(1 Kings 15:9-24: 2 Chronicles 14-16)

If we are not fighting for faith we are drifting and drifting leads to numbness and eventual hardening.

We have adopted a very mushing view of faith, and have adopted psychological views of it rather than seen it for what it is a gift from God to be nurtured and fought to keep and grow.

Faith is proven and matures as it is tested, tried and applied to doing hard things.

Some of Paul’s final words, he exhorts Timothy,

1 Timothy 6:12

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called”

2 Timothy 4:7

“I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

Look at King Asa, and how faith weakens and the importance of faith as a fight, it has to be nurtured like muscles or it will atrophy.

LESSON NINETEEN

Verses: 1 Kings 15:9-24; 2 Chronicles 14:1-8; Genesis 2-3; Ephesians 5:25, 6:4; 1 Corinthians 16:13

As the king goes, so the nation goes. As the character of men go so the culture and nation go. To seek the Lord and work too please the Lord brings personal and national peace.

Read 2 Chronicles 14:1-8

2 Chron 14:1-8

God favors the person and even nation that is serious about honoring Him and will bring internal and external peace so that the nation can build and develop in a healthy way. To seek the Lord brings inner peace and even national peace. It also requires men being men, men of valor who know what it means to be men.

There may be no greater need of our time than the fight of faith for godly mighty men of valor in our churches, homes and nation.

Simply back to the Garden, Adam got passive in upholding the commands of God and protecting Eve and the rest is history.

Ephesians 5:25

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Ephesians 6:4

“Fathers, do not provoke you children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”   We must remember it is the father that has that powerful identity stamp upon his children  -oh what a responsibility.

1 Corinthians 16:13

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

(slide)

“No culture will ever rise above the character of its men: fathers…The only hope for stability and the only hope for sanity, the only hope for peace in a society is masculine, virtuous men…Oh, there are lots of men at the gym, pretty buff, have some muscles, but they’re doing virtually nothing to stop the tide of evil in the world…Weak, immoral men abuse women, and they produce more weak, immoral sons…We are in some serious trouble because the current crop of men are infecting the children…Weak men produce the death of society…Something has to break the cycle?” (Pointman, Steve Farrar)

(slide) this is a prophetic statement and we are living in it today

“Our young are the first people of whom the following can be said: if they are males, they and their fathers and their brothers and sons and all the males they know are overwhelmingly likely to have been reared under the direct domination and supervision of females from birth to maturity…After all, this has never held true of any substantial proportion of any population for even one generation in the history of the world before the last fifty years…But most of those living today will live to see what this will be like!” (1966, Dr. Marion Levy, Modernization: Latecomers and Survivors)

Call men into discipleship, learning how to follow Jesus in the way forward to learn how to truly be a man, a man of valor, a mighty man, who knows how to sacrificially love his wife and lead his children and fight evil in the world.

This is very personal to me now, with 4 daughters, praying for a godly man and now my involvement with sons in law, it takes intentionality and i can’t speak into them if I haven’t spoken into my son what it means to be a man, a mighty man of valor.

Ladies, this in no way minimizes womanhood, it creates the environment in a marriage, home and culture for women to truly thrive. The lie of the world is that it has to tear down masculinity to raise femininity – this only leads to a culture that will further objectify and abuse women and leave them vulnerable and not safe in a lawless, chaotic culture.

If this strikes you wrong, please search the scripture and we would love to discuss with you.

LESSON 20

Verses: 1 Kings 15:9-24; 2 Chronicles 14:9-15:19; 1 Corinthians 10:12-13; Romans 1:16-17

Peace will never last in this world until Jesus returns and unites all things in heaven and earth together. Until then we need to be watchful and ready for the testing of our faith, the strengthening of our faith and the outworking of our faith to bring the lasting peace of the Gospel to human hearts.

Asa, was comfortable, blessed, able to be a nation builder, but suddenly the enemy arrives and not any normal enemy, but an army of 1M! The test of faith we must always be ready for in this life. Asa and his mighty men of valor don’t budge! Asa leads them in seeking the Lord’s aid, calls upon the Lord.

He will not tempt us beyond what we can handle, the test is never too much if we rely on Him, even a million man army.

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed least he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with  the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.”

Romans 1:16-17

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith.”

The phrase “the Spirit of God came upon …” was common in the Old Testament for an activity of the Spirit particularly in reference to prophetic inspiration. The Chronicler used it several times (20:14; 24:20; cf. 1 Chr 12:18; 28:12).

Thompson, J. A. (1994). 1, 2 Chronicles (Vol. 9, p. 269). Broadman & Holman Publishers.

The verse seems to have in focus the troubled period of the judges, when they ignored their God and his law. It is not that the Torah did not exist at this time, any more than that God did not exist (cf. Jer 10:10), but that it was not taught.

Thompson, J. A. (1994). 1, 2 Chronicles (Vol. 9, pp. 269–270). Broadman & Holman Publishers.

2 Chron 14, mighty miracles of God, again they do not instill lasting faith in and of themselves, relate to john 14, where Jesus says to believe on the miracles themselves

LESSON 21

Verses: 1 Kings 15:9-24; 2 Chronicles 16, 16:9; James 5:13-18

Be watchful for drifting faith which leads to rebellion rather than repentance and a hard heart rather than a pure, whole heart, trusting in the promises of God.

Oh the danger of drifting faith, where once Asa relied upon the Lord and sought the Lord, he here somehow got to the place of just relying on politics and man’s wisdom, which from a pure political standpoint seemed savvy. But the Lord was not sought, so the Lord turned Asa over to his will, what he wanted.

16:7

The important role of the prophet going straight to the king. What about today? Where are the true prophet voices who are not swayed by money, power or privilege but are zealous for the will of God in our churches and nation?

Nothing is known about Hanani apart from this entry in Chronicles, although his son, Jehu, is given a brief mention elsewhere (19:2; 20:34). This insertion of Asa into the story served to underline the consequences of falling away from the Lord. The verb “rely on” (šaʿan) that occurs in 14:11 is used again as an expression for trust, except this time Asa’s trust was not in the Lord. Asa’s sin was to rely on the king of Damascus-Aram rather than on the Lord. The incident is reminiscent of Isaiah’s condemnation of Ahaz when faced with a threat from the north (Isa 7). Had Asa remained faithful, he would have conquered Baasha as well as Aram. As it was, Syria (Aram) escaped from Asa’s hand and remained a threat to both Judah and Israel in costly wars later on.16:8 The two periods of Asa’s life are here contrasted. Early in his reign when he relied on the Lord, a great army (Cushites and Libyans) with many chariots and horsemen were delivered into his hand (14:9–15). Now in the latter period of his reign, despite appearances, he was a defeated man. He had done a foolish thing, and henceforth war would plague him (cf. 1 Sam 13:13).

Thompson, J. A. (1994). 1, 2 Chronicles (Vol. 9, p. 275). Broadman & Holman Publishers.

Highlight 2 Chronicles 16:7-10, especially 16:9 as a promise from God

Oh the danger of drifting faith which leads to rebellion rather than repentance. And a hard heart, even on his deathbed he didn’t seek the Lord for repentance and healing. Refer here to James 5, much healing comes from repentance and reliance upon God.

2 Chronicles 16:9 – Do we believe this today? Getting God’s attention

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless (whole) toward him.”

Possibly tie to the readiness and reliance of the 5 virgins of Jesus’s parable, are we being watchful, or like Asa getting comfortable since the bridegroom is delaying? No one can give faith to another, each us has to fight for faith and are responsible before God.

Like Asa, we can see the level of our reliance upon the Lord is how we deal with physical health, the church today is very little different than the world and we rely more on the word of the medical profession than getting a word from the Lord. Oh, we give lip service to God, what ask him to use the doctors to heal us, great but what about the faith process before – do we labor with God first, should we are should we not take the drug, should we are should we not get that operation, etc.

2 Chronicles 16:9 – What a promise!

“For the eye of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.”

Provide some quick biblical steps: what does reliance upon God look like for mental and physical health:

1.) First, is this mental or physical ailment a result of God’s discipline? if so, repent and trust for healing, James 5:13-18

2.) If not, ask the Lord for healing, if He tells you like he did Paul with his thorn that it is for your good, then stop praying for healing and press on in faith trusting that your strength is made perfect in your weakness. My grace is sufficient.

3.) If God, doesn’t tell you He isn’t going to heal you, then press in for healing and wait upon the Lord and fight for faith.

4.) Ask the Lord if you are free to get medial advice, if so pursue medical help, but bring their advice to the Lord for an answer before proceeding.

5.) We must learn to fight for our healing by faith, to build our faith, to build the church’s faith, to hear the Lord’s voice, to attain healing, to keep our healing. God is our Healer, the Great Physician.

1 Timothy 6:12

“Fight the good fight of faith”

2 Timothy 4:7

“I have fought the good fight. Have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

So what we can see from Asa is that faith can be forfeited, otherwise why would Paul say he has kept the faith at the end of his race?