The Final Word

The Final Word

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon, Pastor Matt explores the narrative of 2 Kings 1, where King Ahaziah of Israel suffers a severe injury and foolishly seeks counsel from the false god Beelzebub rather than the true God of Israel. In response, God sends the prophet Elijah to confront the king’s idolatry and pronounce judgment, leading to a dramatic standoff where God’s supreme authority is demonstrated through fire from heaven until a third military captain humbly surrenders to the Lord's mercy. Contrasting this Old Testament judgment with the grace found in the New Testament, the pastor points to Luke 9 to show how Jesus—God's ultimate and final word—came not to call down fire on rebellious sinners, but to absorb God’s wrath on the cross, inviting everyone to turn to Him alone in times of crisis.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction

We are going to open our Bibles to the book of 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter one, which is in the Old Testament. We're in a series as a church this year called the Year of the Bible. What that means is that as a church, we are reading through the whole Bible together day by day, week by week; there's a Bible reading plan. And the great thing about doing this is that you can jump in at any time. Even if you didn't start the Year of the Bible with us, it's the whole year and you're here. And so you can jump in with us at any time, at any week, and every week, we have the chapters that we as a church are reading in your handout. And so if you look in your handout, you'll see on the bottom of the second page, on the inside, there are the chapters that we are reading as a church this week.

Now, we're starting a new book of the Bible this week, the book of 1 Chronicles, and with each new book of the Bible, when we begin that book, we're producing an introduction video and an overview video that explains the whole picture of that book and what you're going to find in there and helping you to understand it a little bit better. And if you want to see these introduction videos, there's a slide on the screen there. You can sign up to receive them via email or via Telegram, or if you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you can get it there as well.

And we really believe at this church that the Bible is the Word of God. And so this is why we're putting this emphasis on it this year. And I can say honestly that for me, the greatest catalyst to my own personal spiritual growth has been the discipline of daily spending time reading the Word of God. Nothing has caused me to grow more as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, than every day opening the Bible and just reading what God's word says. Every single one of us in here daily nourishes our physical body. We're all going to eat something today to give our bodies sustenance, to give our bodies some calories, some strength to burn. And it's the same with our spiritual life as well. We need nourishment. We need fuel for our spiritual life. And the Word of God is that fuel. Jesus said, man does not live by bread alone or calories alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So let me encourage you, jump in with us this week. Watch the introduction video to 1 Chronicles. I think it'll be illuminating for you.

Background on the Kings of Israel

So, we're in the book of 2 Kings chapter one. I want to give you a little bit of background because this is sort of an obscure part of the Bible for many Christians. Many Christians spend the majority of their time reading the New Testament. The New Testament, of course, tells us about Jesus. And so that's not a surprise that we would want to spend our time reading about our Savior, our King, our Lord, God in the flesh. But one of the things that Jesus says in the New Testament is that the Old Testament is about him. So all of the Bible is all about Jesus. And so even as we're reading through some of this history of the Old Testament, we can still see Jesus in there, and I'm going to, at the end of the sermon today, show you where we see Jesus in this very wild story that we're going to read from 2 Kings.

So let me give you a little bit of background. For the past few weeks, we've been reading through the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings. And it comes as a surprise to no one that the subject of the Book of Kings is kings. Very good. You're paying attention. Kings. More specifically, the kings of ancient Israel. And these books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings, they cover roughly 400 years of history. From, give or take, 1000 BC, a thousand years before Christ, to roughly 600 years before Christ came. That's the period of time that we're dealing with.

Now, most people are familiar with the most famous king of Israel: King David. We're familiar with King David, not so much because of his life as a king, though some of the things that he did in his life as a king were pretty infamous. We're mostly familiar with David from his younger years and a story of a great battle that he had with a giant named Goliath. So because of this story of David versus Goliath, which transcends the Bible—I mean, that's just in the culture. You could say to anyone, "That's a real David and Goliath situation," and they'll know exactly what you're talking about. So most people have heard of the most famous king of Israel, King David.

But what most people don't know is that Israel, the nation of Israel, as a united kingdom of the twelve tribes of Israel, only had three kings. Israel only ever had three kings. David was the second king. A lot of people know about the first king of Israel, King Saul, then King David, and then most people know the third king of Israel, Solomon, David's son. And that's where most of our knowledge of the kings of Israel drop off drastically.

But the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings tell us the history of the children of Israel after King Solomon. And after King Solomon died, this kingdom of Israel, these twelve tribes, had a civil war. And they split. And so that's why I say Israel only ever had three kings because after Solomon, that nation disappeared. And two new nations were formed. There was the one tribe that stayed loyal to David, the tribe of Judah. They stayed loyal to David and David's house, and the lineage of kings that came from David. That nation became known as the kingdom or the nation of Judah. There was one very tiny little tribe, Benjamin, that joined them. They were in the South. Their capital city was Jerusalem, where the temple was.

But the ten northern tribes rebelled and entered into a civil war, and they broke away from following David's house and the lineage of kings that came from David. And that nation became known as the nation of Israel. Not to confuse anybody, but they took the name of the nation, and so not always, just because something has the name Israel on it, doesn't mean it's the exact same as what came before, just so you know.

So, the kingdom of Israel only ever had three kings, the United Kingdom. After Solomon, the third king, there's a civil war, there's a split into two different kingdoms: Judah in the south, Israel in the north, the upper ten tribes. In our text today, it centers around a king named Ahaziah, who was the eighth king of the northern kingdom of Israel. And he was the son of an extremely wicked king named Ahab, and his mother was Queen Jezebel. That's his parents, Ahab and Jezebel.

Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 22 and 2 Kings 1

So with that little bit of background, why don't we stand to read the Word of God this morning? And we're actually going to start at the end of 1 Kings. The very end of 1 Kings, in verse 51, it starts with Ahaziah's background a little bit. So let's look at 1 Kings chapter 22, verse 51:

Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He served Baal and worshiped him and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger in every way that his father had done.

Now, 2 Kings chapter one:

After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel. Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and he lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, "Go, inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, about whether or not I shall recover from this sickness." But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite (he was a prophet), "Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron?'"

Father, we thank you for your word this morning. I pray that you would help us see what you want us to see today. To hear from your Spirit what you want us to hear today. That we might live for you as we sang this morning, "Lover of my soul, I want to live for you." Lord, help us to examine our hearts and to see if there's any place in which we are not living for you, that we might confess that, receive forgiveness, and to walk in your ways. In Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Two Questions: Where Do You Turn?

This passage in 2 Kings one begins with two questions. The title of my sermon today is "God's Final Word, The Final Word." And this first section has two questions. One question from King Ahaziah, and a more important question from God himself.

It begins by telling us after the death of his father, King Ahab, that a surrounding nation, Moab, rebelled against Israel. It saw that Israel was in a weakened state. And so they rebelled. During King David's reign, he had conquered the people of Moab and subjugated them so that they were now subjects of the kingdom of Israel. And they had to pay tribute to the kingdom of Israel. But when Ahab dies, they recognize there's this political upheaval, and they don't have to do this anymore. So they refuse now to live as subjects of the kingdom of Israel and King Ahaziah, and they refuse to send their taxes to King Ahaziah. And so his reign, King Ahaziah, his reign begins with political upheaval and economic downturn.

But then it goes on to tell us that he suffers a great accident that leaves him bedridden and ill. He's walking on his roof. He leans up against the lattice, the railing, and the railing gives way. And he falls from the upper story down onto the ground, and he is greatly injured. In fact, he probably has some sort of internal injury that's causing him to run a fever. He's not able to get up. He's bedridden. And so in this state, when he experiences this political crisis and now this personal health crisis, he decides he's going to seek help from an outside source. And his question is, "Will I recover? Will I recover from this illness? Will I recover from this sickbed? Or is this the end of my life?"

Now, the problem is not that he has questions. The problem is where he goes with his question. He doesn't go to the God of Israel with his question, the God who had appeared to his ancestor and called his ancestor Abraham. He doesn't go to the God who had delivered his people from Egypt and slavery. He doesn't go to the God who had delivered his people into the nation of Canaan and given them the promised land. He doesn't go to that God. He goes to a false god. He seeks the counsel of an idol, Beelzebub. And this is not a one-off action with Ahaziah. This was the pattern of his life, as we read at the end of 1 Kings. His whole life, he had abandoned being faithful to the covenant that God had made to the children of Israel, and he was an idol worshiper, just like his parents before him.

Now, here's a question we all need to answer this morning. Because it's not only King Ahaziah that suffers crises in their life. We all will face confusing times, difficult times, personal crisis, health crisis, relational crisis, economic crisis. In this life, we will have tribulation. That's what Jesus said. The question we all need to answer this morning is when those moments come, where do you go? Where do you turn in those moments of hardship? Where do you look for answers? To whom do you seek counsel from? It wasn't that Ahaziah had questions. That's not the problem. The problem is where he went with his questions.

God's Question for King Ahaziah

Now, I said that this section has two questions. The first from King Ahaziah, but somebody else has a question. And we read it was God. God has a question for King Ahaziah. And so he sends Elijah the prophet to intercept Ahaziah's messengers with this question.

And this is something that God would do regularly. He would send his messengers, the prophets, who would go and they would confront the kings of Israel. The kings of Israel were called to be God's servants, to execute justice in the land, to apply the law of God, God's law that he had given them, the Ten Commandments. The king's job was to make sure the Ten Commandments were obeyed by the people, and that God was worshiped. And when they strayed from that responsibility, when they would stray into idolatry and false worship, God would send prophets, his messengers, who would go and pronounce to them the word that God had spoken, calling the nation and the kings back to faithfulness and to the true worship of God. These prophets like Elijah, their primary ministry was preaching, calling people to repentance and faith in the true and living God. Calling people to turn, literally, to turn from their idols and to turn back to the God who had saved them and delivered them.

And the question that God puts in the mouth of Elijah, and the question that God wants answered from King Ahaziah is this: Why are you inquiring from idols? Why are you seeking answers from idols? Remember the psalm we opened with this morning? Psalm 115. Idols have eyes, but they can't see. Idols have ears, but they can't hear. Idols have mouths, but they can't speak. Why are you inquiring of this false god? Is it because there is no God in Israel that you have to seek counsel from idols?

Now, this section ends in verse 4. We only read through verse three, but let's look here at verse four. After Elijah asks that question, he says this in verse four. Now therefore, this is God's pronouncement:

"Now therefore thus says the Lord, You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die." So Elijah went.

God pronounces this judgment upon King Ahaziah. You're not going to come down, but you are going to die because you have sought after idols.

The Messengers Return

Now, the story continues in verses 5 through 8 with two more questions. There are a lot of questions in this section, in this passage of scripture. There's two more questions, and in this section, King Ahaziah has both of them. Let's look at them in verse 5 as the story continues:

The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, "Why have you returned so quickly?" And they said to him, "There came a man to meet us and said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you and say to him, Thus says the Lord, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.'"

This first question that King Ahaziah asks is, "Why are y'all back so early?" That was quick. I sent you out to go to another country, to go to another nation, to go inquire of this other god, and you barely got out of the castle, and now you're coming back. What's up with that? That's his first question. Why are you back so quickly?

And the messengers deliver not the word from Beelzebub, which no doubt would have been, "Yes, you're going to be great. Everything's gonna be fine with you." They come back with a word from God, the true and living God. That's not what he sent for. It's like if you send your family out to—this is a really bad illustration, but you send your family out. There's no way to make this illustration work, so I'm just gonna leave it. You send somebody out for something, and they come back with something else, and I'll let you fill in the blank on what that is. Oh, no, you know what? I just thought of it. Okay. Say you're a vegan. No shame, no condemnation. There is no problem with that. And you send your family out to go get you some vegetables, some green beans, some bean soup, you know? Some healthy stuff. And they come back with steak. What? What is this? What is this? That's the situation here. They came back with some real food. Not some rabbit food. They came back with steak. Look, there's grace for everyone here this morning. I want you to know that.

So he continues with his second question. He says in verse 7:

He said to them, "What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?" They answered him, "He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist." And he said, "It is Elijah the Tishbite."

Ahaziah immediately recognizes who this man is. Immediately. He is Elijah the prophet. Elijah was someone who was known to King Ahaziah's family. He had had many run-ins with his parents, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, in many heated confrontations, one very famous one where fire fell down from heaven in this confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. We read about that in 1 Kings. And so King Ahaziah knows exactly who he's dealing with. He knows that Elijah is a true prophet of God who operates in the power of God, who declares the true word of God.

And what tells him it's Elijah is his wardrobe. He's wearing a garment of hair, camel's hair most likely, and he's tied that garment with a leather belt. Elijah, a quite fashionable individual. What I want to ask you, does this wardrobe sound familiar to you at all? Yes. That's a KBI graduate right there that had the answer to that. There's another man later in the Bible who wears the exact same outfit. It is John the Baptist. The forerunner of Christ, the man who was sent to prepare the way for the ministry of the Messiah. And this forerunner of Christ, it was said he would come in the same spirit and power as Elijah. And he also came in the same wardrobe. Just so that no one missed it. John the Baptist said, "I want the same outfit," and he went to a designer and had him make the exact same wardrobe. So, the same spirit, power, and wardrobe as Elijah is what John the Baptist ministers in.

A Conflict of Authority

And so he recognizes this as Elijah, and so he now sends messengers to Elijah. We read about this in the next section, where true power and true authority are put on display. Here now is a conflict between authority, between power. The king, King Ahaziah, he believes he has power. He's the king. Even though Moab's rebelling against him. Now, he's going to have a confrontation, just like his parents did, between his power and authority and God's power and authority.

And so we read in verse 9:

Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and he said to him, "O man of God, the king says, 'Come down.'"

You have been summoned by the king. You must come now. He sends a captain of fifty men with his fifty men. "Go and bring me Elijah, bring him to me. Command him, he must appear in my presence." This is a conflict of authority. Who has the true authority? Is it the prophet, the true prophet, with the word of God? Or is it this false king sitting on a false throne serving a false god? Who's abandoned the Messianic line of David, who's set up in his family heritage his own glory and his own kingdom. Where is this true authority?

And so Elijah responds by saying, in verse 10:

But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty."

Elijah says, this is a test to see where the true authority is. Is it in these idol worshippers and this false god? Or is it in the God who made heaven and earth, the true God of Israel? Here is the test, he says. It will be a test of fire.

Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

Now, this would have been a great opportunity for King Ahaziah to say, "Whoa. I'm dealing with something powerful here. This is not like the idols who have all of these worshipers but have no power. I'm dealing with the true and the living God. I better humble myself before him. I better return to him and to his word, and to his law, and to his covenant." But does anybody here think that that's what he does? No, that's not what he does. No. He thinks, let me try that again.

So in verse 11:

Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men with his fifty. And he answered and said to him, "O man of God, this is the king's order, 'Come down quickly!'"

"I don't know who you think you are, Elijah, but the king is commanding you. I don't know who you think you answer to, but you better obey this king. Here is his order: Come down quickly."

But Elijah answered them, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty." Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

I think if I had been sitting on the throne, if I had been King Ahaziah, I would have said at this point, "Maybe I should alter my course a little bit. Maybe it's time to course correct." This is an opportunity for repentance. This is an opportunity for a change of heart, a change of direction. But not King Ahaziah. King Ahaziah says, "Let's do it again." That's double, that's triple down. Double or nothing, double or nothing. This is King Ahaziah.

The Third Captain's Humility

Verse 13:

Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him...

So the first two come in the authority of the king. They come on the king's side. They come as a part of this regimen and this system of idolatry and rejecting God. But this third captain, one guy in the story wises up. He says, "If I do the same thing as these other guys, I'm gonna get the same result. I'm going to try something different. I'm going to try coming with contrition. I'm going to try coming with humility. I'm not going to come with arrogance commanding the man of God, and essentially commanding God that God has to get on this idol's terms, I'm going to come humbling myself, begging God for mercy."

So he comes on his knees and he falls down before Elijah, and he entreats him. He says:

"O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight. Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties, but now let my life be precious in your sight."

He's saying, "We're here because we have to be here because King Ahaziah has sent us, but we're not his servants. We're your servants. We serve your God. Please spare our lives. Let our lives be precious in your sight. We are your servants."

Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." So he arose and went down with him to the king.

And so this captain, this third captain, comes and he doesn't approach the man of God with arrogance, with pride, in the false authority of this human king. Instead, he comes in humility. He surrenders himself to the Lord. You see, the first captains, they came in opposition to the word of God. They came standing over and against and in judgment of God and his prophet and God's word. But not this last captain. He comes surrendering himself. He comes in humility. He comes asking God for mercy. And what does he receive? Mercy.

There's a scripture in the Bible that says God says to the proud, "I will show myself proud," but to the humble, "I will show myself humble." I will show mercy to the humble. There's another scripture in the Bible that says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. This man experiences grace because he approaches God in humility, surrendering his life to the Lord, not in service of this idol and its false king.

God's Final Word to Ahaziah

And so Elijah comes down, and we see here in the final section God's final word. God's final word to King Ahaziah. Now, all of these other words, this question that was sent by Elijah, this question that was sent by his messengers, these signs of fire from heaven—these were all opportunities for this king to repent. But King Ahaziah refused to repent. And so he hardens his heart in pride and unbelief, and so God's final word comes through the prophet Elijah.

And we read in verse 16:

And he said to him, "Thus says the Lord, 'Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?—therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.'" So he died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Jehoram became king in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Here God gives his final word. And judgment falls on him. He worshiped false gods. He led Israel to do the same. When he is confronted by the true word of God from the true God of Israel, he refuses to repent, he hardens his heart. But as it turns out, there was a God in Israel. As it turns out, that God's word stands above every word. As it turns out, that word supersedes even the word of the king, that there is no word above the word of God. His word, God's word, stands above even the kings of the earth. Even the kings, even our president, even our governor, every authority is under the authority of the word of God. And when kings and people in authority refuse to humble themselves under the authority of the Word of God, the Bible is very clear that they will experience this kind of judgment from God, in this life and in the life to come.

And so it is with all of us. If we harden our hearts against the word of God, against the gospel of Jesus Christ, if we approach God's word in arrogance and in pride, setting ourselves up as authorities over the word of God, not humbling ourselves under the word of God, not approaching God in humility, but in arrogance, thinking that we are somehow sufficient on our own, we too will experience this kind of end to our lives. And friends, that's not what I want for anybody here this morning. God has the final word. His word is decisive. His word is the end.

Jesus is God's Final Word

Now, there's a story in the New Testament that connects to this story here. It's in the life of Jesus. And Jesus, like God, has been rejected by the people of Samaria. We read at the beginning that this happened in Samaria. Samaria was the capital city of these ten northern tribes of Israel. And Jesus, in his life, some 800 years later, is on his way to Jerusalem where he will die for the sins of mankind. He's there on his way to go do what God sent him to do: to redeem the world. And as Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, he passes by the same city, Samaria. The same city that we read about here. And this story we read about in Luke chapter 9.

And so Jesus, on his way to the cross, sends messengers ahead of him to the people of Samaria. Just like before, when God sent messengers to the people of Samaria, his prophets to the kings of Israel, calling God's people back to covenant faithfulness. Jesus, on his way to the cross, sends messengers ahead of him to go and see if they will welcome him in Samaria. You see, God was not welcome in Samaria, in the kingdom of Israel, in the time of the prophet Elijah. The question now stands: Well, Jesus, will God in the flesh, will he be welcome in Samaria as he approaches the cross?

And so he sends messengers into these towns ahead of him to see if they will welcome Jesus in, that Jesus might minister there to them. We know that wherever Jesus went, what did he do? He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He cast out demons. He opened blind eyes, he unstopped deaf ears. He taught them the word of God. He fed the multitudes. I mean, what more could you ask for? And yet, when the messengers enter into Samaria and say, "Jesus is on his way, would you like him to stop by and bless you?" They reply by saying, "He is not welcome here. Just keep walking on by, Jesus. Don't bother stopping. You can't come to Samaria."

So they refuse him. They reject him. And two of his disciples, named James and John, they have an idea. They say, "That sounds familiar. God's messengers rejected in Samaria. What happened the last time? Fire came down from heaven. Jesus? Would you like us to call down fire from heaven on these Samaritans?"

Now, when you read that story in Luke chapter 9, if you don't know the background, if you don't know this story, it seems like that's kind of an extreme escalation there, John and James. Kind of went from, like, one to 100 really quick. But they're logically concluding, Jesus is God's Messiah. Jesus is God's messenger. And this is what happened the last time they rejected the word of the prophet.

But Jesus tells them, "No. No. No. We're not calling down fire from heaven." Jesus rebukes them and tells them, "You are operating in the wrong spirit." Jesus says, "I did not come to destroy life, but to give life." And we read in John 3, verse 17, that the Son of Man did not come into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world through him might be saved.

You see, there was a time for the ministry of Elijah. There was a time for the ministry of John the Baptist, who came in the spirit of Elijah. Their job was to prepare the way for Christ. These men, they were bulldozers. There's no question about it. But Jesus did not come to be a bulldozer. Jesus came for a different purpose. Jesus didn't need to prepare the way; Jesus came to be the way. Not to pour out wrath from heaven, but to absorb God's wrath for us on the cross. Jesus says, "You're operating from the wrong spirit here, folks."

And Jesus—hear this—Jesus is God's final word. God's final word is Jesus. Jesus is the Word made flesh. And so we need to be very careful in the world in which we live. What spirit are we of? In the world that we live in that not a day goes by where we don't see people rejecting our Savior, blaspheming our Savior, taking his name in vain, living in open-handed, high-handed sin, rebellion, idolatry. We need to be very careful that we don't find ourselves with the wrong spirit in our hearts.

Jesus came to save sinners. And if we're operating in the spirit of, "I wish I could just call down fire from heaven on these people right now"—there was a time for that. But we live in a different time. We're to be of a different spirit. We're to be of the ministry of Jesus, the one who absorbed the wrath of God, who came to save the world, to save sinners, to call them to himself. Jesus is God's final word.

Where Are You Turning?

And so when you find yourself in a crisis, when you find yourself not knowing which way to turn, not knowing which way is up, your world turned upside down. Where do you turn? Where do you go? Friends, turn to Jesus. Turn to Jesus. He is God's answer to whatever it is that you are facing.

You might say, "Jesus, he won't accept me because of the things that I've done, the way that I've lived my life." Look at him on the cross, absorbing the wrath of God on your behalf. Look at him on the cross with arms outstretched, welcoming all who would come to him, who would come to him in faith and who would trust in him and in his word. You can come to Christ today. I don't know what burden you carry. I don't know what crisis you are in, but I do know that Jesus is the answer. Jesus said in the world, we would have tribulation, but he said, "Take heart, because I have overcome the world."

Where do you turn in moments of crisis? To friends, to neighbors, to lovers, to substance, to therapy devoid of the scripture, devoid of God? Where are you turning? Where are you placing your hope? Where are you going to for answers today? Let it only be Christ.

Now, friends are good. I'm not saying you can't go to friends. Counsel is good if it's godly and based on the word of God. But let us put our hope and our trust in our Savior, the one who bled and died to overcome the world.

You say, "I don't know if Jesus can handle my situation." Friends, he defeated death. He rose on the third day. If he can overcome death, I can promise you whatever you've got going on, he can handle it. He can deal with it. He is the true king, not on some manmade false throne. He is the true descendant of David. He's the true heir. And he sits on the throne of heaven, ready to hear, ready to act, ready to engage on your behalf, if you will come to him in faith. If you will trust in him.

Jesus is God's final word. Let us go to Christ in faith. Let us forsake all idols. Let us forsake all other forms of seeking answers outside of Christ, and let us go first to him and to him alone.

I'm not saying we can't go to doctors. I'm not saying we can't take our medication. That's not what I'm saying. I have to be clear about that. Those things are fine, those things can be good, those things can be used by God. But we don't put our faith in them. We don't trust in them. We trust in God. We put our faith in God, not in the pill in the bottle. God may use that, and glory be to him. But Jesus is where I'm putting my trust. And I pray that you would as well.