Core Value: Biblical Authority

We submit to the Bible - The Bible reveals to us the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. It is the very word of God, timeless in its expression, and anchoring us to reality in the midst of an ever-changing culture. 

Scripture: Romans 12:1-2, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 1:1-2

Manasseh was the 14th king of Judah in the divided kingdom of Israel. He reigned for fifty-five years. Manasseh is referred to as the most wicked king in the history of Israel. In 2 Chronicles 33, it tells us that he led his country in the abominations that marked the nation that had been expelled (v. 2), reversed the godly reforms his father Hezekiah (v. 3), burned his sons as an offering to incur the favor of the gods (verse 6), led Judah to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord has destroyed (v. 9). 

Manasseh led the people of Judah into the following paradigm. "The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon." 2 Chronicles 33:10-11

LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF MANASSEH:

1. There is always hope!

In his distress, “he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (vv. 12-13).

2. “NEVERTHELESS” (v. 17) the people did not follow him in his reforms and repentance. Ideas and legacies have consequences. When a practice becomes a fixed reality in a culture it is exceedingly difficult to expel/cast it out.

"The more that human beings supplant God as the measure of all things, the smaller they become. They cannot grow up, for, lacking a given end, there is nothing really for them to grow into. And as the holy is desecrated by human power, so human beings are themselves reduced, no longer bearers of the divine image but mere lumps of matter attached to wills." Carl Trueman, First Things: Lose the Gospel, Return to Childishness

“When man ceases to worship God, he does not worship nothing but worships everything.”  G.K. Chesterton

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;”
Pope Alexander, Essay on Man

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."  Matthew 7:21

"Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence."  2 Corinthians 4:14

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright."  Psalm 20:7-8

3. Legacy - The son of the repenting Manasseh, Ammon, did not follow his father’s example. He was twenty-two when he became king and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. And he “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord…He did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasseh’s father humbled himself but this Ammon incurred guilt more and more” (v. 23).

APPLICATION:

1. The people of God must continually meditate upon and think through Micah 6:8.

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  Micah 6:8

2. We rejoice in the greatness of Christ and the glory of following Him as prophet, priest, and king.

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."  Colossians 1:15-17

3. We live with a sense of faith-filled confidence (Psalm 11).