Standing Against Idolatry

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Turn your Bible to 2 Kings chapter 1.

2 Kings 1 · chapter mention

And I want to say this morning how beautiful it is.

Last week we came with David and Chris and their little baby and we prayed together.

And Emmy is here.

You remember our prayer?

That God would allow nutrients to get in that body because she was losing weight.

Well, since last week she's gained a pound.

Now that's easy for some of you grown adults, but for a baby, that's not easy.

I gained a pound last night, I think.

But praise the Lord.

We're so excited.

And that sweet little face, I mean that.

We're so excited.

God has been good to us this week.

Again, if you're visiting, we're not dirty people.

This is prayer requests, and we're praying over these.

Keep that in mind.

Something that God put on our hearts a few weeks ago.

And if you have one during the sermon, please bring it up and we will continue to this series is over, just praying over these.

And I hope that God is already at work at some of those in your life.

And so it has been a good week.

Worship team, can we give them a hand?

That was awesome.

He reigns above it all.

Dave shared a good word, man.

I'm happy to be in a church that is just rolling right in the right order.

Well, A.W.

Tozer said this: wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow, they are themselves idolatrous.

The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.

We're talking about standing against idolatry today.

It's an age-old battle of good versus evil.

And the great philosopher Yoda once said, your path is yours.

Decide you must.

Do or do not, there is no try.

And so we have got a line that is drawn between good and evil.

If God is God, then God is God.

If Baal is God, Elijah said, then Baal is God.

Who is God to you?

And I thought about this, and it's interesting.

I hadn't deciphered down into this one name, but two names can provide to you the story that's gone through 1 Kings 17 and further.

The first one is Elijah.

We've broken that down.

Elijah L-I-Jah.

El God is Ja, Jehovah.

God is God, is his name.

Well, I didn't see this before, but this week I started studying it at Jezebel.

Ezebel.

Eza Baal.

Baal is exalted, is what Jezebel means.

God is God or Baal is God.

Who is God to you?

Let's pray.

Father, we love you.

And God, we are thankful to be in your house, in your presence, God.

I said earlier to our team, God, the only measurement of a success we're looking at at CCW is the presence of God.

We are thankful for people.

We are thankful for decisions.

We're thankful for buildings.

We're thankful for offerings.

We're thankful for many things that you're doing.

But the measure of success that we look to is your presence, God.

And so fall on us again today.

God, we don't need just another service.

We don't need just another word from just another speaker.

God, let your word fall on our hearts today.

In Jesus' name, amen.

In 2 Kings chapter 1, look at verses 1 and 2, and we're going to see the conflict that begins.

2 Kings 1 · chapter mention

Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.

Now, Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and was injured.

So he sent messengers and said to them, Go, inquire of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.

Well, in verse 1, it makes you look back in the story.

It says, And then Moab rebelled after the death of Ahab.

In chapter 22, which we didn't have a sermon to cover, in chapter 22, Ahab finally dies.

And it as was prophesied by Elijah, the dogs lick his blood.

That's 1 Kings 22.

And so we see that death, and then in 51 through 53, if you want to go back, you can see the onset of the new king.

It says, Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and he reigned two years.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, for he served Baal and worshipped him and provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.

And so we see, as you jump into 2 Kings chapter 1, the story, the backstory here.

2 Kings 1 · chapter mention

His father is gone, and he's already back to the same old pattern of things.

And he gets injured.

We see that he was an injured point one is he is an injured ruler.

Letter A is this a Haziah's injury warrants reflection.

It says he fell through a lattice.

Interpreted, he likely was looking out a window and fell.

He was looking out a window, and commentators differentiate, but believe that probably fell several stories.

I know that a Haziah hit the ground and he said, I've fallen and I can't get up.

It's funny, there's another story in the Bible in the New Testament.

Paul was preaching.

Paul or Peter, I can't remember right now.

But one of them was preaching, and a guy named Eutychus was sitting back on a window.

He fell out the window, he died, and then they went down and healed him.

He fell out of window.

Talk about a boring church service.

Fell asleep, fell out of window.

That woke him up.

Well, I thought about the worst falls that I've ever had.

In 2010, the football play, I believe, was called the annexation of Pastor Rick.

A young teen boy grabbed a hold of my ankles in the snow of Hawks, Michigan.

As I was about to break free of that tackle, a mailman.

Y'all don't mess with mailmen.

A youth group leader, not another kid.

A man in his middle 30s, while my ankles were wrapped up, trucked me into the ground.

It was a great fall, and he looked down at me, already feeling sorry for what he had done.

Hopefully he repented.

He said, Are you okay?

To which I responded, No.

I went and took a very hot shower with a pain like I've never had before.

I got home, I didn't find out until I got home.

I drove the bus of 50-something kids.

And let me tell you the symptoms that were happening that I didn't know what had happened.

If I coughed, it burned, and I wanted to quit being alive.

If I sneezed, done.

Life was over.

I got home to the doctor.

I had, he had separated my sternum.

This is terrible.

You're right.

That is the right response.

I went to the doctor and I'm like, nothing we can really do.

Here's a bunch of pain pills.

So thankfully I'm not addicted to pain pills today.

That was a hard season.

Try not to laugh, cough, or sneeze for a few weeks.

It's really hard.

So Ahaziah was laying in bed after his great fall, and he had a good question.

How did we get here?

How did I get to this point?

And injuries, spiritual or soul, always beg to ask the question, how did I get here?

Makes me reflect.

Have you ever replayed a scenario over and over in your mind?

Wishing things went differently.

I know that some things are just bizarre.

Some things just kind of happen.

It seems like out of nowhere and maybe have no purpose.

But there are a lot of things that have a purpose and they warrant a reflection.

I was thinking about random things.

Darren had a tree fall on him a few years back.

I'm telling you, it was crazy.

But I bet you this, Darren had some time for reflecting during that season.

There's a kid in the church right now, you need to pray for him.

His name is Ben Brewer.

Ben the other week caught a football pass, ran into a bush, and it tore open his leg above the knee.

And Ben is being forced for the next several weeks to be stationary.

Psalms 46, 10 tells us to be still and know that I am God.

Reflection is biblical.

And sometimes God literally seats us for reflection, whether it be physical or soul care.

And when I say soul care, I want you to think about the instance of David.

Turn to Psalms 51 for a moment.

David stayed out of war, he got tired and did not enter the battle with his men.

Therefore, he went up to the rooftop, seen a naked lady, and said, I like, went and had her, and then had to murder her husband.

And on went his spiral downhill.

Nathan the prophet comes and brings him the story, puts his sin in his face, and David has to reflect.

And I want you to see the right words and reflection.

Psalms 51, 10 through 12.

He's repenting through this Psalm, and Psalms 51, 10 says, Create in me a clean heart, O God.

When you have a time of reflection, do you say these words?

Create in me new, clean, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore, he says, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.

So David had a time of reflection and has the right response in that.

Often people, something happens and they say, Why, God?

Why is this me?

Why is this trial happening to me?

Why does this have to happen?

Why this pain?

Why this turmoil?

Why?

And I'm not saying why is a wrong question, but what about what can I do in my reflection?

Why, God?

What needs to change?

Why am I reflecting on this?

Did Ahaziah randomly, inadvertently fall through his window?

I don't think so.

It was for a time of reflection.

By the way, the other week we talked about Sabbath.

God purposefully put one time per week that you're supposed to have a time of reflection.

And if you don't do that over time, you may get to a point where soul care, physical care, it's going to put you into a time of reflection.

God gave it to you, it's a purpose for you.

So, what can we do with this, Pastor?

Reflection is necessary.

I want you to ask some honest questions.

Think about this.

Might be good to write down.

Honest questions.

Are you facing a lot of pressure in life right now?

And from what area is it coming from?

It's an important question for you to think on.

If the next ten years are like the last month or the last six weeks, where will that put you in ten years?

How will life be?

Here's the question question for you.

What is one step that can alter that direction?

What is a step that you can take?

Because reflection should impact direction.

Reflection, the reason we come here, and I say every week we have an invitation and a time at the end, and it's a response time.

A pastor is supposed to speak to you, and then between you and God, there should be a time for reflection, a time to respond.

A Haziah's injury warrants a reflection.

Look at what he says.

We'll go further into it.

He sent messages and said, Go inquire of Baal Zabub, the God of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.

He wanted to recover.

He was in a bed and he was injured and he wanted recovery.

Letter B is a injury and wonders about recovery.

He wants to recover.

I think most hurting people want to recover.

When you look at somebody in pain or you're struggling with somebody, I think most hurting people want to recover.

The word is hayah, and it means to be saved.

To revive.

Isn't it good news that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost?

In Luke 5.31, it says, He did not come for the well or the whole.

He said, they don't need a physician, but they that are sick, I came to call to repentance.

Well, were the cards stacked against Ahaziah?

Because he was born to Ahab and Jezebel and came into this world in idolatrous situations.

I want to tell you, church, the cards of sin in a sin-filled world are stacked against every one of us.

Praise be to God who Romans says commended his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

We chose it, but Christ is the answer to recovery.

Do you know someone who's in need of recovery in life?

Need of reviving, need of saving.

I remember in that old church I've shared about Pleasantville Baptist Church, number 505, man, like almost every week.

505 in the hymn book.

We have heard the joyful sound.

Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Spread the tidings all around.

Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

To every land he climbs the steeps and crossed the waves.

Onward tis our Lord's command.

Jesus saves.

He saves.

He needs saving, and Jesus saves.

Isn't that good news?

Well, it is if you're looking to Jesus.

Point two is this it's an idolatrous realm.

Let's continue on in the verse.

Verse 3 will start.

He said, Go to Baalzebub and inquire if I'm going to recover.

And in verse 3, the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron?

Now for, thus says the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die.

So Elijah departed.

And when the messengers returned to him, he said to them, Why have you come back?

So they said to him, A man came up and met us and said to us, Go return to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says the Lord, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are inquiring of Beelzebub?

We have to understand, number one, this morning, this what is even an idol?

Because it's a reality today, and we kind of skirt it off as an old thing, maybe an old testament thing or a Middle Eastern thing, but not right here in America, not an idol.

Well, an idol, the word is El Il.

And it means a thing of naught, a thing of nothing.

An idol for us is a person, this is good to write down the definition of an idol, a person, place, thing, or idea in which we look to for our hope.

By the way, that person can be you yourself.

Person, place, thing, or idea which we look to for hope.

But the definition of an idol is nothing.

There's a song we're going to sing in a little bit, and here's some lyrics.

It's called Clear the Stage.

And the songwriter said, anything I put before my God, anything I can't stop thinking of, anything I give all my love above God is an idol.

You see, idol worship creates feelings, and we love to live by feelings.

Pastor Rick, do we really have an idol problem?

We love our feelings.

Let me clarify where we're at.

Our position.

God is our one real source, who will not be anything but the one source.

And God, who is our source, has given us resources.

When we place our hope in anything that's not the source, but the resources that are given, that's idolatry.

What does that mean, Pastor?

That's a lot of words.

If your identification is in your job, your job is a resource, that's an idol.

If you say, I am this, most of the time a guy will meet a guy, how are you doing?

What do you do?

And we feel defined by the thing that we do.

If your identification is in your bank account, stocks, mutual funds, 401k, retirement.

One day I'm going to be set.

We start putting that brainwashing into college students.

Just find a job so you can be set.

What is set?

One day I'm going to tell you, money aside, I'm set.

I've got an eternity in a place called heaven that's my home.

I am set.

Nothing in this world is gonna set me.

It's idolatry.

The name on your wardrobe.

It's a resource.

Your child's popularity, parents, your child's success.

Are we putting a lot of bank on that and looking to that?

Let me build them up and I can live vicariously in the background through my child's accolades?

That's an idol.

It's a good one in America, but it's an idol.

It's really not good.

But good things become bad things when they're an idol.

Your hobby is it becoming before your family, before God?

Students.

Tell a kid they gotta have this thing at the dinner table for a couple hours.

And parents, by the way, let me just be real.

It's your babysitter for your kid.

So maybe you should not have a phone as the babysitter.

It's an idol.

Just give them the phone.

Just give him the phone.

Then we can have peace.

And we're worried and wondering why they're having problems being addicted.

It's an idol.

It is not past me, church, that CCW can become an idol.

If the agenda here becomes a man's agenda or a person's idea, it can become an idol.

Our agenda is to follow God's plan.

Nothing else.

Many people here today have plans.

We're following God's plan.

I was telling the serve team this morning, listen, the measure that we're looking at here is not numerical growth.

I am thankful for numerical growth.

It does mean some things.

It is not the measure of our success.

That becomes an idol when we start counting.

In fact, a man talked to me over Christmas and I asked him about his business, Heather's uncle, and I said, How many districts do you have now?

And he said, I stopped counting that a long time ago.

I said, hmm, I don't understand.

And he said, I just I purposefully don't want to know.

And he said, Did you know that in the Bible David was told not to keep record, not to take a census?

Because we look at those things and say, look at us! Look at how amazing.

And man, I want it packed.

I do, I do.

But I'm telling you, not at the cost of God's agenda.

If we decrease at the cost of God's agenda, that's okay.

If we increase at the cost of God's agenda, that's okay.

But it's God's agenda.

Not my goal, God's presence.

Nice facilities, not the goal.

It's good.

Lives changed.

Better.

The mission of CCW is to share the good news to every generation.

And that's going to stay the mission.

The vision of CCW is to love God, love people serving at home and serving abroad.

That's who we are.

Hundred?

30 on a gathering?

700.

That is the vision.

So here's some questions for us to ask ourselves.

Practical.

Dave hit some of these.

Where do I spend my time?

Look at your calendar.

Look at your schedule.

Where do I spend my money?

Where do I spend my joy?

And where is my mind spent?

Why 2,000 years later, Pastor, do we have this struggle?

Help me to understand it.

If you can understand it, maybe we can do something against it.

So in the understanding, I think is this, I think there's still an idolatry problem because idols are convenient.

Idolatry is convenient.

What do you mean?

An idol is a God that releases me of liability.

To a false idol, I have no accountability.

To a real God, a creator, the source, I have accountability unto him.

I don't have to answer to El Il, which is nothing.

It allows me to stay the boss.

Because the resource doesn't perpetuate a need for obedience.

While the source that is God, the creator, requires worship and obedience.

I get to be my own boss if I'm just having idols.

Whatever the idol is.

Could be myself, my agenda, money, whatever the thing is.

I get to be the boss.

We don't like idols because we do not, or we do like idols because we do not like to submit.

We don't like to submit.

Tim Keller said this if your God never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.

Let me say it again.

If your God never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.

We have an idolatry problem.

It's real.

Letter A is this.

Ahaziah's inquiry is one of filth.

Of filth.

He asks about Beelzebub.

What is Beelzebub?

Same as the word Baal, and that is lowercase L Lord, and then Zevuv.

Flies.

The Lord of the flies is this God.

As far as can be CERN, the fly was worshipped in some way at Ekron.

Whatever be the actual nature of this false God, another name for it, hear this, is Lord of the Dunghill.

I don't know about you.

But I just happen to have some standards.

I'm like a God of the dung hill, people.

He is steeped up in his bed and said, Can somebody call the God of dung?

This is 125 years of compromise.

And he calls on a false God for his healing.

He calls on nothing for healing.

And by the way, he gets what he wished for.

I know God is real, church.

And listen to me, I've experienced it.

I have called on God and He answered my cry over and over and over again.

I'm not ever going to call on a BL Zebub.

I'm not going to call on my money.

I'm not going to call on some friend.

I'm not going to call on anything but God when trial falls.

He's answered over and over and again.

God is God.

Nothing else.

I want to give some clarification because he calls on this God and wonders will he recover from the healing needed?

And the clarification, God, hear me, can and does heal.

In one week's time, God used medicine and people, and Emmy has gained a pound.

Praise God.

God can and does heal.

I don't believe in false gods or man healing.

Healing is legitimate.

Beelzebub is not.

There's false prophets and wolves today trying to pirate money off of people in this realm.

I like what one man said.

It would serve the modern-day healer to visit hospitals and nursing homes instead of booking church meetings and selling books.

God does heal.

God does hear prayers.

I'm not a healer.

God does that.

He's called Jehovah Rapha.

Not a man, not the Lord of the flies, the God who heals.

A Haziah has a bad back injury, and he asked for a Lord of the flies to fix his back.

That's like I was on a mission trip and my tooth hurt.

And people, this is how it started.

You know, people start giving you suggestions.

I'm like, I'm feeling some pain.

You should try some ambisol, right?

Try some ambisol.

You need some Motrin.

I'm getting this pain.

I was on a mission.

Hear me.

Have you ever been with 17 teenagers who need activity constantly, never go to sleep.

And in my downtime of not dealing with 17 teenagers, we were running a vacation Bible school for 150 kids, and then we walked to 10,000 houses giving information about a church.

And meanwhile, I had a hornet's nest in my jaws.

And somebody says, You need some end.

I found out later I didn't even need a dentist.

I needed an endodontist.

This is a person that deals in the end of life.

An endo- I'm just kidding.

It felt like it.

Specializes in the pulp, the inside of the tooth.

How disgusting.

Who decides one day?

I can't wait to grow up and get in the inside of the tooth.

I found out when that trip was over, I had to come home and get a root canal.

Anybody experience this joy?

After 12 needles, they come and ask, are you numb?

I'm like, they think I can't feel my knees.

Does that count?

Then a welder comes in, and you first see smoke and then fire, and then they're poking things.

But when it's done, there is no more beehive.

It is magical.

This is how ridiculous it sounds to me.

Ahaziah has fallen through a window, probably suffering paralyzation, broken bones, maybe internal bleeding.

He's in bed.

And a rep that comes to him knows the God who brought fire, the God who cured the drought, the God who sent Elijah running 45 miles an hour, and he says, Has anybody seen the Lord of flies?

That'd be like me having a tooth problem and going to Walmart customer service.

No, even worse.

Actually, it'd be like me going to Walmart self-checkout because an idol is nothing.

Beelzebub was no God at all.

Let's look at letter B.

And it was an inquiry without faith.

He keeps asking this important question.

Is it because there's no God in Israel?

Do you believe in Beelzebub and not Jehovah?

He says, Is it because there's no God?

Is that why you're asking for this false God?

Do you not believe?

Have you not heard?

Do you not understand what's happened in Israel?

And I want to tell you how God sees Himself.

He is the I am.

I am, that is the one that is to be.

An idol, remember, El Il is nothing.

I am to be.

I am the existent one, the eternal one.

He says, I am.

In the New Testament, he says, I am the resurrection and the life.

John 14, 6, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And I'm telling you today, there's some people in here.

And you say, Pastor, I need hope.

And he says, I am.

What will work?

I am.

What is the latest thing?

I am.

I need a fresh start.

I am.

Nothing feels real anymore.

I am.

I don't know who I can trust.

I am.

Nobody's listening to me.

I am.

My friends are sinning.

I don't know where to turn.

I am.

I can't hold on.

I am.

I'm pouring into others who's pouring into me.

I am.

I don't know why I am here.

I am.

I need a fix.

I am.

I need somebody to hold me.

I am.

And to come to the I am is to come by faith.

You believe in the I am.

Hebrews 11, 1 says faith is the substance of things hoped for.

The heaven things of things not seen is to come by faith without seeing it, but believing.

And Hebrews 11, 6 said that we cannot without faith please God.

You must come to him in faith, and this is an inquiry without faith.

He says, is it because there's no God?

Is that why you're calling on Beelzebub?

Well we see point number three this morning in ignorance of repentance.

So the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men, so he went up to him.

That's verse nine.

And there he was sitting on the top of a hill, and he spoke to him, Man of God, listen to that.

It's important when words are repeated in Scripture.

Man of God, the king has said, Come down.

So Elijah answered and said to the captain of 50, I am a man of God.

God is God.

Then let the fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.

And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

Then he sent, this is Ahaziah, another captain of fifty with his fifty men.

And he answered and said to him, Man of God, thus he has the king come down quickly.

So Elijah answered and said to them, If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.

And the fire of God came down and consumed him and his fifty.

So we see letter A is this an ignorance of God's movement brings fire.

Fire in the Bible often symbolizes some things.

One, it's a physical representation of God's presence, as in the burning bush.

It can also signify purification and finally judgment.

1 Kings 18, 39, we saw the fire fall, and everyone who was there said, This is the God, the real God.

In Genesis 18, God sees the wickedness of Sodom and He tells Abraham that he's going to burn it down and fire.

Problem, Abraham had a nephew that lived there.

So Abraham tries to intercede and says, if there's 50, 40, 30, 20, if there's 10 people, will you save it?

God is so slow in his anger.

He hates sin.

He hates godlessness.

The Lord had to rain down fire because there wasn't 10.

Church, hear me, you cannot live for God and ignore God's work.

It can be right around you, and you're just skirting it, think, looking at an idol, looking at an idea, looking at whatever.

Revelation 20, 15 said, Whoever was not found written in the book of life, the people who ignored God's call will be cast into the lake of fire.

It's an ignorance of repentance.

Those who spent an entire life and heard God's call but ignored it, his movement.

God is at work, church, and you can miss it.

But I implore you, don't.

Find him and join him in his work.

Elijah spends his entire life very cognizant of where God is at work.

And wherever God is at work, you see Elijah.

God's glory, God's voice, God's touch.

I'm going, I'm going.

Wherever God is at work, that's where I want to be.

And we said, Vision Sunday, we're going to stand on the mountain.

The place of the glory, voice, and touch of God.

The opposite of standing on the mountain is laying on the bed, injured, calling out to some false thing for hope.

I said it was important when the Bible repeats itself.

Five times it says in this passage, man of God, man of God.

He says, if I'm a man of God, this will happen.

He says, man of God.

Then he said, if I'm a man of God, this will happen.

Man of God, five times.

And I want to tell you, church, if you are a man or a woman of God, it will be evident by your action and consideration to God's movement.

When God is moving, where are you?

In placement to what he's doing.

Are you running the business?

Are you running the sports?

Are you running, running, running?

When God is at work, where are you?

Paul said, I'm become all things to all men, by all means, that some might be saved.

He said, I want to be where God is at work, so that the movement of God brings fire, and I'll, whatever it takes, I'll go, apart from ungodliness.

Lots of methods.

The message is always the same: repent.

He ignored.

Three times he came back.

He's laying in the bed three times.

And that his men burnt, torched.

Not once does it hit him.

This might be a real God.

Finally, letter B ignorance of God's mercy brings finality.

Verse 13 through 17.

Again he sent a captain of 50, this third time with his fifty men, and the third captain, look here, he got wise to it.

Third captain of fifty went up, and he came and he fell on his knees before Elijah, and he pleaded with him and said, Man of God, please let me my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight.

Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up these first two captains of fifties with their fifties, but let my life now be precious.

And the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, go down with him, do not be afraid of him.

So he arose and went down with him to the king.

Then he said to him, Thus says the Lord, because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word, therefore you shall not come down, Ahaziah, from the bed.

See, two captains die.

The last captain asked for mercy.

And this is such a picture.

God relented when somebody saw their need to realize that he is God.

Mercy is granted.

We're shown so much by God's long-suffering mercy.

By the way, are you also showing mercy?

But Ahaziah still ignores the king of Israel.

I know you want to know about this.

1 Kings 21.

What happened to Ahaziah's daddy?

It's interesting.

Because we talk about this mercy and this long-suffering, Ahaziah's daddy, Ahab, at least temporarily, in chapter 21, verse 27 through 29.

Let's look at it real quick.

Ahab, a scoundrel, it says, Nobody had done wickedness like this man in all of the land, up to him.

See God in this passage.

See the heart of God.

So it was when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body and fasted and laid in sackcloth and went about mourning.

And the word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, See how Ahab has humbled himself before me?

Because he has, I will not bring the calamity in his days.

God relented on an evil man because at least temporarily, he had the signs of repentance.

We said when the prophets of Baal were killed that it was a justified punishment based on God's wrath, but had they repented, I believe God would have relented.

Second Peter 3, 9 and 10 says this: God is slow to anger.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us.

He's not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.

God in his love has provided every way and means for every person to experience the benefit of mercy.

By the blood of Jesus Christ, he withholds judgment.

Well, what happens?

Why does this happen to Ahaziah?

Because Deuteronomy 30, 17, God's wrath is a reality.

It says, but if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day, you'll certainly be destroyed.

Idolatry, listen to me, church, it's not far from you.

Revelation 21:8 says, All idolaters will have their place in a lake of fire.

Revelation 21:8

Everything else is not the answer, church.

Jehovah God is the healer of health and heart.

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