We live in a world intent on making things convenient for us. There are a host of things that have made living more convenient and human bodies more lazy. We no longer desire to rise and cross the room to change the TV channel. For heavens sake, where is the remote control.

Advertisers constantly tell us that this new product, be it a car, a vacuum cleaner, or a bottle of bleach is more convenient for us. Today if its not convenient, we leave it alone until we find something that is.

Our expectation of convenience is forever creeping into our spiritual lives as well. The only problem is that when Jesus said, "if anyone would follow me he or she must pick up his or her cross daily and follow me," Jesus forgot to add the phrase, that is when you find it convenient to do so.

When there is a job to be done at the church or at home, does your willingness to volunteer for the job depend on whether it is Christian to do so, or whether it is convenient for you to do so. I have found in my walk with the Lord, that the Christian thing to do, is not usually the convenient thing to do. I've even discovered that God expects me to do things at some very inconvenient times.

This week let's look at how the desire for convenience destroyed the spiritual life of a nation. Our story begins at the end of King Solomon's life. Many people know of King Solomon's wisdom, however he was a man who did not listen to his own advice. Solomon fell in love with sex and turned his back on God in his old age. As he forgot God, he became a more ruthless leader, oppressing his people with heavy taxes and forcing them to do work to support his wild, lavish, lifestyle. God told Solomon that because of his sin, Solomon's son would lose part of the nation of Israel.

When Solomon's son became king, he tried to be Mr. Bad and told the people, "If you think my dad was tough, you ain't seen nothing yet. I'm going to show you what being hard really is." He found out you can't talk to people any kind of way and get away with it. The people revolted and the nation was split into two kingdoms. Two of the twelve tribes followed Solomon's son and became the Kingdom of Judah, the other 10 tribes followed a man by the name of Jeroboam, and became the Kingdom of Isreal. God chose Jeroboam to be leader of the 10 tribes.

He tells Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11:35-38 "I will take the kingdom from Solomon's son's hands and give you ten tribes. 36I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. 37However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 38If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you.

Now Jeroboam could not have asked for a better deal from the hand of God. Unfortunately Jeroboam did not fully trust the Lord.

In 1 Kings 12:25. One of the first thing that Jeroboam does after God makes him king is to try to protect himself from being removed. He fortifies two cities, Shechem and Peniel. This would keep the invaders from attacking his country.

The next thing he does is seek to keep from being removed from within. It's amazing how quickly Jeroboam either forgets or rejects the promises of God. God tells him, I will make you and your children kings forever. God has taken a nobody and makes him king. Yet this nobody does not believe that God is willing to keep His word.

Instead of remembering God, the Scriptures says in, 1 Kings 12:26-27 Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam."

One of the great paradoxes in the Christian walk is, why do so many of us believe that God calls us, only to leave us in our time of need. Why do we believe like Adam and Eve, that God really is trying to keep us from having a good time? Why do we believe that the God who loves us more than anyone does, is going to let us slip through the cracks? Why do we believe we've got to have a secret backup plan just in case God fails us?

Jeroboam enjoys the convenience of being a king, more than he does serving God. There is no way anyone is going to take his position away from Him. He thinks of number one. It's not a convenient time for Him to trust God with this situation. Whatever God gives to you, God can see to it that you keep it. By the same token, whatever we take for ourselves, God can take it away and give it to others.

Jeroboam is afraid that he will lose the allegiance of his people when they go to Jerusalem in the southern kingdom to offer the sacrifices that God required of them three times a year. He forgets that he's not king because the people voted him in. He's king because God raised him up. You don't have what you do because of your cleverness, but because God raised you up. Since Jeroboam did not know what to do, verse 28 tells us that he seeks advice from others. Now when we do not know what to do, it's always a good thing to seek advice.

But seeking advice is only part of the answer. We must seek advice from the right sources. In seeking advice, don't go to someone whose going to tell you what you want to hear, Go to someone who is going to tell you what God has to say about your dilemma.

Jeroboam goes to a group of advisors who know how to help him get what he wants, but they are people who are lousy in righteousness and knowing what it is to follow the Lord. Your friends can tell you how to get an A on your test. "It's easy, just cheat." Your colleagues can tell you how to get ahead on the job, "its easy just lie." Your business associates can show you how to make more money, "its easy just overcharge your customers."

All of these things are convenient, but there is no commitment.

Jeroboam's advisors come with a plan to make serving God more convenient as a way to keep the people loyal to him. Let the people see, that serving the God you offer, is a lot less troublesome than serving the God they use to know.

Now this would be good news for many church goers. The perfect church is where they have a beautiful building, great programs, good preaching, fantastic choir, and they never ever ask me to give anything, do anything, or be anything. All I have to do is come when its convenient. That's the mindset of half the people in church.

In verse 28, it says, after Jeroboam seeks advice, he says to the people "It is too much for you, to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." One he set up in Bethel and the other in Dan." Another translation says it is too much trouble to go to Jerusalem to worship.

Brothers and Sisters, how much trouble is too much trouble to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for you. Jesus tells us, "in me you shall have tribulations." Do we see serving God as an inconvenience in our lives. Oh no, it's Sunday morning, I stayed up to late last night. I can't make it to church today. I'm not about to miss my tv program to go to Bible Study.

Even when some of us get to church, its tragic that its not convenient for us to sing God's praises. Where are you when we're singing to the Lord? If God took away your ability to sing, you'd offer your life's savings to get it back.

Anybody that's looking for an easy way to serve God, is going to find a fast way to end up in hell. Now the Law told the people to come to Jerusalem three times each year. Since the people didn't have cars,planes, and trains, it cost them some thing to be obedient to God. Jeroboam has built these gods at the southern border of the kingdom and at the northern border. No matter where you were in the country, going to one of these churches of his, was closer than going all the way to Jerusalem.

Notice too that he tries to tie his religion of convenience to the historic past. If you recall, when Moses was up on the mountain receiving the 10 commandments, the people got tired of waiting for Moses to come down. They told Aaron "build us a god, we don't know what has happened to Moses." Aaron built them a golden calf and said "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." Now those people who only knew a little bit about the Bible, probably said Amen when Jeroboam made his declaration. They knew somewhere it said something about golden cows bringing them out of Egypt.

The reason so many nominal church goers are now zealous Jehovah Witnesses is that they did not know enough of the Bible to know when someone was telling them a bunch of lies and twisting scriptures every which way but the right way. Only studying God's word when its convenient is a sure fire way to be a prey for a cult.

Jeroboam calls what he is offering the people a convenience. And many of the people buy into it. Man its great we don't have to go all the way to Jerusalem. It sure is nice having a God we can see. Boy I was sick and tired and spending my money to make that trip. Man now I'll have time to really serve God like I want to. I can't wait to see what some of the other good changes are going to be made. God calls what Jeroboam offers them something entirely different. He says in verse 30, "and this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship there.

The Jesus in Scripture has gone through such a transformation in the Church in America, that the Jesus we hear of most often on TV bears little resemblance to the one in Scriptures in the same way that those golden cows bore little resemblance to the God of Israel. The Jesus in Scripture came to change people lives by having them serve Him. The Jesus on tv comes to change people's bank account so that they can better serve only them selves. One calls for commitment, the other calls for convenience. Do you see the difference.

Jeroboam is even smart enough to set up the golden cows in cities that were already considered to be holy places. This only added to the deception of some of the people. I don't care how holy a place once was, when God is gone, its time for you to leave. Many people see through the sham that Jeroboam is offering them, especially the priests. Many of the priest and those who are dedicated to the Lord leave the country and go back south to the Kingdom of Juday. They would rather endure the hardships under Solomon's son, than to be part of a convenient false religion.

In our new testament reading we were told that when it comes to our faith, we are to be willing to endure hardship as a soldier of Christ Jesus. When we have the choice of being obedient to God or going along with the crowd what do we do? In a poem, one author wrote that when he came to a fork in the road, he chose the path that was less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. God is looking for men and women, boys and girls who are willing to take the path that is less traveled by in the church.

Jeroboam gets into all this mess, leading all these people astray all because, he refuses to believe that God will keep his promise to him. Once you start on the pathway of sin, there's no stopping until you come to a full confession and repentance. Since there are no priest left, Jeroboam has to reject another of God's commandments.

The Law said only Levites could be priests. This is not convenient for Jeroboam because it means he will have to change and repent before the Levites return. No problem though, Satan has an answer for all our dilemmas. It says in verse 31, Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.

The people found it more convenient to accept these false teachers than to stand up for God. They liked their messages better than they liked the requirements of God. After all every body is entitled to their own opinion. The Scriptures says in 1 Kings 12:32-33 "He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priest at the high places he had made. 33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings."

This festival did nothing for the spiritual life of the people. They were simply going through the religious motions. It was not ordained by God. It says it was a month of Jeroboam's own choosing. Jeroboam has gone from being king and priest to being God. Not only has he messed up his life, he's got 100 of thousands of others marching down the same road of destruction. He started out wanting to protect number one. The people began with wanting something convenient. Together they completely walked away from the God who had done so much for them and their fore fathers and mothers.

You know something, the very security that Jeroboam seeks is lost because of his refusal to trust God. His epitaph in chapter 13 reads, Jeroboam did not change his evils ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people.

Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.

Jeroboam's son reigned two years after becoming king. His son was killed and the man who overthrew him killed Jeroboam's entire family. It says "he did not leave Jeroboam anyone that breathed, but destroyed them all." How different from God's offer to build a dynasty that would last forever. From then on, each time Jeroboam's name is mentioned in Scripture it is accompanied by the words and he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam which he caused Israel to commit.

What kind of testimony do you want to leave behind when you have died. God wants to use you to make a difference in this world and in the church. God has good in mind for you just as He had for Jeroboam. It's not too late for you to get saved. It's a shame that when some die, the minister has to stretch and strain to come up with one thing that person did in service to God in the church. Those of us who serve God only when its convenient often want the biggest tales made up at our funeral.

Jesus does not call us to convenience, He calls us to commitment. He does not call us to scheme and to connive, he calls us to trust Him. He does not call us to have us to inform Him of our schedule, but rather to tell us what our new schedule will be. The Angelic Voices brought us the song, Tell me whose side are you leaning on, leaning on the Lord's side? As your examine your walk with the Lord, are you moved to action by the needs and call of Jesus Christ or are you moved only when it is convenient?