Also in Every Place

All right, good morning, man. It's been, I feel like I've, I

started this series years ago and, and I actually should think

I counted like 6 * 6 weeks that I've, I haven't done it.

And so we're six weeks behind and we're only on less than 6.

I had to look that up. I was like, wow, we haven't gone

very far at all. So I, I figured today I kind of

remind you what we're doing because some of us may not even

remember we're going over the kings of Israel.

And, and that's mainly after the division.

And I actually made or well found in one of my Bibles, the

timeline that kind of gives you an indication and a good reason

of how, how things overlapped. Some of them that I, I think is

the most interesting is I don't have it.

Anyways, so we've gone from King Solomon and we moved to Rehoboam

and Jeroboam split and that's when the Kingdom split into the

northern tribe, which has how many tribes?

OK, we're going to interact here this morning.

We're going to wake up how many 1010 tribes and how many are

left in the southern tribe? 2 The northern Kingdom is called

no Israel and the southern Kingdom is called Judah.

And, and what, what do we know about the northern Kingdom and

all their kings? They were all great happy people

that followed God. No, they were all evil, wicked

men in the southern is Judah had here and there miss and match of

kings and the one of the things that I really like is seeing how

some of the prophets kind of go together like if we're in a

timeline. If you look, I went the wrong

way. Oh, well, think of Daniel and

you have Jeremiah and stuff and you think, OK, that's one book.

And this book, they were all alive at the same time.

Obadiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, they were all alive at

the same time, working for God at the same time and, and

getting messages from God and, and, and you wonder, did they

write back and forth? Hey, Daniel, I, I read that

book. You man, I really appreciate

what you're doing. God, God's with.

Hey, Ezekiel, man, I, I read that, I don't know, but I have a

feeling that they talked to each other, that they, they had

interactions with each other. But just to kind of give you an

overview of how it looks where we're at.

And, and today we're going to switch because so far we've only

looked at the kings of Judah and, and seeing them from ASA,

Raya, Boehm, Abaija, Jehoshaphat.

And today we're actually going to get into the if we say the

worst king that you know of that you you can think of quickly

that is a wicked and the most wicked man and and has the worst

wicked wife, who would you say? Ahab?

So we're just going to get out of that Ahab.

We're going to look at the king Ahab.

And it's it's amazing that of all of the kings, if somebody

like I just did said who would be sinning, that word does not

cinnamon synonymous for a wicked king or sin, then you can

obviously quickly go Ahab. And the same thing goes with his

wife Jezebel. And we look here, go ahead and

turn to 1st Kings 16, first Kings 16.

And we're going to look at kind of, I don't want to give Ahab a

pass, but I want to see why, what, what, what got him on the

path that he went, where, where did Ahab go wrong?

And I think a lot of it has to do with his father and, and

those that came before him. Obviously he had to make his own

choices and he and he chose and we'll look at a lot of bad

choices that he made and a lot of issues that came up because

of those choices. But we have to remember Ahab was

influenced just like you and I are influenced as Christians.

He was a child of God. He was a part of the Israelites.

He was a part of the nation God called out.

And yet we know him not as a king that honored God and

followed God, but that did wickedly and did abominable

things to God in the face of God.

And we think of Elijah. Yes, Elijah is around in that

time and we think of how famous of a prophet that Elijah and

Elijah are and and and Micah and those Elijah.

God brought him into the scene for Ahab.

Even though how wicked Ahab was, how wicked and everything he

took that nation in the northern tribes, God gave him somebody to

try to pull him back. Try to go, I'm not giving up on

you nation. I'm, I'm not, I'm not giving up

on my people. I want to see my people come

back to me. And he gives him Elijah and he

gives him Mica and, and unfortunately, Ahab doesn't

listen. And soon the the influence that

Ahab has around him turns into him influencing the nation.

Now it's interesting. What, what do we say usually

about kings that are wicked? How long of a span of a rain do

they have? Very long or very short?

Usually short. Ahab actually had over 20 years

and, and it's interesting, usually chapters go very quickly

when when they talk about wicked kings.

Ahab has over 7 chapters in first Kings about him and about

his activities and everything that happened.

And, and I want to look at why do we know him as the sinful, as

the wicked king? What, what did he do

specifically? And you can think of in your

mind Nabetz Nabel's Vineyard and, and you think about we

talked about last time when he, when he went to war and brought

Jehoshaphat with him and the, the lead, the alliance that they

had and, and he's, and he gave his daughter to Mary,

Jehoshaphat's son, and, and everything that came from that.

But what about Ahab made him wicked?

What choices did he make that made him and the nation that he

was ruling go down the wrong path and, and made him an

infamous king, the sinful, wicked King Ahab.

Let's pray and we'll get into the lesson.

Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your word and

preserving it for us for all eternity and, and giving us not

just good examples of how we should live and how we should

treat others and how we should serve you, but also you kept the

ones that weren't so great, the ones that were totally wicked

and, and against you and against everything that you stand for.

And you did that to keep us, give us examples of, of lives

that we have a choice to live. We can either live for you or

against you. And I got, I pray that you open

our eyes as we look at King Ahab, that you've that you set

up, you put in place to rule your Kingdom in the north and

what you tried to do and the decisions that he did in his

life. I just pray that you open our

eyes to have what each and everyone of us need from your

word this morning in Jesus name I pray Amen.

So as I said, look at verse you're there in chapter 16.

Look at verse 23 is where we're going to start in the 30 and

first year of ASA king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel

12 years six years reigned he and Tizza and he brought the and

he bought the hill Samaria of Shermer for two talents of

silver and built on the hill and called the name of the city

which he built after the name of Shermer owner of the hill

Samaria. Look at verse 25, but Omri

wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord and did worse than all that

were before him. This was Ahab's father, although

you know, we, we inherit sinful nature from Adam and from our

our parents and it's passed on generation and generation.

Ahab had a wicked father that the Bible says in verse 25

wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord and did worse than all that

were before him. And it's it seems that we could

like copy that look down verse. Let's get skip down to verse 30.

So we we said Omri wrought evil in the eyes of the Lord and did

worse than all them were that were before him.

And verse 30 and Ahab, the son of Omri did evil in the sight of

the Lord above all that were before him.

Ahab had an inheritance that was not that great, that the

influence of his father was so strong that the Bible records

almost the exact same wording for both of them.

They were, they did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they were

worse than those before him. OK, let's see what his son does.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord and did worse than all

before him. Just like Pastor always says,

whatever you do in moderation, your, your children will do in

excess, you, you as a parent, that you as an older generation

have an influence on the next generation and how they will

react and, and live their life. And we can see that specifically

in this life of Ahab, he had a father that didn't want anything

to do with the Lord, didn't want to follow any precepts, anything

of the law. And because of that, Ahab is

brought up that way and, and we can almost go, why are, why are

you surprised? Ahab turned the way he did?

But what it's he, he had the, the, the example of a father of

a king that he had in front of him.

He made-up exactly the same way. And we shouldn't be surprised,

just like you shouldn't be surprised of the lost and what

they do and, and, and the sin they get into and the wickedness

they get into. And you go, man, how can you do?

The Bible says they're of their father, the devil and of their

father. They will do.

Don't be surprised. The wicked do the wicked things.

But remember, you have an influence over people.

You have the way you live your life will influence the younger

generation. And we see that in in Ahab's

father and moved to his son. But not only was his influence

from his father strong, it was serious.

Look at verse 26, there in chapter 16, talking about his

father Omri. For he walked in all the ways of

Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in all and in his sin wherewith he

made Israel to sin to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger

with their vanities. He He he walked in the exact

same sin that caused the whole thing to prop to split.

What why did why did Jeroboam and you'll see this and if you

read ahead and we've read other kings that phrase that he walked

in all the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat that what is he

talking about? He's talking about Jeroboam

didn't want to lose the northern Kingdom because where was the

temple? Jerusalem.

Where did they go to worship Jerusalem?

Oh, well, hold on. That's not in my territory

anymore. I got to have something for my

people to worship. I have to do something to keep

them here, because if they're going to travel all the way down

to Jerusalem, I'm going to lose them.

I have to keep my my, my Kingdom here.

So he sets up two golden calves. Why like you would go wait, hold

on Moses and Aaron just tried that.

That didn't work. Well, why why do we pick a calf

anyways? But he sets up 1 and band and

and one now I can't remember some No, it wasn't Samaria yet.

Anyways, he he sets up two and a golden calf to to have an idol

and to to worship it. And all throughout the rest of

the kings, you'll see that phrase that they walked and they

did and LED the people in all the way of Jeroboam, the son of

Nebat talking about those golden calfs that idol worship was the

focus. And Omri does that.

But then look down at verse 33, OK, that that's his father,

that's Omri, and he he provokes the Lord God of Israel to anger.

Look at verse 33 about Ahab. And Ahab did more to provoke the

Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that

were before him as his father and son both abused God's

long-suffering because God doesn't bring Babylon until

many, many years later. God is long-suffering and that's

why we see Elijah and Elijah and, and all the other prophets

that God sends. But the anger of the Lord was

stirred against them. And, and really the, the

question for us to consider with an influence and, and dealing

with a father and a son is what kind of pattern of behavior are

you leaving and setting for those that are coming behind

you? Are you, are you in a pattern of

daily reading your work, your Bible and they seeing it?

I think that's something that we we forget.

Yes, I have, I have my devotions every morning.

Do your kids know you do? Oh, they might know.

Dad probably does. Mom, I think does, I'm sure she

does. But there's an there's an

influence you're missing as a parent.

If they're not seeing you do it. Not because we're trying to look

at look at me, look at what I do, but it means more when you

see it, the children will see that you're the next generation

will see man. There's something he doesn't

just tell me to go do my devotions.

I see him do his devotions. I see him pray.

He doesn't just tell me to act a certain way.

I watch my dad or I watch my mom or I watch the the older man at

church do this. Just like all throughout the Old

Testament are signs and throughout the Old Testament we

see God tells them, they cross, they cross the Jordan River on

dry ground and what does God have them do?

They take up stones and put them in the middle and then standing

stones on the outside. Why?

Because God wanted the younger generation to be able to see

something and go what meanest thou these?

What? What's the point of this?

Sadly, Ahab had an influence in a seeing of what his dad was

like as a Kingdom, as a wicked king, and that pattern of

behavior just went in excess. So we see the influence that his

dad had over him, but then we see Ahab's chooses himself, but

his own iniquity there. Look at verse 30 And we read

this and Ahab, the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the

Lord above all that were before him.

Ahab sin. We could say it is is three-way,

three-way deep. I guess I'll say it the first

way is he sinned against the will of God.

Look there in verse 31. And it came to pass, as if it

had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam,

the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of

Ethball, king of the Zaidonians, and went and served Baal and

worshipped him. Now if you remember back in

Deuteronomy, who, who were the children of Israel supposed to

marry? The other Israelites?

Who were they not supposed to marry?

The everybody else, the wicked, the the Canaanites?

And in this this fact, Ahab specifically doesn't look for a

wife in his own tribe, in his own nation.

He finds one that specifically goes against what God says to go

after for a wife. So so we see him going totally

against what the will of God was for the children of Israel.

Keep your finger at first Kings 16 turn to 1st Kings 21 and you

say, well, I mean, it's a wife. He could still choose to do what

he wants to do and he's the king and and he can choose to have

like Solomon many wives. What's the point of it?

Why? Why does it matter who you

choose to marry and and choosing somebody that is in the will of

God for you. Look at verse 25 of chapter 21.

But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to

work with goodness in the sight of the Lorem inside of the Lord.

And here's the key phrase whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred up.

Why did a lot of the wickedness happened?

Because that influence of his wife.

Who you choose to marry is very important, who God has for you.

And I believe God has a will for every single person, whether it

is to get married or not get married.

But if you're if God's will is for you to get married and that

person is in the will of God, they will influence you for God.

But if you choose to do your own thing and get out of the will of

God and not decide to follow after what God has chosen and

decided what what a mate should be like.

And you get out of that will of God, that person will influence

you and turn you, as the Bible says, stirred him up to do

wickedly and to serve not God. Bail.

Jezebel was moving the nation in a almost like in a Fast forward

motion into the total opposite direction.

And and really we see Baal worship a little bit here and

there. But when Jezebel and Ahab get on

the scene, they like Fast forward into the jump, headlong

into it. And so much so that Ahab sets up

and builds temples for Baal. Not that they were there before,

but he specifically builds them for Baal worship.

And also, if we looked at this the last time Jehoshaphat's son

gets married to Jezebel's daughter and that influence we

looked at is she tries to wipe out the entire lineage of date

of of David because of that wicked out of the will marriage.

So be careful who you who you allow yourself to be with who

you allow yourself to marry who you allowed to be influencing

you because as as quickly as you think you are an influencer.

I hate that word because of today's culture.

But as soon as you feel like you're influencing somebody

else, most likely they're influencing you more than the

other way. So be careful as who you are.

So as sin went against the will of God, but it also get one

against the man of God. Look there in verse, stay in

chapter 21. Look at verse 20 talking about

throughout Ahab's life, we see the the you know, the most

famous prophet that we know of during his time was Elijah and

how closely those two lives were intertwined.

And look at verse 20 of chapter 21.

And Ahab said to Elijah, hast thou found me, O my best friend,

my enemy? He considered the man of God to

be his enemy. Looked go a little further,

chapter 22, verse 8. And this is and the king of

Israel, Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, this is when they

were going together to go to war.

And Jehoshaphat says, hey, let's, let's find a prophet and

find out if we should do this. And Ahab first goes, well, let's

let me bring my prophets. And they all told him what he

wanted to hear. And just Jehoshaphat said, wait,

let's find somebody, a prophet of the Lord in verse 8.

And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, and you almost hear

and go, he sighs, There is yet one man, Micah, the son of Imla,

by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he

does not prophecy good concerning me, but evil.

And Jehoshaphat said, let not the king say so.

So think of it this way. If you get so far in your, in

your life that you become an enemy of the man of God and you

are going against the will of God, it's pretty easy to say

you're not where you should be. You're, you're, you're not on

God's will for your life, but not only did he go sin against

the will of God and the man of God, we can see that he sins

against the word of God verse chapter 21.

Go back to 21 and we let's see. Well, we'll just start in verse

1 real quick. And it came to pass after these

things, that Naboth the Jesuit Jezreite, had a vineyard, which

was in Jezreel hard by the place of Ahab, king of Samaria.

And Ahab spake unto Naboth, and saying, Give me thy vineyard,

that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near

unto my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard

than it. Or if it seemed good to thee, I

will give thee the worth of it in money.

Now when we first read that, we just think, OK, he just there's

a garden next to his house and it's close.

So he's like, hey, instead of me gardening way over here, I'll

just buy this one. And we think very innocently

about that. But in when, when Joshua brought

the king, the the Israelites into the promised land, God told

them to never sell land outside of their family.

It was supposed to stay within the tribes.

Dan's area was always supposed to be Dan's area, whether it

went from Uncle Dan to brother Dan or to whatever other day.

And it was supposed to stay in that tribe.

It was never supposed to become a Benjamites.

It was never supposed to become a Levites or someone from Judah.

It was always supposed to be within that tribe.

And we see that. Why did Naboth say no?

I mean, the king is asking for David comes and asks for the

threshing floor and he says, I'll give it to you.

And David says no, I will not take something and sacrifice the

God that doesn't cost me something.

And he buys the threshing floor. And so you think, OK, the king

is going to buy my land, I'm going to make a profit off of

this one. But Naboth says no.

Why does he say no? He says no because I'm looking

at chapter 16 trying to find the verse that's a problem.

Thank you. Chapter 21 verse 3 and Naboth

said to Ahab, the Lord forbid it me that it that I should give

the inheritance of my father's unto thee.

Ahab knew what God said. Naboth reminds Ahab God said do

not sell land to another tribe, but Ahab goes totally against

what God has said in his word to do to deal with Landon.

And sad thing is how many of us are like Ahab when we sin by

acting against the will of God, by speaking against the man of

God and going against what the word of God says.

Oh you know, I just I'm tired. I'm not going to show up for

Sunday school. I'll be there for Sunday night.

That's against what the word of God says.

I know that movie has some profanity and some stuff in it,

but overall it's pretty good. It's against what the word of

God says. I know God said that I should

marry a Christian woman and, and somebody that follows what the

Bible says, but this lady looks really pretty and she's really

nice. And, and, and you're out of the

will of God. And when you start adding these

things together, we see how easy it is for Ahab to get from going

with what the Lord wanted to, to being known as the wickedest

king and going against what God wanted in all areas, the will of

God, the man of God and the word of God.

And we have to be careful not to follow his footsteps.

The other thing we see is his idolatry.

Turn back to chapter 16. Jeroboam like I said introduced

the whole idea of idolatry with the the the 2 golden calves and

and Ahab part part pattern himself exactly like Jay

Jeroboam did there in verse 31. And it came to pass as it if had

been a light thing for him to walk in the the sins of

Jeroboam, the son of Nebe. He he already knew what was

right and wrong. And yet he decides that idolatry

is going to be the way it was. And he first starts there in

verse 31 with the bad association.

I, I, I'm, I'm not just not looking for a Christian wife.

I'm looking for a wife that is into total wickedness serving

another false cult God of Baal. And not just am I going to marry

somebody that is just a follower, I'm going to marry the

priests daughter of the follower of Baal.

Just like Solomon did when he started having many many wives

and the Bible says that they turned the heart of Solomon

again away from God. Jezebel had the same effect on

Ahab. Yes, Ahab was wicked already, no

doubt about that. But Jezebel turned it quicker

for him. But not only did he have the

wrong associates to to follow after God, but he did the wrong

activities. Look there.

Verse. Yeah.

Oh wow, we'll skip that. We'll keep going.

Verse Look at verse 32 and he reared up an altar for bail in

the House of bail which he had built in Samaria.

A have moved from personally worshipping a false God to

making it a national thing. It wasn't enough that I'm going

to do what I want to do. It's I'm going to take everybody

else into wickedness and and we think, think of Eve, how quickly

she went from being influenced by the serpent and being enticed

to to eat the fruit. The Bible look, go real quick

Genesis 3 and we kind of read this and just go over it and,

and just, you know, it is what it is.

Isaiah 3:6

Chapter 3, Verse 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good

for food, and then it was pleasant to the eyes, and the

tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit

thereof and did eat. OK God, Satan deceived Eve and

she ate of the fruit. But what happens right after

that? She eats the fruit and then and

gave also one to her husband with her and he did eat think

think of think of how quickly the seduced became the seducer.

Adam had a choice, just like Eve had a choice and but but Satan

tempted Eve and we just read that Eve gave it to her husband

and gay and he just OK. I don't think it was that quick

of a decision for Adam. I think it was a listen, I it's,

it's so good. You'd have no idea how this good

this tastes. We just got back from Belize and

having a freshly squeezed pineapple juice.

You have no idea how good it is. And it comes in about a cottage

cheese canister tub and and I could have had like 8 of them.

But anyways, that's seducing, that's enticing.

I I just sinned. I just failed and fell.

I'm going to take somebody with me.

And how quickly it went from being a seduced person to being

seducing themselves. And Ahab does the same thing,

not only quickly getting seduced and getting into false worship

of Baal by his wife, but he raises up a temple and an altar

for it to bring others with him. And we have to be very careful

that we don't follow in those footsteps.

It's very easy for us to get influenced by people around us.

And then as soon as we either A realize we're doing wrong or B,

just enjoy sin, it's so quickly for us to go, Hey, did you watch

this? Oh man, it's so good.

It doesn't have great words it, but the plotline is really good.

And it's so quickly for us to slide that direction.

But the last thing I want to look at is what he dealt with as

king because of his sin. Look, turn to chapter 18 and

we'll be done real quick. I hope.

A lot of the issues that Ahab went through were because of his

sin. Think of what is the the biggest

thing that you think of with Elijah and Ahab?

The the the biggest contention huh OK, second biggest then in

your mind what did what did same time point though What why did

they do that? What did Elijah say that wasn't

going to happen. No rain that's a problem.

As a king I got to have rain for my people to grow food and to do

all this. But the Bible says there verse

chapter 18 look at no where is it at?

I can't find it. Elijah tells them,

yes, thank you. Chapter 18, verse 18 Elijah

tells Ahab and he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but

thou in thy father's house, and that ye have forsaken the

commandments of the Lord, and thou has followed Balaam.

Ahab's whole issue was his sin and so, so many times throughout

our lives. How many times are you into

trouble and in problems caused because of your own sin?

It wasn't if if Ahab was doing right and following the Lord

wouldn't have been a famine, would have been a time of no

rain. But because of that sin and that

that that angering of the Lord, we see unnecessary labor,

unnecessary death, unnecessary fill in the blank of work and

everything Ahab had to deal with.

And why was he mad at Elijah Because he was the one that said

no rain. If if he was walking right, he

probably would have been friends with Elijah.

But because of his sin and and so many times we go through this

life and we wonder why am I going through this?

Why do I got to deal with this better check and make sure it's

not sin that you you did that brought this on to you.

The life of Ahab is a lesson on on really like the the power of

what influence is on a young man and what an influence is when he

gets older. And and we have to remind

ourselves that our war, our works follow what that kind of

influence does with us. Ahab's name is always linked

with sin and wickedness. And the Proverbs 22 says a good

name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor

rather than silver or gold. Ahab's name is in Jezebel's name

is associated with wickedness. Let's not be and let's not live

a life that that our parents, our friends, our family, look at

your name and you and your life and not associate it with

wickedness. But to be able to see that the

influence that you give out is trying to bring people to God.

It's trying to get people on the will of God because we have the

same choice that they have had. Oh yes, he might have had a bad

in the first influence on his life.

Maybe you had the same thing growing up.

You didn't have godly parents. But we all have the choice to

make whether we're going to follow after God or follow away

from God. Christians, not Christians, we

all have that choice and as quickly as we throw Ahab under

the bus and go man, a wicked king, be sure not to find

yourself in the same boat because it's very easy to fall

into that same thing. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word and the

promises and the truths from it, Lord, that you've preserved for

us to be able to take and not just read, but to to study and

to to put into practice into our own lives.

Lord, I just, I pray that you help us to as we go through the

the rest of these kings that we realize, yes, we're not kings

and we're not over nations, but they were men just like us.

They, they had the same choices that we have and they they chose

some well and some wrong. And God, I just pray that you

help us to see the the necessity to look through your word before

we make choices so we can make choices that please you.

I thank you again for all that you do.

I pray that you be with pastor, fill him with your spirit as he

comes to the next hour. Give us a good rest of the day

here in your house. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

You're dismissed.