2 Chronicles chapter number 16. If you're there, say amen. All right, look at verse one. In the sixth and 30th year of the reign of Asa, Basha, 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. that 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 in 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 Basha, king of Israel, that he may depart from me. Ben-Hadid harkened unto King Asa and sent the captains of his army against the cities of Israel. And they smote Eshon and Dan and Abam and all the store cities of Nephetali. And it came to pass when Basha heard it that he left off building of Ramah and let his work cease. that 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. And at that time Hananiah the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said unto him, because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host, the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and 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. that Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in a prison house for he was enraged with him because of this thing. What? He told him the truth. 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 30th and 9th year of his reign was diseased in his feet until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers and died in the 140th year of his reign. And they buried him in his own sepulchers, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and diverse kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries, art. and they made a great burning for him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you again for this morning. Thank you for the wonderful song service. Lord, thank you for a building full of people, Lord, singing praise unto you. Lord, they're more than just words on the paper, Lord, they're the melodies of our hearts. We thank you, Lord, that when we meet in here, God, we're not meeting for political reasons. God, we're not meeting for social reasons. God, we're not meeting because we have nothing else better to do. Lord, we're meeting here because we want to, and we want to worship you. And I pray, Lord, this morning as the Word, as the singing has prepared our hearts for the preaching of the Word of God, I ask you, Lord, to help this preaching to fall on tender hearts this morning. Help it to fall in ears that are listening. Lord, help it to fall exactly where it needs to fall. Lord, help me just to sow the seed, Lord. But Lord, you get the increase, Lord. I pray, Lord, that someone come by and water it, Lord, and you just do a work in the hearts and lives of the people that are here this morning. God, we need to hear from heaven. And I pray, Lord, this morning that you'd hide me behind the cross of Calvary. God, would you hear me myself? Fill me, Lord, with the spirit of God. Lord, use me one more time for your glory. Let me just be a vessel in the hands of the master. used for your glory, nothing more and nothing less. Lord, I sure do love you this morning. I'm sure I'm grateful. There's so many here that need to get saved by the grace of God. Holy Spirit, would you work in their heart, draw them unto yourself, save them by your grace, and change their life, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for what you're doing around here, Lord. We look forward to what you have for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. Thank you so much for standing this morning. You can have a seat as we've read the word of God and got into this chapter about a man by the name of Asa who is a king in Judah and at this time Israel has split into two kingdoms. You have the northern Israel, the southern Judah, and now you have Asa who's king of Judah and then you have Bashar who is king of Israel, the northern place, but really what struck me as odd, I was listening to the Bible while I was doing a few activities, and so I've been getting in the habit of trying to be in the habit of turning it on while I do those things, and I was listening to it, and really it was the last verse of this chapter that stuck out to me. Because typically, when you read 1st and 2nd Kings, and then really 1st and 2nd Chronicles as it goes through the kings and the kingdoms of Israel, the leaders of Israel, typically, when one of these kings died, all that is mentioned about them is really verse number 13. And Asa slept with his fathers and he died in the 140th year of his reign, just gives you that information. It just tells you how long they reigned and when they died and they now sleep with their fathers. That's what it meant there, not that they hopped in the bed and was watching cartoons with them. However, it means that they died. And we see here this morning, and typically that's where it stops and it picks up the next king. But in 1 Corinthians 2 Chronicles chapter 16, this one, there's a verse 14. And verse 14 struck me as odd. It struck me as one that typically isn't mentioned, and I thought, man, that's a very, very big ordeal for this man. Why does he get such fanfare? Why does he have this big celebration? Why does all of this take place for King Asa? And as I begin to study the chapter and I begin to look over the life of Asa, I begin to realize that there was something more going on than necessarily that you can pick up on the surface level. Not that it's some hidden message within the lines of the scripture tonight, but it's just got a deeper meaning behind it. As I begin to study and God begin to work this in my heart, I begin to realize and fall all over and in love again with the word of God. But I want you to realize this man Asa really, his story is, it starts off good. He has come in, he has become the king of Judah and he wins a great battle with the Lord's help. He defeats the Ethiopians and they get a great spoil out of that. He even goes so far as he brings and cleanses some of the paganism out of Judah. He gets rid of some things. He even takes his own mother, restricts the power from her position as queen because of what she's practicing. And if it stopped there, the life of Asa would be one of recognition, one that we would aspire towards. He reigns ultimately for 41 years, and the reality is you could say 36 of those are good years. He starts off great. Can I say every Christian that's been born again, you started off great. There is not a greater start than you can start with, and that's starting with the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we come to Asa's life, the story isn't, the lesson to be learned isn't just starting right. It's the value in ending right. Coming to the end of your life, having done what God has told you to do, being faithful to his commands and following his instructions, and as we come to the end of Asa's life, unfortunately, that is not where we find him. And so I had to ask myself, where did Asa go wrong? Where did it start? What was the decision that was made that caused Asa to go from this well-respected king to a man that I would say, please don't follow his example? And I think that answer this morning is found there in verse number 14. The Bible said, and they buried him in his own sepulchers, now watch this, which he made for himself in the city of David. Preacher, where did Asa start going wrong? Here's where Asa went wrong, when he started digging his own grave. When he started digging his own grave. I understand the song service has been good this morning. We've rejoiced and we've praised, but let me ask you this morning, are you digging your own grave? As we look at Asa, I wanna give you three shovels that Asa used to dig his own grave. Preacher, why in the world are you gonna teach us how to dig our own grave? Obviously, that's not a good thing to do. Obviously, that's not what we want. Well, I'm gonna teach you how to do it so you won't do it. give you the information that'll keep you from going down the path. Thank God for starting right. By the grace of God, I wanna finish right. And if I'm gonna strive to finish right, I'm gonna have to make the choice, just like you will, I will not dig my own grave. I wanna give you three shovels this morning. And I'll give them to you as the Lord leads this morning that Asa used to dig his own grave. Number one, he compromised for control. He compromised for control. Verses one through six this morning of 2 Chronicles 16, we just read it, there are two kings and really the reality of the fact that there's two kings ruling is sad. Because the king of Israel and the king of Judah, really they're both God's people. They're both of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There's been a separation of the 12 tribes of Israel. It is good that brethren dwell together in unity. It is a good thing when there is unity amongst the brethren. But the reality is this separation between Israel and Judah, it's not Asa's fault. Asa's not the one that brought this into play. Matter of fact, it was his grandfather, Rehoboam and Jeroboam, sons of Solomon, who split it up. And you've got to realize The reality is this, the majority of the fighting that these two kingdoms do, yes, they fight some battles without, but their greatest struggles come against each other. Here is God's people fighting God's people. Asa comes to reign and Bashar's the king of Israel, and Bashar sets up something around one of the borders that was equivalent to or like or going to be like the Berlin Wall. Nobody was gonna go out and nobody was gonna come in to Asa's kingdom. They were going to control that. Well, Asa says, no, I will not let that happen. Instead of going to the Lord and saying, Lord, how can I, what steps do I need to take to alleviate this situation? How can I be the instrument that you use, God, to bring unity back where it ought to be? Asa goes to Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, who was at Damascus at the time. Now, he himself doesn't go, but Asa goes into the house of the Lord. And while he's there, he grabs out some silver and gold, more than likely the same silver and gold that they had gained from the victory that God had given them in the previous chapter. He grabs the silver and gold, he takes it, and he sends it to Ben-Hadad, but it comes with a message. It comes with strings attached. Ben-Hadad, if you receive this gift, don't you know that you and I have a league together? We have an agreement together. And here's the interesting thing about Asa. When he first becomes king, he spends a lot of time tearing down and fixing the things his father messes up. And yet, when it comes to this situation, he goes back to a friend of his father who had led him in a wrong direction. But Asa's not really thinking about fixing this. He just wants control. He's not gonna let Bashar have his way. And so he takes the silver and gold, sends it to Ben-Hadad and says, upon accepting this, because of our friendship and our link together, I need you to go attack Bashar. Go attack that city that he's building and run them out of there. That's exactly what Ben-Hadad does. He sends his army, they run out Bayshah, and now here comes Asa and all of Judah, and they take it over, and instead of putting one city there, now they have taken those supplies and built two cities. And you say, well, preacher, what's wrong with that? Why, I mean, he's got two cities, but notice what he gave up. He gave up those things that had been separated unto and sanctified unto the Lord that he might have a little bit more control. Instead of going to God and saying, God, you have all power, you have all strength, you are in control of all things, just tell me what to do, Lord, and I will do it. Asa says, no, I have to have a little bit more control. Let me ask you this morning, how much control of your life does God have? How much of that control are you willing to compromise to keep for yourself? Preacher, I know, I know I'm supposed to read my Bible, preacher. I know I'm supposed to pray, preacher. I know that I'm supposed to spend time with the Lord. but I don't wanna miss this show, I don't wanna miss this experience, I don't wanna miss, here's what you're saying, I'm willing to give something up so I can keep a little bit more control. I don't need to spend more time, or I know I need to spend more time with my family, but I wanna do this instead. I know I'm supposed to be in church, but I have so many other things I wanna do, and here's the thing this morning, you can get those things. And you can have those things, but you won't realize how much you have to compromise to have that control. Asa gave up something that was holy, something that was sincere, something that was special, just so he could have a little bit more control. Here's the thing this morning. The more time you spend wrestling control out of God's hands, it's like you're taking the shovel and you're digging more dirt out of the grave. It does not end in a good place. Notice the first shovel that he used, he compromised for control. Have you picked up the shovel of compromise and started to dig your own grave? Not only that he compromised for control, but notice number two, he became critical of good counsel. He became critical of good counsel. God, as a child of God, God never lets you and I go off into disobedience, to go off into sin, to go off, whatever you wanna end that statement with, without warning us first. He is faithful, not just to warn us, but he's also faithful to provide an escape for us. from temptation. Whatever's caught our eye. But he's faithful to warn us. Now he will not stop you from making that decision. He leaves that in our laps this morning, but he will warn us before we do. Y'all have heard me say many times as pastor, as I prepare messages and get them together to preach to you on Sundays and Wednesday nights and just about anywhere I preach, I don't think there's been a time in my life where I've sat down in my study and said, Lord, give me a message for one singular person. Because I know they need it. Typically, I'm preparing, Lord, give me the message for every person. And Lord, take my message or take this message and let me preach it in such a way that everybody gets something from it. But I don't sit down in my study and say, I wonder what Brother Jordan needs this Sunday. Lord, I can tell you what he needs and give me a message on it. Lord, give me three sermons Give me three points and a poem on how I can beat Brother Ty in football. My sermons normally don't come out that personable. But had I been an Old Testament prophet, that's all they preached, pretty much, was personal sermons. Go ask Elijah. God didn't say, all right, just go to a random group of people and tell them. He said, go to Ahab. And here, it's not Elijah, but here it is a man by the name of Hanani. And God has told him to go directly to the king, go to Asa, and tell him these things. And unfortunately, when Hanani shows up, he doesn't have a sugar stick sermon. They're not hanging off the chandeliers. God has given him a message of rebuke, but it is sincere rebuke. It is genuine rebuke. It really is gracious rebuke that is given to Hananiah to tell Asa. And here's what Hananiah tells Asa. Here's where you've gone wrong, king. Verse number seven, you began, you relied solely on man. Look at verse number seven. And at that time, Hananiah the seer came to Asa, the king of Judah, and said unto him, because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God. He says, here's your first step. There's your first mess up, Asa. You never even took this matter to the Lord. You didn't ask him one time what you should do here. You just trusted in another man. Not even just another man, one who didn't believe and trust in the living God. One who was completely opposite of everything Asa knew to be true. That's who he turned to. And sometimes in our life, it is far easier for us to turn to others. when ultimately in reality is we need to make sure we're turning to God first. Bible says put no confidence in man. Here's the thing, if you expect everybody else to fix everything in your life and to change anything, you're gonna find out they can't and you'll become discouraged and downtrodden. However, when you turn to the Lord and you rely on him, you'll find out real quick he's good at what he does and he can take care of you. But he relied on man, look at verse number eight, he'd forgotten the past. Verse number eight, Hananiah reminds him in verse number eight, were not the Ethiopians and the Lubans a huge host? They were huge, they were, and with many chariots and horsemen, yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, In essence, Asa, there was a bigger problem in your past that you quickly ran to the Lord for, and God took care of it, and God gave you the victory, and here you are with a small problem as a regional issue, and you've yet to go to God with it. Have you forgotten the past? One preacher Eloquah said many years ago, if God has done it before, he can do it some more. Let me ask, has God ever provided in your past? Has God ever given you what you need at the exact moment that you need it? Has God ever been faithful in your past? May we not forget the past, but rather allow the past to prompt us to go to God now. He relied on man, he had forgotten the past. He had forsaken a promise. Look at verse number nine. 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. Hannah and I said, Asa, did you forget that God desires to intervene into your life? That God desires to move in and God desires to show himself strong on your behalf. Do you realize this morning as Christians, God desires the same thing in your life? Oh, he wants to work, and he wants to move, and he wants to show himself strong. If nobody else sees it, he wants you to see it. The Bible says he's running, his eyes are going to and fro. He's looking for the opportunity. Let me ask you, is he gonna find that opportunity in your life? where you step back and say, God, I know that you wanna work, I know that you wanna move, and so Lord, I'm giving you free will. I'm giving you free reign. Lord, I'm coming to you, and Lord, I'm relying on you. I'll preach, I just don't wanna trouble God with that. You're not troubling him. He wants to work in your life. He wants to show himself faithful in your life. Verse number 10, King Asa responds with this. He throws Hananiah in prison because he's wroth with him. He's angry with him. How dare that preacher come down here, put his finger in my face and tell me everything I did wrong? That's not what Hananiah did. Hananiah was just delivering the message. Sometimes I can identify with Hananiah. Sometimes the message has got to be delivered and I just don't know how people are gonna receive it, but I'm thankful that God is faithful to work and to move, and I'm thankful for the times that it is, it does fall, but that's not how it happens with Asa. He gets mad, he gets wroth, and he throws Hananiah in prison, because of what he said. Had he listened, I think Asa's life would have been a whole lot different. We wouldn't be talking about how he started right, we'd be talking about how he started right, and how he finished right. Well, I'm thankful this morning for the grace of God. I'd be the first one to say, I ain't done everything perfect. And I'm gonna be the first to say, I'm not gonna do everything perfect. But I've purposed in my heart, the desire of my heart is I want to please him. And if that is me responding accordingly to rebuke, then that's what I must do. That's not what Asa does. As a pastor and pastor, talking with people and and people making life decisions and pastor what do I do about this and pastor what do I do about that there's sometimes where I don't necessarily know the entire answer but there are times where there's biblical principles and I've had to sit down with somebody and you don't you may understand you may not understand just the the the thoughts that go through my mind that I know I've got to have this conversation, I've got to bring up this difficult truth, I've got to deal with this issue with them, not because I don't like them, but really because I love them and I want the best for them, but I know this conversation is going to be a hard one. You ever had any hard conversations? Do you get up in the morning and say, Lord, give me all of them today? But I've had to sit down with people and had hard conversations. And I've watched some people Respond in the right manner. Preacher, I know that had to be difficult to tell me, but thank you for being willing to tell me that. And Preacher, I realize I need to do this, that, or the other. That's the right thing to do. And I've watched God bless that. I've watched God work in that. But then there have been some where I've sat them down with biblical proof and scriptures behind it. with a heart of love, saying, hey, this is not right. That's not what God intends for your life. He has something far greater than that, something far more for you if you'll just be obedient to this for them to say, how dare you judge me like that? How dare you say that to me? You don't love me. For them to walk out and me just watch their life fall apart. It's not because I'm anything special. Not because I have magical powers to make anybody's life fall apart. But anytime God warns us and we choose to respond by anything besides obedience, we've just picked up the shovel and we're digging our own grave. He became critical of good counsel. How do you handle good counsel in your life? Do you receive it gladly and implement or do you get mad and just keep digging? And notice lastly this morning, the final shovel that Asa used to dig his own grave, he became cold in his confidence. Verses 12 through 14, Asa is diagnosed with some kind of foot disease. Now, there's speculation out there what it was, what he had. Some said it was gout. Then some said, well, it had to have been more than that because it progressively got worse. So much so that some thought it was some kind of infection that turned into gangrene. All we know is the Bible says in verses 14 through 16, it is a small issue and then it becomes a great issue. In essence, it grows over time. It doesn't get better by itself. And really the biggest question isn't what it was. The biggest question, the biggest glaring thing we see is what Asa didn't do with it. Notice this this morning, Asa didn't take it to God when it was small. He didn't take it to God when it was small. In the scripture it tells us that this disease grows and spreads, but there was some point when it was small. When it wasn't as inflamed and as bad as it ends up being, maybe it was so small Asa thought, I can handle this. This is no trouble at all. It's not that bad. It'll probably go away after a while. There's no need to take this to the Lord. I can handle this. And I could just almost see every time Asa says, I've got this. I got it, I can handle it. I can just see the dirt coming out the grave as he's digging deeper and deeper. He didn't take it to God when it was small. My children, praise the Lord, have learned that prayer works. that God hears and answers prayer. But interestingly enough, God didn't use something great and mighty, extravagant to teach him this. They didn't pray, oh God, would you send down an eight-bedroom house with three separate playrooms for me? And all of a sudden they walk outside and there's a mansion in the front yard. You know how Ms. Rayland learned that God hears prayers and answers them? She had lost her earrings one night in church or at the church. And we searched and searched and searched. And finally, Ms. Becky said, why don't we stop and pray and ask the Lord to help us find these earrings? And so they stopped back there in one of those rooms back there and said, Lord, could you please help us find these earrings? They mean a whole lot to Ms. Raelyn and we would love to find them in Jesus name, amen. It wasn't a minute later, they found them. And Raylan said, God answers prayer. And really that taught me something. Because the next morning when I couldn't find my car keys, Lord, could you help me find my car keys? And there they were. Raylan, it was earrings. T.R., it was his tablet. We were riding down the road the other day. And I can't remember where we were going, but he had his tablet I was driving, obviously. And he said, Dad, guess what? I said, what, son? I mean, I don't know, what? He said, this little app on my tablet wasn't working. And so I prayed and said, Lord, could you please help this app to load and that way I can play it? Amen. He said, I opened my eyes and it was loading. Now, I tell you what, preacher, I don't think the Lord cares about apps on the tablet. You can think what you want to think. There's a little nine-year-old boy running around talking about he answers prayer. And little Shiloh, it was a church hymn. Wins and I, we met in here, and we did our prayer, and we met around the altar and prayed, and Brother Jacob got up, or I can't remember if it was Brother Jacob or Brother Jamie, and said, we're gonna sing victory in Jesus. And Shiloh's eyes got big, told Miss Becky, I asked God if we could sing that tonight. Had Asa took the problem to God when it was small, it had never got big. But I want you to notice this, not only did he not take it to God when it was small, he never took it to God when it was big. Verse 14, excuse me, verse number 12 this morning. And Asa in the 30th night of the year of his reign was diseased in his feet until his disease was exceeding great. He didn't take it to God when it was small, but he didn't take it to God when it was great either, when it was big. Became exceeding great, Asa still didn't pray about it. He went to the physician. Well, preacher, God gives us common sense. I mean, where else is he supposed to go? I mean, it's a good thing to go to the doctor if you got a disease. Well, you've got to realize, these physicians in Bible days, they was just guessing. They didn't have the medical knowledge that we have now. Really, a lot of them delved into the occult. They would do weird potions and try to make things better in that sense. Asa was willing to go to something he knew probably wasn't right instead of going to the one that he knew was right. It got so big, yet even when it was big, he still didn't take it. to the Lord. When we get to the point in our life where we lose all confidence in God's ability to answer prayers, whether they are small or big, you know what we begin to, what we're doing? Digging our own grave. We're digging our own grave. Because here's the thing this morning. You and I are the only ones that size up prayers. We're the only ones that come up with small prayers and big prayers. How come nobody ever has a medium prayer? Mediocre prayer. It ain't small, but it ain't big. We've had numerous of ones of them. I've heard some great big prayer requests. I was at Good News Club this past Thursday and a kid prayed for the whole world, preacher. What? That's a big prayer request. Billions of people around this earth. But to them, really, it's probably small. But here's the thing, we size them up, God doesn't. God's never looked at us and said, oh, that's too tiny. That's so insignificant. And he's never looked at one and said, oh, that's too big. That's too much. He just hears the cries of his children. He hears our prayers, and he answers them. But Asa had lost not his confidence in himself, but he lost his confidence in God. And as he lost his confidence, he began to dig and dig and dig his own grave. Let me ask you, have you become like King Asa, where you're more willing to let men try to solve all your problems instead of taking them to the Lord? But then we get down to verse 14, and there's this great ceremony at his death. They lay him in the sepulcher, the grave that he dug for himself. They also lay him on a bed within that sepulcher. And on that bed, there's odors and spices. Sweet odors and diverse kinds of spices, and they're prepared by the apocryphe. I think that's how you say that word. And you gotta think, it's an extravagant-looking thing. It was probably a sight to see and a sight to smell. But as I begin to study this, I wonder if they made it look so significant. They made it look so great because they were trying to cover up a fact that Asa had dug his own grave. In essence, they tried to make it better than what it really was. They tried to make it seem like he ended well, but we know that he didn't. Let me ask you this morning, when it comes to your time, Are people gonna have to make up stuff about you? They're gonna reach way back into your past to find the good stuff. They're gonna produce sweet odors and nice spices to cover up the fact that we all know you dug your own grave. Can I say it doesn't have to be that way? God doesn't desire it to be that way. What does God want me to do this morning? quit digging your own grave, get your confidence back in him, listen to his counsel, and release control back to the Lord this morning. Because as long as we are picking up those shovels and we keep digging, all we're doing is digging our own grave. Let's stand this morning, every head bowed, every eye closed.