 Welcome back to Steps to Freedom. Okay, so I am going to teach you about King Asa, do you know who that is? Yeah, King Asa. All right, his life has something to show us. I don't know how much of this I'm going to use. So the question is that I'm going to answer tonight. You're going to know the answer to by the end of the night is what killed King Asa? Okay. All right, so first, before I do that, I want to talk about this week. Actually, it's been last week and this week. I'd like to call it Healing Week at the Arizona Deliverance Center. Brother Mike has been talking about in the deep things of God, the mysteries to divine healing. He talked about it on Sunday. He's going to talk more about it on Friday. Even last week, he talked about it in his deep things of God teaching on Sunday also. And then this Saturday with the women's seminar that I'll be speaking at, answering the question, why am I still sick? Okay. And so we know by going through the miracle list, there are several things that could be going on in your life that could be contributing to your sickness. Some things need to be addressed through healing and some things are healed through deliverance. And sometimes God uses doctors. So we're not saying they have no place. There's all kinds of different things that go on in people's lives but we want to investigate. So that's what we'll be doing on Saturday. I'm going to hear some testimonies, build faith, and talk about what are some of the possible reasons why you might be sick and then there'll be prayer for healing and deliverance. So keep me in your prayers. So that's Saturday at noon. Please bring a friend. All right. There's Wednesday Zoom deliverance. If you haven't been on it yet, please check it out with Rick Kott. You email him steps of deliverance at gmail.com for the code. They go on for about three or four hours doing a Zoom call. He preaches and then they do deliverance. I was on there a couple of weeks ago and one of the sisters was praying. For everyone, and I counted 17 people who had their cameras on, that is, that were getting deliverance at the same time. So that's fantastic. 17 people at once getting some freedom. All right. So who was King Asa? All right. So King Asa was a king of Judah. And he is the third king of Judah. So Israel and Judah were not split always. They were together. And at some point they split. I'm not a historian. Right after Solomon. Right after Solomon. Thank you, Alicia, for that. And he is a descendant of David. And he was king for 41 years. He had a very long reign. There was peace for the first 10 years. And then there was a war. Then there was peace for 35 years. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. And his kingdom prospered and he built cities. That's a general idea of his life. Okay. The first thing you can tell, I'm going to read the story, and I'm probably going to stop here, though is he cleansed the kingdom of Judah in layers. Okay. So I'm going to stop here and I'm going to read the story if this works of King Asa. It's a little long, but I'm going to stop along the way and see what we can gain. So it's in 2 Chronicles chapter 12. If you want to go there. No, wait. It is 2 Chronicles chapter. Hold on a second. I actually have never taught a Bible study before. This is my first one. So bear with me. Bear with me. Okay. So 2 Chronicles chapter 13. Okay. We're in there. So in the 18th year of King Jeroboam, I know I'm not pronouncing these names correctly, but I think it is became King over Judah. Okay. Wait. So is it 13 or 14? Oh, thank you so much. So that's his father actually. So let's go to 2 Chronicles 14. Oh, 14, 15, 16. That's where we're going to be. Okay. So this is King Abajib. This is his father. He rested with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David. I want you to keep in mind the phrase, he rested with his fathers. Okay. Then Asa, his son, reigned in his place. In his days, the land was quiet for 10 years. Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord and in his God. And for he removed the altars of foreign gods. Okay. So I'm going to, so this is all that he did in the beginning. And I call it a dumpster deliverance for the kingdom of Judah. Okay. A lot of times when we're going through this process of deliverance, the very first deliverance is quite dramatic. You get a lot out and you feel so much better and you think you're done, but we can learn a lot from this King. And I'm going to point it out to you. Okay. So what did he do? He removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places. He broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. Okay. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment. So he removed the altars to the foreign gods. He removed the high places. He broke down the sacred pillars. He cut down the wooden images. And he led his country to seek the Lord and remove. And it also says that he removed incense altars, which we know incense are representative of our prayers. Right. So they're, we could say. So my question for you is those are like obvious sins that the kingdom of Judah had. So what are the obvious sins in your life? And I just put a couple of pictures up here that might help your memory. Okay. You know, overeating, gluttony is a sin. Screaming at your loved ones. I would say you're sinning. You're hurting them. You know, online dating. Don't do that. Don't do that. Let's trust the Lord for that. So think about that. Do I have any obvious sins still in my life? And what are those? Okay. He led the country of Judah to seek the Lord and observe the law and the commandments. In a sense, he renewed his mind. He said, let's get back to the word. Let's get back. My household, my country, let's get back to the word of God. We know we have to renew our mind. Right. So you get all the junk out. You get rid of your Mary candles. Your mother Mary candles. Yep. You get rid of your Native American gods, your Sunni Indian sun god and other things. Right. Get rid of those. You know, there are certain things that we have in our homes that we don't realize are really an abomination to the Lord. I know I took a trip to Israel one year and I went to Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is in Egypt. And outside of Mount Sinai, we stopped in a little shop and they had some paintings that were on papyrus paper and I bought some and I had them framed. And they were quite large and they were of Egyptians. Well, I was ignorant. I had no idea that I had Egyptian gods that I had framed and I had put in the center of my living room wall. Isis. You know, they were beautiful paintings and I had spent a lot of money having them framed. Yeah. And I prayed to the Lord and I said, Lord, is there anything in my home that's not pleasing to you? And those came to mind. I was like, ooh, I think I spent like $1,500 having those things framed, double matted, non-reflective glass. I got rid of them. I had to tear down the wooden altars. I wasn't praying to it. I wasn't venerating it. However, maybe I was a little bit. I had spent a lot of money. It was right there. You walked in and oh, that was beautiful. And that was another one right there. I mean, they were large. They were very large. I brought them all the way back from Egypt. I had to get rid of them. It hurt. It did hurt. But I'm glad I did. And so we have to really be honest with ourselves. If you've never taken a walk through your home, Lord, show me. Dream captures. They shouldn't be in a Christian's home. Crystals for energy. Okay. Now I'm not talking about the little, my mom loves a little prism that shines the light, a little crystal, whatever that divides the light, you know, prism. That's fine. I've done some, not splunking necessarily, but going into caves. And I found some crystals. They're not for anything other than to remind me of my trip. That's it. I don't pray to those things. I don't believe that there's any energy source that I don't want. If there's any energy in them from something, I don't want it, right? And so that's never been prayed over. I got it from the earth. You know, I was a science teacher. I really appreciate God's creation. So there's difference. So we have to be honest with ourselves. What do I still have? Is there anything that I have? Because that can make you sick. It can make you sick. Once he did all that, right? He did this big Dunster deliverance for King Judah. It says that in verse five, all the cities of Judah and the kingdom was quiet under him. And that's exactly what happens in our lives. We get rid of a lot of things. We become a Christian and we realize, oh, this music is, this is, I shouldn't be listening to Ozzy Osbourne. Get rid of it. I shouldn't be wearing, you know, these type of clothing. Get rid of it or whatever it is, whatever it is that you had to get rid of. I know I had to get rid of a bunch of things. And then there was peace. Verse six, it says, he built fortified cities in Judah and the land had rest. He had no war in those years because the Lord had given him rest. Therefore, he said to Judah, and this is King Asa, he said, let us build these cities and make walls around them, and make them walls around them while the land is yet before us. Because we've sought the Lord our God, we have sought him, and he's given us rest on every side. So they built and they prospered. When your life is at rest, you can build. You can rebuild. When everything's in chaos, you're just trying to survive. Clean up, right? Get rid of trash. Get rid of the things in your life that don't belong. And then you can start making some plans to better your life. Right? Build. Enjoy that time of prosperity. So in verse eight it says, and Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah who carried shields, spears, and from Benjamin, 280,000 men who carried shields and drew bows and mighty men of valor. So not only did they build, he built up his army. He built up his business, his confidence, his country. There's nothing wrong with that. We can see the Lord had blessed him and now he's prospering. Then a test came, which it always does. Then Zira, the Ethiopian, came out against them with an army of a million men and he came to Maressa. I don't know how to say that word. So Asa went out against him and they set the troops in battle, array in the valley of Zephaniah. Verse 11, and Asa cried out to the Lord his God and said, Lord, there's nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power, help us. O Lord our God, for we rest on you and in your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, you or our our God, do not let man prevail against you. King Asa knew who he was. He knew who he was so confidently that he told Lord, these people are not coming against me, they're coming against you. Save us, God. And out of the heavens and through the clouds God looked upon him and he said, okay so the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah and the Ethiopians fled and Asa and the people were with him and pursued them to Greer. I want to stop here for a moment and say God, you know, you have a child and they're like trying to open the pickle jar and they just can't get it so you go and you just crack it a little bit for them and then you give it back to them and they do it the rest of the way and they're like, I did it, right, they feel good. This is what happened in this story. God strikes the Ethiopians but he doesn't totally destroy them. King Asa and his army have to pursue them. They pursue them so the Ethiopians were overthrown. They could not recover for they were broken before the Lord and his army and they carried away very much spoil. Then they defeated all the cities around Greer for the fear of the Lord came upon them and they, Asa and his army, fighting warriors, they plundered all the cities for there was exceedingly much spoil in them and they didn't stop there. They also attacked the livestock in enclosures and carried off sheep and camels in abundance and returned to Jerusalem. Chapter 15 Now the spirit of God came upon Zaria, the son of Obed, he's a prophet and he went out to meet King Asa and said to him, hear me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin the Lord is with you you know the Lord if you will walk humbly before your God and you work really hard at what he's giving you to do, he will lift you up in front of men. He will do that and that's what he did here. He sent the prophet out and the prophet said, hey Judah hey Benjamin, come here King Asa, the Lord is with you honored him in front of all these people while you're with him and gave him a little warning, gave him some help and said if you seek him he'll be found by you but if you forsake him he will forsake you for a long time Israel has been without a true God without a teaching priest and without the law you know when we're in sin a lot of things get out of order and it takes time for it to get back in order it takes time so let's see, okay alright, catch up there's the crisis okay they cried out he took courage after that he does more house cleaning so he digs a little deeper he does a deep cleaning and we can see this so he's realizing wow so many things have been out of order we gotta put them back in order so they get the teaching priest and they get the law being taught but in their trouble they turn to God Lord God of Israel he was found by them and in those times there was no peace to the one who went out nor to the one who came in but great turmoil was all around the inhabitants of the land as long as the armies and the people of Judah stayed close to home they were okay you could think from under the covering there was great trouble I did a little bit of research and found that's what was going on at that time there was a lot of wars in verse 6 it says so nation was destroyed by nation and city by city for God troubled them with every adversity I've heard it said by one it's prophetically gifted saying that God is the one troubling the nations right now God is the one doing it I don't know how much time we have but things are moving along and we know from the book of Revelation that things have to be troubled and so here we see God does trouble the nations verse 7 says be strong and do not let your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded amen and so this is when Asa heard these words in the prophecy of Obed the prophet he took courage there's things in our lives where especially when we have to do deep cleaning in our lives we have to take courage take it it's there for you to take so he removed he got radical listen to this he removes abominable idols from the land of Judah and Benjamin so he's not just in Judah he also goes to the tribe of Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim and restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord so he's not getting detailed he's like working details he first did like a sweep it sounds like the obvious things now he's going in details going up to the mountains he's going to this city to that city he's like okay the altar before the Lord we got to fix this then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those who dwelt with them in Ephraim, Manessah and Simeon and they came over to him in great numbers from Israel and when they saw that the Lord his God was with him okay so they gathered together in Jerusalem on the third month in the 15th year of the reign of King Asa and they offered to the Lord at that time 700 bowls and 7000 sheeps from the spoil they had brought then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord their God their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul not only so King Asa gets radical I'm going to read a little bit something he did with his mother or his grandmother the entire kingdom rededicates themselves to the Lord the entire kingdom and this was a really big deal I think I have a list okay so what did he do he removed the abominable idols he restores the altar of the Lord they do this huge offering to the Lord they take an oath to dedicate themselves and in verse 13 it says and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death whether small or great whether man or woman then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice and shouting and trumpets and ram horns and all Judah rejoiced at the oath for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him for all their soul and he was found by them and the Lord gave them rest all around we're responsible for us we're responsible for our household right don't go off into the neighborhood I talked about that last Saturday don't go up to the top of the mountain and pray over phoenix don't do that stay in your lane you get yourself in order your household in order that should be enough right it's easy to pray for the nations but if your household's not in order that will lead you to lots of trouble lots of trouble so then he also removed Mahachah the mother of Asa the king from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah you know Asherah is called the queen of heaven you know who else is called the queen of heaven mother of Mary right mother of Jesus Mary mother of Jesus she's called the queen of heaven I just heard about some words the other day I recall I just heard, oh my god it was out there somewhere somebody said the same thing Ashtar that's how I say it, okay Ashtar sorry so Asa cut down her obscene image that image was like a god of fertility then crushed and burned it by the Brooke Kidron he removed his own mother or grandmother there's two we'll say that that was the mother or they'll say it was his grandmother so I'm not sure but he took his own family member and kicked her out for making that image and he says, oh no we're getting radical in this house we're gonna serve the Lord for me in my house we're gonna serve the Lord wow, he was radical and then it says this but the high places were not removed from Israel nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all of his days I'll stop a moment and say so there's two types of high places so a high place is an elevated place in the land a mountain, a hill they would make out of rock these altars and so when they moved into say the cana or they moved into another part in the beginning high places and so some of the Israel's when and they tried to burn their offerings to God on these altars that were for other gods so it says that it says that some of them must have been torn down but others were not and then it says I read, I think it was the botanica it said something about Israel offered sacrifices to the mother God God's wife because the children of Israel were participating in idolatry so history says oh we can see that they were worshiping God, creator God but they also were worshiping this other queen of heaven and they call it God's wife so there was a lot of controversy and so that's why they say maybe he didn't tear down the high places but he must have torn down some high places, okay I said it earlier nevertheless the heart of Asa, so if he didn't tear them down there had to be some other reason why he couldn't, his heart though was for God that's what I see in that he also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated that he himself had dedicated silver and gold utensils so again there we see that when they were in sin a lot of things got out of order and so little by little he's bringing back he's bringing back these utensils they're bringing back the priests, they're teaching the law they're sacrificing they're taking oaths they're doing these things okay so the question for you is what deep cleaning do you need to do in your life what things do you need to get rid of and what things do you need to bring in so that was in the 35th year of his reign in the 36th year of the reign of Asa everything changed everything changes my question for you is when did everything change for you so what happened to Asa Asa I don't know how to say that name Renju can you help me King of Israel his brother in the Lord came up against Judah and built a drama that he might let none go out or come in to the king Asa of Judah then Asa brought silver and gold from his treasuries okay so he sees the king of Israel coming against them what should he do pray seek the Lord right what does he do he goes into the house of the Lord he gathers up all those gold and silver treasuries and he sends it to Ben Haddad king of Syria and says help me can you help me I'm not saying going to a doctor is wrong not at all but when we're going well with the Lord for a long time and everything is good and you've taken care of business and then a crisis springs up do you forget have you ever forgotten wow I could just pray to the Lord so let's look at what happened he goes to this king of Israel the king of Israel is coming against him he goes to the king of Syria and offers him a huge gift and says hey could you talk to the king of Israel could you help me fight against him well he does and then the king of Israel backs off yes they so then the king of Israel Asa then king Asa took all Judah and they carried away kind of the things that were coming against them so after he gets help from this other king to fight against the king of Israel Israel the prophet comes back to him and he says this and at the time of Hanani the seer which is a prophet came to Asa the king of Judah and said to him because you have relied on the king of Syria and have not relied on the Lord your God therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand where the Ethiopians and the Lubrim not a huge army from very many chariots chariots I'm running out of juice here because you relied on the Lord he delivered you into the hand so he's reminding him you did rely on the Lord at one time but at this time you didn't for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth he's looking to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him in this you have done foolishly looking to that other king for help therefore from now on you shall have wars not only that then Asa we had 35 years of peace he built his cities he amassed wealth he also got he got angry with the seer and put him in prison he was enraged with him because of this and Asa oppressed some of the people at the time too he was mad got angry in verse 12 it says and in the 39th year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet and Amaldi was severe and in his disease he did not seek the Lord but physicians the eyes of the Lord are still running to and fro looking throughout the entire earth to show himself strong to somebody who will trust in him excuse me, does that question do you think that maybe a jime got in him well don't hurry up my bible study no I'm just saying it just because we've talked so much about it yeah right so here you go what killed king Asa of Judah okay so so listen to this now in the beginning remember I said his father rested where? with the fathers so Asa rested with his fathers he died at the 41st year of his reign but they buried him in his own tomb not with the fathers which he had made for himself in the city of David and they laid him in a bed which was filled with spices and various ingredients prepared in a mixture of ointments and they made a great burning for him what really killed him pride and arrogance that's right did he have a disease in his feet yes he did I don't see God gave him another opportunity to turn his face towards him by allowing this disease I believe this but king Asa said no I'm not going to turn to God I'm turning to physicians he was very wealthy he was very successful pride yeah that's what killed him we've got our own lives and we have our whole life to live we get saved we get deliverance we find out about deliverance we have a big dumpster deliverance and we are doing a lot better and our life gets cleaned up and we build and we buy houses and we get married and we have a family and everything's going great and then crisis hits so I'm reminding you remember the Lord he's just looking who can I show myself strong to will anybody trust me like king Asa we know we can look back and say oh yeah the Lord did this for me and the Lord did that for me and I was so radical and I was on fire and I worshipped and I prayed a lot and I trusted God for everything and then life got good and then boom another crisis a lot of times people yeah they're filled with pride they think they're going along in life and they think wow I'm doing this myself we have to always turn a face back to God and if you don't the Lord does allow negative things to come into our lives like a sickness he had a disease of the feet the research I did said that it was like a vascular disease so we could hardly walk you would think that would be enough to break a person God help me but he didn't he just went he made one doctor's appointment after another took this remedy and that remedy and that supplement and had acupuncture done think about it think about all the different things that we run to to solve our physical problems when the Lord's like hello what about me I want to show myself strong to you so I have some discussion questions for us you might have to really think about it what are some obvious sins in your life maybe this story jogged something in your mind you're like you know what I'm looking to this for comfort instead of the Lord and it's become an issue I'm not against eating ice cream I'm not against buttered popcorn I love buttered popcorn but when food or relationship or anything working out becomes our go-to then it's time to take a look at it number two what deep cleaning do you need to do maybe you don't know so hopefully discussion will help you discover that and number three if things are not going well when did everything change what happened what happened so any questions at all alright great thank you so we're going to move into our thanks for watching and we'll see you in another one