["Praise Him in the Morning"]
Praise Him in the morning, the tall and healthy trees. And praise Him in the evening, the gentle and harmonious
people. And praise Him in the new day, the gentle blood that seeps. Oh, praise to all these people, praise the King.
Praise the King, praise the King. Let it ring, praise the King. And praise Him for more peaceful heart and rocking turn this way.
And praise Him for the rolling hills, children there from hell. Oh, praise Him for the wild and small, the never-ending hell.
Oh, praise to all these people, praise the King. Praise the King, praise the King. Let it ring, praise the King.
Praise the King, praise the King. Let it ring, praise the King. And praise Him for the blood that fire and bloom the road that
we've been through. And praise Him that He's tender love will still be there for today. Oh, praise to all these people, praise the King.
Praise the King, praise the King. Let it ring, praise the King. Praise the King, praise the King.
Let it ring, praise the King.
Praise the King, praise the King.
Let it ring, praise the King.
When the winds feel a lot like the air,
some of you seem like you're afraid to start again.
Right now all you see are rashes with the words of the name.
Truth is that you're not full-opted, but grace knows your name.
God's not done with you, even when you're broken hearted and you lose and you're tired.
God's not done with you, even when you're lost and it's hard and you're falling apart.
God's not done with you, it's not over, it's only begun.
So don't hide, don't run, God's not done with you.
He'll let you notice until you're sinned and you're done.
When there's a strength that's growing, you die and you shatter heart.
God's not done with you, even when you're broken hearted and you lose and you're scorned.
God's not done with you, even when you're lost and it's hard and you're falling apart.
God's not done with you, it's not over, it's only begun.
So don't run, God's not done with you.
Cruisers and walkers, sons and daughters, kneel at the throne of grace.
Cruisers and widows, saints and sinners, one day we'll see his face and we'll all bow down.
Kings will surrender their crowns and worship Jesus.
He is the love, I'm very proud of him. He is the love of God.
Summer when we die, mountains and rivers, wishful destiny doesn't leave.
Oscar and Tony, friend to the lady, forever his love will reign.
And we'll all bow down. Kings will surrender their crowns and worship Jesus.
So when I was 16 years old, I was attending high school and I had the opportunity to take a couple of hours of flight time down at Metcalfe Field.
I think it's called something different like Executive Field now, but anyway, my instructor was a man named Jeff Schubert.
And I've never forgotten his last name because Schubert is one of those names that just kind of sticks in your head.
When we took the lessons, we had to learn how to do pre-flight checks and then we actually got to fly the airplane with him sitting next to us flying the airplane.
And I got to fly more than anybody else because there was a couple of times when we had to do something that was a little bit like dangerous or stretched out or maybe just made the other pilots that were in there.
Because there was a group of three of us that feel nervous about doing something and I would do it. I was just like, well, whatever, it's going to be whatever, right?
I trusted that he knew what he was doing. He was sitting right next to me. He wasn't going to let anything go wrong, that kind of thing.
But I remember when I had to do my first pre-flight check. So there's this big long list and you had to check all these things about the wings, the flaps.
And then when you got past all the outside pre-flight checks and you had to get in the cockpit, you turn the plane into the wing, into the wind rather, and set the brakes and rev the engine and make sure the brakes were going to hold to test the brakes and all those kinds of things.
And we were in a single engine plane, which was a four-seater, and the whole plane would shake as the brakes were on and you're revving the engine up and everything.
And he said, you're going to learn how to do all of these pre-flight checks yourself. And we all did it together the first time.
And then the next time we went, each one of us had to do the pre-flight check. So I don't remember which order I was in, whether I was the second person to do it or whether I was the next time or whatever.
But when it came my time to do the pre-flight check, even though I trusted him and I was pretty sure that he was not going to let the plane crash with all four of us in it, when it came to doing the pre-flight checks, I remember thinking, I don't think I'm qualified to do this.
There were things like you check the gas and make sure you're checking it for moisture, you've got a gauge I put in it, and things like somebody had to watch while you work the flaps and stuff. And I'm going, I'm surely not qualified to fly this plane.
And so I'm pretty sure that I'm not qualified to perform the pre-flight checks without him overseeing me. But that was what I had to do.
I had this big long page and I was supposed to work down through it. And while I was doing the pre-flight checks, he went to the bathroom.
And I'm thinking to myself, if I don't do this right and I don't catch something that's broken, then I could be in trouble.
Even though I'm flying the plane and if I did something terribly wrong or whatever, he's sitting there and he could catch it and I felt fairly confident we would not crash and I got more flight time than the other guys who were with me because of that feeling.
Now I'm doing the pre-flight check and I'm doing it by myself and I'm thinking, oh boy, what if I screw this up?
Now what I didn't know was that he'd gone out there two hours before and done the pre-flight checks before I had it, but I didn't know that.
He just said, well now you're going to do it. And then he would take the list and say, yeah, this looks good. He'd put it away in the glove box or whatever.
And then we'd fly the plane. And I thought I was doing the pre-flight check all by myself.
But then I found out later that he was doing them before we ever got there. But I didn't know that.
But I just remember that feeling of thinking, if I screw this up, we could be in trouble.
Today we're going to talk about pre-flight checks. And I saw this in this text. It says nothing to do with airplanes per se.
And I want to say that to you that if you'll allow me that the term flight in this will be used as our walk with God.
That's the term that we're going to use when I say to begin a flight. I'm talking about your walk with God.
And you'll see that develop as we look at the text. And so if you'll grab your Bibles and turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 14.
Somebody say amen. Thank you very much. This is the Lord's word. And we're about to go into it.
We're going to look at an interesting character. And his name is Asa.
And we'll be looking at him for the next three weeks beginning today.
And Asa's life is in these texts anyway fairly easily broken down into kind of like three categories.
Don't hold me to this over the next two weeks. But today we're in the pre-flight category for Asa.
Next week I believe we'll be in the flight category. And then the third week we'll be in the land or crash category.
So Asa, beginning in chapter 14, he's going to get his job, if you will.
And it says, So Abijah slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David.
And his son Asa became king in his place. The land was undisturbed for ten years during his days.
OK, so that's a good start. He's king for ten years with no wars, no real problems.
Now history shows us that the reason it was undisturbed for ten years was because his father before him and even his grandfather before him
had done a pretty good job of focusing on God and putting things in the right direction.
OK, and so they set him up well, if you will. Verse 2 says, And Asa did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God.
So good and right. What are good and right? Well we're going to get some examples.
Because in verse 3 it says for or because he removed the foreign altars.
So what do you think a foreign altar is? Are you with me, Natalie? Are you with me?
What do you think a foreign altar is? OK, what's an altar? Chris, what's an altar?
Right, so you worship at an altar and a foreign altar would be an altar to a foreign God.
So we've got a foreign altar and he's doing away with the foreign altars, which means he's eliminating the places of worship
inside their country, their country being Judah, their country being God's country.
He's eliminating the false places of worship. Now obviously this kind of reform in America might not be well received.
We have religious freedom and if we wanted to go, if the government decided to wipe out all the mosques, for example,
that's not going to go over well and it certainly would go against what our Constitution says.
So by no means is this text prescribing that we should go and eliminate all the foreign altars,
all the places where other people worship at. But notice that he's king of God's people.
And it wasn't just the foreigners, if you will, if I can use that term, or aliens living in the land
who were worshiping at the foreign altars. It was God's people who were worshiping in the foreign altars.
So if we're eliminating the places of foreign worship in the area that you or I control,
then I would be eliminating foreign worship in my life.
So I'm going to look at the things of my life that could lead me or even my family or friends
where I have influence to worship a false God. Yes, sir?
Yes. So let me go back and read the verse.
He did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God, for he, that is not a capital H, right?
So that's Asa, for he, Asa, removed the foreign altars and high places.
So high places, now these are interesting places because the high places were places of worship,
but they were not expressly dedicated to a false God.
Now there was false God worship that would go on there, right?
And also worship of God that would go on there, right?
But the problem was they were very unregulated.
Years ago when Sherry and I went out to Arizona and we were going to see the Grand Canyon
for our 20th wedding anniversary and we went into the national park there
and they had given you, at the gate of the national park,
they gave you this little brochure of all the places where you could go and meditate or think about higher things
and people had claimed to have existential experiences.
Nothing Christian about it, nothing Jesus about it, nothing God about it,
not even recognizing that God was real, but they were the high places, right?
So you could say, some people might say they have an accidental experience using pot, for example,
and I had an accidental experience, man, I saw things I've never seen before, right?
Well, that's what it's talking about, being high.
And so they would go up there, it's bad by the way, don't do that,
but they would go up there to the high places and they would meditate or whatever
and they would have an existential experience.
Now some people would do that thinking they were worshiping God
and they had even instilled little like calves there like going back to the errand day, right?
So we're going back, we have this little calf there, it represents God,
that's all false worship, it's all wrong.
So the high places were bad because they were unregulated.
They were not God governed and they were not priest governed.
There was nobody there to say, okay, we're going to worship God in a right way.
So now we've got two kind of places in our lives which we might want to get rid of
if we're going to do the good and right and the sight of the Lord that Asa did,
places that lead us to worship false gods.
So for example, if you're getting wrapped up in the God of money and money is all about it,
you need to get rid of wherever would lead you to worship money
and think money is important like God is important.
You could do the same thing with all kinds of things in your life that might lead you to worship something that is not God.
And high places are unregulated places of worship.
So you got a place where you can go to get alone, quote unquote, with God,
but when you get there you don't really experience God,
you experience just a high or a feeling, right?
Or get rest because you're not doing anything else, you're just sitting there, so there's rest.
Or meditation brings you rest or whatever, but it's not godly rest, it's not based on the word of God,
it's not with a pastor or with a teacher or with a brother or sister in Christ,
there's no regulation to it, then that's not for you, right?
So Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord by removing the foreign altars and the high places.
He tore down the sacred pillars and cut down the ashram.
So sacred pillars are just pillars that again represent usually false gods, but they're places of worship.
And he cut down the ashram, so ashram was a specific kind of pillar to the fertility god, right?
That had previously been worshiped in that area, so some were left over from a long time,
we're talking about stuff that had been there for hundreds of years,
and some were newer that people had erected and he was getting rid of them all, right?
And that was considered good and right.
And so whenever God says it's good and right, that's good and right.
Verse 4, it says, and he commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandments.
So he's telling all the people that live in the land,
and you pretty much figure he was telling the men and the men were telling their families
and there were women who were mixed in with the men who didn't have a man or whatever and they were taking it back.
And so it was getting throughout all of the community everywhere in Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers
and to observe the law and the commandments.
So here's a three-point sermon for you that's not being preached today.
It is what Asa told you to do, seek the Lord God of your fathers, observe the law and the commandment.
And there is a difference between the law and the commandment.
And I hope we kind of understand what that is.
Verse 5, he also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah,
and the kingdom was undisturbed under him.
Now notice that he removed the high places from all the cities of Judah.
So there were places in the cities where people could go to have an existential experience
and places where they could go to burn incense, right, but not specifically to God.
And the kingdom was undisturbed under him.
So God gave his kingdom peace or rest.
I submit to you that this is an outcome that the chronicler says happens.
If you seek the Lord your God, follow his commands, listen to his law, observe what he says,
then you can have peace. You can have rest.
Now some of you are going, something is not quite right.
There is a feeling about that that doesn't seem like it is the full counsel of God.
And you are right, it is not.
But Asa didn't have the full counsel of God even though he had access.
He didn't understand there was a coming Messiah.
He didn't know that Jesus would be born, die, be buried, resurrected,
and the Holy Spirit would come to live among men.
He didn't have that information clearly yet.
So what is he doing? He is seeking the God of his fathers,
who by the way gave him ten years peace to start with before he ever did anything.
And because he is doing that and it is working and it is undisturbed,
he tells them all, let's all do that. We are all going to do that.
All seek the Lord God of our fathers.
We are all going to observe the law and we are all going to observe the commands.
Verse 6 says, and he built fortified cities in Judah since the land was undisturbed
and there was no one at war with him during those years because the Lord had given him rest.
So now God has given him rest, so what does he do?
Now notice this is not necessarily part of doing good and right,
although it kind of seems like it is good and right,
but God doesn't say specifically that what we are reading now is good and right.
That part is already passed.
But this is what he did. He built up the cities, he fortified them,
he made them ready for future conflict.
And so if that is a good thing for you to do, then you can prepare yourself for difficult.
Remember we talked about like it is sunny today and I don't see a storm?
And you are like, okay, I can prepare myself for going into the storm.
I submit to you, if you will not read your Bible now,
then when your life goes into the proverbial hand basket to go to a place where you don't want it to go,
you will not be the guy reaching for the book.
If you will not pray now, if you are in a green tree, imagine what you will do in a dry.
And so basically it was a green tree, it was restful and peaceful,
and he decided to build up the cities and prepare for days where it might not be.
Because the Lord had given him rest, they had abundance in materials,
abundance in labor, abundance in time, etc. and they built up the cities.
Verse 7 said, for he said to Judah, let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars.
This part I like, the land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God.
We have sought him and he has given us rest on every side.
So they built and they prospered.
So basically because God was giving them the rest, they built and prospered,
which you could then say to some degree was giving themselves additional rest and peace
because they've got walls, they've got bars, they've got protections, right?
So they're using the resources that God has given them to provide a future rest and peace.
They're trying to extend the present day rest and peace into the future,
which on the surface sounds like a good thing.
It's like saving for retirement, it's like putting an alarm in while you have the money,
always doing your oil changes so your car lasts longer.
Those all sound like good things and I want to submit to you that they are generally speaking,
but it's not what God was after. It's not the thing.
In fact, we're told over in 1 Kings, yeah, 1 Kings, we won't go and read it right this second,
that there were high places during this period of time that he actually failed to take out,
that he didn't get it all done. He was doing it, it was in process, but it never gets all done under his watch.
But he does build walls and he does build gates and he does put up bars.
He does fortify to try to stretch the current peace into the future
and he does give God glory for God setting it up the way he did,
which is that we sought him and he has given us rest on every side.
So they built and prospered. It's interesting when you think about it.
So if there's a simple mathematical equation here, what is it?
Seek God, find what? Somebody said something.
Find rest, right? Seek God, find rest, right? That's it.
Seek God, find rest, and in rest you make yourself strong
and you'll be able to rest into the future, right?
That's the mathematical equation that Asa is operating his life on.
But I submit to you that Asa is living completely pre-flight.
I'll come back on that in one second.
It says in verse 8, Asa had an army of 3,000 from Judah
bearing large shields and spears and 2,800 from Benjamin
bearing shields and wielding bows, and all of them were valiant warriors.
Now Zirah, the Ethiopian, and by the way, there is some question
of the nationality of the word that's used there is ambiguous,
and so question whether he's an Ethiopian or what, right?
Zirah, the Ethiopian, came out against them with an army of a million men
and 300 chariots, which sounds like not very many chariots
for an army of a million men, and he came to Marisha.
So Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up in battle formation
in the valley of Zephatha at Marisha.
Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said,
Lord, there is no one besides thee to help in the battle
between the powerful and those who have no strength.
So help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in thee,
and in thy name have come against this multitude.
O Lord, thou art God, let not man prevail against thee.
So let's break that down for one second.
So now he comes to the moment, he's built up his lands,
but he's not on it, really, a defensive battle.
He's coming out in a meeting engagement with a huge army
of a million men, quite a bit larger than his army.
So by all rights, just by sheer numbers, he should lose, right?
He is considering himself the weaker power.
And does he say that God intervenes for the weak?
Did you hear it in the verse?
Lord, there is no one besides thee to help in the battle
between the powerful and those who have no strength.
Is he saying that God intervenes on behalf of the weak?
He's not. That's not what it says.
God determines who wins the battle.
Will it be the strong or will it be the weak?
He's saying there is no one outside the battle.
Here's a million men, here's whatever that was,
580,000 or whatever that number was.
Yeah, 580,000 men. And who's going to win?
Well, that's up to you, Lord.
There is no one but you to intervene.
Should Judah win? Should they win? Yes.
They should win because we've worked at it, because we're godly.
We're seeking after the Lord, and we already know our equation is what?
Seek the Lord, find rest.
So we believe in seeking the Lord, we find rest,
and we're going to win the battle.
Except, now wait, there's almost twice as many of them as there is of us,
and we don't have any chariots, they have 300.
A chariot was good for 1,000 men or more, right?
Because you can't hit them.
And they've got blades on the side, they're just riding people down,
killing them left and right, right?
So whether it's 300 or whether it's more, that's a lot, right?
300,000 men, so we've got 500 and 8,000 versus a million men,
plus chariots enough to kill 300,000 men.
That's a lot, we're in trouble here.
But he didn't cry out for God to protect the weak.
He simply said, I recognize that God is the only help outside the battle.
You get that?
So he says, God is the only help outside the battle,
and then he says, help us, Lord, for we trust in thee,
and in thy name have come against this multitude.
O Lord, thou art God, let not man prevail against thee.
In other words, we believe that you'll be on our side,
we ask you to be on our side, you're the one outside the battle
who can make any difference, please come in on our side,
and if you do, we know we will win,
because there's no way you'll let that force beat you
and the side that you choose, whatever that is.
We'll go just a little further.
So the Lord routed the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah,
and the Ethiopians fled.
And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar,
and so many Ethiopians fell that they could not recover,
for they were shattered before the Lord and before his army,
and they carried away very much plunder.
So the Judeans are plundering towns
and the wagon train of the army and all of that.
If you've got a million people in your army, that's a big wagon train.
14, and they destroyed all the cities around Gerar,
for the dread of the Lord had fallen on them,
and they despoiled all the cities, for there was much plunder in them.
They also struck down those who owned livestock,
and they carried away large numbers of sheep and camels,
and they returned to Jerusalem.
Okay, so follow this, if you will.
We're going to stop reading right there, because I believe now,
I think if you're following the story the same as I am,
that we're moving from the preflight check into the flight.
And that would just happen.
He said, God, we have sought you.
You come, be on our side, and go with us into battle so we can have victory.
And for what the Chronicler writes, that's exactly what happened.
So if I would say of God, Lord, I'm seeking after you.
Okay, now I'm ready. I'm yours.
Do whatever you want. Submit myself to you.
Come, be on my side. Be in me. Be with me.
It's starting to sound like Christian language, right?
Then I go through the storm, through the battle, through the difficulty, whatever,
and he is with me.
Then from that moment on, I am on the flight with God.
So it sounds like we're moving from the preflight check to the flight.
Okay, so we'll stop with the story right there,
but I want to make a couple points out of the text we've looked at
and show you something that really the Lord pressed on my heart.
Okay, so the first thing I want you to see is that when the Chronicler,
all throughout 1 and 2 Chronicles,
when the Chronicler talks about seeking after the Lord or a heart after the Lord,
it always kind of means the same thing.
And it's kind of summed up pretty well in 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9.
I'm going to flip there and read it real quick.
And it says,
As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father,
and serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind,
for the Lord searches all heart and understands every intent of the thoughts.
If you seek him, he will let you find him.
But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.
So the Chronicler is talking about seeking after God and God saying,
Yes, I'll let you find me.
Some years ago, I had a number of small children living in my house right now,
and I only had one.
And we would play hide and seek.
You ever play hide and seek with a small child between the ages of like 2 and 5?
How does that go?
They always put themselves on the line.
Yeah. So this is what happens.
You gotta say, OK, I'm going to go in the corner and count, you go hide.
And you count.
Maybe we'll just count to 10 because that's like an eternity for them.
You say, I would count to a thousand by thousands.
OK, here I go.
One thousand.
OK, and you go look.
And you start looking.
You search a few places.
And then they're like, here I am.
So this is what the Chronicler says about God.
If you seek after God, he will reveal himself.
That's what it means to have a heart after God.
As you seek after him, he will reveal himself.
Now think for a moment in the story of Asa.
Has God revealed himself during Asa's seeking?
The Chronicler says, if you love the Lord and you seek after the Lord,
he will reveal himself.
That's what the Chronicler says.
In 14.7, 2 Chronicles 14.7, which is the middle of what we just read,
this is what it says.
Where he said to Judas, let us build these cities and surround them with walls
and towers and gates and bars.
The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God.
We have sought him and he has given us rest on every side.
So they built and prospered.
Does that not sound like a different equation than the equation we just read
in 1 Chronicles 28.9?
He didn't say we have sought the Lord and he has revealed himself to us.
And now he is on our side or now he is with us or we're having an experience of him
in our midst or anything like that.
He simply said, for we have sought the Lord and now he has given us rest on every side.
Not even necessarily rest inside, but rest on every side.
It's not the same exactly.
The Chronicler talks about seeking after the Lord equaling success and peace and life,
which is a lot like when you seek Jesus.
So the Chronicler has an understanding of the God of the universe,
the creator who created all, as desiring us to engage in pre-flight checks
to lead us up to that moment in time at which we will have that relationship with God
and we will start that flight.
And I submit to you, there is a substantial debate as to whether or not Asa has completed his pre-flight checks.
There we go.
In Acts chapter 17 and Acts chapter 14, we see the Apostle Paul and others dealing with people who are not followers of the Lord.
And so there are people who have not begun their flight with Jesus.
They have not begun to walk with the Lord.
So we're going to flip there and look at those two accounts.
The first one is in Acts 17 verse 22.
Now you probably already know if you've studied your Bible quite a bit that this is Paul essentially on Mars Hill.
And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus outside the city of Athens.
And you can kind of go see what they think is the remnants of this place today if you ever could travel to the Middle East
and it's probably cost you a fortune, but if it still exists, you can probably look at it online,
some portion of it, where they think it might have been.
Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and he said,
Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship,
I also found an altar with the inscription to an unknown God.
What therefore you worship in ignorance and this I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and all things in it since he is Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands.
Neither is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all life, breath and all things.
And he made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times
and the boundaries of their habitation.
That they should seek God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
So what is he saying?
If you seek God in earnest, God will reveal himself to you and you'll realize, oh shoot, God was right there the whole time.
He was so close and I just wasn't quite there.
That's what he's saying.
So he is quoting essentially the equation that the chronicler gives us.
But I submit to you it is not really the equation that Asa has walked out thus far.
He says this, for because in him we live and move and exist as even some of your own poets have said, we also are his offspring.
Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.
There's the word that you need to hang on to, repent.
Because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed,
having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer.
But others said, we shall hear you again concerning this.
So Paul went out of their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius, the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
I submit to you what Paul was saying to the men who were at the area.
What were they doing again? They were always listening for some new teaching.
They were always looking, seeking out the truth, always desiring more to know about creation, about the universe, about the gods.
They were always in discussion. I submit to you if you'll allow me to use this language.
They were always in preflight checks.
And then Paul comes and he says, I have seen the outcome. I have seen the hard work that you've done. I've seen all of the evidence of your preflight checks.
And now I've come to tell you that God is saying to all men it is now time to end the preflight checks and let us fly.
And the bridge between the preflight checks and the flight, Paul says, is to repent.
And I submit to you that it is to repent not only of sin, hang on now, we've talked about that, right?
That's biblical, to repent of sin, to walk away from your sins is a real thing.
That's part of being saved. We are supposed to do that.
But also a man or a woman who would come to Christ must repent.
And I'll explain what the word means in a second when I get there very clearly. They must repent of their preflight checks.
You can never fly the plane while you are still outside filling out the chart.
You can never fly the plane while the brakes are on and you're revving the engines to see if they'll hold.
You can never fly the plane while you're one by one switching every switch to determine whether or not all the gauges work, right?
As long as you're still in the preflight checks, the flight has not begun.
That's what Paul told them on Mars Hill.
That the preflight checks were no longer good enough.
While we were at camp, Dan DeWitt, the seminar professor, was the camp pastor.
And he used an illustration that I had forgotten and he brought it back to mind. It's a great illustration.
And it is this. He said that mere Christianity, that means the simplest form of Christianity,
is someone calls upon the name of the Lord, gets saved, and they enter the hallway in the house.
If you think of a house with a hallway down the middle, they enter the hallway.
He said, but it is never my goal to see people stay in the hallway.
The real community, peace, rest, hope, all of that is in the rooms.
It's where the fireplace is, where the refrigerator is, where the snacks is, where the stove is, right? That's in the rooms.
You wouldn't go in a house and go like, here's a three foot wide, about 15 foot long hallway.
There's the kitchen, there's the living room, there's the bedroom. Over here's another bedroom.
Over here's the family room, rec room. There's the living room with the fireplace.
Places to sit, read books, sit in front of the fireplace in the winter. It would be awesome.
Toast those marshmallows and maybe some hazelnuts or whatever at a time.
That kind of thing. But you wouldn't go, I'm only going to live in the hallway.
I'm just going to live in the hallway. That's all I'm going to do.
No, because when Jesus invites you into the Kingdom of God, yes, you go into the hallway.
And then Jesus says, the rooms of the mansion of your life are available to you.
You need to go and live there. That's the church. Live in the community.
Live in the community that I've created for you. Live in the gifts that I've given you.
Live in the disciplines that I've given you. Live as the church now.
But so many people think that they become a Christian and they're just in the hallway.
They've not gone deeper, gone further. Try the various things that God has for them, right?
Tasted of the fruit of the Kingdom of God. I submit to you that far fewer people are actually in the hallway
failing to go in the rooms than anyone will admit.
Because actually, most of the people who think they're in the hallway and refusing to go in the rooms
are actually still on the stoop performing pre-flight checks. They won't even go in.
They've not become Christians. They'll claim the name of Christ. They talk about God.
Yes, you need to be a follower of Jesus. Yes, you've got to believe John 3.16.
Whosoever believes. I believe. Yeah, John 3.16 doesn't mean whosoever believe only
because the demons believe and they don't get saved, right?
And so the point is, so many people think that they've just entered the hallway
and they're just practicing mere Christianity, not moving into what God has for them
when in reality they're still on the front porch doing pre-flight checks.
I can't go to church because the church has disagreed.
I can't go to church because the churches are full of hypocrites.
I can't read my Bible because it's all full of errors or the translations are all different
or I only can believe one translation of the Bible and not another one.
All of that is pre-flight checks. It's all before you even move into the hallway.
Once you're into the hallway and Jesus is with you, it's about walking in the strength of Jesus
to do the thing that Jesus has called you to do.
Move into the rooms. Enjoy the power of the Lord to transcend the storms.
Enjoy the peace of the rest of the Lord internally, not just externally.
It's a great thing to be able to say, I've become a Christian, I know I'm not going to go to hell when I die.
It's a wonderful thing. It's a pretty horrible thing to say, I've become a Christian,
I know I'm not going to go to hell when I die and be wrong.
And yet that's exactly where we live.
There are tons and tons of people and some of them are in the church on the membership rolls
because they think they've come into the hallway.
They're waiting. They're not fully committed to go into the rooms yet.
So they're waiting for that to all sort itself out.
I see this in the area of every spiritual discipline.
If God would just tell me to read my Bible more, I would do it.
If God would just tell me to share Jesus with people more, then I would do it.
He's already told you. He's already told you to read your Bible.
He's already told you to praise. He says, praise with your voice.
Sing out so many times that...and still we've got people that aren't doing it.
Because they think they're in the hallway and they'll eventually get there,
but the truth is maybe they're not even in the hallway.
They're still on the stoop performing pre-flight checks.
One more example of the same thing is over in Acts 14.
Just go three paragraphs back, three chapters back to the left.
Acts 14. I'm going to begin reading in verse 11.
Now they're ministering. They're teaching the gospel.
And the story is about Barnabas and Paul. It says in verse 11,
and when the multitudes saw what Paul had done, and what he had done, by the way,
it was just a miracle that Jesus did through him.
But when they saw what he had done, they raised their voice,
saying in the Lycaonian language, the gods, small g, have become like men
and have come down to us.
Now what's so ironic about that is because Jesus actually was God,
and he did become a man, and he did come down.
And people think, well, that would have to happen in order for the gods to be real.
And they're thinking, okay, the gods have come down to us.
The gods, not god, but the gods.
And they began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes.
And that sounds ludicrous to us, but just hang on a minute,
because he was the chief speaker, Paul, because he did most of the talking.
They called him Hermes, who was the messenger god.
And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city,
brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes.
They ripped their robes.
And they rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying,
Men, why are you doing these things?
We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you
in order that you should turn from these vain things to a living God
who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.
And in the generations gone by, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways.
And yet he did not leave himself without witness in that he did good
and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons,
satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
In other words, God was appealing to you.
He was giving you blessings.
And now you want to worship us as Zeus and Hermes,
which are false gods that mean nothing?
And it says in 18, and even saying these things,
they with difficulty restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
But the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium,
and having won over the multitudes, they stoned Paul
and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.
They killed him!
They dragged him out of the city and threw his body in the ditch, dead.
But while the disciples stood around him, he arose and entered the city,
and the next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe.
I guess he didn't want to let them kill him a second time.
And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples,
they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,
strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,
and saying, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
Do you understand what's happening in this story?
There were people who had gotten so good at performing the preflight checks
that when someone came and told them it was time to fly,
they said, no, we prefer the preflight checks to the actual flying.
This is like going to Cedar Point and standing in line for the roller coaster for three hours,
and when it comes your time to get on the roller coaster,
you go and just walk off the exit, you go, no, I'm going to go stand in a different line.
I really prefer to go standing in line to the ride in the roller coasters.
That's what happened in this story.
They were worshiping false gods who never did a thing for them.
They were carrying around statues and selling little statuettes and stuff.
They were sacrificing oxen to gods who never did a thing.
And when the agents of the real God, of Jesus, come and miraculously heal
and miraculously bring life, instead of embracing that God
and taking off on a flight with Jesus, many of them preferred the preflight checks.
No, we're good.
Zeus really doesn't really demand anything of us.
We sacrifice to him, but we do that of our own will, so he doesn't really demand anything.
He doesn't provide anything either, but he doesn't have any expectations.
This is another story where people were doing everything they could
to be right by their version of God, have the opportunity instead to take a flight with Jesus,
and they say not.
If you seek Jesus, if you seek him, he will allow himself to be found.
That's the message of the chronicler.
And much like a child playing hide and go seek, God desires nothing more.
There is nothing more in the universe than God desires than for humans to find him,
to join with him in fellowship, to become his people.
That's what God desires.
He wants you to be with him during this life and eternity,
so much so that he took on flesh and died on a cross to pay for the sins of mankind.
But having found God, we are to repent, and there is that word,
there is that word that's so seldom used correctly, even in Christian circles.
I wrote a book, it's a good one, if I do say so myself.
I'm not sure everybody agrees with me, but, and it says in here,
Repent, it's a state of mind.
Okay, so, repent, it's a state of mind.
As a pre-Christian, I had heard of God, I had heard the gospel at least twice.
In fact, I believed in God and probably even accepted that Jesus was real.
However, at 26 years old, I was pretty self-centered.
I suppose I was adequately fearful toward him.
I remember even having some feelings that someone, possibly God,
was watching my every move and might punish me if I broke the rules.
Now, you tell me, which part of Asa's story was I living in?
I was living in the pre-flight checks.
Later, nearer to my decision for Christ, I was an effective,
and some would say efficient, manager for a restaurant chain.
I scheduled myself long hours, strove to hear words of affirmation from my employer
while also being very inhibited.
Pre-flight checks.
The psychologist among you is saying I was mentally unstable, and maybe I was.
Then at 26 years old, I began to wonder if there wasn't something more in life
than that existence as a restaurant manager at war within myself.
We started attending the only church we knew that had a person who behaved
like what we thought a Christian should behave like.
Took six months.
I decided that I would add God, however He simply would not be added.
I decided I would join the church, but there was no way I could go up in front
of all those people and profess my willingness to be called a member
because they would all be looking at me.
I felt as if they would all see right through me.
I guess I talked back to God first and said, I need to talk to my wife.
See, pre-flight checks.
God said, come.
He revealed Himself to me, and I said, I prefer the pre-flight checks.
Eventually, she accepted and supported my decision.
My wife did as I turned my life over to Christ.
When she asked me what it would mean to become a Christian, I said,
I just don't actually know, but this much I do know, it will change everything.
An earthquake changes the scene.
Now all the prisoners are free, and the chief jailer is probably going to kill himself
because he has lost his charges.
They call out, though, stopping him and reassuring him that all the prisoners
are still present and accounted for.
No one has run.
The jailer calls for a light, comes in and falls at the feet of Paul and Silas,
and he asks, what must I do to be saved?
In other words, he says, I'm done with pre-flight checks.
I realize I'm at the end of myself.
You tell me what must I do to be saved?
And they say to him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you shall be saved, you and I house.
To repent means everything is changed.
You have moved from the pre-flight checks to the flight with Jesus.
Everything is changed.
You've got to think differently.
I want you to think about your life right now.
This is you personally, alone with God.
Are there things that you are still doing that are of debatable value
that go all the way back to before you were saved?
You would say, that's just who I am.
Do you favor them?
Do you prefer them?
Do you prefer them to a God of heaven unleashed in your life
who can do anything he wants to do?
You do realize that at some point in time,
you're going to face a terrible storm or a massive army of evil spirits and demons
that are way more than you personally can ever be,
that are way more than you seeking Jesus can ever be.
And there is only one God who can intervene in that conflict when the time comes.
If you didn't by some chance, if you made it through your whole life by some chance,
you are going to face a day of judgment for what you've done in this life.
And in that moment in time, there is only one God who can declare you innocent,
who will judge you by his son Jesus.
And Jesus was perfect.
And you can't be perfect, but you can have the righteousness of Jesus
so that in that day he looks at you and he says,
Yep, this guy is a screw up, this gal is a screw up,
but it's my screw up, she's mine, he's mine.
Hands off.
He's the only one that can intervene.
Having found him, repent.
Think of all things in new ways.
It does not mean just turning from your sin.
It means no longer thinking of your life as pre-flight,
and now thinking of your life as in flight.
When we give up our lives, when we give up our foul language,
when we give up our temper, when we give up our misbehavior,
when we give up our feelings of a lack of peace, a lack of rest, a lack of understanding,
when we give up those things, it is a repentance.
We are turning away from you.
Listen to me, you do not want to feel at peace outside of Jesus.
If you feel at peace outside of Jesus, you're bound for hell for eternity,
you will burn forever.
I didn't say it, the Bible says it, and you will be okay with it.
You'll be like, yep, I'm good, I'm going to hell and I'm fine.
No, you're not fine, and where you're going is not fine, and you should not have peace.
You get the peace when you repent and turn away from a lifestyle,
a person who was pre-Jesus, and now begin to become a person who is with Jesus,
in Jesus, and Jesus is in you.
That's the only way to fly from here to where we're going.
It is the only way, having found him, rethink everything.
Your eyes have to be retrained.
Your desires, so you desire to eat, taste food that is good,
now your desire for food has to be retrained.
Your desire to sleep, your desire for sleep has to be retrained.
Your desire to get your way, your desire to get your way has to be retrained.
All of what you are must be day after day, inch after inch,
brought in line with who God can make you into.
That's where Asa should have gone.
That's where we must go.
But the third point, and the problem is that pre-flight checking for your whole life is acceptable.
It's okay.
It's okay for you to come to church, to sing the songs, to check out your Bible now and then,
maybe sign up for a reading plan and only do a little bit of it here and there,
get back to it, maybe go to a Bible study and then get tired of going to a Bible study
because it doesn't fit your schedule all that well or it's too much trouble,
so you're going to cut that out and maybe you'll add it in again later.
It's okay.
In fact, you'll be better than most.
You probably could judge yourself as better than most if you just remove yourself from the equation
and say, yeah, I know the Bible, some, and I know how to live for God, some.
I mean, I'm not perfect.
Everybody makes mistakes, right?
God doesn't make any mistakes.
And God says that your daily journey must now be about becoming new.
And all old things passing away and all things becoming new.
And really, that happened when you got saved and now you're just living it out.
And so that part of you, the part of you that you don't like very much,
God doesn't like it either.
And he can actually do something about it.
Now, that ain't being done.
It's not because you're not seeking God.
Asa was seeking God.
Are you prospering financially?
If you're prospering financially, it doesn't have to be because you're saved.
It could just simply be because you're seeking God.
You're seeking God and so God has provided you rest on the edges of, are you basically honest?
Tell the truth most of the time, almost all the time, all the time?
Won't save you.
It's just preflight checks.
Just you going, well, there is a God in the universe and I'm going to stand before him one day
and I'm going to be judged, so I've got to get this right.
And so you're getting it right.
You terrified?
If there was a really big man came in your house, put a gun to your head,
and he told you to clean up your living room floor or take your garbage out
or start recycling to save the world, wouldn't you go, okay, fine?
And he leaves.
He takes the gun with him and you're fine.
If he comes to your house with a gun, he tells you to start recycling.
From that point on, wouldn't you recycle?
I mean, what if he comes back, right?
He sees you not recycling one day and shoots you from the street.
You'd be like, I guess I better recycle.
That's where people are living.
People who have accepted that God is real, they're seeking him,
and they've moved to the front porch and God's like, I'm here, like a little toddler.
I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.
And instead of letting God have his way, instead of being born again and starting fresh
and letting everything become new, they're still seeking him.
And they'll keep right on seeking him.
And I've done it.
A three-year-old jumps out, I'm here, Daddy, I'm here.
And I'll say, no, go hide again, go hide again.
I'm still looking for your sister.
You've got time, go hide again.
Are we doing that to God?
Are we living the preflight checks all the way from now until our physical death,
thinking that's what it means to be Christian,
because that is not what it means to be Christian.
If there was anybody who was good at preflight checks, it was Nicodemus.
We're in our conclusion now.
Fast two days a week, memorize whole books of the Bible,
preached sermons across all of the surrounding lands,
probably not Samaria because they were pretty ticked off at the Samaritans,
so he probably didn't preach in Samaria, but all over the place.
And Jesus said, unless you'd be born again, you shall not see the Kingdom of God.
This is what I'm afraid of.
What I think seriously might be true is that there's a whole bunch of people
claiming the name of Jesus.
They've sought him just enough to know what he's like.
They're even on the stoop of the house,
knowing the hallway is right on the other side of the door,
knowing the flight could begin at any moment.
They're even claiming that the flight has begun in many cases.
Have you ever wondered why in the world so many people,
even people who claim to be Christians,
are actually against people flying with Christ,
actually against people stepping outside their box and doing something crazy,
doing something godly, something that God would want them to do?
Why would anybody that is truly a Christian be against that?
They say, now be careful, now be careful.
You're overextending yourself.
Don't go so far. Don't give so much. Don't work so hard.
Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes.
Don't let them abuse you or use you or whatever.
Listen, anything you do right up into sacrificing your life,
if you truly are doing it for the Lord,
God will determine the outcome.
And he'll pay back more than you could ever collect by being careful,
by building better walls, by doing less in the Kingdom of God.
I know people that they are careful to make sure that their families are protected,
cared for, bills are paid, everything like that.
And then they got all kinds of excuses why they can't stick their neck out
or their family's neck out, but then their kids walk away from the Lord.
Because why?
Because the generation that comes after us knows this.
They've already figured this out.
They don't want to spend their whole life doing pre-flight checks.
Either the flight is worth it or it's not.
Either we're going to fly with Jesus and be all in all the time 24-7,
or it's not.
In which case, I'm not going to keep checking off checklists
and then just go get another checklist.
I'm not going to just keep doing the things that you're telling me I have to do.
Either we're all for Jesus or not.
And what people need is to be born again in the Lord,
and then it's a progressive transformation from there.
And what is offered? Both.
Absolutely both.
Final text of the day, Luke chapter 14.
Interestingly enough, there's a very good chance that Luke wrote both the book of Luke
and the book of Acts, and so those two accounts were near and dear to his heart,
possibly, even as he tells us what Jesus said in the story we're about to read.
Luke 14, beginning verse 27.
Jesus is speaking and he says,
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
And they totally knew that that meant be willing to sacrifice your life and be crucified.
So if you're building up your life and you're doing well in Christ,
then you're pretty partial to doing well in Christ and stuff.
And then if someone would come and give you the opportunity to be crucified for Jesus,
if you didn't do what God wanted you to do and you're like,
well, I'm not going to get crucified, and I'll draw the line right there and not be crucified,
Jesus says you cannot be his disciple.
That's pretty harsh.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower,
does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?
Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him.
Do you think that there are a lot of people who think that they moved into the hallway of mere Christianity
and now they're being ridiculed as Christians and even Christ himself is being ridiculed
because they never moved into the hallway, they just said they did,
and now they're back performing pre-flight checks at best,
saying this man began to build and was not able to finish.
Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle,
will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with 10,000 men
to encounter the one who is coming against him with 20,000 men?
Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation to ask terms of peace,
so therefore no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his possessions.
So now it's everything that you own you have to put on the table for Jesus,
and if you're not going to put everything that you own on the table for Jesus,
then you cannot be his disciple.
Jesus said, therefore salt is good, but if even salt has become tasteless,
with what will it be seasoned?
In other words, you're salt to the earth, so you're good as salt,
but if you become tasteless salt, what good would you be?
If you went back to pre-flight checks after taking off flying
and then you wouldn't get off the pre-flight checks and fly, what good would you be?
It's useless either for the soil or for the manure pile.
It's thrown out.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The good news is repentance, being born again, and progressive transformation are available.
If you're seeking the Lord includes getting rid of false worship,
sacrificing for his name, praying, reading your Bible, giving, being found faithful,
and his reward is peace, rest, success, and life,
then there is amongst all of those things an example of discipline put to good use,
which ought to lead you to repentance.
And we can see how close Asa got, how close he is getting.
But if all these things don't take on new meaning for you,
if praying your Bible doesn't become you and Jesus together learning more,
what to live like, being encouraged, if praising doesn't become you and Jesus praising,
and if sacrificing doesn't become you giving up something for the glory of God, and so on,
if all the things that you are doing are just things that you are doing,
and they have not been transformed into things as part of the flight,
then you're going to be in pre-flight checks until you go to hell.
But that's not what he wants for us.
In God we know recognizing his greatness and his power,
and whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
This is the good news.
Let's say just on an off chance while we've been hearing this sermon today
and we're closing out now that you've been thinking,
you know, I feel like I've been in pre-flight checks instead of actually flying with Jesus.
I feel like even after I said I was actually flying with Jesus, I've still been in pre-flight checks.
Like I've still been kind of cautious and guarded, or I've still been acting out in my temper,
or I've still been sleeping, living, eating in a way that's not godly,
or I've still been using my mouth in a way that's not godly.
And I feel like maybe I'm just in pre-flight checks.
Then the word offers you this, whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
It does not matter if you've been saved three times before by your own estimation.
If you find yourself to not be flying with Jesus now, just say to Jesus,
I want nothing more than to fly with you.
If you've actually been seeking him and not inventing your own version of religion, then you know.
If you've actually been seeking him and not inventing your own version of religion,
then you know that he's right here, right now, waiting for you to say,
okay, that's it. He's begging you to truly turn your life over to him.
He is that toddler jumping up, here I am, here I am.
Except in this case, he's the daddy that you need for the rest of your life.
He's the only one outside your fight who can offer any real help.
The choices that you have to make, the difficulties that you will face,
some of which you will not see coming because they're in the spiritual realm,
but if he's there, you win. And if he's not, you lose.
Stop the preflight checks today and say yes to God through his son Jesus Christ.
Be born again if that has not already happened.
And begin your progressive transformation to become Christ-like if it has already happened.
It doesn't matter how good the things of this world look
when you've been separated from God for an eternity.
It doesn't matter how good the things of this world look,
how much rest or peace you have on your borders,
or if you've built up your life and fortified everything and you think you know,
you think you can, you think you will, none of that matters.
If he calls on you and you say no and you're unwilling to fly,
what happened to Lot's wife? She turned into a pillar of salt.
All she did was look back.
What will happen to all those people when Jesus says come?
He calls the church to go. And some want to go.
Some are looking forward to it. Some are coming.
They already know it, but others are still in preflight checks.
Okay, Jesus, just let me finish the list.
Too late. No, too late.
If you're still in preflight checks when Jesus says fly this earth,
you'll still be in preflight checks after everyone else has flown.
The good news about preflight checks, you fill out enough of them,
they'll feed your fireplace or your pot belly stove because they burn real good.
And so do the people who fill out the preflight checks but refuse to fly.
I ask the praise team to come forward, or I guess it's Tim, Josh, if you're coming,
and listen to this final song, this is our opportunity to say to God,
okay, I hear you. I hear you put down the check list and walk with you
and let you live and live. I hear you saying that I must be willing
to put all of the things of this life on the altar.
He says, if you will not surrender all that you own, you cannot do my work.
I'm not willing to pick up your cross. I'm not willing to die if necessary.
I'm not willing to suffer in whatever way if necessary.
You're not worthy of doing all this stuff. That's the decision you're making when you get saved.
So let's make that decision and fly.
Can you stand with me and sing this song as the Lord has spoken to your heart
and calling on you today to repent of some specific sin
or to give up your preflight checks, repent of your preflight checks and to fly with Him?
Then you come and you tell me what's on your heart today.
We'll pray to God together and we'll begin that journey.
When your mind's eyes see God jumping up, I'm right here. I'm right here.
Don't tell Him no. Don't push Him back.
Oh, so fly you weary and troubled, now lie in the darkness you see.
There's life for a look at the Savior and life for a abundant and free.
Come on, you can do it. Call on your heart today.
You're like me. You're walking on the roots of the nation.
Wave to me and say, Pastor, man, that's me.
Remember, fly. Be courageous.
Those things of earth, they are the food, they are the money, they are the safe, they are the relationships.
They are the gods. They are the David's struggles.
They will all grow dim compared to the great blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who death into life everlasting.
Go you therefore and fly with Jesus.