Demolition

BRING SLEDGE HAMMER, AXE, WHAT ELSE? 2 Kings 17:39-18:8

2 Kings 17:39–41 “But you shall fear the Lord your God; and He will save you from the hand of all your enemies.” However, they did not listen, but they kept acting in accordance with their earlier custom. So while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, just as their fathers did, they do to this day.”

2 Kings 18:1–6 “Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that his father David had done. He removed the high places and smashed the memorial stones to pieces, and cut down the Asherah. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; and after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who came before him. For he clung to the Lord; he did not desist from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.”

2 Kings 18:7–8 “And the Lord was with him; wherever he went he was successful. And he revolted against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.”

Backstory and find phrase about how other kings did good but not the high places.

GO AFTER HIGH PLACES AS SYSTEMS OF ELEVATING ANYTHING TO BE CHERISHED ABOVE WORSHIPPING GOD

In essence, the high places were centres of idolatry. Time after time, the Lord spoke to the Israelites through prophets and kings that these places of worship had to be destroyed and the names of the gods blotted out from their memory. Due to ignorance or rebellious disobedience, this did not happen in many instances.

(2 Kings 15:35) Had kings Azariah and Jotham torn down the high places, their actions would've been considered countercultural and politically incorrect. Fear may have hindered these kings from destroying Judah's idols and walking in full obedience to God. Sadly, high places aren't outdated problems of the past.

Although “high place” doesn't always carry a negative connotation in Scripture, more often than not these were places where God's people made sacrifices to idols or false gods.

Comparing the two accounts, it appears that Jehoshaphat made a good start in removing the high places, but he didn't address the real problem: the desire of the people to worship idols. Thus, as his reign continued, the high places were rebuilt and eventually, Jehoshaphat stopped removing them.

What are the high places in your church?

Could we say we have our own “high places,” stubborn corporate sins that remain for generations with no one willing to remove them, in our local churches? Dare we say, many faithful pastors even serve out their entire tenure, preaching the Word and ministering faithfully, yet keeping at arms-length these ecclesiastical high places?

What are they? It depends on the church. For some, it might be subtle racism or classism among the members, perhaps so subtle it is not said out loud but merely understood that their church is not for “those types of people.” Perhaps it is a program or ministry that has become an untouchable clique and a kingdom unto itself.

It could be a theological issue, a constitutional tradition or a worship custom that has gotten in the way of biblical ministry and mission and none are willing to give it up. For example, I recently heard a church with a bylaw clause that forbade non-members from using the church facility, even for a funeral mercy meal, which hindered outreach to neighbors.

It may be a financial practice, a budgetary line item or inflated account, that is unhealthy and self-serving rather than kingdom-minded. Could it be pastors are unwilling to preach on giving and generosity, knowing that the congregation is not tithing and don’t want to hear about it? It might be kowtowing to big donors who no longer attend, but no one holds them to account. It is often related to the facility: a room that must remain a museum, while the teenagers have no place to meet, or unhelpful sanctuary décor that is a sacred cow no one will slaughter.

Do we address light, grace, hope?

God does not cohabitate

Humans - living together without marriage, lack of covenant? lean into covenant relationship. we want the communion without the covenant

Animals - Sharks dolphins, Allison and I saw more dolphins going shark fishing

God does not cohabitate but still pretty gracious isn’t he during times we aren’t serving Him as we should

Spiritual Maturity means doing what others will not,, WHERE?

God does not dwell in the past - tell bronzen serpent story, can you imagine families of people who had been saved, the tradition… I could or could not cite cross in the church, flags from mission trips, previous buildings, what else, pews, altars, songs, ministries? If any of those ideas are too important to you, then that could be the very thing God wants to go. (don’t say this but remember someone asked why flags but no cross) Or don’t mention any of this and just do it then point back to this sermon.

We are all ok with the golden calf being a problem because it was replacing God, but in their minds the serpent was a REPRESENTATION of God.

Ref Matthew 9:16–17 “But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.””

God brings Victory when we do hard things for Him releader? 41-42, 56ff

When you do what others will not, you will see victories that others do not

Others won’t understand, approve, might even abandon you or come against you… Think of today examples.

He might not take stuff away, but might withhold something

HGTV, Props throughout series, A wall? A city? Nehemiah?

TEXT? Tear down walls, nehemiah? High places were in areas that they worshipped

Series Intro: Ref build your church series from the beginning of the year, and careful of overlap

Rebuilding, a friend of mine wrote a book called reconstructing the rubble: Rebuilding your faith even when you’re unsure how it fell apart. Ever wake up one morning, and say man what happened to my relationship with God? Elaborate…

Play off physical construction in church

Check Re leader

Sermon intro:

Sledge hammer, specific use, old stuff, worn down stuff, etc, we keep trying to preserve the old while building the new

What is demo? old churches and ideologies gone

Response: Personal and corporate, what needs to go?