The Revival Kings #1 Asa Series

THE REVIVAL KINGS #1 ASA II CHRON. 14-16

THE KING THAT ASSUMED TOO MUCH

Don’t Assume

Some time ago I heard the story of a fire, of which,

a newspaper photographer needed to get close pictures. His newspaper agreed to hire a plane for him at the local airport. When he arrived at the airport, sure enough, a plane was there. He jumped in and yelled "take off"! The pilot did.

Once in the air, the photographer yelled to the pilot to make two or three low passes over the fire. The pilot asked "why?". He answered, Because I’m a photographer! Photographers take pictures. I’m going to take pictures of the fire!"

The pilot replied with alarm, "You mean you’re not the flight instructor?"

Both men had made the wrong assumptions. The photographer had assumed that he was in the right plane. The pilot had assumed the man was his flight instructor.

It is never good to make assumptions. King Asa, in our text, had been a godly king. However he made the mistake of assuming he could do things that displeased God.

"Asa is the story of a king that assumed too much"

Introduction

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

So God’s purpose in giving us the OT with all its stories and teachings is to give us hope in him. That’s my purpose today in looking at the story of King Asa.

I’m going to begin my message this morning with a brief history lesson taken from the OT books of Kings and Chronicles.

David was king over all Israel. His son Solomon followed as king over all Israel. Then came Solomon’s son Rehoboam.

Under Rehoboam the kingdom was divided into two nations.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel -- Ten of the 12 tribes of Israel.

The Southern Kingdom of Judah -- Two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

The Histories of these two kingdoms were very different.

Judah had a total of 20 kings -- 8 were godly.

Israel had a total of 19 kings -- None were godly.

Of these 8 godly kings of Judah -- 5 were very godly and were used by God to bring Revival to the nation.

These Five Revival Kings were:

Asa -- Jehosophat -- Joash -- Hezekiah -- Josiah

Asa was the first of the Godly Kings of Judah

1 Kings 15:11 says "And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father."

David was the standard that every king was held up to. The standard of what a king should be. On God’s scale David was a "Ten".

David was the great, great grandfather of Asa.

In studying for this series I discovered something I hadn’t realized before. II Chronicles is a book on Revival. I had heard many sermons on revival based on II Chronicles 7:14

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

But had never realized the whole book was a lesson on revival given through these five kings.

There is much we can learn about Revival from King Asa.

I. Four Keys to Revival found in II Chron. 14

First Key - Asa was a man who sought God in his own life. 14:2,3 HUMILITY

It takes humility for a man to seek God. It takes even greater humility for a king to seek God.

Second Key - Asa was a man who led others to seek God. 14:4,5 SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP

Third key - Asa was a man of peace, yet he prepared for battle against the enemies of God. 14:7,8 SPIRITUAL COURAGE

Fourth Key - Asa was a man of prayer. 14:9-11 PRAYER

Note Asa’s prayer in verse 11

1. It was sincere - "He cried"

2. It was direct - "Unto the Lord"

3. It was to the point - "Help us"

4. It was in faith - "We rest in thee"

5. It was answered - 14:12-15

Two things notable in this prayer.

#1 Recognition of God’s ability

#2 Recognition of our inability

II. In Chapters 15 and 16 We Find 4 Bridges On The Road To Revival

First Bridge - Knowledge of the Word of God 15:1-3

Second Bridge - Turning to God 15:4-7

"Trouble" is the servant of God

Third Bridge - Turning from Sin 15:8,16

I believe many people get things backwards. They try to turn from their sins before they turn to God. They two follow one another and doing either without the other is doesn’t bring real revival.

Example. On Sept. 11th many people sang God Bless America and prayed. Yet there was no turning from sin. What could have been a great national revival didn’t last.