Is Your Heart Still In It?

Introduction

Good morning and welcome!

This morning we are going to venture back in time into the earlier days of the nations of Israel and Judah to a time when Amaziah was the King of Judah between the years of 796 and 767 BC.

Just to set the stage, Amaziah was the son of King Jeohash, who ruled in Judah for 40 years and who was initially was righteous king but later in his life and rule he allowed the world to over-influence his decisions and eventually he turned away from God and went down his own path.

In fact when we look at Jehoash’s history we find this . . .

2 Kings 12:2–3 NRSV

Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all his days, because the priest Jehoiada instructed him. Nevertheless the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places.

And that is the key to Jehoash’s downfall.

In 40 years of rule and following God because of a righteous priest, Jehoash still refused to remove the false gods and their influence in the lives of the people.

He bowed to the pressure of the people and didn’t want to cause any friction so he allowed this wickedness to continue.

And all the time told himself that he wasn’t taking part in it so “what did it matter.”

Well, it mattered because God had placed him in a place to deal with this sin in the lives of the people and because he refused to deal with it, he also became complicit with the whole thing.

His unwillingness to stand firm and speak out made him an accessory to the crime if you will.

But instead of trusting in God and dealing with it, he turned a blind eye to it and just hoped the problem would go away.

He even went to lengths to try and do things to strike a compromise with God.

Things like what we see in verses 4-16 that discuss how Jehoash ordered the Temple to be repaired and even after he ordered it repaired, it was neglected for years and all the money disappeared, and it only got fixed when Jehoiada the prophet took steps to secure the money and get it done.

And I bring that up because that neglect by the King is really a type-cast of how we have a tendency to

#1 compromise on what God has told us and

#2 neglect the inner work and inner reflection that God calls on us to do in order to accomplish the things that God has told us he wants us to do.

We wonder why things are not going the way we think they should—well, a big reason is because we have a tendency to look at everything happening on the outside but we neglect the inner work.

We blame Spiritual warfare.

We blame other people.

We blame society.

We blame each other.

But we never stop and look in the mirror to see where it is our own fault.

We never want to ask, where have I neglected myself and my spiritual walk?

We never want to ask, where have I neglected others and their spiritual walk?

We never ask, where have I comprised God’s will for my comfort and my way?

We never ask, where have I listened to bad counsel and the voice of the world as opposed to having a Jehoiada in my life?

And as a result we wind up broken—In fact, historically, Jehoash was actually killed by his own servants.

It was a physical death on his account but we also die spiritually, either by the hands of others or by spiritual suicide.

And worse than even that as bad as that is, the generation that comes after us, our children and their generation learn a relationship with God that is not a true, deep, and heart-felt relationship, which is what we are going to look at this morning.

They learn to honor Him with their lips but their heart is far from Him.

If you want to follow along on the board or if you have a Bible, I’m going to be in 2 Chronicles 25 starting with the first 4 verses.

And we are going to be looking at the life of Jehoash’s son, Amaziah and how his father’s relationship with God impacted his own life.

So, again 2 Chronicles 25, starting in verse 1 it reads . . .

Scripture Focus

2 Chronicles 25:1–4 NRSV

Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a true heart. As soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand he killed his servants who had murdered his father the king. But he did not put their children to death, according to what is written in the law, in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, “The parents shall not be put to death for the children, or the children be put to death for the parents; but all shall be put to death for their own sins.”

Our Heart is Not In It

Now, this whole chapter and the corresponding chapter found at 2 Kings 14, gives us great insight into the life of the child who witnesses the life their parent lived and how they conducted themselves and how that impacted their own life and walk with God.

And the big thing I want us to see here is in verse 2.

Again it reads . . .

2 Chronicles 25:2 NRSV

He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a true heart.

In other words, he did all the right things.

He came to church.

He worshipped God.

He followed the Torah and by all accounts was a “good Jew” and a “good king.”

He knew what to do and what to say, but the problem was his heart wasn’t in it.

He did it because he thought that was what he was supposed to be doing.

He did it because that was what he was taught to do and he was following dad’s example.

He did it because it was his obligation and duty as his job as king but not because he loved God and was motivated by love.

He was honoring tradition and ritual but not honoring God.

Jesus had this to say about that . . .

Matthew 15:1–9 NRSV

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ ”

And Jesus is telling them that they have all these traditions.

All these rituals.

All these ideas of how things should go.

And they think that if they just do the right thing, say the right thing, adopt the right formula, play the right music, appeal to the right crowd, then it is all good and all God approved.

But the reality is these are all things we create—things we build up and tear down because we have some semblance of control, but this things—these human precepts that we set up as doctrines are our own doing and not of God.

They are our creation of what WE THINK God wants and what is pleasing to God and when it all shakes out have nothing to do with God’s command.

And God’s command is this . . .

Matthew 22:37–40 NRSV

He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

So, in other words love God with all you are and demonstrate that love by how you love and treat others.

Strip it all away and examine first your relationship with God and second how that relationship shapes your relationship with others.

But again, it starts not by looking at others but looking inside and examining ourselves.

Because that is where the hard work is done.

And remember it is not only for our own sake, but also for the sake of our children and their children.

Because the downfall starts with one generation and each generation that passes moves further and further from God.

But until we are ready to be truly honest with ourselves, nothing will change.

Nothing in our lives.

And nothing in our church.

And honestly until we stop viewing this thing we call Church as an obligation and a duty—a thing we are bound to and stuck in—we will never escape that trapped feeling and truly impact the lives of others.

And it pains me to say it but until we stop making excuses about why we are not this or not that—all the things the world sees as a “successful church” and we start looking inwardly at the true reasons why things are the way they are, this is it folks.

This is as far with God that this church and everyone in this church is going to go spiritually.

And I am going to tell you that this morning, right here we are at a crossroads and it is time we get serious about some true inward reflection.

And if you refuse to hear this then you will just keep spinning your wheels.

Because at that point we are no better off than Jehoash, Amaziah, or the Pharisees that Jesus is calling out in the passage I read from in Matthew.

Distracted by Idols

And I know that this is a hard word.

And what I am saying is in no way implying that we are not trying or that we do not love God.

What I am saying is —rather asking is—is our heart in it anymore or have we lost our fire?

And I want to go on just a little deeper here and look at one big reason that sometimes I think our heart is not in it.

It is called distraction by idols.

Like I mentioned earlier, 2 Kings 14 also records the story of Amaziah and it is very interesting what it records.

In verses 3-4 it says . . .

2 Kings 14:3–4 NRSV

He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like his ancestor David; in all things he did as his father Joash had done. But the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.

So, just like his father he went so far with the Lord and then he stopped.

Was it pressure by the people? We don’t know for sure because the Bible doesn’t say.

Was it because he worshipped these false gods himself? We don’t know, the Bible doesn’t say.

What we do know though is that he refused to remove the idols from his life and consequently became complicit in the worship of idols in the lives of others and that caused a distraction that took his eyes and his heart off of God.

So...

What idols do we have in our lives that distract our hearts from God?

Let’s go one step more, what idols do we have here in our church that distract our hearts from God?

And remember when talking about idols, these are anything that distracts from God and hearing God’s voice.

These are not just golden calves in our lives.

So, I will ask it again, what idols do we have as people and as a church that are distracting us?

What are those points of contention that we hold on to?

What are those “roots of bitterness” that I believed Ryan talked about a few weeks ago that stand in the way?

What high places need to be removed in here?

And I hope that we are not naive enough to think they don’t exist here because we are small.

Because sitting in that sound booth you see everything and I mean everything that goes on.

And there are spirits that enter even this place that do a good job mimicking the Holy Spirit but when you look closely it becomes evident they are not.

And we flock to those things assuming its all of God without using one ounce of discernment.

One example I have seen,

How can we one minute be lifting our hands praising Jesus and so overcome by the Spirit we cannot do anything but immediately change gears to checking our phone or having a full blown conversation and then go right back to being overwhelmed by the Spirit?

How can we turn the Holy Spirit on and off like a light switch?

Answer is—we cannot.

We have turned the act of seeking the Holy Spirit, or rather giving the impression that we are seeking the Holy Spirit, into an idolic show that if we are not careful will descend into chaos.

We are more interested at times in getting that emotional high than we are seeking the face of God.

The Holy Spirit is not someone to manipulate to get your daily fix.

The Holy Spirit the presence of the Almighty God of this Universe who desires to help us hear Him speaking and respond to Him.

Paving the Road to Hell

And I know that is personal and may sting a little, but we also do this on a larger scale as well, particularly when it comes to doing “good works.”

We have a tendency to think that just because something seems good or right— we jump right into thinking this is it. This is the thing that’s going to get us over hump.

But we tend to get ourselves into it without carefully consulting with God first.

And our intensions are good, but as the old saying goes, “good intensions pave the road to hell.”

And because our discernment is off, it becomes a trap of the enemy and and a distraction that is designed to get us off OUR mission.

Remember what Paul warns us of in 2 Corinthians 11 . . .

In this chapter, Paul is confronting false prophets, false evangelist, and false preachers coming to distract the church and in the process line their own pockets.

He starts out with them by telling them . ..

2 Corinthians 11:3–6 NRSV

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough. I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. I may be untrained in speech, but not in knowledge; certainly in every way and in all things we have made this evident to you.

And to paraphrase a little, he goes on to talk about how he, instead of charging for his services—or making special requests, like being too good to drink the Walmart water ...

Paul presented the Gospel for what it was—FREE to them and to us and he goes on to expose them for what they were . . .

2 Corinthians 11:13–15 NRSV

For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds.

You see, not everyone that can speak well or has a great following is who they say they are.

Not everyone who comes with a good idea is just sharing a good idea.

And not every good idea is meant for our church either.

And if we blindly follow that path, no matter how good it sounds, if it ain’t from God it ain’t for us.

And we need to be very discerning about who we invite into this place to deliver the Word of God.

Whether that is preaching, singing, teaching, or whatever.

AND AGAIN NOT EVERYONE WHO HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA IS BAD—IT MAY BE THEIR MISSION BUT MAY JUST NOT BE FOR US!

We need to slow down and hear what the Holy Spirit is saying for THIS CHURCH in THIS TIME.

And I think we struggle with that because some things sound great and we immediately go to “how this can help our church grow” or “how this can help us reach people.”

But is it how GOD wants us to do it?

Is it the mission to our community that God wants us to be involved in?

That next great revival meeting may be great but is it supposed to be ours to host?

That outreach may be great for ABC church but is it how God wants us to do it?

Let’s look at Amaziah again.

If you read on about his life, he goes and set up this great army and even starts out by paying the army of Israel to join him.

Then however, a prophet comes and tells him “don’t do it” because God was not with Israel at that time.

They had sinned and were not in God’s favor.

So after some debate over money , Amaziah listens and discharges the Israeli army and decides to go to battle alone.

However, what you do not see is him asking God if he even needs to go to war at that time.

Now in his eyes though, Amaziah was doing good because these were God’s enemies and he was winning.

He was defeating them.

However, he took his eyes off of God and in verse 14 we read . . .

2 Chronicles 25:14–15 NRSV

Now after Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up as his gods, and worshiped them, making offerings to them. The Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you resorted to a people’s gods who could not deliver their own people from your hand?”

But instead of listening to actual wise counsel, the king responds with . . .

2 Chronicles 25:16 NRSV

But as he was speaking the king said to him, “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be put to death?” So the prophet stopped, but said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my advice.”

And from that point on the king descended even further away from God.

We read that in his own arrogance he sent a challenge to Israel wanting to fight them as well.

And the end result of that war was a crushing defeat of Judah by their own brothers in Israel.

And his life ended tragically . . .

2 Chronicles 25:27–28 NRSV

From the time that Amaziah turned away from the Lord they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and killed him there. They brought him back on horses; he was buried with his ancestors in the city of David.

Altar/Challenge

But again, how did it all start?

2 Chronicles 25:1–2 NRSV

Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a true heart.

He knew all the right words and actions and played the part well, but his heart wasn’t in it.

He was motivated by what he saw as right in his own eyes and not from God’s perspective.

Proverbs 14:7–12 NRSV

Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not find words of knowledge. It is the wisdom of the clever to understand where they go, but the folly of fools misleads. Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy God’s favor. The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy. The house of the wicked is destroyed, but the tent of the upright flourishes. There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.

And Jesus taught us . . .

Matthew 7:21–23 NRSV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

Now, will you wind up in this state?

Maybe and maybe not, but unless we take a real stock of our real situation we will never be where God wants us to be.

So, where is your heart this morning?

Is your heart still in it?

Let’s pray . . .