I want you to listen real close, because
this could be an absolute life changer for
you.
It comes from the Word of God.
Of course, all preaching must be founded in
the Word of God.
What I'm about to talk to you about
is really important.
How many want the blessing of God, not
only on your life, but to remain on
your life?
Just lift your hand, all right?
How many believe there's such an invisible thing
called the blessing of God, right?
All right.
The king we're gonna talk about was a
king named Amaziah, who was the king of
the southern kingdom, called Judah, reigning in Jerusalem.
Those were the good guys, in terms of
the division of the 12 tribes of Israel.
The northern kingdom, which was called Israel, was
bad from the get-go.
They made up their own religion, had idolatry
mixed into it, never had one decent king,
while in the southern kingdom, there were some
good kings, godly kings, and some bad kings,
too.
Listen about Amaziah as he takes over the
throne at the age of, I think, 25.
Let's look.
Amaziah was 25 years old when he became
king, and he reigned in Jerusalem, 29, so
that means he died at 54.
His mother's name was Jehoadam.
She was from Jerusalem.
He did what was right in the eyes
of the Lord, but not wholeheartedly.
One translation has he did it reluctantly.
He wasn't totally all out to do God's
will.
Let's read.
Amaziah called the people of Judah together because
they were gonna go to war against the
Edomites, and he assigned them, according to their
families, to commanders of thousands and commanders of
hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin.
Those are the two tribes that he was
reigning over.
He then mustered those 20 years old or
more and found that there were 300,000
men, 300,000.
Everybody say 300,000.
300,000.
Foot for military service, able to handle the
spear and the shield.
He also hired 100,000 fighting men from
Israel for 100 talents of silver.
One translation has two tons of silver.
But a man of God came to him
and said, Your Majesty, these troops from Israel,
the northern kingdom that was idolatrous, they must
not march with you, for the Lord is
not with Israel, not with any of the
people of Ephraim, another name for Israel.
Even if you go and fight courageously in
battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy,
for God has the power to help or
to overthrow.
Amaziah asked the man of God, but what
about the 100 talents I paid for these
Israelite troops?
They're ready to go to battle.
He just laid out two tons of silver.
The man of God replied, the Lord can
give you much more than that.
So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come
to him from Ephraim and sent them home.
They were furious with Judah, with the king,
and left for home in a great rage.
Later on, after a great victory over the
Edomites, when Amaziah returned from slaughtering, you know
what, the Bible has to be so accurate
because who could make this stuff up?
It tells the truth about these kings and
about the foibles and frailties they had.
He brought back, after slaughtering the Edomites, he
brought back the gods of the people of
Seir, which was the Edomites.
He just beat them up and now he
gets their gods and he set them up
as his own gods, bowed down to them
and burned sacrifices to them.
The anger of the Lord burned against Amaziah
and he sent a prophet to him who
said, why do you consult this people's gods,
which could not save their own people from
your hand?
And while he was still speaking, this is
where it gets serious, the king said to
him, have we appointed you an advisor to
the king?
Stop, why be struck down, why get killed?
So the prophet stopped but said, I know
that God is determined to destroy you because
you have done this and have not listened
to my counsel.
And then it goes on to tell us
that, you know how he got further in
trouble?
He went to war later on because of
this victory, he got all puffed up and
he went to war against Israel and the
wicked king of Israel, the northern kingdom, said
to him, you just challenged me that we
should go to war with each other.
Why do that?
You're just gonna get hurt.
But he wouldn't listen.
God was speaking through his enemy, he still
wouldn't listen.
And he not only got defeated, that king
of the northern kingdom came to Jerusalem and
stripped the temple of all the silver and
gold.
And later on, Amaziah died a ignoble death.
What are the lessons for us here?
We live a long, long, long way, centuries
and centuries away from King Amaziah.
We're not kings, we're not going to war,
we're not fighting, but what's the truth?
And there's a New Testament passage or two
I'll reflect upon with you.
So here's this king, and he has good
math skills.
He's gonna go battle against the Edomites.
He's got 300,000 troops of his own.
So he says, well, wait a minute, what's
better, 300,000 or 400,000?
I'm gonna hire 100,000 mercenaries from the
northern kingdom.
Big deal, they're idolaters and they turn their
back on God, but 400 is more than
300,000 and might makes right.
And if you want to win, you go
in fully prepared.
Wrong.
He hires these guys, they're about to go
to battle, these mercenaries with him, and a
man of God.
What courage that man of God had.
Imagine the kind of courage you have to
have to be a real man or woman
of God.
Imagine how few of them there would be
maybe in the earth today when most preaching
is to tell people what they want to
hear rather than what we need to hear.
How many want to hear what we need
to hear today?
But in a lot of places, they draw
attendance, it's pastor as life coach, just tell
people kind of platitudes, never confront them with
anything that they might have to change in
their lives.
Very disturbing trend.
This man of God, though, he had the
chutzpah to walk up to the king and
go, you better not go to battle with
these 100,000.
Well, why not?
Because God is not with them.
God is with you.
You don't need them.
In fact, if you fight with them, you'll
lose.
That's how much God is against those people.
You see, the blessing of God is not
on everybody.
The anger of God is on certain people,
the Bible tells us.
Turn their back, hate God, fight against God.
It's in our culture, forces that are just
mock Jesus, mock God, mock everything about God.
But he says, wait a minute, I'm going
to battle, I need troops, who cares where
they come from?
He said, God cares where they come from.
Don't make an alliance with these people or
you're going to lose.
Even if you fight courageously and even though
God is with you, you will lose.
Is that not a staggering thought?
By having more, you'll have less.
Less is more and more is less.
Get rid of them.
And the king says, I'll get rid of
them.
Then what am I going to do with
the, I paid for them?
Two tons of silver.
How about the two tons of silver amount?
He said, God can give you much more.
Lose the money, write it off.
Boys, God's ways are not our ways.
Write it off, he can give you much
more.
He sends them away and they get madder
than a hornet and they leave and they're
fighting and they're furious and they're mad, who
is this king to send us home?
Hey, but you got paid.
I don't care, we wanted to fight.
And they go home and they're angry and
they messed up some of the towns they
went through.
What's that lesson for us today?
The Bible says in the New Testament that
it's very, very vital who we run with.
Who's your posse?
Who you form alliances with?
Look, we gotta work in secular companies.
We gotta ride on subways that the conductor
might be the most ungodly person in the
world.
We're in this world, we can't avoid all
of that.
But when it comes to making alliances and
having close relationships and forming our little posses
that we have, you gotta be very careful.
Look what the New Testament says in 2
Corinthians.
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers for
what do righteousness and wickedness have in common
or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
Who you marry, who you hang with, who
you go into business with, who you form
close relationships with, it matters to God and
it'll matter to you because look at this
other passage in 1 Corinthians.
Do not be misled.
Bad company corrupts good character.
It doesn't say you'll always win them.
They could win you.
How many times have I seen that?
Careless alliances, friendships, hanging out, spending a lot
of time and an inordinate amount of time
with people who are godless, don't wanna hear
about God, but there's something charismatic about them
and then you know people hang out with
them.
Sometimes it can even be family.
You gotta draw the line even with family
sometimes.
Your family can eat you up for lunch.
Listen, you always respect and you love your
family, but some family influence us are evil.
And here's what God told the king through
a prophet.
What a brave prophet.
What kind of courage did these people come
and have?
Get rid of 100,000 people that you
hired and forget the money, write it off.
What kind of courage is that?
So the Bible tells us that sometimes you
can lose the blessing of God by getting
connected with people and influences in our culture
or groups of people and form alliances and
you can actually lose the blessing of God
because they start to corrupt our devotion to
Christ.
We start to copy them.
Oh, Pastor Simba, that's that old fashioned stuff
that you're a peculiar people that we're supposed
to be separate.
Yeah, yeah, that's old fashioned, but it happens
to be in the Bible and God hasn't
changed.
How many say amen to that?
Remember, the things of God don't change.
Ministers change, culture changes, God's word never changes.
I don't know why this is on my
heart so heavy, but if you're here, what
are your relationships that possibly could be causing
you to lose out with God?
How many heartbreaks do I have to get
through of girls and guys, but many times
it's women who are lonely and wanna get
married and they take up with some guy.
He's no more a Christian than this microphone.
I know, but I'm lonely.
You're gonna be more than lonely when he
gets done with you.
Don't be unequally yoked.
This almost sounds, because of the trend today
in Christianity, this almost sounds like a dinosaur
religion like does it matter?
Yeah, you go to those clubs, you run
with those people, you will not influence them,
they will influence you and you'll lose out
on the blessing of God.
Oh, I know, but all things are lawful.
Come on, it's a new day.
No, it's not a new day with God.
Nothing changes with God.
We need wisdom for the application of this,
but how many people have overlooked God's word
and just said, yeah, but he'd be fine.
Yeah.
How many believe with all your heart God
knows what's best for our lives?
Lift your hand up high.
God knows what's best.
He was trying to help this man to
have a victory which the king got.
He got the victory by losing troops.
Sometimes you go ahead by losing and let's
say here's another truth.
He said, yeah, but how about the money
I spent?
Two tons of silver, that's no small change.
And you know what the prophet said?
Write it off.
Lose it.
Better to have God's blessing and lose two
tons of silver than hold on to the
two tons of silver and hire the people.
Can we say amen to that?
Let's say amen to that.
Write it off.
You know, believers aren't supposed to sue each
other in the Bible.
You know that, right?
I've been sued a couple times by unbelievers
representing here at the church.
And can I tell you what?
The person had me in a stranglehold, was
really acting nasty.
The people in the office and legal team,
they all knew about that.
But you know what?
God worked it out that while I took
one for the team and he cursed at
me and hung up a couple times on
me, in the end, God made him responsible
for one of the biggest blessings ever to
come to our church.
Because when you follow God and you don't
fight back and you say, you know what?
Keep the money.
Listen, I'd rather have the blessing of God
than two tons of silver.
How many say amen to that?
Rather have the blessing of God.
Everybody nitpicking over every little dollar, every little
dime and you lose the blessing of God.
Why not be liberal and just trust God?
It drove me crazy the other day.
I was in a diner and people were
sitting next to me and there were three
of them.
All they had was coffee and a little
something and whatever.
You think it was prime rib at Peter
Luger's?
No, it was just a little thing.
The bill came and they went, so separate
checks or all one check?
Oh, we'll take one check.
Okay, so what do you owe, Bob?
Let's see, you owe $3.18. No, I
think you're $4.22. You owe $4.22.
No, don't say that.
I think it's $4.22. Don't say only
four, it's $4.22. You owe the extra
$4.22. Just pay the bill.
Just pay the bill.
Bless somebody and say, God, you're gonna take
care of me.
Come on, let's say amen to that.
To avoid fighting, to avoid losing the blessing
of God.
How many people have lost the blessing of
God over filthy money?
They get bad in their spirit because someone
took advantage of them.
Hey, listen, I've been taken advantage of, but
God will have the last word.
How many believe that?
God will always have the last word for
us.
Lose it, write it off.
I've had people tell me over the years,
you know that person, you're an easy mark,
that person, they took advantage of you.
Yeah, I knew it.
They could've and they maybe did in some
cases, but guess what?
You can't take the blessing of God from
someone.
Wouldn't you rather, wait, what's all the clapping
about this morning?
Wouldn't you rather have the blessing of God
and just have a free spirit and not
be fussing and fighting and eh, and yeah,
and all of that stuff and you lose
the joy, you lose your peace, you have
nothing, but you got your extra $90 or
$900 and what's it worth?
Also notice that to keep the blessing of
God, you not only sometimes have to cut
back and lose some people and write off
some money, but you also get people mad
at you.
When they left because he obeyed God, they
were mad.
Just because people are upset with you doesn't
mean you did something wrong.
In fact, some people should be upset with
us if we're doing what God wants us
to do.
Remember, Jesus died on a cross.
People nailed him up there and he was
the perfect son of God.
So if you think you and I are
gonna walk through life and have everyone like
us, what a fantasy that is.
And some of us who are more sensitive
of nature, we're always watching how are people
reacting.
They might not like that.
Hey, listen, it is what it is.
Let's obey the Lord and keep a good
spirit and say, God, I want your blessing
on my life.
I want the blessing of God on this
church.
I want the blessing of God on the
choir.
I want the blessing of God on Pastor
Burgos and Millie.
I want the blessing of God on Pastor
Todd and his wife and family as they
move out into other ministry.
I just want the blessing of God on
it because when the blessing of God is
on it, doors open, provisions come, miracles happen,
prayers are answered.
But listen, when the blessing of God is
not there, the skies are like brass.
So Amaziah was told, you want the blessing
of God?
Then lose that.
Lose those people, lose the money, and don't
matter that they're yelling at you and they're
mad at you.
What we sometimes compromise, our principles, just have
people like us and accept us.
Who cares if they like us or not
like us?
Listen, can you be greater than Jesus?
No student is greater than their teacher.
If they hated him, what do you think,
they're gonna applaud us?
But again, the Bible is so honest.
This guy Amaziah, he was like a bipolar
or something.
He goes and fights the Edomites and he
beats the daylight out of them.
And while he's there and he's conquered them,
he sees these beautiful idols that they worship,
really cool looking.
They were praying to those idols before they
went into battle.
And he whooped them because God was with
them.
But isn't this something about us?
He got fascinated by those idols.
No, I want those idols to come back
with me to Jerusalem.
And he brought them back and he set
them up and he got rid of the
worship of God and started to worship the
idols of the people he had just defeated.
Does that make any sense?
But it's in the Bible for a reason.
So a prophet comes to him and says,
yo, king, the prophet was from Brooklyn, I
know you noticed that.
Yo, king, you, what is it with you?
What is it with you?
You're worshiping the idols of a people that
you just beat?
The idols didn't help them, now why are
you worshiping them?
And then Amaziah, unfortunately, showed these true colors
that ended up disgracing him in the Bible.
He said, stop, shut up.
Who made you in charge of me?
Why do you wanna get killed?
If you keep talking, I'll kill you here
on the spot.
And the prophet said, enough, I won't say
anything more.
But now I know you're doomed because you
won't listen.
Before, you listened.
You got rid of the 100,000.
You wrote off the money.
You didn't care that they were mad at
you.
But what's got in your head that you
can't listen?
Listen, brothers and sisters, no matter what mistakes
we make, if God speaks to us and
we listen, he can rectify it, amen?
That's why the Bible says, give me a
hearing heart.
What might God be saying to you?
And notice how it can come.
It can come through a prophet, come through
a preacher, come through a verse that you
read.
It can come through a song.
It can come through someone playing the keyboard
and the Holy Spirit speak to you.
It can come through the words of a
song that you remember from your childhood, can
come from your mother, can come through your
father, can come through your child.
I one time had a five-year-old
daughter sitting on my lap while I was
driving home.
Had a lot on my mind when we
started here at the church and I was
racing back to New Jersey where I lived
then and driving like a madman, not thinking
about anything, things on my mind and she
was laying dead asleep on my lap while
I was driving and my oldest girl then,
only about to be five years old, and
she was laying there and I didn't realize
how heavy I was pressing the gas and
I'm just flying.
But you know, you get things in your
mind and you're not watching and all of
that.
And suddenly, as God is my witness, she
lifted her head up, didn't look at me,
but just lifted her head up and looked
out the side window and she said, Daddy,
you're going too fast.
We're gonna get hurt.
And then went right back down.
And it was as much God's voice as
a voice coming from a cloud.
God can speak any way to us because
he loves us and when we go off
on something, wrong alliances, wrong situations, wrong environments
that we shouldn't be in, God's not gonna
see us get hurt.
He's gonna try to interject.
He's gonna send somebody to help us.
Haven't you ever had God speak to you?
How many have ever had the Lord speak
to you in your life, right?
And it can be the most subtle thing.
You know, people are talking nonsense and about
other people who aren't present and the Lord
whispered to you, don't join in that conversation.
Come on, do I get an amen?
Do not open your mouth.
But it's something about our tongues and our
mouth, right?
A little sucker just opens up by itself
and starts talking.
What might God be saying to you today
so that you can enjoy his blessing?
He loves us so much.
He was fighting for Amaziah, but what could
he do?
All he can do is send people to
speak into his life.
I want the blessing of God on all
of you.
I love you.
You know I really love you?
I don't talk like this often, let me
just say this.
I really love you.
You could say to me, how could you
love us?
You don't know all of us.
But you have your own personality.
Sorry for visitors that are here for the
first time, I'm just talking now.
I love you too, but not as much
as I love other people here.
I love you.
My wife and I, we love you.
I have great esteem for you.
How I talk about you behind your back,
if you knew, it's always in the highest
terms.
I want the blessing of God for all
of you.
Some of you have it hard.
Single moms here fighting for your kids.
Pressures in life.
There's an old saying, you're only as happy
as you're saddest child.
So if you have children and they're not
doing good, that's a battle, I've been there.
But I love you and I want more
than anything else in the world.
I consider myself working with these pastors and
these deacons, I consider myself the most blessed
pastor in the world, I do.
That's the truth before God.
I never go any place where I'm jealous
of anyone.
Never, never happened, never got close to it.
Like I look at someone and go, wow,
what a situation they have.
It's like, keep whatever you have, God bless
you.
I want the blessing of God on you.
I can't define that, I can't show it
to you.
But how many agree with me, there's such
a thing of having God's blessing resting on
your life and it affects your children.
Can I say one other thing?
If you get saved and you're married and
your husband's an unbeliever, your children are blessed
and you're blessed even though you're married to
an unbeliever.
Because you got converted.
Now, don't look for trouble now and be
looking for an unbeliever.
That the Bible says, don't be unequally yoked.
But I wanna just bring that out.
If you're here today and your husband is
treating you mean or your wife, but you're
serving the Lord, that spouse cannot take the
blessing of God off your life.
I don't care how mean they are, I
don't care what they say or do, they
can't take the blessing of God off your
life and your children.
Father, would you help us today?
We want your blessing.
Amaziah had your blessing for a while.
Then somehow it went to his head, he
went crazy.
Save us from unholy alliances.
Save us from the negative power of bad
associations.
Save us, just like you had men of
God that went to Amaziah, Satan has men
and women of Satan who goes not to
bless, but to steal and kill and destroy.
Help us not to hate anyone and be
rude to anybody, but help us to discern
that not everybody is good for our lives.
Keep us in the workplace.
Keep us in the subway system.
Watch over us.
God bless your people.
Bless this congregation.
And the people that are visiting, let them
leave with the blessing of God on them.
We thank you that if we confess our
sins, you are faithful and just to forgive
us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Help us to have the faith to even
lose stuff and have people turn on us,
but we just keep our eyes on you
and say, no, that can happen, let it
go.
I want the blessing of God.
I'm not gonna lose the blessing of God
over some money or some people getting mad
at me that I tried to make a
treaty with.
However this is to apply, God, you know
how it is in my heart.
You know how I've wrestled with this for
days.
Let this be applied by the Holy Spirit
to save anybody here in this building for
some trap of the enemy.
We praise you today.
We love you.
If you're here today and God's been talking
to your heart through this unusual message about
King Amaziah, just talk to God right now.
And say, God, I'm hearing you.
You're talking to me through Pastor Cimbala through
that passage.
Now, Lord, let your face shine upon us.
Grant us your peace.
And let the blessing of God flow down
on us like rain today and every day
as we trust in you.
Bless the congregation.
Bless everyone here.
Make them a blessing today.
We ask all of this in Jesus' name.
And the church said.
Amen.
Everybody stand and hug somebody.
Come on, hug somebody.