Old Testament In a Year: 2 Chronicles 9-17; 1 Kings 12-16

Many of you are probably familiar with something that happened years and years ago, only 13 miles from where we sit right now. It was on a Sunday morning, 1799. A 12-year-old boy by the name of Conrad Reed, who was out with some of his buddies and they were walking around on the family farm. Conrad had a bow and arrow because he was hoping as he walked along the shores, or not the shores, along the banks of Little Buffalo Creek that maybe he would see a fish. He could shoot a fish with a bow and arrow. He's there with his buddies, got his bow and arrow, walk along the banks of the creek, sees a fish in the creek, pulls the bow back, shoots the arrow, and misses the fish. Something interesting happened. The arrow glances off of a rock. Caught Conrad's attention. It was kind of an odd color. Picks the rock up, takes it home to his dad, shows it to his dad. His dad was a little intrigued by that and decided they were gonna use that rock as a doorstop in their house, which they did for the next three years. One day in 1802, Conrad's dad, John, had a friend visiting from Fayetteville. John's friend was a jeweler. He looks over and he notices that oddly colored rock

being used as a doorstop. He says to John Reed, John, I'd like to buy that rock from you. John said, all right. His friend said, name your price. John said, I'll sell it to you for $3.50. What John did not know was that it wasn't just a rock. It was actually an 18 pound gold nugget. It was the first recorded gold discovery in all of America. And for three years, they used that gold nugget, 18 pound gold nugget, as a doorstop in their house. Why, because John did not know the value of what he had in his own home. But the jeweler did. He said, I'll give you $3.50 for that rock. Sold, he takes the rock. Obviously, $3.50, 1802, that was a pretty good bit of money. But obviously, it was a fraction of the value of that gold nugget. 1991, there was a book released in America. The title of the book was this, The Day America Told the Truth. They polled Americans all over the nation and they asked them this question. What would you be willing to do for $10 million? Over 2 1⁄3 of the people that were polled, of the Americans that were polled, said that they would do at least one, maybe more than one of the things

that I'm about to read for $10 million. 25% of those that were polled said that they would abandon their entire family for $10 million. 25% said that they would abandon their church for $10 million. I know many people who have done it for way less than $10 million. 23% said that they would become a prostitute for a week or more for $10 million. 16% said that they would give up their American citizenship. 16% said that they would leave their spouse. 10% said that they would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free. 7% said they would kill a stranger. And 3% said that they would put their own kids up for adoption for $10 million. That was 1991. My guess is that those statistics would be even higher today than they were back then. Why? Because we often fail to recognize the value of what we have. And that's what I wanna talk to you about today. Out of 2 Chronicles, chapters nine through 17, there are three stories we're gonna look at of people who overlooked the value of things that were right under their noses. Kind of like John Reed did. Didn't know the value of an 18-pound gold nugget,

didn't recognize what he had. It's kind of like those people that were polled in 1991. Who really began to take for granted the value of marriage or of family or of kids or of their citizenship or of their values or of their morals in life and said, I would cash it in. for 10 million dollars. I wanna talk to you about the value of three different things that we see in 2 Chronicles, chapters nine through 17. The first one is found in chapter 10 and it's the value of the aged. The value of the aged. 2 Chronicles chapter 10 beginning in verse one. It says, Rehoboam went to Shechem where all of Israel had gathered to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of this, he returned from Egypt for he had fled to Egypt to escape from King Solomon. The leaders of Israel summoned to him and Jeroboam and all of Israel went to speak with Rehoboam who was the son of Solomon. Your father, they said, was a hard taskmaster. Lighten the harsh labor demands and heavy taxes that your father imposed on us, then we will be your loyal subjects, Rehoboam replied. Come back in three days and I'll give you my answer. So the people went away and then King Rehoboam discussed the matter with the older men who had counseled his father, Solomon.

What is your advice, he asks, how should I answer these people? The older counselors replied, if you are good to these people and do your best to please them and give them a favorable answer, they'll always be your loyal subjects. Watch this. Verse eight, but Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisors. What's your advice, he asked them. How should I answer these people who want me to lighten the burdens imposed by my father? The young men replied, this is what you should tell those complainers who want to light a burden. My little fingers thicker than my father's waist. Yes, my father laid heavy burdens on you, but I'm gonna make them even heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I'm gonna beat you with scorpions. Three days later, Jeroboam and all the people returned to hear Rehoboam's decision just as the king had ordered, but Rehoboam spoke harshly to them for he had rejected the advice of the older counselors and he followed the counsel of his younger advisors. He told the people, my father laid heavy burdens on you,

but I'm gonna make them even heavier. My father beat you with whips, I'm gonna beat you with scorpions. Now with many things in life, the older they get, the more valuable they become. For example, cars, oftentimes cars as they age, they become more and more valuable. You pay a higher price for an older car. There's furniture that's that way. There's artwork that is that way. There is wine that the older it gets, the more valuable it becomes. Jewelry is oftentimes the same way. Here's what I do not understand for the life of me. For some reason, as people age, we tend to discard them and view them as less valuable, not more valuable. You see, we have treasures sitting among us. People that have aged. People that have wisdom. People that have more life experience than you. People that have weathered storms and navigated through tough things in life and have so much to offer, but for some reason, we have overlooked the value of the aging. For some reason, they become a nuisance to us, or for some reason, we think, oh, if I strike up a conversation, they're gonna rattle on for hours and tell a bunch of stories,

and I'm gonna be bored out of my mind, rather than recognizing that those people have enough experience and wisdom that they can help you avoid so many pitfalls in your own life if you will just simply listen. Abraham sought the advice of these older men who had counseled his dad and said, what do you think I ought to do? And they told him, and he rejected their advice. He had a bunch of young guys around him that he had grown up with. They had become his advisors. What do you think? They said, man, make it tougher. These wimps, they're sissies, they're complaining and crying. What you need to do is ramp it up. Make things tougher for them so that they'll appreciate. your leadership, they'll respect you as a leader. Proverbs chapter eight, verse 10, 11 says this. Choose my instruction instead of silver knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies. And nothing you desire can compare with her. Rehoboam disregards the wisdom of the aged. And when he does that, here's the response of the people that we find in verse 16. When all of Israel realized that the king had refused to listen to them, they responded,

down with the dynasty of David. We have no interest in the son of Jesse. Back to your homes, O Israel. Look out for your own house, O David. In other words, we're under leadership that's not gonna look out for us. Who would not take the advice of the wise or of the aged or the ones who had navigated through tough seasons of life? And my challenge to you today would be, recognize the value of the aged that are sitting among you. I'm so grateful that the refuge is a multi-generational church. We have a lot of children, we have a lot of young people, but I'm also grateful that we have a great contingency of older people in the refuge who have so much to offer to us. You have people in your life, people in your family that maybe you've just discarded as a nuisance somehow. And maybe God wants to remind you today, they are great treasures in your life. Here's the second thing. I really wanna challenge you today that you recognize the value of things that have been lost. 2 Chronicles, now chapter 12, verse one, it says, but when Rehoboam was firmly established and strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord and all of Israel followed him in this sin. You know, I wonder, there's no proof of this in scripture, but I wonder, had Rehoboam received the counsel and the advice of the older men,

maybe what we just read would have never happened. Maybe he never would have abandoned the ways of God. We don't know for sure, but yet as he became successful and as he had surrounded himself with these younger advisors who would say what he wanted to hear, Rehoboam walked away from the ways of the Lord. Verse two, because they were unfaithful to the Lord, King Shishak of Egypt came and attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam's reign. Skip down to verse nine. Verse nine says this, he ransacked the treasuries of the Lord's temple in the royal palace. He stole everything, including all of the gold shields that Solomon had made. King Rehoboam later replaced them with bronze shields as substitutes. And he entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. Let's go back a little bit. Let me give you some context for what we just read. Go back to chapter nine. Chapter nine, Solomon is still the king. Solomon, as we know, became the wealthiest man and the wisest ruler in the world. Kings and queens from all over the known world at that time would come and seek an audience with Solomon. Chapter nine records a time where a queen by the name of Sheba, the queen of Sheba, came to Solomon seeking an audience with him to learn from him.

She had heard of his wealth and his success and his wisdom. She knew of the splendor and the opulence of the palace. And when the queen of Sheba came, the Bible says in chapter nine, she brought a gift to Solomon. Wasn't just some nice little trinket. No, she brought 9,000 pounds of gold. She brought spices and jewelry to Solomon. Now here's what's amazing. Chapter nine also tells us that every year, Solomon would receive 25 tons of gold. Hard for us to fathom. 25 tons of gold. That did not include the gold that he would receive from merchants or traders. Those were just gifts that were given to him, 25 tons of gold. And Solomon is very successful. He's very wealthy, but chances are, Solomon began to take for granted the treasures that were in his own palace. Back in chapter nine, verse 15, we read this. King Solomon had made 200 large shields of hammered gold each weighing more than 15 pounds. He also made 300 smaller shields of hammered gold each weighing more than seven and a half pounds. The king placed these shields in the palace of the forest of Lebanon. Now, because Solomon had so much gold and was so wealthy, maybe his son Rehoboam had begun to devalue what he had.

Maybe he just took it for granted. Gold was just common, it was everywhere. 25 tons of gold that his dad would receive every year. So Rehoboam grows up not really understanding the value of what they had. He knew about the 500 shields, pure gold shields that his father had made, but yet he took them for granted. And when Shishak invades Judah from Egypt, Shishak wiped them out, stole everything, including the 500 shields that Solomon had made. How often do we begin to take for granted the things that are priceless in our own lives? How often do we devalue the things that are most important to us? We can do the same thing that Rehoboam did. We can do the same thing that Solomon did. And we can just take for granted things like our relationship with Jesus. And maybe we don't guard it as something that is priceless. We can begin to take for granted our marriage, our kids, our grandkids. We can easily take for granted our church and the relationships that we have and become very casual about those priceless treasures and not guard them the way that we should. Solomon and Rehoboam had begun, become very careless about these things, and Rehoboam was not guarding the 500 shields. Verse 10 tells us in chapter 12

that they were stolen by Shishak, and then in verse 10 it says that Rehoboam replaced them. But he didn't replace them with gold. He replaced them with bronze shields. Interesting, isn't it? Oftentimes in life, people discover that once they lose something valuable, they can never fully replace it. Once they lose their marriage, they can never fully replace it. Once they lose relationships, friendships, their church family, their walk with Jesus, maybe they can never recover what was lost the first time. Just like here, he replaced it. Maybe Rehoboam said, hey, bronze is better than nothing. But I want you to notice that Rehoboam learns a valuable lesson that's way more valuable than bronze shields, because in verse 10, it says that he replaces them with bronze shields, but notice what he does. Y'all still with me? Come on, church, are you still with me? I want you to notice what he does. This is so important, because Rehoboam replaces the gold shields with bronze shields, but look what it says in verse 10. He entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. Rehoboam said, I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice.

Lost the gold shields that my father had made, but I'm not gonna let that happen again. And I think it's so important that we place security and guards around the things that are most valuable to us, and here's my admonishment to all of us this morning. It would be this. Don't wait until you've lost those treasures to recognize their value. No, listen to me. Write the letter now. Send the text now. Make the phone call today. Plan the trip this week. Reconnect. Tell people what they mean to you now. Don't wait until it's too late. Recognize the value of what you have. Recognize the value of the relationship. Tell them what they mean to you before it's too late. Make the reconnection with somebody. Go to them and repent before it's too late, before you won't have the opportunity to do so. The value of things that we've lost. Here's the last thing. We see in 2 Chronicles chapter 15, the value of faithfulness. Here's the definition of faithfulness. Just simply this. Lasting loyalty and trustworthiness in relationships. The fact or quality of being true to one's word

or commitments. The people of Israel and Judah were constantly challenged in their loyalty to God because of the lure and the enticements of other people worshiping other gods and engaging in flesh-pleasing practices. But I want you to see what happens in 2 Chronicles chapter 15. The beginning of verse one says, then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah, son of Oded, and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle. Listen to me, Asa, he shouted. Listen, all you people of Judah and Benjamin. The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him. Whenever you seek him, you'll find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. For a long time, Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them and without the law to instruct them. But whenever they were in trouble and turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him out, they found him. During those dark times, it was not safe to travel. Problems troubled the people of every land. Nation fought against nation. City against city, for God was troubling them with every kind of problem. But as for you, be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded. Verse eight, when Asa heard the message

from Azariah the prophet, he took courage, watch, and he removed all the detestable idols from the land of Judah and Benjamin and in the towns that he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which stood in front of the entry room to the Lord's temple. The value of faithfulness. Listen, when we talk about faithfulness, listen to me, church. We're not talking about perfection. We're not talking about you getting it right every single time, every single day. Listen, do you realize when a plane is going on a trip, jet, airplane, whatever, they file a flight plan with the FAA to say we're going from here to here. This is the course, this is the route that we're gonna take, and they take off and they start flying that route. But here's the interesting thing, 97% of the time, they're not on course. They're just slightly off. That jet or that plane might be a little bit left or a little bit right or a little bit higher or a little bit low. If it's autopilot, that autopilot is constantly correcting the plane. If it's being flown by a pilot, he is constantly correcting the plane so that it is on course with the flight pattern.

But 97% of the time, it's not on course. That's a picture of our lives. It's not about perfection. It's not about you getting it right all the time, every single day, but here's what it is. This is faithfulness, that you're constantly adjusting so that you don't veer off of the flight plan. It's that you're constantly making adjustments so that you stay on the path of righteousness. It's realizing, well, I'm going a little bit right. I need to recalibrate to the flight plan. I need to recalibrate to the word of God. I'm a little bit left. I need to get back center. I'm a little above. I'm a little beneath. Listen to me, church. That's what we're gonna do this week. That's what three days of fasting is about. about some religious obligation. No, it's about us saying I want to recalibrate to the things of God. I want to say no to my flesh so that my spirit man is in tune with the Holy Spirit. I want to deny myself so that the flesh is not in charge, but I'm ruled by the Spirit of God. I'm recalibrating to the Word of God this week. Friday night is not about another church service. It's about an encounter with Him. It's about us saying more important than any Netflix series, more important than hanging out at a restaurant or spending time with some of our friends, more important than that is taking advantage of an opportunity to come together corporately, get in the presence of God, and have an encounter with Him. It's those types of things that recalibrate us to who He is. We're not just doing it because we're bored. We're not doing it because we just feel like

you have nothing going on in your life. We're doing this. We're fasting. We're coming together Friday night because we put a priority on faithfulness. You realize the ancient Chinese were so paranoid about being invaded by their enemy to the north that they built this wall that we know is the Great Wall of China. And they built it so high nobody could scale it. They built it so wide nobody could break through it. But do you realize in the first hundred years after building that wall, China was invaded three different times. Not because somebody scaled the wall or because they broke through, but here's what they did. They went to the gatekeepers three different times and they bribed the gatekeepers. And they walked right through the gate and invaded the territory. Do you realize, listen to me church, the Bible warns us about the little foxes that will destroy your vineyard, that will destroy your fruit. Why? Because the enemy is constantly looking for entry points into your life to get you to walk away from your relationship with Jesus, to cause you to derail. It might not be that he just breaks through some wall of your life. It might just be that you compromise your faithfulness because you maybe don't value your relationship with Jesus like you once did. Maybe you don't value what it means to just be faithful and consistent to him and you begin compromising in areas that five years ago you never would have compromised. Come on, are you hearing me today? Maybe the enemy is finding an entry point into your life. Let me read this last verse, 2nd Chronicles chapter 15 verse 15. It says this, all in Judah were happy about this covenant for they had entered into it with all their heart. After Azariah the prophet gave the word to Asa, Asa recognizes man we are veering off course. We got to recalibrate to the things of God and all of the people were thrilled about it. They were happy about it. Why? Because they said we're all in. We're all in. Now notice what happens. They earnestly sought after God. That's what we're gonna do this week and they found him. Some of you need to find him again. Some of you have gone from a love relationship into boring religion and you need to find him again. Some of you have lost the gold shields. You haven't

learned the lesson of guarding what's valuable in your life. Some of you that are watching inside of a prison cell, maybe the enemy's convinced you it's all over because you didn't value the things that you had or maybe you were never taught to value those things. God had you You tune in today to remind you there's still great value in you and of you. Watch this. They earnestly sought after God and they found Him and the Lord gave them rest from their enemies on every side. Wow. Let me tell you, when you get centered with Him, there's a peace, there's a rest that God wants to bring to you where you're no longer striving, you're no longer battling some of these demonic forces, but you're just resting in the center of His world.