1/14/24 1 Kings 15:9-15 “Come! It’s Not Too Late!”

11 Jan 1/14/24 1 Kings 15:9-15 “Come! It’s Not Too Late!”

1/14/24   1 Kings 15:9-15             “Come! It’s Not Too Late!”

I think that being 73 will have many perks.  I’m getting to the point where I reflect on many of the things that I might have done.  Take playing baseball for instance.  When I was young, I was a pretty fair ball player.  I was fast.  I could field and I could hit from either side of the plate.  I even put several balls into the woods for home runs.  I loved to play the game.  I looked forward to the game we played every year against the grade above us or the grade below us.  It was all great and then I went into the 7^th grade.  You see we didn’t have baseball in my high school because we were too small.  So, my baseball dreams ended in a field behind Humboldt School and of course it’s too late now.  I would guess that we all have had similar dreams and aspirations.  It is just part of the growing up process.  And I think we also all realize that some of our physical aspirations get put on the back burner as we get older due to more limited physical capabilities.  But there are many other types of aspirations that we have that just get put on the back burner for no real reason.  Today, we are going to look at King Asa of Judah and see how he could turn the nation around when many would think that it was too late.

Victor Yap tells the story of moving to a new home only to find that the yard was covered with weeds.  So, one day he started out to pull and pick all the weeds.  He didn’t get very far in one afternoon.  Instead, all he got was a sore back and sore knees.  He then hired someone to come and take care of the project.  His next project was to take out some ugly, cheap looking mini-shrubs that were put in to stabilize the slope of the yard and replace them with some nice-looking flowers.  He started in and found that the shrubs had quite a root system.  He had to go to the hardware store to buy a spade.  He bought the cheapest one that only cost something like a dollar.  After all, he only had a small job.  He got home and, of course, the cheap spade broke right away.  So, he had to go back and buy a much better tool.  Eventually, he got the old shrubs out but he learned a valuable lesson that we all have to learn.  If you are going to do something, you need the right tools to get the job done.  The same principle applies to many things in our lives also.  When you need something done, our right tool is Jesus.  Don’t ever forget that.

I want us to concentrate on King Asa today because he inherited a yard full of weeds and shrubs that just had to go.  Asa was the great-grandson of Solomon, who we talked about last week.  His grandfather was Rehoboam who was the 3^rd king of Judah.  He was a terrible king and did things that did not please God.  If you remember in your reading, Solomon also did this during the 2^nd half of his reign.  So, Solomon passed on his bad traits to his son, Rehoboam, who passed them on to his son, Abijah.  Abijah, who was Asa’s dad, also did what was not pleasing to God.

The reason I bring you this little genealogy is that I want you to see that there had been a period of 60 years or so during which the Kingdom of Judah had bad kings.  It started with Solomon who began as a good king but by the time he was done, he had turned away from God and did many bad things.  It keeps getting worse as he passed on his bad traits to his son.

Have you ever noticed how easy bad family traits are passed on to the next generation?  I know that it is the societal norm not to blame a person because fault and blame lie in how the person was raised.  We like to say that he didn’t know any better therefore; he is not responsible for his actions.  I can’t agree with this for the most part.  You are responsible for your actions even if they are a result of bad family traits, but it is not too late to change this.

In the almost 18 years that I have been a pastor, I think I can count on one hand the Sundays when we didn’t have room for any more people.  I think that just about any church in the area has the same problem.  The churches are not full.  There is lots of room for more.  If people want to learn the right way to do things instead of the wrong, then they should be coming to church.  This is the place where we learn to live right.  We surely don’t learn it in our schools or from our government.  We learn it from Jesus Christ.  He is the way, the truth and the life.  I think that there are many churches like this where you can learn good behavior.  However, the general mindset of people is that it is much easier stay at home on Sunday morning and not set the example for our children of how to have good behavior.  We say we love our children but we don’t show it.  Many people disagree with me because they really don’t want to take the responsibility for the mess in our country, our communities and our homes.

You see we are a lot like Israel was just before the time of King Asa.  Israel went from a nation following God to almost a pagan nation in just 60 years.  By the time Asa came on the scene, people were following Baal and had Asherah poles everywhere.  They had forgotten God because their leaders had forgotten God.  This was a nation in trouble.

I have talked many times about this.  Today, we are in a similar position.  Many people feel that we started our slide out of Christianity about 70 years ago with some terrible court decisions that began taking away our freedom of religion.  Today we act like we were never supposed to have freedom of religion.  We have turned away from God.  We have built our modern day Asherah poles.  We are now worshipping Baal.  Many if not most churches use some sort of Baal worship!  This is a nation in trouble.  I tried to warn you last week that this was going to be a hard section of the Bible to preach but I did find good news in all of this.  It is the Good News that we have today if you would just grab a hold of it.

So, we have been on this slide for the last 70 years, how do we get out of it?  It is not easy.  King Asa came to power and he had the spiritual drive of King David.  He set out to tear down all the Asherah poles and banned all worship of Baal.  He cleaned house to the point where he had to fire his own grandmother.   She had been the queen mother for two kings and Asa would have been the third.   This was a powerful position because it tied the present king to the previous king.  When we remember how wicked the last two kings were, then we know why Asa had to fire her.  She had reigned for two wicked kings and now she had to go.  How would you like to be a mouse in the corner when this happened?  She probably thought she would be the queen mother until she died.  King Asa had to be a tough guy if he can fire his own grandmother!

So, the first thing that Asa did before all of this was to say to himself that it wasn’t too late.  Even though the people had been away from God for 60 years, it wasn’t too late for them to come back.  We are in the same position today.  It is not too late for this country to come back.  We have to do the same things that Asa did.

He began by cleaning his house.  I would like us to begin here also.  It all begins with clearing our minds.  I read an interesting article by Oswald Chambers once where he talked about how we have a tendency to believe about Jesus and not in Jesus.  This is very important distinction when we are talking about our hearts.  We know that Jesus is with us.  We all know that He made everything that we have.  We know that He loves us.  We know all this stuff and much more but this isn’t saying that we believe in Jesus.  Instead, we believe about Jesus.  We need to know that Jesus is in control.  We are to surrender everything, everything to Jesus and people refuse to surrender anything because they need to be in control.  They believe about Jesus but they don’t believe in Jesus.  Let Jesus do the work and quit interfering.

This reminds me of people who you know.  They know about Jesus.  They pray only when they expect an answer their way.  They might even come to church all the time or not.  They think they don’t have to read the Bible because and you can fill in the reason.  They know all about Jesus but they don’t believe in Him.  They don’t praise Him in good times and bad.  They don’t trust Him in everything they do regardless of the outcome.  This is why I ask, if you don’t know Jesus in your heart, then confess to Him and ask Him to take over your life.  Don’t delay on this one because you need Him every day.

So, we need to get our mind in the right place as we can start reading our Bible every day in front of our families.  When we believe in Jesus, then we will do all things possible to convey the love of Jesus to others.  In a year’s time, you should be able to walk into a room and everyone in the room will know you are a Christian by what you do.  It is a big order but it is no bigger than when Asa took on a whole nation and made them whole again. It is not too late.

Now that we have our minds in the right order, it is time to firm things up.  King Asa did this by letting everyone know that they would be worshipping God in the future.  All old forms of worship would not be allowed.  He was the king and he could do these things.  But it takes time to win over a nation who has gone so far from God.  Asa reigned for 41 years and he still didn’t eliminate the high places.  We don’t know why this is but maybe he felt it wasn’t worth it to go to these high places to destroy altars.  The important item here is that he didn’t let this paganism spread out any more.  He felt it wasn’t too late.

It is not too late for our country either.  Many people just give up and say that times are a changing and we have to change with them.  They feel that they really must change the Bible so that it isn’t so harsh.  They feel that certain parts should be skipped over and not mentioned.  You all know about these things.  But don’t give up.  It is not too late yet.

And closer to home, it is not too late for you or your family and friends.  I don’t know how many times I have heard that someone thinks that it is too late for them to come to Christ.  They feel they have done too many things wrong.  Well, they couldn’t be more wrong!  Jesus is always there and it will never be too late unless you never come to Him.  That is why this is such an important message.  Jesus wants us to help stop the spread of all these vicious lies that Satan has in front of us.

When someone asks you, tell them that you are a follower of Jesus Christ.  Tell them that following Jesus is the best thing that you have ever done in your life.  Don’t be afraid to give some sort of witness for Jesus.  Tell them what He has done in your life.  There are far too many Christians who hang their heads when non-believers find out they are Christian.  Stand up for Jesus in all that you do.

The last thing that we have to do in order to bring ourselves back to a right relationship with Jesus is to settle things in our own hearts.  If you have something that has been festering in your heart, you need to take care of it.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that if we are holding a grudge or anything negative against someone when we come to the altar of the Lord, then we are to stop and go see the person and take care of it before we come to the altar.  If you don’t know how to do this or if the situation is ‘complicated’ then go to Jesus and ask for help.  This is what Jesus will do.  If you believe in Jesus, then go to Him and listen to whatever He tells.  This is always the wise thing to do.

This whole passage boils down to what I said earlier.  You need to believe in Jesus and not just about Jesus.  King Asa loved the Lord.  There was just no doubt about it.  He did all he could do to bring Israel back to God.  He made mistakes and his kingdom wasn’t perfect, but he knew where to go to find perfection.  It is the same way with us.

I have known many stories about trusting God personally.  Here is a more detailed look at a story I alluded to a few weeks ago that comes from George Mueller’s orphanage in England.  It was time for breakfast and there was no food.  The children would be hungry.  Mueller took the hand of a young girl who was visiting and said, “Come and see what our Father in heaven will do.”

They entered the dining room to see the long tables with empty plates and empty mugs.  Not only was there no food in the kitchen but there was no money to go and buy some more.  The children were all standing around waiting for their breakfasts.  Mr. Mueller said to them, “Children, you know we must be on time for school.”  Then he lifted his head and he prayed, “Dear Father, we thank you for what you are going to give us to eat.”

Immediately, they heard a knock on the door.  When they opened it, there stood the local baker.  He said, “Mr. Mueller, I couldn’t sleep last night.  Somehow, I felt you didn’t have any bread for breakfast, and the Lord wanted me to send you some.  So, I got up at 2AM and baked some fresh bread and here it is.”  Mueller thanked him and gave praise to the Lord.  I’m telling you that the Lord is good but He wasn’t done yet.  Moments later there was a 2^nd knock on the door.  It was the local milkman whose wagon had just broken down in front of Mueller’s orphanage.  He offered them the milk because he needed to have his wagon fixed and the milk would spoil before it was done.  God works in wondrous ways.  He will work like this in your life also.

God sees and loves you all the time.  He knows when you are in trouble and He tries to help.  It is so much easier to hear Him when you believe in Jesus and not about Jesus.  So, the next time you think that it is too late for something, remember who is in charge of everything.  It is not you or I and I praise the Lord for that.  It is Jesus and it is never too late for Him.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.