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.
Fourth Bridge - Faith in God 16:1-6
Here Asa failed. He turned to man instead of God 16:7-9
III. Asa’s Failure
For 36 years Asa wholly sought the Lord, but here he failed. The last five years of his reign were a failure.
1. He turned to man instead of God.
2. He turned against God’s messenger. 16:10
One thing to note about these Revival Kings. They weren’t perfect and yet God still used them even with their imperfections. God will also use us even with all our imperfections. You don’t have to be perfect for God to use you. Throughout history God has used many dedicated men of God who later fell into sin.
IV. Asa’s Folly 16:11,12
Even in his sickness and under the chastening hand of God, he did not seek the Lord for help.
CONCLUSION
It was in 1945 that Billy Graham seemingly came out of nowhere and began filling auditoriums across America, preaching to as many as thirty thousand per night. But in 1945 there were two other preachers that were packing auditoriums. Their names were Chuck Templeton and Bron Clifford. Both were accomplishing the same thing as Billy Graham and in even more.
One seminary president, after hearing Templeton preach to an audience of thousands, called him “the most gifted and talented young man in America today for preaching.” In 1946, the National Association of Evangelicals published an article on men who were “best used of God” in that organization’s five year existence. The article highlighted the ministry of Chuck Templeton. Billy Graham was not even mentioned.
Bron Clifford was a twenty-five year old fireball. In 1945, many believed Clifford was the most gifted preacher the church had seen in centuries. That same year, Clifford preached to a packed auditorium in Miami, Florida. People lined up ten deep outside the auditorium trying to get in. One wrote, “At the age of twenty-five young Clifford touched more lives, influenced more leaders, and set more attendance records than any other clergyman his age in American history. National leaders vied for his attention.”
Now we all know the name Billy Graham, but I doubt that many know the names Chuck Templeton and Bron Clifford. All three began their ministries in 1945 and all came out of the starting blocks like rockets. Why is it then that we are not familiar with the names Templeton and Clifford?
Just five years later, Templeton left the ministry to pursue a career as a radio and television commentator and newspaper columnist. Templeton had decided he was no longer a believer in Christ in the orthodox sense of the term. By 1950, he no longer believed in the validity of the claims of Jesus Christ.
By 1954, Clifford has lost his family, his ministry, his health, and then…his life. Alcohol and financial irresponsibility had done him in. He wound up leaving his wife and their two children. At just thirty-five years of age, this once great preacher died from cirrhosis of the liver in a run-down motel on the edge of Amarillo. Some pastors in Amarillo took up a collection among themselves in order to purchase a casket so his body could be shipped back East for burial in a cemetery for the poor.
Like Asa, Templeton and Clifford started well but did not finish well.
How about you? Are you someone who used to serve God and seek God? Are you one whose Christian life is not what it used to be? Are you a 20th century Asa?
II Chron. 16:13 reads, “And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.”
When he died, he died as a man who in the former years served God and sought God, but in the final years his epitaph reads simply: “he sought not to the Lord.”
May God help us all not to become an Asa.
