Chapter 16, really we'll be in chapters 14 through
16. But we'll start in chapter 16, verse 11.
2 Chronicles, that's in the Old Testament. 1
and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles kind of cover
the same material. They talk about the different
kings of Israel and Judah. By the time we get
just a little ways into Kings and Chronicles,
we see that things are not good, that the nation
of Israel has been split into two. The two groups
are referred to as Judah and Israel. Judah was
comprised of the tribe of Judah, and Benjamin
and Israel were the other ten tribes. And Israel
never had a good king. You go back and you read,
all of their kings were bad. Not a single one
of them were good. Judah had a few good kings,
and one of the good kings that they had was King
Asa, and that's who we're going to talk about
today. I'm sure you all probably know all about
King Asa. And if you don't, then good news, we're
going to learn about him today. We don't know
much about him. There's very little said about
him in 2 Chronicles, and even less than that
in Kings when it talks about him. But even in
a story like this, maybe there's some... a little
something we can take from this story today so
let's read through these verses then we'll pray
and we'll get started second chronicles chapter
16 verse 11. note that the events of asa's reign
from beginning to end are written in the book
of the kings of judah and israel in the 39th
year of his reign Asa developed a disease in
his feet, and his disease became increasingly
severe. Yet even in his disease, he did not seek
the Lord, but only the physicians. Let's pray.
God, we come to you this morning. We thank you
for your good word, and I pray, God, that your
Holy Spirit would be with us this morning. I
pray that you would help us to... Be free of
the worries and the distractions and the thoughts
of the world, dear Lord, that are competing for
our attention now. I pray, God, that your Holy
Spirit would just give us a sense of peace today,
that we would listen to you, that you would open
our ears and open our heart, dear Lord. I pray,
God, that we would hear these words today, that
we would be a people who would seek you this
morning, dear Lord. I pray that you would take
away any pride or fear that's within me, dear
Lord, that any word that comes from my mouth
today would be for you and for your glory. So
I pray, God, that in these few minutes that you
would just meet us where we are, dear Lord, and
help us to be a people who would seek you and
trust you. In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. Now
some of you may be saying, what in the world
does King Asa and his feet have to do with anything?
Well, there's a little more to the story as we
see the story of King Asa unfold. Now, you can
go back this week and read in more detail the
whole story. It's very short, but we see a change
in Asa's life and a change in his people's life
as the story progresses by the time we get to
the verse that we see. Now, King Asa had reigned
for a long time, 41 years, one of the longest
reigning kings in Judah. And he certainly was
a godly man. He was a man who feared the Lord
and a man who did what was right up until right
here at the end we see a little blemish that
is attributed to him. Now if we turn back to
2 Chronicles chapter 14, we see that Asa is about
to... go into battle with the Kushites. The people
of Kush are coming against his people, and they're
outnumbered almost two to one. It's almost twice
as many of them. And so they are in big trouble.
How are Asa and his soldiers going to be able
to defeat the Kushites? Well, they're probably
not going to be able to based on human strength
alone. So look at what Asa does in 2 Chronicles
14, verse 11. 2 Chronicles 14, verse 11. Then
Asa cried out to the Lord his God, Lord, there
is no one besides you to help the mighty and
those without strength. Help us, Lord our God,
for we depend on you. In your name we have come
against this large army. Yahweh, you are our
God. Do not let a mere mortal hinder you. So
the Lord routed the Cushites before Asa and before
Judah, and the Cushites fled. So here we see
earlier on in Asa's reign as king, he was in
a bad situation. He was up against a situation
that was really unwinnable. He did not have much
hope. He did not have enough strength to be able
to defeat the enemy army, and his only hope was
to seek the Lord. And that's exactly what he
did. When everything was looking like it was
stacked against him, when there was no way for
him to win, when there was no way for him to
be delivered, he did the one thing that you and
I need to do. Perhaps we've done that. at some
point in our life. Perhaps we've done that at
many points in our life. That we acknowledge
that we are in a bad situation. That we acknowledge
that whatever we are up against is too hard on
us. It's too hard for us to take on our own strength.
And Asa acknowledges that. He says, God, I...
do not have the strength. But Lord, would you
hear my prayer? Would you hear my cry? God, would
you help us? And guess what God did? As so many
times in Scripture we see, God is with his people,
and even when they are outnumbered and overmanned
in every way, we see it time and time again that
when God's people will seek God, That God will
come to their aid and God will deliver them.
That there is nothing that is too big for God.
Now there are things that are too big for you
this morning. There are things in your life just
like what Asa was facing. Maybe you're not up
against an enemy army, but there are things in
your life that are too heavy for you right now.
Tragedies that have occurred in your life, health
problems that have occurred in your life, trouble
at work, whatever it is, there are things in
our life that are too hard for us and they are
too big for us, and we do not have the strength.
But they are not too big for God this morning.
They are not too big for God. Whatever you are
up against, God has the strength to deliver you.
God has the strength to walk with you through
this if you would just seek the Lord. And Asa,
being a good king and a godly man, he did the
right thing. He called out to God, and God delivered
him. God delivered his people. And this brought
about a bit of a revival amongst God's people.
Now, this is a theme that we see throughout the
Old Testament among God's people. They'll live
in sin or they'll get theirself into trouble.
And then it's almost as though it's a last resort.
Like, oh, we tried everything else. Let's call
out to God and maybe he can help. And shocker.
When people finally decide to turn to God, God
always helps if they genuinely and earnestly
seek him. And so they had this big deliverance,
this big win that God had blessed them with,
and so this gets the people on fire. So these
people begin to really seek the Lord, and we
see that when we flip to 2 Chronicles chapter
15. 2 Chronicles chapter 15, verses 1 through
4. Listen to what these verses say. The Spirit
of God came on Azariah, son of Obed. So he went
out to meet Asa and said to him, Asa and all
Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with
you when you are with him. If you seek him, he
will be found by you. But if you abandon him,
he will abandon you. For many years Israel has
been without the true God, without a teaching
priest, and without instruction. But when they
turned to the Lord God of Israel and their distress
and sought him, he was found by them. So this
guy comes to Asa and says, look, this is what
the Lord says. This is what the Lord wants you
to know. If you will seek me, you will be delivered.
If you will seek me, I will be with you. But
if you don't seek me, if you abandon me, then
you'll be abandoned. Now, there is nothing in
this world that we can do apart from the Lord.
We can try our best, and we can make it a little
ways, and we can think we're doing pretty good,
but if it has not already occurred to you, it
is going to occur. At some point in your life,
you're going to be overwhelmed. It's going to
be too much. There's going to be something you
go through that you cannot make it another step,
that you cannot go another day, that you are
ready to give up. And it's in those days that
even in a little story like this, a little story
that we may have read and passed over many times
and not thought of it, it's little stories like
this that are reminders to us, that are calling
us to remember to seek the Lord. It reminds us
of what happens when we seek the Lord, and it
reminds us of what happens when we abandon the
Lord. And that's what he says here. Look, if
you seek the Lord, he'll be with you, but if
you abandon the Lord, he'll abandon you. And
if the Lord is not with us, we find ourselves
in trouble. And he even gives an example. He
said, look, when Israel would seek God, things
would be good, but when they wouldn't, things
would be bad. And what does it say at the end
of the verse here? It says in verse 4, But when
they turned to the Lord their God of Israel in
their distress and sought him, he was found by
them. Here's this idea. There's this theme that
we see in this short little story of Asa. And
the theme is to seek God. When Asa was up against
the Cushites, he sought God. Here we see that
Asa and the people are called to seek God. They
are given an example of Israel, that when they
would seek God, he was with them. And so we're
starting to see a theme in the life of Asa and
in the life of the people. And it's a good theme.
It's a theme that starts at the beginning of
the story. Asa sought God. All right, everybody's
excited about the Lord. There's a bit of a revival.
And now the people are going to seek God. Let's
read a little further in 2 Chronicles 15, verse
12. Then they entered into a covenant to seek
the Lord God of their ancestors with all their
mind and all their heart. That pretty much sums
it up. Even Jesus says something similar. What
is the most important thing for us? It is to
seek the Lord our God with all our heart, our
mind, our soul, and strength. It's to love him.
Jesus said, and to love our neighbor, this same
idea we see repeated even in the New Testament,
even among Jesus. And when the people hear this
word, when the people hear this command, this
call to seek God, what do they do? They receive
it excitedly. And they said, look, we are going
to seek God. We make a covenant now that we will
be a people who seek the Lord. Things are going
good. as they often do when we seek the Lord.
If you ever made a decision in your life where
you didn't seek the Lord, oftentimes those things
fail. But I can just about guarantee you that
every time that you have earnestly and genuinely
sought the Lord and listened to what he told
you, not just seek him and he tells you what
you don't want to hear, sometimes that happens
too. You ask him about something, he don't tell
you what you want to hear, and you kind of go
your own way. Those situations always end bad.
But when we earnestly and genuinely seek God
with all of our heart and listen to him, those
situations always turn out for the better. They
always turn out to the good because God knows
better than we know. And we think we know. We
want to do things our way. We want to seek our
own will. But if we really want to find peace
and success, And joy in our life, that comes
when we seek the will of God, when we seek him
for help, when we seek him for our strength,
when we're not trusting in the world or in our
abilities and the things that we know and the
things that we can do. We're not trusting in
other people around us, but we are seeking God
and trusting him. And Asa had done that. And
here we see God's people had done that. Let's
continue on a little further. 2 Chronicles chapter
15, verse 15. All Judah rejoiced over the oath,
for they had sworn it with all their mind. They
had sought him with all their heart, and he was
found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on
every side. Everything's going great. Maybe that's
the case for some of us today. Maybe we seek
the Lord. Maybe we've been seeking the Lord for
years. Maybe we listen to what he's saying. Maybe
we trust him. Maybe we know he's our strength.
Maybe we know that he is our deliverer. But we
need to be reminded of stories like these, that
we need to seek the Lord. You say, well, I'm
doing good today. Well, praise the Lord. You're
doing good today. There are seasons in our life
where we do good. But we need even little stories
like this to remind us to continue to seek the
Lord. And now we arrive back at the verse that
we started at. King Asa is looked at as a good
king. He sought the Lord's help. The Lord delivered
him. He led the people right. They listened to
God's command. They were excited. They said,
we're going to seek God. God's going to be with
us. God took care of them. God gave them peace.
God gave them rest on every side. All was good
when they would seek God. And then we get to
chapter 16. where it says the verses we started
at. In verse 12, chapter 16, verse 12. In the
39th year of his reign, Asa developed a disease
in his feet, and his disease became increasingly
severe. Yet even in his disease, he did not seek
the Lord, but only the physicians. He didn't
seek the Lord. Now this is a man who knew what
it meant to seek the Lord. This is a man who
had sought the Lord and the Lord had been with
him and delivered him. This is a man who led
his people into seeking the Lord. And yet at
the end of his reign, he got a foot disease and
he did not seek the Lord. Instead, it says that
he trusted in the physicians. Now you go back
and read a few verses before, there's another
part to the story as well. That there was a king
who was coming against him. There was a king
who was coming against Asa. Now you would think
that Asa would say, Hey, not worried about this.
I've been here before. I'm not worried about
a king who's going to come against me. I'm not
worried about another army. I'm going to call
out to God because God has delivered me greatly.
But do you know what Asa does in the story a
few verses before this? When the enemy is coming
against him, He goes and seeks another king for
help. He doesn't seek the Lord. It's as if somehow
he's forgotten. It's as if somehow he's forgotten
that it's the Lord who delivers him. It's the
Lord who has strengthened him. It's the Lord
who had given them rest. And if Asa would have
called out to the Lord against the other army,
guess what? God would have delivered them, I
would imagine. But Asa didn't do that. We see
Asa started out so good, but at some point in
the story, something changed. I don't know what
changed. He started off seeking the Lord, and
then he began to trust in other people. He began
to trust in another king to save him. He began
to trust in the physicians to save him. But what
he should have been doing was seeking the Lord
in everything that he did. So what about you
and I? Maybe we are not so unlike Asa today.
Maybe there are some of us today who have experienced
the power of God. Maybe we started doing well.
Maybe we have sought God and we have trusted
in God and we have seen God work and we have
experienced God's peace and we've experienced
God's deliverance, but maybe somewhere along
the way for us today, we are at a point in our
life as we sit on these pews that there's something
in our life going on and we need to be reminded
to seek God. You may have read the scripture,
you may know you need to seek God, but maybe
today you need to be reminded it's a constant
struggle. Our life is full of struggle from the
time we are born to the time that we die, and
we need to be reminded constantly that there
is no hope but God. There is no deliverer but
God. And somewhere along the way, Asa forgot
that. I'm not saying Asa was an evil, evil man.
I'm just saying that there were times in his
life that he should have been trusting in God,
and he was trusting in man. And maybe that's
the case for some of us today. Who would have
thought that a story about a king with some nasty
feet would have any bearing on us today? But
yet even a story like this reminds us that we
need to seek the Lord, that we don't fall into
that same trap. What about you and I today? Is
there anything in your life today, and maybe
you know God and you know God's Word, but maybe
you just haven't been seeking Him. Maybe today
the Lord wants you to call on Him. Maybe today
the Lord wants to give you some peace and to
give you some deliverance. He just wants you
to seek Him with all of your heart. He just wants
you to come to Him and ask. He just wants you
to come to Him and say, Look, Lord, my strength
is weak. Lord, I cannot do it. But God, I see
time and time again where you are with your people
and you hear their cries and you hear their call.
And God, I pray today that you would just listen
to me, that you would come to me, that you would
deliver me. And I promise you that if you would
seek God today, he would hear your prayers and
he would be with you. I can't promise you that
he's going to make everything in your life better
or that he'll make your situation go away. But
I can promise you that he's going to be with
you. I can promise you that he's going to give
you peace beyond understanding. I can promise
you that He's going to give you strength, and
He may even very well deliver you from whatever
it is, but you have to seek Him, and you have
to call out to Him. Jesus says the same thing
in the New Testament. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God. What a powerful statement. This is exactly
what Asa was doing. This is what the people of
God were doing in this story. But somewhere along
the way, they lost their way. Somewhere along
the way, they lost their way. And maybe that's
the story for you and I today. Maybe for some
of us today, somewhere along the way, we have
lost our way. We have started living for ourselves.
We have not been seeking the Lord's instructions
and His guidance and His help. Maybe today you
need to seek first the kingdom of God. Did you
say, God, I'm not going to live for myself and
my own desires, but God, I want to live for your
kingdom. God, I'm broken. God, this sin has got
the best of me. God, this situation I'm in has
gotten the best of me. God, I am heartbroken.
Whatever it is, whatever our circumstance it
is, we need to go to God and say, God, I'm not
in a good place. I'm not where I want to be.
God, I need you. So God, today I come to you
and I seek you. And God hears those prayers.
And we need to be those today who seek God for
the forgiveness of our sins. That we enter into
the kingdom of God. That entrance only comes
through Jesus Christ. Our healing only comes
through Jesus Christ. Our healing of our sin,
our healing of our sickness, whatever healing
comes in our life, it only comes through Jesus
Christ. Whatever deliverance we receive in our
life, it only comes through the power of Jesus
Christ. But we must be those who seek the Lord.
So let us not fall into the trap of Asa. That
after walking so good, we begin to trust in ourselves
and trust in... other people for our deliverance.
Let us be those today who trust in the Lord and
the Lord alone. Let us seek him today with all
of our heart. Let's pray. God, we come to you
today. We thank you for this simple short story
of Asa and what a beautiful reminder of your
mercy and your grace and your deliverance, dear
Lord. that if we would just cry out to you and
call out to you and seek you, dear Lord, you
are faithful to hear and to deliver us today,
to give us the strength in our weakness, God.
God, I pray that we would have the same response
as Asa's people did, that we would rejoice at
hearing your word. We would rejoice at seeing
your power, both in this story and in so many
others in Scripture, dear Lord, that we would
be those who would seek you with all of our heart
and all of our mind, that we would rejoice in
you, dear Lord, today. And God, I pray that you
help us to be alert because we are humans and
we get so caught up in the things of the world
and doing things our way, dear Lord, that sometimes,
even though if we know you, dear Lord, we just
kind of forget to call out to you, God. So may
this story be a reminder for us today, dear Lord.
If there are any in this room that have not been
seeking you, that maybe today that they would
seek you first. That you would remind us from
this point forward, dear Lord, to always seek
you first. God, I pray that if there are any
in this room that do not know Jesus Christ as
their Lord and Savior this morning, that they
would seek him today. God, maybe they've been
seeking him and they don't even know it, dear
Lord. Maybe they've been seeking peace and forgiveness
and love and grace in their life and they just
don't know where that comes from. But dear Lord,
I pray today that they know that that will only
be found in Jesus Christ. So I pray, God, that
they would seek Him with all of their heart and
all of their mind today, that they would repent
of their sinfulness and put their faith and trust
in Jesus. God, maybe there are some in here today,
and they're yours, and they've trusted you in
the past, and they know your goodness, and for
whatever reason, dear Lord, they've just started
trusting in their own abilities. They've started
trusting in other people. They've started trusting
in other things for their deliverance today.
God, I pray that you would forgive us if we've
done that. And I pray that today that we would
once again seek you. God, you know these people.
You know their hearts. You know their situations.
God, you know everybody's, they're going through
something, dear Lord. We just have a lot going
on in our lives. So I pray, God, whatever folks
have going on today, dear Lord, that in these
moments that they would seek you. that they would
give it to you, dear Lord. I pray that you would
just give them some peace this morning. I pray
that you'd give them some strength this morning.
I pray that you'd give them some encouragement
this morning, God, to know that whatever they
are up against, they are not alone, that you
are with them. If we would only cry out to you
today, if we would only seek you today. So I
pray that we would. And I ask these things in
Jesus' name. Amen.