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We are in 2nd Chronicles chapter 23, so you can go ahead and turn there. 2nd Chronicles 23, we're going to continue our way through the Bible and we are going chapter by chapter. I'm going to be tackling chapters 23 and 24 for us tonight. I'm going to backtrack a little bit into chapter 22, starting in verse 10. But for now, let's pray. Let's just settle our hearts, get right with the Lord, confess any sin, and just get right with him. So Father God, we thank you for tonight. We thank you for a gorgeous evening. Thank you for this campus that we come to and fellowship freely and read your word and Lord, just seek your face and encourage one another as we see the day approaching. So God, I pray that you would just speak to all of us. A lot of us have been going through certain situations and we've got issues, Lord. We're broken people. A lot of us have been doing great. Lord, help us to stay true to you, not to get lazy and lethargic. And God, speak to us now through your word as we look at 2nd Chronicles 23 and 24. Help us to take example what to do and what not to do in our walk with you. So we love you, we thank you for your Holy Spirit. He's here tonight and we thank you for the cross in Jesus name. And everyone said amen. 2nd Chronicles 23 is where we're going to pick it up in and where we've left off with where we were in 2nd Chronicles 22. This is where we are right now, currently in chapters 23 at the end of 22 as well. Israel and Judah are separated. There's a divided kingdom, okay? Under the reign of Saul, David and Solomon, it was united. After them, it's been split and it's going to be split for hundreds of years. So in Israel right now, where we are, it's roughly early 8 hundreds, maybe a mid 8 hundreds BC and you have King Jehu, who's the king of Israel, that's in the north, and then Queen Athalia or Thalia in the south of Judah. She reigns from Jerusalem and Jehu will reign from Samaria. Again, you should find a good commentary, find a good biblical chart and timeline and look at all the different kings that served in Israel and Judah. You can see the prophets that were serving as well to the people. Elisha would be right now prophesying to the people, and then other prophets would come after that. But it's really good to understand, like where are we in God's word in. In regards to a timeline. So Queen Athelia, who is wicked, she is not a good woman. And if you remember from last week, if you were here, she usurps the throne. She takes it over because her son has just been killed by Jehu. And now she assumes the throne and she then attacks and kills the royal line of David and which happens to be her own grandchildren, her own, her own kin, and she's just a wicked, demonic queen and she wants the throne. But the plot thickens and God always has the upper hand. Someone is spared. He's by the name of Joash. And we're going to be looking at his life. And so for today, Queen Athelia will be executed. All right, we're going to look at that. And then King Joash is going to dominate chapters 23 and 24. He's the one we're going to look at and he's, He's. I have mixed feelings about him. He starts off great and he does not end well. That's pretty much every king that. That served in Israel and Judah. There was just a handful that, that served faithfully throughout their entire career. But we see Joash comes into power after Athelia is taken out. But again, look, look back in chapters 22, starting in verse 10, it says now, when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs of the house of Judah. But Jehoshabeth, or in second Kings, it's Jehosheba. And we're gonna. I'm gonna use that name because it's easier to say the daughter of the king took Joash, the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. So Jehoshapheeth, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada, the priest, and I want you to highlight his name. We're going to look at him as well. He plays a pivotal role in chapters 23. For she was the sister of Ahaziah. I'm going to come back. This is a messy family tree. Hid him from Athalia so that she did not kill him and he was hidden. This is Joash with them in the house of God for six years while Athalia reigned over the land. So in. In Israel's history, the divided kingdom with Israel in north, Judah in the south, you. You do have for at least six years, a woman, a queen who reigned in Judah as part of their history. But she's. She's evil, she's wicked, clearly. She's murdering her own grandchildren just to take over the throne. And that the royal heirs are eliminated. But someone comes to the rescue. This happens to be, I believe, a godly family that does so. And when we see now Joash, before he comes to the throne, I want us to get a glimpse of what. Who. Who are the main characters in the story? And I, I need to always kind of unpack as, as we read through the Bible, like, who are the main characters that the Holy Spirit wants us to hone in on? And so on the screen, if you're taking notes, these are the four main characters that we're really going to look at that I'm going to talk about for the. For the course of our study. Four people. All right. I wish all of them started with J, then it could be easy. But you have Athelia number one, and everybody else starts with a J. So Athelia, Jehoshapha, Jehoiada and Joash. Now, I'm going to break it down. Who these characters are. Athelia, again, is the evil daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Everybody knows Jezebel. Wicked, horrible woman. And the daughter is just like her. All right, so she's an evil daughter who reigns as queen for six years over Judah in Jerusalem. Jehoshapha, or otherwise known as Jehoshapheeth in Second Chronicles, she plays a pivotal role in this. She's only mentioned twice in all the Bible, and it's right here in Second Chronicles. She is the one that rescues Joash. So if you're taking notes on the screen, she's the daughter of Athelia. Now, when you read some commentaries, she may also have. She may not have been a biological daughter. She may have been a stepdaughter. We quite. We honestly don't know. The Bible's not clear. I'm going to go with that. She's the daughter of Athelia, the way that the Bible writes it, because. And she's the husband to Jehoiada. He's the priest. He's the third character on that list. And they play a pivotal role with Joash. She's the aunt of Joash. So there's a whole family tree with the dynasty. Here you have Athelia, the queen mother. The daughter is Athelia, maybe a stepdaughter. Again, we don't know. She marries this man named Jehoiada. He's priest in Jerusalem and he's priest for A long time. We're gonna find out. So Jehoiada and Jehoshaba are aunt and uncle to Joash. Everybody following. Okay, I know. It's still. I hope this helps. She rescues baby Joash from being murdered by Athalia. He probably was around one year old, maybe even less than that. She rescues him. She hides him for six years. How? How she hides him for that long without Athelia knowing? I don't know. That was a miracle by the Lord. The Lord kept someone of David's bloodline alive, and she plays a pivotal role in that. Jehoiada is the husband again, of Jehosheba, an uncle of Joash. And he is a priest in Jerusalem and a godly mentor to Joash. We're gonna find out that he has a great relationship with the Lord. He trains up Joash. 2nd Kings 12. Also, parallels with this talks about that he instructed Joash in the ways of the Lord. He's a good mentor to Joash. Joash doesn't have a dad. His dad's been killed by Juu. So Joash has been brought up by Jehoia and Jehoshaba as, in a way, an adopted mom and dad. So they take. They take him under their wing. Joash, then again our main character, the son of King Ahaziah and royal heir to David's throne. Okay? The Queen Athalia had no right to take over the throne. And she'll do everything she could to. To take it by murdering her own grandchildren. Wicked, demonic, satanic, however you want to call it. She's. She's horrible. And again, it makes sense. She's the daughter of Jezebel and Ahab, who were the most wicked king and queen that ever lived for Israel's history. But we pick it up here in chapters 23. And before we even do that, I actually just felt like the Holy Spirit was saying, I want. I want you to park it right here quickly, with this woman, Jehoshaba. Okay, Jehoshaba. I had to, like, read this again. Cause it's been a long time. And when I was reading, I was like, man, she plays a pivotal role as one of the most courageous women in the Bible. And no one talks about her. And I'm like, I'm gonna talk about her. Cause I feel like she. There's. There needs to be credit where credit is due. And I believe she was honored by the Lord. And there's a long list of women in Old Testament and New Testament that were courageous and godly and did great things for the Lord. And if you want to take notes on the screen again before we go through into chapter 23. I just want to park it here. These are my top 10 women. Really? Top 11 with number one, it's two women. Top 10 women of the Bible. All right. That, that I think play a pivotal role in. In God's plan. And we're just courageous, bold, godly women. The number one we see is Shipra and Pua. They are actually Egyptian midwives. In Exodus chapter one, they were the ones who went against Pharaoh's decree of killing all the baby boys, throwing them in the Nile. They're like, we're not doing that. Word got back to them. They're like, Pharaoh's like, why aren't you doing this? And you know, they kind of made this a little excuse about the Hebrew women. And you gotta read it. It's Exodus, chapter one. But they were honored by the Lord for that. They were like, we're not killing these babies, we're saving them. So they were, in a way, the first pro life movement in Exodus chapter one, these Egyptian midwives. It's amazing. Jochebed. Jochebed is the mother of Moses. She was courageous and bold and saw something special about Moses, hid him for three months until she could not hide him any longer. Made the basket, you guys know the story. And let it go into the Nile until Pharaoh's daughter found him. So Jochebed plays a pivotal role as a courageous woman. She believed that God would take care of her son. And again, she would have to release her son to the Egyptians, which Pharaoh did grow up for about 40 years in Pharaoh's palace. That's Jochebed. Number three is Rahab. Rahab's a great story in Joshua chapter two. Read that again. The prostitute who got saved and saw something different about the spies. And they were like, we, we, I want to worship your God. And she's radically saved and she's part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. It's an amazing story. That's Rahab. Number four is Deborah, Judges chapter four. She was a prophetess as well. The Bible tells us she plays a pivotal role in the time of the Judges. Feared the Lord. And she was just a warrior, this woman warrior, like this Amazon warrior, like, I'm Deborah and I'm. She's. She's. She's awesome. Judges, chapter four. Read Judges four. Ruth, for example, the whole book of Ruth, powerful book about her and her life story. And she's a Gentile and she follows after the God of Israel, the true God. And she, she has an Impact. And she's part of the lineage of David to Jesus. It's an amazing story. Jehoshapha, I put her in there. Second Chronicles 22. She has become one of my most favorite women in the Bible now because of this story. Taking guts to rescue her nephew, saying, I'm not allowing my mother or stepmother, whoever, how that relationship worked. I'm not allowing her to. To murder anymore. And she hides him. And I think God honored that. God would honor that. Esther, Mary, Lydia, Priscilla, the list goes on. These amazing women in the Bible again in their stories of how they changed lives, how they were used by the Lord. So props to you women and props to the women in the Bible who I cannot wait to see in heaven someday. These were. They were. They changed the world for the Lord. We pick it up in chapter 23. Now Joash is crowned King of Judah. And we see here in chapter 23. I'm going to have you highlight the actual. The first verse, Actually, it says, in the seventh year, Jehoiada strengthened himself. You can highlight that verse. And made a covenant with the captains of hundreds. And he makes a covenant with these men. I'm not going to read the names. I want you to skip down to verse three. Then all the assembly made a covenant with the king and the house of God. And he said to them, behold, the king's son shall reign. He's talking about Joash. And as the Lord has said of the sons of David, this is what you shall do. One third of you entering on the Sabbath of the priests. And the Levites shall be keeping watch over the doors. One third shall be at the king's house, one third at the gate of the foundation. All the people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord. But let no one come into the house of the Lord except the priests and those of the Levites who serve. They may go in, for they are holy, but all the people shall. Shall keep the watch of the Lord. And the Levites shall surround the king on all sides, every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes into the house, let him be put to death. You're to be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out. So the Levites and all of Judah did according to what? To all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And each man took his men who were to be on duty on the Sabbath, with those who were going off duty on the Sabbath. For Jehoia the priest had not dismissed the divisions. And Jehoia the priest gave to the captains of hundreds, the spears and the large and small shields which had belonged to King David that were in the temple of God. Then he set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, with. From the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, along by the altar and by the temple, all around the king. And they brought out the king's son. This is Joash, put the crown on him, gave him the testimony. That's the law, okay? The word of God, the Torah, at that time, and made him king. Then Jehoia and his sons anointed him and said, long live the king. So what is happening in summary of chapter 23? Basically, he is preparing and getting ready to present and crown King Joash and for all the people to see. But he's basically saying, we are going to tighten up our army and our security and we're going to make sure that no one comes in, and we're going to be ready for Athelia if she comes out at us. He's basically preparing everybody for maybe a battle or maybe for a coup or someone yells treason and there's a battle there. He's basically preparing everyone saying, hey, we gotta be ready. We're about to crown him king. I take. I can't take it any longer. It's been seven years. He's the rightful heir to the throne, and we're gonna do everything we can to crown him king, but to make sure that everybody's safe, okay? That's basically what's happening here. And Jehoiada again. Jehoiada and his sons anointed Joash and yell and proclaimed, long live the king. Now, let's pick it up in chapter 23, verse 12. Now, when Athalia had heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, this is in Jerusalem. She came to the people in the temple of the Lord. Okay? She hears all the shouting and rejoicing. She's like, what is going on? When she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance. And the leaders and the trumpeters were by the king. All the people the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Also the singers with musical instruments and those who led praise. So Athalia tore her clothes and said, treason. Treason. Side note. One of my favorite movies growing up. Still one of my favorite movies growing up. I play. I like images of the Bible, of people from movies. One of my favorite movies growing up was the Emperor's New Groove. My kids love it. Now, if you haven't seen the Emperor's New groove. You need to watch it. It's a classic. And Athelia reminds me of Yzma right here. So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, go watch it. You should. It's a good movie. This is Isma, and she's just ugly, irritating, and needs. Needs to go. She tore her clothes and she yells treason. Treason. Okay. And Jehoia, the priest, he's like, here we go. Let's. Let's go. Let's take action. Brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army and said to them, take her outside under guard and slay with the sword whoever follows her. For the priest had said, I do not want you to kill her in the house of the Lord. So they seized her. She went by the way of the entrance of the horse gate into the king's house, and they killed her there. There goes bad Athelia. Evil, wicked, evil, wicked queen who should not have ever been on the throne of David to begin with. And she got what she was due. She was evil, wicked, never repented, murdered her own grand grandkids. So Jeho is like, take her. She needs to go. All right. And I. I love what I. I had you guys highlight verse one of chapter 23, because as part of our. Our points that we try to do here, principles in these chapters, I. It just kind of stood out to me. In chapter 23, Jehoia takes action. Now, here's the thing. The. The priests were actually in charge of, in a way of making sure the temple was. Was holy, was pure for doing the right thing, for making sure that the king that's supposed to be there is. Is good. You had corrupt priests as well, but this, this priest was a good godly priest, and he had every right to do what he did by taking away who was not supposed to be there, the queen, and presenting the true king on the line of David, which is Joash. So, but what he did, he. That's why he prepares everybody. He's like, I want everyone to be ready, because I don't know if we're going to go into battle or anything or if there's going to be a riot, but we need to be ready. We need to have weapons ready, and we need to take take action. But the first point I want. I want us to look at in principles of chapter 23 is make it personal. I must do what is right, even if it costs me. He had to do what was right. And I love actually what the NLT says. The NLT says he summoned up his courage. And he acted. He couldn't take it any longer. They had been hiding Joash for six years. And he says, it's time now, and now it's God's timing. But they keep him hidden. And he says in verse one of chapter 23, new King James says he strengthened himself. He says, I'm going to do what is right, even if it cost me my life. He had no clue I could have. He could have been killed for this. But yet he took action. And he says, I'm going to do this. And the Lord was with him. And I have two verses up there on the screen. I want you guys to write these down. 2nd Timothy 1:7 and 1 Peter 3:14. I'm going to read to you. 2nd Timothy 1:7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Great verse. If you don't have that verse down, you need to. God has not given us a spirit of fear. He gave Jehoiada a spirit of power, of love and a sound mind, saying, I'm going to do what is right, even if it cost me my life, I'm going to do it. I love what first Peter 3:14 says, but even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you. God will reward you and me for doing what is right. And we may suffer, we may be persecuted. That might happen. Peter goes on to say, so don't worry or be afraid of their threats. You think he was worried about the queen? I'm sure he was. That's why they hid him for six years. Joash. But then he said, you know what? I'm going to strengthen myself. I'm going to summon up my courage. I'm going to act, and it's time to crown the king. She's wicked. She's evil. We need to do away with this. But I love. Before I get to the second point, I love how this, this next section of scripture just. It's. It's so rich and. And so applicable for us. For today. They seize Athelia, they kill her outside the temple. She's gone. It was just. It was righteous. And God. God basically was like, but there needs to. There needs to be more done in, in the temple. Look at verse 16. Highlight this verse as well. Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and the people and the king, that they should be the Lord's people. I love that verse. Now, not only was that a proclamation of about a hundred years of not honoring the Lord's Word. Okay, basically this was a statement saying we're gonna rededicate our nation to the Lord. That's what's happening here. He says, I'm making a covenant between myself, the king and all the people and that we are the Lord's and we're rededicating our nation back to him. And we're going to go back to God's law. We're going to go back to Deuteronomy, and we're going to. We're going to go back into presenting the Lord to the people and serving him wholeheartedly. I mean, Jehoia is one of my favorite characters in the Bible. Now this man that is just on fire for the Lord and just is. He knows what to do, and he says, I'm gonna do this. But I love what verse 17 says. Not only does he make a covenant, he doesn't just say it, look what happens. Verse 17. And all the people went to the temple of Baal. Okay? There was a temple. There was an altar of BAAL that was put there next to the temple of the Lord. That's wicked. That's idolatry. So all the people went down to the temple of baal, they tore it down, they broke in pieces its altars and images, which was very profane images, and killed Matan, the priest of baal, before the altars. And Jehoiada appointed the oversight of the house of Lord to the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had assigned in the house of the Lord to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, as it is written the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as it was established by David. Look at what verse 19 says. And he set the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord so that. That no one who is in any way unclean should enter. He's taken action, and I can't help but notice. So for number two in these principles, I want you to write down number two. Recommitment to the Lord is good, and it requires action. Not only is this rededicating their nation to the Lord, but we also have to have a rededication or recommitment in our own lives. There's a real thing called I want to rededicate my life to Christ. That doesn't mean you're getting resaved, you're already saved. But you've been wandering or drifting from the Lord. And this is very typical of summer youth camps, mission trips. You know, I've been a part of this for a long Time I rededicated my life. I remember when I was in eighth grade. But doing youth ministry and going on mission trips for a long time, you do have this sense of, we gotta rededicate our lives back to the Lord. And if you need to rededicate, this is not. You're not getting saved all over again. You're just recommitting and rededicating your life to the Lord because you've been drifting. And that's a real thing. Hebrews chapter two talks about that we have the tendency to drift, and we have to stop that. We have to be aware of it. So I love this section of Scripture where it just. It reminds me that recommitment to the Lord, it's good. It's a good thing, but it requires action. You have to do something about it. And I will tell people young and old, you can't just tell me, yeah, I'm gonna rededicate my life to the Lord. I'm gonna serve him. That's great, but your lips mean nothing if I don't see it, and if I don't see fruit or action. And it's challenging for me, too. I gotta be on my guard to not just say the right thing. I've gotta do the right thing. And not just in public, but in private. Right? We've gotta be people of integrity and character who are the same people in public as we are private with the Lord. And we've got too many Christians, I think, that are all about the public scene, but their private life is. Is not where it should be. My private life and my public life need to be the same and consistent. But there might be times I have to rededicate my life to the Lord. I got to get back on track with him because I've been drifting and I can sense it. I can feel it. Or maybe people have noticed something in me. And I love the verses of Revelation 2, 4 through 5. It's. It's about when. When Christ calls out the church in Ephesus and he says, I hold this against you. You've forgotten the love that you had at first. You have forsaken or have left your first love, which is Jesus. But what does Jesus say? He says, consider how far you have fallen. So repent and do the things you did at first. The things that we did at first, when we loved Christ and following after him were good, godly things. So some of us slip and fall away, not in the sense of salvation, but we just start to drift and we realize, wow, I've gone Far. And I need to recalibrate my mind and rededicate my life back to the Lord. Lord, I repent of any sin that I've committed. And I want to do the things that I first did when I first found you. That's what repentance really means. It doesn't mean just feeling guilty. Anybody can feel guilty. Repentance is true guilt, meaning I'm taking action, I'm turning around and going the opposite way. That's repentance. That's repentance. And we're lacking repentance in our culture and our church. Again, true repentance. Man, I would love another John the Baptist to come up on the world scene. Like, John the Baptist was just a man's man that preached the gospel, that preached repentance, and he was killed for it. But I want people like that. And I don't know, maybe I'm supposed to be that person. I don't know. I was like, well, I don't know. I just have this fire in my heart where I'm like, I want true repentance of people everywhere, where it means I'm done living the way I'm living. And I'm not just gonna say it, I'm gonna do it. I'm going the other way. I'm not going this way anymore. I'm going this way and I'm not looking back. So Jehoiada had this recommitment to and saying, we're going to make a covenant and say that we're the Lord's people. And I don't care who follows us, I don't care who, what people say about it. We're doing it. We're going to be a nation after the Lord. That's what the psalmist says, right? Bless this nation whose God is the Lord. And people are going to rejoice whether they know the Lord or not. When, when we are blessing the Lord, he's going to bless us right back. When we dismiss the Lord and take him out, he doesn't have to bless us. But recommitment is a real thing. And I encourage all of us. If you have been sensing a drift and you've been slowly slipping away, there's forgiveness, there's grace. You can come right back. But there needs to be then commitment. Saying, I'm never going back there. I'm gonna try my best now, each and every day, I'm gonna try my best. Little by little, step by step. Jesus just wants to hold our hand, walk with us, saying, it's okay. I Know what? You did that, that time. You're not going to do that again. You're walking with me now. There might be something else that comes up. Well, we're going to work on that as well, and we're going to keep going. That's how the Lord works. That's grace. But we have to take action, be committed to him. Let's take. Let's pick it up in chapter 24. Chapter 24. I love Jehoia. I wish we could talk more about him, but we have to talk about Joash. And Joash, sadly, is not a Jehoiada. He. He starts well, but does not end well. And so with chapter 24, let's pick it up in verse one. It says here, Joash was seven years old when he became king. Wait, let me say that. Wait, hold on. Seven? Yeah, seven. Joash was seven. Seven years old when he became king. Just pause that right there. I don't know about you. I don't. I don't know why I want any 7 year old reigning as king or queen. But here he is. He is seven years old. Okay? Now most scholars agree that Jehoia was probably the one helping him rule and reign. But he's seven years old. There you go. And he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother name was Zabaya of Beersheba. Now, verse two, I want you to highlight this verse as well. Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord. Okay, great. But look what it says. Notice it. All the days of Jehoiada, the priest. Oh, okay, that's alluding to something. He was not right in the sight of the Lord. All his days, only the days of Jehoiada. So that right there, that should be something to take note of, that. Okay, this is. That's not. That's not good. Verse 3. And Jehoia took two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters. Two wives was never part of God's plan. But here, here's what's going on. All right, Verse four. Now, it happened after this that Joash set his heart on repairing the house of the Lord. Okay, before I keep moving on, I want to summarize Joash's reign summarizes in three ways. And I put it in all in the letter R, so it's easy to remember. So I want you to highlight or take, take, write this down. The reign of King Joash before I keep moving on. There's three phases of his reign. There's reform. That's in chapter 23, verse 16. We already read that. There was this covenant that Jehoia declares and he says, we're going to follow the Lord and we're going to be his people. There's reform in the land. There's rededication, there's revival. And they take action. They destroy all the BAAL and Asherah poles. They get rid of the priests that were of baal. There's reform. Number two, there's repair. We're going to read about this just for a little bit. He repairs the temple. Why did it need repairing? Because they had just smashed all these altars and idols of BAAL and Asherah. And plus it was just unclean, it was unholy because of all the idolatry and wickedness in God's temple. So he's going to make a plan to, you know, capture some money and some funds. He's going to do a little gofundme, if you will, and they're going to repair the temple. So that's a good thing. But then sadly, number three, he can also be described as ruin. He just, he goes down a very, very slippery slope and his life is just. His legacy is ruined. Sad to say that, but there, there was really no recovery. There was no repentance, nothing that was recorded for us. But the first two things are great. The last thing was, was not so great. So if you read it with me real quick, verse five, Joash, he gathers the priests and the Levites and said to them, go out to the cities of Judah, gather from all money from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year, and see that you do it quickly. Side note, if you were taking notes, you can write this down the margin of your Bibles. Joash is probably around 30 years old right now, so there's a lot of time that has passed. He's about 30, he's not 7. Making this decree. All right, I want you to go out at all the cities of Judah, gather all the. Buddy, no way is a seven year old saying that. He's. He's roughly 30 when you do the math. Okay, so verse. I don't know why I did that voice anyway, verse 30. However, the Levites did not do it quickly. So the king called Jehoiada, the chief priest and said to him, why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the collection according to the commandment of Moses, the servant of the Lord and the assembly of Israel? For the tabernacle of Witness says, for the sons of Athalia, that wicked woman had broken into the house of God and also had presented all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord to the Baals. There's not really a clear explanation of why there was such a delay. I think when, when Joash made this decree, hey, we need to get money and, and, and work on repairing the temple, there was a delay with the priest. So he calls Jehoiada, his mentor, and he says, hey, why. Why is there this delay? I'm. I'm. I'm saying I want this, this. I'm giving you this decree. I want to repair the temple, and this is how I feel like we should do it. When you read 2nd Kings 12, there's a little bit more detail to that. Kings and Chronicles go hand in hand. They're complementary. So you got to read both to get more insight and details. Second Kings chapter 12 gives us a little bit more details. They basically, Jehoiada gets this big, in a way, treasure chest, and he has it set outside the temple. And it's for all the people to give any money that they feel they need to give to the temple of the Lord for the refurbishing and repairing of the temple. And all the money, Second Kings tells us this went to the craftsmen and masons and stoneworkers for their supply to go buy, you know, tools and resources to refurbish the temple. That's solely what it was for. All the money went to the workers to hire them so that they could pay for the stuff that they need to finish the temple. And then Second Kings tells us, anything that was left over was just bought for articles of the temple. So everything was for the temple. And Joash is saying, look, I want to rebuild it. I want to do this right thing. And he, he does that. And Jehoia says, okay, this is how we're going to do it. And when you read Second Kings, chapter 12, you get a little bit more insight. So verse 8, it does tell us this, that at the king's command, they made a chest, like this big treasure chest, if you will, set it outside at the gate of the house of the Lord. And they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the Lord the collection that Moses, the servant of God had imposed on Israel in the wilderness. Then all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought their contributions, put them into the chest until all was given. So it was at that time when the chest was brought to the king's official by the hand of the Levites, when they saw that there was much money that the king, scribe and the high priest officials came and emptied the chest and took it and returned to its place. Thus they did this day by day and gathered money in abundance. And again, 2nd Kings 12 tells us that they used it to pay the the workers to rebuild the temple. Verse 12, the king and Jehoiada. This is Joash. And Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of the Lord. It says they hired masons, carpenters to repair the house of the Lord, and also those who worked in iron and bronze to restore the house of the Lord. So the workmen labored and the work was completed by them. They restored the house of God to its original condition and reinforced it. This is great. And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king in Jehoiada. They made from it articles for the house of the Lord, articles for serving and offering spoons and vessels of gold and silver, and they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continually, all the days of Jehoia. So great repair, great rebuilding, the people rejoice, they're given money and it's used solely for paying the workers to rebuild this temple. It's great that what's happening. But sadly, here's where the ruin comes into play. And for the remaining time that we have, let's keep reading. But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days. And he died. He was 130 years old when he died. This guy, man, amazing, simply amazing. And they buried him in the city of David, among the kings. He was a priest, but they buried him among the kings because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and his house. A great legacy. That's a great statement. Now Jehoiada again, he's a mentor, he's a father figure to Joash. Joash again lost his dad. Never knew his dad. He had his mom. Doesn't really tell us much about her. But he grows up under his mentorship of his uncle and his aunt. Jehoia is his uncle. He's a father figure, though. He trains him up, he raises him up. He's a good godly man and I love that about him. And again, Joash does what is right as long as Jehoiada is living again. I'm such a movie buff. I love movies and one of my favorite movies of all time is Star Wars. And I can't help but think I've got in my mind, Jehoiada is like this Qui gon jinn. This Father figure who trains up little Anakin, who's around 7 to 10 years old. He becomes Darth Vader, by the way, if you don't know it. So anyway, I spoiled it. Should have known by now. It's been about 40 years. But anyway, you've got this father figure training up Anakin. And then you know Anakin when. When Qui Gon leaves, Anakin is really never the same. He. He goes through all this tormenting and he goes through anger. And I see this slightly in this picture. Joash does great as long as Jehoiada is there. And once Jehoia leaves and he dies and he goes to be with the Lord, it becomes the ruin for Joash. And there's one point that I'm going to make after we finish this, just one point that I felt like the Holy Spirit wanted me to hone in on from this passage. But let's keep reading. Then I'm going to come back to this verse 17. Now, after the death of Jehoiada, the leaders of Judah came and bowed to the king. These are not good leaders. And the king listened to them. Therefore they left the house of the Lord, the Lord God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols. Once again it's back. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem. NLT says divine wrath. This is from the Lord. Wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass. If you were here this past Sunday, Pastor Gary talked about the difference between sin and trespass. Trespass is you're willfully doing what is wrong. You know what you're doing, and they know what they're doing. Yet he sent prophets to them. This is the Lord I love. The Lord is so merciful and gracious. The Lord sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord. Every single time, the Lord is sending a prophet to bring them back and to preach the word and say, you're going away, you're going astray, you need to come back. Bring them back to the Lord. But they would not listen. Now, you cannot say and I cannot say, man. I would not have done what they did. I don't know. The human heart is deceitfully wicked and none of us can know it. We probably would have done the same thing. Who knows? But God in his mercy and grace sends prophets to warn them, warn them, warn them. They're not going to listen. Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah. Verse 20, the son of Jehoiada, the priest. And this is Joash's cousin, Zechariah is the son of Jehoiada, who's just gone to be with the Lord, he's now a priest, Zechariah, who stood above the people and said to them, thus says the Lord, why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord? So that you cannot prosper because you've forsaken the Lord. He has also forsaken you. So he was a priest and a prophet. He's saying all this, but look what it says, verse 21. So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king, they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the Lord. Wait a second. What did that just say? They conspired against him at the command of the king. Joash is killing his own cousin, the son of one of his all time mentors and a father figure in his life. Now look what the Bible says, verse 22. Thus, Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada, his father, had done to him. A father figure. And it says, but he killed his son. And as Zechariah dies, he says, the Lord look on it and repay. Basically, Zechariah is saying, the Lord's going to avenge me. We'll see Zechariah someday in heaven. I don't believe we'll see Joash, though. Unfortunately, the, the wickedness that, that just consumed Joash to where now he. This is how he repays Jehoiada, who was an awesome mentor, a godly figure in his life. He says, I'm gonna kill your son. I'm gonna kill my own cousin because I don't like what he's saying, because he's saying the truth, right? When you're deep into sin and idolatry, the truth will hurt so much that you want to kill the truth. Isn't that what Jesus said? He rebuked the Pharisees all the time and the religious leaders. You killed the prophets all the time. Your father's the devil. You, you killed prophet after prophet, and they didn't like that. That's why they wanted to kill Jesus too. See, truth hurts, but it only hurts when you're so steeped and consumed with sin that you like, you're like, I. I don't want this. I don't want to hear truth. Stop saying what I need to do in my life. Get out of my life. That's, that's what he's saying. Get out of my life. So I'm just going to kill you. This is the ruin. And again, Joash, if you continue to read in verses 23 and on, he's, he's assassinated. If you pick it up in verse 25, he's, he's injured in war, they go to battle. And I'm going to conclude with this. When they had withdrawn from him, for they had severely wounded him, his own servants conspired against him, conspired against Joash. And it says, because of the blood of the sons should be son of Jehoia the priest, and killed him on his bed. So he died. They two, two servants conspire against Joash and kill him in his bed because he was wounded. So he's not gonna, he's not gonna try to, you know, protect himself. He wounded, they kill him. And it says, so he died. And they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. How sad is that? It goes on to say the, the people that were named, those that assassinated. And it's, it's key to know those names because they're going to appear again in chapter 25. But it says in verse 27, now, concerning His sons and the many oracles about him, and the repairing of the house of God, and indeed they are written in the annals of the book of the Kings, then Amaziah, his son, Joash's son, reigned in his place. I want to just park it here real quick. And I want everyone, if you don't hear anything, hear this. I really, really feel like this is what the Holy Spirit wants us to hear. This last point that I could not escape after reading all of chapter 24, was this number one, the principle that I see in chapter 24, my knowledge of God cannot be second hand. I need to own my faith and the Lord in the Lord and make it a personal relationship. Joash did not own his own relationship with the Lord. Does that make sense? He banked it off Jehoia and that's not enough. We cannot bank our faith off pastors, off people of inspiration, of parents, of siblings, of friends, Christian authors. We cannot bank off them. We have to make our faith own and personal and say, it's my faith and I'm following the Lord no matter what. And I just could not escape this, that he banked his relationship off Jehoia's faith. And he did great things, but he didn't own his own faith. And sadly, a lot of Christians are not doing this. They are not owning their own faith. They're coming to church because their friends come, their peers come, their spouse comes, their co workers come, their neighbors Come. But I challenge you. If you're coming for that reason, I want you to just think of the perspective of, am I coming here because I want a relationship with Christ and make it my own, or am I coming here because it's just what everyone else is doing? Do not bank your faith off somebody else as this awesome Christian person, because once they're gone, are you going to be able to stand? I can't have a knowledge of the Lord be secondhand. I can't do it. I have to find out for myself. Now, this is my faith. Now, me personally, this was a little challenging for me as a pastor's kid. Just going to be real. I would bank my faith off of my dad, Pastor Gary. And I felt like I'm coming to church all the time. I'm hearing every sermon. There was this sense of dependency and leaning on my dad. And it was not until age 20 when I went off to Bible college by myself and realized, God, I'm gonna own my own faith. It is not my dad's faith I'm owning. It's my faith. It's my walk with the Lord. It's my relationship with Jesus. And I'm talking 20 years old. That's when it hit me. Now, I love my dad and I will always, you know, go to him for wisdom and discernment and laughs and jokes. But I realized the Lord met me, the Lord met me. I mean, I felt it. I felt it. And the Lord's like, tyler, you have been banking it off your dad or other friends. I need you to just. I need you to have it with me. And I just. I'm passionate about this because I plead with you, don't bank it off someone else. You own it. It's your faith. I think of just that famous line from Brad Pitt and Troy when he says, take it, it's yours. I just think of that. It's like, it's your faith. Take it, it's yours. Walk with the Lord wholeheartedly. Jehoiada, we will see in heaven. What a godly example. Joe Ash. Though, unfortunately, I don't think so. He did not secure his own faith in the Lord. Take to heart Romans, chapter 14, verse 12, and Galatians 6, 5. As I close with this, it says here in Romans 14, verse 12, yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. That is true. It's not going to be. Well, I followed what my pastor said. No, it's personal. Everyone's going to give an account to the Lord. A personal account and Galatians 6, 5. For we each are responsible for our own conduct. I'm responsible for my walk with the Lord. Now, we can share each other's burdens, we can come alongside each other, we can lift each other up and encourage one another, but I'm responsible for my own conduct and my personal account that the Lord's keeping with me. And I just can't emphasize enough, the Lord loves you so much, he died for you, but he says, I want a personal relationship with you and I want you to own it with me. And again, it's as if you're the only person on the planet. Jesus can do this. He's a wonderful, majestic, big God, can have personal relationships with billions of people at the same time and yet can make it feel as personal as if you were the only one. Own your faith, Take heart to it. Walk with the Lord wholeheartedly, listen to good Bible teachers podcasts, read God's word, but you have to make it your own faith. Amen. Amen. Father God, we thank you so much for this time that we've had in your house. Lord, the life and legacy of Joash started well, but did not end well. I pray, Lord, that we would take the example of him and not end the way he did. Lord, we would take the example of Jehoiada and his wife Jehosheba, that this godly couple that walked with you, that served you wholeheartedly, that did the right thing, even when it may have cost them. And so, God, I pray for each and every person in this room right now. And Holy Spirit, I feel like you're prompting me just to ask for a show of hands for those that I can pray for right now that have. Have not been owning their faith. They've just been walking and banking it off somebody else. I just, I just want you to slip up hand. I want to pray for you right now. I just want to pray for anyone that just says Tyler. I just, that's me. I need to own my own faith. I've been just kind of just on this limbo where I don't have a personal relationship with the Lord. And I. And I want to. And I can't bank it on off anybody else. It needs to be my own. I see some hands in the room. I want to just pray for you. I want to ask the Lord that the Holy Spirit would fill you right now, Lord Jesus, that they would take ownership of their faith and they would not have a secondhand knowledge, but they can know you in a personal way. Lord, you're the chief shepherd. You're the great I am. You're our author who's writing our story. And we can know you in a personal way and not share it with anyone in the sense where we're owning it. Because we're going to hold. We're going to have to hold account to you. So, Lord, help us to not be like a joash who is banking his faith and walk with you off somebody else. And when that person left, they went down a slippery slope. Help us, Lord, to remain true and steadfast in you. Because when people come and go, are we still going to stand firm? Are we going to hold fast to the truth? I pray, Lord, that we do. I thank you for this time that we've had together. Bless our fellowship and wherever we go, bring us back safely next time. In Jesus name. And everybody said amen.