End Like You Started - Part 2 | Jentezen Franklin

He sees people who pray. He sees people who don't talk it. They live it, they walk it, they consecrate. They're consecrated. 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. I wanna 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. Can you look back and say, I'm still after God like I was when I started? Together we're inspiring people to live for Jesus. If you're looking for more in life, to live with a 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 it to him. You're watching Kingdom Connection with Judson Franklin. - Second Chronicles chapter 16, verse 12. Now in the 39th year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe. It was a, 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. 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. 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 seek God's help when you're facing a challenge. You think, I know how to do this.

'Cause I heard that Lord say it like this, you can't move forward when your feet get diseased. It impedes your progress when your feet are the foundation of your whole body. And if the feet of a ministry gets diseased, it means they're not gonna keep growing and moving everywhere, the souls of your feet touch. I'll give it unto you because we walk by faith, not by sight, but when a ministry is not seeking the Lord, when a minister is not seeking the Lord, when a businessman is not seeking the Lord 'cause you've become great at what you're doing. It was God that blessed you, sir. It was God that blessed you, dear lady. It was God, you have a big deal now, but your kingdom is cut off unto itself and you become a professional at it and you've forgotten that you need him. And I don't understand everything about this story. What is amazing to me is he goes into the temple. Listen how carnal he is. He never prays and seeks God. He's got so much gold and so much gold. it, meets with the king of Syria, been, "Hey Dad," and says, "I'll give you this gold." It came right out of the temple. And I'm going to give you the silver. You take your army and go fight Israel. And it worked. Listen to me carefully. He didn't seek the Lord. He sent the army of Syria to fight Israel and they decimated him. But the Bible said in the next verse, maybe the most famous verse in the book of 2 Chronicles. And after the success, see sometimes judgment doesn't come right quick. Sometimes you can go and go and go without seeking the Lord and go and even keep prospering and even keep prospering

and even keep prospering. But Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branch. And if you are not connected to me, the fruit that you are just taken for granted, I want you to know that if you don't have that seeking me and that life-giving power that I give you, it can dry up pretty quick." One of you ought to be seeking the Lord. Every one of us in this church, we ought not to ever, ever, ever think that we can do in the flesh what has begun. In the spirit it requires. You must finish just like you start in this race. Paul said, "I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith. I finished the course. And I have got the same passion and I am same seeking of God that I had in purity and consecration than when I started." To watch the Scripture said that He paid them. It looks like no big deal, but there's this famous verse. This is the context of this famous verse. And it says, "The eyes but the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong." He did it with the Ethiopians to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal. "You have done foolishly," the prophet was sent to tell him, "Therefore from now on you shall have wars." Wow. He would never have another day. He only had three years of life to come, but every day he would be in war after war after war because he lost the victory of seeking God. And then you move into the final act, the final conclusion of his story in chapter 16. And in the 39th year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet. The average person, I Googled it, the average person, if they lived to be 80, walked 75,000 miles on their feet. The feet are the foundation of the body. The feet affect the balance. And the commentary said that what happened was his feet became infected with gangrene and it began to spread because sin spreads. That's the danger of not seeking the Lord. Here's what the Lord told me to tell you now. This is where it hits. He says, "It's one thing, if you're seeking me, you're going to always have struggles with things. You're going to always be in a natural body and natural world that has things coming at you all the time that you have to deal. You put on the whole armor of God and you deal with it. But if you ever allow iniquity and sin to get in your walk, it can't get in your walk. You can't be a Christian and be single and be going around with a condom in your bill folder. It's in your walk. You can't let stuff get in your walk. It's one thing to struggle. Repent. Listen to the Lord. Seek God's help. Confess your struggling.

Seek Him and get rid of anything and everything that has anything to do with that, which is because sin is a spreader. All of the things that you read about the feet, they are a major deal to the human health of the vital organs. They said that your I thought about the breath. I'm losing the breath of God. I'm losing the heart of God. I'm becoming cold-hearted. I'm not tender anymore. Because if something gets in your walk, if you let sin and inequity, some of you were delivered from addictions and delivered from things that you know, I don't care what other people can do. You have to find out what God has told you and what consecration means to you. And you live that thing, you don't talk it, you walk it. (congregation applauding) And when it got in his walk, that's the biggest thing. I just saw the church. I saw churches. I saw pastors that I've watched that are my friends. That I've watched that are my friends. But the church and the ministry got diseased feet. And it doesn't happen overnight. Notice God's mercy. God gave him three years. And instead of seeking the Lord, the most astounding part of this verse, and I'm almost done, is he saw physicians.

Many theologians believe that that had to do with Egyptian physicians or Babylonian physicians, which were not just, all they had was herbs, and they had natural remedies back then. And some of them were very effective to fight infection. But they would also send, we would call them witch doctors, sorcerers. And they would do enchantments. It was new age stuff. It was chance and charms and all kinds of things to try to get healed by demonic power. 'Cause there's only the Holy Spirit and evil spirit. If you're playing with rocks and witches and horoscopes and white magic, black magic, sort of walking barns and noble. They've got more new age books, how to get into the spirit realm. Yeah, in other words, it should be retitled. Welcome to the world of demons. Come on in. (congregation applauding) 'Cause there's only two spirits, the Holy Spirit and demon spirits. I'm closing. Listen, the Bible said, that God gave him three years, three years, and the man never sought the Lord, but sought these sorcery and enchantment.

And yet in all of that, when he ends, there's a great Bible verse that says, "Yet he served the Lord with all of his heart." God saw his heart. I believe he's in heaven. But listen to this. This is what got me. He died prematurely. I think ministries can die and stop growing and stop reaching and stop stepping and stop. We are not called. We are to charge the gates of hell. We are never to be without a vision. We're never to be without a dream. We're never the moment we stop making progress, death will begin to set in. As long as we're alive, he said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against my church, "but don't you get diseased feet, "where your walk is unclean." You have to say, "Lord, would you pull your towel "out one more time? "Would you come into this service, "and would you wash my feet like you did the disciples? "If the disciples, the apostles, as holy as they were, "as mighty as they were, the shadows could heal people. "If they needed their feet washed, "it was one of the last things that Jesus would do "before he would go to the cross, his kneel down, "and wash the feet of every one of his disciples.

"Who am I to think that somehow I ever arrive "anywhere that I don't need him to specially focus "and cleanse my feet from iniquity? "Blessed is the man that walketh not "in the counsel of the ungodliness, "nor sits in the seat of the scornful." There you go, there you go. Notice the progression. It starts out, you just walk in with the wrong people. You just walk in with the counsel of the world and carnal people and fleshly people. And then it moves from walking with them. Now you're standing with them. Well, I do think that's right. I do think that, you know, if you want to get, if love is love, so just go in that lifestyle. You move from, you move from walking with them to standing with them. And then before you know it, you sit down and you become scornful against the church, against God, against the Bible, against everybody and everything. And you've been diseased in your feet. And here's what, here's where the fear of the Lord needs to come in us a little bit. This guy died pretty young. And I remember I made a commitment, a vow to the Lord, many, many, many, many years ago, deep prayer. And he reminded me of it. He said, "You remember what you told me when you started?"

I said, "What?" I heard you pray, Lord, don't ever let me bring a reproach on your name. If you see, I'm gonna do it, take me. We need to walk in that kind of fear of the Lord. This is too heavy, isn't it? I don't recommend praying that prayer. I did it in the spirit as I was praying, many, many, many, many years ago. And I've often thought of it. By God's grace, I've asked him for 85 years. And after that, he can choose, then he's gonna choose anyhow. And if I die tomorrow, don't think that I'm terrible. And God got me. I don't know how this will end up, but I know how my spirit is about it. I like to make vows sometimes. It was on a 21-day fast when I prayed that. Wouldn't you like for Jesus to walk in with his pain and his towel, he cleans our feet, wash away the pride, wash away the reliance on, I'm smart now. I'm educated now, I really don't need God. I really don't need anything. I got the money coming in, I'm good. You've got disease in your feet. It's your faith that has gangrene spiritually. And it always spreads. I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet. And I wanna give a different little altar call here this morning. But if you know this sermon is for you,

if you sense your feet are not healthy, if you sense there's things in your wall that you need to get out, if you sense that it's been a long time, maybe while I've been preaching, the Holy Spirit has spoken to you about self-reliance. You don't even think about praying about it. You don't even think about praying for your children. You don't even think about praying for your wife. You don't even think about praying for your husband. You don't even think about praying for your children. You don't even think about it. You just, it's human reliance. Everything is human reliance. God says, "I see that. I see people who seek me, and I see people who don't." I wanna give you your feet back. I want you to make progress. I want you to move forward. I want you to take the land. I wanna use you. I wanna send you to places. Some of you young people, God, you have no idea. God's gonna send you all over the world. For His purpose, if you give Him your kingdom, if you give Him your talents, your dreams, He'll send you all over the world. Pastor, pray for me. If that's you, then you know it. And you need God to touch you and wash your feet this morning. Get out of your seat and come stand down here.

Just come from wherever you are, wherever you are, wherever you are. Come, just come and stand or kneel, whatever you wanna do. Come, come, come, come, come, come. Come, come, come on, business man. Come on, mom, come on dad, come on husband, come on teenager, come on college student. Come on, you don't have a lot of time to waste. You don't have a lot of days to waste. I'm telling you, every step now matters. We're so close to the coming of the Lord. Every step matters. The steps of a righteous man or woman are ordered of the Lord and He delights in their way. The rest of that verse says, come on, come on. I don't want it in my walk anymore. I've got some things that I won't wash the cleanse I want I won't God. I won't God in my daily walk. I don't just want to go to church on Sunday and sing some songs I want to walk with Jesus With Jesus, I want to read his word. I want to know it. I want to know it I want more than religion. I really need to walk with him talk with him Go your hands up all over this room and Consecrate your kingdom again. Let's concentrate. Let's consecrate this church Let's consecrate this nation America has diseased feet We started out with prayer. We started out with the God we trust We need to say God take our nation again We lay it on the altar heal us Heal us when I'm seeking other positions There's no other answer for the world. But Jesus was just washing me If you're desperate for God throw your hands up and say give me voice

Give me more. You know if you hunger you'll get eyes are falling to his room Who really won't miss me? Take me again. Take me back. Touch me again. Give me what I started with, that passion, that flame that purity You gotta seek it in the season and out When you feel nothing's seeking when you see nothing's seeking There's no other answer for the world, there's no other answer for the world There's no other answer for the world, there's no other answer for the world There's no other answer for the world, there's no other answer for the world, there's no other answer for the world You