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Last week, my brother, Pastor Tyler, was in the pulpit and he gave a great Bible study on the life of Joash, King Joash. And we see from King Joash's life, he was a man who started well, didn't finish so well. And unfortunately, that's what we're going to see with this next King Joash's son. His name is Amaziah. Amaziah did some things well, serve the Lord well in some areas, in some seasons of his life, but in other areas, not so much. So by way of just kind of catching us up to speed, here's our map that we've been showing you over the course of the last few weeks. Again, the nation of Israel is divided into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom retained its name, Israel. The southern kingdom is Judah. Now, our main focus today is going to be on King Amaziah, the king of Judah, the king of the southern kingdom. During Amaziah's reign, you have not his father, Joash, but you have another Joash, who's the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. In the book of second kings, I believe his name is not Joash, but Jehoash. So that's where, as we kind of look through these different kings, it can become a little confusing because you have a lot of repeats of names, but they're different people. So again, you have king Joash to the north, not Amaziah's dad, Joash, a different guy altogether. And he's a bad, wicked king. King Joash of the north. We're going to get to him in just a moment, but our focus is going to be on Amaziah, the southern king of Judah. So read with me. Second Chronicles 25, verse 1. It says Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoadan of Jerusalem. Verse 2. And he did what was right in the sight of the lord, but not with a loyal heart, your translation might say, not wholeheartedly, the Hebrew loyal. It just signifies there's this incompleteness to his walk with God. So he did what was right in the sight of the lord, but not with a loyal heart. So he's not the worst guy in the world, but he certainly is not serving the Lord wholeheartedly. And the rest of the chapter is going to unpack a bit of his story. Verse 3. Now, it happened as soon as the kingdom was established for him that he executed his servants who had murdered his father, the king. However, verse four, he did not execute their children, but did as it is written, written in the law in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, the fathers shall not be put to death for their children, and nor shall the children be put to death for their fathers, But a person shall die for his own sin. Now, pause there with me. Now, this is a good thing that Amaziah does. So again, there was this conspiracy against his dad, Joash. A couple of guys, a couple of the king's servants, they killed Joash, and now there's a little bit of retribution here. Amaziah finds these servants. Who are these servants? They're named after in the Previous chapter, chapter 24, verse 26. These are the ones who conspired against him. Zabad, the son of Shimeath, the Ammonites, and Jahazabad, the son of Shimmerith, the Moabitess. So you have Zabad and Jehazabad, these two servants, let's just say they're bad guys. It's in their name. Some bad guys here. And Amaziah says, you killed my father. Prepare to die. That movie line just kind of came to me. You killed my father. Prepare to die. So that's what happens. These two bad guys, Zabad, Jehazbad, he says, you guys are living up to your name. You guys are bad guys. I'm killing you because you killed my father. So he executed them in verse three. However, this is a good thing that he does. He doesn't kill their kids. Now, that was very common in the ancient day. Like, if the dads in the family were bad, they were evil. You kind of just got rid of the whole family. But God is different. And in the law of Moses, in the Book of Numbers, in specifically, I believe it's Numbers, chapter one, God would say, listen, if the parents are bad, we're not gonna punish the kids for the bad parents. And so he allows these bad guys, he allows their kids to live. And this is a good thing. He's following the law of the Lord. And this is important for us to know as well. Listen, God holds each individual personally responsible for their sin and their bad behavior. Some of us grow up kind of thinking, well, you know, God is cursing me because my I had a bad dad or I had a bad mom. And so I'm just following in their footsteps. So sometimes our culture has really cultivated this victim mindset where because someone in my family was bad or they were addicted to this, now I'm just following in their footsteps, and this is God's plan for my life. And there's no escape. No. God sees you as, as a unique project that he desires to work on. And you don't have to follow in the footsteps of that bad parent, that bad sibling, that bad mentor. God holds each individual personally responsible for their own behavior. And so this is in the law of the Lord. This is an Old Testament principle we see here where God tells king Amaziah says, I want you to follow the book of the law. In this instance, punish the kids for the bad behavior of their fathers. Verse 5. Moreover, Amaziah gathered Judah together and set over them captains of thousands and captains of hundreds according to their fathers houses throughout all Judah and Benjamin. And he numbered them from 20 years old and above and found them to be 300,000 choice men able to go to war who could handle spear and shield. Verse 6. Uh oh, he also hired 100,000 mighty men of valor from Israel, the northern kingdom, for 100 talents of silver. Verse 7. But a man of God came to him. Now there's this unnamed prophet that comes to Amaziah. A man of God came to him in verse seven saying, o King, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, not with any of the children of Ephraim. But if you go, be gone. Be strong in battle. Even so, God shall make you fall before the enemy. For God has power to help and to overthrow all. Right, pause there. So what's going on here? Amaziah is kind of now just establishing the kingdom and he's counting the fighting men. Every good king wants to know, all right, how many soldiers do I have as a part of my military before I go off to war? And he says he counts all of the men in Judah, 20 and above. Now that was again, according to Old Testament practice, only those in the nation of Israel who were 20 years old and above were able to serve in the military. So he counts his fighting men here, and it says that he has 300,000 fight fighting men in Judah 20 and above who could handle a spear and a shield. Now, 300,000 men, that sounds like a lot, but really they've seen a military decline over the last few decades. The Bible records in Second Chronicles 17 with King Jehoshaphat that he had over a million fighting men. So now a few years later, King Amaziah is counting his fighting men to see how many choice men 20 years above he has in his military. And he's down to 300,000. Which is why then verse six tells us he now then sends word to the King of Israel. And he says, hey, listen, you mind if I borrow some of your men? And we're going to see in just a moment why he wants to borrow some men. It's because he's going to wage war against the Edomites in the next few verses here. So he goes to the king of Israel and he says, hey, do you mind if I borrow 100,000 of your soldiers and I'll pay you? And he says, it says here that he offers them 100 talents of silver. Now, one talent of silver is 75 pounds. A talent was a weight of measurement, and one talent equals 75 pounds. So he says, I'll give you 100 talents of silver. That's. That's 7,500 pounds of silver in today's value. Cause I always think, what would my dad say in this moment? He loves, like in today's value, that. And that's not how he sounds. I don't know why I said it like that. But he's always like, I wonder. I can just see it now. I'd be with him sometimes, you know, as I'm, you know. Cause part of my job is to kind of shadow my dad. And I'd be in the. He'd be 7,500 pounds of silver. I'll get on his calculator. That's worth five to ten million dollars in today's value. And that's what it happens to be. So King Amaziah offers the nation of Israel. He says, listen, can you give me 100,000 of your best soldiers? I'll give you about 5 to 10 million dollars. The King of Israel agrees to this. But then we see here verse 7. But a man of God, again, he goes unnamed. He comes to Amaziah saying, o King, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel. Listen, Amaziah, I know that you want to partner with Israel, but I have to warn you before you partner with Israel, remember, the Lord is not with Israel. Again, this is a great principle that we see throughout the scriptures. Do not tie yourself to someone who is not tied to the Lord themselves. It's very dangerous. We talked about this a few weeks ago, so I don't want to necessarily belabor this point, but you have to hear this. In a marriage, don't tie yourself to someone who is not a believer. Now, you might already be in that situation. You're married to someone and they're not a believer. That's God's will for you. Now you stay in that marriage and be a good godly example to your unbelieving spouse in hopes to win them to Christ. Okay, but if you're not married, do not chase after or tie yourself to someone who's not also chasing after or tying themselves to the Lord. It gets messy. That's not God's will in business. Don't tie yourself to someone in business with someone that is also not a believer who's not operating according to biblical principles regarding how to steward finances in a company or at least own the majority of that business, because you have the responsibility as a believer. I want this business, I want our finances to operate in a biblical manner. So the Bible talks about this Old Testament and New Testament. Paul would say, don't be unequally yoked. What was a yoke? A yoke in Old Testament times was a wooden beam where a farmer would attach two animals together. And if those two animals, if one animal was yoked to another animal that wasn't of the same kind or. Or of the same strength, they would constantly just be fighting or going in different directions. And Paul says, yoke yourself to someone who loves the Lord. That's what he would say in the New Testament. And so here, this unnamed prophet, he warns amaziah, listen, before you yoke yourself to Israel, remember, God is not with Israel. And if you go to war against Edom with Israel's help, God is not going to be with you. He's not going to go with you. Now we see that again because Amaziah, the Bible says he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. We see that this is an area of his life where he listens to the counsel of this prophet. Now, he does it reluctantly, but we can learn something from this. All right, Verse nine. The Then Amaziah said to the man of God, but what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the troops of Israel? So he's like, okay, let's say I agree with you. I already paid them. Like, what do I do? I already gave them 10 million bucks. Like, so what do I do here? And this is such wisdom from this man of God. And the man of God answered, at the bottom of verse nine, the man of God answered, the Lord is able to give you much more than this. Verse 10. So Amaziah discharged the troops that had come to him from Ephraim to go back home. Principle number one. Obedience is not measured by profit and loss, but by faithfulness. See, in God's eyes, obedience and faithfulness, there's a correlation. God doesn't desire that. We kind of weigh the outcome. Like, but what if. What am I going to get out of this? God just says, I just want you to be faithful. Let me take care of the results, Let me take care of the outcome. Because God is able to do so much more. So Amaziah says, well, to this man of God, I'm gonna be out 10 million bucks. I kind of made a deal here that now I realize was not a godly God honoring deal. I'm gonna be out 10 million bucks. What should I do? And the man of God says, God is able to give you so much more than this, Amaziah, so you need to back out of this deal. Don't go with Israel, because God is not with them. Obedience is not measured by profit or loss, but by faithfulness. When we start asking, well, what's the easy thing to do rather than what's the righteous thing to do? We're in a very dangerous position. There's a lot of things that we could move forward with that would be easy. Like on paper, this makes sense and this would be easy. But when we start putting easy over righteous, then we're in a very dangerous position. Sometimes God is gonna call us to do the very difficult thing, but it's gonna be the God honoring thing. And we start counting. But it's not gonna be beneficial for me. Cause I'm now gonna be out. Amaziah thinks, 10 million bucks. And the prophet says, God is able to do so much more. And practically speaking, we could apply this to a number of different areas of our lives, relationships being one of them. I know that for maybe some of you, maybe this is your situation right now. And the lord wants to use this situation, this passage to speak to you. You're in a relationship with someone and they don't love the lord, they're not following the lord. You're a believer. They're not. And you think, I've been with them for like five years now. Again, we're not talking about a marriage. We're talking about a dating situation. Maybe a situation even where you're engaged. And in the back of your mind, you know this person. They're not following the lord. They're not a believer. And I am. But now you're starting to kind of. Kind of count in your mind. Well, I've been. But I've invested so much time, so much energy into this relationship. And so you start to think to yourself, I'm just gonna go forward with the easy thing. Cause I've invested so much of my life and so much of my time, so much of my effort into this relationship. So I'm just gonna do the easy thing. I'm gonna move forward. I'm gonna marry the dude. I'm gonna marry the girl. Listen, God will honor your obedience when you do the difficult thing if you know that what you're doing is the right thing, the God honoring thing. So don't trump what's easy over what is God honoring. Don't start to just count. Well, what am I gonna get out of this? What's gonna be the profit? What's gonna be the loss? No, God just calls us to be faithful, and you leave the results up to the Lord. Maybe this is a. You're in a very similar situation in business. Oh, I wanna pursue this business deal, but I know I'm gonna cut some corners financially and. But I need the money because my family needs the money. But I know that the way I'm attaining this money is not God honoring, but my family needs it. Listen, God is able to do so much more. God will provide for your situation. He will honor you when you're faithful to do the difficult thing. Even though on the surface you're kind of like, well, I'm out, I'm out some money here. You make the difficult decision to honor the Lord, and he will be faithful to you. Paul in Philippians chapter three, in kind of a different context, in the context of his salvation, he would list his religious pedigree. He would say, I was a pharisee. I was very zealous to persecute the church. I was circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel. A Hebrew of Hebrews. But I count all of this loss for the sake of knowing Christ. So all of the stuff I once found comfort in my religious pedigree, I count that all loss for the sake of knowing Christ. When you put pursuing Christ in front of everything, you're gonna find so much more fulfillment and joy and you're gonna count all of that loss for the sake of knowing Christ. God is able to do so much more in your life. And Amaziah, he realizes this. He does the difficult thing and he cuts the guys loose and he says, keep the money. I already paid you. I'm good on that. But go back to Israel. I don't need you. And we see their Response in verse 10 of the Israelite soldiers. So Amaziah discharged the troops that had come to him from Ephraim to go back home. Therefore, their anger was Greatly aroused against Judah. And they returned home in great anger. Like, these guys got paid and they don't have to do anything. What are you upset about? That's a great deal. All right. It's like being the backup quarterback of the team. It's like, I'm gonna give you 10 million bucks to sit the bench. You don't have to go get your head knocked off. And these Israelite soldiers, they still get paid, and they don't even have to go into battle, but they're so upset. The Bible says they returned home in great anger. Verse 11. Then Amaziah strengthened himself, and leading his people, he went to the Valley of Salt. So this is where now he's going into war. He went to the Valley of Salt and killed 10,000 of the people of Seir. Also the children of Judah took captive 10,000 alive, brought them to the top of the rock and cast them down from the top of the rock so that they were all dashed in pieces. Wow. Verse 13. But as for the soldiers of the army which Amaziah had discharged so that they would not go with him to battle, they raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. Killed 3,000 in them and took much spoil. All right, so do you see the picture here? Amaziah follows the counsel of this prophet. He says, okay, I'm not gonna depend on Israel to fight my battles because the Lord's not with Israel. I'm going to go into this war with Edom, and I'm going to trust that the Lord is going to help us and God gives him victory. Now, who are the Edomites? The Edomites were perennial enemies of Judah. The Edomites were descendants of Esau. Remember the two twin brothers, Jacob and Esau? Jacob's descendants are the Israelites, those of Israel and Judah. Esau's descendants are the Edomites. And there was constant friction between Edom and Judah, Edom and Israel and the Edomites. Edom is a little south of the Dead Sea, modern day Jordan. And so this is where Edom is located. He goes into battle because the Edomites, again, there was constant friction between Edom and Judah. The apparently were being rebellious against Judah at the time. And so Amaziah takes his men with the strength and help of the Lord, defeats the. But while he is in battle with Edom, the Israelite troops that he discharged, they now come to Judah and they wreak havoc. It says they raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon, killed three thousand in them, and took much spoil. Now, verse 14, for some reason that is unknown to us, Amaziah goes from following the counsel of the Lord to completely abandoning the Lord. There's this shift, and Amaziah's loyalty to the Lord, he started, well, following after the Lord, following the law of the Lord, following the counsel of his prophets. And now what we're gonna see is this shift. For the rest of his life, he's gonna abandon the Lord. Check this out. Verse 14. Now, it was so after Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites that he brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up to be his gods, and bowed down before them and burned incense to them. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Amaziah. And he sent him a prophet who said to him, why have you sought the gods of the people which could not rescue their own people from your hand? Verse 16. So it was as he talked with him that the king said to him, have we made you the king's counselor? Cease. Why should you be killed? This prophet comes to him and he says, listen, what in the world are you doing bowing down to the gods of the very people that you just destroyed? If those gods couldn't rescue the Edomites, why in the world would you bow down to them? And Amaziah basically says, shut up. He says, cease. Basically says, why shouldn't I kill you now? What is going on here? This makes no sense. Again, it says, he brought the gods of the people of Seir. Seir was a region in Edom, and he set them up to be his gods. And he bowed down before them and he burned incense to them. And it says this. This angered the Lord. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was aroused in verse 15 against Amaziah and God. In his mercy, he again sends a prophet. We don't know if it's the same guy who gave him the first bit of advice. But again, another unnamed prophet says, why are you seeking the gods of the people which couldn't even rescue them? Like, what in the world are you doing? Often we do this in our own lives where we chase after empty substitutes. It reminds me of Jeremiah chapter 2 and Jeremiah 2:13. Another time in Israel's history. The Lord told Jeremiah to tell Israel, you have done two evil things. You have forsaken me, and you have chased after broken cisterns. God would tell his people In Jeremiah chapter 2, you've forsaken me, the fountain of living water. And you're chasing after. You're worshiping broken cisterns. Basically, what God would tell his people is, I am your source of living water. You want true joy. You want true peace. You want joy and fulfillment and satisfaction. I'm your source of living water. But you've forsaken me, and you're chasing after all these other false gods. They're like broken cisterns. Like, you're going to this stagnant, messy, dirty water. That's what cisterns see, a river was this flowing water. God would call himself this river of living water. Jesus was called a spirit in the new testament. He would liken the holy spirit to this fountain of living water. So God is this fresh living water, like la Croix and a broken cistern. It's like Leesburg's sewage water, and it is broken. He says, you're abandoning me, your source of living water, and you're chasing after these broken cisterns. All these false gods, they're broken, and there's no satisfaction in them. And this is what Amaziah, in a sense, is doing. God has been with him as he has followed the lord. And now he defeats the Edomites and he takes their gods. He starts bowing down to them, burning incense to them. He's forsaken the fountain of living water. He's chasing after these empty substitutes. And sometimes we're no different. We chase after empty substitutes. We know that something is harmful or destructive for our life. We think that it's going to be some kind of a band aid to our problem. But all along, we know this is going to be a temporary band aid. But it cannot truly bring healing joy, satisfaction only that's found in the lord. So why do we do it? Why do we do it? Amaziah does it. The lord calls him out, and he tells the prophet to shut up. Then the prophet ceased and said, this is the bottom of verse 16. The Prophet said, okay, I'll shut up. He says, I know that God is determined to destroy you because you've done this and have not heeded my advice. Verse 17. Now Amaziah, King of Judah, asked advice and sent to Joash. Now again, his dad's name is Joash, but his dad is dead. This is Joash, the king of the north, the king of Israel. Now amaziah, king of Judah, asked advice and sent to Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, come, let us face one another in battle. And Joash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, the thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon saying, give your daughter to my son as wife. And a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle. Indeed, you say that you've defeated the Edomites and your heart is lifted up to boast, stay home. Now why should you meddle with trouble that you should fall you and Judah with you? All right, what is going on here? Amaziah, because he's just defeated the Edomites, He's a little puffed up, and he basically just wants to pick a fight with anybody. All right? So imagine this little kid in the schoolyard beats this other kid up, and now he's just looking for a fight. He's like, you, you want to go. And that's what he does to the king of Israel. Amaziah just defeated the Edomites, and now he looks to the king of Israel and he says, hey, you want some of this? You want a piece of this? And basically what Joash, the king of Israel does is there's some ancient day trash talk going on. He uses some poetic language basically to say, listen, he says, you're a little puffed up because you just defeated the Edomites. And he basically says, would you just go home? He says, you don't want a piece of this. He says at the very end there, he says, stay home. Say, go home, little boy, stay home. You don't want this. Stay home. Now why should you meddle with trouble that you should fall you and Judah with you? A little bit of ancient day trash talking going on. Verse 20. But Amaziah would not heed, for it came from God that he might give them into the hand of their enemies because they sought the gods of Edom. So God has abandoned Amaziah. He says, I'm not with you anymore. You've rebelled against me. Verse 21. So Joash, King of Israel went out and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, faced one another at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. And Judah was defeated by Israel. And every man fled to his tent. Then Joash the king of Israel captured Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth Shemesh. And he brought to him, and he brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate. 400 cubits, that's about 600ft. Verse 24. And he took all the gold and silver and all the articles that were found in the house of God with Obed, Edom, the treasures of the king's house and hostages and returned to Samaria. So amaziah and joash, the king of Israel, they go to war. Because Amaziah rebelled against the God of Judah, The God of Israel started worshiping the gods of Edom. God says, I'm out. And Joash, the king of Israel defeats the king of Judah. He defeats Amaziah. And he does more than that. It says that he broke down 600ft of Jerusalem's walls. He took the gold and silver and articles that were found in the temple, and he even kidnapped some from Judah and took them as hostages. Point number two is don't let pride fuel foolish decisions. God will humble us if we don't humble ourselves. And this is what we see. Amaziah pride had filled his heart because he just defeated the Edomites. Now he picks a fight with Israel. And so pride fueled this foolish decision. But God wasn't with him. And because Amaziah didn't humble himself, God had to do it the hard way. And this is something we can learn from Amaziah's failure here. Don't let pride fuel any foolish decisions. The bible says that we should have a disposition of one who is sober minded, not thinking too low of ourselves, but not thinking too high of ourselves either. To be sober minded means to just be in your right mind, Just to have your eyes wide open when it comes to how you perceive yourself. And so it doesn't mean to beat up on yourself. There can be two unhealthy extremes. Sometimes people just beat up on themselves. They're just hard on themselves. And other times, probably most of the time, we suffer from the other side of that extreme where we think too highly of ourselves. We think we're better than. And God desires that we live sober minded, that we have just this right perception of ourselves, that we understand that we're fallen human, broken people, Left to ourselves. Like left to myself, I am frail, I am weak. Left to myself without being indwelt by the spirit of God and helped by the power of God. Left to myself, a broken, dirty, sinner, who I am convinced I am not capable of making, Making any wise decisions on my own, apart from the lord. I don't need alcohol to make stupid decisions. I can make those stupid decisions just fine completely sober. And you can too. You don't need alcohol to cloud your judgment. All of us are capable of making stupid decisions completely sober, Apart from Christ. So having this understanding of man without the Lord, I'm just this broken, dirty, sinful, selfish creature. But with the Lord, as a believer who's trusted in Christ, who's repented of sin, not being sinless but sinning less, as I'm maturing in Christ with the Lord, I am strong. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me with the power and help of the Holy Spirit, I can live a life that is God honoring and God pleasing with my body, with my relationships, at my job, in my marriage, with my kids. And it's all the Lord. And I don't get any credit for it. So we don't take any credit for it. It's all the Lord God working in us and through us to accomplish his unbelievable purposes. And he'll do that in your life. But he has a very difficult time working with a hard heart, with a proud heart, God desires we come to him humbly. We come to him genuine and broken, humble and say, God, I need your help. You know I need your help. And he will. The Bible says that God exalts the humble, but he deposes the proud. So don't let pride fuel foolish decisions. God's going to teach us the hard way unless we learn to humble ourselves and then last few verses before we go out to the courtyard for baptisms. Verse 25. Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived 15 years after the death of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, King of Israel. Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, from first to last, indeed, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. After the time that Amaziah turned away from following the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there. And then they brought him on horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah. So Amaziah's life didn't end so well. And this is what we can learn from his life. In summary, a half hearted pursuit of the Lord leads to a whole lot of trouble in the end. And this is what we see from Amaziah's life. This chapter it bookends with. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. And the end of his life there's a conspiracy. He runs to Lachish, but he's killed there. And he doesn't leave with the best legacy. Why? Because he was always on the fence when it came to the Lord. He was just this half hearted human who ended with a whole lot of trouble. And so my final Encouragement for us tonight is don't live on the fence with the Lord. God desires that we're all in. God desires that we come to him. He doesn't want just parts of our life, he doesn't want just pieces of our life. See, sometimes what we can do is say, God, you can have this part of my life, but this part I went to myself and we give bits and pieces to the Lord and the Lord says, listen, I don't want bits and pieces of your life, I want all of you. And when you give me all of your life, you will be amazed at what I can do and accomplish in you and through you. But this half heartedness with the Lord, it's gonna just lead to a whole lot of nothing. And I've been there in my own life wanting a little bit of the Lord, a little bit of the world. Don't do it. God desires that he has all of us and you don't have to clean yourself up before you come to the Lord. God will do that by his spirit. You come, all of you. Say, God, I'm all in. All the brokenness that comes with me, all the mess and the sin that comes with me, God, all the temptation that I'm wrestling with, God, I'm giving you all of it. I'm inviting you in. I don't want to live this half heartedness. I don't want to be on the fence, get off the fence. Satan owns the fence, it leads to destruction. You come to the Lord just all in, full in for Jesus Christ. He'll blow your socks off at what he can do with someone who's just all in for Jesus Christ. Praise God. Lord, we end it there. We thank you for Amaziah's life and we can look back on even the men who lived half hearted with you and we can learn from their lives, Lord. So I pray that you would help us by your strength to live just fully devoted, fully committed to you, chasing after you, turning from sin, trusting in you, chasing after you with all of our hearts, Lord, but you know in and of ourselves that that is so difficult, we can't do it. So we need your help, we need your spirit. So God, fill this place afresh with your spirit, fill us afresh with your spirit now and help us to live with just these loyal hearts to you, God, just completely sold out, on fire, all in for Jesus Christ. Help us God, fill us with your strength and your power. We love you, we give you our lives, God, if that's you, if you desire just to just be all in for Jesus Christ. Heads bowed, eyes closed, you just lift up your hands. Just a sign of surrender. There's nothing superstitious or magical about lifting up your hands. It's a sign of surrender. Saying, God, I'm all in. God, would you use me? Would you fill me? I need you, God, fill me. Fill me to the full of your spirit. Fill us to the full of your spirit. We want to be wholehearted, chasing after you, Lord, wholeheartedly. God, do that in our lives. Do that in our lives, God, pour out your spirit, Lord, we love you. In Jesus name we pray. And all God's people said, amen.
Cornerstone Chapel - Audio Podcast
Date: June 24, 2026
This episode focuses on the life of King Amaziah of Judah, exploring his reign as depicted in 2 Chronicles 25. The message delves into the dangers of half-hearted devotion to God, drawing practical lessons from Amaziah's positive choices and his notable failures. The core theme is that living with a divided heart toward God results in unnecessary trouble, whereas wholehearted devotion brings fulfillment and blessing.
[00:00–03:20]
[03:20–09:15]
[09:15–19:30]
[19:30–26:45]
[26:45–30:45]
[30:45–38:30]
[38:30–44:30]
[44:30–46:00]
[46:00–End]
Through the life of Amaziah, this episode calls listeners to fully commit to God, avoiding the traps of half-heartedness, pride, and the temptation to seek fulfillment outside of Him. True devotion is demonstrated by difficult but right choices, humility, and trusting God with every area of life.