Sermon Notes
Pastor Jeff Stanfill

"A Good Framework, A Better Foundation"
Jehosaphat
August 27, 2006 - AM Service

A GOOD FRAMEWORK, A BETTER FOUNDATION
TEXT: 2 CHRON 17:1-13
INTRO:
READ TEXT FIRST.

The nation of the people of God had experienced a civil division. After Solomon's son, Reheboam, ascended to the throne, his unwise and uncaring decisions split off ten tribes of the people into a separate nation that carried the name Israel. These ten tribes were the northern division of the people.

Two tribes remained loyal to the house of David and they were called Judah. These two southern tribes always had a descendent of David on their throne as God had promised David.

Jehoshaphat was the fourth of these kings of the line of David. The first three of his twenty-five years he served as co-regent with his sickly father, Asa. He gained the full throne after his father's death and immediately acts with prudence and power. His life and rule can be summarized in an epithet written after his death, he "sought the Lord with all his heart." (2 Chron. 22:9). I trust that in the heart of every adult and student there is a growing desire for the same observation about themselves. While in my college years a gained an admiration for families that I met from all across the United States at that time who were spiritual dynasties. It became a desire in my heart.

As a king Jehoshaphat was a very wise ruler. In strengthening the southern tribes fortifications from a possible attack from the northern tribes he sought to provide greater security to his people. That is one of the proper roles of government, to provide for the security of the people against hostile threats. This is a sacred responsibility assigned to government by God the Creator. And governments that fulfill this task will be inline with God's purposes that bring blessings. Anytime that a government uses its authority and power to allow threats upon its citizens, even and especially the weakest such as the unborn and the very aged and ill, will find itself under dire judgment from God.

But Jehoshaphat is well blessed by God's presence (v.3). And both the wisdom of his rulership and the blessings of his God were rooted in his excellent character. He did not seek the idols of his day and culture but he sought the God of his father (good heritage). He personally lived obedient to God (17:4b). Here is a real contrast between the ways of God and the ways of the world. The world may laud the success of a man or woman in their profession and area of expertise while they themselves are a moral scoundrel. But in the ways of God, it matters not how skilled and professional one may be if they are not a man or woman of integrity, they are nothing other than a failure in God's eyes.

"The LORD established the kingdom under his control." (V.5a). Jehoshaphat was a wise ruler and a good man of character but it was the Lord that made it all work. This is so relevant to our lives today when everything is said to rise or fall on human leadership; when it is always a man or a woman that is praised when it succeeds and blamed when it sinks. Where is God today? He's pushed aside; so forgotten as to not even be missed.

After years of pondering I have come to settle on a definition of leadership and leaders. A leader is a responsible human agent through whom God sovereignly works to accomplish His redemptive purpose. Human responsibility is alloyed with God's sovereignty. That is the way of God.

And how strong a life when the work or blessings of God and the devotion of the man are alloyed! Both pass back and forth with one another in the verses as we read. Jehoshaphat did this ... the Lord was with him; ... Jehoshaphat did that ... the Lord established; ... Jehoshaphat was devoted ... the Lord accomplished this. What better could strengthen a life than the being responsible before God and seeing Him move His Hand?

Jehoshaphat's was a great life lived in devotion to God. Was he perfect? No. Only God is perfect. But as one author summarized, "Jehoshaphat ... [is a] bright light against the dark paganism that existed during [his] time. [He had] certain weaknesses, but [his] faith in the Lord brought good to [him] as well as God's people during [his] reign." Nelson's Bible Dictionary.

And perhaps no greater good came through his life into the people of God than that good of the teaching of the Word of God. Jehoshaphat established a commission of five princes, nine Levites, and two priests that traveled throughout all Judah taking the Word of God and taught the people the Word. His was a national model based on the covenant of God to permeate all of life with the instruction of the Word of God. Deut 11:19-21. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

A lesson to learn from this royal and famous man is a lesson of the Word of God. Every one of us is responsible for ourselves and most of us are responsible for someone else. So in that since we are all leaders for the day!

One point illustrated three ways - the Word of God is powerful and an active force in the world. And teaching and learning the Word of God is the key to life.

I. JEHOSHAPHAT STABILIZED HIS KINGDOM WITH THE TAUGHT WORD OF GOD (17:10, 19:4).
1. Jehoshaphat knew that both the foundation and framework of a civilization eroded when ignorance of the Word of God prevailed. He formed this commission to go from city to city, town to town, village to village to educate his people on the one true and reliable foundation for morality - the revealed, inspired Word of God.

2. The work of this commission was continued and is seen again in 19:4 where justice is secured for every one. Social stability came with the teaching of a common standard of right and wrong. Without the Bible being taught to the people of a nation or a family or a church, there can be no standard. I believe that the Bible, God's Word is the only source of making the standard known and sure.

II. AS JEHOSHAPHAT TAUGHT THE WORD OF GOD HE ENJOYED THE REWARDS (17:10-11, 5).
1. Personally, Jehoshaphat enjoyed great wealth and the love of his subjects as he sought God. And an aspect of the stability his kingdom experienced was the fear of God that fell upon the potential enemies around them. And be amazed to read verse 11 that even the Arabs brought gifts to the Jewish king. Why? Prov 16:7. When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.

2. The Word of God brings rewards. There is: joy (Ps. 19:8), food and spiritual growth (1 Pet. 2:2), enlightenment and understanding (Ps. 119:130), hope (Rom. 15:4), and the stability we just considered.

3. Later the Bible records that Jehoshaphat did face encounters with more distant enemies. But even then, victory came to him and Judah without wielding a sword. Jesus tells of the reward of a life built on the Word of God in His teaching. Matt 7:24-27. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Notice that the flood came to both. The Word of God makes no promise that if obeyed then every moment of all of life will be storm free. Rather it assures us that the reward of a life built on the Word of God is the survival of the flood!

4. Our lives, families, communities, and church will survive any flood when it is built on the teaching of the Word of God!

III. JEHOSHAPHAT'S TEACHING THE WORD OF GOD OPENED PATHS OF INFLUENCE AMONG THE NATIONS (17:11; LK. 10:1-14; MATT. 28:19-20).
1. From the teaching of the Word of God in Judah, the fear of the Lord spread out to other nations and peoples. Even the enemies of Judah were influenced - the Philistines and Arabs. This is God's way of accomplishing His purposes. He begins small or in a location and then spreads His work of grace everywhere. Jesus gave us a way of understanding this in both a garden and a kitchen. Matt 13:31-33. He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." 33 He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." From the garden we learn that God starts with what seems small and insignificant but becomes powerful. From the kitchen we learn that while God starts in a location (where the yeast is sprinkled) His work spreads everywhere (the whole loaf).

2. God started in small, insignificant Judah and from there spread the influence of the Word of God around Jehoshaphat. He gained a path of influence. Jesus sent His first disciples to the villages around them spreading the message of the Kingdom. Then at His ascension, He sent them to the world.

3. I present this principle today not as an enticement to be a teacher and gain worldwide influence. I speak it to be an encouragement because often godly parents wonder if their effort to instill the Word of God into their children is accomplishing anything. Frequently a high school student is posed the questions of whether their applying themselves to learning the Word of God is a waste of time. Few Sunday School teachers, RR commanders, Missionette sponsors, church elder never have times of doubting whether they are really doing anything good. The answer is, "Yes, teaching the Word of God, line upon line, precept upon precept, opens paths of influence into the nations." Your students will go and tell others! They will be leaders of justice, government, families, communities, churches and ministries. So let's remain faithful!

CONCL:
Today, move with the Spirit and build your life on the Word of God. The stability a person, a family, a community, and a church needs will come as the Word of God is taught and obeyed. Rewards will flow into your life as you pursue the teaching of the Word of God. Influence will open as the Word of God is taught. The door of opportunity for Covenant Community Church to bring the Bible to the Pinyin people is because we are faithful to teach and practice the Word of God - our influence is spreading to the nations.

If you are not systematically learning the Word of God, consider doing it.

If you today are a teacher, we want to encourage you with the purpose of God to spread His Word. He is using you to do that. To teach requires the ability to see 30 to 40 years into the future and see the impact on lives that the Bible has.

This morning Covenant Community Church as a fellowship is reminded that priority is placed on the preaching and teaching of the Bible because it is the Word of God. We believe like Jehoshaphat that the foundation and framework of a civilization is the Word of God.

Today, if you will apply yourself to learn the Word of God, God will supernaturally work in your life as He did Jehoshaphat.