Make a Difference

Week 4
Main Point and Overview:   

Over the course of Israel’s history as a “split kingdom” most of their kings were evil, focused on their own prosperity, power, and prestige. They failed to honor Jehovah God, and it led to worship of foreign gods. In the face of all of this dysfunction, God “raised up” a special leader who was different – King Asa. He wasn’t influenced by his corrupt family; in fact, he removed his godless grandmother from her position of leadership in the kingdom. That took incredible courage and boldness! As Asa began to “reform” Israel back to her roots of loving and following Jehovah God only, he was faced with another challenge. One of his enemies took his army and marched against Asa and Judah. It was a seemingly impossible situation for Asa as he faced an army much bigger and stronger than his enemy. Instead of panicking, he prayed to his God. Instead of trusting in his own strength and abilities, he prayed to his God. The result was an overwhelming victory for Judah that both inspired the people and more importantly glorified God. Then, Azariah came and prophesied to Asa that if he honored the Lord above all else, he would be blessed beyond imagination. This inspired the reforms that Asa was making. Sometimes we can be serving and honoring the Lord, and even being successful, but God has even more for us to do. Azariah did not initiate Asa’s commitment to God, but his message did appear to strengthen Asa’s resolve even more. Sometimes a Godly leader is already doing the “right thing,” but he or she still needs the encouragement to keep going, or to go further, or to simply finish what he or she started. Ultimately, the kingship of Asa is about “going against the norm.” He had the courage to “break the cycle” of evil that had been passed down to him from his family. Instead of taking the easy route to success, he chose the difficult route to spirituality. Again, he was even willing to remove his corrupt grandmother from her position of power. Wow! Would you be willing to make that kind of challenging decision? For us as disciples of Jesus at Emmanuel, God is calling us to do the “heavy lifting” for his Kingdom! What that means is that we need to be faithfully courageous and realize that God has much more for us to do to glorify his name!