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SERMON: Chris McKenzie, First Baptist Church of Elizabethtown, IL
12 Plays4 months ago
"Rehoboam's Reign"
1 Kings 14:21-31
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Prayer
00:00:20
Speaker
chapter 14 verse 21 through 31 is what we're going to look at but before we go into the scripture let's go ahead and once more go to the Lord in a word of prayer if you will come with me once more Father thank you so much for bringing us here tonight thank you so much for the opportunity to praise you in song and praise you through the reading of your word Father we just ask tonight as we hear your word and it leads us to praise you in our life with how we live and how we serve you and how we share the gospel with those around us and father as I speak let my words be yours it's in Jesus name I pray so as we open up the first Kings chapter 14 this evening
00:01:18
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Versus 21 through 31 what we're going to be looking at.
Rehoboam and Jeroboam's Reign
00:01:23
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Jeroboam reigned over the house of Israel. and while Jeroboam reigned over that place.
00:01:30
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We have Reboam. He reigned over the house of Judah in Jerusalem. And now as we continue on in the book of the Kings, we're going to backtrack just a little bit.
00:01:43
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And we are going to look at Rehoboam's reign and Rehoboam's son, Abisham, tonight.
Understanding God's Jealousy
00:01:54
Speaker
and as we read this passage, we're going to see God's desire for our complete devotion not just for a little bit of us but all of us we're going to see the spiritual decay of those who reject god and we're going to see the turmoil that can arise when god's people take their eyes off of him and we're going to see that as we start in verses 14 or chapter 14 verse 21 through 24 twenty one to twenty four
00:02:26
Speaker
But here's what the scripture says this evening. in rarebo the son of solomon wayne and judith whereboam was forty one years old when he became king he reigned seventeen years in jerusalem the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there.
00:02:49
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His mother's name was Nama and Ammonidas. Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins, which they committed more than all that their fathers had done.
00:03:05
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For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree.
Scriptural Illustrations of God's Jealous Nature
00:03:14
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And there were also perverted persons in the land.
00:03:18
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They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
00:03:30
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we're going to jump right into the points tonight, but our very first point this evening is this. God is jealous for our devotion.
00:03:41
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He's jealous for you. I want you to know that that when you put your faith in Jesus, he doesn't want just a little bit of you. He doesn't just want a little bit of your devotion, just like if we were to get married with someone.
00:03:54
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I don't want just a little bit of Katie's devotion. i don't just want her devotion on certain days, and she doesn't just want my devotion on certain days. She wants all.
00:04:07
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And God is jealous for our devotion, not like a teenage boy or girl that is jealous over, hey, look at me, focus on me, focus on me because of their feelings, but he is jealous for us because he knows what is best for us.
00:04:24
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And the best thing that we can have is our eyes sit on him. The best thing we can have is a loving and growing relationship with him.
00:04:37
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And when we're in a relationship with him, he leaves no room for our devotion to be shared with false gods.
Consequences of Idolatry in Judah
00:04:46
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And this isn't the only scripture that talks about God's jealousy. If you read Exodus chapter 20, verse 4 through 6, it says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
00:05:11
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Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. For showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
00:05:27
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And not only there, but in Exodus chapter 34 verse 14, it has to be reiterated. For you shall worship no other God for the Lord whose name is Jealous.
00:05:40
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is a jealous God. And even in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 24, the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
00:05:58
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But i want you to know something about God's jealousy compared to human jealousy. you ever go to the high school and sit down for a little bit, you'll get to see a lot of that human jealousy, right?
00:06:12
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But the human jealousy is really focused on our own desire to be wanted, to be viewed, Not that I'm necessarily good for another person, but I might get jealous when they don't pay attention to me. I might get jealous when they don't call me enough. if I might get jealous when they don't hang out with me enough.
00:06:34
Speaker
But I'm jealous not because i'm what's best for them, but because I want their time. And God is jealous for us not because we have anything to give him,
00:06:46
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but because he loves us and he knows he is what is best for us. He knows that the relationship that we have with him is going to help us spiritually grow.
00:06:58
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It's going to lead us down better paths. And he doesn't want to see us worshiping all of these other false gods because as you see in the scripture, it says that these people the Judah, they were worshiping these false gods and it led them down so many paths and there were even, what it said, perverted persons living in the place where God dwelt with his people.
00:07:25
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God is jealous because he knows he is what's best for you and he knows that you need him. And so when you don't look at him, he is concerned for you
00:07:41
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He has all that you need.
00:07:46
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He has peace. He has joy. he can protect you. He can guide you.
00:07:56
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This world is not enough. And he knows that he is enough for you.
00:08:04
Speaker
But we go on in scripture tonight. we see that God's not only a jealous God, but we see the decay the spiritual decay when we take our eyes off of god in verses 25 through 28 and it happened in the fifth year of king grail dawn that she shack feel like that's a tongue twister how many she shacks no
00:08:29
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But Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made.
00:08:44
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Then king Barabon made bronze shields in their place and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard who guarded the doorway of the king's house. And whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guards carried them and brought them back into the guard room.
Spiritual Poverty and Moral Decay
00:09:04
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And so you see this rejection. They provoked God to jealousy. They rejected God. They took their eyes off of his commandments. They started to go in the wrong direction.
00:09:17
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And that protection that God had given them and that wealth that God had given them all of sudden started to slip away. You see, Israel and Judah, when they were a united nation,
00:09:34
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They were prosperous. When Solomon was the king over Israel and he was following the will of God, God gave them riches untold and all of the nations around him looked at them and said, man, this is this is crazy. God is really blessing them and protecting them.
00:09:53
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But then Jeroboam in fear rebelled against God and we saw what happened to him. now we backtrack a little bit and we look at Jeroboam. And Rehoboam's a little different than Jeroboam here.
00:10:08
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Because Jeroboam, in fear, didn't want people to go back to Jerusalem and worship God. But Rehoboam was in Jerusalem. He was where the temple was at. He was where the express person of God was and the holiest of all places in that temple.
00:10:26
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And what did he still do? He led people false idol worship. and the king of egypt plundered jesus our second point is this rejecting god now will lead you to spiritual poverty because in this passage we're looking at physical wealth
00:11:00
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But let me tell you, more than physical wealth, you need spiritual wealth. You need what God has to give you, what God and only God can provide you. And when you take your eyes off of him, you give the enemy permission to come in and take whatever you have, your peace, your joy. When it does that, you like to say amen, all right? Amen.
00:11:27
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And all of the wealth that we have, the spiritual wealth that we have, when we keep our eyes on Jesus, when we take our eyes off of him, we stand to lose some of that wealth.
00:11:39
Speaker
Let me tell you, when I'm walking and I take my eyes off of Jesus, I'm not as happy as I am.
00:11:49
Speaker
When I'm living here in this life and I take my eyes off of Jesus, the trials and the tribulations that I face, they become a little bit harder. i say a little bit let me rephrase that a lot harder when I take my arms off of Jesus and so it's important to keep our eyes on Jesus and there's a lost and dying world but a spiritual banquet that haven't put their eyes on Jesus, that haven't put their faith in Jesus, and they have no wealth at all, and all they're doing is accumulating debt, and one day they're going to stand before God and realize they have nothing.
Warnings of Turmoil and Division
00:12:30
Speaker
And that's why it's important for us as Christians to point people to Jesus. But look at the spiritual poverty of mankind as they took their eyes off of God. In Romans 1.28-32, where Paul writes, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over.
00:12:50
Speaker
or debased mind. To do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventor of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful.
00:13:21
Speaker
knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death not only do the same but also approve those who practice them Paul says God gave them over to debased mindset to spiritual poverty to do all of that wickedness and what do you see happening in Jerusalem at this time everything that Paul just wrote right there.
00:13:54
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If you stand before God outside of faith and spiritual bankruptcy and poverty, you're going to be found guilty of sin.
00:14:07
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You're going to be sentenced to the second death, the eternal death.
00:14:15
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And that's why it's important that we realize how poor we are outside of Jesus before it's too late.
00:14:25
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And finally, verses 29 through 31.
00:14:32
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Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah. And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
00:14:45
Speaker
So Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother's name was Nama, Maimonides. Then Abijah, his son, reigned in his place.
00:15:02
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And our last point is this tonight, my friends. When you take your eyes off of God, there is no peace. Two men took their eyes off of God and asked Jeroboam and Rehoboam and what did it say was going on between them the rest of their days?
00:15:23
Speaker
War. You see a nation that was once strong, rich, and unified was now weak, poor, and at war. Not just with each other, but they were being plundered by the nations all around them.
Jesus as the Source of Peace
00:15:39
Speaker
And this can happen to the church. may take their eyes off of King Jesus this can happen to a family when they take their eyes off of King Jesus this can happen to your life when you take your eyes off of King Jesus outside of Jesus there is no peace in Isaiah 48 verse 22 it says there is no peace says the Lord for the wicked yet in Christ
00:16:13
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Here's the good news. We have peace that surpasses all understanding. Philippians 4, 6-7 says, Be anxious for nothing.
00:16:26
Speaker
That's a fun thing to hear sometimes, right? Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God in the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
00:16:41
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or guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
00:16:49
Speaker
And while we were at war with God, while we were considered enemies of God, not that God himself said, I don't want anything to do with them, and I have pitied myself against them, but when we were lost and dead in our trespasses and sins, and we had pitied ourselves against the holiness and the righteousness of God,
00:17:12
Speaker
in war, in spiritual war, Jesus came to be our peace. Ephesians 2, 14 through 17 says, He himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from two.
00:17:43
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thus making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God and one body through the cross, thererefore thereby putting to death the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you are far off and to those who are near.
00:18:05
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Jesus is our only source of peace. And let me tell you, my friends, look at Jeroboam. Look at where he's born. We're going to read a little bit more about Abiz and his son. We're going to read a lot more about more kings that continually take their eyes off of God.
00:18:26
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And in their life, they've been in peace.
00:18:30
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i don't know about you, my friend, but this world is already crazy enough. There's already so much turmoil.
00:18:39
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You want to throw the TV or the remote at the TV or actually you might want to throw the tv out too. It's a crazy world.
00:18:50
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don't know about you. I want peace. Anyone know where I find that peace? I find it in King Jesus.
00:19:01
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He gives me peace through all the trials and the tribulations.
00:19:10
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So Christians today devote yourselves fully to Jesus. Keep your eyes on him. He wants your complete devotion, not because he wants to rain on your parade, not because he wants to push you around, but because he knows he is what's best for you.
00:19:33
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Not only does he want your complete devotion, hear this. He deserves it. He deserves every bit of you.
00:19:46
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Sometimes I don't know why he wants me. I don't get it sometimes. But he says he does. And if he says he does, I believe him. And if he says he wants me, he can have me because he deserves it.
00:20:03
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So give him your complete devotion. And if you're not a Christian outside of Christ, You're spiritually bankrupt. If you want wealth, true wealth, I'm not talking about a little bit of money, but I'm talking about peace, joy, eternal life, what Jesus has to offer.
00:20:25
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You will find that by putting your faith in Jesus.
Final Call to Devotion and Prayer
00:20:33
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And sometimes it's good to just be quiet and read the sermon there. because I don't know what else I can say nothing there's a couple boys that want some ice cream the church you heard the word
00:20:53
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and what we be so became Jesus let's pray father thank you so much for bringing us here tonight