God, Help

I'm excited to introduce our speaker today. He has been a pastor for over 25 years, most recently in Colorado at Mission Hills Church, where he was there for a while. And then just a little over a year in May of last year, he became the CEO of Mountain Hermon Conference Center. Would you join me in welcoming a fellow TLCer, Mike Romburger.

Thank you. Well, good morning. It is great to be here and our family, we love this church. We had not church-shopped our whole adult life. We never had to look for a church, because I was a pastor, as Adrian said. But we started to come here and loved it. We're so grateful for the staff here. Don't we have a great staff at this church? It's amazing.

And so we've gotten involved. We have Jane, my wife, is very involved in starting point ministry that reaches out to those who are new in the faith or those interested in exploring more about Christianity. Our son Caleb was the drummer this morning, and our 16-year-old drummer. And so he's been up here time to time on the platform and loves that. We have three daughters as well, two of them live back in Denver. And one of them is going to be going to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. And so that's our family. But we love being here. We're thankful for this church family. And I feel honored to be able to be preaching the word this weekend.

Also, so grateful for the huge support that this church gives to Mount Hermon. Pastor René, he spoke there last week. He spoke there a few weeks ago. He's on our trustees, Robin Spurlock. One of your staff's on our trustees, Mark Spurlock. Her brother-in-law is on our board of directors. And Trent is—in fact, this coming week, he's going to be leading worship at our family camp. Elizabeth Honeycutt often leads worship, and et cetera, et cetera. So we're so grateful for all the support. And if you have never been to Mount Hermon, it's not very far away. And we would love to have you come. It's a place where God restores lives, refreshes lives, renews lives, transforms lives. He's been doing it for 110 years there.

And Mount Hermon—the name Mount Hermon—it's from a mountain in Israel where people would go and be set apart to meet with God. And so that's why it's called Mount Hermon. And we'd love to have you come and be a part of it at some point or another. So let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this morning that you've given to us. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity we've had to worship you, to lift your name up, to let you know that we love you. And Lord, now we have the opportunity to study your word. It's your word, your words that you've given to us. And Lord, I ask that you would do what only you can do. And that's working our heart from the inside out, to change us, to encourage us, to confront us, to love us, whatever we need from you today. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

It was a number of years ago, and I was on a church staff retreat. We were in a cabin up in the mountains, and we were sharing from our hearts. And one of our staff ladies began to share about a very difficult thing she was going through at that time. In fact, it was so difficult. She found herself crying as she was sharing with us the details of what was going on in her personal life. And after she was done sharing, we all just felt for her. And so we gathered around her, and we laid hands on her to pray for her.

And one person prayed, and then another person prayed, and another prayed, and another prayed. And then there was this little pause. And then the guy on staff who was standing right next to me prayed this prayer. And he prayed it just like this. Help Jesus. Scared the living daylights out of me. Jumped out of my skin. That's all he prayed. There were all these prayers of people trying to just figure out what to say. And Lord, we come before you, and we ask you to do this and that. And then he just cries out, help Jesus. And it was like, that was good enough. I mean, sometimes you try to come up with words to say, but really that's what needs to be said, right? Just help Jesus, 'cause we have nowhere else to turn when our backs are up against the wall.

I love the title of the series of authentic, real prayers, real people. 'Cause we're gonna look at real prayer. A real prayer from a real person today. A guy from the Old Testament. René sent me a list of all of the options of the topics that they're gonna be using for this series. And I said, I would love to have this one. Because it's got in it, in the middle of it, the highlighted person in it is my all-time favorite Bible character. He's a Bible character that very few people have actually heard about, but he is such a game changer. He's a reformer, he's courageous. And I wanted to introduce him to you this morning if you've never met him, and his name is Asa.

Asa, A-S-A. He was one of the kings of the Old Testament who made a huge difference. And if you have your Bible, I want you to take it and turn it to 2 Chronicles chapter 14. 2 Chronicles 14. 2 Chronicles is in your Old Testament. It's about a third of the way there. 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles chapter 14. And as you're turning there, I want to tell you about Asa. He is the sixth king of the nation of Israel, and he's a fifth-generation king from the same lineage. Let me just give you a quick run through his lineage, 'cause it'll help you appreciate him all the more.

Asa's great-great-grandfather was a guy named David. David was a great king, and it says of David that when he, God, had removed Saul, the first king, he raised up David to be their king, the king of Israel, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart who will do my will. And although David had his sin, David had his flaws for sure, he becomes the standard bearer because of his heart before God, and because of his godliness from then on as all the other kings compared to King David.

David dies and turns over the kingdom to his son, Solomon. Solomon had great fame and great wealth and great prestige and great power, and built huge cities. But then he fell away from the Lord. Solomon is Asa's great-grandfather, and it says in 1 Kings 11, 4, for when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David, his father. And Solomon allows for there to be idols put into the land, idols of other gods to be worshiped in his own land, idols in the high places, and a moral slippery slope begins to take place in Israel.

Eventually, Solomon dies, and then the kingdom would turn over to his son Rehoboam, which is Asa's grandfather. It is said of Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 12, verse 14, and he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord. And it was under Rehoboam's leadership that the kingdom of Israel was split into two. Because of the harshness in which he wanted to lead, the people rebelled, and the 12 tribes of Israel got split. 10 tribes in the north stayed together, and that was considered Israel. And then the two tribes to the south, Benjamin and Judah, were considered a nation, and that was the nation of Judah, and Rehoboam led the smaller nation in the south.

Under his leadership, idol worship was increased in the land. And not only that, but then he brings in male cult prostitution in the temple. And so now this moral slippery slope under Solomon becomes a moral slippery avalanche under Rehoboam. He dies, and then his son Abijah takes over the kingdom of Judah. He's the father of Asa. It says of Abijah in 1 Kings chapter 15 verse 3, that he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God like the heart of David his father. David his father, meaning David the standard bearer of the kings. And he reigned only three years Abijah did, and just kept the moral slide going. And then he dies, and then come his son Asa.

And Asa turns the people's hearts back to God in a dramatic way. He's a reformer of huge proportions. Listen to what it says about Asa in 1 Kings chapter 15. And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his father had done. The heart of Asa was wholly devoted to the Lord all his days. And listen to this list of his reforms, his courageous reforms of what he does in that land of Judah.

Number one, he removed the male cult prostitutes from the land. He got rid of them, he expelled them. They were no longer allowed to even be in the land, let alone do what they do. Secondly, he removed most of the idols. It says most of them, it doesn't say all of them. So he didn't get to all of them for some reason, but he got to most of them. He didn't just remove them. He crushed them and burned them so people could no longer worship them.

Third, get this. He removed his mother from being queen due to her idolatry. Now what kind of guts would you have to have to dethrone your mom? But she was not following the ways of God, so he dethrones her from being the queen. Fourth, he restored the sacred gifts and the vessels to the temple. Those things that belonged in the temple, he put back in the temple. He gets God's house back in order. It becomes the priority that what is meant to be by God.

Fifth, he brought the people together to make an oath to follow God. He gathers them all together and publicly, they make an oath as a country to follow after God. And sixth, he rebuilt the altar of God. The altar of God had been broken apart. The altar of God had not been used. They had not been given sacrifice to him and paying him the dues that were due to him and getting their hearts right before him. And he restores the altar of God so that their hearts could be right before him. Courageous, godly, full of integrity. That's Asa. And I look forward to someday meeting him in heaven. I don't know how that works, but we have all eternity. I'm sure I can find him eventually. I would love to have a conversation about all of those things behind the scenes.

Now, Asa's first 10 years as king, as Judah, was a time of great peace. No wars, no problems from the outside. It was a time of peace. And Second Chronicles 14, it tells us that in his days, the land had rest for 10 years. So they built and prospered. It was a good season. It was a season blessed by God. That's all good until at the 10-year mark of his reign, there becomes a threat by the Ethiopian army as they decide to attack. Second Chronicles chapter 14, look at verse eight. And Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah, armed with large shields and spears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin that carried shields and drew bows. All these were mighty men of valor.

So from the two tribes, Benjamin and Judah, there's the soldiers and their mighty men of valor. Verse nine, Zera the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and came as far as Marisha. And Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up their lines of battle in the valley of Zephethath at Marisha. Let's do a little basic math here. From the two tribes, we have 300,000 soldiers from one tribe. We have 280,000 soldiers from another tribe. That's how many? Very good, 580,000. And they have spears, and they have shields, and they have bows, and they have arrows. And mighty men of valor. The Ethiopians have how many? One million, almost double. And they have 300 chariots, which means they also have horses. It's like a huge tank division against a bunch of rifles. This is not good for Asa and the Jewish people. This is an unfair fight. This is superior versus inferior.

And when your back is up against the wall, where do you turn? This is a really good time to pray a prayer. God, help! Help! 'Cause what else are you gonna do? Where else are you gonna turn? Have you been there? Maybe you're there right now. You are in a marriage that has been broken apart. It is so unhealthy and toxic. You can't even imagine it getting better. You have seen people try to help you. You don't seem to get any help. And there's nowhere else to turn now but God. Or maybe you just got that health report, and the doctor actually said these words to you, apart from a miracle. There's no chance here. Or maybe you're in the midst of being locked in an addiction, and the ways of the world have not been able to free you and give you victory. Or maybe you're in the depth of profound loneliness. And no matter how hard you try, that hole never seems to be filled. Or maybe you're in a financial spiral that is so out of control that you don't see any hope on the horizon, nothing adds up correctly for your favor. And the only possible place to turn is to God.

Don't you think God loves prayers like that? Simple to the point, help God. I need your help. I have nowhere else to turn but to you. Listen to his prayer. Asa prays a prayer as the leader of the people. It's an incredible prayer. 2 Chronicles chapter 14 verse 11. And Asa cried to the Lord his God. He cried out to the Lord his God. Oh Lord, there is none like you to help between the mighty and the weak. Help us, oh Lord our God, for we rely on you. And in your name we have come against this multitude. Oh Lord, you are our God. Let not man prevail against you. Great prayer. Like let's look at it piece by piece.

He starts off by saying the words oh Lord. Not oh friend, not oh counselor, not oh doctor, oh financial planner, oh lawyer. No, oh God, oh Lord. He uses the word Yahweh, Lord, the proper name of God, which means he's eternal, which means he has supreme authority, which means he is ever present as a helper to us. Oh Lord. That's where he starts. And then he says there is none like you to help. There's nobody else like you to help. No person compares, no institution compares, no army compares, no resource compares, no strategy or strategic plan compares. There is none like you to help.

And then he says for we rely on you. We rely on you. Rely means to depend upon, to trust in. I mean truth be told sometimes we only rely on God when our backs are up against the wall, but when things are going fairly good we figure it out on our own, right? We might rely on God when we can do it ourselves. It's only when we can't figure it out that we rely on God. I mean do we rely on God for just the huge things or do you rely on him also for the little things?

Reminded of a story that I heard of a man who'd been out of work for about four months and things were getting bleak at home, pressure from his spouse and the money was running out and all of a sudden he got a potential job and he had the big interview downtown. And so he got in his best suit and he got in his car and he drove downtown and as he was driving he had a lot of traffic so he got a little nervous about that. He didn't wanna be late. He finally got downtown and just right before the interview was supposed to start but then he started to drive around and there was no parking spots anywhere. You couldn't find them. And he started to get really nervous and he started to do something that he rarely ever did in his life. He began to pray. God, I need a parking spot. I need one now. I cannot be late for this job interview. Please give me a parking spot.

And he keeps driving around. He can't find one and the time's getting closer and closer and he begins to panic and he begins to negotiate. God, I will begin to go to church on a regular basis. God, I will give you some money when I go to church and I will be really nice to my wife. I promise you if you just give me a parking spot and as soon as he prayed that prayer, that car comes out right, leaves him a spot right in front of the building that he needs to be and right in front of the front doors where he needs to go and he pulls in and goes, oh, nevermind, I found one.

For we rely on you. He said, in your name, we have come against this multitude. It's a multitude in your name. He didn't mention the bows and the arrows and the shields and the spears or the valley, the valley, the men of Valor. He says, in your name, we have come against this power. Listen, there is literal power in the name of God because his name represents who he is and what he does, almighty God, sovereign God, omnipotent God, all powerful God. Think of this, one name versus one million soldiers. What are the odds?

Do you remember what happened to Asa's great-great-grandfather? He went up against a what? A giant, remember? His name was Goliath. Goliath was filled with armor. He was a battle warrior. David is young. He runs up to him with a slingshot and five stones. See what happened. 1 Samuel 17:45. Then David said to the Philistine, to Goliath, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. You come to me with the modern weapons of man. But I come to you with a slingshot and some rocks and a lot of experience. No. He said, but I come to you, what? In the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. I mean, how big is a giant versus God?

How many of you are Giants fans here? Giants fans, lots of Giants fans. And first place, best record in baseball. It's an even year. Now you just gotta understand, when I say this, I grew up in L.A. But my purpose here is solely to be biblical, okay? Just know that nowhere in the Bible is anything positive said about a giant, all right? I'm just trying to teach God's word this morning. Stinking Giants that keep winning. We rely upon you, Lord, in your name. We bring this power from you. He says, oh Lord, get this, you are our God, our God. Let not man prevail against you. You're our God, we're your people. You're our heavenly Father. And he watches over his children and protects them.

So this last week, our second oldest daughter, Aubrey, was with us at Mount Hermon, and she went to drive back to Denver, where she lives. She had never done this drive by herself. She can do it with herself and her dog, but no other human beings. And she was gonna stop somewhere in Utah to stay overnight and drive the rest away the next day, 'cause it's like a 20-hour drive. And she was telling me about motels that she was seeing along the way that were pretty inexpensive to stay at. She'd never stayed alone in a motel ever. And I said to her, no, no, no, no, no. You're not staying in some little motel. You're gonna go to a hotel, a nice hotel, and I'm gonna pay. She's all, okay, okay.

And she stayed at a hotel, probably nicer than I would stay, and she stayed at a double tree with her dog, sent me a picture with her dog on the bed. So why did I do that? 'Cause that's what dads do. Dads are gonna protect their girls. Moms do that too, by the way, I know that, but I'm a dad. It's like, no, no, you're not gonna stay there. I'm gonna make sure that you're okay. I'm gonna use my ability and resources to help you. That's the heart of a parent.

Look at chapter 14, beginning in verse 12 now. So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar, and get this, and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive. How many were there? A million. For they were broken before the Lord and his army. The men of Judah carried away very much spoil, and they attacked all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the Lord was upon them. They plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them, and they struck down the tents of those who had livestock and carried away sheep in abundance and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Did you get this? Did you hear it? How it's put here? So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians. The Lord! Not the skill of the army, the Lord did it. That's what God does. Remember when the Israelites were crossing the Red Sea? Exodus chapter 14, and Moses said to the people, fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be what? Silent. Now let's be real here. The Egyptian army's coming down, the Red Sea's in front of you, and all of a sudden the noise level gets pretty high, right? We should have never left. We should have stayed slaves. We should have never come out of here. Now we're all gonna die. And Moses says on behalf of God and the people, just be silent and watch God do his thing.

When they entered the promised land, the promised land was filled with enemies, and it was told to them in Deuteronomy 3:22, you shall not fear them, the enemies, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you. And so the little Judah army wipes out the Ethiopian army. God prevails, great story, great leadership on Asa's part. End of story, teaches us to trust the Lord. Let's pray. Actually, it's not pray yet. It's not, that's not pray yet. Because there's more to this that I wanna show you, okay? Just when you thought you had a short sermon and we're so happy about that.

Because there's a new threat that comes. It's 25 years later. There's 25 more years of peace until the next threat comes. But the next threat does come. By the way, next threats always come. Once you have conquered something and everything is this time of peace, and things are good, it's just a matter of time, right? Till the next huge challenge comes. Till the next time our back is up against the wall. This is a military threat. Important to note, not as big as the last threat. Let me paint the picture for you, what's happening here.

So now the Northern Kingdom, remember the 10 tribes called Israel, the Northern Kingdom. Now their king, a guy named Basha. Basha, I think is probably a better way to say it, Basha. He wants to go and now invade Judah, the southern two tribes. And so what he's doing is he begins to fortify the cities right along the border, getting ready to come down. Asa figures out this is going on. And so he goes to an enemy king who has a treaty with Basha. And he pays him off to undo his treaty with Basha. He gives him gold and silver. And then this enemy king takes his troops over to the cities along the border and he disrupts what's going on there. So Basha backs off. And then Asa begins to build some fortifications along that border to strengthen it and all is well. And the crisis is averted.

Chapter 16, somebody already closed your Bibles 'cause we were praying. Chapter 16 verse one. In the 36th year of the reign of Asa, Basha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Rama that he might permit no one to go out or come in to king, to Asa king of Judah. The nation took silver and gold, get this, from the treasures of the house of the Lord. Remember he put all the treasures back into the house of the Lord 25 years previous? Now he's taking them out to make a treaty with an enemy king. And the king's house and sent them to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria who lived in Damascus, saying there was a covenant between me and you, and there was, as there was between my father and your father. So now he's doing business like his dad used to do business. Remember his dad?

Behold, I am sending to you silver and gold. Go break your covenant with Basha king of Israel that he may withdraw from me. And Ben-Hadad listened to king Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they conquered Aijon, Dan, Abel-Maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali. And when Basha heard of it, he stopped building Rama and let his work cease. The king Asa took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Rama and his timber with which Basha had been building, and with him he built Geba and Mispa. These cities right along the border there.

So Asa now has sophistication, he has success, he has money, he knows who to go to, he's got alliances. So he makes this treaty with an enemy king and it works, none of his people are harmed, all is well, he gets commended by God, right? Shrewd, smart leadership, right? Look at verse seven. At that time, Hanani, the seer, came to Asa king of Judah. So a seer is like a prophet. So he speaks on behalf of God. And he said to him, because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you.

We're not the Ethiopians and the Libyans, he's going back now 25 years, reminding him of that prior conflict, we're not the Ethiopians and the Libyans, a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen. Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. And Hanani gets after Asa because he relied on the king of Syria and not on the king of kings, God Almighty. I mean, what happened to Asa? Why 25 years later does he seem to have less faith when he's had all this time of prosperity and peace and success under God's blessing? What happened? How long can it happen in 25 years? Especially when you have a lot of success.

You become educated, you become sophisticated, you know people, you have alliances, you know ways and tricks, you know the lever to pull, the button to push, the key to turn, you've figured it out. You've got money, resources, self-reliance. Listen, success is a dangerous place to hang out spiritually because you begin to rely on yourself instead of God. So Hanani, the seer tells Asa what God is looking for in people who follow him. Maybe you've seen this verse before, you didn't know the context in which it was in the Bible. Look at verse nine. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. God's looking for people whose hearts are just blameless. They just rely on him purely.

And he said to him, you have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars. And for the rest of Asa's time as a leader, they had conflicts and battles. And unfortunately Asa still doesn't get it. And the last words of his life are sad to me, verse 10 of chapter 16. And Asa was angry with the seer and put him in stocks in prison for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time. It's like who is this guy? Verse 11, the acts of Asa from first to last are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And the 39th year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet and his disease became severe. Get this, yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord.

That's not help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers dying in the 41st year of his reign. They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a buyer that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumers arts and they made a very great fire in his honor. And there's that verse 13 in there. Yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord but sought help from physicians. Oh, I think physicians are great. We should use their expertise. But how about first, a prayer to the Lord.

Notice that Asa goes from an overwhelming challenge to a medium-sized challenge to a more personal smaller challenge. And in all three of those challenges, God makes it clear that he wanted to be a part of all of them. He wanted to help in all of those instances. He doesn't just wanna be there for the huge problems. He wanted to be there for the medium-sized problems and he wants to be there for the more personal problems. He wants to be there for all of it. Why? Because God wants to help. Why? Because that's what a father does. He's there to help his kids. And he wants us to cry out to help. He's got all the resources of the universe. And often we figure out how to do it all on our own and leave him completely out of the equation, let alone relying solely upon him.

I think that's one of the reasons that Jesus communicated so clearly that he loves little children. Little children that just crawl up in the lap of their savior and have total faith and trust in him. So let's take our sophistication and throw it aside. Let's take our reliance upon ourself and all of the ways that we know how to solve problems. And let's first rely upon God and just have a prayer that says this, "God, help me, help, help." My guess is his favorite prayer. Let's pray. Really, let's pray.

Lord, I'm sure there are people in this room right now who need your help so bad. And maybe some of them actually haven't even thought of coming to you besides just maybe a quick prayer, but they're trying to figure it out all on their own. And they're going to all their friends and they're going to all the counselors and they're going to all the lawyers and they're going to all the people that can help. We know that Lord, but they haven't come to you first. Lord, may we rely on you, may we trust you. And may you help us in our times of need. Big, medium, small. God, help. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.