Joash, the Boy King, Sunday

Hello friends, welcome to the SeenPod for Kids.

Thank you for joining me today as we spend time with our friend Jesus.

Spending time with Jesus is the best way to start your day.

Let's begin our time together, praising Him.

If you ever been in pain, I know some people who struggle with back pain, and I even struggle

with some nerve pain if I don't exercise consistently.

As long as I exercise, I can keep the pain away.

Eliza Hewitt was the one who wrote the song, There is Sunshine in my soul today.

It's a happy, cheerful song, and you would never know that she struggled with a serious,

spinal disease.

That means her back, she had some problems with her back.

Because of those problems, she couldn't move much, and had to stay in bed quite a bit.

But that didn't stop her from praising Jesus.

She enjoyed writing Christian songs for children to sing, so let's sing this song together.

For happiness and my soul today, and hope and praise and love, for blessings which she gives me now.

For joy is laid up above all this sunshine, as it's sunshine.

When the peaceful everyone is wrong, when Jesus shows us my weakness, there is a chime in the soul.

The story that we're going to learn about this week is pretty amazing.

It shows that they had faith in God.

Do you have a choir in your church?

We're going to find out a little bit more this week about a special choir and how they led an army to a battle.

But first, let's pray.

Lord, please help us as we learn and we study today about how much you care for us and how you want what's best for us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Many choirs like to sing praises to God.

I've been to some choirs, especially in college, where our college choir would have different concerts and you could hear them and they would all dress the same and they would just sing their hearts out and it was amazing.

And then when you add a live orchestra, which is all the instruments that are playing the music rather than just having the music played through the sound system, it's incredible.

You just feel like you're immersed in sound and it's just completely enveloping you.

It's it's very amazing.

Can you imagine a choir joyfully singing praises to God and then marching out to meet a terrible enemy as they sing?

That's what happened one time long, long ago, but first we're going to find out about the king who had that choir.

We've been focusing a lot the last few weeks on the king of Israel.

Remember King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, you have the entire children of Israel and they were all united under David and they were all united under Solomon.

But when Solomon died, the kingdoms that kingdom divided and so two tribes stuck with the Judah or they were called Judah and they were the southern kingdom.

They were down in the south. The other ten tribes all stuck together and they were called Israel and they were in the north.

So you have Judah in the south and Israel in the north. Israel's king was Ahab and we're going to find out a little bit more about Judah's king.

Sometimes there were good kings and sometimes there were wicked kings in Judah.

One of the good kings of Judah was called King Jehosa fat. Can you say that? Jehosa fat. He was one of King David's descendants. That means the king David was his relative.

What did the Bible say about him and why could God bless him? There was a specific reason. Let's look at 2nd Chronicles chapter 17.

That's after 1st Kings, 2nd Kings and you have 1st Chronicles and 2nd Chronicles.

So we're going to 2nd Chronicles chapter 17 and then verses 3, 4, 5 and 6.

3, 4, 5 and 6. All right. I found it. Let me move my Bible over here. There we go.

Okay. 2nd Chronicles chapter 17. It's not Corinthians. Corinthians is in the New Testament and they look kind of similar, the words.

It's 2nd Chronicles chapter 17 and then verses 3 through 6. Here's what it says.

Now the Lord was with Jehosa fat because he walked in the former ways of his father David. He did not seek the bails but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments and not according to the Acts of Israel.

Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, all Judah gave presents to Jehosa fat and he had riches and honor and abundance and his heart took delight in the ways of the Lord.

Moreover, he removed the high places and wooden images from Judah.

God could bless him because why he walked in the ways of David, the way that David did walked, the things that David did.

He didn't go after bails or idols but he sought God and so God established his kingdom and he had riches and he had honor and his heart took delight in the ways of the Lord.

That means he enjoyed thinking about God and reading from his word and learning about him and not only did he just enjoy spending time with God but he also took away the high places or the wooden images from Judah.

That's all the idols that people would come and bow down to. They would make these gardens and these groves and put their idols there and they would go in worship.

So he took those down. Is that wonderful? But you know sometimes good people even make mistakes and there was one mistake that Jehosa fat made that led to some pretty bad things happening in the future because our actions, it may not seem like a bad thing now but they have consequences.

Could be good consequences, which would be like a good result or it can be bad consequences. Do you know what he did?

Jehosa fat made the mistake of letting his son Jehorum marry Athalia. You know who she was? She was the daughter of wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Her name was Athalia.

And that made it easy for Ahab and Jehosa fat to be friends even though Ahab worshiped idols. So it united the kingdom, it united believers in God with unbelievers, people who did not follow God.

You know I have a friend and she grew up as a believer and then she decided that she was going to marry someone who is not a believer.

And for a while they both were not really following God but she has since then come back and started following God and praying and I've noticed that it's hard on her because her husband, her spouse, is not a believer.

And so she has to worship God on her own in a way and that's very difficult. It also unites their families. His family doesn't really believe in God and her family does and so you have these conflicts that can come up.

These things where they don't agree on things and it can lead to a lot of heartache and a lot of arguments and a lot of misunderstandings because of it.

One time when Jehosa fat, remember that's the father whose son married Athalia, Jehosa fat went and visited Israel.

Ahab had asked him, would you help me fight the Syrians? I want to get back a city that they took from me. So Jehosa fat said, well yeah sure that sounds good but you know we should really first ask God.

We should make sure that we're following God's plan and so why don't you go and call some prophets and we'll ask them what God's will is.

So Ahab said, okay sounds good and you know what he did. He didn't call prophets that loved God. He called prophets that would say whatever King Ahab wanted them to say.

So he said, okay, come here prophets. I want to go and so make sure that that's God's plan and let's look at what the prophets said.

We're in 2nd Chronicles chapter 18 verse 4 and 5. So we're just on the very next chapter we read in 17. Now let's look at 18 verses 4 and 5.

Also Jehosa fat said to the king of Israel, please inquire for the word of the Lord today then the kingdom of Israel gathered the prophets together.

400 men and said to them, shall we go to war against Rome's Gilead or shall I refrain. So they said go up for God will deliver it into the king's hand.

That's a lot of prophets isn't it 400 men and what did he ask should we go to war and what did they say go up God's going to deliver it in your hands.

But Jehosa fat he was a little suspicious. He was like wait a second. I think these guys really from God is it really God telling us the message and so you know what he insisted he said you need to call one of God's prophets.

Look at verse 6. But Jehosa fat said is there not still a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of him.

He knew what Ahab was doing and he's like no no call God's prophets finally Ahab gave in he said okay all right all right let's call God's prophet.

And what did God's prophets say you want to know well you'll have to come back tomorrow and find out because that's when we'll find the answer.

You know boys and girls do you think that Ahab was a little afraid that God's prophet would say something different from what he wanted to hear.

I think so I think he was like you know he doesn't really tell me good things God's prophet because obviously Ahab was going against God.

And so let's just not even hear his advice. But that's not how we should live our lives.

We should live our lives asking God each and every day what do you want me to do what should I do where do you want me to go how do you want me to live.

Please Lord please help me to be kind to be loving even when I don't feel like it is what we want sometimes different from what our parents think we should have or maybe from what God wants us to have.

Yeah there's times when things that I want don't really go along with God or his plan and I have to remember this world is not my home we're just passing through where are we focused on or where should we be focused on.

On heaven yes on eternal life I want to be in heaven with God how about you let's pray Lord help us to commit our ways to the Lord and that you will direct us you will lead us you will guide us help us to stay focused on you in Jesus name Amen.

Our memory verse today is from Psalm chapter 40 verse 8 it's a great one one very very good to memorize and to review and to keep in your mind I delight to do your will oh my God and your law is within my heart that should be our prayer today.

Psalm 40 verse 8.

I delight to do your will oh my God and your love is within my heart I delight to do your will oh my God.

I delight to do your will oh my God and your love is within my heart.

I delight to do your will oh my God I delight to do your will oh my God and your love is within my heart.

Psalm chapter 40 verse 8.

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