King Josiah - Part 2

Thank you for tuning in to the latest message from IslandChurch, Dundock.

Thank you all for being with us this evening and I'm going to go ahead and jump into Scripture

here tonight and I'm going to pick up where I left off last Wednesday night if you were

with us if you weren't. You know you can catch up pretty quick but I've been looking at the life

of King Josiah and I'm going to talk about some of the things we talked about last week go over some

of these verses again and just looking more detail into his life but we looked at his life last week

and who was Josiah well he was King of Judah and he inherited the throne in very very dark times

right so the country the land was steeped in idolatry and wickedness and filled with evil and his

predecessors including his own father and his grandfather were extremely wicked and you know

didn't really leave a good example for him to follow although although some of them did turn to

the Lord in the very end his grandfather did anyway but you know he didn't have a great

he didn't have a great example to follow but Josiah was really set apart and the Scripture

reveals that to us and the Scripture that kind of got me really seeking and searching and studying

and out his life was found in 2nd Kings chapter 23 if you want to go back there we were there

last week and I read it at the beginning so Josiah's life you know we can read about it in 2nd

Kings and 2nd Chronicles and the two different accounts gives us different details much of it is

the same but it gives us different key details into his life so what were we looking at specifically

though and how can we apply this to our lives well Josiah had a zeal for God what a zeal it's a

passion it's a fire it's a determination to serve God to love God and to put his ways above all else

he had a zeal for God he had a reverential love for his word and he had a heart to seek his kingdom

and these are three things that we kind of looked at through his life and through different points

in his life characteristics of his life that kind of show these three points and why do we need these

today well church we need them because again look at the world that we're living in look at the

mint of distractions we have around us look at the hopelessness and the darkness that is all around

and we are called to be the light in the darkness we're called to be the set apart ones we are the

church the cold out ones is what it means in Greek and you know where the cold out ones were set apart

you know we are the light of the world because we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us so if we

want to continue to finish our race if we want to finish our race continue pressing on with faith

on this and determination and patience and long suffering and all of these things you know we're

going to need to evaluate our lives and our hearts and and check to see where is the zeal there is

the fire there that needs to be is that love for his word need there is that heart for his kingdom

there and if it is not we need to make some adjustments right we're talking about having idols in

our lives which is a major major thing I'm going to touch on that again tonight idols we're

going to talk about needing to build altars and not the ones for idols good altars that you put the

idols on and burn them sound like fun man we need to build some altars so let me go step further we

need to get up on the altar because Romans 12 says that to present yourself as a living sacrifice

onto God what does that mean that is that is dying to yourself every day you get up Lord I'm not

living for me it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me right so you're getting up in

that altar every day saying not my will but you'll be done your dreams your visions and God's not

against you having those things per se he's not against you you know having husband and a wife

and a partner and all of these things and children and they're all blessings from God but he is

again she put them above him because they become an idol so we're going to talk a bit about that

we're going to talk about again having a reverential love for the word and a heart for his kingdom but

second kings are we there second kings this is what the scripture says about Josiah 23 chapter 23

verse 25 it says now before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart

with all his soul and with all his might according to all the love Moses nor after him did any arise

like him every time I read that I've read that dozens of times over the last couple of weeks and

every time I read it it just but it just blows me away to think that this is what the scripture says

about King Josiah there was nobody before him nobody after him that turned to the Lord his God

with all of his heart and might and strength what a statement Josiah had a zeal that was unparalleled

he had a reverential love for the word of God he had a heart to seek the kingdom and these are

key attributes to have as followers of Christ key attributes in order to truly make a difference in

this life and I touched on that last week why are we here and you hear me say these things every week

why are we here because we need reminding right we're here to to do God's work we're his ambassadors

we you know we pray these things every time we gather together Lord give us you know give us

opportunities to represent you we are your ambassadors we represent you to the world around us

which means we're acting on behalf of you we're not here to do our own thing to live our own life

you know and to get all of his blessings and you know be you know just fat with blessing and

and so much goodness and you know eventually die one day we're here to live for God

and to fulfill his purposes his plans and to implement them here in this earth so we're here to make

a difference but it's not that's sort of difference like I want to build a legacy and I want to

be remembered and I want to be this because a lot of that's rooted in pride right but we want to

make a difference for Jesus right right we want to make a difference for Jesus just like these

men and women that we read a bit in scripture and those that have gone before us in previous

generations just like they made a difference you know we a lot of us wouldn't be here today if it

wasn't for those faithful men and women who pioneered who dug wells who pointed us to Jesus that's

called making a difference wasn't necessarily by them but it was about their time you know the

God had placed them there first specific time first specific purpose to affect the lives of others

by by turning them to Jesus and that's why we're here to make a difference but I said this last

week in order to make a difference for the Lord big big part of that for the Lord and always

reminding just that the difference I'm making is for the Lord because self flesh will always weasel

its way in it will try and get in there somewhere you may start off good you may start off you know

Lord this is for you and the flesh will try and get in if you give it a little crack it'll squeeze

its way in somewhere that's why every day we get up on the altar every day present yourself

as a living sacrifice but so remind yourself the difference I'm making if you start seeing fruit

if you start seeing success if you start seeing lives been changed if you start seeing all of these

things remind yourself it's for the Lord it's for the Lord so there's difference that we're

making for him and only with his help so not only is it for him the difference we're making is only

is only by him we can't make a true lasting difference without Jesus no matter how good,

talented you know experience wonderful people that we are we can't make a difference without him

okay we're gonna and so in order to do that we're gonna need the zeal we're gonna need to be

zealous passionate fiery for him we're gonna need a love for his word and a heart for his kingdom

but these characteristics they will produce a certain lifestyle a lifestyle that does not tolerate

idols a lifestyle that does not tolerate lukewarm Christianity as zeal for God a heart for his word

heart for his kingdom they won't tolerate casual Christianity they won't tolerate you know self-seeking

or half-heartedness they will strive for no Jesus number one no lesser loves no mixture

amen so as discussed Josiah inherited the throne of a nation that was facing dark times

Judah and Jerusalem had drifted far from God and they were polluted with wickedness and idolatry

and I encourage you follow along in the story and even in what happened right before he

he succeeded to the throne and right after okay it wasn't a good place and but one of the key parts

of Josiah's story was we find that in the in the account in second chronicles was that he sought

the Lord Josiah was a seeker have we any seekers in here tonight and man we're going to need a

seeker all church we're going to need to seek him and and just having a zealous heart to seek him

right Josiah sought the Lord remember he inherited the throne at eight years of age okay in the

eighth year of his reign he was sixteen years old he began to sought he began to seek the heart

of his father David or the God of his father David okay then four years later after four years

of seeking okay learning gaining wisdom insight he began to make a difference he began to purge

the nation he spent six years purging the nation at 26 years of age he turned his attention to the

temple and he began to you know the temple that was left you know what because I remember I said

there was so many shrines and altars and you know and things dotted throughout the nation to fall

scots idolatry wickedness all of these things that people had forgotten the place of true worship

the temple was just left and you know it was dilapidated it was you know it needed renovations and

needed work and needed repairs he turned his attention to the temple he hired people to fix up the

temple to restore it to its former glory like it was in the days of Solomon and in the process of

all of this they discovered the book of the law Josiah's response to the law this is how it it

leads us into our second point which which means he had a reverential love for the scripture his

response to that was incredible how it was a response of humility a response of reverence a response

of love for the scripture and then that led him to doing more intensive purge of the nation a

second time a 26 years of age but it all started because he sought the Lord he sought the Lord

and the the dangerous thing is we can see other people in what they're doing for Christ we can

see other people in what they're doing for the kingdom but we don't necessarily see the seeking

we don't we don't see the zeal that they put in you know that they have in their heart for God

you know we don't see them in their prayer closet in their secret space you know in the secret

place in their in their private place with the Lord we don't see that but we just see the work

and the accomplishments and what they're achieving and we begin to carve at that a jealousy comes

up in our hearts to say you know will this ministries this or this person is gifted here or you

know I you know I they're called there I wish I was called there look with you know and this these

things this is how self works and we start to and we can start to develop these attitudes in our hearts

and you know but we don't see the seeking we're not willing to seek many times

but Josiah's story started because he was a seeker amen and just to think of at eight years of age

it's such a tender age and tender young age and even when he turned sixteen you know he could have

very easily went in the footsteps of his predecessors but you know he had a faithful remnant

around him that showed him the right way that were a good influence in his life and that's another

important point that we need to adopt in our lives we need to have faithful people around us who

love the Lord who when we go to go with Stray they're like no no no we come do this no watch

yourself you know and help to get us back on the right track okay so the nation had drifted far

from God and there was much pollution wickedness idolatry and but Josiah sought the Lord he purged

the nation at just twenty years old I'm just doing a quick review of some of the things we talked

about last week and that's in second chronicles thirty four three to seven it talks about that

first purge that he that he did at twenty years old and I finished off last week pointing at his

reverential love for the word his reaction to the discovery of the book of the law which was lost

in the house of the Lord which I find also incredible is worth noting and it's also worth noting his

response to hear in its contents and I said that tenderness of heart he was humble and he was

repentant and because of that God said I hear Jerk Rye he spoke through the prophetess and he said

these things are going to come upon the nation because sin has consequences but because of because

you have humbled yourself because you've cried out to the Lord because you've responded in the way

he should have responded to the book of the law and tried to implement those things and then made

a covenant before God we're going to look at that in a moment because of that God said you're not

going to see the destruction in your days but you're going to you know live out your days in peace

the mercy of God because one man repented and humble himself

so following the discovery of the book of the law hellkia which was the the high priest at the time

and during the temple repairs you know it they started a more intensive phase of reform and that's

found in second kings 23 so we're already there if you stay there in your bibles but this included

a former renewal of the covenant the destruction of the bet of the vessels of bail from the temple

and the final clearing of pagan priests and shrines throughout the land this second phase this

second purge in was comprehensive a targeted remade in sites like Toffeth in the Hinam valley

which was the place where they did child sacrifice they actually sacrificed their own children

to false gods and this is how corrupt things had had had had become but he destroyed these things

and destroyed the altar at Bethel which was outside his direct territory in the northern kingdom

you see the nation was split into northern and southern Josiah was king of Judah which is the

southern part of the of the nation of Israel and Bethel was across the border on the northern part

but Josiah you know his influence and all it it actually spread out beyond his territory

and he began to cleanse the land even beyond his district amazing amazing

so as we can see in second kings 23 we're going to look at some of these things in a minute

Josiah took extensive measures to restore true worship throughout the land

firstly he made a covenant before the Lord in the presence of all the people which was followed

by the people taken a stand and making the covenant also so second kings 23

so he's around 26 years old at this point which is after he discovered the book of the law and

this is you know after he he completed the first purge found the book of the law humbled himself

cried out to the Lord heard from God and then you know he restored true worship why

right he reinstates Passover and all of these things also this is around this time

but in second in the in the in the in the second kings account in chapter 23

and verse one it says now the king sent them to gather all now I want you to focus on the word

all and how many times it's mentioned in these verses now the king sent them to gather all the elders

of Judah and Jerusalem to him the king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah

and with all the inhabitants of Jerusalem the priests and the prophets and all the people both small

and great and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been

found in the house of the Lord then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord

to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart

and all his soul to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book and all the

people so which people all the people took a stand for the covenant now I just want to say something

here okay the word of God okay which is which is what Josiah had received this was this was the

this was the this was the commandments this was the instructions the God delivered to Moses

for his people this is what they discovered this was the word of God it is in what they knew at that time

right and how much that provoked a change when it was discovered but the word of God when it is

heard when it is yielded to will always bring change people will say I tried that you know

tried that word of God stuff didn't work for me no somewhere along the line you either

stopped hearing didn't hear it correctly because Jesus said those that have years to hear let him

sometimes people come to church and they'll only tune into what they want to hear

and I don't know about you but God the Holy Spirit he speaks many things to me a lot through the

scripture that I didn't want to hear at the time so we need to be open then when we hear it we

need to be yielded to it because you can hear it and then be like not not gonna do that

but when you hear it and you yield to it it will always bring change because the seed of the word

of God is incorruptible it will work in your life 100% of the time not 99.9% not if you're good enough

not if you try long enough or hard enough all of the time if you hear it and you yield to it

now things are some things are a process right some things don't happen you know in a you know

flash or you know in one night but if we're consistent if we're faithful if we apply these things

to our lives it will always bring change okay and this is obvious in the life of Josiah

because when they heard the word when they discovered the word of God then I just read these verses

was what he was doing was he was reading what they discovered in the assembly of all the people

when they heard it when Josiah heard it and when they heard it a covenant was formed a covenant

was made a relationship you know I promise you know and to keep these commandments to keep these

statutes to keep these ordinances before God and and in that covenant there's protection in that

covenant there's provision in that covenant there's there's supply there's there's blessing and all

of those things but when they heard the word when they yielded to the word because not only had he

purged the nation once then he went on to purge the nation again a more comprehensive and

intensive purge in in the temple and to write all the land that was the change that was the yielded

ness to what he heard he was like oh no this nation does not look like the way it should

so there was action which means he was yielded and then change came amen change quickly followed

but notice how Josiah included all the people and this stood out to me everybody was included

both small and great he didn't just gather a select few he didn't just gather you know people from

this clan or this tribe or he gathered all the people both small and great he didn't gather

just those in authority those with had power those that had influence he gathered all

the king read in their ears and then he publicly declared his covenant before the Lord

he set an example for the people to follow that is a mark of a great leader

that they don't just you know say some things and then expect you to follow it but they actually

declare but they do they set the example for those to follow so we see such such key attributes of

great leadership in his life also but he expected and he demanded everybody to follow his example he

used his leadership he used his his influence his position of power to positively affect the people

this is an example of a great leader humility humility is a characteristic that flows from a

low for God's word you recognize you need more humility in your life when you fall in love with God's

word it'll humble you it will humble you decide it and just keep this discovery to himself

he didn't just want to save himself he didn't just want to keep himself from judgment he included

all the people because he was a faithful steward of what God had given him

humility is needed and it is a characteristic that will flow from a love for God's word perhaps

a part of what Josiah read or discovered was Deuteronomy chapter 17 go there with me quickly

so the part of the book of the law maybe this is some of the things you know it doesn't specify

but he what they discovered you know was enough to inside the change compel them to you know

get rid of all of the wickedness but notice what what the book of Deuteronomy chapter 17

verse 18 to 20 says also it shall be so this is given principles governing kings Josiah was a king

when he sits on the throne of his kingdom which is talking about the king

that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priest the

Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn

to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes

that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren and it just stopped there for a minute

that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren what does that teach what does that show us

what characteristic is that highlighting humility he was a king but yet he made this available to

all people and his heart was not lifted above his brethren do you know I can tell you now okay see

all the kings that went before him that were wicked the biggest problem in their life was pride

it's the biggest problem in our lives if you've got contention in your life the Bible says

only by pride comes contention so if you've got contention and then it goes on to say in

Proverbs contention brings strife so if you've got strife if you've got people that's in strife

and you're even in your family or you know you feel like you're in strife with other people

you can't really seem to get to the bottom of it I can tell you now contention doesn't come any

or the way it doesn't say contention sometimes comes by pride it says only by pride so it's like

people bought heads when they think they're right isn't that right there's strife comes because

you're trying to defend your your way or your point of view and so contention it's it's all

pride so the kings that wanted to that kind of led these people into idolatry and wickedness

like the land had never seen before it's because they were so full of pride that they wanted to do

things their own way just how it was different there was such a humility there

that he did not lift his heart above his brethren let's read on

that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left

and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom he and his children in the midst of Israel

so I find it interesting as the account in 2nd Chronicles 34 so flip back there we're going to

be going to quite a few scriptures here so let's go to 2 Chronicles this is the other account

we find of King Josiah but I find it interesting a bear in mind keeping your head what we just read in

Judeuronomy and notice what it says in 2 Chronicles 34 from verse 2 it says Josiah did what was

right in the side of the Lord and walked in the ways of his father David he did not turn aside to

the right hand or to the left this is exactly how it's described in Judeuronomy Josiah's

reverence for God's holy word produced a humility and a determination that made him stand out from

the rest he didn't keep the truth he discovered to himself he was compelled to share it with all

church what are we compelled to do here as ambassadors for Jesus Christ share the truth

share the truth we don't keep it for ourselves regardless of how difficult it can be to deliver

that truth we do it anyway why because that's humility that's recognizing you know God's word

is above my opinions it's above what people may think of me it's above everything that's what

having a reverential love for the word of God looks like remember I said this last week revelation

leads to conviction you want more conviction in your life and I mean like that unshakable belief

for the scripture for truth for the things that God has spoken to you how does that come it doesn't

come because I'm teaching you God can speak through me God can speak through men and women that

he's placed in your life leaders and all of those things and he can speak through you but it comes

through personal revelation it comes through the rammer word of God it comes through when he speaks

to you directly conviction comes and then you're convinced you're convinced of something

and you'll you'll share it

Jeremiah remember I said he was a prophet that was in Josiah's day man of God that had a good

influence on his life but there's a lot of when you read through Jeremiah and since I've been doing

this study on Josiah when I read through those other prophets now I can see I can see what

they were pointing towards in his life and what was happening at that time but Jeremiah said something

interesting just speaking on what we're talking about here in chapter 20 of Jeremiah in verse 9 let's

let's look at that and this will be familiar verse to us Jeremiah 20 it says

but his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones I was weary of holding it back

I could not the fire the word of God was like a fire in his bones just imagine your bones

on fire it's like you can contain it you have to get it out this revelation that leads to conviction

when we're convinced of something it's like a fire in our bones that cannot be held back

we can't afford to only be concerned about ourselves

we need to love people enough to give them the truth and to encourage them to receive and accept

our truth. See Josiah didn't just deliver the truth he didn't just read the book of the law

in the presence of the people he set the example remember he made a covenant before God

with God before the people and then he compelled the people to stand over that covenant to make

that covenant for themselves with God so not only do we give the truth sometimes we can we can do

that and we can't make people do things don't don't get it wrong what I'm saying we can't make

thing we can't make people do things but sometimes we have this attitude of well I'm just

giving the truth I'm walking away and washing my hands of it no let's encourage people to

receive the truth and to implement the truth in their lives we're not just giving the truth to

take a box are we we're giving the truth because we want to bring it by change we want to make a

difference so when when when Josiah had made this covenant before God in the eyes of all the people

he began to purge the temple and the land once again he removed from the temple the articles

that were made for the false gods he removed the adulterous priests whom the former kings had

ordained to burn incense on the high places he worked his way through the land and beyond to

bring purity and true worship back to the nation of Judah and Jerusalem go back to second kings

and I see this today and I want to read this just as we're going to just as we're talking about

idols here and I did touch on this last week but let me touch on it again because this is important

and listen church I'm just going to be real with you the Lord is revealing and continues to reveal

idols in my life I believe it's something we will all we all struggle with and and sometimes a

lot of them we don't even realize their idols but most believers think that idolatry only means

bow into a false god but idolatry is often more subtle it can be a compromise it can be misplaced

priorities it can even be a distorted perception of who God truly is and it was on to say you become

like what you worship and if your perception of God is distorted it will affect everything about

your life so we need we need if there's idols in our lives we need this to be highlighted to us

we need to be challenged to examine our priorities to correct false perceptions and to return to

whole-hearted devotion to the one true God the Holy Spirit will help us with that

but you get what I'm saying these idols can be subtle and in the eyes of other people and listen

yes I will say that what may be an idol for me might not be an idol for you and vice versa

so don't judge other people if they share something with you you know even just to have

have accountability just to have you know people to support them in the Lord if somebody shares

that with you don't be little that by saying you're been silly that's nothing it may be nothing

for you but maybe God's revealing that to their heart and the Lord's scolded me for that before

because I've done that to people I've said no that's I think you're looking too much into that

I don't think that could no no no no no an idol can be very subtle trust the voice of the Holy

Spirit and you'll know yourself it's anything that you're it's it's what you're feeding upon

and if we're not becoming and think about it think about that statement that you become like

what you worship if you're not becoming more like Jesus you're not worshiping Him right

your worships going to other things so this is what Josiah was doing he was removing all these idols

second Kings 23 remember Jeroboam okay he was a king that would that was alive 300 years before

Josiah but Jeroboam is mentioned a lot through the book of kings that he both books because he

was very wicked and he and he caused the people to go down a road and they continued on that road so

you'll often hear scripture refer to Jeroboam as this king who came after him this king continued

doing evil and led the people in the ways of Jeroboam son of an abat you'll you'll notice that

the scripture says that over and over it references Jeroboam as the man and the king that led Israel

that led this nation down an idolatrous path but there's something interesting in Josiah's

story concerning this man so in second Kings chapter 23 in verse 15 it's talking about this

altar at Bethel and this is the high place that was set up by this man so what Josiah did was it

says from verse 15 that he that he destroyed the altar and the high place he broke he burned

the high place and crushed it to Peter and he burned the wooden image as Josiah turned he saw

the tombs that were on the mountain verse 16 he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burnt

them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed

who proclaimed these words verse 17 then he said what gravestone is this that I see so the men of

the city the locals told him it is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed

to Jeroboam these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel see what Jeroboam did was he

set up this altar these these places of idol worship in Bethel and it was prophesied that somebody

was going to come from the seat of David and destroy these altars now you look at the extreme this

is what I mean about the look look at the extremes that Josiah went to to remove these idols he dug

up the bones he exhumed the grave and burnt the bones of these priests that led the people

into this act of worship and burnt them some people would look at that and say but sure you know

they were gone they were forgotten about no but he was executing God's judgment on on leading

his people astray and he went to extreme lengths church listen we need to go to extreme lengths

in our lives to remove idols if you need to go to extreme lengths then do it

okay but this was a fulfillment of a 300 year old prophecy you know the scripture is the most

incredible the Bible is the most incredible book ever because no other book will have so much

fulfillment of prophecy and this is an example of one right here Jeroboam was 300 years before

Josiah go with me to first Kings chapter 13

says and behold the man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord and there was

Jeroboam standing by the altar to burn incense then he cried out against the altar by the word of

the Lord and he said oh alter alter thus says the Lord behold a child Josiah by name shall be

born to the house of David and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places

who burn incense on you and man's bones shall be burned on you there you go there's the prophecy

the bones that he burned were the remains of the people that were associated with pagan worship

specifically priests who served at the forbidden high places of Bethel in Dune so he made the

area ceremonially unclean and unusable according to mosaic law ensuring the site could not be reused

now remember last week I made the statement that Josiah didn't just remove these idols he pulverized

them he ground them to powder why so they couldn't build them up again well this was another example

of that you see when according to the law that was written that if bones were burned at a site

it was considered unclean so the people could not use these areas again for this idolatrous worship

so he went to extreme lengths to keep these places clean

and you can find out if you want to write that down in juteuronomy chapter 12 it talks about some

of those things but notice the phrase go back with me again to second kings 23

so we just read from here a few moments ago so this is Josiah cleansing the altars at Bethel

but notice what he says in verse 16 it says as he turned he saw the tombs that were on the mountain

and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and he burnt them on the altar and defiled it

according to the word of the Lord I want you to highlight that in your Bible circle it

underline it according to the word of the Lord now why is that important because this phrase

emphasizes that Josiah's actions were in obedience to a divine command

the reforms that he enacted were not merely political or personal but were rooted in fulfilling

God's will as revealed through his prophets this obedience highlights the importance of a line

in actions with God's word now remember this point Josiah had a reverential love for the word of

God as we as should we which means he was obedient to its instructions according to the word of

the Lord as I said before the word of God when it's heard when it's yielded to it'll bring about

change our daily goal should always be to get fully aligned with God's word that should be our daily

goal when we begin to build altars and burn self idols distractions and other pursuits and truly

fall in love with the scripture our lives will begin to manifest more of his glory

change will come a scene in Josiah's life his actions demonstrated that there could be no mixture

between the worship of Yahweh and pagan pagan practices idol worship there can't be a mixture

and again let me say it so we can understand in terms of today there can be no mixture

between our worship of Jesus and the things that were given all of our heart and attention to apart

apart from him if there's a mixture in our life it means there's there's a there's a lesser level of

purity if there's a lesser level of purity there's a lesser manifestation of his glory

the purgeon was an uncompromise and attempt to return the nation to exclusive worship in Jerusalem

as demanded by the book of the law Josiah was driven by a zeal for purity aimed at completely

cleanse in the land of all the remnants of idolatry and demonstrating the severe consequences of

breaking a covenant with God is there any mixture in our lives today church

according to verse 18 Josiah spared the tomb of the man of God who had originally delivered the

prophecy let's look at that he said so once he found out from the locals he noticed an

inscription on a tomb and he says what's this tomb about and the locals said this tomb is from

the man of God that proclaimed the very things that you're doing today okay and what did Josiah say

he said let him alone and let no one move his bones so they let his bones alone with the bones of

the prophet who came from Samaria so there was two prophets buried together and there were the

only bones that were untouched now again what does this show us this passage church it not only

reveals a fulfillment of prophecy but it also reveals Josiah's reverence for God's word

once again why how he protected the tomb of the man who spoke God's word can we see that level of

honor there there was an honor for the prophets that carried the word of God in their mites now there

was many false prophets there was many priests that were you know leading the people in idolatrous

worship priests that led the people in pagan worship he destroyed all of them he burned their bones

but the bones of the prophets that carried the true word of God they were preserved

why because he had a love for God's word a love for God's word will bring honor

in our lives it will produce honor

their meds were dedicated to deliver truth and Josiah saw the importance in that the honor he

demonstrated towards these men were because he had honor for God's word he had a reverential love

no I think I'm just going to leave it there there's a few more details I was like but I just

don't want to skim over and miss the importance of them but time to build some altars

time to come before the Lord and ask him Lord is there any idols in my life

whatever he reveals let's take extreme measures to remove them let's cultivate a reverential love for his

word a zeal a passion humility honor these are things that will be produced in our lives

if we continually give ourselves over to him die into ourselves

living for him amen praise God let's stand to our feet

Heavenly Father we just thank you for this time we've had together

which we gathered in your precious name of Jesus I thank you for your presence in this place

I thank you for the uncompromising truth of your word Lord I just pray that these things will

continue to be revealed to us Lord may you just bring a heightened awareness of the importance of

these things Lord an understanding wisdom thank you Lord for a zeal in the hearts of your people

a reverential love for your word a heart to seek your kingdom may we look at the lives of people

like Josiah and learn from them just like your word says in Romans that these examples in the Old

Testament they're there for our learning so Lord let us learn from Josiah's life let us learn Lord

from the extreme measures he took to honor you to remove idols Lord I pray that idols will be

revealed and exposed in the lives of your people that we will no longer share our worship with any

other thing but may it be reserved for you I pray for a heart Lord to hear these things to yield to

these things Lord we invite you to come and work in us bring truth shine your light thank you Lord

as we exited this place we know that you're with us you'll never leave us or forsake us we go

forth with your spirit your word in our hearts let us be ambassadors for you representing you

in your kingdom let us walk in love towards you love towards other people and faith towards you

in your word and your spoken promises over our lives I pray Lord for the fruit of the spirit to

be cultivated in us so that we will be an example to those around us thank you Lord for opportunities

to fulfill the great commission to lay hands on the sick cast out demons baptized people

teach people make disciples it's no longer we who live Lord but you who live in us

let us continually give ourselves to you each and every day is living sacrifices

Lord we're willing vessels we invite you to work through us in every way

Lord we just want to say we love you thank you for who you are

and may we grow closer to you every day in your precious name we pray amen

we are so glad you could join us for our latest message we are located right in the center of

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