Doctor Mark Jones.

Doctor Mark Jones.

When God finds a heart that is fully devoted to him, it makes him stop. You know what that tells me is that if you position yourself with a heart that's fully devoted to God, that God will strengthen you. God will stop and say, I found one.

When God finds a heart that is fully devoted to him, it makes him stop. You know what that tells me is that if you position yourself with a heart that's fully devoted to God, that God will strengthen you. God will stop and say, I found one.

There's lots to explore on today's edition of Moody Presents. Welcome. Our teacher is Moody Bible Institute president doctor Mark Jobe, also founding pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Coming up on today's Moody Presents, what is a heart that is fully devoted? What does that look like? Pastor Mark will challenge us to go all in spiritually as we begin a three part series that focuses on what it means to be fully devoted to God. This is a subject that deserves a lot of attention, I think. Why? Well, you know, the more seasoned and older we get, the more we tend to depend on ourselves and our abilities instead of God. Our experiences can cause us to just kind of coast along in our spirituality. Well, today, a challenge that goes right to the heart. We're heading for Second Chronicles chapter 16, and we'll get there in just a second. But first, I want to let you know that you're going to want to check out our website at Moody presents.org. That's Moody Presents dot org. Here you're able to subscribe to receive exclusive content from us and even get a copy of Kids Say the Wisest Things our current Moody Presents resource. And by the way, a great gift for Mother's Day that's at Moody presents.org. Now if you have your Bible handy, let's turn to Second Chronicles chapter 16 as Doctor Joe begins.

There's lots to explore on today's edition of Moody Presents. Welcome. Our teacher is Moody Bible Institute president doctor Mark Jobe, also founding pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Coming up on today's Moody Presents, what is a heart that is fully devoted? What does that look like? Pastor Mark will challenge us to go all in spiritually as we begin a three part series that focuses on what it means to be fully devoted to God. This is a subject that deserves a lot of attention, I think. Why? Well, you know, the more seasoned and older we get, the more we tend to depend on ourselves and our abilities instead of God. Our experiences can cause us to just kind of coast along in our spirituality. Well, today, a challenge that goes right to the heart. We're heading for Second Chronicles chapter 16, and we'll get there in just a second. But first, I want to let you know that you're going to want to check out our website at Moody presents.org. That's Moody Presents dot org. Here you're able to subscribe to receive exclusive content from us and even get a copy of Kids Say the Wisest Things our current Moody Presents resource. And by the way, a great gift for Mother's Day that's at Moody presents.org. Now if you have your Bible handy, let's turn to Second Chronicles chapter 16 as Doctor Joe begins.

I was at my. Son's high school graduation grant. I believe it was on a Sunday. And so he got there a little bit late, entered into the auditorium. It was packed out. We managed to get a seat, two seats together. My wife and I barely squeezed in. And then the first thing that my wife said is, where's Grant? So I looked over the sea of heads and they had all their graduation caps on. So they all look the same and they had their graduation gowns on, so they all looked the same. And so I was scanning row by row. Let me see. No, no. Does that look like him? I can't really tell. I thought I found them. I looked a little bit closer. No, it wasn't him. I was going row by row trying to find. Where is Grant? Like Where's Waldo? We're all by row trying to find where is Grant? And then finally I said, I think I found him, and I looked over. Sure it's him. I pointed my wife. It's him. Do you see him? Look right over there. Second, third row over. Do you see him? And she said, aha, I see him now. Don't lose them because we finally found them. There's a passage in Scripture that said, God does that. In fact, it says that the eyes of the Lord. Go to and fro throughout all the earth. He scans. Cities, neighborhoods, communities. His eyes go back and forth. It says in the Hebrew. The literally it says, the eyes of the Lord go back and forth, scanning, looking. Can I find one? Can I find one? Lands on Chicago, 77 neighborhoods. Can I find one? Goes up on the north side, Rogers Park, Evanston. Can I find one? Goes down to the loop. Can I find one? Goes to the southwest side of Chicago. Neighborhood by neighborhood. Garfield. Can I find one? Goes home by home, home by home. Can I find one? Can I find one address by address? Can I see one? Where is it? What is God looking for that's so unique, that's so rare, that's so hard to find. And finally, when he sees one, his eyes stop and he says, aha, I got one. You say, what is so rare that God is searching for what is so unique that even God has to search for them? This verse of Scripture tells us that what God is searching for, that makes God stop at your address is one thing. When God finds hear me, hear me now. When God finds a heart that is fully devoted to him, it makes him stop. You know what that tells me? That hearts that are fully devoted to God are rare. Second Chronicles, chapter 16, verse nine says, for the eyes of the Lord reigns throughout all the earth. Another translation says, for the eyes of the Lord moved to and fro throughout all the earth. That he may strongly support those whose hearts are completely his, or those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What this passage tells me is that if you position yourself with a heart that's fully devoted to God, that God will strengthen you, pour out his power upon you, God will stop and say, I found one, and if I found one, I'm going to pour power upon this heart. Strengthen this heart, because I've found a heart that's fully devoted to me. So I wondered today if God were to scan these rows back and forth from front to back, from end to end, whether he would stop in your chair. Whether the heart of God would stop and say, yeah, I found one that's fully devoted, not halfway devoted, not partially devoted, not somewhat interested, not semi lightly committed. But if you would find a heart that says, aha, I found a heart that's fully devoted. Second Chronicles. Is really about a man by the name of Asa King Asa. And I want to tell you a little bit of his story because. This passage is in the context of King A's story. And I'm going to begin reading in verse two it says, then Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king's house, and sent them to the king of Aaron, who lived in Damascus, saying, let there be a treaty between you and me, and between my father and your father. If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Fully devoted hearts refuse to give what belongs to God to others. Let me give you the story of King Asa a little bit and give you the context. King Asa was a king that started when he was young. And when he started being king of Judah, of the Israelites, he was devoted. He was zealous. He started out wanting to follow God with all of his heart. He was a righteous king in Israel. Sometimes you had a good king, a bad king, a good king, a bad king. No, Asa was one of the good kings. He had a zeal for God. He wanted to follow God. He wanted to turn the nation back to God. He prayed. He called unto God. He had this fire and zeal about him that was compelling. People saw it and knew it. He was a man that was trying to seek after God. But as he grew, as he changed, as he went forward, something in his heart started to shift. Something in his heart started to change. Oh, he still believed in God. He still followed God. But something. The zeal, the fire, the drive, the passion seemed to grow less and less the older he got. In the beginning, he was naively zealous about God. In fact, an entire army came against him and was about to threaten and wipe them out. They could have wiped them out. And instead of organizing his armies and instead of going to battle, what he did is he prayed. He got on his knees before God. He called a fast. He prayed before God. He called up unto God, God, spare us, deliver us, help us. Because I can't do this on my own. And God miraculously turned the whole situation around and King Asa came out winning simply because he called upon the name of the Lord. You know, there's something about. Yung faith. That's endearing. How about it? Something about first believing. You just start believing in God. And you're young and your faith is zealous and you're new to it, and suddenly you've been awakened from your spiritual deadness and you're excited about God and you do crazy things. Your car stops and can't get it started. So you lay your hands on the hood and you say, in the name of Jesus, I pray, father, start this up and you go in and try it again. And if it doesn't work, you go out again. Lord, in the name of Jesus, I pray, come, power the Holy Spirit, revive this car and you see your car start. You see things, crazy things that people are saying. You're nuts. Why you doing that? Why? Because God has awakened you. You're excited about God. You pray like a little kid would pray. You pray with faith, with zeal, with excitement. You can't wait to get to the house of God and worship God. I've had some of you tell me that when you first came to God and God started working in your life, you couldn't come to worship service without crying. You'd come and as soon as the song would start playing, you didn't know why you felt awkward. Some of you have told me you had to leave the auditorium because you just start weeping and crying. Why? Because the presence of God was so sweet and powerful. You just felt moved in your heart. By the presence of God, you find yourself reading the Bible, getting up and saying God spoke to me, being excited, calling up a friend and saying, hey, I may sound crazy to you, but guess what? I read my Bible. I feel like God spoke to me. You see signs and there's zeal in your heart and you want to talk to people. You come early to worship. You raise your hands and something inside is moving you. Why? It's young faith, zealous faith. Faith that simply says, I trust God. But with time. Something happens sometimes if we're not careful with time. With time, we become more seasoned. With time, we become more. Well, we know it. We become more self-reliant. We become more educated about religious things. We become more knowledgeable. And sometimes as our knowledge grows, our fire goes down. And sometimes as our familiarity with God grows, our passion goes down. And sometimes what we find ourselves with greater knowledge, but with less passion, we exchange one for the other. You know, the Bible says that in order to enter the kingdom of God, you must be like a child. And you wonder why. Like a child. I think it's not about not knowing. It's not about naivety. It's about the simplicity of faith that a child has when the father walks in and they say, daddy. When a little kid walks in. When? When my kids were small, I'd come to the door. And when they were old enough, they were 3 or 4. They would run to the door. They wanted me to hold daddy, daddy. And I'd pick them up and throw them daddy, daddy. And I'd try to hold them all at the same time. Why? Just the simplicity of a little kid excited that their dad is home. And if you hear them talk to their friends. My daddy stronger than your daddy. I mean, they believe that their daddy could lift up cars and and their daddy could almost do anything. This is. My daddy can do it. Wait til I call my daddy. My daddy's here. The simplicity of. Yeah, I know my daddy. If he's here, everything's okay. The simplicity of a child. And Jesus said, if you enter into the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God belongs to those whose faith is like that of a child. Asia started that way, but something changed inside of his heart. In fact now. It tells us in Second Chronicles that early on in his career he trusted God and prayed and God answered. But this time around, the same thing happened. The armies came against him, and this time around he was less passionate about his faith. He was less naive, less sincere, less zealous. This time he decided to make a treaty. And so he actually went into the house of God, into the temple, and he took all the gold and silver appliances and cups out of the house of God. And he took them all. And he got some from his own house. And he went and he brought the treasure before the king of Aram and said, hey, I'll give you this treasure, and let's make a treaty. This time, instead of going to God, he took that which belonged to God and gave it to someone else.

I was at my. Son's high school graduation grant. I believe it was on a Sunday. And so he got there a little bit late, entered into the auditorium. It was packed out. We managed to get a seat, two seats together. My wife and I barely squeezed in. And then the first thing that my wife said is, where's Grant? So I looked over the sea of heads and they had all their graduation caps on. So they all look the same and they had their graduation gowns on, so they all looked the same. And so I was scanning row by row. Let me see. No, no. Does that look like him? I can't really tell. I thought I found them. I looked a little bit closer. No, it wasn't him. I was going row by row trying to find. Where is Grant? Like Where's Waldo? We're all by row trying to find where is Grant? And then finally I said, I think I found him, and I looked over. Sure it's him. I pointed my wife. It's him. Do you see him? Look right over there. Second, third row over. Do you see him? And she said, aha, I see him now. Don't lose them because we finally found them. There's a passage in Scripture that said, God does that. In fact, it says that the eyes of the Lord. Go to and fro throughout all the earth. He scans. Cities, neighborhoods, communities. His eyes go back and forth. It says in the Hebrew. The literally it says, the eyes of the Lord go back and forth, scanning, looking. Can I find one? Can I find one? Lands on Chicago, 77 neighborhoods. Can I find one? Goes up on the north side, Rogers Park, Evanston. Can I find one? Goes down to the loop. Can I find one? Goes to the southwest side of Chicago. Neighborhood by neighborhood. Garfield. Can I find one? Goes home by home, home by home. Can I find one? Can I find one address by address? Can I see one? Where is it? What is God looking for that's so unique, that's so rare, that's so hard to find. And finally, when he sees one, his eyes stop and he says, aha, I got one. You say, what is so rare that God is searching for what is so unique that even God has to search for them? This verse of Scripture tells us that what God is searching for, that makes God stop at your address is one thing. When God finds hear me, hear me now. When God finds a heart that is fully devoted to him, it makes him stop. You know what that tells me? That hearts that are fully devoted to God are rare. Second Chronicles, chapter 16, verse nine says, for the eyes of the Lord reigns throughout all the earth. Another translation says, for the eyes of the Lord moved to and fro throughout all the earth. That he may strongly support those whose hearts are completely his, or those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What this passage tells me is that if you position yourself with a heart that's fully devoted to God, that God will strengthen you, pour out his power upon you, God will stop and say, I found one, and if I found one, I'm going to pour power upon this heart. Strengthen this heart, because I've found a heart that's fully devoted to me. So I wondered today if God were to scan these rows back and forth from front to back, from end to end, whether he would stop in your chair. Whether the heart of God would stop and say, yeah, I found one that's fully devoted, not halfway devoted, not partially devoted, not somewhat interested, not semi lightly committed. But if you would find a heart that says, aha, I found a heart that's fully devoted. Second Chronicles. Is really about a man by the name of Asa King Asa. And I want to tell you a little bit of his story because. This passage is in the context of King A's story. And I'm going to begin reading in verse two it says, then Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king's house, and sent them to the king of Aaron, who lived in Damascus, saying, let there be a treaty between you and me, and between my father and your father. If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Fully devoted hearts refuse to give what belongs to God to others. Let me give you the story of King Asa a little bit and give you the context. King Asa was a king that started when he was young. And when he started being king of Judah, of the Israelites, he was devoted. He was zealous. He started out wanting to follow God with all of his heart. He was a righteous king in Israel. Sometimes you had a good king, a bad king, a good king, a bad king. No, Asa was one of the good kings. He had a zeal for God. He wanted to follow God. He wanted to turn the nation back to God. He prayed. He called unto God. He had this fire and zeal about him that was compelling. People saw it and knew it. He was a man that was trying to seek after God. But as he grew, as he changed, as he went forward, something in his heart started to shift. Something in his heart started to change. Oh, he still believed in God. He still followed God. But something. The zeal, the fire, the drive, the passion seemed to grow less and less the older he got. In the beginning, he was naively zealous about God. In fact, an entire army came against him and was about to threaten and wipe them out. They could have wiped them out. And instead of organizing his armies and instead of going to battle, what he did is he prayed. He got on his knees before God. He called a fast. He prayed before God. He called up unto God, God, spare us, deliver us, help us. Because I can't do this on my own. And God miraculously turned the whole situation around and King Asa came out winning simply because he called upon the name of the Lord. You know, there's something about. Yung faith. That's endearing. How about it? Something about first believing. You just start believing in God. And you're young and your faith is zealous and you're new to it, and suddenly you've been awakened from your spiritual deadness and you're excited about God and you do crazy things. Your car stops and can't get it started. So you lay your hands on the hood and you say, in the name of Jesus, I pray, father, start this up and you go in and try it again. And if it doesn't work, you go out again. Lord, in the name of Jesus, I pray, come, power the Holy Spirit, revive this car and you see your car start. You see things, crazy things that people are saying. You're nuts. Why you doing that? Why? Because God has awakened you. You're excited about God. You pray like a little kid would pray. You pray with faith, with zeal, with excitement. You can't wait to get to the house of God and worship God. I've had some of you tell me that when you first came to God and God started working in your life, you couldn't come to worship service without crying. You'd come and as soon as the song would start playing, you didn't know why you felt awkward. Some of you have told me you had to leave the auditorium because you just start weeping and crying. Why? Because the presence of God was so sweet and powerful. You just felt moved in your heart. By the presence of God, you find yourself reading the Bible, getting up and saying God spoke to me, being excited, calling up a friend and saying, hey, I may sound crazy to you, but guess what? I read my Bible. I feel like God spoke to me. You see signs and there's zeal in your heart and you want to talk to people. You come early to worship. You raise your hands and something inside is moving you. Why? It's young faith, zealous faith. Faith that simply says, I trust God. But with time. Something happens sometimes if we're not careful with time. With time, we become more seasoned. With time, we become more. Well, we know it. We become more self-reliant. We become more educated about religious things. We become more knowledgeable. And sometimes as our knowledge grows, our fire goes down. And sometimes as our familiarity with God grows, our passion goes down. And sometimes what we find ourselves with greater knowledge, but with less passion, we exchange one for the other. You know, the Bible says that in order to enter the kingdom of God, you must be like a child. And you wonder why. Like a child. I think it's not about not knowing. It's not about naivety. It's about the simplicity of faith that a child has when the father walks in and they say, daddy. When a little kid walks in. When? When my kids were small, I'd come to the door. And when they were old enough, they were 3 or 4. They would run to the door. They wanted me to hold daddy, daddy. And I'd pick them up and throw them daddy, daddy. And I'd try to hold them all at the same time. Why? Just the simplicity of a little kid excited that their dad is home. And if you hear them talk to their friends. My daddy stronger than your daddy. I mean, they believe that their daddy could lift up cars and and their daddy could almost do anything. This is. My daddy can do it. Wait til I call my daddy. My daddy's here. The simplicity of. Yeah, I know my daddy. If he's here, everything's okay. The simplicity of a child. And Jesus said, if you enter into the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God belongs to those whose faith is like that of a child. Asia started that way, but something changed inside of his heart. In fact now. It tells us in Second Chronicles that early on in his career he trusted God and prayed and God answered. But this time around, the same thing happened. The armies came against him, and this time around he was less passionate about his faith. He was less naive, less sincere, less zealous. This time he decided to make a treaty. And so he actually went into the house of God, into the temple, and he took all the gold and silver appliances and cups out of the house of God. And he took them all. And he got some from his own house. And he went and he brought the treasure before the king of Aram and said, hey, I'll give you this treasure, and let's make a treaty. This time, instead of going to God, he took that which belonged to God and gave it to someone else.

Helping you develop a heart that is fully devoted to God. This is Moody Presents, and we'll get back to Pastor Mark's message in just a moment. First, though, I want to build on something I mentioned at the beginning of the program, and that's the opportunity for you to get some great resources from our team here at Moody Presents. For example, for a gift of any size at Moody presents.org, you'll receive a copy of the Moody publisher's book, Kids Say the Wisest Things. This has been well received by folks like Jim Daly from focus on the family, Tony Evans, psychologist Kevin Lehman, and more. They're saying that these stories, actual stories, actual quotes from kids really open up profound windows into deep theological truths. So it's not a book for kids. It's not even really a book about kids. It's about us and our relationship with God, and how listening to kids and their take on things kind of puts things in the perspective that we really need to have. Again, it's called Kids Say the Wisest Things. It's a fun read, but very, very power packed. And it's our thank you as you give a gift of any size at Moody presents.org. And also, while you're there, type in your email address in the boxes and we'll give you access to behind the scenes resources links that will come right to your email inbox. And if you say, you know, I'd rather have a phone number to get this all going, well, you can do that too at (800) 400-7022. I'll slow it down (800) 400-7022. Hey, let's get back to our teaching segment with pastor Mark Jobe.

Helping you develop a heart that is fully devoted to God. This is Moody Presents, and we'll get back to Pastor Mark's message in just a moment. First, though, I want to build on something I mentioned at the beginning of the program, and that's the opportunity for you to get some great resources from our team here at Moody Presents. For example, for a gift of any size at Moody presents.org, you'll receive a copy of the Moody publisher's book, Kids Say the Wisest Things. This has been well received by folks like Jim Daly from focus on the family, Tony Evans, psychologist Kevin Lehman, and more. They're saying that these stories, actual stories, actual quotes from kids really open up profound windows into deep theological truths. So it's not a book for kids. It's not even really a book about kids. It's about us and our relationship with God, and how listening to kids and their take on things kind of puts things in the perspective that we really need to have. Again, it's called Kids Say the Wisest Things. It's a fun read, but very, very power packed. And it's our thank you as you give a gift of any size at Moody presents.org. And also, while you're there, type in your email address in the boxes and we'll give you access to behind the scenes resources links that will come right to your email inbox. And if you say, you know, I'd rather have a phone number to get this all going, well, you can do that too at (800) 400-7022. I'll slow it down (800) 400-7022. Hey, let's get back to our teaching segment with pastor Mark Jobe.

And I was thinking about that. The natural tendency for us as we grow older to become more self-reliant. The natural tendency to become more self dependent instead of God dependent. The natural tendency to lose our zeal. To become a little bit more cynical. To become a little bit less passionate. I'm not impressed by a new believer that zealous about God. I'm impressed by someone that's walking a long time in a zealous about God. You know, I'm not really impressed by a young dating couple that's only started to date three months, and they're all over each other. And just looking at each other's eyes. Can't sit in church without rubbing each other's hair. Get as close as they can. Like, are you 1 or 2 there? Can't tell. Because, yeah, they've only been dating a short amount of time. What I'm impressed with is someone that's been married for 20 years, and they still have a zeal and desire for one another. What I'm impressed is long term zeal. What I'm impressed is a zeal and a fervor that goes beyond the infatuation stage. But that goes for a long time. Let me tell you. What I'm impressed with is not a new believer that zealous about God. What I'm impressed with is someone that's walk with God for 25 years and has a passion and zeal for the things of God. That's what impresses me. Something about ASA had changed. Instead of the simple, sincere faith of going to God. Now he's making deals, now he's actually taking things from God and buying off his enemy. Now I want to tell you that it worked. But how many? How many of you know? Just because it works temporarily doesn't mean that it's good in the long run. You may do something right now that fixes something temporarily, but that long term has a devastating effect upon your life. King Asa went into the temple, gathered the stuff and gave it away. I thought to myself, how do we do that today? Oh, we don't go into the temple, get things and and sell it. But we do it with our life. When we came to Christ, when we came to God. I was 15 when I gave my life to Christ. Knelt in the basement of my grandmother's apartment and I said, Lord, I know I could go in a lot of different directions. I was a sophomore in high school. My friends were partying. Everybody's going in their direction. I was being pulled one way or another. I kneeled beside my bed and I said, I know that I know about faith and I know about God because I was raised in it, but I have to. I have to choose. Will that be my God? Will that be my faith? Will that be my journey? Or is that the faith of my parents? At 15 years old, I knelt beside and I said, Lord, I'm going to follow you. I'm going to give my life to you. You will be my Lord, whatever the cost. And when I got up, I felt it like I have just given my life to Jesus. When you come to Christ, you say, you're Lord of all. My heart belongs to you, God. But you know. It's interesting that we can take, well, our time. That really belongs to God. And you look over your week and you say, really? How much of your time have you actually given to God? I mean, really, if your life belongs to God, how much of your time have you actually spent on the things that belong to God? You say, hey Lord, my energy belongs to you, Lord. How much of your energy has actually gone into something that is God centered? Your praise. Oh, you give credit to people. You think people at your job, you think family members. You think other people. But really, how much of the credit have you given to God? And are we are we taking it from the house of God, from the things of God, and giving it away, and have very little that we can offer to God? How much of your talents. Some of you here are extremely gifted, extremely talented. God has enabled you to do things. Some of you are mechanical, some of you are artistic. Some of you are creative. Some of you have verbal skills, relational skills you have. You are uniquely qualified and uniquely empowered by God for certain things. But you're taking really all of it that God has given you, and using it on things that have almost nothing to do with anything remotely related to God. Maybe good things, maybe nice things, but really, how much of it? Really belongs to God. Asia as he grew. Compromise in his life. Asa as he grew his priorities, his resources, instead of going to God. He started taking what God had given him, what belonged to God, and started giving it away in his own compromise. I'm talking about hearts that are fully devoted. Number two. Not only does a heart fully devoted refuse to give what belongs to God to others. But also. Secondly, a heart that is fully devoted puts their reliance on God above all else. Notice what it says in verse seven. At that time, Hananiah the seer or the prophet, came to ace of the king of Judah and said to him, because you have relied on the king of Aaron, and have not relied on the Lord your God. Because you've relied on others and haven't relied on the Lord your God. You will not have a full victory. You see what did happen? Is that Ayeza had stopped trusting God and he started trusting himself. He stopped believing that. Yeah, God could do it all. That simple, childlike faith. Trust is the ability to believe that ultimately God is in control of all things. How about it? And it's interesting to note later on in the chapter, I want you to see this later on in the chapter, it tells us that, um, in his verse 12, it says in his 39th year of his reign, Asa ended very asa ended poorly, it said, in his 39th year of his reign, after being king for 39 years, Asa became diseased in his feet. We don't know exactly what kind of disease it was. A lot more than athletes. Believe me, he became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe. Listen. But yet, even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but only the doctors. Can I tell you there's a shift in mindset going on there? There's nothing wrong with going to doctors. If you're sick, you should go to a doctor. So, pastor, I'm just going to trust the Lord. Well, you know, why don't you trust the Lord and go to a doctor, too? It's not a lack of faith to go to a doctor. How about it? You see, when you trust in others or other people or other things, but you don't go to God. Ultimately you're saying, hey, my trust isn't ultimately in you. God, I think I can solve my problems and my issues without you. God. Can I tell you something? That is the ultimate presumption and arrogance of the human heart. To think that we can do anything that's worth doing without the power and strength of God. Can I tell you something? If your marriage is in trouble, I'm glad you should go to a counselor to help you with your marriage. You should. Ben, can I tell you something? Take the initiative. You be the one that leads. Men typically don't like to do that. I love what Proverbs chapter three, verse five and six says. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. What does it say? How much of our heart. Part of our heart. What does all mean in the Greek? All.

And I was thinking about that. The natural tendency for us as we grow older to become more self-reliant. The natural tendency to become more self dependent instead of God dependent. The natural tendency to lose our zeal. To become a little bit more cynical. To become a little bit less passionate. I'm not impressed by a new believer that zealous about God. I'm impressed by someone that's walking a long time in a zealous about God. You know, I'm not really impressed by a young dating couple that's only started to date three months, and they're all over each other. And just looking at each other's eyes. Can't sit in church without rubbing each other's hair. Get as close as they can. Like, are you 1 or 2 there? Can't tell. Because, yeah, they've only been dating a short amount of time. What I'm impressed with is someone that's been married for 20 years, and they still have a zeal and desire for one another. What I'm impressed is long term zeal. What I'm impressed is a zeal and a fervor that goes beyond the infatuation stage. But that goes for a long time. Let me tell you. What I'm impressed with is not a new believer that zealous about God. What I'm impressed with is someone that's walk with God for 25 years and has a passion and zeal for the things of God. That's what impresses me. Something about ASA had changed. Instead of the simple, sincere faith of going to God. Now he's making deals, now he's actually taking things from God and buying off his enemy. Now I want to tell you that it worked. But how many? How many of you know? Just because it works temporarily doesn't mean that it's good in the long run. You may do something right now that fixes something temporarily, but that long term has a devastating effect upon your life. King Asa went into the temple, gathered the stuff and gave it away. I thought to myself, how do we do that today? Oh, we don't go into the temple, get things and and sell it. But we do it with our life. When we came to Christ, when we came to God. I was 15 when I gave my life to Christ. Knelt in the basement of my grandmother's apartment and I said, Lord, I know I could go in a lot of different directions. I was a sophomore in high school. My friends were partying. Everybody's going in their direction. I was being pulled one way or another. I kneeled beside my bed and I said, I know that I know about faith and I know about God because I was raised in it, but I have to. I have to choose. Will that be my God? Will that be my faith? Will that be my journey? Or is that the faith of my parents? At 15 years old, I knelt beside and I said, Lord, I'm going to follow you. I'm going to give my life to you. You will be my Lord, whatever the cost. And when I got up, I felt it like I have just given my life to Jesus. When you come to Christ, you say, you're Lord of all. My heart belongs to you, God. But you know. It's interesting that we can take, well, our time. That really belongs to God. And you look over your week and you say, really? How much of your time have you actually given to God? I mean, really, if your life belongs to God, how much of your time have you actually spent on the things that belong to God? You say, hey Lord, my energy belongs to you, Lord. How much of your energy has actually gone into something that is God centered? Your praise. Oh, you give credit to people. You think people at your job, you think family members. You think other people. But really, how much of the credit have you given to God? And are we are we taking it from the house of God, from the things of God, and giving it away, and have very little that we can offer to God? How much of your talents. Some of you here are extremely gifted, extremely talented. God has enabled you to do things. Some of you are mechanical, some of you are artistic. Some of you are creative. Some of you have verbal skills, relational skills you have. You are uniquely qualified and uniquely empowered by God for certain things. But you're taking really all of it that God has given you, and using it on things that have almost nothing to do with anything remotely related to God. Maybe good things, maybe nice things, but really, how much of it? Really belongs to God. Asia as he grew. Compromise in his life. Asa as he grew his priorities, his resources, instead of going to God. He started taking what God had given him, what belonged to God, and started giving it away in his own compromise. I'm talking about hearts that are fully devoted. Number two. Not only does a heart fully devoted refuse to give what belongs to God to others. But also. Secondly, a heart that is fully devoted puts their reliance on God above all else. Notice what it says in verse seven. At that time, Hananiah the seer or the prophet, came to ace of the king of Judah and said to him, because you have relied on the king of Aaron, and have not relied on the Lord your God. Because you've relied on others and haven't relied on the Lord your God. You will not have a full victory. You see what did happen? Is that Ayeza had stopped trusting God and he started trusting himself. He stopped believing that. Yeah, God could do it all. That simple, childlike faith. Trust is the ability to believe that ultimately God is in control of all things. How about it? And it's interesting to note later on in the chapter, I want you to see this later on in the chapter, it tells us that, um, in his verse 12, it says in his 39th year of his reign, Asa ended very asa ended poorly, it said, in his 39th year of his reign, after being king for 39 years, Asa became diseased in his feet. We don't know exactly what kind of disease it was. A lot more than athletes. Believe me, he became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe. Listen. But yet, even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but only the doctors. Can I tell you there's a shift in mindset going on there? There's nothing wrong with going to doctors. If you're sick, you should go to a doctor. So, pastor, I'm just going to trust the Lord. Well, you know, why don't you trust the Lord and go to a doctor, too? It's not a lack of faith to go to a doctor. How about it? You see, when you trust in others or other people or other things, but you don't go to God. Ultimately you're saying, hey, my trust isn't ultimately in you. God, I think I can solve my problems and my issues without you. God. Can I tell you something? That is the ultimate presumption and arrogance of the human heart. To think that we can do anything that's worth doing without the power and strength of God. Can I tell you something? If your marriage is in trouble, I'm glad you should go to a counselor to help you with your marriage. You should. Ben, can I tell you something? Take the initiative. You be the one that leads. Men typically don't like to do that. I love what Proverbs chapter three, verse five and six says. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. What does it say? How much of our heart. Part of our heart. What does all mean in the Greek? All.

Thanks, pastor Mark. And as a first step in becoming fully devoted to God, well, you need to know him and trust him. You know, the Bible says unless a man or woman is born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, how do you become born again? The Bible says it's by grace that we're saved through faith. It's not our doing. It's not our giving. It's not our best behavior. It's not going to the right church or any church. It's going to God himself and saying, I've blown it. I'm a sinner. I've messed up. Would you please forgive me and be in charge of my life? And after that, of course, you do want to be in a Bible teaching church. You do want to ground your faith in Jesus. But it begins with that simple prayer. And if you'd like someone to pray with you, well, a volunteer will be glad to pray with you right now at eight, eight, eight. Need him, 888 need him. So glad you joined us today here on Moody Presents. I'm John Jaeger, inviting you to join us back next week for part two of When God Stops. That's in our fully devoted series. Next time on Moody presents a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.

Thanks, pastor Mark. And as a first step in becoming fully devoted to God, well, you need to know him and trust him. You know, the Bible says unless a man or woman is born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, how do you become born again? The Bible says it's by grace that we're saved through faith. It's not our doing. It's not our giving. It's not our best behavior. It's not going to the right church or any church. It's going to God himself and saying, I've blown it. I'm a sinner. I've messed up. Would you please forgive me and be in charge of my life? And after that, of course, you do want to be in a Bible teaching church. You do want to ground your faith in Jesus. But it begins with that simple prayer. And if you'd like someone to pray with you, well, a volunteer will be glad to pray with you right now at eight, eight, eight. Need him, 888 need him. So glad you joined us today here on Moody Presents. I'm John Jaeger, inviting you to join us back next week for part two of When God Stops. That's in our fully devoted series. Next time on Moody presents a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.