End Like You Started - Part 1 | Jentezen Franklin

We've been doing this a long time together and I want to thank all of you for taking time to schedule in your day or wherever you're watching this program, the time to say I want to hear what's being said and I want to feel the presence of the Lord. This message that I'm going to share today has affected me as much as any message I've ever preached because I saw in this how easy it is, it's the story of Asa and how easy it is to start out with a powerful passion for God, a passion for prayer, everything after God seeking God, longing for God, but at some point he switched over and he began to not seek the Lord, but seek other things more than God and there is a powerful lesson I've entitled this message today in like you started. He ended, he ended good, he could have ended great. God forgave it, great things still happen in his life but you're going to see some insights in this message today that ought to make you say I'm going to end greater even than I started because Jesus deserves our best in every season of life. So I want to encourage you stay tuned, this is going to speak to you, open up your heart. Every one of you who've started businesses or families or whatever, listen to this message, it's for you too. Together we're inspiring people to live for Jesus, if you're looking for more in life, to live with purpose and peace, to make a difference for your family and those in need around the world. Jesus is the answer and our mission is to simply point you to Him. You're watching Kingdom Connection with Jensen Franklin. Second Chronicles chapter 16, I'll begin reading with verse 11, note the acts of Asa. It says kind of a King James word in the King James, it says, "Behold, behold the acts of Asa." The word "behold" means to make special note, to notice this, really stop, stop, stop and really see this now. This is not just somebody in the Bible that you need to pass over. He's in three chapters, the Bible takes three chapters to tell his whole story. 14, 15 and 16, we are coming in on the end of his life. Note the acts of Asa first and last are indeed written in the book of Kings, which it does

have some details there. Verse 12, "Now in the 39th year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet and his malady was severe, it progressed, I know it progressed because when he got it, we're told that it was the 39th year, but when he died, it was the 41st, so it was a three-year situation. His feet were diseased and his malady became severe, yet in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians." I'll explain that in a moment. It's not a rebuke of medical help, that's not, I will show you what that is in just a moment. So Asa rested with his fathers and he died in the 41st year of his reign. I think that Asa needs to be looked at because he begins at the age of 41, he became king of Judah. At that time, Israel, the nation of Israel was divided into two nations really. There was a certain amount of the tribes that were called Israel in this division. There was Judah. God, through David, would bring them back together. He would unite the kingdom, but they were having literally a civil war and they fought each other and you've got Judah and this was the king of Judah. His father was extremely wicked. All of the kings before him were extremely wicked and here comes a 41-year-old man and right from the beginning, very quickly, he sets his priority as soon as he is up. He says, "We are turning to God." He built an altar. He called the nation to prayer. He called the tribe of Judah back to what their purpose was. He was not interested in his ego. He was not interested in his desires, his pleasures, his kingdom, his personal kingdom. He said, "I know that God has entrusted me with a massive kingdom, but I want my kingdom

to bring to be in God's kingdom, and I want my kingdom to glorify God's kingdom. I want him to be, see first the kingdom of God, not your own prosperity, your own joy, your own pleasure, but everything about us as Christians, whether it's the business that we build, the career that we build, the dream that we have, it's when I really become a Christian, I seek the Lord in everything that I am doing, and my desire is I want my kingdom to be his kingdom, and I want one on the throne, the king, Jesus Christ, and I want whatever talents, whatever gifts, whatever abilities, I want the kingdom that I build, so to speak, the world, the career, whatever, that anything that I do, I want it in his kingdom, and I want the praise, and the glory, and the honor to go to him. This was, I cannot underscore how much Asa felt that way about his kingdom. I'm not gonna rely on my talent, I'm not going to rely on my ability. We're gonna seek the Lord. He didn't go in saying, I've been prepared for this, my father was a king, my great granddaddy was a king, my grandfather was a king, 'cause he was, that's exactly how, he cleared the slate, and he said, I need you, God. I'm seeking you, the Bible says over and over three times, it says in one chapter, he salt the Lord, he salt the Lord, he's just a brand new king,

he salt the Lord, there is a seeking of the Lord, second chronicles, 14 and 11, he's seeking the Lord over and over and over. He begins to pray, begins to call the nation to prayer. The Bible actually says that because of this, that for many years, four years, there was no war, there was no attacks, there was nothing but peace, but then the Lord allowed him in the next chapter to go through a test. You know, when you first get saved and you love the Lord and you find out that God has a plan for your life, and I saw myself in this story of Asa and it wrecked me, to be honest. Because when I started out in ministry, all I knew to do was to seek the Lord. All I knew to do was to open that book and I would fall asleep reading it, I would cry a salty tears, sometimes I would just lay it on my chest and fall asleep after I'd read it, I consumed it. I was so hungry, I listened to the word being preached by great preachers, and there's something about seeking the Lord. There's something about I'm a musician and I would go to the church that my dad pastored and I would sit down at the pen and sometimes I would play for four and five hours and I would just worship the Lord. I would just praise the Lord. I was consumed with it and then I'd set that down

and I'd pick my saxophone up and I'd put on some Andre Crouch on the sound system and I'd play my saxophone and nobody knew me and nobody never cared nothing but God saw me seeking him. He sees people who seek the Lord, he sees people who pray, he sees people who don't talk it, they live it, they walk it, they consecrate, they're consecrated, they have values, they have standards, it's not because everybody says it's wrong, it's because deep in their heart they know I don't need to be a part of that, it's consecration, him calling the nation to prayer and himself praying and seeking the Lord over and over throughout these three chapters. And the scripture said that the Ethiopian army invaded and came against Judah. They were a one million man army with 300 chariots. And the verse before that said that he had assembled this man, Asa, an army of 300,000 from Judah. So I want you to see this battlefield, 300,000 on Judah's side and on Asa's side. And you've got a one million man army over here. They are trained killers. And on top of being overwhelmed, odds all against them, they have 3,000 chariots that are like tanks ready to roll over that pitiful army of Judah. And in the middle of all of that, I just want to read to you what the scripture says that he started doing something strange. It says in verse 13, "And Asa cried out to the Lord." Notice this. I want you to get this. It's so important. Asa prayed before he got in the battle. Asa prayed when he was in the middle of the battle and Asa prayed after the battle. He did not wait to get in the battle to pray. He had a prayer life and he was seeking the Lord. So when storms and battles and trials come, you shouldn't really have to pray a whole lot more. I don't fall to pieces. I'm not bagging. I've been around a long time. But because if you have a prayer life, you pray before the battle, you pray in the battle. And when you get out of the battle, you don't forget what the Lord has done. Sometimes when they're singing, there's just something about the name. The Lord will flash me. He'll flash a victory that he gave me. I'll look over and I'll see one of my kids praising the Lord. The hell said, "I've got them and you'll never get them back." But I just want to tell you, if you'll pray before the battle,

pray in the battle and pray after the battle and give God the glory, he'll fight the battle. Somebody give him a praise if you believe that. I love this prayer. I love this prayer. This man prayed in verse 11, "And ase cried unto the Lord God, knee and man army, 300 chariots coming wide open at him, and he cried unto the Lord. Lord, this is nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power." If you can ever get weak enough to pray that prayer, God can really do some great things. I feel that way every Sunday when I walk up here, I have no power. That I feel his power. Help us. Listen to him. Listen to this man. Just pray in a massive crisis. Help us, O Lord, our God, for we rest on you. And in your name, we go against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God, and do not let man prevail against you. And the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled, and Asa and the people who were with him pursued, and they broke through. I'm telling you that when you pray, it's victory. I want you to see how he started. He started seeking the Lord. He prayed before the battle, in the middle of the battle, after the battle. It's unbelievable how he seeks God in everything. You can have a beautiful beginning, but a catastrophic conclusion as this story shares with us. Because at the end of that battle, the Scripture says something interesting. At the end of that battle, God sent a prophet to him, and the text said that the prophet had this encouraging message. It says in chapter 15, after that battle was won, the Spirit of God came on Azariah, and it says in verse 2 that he came saying, "The Lord is with you while you're with him." This remarkable story is a reminder to all of us who have seen God's hand give us victories and successes. If you're a business person listening to me and God, there are people in this room who started businesses and they took their kingdom and put it in the kingdom. Look at Sam's, I see you, a businessman, extremely blessed of God. And He took the business, the kingdom that He had built. And I mean, He's blessed of God and He is passionate about putting it and saying, "This isn't my business. This is God's business. This is what Christians do, by the way. We're not just like the world.

We don't have the motive the world has. It's all right if God blesses us, but ultimately, it's His, everything about us is His business." And watch this. After that victory, the prophet said, "If you go with God, if you seek the Lord, you'll find Him. He'll bless you." This never has to end, but you go into the next chapter and years go by, ten years go by, and no more battles, but here comes another battle now. God will test you. God will test to see if you still are seeking Him like you did when you started. Just because you started well doesn't mean you will end well. Actually, everybody in the Bible that fail, fail in the latter part of their life, which means if you've been serving the Lord for a while, I'm glad if you're a brand new Christian, great, and you're on fire and all of that, but I'm going to tell you when you know that you got something, is you will, before life is through with you, you will go through things that will be that high and that low and everything else will hit your life. And the miracle is when you're getting toward the last act, because you know, it's the acts of A, so there's the opening act, there's the middle act, and there's the final act. And the deal is this, you can't just start well. You can't just start seeking God. You can't just start needing God. You can't just start worshiping God. Yeah, I want to know, have you been through some stuff and you got some gray hair now maybe or no hair or your middle age, you're in your 40s and 50s? Do you, can you look back and say, I'm still after God like I was when I started? This is what small, this preacher's heart, it's smoked me. I don't know any other way to say it. It struck me. And the Bible said that Israel, now remember they were divided. The king of Israel attacked Judah and now they've got a civil war and watch and when

he attacks instead of going on his knees, instead of turning to God with all of his heart and turning the nation to God and crying out to God, watch him now. He starts relying, I've done this so long, I've had, I'm so good at this. He did not pray one time. He did not seek God's counsel one time. He did not humble himself. He's arrogant, he's proud, he's full of, here's the thing. I believe, Asa loved the Lord and I'm going to prove to you this has a happy ending because there is a verse in 1 Kings that says that he had a heart after God, all of his life, all the days of his life. So God saw the good that he did, but watch the severe judgment of starting out seeking God and walking and losing that consecration to the degree that you don't even see God's help when you're facing a challenge.