Mid-Course Corrections

Stop Digging

From time to time we find ourselves in need of a mid-course correction.

Sometimes it’s innocent and sometimes it’s intentional, but a wrong course needs t/b corrected.

COVID fog is real. Looking back, it was just weird.

I had the virus in December, out of quarantine by Xmas, but some of the effects lingered.

One Friday in January I had to head to Flagstaff. It was Friday, I was home. But I had to stop at the church before I went.

I left the church, hit the onramp onto I17 and was on my way…south.

I realized pretty quickly. But how many times have I made that trip. I made the u-turn at Schnebly Hill Rd. And was back on course.

Or, like on FB. you’ve got the different buttons for different feed.

Newsfeed, marketplace, friend requests, and videos.

About every day I’ll watch some of the videos ppl have posted.

I love the old Bugs Bunny cartoons.

You know the DVD comes w/ a parental warning now. Violence. That probably explains why I’m so messed up.

Bugs, Elmer, Daffy, Road Runner, Wyle E. Coyote, and the rest shooting each other, blowing each other up, knocking each other off cliffs.

There are old sports videos, worship music videos, other musick vids.

But, of course, there’s the bad stuff. Occasionally, I’ll get started on one and realize, oops, I shouldn’t be watching this and I keep scrolling.

They are in queue, it’s innocent, inadvertent. Unless I stay on that course in that video. If I intentionally stay there now it’s an entirely different issue.

I have to change course as fast as I can.

A few years ago I was intentional about eating everything I wanted. Ice cream, pizza, chips, bacon cheeseburgers, fries, fried everything. I love that stuff.

But, I was packing on pounds. I had to change the course I was on.

It took a doctor’s appt and honest assessment of my health at the time to motivate me. But I needed that b/c I had to change course.

Have you ever committed yourself financially to something only to find out it was busting your budget.

Debt. Interest payments. Compounding interest will wreck you.

So, there you are, living your life like you always have, and you realize you’re in a hole.

What’s the first thing you need to do when you realize you’re in a hole that you dug for yourself?

Stop digging. Put the shovel down.

If you’re on a course that is wrecking your finances, wrecking your marriage or rel w/ your kids or parents, wrecking your health, or creating a distance between you and God.

Then you find yourself in a literal or proverbial hold.

Stop what you’re doing that dug that hole. Do something different.

Don’t just do anything different.

Chang to a course that gets you out of that hold.

When you find yourself in a hole stop digging, put the shovel down, and chart a new course that gets you out of that hole.

From time to time in life we need a mid-course correction to get us out of the holes we have created for ourselves.

Judah was in a deep hole, getting deeper, when Asa became their king.

As king, stopped what they were doing, let go of what had created their hole, and started doing what would get them out of their hole and back into a good relationship w/ God.

And, w/ that came the abundant life God offers when we stay close.

We’re in 1 Kings 15 this morning, and we’ll spend in a little time 2 Chronicles.

Kings and Chronicles in your OT are 2 perspectives on the same events.

1 & 2 Kings are from the governmental perspective w/ an emphasis on the kings.

1 & 2 Chronicles are from the religious or spiritual perspective w/ and emphasis on the priests and prophets.

Kind of like the 4 gospels in your NT. Different perspectives on the same events.

Remember, there had been a split in Israel. The nothern 10 tribes kept the name Israel and had their own kings.

The two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, which included Jerusalem, took the name Judah.

This is when Asa became the king of Judah. It was 910 BC.

New King

1 Kings 15:9–10 NIV

In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother’s name was Maakah daughter of Abishalom.

There was David, Solomon (united kingdom), Rehoboam (when the split occured), Abijah, and now Asa.

8 of the 19 kings of Judah were good. They were faithful and obedient to God and led their ppl that way.

The rest, not so much.

Asa is the 3rd king of Judah.

The first 2, his grandfather and father were horrible.

They put Judah on a bad course.

Their situ was no good. They had created a distance between them and God. As a result, the hole they were in was deep.

According to 2 Chron. 14:1, the first 10 years of Asa’s reign were peaceful. There were no wars or battles to be fought w/ the surrounding kingdom.

That gave him the opportunity to dedicate his time and energy to reforming the nation and charting a new course.

Here is what he did.

New Course

1 Kings 15:11–14 NIV

Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. He even deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Although he did not remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life.

First, you see that this grew out of his relationship w/ God.

He was fully committed to God, personally.

And, he did the right things, to clean up their bad behavior. These were the things that God had wanted them to do from the beginning.

But they got off course and were spiraling deeper into trouble.

Asa had to make some tough choices. They were unpopular at the time. They cost him personally and politically.

But, the benefit far outweighed the cost when he corrected their course to be the direction God wanted them to go.

The first thing he did, he stopped digging.

That is, he stopped the behavior that was supposedly an act of worship that was completely self-centered.

He removed the selfish behavior

This would have been an unpopular thing to do b/c the behavior was all about self-pleasure.

These male prostitutes were there to perform for the men who came to the temple to worship.

Whatever you worship, you are communicating it is the most important thing in your life.

Worship = worth-ship.

When we worship God, it’s an act of self-sacrifice.

We’re not here to get anything from God. We are here to rededicate our lives a communicate to God that everything we have and everything we are is b/c of Him and for Him.

The male prostitutes were there to service the men who came to the temple to worship. It was all about them and their pleasure and nothing to do w/ God.

Purely, self pleasure.

Like me saying, I’m going to eat whatever I want, however much of it I want. I’m going to chase whatever I feel like I want to chase.

I don’t care about anybody else. I don’t care that I have responsibilities for my wife, this church, the community. I’d going to do what I want to do.

That’s not real conducive to healthy relationships; w/ God or anyone else.

Next,

He removed their idols.

2 Chronicles 14:2–3 NIV

Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.

Also an unpopular decision. God had stopped answering their prayers so they spend more time talking to the Asherah poles, stacked stones, and golden calves.

It’s not like they talked back. But b/c the ppl created them they felt like they also controlled them.

And since ppl didn’t create God, He created us, we can’t control Him. He controls us.

That said, of all in this group, only God is alive and speaks to ppl.

He doesn’t always tell us what we want to hear. Nor does He always do for us what we want Him to do.

One course ppl may take then is to stop talking to God and find another object and speak to it like it’s a god.

These idols were the things they turned to, to get what only God can give.

They wanted peace and contentment.

They wanted joy and a sense of satisfaction.

They wanted a sense of purpose for their lives and felt that these inanimate objects gave it to them.

Like saying I’m going to mask my pain and frustration, hide it, and hope it goes away.

But it doesn’t. Then, when we sober up, the pain comes back stronger and is accompanied by guilt.

Again, only God can take that away.

Asa eliminated all their options except God to get these things.

And, speaking of unpopular things to do, this next action was unpopular in his own house.

He removed toxic people

Specifically, he removed his grandmother.

I don’t know where his mother was in all this, but his grandmother was a big problem.

She was like the queen mum of the religious ppl. But her religion was ungodly.

To give you some idea, Asherah poles were carved wood and they were obscene and sexual in nature.

Having his grandmother around, in his home, caused problems for him in his relationship w/ God.

Obviously, this would not have been taken lightly. It had to have been hard.

But, it was the right thing to do to get the palace and the nation back on course w/ God.

Do you know ppl like that? Do you have someone like this in your life?

They may be family, they may be long-term friends. But they are toxic and cause you to go places that create a distance between you and God.

And Asa needed a course that got him closer to God and got Judah closer.

He recommitted to God

2 Chronicles 14:4 NIV

He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands.

It was the entire law. It was the the 10 commandments. But, first it was the most important 2.

They loved God with all of their being and loved Him more than anything else.

And, they loved each other.

They did more than just pay lip service.

The did things that communicated and proved they did.

The kept the Sabbath, didn’t work. They did things that worked on their most important relationships.

Invested in their family and good friends. But even before that they worshiped God.

And, it was not a 1-day/week thing. Every day they acknowledged Him before they did anything else.

They acted like the genuinely loved each other by serving each other.

When we serve the ppl God loves we serve God, too.

After taking care of the 2 highest priorities, they worked at protecting themselves.

It’s wise to prepare for war while you are at peace. You can’t wait for someone to attack you to rebuild your defenses. They have to be in place before the attack happens.

He rebuilt their defenses

2 Chronicles 14:6–8 NIV

He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest. “Let us build up these towns,” he said to Judah, “and put walls around them, with towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we sought him and he has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men from Judah, equipped with large shields and with spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, armed with small shields and with bows. All these were brave fighting men.

There is a balance between trusting God to protect you and being irresponsible expecting God to do everything.

God will lead us thru our lives, into careers and jobs and we have to trust Him to do that.

At the same time, we need to get educated and experienced so we are ready for the jobs he provides.

When Nehemiah returned to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem that the Babylonians will tear down and Judah was threatened by their neighbors b/c they did not want them to rebuild the wall, the builders worked with one had and held a weapon in the other all while trusting God to protect them.

If we have a problem with alcohol we have to surrender the desire to drink to God and build a defensive wall by not going into a bar.

We can’t go into a bar and expect God to do all the heavy lifting while we are there.

If we have a problem w/ debt then we have to build up our defenses by cutting up our credit cards and using cash and not expect God to do all the work to pay off the debt we accumulate.

If we have a problem w/ pornography we have to build a defensive wall made of filters on the internet, giving someone we trust our passwords and freedom check the websites we’ve hit.

If we have a problem w/ our health we have to build a defensive wall by exercising and dieting, denying ourselves the donuts by the dozen and not expecting God to simply cause the fat to fall off.

God will honor the hard work we do that is born of humility, trust in Him, and faith; and use what we do as part of the plan to defend us and protect us.

Which brings us to the 6th thing Asa did.

He relied on God

2 Chronicles 14:11 NIV

Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.”

2 Chronicles 15:2–7 NIV

He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them. In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

His reliance on God to total and complete.

Asa gave God all the credit for everything they had b/c he knew God was ultimately responsible for every good gift.

Judah was able to do things that were beyond their capacity. The only explanation was God did it for them.

Asa was reminded by the prophet to stay humble, always give God the credit, and rely on Him for everything.

Be generous in your compliments and credit to God. Don’t be stingy. Don’t be shy.

As a result God took care of Judah during the reign of Asa and they stayed on course.

God did 3 things for them.

The results of the new course

2 Chronicles 14:12–14 NIV

The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled, and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that they could not recover; they were crushed before the Lord and his forces. The men of Judah carried off a large amount of plunder. They destroyed all the villages around Gerar, for the terror of the Lord had fallen on them. They looted all these villages, since there was much plunder there.

Asa’s reign began with 10 years of peace.

Then, the Cushites attacked.

God protected Judah and defeated the Cushites on Judah’s behalf.

God prospered Judah and allowed them to take a huge haul away after the victory.

Then, peace returned to Judah.

Protection, prosperity, and peace b/c Asa made a mid-course correction that got them out of their hole and back into a close relationship w/ God.

Applications

Remove behavior

Is there something you are doing that is completely self-centered and simply pleasure seeking?

Is there a behavior you need to remove from your life completely?

Remove idols

Is there an idol in your life that you need to tear down?

Is there something you hope to get from it what only God can do for you?

Peace, contentment, satisfaction, joy?

Is there a stone you need to smash? A pole you need to pulverize? A golden calf you need to slaughter?

Remove toxic people

Is there a person you need to cut out of your life that is causing a problem w/ your relationship w/ God?

Asa deposed his grandmother. I would imagine that that was harder than anyone you or I need to depose.

Being close to God and distant from a long-time, toxic friend is better than being close to the friend and far from God.

Recommit to God

Is there something going on in your life that you are allowing to distract you from your relationship w/ God?

Something else on your mind this morning?

Something that will keep you from spending a little time w/ God tomorrow?

Make God your highest and first priority.

Love Him w/ all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

Then, love the ppl God loves at least as much as you love yourself.

Do something for someone this week that lets them know you care about them.

Reinforce your defense

Do you need to build a wall between you and a behavior or attitude that is attacking you and tearing you down?

A wall works both ways. It keeps things out and should keep you from going in to whatever it is that is attacking and hurting you.

Where do you need a wall?

Rely on God

Have you gotten out of the habit of thanking God for everything? Every little thing.

Be generous w/ your compliments and credit to God.

Stay humble and rely on God for everything you need every day.

Thank Him. Let Him lead. Follow appreciatively.

If you’re on a course that is wrecking your finances, wrecking your marriage or rel w/ your kids or parents, wrecking your health, or creating a distance between you and God.

Then you find yourself in a literal or proverbial hold.

Stop what you’re doing that dug that hole. Do something different.

Don’t just do anything different.

Chang to a course that gets you out of that hold.

When you find yourself in a hole stop digging, put the shovel down, and chart a new course that gets you out of that hole.

From time to time in life we need a mid-course correction to get us out of the holes we have created for ourselves.