When My Faith Grows Weak

Introduction

Good morning. As you open your Bibles, I hope you’ll turn with me in your Old Testament to Second Chronicles chapter 23. Second Chronicles, chapter 23. I’m sure many of you were just reading that this week in your Bible reading. I’m kidding, we’re not there. But in Second Chronicles chapter 23, we’re introduced to an interesting figure in Old Testament history. Really, when you think at this time, you have the two nations, of course, Israel to the north, the ten tribes, and Judah to the south, and of course Israel had zero good kings, good as defined by God, good as in righteous, seeking the will of the Lord. And yet Judah had a few, you think over the course of the kingdom, you think of Josiah and Hezekiah, just to name two of the more prominent names.

But in Second Chronicles chapter 23, we’re at an interesting point where of all the kingdoms between Israel and Judah, all the wicked kings, it’s Judah who has this king, this queen, Athaliah. In Second Chronicles chapter 23, note with me the beginning of verse 1 and then on to verse 2. But in the seventh year Jehoiada took courage and entered into a covenant with the commanders of hundreds. Now he had to take courage because something bad was happening, and in verse 2, we start to get the idea of what he’s going after. In verse 2, they went out about through Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers’ houses of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. And all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God.

And Jehoiada said to them, Behold the king’s son, let him reign as the Lord spoke concerning the sons of David. This is the thing that you shall do of you priests and Levites who come off duty on the Sabbath. One third shall be gatekeepers, and one third shall be at the king’s house, and one third at the gate of the foundation, and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord. Let no one enter the house of the Lord except the priests and ministering Levites. They may enter, for they are holy, but all the people shall keep the charge of the Lord. The Levite shall surround the king each with his weapons in his hands, and whoever enters the house shall be put to death.

Be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out. The Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and they each brought his men who were to go off duty on the Sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the Sabbath. For Jehoida the priest did not dismiss the divisions. And Jehoidah the priest gave to the captains the spears and the large and the small shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of God. And he said, All the people as a guard for the king, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house.

Then they brought out the king’s son, and put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony, and they proclaimed him king. And Jehoida and his sons anointed him, and they said, Long live the king. The problem with this entire mission is that the king wasn’t reigning, because Athaliah had gone out of her way to make sure to eliminate the descendants that should have been reigning. And in verse twelve, she comes in to this picture. When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she went into the house of the Lord to the people, and when she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments leading in the celebration.

And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, Treason, treason. Then Jehoidah the priest brought out the captains who were set over the army, saying to them, Bring her out between the ranks, and any one who follows her is to be put to death with the sword. For the priest said, Do not put her to death in the house of the Lord. That’s gonna be an interesting note to come back to a little bit later. And in verse 15, so they laid hands on her, and she went into the entrance of the horse gate of the king’s house, and they put her to death there. And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be the Lord’s people. Then all the people went into the house of Baal and tore it down.

His altars and his images, they broke in pieces, and they killed Matan, the priest of Baal before the altars. And you see this great shift because of the actions of the courageous, faithful Jehoiada. In verse 16, what a powerful verse. He made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be who? The Lord’s people. And upon that covenant, upon enacting it in verse 17, they went out now with their restored king. This would be Joash, who we’re going to study in detail this morning. As Joash is now king, and Athaliah is no longer in the picture. They were going to be a special people of the Lord, the same covenant people you might say they should have been all along.

And the problem is in chapter 24 and verse 1, that Joash went along with this for a while. In chapter 24 and verse 1, Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. And Joash did what was right, verse 2 in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had sons and daughters. It’s that pardon in verse 2 that’s the issue. He was faithful while Jehoiada lived. You see, the problem with Joash is he had what’s often chronicled as a weak faith or a lack of faith. And you can call it what you will, but the point is at the beginning of his reign, this seven-year old appointed king was faithful.

In fact, what did Jehoiada do? He not only lived out a faith, but he was restoring the work of God. And verse 4, after this, Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord. And he embarked on this whole process in verse 5. He gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah and gather from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year and see that you act quickly. Unfortunately. But the Levites did not act quickly. So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief and said to him, Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the Lord in the congregation of Israel for the tent of testimony?

For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman had broken into the house of God and had used, also used all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord for the Baals. And so Joash had this problem. But of course, he works through it. And you see that in the story of 2 Chronicles chapter 24. Joash does a great job after Jehoiada hasn’t has him properly installed as king over Judah. He lives and serves as a faithful king, faithful to his people, most importantly, faithful to God. He wanted the house of the Lord to be restored, and so he sent out orders for that to happen. When it did not happen on the time schedule that it should have, what did he do? He met with them, he said, Why is this not happening?

And as you continue to read through chapter 24, you see that he got this work accomplished. This is a great time in the nation of Judah. A king is there reigning, serving God. He has a great faith. And yet, much like what we’ve seen in our lives, whether individually or people that we’ve known, Joash’s story is foreshadowed all the way back in verse 2. And see that with me again at this moment. And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. I want to speak this morning a little bit about when our faith is weak, when our faith grows weak. There’s a way to identify if you have weak faith or lacking faith. And that’s when the moment comes that the devil brings his temptation, that life gets hard, our circumstances of security and understanding of blessing kind of falter.

Where is our faith then? We’re going to see Jehoiada had three different types of blankets around him. But you see, first of all, let’s note the story of Joash that he was spared by Jehoiada. Joash was lucky to not only be alive, but to be reigning as king over Judah. But as we continue, as we’ve seen, Joash is doing God’s work. This is a faithful moment. And as we speak in this assembly this morning, as we study the word of God together, there are many who are doing God’s work. But the thing about Joash is the story didn’t end there. In fact, the story turned at his defining moment. As he’s urging this work to continue, and as we see, as we left off in verse 8, we see how it continues.

The king commanded, and they made a chest and set it outside the gate of the house of the Lord. And proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the Lord the tax that Moses, the servant of God, laid on Israel in the wilderness. And all the princes and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until they had finished. In fact, we see at the end of verse 11, they had abundance. In verse 12, and the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who had charge of the work of the house of the Lord, and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord.

To those who were engaged in the work labored, and the repairing went forward in their hands, and they restored the house of God to its proper condition and finished it. And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made utensils for the house of the Lord, both for the service and for the burnt offerings, and dishes for incense and vessels of gold and silver, and they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord regularly, all the days of Jehoiada. Now that sounds like a whole lot of kind of interesting story of a long way to say Joash repaired or restored the temple. But this is pivotal, because we have to see Joash is a real person.

Often when we think about the divided kingdom, or even frankly, some stories in the Old Testament, like the United Kingdom, we kind of think of these as stories that don’t really happen to us. There is no such thing as somebody who just kind of falls away from being that zealous. But I want us to see that those of us here this morning who are worshiping God, who do what God say, do what God has said, we aren’t immune from falling away. We are not immune from having a weak faith that falters at the time the struggle comes, when the storm of life hits you and it rocks you hard and consistently continues to bat against you. Do you have a faith of your own that stands?

Because Joash had faith while Jehoiada was alive. Joash’s defining moment is found, and please carefully read these next few verses with me in verse 15. But Jehoiada grew old and full of days and died. He was a hundred and thirty years old at his death. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel and toward God and his house. Now, after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and paid homage to the king. Then the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Ashram and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord.

These testified against them, but they would not pay attention. And you see, all of this build up, all of this appointing of Joash as king, this great moment where this faithful king who is impacted by this faithful priest, and they repair the house of the Lord in an act of faithfulness, all of a sudden, just like that. This moment has changed. The scriptural narrative is upside down. Now Joash is no longer doing what’s faithful, but in fact, in verse 18, they abandoned the house of the Lord, the very house of the Lord that they had just spent all this time in focus on repairing and restoring. And in fact, the God of their fathers. And they served the ashram. And they served the idols. How did that happen?

You see three pivotal clues in this text. The first one is in verse 17, after the death of Jehoiada. Now, as we think about this, you think, why would Jehoiada have such an important role in Joash’s life? Now, as a king, Joash got to make the rules. He got to urge the people to faithfulness. In fact, Joash took the reins. And when the priest and the Levites weren’t moving at the speed that he saw fit, he summoned them. He said, Let’s get this picture fixed. Let’s get figure out what’s wrong and get the work going. But as we think about this moment in Joash’s life, remember, where did he come from? He was spared by Jehoiada. It was Jehoiada who had been with him who prompted him to this faithfulness.

Perhaps no one in the kingdom, perhaps none of us until reading these verses, would have thought that Joash had a faith problem until Jehoiada disappeared out of the picture. You see, it’s kind of hard to think about someone being reliant upon another for their faith, being replied reliant on some sort of institution until it’s gone. And then we see what happened with Joash is he no longer stood for righteousness, but succumbed to wickedness. But there was more to that. You see, in verse 17, after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came. And all we know about these princes of Judah is they came after Jehoiada passed. And after he listened to them, what happened? He rejected God, and he served Ashram and the idols.

The princes of Judah came at the right moment. They came along and they tempted him where and how and when he needed to be tempted to be pulled away from his God. That’s really important to see. In fact, you see at the end of that verse, he listened to them. But you see what they did? There’s a third impact here. Not only was he impacted by the death of Jehoiada and the impact of the princes of Judah influencing him, but note that middle section. What did they do? They came to him and they paid homage to him. They bowed down to him, they flattered him. Undoubtedly, this king was influenced by these people who not only involved themselves in idolatry, but part of this fluctuation, part of this defining moment, was they flattered Joash as king.

Joash had been standing as a beacon of faithfulness with Jehoiada at his side, helping him in his reign, undoubtedly. And now with Jehoiada out of the picture, and the princes of Judah in his place, and the flattery that they brought, rather the insistence on the will of the Lord being done, came the crash. In fact, the crash was so hard that God sent prophets to him. We saw in verse 19, he sent prophets to bring them back, and they would not listen. But it gets worse in verse 20. Then the Spirit of God clothed Zachariah, the son of Jehoiada of the priest. And he stood above the people and said to them, Thus says God, why do you break the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper?

Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you. But they conspired against him, and by command of the king, they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zachariah’s father had shown him, but killed his son. And when he was dying, he said, May the Lord see and avenge. How bad did this get? Not only did God give them a chance to repent, he has given this reign, this kingdom, and he serves faithfully, and then he falls away, and God still sends prophets to bring him back. And even Zachariah, this descendant of Jehoiada, the special important man in Joash’s life, comes to him. He says, Turn from your wickedness.

And he doesn’t just reject him. He has him stoned. He has the descendant of Jehoiada put to death. And we’re left to think, how could this happen? How could this faithful king, or at least this faithful king, while Jehoiada was alive, this great mentor in the faith of his, how could he commit this great wickedness against Jehoiada’s descendant? But we see that he did just that. And in verses 23 through 25, we see that Joash reaped what he had sown. In verse 23, at the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against Joash. They came to Judah in Jerusalem and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus. Though the army of the Syrians had come with few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army.

Why? Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash. When they had departed from him, leaving him severely wounded, his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest and killed him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. I think that’s interesting because this Joash, who had lost Jehoiada, seemingly replaced them with these princes of Judah. He had forsaken God, and what happened when Joash died. Those people forsook him. The people whom he trusted, the people whom he loved, the people who he led into his circle and he listened to. They didn’t even bury him where his proper burial place should have been.

Undoubtedly would have been, with a faithful service to God.

Frankly, just open rebellion to God. All of these are fitting, but it is very clear that two things in the story absolutely happened and cannot be denied. Joash lived serving the Lord faithfully. And then Joash did not.

1. We Must Make Faith Our Own

As we see this morning, a couple lessons from the life of Joash, a few. We see, first of all, we must make faith our own. That was clearly Joash’s problem. Because if Joash had a faith of his own, it wouldn’t matter what people came up to him and said. If Joas was individually motivated by his love for God, he would not have fallen to the depths of stoning the messenger who asked him to return. You know that’s something different than a true servant of God. Perhaps you’re thinking this morning, maybe, maybe he’s not that bad. Everyone sins. David sinned. But what happened when a prophet came to David? He took ownership. He repented. What great words are written in Psalm 51 as David pours out his heart to God, begging, expecting the repentance to be given, the forgiveness to be offered, but knowing that he has nothing before God, that he had stained his garment, that he needed to be cleansed, David showed what a heart of a true, faithful individual does.

And that’s they turn to God. But what did Joash do when confronted with his wickedness? He stoned even perhaps the one individual who should have touched him at his emotional core. If anybody should have been able to turn Joash, it would be the descendant of Jehoiada, that great man of faith who kept Joash propped up. We have to have a faith that’s our own. I want to ask a question this morning. What would my faith be like? I want everyone to ask themselves this. What would my faith look like? If my parents or my spouse turned away from God? What if the people in my closest circle stopped worshiping God? Whether they went somewhere else, or they became atheists, or they simply became apathetic. Would my faith stand?

Would I serve God as faithfully as I do now? Let’s ask one question right from the get go. Do I have a faith on my own to begin with? Do I have something that I can look at and say, I have served God faithfully? And I would need to keep that up. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 5, you see an example of someone who came from a good background. And this is, of course, Timothy. Turn in your in your New Testament with me to 2 Timothy chapter 1. In 2 Timothy chapter 1. As you see Paul reaching out to Timothy in verse 5, he says, I am reminded of your sincere faith. A faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.

And now I am sure dwells in you as well. This is something different about Timothy from Joash. Because undoubtedly, with this picture of Timothy, when Loas and Eunice had gone forward, when they had passed away from this life and gone to be with the Lord, what does Paul know about Timothy? That he has, the first word in verse 5 is a sincere faith. And at the end of verse 5, a faith that dwells in you as well. It is possible and it is mandatory that as servants of God we have our own sincere faith within us. It’s often said God has no grandchildren. God has no inheritance through your family. And this is good news, and this is bad news. Because if your parents are great Christians, you don’t get to ride on their coattails.

That might be some bad news. But if your parents are open and rebellious, if your spouse turns from God, it’s good news that you are responsible for your standing before God. Joash did great things while Jehoiada was alive. But Joash had to answer for his faith, faltering after Jehoiada passed away. Joash was responsible for listening to the princes of Judah. Joash was responsible for the serving of the ashram. Joash was responsible for the stoning of the prophets. Those were Joash’s moments. What are my moments? What does my life look like when the storms of temptation come? In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 10, it’s clear that we as individuals must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We will give an account of what we have done, and yes, even what we have thought, because our God is our judge, and our God knows not only our actions, but our minds, our hearts, the secret things as well.

Do you have a true faith? Kevin Clark preached a lesson about seven or eight months ago, and he said, I had never truly evaluated what it would look like if I turned away from God. And for him it would be difficult because his wife was faithful. His family was faithful. It would actually be kind of difficult for his social standing for him to fall away from God. Have we ever evaluated whether we would stand if everyone else fell away or turned away? Do I have a true faith? If I have a faith in God, if I had the faith of David, the faith of Timothy, or yes, even Paul, it stands no matter what the physical circumstance is. I trust in God, and so my life is spent reflecting his glory and living to his benefit.

2. Faith Isn’t Lost Overnight

But we see something else from the life of Joash, and we see that faith isn’t lost overnight. I want you to look at something rather obscure in the New Testament. In Colossians chapter 4, I hope you’ll look there with me. There’s one of these names sometimes that pops in at the end of the epistles that we read over. But it pops up a second time in the New Testament. This time we note a difference. In Colossians chapter 4 and verse 14, as we think about faith not being lost overnight. In verse 14, consider as Paul’s concluding this letter. He mentioned several people, and I’ll read beginning in verse 12. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea in Hieropolis. Luke, the beloved physician, greets you, as does, do you see the same? Demas. Nemus is in with Luke the physician, he’s in with Epaphras, these servants for righteousness, these servants of God, these co-workers with Paul. But look in 2 Timothy chapter 4. As the time passes, 2 Timothy being written after the book of Colossians, certainly, in 2 Timothy chapter 4, as years have passed. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 10, Paul has a startling note about Demas. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. This demons who had greeted the Christians and the saints by the time of 2 Timothy 4 and verse 10 was described as being in love with this present world and having deserted Paul going forth to Thessalonica.

You think about that, and it’s pretty obvious, Paul gives the reason for why he fell away. He was in love with this present world. But those types of changes don’t happen overnight. It’s simple to look at the story of Joash and say it was Jehoida passing away that made him fall. But the problem was, if Joash had developed his own faith while Jehoiada lived, it would not have made him fall away. Jehoiada made nobody fall. His death did not make Joash sin. Joash refusing to grow roots in God while he had the benefit of Jehoiada, while he had the benefit of a faithful kingdom under his lead, should have grown closer to God, so that he would stand when temptation came. But he did not. And so, yes, when Jehoiada passed away, it was a trial.

And when that was doubled down by the princes of Judah coming and flattering him, it doubled down on the temptation. But he did not have the proper route, the proper faith to withstand against that. In fact, we know that again to underscore the difference between a man of God and a man who sins and turns against God. Because when the prophets came, rather than turning back to God because he had a faith, because he relied on God, he stoned the prophet instead. Faith isn’t lost overnight. And this is really scary. This is troubling. Because now all of a sudden I have to think right now, even if I’m serving God today, in this moment where I’m standing, where I’m sitting, I can lose my faith. I might be losing it right now.

Joash went from strong, faithful leadership to strong, rebellious leadership. And it undoubtedly was not just an overnight decision. If I’m not growing closer to God, I’m drifting farther from him. God remains in his position. Am I striving to be like him? Because this world is not normal. This world works against us. Wasn’t that Demas’ problem? He was in love with the present world. If I try to drift, I will drift backwards, away from God, not towards him. And as I drift back, as I get farther from the will of God, it becomes that much more difficult to stand against trials, to stand up against temptation, and to be restored in the goodness in the sight of my God. Have you ever been traveling along an interstate and had to stop for a bathroom break or a lunch?

If you’ve ever done that, I went into the summer in Beaumont, Texas, and the story goes that the leadership there wanted to avoid people stopping off the interstate and stopping them going to gas stations and such. And so they made it really difficult to get off. If you get off one of the interstates in the city of Beaumont, you have to go on these long circular routes and you kind of fall off who knows where. When you go on an interstate stop, you want to go right off, go to the gas station and come back. You know what the problem with some of the longer routes are, or if you get lost as you drift. The farther you go to find the right place to eat or the right place to rest, the harder it is to come back.

Because all of a sudden you turn right and you turn left and you turn right again and run wrong turn. And you can’t see the interstate anymore. You see, as we are Christians, and as we strive to serve God, when we fall into sin, we need to correct the action now while we see it for the sin that it is, and we see the path of righteousness before us. If we don’t, we might drift so far that we can no longer see that narrow way, that we can no longer know where we are to be back in serving God. We need to make sure that our faith isn’t lost overnight, and to do that we have to first have a faith, and secondly grow roots in that faith.

3. Our Faith Will Be Tested

Thirdly, consider with me that this is so important because our faith will be tested. It is not if, it is when, and the temptation will be hard, and it will likely be harder than we want it to be. In 1 Peter chapter 5, consider both the diagnosis of a problem and perhaps what the solution could have been for Joash. In 1 Peter chapter 5, beginning in verse 6. We see humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be verse 8, sober minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him. Firm in your faith. Knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

How are we to resist the devil? First of all, know he’s coming. Be sober-minded, be watchful. But yes, in verse 9, there is a solution as well. Resist him how? Firm in your faith. We cannot hide against the devil’s temptations behind our parents’ faithfulness. You cannot hide behind your spouse’s faithfulness. You cannot hide behind the infidelity of the world either. In fact, that will seek to cover us up, just like the princes of Judah influenced Joash seemingly for the negative. We need to humble ourselves and realize we need to grow. We need to grow strong in our faith. We don’t just need to have faith, not just acknowledge that God exists, but trust in him, rely on him, change for God. There is no other way, because the storm is going to come, and if we lay our foundation of sand, as Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 7, we will be knocked over.

We have to be ready. Ephesians chapter 4, one way of doing that, within the blessings of the church, within what God has allowed for us to enjoy in the kingdom. Read with me in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11. He gives us this list of tools for equipping up, but note why. In Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 11, turn in your scriptures with me as we see this in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Why all this? Why the necessary building up? Why the need for maturity? Verse 14, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. As we build ourselves up, as we grow to that mature manhood, it is so that when the winds of doctrine come, when the waves of human cunning are devised and crashing against us, we will not fall.

Conclusion

And that is only because we trust in a God who will not fail. Our faith is only in God. Our faith is only that God will provide, that God will get us through. And then we de when we doubt, when we don’t grow our faith, we are opening ourselves up as a moving, ready, open target to be taken down by the adversary who desperately wants to take us away. I want to conclude with one of three thoughts. Is my faith like Joash? And there’s one of three conclusions and three alone that can be drawn. Is my faith like Joash when he was on fire for God’s will? Because if you notice at the beginning of 2 Chronicles chapter 24, not only was he faithful, but when the people weren’t moving along fast enough, he wanted to meet with them.

He wanted to get the ball rolling. He was on fire for the work of the Lord. Am I like that? Or am I like when he turned against God? Or am I somewhere in between? I think if we’re honest, sometimes we don’t like to put ourselves in maybe the first category because that sounds prideful, and certainly pride comes before the fall. We certainly wouldn’t say we turn against God because we’re not openly rebellious. I wouldn’t stone the messenger of God, by the way, I’m thankful for that. When you think about being somewhere in between, though, it doesn’t just mean stoning the preacher and living faithfully sometimes. It doesn’t mean living faithfully sometimes and rejecting God sometimes. It means I don’t trust God. Living in between means I don’t trust God to deliver on his blessings.

I don’t trust enough in God, or I don’t care enough about what God offers to change my life in accordance with his will. There is no in-between road. Jesus says there is a narrow way that leads to life. There is a broad pathway that leads to destruction. There is no in-between with God. If my faith is in between, then it means I’m not on fire for God’s will. And if I am not on fire for God’s will, I, like Johash, will fall. We cannot hide our faith in the assurance of somebody else of a church, local or universal. We can only trust our faith in God. We answer for how we live. We answer for what we do with God’s blessings. We answer for our faithfulness.

If I’m not on fire for God’s will, I need to change because God expects me to be. In fact, we’re to be transformed servants of his. We’re to be transformed by the renewal of our mind. Time and again the Bible warns us to be mature. And we don’t like to take that action. But no, the storm is coming. The roots need to be drawn. We need to trust in God today. If you’re here this morning and you’ve never accepted the teachings of Christ or the blessings of God, know that you’re standing obviously opposed to God. And those against God will fall. And will fall for eternity. But you can be with God. God was willing to hear the prayers of even the unrighteous kings in the time of the divided kingdom.

He was willing to bless those who would humble themselves and turn to him. We can humble ourselves this morning and see what God say, what does God want? And we know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that we can come to the Father only through Jesus. And you can do that this morning. If you believe in him and understand what he lived for, what he died for, and yes, that he was resurrected and is now reigning at the right hand of God. You repent of your former life, committing to change, to be on fire, to be one of a faith that is strong and that will stand. You confess Jesus as the Christ and are baptized into his death, burial, and resurrection.

You can be forgiven of all of your sin. You can be a child of God because when presented with the word, you do what God has commanded. And maybe as a Christian this morning we realize that my faith has faltered, that I’m drifting along and drifting away from God. Stop it now. While you can still see the narrow way, turn to it. Get on it. Trust in Jesus today. We will pray for you. We will pray with you. We are to work together to help one another build ourselves up in love in the name and in accordance with the gospel of God. We can help you with any problem you may have because our God is great, and Jesus is the great physician. If we can help you in any way, come forward now as we stand and sing the invitation song.