All right. I was waiting for a second here to see if we can get everything squared away back there. Good. All right, take your Bible with me this morning, if you would please. Am I on you? I am. And turn to 2nd Chronicles. 2nd Chronicles, not 2nd Corinthians, 2nd Chronicles. I say that because sometimes people don't hear me well, and they turn to the wrong place. It's the one in the Old Testament, not the New Testament. You say, where's 2 Chronicles? It's right after 1 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles. The Chronicle was like a journal, so it's a journal, like the Kings are. It's very similar. You have some of the same stories recorded. in 1st and 2nd Kings that you will have in 1st and 2nd Chronicles, and we're going to read 2nd Chronicles chapter 14 to start with, and I'll read from verses 1 through 8, and then after we pray, we'll read some in the next chapter as well. 2nd Chronicles chapter 14, Verses 1 through 8. We'll invite you, if you're physically able, to stand with us out of respect for the reading of the Word of God this morning. 2 Chronicles 14, verse 1. The Bible says, So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa, his son, reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and break down the images, and cut down the groves, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images, and the kingdom was quiet before him. And he built fenced cities in Judah, for the land had rest. And he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him rest. Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us. Because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered. And Asa had an army of men, that bear targets and spears out of Judah, 300,000, and out of Benjamin that bear shields and drew bows, 200, and fourscore thousand, all these mighty men of valor." Now, Asa is looked at as one of the good kings, but he did not end well. So, this morning I want to speak to you on this subject, when faithfulness turns into foolishness. when faithfulness turns into foolishness. Father, I pray that you'd bless your word to us this morning. I pray that you'd speak to our hearts, help us to understand and apply this valuable lesson. We'll thank you for all these things. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Now, I don't want to forget, and we have a baptism at the end, but my announcement sheet I announced this on Wednesday, but the announcement sheet for today did not have this on it. So many of you may not know that John Parker went home to be with the Lord on the last Monday, and viewing is July the 21st from 5 to 8 at the Campfield Hickman Funeral Home, and the service is July the 22nd at 2 o'clock at the Ohio Western Reserve National Reserve Cemetery. So viewing the 21st, that'd be a week from Monday, if I'm not mistaken, from 5 to 8, Campfield-Hickman Funeral Home, and then the service on the 22nd at 2 p.m. And by the way, if you're going to that funeral service, don't be late. They have so many funerals at the National Cemetery, they give them a time slot, and it is very regimented. I mean, that's your slot. I could be wrong, Brother Dan. I think they give them 30 minutes. Is it 2 to 2.30? Something like that. They only give them like 30 minutes as your time slot, and that's it, because they got somebody else coming. And so make sure you're not late for that. All right. Don't know how that got left off my sheet. Now you're there in chapter 14. Turn over a page, maybe in your Bible, to chapter 15. look at verse 8 the Bible says and when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Obed and He took courage and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin and out of the cities which He had taken from Mount Ephraim. And renewed the altar of the Lord that was before the porch of the Lord. And He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh and out of Simeon. For they fell to Him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month of the 15th year of the reign of Asa, and they offered unto the Lord the same time of the spoil, which they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart, with all their soul, that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death. whether small or great, whether man or woman. And they swear unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with a shouting, and with trumpets, and with coronets. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their hearts, and sought him with their whole desire. And he was found of them, and the Lord gave them rest round about. And also concerning Mekah, the mother of Asa, the king, he removed her from being queen, Because she had made an idol in a grove and he said cut down her idol and stamped it I Just love I'm sorry He took his mom off the throne cut down her false. God and stomped it Okay, you're making a point here, and then he burnt it and At the brook Kidron, so he took mom off the throne, because she was an idol worshipper, took her idol, cut it down, stomped it, burnt it, and threw it in the river. Sounds like he had an attitude. I think this child may have had some regressed hostility toward his mom. Look at verse 17, but the high places were not taken away out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated, silver and golden vessels. And there was no more war under the fifth and 30th year of the reign of Asa. Now, Asa is the third king of Judah. You have Jeroboam, Abijam, and then you have Asa. After the divided kingdom, after Solomon, you have the divided kingdom, and he's the third king of Judah, the southern kingdom. He's a reformer. Initially, everything he does is so great and so strong. And he does it so well. And I'll read it later, but if my memory is correct here, 35 years, Asa does great stuff. He reigned for 40 years, and for 35 of those years, it was in the 36th year something went bad. So you could say he had 36 good years and, you know, 5 bad ones, or 35 good years and 5 bad ones. I'm not sure how that played out. But I want you to understand that at the end, he had some struggles. Why is it? What happened to change this guy? What happened to Asa that he was fateful and his faithfulness was destroyed with his foolishness? Why is it that it ended poorly? Now, this same story is found in 1 Kings chapter 15, and you can read it there as well. How did he start off so good and end up so bad? Well, this is sort of a different kind of a sermon for me, at least a different kind of an outline for me. So what I did is I sat down and said, okay, if a guy starts off really good and ends up really bad, let's first look at what did he do good? What was it he did that made him good? See, if you're working on something and it was going well, now it's going bad, my first question is, what did you change? Let's go back and talk about what were you doing that was good? You know, when we work on stuff around here and something goes wrong, I always go back to, what was the last thing that was repaired or changed or fixed on that? Why was it working and now it's not? Well, somebody replaced this or did that. Well, let's go look at that then. And so let me give you 10 things he did that were signs of his faithfulness. The faithfulness of Asa. Now 1 Kings chapter 15 says this about him in verse 9. And then 20th year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, reigned Asa over Judah. So Jeroboam is the king of the northern kingdom in Israel, and Asa is the king of Judah, the southern kingdom, and 40 and one years Reigned he in Jerusalem. So what did he do? That was good. Well, first of all number one He listened to the words of the preacher and he responded look at chapter 15 there in our text We read it look at verse 8 it says and when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet He took courage and put away the abominable idols out of the land of Judah and of Benjamin and out of the cities which he had taken from Ephraim and renewed the altar of the Lord that was before the porch of God. The first thing he did is when the preacher preached, he paid attention, he listened, and he went out and did it. And that was working pretty good for him. Would it be a great thing in our Christian life if we would accept preaching and do it, and do it. Don't just hear it, but to be able to do it. Not only did he listen to the words of the preacher and respond appropriately, but look at the second thing he did. He did away with idolatry, and sexual perversions. Now, I've got to go to two verses to show this to you. In your verse there in 2 Chronicles 15, verse 8 says, And he put away the abominable idols out of the land of Judah, and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from Mount Ephraim. In 1 Kings, we have a little more added to the story. In 1 Kings 15, verse 12 says, And he took away the Sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his father had made. So not only did he remove all the idols, he got rid of all the sexual perversion in the land. Ace is starting off really good here. The prophet comes in and tells him to do some things. He goes out and does it. He doesn't balk at it. He doesn't rebel against it. He doesn't try to bargain with it. He doesn't try to rationalize it. He takes what he hears. He goes out and he does something. He is putting away the idolatry and he's putting away sexual perversion. By the way, we'd be a great nation if we get rid of a lot of the idolatry that we materialistic Americans are participating in. And we surely would do really well if we get rid of a lot of the sexual perversion in our country. And if it's going to start in our country, it needs to start in our lives, in our houses. Number three, he restored the worship of God. and he rebuilt the altar. Look at verse eight, the end of it says, and he renewed the altar of the Lord that was before the porch of the Lord. Can I tell you something? He went back and said, there was a time when we were worshiping God at this altar, we're making sacrifices, we're doing the right things, and it's now been destroyed. I'm going to rebuild it, and we're gonna reestablish worship. Can I tell you that sometimes you need to back up in your life and go to a time when you made some great decisions. Hopefully you made some of those great decisions at an altar. I'm worried about the fact that the altar is all but getting lost in the independent Baptist movement. Not just in our church, but in so many churches. That it is a place that everybody's so afraid of. The boogeyman must live underneath the altar because everybody, Christians are afraid of the altar. You know, but the altar is where great decisions are made. Great decisions are made, and always have been. And it's representative of altars all the way through the Bible. When the altar was torn down or forsaken, bad things happened to the people of God. And I'm going to submit to you and suggest to you that it's still the same way. When the altar gets abandoned, bad things start happening to the people of God. Our pride, our desire to save face, and all of these things comes into play when, in fact, For centuries, for centuries, millenniums, altars were part of the worship of God's people and a symbol of worshiping God, getting right with God, doing sacrifice unto God, and humbling themselves before God. And he understood that, and so he rebuilt it. His father had torn it down, his father had abandoned it, but he rebuilt it and reestablished it. So he listened to the words the preacher had to say and he responded appropriately. He did away with idolatry and sexual perversion. He restored the worship of God and rebuilt the altar. The fourth thing he did was he assembled the people together. Look at verse 9. It says that he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh and out of Simeon. For they fell to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. Now this is interesting. They saw that God was doing something great in Judah. and that Asa had something going. But it also says, and he gathered them. So he put forth an effort to get them together in one place. He was getting them together to get them back where they were supposed to be. He was getting them back together to say, hey, look, we can have a great nation without these idols. Hey, look, we can have a great nation and rebuild the altar. Hey, look, we can have a great nation and worship God. We can have a great nation. We don't have to have all this wickedness that all these other nations around us have. We can have a great nation and really serve our God. And can I tell you something? We can have a great nation and really serve our God. We don't have to compromise what we believe to serve God, to have a great nation, or to have a good life, or to have a good society. As a matter of fact, we have a better society when we do serve our God and worship our God. When we understand it in its perspective, we have a much better society. It makes us better Christians. It makes us better citizens when we are better Christians. and he was reestablishing the whole region, and so people were flocking to him. They were flocking back to there because they saw that God was blessing and things were happening. Number five, he reestablished giving and sacrifice to the Lord. I'm going to read you a verse in chapter 15 here, 2 Chronicles 15, look at verse 11. It says, And they offered unto the Lord at the same time of the spoil which they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. He said, Hey, listen, I understand I need to reestablish our sacrificial giving to God once again. You know, something means more to us when we are invested into it. When we're invested into it, it means so much more to us. And it shows that we have, we consider this something of value. Okay, I always talk about cars. When you have an old car and serious things go wrong with it, you have to ask yourself a couple questions. Question number one is, is the repair to this vehicle more than 50% of its value? Now, I've owned cars that their value increased 50% depending on how much gas was in the tank. So if it was a full tank of gas, the car was worth 50% more than it was on an empty tank. And by the way, I've sold a bunch of old junker cars in my lifetime, and I have siphoned all the fuel out before I sold them. because the fuel was worth more than the guy was paying me for the car. And by the way, I bought old junk cars in my life. When I turned it on and said, does the gas gauge work? They said, yes. Full tank of gas. OK. That's about half the price I'm paying him, and I'm getting a tank of gas out of it. So first, you ask yourself the question, is this repair more than 50% of the value? If it's more than 50% of the value, don't fix the car. Don't fix the car. Second of all, can I buy another one in good condition for what it's going to cost me to fix this one? Can I find another one I can get for the same amount of money that's better than this because I don't want to invest poorly? I don't want to invest poorly. I want to invest as wisely as I can. I want to invest in something that has value. I want to invest in something that's going to make a difference. I want to invest in something that's going to be around for a while. And when Asa takes over, he reestablishes giving and sacrificing to God. What he's saying to the people is, this is a good investment. It has great value. It will produce for you for a long period of time, So invest yourself back into God. That's what Asa did. These are all the things that was making him successful. He listened to the preacher and did what he said. He put away idolatry and sexual perversion. He restored the worship and rebuilt the altar. He assembled the people together so that they could understand all the new information. There was a piece of information there I read that anybody that wasn't going to covenant with them to worship God, they were going to kill them. Okay, it was a little harsh. Once again, Asa sort of has some attitudes about things. I like the guy. I like the guy, he didn't just cut down an idol, he cuts it, he burns it, he stomps it, he throws it in the river, he's serious. Okay, he might not always, at the end here we'll see, he might not have always been right, but he's all in. He's definitely all in when he does it. He has now re-established giving and sacrifice. Number six, He covenanted with the people to seek God. Look what it says again in verse 12 and 13. And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers, with all their hearts, with all their souls. And whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. So a covenant is an agreement. It's a contract. And so they made a contract that they were all going to serve God. And as a matter of fact, Asa was so crazy about it, he said, if you're here and you're part of Judah, and you're not going to covenant with us and agree to serve God, we're going to put you to death. So you know what that meant? If you're not going to serve God with us, get out. Because I'm thinking you're going to leave before you get killed. After all, Israel's just up the road. You can go up there. And then if you don't even want to stay in part of your culture, you can go to all of these Gentile nations around. But this is what we're going to be. This is who we're going to be. This is what we are. And he was dead serious about it, no pun intended. So he coveted with all the people. They went into agreement. By the way, I think this is interesting to me. I think it's interesting to me that we live in a time when people are so apprehensive about making any kind of an agreement to do anything for God. Well, you know, I just don't want to make a commitment. Well, you know, you'll make a commitment to own a car. We make a commitment to own a house. We make a commitment to get a credit card. You make a commitment when you get married. You make a commitment in all, you make a commitment when you have a job, probably sign an employment contract of some sort. We make commitments in all these areas for filthy lucre. But we don't want to make any kind of commitments when it comes to God. You know, I'm not trying to throw stones at you. Well, I am. That's just kind of a lie. But, you know, we struggle with people that fill out a faith promise card and there's no place for your name. I don't even know who it is. But, oh, you know, do you really think that when you write something down that God would know it more than if you don't write it down? He's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So he knows it, whether you write it down or not. We're afraid to write it down, because if we write it down, Casey, it's a commitment. If I write it down, God's going to hold me accountable. You know what else he holds us accountable for? Not being able to make a commitment. Look, I have not lived in an area before where there's so many people that live together that aren't married. Our community around here, I mean just, just, you know, I mean people older than me and they've lived together 30 some years and just they're living together, never been married. You talk about a non-committed, you know, I know people that are married that can't make it 30 years. And these people have lived together 30 years, but they don't want that commitment. Don't want that commitment. They're doing everything as if they are married, but they don't want the commitment. Afraid of commitment. You know what Asa said to the people? We're not afraid to commit to God. We're not afraid of it. We're not going to be afraid to commit to God. We're going to enter a covenant, and he said, I want all of you to sign it. You're not going to sign it? Off with your head. OK? I'm thinking there's some people packing their furniture. Number seven. He was vocal and visible with his faith. Look at verse 14. And they swear to the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with coronets. We didn't just make this covenant quietly in the back. We let everybody know. Loud, making a big noise. All of our neighbors are wondering, what are they doing over there? What are them crazy Israelites doing over there? And they're not really Israelites, are they? They're Judeans, they're from Judah. Those crazy Jews in Judah, look at all that noise they're making. What are they doing? They're celebrating their commitment. Just like after the wedding, you go to the reception, and the bride and the groom come in, and everybody claps, and everybody applauds, and they clink their glasses to make them kiss, and all these things they do. It's a loud, big thing. Why? Two people have made a serious commitment. And nobody, they weren't trying to hide it. They weren't trying to hide it. They didn't say, we want to get married, but we don't want anybody to know. No. He said, we're making a commitment. We want everybody to know. He was vocal about it. He was visible about it. Number eight, he showed in many ways that he loved God more than he loved this family. I remind you verse 16 and also concerning Makkah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen because she made an idol in a grove and Asa cut down her idol and stamped it and burnt it at the brook Kidron. You'll also remember that he tore down idols his father had built. You'll also remember, read the whole story, he rebuilt the altar his father had destroyed. He reestablished worship. I'm saying all this because, not trying to be disrespectful to his parents, but dad did some wicked things and he wasn't going to do that. He straightened it out. Mom did some wicked things and he wasn't going to do that. He was going to straighten it out. Matter of fact, when he takes the throne, mom is still on the throne. She's the queen. And it was not uncommon in their culture at all for a son, after a father dies, to take the throne and his mother is still the queen. Okay, how'd you like to be the daughter-in-law to the queen? Your husband's a king, but you're not the queen. Some of you are living that now, aren't you? Yeah. You married him, but mama's still the queen in his heart. Bad choice, gentlemen. Bad choice. She's the queen, but he said, you know what? No nepotism here. No way. I'm not going to tolerate this from anybody. And by the way, you talk about making a great point in the kingdom. The point he makes in the kingdom is, I don't care who you are, we're not going to tolerate this. Even my own mother, I'm not going to let her have a position in this kingdom if she's doing this wickedness. And by the way, Also a little footnote here is you'll notice it says in the text that he removed her and then it says Asa cut down the idol. Normally we'd say he had it cut down, that he sent somebody. The text alludes to us the fact that he did it himself. He physically went and chopped down that idol. He was telling all the people in Judah, I'm serious. I'm serious. And if I would do this to my own mother, by the way, he didn't lop her head off, okay? But he took her off the throne and destroyed her idol. If he would do that to his own mother, what would he do to us? We better mind our ways. We better watch what we're doing. You know, we're living in a time when so many people, and I'll say this and move on, we have a lot of preachers that have lost ministries and lost a lot of things in their life because they couldn't see past the failures of their own family members. There's a lot of pastors who have assistant pastors that are their sons, and their sons get liberal and wicked, and they don't restrain them like Eli. They don't restrain them. What a bad mistake. Everything you've lived for, everything you've preached all these years, and now that your boy's here, you can't put him in his place. Or they have a daughter-in-law who serves in the church, and she doesn't follow the program of the church, she doesn't follow the standards, she doesn't do this, she doesn't do that, and the preacher keeps quiet because it's his daughter-in-law. And you know what everybody says? Oh, well, that's because that's the preacher's kid. Oh, that's because that's the preacher's daughter. Oh, that's the preacher's son. Oh, that's the preacher's relative. I know pastors that have a brother. A brother, they have a brother who's the assistant pastor. And the brother gets as liberal and crazy as all get out, but that's his brother. So that's okay. Now, I challenge you. I have four children. Call any one of them. Even call the one that's away from God. Call him and ask him. Would your dad tolerate you having a position in church and not obeying the same standards, dress codes, ask him. Ask the one away from God. That would be, ask him. You know what he'll say? Oh, no. Well, there's one of them right there. I forgot about that. Oh, no. Call my son, Joey, in Johnstown. Ask him. Oh, no, no, no. You don't understand. If Joey were Alec, the bar would be here. The bar is always softer for people not related to me. If you're related to me, the bar is even higher. When they were in Christian school, and we had all kinds of sports, we were pretty big in sports, and I officiated in sports. I officiated in public schools, basketball for 42 years. And other schools would call me and ask me, when we're playing, would you referee? Because they knew they didn't have to pay me. Would you referee the game? Even though my own school's playing, they wanted me to referee. Now, my boys did not want me to referee. And the reason is, they knew anything that's close is going to go against my boys. Because I am going to make sure no one ever accuses me of favoritism. They'd say, they have a basketball game Friday and Thursday, the boys would be at lunchtime and they'd be kind of hovering around me and kind of just hovering and hovering. And I know what they want. And I'd look over and say, yes, boys, I'm refereeing tomorrow. Oh, oh. And they'd walk away, and they'd start talking about how they were going to, how are we going to? And the other bad thing was I saw them play all the time, so I knew their little tricks when they broke the rules. I knew those tricks, so I knew what to look for, which is also a disadvantage. So it was always a disadvantage to my guys, and especially my own two sons. Not only am I going to be happy about my school, but if it's my son, oh. Now listen, Asa wasn't having nothing to do with favoritism to his family. His faith was more important to him. He understood a strong stand for right and for good and for God was the best thing for his family. to the point that he would tolerate nothing wrong that his father had done before him. He's going to fix all that that he can and take Mama off of her throne and get rid of her idols as well. Number nine, he honored his heritage, though there were flaws in his father's life, he still honored his heritage. Look at verse 18. And he brought into the house of God the things that his, what's the next word? Verse 18, and he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver and gold and vessels. So there were some things that his father, some vessels and things, that his father had dedicated even though they weren't being used properly. And even though his father had done some wicked things, he still honored his heritage enough to take the good from his father and use it. You know what our problem is quite often? If we find one bad thing about our forefathers, we destroy everything about them. Look, every hero you have in American history had flaws, but they had a lot of good things too. Every hero you have in fundamentalism had some flaws. And it's become very popular in this day and age for us to take this guy that did all of these thousands of great things and had this one failure to concentrate on his failure and throw everything away that he did that was good. And that's what they're trying to do with revisionist history in our schools to get our kids to spit on the heritage of the founding fathers of America because they had some flaws. Yeah, I got news for you. They all had flaws and so do we. But they were some brilliant men. They were some brave men. And we wouldn't be here today without them. So he honored the heritage even though there were failures. Speaking about Abijam, Asa's father, in 1 Kings 15, verses 3 and 4, it says, He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him. And his heart was not perfect with the Lord God, as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless, for David's sake did the king, or did the Lord, his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem to set up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem. 1 Kings chapter 15 tells you that Asa's father didn't do good things. He did wicked things. And yet, because of David, God allowed him to have a kingdom and establish Asa that would come before him. Number 10, the 10th thing he did that was a very fateful thing, was he established peace for 35 good years. Look at verse 19, and there was no more war under the 5 and 30th year of the reign of Asa. Chapter 14, verse 2 says, and Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He did 10 things. to show himself to be extremely faithful. But then in the end, his faithfulness turns to foolishness, and I'm going to have to hurry. Take your Bible, turn to chapter 16. Here's the 10 things he did that were foolish. Number one, he did not remove the high places. Well, let me read a verse for you. I don't have time to read. If you read the first 14 verses of chapter 16, you'll see Asa's downfall. But let me read for you 2nd Corinthians chapter 15 verse 17. It says, but the higher places were not taken away out of Israel. In 1st Kings chapter 15 verse 14, it says, but the higher places were not removed. In 1st Kings chapter 22 verse 43 says, he walked in all the ways of Asa's father. He turned on his side from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. Nevertheless, the higher places were not taken away, for the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places. Now let me explain to you the high places. So they built these beautiful like monuments out on high places. And what they did was in many cases they put idols there and they did all kinds of heathen worship there. What most of the time happened was a king like Asa comes along and he says, we got to get rid of these idols. He tears down the idols, but he leaves that beautiful place. And they start to burn incense and worship God there, but they're supposed to burn incense at the temple. So they now start to do some of the worship for God in these places. But what happened to most of these kings is they said, this place is too beautiful to destroy. It's too nice. It's too nice of a place. And you can look through history and see where Solomon did some worship of God in high places. But these high places, for the most part, there's an argument about whether some of these high places were actually built to worship God, and then the idolatry came in, or whether they were built to worship idols. And then kings took them and turned them back over to worship God. Let me say to you that from all of my study on this subject, which, you know, sometimes I can fall into this black hole of studying a subject. I think that both those things are correct. I think there were some high places that were built for the worship of God, but it was not where the worship was supposed to be in the first place. And I think they were patterning themselves after the worship of idolatry. Most of the high places were built to worship idols, but kings like Asa, And by the way, his son did the same thing after him. I want you to understand, he set a pattern for his son to not completely get rid of everything. He said, well, we could save some of this. Some of this could be good. Some of this could be okay. You know, so that's like, you know, you decide you're gonna get rid of alcohol in your house, and you have this wine bottle, you pour all the alcohol out, and you say, but this is really a nice bottle. So let me put it up on the shelf, because it's really kind of decorative. I don't want to ruin the bottle. But there's no alcohol in it. People come and say, it's got a wine bottle. Oh, but there's no wine in it. It's just a nice bottle. I didn't want to get rid of the bottle, you know. No, I've got to tell you the truth. When we got married, the hotel we stayed in, The night we got married, we got to our hotel room, and they had a bottle of champagne in our hotel room. And I uncooked the champagne and poured it down the drain. But I said, this is a really nice bottle. And so I took candles. Remember back in the day, we used to melt candles on the bottle? I took candles and melted all over the bottle and made this work of art. and tried to hide the fact that it was a champagne bottle. I don't know whatever happened to it. I'm thinking that my pseudo-spiritual wife destroyed it somewhere along the way. I don't know. I don't know what happened to it. But I had the champagne bottle from our honeymoon night with wax all over it. We didn't drink it. But that was pretty bad testimony. You come into my house, a preacher, and there's the champagne bottle from his honeymoon with wax melted all over it, and put a candle in it, you know. What do you, put a candle in every anniversary, put it on the table, you know, and have a candlelit meal with your wife. I don't know. I don't know what I was thinking other than, you know what I thought? It's just a really nice bottle. That's why my mind went to that. This is a really nice bottle. I could pour the alcohol out, but I couldn't bring myself to throw away the bottle. I got rid of the worst part of it, right? But I didn't get rid of all of it. And that's what Asa did. He got rid of the idols, but he left the high place. He didn't destroy all of it. I gotta hurry, number two. He became fearful for the future. In 2 Chronicles 16, Luke verse 1, it says, In the sixth and thirtieth year of his reign, Asa, Basha king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah to the intent that he might let none out or come in to Asa the king. So when an enemy king comes and encamps near him, he starts getting scared. about what's gonna happen for the future. Now wait a minute, this is the guy that's supposed to be strong, trusting God, and you know, gung-ho on all of his faith, and we're gonna make a covenant to worship God, let everybody know about it, anybody doesn't wanna do it, we're gonna kill him. Mom, you're off the throne, can't have these wicked idols, cut it down, stomp it, burn it, throw it in the river. Oh, but now, uh-oh, we've had 35 years of peace, but ooh, on the horizon, I see some enemies. and they're camping around me so that nobody can get in and nobody can get out. You know what that means, right? In their culture, when someone does that, they're going to attack you. First, they cut off all your supplies, everything to come in, everything that goes out, and now they're going to go to war. And he starts getting nervous. Number three, he paid instead of praying to solve his problem. Look at verse two of chapter 16. And Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasury of the house of the Lord and the king's house and sent to Benadab, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus. Here's what he did. And if you read the other passage in 1 Kings, it says he took all the money out of the treasury. He took all the money he had and he went to Ben-Hadad and he said, hey, your father and my father used to be allies and they fought together and did things. I need you to help me. And he paid him to come and defeat his enemy. He never consulted God. He took all of his money and solved his own problem. He's losing his faithfulness. Instead of praying to this God that he rebuilt the altars for and that he reestablished worship for, he's now solving the problem with his pocketbook. And by the way, he's solving it with his credit card, if in fact Kings, I interpret Kings correctly, where he spent all the money that they had for the future. He spent all their money. He did not trust God. He decided to pay his way instead of pray his way. Number four, he trusted his friends instead of God. Now if you look at verses three and four, it explains this whole situation he has with Ben-Hadad. And he trusts his friend to take care of the problem instead of God. Now listen, if you have good friends, thank God for them. I have some friends that I can call in the middle of the night, they drop everything, come and help me. And I appreciate that. But you can't trust people more than you trust God. And he was now putting his trust in Ben-Hadad instead of putting his trust in God. Number five, he used the heathens' leftovers to build instead of instead of seeking God's help and guidance. Look at verses 5 and 6 in 2 Chronicles 16. And it came to pass, when Baasha heard it, that he left off building of Ramah, and let his work cease. Then Asa the king took all Judah, and they carried away stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, whereof Baasha was building, and he built therewith Geba and Mishpah. Here's what he did. When his friend Ben-Hadad came and ran off his enemy, his enemies were building some cities around him to block him in. And they ran away and left all their building materials. So after his buddy ran off his enemies, he said, hey guys, let's go get their stuff. And he went and got their stuff and used their stuff to build his cities. Sounds like a smart idea except for one thing. He never even consulted God about it. He's now using the leftovers of his enemies instead of depending upon God. Number six, he got puffed up at the preaching. Look at this, you gotta see it. 2 Chronicles chapter 16, look at verse 7, I gotta hurry. It says, and at that time, Hananiah, The seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host? which with very many chariots and horsemen, yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thy hand." By the way, if you go back before Asa's actually the king, he leads an army and he wipes out all these other people, the Ethiopians and the Lubims or Lubims. He wiped them all out. And the prophet here is coming to him and saying, hey, remember when God did that for you? But now you didn't rely on God. You went and got the Syrians to help you out of Damascus. You went and got your buddy. Verse nine, for the eyes of the Lord, yeah, verse nine, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. And Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in a prison house, for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. So when he was doing good, in chapters 14 and 15, the preacher came, he listened to what he said, he went out and did it. Chapter 16, the preacher comes and rebukes him, what's he do? He gets mad and throws the preacher in prison. And he gets so mad that he punishes a bunch of the people. He is now exactly doing the opposite of what made him successful. He's now puffing up at the preaching. Number seven, he punishes other people for his own sins. You'll notice it says in that text, verse 10, he was wroth with the seer, put him in prison. He was in a rage. It tells you that he oppressed many people. You know what most people do that are oppressing other peoples? They feel guilty about their own sin and they take it out on somebody else. And that's what Asa starts doing. as a terrible king. He is foolishly destroying the faithfulness that he's had. For 35 years he's been faithful, and now he's destroying it. Look at verse 12. It says, And Asa in the thirtieth and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceedingly great. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to physicians. The eighth thing he did wrong was he trusted physicians more than the great physician. Now look, I'm for doctors. I think you're unwise if you don't utilize the intelligence and the ability that God has given the medical community. But I also think you're foolish if you think they have the total control of your body and your well-being. And the Bible even says here he has this disease and he sought not the Lord but to the physicians. Ace is now getting in a place where he doesn't trust God to protect him. He doesn't trust God to provide for him. He takes the materials left over from his enemies. He doesn't trust God to take care of his body. Look at verse 9 says, Therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. That's what the prophet said to him. Now he's going to have war for the last six years of his life. He's had peace for 45 years, and now for six years, he's going to have war. Here's the tenth thing he did foolishly. Look at verse 13 and 14 of chapter 16. And Asa slept with his fathers and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. And they buried him in his own sepulcher, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed, which was filled with sweet odors. and diverse kinds of spices prepared by the apothecary's art. And they made a great burning for him. His funeral was a testimony to himself and not a testimony to God. If you read about his father and you read about several before him in these kings, it says they died and they were laid to rest with their father David. He's the only one that says he died and he was put in a tomb that he made for himself. He wanted to make sure when he was gone, everybody knew who he was. He wanted to make sure it was a testimony to him. What happened to him in the end of his life is it all became about him. Ten great things that we see in Asa that made him so fateful, but ten things at the end of his life that made him foolish. He didn't remove the higher places. He became fearful for his own future. He paid instead of prayed to solve his problems. He trusted his friends instead of God. He used the heathens' leftovers to build instead of coming to God for what he needed. He puffed up at the preaching. He punished other people for his sins. He placed his reliance in physicians more than the great physician. He brought about war for the last six years of his life. And his funeral became a testimony to him instead of a testimony to God. 35 years of faithfulness destroyed in the last six years of his life. So what's the application? Let me give you three applications. Number one, don't lose the courage you had in the beginning of your faith. Proverbs chapter 24 verse 10 says, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy faith is small. You know, when you first get saved, you're ready to charge hell with a squirt gun. And then after a long period of time, you start becoming fearful of everything. Don't lose the courage you had in the beginning of your faith. Right after I got saved and got right with God, I wasn't afraid to be in the public school with all of those kids, and I looked up. And I forgot now what it was, but I looked up how many kids graduated from Hampton High School in 1976, because it was a very large class. It was a very large school. But I wasn't afraid to go in there and be a Christian and take the persecution and abuse. Can I tell you something? Honestly, I was probably bolder then than I am now. And that's a shame. I didn't know nothing. Ignorance is bliss. There's times I need to roll back to the courage I had then. The courage I had then. Don't lose the courage you had at the beginning of your faith, or your faith and faithfulness will turn to foolishness. Number two, don't quit listening to the preacher. You know, Hebrews chapter 5 verse 11 says, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing. Don't get to the place. You know, when we're young Christians, we hear what the preacher has to say. You've heard me tell the story. When I started going to all the church services, I was walking out of church one day, and I must have had a funny look on my face, and the youth director said, Joe, what's wrong? And I said, every time I come to church, I hear something else I'm doing that's wrong. I'm hearing something else, I'm doing it wrong. And he smiled and said, it'll get better. But I'd hear it, and you know what? I'd go stop it. I just said, OK. That's wrong, I'll quit. That's wrong, I'll stop. Now thank God I didn't have some, you know, hair-lipped, wacko preacher that was telling me all kinds of crazy things. Okay? He'd preach it and teach it from the Bible. I'd say, okay, I'm gonna do it. Don't lose that. Don't lose that almost naivety of the young Christian that hears the preaching and teaching of the word of God and says, that's right, I'm gonna do it. Bible says it, I'm gonna do it. Number three, don't solve your problems void of God. He started to solve his future problems, his financial problems, his physical problems, all void of God. Don't start solving your problems void of God. Make sure God is the first solution to everything. Every issue, every problem, every situation, I come to God first. First, first, Isaiah chapter 31 verse one says, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because there are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. Isaiah tells you, you better woe to people that do that, that make the great mistake in trusting all of these other things. and not trusting in God. When we do those things, what happens is our faith turns to foolishness. Now, isn't it a shame that Asa had 35 great years? And if he, boy, if he, you know, this sounds terrible. You know what I thought when I read his whole story this week? I thought, you know, if he'd have died, he'd be enshrined as one of the greatest kings ever. But the last six years, he blew it. He blew it. The end of his life, the foolishness at the end, ruined all the faithfulness at the beginning. Don't let that happen to you. Don't let that happen to you. Most of you have been saved a long time. Don't let the end of life ruin all the things that you built as a Christian for all that time. Let's look at Asa's life and decide we're going to stay faithful all the way to the end. We're not going to become foolish and allow it to ruin the faithfulness we've established for so many years. Asa, a king that started out with great faithfulness and ended with a few years of foolishness that marred his whole record. Don't let that happen to you. Would you, by the way, just close your eyes with me this morning. Father, I pray that you bless us today and I pray that you teach us these valuable and important lessons.