SUNDAY GOSPEL: The High Places Must Come Down!

Happy Sunday everyone!

We’re back today for another great Sunday afternoon message from our good friend Pastor Robb Goodman.

Today’s message: The High Places Must Come Down!

Today we will study 2 Chronicles 15. King Asa got words from the prophet of the Lord to clear out all of the idols in Israel. And King Asa obeyed!

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Let’s study together the effect that this had upon the people. I believe that the Lord has instructions for all of us in this message today!

Pastor Robb Goodman

Sr. Pastor of Zion Freedom Fellowship USA

Watch here:

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Good morning everyone. My name is Pastor Rob Goodman and I’m the senior pastor here at Zion Freedom Fellowship in Maryland. It’s a beautiful Sunday here.

Praise be to God. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Remember Mr.

Rogers? Oh my. Oh my.

God is good, isn’t he? Not He’s so good. Folks, let’s continue to pray for our country and the nations of the world.

We are near the time of the end of we are in the end of days. Of course, I I really believe that with all my heart. The Bible uh prophesies and tells us all these things that would take place.

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And God, you’ve raised up true men and women of God to be prophets and prophetesses of the Lord. And father, I ask you, Lord, to speak through my lips today as I bring forth this message, Lord. Speak through my lips and just convict the hearts of the people, Lord.

Father, I ask your forgiveness right now. I ask you to cleanse us all with the blood of Jesus Christ as we wait upon you, Lord, because you are great and greatly to be praised, Lord, in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Praise be to God.

You are a holy God. And Lord, I ask you to pour out your spirit upon every person that’s viewing this message today. Pour out your spirit upon them.

Bless them and touch them. Anoint them, Lord, to do your will to be obedient to the word of God. Father, open up their ears.

Give them a discerning ear and a discerning heart to understand the word of God which is spoken to them today. Lord, speak to them. speak to them and let your will be done in their lives.

Lord, I pray these things in the holy and the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. And amen.

Well, in just a moment, you can open up your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 15. I’m going to read through this chapter, and I’ve got a lot of good information to share with you today. All right.

Praise be to God. The title of today’s message is the high places must come down. The high places must come down.

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Now, we’re going to learn what high places are. Mainly in the Old Covenant or the Old Testament, Israel had a problem with many of their kings having high places of idol worship and they were an abomination to God. And we’ll read in 2 Chronicles in just a moment as we go through this chapter, we will understand what is going on.

And chapter 15 begins with a prophet by the name of Oed. Oed obed speaking a word to King Assa. All right.

Well, let’s go and read through the scripture. This is um reading out of New King James Version. This is uh 2 Chronicles 15 verse 1.

Now the spirit of God came upon Azeriah the son of Oded. And he went out to meet Assa and said to him, “Hear me, Assa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you.” I’m sorry.

I said in my opening remarks that Oed was the name of the prophet, but his name was Azeriah, the son of Oed. The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you.

But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. Now, thanks be unto God, that was something that would happen under the old covenant. But under the new covenant, under the new covenant, God will never forsake us unless we reject the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we reject him, then we have no other choice but condemnation and damnation and an eternity in hell. But if we receive him, even though sometimes we may stumble and fall, the grace of God and the mercy of God reaches beyond the heavens. God’s mercy and grace is phenomenal.

It is absolutely phenomenal and a marvelous mighty work of God. Amen. So, let’s continue to read through this chapter and then I will go back and I will uh break this down to you um as we go verse by verse.

For a long time, Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest and without law. Without a teaching priest and without law. I want you to remember that line as we go back later.

But when he when But when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him, he was found by them. Praise be to God. God is faithful.

When we seek him, he will respond to us. And in those times there was no peace in the one who went out and to the one who came in. But great turmoil turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands.

A nation was destroyed. So nation was destroyed by nation and city by city. For God troubled them with every adversity.

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Wow, man. That is something else right there. But you be strong and do not let your heart hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.

And when Assasser heard these words and the prophecy of Oed the prophet. Wow. Now he’s saying Oed again.

Interesting. He took courage and removed the abomin abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim. And he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord.

Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers and Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. Wow, this is amazing. So they gathered together all Jerusalem in the land in the third month in the in the 15th year of the reign of Assa.

And they offered to the Lord at that time 700 bulls and 7,000 sheep from the spoil that they brought. Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord their God their fathers with all their heart and with all of their soul. And whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.

Then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and ram’s horns. And all of Judah rejoiced at the oath. For they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with all of their soul.

And he was found by them. And the Lord gave them rest all around. You see, this is the key right now.

You and I must live our lives in a pattern of seeking the Lord. If we live our lives in a way where we are constantly seeking the Lord, seeking his will, you know, talk to the Lord all day long. Don’t be afraid to ask him questions.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and the voice of a stranger they will not follow.” Jesus will speak to you. Now, I’m telling you right now, Jesus is faithful. He is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, right at his father’s side, and he ever lives to judge the quick and the dead.

God is awesome. Our God is great and greatly to be praised. Amen.

Let’s praise him with a joyful heart. Let’s seek him with all our soul, all our might, and all of our strength. And he will reveal himself to us.

There’s no doubt about that. No doubt whatsoever. He will be found by us if we hold fast to him and seek him.

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Amen. You believe that? And he removed Makkah, the mother of Asa, the king, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asher.

Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the brook of Kidra. But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asso was loyal all of his days.

Nevertheless, I’m sorry, but the but the high places were not removed. So, we have high places in our lives. We all have idols of our souls.

Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. We all have them. And they come in different forms, different sizes, different ways.

Sometimes they’re emotional. Sometimes they’re things. Sometimes they’re things that we desire, they become idols to us.

And if we are placing idols before seeking the will of God, you know, folks, I’m going to say something. I heard a man of God speaking on Dayar the other day. Him and his wife.

They have multiple thousands of people coming to their church and alls they do they follow the Holy Spirit. They do what Holy Spirit wants. Jesus must be Lord of his church.

And I’m telling you folks, when we obey the Lord and follow him, the carnal mind is not going to understand it. It’s not going to make sense to the carnal mind. Not one little wee bit.

It will not make any sense. Even you and others will judge you. Your family might judge you and think, well, you know, something’s wrong with you because you’re not doing this and that and the other.

But you’re seeking the Lord. You’re waiting upon the Lord. Don’t allow it to stop you.

Don’t allow it to hinder your faith. Don’t allow it to stop you from obeying the Lord. Praise be to God.

Oh, I’m telling you what, this is some good stuff, folks. Thank you, Lord. He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated silver and gold and utensils.

And there was no war until the 35th year of the reign of Asam. Now, because Assa sought the Lord, obeyed him, Israel had no war, why are we going through the things that we’re going through right now? I’m telling you, every believer that I know right now is going through a serious, serious, serious, intense testing and that we don’t understand.

You know, we shake our heads and we say, “God, why am I going through this? Why am I enduring this crazy stuff that’s going on? I can’t figure it out.” Well, God wants us.

He wants us. And you know, he ain’t raising a bunch of little babies that whine and cry all the time. He’s raising mature sons and daughters of God that will obey him that want nothing else but the Lord’s will.

So what about the high places in your life? Ask the Lord to show you what they are. Ask him to show you what kind of high places that you have in your soul.

I’m not being rude. I’m not being arrogant. But I’m speaking the truth to you because we all have them.

Yours truly right here has them as well. But are we willing? Are we willing to listen to the Lord and then seek his face about it and ask him to remove these high places that we’ve set up as idols and they sit upon the throne of our heart.

Folks, I know what I’m talking about. I know exactly what I am talking about. So in the beginning of chapter 15 2 Chronicles, the prophet speaks about having teaching priests.

Teaching priest the Cohen teaching priest. Priests of the Lord were called to teach God’s people the law and how to live righteously before the Lord. God was always faithful to hear Israel when she cried out for help.

He would forgive them and show them his grace and his mercy. He would deliver them from their enemies. Now listen to this.

The Lord allowed adversity to draw them back and closer to him, the Lord. He does the same to us today. He tells them to be strong and they will be rewarded.

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Are we willing to hang in there to the very end? We don’t know how difficult these last days are going to become. We have no idea.

We don’t have persecution here in America. We have small forms of it. I mean, you might be struggling on your job because you carry your Bible to work every day.

You know, I went through that years ago when I worked a secular job. You know, I remember I worked for a nice company and the Lord really promoted me there, but everybody thought I was a wacko. Everybody thought I was a wacko and they gave me responsibilities to carry out other than my job and the department that I worked in.

They all got ticked off at me. That was a form of persecution. And I had one woman who absolutely drove me crazy.

And it was very difficult listening to her accusations about me. She was quick with the tongue, man. Her tongue would cut me down, slice me up, and dice me up.

But praise be to God, the Lord has his day of vengeance. And we were sitting in a counseling meeting one night. We had a a psychologist come in once a month and hold a group meeting with our our department and this doctor one night this woman started going off on me and he cut her down.

Man, he cut her. What business is that of yours? Does Does management have a problem with Rob’s job?

Then who are you to cut him down? And I was so blessed that I did not lash out at her in my own behemothy, so to speak. And I did not get mad or angry at her.

I just bowed my time in the Lord and did what I was supposed to do. And the Lord kept me, man. I’m te I’m telling you, he kept me.

He protected me. He watched over me. And the enemy has no place.

The enemy has no place whatsoever. No place. So adversity will draw you and me closer to God’s heart.

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We don’t like it. Adversity is not fun. You know, it’s things that happen to us that we don’t understand.

We don’t understand. But the Lord knows this is what he’s after. He wants the fullness of our heart right here.

He wants the fullness, the fullness. Everything he wants to sit on the throne of our heart. And he wants us to love him, to obey him, to be willing to lay down everything and not put anything before the Lord’s will.

Nothing. Zilcho. Nothing.

Are you and I willing to live that way? Are we willing to obey the Lord according to what the scripture is asking? When Asa heard these words, he responded in faithful action.

He removed the abominable idols from the land. He restored the altar of the Lord and true worship was brought back. And in verse 9 of this chapter 15, when the people saw that God was working through Asa, the people came to see and join in together, the people came to see.

I’m telling you, once a mighty move of God begins to happen, this is what happens in revival. People when they hear about miracles and they hear about the super I don’t care what what people say. People are hungry for a supernatural God to make his showing.

They want to see what God can do. And once God starts moving on the scene, people will come. My church right now is very small.

Very small. And I’ve never liked that. I’ve never enjoyed it.

But yet the Lord has kept us. And he will not allow us to quit. What What good would quitting do?

Get discouraged and give up on the will of God. Forget that. So the people came to see and they joined in together.

The same will happen in our day. People want to see the work of the Lord. They will join in with what the Lord is doing.

Our churches will be filled with people and folks that are hungry for the power of God. We must constantly pray for revival. In fact, let’s pray for that right now.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we cry out to you for revival, Lord. Revival in our land. revi revival in every country, Lord.

Every country across this globe, Lord, pour out a spirit of revival. Lord, cause the hungry souls to come together and to seek the face of the Lord. Father, we love you and we thank you and we praise you that you are a mighty, mighty God.

There is nothing too difficult for you, Jesus. Nothing whatsoever is too difficult for you. Have your way, Father.

Have your way in Jesus holy mighty name. Amen and amen. Hallelujah.

All right. Old Testament revivals often characterized by repentance, destruction of idols, and return to God’s law are frequent in scripture. All right, let’s look at a couple examples.

Let’s look at uh Samuel’s leadership. 1st Samuel chapter 7. Let’s turn there.

1 Samuel chapter 7. The men, then the men of Kirjath Jerham came and took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark. Ark of the Lord.

So it was that the ark of the Lord remained in Kirat Jerum a long time. It was there 20 years and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord because the ark, the sign of the presence of God was gone. You know, are we hungry for the presence of God or do we just go about our day and we really don’t care?

Are we longing to see God move? Are we crying out to God for revival in our country? How much do you hunger after the Lord?

Then Samuel spoke to all the people of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the asteroths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you from the and of the Philistines. Praise be to God. So the children of Israel put away the bales and the asherons and serve the Lord only.

And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to mitzvah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” So they gathered together at Mispa, drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and they fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mitzvah. And part of that Hebrew word means it discerned. He discerned them.

He judged them. He discerned them. He discerned what was in their hearts.

And he wanted to see them return to the Lord. You know, Samuel was a prophet after God’s own heart. He loved the Lord.

He was obedient to the Lord. God revealed himself in Shiloh when he was very young. We know the story of Samuel and what a mighty prophet, a man of God that he became.

What an awesome man Samuel was before the Lord. You know, God wants to bring you into a place of ministerial relationship with him where you’re not always seeking to be ministered to, but you are seeking to minister to others. He will bring it to pass in his timing and in his way.

Let him have his work in you. Amen. Let him have his work in you and let the Lord do what he wants to do.

How about Elijah’s contest on Mount Carmel? That’s first Kings 18. I’m not going to go there and read that right now, but we know what happened.

450 prophets of Baal. I believe he wiped them all out. And we know what happened.

They were prophets of Je the Jezebel’s false prophets. What are we doing about the false prophets and the evil deceivers in our day? Are we gathering together and praying to put a stop to it so that the Lord would reveal his mighty right arm and reveal it to the people?

The people are hungry for a true and living God. How about 2 Chronicles 29 through uh chapter 29 through31 where reforms under King Hezekiah took place. Remember King Hezekiah, the prophet told him that he was going to to prepare his house because he was going to die.

And he repented as soon as the prophet left. And the Lord answered him and spoke to the prophet and said, “Go back.” And spoke over Hezekiah and gave gave him extra years to live on the earth. Wow.

How about Jonah’s preaching in Nineveh? Jonah chapter 3. And how about Ezra’s reading of the law in Nehemiah chapter 8.

The people stood there all day long while Nehemiah read the book of the law. And people were dumbfounded. They were captivated under the mighty hand of God and they gathered together.

Folks, the same thing will happen in our day. But we must continue to press in and believe God as long as we allow these idols and these dark places to be removed from us. Amen.

These revivals often occurred when God’s people were in a state of decay and was marked by a deep sense of sin, a return to scriptural standards and intense worship. Where are we at today? I ask you great in verse 10 chapter of 2 Chronicles 15 we read that great and large amounts of offerings the people brought and were given to the Lord.

The same will happen in our day and the body of Christ will have no lack. It happened in the book of Acts. Let’s go to the book of Acts, chapter 4.

Book of Acts, chapter 4. Let’s look at Acts chapter 4. We’re going to start with verse 32.

We’re all very familiar with this scripture. Now, the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Think about that.

Think about that. The unity was very sincere. Such unity.

The people were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that anything he possessed was just his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And great grace was upon them. Nor was there anyone among them who lack for all for all who were possessed. I’m sorry.

Excuse me. For all who were possessors of lands and houses sold them, and they brought them, brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and they laid them at the apostles feet, and they distributed to each as everyone had need. This is phenomenal, folks.

You know this kind of thing may happen in our day. You know what happens if the government turns against us? What happens if money all of a sudden goes digital and they start telling you well you can’t give to churches.

You know you can’t do this, you can’t do that. And if you do, they take away your right to medical treatment, hospital care, buying medications. The pressure to obey the spirit of antichrist is going to be so strong on people that many will fall into it.

But we need to be thinking about these things, folks. How will we stand and respond? How will we stand and respond to this type of thing?

We must obey the Lord. We must must must must obey the Lord. And let’s bring everything together.

Now, we’re not at that place right now where we have to do that. We all live in our own homes, you know, we all have our own uh property, our houses, this that and the other. But what will happen?

How will we respond if we’re forced as believers into doing what the book of Acts did? This was during a time of great persecution. There was great persecution.

This was happening in the church, the body of Christ, that the people were under pressure. So in order to survive and take care of each other, they sold everything they had and they laid it everything before the apostles feet. That’s amazing, folks.

That is absolutely absolutely amazing. Think about that. Just think about the kind of things that might happen in our day.

King As King Asam Jehovah, I’m sorry. Jehoshaphat’s father was loyal to the Lord, but he failed to take down the high places of worshiping idols and foreign gods. And that’s in verse 17, 2 Chronicles.

So where do you and I stand? Where do you and I stand? Where are you today?

Where are you today? Are you willing to obey the Lord? Are you willing to lay down your life?

Looking at my time here because we’re just about finished. Are you willing? Where do you stand?

Where is your heart with the Lord? Where’s your heart? Father, I ask you to search the hearts of your people right now.

Search their hearts, Lord. Let their ways be made known unto the Lord. Lord, you know everything about every one of us.

You know the deepest desire. You know everything. Lord Jesus, let your name be glorified in the precious and mighty name of Jesus.

Have your way. Have your way. Jesus name.

Amen. Well, if you’ve been listening to this message today, I pray that God has blessed you. I pray that you allowed God to touch you.

I pray that you will transform your life into service for the great king. God is God is so in love with his people. He loves you and he wants to reveal himself to you.

His perfect will. Some of you are feeling a calling to be in ministry. I’m not saying everybody, but some of you are sensing a calling to be in ministry, and you need to follow through with that.

Be obedient to the Lord. Be obedient. Praise be to God.

God is so good. Let me pray a blessing over you. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask you to bless your people, Lord.

Pour out your spirit upon them. And Lord, if anyone is watching this broadcast today and they do not know you, Jesus, they have not yet asked you to be the Lord of their lives, pray this prayer with me. Say, “Jesus, I believe that you’re the son of God.

I ask you right now to forgive me of anything that I’ve done in my life that is not pleasing to you. I ask you to remove everything that is stood in my path so that I can be obedient to you. Thank you Lord.

Thanks be to God. Hallelujah. Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

May your name be honored and glorified. May your name be lifted high, Jesus. Now say this, Jesus, I ask you to come into my heart right now.

Come into my heart. I receive you, Jesus, as my Lord and my Savior. I believe that God raised you from the dead.

I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. and I believe that you now sit at the right hand of the father and I receive complete and total forgiveness and redemption in Jesus holy name. Amen and amen.

I love you all. I look forward to seeing you again next week. We never know what next week will bring, but praise be to God.

May God have his way. Please remember to pray for President Trump. Please remember to pray for his protection, his family’s protection.

Lord, let your name be glorified and honored in Jesus name. Amen. And amen.

Well, if you prayed that prayer with me, one other thing, I almost forgot to say this to you. If you prayed that prayer with me, please let me know. You can email me at zion freedomfellowship zion freedom fellowship all one wordgmail.com.

Again, that’s zionfreedomfellowshipgmail.com. That email will come to me and as soon as I receive it, I will answer it and pray for you. Thank you so much.

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God bless you, brothers and sisters. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his everlasting shalom and his great and mighty grace in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen. And amen.

Love you all. Till next week, God bless folks. have a wonderful, wonderful rest of your day and weekend in Jesus’ name.

Amen.