Divided
Notes
Transcript
Has anyone here heard of the Hatfeild and McCoy families? (picture up on screen)
If you haven’t, these two families are somewhat famous for having the longest and most intense family fued in American history.
So much so that they have made television shows off of these two families.
But the conflict all started in 1863 when one of the sons of the McCoy family was returning from fighting in the civil war and was murdered.
And the people who they blammed were the Hatfields
Now the issue was it turned out not to be true, but you can picture this really raised tensions between the two families
But surprisingly this event was not what made things explode for these two families, but it was a few years later when one of the families accused the other of stealing their pig.
And from this point on things went down hill quickly.
So much so that there are records of them attacking each other and actually at times taking each others lives
And whats amazing is this fued lasted for 38 years
38 years of fighting and at times physically attacking the other family.
But you know you read this story and it is kind of amazing how a pig being stolen was the “big” event that caused so much division between these two families.
But even more than that is is amazing how the division between the families led to so much destructiveness
And really this is true in our lives
Division leads to destructiveness
You know it is amazing how a division in a marriage can lead to destructiveness
It is amazing how division in a church can lead to destructiveness
I mean division whether it is in a family, community or even on a global level can cause so much destruction.
But here is the thing because God did not create us to be divided, but He created us to and still today calls us to be connected (not where we agree on everything but where we are unified despite the differences)
In fact before we get into the story we just saw, I want to read a short verse from Luke 11:17 because in this verse Jesus says this:
Luke 11:17 (NIV)
… “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.
Basically when division occurs (regardless of the area) it will eventually destroy whatever area it is in and cause it to crumble.
Its kind of like the game Jenga.
Who loves Jenga?
Because you start with a tower right?
But slowly you take a block out and everytime a block comes out the tower gets more and more unstable (take out blocks)
And really this is what happens with division in our lives
We keep dividing in our family, friendships marriages, community and it keeps happening until we see these areas crumble. (take out blocks)
And the issue is once we get to this point we ask How will this area heal?
Can I heal my marriage?
Can our community heal from this?
Can our society heal from this division?
Can (insert the situation) be healed?
And maybe I am a little bit of an optimist but I believe that these areas can find healing
But the the question is how do we respond.
So I know that was a long intro but we are going to be in 1 Kings 12-16
But let me catch you up to speed incase you missed last week.
Because Last week we were talking aout a king named Soloman and he was wise king, but he strayed away from God and because of this we see God tell him that the kingdom will be divided and split into two kingdoms.
And so today we see it happening under the rule of his son named Rehoboam
And so we will be starting in 1 Kings 12:3-11 because this gives us a first hand account of the division unfolding. It says this:
3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.” 5 Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away. 6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked. 7 They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” 8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” 10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ ”
So I want you to notice what is happening, because Rehoboam (Solomans Son) is now the king and one of the first things that happens in his reign is a guy named Jereboam comes to him on behalf of Israel and he ask him to lighten the load of the people.
Make it so they were not worked as hard and taxed as much (because his father Solomon worked them hard)
And Jereboam says if you do this your people with serve you
And so Rehoboam goes and consults the elders who tell him you should listen to him because then these people will serve you forever.
But he rejects there advice and ends up going to his friends
And you can picture him getting together with his friends and going “can you believe these people?!” Asking for me to go easier on them?
And you can imagine the friends feeding him telling them “you need to teach them a lesson!”
And what ends up happening is Rehoboam takes the advice of his friends instead of the advice of the elders who were there to guide him.
And because of this we actually end up seeing the nation of Israel torn in two.
But you know I think about this first part and just like how Raheboam had two voices to listen too, there are multiple voices that speak into our lives.
Sometimes a friends advice, sometimes our own heads, other times maybe a mentor
But we have to decide and figure out who’s voice should we listen too.
Its almost like how I just started going to the gym again this past month and I haven’t worked out in a couple years so I have some pain in my joints (from all the sudden working out)
But I have talked to a few people about it and some had said push through it
Others have said get some rest or ice it
But I need to decide which advice here sounds like the right thing to do?
But simalerly we need to figure out what voices that speak into our life will bring us to a good place and which ones will not.
Do not just listen to the friend that feeds the argument or adds to the drama
But find a person that can speak truth into your life and keep that person around.
A lot of you know I have a mentor who will pour into me and sometimes he will tell me things I do not want to hear.
Occasionally he will tell me wow Brendan you really made a mistake there
Occasionally he will give advice, but regardless he is someone that is able to guide me (and you still use discernment)
But we need people who will give us wisdom to help guide us
And I can almost guarantee this alone will help you defuse a lot of division in your life and really even stop it before it happens.
But lets get back to the story because the kingdom ends up splitting due to this descion, and most people end up following Jereboam (who we mentioned a second ago) and some people stay to follow Raheboam
and in 1 Kings 12:25-32 look what Jereboam does. It says:
25 Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel. 26 Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.” 28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other. 31 Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. 32 He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made.
So this division occurs and not to long after this there was a time where all the Israelites would go and sacrifice to God in the temple (that was currently where Raohboam ruled)
So Jereboam does not want people to go sacrafice to God because he does not want them to do this and while they are in Raobohms area turn back to him.
So just like Raohboam, Jereboam seeks bad advice and decides that they will no longer worship God, instead he makes their own false gods and tells the people they will worship them instead of the true God.
And there are a few things we could get into but first I want us to notice that in this fued it is not just a one sided fued or division.
Because Raheboam starts the fued, but then Jareboam continues it and makes it worse
And I am sure if we could go in a time machine we would see these two guys pointing fingers at each other going “look how awful they are; look what they are doing!”
But whats so interesting here is you do not see them reflecting what they have done wrong.
And here is the thing because a lot of times in our lives when we have a disagreement or division we love to point fingers at the other person.
But we fail to look at our own lives and see the things we did to contribute to the issue (even if its small)
Its almost like how if you were at the store and you were pulling into a parking spot, but before you could someone cut you off and stole it.
So you get out of the car and you beat this person up!
And you actually get arrested for it and you get to jail and everyone ask “what are you in for?”
And you say “a person cut me off!”
And I know that is a little bit of a silly example, but really if I had to guess this is something that we do in our lives
We need to recognize our role in the conflict.
How did we contribute to the issue?
Because we do not have control over others, but we do have control over what we do and how we respond to others.
And its kind of amazing because in this story we see that for generations this division continues
But you know there is a root cause to this entire division that can be seen in the areas we looked and and even other areas we do not have time to see.
But its that both kings are far from God.
Both kings are not living the way God has intended for them to live.
And because of this we see the division grow.
And I do not want to oversimplify things but in our lives so often the reason we see division is because of us chasing the things that God has told us do not chase those thing, but chase me.
You know the world tells us when division occurs to fight back, but the cross says to turn the other cheek
The world says to get back at the person, but the cross says to lay down your life for them.
And really I want to close with this picture that you have probably seen (PICTURE)
Because the picture shows how Jesus dying on the cross builds a bridge where now we can be in a relationship with Christ which is awsome.
But so often what this picture is missing is when we accept Christ into our life it does not just restore our relationship with God but as a resutl of this we see our relationship with other be built back us as well.
And some of us this morning might feel like we have areas relationaly with others that looks like this Jenga game.
Its destoryed, it is beyond repair.
But what would it look like to begin to allow God to work in those areas?
Because we cannot control what others do but we can control what we do.
And I believe when we begin to seek God, He can start to have some of these broken pieces in our marriage, family, job and even world fit back together.
This morning do you believe God can restore the brokeness?
Do you believe God can build a bridge accross a place that seems impossible to cross.
What would it look like to own up and ask God what role are you calling be to do to reconcile and restore.
Will you pray with me?