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Amen. So, I'm not pulling a fast one on you. We're still in 1 Kings, chapter 14. If you want to keep something there in 2 Chronicles, but go back to 1 Kings 14. Of course, that was a parallel passage that we read there. And if you remember last week, we talked a little bit about everything kind of leading up to verse 21 here, which is where we're going to pick up the story. I really don't want to go over everything that we've already preached about last week with Abijah, and the prophet Hijjah, and his son falling sick. We all probably remember that. But what I want to focus in here is that other king that's mentioned, because you remember in our story at this point, the two kingdoms have been divided. You have the northern and southern kingdom. And he talks about Jeroboam and that northern kingdom in the first half, and then he kind of focuses on what took place in the lower half in the kingdom of Judah with regards to King Rehoboam specifically. And I think really the great lesson that we can learn out of this chapter is that we need to learn to not repeat the mistakes of our previous generation. We're going to see that tonight, that Rehoboam really wasn't striking out. He does a lot of wicked things, but it wasn't like he was striking out on his own doing that. Really what he was doing was he was repeating the mistakes of his father. He was just kind of continuing down that path that Solomon had already started going down himself. And what we need to learn is that you reap what you repeat. You reap what you repeat. Just like the saying goes, you reap what you sow. If you reap what others have done before you, then you should expect to reap the same. If your family has a history of certain sins in it, and you keep repeating those certain sins, it shouldn't shock you when you reap the same rewards, when you have the same consequences come into your life. And that's something that's always kind of made me, kind of surprised me with people who come from a family that maybe was broken or has a history of alcoholism or whatever the sin is that they grow up in that house seeing what's taking place, and then they turn around and do the exact same thing in their own life. And sure, there's reasons for that, but it would be foolish to sit there and think that you're not going to have the exact same problems that the previous generation had if you continue to repeat what they did. If you repeat what they did, then you're going to reap what you repeat. And the thing about Rehoboam that's interesting is that he had a positive and negative influence in his life. He wasn't somebody that just had no idea who the Lord was. He wasn't somebody that just didn't know anything about God, didn't know what the Lord expected. You know, he had positive influence in his life. And it's interesting that Solomon, you know, his father played the role of both a positive and a negative influence in his life. Solomon had a very positive influence in his life, but he also had a very negative influence in his life. And Rehoboam ultimately, he decided for himself that he was going to continue in that negative influence, that he was going to continue in the sins of his fathers and repeat what they did, and therefore he reaped what they reaped as well. And even, you know, you could read the story and say he reaped a little bit more than what they reaped. So, first of all, we need to look at that, the fact that Rehoboam had, you know, both positive and negative influences in his life. Now, the positive influence, of course, comes from Solomon, again, who was a negative and positive influence in his life. But if you notice there, excuse me, in 1 Kings, chapter number 14, verse 21, it says, And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign. So it's giving us his age. He's forty-one years old when he begins to reign. Now, if you remember, I'll read to you from 1 Kings 11, that Solomon began to reign over Israel. He reigned over Israel forty years. So, do the math. If he reigned forty years and Rehoboam is forty-one years old when he began to reign, that means that Rehoboam was born, you know, at the beginning of Solomon's reign, which was the better part of Solomon's reign. Now, it also tells you that Solomon was already marrying strange wives at that point. We already know that he married the queen of Egypt, or not the queen, but the princess. You know, he married Pharaoh's daughter. And, you know, we see here also that Rehoboam's mother was, you know, an Ammonite. Okay, so he's already marrying strange wives. But, you know, he hasn't gotten to that excess where he has, you know, seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. You know, you don't just do that overnight. You know, that's something you have to do over time. That's something he built up over his reign. Okay, so, you know, Solomon already is following in the footsteps and the sins of his father, who multiplied wives to himself, which is something that God told kings not to do. They went ahead and did it anyway. And you can see how that perpetuated itself not only into Solomon's life, but also into David's grandson's life in Rehoboam. And, you know, Rehoboam should have stepped back and said, you know, look what this has led to in the nation of Israel. Look what this has led to, this marrying of strange wives, this idolatry, and he should have gotten right with God. That's what should have happened. But, you know, it seems, and the theme really is, the lesson is, is that the negative influences in our life, if we're not careful, will outweigh or have more sway in our lives than the positive influences. The bad always make the good bad. It never works the other way around. So Rehoboam, he begins, he was 41 years old and began to reign. Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over Israel 40 years. So he's starting his reign with the birth of Rehoboam about that time. And notice also, I'll read to you from 1 Kings 6, we know that Solomon finished the building of the temple in the 11th year of his reign. He began it in the fourth year of his reign and then he finished it in the 11th. So the temple is being built, you find that in 1 Kings 6, the temple is being built four years into his reign, that means Rehoboam's about four years old. You know, and children probably really don't, I mean, some people, I feel like I'm one of those people that has, for some reason I have a very strange ability to remember things from my youth, like really young. You know, like the day I was born, I'm just kidding. I was born on casual Friday, right, I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. But I do have ability to remember certain things from my youth. I remember I went and visited my dad, you know, a little over a year ago, almost two years ago, hadn't seen him in years. And of course, you know, he was staying in the house that I grew up with because my aunt had bought it. And I'm walking in the house and I'm just remembering all these things. And my dad and my uncle that were there, I'm telling them the stories like, how do you remember anything from when you were, you know, four or five or six? You know, remembering all these crazy, you know, just things that happened in my childhood. The point is this, is that, you know, if Rehoboam is four years old, when the temple is starting to be built, you know, he might not remember day one of the temple being built, but he's growing up as a child with the building of the temple. I mean, that's what's consuming his dad's time. That's what everybody's talking about. That's the big thing that's going on in his life. Look, that's a positive influence. You know, basically you could say he's the kind of guy that's growing up in church. As a young person, as a child, he's coming up where the house of God plays a huge influence in his life. It's a major theme in his life and his childhood because he's 11 years old by the time it's finished. And you have to think about the impact that must have had on him, or at least should have had on him. I mean, he's seeing the temple be built. He's seeing all that's going into it. He's seeing, you know, the dedication of that temple. No doubt he was there. He's seeing, you know, the presence of God come down and fill the temple with smoke to where the priest couldn't even minister, and he's seeing the sacrifices. You know, I remember, you know, in the second grade, you know, when I was on that visit in South Dakota that I was just referring to, I walked by my old school, which is a block away, and I said, there's the spot I learned to tie my shoe in the second grade. Now, that's, you know, that's not maybe the most life-altering event, you know. That might not, I don't know, does anybody else remember when they tied their shoe that's an adult? Some of you might have just learned that last move. Does anybody, just out of curiosity, is there any adult in here? We got one, okay. But no one really, that's not really something that really just, you know, but I remember that. But how much more so if you had seen some of the things that Rea Bowman had seen? I mean, me tying my shoe is a big deal, right? But think about the fact that he saw God fill the temple. He knew who the Lord of God and the Lord God was. He knew the truth. He grew up in church. He has this positive influence early on in his life, okay. And fortunately, you know, Solomon was that positive influence, but also he was a negative influence as well. And that negative influence, of course, came through, ultimately, through Solomon marrying his strange wives. You know, there was a reason why God told him, told the children of Israel not to marry strange wives, not to marry outsiders, not to marry the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, not to marry the heathen, because he knew exactly what happened, and it's exactly what happened to Solomon, that they would turn his heart from the living God and go to serve idols, okay. So that, unfortunately, was the negative influence that Solomon had in his son's life. If you look there at verse 21 again, it says, And Rea Bowman, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rea Bowman was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there, and his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess. Now, you might have noticed, you know, if you're familiar with chapter 14 and 2 Chronicles, chapter number 12, that there's a lot of the same things that are mentioned there. But there's also other details that are given in 2 Chronicles that aren't in 1 Kings 14. The same events are all there, but it tells us more about Shishak, exactly what happened, and how Rea Bowman humbled himself, and all of that. That's more detail that he'd get in there. But one thing that is mentioned in both passages is Rea Bowman's mother, her name, and where she came from. And I don't think that's a coincidence. In fact, twice in this chapter that's mentioned. It's mentioned there in verse 21, you know, and it's mentioned there again at the end in verse 31. It says, And Rea Bowman slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his mother's name was Naamah and Ammonitess. It's like, yeah, you just told us that 10 verses ago. Like, we forgot within 10 verses who his mother was. These details. No, the Bible is pointing this out, wants to take notice of this fact. There's something to learn from this. This was a negative influence in the life of Rea Bowman. And ultimately it was something that was the fault of his father, because he's the one that married this woman, that married a foreigner, that married an Ammonite. So Solomon, not only was he a positive influence, I mean, he's there when he's building the temple. He's, you know, he's in church, right, so to speak. But also Solomon was a negative influence in his son's life. He was an ungodly influence on his son, because we know that he married, he loved many strange wives. Together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Zydonians, the Hittites, of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto children of Israel, you shall not go in unto them, neither shall they come in unto you, for they surely will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clave unto these in love, and he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. So Solomon, you know, as much as a positive influence as he was in his son's life, ultimately it was that negative influence that really took hold on Rehoboam. And this is something that we as parents have to stay on top of and have to look out for. We can't just think, oh, I take my child to church and then just put their spiritual life on cruise control and think that, well, they've got enough of a godly influence from the preacher, they've got enough godly influence from their peers at church, they've got enough godly influence there, you know, two or three times a week that they don't need for me to be any kind of a spiritual influence. I can go ahead and, you know, let a little sin in my life. You know, that's actually what's going to destroy your children. You know, that's what's going to destroy them. If you would, go to Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs chapter 11. Because if we, you know, take our kids to church, if we're godly, if we try to get godly influences into their life, and then we turn around and do the opposite, we're a hypocrite. I mean, that's the definition of a hypocrite. Just say and do not. Just say, oh, we want, live for the Lord, you know, don't get into sin, don't do this, live godly for Christ Jesus, you know, live for him, and then we turn around, and the other six days of the week, we're living for the world. So I want my kids in church, you know, I want them to know the Bible, but then you're not in church. Well then, how do you think that's going to play out in their life? How can you sit there and expect that to be a godly influence in their life? Because they're going to follow what you do, not what you say. And that's what we see here, I believe, in this life of Rehoboam. Yeah, growing up, his dad was involved in church, and he's building the temple. He even, you know, in all likelihood, Rehoboam, it says there at the end that he was buried with his fathers in the city of David. That's usually an indication that the man was saved. You see that in 2 Chronicles as well, that he, you know, humbled himself before the Lord. I believe he was probably a saved man, I mean, it's speculative. But you know, he had that godly influence in his young life, but you know what, all of that was undone by the hypocrisy of his father. You know, you could undo everything that you worked so hard for in your children's youth by being a hypocrite. Look at Proverbs, chapter 11, it says in verse 9, An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor. An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor. Go to Matthew, chapter 23, why is it that he destroys him with his mouth? Because the definition of being a hypocrite is one who says and does not. It's not the bad things that they're saying to their neighbor that destroys them, that's not how it works for a hypocrite. It's all the things that they're saying and not doing. That's how a hypocrite with their mouth destroys their neighbor. Be it their neighbor, be it a co-worker, be it a family member, be it your own child. The hypocrite with his mouth will destroy his neighbor. You know, and how, it's unfortunate we would ever do that to anybody, how much more so our own children. That we would, you know, want to encourage them in the Lord and get them in church, take them to church, have the preacher get up and preach something, and they're thinking, well, my dad does that. You know, he gets up and gets on some sin and gets after it, he says, well, my mom does that. Well, my dad does that. You're taking me to church and all I'm finding out is you're a bunch of hypocrites. You know, let that not be the case with any of us. Let us not destroy our neighbor, let alone our own children. Look at Matthew 23, verse 2, saying, the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do. But do ye not after, do not ye after their works. He's saying, what they say, do that. So, again, it's the thing that they're saying are right. They sit in Moses' seat, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do. They're saying the right things. That's not the problem with the hypocrite. He's saying, don't do after their works, for they say and do not. You can just imagine Solomon, you know, taking his son to the temple and telling him about the Lord and showing him the word of God and saying, oh, yeah, here's this part where God doesn't want us to marry strange wives, but I went ahead and did that. Here's that part where God doesn't want us to worship idols, but I went ahead and did that. And then you see here and scratch your head, well, why did Rehoboam do what he did? Because he looked at his dad and said he's a hypocrite. Why should I obey the Lord? I mean, Dad got all that blessing. You know, I know it wasn't so hot for him there at the end and ultimately he lost the kingdom, but it wasn't that bad. Maybe I can have, you know, I can have the Lord and the devil too. Maybe I can go ahead and have some sin in my life too. You know, don't want, you do not want to destroy your children by being a hypocrite. Especially if you're going to take the time to actually bring them up in the admonition of the Lord and in their youth. And they get older and just say, well, nuts to all that. Now let me say this, you know, getting on the parents a little bit, but let me remind the children as well that your parents, however they are, hypocrites or not, are not an excuse to sin. Because, you know, this might come as a shock to you, but your parents aren't perfect. They're not perfect. They're going to commit sin. You're going to see them do things that are sinful. They are going to make mistakes. You know, and as long as they're trying to get it right and do right, you know, you should cut them some slack. It's always funny when children think that they know better than their parents on how to live for God or whatever it is, how to run a household or how to raise children, how to run this or run that. The only thing they've ever run down is a flight of stairs. The only thing they've ever raised is an eyebrow. But they're going to tell their parents, well, if I was a mom and dad, this is how I would do it. Well, you know, hopefully you make it that far. You know, you should show some respect to your elders just for the fact that they managed to survive that long. You know, the jury's still out on you, you know, and who knows how you're going to turn out. But however your parents are, whatever imperfections they are, look, I doubt they have the glaring flaws that Solomon had. You know, I doubt anyone in this room is setting up idols and to all these, you know, false gods at your house. You know, and just because your parents might have some sin in their life or they're not perfect, that doesn't make them a complete hypocrite. So don't misconstrue this sermon. Well, yeah, well, my parents aren't perfect either, so that's my excuse to just turn out like a Rehoboam. We'll see here at the end that Rehoboam had nobody to blame but himself, that he could have changed things around any time he wanted. He chose to follow that negative influence. All I'm saying to the parents is don't be that negative influence. Be the positive influence and be that all the way through. Don't be the hypocrite. Don't give your children the opportunity to use you as an excuse to forsake the Lord and go serve, you know, the world or the devil. But children, your parents are not an excuse for you to sin. Again, it says there in Matthew 23, the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. And what's over, they bid you observe, that observe and do. He's saying you still need to respect the fact that they're teaching God's word. It's Moses' seat that you need to learn to respect. That's what he's telling them. Respect the word of God that's being taught ultimately. You know, we as parents are going to come short of the word of God just like anybody else. You know, maybe we get saved later in life or maybe we, you know, do things that are contrary. Word of God, we make mistakes. Ultimately, every single one of us is accountable to the word of God for themselves. And we can't use anybody else in our lives as an excuse to go against the Bible, to go against the word of God. That's what Jesus told them. He said don't look at the Pharisees and say, oh, and dismiss Moses. Listen to the word of God. Listen to the law. Listen to what Moses has to say. Whatever they observe you and do out of Moses' seat, do that. But just don't be like them. We're your people who just say and do not. The problem is not the things that they say. It's the fact that they didn't do the things that they said. The other person I want to point out in Rehoboam's life, you know, besides Solomon who was both a positive and a negative influence, was his mother who was a heathen who I believe was not safe. In fact, I believe she was a very wicked woman. It says in verse 21, Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah, and his mother's name was Naamah and Ammonitis. And that's a detail that's mentioned again at the end of the chapter, that she was Naamah the Ammonitis, and it's mentioned again in 2 Chronicles chapter 12. There's a lesson to learn from this. And that is this, is that sinners will always sway the saved. They will always sway the saved. And this is something that we have to just preach and preach and preach and preach. Because people just think that this is just, it's not that big a deal. Especially young people. They'll say, oh, you know, I'm going to go out and marry some heathen, and I'm going to change him. No, he's going to change you. Oh, I'll go marry that girl who doesn't have, she's not saved, she's not a Christian, you know, or maybe she is saved, but she doesn't see things the same way I do from the word of God, but I'll change her. No, she's going to change you. Or she's going to fight you tooth and nail, every step of the way. You know, and then she's not going to be so pretty. Then it's not going to really matter how she looks. It's not going to matter how he looks. When they're going against the word of God, when you have different ideas about where you're going to go to church. You don't think that happens? It happens all the time. That's why I'm preaching it. Because you've got to get through those thick skulls, those banana mush brains that you have. And get this through. Get this through. That the sinners will sway the saved every time. That's what happened with Solomon. And Solomon had God appear twice to him. Speak to him. You don't tell me Solomon didn't have a godly influence in his life? But what happened? He got with those sinners, got with those wives, those strange wives, and they turned his heart. But not you. You're different. No, we're all the same. These things are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world have come. We need to learn from these things. Read this and understand that there's a reason why the Bible is being redundant and pointing out that his mother, Rehoboam's mother, was an Ammonitess. She was the children of Ammon. Because he wants us to understand that when you marry strange wives, you have no control of what direction your kids are going to turn out, what kind of influence that's going to have in your life. And you know, it's a great thing to marry somebody who's saved, but you know, you should probably dig a little deeper than that when you're considering a spouse. I mean, saved is like, you know, that's just like, that's just the starting place. That's just like, you know, step one. You're saved. Okay. Let's get married. What are your thoughts on, you know, our roles? As, you know, as husband and wife. You know, what do you think the proper roles for a wife is? And the proper roles for a husband? You should have these conversations. You should bring up child rearing. Do you believe in disciplining your children? Where do you want to go to church? Well, she's saved. She's going to drag it off to some non-denom church. And you're going to be spending all your money at the coffee shop out front of the church. I mean, you never know when that's going to turn out. These are the things that you got to think about. And not just, you know, a handsome guy, a pretty face. You need to think about these things. Because when you look at this, Nehemiah, who was an Ammonitess, who was an Ammonitess, who was an Ammonitess, brings it up three times for a reason. She led Solomon and his son into the idolatry of the worst man on earth. She led his son into the idolatry of the worst kind. Oh, I know that he or she is Catholic, but I can stand a little bit of a merry statue. Look, it's wicked. It's terrible. And she led him into the worst kind of idolatry. I mean, these Ammonites, they are the ones that brought in Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon, as it says in 2 Kings 23, that caused their children, according to Jeremiah 32, to pass, their sons and daughters, to pass through the fire on the Molech. And he's not talking about jumping the bonfire, you know, at the party. He's talking about they burned their children alive at this idol. The nation of Israel, Solomon, people who had a godly influence, were drug off into the place where they're sacrificing their children into a false god. She must have been a looker. There must have been some reason why he married this Ammonitess, this Naamah, and fathered a child with her. Must have been something, and that's probably, you know what, that's probably all it was. She had a spirituality about that deep, if at all. The worst kind of idolatry, and let me just go ahead and say it, marrying the wrong spouse will destroy your life. Marrying the wrong spouse will destroy your life. I'm not saying that your life is over, or that you'll never be able to serve God again, but you know what? It's going to make life really, really, really, really hard. Because there's more to marriage than the physical relationship, a lot more. You're talking about spending your life with somebody every single day. They're going to be there when you wake up. They're going to be there when you go to bed. They're going to be there when you come home. Every single day. You better make sure you have some common ground that more than just we're attracted to one another. Go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. I know we know it, but you know what? My job as a preacher is to emphasize what the Bible emphasizes. And when I keep seeing Naamah the Ammonitess, Naamah the Ammonitess, Naamah the Ammonitess keep getting brought up in this story, I think to myself, hmm, it seems to me that God is trying to emphasize the fact that if you marry the wrong spouse, it'll destroy your life. He's trying to get it through to us. So I'm just repeating his message tonight. The Bible says in Ephesians 5, you're going to 2 Corinthians 4, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, for it is a shame to even speak of those things which are done of them in secret. We should have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, with the unsaved. You know, Naamah is somebody who should have been avoided like the plague by Solomon. He should have seen her and gone running the other direction. You know, but she probably had, she had everything was just, you know, coordinated and everything was just looking good and the hair was just right. And he just got led away with that. He's got in the flesh. Oh, are you a Christian? Oh yeah, I'm religious. I worship Baal. Maybe you should have dug a little deeper, Solomon. Maybe you should have asked a little bit more harder questions. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. I know we know this. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? He's saying, don't have fellowship with, you know, unbelievers. Don't be in the same yoke with them. And notice how far apart he says these things need to be. I mean, what fellowship does righteousness have with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness? You know, light and darkness can't coexist in the same space. Light drives the darkness away. You can't have both. It's just, it's incompatible. What concord hath Christ with Belial? Oh, you know, marrying an unsaved person is not that bad. What concord hath Christ with Belial? That's the devil he's talking about. For what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? None is the answer. None. No part. No part. So be not unequally yoked together. Now obviously, you know, the yoke there is implying, you know, being bound with that person in some way. Bound, you know, and one big way people bind themselves from another is marriage. They'll bind one another. They'll get in that yoke called marriage. And look, if you get in there, that yoke with an unbeliever. I mean, he's saying, for all you know, you're getting in there with Belial. For all you know, you're getting in there with the worst kind of person. You don't know. I mean, maybe they're just an unsaved sinner. They might even have some good qualities. But how do you know how they're going to turn out? What if you, being that Christian, and being a testimony to them is just going to make their heart even harder? What if it's just going to make them more, you know, against God, against the things of God? What if they end up being a reprobate? Look, that happens. We've been contacted by people. We got married, we were unsaved, they were unsaved, whatever, they're a reprobate now. What do I do? Is it okay if I divorce them? Is it okay? Look, there's no good answer in that situation. What do you tell somebody? Well, I married a reprobate. They're a reprobate now. What do I do? I don't know. I mean, if they're a full-blown reprobate, yeah, you should probably get out of there. Protect yourself and your children from the reprobate. But is that really how you want to live? Well, phew, dodged that bullet. That's not something I want to have to live with. Well, all you know, I have this ex who's a reprobate. I don't want anything to do with that. But you think that's how it starts out with people? Oh, you're a reprobate? Well, yeah. Let's run off to Vegas and get married. It's a little reprobate. No, that's not how it starts out. Solomon sees, you know, a name of the Ammonitos and he's just head over heels. And she's probably, might even have been a nice girl. Give it time though. You don't know how people are going to turn out. So don't push the limits with the Lord. Don't push the limits with the Lord. I don't want to see how close to, you know, going off the rails of my life I can get without going off the rails. You don't want to find out where the edge is. I'd rather just do what God says and play it safe. And let everybody else make the mistakes. And just learn from other people's mistakes. I'd rather just look at the mistakes the previous generation made and say, well, don't do that. Rather than going, oh, what a bunch of hypocrites. And then just go do the exact same thing they did. Well, now who's the hypocrite? Oh, they're so rotten for doing what they did. Let me go do it. Yeah, they were rotten. You said the right thing, but now you're doing exactly the same thing they're doing. Now you're a hypocrite. Sinners are going to take you further than you planned. That's what I learned, what I'm seeing in this message. Sinners will take you further than you planned. Solomon's sins, if you think about it, were really perpetuated for generations. It wasn't just Rehoboam. It was everybody that came after him all the way to the captivity. They're worshipping all these false gods that Solomon just brought right in for his strange lives. Just so he could make them happy. Because he was stuck with them. Because he married them. Go back, if you would, to 1 Kings chapter 14. It says in verse 22, And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins, which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. So it got worse. For they also built them high places and images and groves on every hill and under every green tree. See, that's what people don't think about. Oh, I'm just going to marry this heathen, and I know things, you know, we'll have a couple idols, we'll get into some sin, but it's not going to be that bad. Yeah, until your children do it to excess, and then your grandchildren take it further, and then your great-grandchildren take it further, because that's just all they've ever known. That's what they grew up with. You know, I'm sure Solomon didn't see verse 24 coming. And there were also Sodomites in the land. And they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. You know, see Leviticus 18 for that, if you want a list. It's every imaginable, filthy act that is possible, is what they were into. But is that what Solomon saw when he married all his strange wives? Is that what he was thinking about? I don't think so. I think he's just living in the moment, just living for himself, not caring about the next generation, just doing what he wanted to do, not worried about the things of God, just doing whatever feels good. Isn't that the motto that's out there today? Nuts to everybody else. Nuts to the next generation. Nuts to the grandchildren. The next thing you know, you've got Sodomites in the land. Interesting how when a nation forsakes God, you end up with Sodomites in the land. What's that tell you about our nation? But I'm going to reel that in, because that's not this message. But it's there. So yeah, you know, Solomon was a positive influence in Rehoboam's life, but you know what, he undid all of that through his hypocrisy, the danger of hypocrisy. When we say and do not, we destroy our neighbor, we destroy the next generation. And that is not an excuse for the next generation. That's, you know, your parents' shortcomings and flaws, or maybe just outright hypocrisy is not an excuse for you to just go and run to excess in the same exact sense. Because ultimately, Rehoboam only had himself to blame for reaping what he repeated. Go to 2 Chronicles, chapter number 12. I think you might read the story of Rehoboam and say, well, can you blame the guy? I mean, look at his dad. His dad was so rotten at the end. His dad was such a hypocrite. I mean, look at his mom. An Ammonitess worshipped Molech and taught the children of Israel to commit child sacrifice. Can you really blame Rehoboam for doing what he did? Cut him a little slack. Is that what the Bible teaches? No, look at 2 Chronicles, chapter 12, verse 14. And he did evil. He there is Rehoboam. He did evil. Why? Because of his parents. Because his dad was such a hypocrite. Because his mom was so wicked. Because, you know, he grew up in such a harsh environment. No, he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. The truth is, is that Rehoboam wanted to seek the Lord and he could have done it anytime he wanted. That's what the narrator of the scripture says in this passage. He says the reason why he did evil was not the fault of his father, was not the fault of his mother, is because he prepared not his heart. There's that saying, failure to prepare is preparing to fail. And that is true in so many ways in life, none more so than spiritually. You know, if you're somebody just going through life and not preparing your heart to seek the Lord, it's just a matter of time until you do evil. Because the spirit that dwells within us lusteth the envy. Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? Because we've all gone astray. Because we're all sinners. Because we've all come from the blood. Because there's none good. And you still have that old nature, saved or not, you still have that old nature that's there, that old man that just wants to rise up and do what he wants to do. And he will. And he'll fight you. And if you don't sit down and prepare your heart to resist temptation, to live for the Lord, in spite of whoever else in your life was a bad influence, if you don't prepare your heart, it's a matter of time until you do evil. It's just a matter of time. You might as well just start the clock right now. If you're just sitting there, just tuning me out, yeah, I've heard that before, you just tune your parents out, oh yeah, I've heard that before, just tune the preacher out, just read the Bible, don't really pay attention to what it says, check it off the list, read it and say, oh, I don't think that really, that's true, that doesn't matter, that's not going to happen to me. You know what, that's the opposite of preparing. And it's just a matter of time until you're doing evil, until you're repeating all the other sins that other people have done. It's only a matter of time until you reap what you've sown. You know another great example of this, and I don't have time to go into it, is Josiah. I mean, poor Rehoboah, I mean it's such an ungodly upbringing, not as bad as Josiah. Josiah's dad was assassinated after he worshipped a bunch of false gods, he was so wicked that people killed him. Not your dad, Josiah. Why isn't he here tonight? He's just busy, okay? Talking about the biblical Josiah, alright? But how many godly influences does he have? Zero. None. He had terrible influences in his life. And yet, if you go read 2 Kings 23, that same Josiah who didn't have the upbringing that Rehoboam had, he didn't have any kind of a godly influence, he had the exact opposite. He was growing up in a, you know, a very wicked nation who had gotten away from God for a very long time. Man, he's running the Sodomites out of the land, he's smashing the altars, he's breaking down the idols into dust, casting them on the book of Hyrdron. He's just, he's cleaning house. You know what made the difference? It's the word of God. Because Josiah found the word of God and read it and said, we're wrong. And he prepared his heart. And instead of doing evil, he did right. He worked righteousness. He didn't just sit back and say, well, my dad was selling food today. Well, my mom was like this. Oh, well, it was just my upbringing. Oh, I just had such a hard upbringing. You don't understand. I get an excuse. I get a pass. No, the word of God still applies. Josiah said, yep, we're still wrong. Yep, we're in sin. That's what the Bible says. Let's get it right. Instead of sitting around making a bunch of excuses why it's okay for me to do evil, he prepared his heart. And the truth is, is that Rehoboam had no excuse. None. I mean, if anybody had an excuse, if you want to go there, it's Josiah. He's the one that didn't have, you know, he didn't see the temple get built. I mean, they had to go in there and clean the place up before they found the word of God. It's in shambles. He sure didn't see the glory of God come down in it. That wasn't how he spent his childhood in church. Rehoboam has no excuse, and you know what? Neither do we. Look, I don't care what your past was like. You have no excuse for not living for God. There's none. The Bible says, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Look, we all know to do good. The law of God is written on our hearts, we have the Bible, we have godly impairments, though flawed, maybe not perfect like everybody else, you still have a godly influence, you got a good church, you know what to do to do good. So when you don't do that good, when you don't prepare your heart and you end up doing evil, it's just going to be worse for you. You know, you're going to be like that servant who knew his Lord's will and did it not. He was beaten with many stripes. You'll reap what you repeat. Look at verse 25 there in 1 Kings 14. It says, And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord. Can you imagine that? One generation, the house of God is already being ransacked. And God's the one that let it happen. He's the one that stirred up Shishak to teach people a lesson. Can you imagine being Rehoboam, having all those childhood memories, of seeing that place built, seeing it filled, seeing all just the wonder, just the amazing things that you would have seen in the house of God, and then seeing some foreigner come in and just ransack your church. But whose fault was it? It was Rehoboam's fault. Because he did not prepare his heart. And he ended up reaping what he repeated. Well, Dad, you know, Dad was into idolatry. I'll just keep doing that. Okay, that's not an excuse. You're still going to reap what you repeat. There's going to be some Shishak that's going to write, come into your life, and rob you of what you could have had in your life. And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, the treasure of the king's house. He even took away all, and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. Every time I read that story, that just bugs me. I don't know what it is about that particular thing. It just bugs me. Because you read about those shields of gold that he put in the house of the forest in Lebanon, and you're like, wow, it's amazing. Guy just had so much gold, he's just like, let's make some shields out of them. Why not? We've got more than we need. Just make some golden shields. I mean, what a glory it was to them. I mean, imagine going out into battle against an army back then, and you know, some guy's got some wooden shield. He's looking over across the Israelites going, is that gold? Man, they got gold shields, man. I'm out of here. Because you know they got gold shields. Those soldiers have been eating good. They've been training. Things are good for them over there. They're in a caloric, you know, surplus over there every day of their life. I'm out here just trying to, you know, find some onions or something in the ground, and I got this wood shield. But you know what? That was all taken away. All that glory was gone. All those things Rehoboam had in his fingertips, had right there, were just gone. Because he did not prepare his heart. Because he reaped what he repeated when he went down the same path that his father went down. Hypocrite or not, it didn't matter. That was not an excuse for him. The same thing will happen to us. We'll reap what we repeat. We want to turn someone in our life into an excuse for us to get in sin. God's not going to say, oh, I understand. Yeah, you get a pass. No, he's going to say, oh, you think that's an excuse to do evil? Here, let me stir up Shishak, and he's going to come into your life, and he's going to take some shield of gold out of your life. And you know what? That's not to say your life's over. There's still plan B, right? Verse 27, and King Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields. So he makes them out of brass. Now, I don't know about you, but I take the gold over the brass any day. You know, when I locksmiths, you know, I learned that there was value in brass. You know, all those keys that you just throw in the trash, those were made out of brass. All those house keys. Well, us locksmiths at the shop, we got smart about it, and we had a five-gallon pail that we would, people would come in with their old house key and just give it to us. We'd cut them a new key, and they'd say, we just throw that one in, throw that one in. You fill up a five-gallon pail full of brass, take that down to the scrap shop, and you've got a little bit of money. But I would rather have them fill one Dixie cup full of gold than a 50-gallon pail full of brass, because it wasn't that much. There's some value in that brass, isn't there? Well, there's some. You don't just throw it away and get rid of it. There's still some value there. Well, wouldn't you rather have gold? I'd rather have the gold. You know, we might be in a place in our life where the Shy Shack's already shown up. The gold and brass, you know, the gold shield's already gone, and we got the brass. Well, amen. At least you got something. At least we got some brass to work with. At least you still have a shield. At least you still have a plan B. Don't give up on that. God could have just wiped them off the face of the earth. Go over to 2 Chronicles, chapter 12. It says in verse 5, Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shy Shack and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore I have also left you in the hand of Shy Shack. He said, forsake me? Well, I'll just leave you in his hand. And look, if that's us, if we sit there and say, well, you know, I've forsaken God, and I feel like I'm in Shy Shack's hand right now, that's not the time to double down with Shy Shack and just keep going. Well, I'm just going to keep going with Shy Shack. Is that what Rehoboam did? At least Rehoboam had enough sense to see what was going on and get it right. I mean, he's going to have to reap what he's repeated. He's going to have to reap what he's sown. He said, Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and they said, The Lord is righteous. They said, Oh, this is a judgment from God. This is us reaping what we've sown. Well, the Lord is righteous. Oh, there go the golden shields. The house of God has just been sacked right in front of my eyes. I might as well just go back to Molech. Let's go fire up the furnace again. No, they saw that. They heard the preacher get up and say, This is what's going on. They said, Well, the Lord is righteous. And they humbled themselves. And they said, The Lord is righteous. Verse 7, And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, when the judgments already started, when the shields are already be taken away, when they're already reaping what they've repeated, he saw that they humbled themselves. The word of the Lord came to Shemaiah saying, They have humbled themselves. Therefore, I will not destroy them. That was God's original intent. I don't want to slice that. Eventually, that's what happens when they don't humble themselves later on in their history. But at this point, he had somebody who had made some pretty big mistakes and lost out on a lot of good things that they could have had. But you know what? They still humbled themselves. And God said, Well, how about this? I won't destroy you. You know, we think, Oh, it's either the gold shields are nothing at all. No, settle for the brass, folks. Trust me, being destroyed is not worth it. You can still get things done with the brass. You can still defend yourself with the brass shield. It's better than wood. It's better than no shield at all. They have humbled themselves. Therefore, I will not destroy them. But I will grant them some deliverance. He said, I'll ease up on them. They deserve to be destroyed. I should wipe them out for what they've done, worshiping Molech and every other abomination, the land that's full of sodomites, doing everything I despise and hate, I ought to destroy them. But because they humbled themselves, I'll give them some deliverance. And my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be his servants. You can't get away from it. You're gonna have to reap what you've sown. That they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. Say, you know what? I'm gonna let this happen so they don't forget me. You know, sometimes God lets the bad things into our life, lets the judgment come into our life, maybe even the one that stirs it up to what? To get our attention. Because man has this thing in his nature where everything's great and perfect and good, they just completely ignore God. Sometimes God has to let bad things happen. Sometimes we have to eat the fruit of our own way before we say the Lord is righteous. And if we're humble people, that's what we'll say. We won't shake a fist at God. We won't blame other people in our lives. We'll humble ourselves and say the Lord is righteous. I'll take the brass. There's no, it's no use crying over the gold shields that are gone. Oh, I wanted the gold. Yeah, you could have had that. Rehoboam, you could have had the gold, but you blew it. You made the mistakes. It's too late. You're gonna reap what you've repeated, but I'll tell you what. Because you humbled yourself and you acknowledged the Lord instead of just wiping you off I'll give you some brass. So you'll know my service. Verse 12, and when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him that he would not destroy him altogether. Also in Judah things went well. So the silver lining is that things could have been a lot worse for Rehoboam, couldn't they? It's still a sad story, but the real tragedy is that what he could have had. He could have, you know, prepared his heart and sought the Lord and he could have been a Josiah in his day. He could have turned everything around and God would have blessed him. He could have come down and filled that temple again. He could still have those gold shields instead of some heathen melting it down and turning it into some false god. I mean, who knows what they did with him. So that's the silver lining is that plan B is still optional. Even when we begin to reap what we've repeated, we'll still have to reap. That's just a law, folks. You reap what you sow. So be careful what you sow. Pay attention to what God tells you to do and what not to do and don't let other people be an excuse for you to get into sin because there is no excuse. You know, Brad, you know, brass shields are good but gold is better, isn't it? You know, if you're someone that's in here that maybe hasn't made the mistakes that other people have made, it doesn't make you better than them. It just means you might not have had opportunity to make those mistakes. But you will have that opportunity. Every single one of us will have plenty of opportunity to just make a mess out of our lives. You can say, well, you know, so-and-so's got brass and they're doing all right. Yeah, they have brass and they're doing all right. You know what they would rather have? Gold. And if you're, you know, if you've got the opportunity to have the gold shields like Rea Bone did, my advice to you is stick with the gold. You can still get a lot done with brass but stick with the gold. No one's sitting there because it's not. It's just the way it is. And I'm not trying to pick on people or anything like that. I'm trying to warn the people in this room that potentially, maybe, I don't know, could develop an attitude like Rea Bone and say, oh, my parents, hypocrites, they're not perfect in every way so I'm going to go out and commit sin. Go ahead and do that. Just remember, you're going to reap and it's better to just look at the mistakes the previous generation made and say, well, let's not do that. That's what Rea Bone should have done. Oh, Dad did all this and the kingdom was rent from him. He got left with two tribes. You know, maybe this whole idolatry thing isn't working out for us. That would have been the wise thing to do but you know what that's going to require? Humility. And a sincere heart that's going to actually want to seek the Lord and that's great.