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2 Kings 12 Bible Study (Jehoash Repairs the Temple/The Death of Joash) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  Let's turn to 2nd Kings Chapter 12.
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  We were not together last week. Because of that, I believe it's
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  helpful to refresh our memories and remind ourselves where we
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  are in the suspenseful study of the Book of Second Kings.
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  In summary, the royal line of David was on the verge of
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  extinction because of the efforts of a wicked woman by the
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  name of Athalia. Athalia was the daughter of
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  Jezebel and she was married into the Divinic dynasty.
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  And when the opportunity was right, this woman usurped the
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  throne of Judah and she sought to exterminate all her rivals.
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  And it seemed like she succeeded.
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  But her desire to eliminate the family that God promised would
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  receive and keep the Kingdom was short lived, primarily because
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  of a man who was a priest. Jehoiada was his name and in
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  partnership with his wife Jehoshiba, they went into the
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  palace, namely his wife, and rescued one of the little
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  children who belonged to that Davidic dynasty.
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  They hid him in the temple, and from his infancy until the age
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  of 7, Jehoiada supervised and shielded this boy, and when it
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  came to the point of him being exposed, he was made king at the
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  ripe age of seven. That may seem startling to us,
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  but this was done in order to cut short of Thalia's evil reign
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  and to announce and give hope to the people that the Davidic.
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  Line has been preserved. It was not lost.
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  And what we have here in Second Kings Chapter 12 is a brief
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  account of this boy's reign. His name was Joash, and the Holy
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  Spirit has preserved for us here what he was able to accomplish
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  as the king of the Southern Kingdom.
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  And as always, we have much to learn in every part of our
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  study, including this one. So if you're there with me,
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  let's read the first 2 verses of Second Kings chapter 12 in the
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  seventh year of Jehu. Pause.
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  Jehu was the king of the northern tribes.
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  Remember, Israel was divided. You have the northern Kingdom,
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  the southern Kingdom. Jehu was the king of the
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  Northern Kingdom. In the seventh year of Jehu,
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  Jehoash began to reign and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem.
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  His mother's name was Zibya Beersheba, and Jehoash did what
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  was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days because
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  Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
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  If you're wondering who Joash is, it's the same person of
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  Joash. This is just an alternate
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  spelling of that original name. More importantly, did you notice
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  something so striking about the 1st 2 verses?
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  The spiritual success which is refreshing to us in our study of
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  Second kings, right? We're used to seeing kings
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  coming to power and being corrupt.
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  But what do we read in verse two?
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  He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days.
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  And this man's spiritual success is attributed to the God fearing
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  mentorship of Jehoiada the priest is not what we see here
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  because Jehoiada the priest instructed him so.
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  Joiada, this man of God not only protected Joash, I'm going to
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  use his name different ways throughout the study.
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  Joash was just easier to say. He not only rescued Joash and
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  protected Joash from physical death, we also learned that he
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  kept this young boy from drifting into spiritual peril.
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  He instructed him, he counseled him, he taught him ever since he
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  was a young boy, all the way to the point where he became king.
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  That wasn't much time. He became king at 7:00 but.
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  As. Long as Jojada was alive, this
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  man Joash was kept in line and it stirred me reading this.
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  It stirred me to the point to encourage many of you in this
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  place. They have a story where you grew
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  up with a godly father, mother, maybe older sibling, family
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  friend who is a follower of Christ, maybe a mentor outside
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  of your bloodline. Regardless, there are many who
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  are in this place. That can attribute where you are
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  today in your fave because of how you grew up.
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  And if that is your story, it's a wonderful one.
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  It's a glorious testimony. I want you to pretend for a
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  moment that you share some similar background to this young
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  king in this imagine you were. Maybe there are some people here
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  who at some earlier point in your life was rescued from a
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  deadly situation. By somebody who cared for you.
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  Maybe it was drowning. I know somebody who was rescued
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  from drowning at a young age. Maybe it was a car accident.
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  Maybe it was a disease. Whatever the case may be,
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  imagine being able to think back and know that there was
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  somebody, because of their intervention, was able to.
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  Pull you out of something that might have cut your life short?
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  Would you fail giving God glory whenever you share that story
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  with others? I doubt it.
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  So then why do you hesitate to give God glory and to declare
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  with Glee how you have been spared from spiritual danger and
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  deception? I don't think most Christians
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  who grew up in. A Christ glorifying home.
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  Think about it that way. Do you know how I know?
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  Because when you ask people who grew up in the faith, they tend
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  to give their testimony the following way.
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  Well, my story is nothing special, you know, I was pretty
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  much born into the faith. Is that how you respond and
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  react to Joash's testimony here? Is there any part of you that
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  rejoices and knowing that there is a man, an older man who walk
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  with God that hovered over this young boy with great wisdom and
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  love, Doesn't that stir you? I want to challenge you to
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  change your perspective about your upper and speaking to those
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  who grew up in a Christian home primarily.
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  The next time anybody asks you what is your story, I hope you
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  say something like this with absolute gravity, weightiness,
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  sincerity. By the grace of God, He has been
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  merciful to me to the degree. That I have received guidance
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  from my mother, my father, both that kept me from drifting, that
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  kept me in the sweetness of the faith, that kept me in the Word,
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  that kept me in holiness. And I give God maximum glory for
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  that kind of a story. That's my journey with Christ.
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  Don't be ashamed that you grew up.
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  Don't. Don't minimize how wonderful
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  that is. Unfortunately, many do.
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  And you don't want to rob God of that glory.
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  There is no doubt in my mind that Jehoiada was a gift to this
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  young king. And you should see your parents.
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  You should see those who who brought you to the light in the
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  same way. You know, the influence of this
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  priest was so great that Second Chronicles actually tells us
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  that he chose the wives for this king.
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  I want you to turn there. We're going to flip back and
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  forth between this chapter and Second Chronicles 24.
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  It's a parallel account that fills many gaps of what we find
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  here in Second Kings 12. But look quickly at Second
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  Chronicles chapter 24. If you don't know where
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  Chronicles is, it's it's directly to the right of Second
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  Kings. There's First Chronicles and
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  Second Chronicles. Look at chapter 24 and verse 3.
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  Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had.
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  Sons and daughters, I don't think you need anybody choosing
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  a spouse for you, but I think that it is wise to seek and
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  submit to godly oversight when it comes to that crucial
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  decision in your life. And I believe Jehoiada was
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  familiar enough with recent and distant history to know just how
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  significant such a decision is, especially for a king.
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  And so he took the initiative to select the right person for this
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  king. But it wasn't just one person 2
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  that got me scratching my head. I'll tell you why, because we
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  know from the Bible, we know from the Genesis account what
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  God's ideal and designed for marriage is.
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  One man, one woman coming together in covenant for life.
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  And there is not one instance in all of the Bible where you see
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  polygamy working out in a good way, producing good fruit.
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  There's issues there. And what we see here makes us
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  think why is Jehoiada adding another wife?
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  Isn't 1 enough? And I think the most reasonable
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  explanation is that he is doing this in order to strengthen the
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  Davidic line after such devastating loss.
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  Go back to Chapter 11 of Second Kings and look at verse one.
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  We read here that she, Athalia, went after the entire royal
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  family. And we see that Joy does,
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  thinking to himself in order for us to recover from this.
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  To accelerate this recovery process, we're not going to go
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  overboard here like David or Solomon.
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  We're just going to add one more so that we can speed this up.
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  And some would even add that there isn't any direct
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  condemnation in the text concerning Jehoiada.
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  But if you do feel uncomfortable with this strategy, that is
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  justified because again, we know what God's design was and we
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  should trust in God's design no matter what the circumstances
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  may be. And I believe we are being
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  prepared with this concern to encounter more concerns relating
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  to the strength of Jehoiada's faith, Josh's faith, and their
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  piety. Let me show you what I mean.
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  Go back to chapter 12 of Second Kings and look at verse 3.
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  So we learned here that they did what was right.
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  In the eyes of the Lord all his days because joy had that the
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  priest instructed him. But look at verse three now.
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  Nevertheless the high places were not taken away.
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  The people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on
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  the high places. Nevertheless suggests that
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  there's a concerning stain with this.
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  Duo and how they ran the Kingdom.
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  And the alarming thing was that the high places were not
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  removed. Though they had the ability and
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  the authority to remove them, they didn't.
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  Here's a question. What are the high places?
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  I believe they can be two things.
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  The first thing is found in Deuteronomy 12 verse 2.
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  This is before Israel even entered into the Promised land.
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  God gave many instructions, including this one.
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  Listen to Deuteronomy 12 verse 2.
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  He says here you shall surely destroy all the places where the
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  nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on
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  the high mountains and on the hills and under every green
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  tree. So these Pagan worshippers that
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  occupied the very land that now Israel is occupying had stations
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  in these high hills and mountains where they would
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  sacrifice and worship false gods.
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  When, when the Lord told the people as they prepare to go in
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  about this, he says, I'm asking you to remove these high places.
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  They, they would become a source of temptation to my own people.
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  And I am, I'm calling you to worship me in a particular way.
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  And it's not going to be on the high places.
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  So #1 these are these are places where idols were loved and
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  adored and worshipped. But something interesting
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  happens throughout redemptive history from Deuteronomy on,
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  especially when the people come in the high places also were
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  comprised of areas where the people of the true God would
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  worship, especially before there was a centralized area to
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  worship in Israel. So if you remember what we read
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  in First Kings, when Solomon became king, this became
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  prevalent. So I want maybe you can turn
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  there First Kings 3 and look at verse 2.
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  It says the people were sacrificing at the high places.
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  However, because no house had yet been built for the name of
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  the Lord. So the people here are actually
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  the people of Israel. So now that people would go to
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  these high places, but their hearts are to sacrifice to the
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  true God. And we get commentary that they
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  did this because there wasn't a concrete place, the centralized
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  area, where God would determine for them to be able to
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  appropriately worship. Here's what's interesting Even
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  after the temple was built, worship in the high places
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  continued not by pagans, but by even the people of God.
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  And here's why I think that happened.
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  I think that the convenience of these stations convinced the
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  people not to go to the temple, though God required that
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  sacrifices would be made in that one location.
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  It's just something that they got used to.
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  It was just something that they couldn't shake off.
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  It was something that made things easier for them, even
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  though it wasn't God's will. And I want to tell you too that
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  alternative and supplemental ways of worship today can
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  infringe upon how we should truly worship God as the people
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  of God. See.
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  What do you mean by that? What I mean is with a recent
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  example, there are some people who have not yet recovered from
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  the COVID area, the COVID era. Think about it.
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  Church doors were shut, everything was online, and so
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  many people were convinced that the church is not about a place,
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  but about the Spirit and our hearts and being united with
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  Christ by faith. And ever since the doors open
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  again, you have many. Statistically, we have many
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  people who have never come back to meeting in person and
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  worshipping God the way He asked us to worship Him as a church.
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  Here's what I think. I think what the high places
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  were in Second Kings are the online places in our day.
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  Now you can't use the supplemental Convenient Ways to
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  Worship God eclipse what the Lord asks of US priority.
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  And whether the high place is considered of one type, the
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  other, or both, God was clear that there was supposed to be
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  one designated place according to Deuteronomy 12.
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  It was in. Jerusalem later on that would be
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  revealed but it would be 1 space one place and the leadership in
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  Second Kings 12 not addressing that was a dishonorable thing on
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  their part. And it's sad to see that not a
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  full reformation was made by this duo.
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  They had the opportunity. Jehoiada and Joash had the
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  opportunity to clean up everything, but for whatever.
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  Reason they didn't address this and so let this be a challenge
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  to you and I that if we're going to have a passion for the things
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  of God, let it be an all consuming 1.
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  If you're going to be. If you're going to serve the
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  Lord, if you're going to be zealous about the things of God,
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  let it be for all that He has to say, not just for some some of
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  the things he said, unfortunately, they didn't go
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  all the way, be that as it may. There is something about this
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  king that is highly admirable. It's what we read in verse four
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  and five. Let's look at it, Joash said to
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  the priest. All the money of the holy things
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  that is brought into the House of the Lord, the money for which
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  each man is assessed, the money from the assessment of persons,
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  and the money that a man's heart prompts him to bring into the
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  House of the Lord. Let the priest take each from
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  his donor and let them repair the house wherever any need of
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  repairs is discovered. We're not told how old Joash was
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  at this point, but he was mature enough to be able to look at the
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  temple and identify the need for restoration, for renovation.
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  And this concerned him. And so he begins a project for
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  the renewal of the House of God. And this moves me for many
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  reasons, and we'll get to those reasons in a moment.
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  But I want to ask you the question, why is it that the
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  temple was in such a destitute condition?
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  Any idea? I mentioned it last or two weeks
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  ago rather. I'm curious to know if anybody
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  remembers say that again. That's right, a Thalia.
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  We're told in Second Chronicles 24.
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  You don't have to turn there. Her sons regularly went into the
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  House of God, stripped it of its functional glory and funded the
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  House of bail instead. So you have to understand, this
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  is serious. I'm sure walls were breached,
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  the roof was leaking, the floors were cracked.
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  It wasn't a suitable place anymore to come and worship.
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  It didn't reflect the majesty of God.
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  And this man was stirred and he and he wanted to do something
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  about it. And I want to make a point here,
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  but it's going to require us to do some basic math, very simple
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  math. How old was Josh when he became
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  king? Good.
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  Now Scroll down to verse 6 real quickly, and I want you to
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  notice something. But by the 23rd year of King
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  Joash, the priest had made no repairs on the House.
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  So if he was seven when he began to reign, how old would he have
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  been at this point? The 23rd year of his reign, Very
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  good mathematicians in the house.
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  He was 30, but he was 30 when he inquired again of the progress
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  of the project that he originally initiated back in
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  verse 4, which tells me that, and based on how verse 6 reads,
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  it must have been a few years that span between his original
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  request and his investigation of the matter.
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  So you had this king in his 20s? That had this burden on his
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  heart for the House of God. That's relatively young and that
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  should move you and me because it shows that this young king,
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  who was occupying the most powerful seat in the nation, was
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  preoccupied with the purity of worship in his land.
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  You don't meet many 20 something year olds with that kind of
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  burden, but it's here and I find it so wonderful that it's
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  possible for the honor of the Lord to be carried in such a
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  young strong. Vibrant heart.
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  Being enthusiastic and zealous for the things of God does not
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  have to be reserved for the later part of your life when
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  you've tried everything else and have been disappointed.
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  Give God your best years. Give Him the peak of your life,
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  the prime of your life. Because time is short and as you
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  get older, things become more difficult, even with this body
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  of yours. And so I see a young man here
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  who is devoted to doing something early on and not
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  getting distracted by other things, even maybe good things.
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  He is so wrapped up in wanting to restore the House of God.
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  You and I should be fully dedicated to our Father's work
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  while you still have that time and that energy and that focus
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  and the grace that comes with youth.
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  Time is precious. Your days are limited.
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  And this King also teaches me how it's possible for younger
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  servants of God to have greater spiritual perception than their
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  older. Peers.
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  It's generally true that those who are younger in the faith are
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  characterized by zeal, while those who are more seasoned in
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  years and in the faith are recognized for their wisdom and
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  insight. But it doesn't mean that both of
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  those categories can't share in each other's strengths.
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  And it also doesn't mean that somebody who might be younger is
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  not more sensitive to the things of God and those who might be
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  more quote UN quote experienced. Joyada is much older than the
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  king. I'm sure some of the other
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  priests were as well, but doesn't it intrigue you that it
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  wasn't the priest who came to the king and said hey we need to
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  do something about the House of God.
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  It was the king who went to the priest.
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  That's not the King's lane. The King's lane is the Kingdom.
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  The priest had their own lane. Why aren't the priest stirred by
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  the weak condition of the House of God?
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  Because you don't even have to be in full time ministry.
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  In order to have a heart that shares the burden of the Lord.
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  This king is not a full time ministry.
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  He's not mediating between the people and God.
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  He's administrating justice he's dealing with.
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  Yes, he has some obvious overlap with the things of God, but not
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  to this degree. Listen very careful carefully.
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  Being older and age and fully immersed in Christian service
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  does not promise you a burden from the Lord.
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  I've seen it in my own life. What?
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  Constitutes a heart being connected to the heart of God,
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  your relationship with Him, you meeting with Him, you coming to
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  His Word, you developing your own personal intimate walk.
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  You don't need degrees on your wall.
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  You don't need anything else. You just need a heart like this.
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  And I wonder if this king, at least one of the reasons why he
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  had this kind of a heart for the temple was because he grew up in
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  the temple. Remember, he was hidden in the
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  temple and so he associated the House of God with his
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  upbringing, with his care, his nurture, his safety.
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  And so as he grows older and age, now he has a desire to
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  contribute to the House of God. Don't you dare believe the lie
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  that your children growing up in the House of God destines them
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  to despise the House of God down the road.
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  Many parents are plagued by that.
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  What's going to happen now, once my child's able to think for
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  themselves and they're exposed to the other elements and
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  philosophies and lies of the world?
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  You don't have to give in to the lie.
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  That if they came and they grew up in a house that truly
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  preached the word and had people who loved the word, that will
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  anchor them more than anything. Believe that.
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  Hold firm to that truth. You have this young man who
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  since his infancy grew up in the House of God, and when he had
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  the world at his disposal, his main thing on his mind was the
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  House of. God.
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  Believe that for your children. Let's come back to verse 6,
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  shall we? But by the 23rd year of King
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  Joash, the priest had made no repairs on the House.
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  Why the priests are bothering me, at least what I was reading
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  about myself. Why?
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  Why? So, OK, the king initiates this,
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  right? You didn't even have the concern
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  to begin with. And now he brings us to your
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  attention. And he says, let's get this
• 25:14
  going now. And they made no repairs on the
• 25:18
  House. It's a good reminder that
• 25:22
  priests, pastors, ministers, evangelists, teachers, they're
• 25:26
  human. But I want answers.
• 25:31
  What's going on here? Many have speculated.
• 25:34
  I don't want to speculate, I want concrete conclusions.
• 25:39
  And if I don't get. It I'm going to try to do what I
• 25:40
  can to come as close to it. And I think there's something in
• 25:45
  his initial instructions at verse four that gives us some
• 25:47
  clues. Look back again to verse 4.
• 25:49
  Joash said to the priest. All the money of the holy things
• 25:53
  that is brought into the House of the Lord, the money for which
• 25:55
  each man is assessed, the money from the assessment of persons,
• 25:59
  and the money that a man's heart prompts him to bring into the
• 26:01
  House of the Lord. Let the priest take each from
• 26:04
  his donor and let them repair the house wherever any need or
• 26:08
  repairs is discovered. We don't have time to get into
• 26:10
  it, but if you study the law, there are different streams of
• 26:14
  revenue that would go into the House of God.
• 26:18
  And here's what the king is saying.
• 26:20
  All these streams, all the means by which income comes to the
• 26:23
  House of God. I wanted to be preserved and and
• 26:28
  reserved for this renovation project.
• 26:32
  It wasn't absolutely everything. You're going to learn later on
• 26:34
  that he still kept the income for the priest.
• 26:37
  He didn't forsake the need of the priest.
• 26:39
  But everything else, this was emergency protocol.
• 26:43
  We need all funds to go to this and it kind of makes sense.
• 26:47
  Why fund the activity of the temple?
• 26:48
  The temple is falling apart. I don't think the priest.
• 26:54
  Saw it that way though, and you say, how do you know that?
• 27:01
  Look at verse 7. Therefore, King Joash summoned
• 27:06
  Jehoiada, the priest and the other priest and said to them,
• 27:09
  Why are you not repairing the house now?
• 27:13
  Therefore, take no more money from your donors, but hand it
• 27:19
  over for the repair of the house.
• 27:24
  So the reason? Why the project was stalled was
• 27:26
  not because there wasn't enough funds.
• 27:28
  The money was coming in. So let's do some simple math.
• 27:32
  Again, not actual numbers, just logical thinking if the money
• 27:36
  was coming in. And the priests had access to
• 27:40
  it, but they were not implementing the money where it
• 27:42
  should have gone. What's the conclusion?
• 27:46
  Mismanagement of funds, That's what's happening.
• 27:50
  Here, irresponsibility and that mismanagement that miss handling
• 27:54
  could have looked like pocketing some of that money to their own
• 27:57
  profit. Or simple incompetence.
• 28:02
  We're not given an exact reason, but the rebuke is warranted.
• 28:07
  The priest were in the wrong. So what's going to happen next?
• 28:13
  Well, we got to read verse 8. So the priest agreed that they
• 28:18
  should take no more money from the people and that they should
• 28:21
  not repair the house. So the priest agreed that they
• 28:26
  should stop the donations until everything goes back under
• 28:30
  review. And they even submitted to
• 28:33
  stepping down from oversight of this campaign.
• 28:38
  More accurately, the king would take this responsibility from
• 28:42
  them and would now take charge himself.
• 28:47
  And I think there are some lessons here for our own lives.
• 28:51
  One cannot have an irresponsible or dishonorable relationship
• 28:56
  with money and expect to build God's house.
• 29:03
  And that's true for leaders who are called to supervise and
• 29:06
  steward the funds of a local assembly or an organization, a
• 29:10
  gospel ministry. And it's equally true for those
• 29:13
  who accumulate wealth in their personal lives.
• 29:16
  To the degree that it distracts you from your duty as a
• 29:18
  Christian. You cannot serve God and money.
• 29:23
  You can't love both. You either love God and serve
• 29:28
  God, or you love money and serve money.
• 29:33
  And those who don't have a God fearing view of this particular
• 29:39
  resource will run into problems and being recruited for God's
• 29:44
  service. But listen, fleshly handling of
• 29:48
  the finances here is not the only problem.
• 29:51
  There's another problem. It's a heart issue in that there
• 29:55
  was carelessness for the cause itself.
• 29:59
  You won't, you won't see that here.
• 30:02
  What you see in Second Kings 12 is primarily the issue of the
• 30:05
  money coming in and them not doing what they were supposed to
• 30:07
  do with it. But when you go to Second
• 30:09
  Chronicles 24, what's being highlighted there is this
• 30:13
  laziness. Can priests get lazy?
• 30:19
  Yes, I heard one minister asked a seasoned minister as he was
• 30:26
  lamenting the lack of Bible preaching and teaching in so
• 30:30
  many churches. And when he inquired of this
• 30:33
  older minister, why is it that there's so little in depth, rich
• 30:37
  study and proclamation of God's word?
• 30:39
  That older minister answered it very simply because they're.
• 30:43
  Lazy. They're lazy.
• 30:48
  Go to Second Chronicles 24 with me.
• 30:50
  Let's look at verse 4. After this, Joash decided to
• 31:03
  restore the House of the Lord, same thing that we read in
• 31:05
  Second Kings 12 up to this point.
• 31:07
  And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, go
• 31:11
  out to the cities of Judah and gather from all Israel money to
• 31:15
  repair the House of your God from year to year and see that
• 31:18
  you act quickly. But the Levites did not act
• 31:22
  quickly. You see what's being underscored
• 31:25
  here to see the angle that's being addressed in Second Kings
• 31:30
  12, it was the money coming in and they didn't do what they
• 31:32
  were supposed to do. In Second Chronicles 24, part of
• 31:34
  the instruction was you need to go door to door.
• 31:38
  Now you would think, oh, they're reluctant because who wants to
• 31:41
  go door to door and ask people for money?
• 31:44
  But we, we, we won't read it. But in the same text she says
• 31:46
  you have the right to, according to the law of Moses, there was a
• 31:49
  tax that the people would say was to give for the funding of
• 31:52
  the House of God. Evidently that tax wasn't being
• 31:54
  honored. So he tells the Levites go and
• 31:56
  get the money that is rightly due.
• 32:00
  And I feel like. The king had a hunch that they
• 32:04
  were kind of lethargic. They weren't really active.
• 32:07
  So he says at the end, make sure you do so quickly.
• 32:10
  I know you guys, I've studied you enough, and what do we read?
• 32:15
  But the Levites did not act quickly.
• 32:19
  You and I should feel disheartened.
• 32:23
  To read of those who have been invited to play an honorable
• 32:26
  role in advancing the purposes of God in the House of God and
• 32:31
  to treat it with such indifference.
• 32:36
  And if this was a room filled with leaders, and maybe there
• 32:38
  are some leaders in all levels of ministry here, so this would
• 32:42
  apply to you. But if this was a room filled
• 32:46
  with leaders, I would emphasize more on this point that as you
• 32:49
  seek to serve God with vision and desire and expansion and
• 32:54
  greater, greater fruitfulness, be ready.
• 32:57
  To face half hearted commitment in the ministry shouldn't be
• 33:04
  that way, but don't be surprised if you encounter it.
• 33:08
  It was true in the days of Solomon, his temple, and it's
• 33:12
  something that we unfortunately see in many local assemblies.
• 33:15
  Praise God, we can't see it in NBCI.
• 33:18
  Pray that it stays that way. But all the things that can be
• 33:22
  accomplished even if one person is captivated for the cause of
• 33:27
  Christ. And that's what we see with this
• 33:29
  king. So let's go back to chapter 12
• 33:31
  and let's look at verse 9. Then Jehoiada the priest took a
• 33:38
  chest. And bored a hole in the lid of
• 33:42
  it and set it beside the altar on the right side, as one
• 33:46
  entered the House of the Lord. And the priest who guarded the
• 33:49
  threshold put it in it, all the money that was brought into the
• 33:53
  House of the Lord. And whenever they saw that there
• 33:56
  was much money in the chest, the King's secretary in the high
• 34:00
  priest came up and they bagged and counted the money that was
• 34:04
  found in the House of the Lord. Then they would give the money
• 34:07
  that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen who had the
• 34:09
  oversight of the House of the Lord, and they paid it out to
• 34:12
  the carpenters and the builders who worked on the House.
• 34:15
  Of the Lord. And to the Masons and the stone
• 34:17
  cutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for
• 34:20
  making repairs on the House of the Lord, and for any outlay for
• 34:24
  the repairs. Of the house the impression that
• 34:31
  you're supposed to get from this detailed description of the
• 34:35
  efficiency of this leadership is to realize what's possible if
• 34:43
  your heart is in the right place and your mind is in the right
• 34:45
  place and it's so obvious here that this was made possible not
• 34:51
  only because. The king removed the wrong
• 34:54
  people, but because he replaced them with the right people,
• 34:57
  right that that's what you're supposed to see, this kind of
• 34:59
  dance of partnership and people who are.
• 35:03
  Honoring their own role and how that it's synchronized and it's
• 35:05
  bringing about results. And this description of this new
• 35:10
  administration teaches us, again, maybe you're not a leader
• 35:15
  here, but this is worth listening to anyway.
• 35:17
  It teaches us that overseers cannot afford to delegate
• 35:20
  ministries to people in the name of niceness, in the name of
• 35:26
  tolerance, in the name of nepotism.
• 35:29
  You know what nepotism is? Giving favor to family members,
• 35:33
  friends, giving them jobs just because they're related to you.
• 35:37
  You can't do ministry like that or any other silly political
• 35:42
  reason. The Bible informs us that there
• 35:45
  are sets and traits for both skill and character that have to
• 35:50
  be taken into account if ministries are going to
• 35:54
  flourish. And some leaders would rather
• 35:57
  let the ministry suffer before risk hurting anyone's feelings
• 36:02
  by removing or replacing them when necessary.
• 36:08
  King Josh was no such leader. He understood that the work of
• 36:13
  God was serious work. And I hope every ministry that's
• 36:18
  represented here sees it that way.
• 36:20
  Church, or any kind of ministry is not just a free for all.
• 36:24
  It's not. It's for people who are filled
• 36:27
  with the Spirit. Who are skilled, who understand
• 36:30
  their giftedness? Yes, there's a place for
• 36:32
  patience and trial and error. How do we know that this man
• 36:35
  waited years for the house to be repaired?
• 36:38
  We're not talking about days. We're talking about months upon
• 36:41
  months and nothing was getting done.
• 36:44
  And so a true leader will understand that things cannot be
• 36:47
  operated on on his own, and he needs the right kind of people
• 36:50
  to partner with that. Paul was that kind of man.
• 36:54
  He didn't recruit anybody. He recruited people Who who?
• 36:57
  Really had a heart for the things of God who really put
• 37:00
  their hands to the pot, who really sought God's power for
• 37:04
  their work. And we see that in this man.
• 37:07
  And listen, this is where it's going to apply to all of us.
• 37:10
  The productivity of this leader and his effectiveness is going
• 37:15
  to. Continue to be revealed in the
• 37:16
  next few verses and the way he goes about things is so helpful
• 37:21
  for us. If we want to know a fragrant,
• 37:24
  fruitful life for the Kingdom of God, let's start with verse 13.
• 37:29
  But we're there were not made for the House of the Lord basins
• 37:32
  of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold
• 37:37
  or of silver from the money that was brought into the House of
• 37:40
  the Lord, for that was given to the workmen who were repairing
• 37:43
  the House of the Lord with it. You want answers from the Bible?
• 37:47
  Ask the Bible questions. Have a conversation with the
• 37:49
  Bible. You know what my question was
• 37:50
  when I read that verse? Why do I need to know that the
• 37:54
  money coming in didn't go to utensils but went to the actual
• 37:58
  structure of the temple? Any idea?
• 38:03
  Here's the light bulb. We want to see that King Joash
• 38:09
  properly brought in the money and applied it to where it
• 38:13
  needed to go primarily. So what you?
• 38:16
  Have here in verse 13 is the principle of priority.
• 38:21
  It's not that those other vessels were not important, but
• 38:24
  they were not as important. And so everything that was
• 38:28
  coming in had to 1st go to the actual edifice and everything
• 38:35
  else would come later. And what we have here is an
• 38:39
  important truth for us as well, if you do not develop a value
• 38:43
  system in life. Then you risk spending your
• 38:47
  time, your energy, your efforts into things that don't matter as
• 38:50
  much as other things. And you can rejoice because the
• 38:54
  Bible has been granted to you as a blueprint to know where to
• 38:59
  make the greatest investments with this little thing called
• 39:02
  life. It's everywhere.
• 39:06
  Can I tell you one example? First Timothy 4IN verse 8 you
• 39:12
  know this verse very well, for while bodily training is of some
• 39:16
  value, godliness is a value in every way as it holds promise
• 39:22
  for the present life and also for the life to come.
• 39:25
  Question Is exercise bad? No.
• 39:29
  Is it good? Yes.
• 39:30
  I highly recommend it actually. But is it as important as
• 39:36
  training your spirit man Answer. No, it's not.
• 39:41
  Do you know people who make bodily exercise more important
• 39:46
  than anything else? I do.
• 39:52
  They're buff, they're tough, but they're spiritual skeletons, not
• 39:57
  interested in that kind of life. Their value system is out of
• 40:01
  order. This is just one example.
• 40:03
  I'm not picking on guys to go to the gym, all right?
• 40:04
  I try to go a few times a week. You can.
• 40:08
  You can. Pin this on anything, any
• 40:10
  pursuit in life. And So what we see here is this
• 40:14
  principle of priority. Where are your priorities
• 40:16
  tonight? If a minister is truly a
• 40:20
  minister, I know those nights where I would love to maybe do
• 40:25
  something else, not nothing sinful, but where's my priority?
• 40:28
  My priority is this. And so I have to others may, but
• 40:32
  I can't because this is my priority.
• 40:38
  But there's also the principle of integrity.
• 40:40
  Look at verse 15. And they did not ask for an
• 40:45
  accounting from the men into whose hand they deliver the
• 40:48
  money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly.
• 40:54
  Again, here's my question. Why do I need to know this?
• 40:57
  What does that have to do with my life?
• 40:59
  Again, if you look at the wider picture, you have a king who
• 41:03
  took charge and things are getting done.
• 41:06
  God's glory is intensifying, His house is being strengthened, and
• 41:12
  we're seeing some of the things that he did do in order for that
• 41:14
  to happen. So if I want God to be further
• 41:16
  glorified in my life, if I want to contribute to the House of
• 41:19
  God, to the glory of God, the cause of Christ, then I got to
• 41:22
  look deeper beneath this and see some principles.
• 41:25
  I see a principle of integrity here.
• 41:28
  He had a policy for his finances with the donations coming in
• 41:31
  full transparency. You want to see the books?
• 41:35
  Yeah, We have a box. We actually have a box back
• 41:36
  there. I don't know if you noticed
• 41:37
  that. If you want to know what came
• 41:38
  from this, there's a box. There's a box.
• 41:41
  And there's those guarding it. And whenever it was filled, they
• 41:43
  would go and it would go to another place and they would
• 41:45
  count it. And.
• 41:46
  But everybody knew where every penny went.
• 41:50
  And I'm sure that created a trust in the nation for them to
• 41:53
  give even more. And here's the lesson for us.
• 41:58
  If you want to be fruitful in God's house and beyond, then you
• 42:03
  must strive to live in a way that gives no one a reason to
• 42:06
  cast doubt or question your character.
• 42:11
  One of the first verses I've ever ever memorized when I first
• 42:15
  became a believer, especially when I believed that I was going
• 42:19
  to serve the Lord in full time ministry, was Titus 278.
• 42:24
  Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works.
• 42:28
  And in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound
• 42:34
  speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put
• 42:40
  to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.
• 42:47
  I took that, I memorized that, and I said, Lord, let it be real
• 42:51
  for me. Let there be nothing with my
• 42:54
  life. Even the way I talk that
• 42:57
  somebody could say there's something off about that guy,
• 43:00
  something I don't know. He sounds all spiritual when he
• 43:05
  gets up there and he shares the Bible study.
• 43:06
  But off of the pulpit, I don't know.
• 43:09
  It's like a different. Person, I'm not saying you have
• 43:12
  to stay in preaching mode. That would be very concerning,
• 43:15
  wasn't it? Wouldn't it?
• 43:16
  But the purity of your speech, the things you laugh at, the way
• 43:23
  you react to things. Paul tells Pastor Titus, be
• 43:27
  careful. Give no one a reason to look at.
• 43:30
  You have a question mark in their thinking, staining your
• 43:34
  ministry altogether. There's a principle of integrity
• 43:37
  here. And lastly, there's a principle
• 43:40
  of true ministry. Look here at verse 16.
• 43:46
  The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the
• 43:51
  sin offerings was not brought into the House of the Lord.
• 43:55
  It belonged to the priest. So remember back in verse 4, the
• 44:02
  king asked that all the streams at least temporarily would go to
• 44:06
  the building fund. But.
• 44:08
  We're comforted here to know that he did not disobey the Lord
• 44:11
  in cutting off the source of income for the ministers.
• 44:17
  And so this was something. That he kept intact.
• 44:21
  That he honored and this too is for instruction, especially for
• 44:25
  our local church as we are also saving and looking for a new
• 44:29
  place as we seek to develop the physical walls and the new land
• 44:36
  and the new ground that we will gain.
• 44:39
  You must and I must especially the leaders lose sight of the
• 44:42
  fact that the ultimate aim even for the funds that come in.
• 44:47
  If the Lord decides to keep this ministry for years and years to
• 44:52
  come, decades to come should he tarry.
• 44:54
  We cannot lose sight that everything that comes in, not
• 44:58
  just the people, especially the funds is for the people.
• 45:04
  It's to serve people. And so that looks like supplying
• 45:10
  the needs for ministers so that they can provide spiritual
• 45:13
  nourishment and that also look like.
• 45:16
  What we do here on a weekly basis, bringing food not just to
• 45:20
  provide physical sustenance for people who come here, but to
• 45:22
  also foster spirit LED fellowship that that point may
• 45:28
  not mean much to you, but you'd be amazed to.
• 45:30
  Know how much misapplication happens in ministries when it
• 45:35
  comes to money? No, even the money that comes in
• 45:42
  is saturated in prayer. It has a gospel goal always, and
• 45:50
  we see that here. I wish this is where the chapter
• 45:56
  ended. A very strange thing is about to
• 46:00
  happen in verse 17. It's going to catch you off
• 46:02
  guard. Here's how we're ending.
• 46:05
  At that time, has a Al king of Syria, went up and fought
• 46:10
  against Gath and took it. But when has a Al set his face
• 46:13
  to go up against Jerusalem? Johash, king of Judah, took all
• 46:17
  the sacred gifts that Jehoshaphat and Joram and
• 46:21
  Ayaziah his father's, the kings of Judah had dedicated, and his
• 46:25
  own sacred gifts, and all the gold that was found in the
• 46:28
  treasuries of the House of the Lord and of the King's house,
• 46:31
  and sent these to Hazel, king of Syria.
• 46:35
  Then Hazel went away from Jerusalem.
• 46:40
  Here's how I felt when I studied this the other day.
• 46:42
  I feel like there's a verse or two missing between 16 and 17.
• 46:48
  Don't you feel that way? There are some missing pieces to
• 46:51
  this picture. You went from investing
• 46:56
  everything all your time, you rallying the nation really to
• 46:59
  resurrect this temple. And just because there was a
• 47:02
  threat, you gave it all up in a couple of verses.
• 47:09
  What's going on here? It gets even more interesting.
• 47:14
  Look at verse 19. Now the rest of the acts of Josh
• 47:17
  and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the
• 47:20
  Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
• 47:22
  His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Josh
• 47:25
  in the House of Milo on the way that goes down to Sela.
• 47:29
  It was Joseph Car, the son of Shimiath and Joshabad, the son
• 47:33
  of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down so that he died
• 47:36
  and they buried him with his father's in the city of David
• 47:39
  and Amaziah, his son, reign in his place.
• 47:42
  What? So not only did he give
• 47:46
  everything up to the king of Syria, who hated the people of
• 47:51
  God and hated the God of his people, but within his own
• 47:55
  Kingdom, two of his servants assassinated him.
• 47:59
  I have a lot of questions. One of my initial questions was,
• 48:03
  OK, let's deal with Hazel, King of Syria.
• 48:06
  Why is there no instance? Why is there no indication that
• 48:09
  the king prayed and sought the Lord to intervene?
• 48:14
  Why did the Lord not intervene at all?
• 48:17
  Why did the Lord allow such a wonderful man of God to be
• 48:21
  murdered in such a way? Whatever your question may be,
• 48:26
  all your answers are found in Second Chronicles 24.
• 48:30
  Let's turn there. Let's begin in verse 15.
• 48:40
  The verses preceding verse 15 give us an even more elaborate
• 48:43
  description of the success of the building of the temple.
• 48:47
  So we don't have time to read it, but essentially we have
• 48:51
  sacrifices in the House of God again.
• 48:53
  Everything is reinstated, everything is back on schedule,
• 48:57
  and this is what we read in verse 15 in Second Chronicles
• 48:59
  24. But Jehoiada grew old and full
• 49:03
  of days and died. He was 130 years old at his
• 49:07
  death. And they buried him in the city
• 49:10
  of David among the kings. Pause there.
• 49:13
  You imagine that he was not a king, he was a priest.
• 49:16
  But he was so loved by the people because of his influence
• 49:19
  in the land that they chose to honor him by burying him with
• 49:22
  the kings. What a man this was.
• 49:26
  And they buried. Him in the city of David among
• 49:27
  the kings, because he had done good in Israel and toward God
• 49:31
  and his house. Pause.
• 49:35
  Jehoiada was not the one who initiated the renovation
• 49:39
  project, right? It was the king.
• 49:41
  That's a mistake on this priest's part, But isn't it?
• 49:45
  Wonderful that because he recovered, God still honored his
• 49:49
  efforts for His house. You might have for years not
• 49:53
  taken the local church seriously, the mission of God
• 49:55
  seriously, but if you choose to change today, the Lord will look
• 49:59
  upon you with fresh eyes toward God and His house.
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  Look at verse 17. Now after the death of Jehoiada,
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  the Princess of Judah came and paid homage to the king.
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  Then the king listened to them, oh, verse 18 And they abandoned
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  the House of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the
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  ashram and the idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem
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  for this guilt of theirs. When Jehoiada the priest died,
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  so did the King's faith. Is it possible to be too
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  dependent upon the blessings of a ministry or mentor in your
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  life? Absolutely, absolutely.
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  If the heartbeat of your faith relies solely on the constant
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  service and giftedness of others, or the personal
• 51:06
  instruction and help of another, you're in serious danger.
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  The proper response to being blessed by someone's walk with
• 51:19
  the Lord is that it would inspire you to deepen and
• 51:22
  cultivate your own walk with the Lord because you will not
• 51:28
  survive spiritually solely on the support of others.
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  That is not to say we don't need one another.
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  I love to preach how we need one another.
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  But what was designed to be supplementary cannot become your
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  substance. You need to be able to develop
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  that with your own heart, in your own heart, with your own
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  walk with God. The King didn't have that.
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  He was willing to follow the Lord as long as he had Jehoiada.
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  Some people are only willing to follow the Lord as long as their
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  spouse is following the Lord. Some are willing to as long as
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  they are under the tutelage of their parents.
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  Others are willing to as long as your best buddy is willing to.
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  Others are willing to as long as your siblings.
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  And we can go on and on with examples.
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  Here's a true follower of Christ.
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  Though none go with me, still I will follow.
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  If you want to come with me, wonderful, This journey will be
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  even greater. But if no one will go with me,
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  if others pass on before me, I'm still going to follow him.
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  How many disappear because of the failure of a pastor?
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  That is not excusable. God is merciful.
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  But oh. We have an example here of the
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  trouble that could come when you don't own your faith.
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  If your inspiration is merely coming from the passionate
• 52:57
  sermons you hear, you're in trouble if your worship is.
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  Only stimulated by talented singers.
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  You're in trouble. Own it.
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  So what happens here? Prepare to be visited again by
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  the glorious patience of your God.
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  Look at verse 19. Yet he sent prophets among them
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  to bring them back to the Lord. These testified against them,
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  but they would not pay attention.
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  What does the Lord do after this man turned his back on the House
• 53:39
  of God? God doesn't turn his back on
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  him. He sends prophet after prophet
• 53:45
  after prophet. That is the steadfastness of
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  God's. Love and his compassion.
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  He's reaching out. He's reaching out to Joash.
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  Come back to me, Joash. You're headed the wrong way,
• 53:59
  Joash. I have a plan for you, Joash.
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  You had a heart for me at one point, Joash.
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  And. He would swat his hand away.
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  So what is the Lord going to do? OK, if you're not going to
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  listen to these prophets, I'm going to clothe someone with my
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  spirit. And that someone will be very
• 54:24
  difficult to ignore. Who's that someone?
• 54:28
  Look at the next verse. Then the Spirit of God clothed
• 54:31
  Zachariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood above
• 54:38
  the people, and said to them, Thus says God, why do you break
• 54:42
  the commandments of the Lord? So that you cannot prosper?
• 54:46
  Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.
• 54:49
  But they conspired against them, and by command of the.
• 54:53
  King, they stoned him with stones.
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  In the court of the House of the Lord.
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  Thus Josh, the king did not remember the kindness that
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  Jehoiada, Zechariah's father, had shown him, but killed his
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  son. And when he was dying, he said,
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  May the Lord see an avenge. You know what happens.
• 55:17
  God answered Zechariah's prayer. I sent you prophet after prophet
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  after prophet. I sent you the son of the man
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  who took you in, who lavished his love, his wisdom, his
• 55:31
  insights. And because you treated
• 55:34
  Zechariah in this way, oh, he answered his prayers so swiftly.
• 55:40
  Here's the answer. In verse 23.
• 55:43
  At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against
• 55:47
  Joash. Remember how I told you between
• 55:49
  verse 16 and 17? How do we go from Joash
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  completing the House of God to him giving up everything in the
• 55:56
  House of God? Or what we just learned.
• 55:58
  Here are the Syrians. At the end of the year the army
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  of the Syrians came up against Joash.
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  They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the Princess
• 56:05
  of the people from among the people, and sent all their spoil
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  to the king of Damascus. Look at verse 25.
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  When they had departed from him, leaving him severely wounded,
• 56:15
  his servants conspired against them because of the blood of the
• 56:18
  son of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his.
• 56:20
  Bed. So he died and they buried him
• 56:23
  in the City of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of
• 56:27
  the kings. Joy that was buried with the
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  kings. He was not a king.
• 56:32
  The king who was supposed to be buried with the kings did not
• 56:34
  receive that honor. How you finish is so important.
• 56:39
  It's so important. Here's what alarms me.
• 56:44
  I'm reading about the same king who, when he was a vulnerable
• 56:49
  baby, was providentially protected by the viciousness of
• 56:54
  an evil woman. And when that little child that
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  was kept from the eyes of that vulture became the most powerful
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  man in Israel, he was killed by his servants in his own bed.
• 57:14
  How scary things happen when God's hand is removed from a
• 57:19
  person's life. You rather be like a child and
• 57:27
  so dependent with God on your side that to be king with all
• 57:32
  the armies and have God forsake you.
• 57:38
  Go back to second chronicles. I skipped 2424.
• 57:42
  I want you to see it because it just emphasizes my point.
• 57:46
  Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men, the Lord
• 57:50
  delivered into the hand a very great army, because Judah had
• 57:54
  forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.
• 57:57
  Thus they executed judgement on Joash.
• 57:59
  So, humanly speaking, the Syrians were not an impressive
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  army, very few men in fact, who had the impressive army in this
• 58:07
  Judah. And yet God gave up that great
• 58:12
  army to the hands of very few men.
• 58:16
  One with God is always the majority, always the majority in
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  here. If I can open my heart to you
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  and how I felt when I ended this study in my own office, God keep
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  me close to you no matter what. If people want to walk out, if
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  people want to abandon you, if people don't want to support or
• 58:38
  encourage, that's fine. I'm asking you to stay close to
• 58:44
  me and by your grace, keep me close to you.
• 58:50
  I want to finish. I don't want my heart to burn
• 58:54
  for your house in my 20s and 30s, but in my 60s and 70s, I
• 59:01
  betray you. I want my heart to only grow
• 59:04
  brighter and hotter for you as I advance in years.
• 59:10
  I don't want to be a king. I don't want to be anything.
• 59:12
  I just want to finish well. Please Lord, let me finish well.
• 59:18
  Let's pray. We thank You, Lord, for every
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  part of Your word, including those that challenge us and
• 59:42
  sober us. We will not ignore these
• 59:46
  passages, but we will trust that in Your love, You have given
• 59:51
  them to us. Even this account of King Joash,
• 59:54
  how he began strong but did not finish well.
• 1:00:01
  But we thank you for the Jehoiades in our lives.
• 1:00:04
  Below. We ask that you would fortify
• 1:00:06
  our personal faith, that you would you would heightened our
• 1:00:11
  appetite for the things of God, that we would have our own
• 1:00:15
  pursuit. We would have our own
• 1:00:16
  testimonies. We would not merely be inspired
• 1:00:19
  by the testimonies of others. If we are to be inspired, let it
• 1:00:23
  inspire us to plunge ourselves to dive deep into your will for
• 1:00:27
  our own lives. So Lord, tonight your word was
• 1:00:30
  so clear. The main point is so obvious.
• 1:00:33
  And we together as a church, ask that You would make us strong,
• 1:00:39
  Stronger than we were when we walked in here.
• 1:00:41
  Strong in You by your grace. Lord, we thank you for Your
• 1:00:46
  grace. We know that You are eager and
• 1:00:49
  willing to keep us faithful. Not just faithful, but
• 1:00:53
  blameless. Blame us to the point where when
• 1:00:56
  we stand before You face to face, we will have exceeding
• 1:00:59
  joy. So, Lord, we worship now not
• 1:01:03
  just because we're taking heed to Your warning, but realizing
• 1:01:06
  the extent of Your promise that even if we do drift, you send
• 1:01:10
  warning. You send messengers, You send
• 1:01:14
  many creative ways to try to bring us back.
• 1:01:17
  And Lord, if this Bible study is one of those ways for anybody in
• 1:01:21
  this place, may they not ignore it.
• 1:01:24
  For those who are walking with you, may they just do so with
• 1:01:28
  greater love and zeal. In Jesus name we pray, Amen and
• 1:01:33
  Amen. Let's stand together, worship
• 1:01:36
  the Lord. Oh, I want to encourage you,
• 1:01:38
  just take the time to tell them that.
• 1:01:40
  Take the time to tell the Lord I give you my young years, I give
• 1:01:45
  you my young life, but Lord, I want it for the long haul.
• 1:01:48
  I want to be yours until you call me home.
• 1:01:52
  I encourage you to pray that and we'll sing glorifying Him
• 1:01:56
  together.