In 2 Chronicles chapter 16, King Asa has been faithfully serving the Lord and has done his reign properly. The Bible says his heart was perfect with the Lord as God, even though the high places were not removed. And he was able to conquer the Ethiopians. But then in this chapter, he starts to lose the sustenance. He basically relapsed. The nation of Israel relapsed back into its old ways. that the prophets warned King Asa, don't relapse, don't backslide, because of what they did, the Lord is not in this nation anymore or blessing it, so just keep up the good work. Unfortunately, he backslid because of his fear of King Baasha, who's his rival, the king of Israel. Asa was the king of Judah, Baasha was the king of Israel. Because he gave in to his fear of King Baasha, He compromised with the king of Syria and God was sorely displeased. God said you should have relied on me rather than the king of Syria. And because he relied on the king of Syria, in the end the Lord did not bless him and he ended up with his feet being diseased. Because his feet received disease, now he couldn't help or heal himself, no matter how hard he tried. When we look at 2 Chronicles 16 verse 1, In the sixth and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house and sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father. Behold, I have sent thee silver and gold. Go, break thy league with Baasha, king of Israel, that he may depart from me. skipping down to verse 7, and at that time Hanani 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. Look at verse 10. Then 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 the same time. And behold, the acts of Asa first and last, lo, they are written in the books of the kings of Judah and Israel. Now I want you to note the sadness in verse 12. Note the sadness in verse 12. Imagine if you were in his shoes what you would do. and Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. Now can you imagine that? If you were in his shoes and you received an incurable disease in your feet. Now think about this. This is not normal in the Bible. a disease in the feet. It just came out unexpectedly, especially for the king of Judah, for royalty. So you would think that after receiving a disease like that, and not only that, if this was going on for month one, month two, month three, year one, year number two, that you would think by this time he would cry out to God for help and ask Him to save him. Like I told you before, he had that case when he was fighting against the Ethiopians who outnumbered him, and he saw God do the miraculous work of saving him and his nation against the hundreds to thousands of Ethiopian soldiers. You would think after a great victory like that, that he would remember that and he would call upon God Call upon God just even once, just even once. Will you heal the disease in my feet? Especially if the pain gets greater. If the pain gets greater and greater, wouldn't that make you plead to God even harder? And yet it's amazing, yet it's so amazing. He is so stubborn that he would not seek after the Lord. Isn't that amazing? You would think that you would be the one to do it. You and I would do that immediately, asking God for help, asking God to save us. But it becomes understandable when we look at verse 12 again. The verse says, until his disease was exceeding great. The disease was even more great. It became more urgent to him. That's why the verse says, yet in his disease. What's the normal natural reaction? Christians might say, seeking the Lord. But to the natural man, not the saved man, the natural man, it is a natural thing to do to what? The last four words of verse 12, but to the physicians. But to the physicians. Look, if you caught some kind of disease that you're scared about, you know what the natural reaction is? Oh God save me. No, call 911. Go to the doctor. If your baby catches an infection or some disease that you're scared about, you know what the natural impulse and instinct is? Dialing 911. Asking the doctor for help. Do you think that you're honestly going to fast and pray over God to heal your health or for someone that you love, you think you're going to do something like that when all that time every minute counts and then you want the doctor and then you want healing and you need medicine? You know what the natural reaction is? Is when we see the disease, we automatically associate that with physical healing, physical help, and physical doctors. It's not easy to go to the spiritual realm and find the problem. Now, as King Asa, what are you gonna do when your feet is diseased? And let's say that disease is sin. and that sin you're trying to get victory against and then you're trying to claim victory in Jesus Christ, you're trying to overcome it, stay away from it. You know what the natural man would react to? The natural man would react to natural solutions, not the spiritual solution. The natural thing is when you see something outwardly that you naturally see as a habit or an addiction or a constant backsliding to your fleshly mistakes, to your sinful... to your sinful impulses is that if only this disease will go away. The natural reaction for King Asa is the disease is my feet, and this disease, if only it will go away, then I'll be healed. Ain't that natural for any natural person that if they're struggling with drinking, if only the drinking would go away? Isn't it natural for a person who's struggling with depression that they'll think the natural solution, if only I have a natural pill or a natural medication that will heal the depression? Isn't it natural when you're struggling with some kind of fleshly habit or mistake, such as complaining, such as temper, such as impatience, such as hurting others, such as hurting yourself. Isn't it natural when you have a lustful addiction, isn't it natural that when you have any kind of addictions, drug addictions in your life, that the natural thing is that I wish that there is a natural medicine. I wish that there is a natural person to turn to that I can cling to, so that I can heal. these diseases. Isn't it natural that if you struggle with Bible reading and prayer, that you would turn to a natural doctor or a natural solution? I know why we keep skipping our Bible reading and prayer. One of those causes, we like to say, is busyness. One of those things we like to say is that because I'm in poor health. One of those things we like to say is that, well, I'm just not as young as I used to be. One of the things that we like to say is that, well, that's for them and not for me. They're more spiritually strong than I am. So in our mind, we automatically assume that if only I was younger, a natural solution. Then I can do all those spiritual things. If I was only gifted, I was born gifted, I had more talent. See that? Then if I was like pastor, memorizing verses, reading the Bible, praying. Don't put me on Jesus Christ level. I'm just a sinner like you. Don't look at a natural solution. Don't look at natural solutions for your spiritual progress. Well, if only the brethren were there more often for me, if pastor was there more often for me, then I would spiritually accomplish more for the Lord. If only I didn't have these mess ups in my home, in my family, the wrong crowd I'm in. If only I'm not too far away from this church. Because of those things, it's hard for me to keep up with my spiritual progress. You know who we're blaming upon? Natural causes. And we're looking for natural solutions. Isn't that quite often when we go through suffering and trials in our life? You know, if only, if only, the thing in our mind is not God to heal us, not God to give us strength, but one thing in our mind, if only the pain would go away. That's all in our minds. It's not really relief because God gives you relief. But when he gives you relief, the thing is the pain is still there. So the one thing in our mind is, if only the pain will go away. And King Asa, that's your mistake. You just keep thinking that the disease is your feet, is your feet, is your feet. And that's why it's natural that you would turn to natural physical doctors and helpers to heal the disease in your feet. What happened to God in everything? What happened to God in everything? That's why God is not the solution. You know why? Because you'll find out what the real problem is when God becomes your solution. The more he fixes on is not your feet, you'll realize. The one he's working on is your heart. You know why Asa ended up with the disease in his feet? It's not because it happened to him. And it's a foot disease, and if only this foot disease will go away, then everything's solved. No, it will never have solved his issue. His issue was his heart at the beginning. What did the prophet say? The prophet warned him at verse 9. This is what started everything. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Heron, thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. You see where the problem was? His heart. That began everything. The disease you must realize that you need to get in your head, that you need to believe in your heart, that you need to open your eyes on is not your feet. It's not the suffering or the trial you're going through. It's not the financial loss. It's not the health problem. It's not because you were born this way. You grew up in a bad environment of sin and you weren't raised right. No, that's not the disease. The disease is not because I'm too far away. That's why I cannot commit to church. The disease is not because I'm too busy with work. That's the reason why I cannot commit to God. No, the disease is your heart. And that's what God wants, is your heart, not more time to serve Him. Not more talent to please Him. Not better health to give Him greater glory. He wants you. Your heart. The title of my message is, the disease is your heart, not your feet. Father God, fill within me the power of your Holy Spirit and the cleansing of your blood. God, I need clarity. I need help in this preaching. I pray that this preaching will help people, especially for this year. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As we pass upon a new year and we're bypassing the old year, we want to finally make changes. We want to finally fix our problem that just never goes away. Do you know what I mean? We want to fix that problem, but it seems to be unfixable. It seems like that we always fall back. A lot of you are doing well, serving God like King Asa, doing great things, but we relapse. We constantly fall back, and we need to sustain ourselves. And the question is, how? How? We're having a hard time sustaining ourselves. And the reason why is because we blame the disease not in our hearts. The disease we blame is our feet. That's what we blame upon. Busyness, health problems, financial problems, lack of spiritual resources, I'm too far away, I'm just too weak, sin is too great, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what we're blaming upon. And that is not the culprit. The culprit is not your feet. The culprit is your heart. And that's what God always does with trials. And that's why God always does to test you when you're going with temptation. And that's why God puts you through hardness as he tries to put you through the next spiritual level of growth. Is that what he's doing is he's changing you. He's not changing your feet. He's not changing the surrounding environment. The surrounding environment, listen, will stay the same. Do you understand? The surrounding environment, such as money loss, people looking down on you, no one to help you, lack of comforters, health problems, sickness, will never change. It'll never change. It will stay. But you can change. And when you change, you can deal with the unchangeable. Now when you look at 2 Chronicles 16, we see in verse 1, In the sixth and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah to the intent that he might let none go out or come into Asa, king of Judah. And my first point is losing hope. Losing hope. You'll notice right here that Asa lost his hope when Baasha, king of Israel, started to build fortresses and military might and his battle plans throughout Ramah so that people will not come out of Judah And people will not go into Judah. He's probably trying to starve them out. He's probably trying to cut off their economic supply. But whatever Baasha did, that's what scared Asa. But if you read chapter 15, if you read chapter 15, Asa was doing so well. He was serving God, worshiping God. He wasn't scared of different enemies. He was fighting them. Something happened at chapter 16, verse 1. Something happened. What changed everything? That's what we want to discover. I think verse 1 gave the key. Basically, Baasha, king of Israel, what did he build? He built things, notice, to the intent that he might let none go out or come in. Basically Basha made sure that no one would go in Judah or out of Judah. That thing is what I believe made Asa lose hope. I believe his hope was found in that people coming in and out. You might say, what do you mean preacher? Well, let's go back here. If we go to chapter 15, chapter 15, notice what the prophet said in verse 1. And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah, and Benjamin, the Lord is with you. While ye be with him, and if ye seek him, he will be found of you. Now look what he said here. He said in verse 5, And in those times there was no peace to him, look at this, that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries." Why? Why were these people, before Asa became king, suffered problems with people not going in and out of Judah? Because they did not seek the Lord at verse 4. See that? So because people were not seeking the Lord, people couldn't go in or out of Judah. So, You know what he's thinking when you look at verse 7. In verse 7, be strong therefore and let not your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded. Asa is hearing this. If I trust God and if I serve Him, He's going to make sure that I won't end up like those previous people. where they cannot go in and out of Judah. My enemies will not make that happen. If I trust the Lord, if I serve Him, the Lord will prevent enemies like Baasha or any other people to prevent my people from going in and out of Judah. They will have free access, they will have free economic supply, they'll be able to come and go as they please. There will always be an open door. There won't be that hindrance. So I have this hope that I receive, I will keep getting my economic supply, I will still have open access to my kingdom as long as I serve God. Well, wasn't that hope dashed at chapter 16, verse 1? He served God, but Baasha, king of Israel, blocked that open access. And Baasha prevented people from going in and out. Now, what do you think Asa will think after that? The Bible says that he took courage at chapter 15. He took courage at chapter 15, verse 8. When Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Oded, the prophet, he took courage. He took courage on what? Took courage from the hope that as long as I serve God, people will go in and out of Judah. But in chapter 16 verse 1, that courage, that hope was destroyed. Baasha prevented people from going in and out. And what do you think he's going to do after that? You think he's going to keep serving God? trust him, commit to him. Once his hope is dashed, his motivation is lost, he's going to turn to his own way of doing things. You know that open access was so important that if you read the book of Jeremiah, Asa was so paranoid. He wanted that open access so badly that he was digging pits so that Baasha king of Israel would like fall or his fortress wouldn't succeed. He wanted that open access so badly. That hope was so important to him. But when he lost that hope, he can't serve God. You know what he should have done if he lost hope? He should have stayed faithful. Because faithfulness was a lot more important than hope for him. Staying faithful to God, committed, trusting Him, even, even if he doesn't get that open access to Judah, God could have helped him, God could have sustained him. He should have done that. You know what your problem is, Asa? Is that we take courage and serve God because we have hope. When we hear this preaching, it gives us hope. We have motivation that, hey, I was able to pass out these many tracts today. I was able to lead these many souls to salvation. I got brethren around me who encouraged me. Well, praise God, hallelujah, but what happens when you lose that hope, Asa, when you can't pass out tracts, and you haven't led a soul to salvation, and people criticize you instead, people look down upon you, maybe even pastor had to correct you so that you can grow more, And let's say that everyone is busy, everybody's got health problems, and they're not there to help you. What are you going to do? That's why you can't keep shooting straight, keep going straight, in staying away from sin and temptation. That's why you yield back into the sin and temptation, because you lost hope. But you know what's more important than feeling hope? It's faithfulness, you have to realize. Staying consistent away from sin is far more important than feeling motivation to stay away from temptation. Because if you're betting on something you hope for or something to keep you motivated, that's very easy for the devil to take away. When you got no hope, will you be found faithful? Consistency is way more important than somebody trying to give you the hope of, hey, you read these many chapters of the Bible, you can read more. Hey, once you start praying, you can do more. Wow, thank you, brother and sister in Christ for signing up. You contributed, you blessed us so much because of doing that. Yeah, what happens when you have nobody to give you that hope? And let's say that you skipped your Bible reading and prayer for several days, you're gonna get back to Bible reading and prayer? Especially when you're all alone and busyness is surrounding you, you got health problems and everybody's turning against you, the whole world's turning against you, you think you're gonna sustain yourself and constantly read the Bible and pray? You see, consistency, faithfulness is more important than some motivation. That's gonna keep you going. If you're betting on a hope, if you're betting on a motivation, that will suck out real fast. People lose sustenance because they don't have a structure, they don't have a system, they don't have a habit. They don't have a commitment. They're betting everything on how they feel. They want some inspiration from people. They want God to answer their prayers and give them some light in the tunnel, some hope at the end, some sign, and that'll help them endure through the trial and the suffering. If you keep asking for signs, you're not a Jew. You're not a Jew, all right? Some of you might say that you're a Jew, all right? And get away with that, all right? But no, no, no, you're a saved believer in Jesus Christ who's supposed to walk by faith, not by sight. You're supposed to walk by faith, not by sight. Faith, being practiced every day, means faithful. You know what counts more at the end? Is that more than motivation, more than a drive, more than hope, is faithfulness. The question is, are you willing to see that and accept that? If you're never willing to see that or accept that, then you will always, always fall back into the same old bad habits. You will always fail the Lord and you will always see the disease is the feet. The feet, the feet, not your heart. You know what the heart wants? It wants to feel hope, feel motivation. That heart needs to get fixed. Whether the heart feels depressed or feels heavy or feel like it's falling apart or bitterness or anger or it's going through pain, the point is for the heart to stay alive, it will keep beating no matter what. And depression, bitterness and all these other factors is not the more significant point. The more significant point is, is my heart still beating consistently? Consistency is so important even if you don't feel like it. If you go by willpower, guess what? Your willpower is gonna run out. If you go by motivation, motivation is easy to demotivate. And if you go by hope, you gotta realize we live in a hopeless world. And whenever you always have a fantasy of seeing hope in this factor, that factor, that factor, then what's gonna happen is you're always gonna hope for something that will never come to you. Do you understand? Don't hope for something that will never come to you. God wants obedience, and when you have obedience, that's enough hope. The enough hope is Jesus Christ, not the what? The medicine for your feet. Not the relief for your feet. Not those more well-skilled doctors to really cure the problem for your feet. No, no, no, it's your heart. It's your heart. Now, when we look at verse two, then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father. Behold, I have sent thee silver and gold. Go break thy league with Bosh, a king of Israel, that he may depart from me. And Baden-Hadad hearkened unto King Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they smote Ijun, and Dan, and Abel-Mayim, and all the store cities of Naphtali. And it came to pass, when Bashar 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 the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof wherewith Bashar was building, and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah. You know, Asa, he realized, look, trusting in God ain't going to cut it. So I'm going to trust in the king of Syria. And if I trust in the king of Syria, he will take care of the problem and the problem will go away. And guess what? The problem did go away. The king of Syria came in, delivered him from the problem, and not only that, Asa benefited out of that where Baasha left his fortress, left his work, left his supplies behind, and Asa took advantage of those supplies and was able to prosper his kingdom even more. I mean, when you look at the outcome, when you see all of that, you can't help it. Who would trust in God after that? Have you ever seen what it's like for a king of Judah to trust in God? It's not where you can easily rely on somebody else to fight the battle for you, like the king of Syria. It's not like where you get it immediately. I make a deal with you, here's the treasure. It's not like that. You know what it's like for the kings to rely on God? Not the easy way. You go out yourself, King Jeroboam, for example, and you have no weapons but music, and you just fight your enemy. You think that's easy to do? King Hezekiah, what you need to do is just trust in me, fast and pray. Well, what's the deliverance? When's the deliverance? It'll come. Yeah, at the last moment. The last moment when the angel wiped out the enemies for King Hezekiah. You think we like that? No, we want it now. I'll tell you what happened to King Saul. King Saul waited on the Lord. He tried. He really, really tried. But guess what? That ain't easy to do. So you know what? Let me do it my way. He couldn't help it. He couldn't help it. I mean, can you blame him? You know what's amazing why he couldn't help it? He gave up his silver and gold. That's where we knew he couldn't take it anymore. I mean, he couldn't take it anymore. You know, it was in Him, it was in Himself to rely on the King of Syria. It was in Himself. It's not His nature to rely on God, that's not easy to do. It's more easy to rely on the King of Syria. As He said right here, which is eye-opening, in verse 3, There is a league between Me and thee, as there was between My Father and thy Father. You know what he's saying right here? He's saying this was always in our nature, King of Syria. We always had a lead together. You always helped out my family and my family always helped out you. This is our nature, so you're supposed to help me, help me. It's within our nature. He couldn't help himself. That's in his very own nature. He was that desperate. He was willing to give up silver and gold from the house of the Lord. When you do that, that means you're desperate. And that means you know that he couldn't help it but give in to the league with the king of Syria. That's how desperate he was. But you know, there are two things that he didn't see the cost with this. You know, King Asa, he gave a false statement. He said, there is a league between me and thee as there was between my father and thy father. No, there wasn't. I looked it up. You know who his father was? If you go back to chapter 13, his father was Abijah. His father was Abijah. And if you go back to the other chapters, here's the thing, is that I'm sure there were leagues with Syria and Israel, but this was very, very scarce. It's like non-existent. It's like non-existent there. You see more of the leagues coming up later on as the chapters keep continuing. There was mostly war between Syria and Israel, actually. Mostly war between Syria and Israel. As a matter of fact, even the most wicked kings, they were fighting against Syria, not making deals. What kind of fairytale nonsense did he make up that this is our family's nature to get along? No, it wasn't. That's not your father. Your father never did that. But you assumed this is your nature and your father and you couldn't help it to always make deals and make a league with the king of Syria. You know, that's... We make a false identity. False identity. We assume, well, because my family was always this way, and this is always in my nature, to always what? Compromise with our king of Syria. to just give in to the flesh. I mean, if the flesh can't help it but sin, it's got to sin. And we know what's right, we know what's right for the Lord, but our excuse is, I know it, I know it, but I can't help it. It's in my nature. This is what my fathers have always done. This is the flesh. I mean, this is what the flesh does. This is me. This is how I always done it. You put a false identity. You know why? That's not the real you. You made a fantasy. You know who the real you is? The spiritual nature that wants to do what's right. No, the real you doesn't want to sin. The real you wants to be clean. But when you give in to that sin, when you give in to your flesh, you already surrendered yourself saying, I can't help it. What does that mean? That means you put a false identity. The real me cannot resist sin. That's what you just gave into. No, the real you wants to do what's right. The real you wants to stay right. The real you hates that sin. Otherwise, you wouldn't be saying amen right now. Otherwise, you wouldn't be coming on the altar after every preaching against your sin. Because the real you wants to do what's right. You put a false identity. Now, you know what the second greatest cost is, Asa? You gave up your treasures to give in to your king of Syria. You know what these treasures were that Asa gave up? The house of the Lord. What are you talking about, pastor? I don't have any treasures in a golden Solomon's temple. I don't have any of that. No, you got something more valuable than that. The Bible says this treasure hidden in our vessels, Christ in you, the hope of glory, the rewards of heaven, the inheritance. You know what you've done? You've traded that. to give into your flesh. You gave up your most valuable prize and treasure, Christ in you, who could have helped you during that time. But you insisted that these treasures, asa, asa, you thought those treasures in the temple weren't worth it, huh? And you thought protection from the king of Syria was that much worth it, huh? You thought that giving in to Syria was that much more worth it than what? Gold! Gold in the house of God! Wow! You gave up Jesus Christ in you to give in to your flesh? Yeah, to you. It meant that much to you. You know what the thing you need to change is? My feet, my feet, my feet. No. The trial, oh, the suffering, oh, the busyness, oh, the health problems, oh, just this sin. If sin was annihilated and gone, if sin were annihilated and gone, I bet you, you'd mess up like Adam and Eve in a perfect world. You know, that's not the problem, not your feet. You know what's more powerful than changing medicine, changing solutions, changing doctors, changing the environment? What's more powerful is changing your identity. You know what you're not working on? I'm just trying to change my behavior, change my habits, and change these sins, and change my spiritual growth, and change my reaction to suffering. No, no. You need to change you. You need to change your identity. The identity in you, you need to dig deep into that, and that identity, you, needs to change where it accepts things from God and trusts Him and lets it go and not let these things tempt you, but you resist and you hate these things. You need to change you. Identity is the root cause in nearly everybody's problems in life. What's so powerful is you gotta change that statement, I can't help it. See, that's your identity you're talking about. Are you willing to change that? When you say, I can't help it, are you willing to change that? If you say, I can't, see, you're not willing to change your identity. I want to stay clean. I want to stay away from sin. Are you willing to accept that? Oh, I want to, but I just can't. See, that means you're not willing to change your identity. Identity is more powerful than outcome, you have to realize, because sometimes the outcome, when you make wrong decisions, might fall in your favor. Just like King Asa, he had a good outcome. If I give in to the king of Syria, life will be okay. Guess what? Life went okay. The king of Israel went away, didn't bother him anymore, just because he made a league with king of Syria. The outcome worked out in his favor. But he didn't change himself. And that's my second point, losing himself. Losing himself. Are you losing yourself? Yourself is way more important than the outcome. Do you understand? Yourself is more important than healing. Yourself is more important than financial increase. Yourself is more important than love from other people. Yourself is more important than finding companionship. Yourself is way more important, way more important than having all kinds of spiritual fruits and progress and results that you can see. You are more important. You know what God wants? Not your fruits, he wants you. Because you're the one producing fruits. Now when we go to the next one, The Bible says at verse seven, verse seven, and at that time Hanani 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 as the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand, were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims, a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen, yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. " The prophet Hanani broke the news to him. Hey, you should have stayed faithful to God. Why did you fall apart? Well, I couldn't do it. I couldn't help myself. This is who I am. My father and the father before me already made a league with the king of Syria. And doing it God's ways always takes long. Doing it God's ways is always unpredictable. Doing it God's ways is always last minute that I don't like. Doing it God's ways is always inconvenient. So I couldn't help it. And no, no, no, no. You know what Henei and I say? Wait a minute. Did you remember those Ethiopians that you conquered? Weren't they great in number? But you were able to beat them. You relied on God. You know what your problem is, King Asa? Is that when you're going to today's problem, today's enemy, you don't think about the previous enemy you conquered. That's your problem. You go, oh, I can't beat this enemy. This enemy has a hold on me. I'll never be delivered. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let's go back. Wasn't there a bigger enemy before? Wasn't there a time it was impossible? I'm telling you, impossible for God to intervene, send a miracle, answer the prayer, but he did it? What happened to you, King Asa? What happened to you? You would think that when he, in chapter 15, if you read that, chapter 15, he said, Lord, I rely on you. It's not in me. It's all on you. And he went out and beat those Ethiopians. And then all of a sudden, it's like a total 180 at the next chapter, and he becomes chicken and coward. I mean, what in the world? What happened? Well, time passed by, right, at chapter 16, verse 1? It says in the 6th and 30th year of the reign of Asa. Time passed by. That's a long time when you compare it to what he was working on at verse 19. Look at the previous verse, chapter 15, 19. And there was no more war until the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa. Now that's thirty-five years long. That's a long time gap. That's a long time gap. Who remembers things thirty-five years ago? You might say, you might say, I do, of course I do. There are some things you forget, let's be honest. Those thirty-five years back. He didn't go back. He should have gone back. He should have gone back on, man, remember those Ethiopians? They were great in number, great in number. But you know he was definitely not thinking that in his head. You know what he was thinking about? The greatness of the number of Baasha, king of Israel. He's saying, look at them, their numbers are so great. He outnumbers me two to one and I can't beat him. Did you remember the Ethiopians where it was five to one? Oh no, no, you don't think about the numbers of the Ethiopians, you think about the numbers of today. Today, the problem today. You know what you're thinking about? The disadvantages of today. Baasha prevented open access in my kingdom from going in and out. Ethiopia never did that to me, so obviously this problem is greater. No, because Ethiopia, it definitely outnumbered you, and they were gonna wipe you out real bad. Whereas the nation of Israel is a lot smaller in number. They can prevent open access all they want, but you'll still be able to beat them. You see what his problem was? His mind refused to think about the hardness of the Ethiopians, and Asa only focused on the hardness of Baasha. Your problem, King Asa, is you only look at the hardness of today, but not the hardness of how many years? 35 years, Asa. That's a lot of hardness you went through. You overcame them all. And all of a sudden, you dismiss all of that, pretend like it's nothing to you, and pretend that this problem is greater than all problems before. That's why you don't sustain yourself. You don't think about, you don't go back and think about, how did I overcome that problem before? You gotta go back. Oh, I can't, I've forgotten. Well, write it down. Well, pray about it. Well, start marking things where you remember. Set up an alarm. I don't care, but something 35 years back is tend to be lost. So you need to retrieve that information and find out, what did I do to overcome those hardness? Ethiopia was a lot tougher than Baasha. What's the matter with me? You forgot. You gotta just go back. Go back on how you overcame that hardness and see where you misapplied it today. See where you went wrong with that application today. Well, the solution is prayer. Well, I already prayed and... No, not like back then. Not like when you conquered your hardship back then. You remember that time how you prayed? A lot different than now probably. Listen, you know what happens when we go through a hardship? Oh, the pain is so great, the pain is so great, it's unbeatable. And then you beat it. Then the next pain comes and you go, oh, this pain is so great, this pain is so great, I can't beat it. And then you beat it. Then the third, the fourth, the fifth, how many times has God pulled you through? Then, you know what you do when you keep saying that? When today you say, I can't beat this pain, you know what you did? You've discounted 35 past years of pain like it meant nothing to you. You go like, all these past years of pain is not a big deal compared to this one. I bet you, when you go 35 years back, you had pain that was greater than what you had now. I know some of you did. I know some of you did. We got people here who go through hardship, who goes through hardness. You must have went through a crisis before, and you forgot all about that. That's my third point, losing hardness. Losing hardness. What was the point of all that suffering and trial that you went through? It made you strong, it made you tough, it made you hard, and you forgot about all of that? You gotta use that. Now, let's talk about worst case scenario. Worst case scenario. I know what some of you Christian agnostics are thinking. You know what you Christian agnostics are thinking? This pain is just unbeatable compared to back then. Okay, fine, I'll give it that much. What if you found a physical doctor who can heal that diseased feet? You think there's not a worse one after that? You know what happens whenever you beat the worst in your life? This is the worst, this is the worst. Then a worse-er one comes out, right? Here's my point. The point is, if you can't beat this one, and even if God cured this problem, guess what? There's a worse one coming. What are you going to do about that? You see what's more important? What's more important is to go back through all the worst things you went through in your life and see how you survived. See what you used to overcome, but see you're forgetting all of that because it's been 35 years. My last point is verse 10. Then Asa was wrought 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. And behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Asa, in the thirty and ninth year of his reign, was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. Now, ain't that sad? He imprisons the prophet who warned him. All of his kingdom reign, he just lived worried, paranoid, not relying on God. And then lastly, he dies diseased in his feet, never seeking after God, but to the doctors. Now, believe it or not, the answer was given right here. If some of you are like King Asa and you're like, why is it that I can't just beat the problem, fix the unfixable? Why is it that back then I want to serve God, but I just fall back again? You know, I want to sustain my faithfulness for God. What is it that makes me keep falling back? The answer is given here. You don't seek the Lord. You don't seek the Lord. That was the answer. All that time you were seeking after what? Physical healers, doctors. You sought after them, not the Lord. I know what a lot of you are thinking. No, I did. I sought the Lord, pastor. I sought the Lord. No, you didn't. Do you know what sought means? Do you know what the Lord means? Do you know what the Lord means? Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. You know who is God? I'll tell you who God is. God is grace. And He is rich in grace. And you need to seek after that. But I know why you keep getting discouraged and why you keep falling back. It's because every time you go through the sinful temptation, the suffering and the trial, or you're working hard to your next spiritual progress, but you can't just seem to do it. The thing is, is that you beat yourself over the head, and you go, man, I just can't do it, and that's why you mess up. But you forgot about God's grace. And you know what a God full of grace is? He gives you grace to go through what you're going through. Our problem is that we're not gracious to ourselves. We beat ourselves up. And we feel like we'll never overcome the problem. We can't get the issue solved. But you know what God's grace is? God's grace is that despite of those thorns in the flesh that you got, that you are still going through. A lot of times, you just gotta let it go, Let the problems go. Listen to me. Let the problems go. Let the storms run. And let the tempter keep on tempting. And then let the progress feel like that you'll never reach it. Just leave it up to God's grace and don't worry about it. You don't seek after a God like that. And when you always look for an answer, an answer, a solution, a solution, that's your problem. You just want to cure your diseased feet. Well, even if your feet was diseased till the day you die, don't you think that God's grace will still pull you through, Paul? See, don't look at the disease in your feet, it's your heart. You know what happens when these problems happen? King Asa, you should have just not worried about it. So what if Baasha Israel blocked access? So what if you got diseased in the feet? So what if you lost everything in your life? So what if the devil's raining hellfire brimstone on you? God's grace is there to protect you. Let them run and you don't worry about that. After all, aren't you still here? Isn't God still blessing you? Isn't God still taking care of you? You are evidence of God's grace, so just keep living in it. Did you seek after the Lord, really? Do you know who the Lord is? My grace is sufficient for thee. That's your Lord. Do you seek after that? No, you seek for healing, answer, solving the problem. That's what you seek for. No, you need to seek after God's grace. Do you know who the Lord is if you really sought after him? Forgiveness. When we make a mistake, we let that dictate our whole life. And that's why people say, no, it doesn't work. I know what you said, preacher, reading the Bible, praying works against the sin problem, but I tried it, it don't work. I keep trying, it doesn't work. I keep yielding into sin, so I give up. That is tragic, that is tragic. You're not seeking after God then. You know why? You would have believed that God will forgive you if you come to Him and plead the blood and He gives you a clean slate. Why do you keep that one mistake in your head when God doesn't keep that one mistake in His head? See, you're not seeking after God, you're seeking after the cure for your feet, as always. You know, have you really sought the Lord? Do you know the Lord? Isn't that what the verse said? Sought the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That is a God full of power, omnipotence, and he controls the storm, and he can give you victory over sin, and he's the one that can help you spiritually grow even when you feel like you're gonna fail him. That's the kind of God you serve. Now can't you just let it go and trust Him? You know why? You know why? We're not willing to trust in God's ways of doing things. Why we can't surrender to Him to overcome some things in our lives. We doubt His power. And when you constantly fail in your sin, and when you constantly fail to pass the test that God tries to test you, we think that is more powerful than God. But I'll tell you one thing, His grace and His forgiveness proved you wrong. Right? Started all over again. God still used you. Now that's the kind of God you serve. Now, can't you trust in His power that if I were to apply this spiritual practice, I can get victory over this fleshly thing? But I know what happens. As soon as you plead the blood of forgiveness, great, you get a clean slate, but you doubt His power. You know what you should do every time you get a clean slate? Then trust in His power that if I read the Bible first thing in the morning, pray first thing in the morning, and if I guard my mind and prepare for that fleshly issue to come, then I will get victory. Why can't you believe in that? I'll tell you why you don't believe in that. You didn't even do that. I'll tell you why you didn't even do that. Because it was a 35-year gap. And you need to go back to how you overcame the hardness before. You know the sad thing in that verse? It's a positive thing too though. So let me try to tell you the sad and positive. Is that the verse said right here in chapter 16. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord but to the physicians. So that's sad that He was dying for years in his disease and never sought God once. He basically gave up. But you know what? The Holy Spirit indicated that the Lord was always there, he just needed to seek after him. If you go back to chapter 15, And verse 2, the prophet told him, if you seek him, he will be found of you. There's another verse that says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. You see that hope was always there when he was diseased in his feet. The good news is this. The good news is there is always help no matter how diseased your feet is. It's always there. I mean, your heart might deceive you and think that it's hopeless, there will never be help. But guess what? Jesus is in your heart and he's always there. He will never change that fact. Help is always there. No matter how bad it is. But the tragedy is that you still look at your feet as the disease and not your heart. The tragedy is you won't turn to your help. You won't turn to your help. You keep turning to doctors to heal you. That help is still there. Now my question to you, and the scripture urges you, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. It's up to you. You can stay stuck in your feet today again, or you will now receive help. Every head bow and every eye shut. The altar call is open. Most Christians I have talked to want to do something for the Lord, and they do have a genuine burden for lost souls dying and going to hell, or that they actually want to do something to win people to salvation. But perhaps the reason why a lot of them feel so burdened, but are unable to, is just that. They feel like they're unable to, they don't have the time, they don't have the resources, they don't have the money. That's exactly why Campaigns for Christ was started back in 2018. In just the past seven years, we've been taking believers like you to multiple continents across the globe, places hungry for the Word of God. Each campaign is short, 10 to 14 days, but the impact is eternal. And the cost? It's surprisingly affordable. I understand. Those are real concerns. But here's the truth. Campaigns for Christ has been making it possible since 2018 for everyday believers to step onto the mission field. These aren't long-term commitments, just 10 to 14 days. And you don't need prior experience. You'll go with a team. Best of all, trips are affordable, usually between $1,200 and $3,600, with airfare included. In less than a decade, the Lord has opened doors across multiple continents. Africa, South America, the Pacific, and the Middle East undercover. We've seen souls saved in Malawi, Mexico, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, and beyond. and future campaigns are still being planned right now. Every campaign takes two kinds of people, those who go and those who help send them. Maybe God is calling you to step out and join a trip, or maybe he's calling you to strengthen the work through a monthly gift. Either way, all you have to do is just visit campaignsforchrist.org, donate, get connected, and take your place in this ministry.