How to Live Out Your Faith Boldly: 2 Chronicles 15:1-19

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, we are the Bible Guys. And we're going to do a podcast today. That was our intention. Yeah, and so hopefully your intention was to listen or watch, which, by the way, we still have slightly more listeners than watchers. Yeah. Yeah, it's always growing, but it seems like the listeners stay just touch ahead of the watchers. Yeah, for sure, which is great. Well, some people just can't see the stand to look at our faces, and you. Know what, we do, not blame you. Yeah. Actually, I think it's that we have a lot of people who listen to us while they're driving, like driving to work stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, people will work out. Yeah right, there's still a lot of people who download and all that stuff. Right. I had one couple they said that they put us up on their big seventy five inch TV while they're having coffee in the morning for they for work. Was like, that's rough, Yeah, that's rough. These people we're just we're sorry. Hey, good morning. Hey. So we had a segment today Desiree has chosen, and it's much like taboo. She calls it. Guess the word, very very sophisticated renaming of that and guess the word. And now I've been accused in the past, not accused. It's been pointed out that sometimes what I try to do to prepare for this, because we don't read segments in advance, That's right, we just ever ever, we just look at them as they're handed to us, handed to us, and we say, oh, this is what we're doing right now. But sometimes it's been pointed out that I try to go, Okay, how could I do this word quickly? Well, I've not looked at these words, Okay, so I've decided to just do them like the tab. Just doing them like the game drove the card and now you have to do it. So here's what we're going to do. If you are watching, hopefully, what we'll do is we will put on the screen the words that I'm not allowed to say, because if I say these words or a form. Of them, then it's a buzz Okay, you know do you know what I mean? Okay, Okay, here we go. Are you ready? Yes, sir? Okay? G wis I don't know, No, here we go ready, yes, oh, g okay. A person who crosses over to the United States immigrant could be called yes, another traveler that person is. They're not native to the land. They are foreigner, yes, foreign foreign. Yeah, well you said foreigner, foreign, foreign government. I thought he said foreign, but I said foreign and foreigner. Yes, So for it. I wasn't allowed to say language, alien, abroad, country or strange. Okay, okay, so I said the United States because I wasn't ann to say countries. All right? Oh is okay? Here we go ready, married to share son, Yes, but s u n n y. I'm guessing correct. I wasn't about to say bright, cloudy day afternoon or. Days very good. But that was a good one. Beg you all right? Oh gee whiz okay, so. We have three g whizzes. This is a good game people, if you're keeping track. Okay, ready one or twin powers. Wonder twin powers. One or twin powers. Oh you don't know that, No. I didn't know the wonder twins. Wow, that is going to change my thinking here. Uh okay, all our listeners. When a person is. Not a couch potato and they decide to get up and to move. They become. They become active? Yes, active? Yes? So do I need to say active or activate? It's one or two powers? Activate and you say activate, doesn't going to chop that word out? Okay, a word active? Okay, so there you. But I wasn't allowed to say passive, which is right lazy lively? Yes, hyper or inactive? Okay? Well sorry, I didn't know the Wonder Twins reference, but we got it active. You didn't watch the Oh that's why you grew up with that a TV? What am I thinking? Good? Gravy? Okay, here we go. What the weird life did? Yeah? You did live a weird life. Okay. Hopefully people who don't have Bible facts, if they listen to this podcast, they are. What h biblically literate. No, when they hear our podcasts, hopefully they are what. Taught. They're gaining facts, which means they. Are uh smart. No, they are in the process learning. Yes, learning learning, Yes, I wasn't allowed to say knowledge education, school, teaching or books. Okay, yeah, very good learning. That was You did a really good job getting to that one. Okay, thank job, Chris, thank you. This one is probably the hardest of all five. If you come a upon me and I am performing an action that you don't understand. You might ask the question what are you doing doing? That's correct. I was not allowed to say active, nothing done, acting or things? Wow? Wow? What are you doing? Yes? Doing? Wow? That is a tough word. That was That was tough. Yes, doing? Well. She trusts you, She trusts you, she knows you've got this one. Who that's right, she's want to pick it up for us. Oh, you're saying because she gave you a hard work. Yes, she gave you hard words. Yea man alive? Yes, well hey, well that's really something. Myself fifty thousand points, Yes, I get five. You just gave yourself fifty thousand points. Yes, okay, Well, good feeling confident today, Chris. Actually I give you because you guessed them. Yeah yeah, yeah, but I took too long. I did the hard work. Yeah, you would have given me fifty thousand, but you had to deduct the lack of a reference to well, I. Didn't have it. I didn't have any assessment of Wonder trim Powers Act Activate. You go with no TV, so, which is crazy, by the way, okay that that you like read books? Yeah, so we got rid of our TV. Became a Christian. Yeah, well no, that was after. Is that equivalent like burning the records in the seventies kind of? Yeah, well we did that too, but so the really so the yeah, so the we got rid of our TV. The last big show I can't remember really paying attention to was I think I think it's Bonanza Little House on the Prairie. I think it was eighteen the first like the first season of eighteen or something. So the first season of eighteen oh eighteen. Yeah, so that was it. Then I had lost the hole eighties after that, right, night Rider? I remember night Ride? That was it? Okay, well you know what I I remember every single show. Yeah. I have no Cosby family memories at all. Oh well well that's probably good. Yeah exactly. Did you ever see uh between two Ferns? No Zach howdi pronounce is like Gillis Gillis. Yeah, he was actually interviewing the guy from mad Men, and he just totally just puts people on the spot. That's all he does, right, and then he goes, he goes, so he goes. Madmen is such a hit. He goes. I hear that the Madmen jacket is in the Hall of Fame. And he goes yeah, and he goes yeah, right next to the Cosby sweater, and then and then and then John whatever his name is, just buss a gun he starts laughing. But there's that there's at the museum. Yep. Okay. So, uh we were, we were out the rules for that game, Yes we were. And now we're talking about how a Baijah rules in Jerusalem for Judah. No, no, no, it's great. I mean our goal is well, I did two rules transitions there. Do you have a better one? Can better? Huh? Okay? How about this because it's kind of a double feature about how about this? How about this? The goal of that game was to get the right answer. And speaking of right answers, both of these kings don't have it. Neither neither of these kings have it. Oh yeah, neither of these kings. Okay, both of them. Yeah, terrible. Okay. So we read yesterday Second Chronicles, chapter thirteen, and that announces that a Bijah was the ruler and then it talks about him squaring off with Jare Bohm. Right, yeah, he died. Well at simultaneous with Second Chronicles, First Kings is telling a lot of the same stories. Correct, it's similar to like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell some of the same stories. They tell different stories, but to tell some of the same they corroborate on the ones that they share the same stories, but maybe they give different details. And then they also share other ones. Which, by the way, I'm sure people did not know that. Yeah, so First Kings fifteen lines up with Second Chronicles thirteen to some extent, at least in time. Did you ever do this when you were young, because you got say what age eight? I was eight years old, okay. I was like sixteen or fifteen or whatever, And I remember trying to read through the Old Testament. When I got the Second Kings, no Chronicles, I actually thought to myself, didn't I already read this? And I was so confused because I had no idea what is going on? First time I read through the Bible, it's the same thing for me. Yeah, I was like what, yeah, right? And I was like myself, I swear to you, I've read this exactly. You get to the Gospels like what, yeah, so First Kings chapter fifteen, But it gives other details too, And I think it's funny. You know, we mentioned that we don't prep for these. This is just we open the Bible and we talk about it right right, correct, And we're not saying that's the way you should do it. It just happens to be how we do. But had we gotten just a little bit ahead in our notes, we would have realized. Remember when we asked yesterday, did a Baija was a bija a good guy or bad guy? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well then I came back and read verse three. Yeah, so it was this chapter. Oh, First Kings fifteen are we doing? I thought we were doing Second Chronicles fifteen. No, we're reading First Krinchings, First Kings fifteen because we read Second Chronicles thirteen. Mine says Second Chronicles. Oh well that's a totally different section. Yeah, Chris, Yeah, you were about to read. Yeah, I was reading First Kings fifteen. I was reading a different story. Yeah, no, no, this is Second Chronicles fifteen. Well this is good news. Remember that part we said about how we don't prep. Yes, so this is Asa. Then Asa is a by just son Yes, yeah, and he minds up becoming king, he winds up being a better guy. Yeah, this is ASA's religious reform. That's right, So way better, yes, way better. So our transition didn't even work. Here we go, it says. Then the spirit of God came upon Azariah, son of Obid, and he went out to meet King Aesa. As he was returning from the battle, Listen to me, Asa, he shouted, Listen, all you people of Judah and Benjamin. The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him. Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he'll abandon you. For a long time, Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them, and without the law to instruct them. But whenever they were in trouble and turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him out, they found him. During those dark times, it was not safe to travel. Problems troubled the people of every land. Nation fought against nations, city against city, for God was troubling them with every kind of problem. But as for you, be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded. When Aesa heard this message from Azariah the Prophet, he took courage and removed all the detestable idols from the land of Judah and Benjamin. And in the towns he captured in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which stood in front of the entry room the Lord's temple. Then Asa called together all the people of Judah and Benjamin, along with the people of Ephraim, Nasa, and Simeon, who had settled among them, for many from Israel had moved to Judah during Ace's reign when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. The people gathered at Jerusalem in late spring, during the fifteenth year of ASA's reign. On that day they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from the plunder they had taken in the battle. And then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. They agreed that anyone who refused to seek the Lord, the God of Israelil be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. They shouted out their oath of loyalty to the Lord, with trumpets blaring and rams horns sounding. All in Judah were happy about this covenant, for they had entered into it with all their heart. They earnestly sought after God, and they found him, and the Lord gave them rest from their enemies on every side. King Aesa even deposed his grandmother Mahaka from her position as Queen mother because she had made it an obscene a share of pole. He cut down her obscene a pole, broke it up, and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Although the pagan shrines were not removed from Israel, Aesa's heart remained complete faithful throughout his life. He brought into the Temple of God the silver and gold and the various items that he and his father had dedicated, so there was no more war until the thirty fifth year of ASA's reign. Okay, Asa is in sort of an unsung hero of the Old Testament. He's a good guy. I mean, like, how come we haven't heard, you know, some sermons about Asa. Yeah? Have you done this summer about. As I have? Have you really? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah. I preached on the It was good kings and bad Kings that did a serious and good kings and bad kings and wow, talked about Asa. Wow. Yeah, so this is great. I've never done a sermon on Asa. Yeah. By the way, let me let me go back. I wished we had read First Kings. Yeah, because it sets it up. So it says that Asa in fifteen verse nine, it says that Asa began to rule over Judah in the twentieth year of Jeed Boham's reign. So jared, but so A Bi Joe was ASA's dad. God takes him out of the picture because he's kind of he has a divided loyalty between the God of Israel and the. Other gods, right, and he's not done. So then Asa comes in and he reigns in Jerusalem for forty one years, and verse eleven says Asa did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight, as his ancestor David had done. I love that. Remember we talked about how Solomon did. Solomon was faithful to God early, but faded and blended. It wasn't totally committed to God. Then ray A Boham comes in and fades and isn't totally committed to God. And then Abijah comes and he's not totally committed to God. But it says here that Asa does what his great grandfather did, which is awesome, right, and that's why God blessed him. And so it says he banished the male and female shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made, and then he deposed his grandmother, cut down the Ashaa poll. The share poles were worshiped, that they would worship around them, kind of like the may pole in Europe and the in the day they would worship around and they had all these rituals around them, and it was a phallic symbol, was what I was talking about. So very very sexualized religions. That they would have. And he he fired his grandmother from being the queen mother, right, Yeah, And it's pretty pretty gutsy guy. Yeah. And the thing that stands out to me is he said, if you don't seek the Lord, we're going to kill you. Whether you're old or young, or whether you're. A woman or a man, we're going to put you to death if you decide not to worship God. That is a heck of a dedication right. There, buddy. Yeah, you're he's saying. He's saying, we're in it to win it. We're not messing around. We're not messing around. Now, that was his choice. That's not a command from God, no, for sure, right, so I would not advocate that that's not that's not the best evangelism strategy. I don't think I wouldn't think so either, But we got to talk about it. Yes, that's what he did, yep. But you know, to sacrifice seven hundred cattle, seven thousand sheep and goats and then entering into a covenant of the Lord, Holy cow, what a great moment, what a party? And uh and so to you know, offer God an offering? By the way, have you ever have you ever personally offered God like a drink offering or or something like that. Have you ever done those kinds of things? Yeah, we've we've done a few of those, as you know, symbolic yes, teaching about the different offerings. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember one time I was at a youth retreat with my teenagers and we were talking about fasting and we were and I was actually going to teach on an offering because you know, there's different types of offerings to the Lord. And remember the remember when they went down and they grabbed a drink for King David and then David poured it out as a So so I thought to myself, Okay, what I'm going to do is I'm going to sacrifice uh, eating or drinking for all the way up until this, this this message. And so we were gonna eat dinner before and we were away at this retreat and and I said, okay, God, what I'm going to do is I'm going to say, God, I'm not going to eat, and I'm gonna I'm just gonna, you know, say that I'm gonna fast during that dinner. And then people are gonna wonder, Chris, mah, aren't you eating? And then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna say, Okay, here's here's what the Bible talks about about fasting, about drink offerings, about all these different things. We'll come to find out. As they're prepping, and I'm thinking, okay, God, I wonder how this is going to be significant. I wonder how, like you know, this is going to stand out as a great teaching lesson. And as we're prepping for the food, I remember Wendy came to me and said, Chris, have a surprise for you. I've made for you my homemade lasagna from dinner tonight. And I did this for you. And so the whole youth group with this massive undertaking of this made from scratch lasagna. I love Chris Bob, and I looked at her and I said, I can't eat it. And everybody was wondering, like why aren't you eating it? And then I had to teach on it. But isn't that crazy? Wow? It's crazy? But like what a sacrifice. I'm like, okay, God, I love you more than Wendy's homemades. Right after I'm preaching, did you go in there and devour the rest of it? I did the next day? Yeah, okay, okay. Because I felt like it had to be you know what I mean. I feel like it had to be like a lesson when it was worthy. Well, if i'd promised the Lord I would hold off until I preached, I would have been just tearing into that thing. It would have been like a six minute message, right right. I'm not as good of a Christian as you. But it was really funny. So it's interesting again as you read the different you know, stories and things, Asa is like God, nobody can. In Second Chronicles, chapter fourteen, he goes to war, the war that it talks about here right that we just read. He goes to war and he says, God nobody can help us, but you. We worship only you. He's publicly declaring in front of his people, his armies, all this stuff. He's got five hundred and eighty thousand fighters in in his army. He's gonna go fight against these Ethiopians. And the Ethiopians come with a million. Well, you'd feel like five hundred eighty thousands pretty good when you start mark five hundred and eighty thousand men will marching, will shake the ground right right, So you'd feel pretty good to come over here and go, oh, shoot, right, they brought a million, right right. And so Asa calls out to God and goes, God, there is in publicly in front of everybody, we have no hope but you, and you are and God gave them a great victory. And it's in that context that now he's coming back, and it talks about how he left that battle, right, isn't that what it says in it? He came back it he goes out to the Azaraiah, the son of Obd, goes out and meets King Asa as he's returning from that battle where he'd already publicly said God, we have no hope but you in this crisis moment when you are faced with a crist you either run to God or from God. And this seems to be the pivotal moment in Aesa's life where we see him go fully public, because it's after this declaration that God, we have nobody to trust but you. What's the phrase? I just saw it here a second go, he says. Then Asa cried out to the Lord. Oh Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, oh Lord, our God, for we trust. In you alone. It's in your name that we've come against this vast horde. Oh Lord, you are our God. Do not let mere men prevail against you. So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians, it says, right, that's his first public declaration that we see. And then after that, all of a sudden, once you go public with your faith, it's easier to stay public with your faith. It's easier to stay courageous even when people push back, even when your grandmother pushes back against you. In this situation, right from that point on, he starts going, he's just getting. Rid of all the share of holes. He's running off all of the prostitute priests and priestesses and all all the temples. He's doing all that stuff. And then he goes to the people had allowed the temple in Jerusalem to go into disrepair. He repairs the altar in the temple in Jerusalem. He begins to re establish the worship of God in Jerusalem. All these great things. And I love that that. There is something about that. For some of our listeners, you have not let your coworkers know you're a Christian yet, you haven't been bold yet, or family members you're a little embarrassed about it or whatever. And Asa, it seems like he goes boldly when he's confronted with a problem. He finally goes, I'm all in with God. I have no other hope. But then from that point on it was way easier to stay that way. He becomes morbld. When you make a bold choice, you become bolder and bolder. When you make a courageous choice, courage tends to follow courage. That's what happens. And so for Asa, he makes this courageous declaration I'm all in with God. Then he gets back home after winning this battle, he goes, we're all in all. Y'all people, I'm your king, We're all in with God. Now, Grandma, get out right right. If you're not going to worship God, then I'm not going to let you have this authority anymore. I'm even going to cut down your share of polls. He had tremendous courage. I love that part of Ace's life. Excuse me. This reminded me of something that just happened a long time ago, Holy Christmas. Excuse me. A long time ago, like years, like ten years ago. I had heard from Irwin McManus something that I thought was really cool. And he had said, He's like. Yeah, you did you ever go out with a group of friends and they're like, they're not Christians, they're not like, you know, religious, and they don't believe in God whatever. And he goes and you're all getting ready to pray and you're at this meal, and he goes, you don't necessarily want to make them feel like guilty because you're praying and it's like you're making them feel uncomfortable and all these different types of things, and you know, and of course you know I've been there, right, And he said, and he goes, So he goes, he goes, here's one way to do it. He goes, take your glass and say to the king. Right, and he says, to the king and and and so you and your friend who are Christians, He says, you salute each other to the king. So I thought, oh, that's that's really cool, right. Because everybody around the table goes, what do you mean to the king? To the king? Yeah, so anyway, so I, uh so for years I would talk about this, you know, and and I every once in a while I would I would do it even and uh and then one day I came across a guy who despised apparently despised this idea, right and so and and you know him, he's a good friend of mine and and I and I said to him, I said, I said, oh, yeah, god, we're in this you know situation where we're with a bunch of other people. And I said to the king and he goes, what is that? And I go, well, you know, just so you don't make people feel comfortablelah blah blah. And I said so that he looked at me and absolutely disgust and he goes, yeah, so we're going to pray now. So he's like, so pray with me. And he's like, Heavenly Father, and he prays right, And I was like okay, and I was like, well. There's another way to look at it, right, There's another way to look at it. And so I thought to myself every but ever since that time, and that was probably about three to four years ago. But I just had this conversation with him because I was without him. I was with him last night and I said, I said, I said, yes, we're gonna go ahead and pray, and he goes, yeah, we're gonna pray. And so anyway, it was just great because that is another way to look at it, right. So another way to look at it is. Like, hey, we live in a country where there's no real danger. I do have. I've told some of my friends in other countries where there's a lot of danger, where they go, oh we don't, or they pray with their eyes open like they're talking right right, Lord, thanks for the food while they're talking. You like that. Oh yeah, And I say, yeah, I know a guy he just always says to the king and they're. Like, oh, that's a good idea. You've heard this too, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. But here whatever. So there is one more thing I want to point out because I told you I preached on Asa before. Yes, it says Ace's heart remained completely faithful to the Lord throughout his life. But it says although the pagan shrines were not removed. So he goes on this we're cleaning house. And what he did is he stopped the practices, but he didn't go all the way. He didn't quite finish the job. So during his reign, the people followed the Lord. And I just wonder what would have happened if he would have wiped out every little last vestige. You know, he didn't quite quite, didn't quite finish it. But during this time, his heart remained completely faithful throughout his life. It's just a tremendous testimony. And did you notice that people were leaving Israel and moving into Judah because God was blessing Judah. Boy, the benefits of having somebody who is pointing the people towards God, following God's way, there's always blessing with that. And so you see the people for there's no more war for thirty five more years in Aesa's life because he's following after God. So it's pretty incredible. That's awesome. Yep. Okay, well, hey, that's our time, so we will see you next time on the bibble guys,