Another year around the Son 2026
In the daily reading plan we read 1 Kings 15:1-24, Philippians 4:1-9
“The high places were not eliminated, yet Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord throughout his lifetime.”
1 Kings 15:14 NET
Wholehearted. Asa didn’t get them all but he did destroy many of the gross idols and perverse worship. This is the function of a king. And even now, Christ is King and LORD OF ALL. His rule is real. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. (Proverbs 9:10)
There is nothing God can’t do. There is no long standing idol, or stronghold God can’t tear down. “You remember Jacob said, when they wanted to take Benjamin away from him, “All these things are against me.” Gen. 42:36 But in a little while he saw that all these things were working together for good to him. In a little while all his lost children were restored to him, and he and his seed preserved from famine. So it will be with you.” Robert Murray McCheyne
Lord God grant us the strength to stand in faith in our day. 1 Kings 15:11 NET Asa did what the Lord approved as his ancestor David had done. Pleasing God is a huge outcome when you live in faith. (Heb. 11:5-6)
So what did he do?
When Asa reigned in Judah, “He banished the male and female shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made an obscene Asherah pole. He cut down her obscene pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley” (1 Kings 15:12–13, NLT; see also 2 Chronicles 15:16).
Define Obscene: the portrayal or description of sexual matters offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency.
Where are we complicit? Complicity is the legal term for assisting or helping someone commit a crime.
When we fail to support truth, and use our resources to purchase and fund businesses, who stand for the perverse actions which Asa clearly ‘known as righteous’ stood against, we are wrong. We have work to do, given to us by God. (Gen. 2:15, Col 3:23)
Pay attention to what you are funding.
We would have to depart this world to avoid the mess of sin. It is all around us. So we must live in the world but not be of the world, we must be messengers of the kingdom of God in word and deed.
Examples of the mess of the flesh:
“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!”
Galatians 5:19-21 NET
Because we live in a world of sin, we occupy the ground. We buy our food, and live. IE if the food sacrificed to idols is purchased we don’t worry, eat your meal and thank God for your food…but if can’t eat due to your conscious do not. Or if eating should cause a weaker one to stumble don’t. It was asked of me, ‘how far am I supposed to go?’ As far as the Lord asks of you.
Consider the centurion to Jesus Matt 8:9-10 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell one to go, and he goes; and another to come, and he comes. I tell my servant to do something, and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
All things are permissible but not all things beneficial, correct? (see the bible passage in 1 Corinthians 6:9-20 NET)
Where do I see biblical examples of resistance or speaking up for truth impacting the marketplace/city? Paul the most praying man of a certainty was not passive.
Paul and Barnabas rush to the city gates to confront error.
Acts 14:8-18 NET
In Lystra sat a man who could not use his feet, lame from birth, who had never walked. This man was listening to Paul as he was speaking. When Paul stared intently at him and saw he had faith to be healed, he said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And the man leaped up and began walking. So when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” They began to call Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. The priest of the temple of Zeus, located just outside the city, brought bulls and garlands to the city gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifices to them. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard about it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, “Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying you with food and your hearts with joy.” Even by saying these things, they scarcely persuaded the crowds not to offer sacrifice to them.
Paul and Silas shut down fortune-telling profits.
Acts 16:16-18 NET
Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. She brought her owners a great profit by fortune-telling. She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” She continued to do this for many days. But Paul became greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out of her at once. But when her owners saw their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion. They are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us to accept or practice, since we are Romans.”
Paul is said to defy Caesar, turn the world upside down. Hmm, not very passive. (1 Cor 14:8 yet Paul is for sure praying)
Acts 17:5-7 The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar…“These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, named Jesus!” So the next city he travels to does he avoid the marketplace? Nope he goes there everyday. Acts 17:17 NET So he was addressing the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles in the synagogue, and in the marketplace every day those who happened to be there.
Paul in Ephesus preaches Jesus and the public breaks with witchcraft.
Acts 19:18-20 NET 18 Many of those who had believed came forward, confessing and making their deeds known. Large numbers of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them up in the presence of everyone. When the value of the books was added up, it was found to total 50,000 silver coins. In this way the word of the Lord continued to grow in power and to prevail.
Further in Ephesus the profits of idol worship plummet.
Acts 19:23-27 NET At that time a great disturbance took place concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought a great deal of business to the craftsmen. He gathered these together, along with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity comes from this business. And you see and hear that this Paul has persuaded and turned away a large crowd, not only in Ephesus but in practically all of the province of Asia, by saying that gods made by hands are not gods at all. There is danger not only that this business of ours will come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as nothing, and she whom all the province of Asia and the world worship will suffer the loss of her greatness.”
I could go on and on about the “not passive” Paul. What about Jesus?
Jesus Christ disrupts the markets by casting legion out and sending the demonic hoard into pigs, which crushed the pig market. Mark 5:6-20 NET
Are there demonic forces we must ask the Lord to rebuke active in our world here and now? Yes, for sure. I think Jude clearly tells the reader– yes.
God’s betting on you and I in our generation. There is no Peter to lead us. There is no Paul to stir us up to action. BUT God himself has given us his HOLY SPIRIT. So in these turbulent times of trial and war in the world, war in the churches, exposure of sin, and personal grief, take the charge the holy honor it is to be Christ’s ambassadors today. HE placed you in the world for such a time as this. Make no mistake God is with us. Let verse four below, put a chill down your spine. Is this me? Am I the ungodly one who has turned the grace of God into a license for evil? Am I in my generation more like Peter denying Christ by actions that say I do not know him, nor am willing to be persecuted for him nor stand with him. If I have, I take great comfort in the restoration of Peter. If I have I know the proper response to the Lord is to humble myself, and say God you are JUST. (See the account from Durham, Conn., in the year 1803)
Jude 1:3 NET Dear friends, although I have been eager to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel compelled instead to write to encourage you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain men have secretly slipped in among you—men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe—ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
5 Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts once for all) that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 You also know that the angels who did not keep within their proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept in eternal chains in utter darkness, locked up for the judgment of the great Day. 7 So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire in a way similar to these angels, are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
Both angels and Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in heinous sexual immorality. Yet in the Jude 1 context with Israel– it is the people of God who are destroyed, because they did not believe. (Nehemiah 9:18)
Examples of unbelief in Israel:
Exodus 32:19 Aaron made a festival calf claiming it brought them out of Egypt.
“Tomorrow will be a feast to the Lord.” So they got up early on the next day and offered up burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. (see note at the end for understanding of the word play)
Many call him LORD LORD but do not do what he says. (Luke 6:46) It is important to do the thing, to practice the sayings and teachings of Jesus. Jesus says do not look with lust. (Matt 5:28) His sword always cuts deeper. The paint I thought was white, under the light of the glory of God is not white at all.
2 Co 7:1 Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.
I will conclude with how Jude warns us about rejecting the authority of the LORD, which ultimately is the highest authority of whom we should show reverence. (Reverence is connected to faith Hebrews 11:7)
8 Yet these men, as a result of their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and insult the glorious ones. 9 But even when Michael the archangel was arguing with the devil and debating with him concerning Moses’ body, he did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these men do not understand the things they slander, and they are being destroyed by the very things that, like irrational animals, they instinctively comprehend. 11 Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path, and because of greed have abandoned themselves to Balaam’s error; hence, they will certainly perish in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These men are dangerous reefs at your love feasts, feasting without reverence, feeding only themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit—twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild sea waves, spewing out the foam of their shame; wayward stars for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness have been reserved.
14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, even prophesied of them, saying, “Look! The Lord is coming with thousands and thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all, and to convict every person of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds that they have committed, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and fault-finders who go wherever their desires lead them, and they give bombastic speeches, enchanting folks for their own gain.
Exhortation to the Faithful
17 But you, dear friends—recall the predictions foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 For they said to you, “At the end of time there will come scoffers, propelled by their own ungodly desires.” 19 These people are divisive, worldly, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 maintain yourselves in the love of God while anticipating the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who waver; save others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy on others, coupled with a fear of God, hating even the clothes stained by the flesh.
Final Blessing (which I pray over us)
24 Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, without blemish before his glorious presence, 25 to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.
My brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
NET BIBLICAL NOTES ON PLAY: The word PLAY:tn The form is לְצַחֵק (ltsakheq), a Piel infinitive construct, giving the purpose of their rising up after the festal meal. On the surface it would seem that with the festival there would be singing and dancing, so that the people were celebrating even though they did not know the reason. W. C. Kaiser says the word means “drunken immoral orgies and sexual play” (“Exodus,” EBC 2:478). That is quite an assumption for this word, but is reflected in some recent English versions (e.g., NCV “got up and sinned sexually”; TEV “an orgy of drinking and sex”). The word means “to play, trifle.” It can have other meanings, depending on its contexts. It is used of Lot when he warned his sons-in-law and appeared as one who “mocked” them; it is also used of Ishmael “playing” with Isaac, which Paul interprets as mocking; it is used of Isaac “playing” with his wife in a manner that revealed to Abimelech that they were not brother and sister, and it is used by Potiphar’s wife to say that her husband brought this slave Joseph in to “mock” them. The most that can be gathered from these is that it is playful teasing, serious mocking, or playful caresses. It might fit with wild orgies, but there is no indication of that in this passage, and the word does not mean it. The fact that they were festive and playing before an idol was sufficient.
If others can’t tolerate God’s word when you obey, you are in good company. Elijah and Amos took heat as well. (1 Kings 18:17-18 Amos 7:10)
