin the righteous. What do we find in their attempts to ruin men of God today? The same things.

Sexual sin, exploitation of women, hatred of God, the death of innocent children, the marring of the image of God, the worship of Satan, the love of the world…all of these are always found together…There’s nothing new under the sun.

But there are bright spots in the chronicles of Israel and Judah...

And there’s two I want to show.

In 2 Chronicles 34 a young king comes along named Josiah. Look what he does.

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images. 4 And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.

From time to time God brings about a leader to cleanse the land. That was Josiah. He cleaned, and he chopped, and he burned, and he purged out that which was unpleasing to the Lord.

Brothers, as we’re coming to a close, we’re going to ask God for a purging, and a cleansing, and to show specifically those things that have been exalted that need to be laid waste and destroyed in the name of Jesus.

Not too long before another King reigned in Judah named Hezekiah. He also walked in the ways of the Lord. In addition to cutting down the idols, he did something else remarkable.

For some of you, you as you look at your lives, you’ll notice some disrepair. Hezekiah noticed some as well.

2 Chronicles 29:3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them. 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east 5 and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place. 6 For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the LORD our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD and turned their backs. 7 They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore the wrath of the LORD came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 9 For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. 10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. 11 My sons, do not now be negligent, for the LORD has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.”

What was Hezekiah doing, brothers?

We was restoring the temple, the place of worship. He began by opening the doors and repairing them. They were neglected by his fathers. But he looked back to his Father David, the man after God’s heart, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

Brother’s are you ready to see the filth cleaned out, to purge, to open up the doors that have been shut up, and to be the men God desires us all to be? What sins are you actively committing, while telling others, and even your wives, that you’re a Christian? What fellowship has light with darkness?

There’s so much mercy for us today if we’re all willing to say, Yes Lord, I want you alone, and to run to Jesus Christ the King, the better David, who sits enthroned and has the ability to cleanse us with His blood.