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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jonathon Cherne Weekend

Jonathon Cherne

Enjoying Peace Before the Storm?

Father in heaven, Lord, I pray that you please speak through me, Lord.

I pray that you please anoint me, Father, for this message this morning, Lord, that you have placed on my heart.

Lord, I pray that you touch the hearts of the hearers, Lord.

Open their ears that they may hear, Father.

Lord, may we be faithful during times of peace, Father, so that we may be faithful, Lord, when the crisis comes.

About 18 years ago, I was a senior in high school.

As part of the senior things, you fill out the yearbook and you're supposed to put What you want to be when you get older?

And so, you know you put different things your nickname and and different things like that in the yearbook And so I put that I wanted to be an ophthalmologist.

Was planning to go to medical school, wanted to be a doctor.

And I had this dream of living in a nice house on a lake, I imagine myself going wakeboarding every morning before heading into the hospital and just having a good time, enjoying life, enjoying peace.

And so that's what I put there in my yearbook.

Well, I went to Southern Adventist University that next year, and it was the second semester there, and I was taking A&P.

I didn't know what my major was going to be.

I was pre-med and I have a twin sister and she was doing nursing.

So I was like, oh, I'll do nursing pre-med because, you know, then I'll learn everything already and I'll have all that knowledge already for medical school, know all the things and it'll make medical school easier.

I was there in that second semester and the teacher announced 1 day, there will be a test coming up next week.

Now, I had done a good job and got good grades in A&P 1 and so I wasn't too worried about the test coming up next week.

So I kind of forgot about the test and I was enjoying the intramurals and life in college and pretty soon it was the day before the test and I had an intramural game that day so you know of course I was in classes during the morning and went to work in the afternoon.

That evening I had intramurals and was playing some sports.

A friend was like, hey, you want to go out to eat Jonathan.

I was like oh sure I gotta eat right and so I got some food.

We had a good time, a nice time going out.

I was like man I need to get studying soon.

Then another friend said hey we're gonna go back and and play some video games.

If you want to come with me, come with us, we can play some video games.

And so I was like, I could probably play a little bit.

And so I went up to their dorm room and I was playing video games and next thing I know I look at the time and it's midnight and I was like whoa I have a test tomorrow and so I was like I gotta go And so I rushed down to my dorm room and wouldn't you know it, but I couldn't find my notes.

I couldn't remember what chapters we were to study.

And so I was friends with the girl in the class that studies a lot.

I call up her dorm room and I wake her up and I say, this is Jonathan, what chapters are we supposed to study for the A&P test?

She was like, you mean the test in the morning?

I was like, yes, please, just tell me what I need to study.

And so she had to get out of bed and tell me the chapters to study.

Well, put it this way, I didn't end up going to nursing school.

But Boy, was I enjoying that time of peace.

I enjoyed the playing of the pleasures of this world and enjoying the sports and hanging out with friends.

And I was having a good time until I realized it was the midnight hour, until I knew the test was upon me and I had been putting off the preparation.

A lot of times, at least for me, I had done well in school and so I had learned to trust in my ability that God had given me.

Learned to trust in the fact that maybe I don't need to study as much and so I was trusting in God's gift and I was abusing that gift instead of using it wisely.

And so we're going to learn this morning about a gentleman in the Bible who was enjoying the times of peace and wasn't preparing for the crisis to come.

So let's turn with me in your Bibles to 2nd Chronicles.

It says, verse 1, So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David.

Then Asa his son reigned in his place, and in his days the land was quiet for 10 years.

So here Asa, the great-grandson of Solomon, begins to reign, and the Bible says that God blessed Asa with 10 years of peace.

And so let's look at what Asa did during his time of peace.

It says there in verse 2, it says that Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.

For he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars, and cut down the wooden images.

He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers to observe the law and the commandment.

Verse 5, he also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah and the kingdom was quiet under him.

And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest.

He had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him rest.

Therefore, he said to Judah, let us build these cities and make walls around them "'and towers and gates and bars, "'while the land is yet before us, "'because we have sought the Lord our God.

"'We have sought him and he has given us rest on every side.

Verse 8, and Asa had an army of 300, 000 from Judah who carried shields and spears.

And from Benjamin, 280, 000 men who carried shields and drew bows.

And so here God had granted Asa 10 years of peace.

He had given him peace from his enemies around, and most kings might enjoy that time of peace.

They might go to their summer palace and enjoy the taxes that are coming in and live a life of fun and glee.

Asa, the Bible says that he started off bringing reform to the land.

He brought reform to his own heart, his own life, and he destroyed the high places.

He destroyed the idols And he set up God's law and his commandment to be observed in the land.

Asa brought about a spiritual reformation during the time of peace.

There was no threat of war, no threat of a crisis ahead.

And yet Asa used his time wisely to prepare in case 1 came.

Not only did Asa bring about spiritual reform, not only did he work on bringing about a spiritual revival and fortifying the spirit in the minds of the people, fortifying their minds with God's spirit, but he also brought about physical reform.

The Bible says that he didn't just prepare spiritually, but he also prepared physically for a future crisis.

Cities, that he put in bars and walls and gates, and that he also trained an army, an army of 580, 000 men, mighty men of valor, trained them to be warriors and fighters.

And so Asa used his time wisely to prepare for a future crisis.

Friends, we need to be using our time wisely like Asa.

We need to be using our time preparing spiritually while we are in a relative time of peace.

We need to be fortifying our minds with scripture.

We need to be putting on the whole armor of God, but not just preparing spiritually.

Like Asa, we need to also be preparing physically.

We can do that by following and heeding to the council to move to the country to prepare a place for you so that you aren't dependent on the world but that you are dependent solely on God and his provisions.

Learn how to do things like garden and take care of yourself and maybe a mechanical talents and medical handling medical situations and emergencies.

And so these are things that we can do physically to prepare ourselves for the crisis that we know is coming.

Asa didn't just prepare spiritually, he prepared physically as well.

And we too need to prepare both spiritually and physically.

Well after the 10 years of peace, the Bible says in 2nd Chronicles 14 verse 9, it says, "'Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them "'with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, "'and he came to Mereshah.'" And so here Asa sees the enemy coming.

He sees an army of 1 million men plus 300 chariots coming to fight against him.

Now, Asa had trained about half that amount of men.

It doesn't say that he had chariots and so here he is he is outnumbered in both manpower and in strength and weapons of war and this army is coming to to annihilate him And so what does Asa do when he sees the enemy coming?

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Jonathon Cherne Weekend

Enjoying Peace Before the Storm?

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Enjoying Peace Before the Storm?

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