Intense
“Uncle J’s Chest”
January 20, 2019
By Ed Young
I’m sure you’ve had it happen to you in the doctor’s office. You know, you have a pain and the doctor begins to place his or her hands like in different places, you know, on your body and then they find the <grunt> yeah. The source of pain. It’s like, aaaah!!! Your jaw hurts, aaaah! Have you had that experience before? I don’t want to get too technical but yeah, we all have had that experience with the doctor. They have that ability to place their hand right in those areas that are causing us problems. Kind of a very telling thing when you go to the doctor.
Well, during this series I’ve been trying, by the Holy Spirit of God, to put the Lord’s hands, the Great Physician’s hands, on that area that <ahh!> causes <grunt> some pain and it’s kind of sensitive. We’ve been talking about stuff, right? Materialism. We’ve been talking about cash, because money matters to me and money matters to you. Stuff matters to me and stuff matters to you. Stuff matters to God. Yes, God is a God of the intangible. We make a faith decision, we trust him. He’s also a God of the tangible. He created us. He made us. Matter matters. So, to say, oh, God doesn’t care about stuff… God cares about stuff! And we’ve been discovering around here, whether we have a strong opinion about it or not, God owns all the stuff. #2 – God has given us all the stuff. So, #1 – God owns all the stuff. #2 – God has given us all the stuff. And #3 – We manage the stuff. Again, it doesn't matter what I feel or what my opinion might be. It doesn’t matter what a focus group says or all of that, it’s just what God says.
So, I thought about our stuff, and I thought about a guy in the Bible. In fact, he was a kid in the Bible. I call him the kindergarten king. His name was Joash. Joash actually built a box. I don't know if he built it with LEGOs or what, but as a king, as a kindergarten king, he had a box built. And this box really changed the course of the way people viewed stuff. Isn't that crazy? What a name, Joash. Difficult name #1.
Now, difficult name #2 in this story was Joash’s uncle. His name was Jehoiada, Jehoiada. Say it with me. Jehoiada. I love that name. Wouldn’t that be a great name? That’d be a really good name for like if you’re expecting and you’re having a son, Jehoiada. I’m serious. This guy was an amazing man. The Bible says in the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 23, let me give you the Cliff Notes, that Jehoiada. Now, Jehoiada was a priest. When I say the word priest don’t think about this guy with the clerical collar, with the big cross, who’s kind of very formal and sort of soft. No, no, no. Jehoiada was a Special Forces guy. He was a guy who had to open up a can on some people. He was a guy who did some covert and overt operations to really change the course of leadership in Judah. Interesting guy. So, he was a priest (this would be a pretty good movie, wouldn’t it?) but also, he was like a Special Forces guy. He was, let me say it again, the uncle to Joash. So, let’s call Jehoiada just Uncle J. It’s easier. So, we’ve got Uncle J and Joash. Am I going too fast? Joash is the kindergarten king. You’re like, how did that happen? Here’s how it happened.
You know, King David, I’m going back several thousand years, thousands of years. You know Solomon, David’s son. Solomon built the temple. A house of worship which was absolutely amazing. I believe that the house of God, biblically speaking, should be a house of excellence. I believe the church should be the best-looking building in the community or in the city. I’m not saying opulent, I’m saying with excellence. Because everything we do reflects the nature and the character of God. So, Solomon built it and it was like, wow, incredible! Well, due to just some rebelliousness and craziness the whole thing literally went to Hell in a handbasket. Uncle J, this priest, stood and he saw that the house of God was in disrepair. He’s like, man, it’s terrible! Technology is out of date. Holes in the carpet. Parking lot has potholes everywhere. It’s not even landscaped right. We need to go to multi-site, he said. Uncle J said, “Let’s buy this building, do that.” Yet, nothing was happening. So Joash, this kindergarten kid, became the king of Judah. And Uncle J was the one who got him in that position. He’s the one that made him.