2 Chronicles 15 - Seek The Lord
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1,264 viewsGod's people covenant together to seek the Lord and find him
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
New Year is always a time when we look to new beginnings.
That’s a good thing when we focus on the right thing. Forget diet and exercise and so on! Those are good things, but they are not ultimate things, and they do not last.
The right new beginning is really a re-beginning. A renewal of our spiritual lives, a fresh start in our walk with the Lord.
I was struck a few weeks ago reading 2 Chronicles 15 as part of the Daily Bible Reading plan. One verse in particular stood out to me and set a challenge for me, and I hope for all of us, for the new year.
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul.
It seems like such a solemn thing to do, such a weighty thing. It made me want to join with them in that covenant to seek the Lord!
We’re going to look at the context and discern what else we can learn for ourselves at New City Church, and how this verse/chapter can get us focussed on the right thing at the start of this year.
Let’s bind ourselves to seek the Lord and seek him together.
Seek The Lord
Seek The Lord
First, the context.
We’re in the time of the divided kingdom - two kingdoms, each with their own king.
It’s a time when some kings are good - they worship the Lord. But many are bad - they serve idols.
Asa is a good Davidic king (did what was right…2 Chron 14:2).
Second Chronicles 14-15 tell us about the reformation that Asa led, leading the people to seek the Lord.
Several things accompany the seeking of the Lord...
Word & Prayer
Word & Prayer
Asa has already taken some steps towards seeking the Lord in chapter 14. He prayed for help in the face of battle...
Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.”
Then Azariah brings this Spirit-empowered word of prophecy...
The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
Note that this prophecy doesn’t refer to some time in the future, but actually points back to the time of the Judges when it all went wrong.
For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.
This is a prophecy that brings the Word of God to bear on the current circumstances in the power of the Spirit.
If we are truly seeking the Lord we will pay close attention to his Word, in full dependence on the Holy Spirit to convict us and renew us.
We will listen to what he says, and we will act on what he says. We will take seriously his commandments, we will delight in following his law.
And if we are truly seeking the Lord we will call out to him in prayer. We will come to see prayer as vital to our spiritual life as oxygen is to our physical life. We will feel our need for him day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment.
We will long for an ever deeper communion with our Lord, because we will know that without him we can do nothing...
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Another things to accompany a true seeking of the Lord...
Destroying Idols
Destroying Idols
When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.
You cannot seek the Lord if you are seeking other gods and bowing to idols. Our love for them must be removed and destroyed, and worship of the true and living God must be restored (rebuild altar).
It’s worth asking the question at the start of a new year, what idols am I clinging to? What gods do I worship that need to be abolished?
I wrote in my journal (Christmas present!) on New Year’s Day, “Lord, help me to crucify the desire for a peaceful and quiet life.” I cannot wage war against sin and win the battle for faithfulness to God if my biggest desire is to sit back and relax. That has to go! Pray for me!
What idol needs to be put to death in your heart? It’s a question you need to answer.
Because if we are to seek the Lord then we must seek him with all our...
Heart & Soul
Heart & Soul
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul.
They took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.
Another question to ask: is my devotion to God whole-hearted or half-hearted? Am I really that bothered about the Lord? Does he matter that much to me that I am willing to throw everything I have at seeking him?
Azariah said:
He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
Implication: if you’re not seeking him you’re forsaking him. If you don’t seek him you won’t find him!
It’s the language of Moses...
But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
It’s the language of Jesus...
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Brothers, sisters, we must seek the Lord in Word & Prayer, by destroying our idols, and with all our heart and soul.
And here’s the second thing from this passage. Let’s...
Seek Him Together
Seek Him Together
You can’t miss the corporate nature of this chapter.
The people begin to seek the Lord as one people in covenant together and accountable to each other.
As one people
As one people
Then he assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
They assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from the plunder they had brought back.
The unity is obvious. As a result of Azariah’s prophetic preaching, and under Asa’s leadership, the people act as one community. Gathering, sacrificing, worshipping.
It’s similar to what Paul urged of the Philippians...
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
It’s a reminder to us that we are not simply individual Christians living out our individual Christian lives. We are not less than that, but we are so much more.
We are a community, a body, a building, an assembly of the Lord’s people. Spiritually bound together through our faith in Christ.
Our gathering and worshipping is a corporate thing. It’s not “me and the Lord” it’s “us and the Lord.”
And therefore our seeking the Lord is a corporate thing. We must do it together.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
The gathering of the church, whether Sunday morning, evening, midweek etc, shouldn’t be viewed as a thing of convenience, as something we can opt in or out of depending on our mood, tiredness, availability, or otherwise.
We are bound together in Christ. We need one another.
They sought the Lord as one people...
In Covenant
In Covenant
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul.
Covenants were a big deal in those days. This should probably be seen as a renewal of The Covenant the Lord made with the Israelites at Sinai.
By entering a covenant you are committing yourself to keeping the terms of that covenant. It should not be entered into lightly.
Many churches enter into a covenant as part of their membership process. It’s something we’ve discussed several times as elders and will likely discuss further.
There’s merit to having a written, clear and oft-repeated covenant that we hold to as a church family, especially one that essentially exhorts us to seek the Lord together.
For now ask ourselves this question: Are we prepared to commit ourselves to such a covenant, to a statement affirming our desire to seek the Lord with the other members of New City Church? Give serious thought to that. Could you bind yourself to such a statement and mean it and keep it?
They sought the Lord as one people in covenant, and therefore they were...
Accountable to one another
Accountable to one another
All who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.
Now…!
That might be a little extreme for us! We are, after all, under the New Covenant where One has been put to death for the many.
But you get the principle of accountability? It’s a very NT idea. The strength of the covenant community in keeping the covenant depends upon the commitment of the individual members.
We need one another to keep us accountable before the Lord. We need one another to regularly check in, asking those awkward but necessary questions: “How are you spiritually? What are you learning from the Word? What is the Lord teaching you right now? What sins are you struggling with?”
And the NT instructs us to put out of the fellowship of the church those who are out of fellowship with God. Those who essentially refuse to seek the Lord but instead embrace sinful lives.
We can lovingly avoid that by discipling each other, being open with each other, and forming closer relationships where these things can happen.
A great new year resolution would be to seek out and form these kinds of relationships.
One of my biggest encouragements from last year was hearing how Linda had helped Julia. They met together on a regular basis and simply prayed together, and through that Julia grew in her love for the Word and in her confidence to pray with others.
We need those kinds of relationships all over the church, where we are seeking the Lord together.
Friends. there is a big challenge here, overwhelming perhaps. But we do not face it alone. We can seek the Lord and seek him together.
And more importantly we seek him in the power of the Holy Spirit. Who is on our side! He wants us to succeed in finding the Lord and growing in him. He wants us to be ever stronger branches of the Vine.
So in 2019 and beyond let us commit to seeking the Lord together in his strength, for our good and for his glory.
Read 2 Chronicles 15. Why do you think it was necessary for the people for enter into a covenant (v12)? What might be the pros and cons of a church covenant?
Read John 15:2-8. What else do we learn here about seeking the Lord? How does the image of the Vine help us?
How will you seek the Lord this year? What specific steps do you need to take? Share these and pray for one another, and for the whole church family, to seek the Lord.