Good morning everybody. Go ahead and grab your Bibles
and turn to 1st, 1st Kings 14, First Kings 14, and then also
put your finger at work. We're going to start in First
Kings, but also put a a bookmark in Second Chronicles 10.
We finally got past the introduction stuff.
I always I feel like introduction you get you got a
lot of information, but it doesn't feel like a lot of Bible
in them. But we are we we are starting
with Raya Boehm, King Raya Boehm, the the man that took
over the Kingdom after Solomon is his father and and what is
the most what is he noted for? What is he noted for Kingdom
splitting under his watch? Yes.
Splitting into two kingdoms. And what what Kingdom was he
king of Judah? Good.
And they are located in the South.
Good. All right, hey, wake up.
It's school time. It's not math at 9:40 in the
morning. It's it's Bible.
So that's a lot easier than math, but there in let's look at
verse 2021 of First Kings 14, verse 21, and Rehoboam, the son
of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 40 and one years
old when he began to reign and he reigned 17 years in
Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of the all
the tribes of Israel to put his name there.
And his mother's name was Nama. And Ammonitis.
And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked
him to jealousy with their sins, which they had committed above
all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high
places and images and Groves, on every high hill and under every
green tree. And there were also sodomites in
the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the
nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.
Not a good, I was going to say intro for your Kingdom of your
reign. But that's where we find Raya
Boehm. And you kind of think of the son
of the wisest man to ever live and the grandson of a man that
that God says is after God's own heart.
And so you think that of everybody that this, this man
will be ready to go. And, and he's the, the Bible
said it's, he doesn't take the, the throne until 41 years old.
So like pastor said, he's, he's old enough to be wise.
He's, he's old enough to understand what's going on and
not to make the same decisions that, you know, a 20 year old
would or, or a 16 year old would that would take the throne.
But we find in his life, in his reign, some, some things that
made the, the spiritual climate of Judah into departure and a
defeated Kingdom, which is sad to see when, when we think of
who he comes after. But we're, we're going to
examine his rule and his life to kind of see things that we can
apply to our own lives to see practical lessons of why just
because you have a good history doesn't mean anything about your
life. Let's pray and we'll get into
this lesson. Heavenly Father, I thank you so
much for this morning, for God for being able to be in your
house, to be able to open your word, to have your word, to be
able to open. And I got it.
I pray that you help us to to see the the stories and and
those that you've preserved for eternity for us to read as
examples and in samples, as your word says to, to monitor and to
change our lives to be not the same mistakes and not the same
errors as those that have gone before us, but to mimic those
that did did well and Lord that you did well and, and mimic your
life for us. Lord, I just pray that you be
with the lesson. I just pray that you help us to
be able to see exactly what we need to learn from this king
that you've chosen and you set apart and and you chose to show
us throughout eternity the history of his life.
Thank you for again for all that you do in Jesus name I pray
Amen. So like I said, the first thing
is family. The characteristic of Raya
Bohem's rule over Judah can be kind of traced back to what his
family was. You think of the wisest man that
Solomon that, that walked with God in the beginning and then
fell away. And, and it's interesting.
We last week we talked about all the rules that the instructions
that God gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel, to
what rules these kings should do.
And if you study Solomon, he broke every single one of them
throughout his entire reign. He broke every single one of
them. And the biggest one that I think
is the factor of what happened to King Solomon was he had so
many wives, first King 11/3 says.
And he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines.
And his wives turned away his heart.
The impact of those wives on that boy Raya Boehm was huge in
what his upbringing was. You had you had a a godly man
that knew who he should serve, knew how he should live, knew
how he should rule, and he had that as a as a father figure.
But what's interesting is 3 times in the Bible, God shows us
who is his mother was, which usually is very not they, they
might say her name one time, but that's it.
But three times God tells us his mother was Naima and Amitite
Ammonitis. The Ammonites were were were a
lineage of Lot's sin with his youngest daughter.
That's where the Ammonites came from.
And the fact that God points out, yes, his father was
Solomon, the wisest man, but his mother was an Amaditis who who
hated the children of Israel and all throughout the Bible fought
against Israel. His he had a wicked heritage
that with him as an Ammonite, his mother would have been
worshipping the idol Molech. And if you've had any kind of
study of different idols and different gods in that time,
Molech was the one that they used to sacrifice their children
on the altar. They, they would, they would
heat the, the idol up to where the hands were burning and
glowing and they would lay their child on there.
And that's the mother that you have.
You have a godly father who starts to slip and a mother that
that worships a God that requires sacrifice of their
children. Not only did he have both
options, but because of that heritage, we see the biggest
impact. I think of Ray Bones life, it
became very inconsistent. He had he had a father that
loved God and he had a mother that didn't.
And all throughout his reign, we see that inconsistency and it's
amazing how we think that, oh, you know, my, I grew up in
church or, or, or my, my, my mom was kept me in church.
You know, I, I was drugged to church as a kid.
Monday or Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night,
Saturday, I was drugged to church.
No ash, no questions. There wasn't a are we going to
church? But just because of that, just
because of your upbringing, just because of your background and
your your family that's behind you doesn't mean anything for
your own spiritual walk. You have to understand that it's
your spiritual walk. It's your kids walk with the
Lord. Yes, it's great to have them in
Sunday school. Yes, it's great to have them
memorizing scripture in in the King's class and and it's great
to have them doing devotions. But if this Bible, if the God of
Abraham doesn't become the God of your child, it doesn't matter
what you do. And we see that in Raya Bones
life. We also see, just like pastor
was talking about with with Graham, who you are around is
very important, who you associate.
And we'll see that here. Go ahead and turn over to second
Chronicles 10 and we'll see the first thing that we see of of
what Raya Boehm starts with it. You're there in verse 13 of
chapter 10, his foolishness. Now he's 31 years old and it's
41 and it's it's amazing that the 41 year old does this.
Verse 13, verse 12. So Jeroboam and all the people
came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king bade saying come
again to me on the 3rd day. And the king answered them
roughly. And King Raya Boehm's forsook
the counsel of the old men. He made a foolish error,
something that you would assume a 41 year old would understand
the whys and those that were there before you would have
wisdom over what should be done. And he chooses instead of
listening to the elders in the nation to, to change not
protocol. What's the word I'm looking for?
Say again, not, not tradition, the president policies, thank
you policies that are going on in the country.
He chooses to change the policy, but to make them worse to to
listen to the younger men. And he goes with the foolish
decision. So we have a a foolish decision.
Then look at Chapter 11, verse 17.
So they strengthened the Kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam, the
son of Solomon strong three years.
For three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon.
We just had a major foolishness decision by by King Solomon.
But then just the chapter later, he, he's guiding his Kingdom in
the way of Christ in, in God's path.
He, he has faithfulness and decides to walk in the way of
David and Solomon. So we, we, we bounce from
foolishness to faithfulness. All right, we, we, we've
corrected the ship. We've got we, we're back on the
straight and narrow. Let's keep going.
But it doesn't last long. Verse chapter 12 verse one and
it came to pass when Rehoboam had established the Kingdom and
has strengthened himself. He forsook the law of the Lord
and all Israel with him. He he was faithful until it
became pride until it became I'm good.
I'm I'm strengthened, I'm ready to go.
I, I can do this on my own now, Lord.
And he totally rebels against the law of Moses, against God.
But then we Fast forward and we get to verse 5 of chapter 12.
Then came Shema, Shema the prophet to Rehoboam and to the
Princess of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem
because of Sheeshank, and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord,
Ye have forsaken me, and therefore I have let also left
you in the hand of Sheeshak. Whereupon the Princess of Israel
and the king humbled himself themselves.
And they said, The Lord is righteous.
And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of
the Lord came to Sheesh, she my wow Shamaya saying, They have
humbled themselves, therefore will I not destroy them, but I
will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall
not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Sheeshak.
He has a spirit of repentance. And so constantly through his
reign, he goes according to what God wants, and then he rebels.
And then he goes back to according to God once and he
rebels. And we see that over and over in
his reign. And, and one of the things that
we see is it talks about Sheeshak, he Raya Boehm takes,
takes the throne at 41. And by 46, five years later,
it's gotten so bad that, that the Lord says, I'm going to
bring the, the she shack is from Egypt into Jerusalem and ransack
everything. And, and, and the result of what
happened was they invaded Jerusalem.
They took the treasures which belonged in the House of God in
to the nations of Israel. And that's two big things that
had never really happened since Saul.
Not only did did we see do we see here that an enemy has came
not just a skirmish skirmish, but invaded the country, which
hadn't happened since Saul. And you, you almost know that's
because the hand of God was holding back things, holding
back enemies, trying to bless the nation for their
faithfulness for their for their walk with him.
But Raya Boehm changes their direction and God says, because
you forsook me, I'm going to let an enemy come in.
And not only did he come in, but he made it all the way to
Jerusalem. It wasn't like he just knocked
on the door and took the first city.
He took city after city and moved all the way to Jerusalem
the the the capital of Judah and pulled blessings that God wanted
to have for that nation away from them because of their sin,
because of their their forsaking God and following him.
And as a result, Judah not only experienced defeat, they lost
the blessing of God. And it's not until the verse we
talk about a nation that turns away from God and and the verse
is on the tip of my tongue. If my people, which are called
by my name, shall what you just talked about.
It humbled themselves. It took the king to humble
himself and the Princess to humble themselves to repent and
for God to say, you know, I, I, you know, sometimes you always
wonder, did did, did he just do it?
Because it was, oh, no, they're right here.
Please, please. I don't want to.
I don't think God would have withheld his judgement from Raya
Boehm if Raya Boehm wasn't sincere and true in his
humbleness. And that's why I say his
inconsistency is the biggest fall of his entire reign.
He, he's, he's totally for God and walking with God and trying
to keep his nation towards God. And I believe sincerely and then
rebels sincerely and God has to bring judgment.
And then he sees his foolishness and, and changes again and walks
humbly before God. And then we see and, and
literally it's, it's verse one to verse 5.
I mean, it's not even many years later.
It's it's literally in the same chapter.
The inconsistency of Rehoboam. And that's that's his biggest
what? That's that's the title of our
the inconsistent king of all of them.
He was as God says, you're not hot or you're not cold, you're
lukewarm and I spew you out of my mouth because I don't, I
don't want that. And Raya Boehm is just
constantly going back and forth and we have to understand and
what why is that important for us?
What why is Raya Boehm kept in history for all eternity in this
book? Because God wants us to see a
man that is unstable in no, a man.
Oh wow, a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
This book talks about itself. This this book is able to tell
you by the way, here's here's a king and look at what his life
did. Look at how he reigned.
Look at how he followed me and didn't follow me and followed me
and didn't follow me and look at the the consequence that
happened because of that, because of you veering away from
me. Split the 12 tribes because of
you leading your two tribes with God in the ways of David and
Solomon that the Bible says God strengthened that nation, built
it up, made it a nation to where the other nations wanted it.
Sheshak wouldn't have gone well. Look at Jerusalem, that looks
written. They don't have anything.
No, obviously they had stuff that Sheshak wanted because God
had built them up, because they walked with God.
But as soon as Rehoboam moves away from that pride again gets
involved. I'm fine.
I can do this on my own. Look at me.
I'm a I'm a king of a huge nation.
We we'll we'll gloss over. I lost 10 of the tribes, but I'm
a I'm a very strong nation. God says again, I gave you rules
and instructions of how to follow how to be the king of
Israel. And one of them is not take many
whys which. Unfortunately, Raya Bone did not
learn from his father. He himself takes many wives as
well, but he gets that pride of I can support myself.
I have safety in myself. I'm strong.
I'm strong as a nation and God says you're only as strong as I
allow you to be and your strength I'll take away like
that and he does and then we see his failure.
You're there verse second Chronicles 12.
Look at verse 14. So we we have he's foolish, goes
with the younger counsel. Then he flips and has the nation
walk within the ways of Solomon and David.
And then he he jumps and and rebels again.
And then Sheshak comes and he humbles himself and in verse 5
and he gets back on the right ground with God.
And then we see verse 14, literally the same chapter.
And he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek
the Lord. As as much as we can say about
his decision making as a king. The ultimate issue that with
Raya Bohm was not his mind, it was his heart.
He did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.
We, we, we, we know in Proverbs 23, it's talks about a man that
as he thinketh in his heart, so he so is he.
We have to be careful as Christians.
If we don't prepare our hearts to walk with God, you'll turn
every which way The Bible talks about in in the last days that
that you're not you're you're their faith is so shallow that
they're tossed here and there to every wind of doctrine.
We as Christians have to make sure that our heart is prepared.
Just like if, if you have rules in your home as a, as a, as a
kid growing up, you have rules of, you know, I, I won't do this
until marriage. I, I'm going to have all these
rules in place. Great to have rules and, and to
have that set up in your in, in your life that your parents put
in place. And I'm not going to be with
the, the person of the opposite sex alone because I don't want
temptation. Great.
But are you prepared if you get to a spot where, oops, we're,
we're too far. Have you prepared your heart to
be with the Lord, to to walk and seek the Lord to where you get
to a spot? You have all the rules that say
I'm not going to do this. But then you find yourself in
that situation. Name whatever situation you have
what what you don't plan for, you'll never be able to
overcome. And Ray Obama, Raya Boehm did
not prepare his heart. And it's amazing that we have
the the greatest example of one that did prepare his heart is
his grandfather. David was like I said in First
Samuel 3/13/14, the Bible says that God calls David a man after
his own heart. You have that type of a
grandfather, one that walks and seeks after God, yes.
Is he a man in human and sins and falls?
Yes, not not denying his in that he's infallible or that he's
perfect or never makes a mistake.
David made a lot of mistakes, but he had a heart that was
prepared to seek after the Lord and he was quick to get on his
knees when that happened. But somewhere in two generations
that that teaching your child to seek the Lord with all your
heart to understand that it a head knowledge doesn't do
anything for you if it's not here.
And apparently it didn't go down.
It didn't get passed on to Solomon.
It didn't get passed on to Rehoboam.
And then we have someone after Rehoboam to look at Manasseh,
King Hezekiah, probably the best king Israel had or Judah had.
Most followed after Christ, after God in in his laws, his
son Manasseh. Hezekiah was the best following
after God. Manasseh could be said he's the
worst following totally against God.
I believe God gives that to us just to remind us don't just
expect your kids to follow after me.
Don't expect just because your parents were were Christians and
and and raised right and and did what was right that you get it.
I I think of Trey, not not pick on you, but good morning, Trey
when when it was joining the church.
My parents are are members. Well, that's not big.
That doesn't make you a member once you get old enough.
Oh, I need to get that changed the same way with is with our
walk with the Lord. Just because your parents walk
with the Lord doesn't automatically mean the kids walk
with the Lord. And we have to be careful as
parents to raise our children to see that God's the same God in
the Bible as he is today, that he's real, that he's not just
something that, Oh yeah, we, we read about Moses where we're at
in our family devotions, where they just crossed the Red Sea
and, and they're there last night.
He, he struck the rock for water.
And, and, and you, you see these wow water coming out of a rock
and, and all these amazing things that God did for the
children of Israel. If it stops there, their
relationship with God will stop there.
It'll be stories. It'll be that's cool.
That's that's what the God of the Bible.
Great. But if if that child never
understands that God of the Bible is the same God today and
is the same God for those children of his, he's the same
God for us. He can strike a rock and give us
water when when we're in the depths of of despair, when we're
when we're at the bottom as the the rock bottom, he can bring
water to it, but we have to prepare our hearts to seek the
Lord. James 18, I said it already, a
double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
I think as American Christians, we have the easy, easiest
ability to be one of these. It's so easy to get here on
Sunday, dress up, put a suit on. Done.
Now I look the part. I can smile and say I'm I'm
doing great. How are you doing, guy?
Amen. I can say that in the sermon I
can sing to the top of my lungs. But when I go home, I grabbed my
phone and start looking at things I shouldn't.
When I go home, I start talking around the guys at work like I
shouldn't as a Christian. And then I woke Wednesday night.
Got to, got to do my part, got to act like what I should.
And everybody around us thinks we're all fine and dandy.
Oh, look at his parents. His parents were a pastor.
His parents, his parents, his father was a pastor.
He, he, he must be fine. I think that the pastor's kids
get the worst end of everything because they automatically get
put on a pedestal saying that your father's the pastor, so you
must be fine. And they're held to a higher
standard because they all you shouldn't do that.
And I feel like a lot of times they get to a point where they,
they are the most likely to leave as they grow up, as your
kids grow up in church, make sure they understand and realize
and make sure their heart is seeking after God themselves.
We have to understand that being unstable is not useful.
If you ask somebody, hey, pray for me.
OK, good. I, I, I'll pray for you.
Do do, as sad as it might be, we probably do expect if I asked 10
people to pray for me, one probably will actually do it.
That shouldn't be in a church that shouldn't be.
As a Christian, we need to have stability in our homes, in our
churches for for our sake, but for our kids sake as well.
And the inconsistency that we see in Raya Bohm's life is set
there as an example to us to say just because they grow up in a
great home doesn't mean they're going to turn out right.
It's not going to happen by accident.
Just like when we started this whole series.
What Why did the children of Israel ask for a king?
Because they wanted to be like other nations and because of the
sons of Samuel, your sons aren't walking in your in the in the
right way. Oh Samuel's kids Samuel was a we
got first and second. I mean he's should be right on
spot on. How did you lose your children?
How how were your children not understanding the since
seriousness of what it is to walk with God because it was
never given to them Dad. Yep, dad's going off to tell the
king or tell the tell the judge or to to do this or to he heard
this from the Lord. And but if it never becomes
personal to that kid, they'll grow up and be inconsistent
because they know what's right. But this world has such a draw
and they haven't purposed in their heart to follow and seek
after God fully because, you know, OK, I'm on a diet, I'm
done. I'm on a diet.
I could cheat. And after I cheat, man, your
sweat starts going like I feel so fat now.
I just, I had a piece of cake. And then in the morning you get
on the skin and you're like, oh, it didn't do anything.
Well, maybe I can cheat again. And you cheat again and you get
on the scare and you're like at a .2.
That's OK, I can get rid of that.
I just won't eat breakfast. There we go.
I'm back down. And as funny as that is, we play
with that with sin. I know I shouldn't do this and I
do it. Oh, I didn't get caught.
I don't have any consequence to that.
I know I should. I shouldn't do that.
And I get back doing right and well.
I mean, last time it didn't do anything.
Last time I didn't gain any weight.
I'll just put my toe in it, get back over here, and it ruins
their life. They're ineffective for God
because that vessel is not fit for the use.
That's why we have these kings to be an example to us to go
look at. Raya Bone had the wisest man
alive, had the grandfather of of a man that was after God's own
heart. And yet he had a mother that
followed after idols. And obviously the influence of
his mother was great because God wanted everybody to know, hey,
this was his mom. Be careful who you allow your
kids to be around. Be careful who you allow
yourself to be around because it's going to make you
inconsistent an inconsistent person.
I don't want anything to deal with and if you and I don't want
to deal with an inconsistent person, you think God's going to
use them. Let's pray Heavenly Father, I, I
thank you again for your word for preserving it for us for all
eternity and the, the examples and the, the lives that they're,
they're not stories. They're they're actual lives of
men and women that lived this way and made the choices that
they did good or bad. God for us to, to have an
example and to see if we don't prepare our hearts to seek after
you every single day, Satan's going to get an inroad.
Satan's going to be able to not just attack us, but able to get
to the the Capitol building and steal blessings out of our lives
because we allowed a little crack in the wall that we
thought it wasn't that big of a deal.
God, I pray that we we stopped playing Christian that we we
understand the seriousness of of especially being in the days
that we live. There's enough wishy washy
churches and enough wishy washy Christian so-called God.
I pray that we we set.