The Importance of Removing Idols: 2 Chronicles 17:1-19

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Six six zero, six hundred episodes, six hundred

episodes of the Bible Guys.

Yeah, not just of HG Daily, that's right, because how

many we have those?

Well, all together, I was just looking that up. Let

me find it again, all together between.

You may not know we started this as a small

group kind of thing, and we did a bunch of

episodes on HG Daily, not really ever intending to continue.

Yeah, so with HC Daily and The Bible Guys combined

is six hundred and fifty eight episodes.

We only did fifty eight episodes of the HID.

Seven hundred I'm sorry, seven hundred and fifty eight episodes

seven to fifty eight. Yeah, yeah, so we did I

think so and.

Fifty eight episodes of the HG Daily.

Yeah, so it's either seven fifty eight or seven sixty

three okay, yeah, but around there, Yeah, over seven hundred

and six, let's say, seven hundred and sixty episodes also combined.

But you and me just with the Bible Guys, six

six hundred episodes, and it's this one. This is the

six hundredth Yeah, and so hey, hey listen people, for

those who've been listening a long time, we're gonna try

really hard with this one, okay, right, you see we

can finally get it right.

We're gonna shoot above mediocrity.

We just that's right, that's right. We're going to elevate

the bar to you know, so so so.

That's great.

Yeah, yeah, that's our new commitment. We're all in on

getting it so so.

And today's Friday, Yeah, which is everybody's favorite day because

it's the most likely day for us to celebrate everybody's

favorite It doesn't always happen, but everybody's favorite episode.

Our long term fans know everybody's favorite episode. Hey, listen,

remember when I told you earlier this week that I

met with some kids that used to be in my

youth group and now they're married and they have four

little girls. The little girls said that their favorite part

is what made Chris mad? Is it really? And they're

pretty sure they know all the things that made Chris mad.

This week, I said, trust me, we haven't even begun

to scratch the surface of what makes Chris mad. So

so they're sitting here super excited. Girls yeah, here he is. Chris,

what made you mad this week?

Well, when I saw the question and I knew it

was upon me, I immediately thought of something that happened

on Monday.

I looked at the sheet and said, oh, it's what

made Chris mad this week? And you go, oh, I

already know what it is. Yeah, you didn't even have

to think twice.

Yes, okay, So here it is.

It comes down to one sentence, which is, have you

ever been really super excited about something? Yes, and you

you really wanted the other person to experience it as well.

Like have you ever said, like, oh to your wife

or something, You'd say, I can't wait till.

You tea this week?

Yeah you love this, I love this or this movie

or you know what I mean.

Or whatever it is, and they completely rejected and they

don't even give it a time of day. That's this

is what happened to me. So it happened with the

movie Wicked. Okay, okay. So so now that you have

that context, allow me to end.

You are a massive fan of Wicked. It's a ten

out of ten.

It's a ten out of ten, just so just so

everybody knows, there's probably less than twenty movies in my

lifetime that I've given a ten out of ten.

And Chris has seen all the movies. True, So there's

twenty out of the gajillion movies that you've seen, and most.

Of them you know who are that are phenomenal? They

get nine?

What are other ten out of ten? Everything that zach

Efron's in, and then Wicked ten out of ten.

No, No, I immediately can say that I've given Endgame

and Infinity Wars both of.

Those ten out of ten. Okay, So theo's are substantial.

Those are significant. It has to be subsidci complexity of it,

the scale of it.

They intensity on it, editing out it.

I don't want to get too much into it because

I have a story here, but I do have a

rating scale. Okay, but here's the thing. It has to

be ten out of ten means.

Like I would.

It lacks nothing that's okay.

And just so you know, when when Chris gives you

a number of scales, if he thinks something is really good,

he'll go, dude, that was a solid eight. Yes, and

that's like a massive compliment for you to say it's

a solid eight. Yeah. Five is neutral and you because

you are stingy with nines and ten's almost never.

Exists, right, That's see, like, for instance, a sermon on

a Sunday morning and they come down and I think,

I'm like, that is incredible.

I'm like, dude, that was like an eight and a half.

Yeah, yeah, right, Well you've given me a couple of sevens,

which make me feel so incredibly incredibly honored. I've given

you man alive, and so I've been super excited.

Yeah.

Nine is like life changing. Ten is something you'll never

ever forget. Anyway, The point is, I'm not even into

my story yet, please, is that I went to this person.

I'm not going to tell you your name, but you.

Know who you are. But you know who you are.

I said, I go, you got to watch Wicked. It's

just it's just it's just great.

So she goes home, comes back and says, you know,

I see her, you know the next time I see her,

And she says, yeah, I just don't understand the hype,

and it's you know it was it was okay. I said, well,

were you into it or were you you know it

was on it was in the background. I just get infuriated,

I get inured. I said, what what do you mean.

You're saying you turned it on and you didn't completely

dedicate your entire attent.

Next to three hours to it.

It is three hours for the first half, for the

first half, that's right, that's right.

Now, the real Wicked only lasts two hours in the theater,

but two and a half hours for sure. But we

got to make this movie rightfully, So we go to

make this movie six hours for the two and a

half hour theater show. But that's okay, but rightfully so

okay because for instance, I haven't seen it yet. When

you when you create a movie, don't ruin it for me.

What happens? No, No, when you create a movie.

When you create a movie, like for instance, in the

Wicked Broadway show, which I've I've seen five.

Times, I've seen twice, Okay.

They're like when they walk into OZ, they're like, oh

look it's OZ.

And of course the set isn't exactly that elaborate, right,

but like, oh look we're in OZ.

That's it. It lasts one second in the movie.

They literally, because it's a movie, they have to create

OZ and the splendor of OZ. Dude, that takes like

seven minutes just for them to show you as right,

and so naturally the movie's going to be way longer

because it creates emotion and it creates character depth, so

they take more time to give you more depth of.

Them, so more than twice as long. So anyways, your

friend headed on in the background.

I'm giving you the whole argument.

By saying phenomenal. Why it's ten Yeah, that's.

Exactly right here it is. Okay, I'm gonna wrap this up.

You have you have to live up to the Wizard

of Stinking oz Right from nineteen thirty nine, one of

the best movies revered ever made. So that's a tall order,

and you're gonna make a sequel to that, good Luck.

And then you're going to take on arguably one of.

The best Broadway shows ever made, which is Wicked and

by the Way, and then you're going to try to

compete with the musical talent of arguably two of the

greatest singers in the world, Kristin Chenowith and I did

a Menzell. Right, So you got these three unbelievable things

you're trying to tackle, and it's like, good luck with

living up to all three of those things. Now on

top of that, so not only are you taking on

that challenge, but then you have to not only do that,

but you have to elevate it. You have to make

it better, right otherwise why do it? Because think about this,

every live animations you ever see the remake, the live

animation remake of the Little Mermaid?

Don't ever see it.

It's awful. It is a lesser version of the Little

It's like a four out of It's like a three

and a half four out of ten. Okay, because you

know flounder of the fish. You can have big eyes

when he's but when you when you have a real

fish acting surprised, you can't make him with cartoon eyes.

There's no expression. Right, It's a lesser version on every level. Okay, okay, okay,

So not wicked. Wicked has to add character, depth and

emotion on top of everything else. Okay, us why we

make it? And so anyway, all that to say it,

it surpassed my expectations in every category.

And your friend said, and.

My friend said, oh, I just didn't get it.

And then I was so mad at the end when

it was finally over, finally over, and it said to

be continued, and I was like, what it was only

part one, and I was like, are you kidding me?

This movie stands on its own as is, and it

is incredible. It's incredible. It surpassed everything. Okay, and I'm

telling you one last thing.

So how dare somebody have a different opinion than you

about a movie? No, that is not that is that

he's about.

What I'm mad is is that you didn't give it

the time of day.

You just turned it on in the background, and you

mean judged it.

She gave it three hours.

No, she said it was on in the background, and

she's like, oh it was.

It was just sort of on.

But she made it to the end and saw that

it was to be continued.

And then decided to critique it.

And then as I was trying to lift it up

and explain the grandeur of this, of this feat that

Wicked has conquered, she says, oh, I just didn't get it.

I just it was terrible. Okay, she didn't use the

word terrible, but still it was.

Okay. Well, how dare she?

Yes, it didn't mad?

She clearly did not listen to you.

And anybody anybody who listen.

So he's mad that she didn't listen.

When you want somebody to appreciate that what you appreciate,

and they don't.

And they don't they don't really put in that real effort.

That's correct. I see that's what made Christmas.

I see you understand, Yes, you understand now, ja I

do understand. Okay, okay, all right? Or next time Chris

wants me to do something, I better do it. Well,

if I'm with all my heart, I better do it.

Not just not just part way man, you can get

in trouble. Yeah, with all my heart, Chris, Okay, that's it. Okay,

talking about with all my heart. Ooh uh. Jehosha Fat

becomes king and he wants to lead just like his

dad did with all his heart, with all his heart

in Israel. Heart. I like it. Was that a good transition.

I like it.

Okay. So in Second Chronicles, chapter seventeen is where we're

at in this yes and Uh, it says this Jehasaphat

Jehosha Fat, Yes j e h O s h A

p h A T. It's a rapper's name.

It's ridiculous, that is what it is.

It's like a rapper name, right, yeah, Fat Fat Jehosh

I don't know jehoshaha saying, Rapper, it's fat pepj Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,

that's what I'm saying. Jehosha, fat Ace's son became the

next king. He strengthened Judah to stand against any attack

from Israel. He stationed troops in all the fortified towns

of Judah, and he assigned additional garrisons to the land

of Judah and to the towns of Ephraim that his

father Asa had captured. The Lord was with Jehashafat because

he followed the example of his father's early years and

did not worship the images of Bail. He sought his

father's God and obeyed his commands instead of following the

evil practices of the Kingdom of Israel. So the Lord

established Jehoshaphat's rule kingdom and control over the Kingdom of Judah.

All the people of Judah brought gifts to Jehashaphat, so

he became very wealthy and highly esteemed. He was deeply

committed to the ways of the Lord. He removed the

pagan shrines and a share of polls from each from Judah.

In the third year of his reign, Jehashapat sent his

officials to teach it in all the towns of Judah.

These officials included ben Hale, Obadiah, Zachariah, Nathaniel, and mike Ayah.

He sent levites along with them, including Samaiyah and Nathaniah

zebediah Assahl, Shemramoth Jeha on the then Ada Nija, Tobijah,

and Toba Nija. There'll be a quiz after by the way.

He also sent out the priests Alishama and Jehoram that

took copies of the Book of the Law of the

Lord and traveled around through all the towns of Judah

teaching the people. Then the fear of the Lord fell

over all the surrounding kingdoms, so that none of them

wanted the declare war on Jehashapah. Some of the Philistines

brought him gifts and silver is tribute, and the Arabs

brought seventy seven hundred rams and seventy seven hundred male goats.

So Jehashapah became more and more powerful and built fortresses

and storage cities throughout Judah. He stored numerous supplies in

Judas towns and stationed in an army of seas and

troops at Jerusalem. His army was enrolled according to ancestral clans.

From Judah, there were three hundred thousand troops organized in

units of a thousand, under the command of aDNA. Next

in command was johannan N who commanded two hundred and

eighty thousand troops. Next was Ameasiah, son of Zikar, who

volunteered for the lord's service, with two hundred thousand troops

under his command. From Benjamin, there were two hundred thousand

troops equipped with the bows and shields, and they were

under the command of Elieda, a veteran soldier. Next to

the command was Jehosah Bad, who commanded one hundred and

eighty thousand armed men. These were the troops stationed in

Jerusalem to serve the king, besides those Jehoshaphat stationed in

the fortified towns throughout Judah. Wow, that's a lot of names, dude, Dude, I.

Told you this a long time ago. I told you

this actually during the break in between podcasts that early on. Yeah,

I said, I want you to be the one who reads,

because number one, you have a really great.

Voice, you really do, and you read very well. But

it's mainly because I would slam I don't want to

say anything.

It's the main reason why I was like, hey, you

do the reading, because I would butcher all of those,

and yet you got through them. And sometimes when you

burn through those, like you really read those fast. I

would have paused and I would still be on that

section right now.

I would be like Toebedja, well, I thought it was

funny talking about the names Adamnija, Tobaija and toeb Adanaija,

which is what is that about?

Right?

Yeah, it's pretty crazy.

I don't know. And uh sher Ramoth. Yeah, yeah, that's terrible.

That's terrible. But let's just they might all be in

heaven going come on, man, say my name right, just

just one time, one preacher, say my name, right, that's

because yeah, anyways, say my name, my name.

Hey.

Jehoshaphat was ASA's son, Yes, he became the next king.

Asa was a pretty good king, and Jehasha Fat became

a better king.

Yeah, better king.

And remember how it said that Asa never tore down

the temples, Yes, and you said that he almost went.

All the way.

Yeah, I wished he did.

Yeah, And Josha Fat went all the way.

He did. He was deeply committed to the ways of

the Lord, and he removed the pagan shrines and a

share of polls from Judah.

That's it.

Yeah, that that's the verse six.

Yep.

And so he so he actually, uh, he's like, hey,

my my dad was good. My dad was a good man.

And but I'll tell you what.

I would do. I'll tell you what I would do.

I would I would go all the way, and I would.

As a family, we have some unfinished business.

That's right.

Yeah, yeah, And he did, and and so you know,

and guess what happens, shockface. He gets blessed, right, he

gets blessed. They prosper, he gets stronger, he has more influence,

and and God blesses them and honors him.

I love the fact that Jehosha saw his dad at

his best and he saw his dad at his worst.

True.

And you know, all of us have grown up with

adults in our lives where we saw the best and

the worst. And I think right now we live in

a culture where it's okay for us to choose to

kind of a victim mentality because we saw the adults

in our life at their worst. Yeah, but what about

adopting the best?

Right?

Hey, that drunk father did he get up and go

to work, did he keep paying the bills? Did he write, Yes,

you saw the worst, but don't be a victim because

of the worst. And I'm not saying that you weren't victimized.

I'm not saying that I was victimized.

As especially if it's serious abuse.

Right, right, and and I went through serious physical abuse, right,

that's right.

And but I almost forgot. You have a pedestal stand

on there a little bit, yeah, yeah, or not a

pedestal platform, yeah, a platform. So, but you have a

choice if bad things have happened in your life, or

if you've seen the adults in your life before you

do bad things, that doesn't give you the right to

go ahead and be, you know, choosing this victim mentality

of I'm never gonna achieve or these things are the

things that hold me back, or this is why I'm miserable. Instead,

what you see is Jehoshaphat saw his dad at his

best and at his worst, and Jehoshaphat decided to embrace

the god of his father's early days, right right, and

then to lead the people. Well, he led the people.

He tore down those temples, he tore on the a

share of polls. He set up strong armies, and the

people learn to love him, and they gave him all

these these blessings because he decided, hey, my family has

some unfinished business.

So if you grew up in a world, if you

grew up in a life where, hey, there were some

really bad things that adults did around me, you know,

you can decide to do the best parts of what

they did, and it's you can at the same time

simultaneously reject the bad things and say, my family has

some unfinished business, and I'm going to be the one.

So in my life, you know, my biological father was

an alcoholic. I've told that story many times. There was

a lot of violence, there were all these things, and

so I just decided the unfinished business in my family's

life was an alcohol based issue. So I decided an

early age, I'll never touch it. I'm never going to

drink it. And as a result, my children never hit

under the bed, they'd never hid in the closet. My

wife never ducks when I raised my hand, right because

she doesn't, she doesn't have some kind of sense. I'm

about ready to beat her. All that kind of stuff.

There's a tremendous out of peace, and I decided, rather

than being a victim of what he did to us,

I decided, you know what, I'm going to embrace the

good sides of adulthood and I'm going to go ahead

and finish the business. I'm going to fix the thing

that was broken in my family. And that's what you

see Johasha fat do, right. And there's a choice here,

that's what I'm saying. There's a choice. And he took

the nation to the next level. Remember, he broke up

all these these armies into tribes. They were very tribal,

they were very family oriented. So the king really, oftentimes

for the whole nation, really felt like the dad of

the whole nation. That's what it felt like for them.

That's why they just thought, we've got the best king,

right is because we're all family. They're all family. And

so then to have him rise up and go, no,

we're not going to be oppressed. We're not going to

do what the nation to the north of us are doing,

and we're going to go ahead and finish the unfinished things.

We're going to get better at what my dad did.

We're going to reject the bad that he did. I'm

going to set my peace people free. I'm going to

set them up and prosper again, and we're going to

follow God. I just I love everything about Jehosha Fatza

early reign that way. Yeah, it's fantastic.

Hey, I think this would be a funny thing to say.

So during the Christmas services that we just had, so

Heritage just got through what three weeks ago, twenty two

Christmas services, and we had somebody making comment.

Do you remember what I want to say here?

Somebody making comment and you were out on the stage preaching.

I was in the wings with the choir, and I

was about to go out and jump in the choir

and just you know, just be a part of it.

And this lady makes a comment and she's watching you

on the TV because on the side wings we call

them the wings. She's watching you and you're preaching and

you're giving the gospel, you know, you're doing candle lighting,

and here I am acting like crazy goofy right and

on the side, you know, laughing, yucking it up, you know,

and jumping in the choir and all this.

But I wasn't supposed to be in the choir.

I never, I've never they had a uniform. Actually they

were all wearing all black. You come out, you're just

wearing like a normal shirt.

And she goes, you know, she goes as two of

our pastors of heritage. She goes two of our leaders.

She goes, I look at him, and she points to

the TV. She puts to you.

She goes, he's like the dad. And she goes and

you're sort of like the uncle. And I was like, what,

I said, what do you mean? She's like, yeah, she goes,

but I don't mean it in a negative weight.

I'm like, oh, you don't.

And I just thought it was one of the funniest things.

I laughed so hard. I thought it was so funny.

And she goes, well, yeah, she goes, the dad is

going to be somebody who you know, uh, you know,

he's probably not going to let let you get away

with much.

Yeah. She told me, I'm not gonna let you get

away with much. Chris is way more fun.

She goes.

She goes, but you know, she goes, well, the crazy uncle, yeah, probably, so, yeah,

it's hilarious.

One of the I'm going to do a memorial service

tomorrow for a friend and he's young and his family

He's kind of like the glue of the family, and

it's a very extended Italian family, huge Italian family, and

he was like the mentor to all the nephews and

nieces and everybody's loved him. And so several of the moms,

we were all around in the hospital and there's twenty

five people in the hospital room. They're all telling stories,

and several the moms were talking about how they would

they tried to have rules, but Sam was always the

one that would sneak and break the rules with the

nephews and nieces, right, so they all knew the crazy

uncle be there. So one of them one of my friends,

she's fantastic. I'd known her for a long time. She's

his sister, and she had a rule for a long

time that her kids no chewing gum. She just didn't

think gum was a good idea. And finally Sam always

was chewing gum. So he finally was able to get

her to let the kids have gum one time, and

she said, okay, only with me, only with mom, and

only on holliay of days. So then Sam finally knows

he's got his foot in the door and he's the

uncle he sent the next day, had thousands of pieces

of bubblegum delivered to their home from Amazon, this huge

box and with a note from Uncle Sam. It's a

holiday somewhere every day.

That's hilarious.

So that's the difference between the parent and the uncle.

The uncle's like, yeah, let's go have some fun. That's

what she's saying, right, is that I'm the I'm the

funny ditty. This is gonna make everybody tell the line,

and you're the one that everybody's gonna have fun with.

Well, there's both, there's both.

There's both positives and big negatives with both of those, right, right,

Because the.

Dad's the dad's the.

Better one of the choice.

Yeah, for sure. So there's the positive side of it.

So I'm just I'm just the crazy uncle.

No, it's that she loves spending time with you and

she has fun, right, That's it. And yeah, so it

was even funnier in the way that she said it.

The whole thing. That was just great. So we uhould

get back to this. There's one more thing I wanted

to highlight before we kind of finish up and remind

ourselves again of the importance of deciding to keep going

deeper in your relationship with God. All these names. Sometimes

people ask why do they name so many names? Why? Really? So,

the Holy Spirit inspired the author of Second Chronicles to

name twenty five or thirty key people, and the Bible says,

you know, Book of Romans says, give honor to whom

honor is due. These are godly men that stepped up

risk their lives to protect the people of God who

were all trying to do the right thing, and they

stepped in. It wasn't possible for Jehoshaphat's rain to be successful.

It wasn't possible for Jehoshaphat's rain to have the kind

of prosperity and peace without these guys being willing to

put their lives on the line. And so God goes, hey,

we're going to give you an honorable mention in the Bible.

For thousands of years, we've been trying to plow through

these goofy names and try to figure out who they are,

because what they did really mattered, right, And so sometimes

you know, you're not a king. I'm not a king.

I don't know that anybody's going to remember our names

too much. It's not like we transformed the whole world. Right,

But man, would be nice to get an honorable mention

in heaven. Right, you know what I mean? And that's

what happens here is these guys did it. I love

the one guy, a messiah son of Zickary, who volunteered

for the Lord's service. I love the people time about saying, God, Jeff,

I don't know what God wants me to do. What

do you want to do for God? Go do that

until he stops you. Right. I really still feel like

I'm a pastor because of that. I don't know that

I ever had a lightning moment where God said, Jeff,

I want you to be a pastor. But man, I

really wanted to serve the Lord in ministry. And I

loved that verse. David says, you know, he'd rather be

a doorkeeper in the house of God, right, And I

just remember going, That's what I want to do. And

so I just pursued that God opened the doors. He's

blessed it, and I think it's kind of the same thing.

A messiah, the son of Zickary, volunteered for the Lord's

servi us and he gets an honorable mention in the

Bible because he led two hundred thousand troops to protect

just Jehosephat's kingdom. It's pretty neat. Yeah, it's very neat.

So if you haven't had a lightning bolt moment, go volunteer.

Do a thing. What does your heart beat for for God?

Go do that thing and do it until God stops you.

That's great, that's great advice, and that's that's a great

place to end.

So our six hundredth episode. Yes, congratulations Chris Man.

Hey, congratulations to you, Jeff, and thanks for being the

one who carries the load.

Well, but no, we do it together. I couldn't. I

couldn't do any of the things you do on this podcast.

That's true.

That's true.

You can't sing, No, I can. I just choose not to.

You can sing, yeah, you just don't sing very right.

All right, Hey, we will see you hopefully on Monday

on the Bible.

Guys,