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Shall we now turn once again
to the second book of Chronicles chapter 12. Second book of Chronicles chapter
12 and we shall read verse 14. Verse 14. and he did evil because he prepared
not his heart to seek the Lord. This is about Rehoboam, the king
of Judah. He did evil because he prepared
not his heart to seek the Lord. in the title this morning is
Prepare Your Heart and Mind to Seek the Lord. Prepare Your Heart
and Mind to Seek the Lord. Now whom is the Word of God talking
about? Here in 2 Chronicles 12 verse 14 it is
talking about Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the king and the
son of King Solomon. He was the grandson of the great
King David. Now after Solomon died, Rehoboam
became the next king. And our text says, and he did
evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. Is there something like this?
that you have to do? Are you to prepare your heart
to seek the Lord God and his Son, Jesus Christ? In everything
in life that we seek, we have to prepare. We have to prepare. There was an endurance race held
yesterday in Excel, London called Hyrops, a fitness race, and thousand
upon thousand, young and old, joined in. Surely, you can't
go for such a race, very tiring, very challenging. race, where
you have to do many different things, pulling and pushing weights
and so on. You can't just go there and do. No, you've got to prepare yourself.
You have to undergo rigorous preparation. And my son, like
many others, prepared himself for three months with total dedication. So you got to prepare. When do
we use the term seek or search? Now we use the term seek when
we don't have it. We don't have it. Or when we
lose something. These men prepared for that day,
for yesterday, which they were seeking, that they may find themself
fulfillment. by completing this race. And so we use this term and act
in this manner when we don't know something or we have not
found something or someone. And the word research, as you
know, is so commonly used today by all of us. It simply means
investigating, examining, searching, seeking, seeking. Now why should God tell a Jew
like King Rehoboam, to whom was given, to the whole people, the
Jewish nation, to them was given the oracles of God? to whom was
given the revelation of God. God chose prophets so that they
could speak his word. Why should God tell someone that
was born in a family where the word of God was read, where the
word of God was taught, where the temple was just next to his
headquarters, where the promises and the prophecies of God was
given? Why should such a person be told
to seek the Lord? You are perhaps born in a Christian
home, and you are reading the Bible and praying perhaps, and
you were taught to do so, you were taken to church from the
time that you were born, you went through Sunday school, and
different camps where you were once again taught about the Lord
and yet God could be saying to you, a person such as you, seek,
seek me, my child, my son, my daughter, you are not seeking,
you are not seeking, but you are doing your own will. Can it be that the Lord is saying
this to you? Can this be the kind of person
you are at this moment? Could you be doing evil because
you are not preparing to seek the Lord? Not preparing your
heart and your mind fully, dedicatedly? being focused to seek Him? Is
it not the Lord that has created you and formed you? You are not
your own, the Bible says. It is I who have made you and
not you yourself. Are you depending on your own
self? Is not the Lord God that has
made you, sustains you? And the truth is that after you
die, you will face him, face him personally, personally. Dear friends, the message all
throughout the ages from God, from the time Adam and Eve sinned
and lost that relationship with God and were separated and cut
off from God, The Lord's message has been, seek me, seek me. The father and his son Jesus
Christ never stops asking the people of the earth to seek him
and to find him. The Lord God says to the people
of the world in Isaiah chapter 55 verses 6 to 8, seek ye the
Lord while you may be found. Call upon his name while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him
and to our God for he will abundantly pardon And then the Lord goes
on to say, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are
not your ways. Therefore we got to seek his
ways. We are told about Rehoboam, he
did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. Now here is a man brought up,
as I said, where God is believed and God's knowledge is taught.
The temple of God was in Jerusalem. The headquarters of the king
was in Jerusalem. When he became the king, you
know, he was zealous for God. He was zealous for God. And Jeroboam,
the other king of the ten tribes in the north, He and the people of that 10th
tribe had departed from the faith in the Lord God and actually
Jeroboam the king was responsible for this. He did not want his
people to go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, thinking that
his people would depart from his tribes, the ten tribes that
were given to him. They would depart and go and
join Rehoboam, the king of Judah. So what did he do? Instead of
worshipping the Lord, he made two carves, two carves of gold,
and he placed them in two different parts of his kingdom. And he told the people, here
is your God. Here is your God, worship, worship. And it is this God that has delivered
you from the hands of Pharaoh. It is this God that has delivered
you from the bondage of the Egyptians. Rehoboam, the king of Judah,
the son of Solomon, was very angry for what Jeroboam had done
and he gathered his warriors and he wanted to make war against
Jeroboam and the ten tribes of Israel. You see the zeal for
the Lord that he showed He was ready to fight and die in order
that the other king and the people worship the Lord. But the Lord
sent his prophet and told him that he should not go to war
against his own people. And the people obeyed. Well,
I want to bring to your notice how a person can be very religious
and full of zeal, even ready to die for his religion. But we are told by God that Rehoboam
did evil because he prepared not to seek the Lord. He did not, with his whole heart
and mind, seek the Lord. And this goes to show he had
a form of religion. He kept the outward show of religion. He was committed to his religion,
but he truly did not know the Lord God Almighty personally. He did not know him. He did not
have a personal relationship with God. He did not have the
spirit of God in him. He did not depart from his sin,
even though he was religious. Could this be you? Very religious,
doing a lot of things, joining a lot of committees and work
groups. going perhaps to prison, to give
the gospel, doing social work that the church are engaged in,
but you personally don't love the Lord as God wants you to
love Him. You personally don't obey the
word of God as God wants you to obey Him and to be of one
heart and mind. with God. Look at the words of
the Lord in Isaiah chapter 55 as we read, Seek ye the Lord
while ye may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord
for he will have mercy, have mercy on him. To whom is God
talking to? He is talking to very religious
people, the people of Israel, who has the word of God with
them, the prophecies and all the great works that God showed
to them in Egypt and during the 40 years of their travel. He is talking to them. God is
asking the very nation that he has formed for himself and given
his word, his laws, his prophecies and promises. He is telling them,
seek the Lord while you may be found. Return unto the Lord. Forsake your wickedness and evil
ways. You see dear friends, Although
we may be brought up in a religious family and we go to church or
to the mosque or to the temple, we do not give much attention
to our evil ways. We think with our own thoughts
and the way that we should walk and with our own convictions
We can enter into the kingdom of God. We can enter into heaven. We don't want to learn the thoughts
of the Lord. We don't want to see and know
his path as he has shown to us, as it is written to us. So the Lord says, let him return
to the Lord. Return from what? From where? From your ignorance. from your
sinful and rebellious ways. Let him repent, meaning turn
from your ways, turn from your ideologies, turn from the way
that what you do and what you think and what you feel and come
to understand my ways, my thoughts. We are told that for three years
After Rehoboam became the king, the king and the people walked
in the way of David and Solomon. They actually walked according
to the way of David and Solomon. 2 Chronicles chapter 11 verse
17, during this time the king and the people built cities put
captains in them, formed a strong army to defend themselves and
built storehouses to store in grain, oil and wine. They walked in the way of David
and his grandfather, his grandfather and Solomon, his father. This would mean They did the
exterior things of what David and Solomon did. David was a
man after the heart of God. He was a very godly man. He loved
God and had a very great deep relationship with Him. He confessed
his sins, he admitted his guilt and rebellion against God and
he truly walked humbly with a contrite heart before the Lord God Almighty. And God revealed himself to David. God spoke to David and prophesied
through him and promised that the Messiah would come through
his seed. But Rehoboam had no deep repentance
and relationship with God. He was not a converted person.
And so we are told in chapter 12, verse 1, when it came to
pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened
himself, he forsook the law of the Lord. You see that? And all
Israel with him. All Israel with him. This is
where his real desire and heart was. This was his treasure. The moment he and the people
got richer, established a strong army, progressed in development,
he and the people forsook the law of the Lord. Jesus says,
where your treasure is, there your heart will be. Rehoboam's
very nature His very heart was not after to seek God and find
Him, love Him, honour Him, obey Him and find fulfilment in God,
but his heart was fixed on the material prosperity, on defence,
on fame, on establishment, on development, on security and
the like. So the moment Rehoboam had established
the kingdom and strengthened himself. Like Solomon, he forsook
the law, forsook the law, the doctrines of the Lord. What about
you? Where are you at this moment
of your life? and perhaps you will keep seeking
till your old age, never ever giving serious thought to seek
after the eternal things of life and confirm yourself to the calling
that God has given to you. Even after you have got what
you got, you will seek for more and for more. The Bible constantly tells us
that the Lord looks down to find if there is any that seek Him. He looks down from above to see
if there is any If there is any that wants to
know him, to come under his sovereignty, to come under his guidance, to
love his ways and to love his commands and his justice and
his love, and the answer the Lord gives is no. No, there is none. In Psalm 14
verse 2, we are told the Lord looked down from heaven upon
the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. And the answer is no. We go after
the knowledge that will give us good jobs, good salary, good
position, unlimited comfort, luxury cars and houses. We want
to know and relate with men and women of high degree, with lofty
thoughts and imitate them in our outlook, copy their views
and make their opinions our own so that we be acceptable in the
society. The Lord says, there is none
righteous, not one. All have gone astray. All have
gone astray. Therefore, God in his loving
kindness sent his prophets to tell the people to seek the Lord
and to return to the Lord. Return to me, he said. And then
ultimately at the appointed time, God sent his only son to tell
us that we are lost. and God has sent him to find
us and bring us back to him, to the Father. Jesus says, repent,
for the kingdom of God is at hand. I have not come to seek
the righteous, the Lord Jesus says, but sinners to repentance. I have come to find the lost
sheep That's you and me, dear friends. You and me. Dear friends,
remember, we are lost and cut off from the holy and righteous
God. Today the Lord is asking you
to return to him. Return to him. He's asking you
to speak to him. being brought up with the word
of God in his house, with the temple worshipped next to his
place, yet he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. A person who wants to seek the
Lord says, as it is stated in Psalm 27 verse 8, Lord, when
thou Say, seek ye my face. My heart said unto thee, thy
face, Lord, will I seek. You see, when you hear the Lord
telling you, seek me first, your heart should say, Lord, I want
to seek you with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my
soul, with all my strength. Has that happened to you? And are you really seeking Him
with everything that you have? When a person understands what
it means to seek the Lord, this person cannot but hold on to
this mission in life. Why? Because when you seek the
Lord and find Him, you begin to live. You begin to live. God is the life giver. He is
the source of life, eternal life. Without him it is death, eternal
death, hell fires. Prophet Amos reminds us saying in chapter 5 verse 6, Seek the
Lord and he shall live. Seek the Lord and you shall live,
lest he break out like fire upon you and devour you and there
be none to quench it. A very serious warning, dear
friends. Nobody likes to be told and to
be warned. But God is a surgeon, is a doctor,
a healer of our soul. And he knows that our soul is
sick, is depraved, is corrupt, is dead. And therefore he wants
to awaken it. Therefore he wants to give us
life. And so he says, seek it. because at the end the consequence
of it is terrible. You know the Lord Jesus Christ
teaches us to ask for example in Matthew chapter 7 verse 7,
ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find,
knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that seeketh
receive it and he that seeketh find it and to him that knocketh
it shall be opened What is the Lord Jesus Christ asking us to
ask of the Father? Most of the time we ask for all
the material things that we need, comfort, strength, good health,
good jobs, good houses and more and more. But what is the best
thing that the Lord God is asking us to ask? because at the end
of this teaching Jesus says, will he not give you that which
is good? Will not the father give you
that which is good? So what is that good thing? In God's estimate, what is the
best thing? What is the best gift that he
wants to give you and me? It is the everlasting thing,
the heavenly thing, to inherit the kingdom of God. It is to
inherit the wealth of Christ himself. So what is this inheritance? What's a good gift? It is the
Holy Spirit. The very Spirit of the Risen
Lord. What can be better, in God's
estimate, better than the Holy Spirit? What can be better? His own Spirit, which gives life
and the Kingdom itself. It is in this context that the
Saviour commands us to ask that we receive the best gift, the
Holy Spirit, which is the very life of Christ Jesus. It is to
give this gift, the Holy Spirit, the heavenly inheritance, that
the Son of God came and laid his life for our salvation. Jesus, the Son of God, became
man and shed his blood so that he could make us right with God. Right with God, Jesus, the son
of God, sacrificed his life in our place. He alone, the only
pure and prophet man that was sent down to walk on this earth
and destroy the works of Satan, overcome sin, he alone could
satisfy God's righteousness. He alone could turn away the
wrath of God that was upon us because of our sin. So Jesus
took our place, dear friends, your place and my place, and
suffered and died so that we would be spared of eternal damnation
in hell. Our search for peace, love and
hope ends when we understand and accept the sacrifice of Jesus
on the cross. He performed for us this great
sacrifice for our salvation. Our search for God is made complete
when we put our faith in Christ Jesus and make him our Lord and
God. Jesus makes us righteous when
we agree with what Christ has done for us. and say, Lord, we
are sinners, we are cut off from you, we don't have this life,
we don't have this righteousness, we don't have this holiness,
give us thy Holy Spirit, Lord. Give us, that we may be able
to obey you and love you. And in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ, by the Holy Spirit that he gives us, we understand ourselves. Our sinfulness, our rebellion,
our weakness, our total depravity and inability to please God. We come to realise that with
Christ Jesus we can overcome Satan's sin and we will be raised
from the dead as Jesus rose from the dead. What a marvellous plan
the Lord has for us. What a glorious hope he has given
to mankind. We come to understand that there
is a time, dear friend, and this is so very important to know
and understand and to remember that there is a time given to
each of us to seek the Lord, to forsake our sin, to put our
faith in Christ Jesus and build a strong relationship with him.
There is a time given to each of us and the time is always
Now, it doesn't matter whether you are a 3-year-old or 10-year-old
or 20-year-old or 16-year-old or 30, 40, 90, the time is now. Now, while we still have life,
we cannot ask God to save us after we are dead and we are
at the throne of God for judgement. No, we cannot bang on the door
of heaven after our death and plead to the Lord God, please
make me enter in, make me enter in. Look what the Lord Jesus
says in Luke chapter 13 verse 25, when once the master of the
house has risen up and has shut the door and you begin to stand
outside and you keep on knocking at the door. The Lord will not
open, but you keep knocking and knocking and say, Lord open the
door for me and he will answer and say, look I don't know you,
I don't know you, who you are, what a slap on the face, what
a slap on the face. Think about it. Examine yourself,
dear friends. Do you hear the Lord saying to
you, I don't know you? Who are you? Well, I'm only saying what the
Lord Jesus Christ is saying and warning us. You know, there are
many who claim to be Christians. In these days, all of a sudden,
film stars, pop singers, famous boxes. and wrestlers and athletes
and businessmen are saying that they follow Jesus and they love
Jesus and they talk about the love of Jesus and how we must
love all and while they tell us to love all and accept all
they are enjoying their lives in the things of the world and
they tell us to accept all manner of sins that God hates Even pastors
and many church leaders, like the Pope, say the same thing. We must love all and accept all. There cannot be any separation.
But God is holy. Why should he say to us, repent? Why should he say to us, seek
the Lord and return to me? but they do not understand these
basic things because they are not truly born of the Holy Spirit. And now you could be saying,
when these great men are telling they love God and that God loves
all and accepts all, whether they be living in sin or not,
who are you to tell us that we must seek Christ Jesus and we
must repent of our sinful ways in order to be accepted by God. Well, there are many that will
come in my name, Jesus says. There are many that will deceive
the people. Besides, Jesus says, all those
that say, Lord, Lord, are not his followers. and they will
not enter into the kingdom of God. They are a pretend. Wolves instinctually clone and
they will perish. Actually Jesus told his disciples
Yet a little while is the light with you. The light is with you. Walk while you have the light,
lest darkness comes upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not where he is going. While you have the light, believe
in the light, that you may be the children of light. These
things Jesus spoke and departed. Dear friends, the light of the
risen Lord Jesus Christ is still on this earth by which he enlightens
the world through the Holy Spirit. But very soon, God will take
away his Spirit from the earth as he took it away during the
time of Noah. What is the Spirit of God? It
is his word. It is his word. Jesus says my
words are spirit and they are life-giving words. They are life-giving
words. You know the word of God, the
Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament are the two
witnesses that God has given for the people. The Old Testament
as a witness when the commandments were put into the Ark and what
was it called? Witness. They stood as a witness
and that Word of God was read to the people and the Word of
God stood as a witness and so it is with the New Testament.
The Word of God stands as a witness to the old and to the new. And a time will come when man
will totally live by the fleshes in the days of Noah and people
will be totally ignorant. There will be no knowledge of
the word of God. People will be under total delusion
and will be under the spell of Satan. Everything spoken and
believed will be opposite to the teachings of the Bible. That
is why there is so much of suppression. of the Word of God. Don't preach.
You are hurting and insulting people. The Roman Catholic Church,
for example, wherever it went with the colonizers, they never
gave the Word of God, whether it be China, whether it be India,
whether it be down in South America or wherever. They never translated
the Word of God and gave it to the people in their own language. Why? That's a question that every
Roman Catholic must ask. Why? The word of God is the light
of the nations. Is it not? It brings salvation. It brings total change and destroys
the darkness. that the people lived in, but
they would not give the word of God to the people, rather
they gave the crucifix and the idols and beads of the rosary
and so on. If you get an opportunity to
watch this film called Silence, watch it and you will know what
the Roman Catholic Church offered these Chinese people. Nothing, no word of God, but
mass and prayers, the rosary, and the beads, and the idols. How sad, dear friends. So, now is the time. These are fearful days. Now is
the time to seek the Lord God and His Son Jesus Christ. Do
not neglect your salvation. It is far more precious than
gold and rubies and far more valuable than anything of this
world. When you die, you will leave
everything behind, but take your soul before Him. And Jesus would say, if you are
not born of the Spirit, Who are you? I don't know you. Depart
from me. The Lord warns us that we should
not harden our hearts. The Lord desires that we seek
Him and find Him. Look what King Rehoboam did. He began to establish himself.
He began to strengthen himself. He began to make himself secure
and self-sufficient. He made storehouses and houses
to store wine and oil and grains. And we make every effort to save,
perhaps in the bank and to become secure. And the Word of God tells us
that we should encourage and warn one another daily that we
should not harden our hearts to the calling of the Lord God
Almighty. Let me end these words from the
scripture with the words from the scripture, but seek first
the kingdom of God and the rest will be added to you. Whatever
is your necessity, The Lord will provide, I can guarantee you,
for he has done that to me and he does everyone that put their
trust in him and seek first God's kingdom. But let me read this
for you and finish. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 13, the
scriptures that we read in our second reading. But exhort one
another daily while it is called today. lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. Let us pray. How great art thou, O Lord our
God, How loving and compassionate art Thou, O Lord, and how patient
art Thou, that Thou should, O Lord, day in and day out remind us our primary goal, that we are
to seek Thee, that Thou, that we make Thee our treasure. O gracious Saviour, Help us,
O Lord, our God, that we love Thee with all our heart, with
all our soul, with all our strength. And, O Lord, if we have not found
Thee as yet, that we may seek Thee with everything that we
have in our system. O God, our Father, bless us now.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Prepare your heart and mind to seek the Lord
| Sermon ID | 121241225142881 |
| Duration | 42:44 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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