The Rule of God
Notes
Transcript
Parents… have you ever been next to your young child… and you hear that young child begin yelling for your spouse because they want your spouse to - - Tie their shoe?
What’s your response?
“what....i’m RIGHT.HERE.”
Have you ever had a friend of yours post online that they could really use some good vibes sent their way?
What’s your response?
Ehh…I could do BETTER than good vibes… ~~
These situations are just a tiny glimpse into what we will see today in our text.
TODAY - we break into 2 Kings, and we’ll be focusing in on Chapter 1.
Let’s go ahead and read through the entire chapter - to give us the story - and then we can circle back and dive in.
1 After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel.
2 Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.”
3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?
4 Now therefore thus says the Lord, You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” So Elijah went.
5 The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, “Why have you returned?”
6 And they said to him, “There came a man to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says the Lord, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ”
7 He said to them, “What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?”
8 They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”
9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’ ”
10 But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
11 Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men with his fifty. And he answered and said to him, “O man of God, this is the king’s order, ‘Come down quickly!’ ”
12 But Elijah answered them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
13 Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him, “O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight.
14 Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties, but now let my life be precious in your sight.”
15 Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So he arose and went down with him to the king
16 and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?—therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ”
17 So he died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Jehoram became king in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son.
18 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
Interesting story for sure…
As we read here about this new king - Ahaziah - we find him to be another king that rebelled against the Lord.
AND YET - if we know his background…we may connect the dots.
51 Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel.
52 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
53 He served Baal and worshiped him and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger in every way that his father had done.
What’s the saying?
Like Father like - - son
And it looks like - some IMPACTFUL discipleship went on in that house - as Ahaziah grew up.
He learned - VERY WELL - from his dad - Ahab.
*I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - As parents (dads) - you are ALWAYS discipling your kids.
You are either teaching your kids to walk after the LORD - or - you’re teaching your kids to ONLY TALK - about the Lord.
And in doing so - TRAINING them in - Apathy - leading to spiritual obesity.
What we see here to start - is this King Ahaziah - fall and get injured.
His injuries were such that it was possible for him not to recover - and die...
(maybe a broken leg - infection set in)
What happens?
2 Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.”
What was God’s reply?
3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?
4 Now therefore thus says the Lord, You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” So Elijah went.
What is God doing here?
What do we see?
SLIDE:
Every Idol Submits to the True God
First off - the IRONY here is THICK…
NOW - what do I mean...
Let’s use MONEY as our analogy - because the Bible does.
SCENARIO:
I love - MONEY
Money is my IDOL
Which means - I BOW to Money - - Money is my master...
BUT - Money ITSELF - - is CONSTANTLY proclaiming Christ to me!!
How so?
It’s CONSTANTLY proving that it cannot satisfy me...
It’s CONSTANTLY proving that it’s TEMPORARY!
THEREFORE - it’s constantly PREACHING - JESUS - to me
But I choose INSTEAD - to bow down to the IDOL!
In THIS scenario - Money as we know - in and of itself - is not evil...
But THE LOVE OF IT - is evil.
Money ITSELF - actually PREACHES Jesus to me...
But my heart won’t listen.
Ironic? - - Of course.
And it works for ANY IDOL...
Just fill in the blank.
We know that THIS WORLD - cannot satisfy us...
It’s ALWAYS - ONLY - temporary!
YOUTH - can be our idol...
We can FIGHT for it...
INVEST in it...
Do what we can to LOOK young...
BUT - YOUTH can’t satisfy us - why?
It’s temporary!
Food - can’t satisfy… temporary
Drink - can’t satisfy… it’s NEVER enough - temporary
Fame - it’s NEVER enough - can’t satisfy
Possessions - CAN NEVER satisfy - it’s never enough!
Vacations!! - can never satisfy… (HOW MANY of you have been on ENOUGH vacations - that you are DONE with vacations!??)
Prestige / Sex / power / wealth - WHATEVER… we ALWAYS WANT - - more!
It’s ALL temporary...
And EACH one of the those IDOLS - PREACHES to us - “JESUS!! HE can do what WE can’t”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Jesus HERE - telling us what FOOD in this world - CANNOT tell us.
Come to ME and you’ll NEVER hunger.
Not even the BEST PRIME-RIB - can say - EAT ME and you’ll never hunger
But JESUS - tells us - come to me - and - - BE SATISFIED!!
In our TEXT TODAY - Ahab’s son - King Ahaziah - got sick...
And instead of Inquiring of the TRUE GOD...
Instead of submitting and ACKNOWLEDGING the TRUE God...
He instead inquires of a False god…Ekron...
A false GOD - which IRONICALLY - itself - submitted to God.
Ironically enough… EKRON - this false god - constantly PREACHED - JUST BY EXISTING - that it’s NOT GOD...
And so - God - KNOWING that Ahaziah had DISMISSED Him...
Decides to TEACH Ahaziah - that EVEN IDOLS submit to Him!!
4 Now therefore thus says the Lord, You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” So Elijah went.
Do we see other instances in Scripture where people - DISMISS God?
Of course - MANY times - it’s the STORY of Israel - the DISMISSAL of God.
In the Exodus - we see Pharaoh dismissing God - PLAGUE after PLAGUE...
And it ends in his destruction
Just a couple weeks ago - earlier in 1 Kings - we see Ahab and the prophets of Baal - Dismissing God and calling for THEIR god to bring down fire...
It ends in their destruction
We’ve seen King after King - dismiss God - and it ends in their destruction!
and OOHHH how ironic…that the god that Ahaziah INQUIRED OF - was Ekron.
Do you guys remember this??
2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.
3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place.
4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.
6 The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.
7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.”
8 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there.
9 But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.
10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. But as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.”
11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.
IN 1 Sam 5 - we see the Ark of God - sent to the village of EKRON...
And the TRUE God of ISRAEL = wreaked HAVOC on the people...
God PROVED Himself - IN EKRON
God will NOT BE MOCKED!
And YET - King Ahaziah - INQUIRES of the god of - EKRON - Baal-Zebub
Baal-Zebub failed the people in 1 Sam 5...
And in DOING SO - proclaimed GOD! the TRUE God to the people!!
Yet it didn’t MATTER - The HEART of man doesn’t want to listen!
Ahaziah made a fatal flaw - dismissing the one True God!
But DO WE DO THE SAME THING?
have you ever had what you determined to be - an IMPORTANT event coming up...
Interview
Party at your house
Test of some sort
Whatever -
and in preparation for that event - you skip church, skip the bible study, skip the prayer meeting - BECAUSE you didn’t want this EVENT to go poorly?
I’ve come across many of these situations - and I always think -
Do we think God MAY BLESS that event if we prioritize time with HIM?
And listen - sometimes you simply cannot attend CHURCH, or Bible Study, or the prayer meeting...
But - the point is - I think OFTEN - we neglect God in the everyday living of our lives...
And maybe even DISMISS God - as though He’s not even in the EQUATION!
Know this:
SLIDE:
God is in EVERY equation…EVERY situation of your life.
But we forget this...
We DON’T inquire of God in all things.
SLIDE:
Could it be that we usually let the situation dictate whether or not we inquire of God?
How many times have we dismissed God because we were running late and if we PAUSE for a second to INQUIRE of HIM - Well then I’ll be LATE and things will go horribly!??
How many times have we dismissed God because we want that SURPRISE PARTY TOMORROW to go well - and if we attend that Bible Study TONIGHT - well then it will get my PLANNING OFF TRACK and then everything will be MESSED UP!??
We often DISMISS God - we let the circumstance dictate our acknowledgement of God...
INSTEAD of thinking -
Ok, IF I WANT my day to GO WELL - maybe the BEST THING to do is to SHOW THE GOD that’s in control of EVERYTHING - that I will PRIORITIZE HIM - OVER AND ABOVE being on time...
Because MAYBE He’ll MAKE IT so I AM ON TIME!
Maybe we should think - OK, if I WANT THAT SURPRISE PARTY TOMORROW to GO WELL - then maybe I SHOULD ATTEND that Bible Study TONIGHT - and show God that I PRIORITIZE HIM - OVER AND ABOVE party planning as the BEST THING i could do to prepare for that party.
When we DISMISS God - because of situations or circumstances - we ARE - IN THOSE MOMENTS -
…bowing to the IDOLS of...
Time Management
the Praise of Man...
Anything OTHER than - God Himself
And those IDOLS - PREACH to us - Jesus.
THOSE IDOLS - actually bow to Jesus - but we often feel like we KNOW BETTER - just like King Ahaziah.
But what else do we see in our text today?
Elijah had gone to meet the MESSENGERS of Ahaziah - and he told them what the Lord had said -
That Ahaziah would DIE.
So the men come back to Ahaziah....and this happens.
6 And they said to him, “There came a man to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says the Lord, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ”
7 He said to them, “What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?”
8 They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”
9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’ ”
10 But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
Ahaziah - knows this happens - and he ends up sending ANOTHER captain and 50 more men...
The same exact thing happens...
God sends fire and consumes them!
And IN THIS - we see this...
SLIDE:
Every Soul Falls Under the Rule of God
Now - thinking about this story - we know the men that got consumed by FIRE - were - - following orders.
They were told to GO to ELIJAH - and bring him back.
They were a part of Ahaziah’s PLAN to DISMISS God.
And EACH ONE THOSE MEN - perished.
Some might think - well that’s not fair...
But God was demonstrating that EVERY SOUL - Individually - is accountable to God.
These men got orders to go to Elijah - who was BEING CALLED - a man of God..
And bring him back.
Each one of those men - had a decision to make!!
Each one was ACCOUNTABLE...
And listen to this...
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
7 Therefore do not become partners with them;
8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
And to Elders of the church Paul says...
22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.
Each soul in this world - must take INVENTORY of ITSELF.
Each soul in this world - is accountable to God- for - ITSELF.
And all throughout scripture we find - Individual Accountability
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
You won’t be standing there with your spouse...
your pastor
your mentor
your friend
It will be you - alone
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
5 For each will have to bear his own load.
King Ahaziah lived his life - JUST LIKE HIS DAD - Ahab.
He rebelled against the Lord.
And when he commanded those men to PARTAKE in his idolatry...
They had choices to make.
3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,
If we compare Ahaziah and his dad Ahab - to Jonathan and HIS dad Saul...
We can see how Ahaziah and Jonathan - took 2 different paths.
Each had a dad who had wandered...
Who rebelled against God...
And yet - Jonathan - he chose to please the Lord.
he did MANY things that pleased the Lord.
His loyalty to David was one of them...
But Ahaziah - took another route.
He followed in his father’s footsteps.
He = like Ahab - rebelled against God.
DISMISSED God.
he didn’t NEED to- but he chose to.
Regardless of your background...
your upbringing
your checkered past
your failings
your YESTERDAY...
you are accountable to God - TODAY…for your TODAY.
And THAT’s WHY - who you hang out with - matters...
That’s why - the company you keep - matters
Peer pressure - can be a heavy thing...
SLIDE: Quote - Chuck Swindoll
The Bible is not filled as much with mass movements as it is with individuals who were willing to stand alone.
And the REASON THIS is true - is because Every Soul Falls Under the Rule of God.
SUMMARY:
Every Idol Submits to the True God
Every Soul Falls Under the Rule of God
Let’s pray
Have a Great Week