1 Kings 12:25-33: 25 - "Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein;
and went out from thence, and built Penuel.
26 - And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
27 - If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem,
then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah,
and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
28 - Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them,
It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up
out of the land of Egypt.
29 - And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
30 - And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one,
even unto Dan.
31 - And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people,
which were not of the sons of Levi.
32 - And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month,
like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar.
So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel
the priests of the high places which he had made.
33 - So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day
of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart;
and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar,
and burnt incense."
How many of us have started a project and expected that great and wonderful things
were going happen.
But we let that project sit around, and it was never finished.
At first, it was so exciting, but it took more work than we had thought,
and it was so time consuming; and then, something else came up and got our attention.
How we finish is considered much more important than how well we started.
The important question is how did you finish?
Students are not given "A's" in school to students who only started the course,
but is given to those who finish well.
Degrees are not awarded to students who enroll in college,
but degrees are awarded to those who complete all the necessary subjects and requirements.
Championship trophies are not given to teams that played in a league,
but only to those who finished the season.
If we want to enjoy the victories of our Christian life, we must finish well.
This message is about a young man named, Jeroboam.
Jeroboam grew up in a single-parent family because his father had died
and his mother was a widow.
Jeroboam had developed a good habit of finishing something that he started,
He got the job done.
This habit of Jeroboam captured the attention of the king.
King Solomon saw that he could use someone like Jeroboam in his kingdom,
so he put Jeroboam in charge of all his workers.
Solomon was a king who walked with the Lord, but as time passed, he strayed from that walk.
Things became so bad that God decided to take the kingdom from him,
and give it to one of his servants.
One day as Jeroboam was leaving the city of Jerusalem to go out into the country,
he ran into a prophet named, Ahijah.
Ahijah was wearing a new coat.
He asked for them to wait a minute while he tore up his coat.
Then, Ahijah ripped the coat into twelve pieces.
He gave Jeroboam ten pieces of his coat, and he kept two.
Can you imagine what Jeroboam must been thinking watching Ahijah tear up
a perfectly good new coat.
Ahijah said to Jeroboam, "The God of Israel says for you to take ten for yourself
because he is going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hands,
and make you the leader of ten tribes.
For the sake of David, Solomon will have two tribes to rule over.
Solomon has gone after other gods and has not kept God's commandments.
Jeroboam, God is saying to you, "If you do what I command, and walk in my ways
doing what is right in my eyes, by keeping the laws, I will build you a kingdom
that will last as long as David's kingdom."
God saw the potential for greatness in Jeroboam.
Remember that it depended on Jeroboam's willingness to obey God in everything.
Word got around that God had promised to give Jeroboam part of the kingdom,
and Solomon went looking for him to kill him.
Now Jeroboam had gone from being the top official in the kingdom to be the number one fugitive.
Often when God comes into your life many people and things around you might get upset.
Just because you have gotten the word from God, doesn't mean that everything
is going to be smooth sailing in your life.
When God comes into your life, there are some things and people around us that will be upset.
Jeroboam had to leave behind what he had and run for his life to Egypt.
Jeroboam was banned from his country until Solomon died.
Solomon son, Rehoboam became king, and Jeroboam returned to his country.
King Rehoboam did not start his kingdom well, and after following some bad advice,
many of the tribes rebelled against him.
Just had God spoken years earlier, ten of the tribes decided they wanted nothing to do
with Rehoboam.
So, they got together and decided to make Jeroboam their king.
They appreciated his reputation for always finishing what he started.
This should remind us that God keeps His promises.
God had promised Jeroboam, if you remain faithful to me, I will take care of you,
your children, your children's children, and many more generations after them.
So, King Jeroboam started his kingdom well.
Now as we apply this messes to ourselves, we can be sure that God is not going
to make us kings.
But He has given us opportunities to be husbands, wives, directors, judges, businessmen,
government officials, principals, doctors, school teachers, business owners, pastors,
and you can add many more to that list.
In the opportunity that God has given us, we will have to decide if we are going to obey God
regardless of what comes.
It is our responsibility to finish the job.
We have the added responsibility of finishing the job that God has given us.
This means that God is pleased with us in the way that we deal with our work and responsibilities.
But we can expect that we will be tempted and distracted from our commitment to God.
There will be times in our lives, which like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
we will be asked to bow down to the music of the king just like everybody else.
The question we must answer will we be true to the commands of God?
We must remember that a great start doesn't guarantee a great finish.
Now back to King Jeroboam.
He had power, the respect, the money, the admiration and a kingdom
that he would have never received if God had not chosen him for the job.
But once he had the position, he was going to do whatever was necessary to keep it.
He could see that he might have a potential problem.
His kingdom was in the North.
Rehoboam's kingdom was in the South.
The city of Jerusalem where the temple was -- was in the South.
Each year, all of the Jewish men were commanded to make a trip to the temple in Jerusalem
to offer sacrifices to God.
Jeroboam decided to deal with those potential problems of this requirement.
He might have been thinking that if these people go to Jerusalem to worship,
King Rehoboam might be so nice of them that he would get them to turn against me.
If so, he would be able to take back the ten tribes, and he will execute me.
This is the kind of thinking that causes us to fear.
Fear comes when we stop trusting our God.
The same God who made him king, already knew about the festival to the Temple,
when he told Jeroboam, I will make your kingdom last for generations after generation.
Instead of focusing on God, Jeroboam was focusing on his fear.
Jeroboam begin to fear the possibility of losing what he had.
So, he sought advice.
Unfortunately, he did not seek the Lord God.
Why wouldn't he seek God's word about this fear?
Probably for the same reason that we don't when we have committed ourselves
to do what God wants us to do.
God has a way for us to live in every situation.
When things got hard for Jesus, and He knew that the beatings, the whippings,
and the crucifixion was just hours away, Jesus was afraid.
But he did not let His fear cause Him to find a group of people who would talk Him
out of doing what He knew that He had to do.
Jesus didn't do what many of us do.
Sad to say, many of us also go and seek our many different advice from our friends
and to do what the majority thinks would be best for us.
Jeroboam had a simple plan.
He would make it easy for the people to worship God without going to the temple in Jerusalem.
He made a golden cow in the north of his kingdom, and a golden one in the South,
and told the people, here are the gods who brought you out of Egypt.
He told them that there was no need to go all the way to Jerusalem to worship
for they could do that right there.
He also made the high, holy day, the same day as it would be in Jerusalem.
So he forced the people to make a choice.
The majority of the people liked this more convenient, religion.
It didn't require as much an effort or expense, so a lot of people went along with it.
After all, they did remember something about a golden cow with Moses and Aaron
so it couldn't be wrong.
They forgot that Moses broke that cow into pieces and grounded it up
and utterly destroyed it.
God was ready to destroy them out, but Moses prayed for them.
The personal desires of Jeroboam had led his people astray.
He led the nation into sin and idolatry in order to keep his position.
Isn't it odd that when we get into a position and think that it is up to us if we stay there or not.
We have a God who exalts who He wants to exalt, and brings low, whoever he wants to bring low.
Jeroboam thought that he was securing his future, but in reality, he is initiating the distraction
of his entire family two years after his death.
Jeroboam was not only king, but he went even further and made himself also a priest.
At the golden cow that he had built in Bethel, he also had a huge altar for sacrificing animals.
One day Jeroboam was there ready to present his sacrifice as he stood by this awe inspiring altar.
But God called a prophet from the land of Judah to go and speak against
what Jeroboam had done.
This man of God cried out, "A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David.
On this altar he will burn the bones of the priests you have set up.
As a sign to let you know this is going to happen, this altar will split apart
and the ashes on it will be poured out."
Jeroboam was not happy to hear this..
After all the audacity of this foreigner from Rehoboam's kingdom coming here to prophesy
in his country, and declaring that his altar would be defiled by an offspring of Rehoboam.
This prophet of God had some kind of nerve.
Just think of the courage that it took for this prophet of God to go into the country
of Jeroboam and tell him off in front of his soldiers.
This prophet knew that God had spoken to him, and he went and did exactly
what God told him to do -- no matter if it might cost him his life.
The prophet started out to do good and he was willing to finish the job even if it cost him his life.
Jeroboam was furious.
He stretched out his hand from the altar and gave the order to get that man right now.
But before they could grab him, soldiers noticed that the anger on the face of Jeroboam
had changed to terror.
Right before their eyes, his arm became paralyzed and started to wither up.
Jeroboam was unable to pull his arm back.
Then the altar split apart and poured out the ashes just as the prophet of the Lord had said.
Now Jeroboam realized that he was not in control of his life as he thought he was.
He went from giving orders to making a plea.
He asked the man of God would you pray for me to the Lord your God
that my hand might be restored.
The king is forced to admit that the gods that he had set up could not help him.
The God who would place him on the throne, was no longer his God.
That's why he had asked the man of God to pray to his God for the healing of his hand.
Jeroboam who started great was not gong to finish well.
The prophet of God prayed for Jeroboam, and in His mercy, God reached out
and restored his hand as before.
God has given us a second, a third, and fourth and many other chances,
but still many of us just simply take God's will for us for granted.
Not even this situation will cause Jeroboam to turn back to serving God.
If we say, "No," to God enough times, nothing God does for us
will be seen as God's mercy.
Jeroboam made an offer to the prophet as a way of saying thank you.
Jeroboam said, "Come home and have something to eat with me,
and I will give you a gift."
This was a way of saying to the prophet, "If you come under my protection,
you will not have to worry about anything else.
Your needs are going to be provided for, and I will take care of you."
Jeroboam is offering a prophet a blank check.
The prophet saw through this and remembered what God had told him to do.
Remember, just because you have an offer for a lot of money or a big promotion
doesn't necessarily mean that your offer is coming from God.
The prophet told Jeroboam, "Even if you were to give me half of what you own,
I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here,
for the Lord commanded me, 'Do not eat any bread, or drink any water,
or even go home by the way you came."
With that, he said goodbye, and did not return home by the way he had come.
Now let's follow this prophet for a while, and see what happens to him.
Just like Jeroboam, God chose to use him and to raise him up.
Just like Jeroboam, God made provisions for him to do the job that God had told him to do.
Just like Jeroboam, God had told him in advance what he should and should not do.
Just like Jeroboam, this man of God got off to a great start in finishing the job
that God gave him to do.
Probably, the word quickly spread of how God used this prophet from Judah,
and how he had been willing to go and confront the king all by himself.
They had heard the story of the paralyzed hand and how the prophet prayed for the king's hand
to be healed, and it was.
They heard how the king had offered the prophet and blank check,
but the prophet turned him down.
They heard that the prophet was committed not to eat or drink anything as long
as he was in that country, and that he was to go home a different way.
Can you imagine that as the prophet left the king that day that many would have wanted
to shake his hand, pat him on the back, and let him know that they wished
they had that kind of courage and faith.
He must've been feeling pretty good when he left.
Now we look at a man and his two sons.
His boys had witnessed this, and they came back and told their father what had happened.
Their father was an old prophet himself.
He asked his sons, "Which way did the man go home."
His sons showed him the road.
He told his sons to saddle his donkey for he was going after him.
The old man kept riding until finally he saw the man of God from Judah sitting under an oak tree.
Now let us look again in 1 Kings 13 to see what happened next.
1 Kings 13:14-26: "And he went after the man of God and found him
sitting under an oak tree.
And he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?
" And he said, "I am."
Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread."
And he said, "I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread
nor drink water with you in this place, for it was said to me by the word of the LORD,
'You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.'"
And he said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me
by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you into your house
that he may eat bread and drink water.'"
But he lied to him.
So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.
And as they sat at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet
who had brought him back.
And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, "Thus says the LORD,
'Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD and have not kept the command
that the LORD your God commanded you, but have come back and have eaten bread
and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread and drink no water,"
your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"
And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet
whom he had brought back.
And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him.
And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it;
the lion also stood beside the body.
And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing
by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it,
he said, "It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the LORD;
therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him,
according to the word that the LORD spoke to him."
What was going through Ahijah's mind.
It would be better for him to go home, and do what God had told him.
Was it possible that this prophet of God was thinking about his achievements
and maybe even thinking that he should receive some recognition for his courage.
Or could it be that he was thinking of how more spiritual he was now
because of the way that God had used him.
Just because we had a victory over temptation yesterday, doesn't mean
that we can sit comparably and deal with the same temptation again today.
Just because you had a victory over temptation yesterday, does not mean
that you can handle the same temptation today.
Just because we were able to say,"No," in a situation yesterday,
doesn't mean that the next time that comes up with slightly different circumstances,
that we will be able to say, "No," again.
The first time we realized that we needed to flee.
But the next time, we willing to listen a little longer.
Christians when are we compromising with what the Lord has commanded us to do?
It is when did we decided to sit down under a tree, and just wait to have temptation come our way?
Today, God is calling us to finish the job that we have been given to do.
We have pledged ourselves in marriage.
Are we going to finish our marriage in the Lord.
We pledged ourselves in service and to our jobs and at school to finish the job
that we been given, and do it in the Lord.
Many have agreed to serve some ministry in the church, and to finish the job
that the Lord has given us.
Jesus told us that before we start any project that we should first sit down
and count the cost to see if we have enough to finish the job.
When Jesus called you to be one of His disciples, Jesus was saying, "Count the cost."
God has told us if we're not willing to love Him above all her possessions,
our friends and our relatives, than we cannot be His disciples.
Today, we must examine ourselves and answer the question honestly.
"Are we finishing the job that God has given us to do?
Not doing it just to get by, but doing it completely and thoroughly as God would have us do.
Like Jeroboam, like the man of God, all of us will give an account to God for what we have done,
and what we have left undone.
Let us determine with God's help to finish the work that God has given us to do.
Like Paul, we should want to say: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only,
but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Sermon adapted from several sources by Dr. Harold L. White
