Serenity XII – Repent
Hebrews 10:1-2
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
a. Seek
2 Chronicles 15:1-19
1 The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. 2 He went out to meet Asa and said to
him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are
with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will
forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach
and without the law. 4 But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel,
and sought him, and he was found by them. 5 In those days it was not safe to travel
about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. 6 One nation was being
crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every
kind of distress. 7 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be
rewarded.”
b. Hear
8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet,
he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and
Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the
altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple. 9 Then he
assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and
Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers had come over to him from
Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
c. Receive
10 They assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. 11 At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred head of cattle and seven
thousand sheep and goats from the plunder they had brought back. 12 They entered into
a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul.
13 All who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether
small or great, man or woman. 14 They took an oath to the Lord with loud acclamation,
with shouting and with trumpets and horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced about the oath
because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found
by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.16 King Asa also deposed his
grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a
repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down, broke it up and burned it
in the Kidron Valley. 17 Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s
heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. 18 He brought into the temple of God
the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated. 19 There was
no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.
