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Sin ultimately has its expression and then At some point, it works its way out, and it's exposed for what it is, yes? And you see that in people's lives. You might have children that, you know, or a person might be stealing something, stealing something, stealing, and then they get caught, and it comes out, yes? So there is nothing hidden that will not be manifested

Transcript

Before we start today, please turn in your Bibles to Second Chronicles. Second Chronicles in the Old Testament, And I'll just pause and pray for us and pray for our study today.

Father God, I thank you so much for all that you do for us, Lord God. Jesus,
thank you for your sacrifice on the cross. Lord, your selflessness, where you put
yourself out there and took the shame and the pain and the separation from heaven so that we wouldn't have to face those things. Jesus, thank you so much for all that you do for us every day, Holy Spirit. Sir, thank you for leading us and
guiding us into the truth of God's Word, and we thank you for these words,
this revelation knowledge and this study today. And Lord, we ask for actionable
intelligence. Show us something in your Word, Lord, that we can own, that we can embrace, we can apply to our lives to become more like Jesus and obey,
because, Lord, obedience, as you so rightly have taught us, so wonderfully have
taught us, obedience is much better than sacrifice. Amen.

Now, 2 Chronicles 16, I've been intrigued by these verses for many years,
and you might have heard me say previously, that I think the period from 2020
through to 2040 is going to be one of the most challenging periods for the Western
world in particular. As we navigate through many, many geopolitical and religious and cultural changes, the world as we know it is evolving enormously rapidly, phenomenally quickly.

It's just, I mean, it's just mind snapping what's going on with artificial intelligence, with, you know, the people that are promoting climate change, the people that are against climate change. You know, there's the left, there's the right, all of these different factions and politics, and all of it is
coming together and has been for some.

There's the fiscal problems, there are all the economic problems, trillions and
trillions and trillions of dollars worth of debts, right throughout, money printing,
all sorts of things that have been going on. And I think it's coming to a head
and we're in for some particularly trying times as everything works its way out.

Sin ultimately has its expression and then At some point, it works its way out, and it's exposed for what it is, yes? And you see that in people's lives. You might have children that, you know, or a person might be stealing something, stealing something, stealing, and then they get caught, and it comes out, yes? So there is nothing hidden that will not be manifested.

Neither is anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad," said
Jesus, yes, in the Gospel of Mark. Now, in 2 Corinthians,
chapter 16, well, I'd like to read down into it from chapter 15,
and there's a couple of very valuable points in here. Verse 17, "But the high
places were not taken out of Israel, nevertheless the heart King Asa was blameless
all his days. King Asa, alright, did some really quite remarkable things and he
obviously loved God, respected God. Now verse 18 in 2 Chronicles 15,
"And he brought into the house of God the things that his father Abijah had
dedicated, and those he himself had dedicated, silver silver and golden vessels,
and there was no more war until the 35th year of the reign of Asa,
this man whose heart was blameless before God. Wow, there's the big sentences in
there. He was blameless, the heart of Asa was blameless all his days.
Now we read down into chapter 16, but going down to verse 6,
"Then King Asa took all of Judah, and they kept
because you relied on the King of Syria and not on the Lord your God.
You relied on the King of Syria and not on the Lord your God.
The army of the King of Syria has escaped you. See, there were repercussions here
for a situation that was unfolding. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge
host with very many chariots and horsemen, yet because you relied then on the Lord,
he gave them into your hand. See what's happening here. The King Arthur had stopped,
for whatever reason, he'd stopped relying on the Lord.
Now, do we do that? Is the Western world going through a lot of that.
As it goes through its cultural changes, its geopolitical changes,
there's wars, there's, you know, pandemics, there's all of these things, fiscal
problems, economic problems on a monumental scale, soaring prices,
inflation, there's many, many, many things going on. And Have we stopped relying on
the Lord as a culture, as a society, as a people, as a community,
as a family, as individuals? Yeah? Now, we look in verse 9 of 2 Chronicles chapter
16, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth,
to show himself strong, in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward him.
You have done foolishly in this, therefore from now on you shall have wars." Now
remember back in verse 19 of chapter 15, and there was no more war until the 35th
year of the reign of Asa. He was blameless before God, he dedicated things in the
temple, returned all of the holy vessels back to the temple,
back to the house of God, and this man had a blameless heart before God, but now
he stopped relying on God and suddenly there's problems for the eyes of the Lord
run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of those
whose hearts are blameless towards Him. Isn't that a big sentence? That's a really
big sentence. Now let's unpack that for a little bit. If the eyes of the Lord run
to and fro throughout the whole earth, well obviously God is watching.
Yes, God is always watching. Therefore the next obvious question is,
what does he see? What does he see in you? What does he see in me?
What is he looking for? Well, we see there in the second part of that,
his eyes go right through the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those
whose hearts are blameless. Okay, so there's specific things that he's looking for.
There's specific things that he's looking to do and to become involved with.
What's he looking for in you? What's he looking for in me? What's he looking for
in our communities? What's he looking for in our government, in our families,
in our churches, in our leaders, in our pastors, yeah?
In our presidents and prime ministers. What's he looking for? What is it that he
would like to see? What is it that he would prefer not to see? Yeah?
I think these are very, very valid questions because there's things that can open up
in this verse providing we meet the criteria. And this is really interesting here
for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself
strong on behalf of those whose hearts are blameless towards him.
So that tells me what I do, it's what I do that governs what God does next
relative to this context. He's looking around,
looking for people whose hearts are to ward him so he can show himself strong on
their behalf. So what I do is impacting what God does next.
This is really interesting. So is he seeing selfishness in the Western world or is
he seeing a deep, deep gratitude from those who have been given much and the
Western world has been given much. Now, I mean,
what do you think? Do you think that there's enormous gratitude pouring out to God
right across the entire Western world? Because we've had freedom of speech for many,
many, many generations, pretty much. You know, there's been media, television, radio.
I mean, I've been on radio now for nearly 20 years, praise the Lord, just only by
the grace of God. Now, all of the things, all of the wonderful benefits that the
Western world has had, are we pouring back to God?
Gratitude, thankfulness. Are we taking care of the poor and the orphan and the
homeless and the needy and those people that are disadvantaged, are we doing this on
mass? Or are they just pockets of it? Yeah? It's very evident that evil is loose
on the planet. That's for sure. Yeah? And it's, I think it's very evident that in
certain areas, the church, the born -again church of Jesus Christ,
we've dropped the ball, I think, because there are many things going on that should
not be happening on our watch. And I think we're in a really,
really delicate situation here, because I've heard people say lately,
"Well, where's God? Where's the power of God? Why hasn't God fixed this?" Well,
maybe he's waiting to see if he can find or is looking for people whose hearts are
blameless before Him so that He can fix their problems, so that He can deal with
the difficulties, the issues, the wars, all of the things, the bad outcomes that are
going on. Maybe He's waiting for us instead of us waiting for Him.
So what does all this look like? Well, okay, obviously the first point here is God
is always watching. Jesus is watching what's going on. The Holy Spirit is loosed on
the earth. He's our comforter. He's our instructor, our educator. He leads us and
guides us into the truth of God's Word. Is God's Word and learning God's Word the
biggest priority we have in our life? Because That's something that will keep us in
a situation of moving further and further and further into a blameless heart before
a holy God. These things are really important, I believe. The second thing that I
see in this, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth
to show himself, to show himself. Well,
he obviously has a global vision, yeah? He has a global vision.
I think it's Psalm 24, verse 1, "The earth is the Lord's, all the people in it,
the fullness thereof, all of it belongs to God." I think the King James says,
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." So all of the things, all of
the resources, all of the people, all of the things going on on the earth? I mean,
all of that, the earth, the entirety of the earth, is the Lord's. So he has a
global vision. Do we have a global mentality regarding our own input into the
kingdom? God's not hiding, obviously. He wants to get out into the marketplace. Jesus
did exactly that. He got out into the marketplace of the day -to day marketplace of
life and he connected with people. And that's what Jesus did. He got out into the
day -to -day marketplace of life and connected with people. We see the eyes of the
Lord running to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf
of those, in behalf of those, God's approach to global domination means He will work
in our marketplace in behalf of those. Well, if your heart is blameless before God
and you're walking down that pathway, you're doing your level best to obey that and
to honor that and to work with that being led and guided to the Holy Spirit, Jesus
said to obey, "Okay, if you love me keep my commandments to obey is better than
sacrifice, so you're somebody that's committed to the Lord, you're walking down that
pathway. So therefore, the Lord will work in your marketplace. So you plus your
marketplace, your area of influence, your work site,
your family, your connect group, you know, your friends down at the bowling club,
your friends, I mean, a friend of mine takes me to the gun range and, you know,
we shoot targets and things like that. It's great fun. Okay? So your friends down
at the gun range, perhaps, obviously, you know, I'm living in Tasmania. It's great.
So your friends in your sporting club, you plus your marketplace can be the birthing
place, the birthplace for magnificent kingdom achievement. You and your marketplace can
be the birthing place for magnificent kingdom achievement because God wants to show
himself strong on your behalf and Your behalf is where you are. So you and your
marketplace will be the birthplace of tremendous kingdom achievement if your heart and
your focus is blameless and completely his. This is really strong.
Now we see that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to
show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are blameless towards him.
So what does that tell me? Has our heart is blameless towards him? He requires our
total focus, our total commitment, our
It's an Australian saying, yeah? We just can't check it out halfway through. We've
got to be able to deal with our flesh. We've got to be able to deal with the
dictates of society and culture around us that try and break our focus when it
comes to spiritual things and obeying scripture. And this is really important Because
the world, I believe, the Western world in particular, is changing at a phenomenal
rate. And other aspects and other cultures, you know, no doubt are as well.
But I think the Western world, to whom much is given, much is required.
And the Western world has been given much. Have we respected it?
Have we been good stewards of it? Yeah? Have we done the things with the much that
we've been given? Have we done the things that the Lord God himself would have
wanted us to do? Are we still relying on God? And I think these questions are
really, really important to ask. We look down here, whose hearts are blameless toward
him. You have done foolishly in this. Wow. Is that where we're at?
I mean, the prophet Hanani is talking to King Asa and he's saying,
you've done foolishly in this, mate. You've dropped the ball here. This is not going
well for you. Now this is the consequences. You will have, from now on,
you shall have wars." Now, he had a period of peace.
God was blessing him. He was blameless before God. He was honoring God in the
temple with the vessels, the dedicated sacrificial vessels,
all of the things that were relative to worship and to honor of God.
Yes? And he's drop the ball and now problems are going to start to seep in.
Well the more problems that seep in, nearly four decades in ministry,
I think the more problems that come on in are because we're either missing Scripture
somewhere along the line or we are in the will of God And we need to rise above
the evil that's attacking us, yeah? So there needs to be an accurate discerning of
actually what is going on. And you read about that in First Chronicles,
Chapter 12. Let me just briefly turn over there. We're out of time for today, but
this has raised the topic. And so I'd like to just share this with you. I haven't
got time today to go into all of the detail of it. But in verse 32 of 1
Chronicles chapter 12, this whole chapter and this discourse is about David and the
problems he was having with Saul, and all of the people that came and rallied
around David, brilliant men, strategic warriors, you know, military strategists,
all these sorts of people that came to support David. And in verse 32, "And of
Issachar men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do.
Men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do." God
assembles people who have an understanding of the times to be able to lead others
into what they need to do. People that are assembled and can work with an
understanding of the times. Yes, it's all right to understand the times, but you've
got to be able to work with that and make the correct decisions from which the
actions can flow. And we rely on God to make up the difference because he wants to
show himself strong on our behalf as we deal with the matters at hand.
God uses these kinds of people who have an understanding of the times, those with
blameless hearts, and then he uses them to change the world around them.
Them plus their place plus God showing Himself strong and things change.
Friends, we're out of time for today, but please will you look at these verses in
2 Chronicles 16, read that through and in particular,
verse 9 and 1 Chronicles chapter 12 verses 32 and 33.
Make sure you go to church this week and always remember the wonderful words of the
Apostle Paul. He said you be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one
another as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Thanks for joining with us on
this podcast. We are dedicated to helping you become or you can possibly be in
Christ Jesus. Please do check out the resources at livingsuccess .org that's
livingsuccess .org. God bless.