14 Preaching/Teaching: 2 Chronicles 16
Notes
Transcript
Who God is Looking For?
Who God is Looking For?
EOT-ASA did not finish his walk with God strong.
EOS- Being God’s person for a lifetime
DDS-Take your next step to become the person God is looking for.
I have shared many times with you my passion for basketball.
When I went to Clear Lake High School, there were a lot of players that tried out, I want you to picture an entire gym of players.
Coaches are looking for a certain type of player. Recently my high school coach died. He was looking for a certain kind of player.
In High School I became the kind of player was looking for.
I put in the extra time
I was efficient.
I was skilled
But there was something else about this. Not only was the coach looking for certain players. At this time in my life I wanted to be that player. I wanted a coach to want me.
When I went off to college coaches were looking for certain types of players as well. The reason that I did not play at a bigger school, is because one of the things that coaches look for is athletic ability.
Just like my coach was looking for a certain type of player, did you know that God is looking for a certain kind of person.
What if just like I wanted to be the kind of player a basketball coach is looking for if we wanted to be the kind of person that God was looking for?
“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.”
“The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”
— D.L. Moody
“The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”
— D.L. Moody
What if you desired to be that person.
What if we had a church full of people who desired to be like this!
Today I want to look at three traits of a person that God is looking for, but I want to look at these traits in a different way, I want to look at these in light of not just being this person for a season but for a lifetime.
1. Because God is looking for people we must DESIRE GOD’S MEANS (1-6).
1. Because God is looking for people we must DESIRE GOD’S MEANS (1-6).
The process is important. The means do not justify the end.
There is God’s way and there is our way.
Sometime we like to say we are doing it God’s way when really we are doing it our way.
Last week we saw ASA do it God’s way.
Remember because he did it God’s way we literally saw some guy named Azariah preach a sermon and as a result Asa listened to the sermon and applied the sermon and a nation wide revival broke out.
Last week we saw ASA do it God’s way.
In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.
Many times God tests us with a difficult time. Israel and Judah were now two different nations and Israel wanted more land and this caused great concern for Judah.
Sometimes we go through trials to see how we are going to respond.
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
Asa substitutes trusting God with trusting money
Asa substitutes trusting God with trusting money
Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying,
“Let there be a treaty between you and me, as between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.”
Notice the first thing Asa does here when there is a problem. He tried to solve it his way and in his strength.
Look how Asa responded previously to a conflict that happened in his life.
So Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up in battle formation in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; let not man prevail against You.”
And now instead of living in the favor of God he was trying to pay for the favor of God.
Doing it God’s way is hard.
Trusting God with everything we have is impossible without the grace of God.
Trusting God with our time, treasure and talent.
Our culture teaches us not to trust God with time, treasure and talent.
So Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim and all the store cities of Naphtali.
When Baasha heard of it, he ceased fortifying Ramah and stopped his work.
Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and with them he fortified Geba and Mizpah.
Application:
Renovating our city for God’s glory
Discipleship has been missed in the American church
2. Because God is looking for people we must FIGHT AGAINST DRIFTING TOWARDS COMPLACENCY (7-10).
2. Because God is looking for people we must FIGHT AGAINST DRIFTING TOWARDS COMPLACENCY (7-10).
What does this mean. Just because we walked strongly with God at one point of our life does not guarantee that we will walk with him for a lifetime.
God’s word is truth
God’s word is truth
At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand.
“Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand.
It did not matter that Asa was a king, the truth was Asa did not trust God. Now he was going to experience a result of that.
The last time he trusted God, God gave him victory.
Now he was not going to have victory. Why because he became complacent.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Asa’s heart was revealed
Asa’s heart was revealed
“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.”
Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.
Kevin Thieman-
There is not doubt today that he loves God-
Application
Spiritual growth is hard, it does not happen by accident. We desire complacency.
Are you complacent right now.
The reality in America is that we don’t need God.
At least that is what we think.
Are you complacent right now in your walk with God?
3. Because God supports those whose hearts are completely his we must turn to his unlimited grace. (11-14). 1. Because God is looking for people we must CONTINUALLY TURN TO HIS UNLIMITED GRACE (11-14).
3. Because God supports those whose hearts are completely his we must turn to his unlimited grace. (11-14). 1. Because God is looking for people we must CONTINUALLY TURN TO HIS UNLIMITED GRACE (11-14).
Aren’t you glad that we are saved by grace.
Now, the acts of Asa from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians.
So Asa slept with his fathers, having died in the forty-first year of his reign.
They buried him in his own tomb which he had cut out for himself in the city of David, and they laid him in the resting place which he had filled with spices of various kinds blended by the perfumers’ art; and they made a very great fire for him.