Be Whole Hearted for God

The Lord is good Amen. So, Korina we bless you. And we wait for you to come back. It’s good to see all of you who are here today, and we’re going to preach together, Victor and I. And you’re all free to help us, alright? As I been praying and thinking a lot, maybe for 2 to 3 months, the Lord keeps bringing me back to the thought, that we cannot have a divided heart, and really live for Him, and really grow.
There’s even a Scripture about communion, where Jesus says, ‘Don’t come, if your heart’s divided’. And I have been thinking a lot about having a whole heart. Be whole hearted for God. And if you’re like I am, I think it’s going to be more and more difficult in the days ahead. And I think the enemy. And that’s not just satan, but all the fallen angels, they’re all out working against us, and I don’t want to help them, and I don’t want you to help them. But that means that we’ve got to do our part, to determine to live what we believe. And we only get that from the Word of God, and from trusted counselors. People that we trust, we need each other. We do need each other.
I don’t know if you had it in Greece, but when I was a little girl, we had a TV show, called ’The Lone Ranger’. Did you have that here? There are none of you old enough to know if you had that here. But it was about this cowboy, and he did all the work alone, well sort of, he had an Indian ‘Tonto’. But he was called the lone ranger. But there are no lone rangers in the body of Christ. And I like that. I don’t it well always, because sometimes I don’t want you to help me, I want to do it my way.
But the Lord’s been really telling me, we are going to need one another more than ever before. So, I’m determined to live what I believe, I want to help you to help me to do that. To grow, we have to fight. I’m going to say it again, to grow, we have to fight. There can be easy times, but most of the times, there’s another problem coming up, another battle coming up. One of my favorite Scriptures, which is good to memorize, is in 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
There’s another translation in English which gives a little more clarity for the times in which we live. It says, “I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got. I’m not going to be lazy; I’m going to stay in top condition and I’m going to be alert, I’m not going to take a nap”. I kind of like that. You know, if we go to sleep, the enemy is right there. We’ve got to stay alert. I don’t want to miss out on anything God has for me.
This year, no matter what might be ahead of us, no matter what we may have to face, let’s give God, everything we’ve got. Amen. Let’s make Him number One. Let’s say when we don’t understand, ‘I don’t understand’. But I’m still going to trust You. You’re still number One.’ When you’re a little upset with Him, tell Him, ‘With humility, I’m upset with You. But I still want You to be number One. I want You to have all my heart, Son and Holy Spirit.’
We’re going to look very quickly and very lightly today, in the Old Testament, we’re going to look just a little bit at the life of Amaziah, because I think he’s a good example for us, of what not to do after a battle. Because, he’s going to fight through a battle, but he fails after the battle 2 Chronicles 25: 1-2, “​ Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly”.
So, as he become king, the first thing he does is to kill the people that killed his father, the previous king. So, we know there’s an anger in his heart, or vengeance. So, we can already get a little bit of an understanding of his personality. Now look down to 2 Chronicles 25: 5-8, “Amaziah called the people of Judah together and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He then mustered those twenty years old or more and found that there were three hundred thousand men fit for military service, able to handle the spear and shield. He also hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel for a hundred talents of silver. But a man of God came to him and said, ‘Your Majesty, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with any of the people of Ephraim. Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.’”
So, the first thing he did, was kill the people that killed his father, and now he has goals, to beat the Northern kingdom of Israel. So, he has this strategy, that he is going to number the people, and you Bible scholars, you know that God commanded for them not to number the people. So, he’s already disobeying God, because God has said “Don’t trust in chariots, or horses, but trust in God”. We will trust in the name of our Lord. But instead of trusting God, he’s trusting in 300,000 fighting men, but he thinks that is not enough, and he hires, giving 100 silver talents, to 100,000 men, from Israel, the enemy. These are mercenaries, paid soldiers, mercenaries don’t care who they fight for, they just want money.
And here’s God, how good He is. God sends a prophet to him, because God is always trying to help us, to do the right thing. And this prophet comes to him and says, basically don’t do it. Because if you go to battle, God will bring you down before the enemy – it says that in verse 8. And then look at verse 9, “Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?” I love this about God, God is telling him that he has hired the wrong people, he shouldn’t have done that. You’ve hired enemies from the north, actually they’re fighting against the Edomites, the descendants of Esau. They’re the enemies of Judah. He’s got these paid soldiers, which he shouldn’t have done in the first place, they’re from an enemy and they’re going to fight another enemy and God says, don’t do that.
Now, let me point out really quickly, do you know why God told them not to make an agreement with the Northern Kingdom, with Israel, because, from the time the country divided and became two countries, they had a problem with idolatry. And so, to protect Judah from idolatry, they were not supposed to make agreements with Israel. SO, the prophet’s saying, ‘Don’t do it.’ And I can just see King Amaziah, and we would do the same thing. God says don’t do that, but do you know what Amaziah says, ‘I have already paid all the money. I’ve already made this agreement.’ And the prophet says, ‘What you think you’re going to gain in victory, if you obey God, will be far more than the money you think you’re going to lose.’ Because if you take them, you’re going to lose anyway. So, has that ever happened to you? God tells you not to do something, and you’ve been making plans to do that thing that God doesn’t want you do, and you argue with God. But, but, but and you finally agree with God, and really everything works out better than you expected it to work out, doesn’t it? It really does. That’s the promise of God.
But Amaziah, evidently doesn’t think this way. He might have been thinking, ‘How stupid do you think I am?’ That’s what happens so often, we think our intelligence is greater than the intelligence of God. Let me throw in this little side thought for you; you may want to study this later on your own. Amaziah releases those paid soldiers, and I find this kind of funny actually, not ha-ha funny, but strange. When he lets them go, they’re mad, and they got to take the money! I would think this is great, I can take the money and I don’t have to go fight. But they got so mad, do you know what they did? They went into Judah and they killed people and they took animals and all kinds of horrible things. But see, it’s like Abraham and Sarah, we try to do things our own way, and we kind of messed up, don’t we?
So then, the battle is over, by the way I want to tell you that 100 talents is close to 2 million dollars today. That’s a lot. But don’t forget, the Lord said in verse 9, “The Lord has much more to give you than this.” Now look at Verse 14. He wins the victory, and here’s what happens in verse 14-16, Amaziah is going to do something that’s mind blowing. “When Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down to them and burned sacrifices to them. The anger of the Lord burned against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why do you consult this people’s gods, which could not save their own people from your hand?” While he was still speaking, the king said to him, “Have we appointed you an adviser to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?” So, the prophet stopped but said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.”
In brief, Amaziah chose to worship the gods of the people that he had defeated rather than the God of Israel. That seems just crazy to me. They defeated those people, a prophet had come and told him what God would do. But still, he takes their stone or wooden gods and bows down to them rather than worship God. And I was trying to figure that out, why? Look at verse 2, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.”
That’s pretty much what the whole sermon is about, as we enter this year. We’re often tempted, or thoughts come that say, ‘I’ll do it my way. I’ll ask God and I might even seek some counsel. But I’m pretty smart, I know how to do this.’ And we’ll get ourselves into trouble, because we haven’t surrendered to the Lord with our whole heart. The part of his heart that was not surrendered to God, became a battle ground for the enemy and it turned the victory sour, turned it into something bad. It’s so strange to me that he thought if he could carry these gods home, then my life would be great. Why else would he do that? How can you win with God, and celebrate with idols. What was in his heart? I don’t exactly know, but we know that he didn’t serve the Lord with a whole heart.
I think a good example is to look at Jesus, in John 14:30, “I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me”. He has no hold over me, because Jesus only worshipped God. There was nothing in Jesus, NOTHING, that was not surrendered to God. What did He say, “I delight to do your will, Oh God”.
Just think about it this morning, what God can do with one man or woman, who is completely surrendered to Him. And that’s where we’ve got to get in this year ahead. We know what idolatry is, it’s valuing anything more than the one true God. Amaziah was halfhearted. And this is where we’re at, verse 2, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.” It makes no sense that he worshipped other gods. Half-heartedness never stays that way. It goes one of two directions. You’ll either turn back to the Lord, or you’ll turn away from the Lord. Which way will we go this year each one of us? The Lord is inviting us, He’s calling us, to surrender all that we are to Him. To not be halfhearted. But how can we do this? In every victory, give God the glory. Sometimes maybe we forget to give Him the glory. I believe that part of that is giving of our financial blessings. To give Him glory with what He has blessed you with.
At the beginning of the service, we read Psalm 139, I think we need to pray and get in the Word. “Search me oh God, know my heart, try me and see if there is any wicked way in me.” God will answer, if we ask Him to search us. And I believe we should yield to Godly voices, voices and counsel that’s Godly. If you read the story of Amaziah, he died very tragically. Let’s all be in a place this year, where God gets all the glory. Amen. You know what will happen, we’ll grow. After our breakfast together next Sunday, we’re going to ask you to join in 10 days of prayer and fasting and Bible reading. Amen 10 days. If you’ve never made it a habit to read the Bible every day, I don’t want to see your hands, it’s time, it’s time. It’s like daily vitamins. And if you don’t pray every day, it always amazes me when people say they get bored, they don’t know what to pray about. If that’s your problem, come see me, I’ll give you a list, I have plenty that you can help me pray for. How can we really grow, unless we pray and read His word and listen to it. And come together, to be sandpaper sharpening each other, Amen. God is good.