TREASURES OF THE BIBLE, September 26 to October 2, 2022, Are you as brave as Asa?, Prepared Speech.

TREASURES OF THE BIBLE, September 26-October 2, 2022, Are you as brave as Asa?, Prepared Speech.

"Are you as brave as Asa?" (10 min.)

Are you brave? What does it really mean to be a brave person? Many say that a brave person is not afraid of anything, they are not timid or cowardly and when we think of this quality we may think of someone energetic, fearless and even heroic.

There are many thoughts of what it is to be a brave person, for example there is a community called los and Agalas. They thought that to be brave they had to cut themselves, so they made polite sayings to children when they were of a tender age before they could be afraid of pain, these signs were considered signs of bravery, a father who had a son and he he had resisted making marks on his son, however the boy wanted to test his bravery. So, pressured by the crowd, he took a knife and made three deep horizontal cuts on her cheek.

Do you consider that, to be brave? In general, the value of courage is seen in life situations, for example there are many that require great courage to endure extreme circumstances, however there are more subtle ways in which it is requires courage, We are talking about everyday situations that sometimes test our loyalty.

Let's think for example in the life of Asa, who was Asa? That was a character who at only 20 years old became king but it was quite a difficult situation because we are going to see how his reign began, we turn to the Bible the God's word in the first book of Kings chapter 15 and verse 11 says: Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like his ancestor David. Notice what verse 12 says, he drove the temple prostitutes out of the land and removed all the disgusting idols that his ancestors had made.

What decision did Asa have to make? According to the text read, we see that he had to expel from the country the temple prostitutes and all the disgusting idols that his ancestors had made. As we can see, Asa was King when the nation had been contaminated with the cult of Canaanite gods or deities that enhanced fertility. As we can see, it was quite a difficult situation since he had to make a decision when all the people were against it.

 But, what led him to show that courage? Let us remember what verse 12 said. It says that even that was good in the eyes of the Lord, that is what gave him the courage to want to do the things that the Lord asked, but Not only that, let's see what else he did for it, we are going to read the book 1 Kings chapter 15 But this time verse 13 It says like this: He even took the position of queen mother from his grandmother Maacah, because she had made an obscene idol for the adoration of the sacred pole. Asa tore down her obscene idol and burned it in Kidron Valley.

Now, according to the text read Why does King Asa need a lot of courage? How do we see Asa I need courage to go against his own family and we see that the queen had a very prominent position but courage did not make him hesitate, however, Asa also made some mistakes. For example, in the first book of kings, chapter 15, verse 14 that we are going to read, mentions the following: But the high places were not removed. Even so, Asa served Jehovah with a complete heart all his life.

How can we see Asa had the courage to take away idolatry in our high places, but even so he served Jehovah with a complete heart the text mentions his whole life and that leaves a lesson to you young people, do you have the right conditions to serve Jehovah in this world? Of course not, you want to be faithful and loyal to Jehovah and suddenly you are threatened by what this world promotes such as materialism, boisterous fun, and living without accountability to anyone. You can be like Asa who despite being surrounded by all these evil things showed courage, and you can declare yourself as a servant of Jehovah if he strives to prove courageous despite being surrounded by so much evil.

Well if we do that Jehovah I will take it into account, Young man, it may also be that you are the only one in your family who is serving Jehovah. How does Jehovah view young people who remain loyal despite all the opposition, peer pressure they encounter both at jobs and in schools?

In the random example we see that Jehovah focused on good qualities and I consider him a faithful person, Jehovah also considers us faithful people when we show courage and do not follow the world and its goals, as we said at the beginning, we may have the courage to demonstrate it in more subtle situations. Let's read, for example, what the second letter of John verse 1 verses 9 and 10 says: No one who goes beyond the teachings of Christ and does not remain in them has God. The one who does abide in those teachings is the one who has both the Father and the Son. 10 If someone comes to you and does not bring these teachings, do not receive him in your houses or greet him. 11 For whoever greets him becomes an accomplice in his evil deeds.

I remember what Asa did with his grandmother who did not practice true worship and who had made, as the text said, an obscene idol. He says that he even took away his position, he can realize that situation in our case, that sometimes we have to show loyalty to Jehovah and not to our family, we are referring to the situation that we see in the illustration precisely, when someone does not have the same attitude that Jehovah's servants have.

What can you do if you want to imitate Asa's example? We must have the same attitude as Asa. That's why I asked if you are going through this situation. Have you stopped relating to people who turn their backs on Jehovah, even if they are my family? Remember the experience we talked about at the beginning of this father who cut his son on the cheek to show that he was brave. In reality, courage is not shown with marks, it is shown in the way we act, Perhaps many people do not see it, but we do not want people to see it, we want Jehovah to see it, we want Jehovah to observe that we are brave servants when we show loyalty .

If we do this and show ourselves to be brave from now on, that courage will serve us when we get closer to the time of the end, because there will be tests that require us to show courage. And if we show that we are courageous now, we will be prepared in the future to remain loyal to Jehovah.