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Fulfill Commitment

Sermon Series:

Take Courage

Ryan Kimmel
Ryan Kimmel

Lead Pastor

Peace Church

Main Passage:
2 Chronicles 15:16-19

Transcript

Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And all of us said with all of our heart, Amen. Amen. So it's been great over the last few weeks here at Peace to be reminded of what God is doing through this campaign as we are on the eve of a new season at Peace Church.


It's pretty exciting because I really think that right now, right now before us, we are seeing history play out before our eyes. What we are doing right now, the next generation will talk about. And hopefully they'll be thankful for what we're doing. And not only that, but hopefully they'll be inspired by this. Today we are beginning year two of our two year proclaim campaign. As we look to yes, raise the finances to continue to expand building, but also so that we can unite our hearts and prepare for increased ministry.


Because that's what we want to do. We want to see more people come to know the power of the gospel and the love of God through Jesus. That's what we are doing here. And John already prepped you. So with that, we also say amen to that.


But before we get into talking about our financial and spiritual commitments at the end of the service, we want to spend some time in God's Word. Sound good? So if you've been with us, you know that we've been journeying through 2 Chronicles chapter 15. We've been looking at this phenomenal story, at least I think it's phenomenal, the story of King Asa. Hopefully you've liked to know, getting to know this guy a little bit better. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 15. We're going to close up this chapter today as we bring conclusion to this three-part sermon series. If you've been using our devotionals, we're excited for you to do that.


Here's your first fill-in, and that's the title of today's message, which is simply this, Fulfill Commitments. God has fulfilled His promises, God has kept His promises towards us, and God has called us to respond. And that's what we're doing here today. We're talking about fulfilling our commitments. So that's on page 57 if you want to use the devotionals we've provided.


Otherwise that's on page 467 if you want to use the Bibles that are around this room. And so before we read our passage, let's just recap what's happening here. We are looking at the story of King Asa. King Asa was the king of the southern kingdom. If you remember at this point in biblical history, God's people, unfortunately, are broken into two different kingdoms, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.


The southern kingdom was called Judah. The northern kingdom was called Israel. Jerusalem was in the southern kingdom. And at this point we see King Asa assume the throne. Now Asa is recorded as a good king. His father, Abijah, was not a good king. King Abijah, the king before, had allowed all sorts of wicked practices to come into the kingdom. But when Asa, his king, assumes the throne, he seeks to bring the heart of people back to God. What happens early on in King Asa's reign is that his kingdom is attacked by another kingdom to help them out?


No. Does he kowtow to this new army? No. Does he run away?


No.


He seeks the Lord. He goes before the Lord and says, Lord, will you grant us a victory? And then he trusts the Lord and he brings his army into battle and they have this massive upset of a victory. And so they're coming back to Jerusalem, they're coming back as victors, and the city in Jerusalem is waiting for them, they're waiting to receive their victors. So the king and his army come back after this battle, the city is there waiting, and then right at this moment, the prophet Azariah stands up before his king, before the army, and before the city, and he calls them to make sure that they don't use this victory as a time to get lazy in their faith. He says, now is the time to press even further into God. Yes, God gave us an amazing victory. It'd be very easy to sit back and say, oh, okay, all good. We're good, God. We got it from here. But Azariah says, no, this is the time to press even further into God. This is the time to rely on God all the more.


And I think there's an incredible parallel, an incredible warning for us specifically at Peace Church Yes, things are going well here are we perfect no But things are going largely. Well, we are meeting and surpassing budget people are coming to faith in Jesus. Our church is growing We're building a building that's gonna be twice the size of this room I mean like God is doing amazing stuff here and we should be very, very thankful. But it'd be very easy in this moment to look back and say, wow, God, thanks for all you've done. You can take it easy. Now we got it from here. It'd be very easy for us to say, wow, Lord, 2000 people come into a medieval campus. That's insane. No, no more though. God, we're good. We're good with this. That's not the type of church we are. And that's not the type of church we're going to be. We're not going to get lazy in our faith. We're going to press in even harder.


God has been so good to us in year one of this proclaim. We want to seek Him all the more in year two.


Amen?


Amen. So, Azariah calls King Asa and the people to do the same thing. Take courage, press into God. And what does Asa do? He responds. In the moment. He responds to the challenge and so he brings the heart of his kingdom back to God. He goes and cleans house of his kingdom, removing all the places of false worship, and he makes commitments and a covenant with God. And the people rejoice, and the people give their heart back to God. But that's not the end of the story. And so that's what we're going to pick up as we continue. And so with that, would you hear the word of the Lord? Second Chronicles chapter 15, verses 16 to 19. Would you hear God's word?


2 Chronicles 15:16-19

16 Even Maacah, his mother, King Asa removed from being queen mother because she had made a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it at the brook Kidron. 17 But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true all his days. 18 And he brought into the house of God the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels. 19 And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.


This is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father God, as we consider commitments and fulfilling commitments, I ask that today that you would please send the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts and our minds to your beautiful truth. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would take this truth of Scripture and use it to transform our lives, we'd be in more in alignments with the image of our powerful Savior, Jesus Christ. For it's in His name we pray. And everyone said, Amen, Amen.


So church, as we conclude this sermon series and this little spiritual journey that we've been on together, as we look to the second half, to year two of the Proclaim campaign, let's focus on this one main idea. If you have your devotionals, you can go ahead and fill this in. Here's our main idea for today.


In a world turning from Him, God calls us to fulfill our commitments to Him. In a world turning from Him, God calls us to fulfill our commitments to Him. And as we journey through these last couple verses of this chapter that we've been walking through, there's just two points we want to pick up on here today, and it's these. To truly fulfill our commitments, we go all the way. And secondly, to truly fulfill our commitments,

we give all to God. So let's go ahead and jump right in. First point here this morning is this, to truly fulfill our commitments, we go all the way. With your Bibles open, let's look at these verses. So when you look at verse 16, you're seeing Asa do exactly this, he goes all the way. Now you may say, he's being kind of ruthless here. He's kind of being cutthroat. I don't think so I think he's being courageous and a faithful leader look at verse 16 even Mecca his mother King Asa removed from being Queen mother because she made a detestable image for Asherah So who's Asherah? What's Asherah?


Asherah was the name of a false and fake goddess that the surrounding cultures and societies would worship. And the worship of Asherah had crept into God's people, even to the point where his mother, it probably actually was his grandmother, she set up her own place of worship to worship Asherah. But Asa, Asa has no tolerance for false worship of fake gods. He wants his kingdom to be pure. And there was no nepotism for King Asa. Even his grandmother gets the boots. That's how committed he was to his kingdom being holy and pure before the Lord. Asa looked at the places of worship of Asherah and the idols of the land and he said, not here, not on my watch, not among God's people. And then look what he does back to our verse. And I got to be honest with you, the second part of this verse, I love this. I love the second part of this verse. This is awesome.


Asa cut down her image, Meacah's image of Asherah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it at the brook of Kidron. Now a little Old Testament factoid for you here, the brook of Kidron, also called the Valley of Kidron, that was the place where you would take the idols in the false worship of a false god, these false images. That's where you were to properly dispose of these things. This is how you officially took care of the false gods.

You didn't just destroy them, you didn't just burn them, you brought them to the Valley of Kidron and that's where you disposed of them. us that to truly fulfill our commitments we go all the way. Some of you, you say you have rejected your sin, but to truly repent means you remove it from your life. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Some of you know that, that sin. That sin that you are particularly vulnerable towards.


That sin that is especially sweet to you. Oh, you say you've repented of it, but you keep access to it. Oh, you say that you've repented of it, but you keep it in your back pockets. Listen, there is no repentance until there is removal of it as far as you are able. Asa removes all access to the temptations to worship another God from his kingdom,

even to the point where he kicks his grandmother out of her own seat of authority. He breaks this image, he burns it, and then he brings it to the Valley of Kidron to show the people, we are properly gonna do this. We are properly gonna clean house in this kingdom

because it's leading us astray. But look what goes on. It says in verse 17, it says this, it says, "'But the high places were not taken out of Israel.'" Now to clarify the high places, those were other places of worship to false gods.


So you may be thinking, I would understand it. You may be thinking right now, wait a second, pastor. Asa didn't go all the way, because the Bible says here that some things were left intact. This is where we need to also know our Bible geography. No, actually Asa did go all the way. Israel is referring to the northern kingdom.


Asa is the king of the southern kingdom. Again, what's the southern kingdom called? Anybody remember? Judah. And that's where Jerusalem was. The northern kingdom was called Israel.


The southern kingdom was called Judah. Asa is king of Judah, the southern kingdom. So Israel was outside of his jurisdiction. So what Asa could do, he did do. And the Bible is drawing a huge contrast here between the southern kingdom cleaning house and the northern kingdom keeping their demonic practices.


Now listen, listen to how this verse ends. Look at the end of verse 17. This is so powerful, this is so beautiful. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true all of his days. I tell you what, right there, right there, at the end of your days, let them say that about you.

I have done and probably will do a number of funerals in my life and time and time again people get up and they share funny stories and they reminisce and they do these sorts of things. But the funerals that I like the best are when people stand up and they say, this person loved the Lord with all their heart. That's what needs to be said about you at the end of your days. I don't care how many trucks you bought.


I don't care how much money you earned. I don't care how powerful your business was. I don't care how influential your social media was. I don't care how big of a worship center you built. What I want to know is, is your heart right with the Lord. Is your heart holy, true? And you may ask, holy, true to what? Great question. That's exactly what we figure out with this next section. To truly fulfill our commitments, we give it all to God. So not only does Asa purify the land, he gives it all to God. Not only does he get rid of demonic practices, he gives his heart to God. Look at verse 18.


It says, And he brought into the house of God the sacred gifts of his father, which clearly his father didn't do but should have done. He brought into the house of God the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver and gold and vessels. Now, okay, honestly, there's a little mystery here as to what this is exactly referring to. Sacred gifts could be things that they won from war, we don't really know, but either way we get the notion here that Asa brought things of immense value into the house of God. And I love how it says the sacred gifts of his father, because if you remember what we said in the beginning, his father's Abijah. Abijah was a bad king, did not worship God. And what you kind of see here is Asa, he wants to set a new trajectory for his family. He's saying, with my kingdom, with my family, we're starting something new. We're going to come before the Lord and bring things to the Lord. But I love the contrast here. Here's your tweetable.


The things of false worship Asa cut down and brought to the Kidron Valley where they could be properly destroyed. But the things of value Asa brings into the house of God as a true act of worship. Again, you can't just get rid of things. You have to also give things to God. This is a great model for us today as we consider our commitment to God through proclaim. Do not bring your least, bring your best. Do not bring your leftovers, bring your most, bring your first. Church, we've said it before and it's a very challenging thing, but we can tell God's place in your life by where He is in your finances. If God is first in your finances, that's a pretty good indication He's first in your life. But if God is not first in your finances, you have a hard time convincing me that He's first in your life.


Asa brings the sacred gifts before the God, the gifts of his Father and his own gifts. And look what God does in response. He gives them peace. Look at verse 19. And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa. So to clarify for those who are just joining us, this whole setting is happening around 900 BC. This story takes place in the fifteenth year of King Asa, which means, and if there is no more war until the thirty-fifth year, that means for the next twenty years in a world riddled with constant war for the next 20 years, Judah has peace. Now listen, King Asa, while he is recorded as a good king, he was not perfect. If you read ahead in his final years, he makes some pretty big mistakes, but all in all, the Bible records him as a good king. But I have to say real quick, I just love what it says about King Asa's funeral. This is in the next chapter, in chapter 16, verse 14. It says that after they buried him, it says, quote, they made a very great fire in his honor. They had a bonfire at his funeral. Would you do that for me, please? That is, that is awesome. They built a bonfire at his funeral. I love this. But did you also know that Asa's successor is one of his sons? And do you know what the son's name is?


Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat. Okay,,so follow this. They throw a bonfire at his funeral. His son Jehoshaphat, he names his son Jehoshaphat, takes over for him. Do you know what the Bible's trying to tell us in Asa was a redneck. His son was Jehoshaphat, bonfire at his funeral. That's a life that I want to replicate right there. He was a straight up redneck.

He did amazing things. He's recorded as a good king. Yes, there was faltering at the end, but that, my friends, listen to me. Asa's faltering at the end is just another reminder that we don't ultimately look to King Asa. We look to a different king, actually one of Asa's descendants, who would come around a thousand years later, and his name is Jesus Christ. That's who we ultimately look to. Asa was a good king, but he was not a perfect king, but Jesus is a perfect king. The book of Matthew records the genealogy of Jesus, and in Matthew chapter 1 verses 7 and 8, it says that we see that Asa is recorded as a distant grandfather of Jesus Christ. We see this because Jesus is the fulfillment of everything the Bible builds up to. Jesus delivers on this fulfillment. Jesus is the Son of God who has come as the perfect King.


Jesus does what every bad king should have done and he is better than what any good king could have been Our king goes all the way, but he does not give silver and gold Jesus gives his own flesh and blood Jesus shows us what it means to truly give it all to God for he gives of himself He gives up himself when he dies on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. He gives it all to God for us. He gives up his very life and he is the reason that we gather. He is the reason that we've named this campaign Proclaim because we don't worship a dead king. We proclaim the name of the one who rose from the dead, who even now rules and reigns from heaven. We live out what Colossians chapter 1 verse 28 says. Colossians 1 28 says, him, meaning Jesus, him we proclaim. That's why we named this campaign Proclaim, because the world needs to hear the name of Jesus.


Amen.


In a world turning from him, God calls us to fulfill our commitments to him. And that's what we're trying to do with this Proclaim campaign. pain. So in a few moments, in a few moments, our church will enter into a powerful time, that I believe a spiritually powerful time, where we spiritually hold hands and we promise to commit to recommit or recommit to God's work through proclaim. And so to help you prepare for that, I want to give you a couple of points of encouragement and challenge as we consider making this commitment together, because now is the time. The commitment, the time of commitment is here and now. Listen here, when Asa heard the call of God, he didn't wait.


When Asa heard the call of God, he didn't say, you know what, let me go, let me go process this with my mentor. He didn't say, let me go and do a time of prayer. When Asa heard the call of God, he knew it was the call of God, and he responded right there in that moment. And my friends, that moment for us is now. Now is our time. As a church, we've been diving into God's Word for the last couple weeks, as we've been going through the spiritual journey together, seeking the Lord. We're about to enter into a commitment or a time of recommitment that we've been spiritually preparing for. For those of us who are part of the Peace Church family, you probably fall into one of two camps. You were either here last year and you were given a chance to commit to proclaim, or you weren't with us, you've come since then, and now is your chance to join on to the Proclaim campaign.


So depending on which one you are, I want you to think about one of two things that we're going to look at here real briefly. First one is this, maybe for you now is the time to recommit and see it through so that we can finish strong. This means that you've already made a pledge and it's time to recommit your pledge. If that's you, then I join you with that because me and my wife and family, we've already made our pledge and it's time for us to recommit to that, to make sure that we end stronger than what we started. And if you remember, we had a really strong start. Maybe it's time to recommit to finish your pledge.


Or maybe you're new to the church family and this is now your time to jump on to a commitment what God is doing. Maybe for you it's simply now is the time to commit to bring your gifts and take courage. Asa was called to immense courage and when the people responded in faith and courage the kingdom became secure. They entered into a time of prosperity. Peace fell upon the people as the king led the way and he brought his precious gifts before the Lord showing that his heart was right before the Lord. Asa did this. Now friends, you really have to understand this part. Asa did this knowing and trusting the promises of God, but we stand in the promises of God already fulfilled. We stand in the gospel of Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of every good promise that God made to us.


Asa looks forward to the promises of God. We get to look back on the promises of God fulfilled. Therefore, how much more should our gifts be than Asa's? For those of us who have been saved by Christ, who are now in a covenant, the new covenant with God, then let's fulfill our commitments to Him and invest in the work that He's doing in this world. Because in a world turning from Him, He calls us to make our commitments to him church. I know you know this This is this is not about sticks and bricks This is about Kingdom work with a generational legacy This is us showing the future generations what it's like to take a courageous step of faith Amen


So what we're gonna do now is I'm going to offer up a prayer. I invite you to join that prayer with me. But when I say amen, I invite you to, if you need to finish filling out your card, go ahead and do that. If you and your family around you would like to say one more prayer, go ahead and do that. But when I say amen, whenever you're ready, if you are called to be a part of this, then I'd ask that you'd stand up and drop your pledge card into one of the black boxes that are around the room. And please understand, even though God has a specific individual calling for each one of us, this is something that we are all doing together through this campaign, amen?


So please, would you bow your heads and let's just take a moment and pray together. and let's just take a moment and pray together. Let's prepare our hearts.

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