First Christian Church of Plainville

“Yea, but…”. How many times have you heard that expression when asking about a person’s character? “He is a really nice guy, but..” Or, “She is a kind and caring person, but…” The fact is we put labels on people, both good and bad. We live in a world of “yea, but.”

That expression could be used when describing King Amaziah from 1 Kings 14. This week Pastor Brian used King Amaziah’s story to ask the question, is there a little King Amaziah in all of us?

Amaziah, following in the footsteps of his ancestor David, did a lot of good things. He had victories over the Edomites and Sela. He became proud of his accomplishments, but his pride got in the way of better judgment. When he was advised to not pick a fight with Israel, he didn’t listen and was soundly defeated. King Amaziah got comfortable with the bad parts. He was a good guy, but….

We too can become comfortable with mediocrity. We accept the bad parts because we feel that we have done enough good things to make up for the bad. We settle for being average. The only thing is we are not here to give our average. God didn’t give us his best so we could give him our average.

So how do we keep from being average? First, be aware of your successes, but guard yourself against letting your successes make you complacent. We must always strive to become a more loving, a more giving, and a more caring Christian.

Second, we must battle our idols. An idol is anything (a bad thing or a good thing) that has for us become an “ultimate” thing. Are there things in your life that someone would say of you, “He is a good Christian and does a lot of good things, but he has a problem with (insert your sin here)”? King Amaziah wasn’t battling his idols and it cost him in the end.

Give to God what you have been struggling with and then let Him go to work. Philippians 4:13 tells us, “For I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” You can do it! You have God in your corner.