Let's turn, if you will, with me to 2 Kings. I want to just read verse 11 and 12 before I bring the word to us this morning. Jehoiada has all of these chariots, these guardsmen, all of these centurions, these leaders of soldiers. He's told them what's happened after six years. And now they're guarding the temple of the Lord. They're guarding the palace. It appears they're guarding the palace. They really have Athaliah trapped inside. And they're waiting for this moment, for the revelation to the crowds that are coming to the temple. They're waiting for the special moment when they're going to let them know something that none of the country knows. And that is that there is a God in heaven who protects his remnant. And there is a little boy that Athaliah didn't slay, one of the grandsons. That's where we begin in verse 11. And the guards stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house around the altar, that's all the temple, and then the house on behalf of the king, that's the palace. Then Jehoiada brought out the king's son and put the crown on him and gave him the testimony that we find in Deuteronomy. And they proclaimed him king and anointed him and they clapped their hands and said, Long live the king. Father, may this message for us, in spite of the sadness and the slain of all but one of the king's sons and Athaliah's grandsons, let us see the sweetness in what is going on here. It reminds me of what's happening in the midst of America right now in the slaying of babies. There are those who are, as Jehoshaphat, stealing away some who are recognizing there's real life to be protected. And you're still doing it today. Thank you that your lamp lit for your remnant will never go out. Thank you. You have a plan that you will perform through your zeal, your zeal, the zeal of the Lord. Now, impart to your word today a sweetness that will resonate in our hearts and that we will adopt as a sweetness that will become a part of our very own lives. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen. Motivational speaker Ron White often tells the story of him being in Navy boot camp. He had just been in a few days. He was exhausted. He was intimidated. He was scared. He was hungry and homesick. He saw another sailor coming his way down a hallway, and he was leaning against the wall. This sailor was about to graduate. And the sailor looked at him. He could see the fatigue in his expression. He could see the give-up-itis that he had. And he went by, and he kind of whispered to him, hang in there. Hang in there. You can do it. Hang in there. You can do it. Run light, never ever learned who that man was, never saw him again. But he said those words shot through him like electricity. He replayed those words every single day all the way through boot camp. And when he made it through boot camp and was about to graduate, he was walking down that same hallway when he met three men that were new recruits, just a few days into their boot camp. He looked at them. They looked washed up, busted, ruined, wanting out. So he walked over to them and he whispered, hang in there. You can do this. Hang in there. You can do this. And he said he could see the light in their faces light up. He knew he had passed on what had been passed on to him. Now I want to be honest, totally honest with you so you understand. I announced a series before I preached it. I've heard people that have said, don't ever do that. Don't announce the full series of where you're going, that way you can cut it off wherever you want to. But I announced that it was 1 Kings 17.1 through 2 Kings 13.21. We're on message number 39, but when Christmas came and the New Year came around and I read chapters 9, 10, 11 especially, then 12 and 13, 13 talks about the death of Elisha. I realized that chapters 9, 10, and 11 are the three bloodiest chapters about in all of the Bible. And as I looked at that, I thought to myself, hmm, wouldn't this be a beautiful time to just wrap up the series and say, well, we finished our series in Elijah, Elisha, and we're going to move on. And I heard a whisper from the Holy Spirit over and over as I debated that. Hang in there. You can do this. Hang in there. You can do this. Remember, you announced a series. It's integrity. You announced a series that goes through 2 Kings 13 verse 21. I'm glad I listened to that. I just want to say to all of you, there are things that happen to us in our life. Maybe you're on the home stretch of something God has called you to do, a call or a task. He's called you to. And you're afraid you're not going to be able to finish. And I want you to hear from heaven today the whisper of God that says, hang in there. You can do this. Hang in there. You can do this. Some of you haven't even started a task God's asked you to do. And he's asked you, and this has been years since he's asked you to do it. God's saying, OK. I haven't changed my mind. How about changing yours? Want to get started? And then hang in there. You can do it. You can make it to the end. And you can be able not only to begin the course, but to finish the course. The scripture says that Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, 7, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4, 7. Now I want to summarize for a moment the setting of chapter 11. So we're all on the same plane and we all seem to know the names. These are interesting names. I wouldn't encourage you to name a child Athaliah unless you just have to. It's like Jezebel. These are names that have roots. One of the neatest gals I had growing up that I knew was Atha, but I'm glad it wasn't Athaliah. Anyway, I want you to know, here is the setting. Athaliah, she is the daughter of Jezebel. She married the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat's son, Joram or Jehoram. A lot of these names have a Je before it. And when she did, she introduced Baal worship into the king's palace and into the idolatrous nation of Judah. They already had their idols. They already had all of these idols of Malak and Chemosh that they had brought in, but now she brought in Baalism. This Baal worship in Judah seems to be why Jeremiah changes his focus from the northern kingdom in chapter 11 and 12 and doesn't even mention the name of Elisha, but he wants us to know of the fall of Baalism both in Israel, in the northern kingdom, the ten tribes, In the two tribes, this chapter has the fall of Baalism in the southern kingdom. Now, Athaliah heard not only that Jehu had killed the king of Israel, whose name as well was Joram, and she knew that the son Ahaziah that he had gone to see him because he was sick, he was wounded from the battle at Ramoth Gilead and he too had been killed. He had been killed as well as her mom Jezebel had been slaughtered by Jehu. When she saw that her son was dead a dastardly thought came into her mind. I can be unrivaled the Queen Mother of Judah. That's a dastardly thought. So she did a dastardly deed. She quietly and quickly sought to remove all of her rivals to becoming Queen Mother of Judah. Since Ahaziah had quite a few sons, I'd imagine that with different wives, he probably had dozens of sons, but however many it was, the number is not given to us. But Athaliah rose and destroyed the royal family, all of them, all of them that would have been in line to assume the throne. And she now was positioned so that they could not become the next king. But living right there in the palace was one child that she missed, that she never knew she missed. There was a little boy, one year old, that Jehoshaphat, the wife of the high priest, Jehoiada, was able to steal away from the royal nursery and bring out and bring into the house of the Lord, into one of the bedrooms in the house of the Lord, where temple ministers lived. And there, where Athaliah didn't go, she went into the house of Baal. But she wasn't much about the temple of the Lord. And there, for six years, this little child Jehoshaphat got wind of her plan and God helped her miraculously intervene. This sister of King Ahaziah grabbed the youngest son of Ahaziah, Athaliah's grandson, this nursing baby boy named Joash or Jehoash, and stole him away with his own royal nurse, put him in this bedroom in the temple, and there he lived. Now that's the ground floor of this message. Now I want us to look at the four main characters that stand out in the text. And I believe each of them has a lesson to teach us from their lives. First of all, we look at the Queen Mother, Athaliah. Then we'll look at Jehoshabah, the wife of Jehoiada, the high priest. Then we'll look at the baby boy, Jehoash, or Jehoash, who became the next king of Judah, the only one of Ahaziah's sons not killed by Athaliah, the queen mother. And then the priest himself, the high priest, Jehoiada, the husband of Jehoshabah. And as we look at these four main characters, each of their lives have four major lessons that every last one of us need to learn. What are these four lessons? The first one is sadly from a negative, from Athaliah. The last three are positive, but they're all important for us all. Let's look at the first. Our selfish ambition can be more shocking than any of us want to admit and more costly than we can ever imagine. This is the awful story of Athaliah. We read in verse 1, now when Athaliah, the mother of Isaiah, saw that her son was dead, now there's a comma there, and in the comma is this dastardly thought, this dastardly, wicked, evil thing that came to her. She arose and destroyed all the royal family. Wow. Our selfish ambition can be more shocking than any of us want to admit. This Jezebel of a woman, Athaliah, almost a carbon copy of her mother, Jezebel. This queen mother realized her chance and sin for her was no spoiler. Sometimes for some of us, if the temptation to sin, if we think just 20 minutes ahead of what we're going to do, of what will happen after we've sinned, I just ask you when you're tempted to think of, where will I be 20 minutes later? Where will I be 20 minutes later? Not just a year later, two years. Where will I be 20 minutes after I've done this? Where was she? She was bereft of her grandchild, of her grandchildren, her grandsons. What a terrible thing. For her, the death of her son, was this big break in life. Have you ever had your big break? and the big break can only be gotten by selfish ambition, by wickedness, and by sin. She seized the throne. She killed off her competitors, all of her son Isaiah's sons, the royal princes. What a diabolical scheme it was. She killed them so that she might herself rule the kingdom. She desired to be queen. We cannot fully understand sometimes. the wicked ambitions that we have. She had a wicked ambition. Selfish ambition in you and in me can ruin any of us who go down very far on that tragic road. Now Athaliah, she was willing to kill off her own grandsons. How many grandmas do we have in the room that just be willing to say, I'm a grandma? Got any grandmas here? Yes, we do. Can you imagine killing off all of your grandsons? That's a tragic road. Just so you can have what you want, how exactly she planned to do this is not revealed to us in the word. I mean, could she have done it herself? It's possible. I think she had it done. How she did it isn't told us in the word, but she carried out a slaughter. She was successful, or so it seemed. Unimaginable, unthinkable, but soon there are a heap of dead grandsons. in the palace of the king. Now, one writer, it was a dramatic thing to read it. I read one particular writer that put it this way. I don't believe it happened this way, but it got my attention, so I thought I'd just tell it to you. No one else had this idea, but he says, as all of them were slain with the sword, one of them was missed. And out of the heap came a cry, and Jehoshaphat heard the cry. and grabbed the baby out of the dead pile. It really sounds marvelous, but that wasn't how it happened. The Word tells us how it happened. The Word says that she stole him away from among the king's sons when she learned of the plan. Now, this founder of Baal worship in Judah, Athaliah, she had no concern about God's remnant, no concern about the lamp of the Lord's godly line. She had no desire for David's dynasty to succeed. As we search for clues for the selfish ambition of Athaliah, we look back to her husband. She didn't get it from him. She maybe gave it to him. We read in 2 Chronicles, just the way Jezebel made Ahab worse, Joram was made worse by his wife Athaliah. In 2 Chronicles 21.4 we find that here when Jehoshaphat died, this good father Jehoshaphat the king, Joram to establish his throne believed that the only way he could be the king and not be rivaled was to kill off all his brothers. 2 Chronicles 21.4 read about it. So he killed off all his brothers with the sword. and some also of the princes of Israel that were in the northern kingdom. He wanted no rivals anywhere. Perhaps Athaliah, his wife, coaxed him into this dastardly deed. We don't know, but we know from 2 Chronicles 22, 1-4 that Athaliah's son Ahaziah became the king of Judah, and it says there his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly. So she's just like Jezebel. She was the one that taught Ahaziah wickedness. And we read in 2 Chronicles 21 17 that God brought judgment on King Joram for killing off his own brothers. We find that the Arabs and the Philistines, we haven't heard about them very much, the Arabs and the Philistines carried off Joram and Athaliah's sons, with the exception of one Jehoahaz, and Jehoahaz is another name for Ahaziah, and Athaliah saw all of her sons, all of her sons carried off into captivity. She lost them and that still didn't blunt her poisonous selfish ambition. She proceeded now to say, I not only want to not see my sons, I want to not see my grandsons because I have this poison in me. She proceeded to slaughter them, to kill them off. She had only one purpose, to secure the throne and be the unchallenged Queen Mother of Judah. She thereby secured Baalism as the God of Judah to replace the worship of the Lord in the temple of the Lord. They had a house of Baal, but she would have, if she could have, if it hadn't been for the high priest Jehoiada, she would have taken out everything in the house of the Lord. But God had a remnant. He had Jehoiada. And unbeknownst to her, she also had a rival. Can you imagine her rival? A one-year-old little crying, nursing baby boy in the house of the Lord where she did not frequent and maybe hadn't even been. And Jehoshaphat has the royal nurse. nursing this baby and teaching that baby to walk and to talk. And Jehoiada and Jehoshaba raised Joash as a child who was one of the children that worked and played because they had temple ministers that had families that lived in different parts of the outskirts of the temple precincts. Athaliah would probably have seen this little boy from time to time playing around. She had no clue that she had missed the last of her grandsons. Athaliah's selfish ambition is shocking, but I want you to know, I just told you, though it's shocking, horrible, it's more costly than you could ever imagine. God will not be mocked. He wouldn't let her selfish ambition go unchecked. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you sow to the flesh of the flesh, you'll reap corruption. If you sow to the spirit of the spirit, you'll reap everlasting life. Now Jehoiada, the sheltering shepherd in Judah, was mentoring this little king to be. And when the fullness of the time was come to reveal this little king and crown him, Jehoiada had this well planned out strategy. Pastor Larry read it. All the places completely guard the house of the Lord. Encircle it. Completely guard the palace, but you're not guarding it as much as you're keeping Athaliah in. What a strategy, verses 4 to 10. I won't try to speak much of it except to say there was a plan and there was a moment when God told Jehoiada, this is the time. This is the time. Athaliah learned that the cost of selfish ambition was deadly and final. The degree of detail that Jeremiah includes here is very, very interesting, very interesting. All the providing of protection for this little king. And at the proper moment Jehoiada provided these guardsmen, these centurions, these chariots that belonged to David and to bring all of the shields and swords of David into the temple. And when the guards were stationed, so they surrounded the king. He was brought out before the people six years later. The royal crown was placed upon his head. He was anointed. It was official. The soldiers in the crowd burst out with shouts. Long live the king! And the uproar reached the palace. Perhaps the windows were open and Athaliah could hear an uproar. And so she probably went to a place she may not have ever been before, but she went into the temple of the Lord. for the first time, maybe, or maybe she'd been there before. She saw a young boy standing by the pillar where a legitimate king would be, and the little boy had a crown on his head, and the trumpeters were blasting their trumpets, and the people with their palm branches, you can imagine, they are just waving to the king, hail to the king, and the priest has ordered the officials, They say, long live the king, and they're shouting, long live the king. Didn't take Athaliah long when she walked in and saw what was going on to begin to rip her clothes and to yell, treason, treason. Ironic that she would yell that because she was the one that was really guilty of treason. Jehoiada the priest and the guards, they weren't intimidated by her protest. They probably anticipated it. No doubt he had been planning on it. The high priest ordered the officials to bring the woman outside of the temple and to take her towards the king's palace and at the horse's gate to execute her. He didn't want her slain in the house of the Lord. And there, the reign of terror was over. The cost of selfish ambition is death because the scripture says in Romans 623, the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. First of all, our selfish ambition can be more shocking than any of us want to admit, and more costly than any of us could ever imagine. Secondly, our selfless sacrifice keeps the lamp of God burning in our dark, dark world. This lesson comes from the wife of Jehoiada, the high priest, Jehoshabah, or known in chronicles as Jehoshabiah. We read in verse 2 and 3, it says, But Jehoshabba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being put to death. And she put him and his nurse in a bedroom, and the bedroom was in the house of the Lord. Remember when Tobiah and Nehemiah had to be taken out of the house of the Lord, he was living there. There were bedrooms in the house of the Lord. Thus they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death. And he remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah reigned over the land. When wicked Athaliah killed the heirs of David's throne, the faithful remnant in Judah must have wondered what we sometimes wonder in America and people around the world are wondering today. And that is, where is God? Where is God? What is God doing? What's He doing? Why would He make a covenant promise to David and not keep it in having all His sons killed off? Why? Why? Why? Why would he jeopardize and then allow the prophecies and the messianic hopes from Judah to be lost? Beloved, I want you to know when it's darkest, God is still on the throne. And whatever's going on in your life right now, I don't care how dark it is, God is still on the throne. You don't know everything that's going on right now. in the remnant he had, Jehoiada the priest and his precious wife Jehoshaphat. They believed in the promises of God, they had faith in the word of God, they stepped in and at the risk of Jehoshaphat's life she courageously did God's will. She was herself not only the wife of the high priest, but listen to this, she was a princess, she was in line if Athaliah died to have the queenship herself. She could have killed off Athaliah and been the queen. But she was of a different breed. She was of a different belief. She was a princess, a daughter of King Joram, a sister to Ahaziah. She was this little baby boy's aunt. How such a godly woman could come out of such a sinful family is a miracle of the grace of God. She came out of a poison, dastardly, wicked family. I want you to know if you have grown up in a wicked, evil family, it is not a death sentence for you. The grace of God can reach into your dark world. God knows how to break through. This princess of Judah, she had no selfish ambition like the queen. She risked her life. She stole this one-year-old baby boy, Joash, from the royal nursery. She, with her husband, Jehoiada, and this royal nurse, they hid him in a bedroom in the temple. Warren Wiersbe says this. He says, as Joash grew older, he probably mingled and played with children. in the temple court and he was not recognized as an heir to the throne. Who can know all the kids there? He's just one of them playing. Nobody knows why. This is a lesson. If you forget everything else I'm going to say today, remember this. This is the most important thing I'm going to say. I'm going to talk about something that is missed in the house of the Lord all over America and around the world. It's called the lesson of confidentiality. Let me talk about it. Millions of believers in America believe gossip is fine. You forget that scripture says in Romans 1, 28 to 32, that when God gives people up to a reprobate mind, two of the sins are gossip and slander. Gossip and slander. Well, you say, I only told my best friend, who only told her or his best friend, who only told their best friend, who only told their best friend, and then what happens? Everybody knows. I want you to listen to this. His sweet wife, Jehoshabah, his royal nurse, three people kept a confidentiality upon which the Davidic line, the Messiah, the Messianic line was counting on, and they kept that confidential for six years. Six years, three people kept the confidence. In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of the Karaites and the guards. He took the elite and he got them there and he says, I'm going to tell you something and I'm going to put you under oath. You're under oath now. I'm going to show you something you don't know about, but I'm going to show you something that if you share this, the very person I'm going to introduce to you will be slain. And David's promises. will be over. Will you swear? Will you swear not to tell this? This has been kept a secret by three of us for six years and he shared with them and showed them the little king himself. Oh beloved, what a lesson is embodied in Jehoshaphat and the royal nurse and Jehoiada. They had the patience to wait six years for God's perfect timing. Ecclesiastes 3.11 says, God makes everything beautiful in his time. Faith and patience go together. The writer of Hebrews 6.11 and 12 says, and we desire each one of you. to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. It's through faith and patience we inherit the promises. Isaiah 28 verse 16. is amazing. The prophecy of Jesus coming says, Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. Whoever believes will not be in haste. The moment you know something confidential, there will be a moment in your life when you have to tell somebody. You have to tell somebody. And it's that moment when you're tempted to do that evil that you need to think about Jehoshaphat, Jehoiada, and a royal nurse. You don't have to tell somebody. Beloved, in God's gracious providence, he watched over this little child as well as his three caretakers who alone knew for six years who he was, where he was, what he was doing. If the queen mother had known it, it would have been curtains for Jehoash or Joash. During those six years, God was moving in Jehoiada, the high priest, giving him a plan to put Joash on the throne, taking Eliah off the throne. Now I want to say one last thought about Jehoshaphat before we go on. Men, I want you to know this. I want you to know that who you are if you're married is probably far more about who you married than who you are. So if you see her around, look at her. The success of any man of God revolves around who his wife is, who his Jehoshabah is, and how she is one with him in his ministry or opposed or somehow competing with him. If you are one with your husband in dedication to the Lord, God's will in your marriage and in your ministry will be incredibly important. If you're not one, Pastor Larry and I were just talking this past week or two about pastors that we know who have fallen, who have lost the ministry for one reason, their wife, who was not one with them in ministry. Number three. We've told you our selfish ambition can be more shocking than any of us want to admit, more costly than we can imagine. We've told you our selfless sacrifice keeps the lamp of God burning in our dark, dark world. Number three, our salvation by God is not for fame or glory but for God's purpose to make us his small but faithful remnant. Notice, if you will, This lesson comes from the nephew of Jehoshaphat, King Ahaziah's son, Jehoash or Jehoash, whom God miraculously saved from Athaliah's destruction to become the next king of Judah. In verses 4 to 12 we read about it and I have read it to you, Pastor Larry has read it. Let's talk about it. Verse 21 says he began to reign when he was only seven years old. Now you can imagine who was really reigning was Jehoiada the priest reigning through him, but he was his mentor. Imagine all Israel. They didn't know the truth. Imagine as the truth leaked out. There is one who lives. There is one in the Davidic line, the queen missed one little baby boy unable to walk or talk or run even when he was one year old. One little child, one little child saved by our baby bottle campaign. One little child. Don't forget to pick up a baby bottle. Don't forget to fill it. Why? Because one little baby can make all the difference. God cares about his messianic promises. He cares about every little boy or girl. Forgive us, Lord, when we accuse you of not caring. Here in this chapter in verse 4, Jehoiada the priest sent for the Karaites. These were like the centurions that were over the guards, that were over all the soldiers. They were going to become God's means of securing the kingship for little seven-year-old Joash These Karaites were captains similar to centurions over military personnel. They helped Jehoiada the priest. They surrounded the temple. They surrounded the palace. And they helped install Joash as king and assassinate the queen mother who had committed the treason. Little Joash had no idea growing up how protected he was. I might go on to say that though it mentions nothing about it in the text, he also had his guardian angel or angels guarding him too. He was not saved to be famous or glorious. Even though they said, long live the king, he wasn't saved to have palm branches thrown down in front of him or cloaks thrown down in front of him as they were wont to do. But he was saved for a messianic purpose, for a divine purpose, that Jesus would come incarnate in Bethlehem in David's line. The promises of the Lord are so important. If you read in Isaiah 11, it says, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. In Isaiah 9, 6 and 7 it says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and of peace, there shall be no end on the throne of David. and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with the justice and righteousness from this time forth and evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. And I want to stop and tell you, beloved, it came over me in a strange way. And as it did this week, and as I realized it, I realized that each one of us, some of you spared from abortion, that are alive today. Who spared you? The zeal of the Lord has done this. He has saved you by grace through faith. The zeal of the Lord has done this. From before the foundation of the world, He planned for you. He knew about you. And in His zeal, He protected you. Why? To fulfill his call. And each of us, though we're just part of a small little remnant called the church, have been protected and brought to this moment by the zeal of the Lord who has performed this. Last of all, number four, our secure sheltering, shepherding of those marked for destruction is a work of God with rich rewards. Here we look at probably the most important person that made all this happen, Jehoshaphat's husband, a high priest, Jehoiada, the uncle of Joash, who with the help of his wife secured Joash from a bloody death. He sheltered Joash in hiding securely. He shepherded this little boy. The picture is what God dreams of us doing in each other's lives. God dreams of us being Jehoidas. He dreams of us snatching others from the burning, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, Jude 22. Now notice verse 17, verse 17 through 20. And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord's people and also between the king and the people. Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal and tore it down. His altars and his images they broke in pieces. They killed Matten, the priest of Baal, before the altars. And the priests posted watchmen over the house of the Lord. And he took the captains, the chariots, the guards, and all the people of the land. And they brought the king down from the house of the Lord, marching through the gate of the guards to the king's house. They took him to the palace, and he took his seat on the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athali had been put to death with a sword at the king's house. What happened as the result of the mentoring? The security, the sheltering, the shepherding of this little baby boy marked for destruction but saved, protected, taught. And Jehoiada the priest and his wife Jehoshabah and the nurse. Oh, the rich reward of such a work. And I ask you today, whose lives are you counting for today? Who have you taken in? Who are you working with? Who are you helping? Who are you mentoring? Who are you fostering? Who are you taking into your home? Who are you taking into your lives? Who are you going after? In closing, I want to read just a couple little paragraphs out of a book I'm reading. God's Salvage Plan for Broken Lives. It's called Restored. It's by Dan Schaefer. I want you to hear this in closing. This is out of the introduction. Is this your story? What is distress, a painful situation, a misfortune, a state of danger and desperate need? What is restore, to put or bring back into existence or use, to put again in possession of something? Years ago, a teenage boy left his teenage girlfriend, and their young son. He never returned. He never stayed in contact with his son. The son grew attached to a new man, a second father, who married his mother. Then that man divorced his mother and forgot about the boy. A third father divorced his mother and only twice called the boy after the divorce, each time only to try to get information about his mother. The boy's life was in constant turmoil. Three fathers walked away from him as if he never existed. His last name changed regularly. He moved frequently. He witnessed constant tumult at home between his mother and each new man. Each experience, each change seemed to make his life worse than it was before. As a teenager, the son often wished he could put an end to his life, not wanting it to continue, not seeing any hope of positive change. Then when he was 14 years old, his mother, overwhelmed by her own pain and suffering, attempted suicide and nearly succeeded. The son felt that fate had given him a bad hand. Insecurities, fears, and doubts filled his life. He was a very distressed young man. That young man is the author of this book. Dan Schaefer. A Jehoiada and a Jehoshabat. Somebody worked in his life. There are people in this church and in our community that will not be saved from destruction unless we step up to the plate. You say, well, I don't have time. All I want to tell you in closing is this week I had to step up to one more mentoring thing that God told me I had to do. And I'm doing it now because God told me to do it. I don't know what God's going to ask you to do. I don't know if it'll be fostering, mentoring, coming alongside someone, beginning to disciple someone. Will you be a Jehoshaphat? Will you be a Jehoiada to the Joashes who are marked for destruction? I call us today to become shelters in the storm. I call us to become shepherds and shepherdesses. I call us to become a secure person that others can come to us in need that can hold a confidence. all the rich rewards that come when we are willing to be a Jehoiada and a Jehoshaba and a royal nurse for God. In closing, I'll tell you what I told you. Our selfish ambition can be more shocking than any of us want to admit, more costly than we can imagine. Our selfless sacrifice keeps the lamp of God burning in our dark, dark world. Our salvation by God is not for fame or glory, but for God's purpose to make us his small but faithful remnant. And our secure shelter and shepherding of those marked for destruction is a work of God with rich rewards. What would have happened if I wouldn't have finished the course? I'd have missed probably one of the most important messages in this series because God wanted me to talk to you about confidentiality and about helping those marked for destruction. Would you bow your heads? Some of us in this room need to hear what I first said in the message, and that is, hang in there. You can do this. Not in the power of the flesh, but in the power of the Spirit. If God is speaking to you this morning, the test will not be if you have a raised hand. The test will be if you do what He's called you to do. It may seem overwhelming. It may seem That's not me. That's not who I am. When they knew they could be killed, they could have easily said, that's not who I am. But you use them, and you can use us. You use somebody in Dan Schaefer's life, somebody in Joe Asch's life, somebody in my life, somebody in each of our lives here today, somebody along the way. was responsible for helping us get to where we are. Oh God, may we be one of those someones. As I look at you this morning, I know some of you are already doing this very thing. All I can say to you is keep it up. Does it mean opening your home? That's difficult. Open your home. Does it mean mentoring someone? Do it. It's difficult. It'll change your life more than it'll change theirs. Whatever the task, hang in there. You can do this. Do it for Jesus' sake. Pastor Larry, would you close us in prayer? Lord, don't let us forget this message. because it has implications not only for fruitfulness in our lives and faithfulness, but even in the lives of those that we might now know that we should begin to minister far more personally and faithfully to than what we have. And it may even include those that we have no knowledge of, that you would lay on our hearts to make a difference in their lives. even as the author of this book. Some left him alone, but some stepped forward. Father, this is a powerful, powerful message for each of us to take reverently, almost sacredly, to contemplate what would you do with me and what would you do through me for your glory, for the good of others, and for the advancement of your kingdom in the lives of those you died to save. Seal these words to our hearts, not only today, but in the days to come that will bear forth fruit for Jesus, we pray in your name.