It’s Halftime
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· 6 viewsFinishing well is just as important as starting well.
Notes
Transcript
Announcements:
Bible study will resume on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 at 6:30PM at Abide Coffee shop. We will be continuing our study on discipleship.
Worship:
Goodness of God
Waymaker
Gratitude
Introduction:
I read an article that listed some of the greatest comebacks in sports history.
The list included:
-the 2004 American League Championship Series in which the Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees and became the only team in baseball history to come back from a three-games-to-none deficit. They won three close games in a row and then won the fourth game in New York by the score of 10-3!
-the New England Patriots in the 2017 SuperBowl were playing against the Atlanta Falcons. This was a dynasty team. From 2001-2014, the Patriots appeared in 6 super bowls and won 4. So, it was a shock to many as the Patrots were down 25 points in the 3rd quarter. The Patriots reeled off 25 unanswered points and took the game to OT and won the game on a first possession touchdown drive. The comeback was unprecedented in the NFL because, since 1940, teams leading by 17 or more points after three quarters in playoff games had a combined 133-0 record!
-a 1974 game against Duke and North Carolina, North Carolina came back from an 8-point deficit with only 17 seconds left in the game. They went on to win the game in overtime—after Duke allowed them to come back, yet again, from a 4-point deficit.
-in 2016 when the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals to defeat the Golden State Warriors and become the first team in NBA history to do such a feat.
There are many more comebacks we could add here and from other sports as well.
But there is a clear lesson here for our spiritual life: it's not how you start; it's dealing with the adjustments (halftimes) that need to be made and how you finish.
I always like to say “the most insignificant statistic in sports is the halftime score.”
It's easy to start well and then lose your focus and spiritually collapse.
It's easy to lose your passion.
In the church circles, we used a specific word for this phenomenon: backsliding. We don’t hear it as much anymore but it is something that is definitely real and something we should be aware of. Backsliding suggests that we were making progress but then we veered off track and started sliding backwards in our spiritual life.
Remember: it's not how you start the spiritual journey; it's how you continue and how you finish.
We are finishing 2023 but the year isn’t over yet. No matter how you started the year, no matter what you experienced throughout the year, you can finish the end off strong! Just as coaches make adjustments at halftime, this morning we are going to talk about some adjustments we may need to make before the year ends.
Transition: Please turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles 24:1-19. While you are turning there, I just want to prepare you to know this is a sad story about losing passion for the most important relationship in the universe: a relationship with God. It describes a man who had everything—riches, power, influence, a rich spiritual upbringing, meaningful work to do, and a good track record with the Lord—but threw it all away. Let’s read our passage this morning in 2 Chronicles 24 and we will make some observations/adjustments that we may need to change as we close out 2023.
Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba. 2 Throughout the time of the priest Jehoiada, Joash did what was right in the Lord’s sight. 3 Jehoiada acquired two wives for him, and he was the father of sons and daughters.
4 Afterward, Joash took it to heart to renovate the Lord’s temple. 5 So he gathered the priests and Levites and said, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect silver from all Israel to repair the temple of your God as needed year by year, and do it quickly.”
However, the Levites did not hurry. 6 So the king called Jehoiada the high priest and said, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by the Lord’s servant Moses and the assembly of Israel for the tent of the testimony? 7 For the sons of that wicked Athaliah broke into the Lord’s temple and even used the sacred things of the Lord’s temple for the Baals.”
8 At the king’s command a chest was made and placed outside the gate of the Lord’s temple. 9 Then a proclamation was issued in Judah and Jerusalem that the tax God’s servant Moses imposed on Israel in the wilderness be brought to the Lord. 10 All the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought the tax, and put it in the chest until it was full. 11 Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king’s overseers, and when they saw that there was a large amount of silver, the king’s secretary and the high priest’s deputy came and emptied the chest, picked it up, and returned it to its place. They did this daily and gathered the silver in abundance. 12 Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those in charge of the labor on the Lord’s temple, who were hiring stonecutters and carpenters to renovate the Lord’s temple, also blacksmiths and coppersmiths to repair the Lord’s temple.
13 The workmen did their work, and through them the repairs progressed. They restored God’s temple to its specifications and reinforced it. 14 When they finished, they presented the rest of the silver to the king and Jehoiada, who made articles for the Lord’s temple with it—articles for ministry and for making burnt offerings, and ladles and articles of gold and silver. They regularly offered burnt offerings in the Lord’s temple throughout Jehoiada’s life.
15 Jehoiada died when he was old and full of days; he was 130 years old at his death. 16 He was buried in the city of David with the kings because he had done what was good in Israel with respect to God and his temple.
17 However, after Jehoiada died, the rulers of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them, 18 and they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the Asherah poles and the idols. So there was wrath against Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. 19 Nevertheless, he sent them prophets to bring them back to the Lord; they admonished them, but the people would not listen.
Body:
I. Starting well doesn’t happen on accident
A. Joash started out well
Royal heritage (of the royal family)
10 When Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs of the house of Judah. 11 Jehoshabeath,G the king’s daughter, rescued Joash son of Ahaziah from the king’s sons who were being killed and put him and the one who nursed him in a bedroom. Now Jehoshabeath was the daughter of King Jehoram and the wife of the priest Jehoiada. Since she was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid Joash from Athaliah so that she did not kill him. 12 He was hiding with them in God’s temple for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.
ii. Godly heritage (of the line of David; Zibiah was the wife of King Ahaziah of Judah and he was hidden by the priest to protect from his grandmother, Athaliah who was King Jehoram’s wife and was a wicked woman. 2 Chronicles 22:2-4)
Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba.
iii. Spiritual mentor (the priest made sure the royal line was preserved with women he could marry)
2Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
3Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
Having a mentor is important as it helps you stay on the right track
iv. Restored the Temple of the Lord (restored not from normal use/wear and tear but from Athaliah breaking in and taking items to use for Baals)
4 Afterward, Joash took it to heart to renovate the Lord’s temple. 5 So he gathered the priests and Levites and said, “Go out to the cities of Judah and collect silver from all Israel to repair the temple of your God as needed year by year, and do it quickly.”
However, the Levites did not hurry. 6 So the king called Jehoiada the high priest and said, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by the Lord’s servant Moses and the assembly of Israel for the tent of the testimony? 7 For the sons of that wicked Athaliah broke into the Lord’s temple and even used the sacred things of the Lord’s temple for the Baals.”
“ ‘But the Levites did not act at once,’ both because of natural inertia (inertia defined as tendency to do nothing or to remained unchanged; still true even of Christian workers), and because of the priestly demands that seem to have exhausted the normal revenues on current operations and their own support.” (David F. Payne)
When others weren’t as excited or on board, he didn’t use is as an excuse to do what God wanted him to do.
Questions to ask:
How did you start 2023?
Maybe you had New Years resolutions that you started? Are you still doing them?
Maybe the year didn’t start off well at all?
Transition: The important thing for us to remember is even though starting well is important and we should do our best to start well, we can always end well no matter how we start! How? Because we will have opportunities (expected and unexpected) to make:
II. Halftime adjustments (expected and unexpected circumstances/situations)
A. Death of Jehoida
15 Jehoiada died when he was old and full of days; he was 130 years old at his death. 16 He was buried in the city of David with the kings because he had done what was good in Israel with respect to God and his temple.
B. Revealed where his heart truly was
17 However, after Jehoiada died, the rulers of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them, 18 and they abandoned the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the Asherah poles and the idols. So there was wrath against Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. 19 Nevertheless, he sent them prophets to bring them back to the Lord; they admonished them, but the people would not listen.
in a person
not in God
he allowed his spiritual obedience to be determined by others (weak personality/easily influenced)
Questions to ask:
What adjustments have you had to make this past year?
Family member getting married?
Lost job?
New job?
Lost family member?
New family member?
*More trust and faith in the church/pastor than in God? We need to trust where God plants us and the leadership He puts over us but we cannot trust in them more than God! That is what Joash did!
Transition: We will all encounter opportunities to make adjustments in life whether we plan on making them or they come up unexpectedly. The important thing to note is to make sure we make the best adjustments to keep us on the road the Lord has set before us. We can easily allow adjustments to distract us from where God is leading us and trying to show us (just as Joash did). How we make the adjustments throughout life will determine how we finish!
III. How will you finish?
A. Joash ended poorly because he didn’t listen to the Lord or His prophets even after the warning from them
B. Fulfillment of
David’s warning to Solomon
9 “As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intention of every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will reject you forever.
ii. Azariah’s prophecy to Asa
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.
C. Warning still applies to us today!
Questions to ask:
How have you allowed the adjustments you have had to make this year affect your walk with God?
Have you allowed the expected or unexpected adjustments this past year distract you and throw you off course of the way God has prepared for you?
Have we thought God has abandoned us because of what we had to face? (God has never left you. You aren’t alone!)
Just as the warning David made to Solomon, if we continue to seek God (even in the adjustments) He will be found and He will be there right with you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.
Conclusion:
How did 2023 start out for you? Well? Poorly?
Have you allowed unexpected events or situations keep you from moving forward in 2023?
What adjustments do you need to make as we end 2023?
-are you being mentored?
-are you mentoring someone else?
-is your trust in God or in people?
End the year right with communion.
Remembering what Christ did for us and He is still here for us no matter what we find ourselves in and facing
Give ourselves back to Him and let Him handle the adjustments and help us respond rather than react to the adjustments
We need to do the same for others!