A Good Man Gone Bad

Introduction:

In a marathon, many people start. Some of those people finish. Some quit from exhaustion, thinking that at least they tried. Others get injured in the process. They pull a muscle, and they take a dramatic fall. Some runners lack the mental strength to keep themselves in the race. However, some competitors push through exhaustion, injury, and mental fatigue and finish the race to experience the joy of placing or just the joy of finishing the grueling run. Starting the race is necessary, but you must finish well. In today’s message, we’ll see a man who started very well and ran well but who eventually suffered spiritual fatigue and ended very badly. This man was named King Asa. Let’s look at his life.

Asa was a great king who sought God.

2 Chronicles 14:1—Abijah rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place. During his reign the land experienced peace for ten years. (CSB)

Asa was good.

2 Chronicles 14:2-5—2 Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord his God. [What did he do?] 3 He removed the pagan altars and the high places. He shattered their sacred pillars and [He] chopped down their Asherah poles. 4 He told the people of Judah to seek the Lord God of their ancestors and to carry out the instruction and the commands. 5 He also removed the high places and the shrines from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom experienced peace under him. (CSB)

Good people carry out God’s instructions, and they lead others to do the same.

Asa was wise.

2 Chronicles 14:6-7—6 Because the land experienced peace, Asa built fortified cities in Judah. No one made war with him in those days because the Lord gave him rest. 7 So he said to the people of Judah, “Let’s build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars. The land is still ours because we sought the Lord our God. We sought Him and He gave us rest on every side.” So they built and succeeded. (CSB)

God gave Asa peace, and he took advantage of that peace by fortifying Judah’s cities.

Wise people take advantage of opportunities which God brings their way.

Asa sought God and depended on Him.

2 Chronicles 14:8-15—8 Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 from Benjamin bearing regular shields and drawing the bow. All these were valiant warriors. 9 Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots. They came as far as Mareshah. 10 So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in Zephathah Valley at Mareshah. 11 Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God: “Lord, there is no one besides You to help the mighty and those without strength. Help us, Lord our God, for we depend on You, and in Your name we have come against this large army. Lord, You are our God. Do not let a mere mortal hinder You.” 12 So the Lord routed the Cushites before Asa and before Judah, and the Cushites fled. 13 Then Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell until they had no survivors, for they were crushed before the Lord and His army. So the people of Judah carried off a great supply of loot. 14 Then they attacked all the cities around Gerar because the terror of the Lord was on them. They also plundered all the cities, since there was a great deal of plunder in them. 15 They also attacked the tents of the herdsmen and captured many sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem. (CSB)

If Asa had done anything other than seek the Lord when he came up against that million-man army, he would have missed God’s resounding victory on his behalf.

Asa still marched out to battle, but he cried out to God for hope and help in the situation.

We can charge headlong into situations, or we can seek help and direction from God first. We may still find ourselves charging into the fray, but we can trust in the Lord for His outcome.

Asa led his people to seek the Lord.

​2 Chronicles 15:1-15—1 The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. 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. 3 For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without instruction, 4 but when they turned to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and sought Him, He was found by them. 5 In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts. 6 Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress. 7 But as for you, be strong; don’t give up, for your work has a reward.” 8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage & removed the abhorrent idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple. 9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10 They were gathered in Jerusalem in the 3rd month of the 15th year of Asa’s reign. 11 At that time they sacrificed to the Lord 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep and goats from all the plunder they had brought. 12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with all their heart and all their soul. 13 Whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, young or old, man or woman. 14 They took an oath to the Lord in a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams’ horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it with all their mind. They had sought Him with all their heart, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side. (CSB)

Asa could have sought God just for himself, but he didn’t take his position lightly.

Asa called God’s people to seek the Lord.

Like Asa, we must use our influence to lead people to seek the Lord—children, co-workers, fellow believers.

Asa made bold changes to follow God.

​2 Chronicles 15:16-19—16 King Asa also removed Maacah, his grandmother, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17 The high places were not taken away from Israel; [That was Israel not Judah. He’d already removed the high places from Judah where he was king.] nevertheless, Asa was wholeheartedly devoted his entire life. [That is, he was devoted wholeheartedly to the Lord up to that point—which seems to be until his 35th year as king.] 18 He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into God’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils. 19 There was no war until the 35th year of Asa’s reign. (CSB)

Asa deposed his own grandmother and destroyed her obscene idol.

Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26 CSB).

Jesus is simply saying that devotion to Him must be wholehearted with no competing loyalties.

For 35 years, Asa reigned well as king of Judah.

Asa was a good king.

Asa was a wise king.

Asa sought the Lord and depended on Him.

Asa led his countrymen to seek the Lord.

Asa made bold changes to follow God.

This is what you need in a king.

This is what we need in a president.

These are the kind of people we need to be governors, senators, and representatives.

This what we need in the city council and in the mayor’s office.

This is what we need in our leaders in this church.

These are the kind of fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers we need in our homes.

These are the kind of children and teenagers we need at home and in our schools.

These are the kind of employers and employees we need—good, wise, God-seeking, God-reliant, bold followers of Jesus.

This is what characterized Asa’s first 35 years of being king. However, he had 6 more years to mess it all up, and he did.

Late in life, instead of turning to God, Asa turned to the world.

​2 Chronicles 16:1-6—1 In the 36th year of Asa, Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to keep anyone from leaving or coming to King Asa of Judah. 2 So Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace and sent it to Aram’s King Ben-hadad, who lived in Damascus, saying, 3 “There’s a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go break your treaty with Israel’s King Baasha so that he will withdraw from me.” 4 Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies to the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. 5 When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stopped his work. 6 Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then he built Geba and Mizpah with them. (CSB)

Someone has said, “Backsliding begins in the knees.”[1]

When Asa went to gather treasure to buy some help from Ben-hadad, that simply revealed his bigger problem—he was NOT seeking God. Backsliding begins when we stop bending our knees in prayer.

Why did Asa NOT seek God when Baasha attacked him?

Twenty years before, he’d sought God when the million-man army came against Judah.

My guess is fear, & fear can appear out of nowhere to rock your world. Asa had been living in peace for 20 years, and then fear knocked on the door.

As I learned from a book which my parents gave me many years ago, the moment fear steps up and stares you in the face, you’ve got “15 seconds” to decide to either give in to your fear or choose to exercise faith.

I believe that Asa chose fear over faith and thus depended on his own ingenuity instead of God’s power. He depended on his own ideas and resources rather than on the Lord.

Don’t think that that can’t happen to you and me. Every day is a new day to trust God.

You canNOT sit on yesterday’s victories. You need to take ground today.

You’ve got to be seeking God today for today and tomorrow, but tomorrow we’ve got to be seeking God for tomorrow and the days to come. Thank Him for the victories, but move forward today.

God is searching for people who are wholly devoted to Him.

2 Chronicles 16:7-10—7 At that time, the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “Because you depended on the king of Aram and have not depended on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from you. 8 Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? When you depended on the Lord, He handed them over to you. 9 For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to Him. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on.” 10 Asa was enraged with the seer and put him in prison because of his anger over this. And Asa mistreated some of the people at that time. (CSB)

God is looking for men and women who are wholeheartedly devoted to Him.

Look at v. 9 again. For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to Him.

God is looking over this worship center right now.

God’s looking for men and women, boys and girls, teenagers, leaders, employees, employers, fathers, mothers—He’s looking for people who are fully devoted to the Lord so that He can show Himself strong on their behalf.

God’s looking for people who’ll be wholeheartedly committed to Him so that He can take up for them when opposition comes.

Let your life-long pursuit be to seek the Lord and to follow Him.

2 Chronicles 16:11-14—11 Note that the events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the 39th year of his reign, Asa developed a disease in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his disease he didn’t seek the Lord but only the physicians. [Let me say that in our United States of America and across the world, many are only seeking the physicians and not the Lord.] 13 Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the 41st year of his reign. 14 He was buried in his own tomb that he had made for himself in the city of David. They laid him out in a coffin that was full of spices and various mixtures of prepared ointments; then they made a great fire in his honor.

Asa quit.

His story was going so well, but he stopped seeking God. Fear grabbed him, and proud bitterness settled in his heart. It’s a sad epitaph on an otherwise glorious life lived for the Lord.

Asa did not depend on the Lord in the end. Asa was enraged with the prophet. Asa mistreated the people. Asa didn’t seek the Lord but only the doctors.

Now, the point is not that Asa sought medical treatment. It’s that he didn’t seek God for help.

It’s like I heard a preacher say one time, “Pray to the Lord for deliverance from the headache, but then take the medicine.”

Asa started good and continued good throughout most of his life, but the last 5-6 years of his life were bad. He didn’t start worshipping other gods. He just stopped looking to God for his help. He stopped depending on God. He stopped trusting in the Lord and began trusting in people instead—trusting in his own solutions or other people’s solutions to problems.

I’m not the greatest at seeking God by far, but two basic key elements are to pray and to personally get into His word daily and not merely to check it off your to-do list. It will involve pondering and waiting, too.

I pray that when I get to the end of my life that I’m still seeking after the Lord and that I’m doing it better.

The greatest King started strong and ended strong for you.

Good news! There’s one Man in history who started and ended strong completely, and He’s the key to being a fully committed person for whom the Lord’s looking.

The wrong things we’ve done, our sin, separates us from God, but Jesus died on the cross so that our sins can be forgiven and so that we can become friends with God.

Jesus didn’t just stay dead though. He arose from the dead on the 3rd day and can give you the power today to be a fully committed follower of the Lord if you will agree with Him that you’re a sinner and will give all of your life to Him.

If you’ve already given your life to Jesus, you can be a “kind of” follower of Jesus, but the Lord is looking for fully committed followers—wholeheartedly devoted followers of the Lord—not “kind of” followers.

As God looks across this worship center this morning, what does He find when He looks at you?

[1] Pentz, C. M. (1990). The Complete Book of Zingers: Over 5,000 Perfect One-Liners (p. 10). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.