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SPEAKER_01If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, let me invite you to open with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 34. Feel free to use your table contents if you need to to find 2 Chronicles. It is after 1 Chronicles in the Old Testament. While you're turning to 2 Chronicles 34, I want to tell you a story. But you need to know from the very beginning, the story I'm about to tell you is true. Every single detail of the story is true, but you're not going to believe that it is true. But you need to know from the very beginning that it's all true. When I was in eighth grade, it was the first year at my school where you could try out for the school basketball team. And everybody who was cool was on the eighth grade basketball team. So I thought, well, I'm David Platt and I need to be cool, so I need to be on the eighth grade basketball team. The only problem was I was a little four-foot-nothing run, shortest kid in the eighth grade. And if you know anything about basketball, you know it's better not to be the four-foot-nothing run in the eighth grade or the smallest kid on the court because every time you throw the ball up, what happens? It comes right back in your face. It's just not a pretty picture. And so that was my dilemma. So I wanted to make the eighth grade basketball team, but I'm a little short run. And so for the weeks leading up to try-offs, I was wrestling with how in the world I can impress the coach enough so that he would put me on the team. I wanted to be on the team so bad, how could I impress him so that he would put me on the team? So one day, I'm sitting in my room, I'm having some time in God's Word, and I come across Luke chapter 1, verse 37. The Bible says there, for nothing is impossible with God. And right then it seemed like the words of that scripture leapt off the page and into my heart, and I knew exactly how I could make the eighth-grade basketball team. If the Bible says, for nothing is impossible with God, then that means with God's power and with God's strength, I could dunk the basketball. And if I could dunk the basketball, I'm on the team for sure. And so that's the plan. So what I did is I left my Bible sitting in a room and I ran outside the house where we had a basketball goal in our driveway. I got a basketball and I went to the back of the driveway, as far away from the goal as I could get so I could get a good running start. I got down on my knees and said, God, I believe with your power and with your strength, I can dunk this basketball. Now I wanted everything to be perfect. So I planned out how many steps it was going to take for me to get from the back of the driveway to the goal. And then my plan was when I was about two feet away, I was gonna close my eyes. Okay, follow with me here. I'm gonna close my eyes, and I'm gonna take the last two steps with my eyes closed and jump with my eyes closed. That way I can picture the angels lifting me up to the goal. I'm fully expecting the next thing I'll feel is the rim. I'll throw the ball to the rim, and then my plan is I'm gonna hang up there for a while because I've never been there before. Okay? That's the plan. For nothing is impossible with God. I go back to the back of the driveway one more time, get down on my knees, start to pray. People are driving by, walking by, having a normal day. I'm having revival right there in the driveway. God, I believe with your power, I believe with your strength, I can dunk the basketball. Nothing is impossible with you. Now, before I tell you what happened, I gotta ask you the question. Be honest. How many of you really believe that on this particular day I dunk the basketball? Anybody? Okay. Maybe about five out of the 2,000 people that are in here, okay? And you five probably just feel sorry enough for me. Nothing is impossible with God. I get up off my knees. I begin to run toward the goal. I get two feet away and I close my eyes. I take the last two steps and I jump with my eyes closed. I could feel something on my right and on my left. And the very next thing I felt was that basketball pole right in my forehead. I wonder I want you to imagine yourself walking by my house on that particular day. You see this little kid get up off his knees, supposedly in prayer, and run and jump into a basketball goal. It's not one of my prouder moments. The word of God in the hands
of a teenager is a very dangerous thing. But you know, in a much more serious way, that's exactly the truth I want to communicate to us this morning. I believe that the word of God in the hearts and hands and minds of teenagers and children is an extremely dangerous thing. There's a lot of people who wonder what kind of impact students can have on the kingdom of Christ in the world. And there's a lot of people who ask, can students really make a difference in the world, or can students really impact their generation for the glory of Christ? And the answer I want to give you this morning, based on scripture, is a resounding yes. Not in terms of dunking basketballs, but in terms of impacting a generation for the glory of Christ. My prayer is that God would work among the students at this church in such a way that they are raised up as a generation that wants to impact their generation for the glory of Christ. This truth is going to serve as the foundation for our time together. God desires to raise up students who will impact their generation for the glory of Christ. So what we're going to do is we're going to dive into somebody you may not be familiar with in the Old Testament, a guy named Josiah. And I want to speak especially about students and maybe even two students, about what it takes to impact a generation for the glory of Christ, particularly starting at a young age. Because this truth that we're looking at is the testimony of Scripture, God raising up young people who impact their generation for the glory of God. It's the testimony of Scripture, it's the testimony of church history. We have seen revivals and awakenings in the history of the church that have oftentimes begun among the lives of students. It's the testimony of scripture, of church history, and I want it to be the testimony of the church of Berkills. That God works among this faith family. So the students, the children that are represented in here, are part of impacting a generation for the glory of Christ. And so I want you to see a picture of a guy who did that in 2 Chronicles chapter 34, verse 1. And let's learn from what Scripture is teaching here. In verse 1, the Bible says Josiah was eight years old when he became king. And he reigned in Jerusalem 31 years. Now let's pause there for a second. Eight years old when he became king. Anyone in here, eight years old? Tell you what, stand up if you are eight years old. Why don't you stand up for us? Okay. I want you to look around the room. It's kind of tough to see some of these guys, but I want you to imagine these guys over here, they're the king, okay? They're king in the country. Imagine that's the person we look to for leadership in our country. We're calling these guys king, okay? You got the picture? Thank you guys for standing. And by the way, you can sit back down. By the way, there are some. Today at the church, we're doing kind of promotion Sunday. It's when people move up to the next grade as far as the age-graded Bible studies we have. And that means that we have kindergarteners in here who are worshiping in here for the first time. If you're in kindergarten, if you're starting kindergarten, let me invite you to stand. We want to welcome you to worship. Why don't you stand if you're a kindergarten? All right. They're even a little harder to see, but they were there. I promise they were there. We come back, we've got an eight-year-old king. It says in verse 2, Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and he walked in the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. Now I want us to pause right there, and I want us to see the first characteristic of a student who impacts his or her generation for the glory of Christ. These are people who pursue students who pursue God with passion. They pursue God with passion. Now, in order to understand the gravity of these first three verses in 2 Chronicles 34, we've got to understand the context that leads up to this. Let me give you a little background, a little Old Testament history. Basically, under King Saul and David and Solomon, the people of God, the people of Israel, were united in one kingdom. But then they split into two kingdoms. One was called the Northern Kingdom, and the other one was called the Southern Kingdom. Very good, okay? And so what you've got is the northern kingdom also called Israel, and the southern kingdom called Judah, and the capital of Judah is Jerusalem. And that's what's going on right here in 2 Chronicles 34. That's where this action is really starting, taking place. What happened was at one point the northern kingdom of Israel was attacked by the Assyrians and basically completely destroyed. What we're coming into is about a hundred years later, close to a hundred years later, and the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom, is about to be destroyed by the Babylonians within the next few years. And what's happening is all this destruction and difficulty among the people of God is occurring because the people of God had disobeyed him. They had turned from him, they had completely forgotten about his word, as we're going to see in the rest of this passage. They had become engrossed in all kinds of immorality and godlessness. In fact, the two kings that lead up to Josiah are two of the worst of the worst in all of Israel's history. I want you to look at chapter 33. Guy named Manasseh. This guy was king for 55 years. And I'm convinced he was one of the worst kings, not only among Israel, but the worst king, one of the worst kings in the history of the people and hi of all people in history. Look at what happened in verse 2. Manasseh in chapter 33 did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished. He also erected altars to the Baals and made asherapoles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, My name will remain in Jerusalem forever. In both courts of the temple of the Lord he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the valley of Ben Hanam, practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritus. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. Don't miss it. This is a guy who sacrificed his own sons in the fire, worshipping other gods, mediums and spirits. A very evil king. And he didn't wasn't content just to do it himself. Look down in verse nine. It says, Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So what Scripture's telling us is that for fifty-five years, you've got a guy in charge who's leading the people to be worse than even the pagan nations around them. It's total immorality, total evil, totally wickedness, total godlessness that is throughout the people of Israel. Well, the next guy takes over. His name's Amon. Look at what happens in verse 22 of chapter 33. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshiped and served and offered sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made. So basically he just keeps the things going. The only good thing to say about this guy is that he only reigned for two years. He wasn't there for fifty-five, he was there for two until some of his leaders conspired to kill him. And so what you've got coming into 2 Chronicles 34 is a picture of 57 years of witchcraft, idolatry, wickedness, and total godlessness among the people of God. And so when we see Josiah come on the scene, the Bible says he did right in the eyes of the Lord, and he began to seek God, then we can understand how huge this was in the history of the people of Israel.
Now I don't I didn't put anything like this in your notes, but there's two reminders I want to give you based on this idea that we're seeing here in the context. Number one, I want you to see that God never stopped seeking his people in the Old Testament. After fifty-seven years, this would have been a good time for God to say, you know, I've had enough. No one listens to my word, no one obeys my word. He could have left them to their sin, but at no point in all of Scripture do we see God ever stop seeking his people. And that's huge that we understand this. Before we can ever seek God, he must seek us first. We love him because he first loved us. We pursue him because he pursues us. And this is huge. I know that in a room this size, and we're pretty packed full this morning. I know that there are some of you, whether you're students or adults, who somewhere along the right way have grown cold or callous or casual in your faith and your relationship with God. And your relationship with God would not be characterized by pursuing God with passion. There's a lot of us who have wandered away from God and maybe even deliberately disobeyed God. And I want you to hear this morning, based on the word of God, that God never stops pursuing his people. We have a God who runs after us, and he's running after you. He is pursuing you by grace, not because we earn it, not because of any merit, but there's a God in heaven who never stops pursuing his people. And I pray that that will encourage you this morning. The second reminder I want to give you is when we see Josiah coming on the scene right here, with all that context preceding him, we saw Josiah as he comes on, he begins to seek God, he is pretty much just breaking the family chain right down the middle. Fifty-seven years in front of him of idolatry, witchcraft, godlessness. Josiah comes on the scene and he begins to seek God. He transforms the whole family chain. Now here's the deal. And some of you have backgrounds where you've not seen a father who honored God. You've had a father who left you alone. And you have some things in your past that secular psychologists would tell you today, because you grow up a certain way, then that means you're destined to come out a certain way. And then automatically you're going to end up a certain way based on where how you've grown up. And I want to tell you, based on the word of God this morning, that is not true. By the power of God and his spirit in your life, the family chain can be broken. No matter how deep or dark that past is, by his power, you are not chained to your past. You are a new creation. That's good. That's just from the context. God's word is good. So we get here to seeing Josiah seeking
after God. Now I want you to see two ways he was seeking God that we need to hear this morning. Number one, he sought God, seek God personally. Josiah doubtless had heard from people in his family, from traditions that had been passed on, about the work of God and the history of his people. Undoubtedly, he'd heard word of that, even amidst all the godlessness. He had still heard some of those things. But Josiah comes to the point where he's eight years old when he's king, and then in verse 3 it says, in the 18th year of his reign, so when he's 16 years old, Josiah stands up and basically says, you know, it's not going to be enough for me to hear about God and the traditions of God in the past. I'm going to seek God personally. And he doesn't leave it up to his teachers or those who are passing on tradition to teach them about God. He takes personal responsibility for seeking God. And this is important that we grab a hold of this. Because many times in church today, particularly among children or students, many times maybe we'll begin a relationship with Christ, but then we're dependent on our parents or our Bible study teachers or RBF leaders for them to do the seeking after God for us. And the result is the majority of students, when they get to college today, coming out of church, they get to college, within the first year they fall away from their faith because they've never sought God personally. They've let others do the seeking for them. And I want to challenge you, students, children, this morning, I want to challenge you. Seek God personally. Take ownership for pursuing and running after God. And not just seeking God personally, but seek God continually. Here's the deal: Josiah starts to seek the Lord at 16. He doesn't stop. All the way to the end of chapter 35, when we see Josiah's death, he is continually seeking after God. It wasn't a sporadic thing for him. Doesn't say Josiah went to a camp or conference and then went to another one the next year and made another decision, went to another one the next year and made another decision. No, he sought God day in and day out. He pursued God day in and day out. He was used by God day in and day out. It was a continual thing. Now this is where we really tend to miss it. Think about it. Most often, especially with children and students, we talk about accepting Christ. Accepting Christ into our hearts, a term that is incidentally is never mentioned in Scripture. We talk about accepting Christ. And we disconnect that from pursuing Christ. And we create this idea that once we've accepted Christ in our heart, we've it's a done deal. We're good, and there's no need to pursue Christ anymore. And a lot of times we do that with students and children because that's exactly what we model as adults. And when students look at our lives, for many of us, they don't see deep, red-hot passion for Christ. They see a contentment and a complacency and misses out on deep desire for Christ. And somewhere along the way, we have a tendency to divorce faith in Christ from desire for Christ. And I want you to see in Josiah that that is just not biblical. We can't keep faith in Christ and accepting Christ over here and pursuing Christ over here. They go together. This is exactly what we see throughout Scripture. Take a left with me back to Exodus. I want you to see two examples in Scripture of this. Be encouraged with what you see. Exodus chapter 33, second book in the Bible. Look at Exodus chapter 33. I want you to look with me at verse 12. I want you to see a picture of two guys who, just like men and women throughout Scripture, sought after God day and night. They prayed to him day and night. They wrestled with him. They were in passionate pursuit of God. Look at Exodus chapter 33, verse 12. Moses said to the Lord, You have been telling me, lead these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, I know you by name, and you have found favor with me. Listen what he prays. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways, so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people. So here's what God says. He says, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. So Moses said, If your presence doesn't go with us, do not send us up from here. Moses said, I'm not going anywhere without you, God, without your presence in my life. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? The Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name. Then Moses said, Look at this prayer. Now show me your glory. Do you see that? That's just one example. Moses saying over and over again, Lord, teach me your way so I can know you. God, show me your glory. What I want you to see is that God is pleased with prayers like that. God is honored when we come to Him, however young or however old, and say, God, I want to know your glory today. Teach me your ways so that I can know you, and we pursue Him like that. That's what Christianity is all about. Look over the New Testament. Look at Philippians chapter 3. Galatians, Ephesians, and come to Philippians chapter 3. I want you to see Paul. I want you to see his passion. People might ask, well, what do you think Paul's passion is, David? Is it leading people to Christ? Paul was obviously passionate about that, but I don't think that was his main passion. Paul, was he passionate most about planning churches? I think he did a lot of that, but I don't think that was his greatest passion. Was his passion building up churches, writing all these letters? Was that his greatest passion? I don't think that was his greatest passion either. Philippians chapter 1, Paul, I think, gives us a glimpse of his passion. He says, to live is Christ. And then we come to Philippians chapter 3. Listen to what he says. Chapter 3, verse 7. Whatever was to my prophet, he just finished talking about all the things he had in the world that would make him successful. He says, I consider them loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. Ladies and gentlemen, is Christ pursuing him more important to you than pursuing your career goals and building your 401k and getting the right stats in football or baseball? Is it more important to us than anything in this world? That we know Christ, that we pursue him. He said, I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God. And is by faith. I want to know Christ. I want to know the power of his resurrection. I want to know the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Seek God personally and seek God continually. This is the essence of biblical faith. Students who are used by God to impact their generation for the glory of Christ pursue him with passion.
Second characteristic, coming back to 2 Chronicles chapter 34. Students like this value purity with God more than they value popularity with others. They value purity with God more than they value popularity with others. When you come to 2 Chronicles 34, the second part of verse 3, I want you to see what happens. It says, In Josiah's twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, ashera poles, carved idols, and cast images. Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down. He cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the ashera poles, the idols and the images. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem. And the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Not Tali, and in the ruins around them, and he tore down the altars and the ashera poles, and crushed the idols to powder, and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem. So what Josiah does. He starts in Jerusalem, then he heads north, and all these different idols, all these different altars that have been set up as sacrifices to other gods, he completely purges Jerusalem and all north of there, of all of these things, all the way up to this place called Neptali, which is farther north. He goes throughout this place. Obviously, not a very popular decision. This is a guy who's going right at the heart of the religious practices of his day. And what Scripture teaches us is that in six years, in six years, Josiah completely cleansed that entire place of all the altars and all the idol worship that was going on. And six years turned a generation completely upside down. Look at what happens next. It says in verse 8, the 18th year of Josiah's reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Messiah, the ruler of the city, with Johas, son of Johaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God. What had happened was the temple, just like we saw with Manasseh, which was the place of worship, they had put all kinds of idols in there too. And so he says, we've got to go clean that place out. We've got to make that a pure and holy place. Josiah does all these reforms, transforming a place from idolatry to worship of God, and in six years turns the entire nation upside down. How do you do that? How do you do that? Well, Josiah knew a truth that we need to know today. It's the truth that God's righteousness is more important than our reputation. Now when I talk about the righteousness of God, I'm talking about his holiness, his name, his fame, his glory, his honor. Basically, Josiah said, because holiness matters to the character of God, holiness is going to matter to me. Let me tell you what Josiah didn't do in 2 Chronicles 34. When he saw all the evil around him and all the godlessness around him, he didn't gather together with the other religious people and say, Can you believe how bad culture is getting? He didn't sit around at the dinner table all night talking about this and that and culture that were so bad. Did you see that on TV or did you see that in the paper? What's the world coming to? We don't see him having those conversations, then wringing his hands in pious concern and walking away, going about his own sheltered life. What we see Josiah doing is going into the middle of that culture and penetrating it with the holiness of God, and penetrating it with the purity of God, without regard to his popularity with others, without regard to his reputation, he says the name of God is not being honored in this place, and it needs to be honored. As we look at the students and the generation of youth in our culture today, whether it's in the schools that many of these students go to, whether it's in the homes that are represented across this room as well as this community, obviously there are many places where God's name is not being honored and it's not being glorified. And his holiness is not being seen. The question we have at the Church of Brook Hills is are we going to sit back and lament that and talk about that? Or are we going to rise up and say, we believe based on the holiness of God that we can turn our community upside down for the glory of Christ? That's exactly what Josiah did. Again, some of you are thinking, well, that's a little idealistic. He turned the whole nation upside down. Because he had a zeal for the righteousness of God and a zeal for the holiness of God. And he didn't buy into this idea that we've created today that the best way to reach out and make a difference in our culture is to become like the culture around us. He didn't buy into that. He realized that if we're going to make a difference in this culture, then it's time for us to display the holiness of Christ and display the righteousness of Christ and display the difference Christ makes in our lives, whether it's students in your dating lives or your social life or your life at school, your life with your friends, what is holy, what's pure, and how can we live according to that? And then beyond that, as a church, what's holy and what's pure, and how can we live according to that? You know, we see such an incredible thing happening here in 2 Chronicles 34, and it's the same thing we see happen at different points in the history of the church. What's very interesting though, is in church history and in scripture, whenever we see God moving in amazing ways among people like this, it doesn't happen, don't miss this. It doesn't happen when the people outside the church start getting right with God. It happens when the people inside the church start getting right with God. And start being honest with God about what it means to be pure and holy. And stop putting on a religious face when we come into this cultural exercise we do every Sunday. And we come in and we're honest with God about where we are in our lives, where we are with our sin, and we lay that before God who has said, if you confess your sins, I'm faithful, I'm just, I will forgive you of your sins, I will cleanse you of all unrighteousness. He wants to bring renewal, he wants to pour out his spirit. Let's be honest with him. Let's put our reputation aside and say we want the righteousness, the holiness, and the greatness of God to be displayed to the church at Brook Hills. What happens when students at church get a hold of that? Josiah realized not only is God's righteousness more important than our reputation, but purity is necessary for true worship. Basically, what's happening in chapter 34 is Josiah is completely transforming the worship practices of his day. Now, obviously, this week I've not seen any Astra poles set up in Birmingham or any altars to these foreign gods that we need to leave here and go run over with our SUVs or anything like that. That's not the picture we've got. How do we do that? How do we reform what it means to worship? Well, think about it. Maybe in a much different way than 2 Chronicles 34, but whether it's in youth culture or church culture as a whole, I fear that many times we have created an atmosphere where students talk a lot about praise and worship music, and I go to worship concerts, and we talk about praise and worship a good bit, but we've created this culture where we can come in and sing songs and hear music and have a good time worshiping, but never give second thought to our lack of purity or honesty before God about sin. And we face a similar danger of being a people who are actively involved in worship just like they were in this day, but missing the point of worship when it comes to purity and holiness. And I want to invite you this morning. We've had an incredible time singing to God and praising God. But as we hear your word hear his word, the Lord is speaking to us, whether it's students or adults, about sins in our life, maybe things that nobody else in here knows about, even those who know us best. Then let's not kid ourselves and walk out of here thinking that we have worshiped if we've not been honest with God about impurity and purity in our lives. Let's come before Him and say, you know, God, it's not gonna be about my selfishness or my reputation or my name anymore. It's gonna be about your name being reflected in my life, and I'm not gonna sacrifice purity at the altar of cultural worship. They value purity with God more than they value popularity with others.
Third characteristic without God's word, people like Josiah are powerless. However, with God's word, people like Josiah are unstoppable. Now here's where it gets really good. Chapter 34, verse 14, they're cleaning out the temple. You could see them almost imagine they got dust everywhere, they're pulling all these things out. All of a sudden, this one guy picks up a book. Look at what happens in verse 14. While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord that had been given through Moses. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, I have found the book of the law in the temple of the Lord. And he gave it to him. Now, a little context here. Scholars kind of debate exactly what this is. Some believe it was the first five books of the Old Testament, the law. Others believe it was just Deuteronomy. But it was most likely at least Deuteronomy, which was basically it's basically a book that talks about remembering the commands the Lord has given us. And if you don't follow them, this is what will happen. And so that's the book they find. So look at what happens in verse 16. Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him. Your officials are doing everything that has been committed to them. They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers. Then the secretary informed the king, Hilkiah the priest, has given me a book. And Shaphan read it from it, read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his robes. The guy comes in, starts to read this book, and Josiah immediately realizes what's going on. This is a book that for at least fifty-seven years, maybe more, has completely been ignored, and it's the law of God, and they haven't listened to it at all. And he starts to hear words like, Remember the commands the Lord has given you, and follow them, and obey them with all your heart. And if you don't, this will happen, and this will happen. And it clicks with Josiah, and he sees the power of God's word, and he sees the people who have missed out on God's word, and he tears his robes, which is basically a sign of grief and sorrow, and being overwhelmed with conviction, of confession, of saying, God, I we I have sinned, we have sinned, we have completely forgotten your word. And Josiah knew, Josiah knew that his the reforms and among the people of God, all that was going on was merely external things if they were disconnected from obedience to God's word and the power of God's word. And so what he does is he says, We need to get everybody together. Look over in verse 29. It says, The king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the Lord with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priest and the Levites, all the people from the least to the greatest, and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord, to follow the Lord and keep his commands, regulations, and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in the book. So he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it. The people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God as long as he lived. Check this out. They did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their fathers. We had external change with all these idols being taken out. Then we see things really start to get good when the power of God comes on the scene through his word. The people hear it and they respond to it, they listen to it and they obey it. And the Bible says that throughout the rest of Josiah's life, under his leadership, they never failed to follow the Lord. Did you catch that? Don't miss it. Before this, fifty-seven years of godlessness and idolatry, this guy comes on the scene, begins to seek the Lord, and puts the primacy on his word, puts the emphasis on his word, and an entire generation follows after God. Never fails to follow the Lord. You see, the word leads to two things, and we see it unfold here in 2 Chronicles 34. Number one, the word leads to deep confession. Josiah immediately confessed his sins when he heard the word. He spent time, I mean, you see it in his prayers, personal confession, confessing his own sins, as well as corporate confession. And this is something they do throughout the Old Testament that we need to learn from today. Many times when it comes to confessing sins, we have a tendency to start pointing out everybody else's sins. Yeah, that guy really needs to work on this. Or did you hear what he did or hear what she did? And we start to point the finger, particularly at those public sins that everybody kind of points at, and we point the finger, and that's not that's not what the church does. The church comes together and says, God, we have given ourselves over to complacency and a lack of desire for you. God, we have neglected your word. God, we have been a people who have missed out on purity and worship. It's corporate confession. And then not only deep confession, but the word leads to deep commitment. They gather together and they say, We're gonna follow the Lord, we're gonna obey the Lord, we're gonna walk with the Lord, and the entire generation of people does that. So we see a turnaround here because the word brings deep confession and deep commitment. Now, let's translate that over into our day-to-day. We're seeing some pretty incredible things happen based on the word of God. Through a young guy named Josiah who loved the word and obeyed the word and was in awe of the word. And students I want to camp out here for a second with anybody who would be classified as a student, whatever that age might be. This kind of thing doesn't happen when students spend all day playing Xbox and PlayStation. And it and it doesn't happen when a generation of students commits to spending hours in front of the TV or hours in front of the internet. My goal is in no way to preach against Xbox or PlayStation or TV or the internet. But I want you to see that if that's what our lives and our minds are focused on, that we will never be a part of impacting a generation for the glory of Christ. That only comes from ours in God's Word. And we are fooling ourselves, not just students but adults, we are fooling ourselves if we're convinced that we can live a victorious Christian life apart from deep knowledge of the Word. And we're kidding ourselves if we think that we can, as a church, impact Birmingham and all nations for the glory of Christ, if we don't have a deep knowledge and love and reverence for God's word. And I don't want to harp on students too bad because many times as adults, when they hear our conversations and when they see our time spent doing this or that, these mind-numbing pleasures the world puts before us, then they're just following our example. Well, how do we how do we spend hours in God's word? I mean, you can watch a football game on TV for three hours. You can spend three hours on the internet just like this, or do this for three hours. We can do that so easily. Well, hours in God's word, let's be realistic. We're not going to miss out on some of these other things. Well, here's the deal. When we give ourselves to hours and these other things, then we have just sacrificed in our efforts to be satisfied of the things of this world, we have just sacrificed the satisfaction of knowing God and the satisfaction of being used by God for eternal purposes. One of Satan's greatest strategies in the world today is to get us, particularly in our culture, so engrossed in the mind-numbing pleasures of this world, whatever they may be in each of our lives, to get so filled up with those that our stomachs are full when it comes to the Word of God and we have no taste for it. We have no hunger for it. How do you memorize God's word if all we do is fill our minds with the TV and the internet? It doesn't work. God help us to turn this thing around in the church. Not that those things are bad, but what's greater? We can know Christ and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of sharing and his sufferings, and the joy of knowing him and walking with him, and the joy of being a part of a world impact for the glory of Christ. I would sacrifice all of that for this. God make us the kind of church that does that. That realizes that without God's word, we are powerless and we're just going through the motions. But with God's word, we're unstoppable as a church. That's where the power is in the church. God deliver us from shallow cultural Christianity that lacks deep confession and lacks deep commitment because we lack depth in God's word. Without God's word, they're powerless, with God's word, they're unstoppable. Final characteristic I want you to see.
Students who are used to impact nations for the glory of Christ to believe the gospel is the only hope for their generation. Josiah's done enough at this point. But chapter 35 gives us a whole nother picture. One more thing Josiah does. It says in verse 1, Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the 14th day of the first month. Amidst all that had happened among the people of God, they had forgotten to celebrate the Passover. And remember, the Passover is these celebrations, the festival that they celebrated when God had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. And he delivered them out and saved them from their bondage. And brought them to this new place. And it was a picture they were supposed to illustrate every year in this celebration. God saved us, God delivered us, and it was a promise of what was to come. Because one day the Passover Lamb would come in the form of God the Son, who would give us life on a cross and save us from our bondage, save us from our captivity to sin. That was what this whole picture was set up for, and they'd missed it. So it says later in chapter 35, goes throughout, describes the celebration, and when you get to verse 18, the Bible says the Passover had not been observed like this in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel, and none of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated such a Passover as did Josiah with the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were there with the people of Jerusalem. This Passover was celebrated in the 18th year of Josiah's reign. Never before had any king put this much emphasis on the Passover. You see, here's the thing. When we read this story, we see that Josiah is a great example in the story. He's an example of a guy who came on the landscape of human history and said, I'm going to make a difference for the kingdom of God in the world. And I'm going to purge Israel and Judah of all these idols, all the idolatry and the wickedness. And I'm going to do the best I can. But Josiah realized he was just an example. He was just one step in this whole process among the people of God. There were kings before him, there would be kings after him. Josiah is an example in this story, but what I want you to see is that Jesus is the hero of this story. And some of you are thinking, what do you mean? Jesus is the hero of this story. I don't see Jesus anywhere in this thing. Is that just one of those preacher tricks you pull on us and you kind of bring Jesus into the sermon just so we can say that? No. I want you to see this. Josiah is pointing in the Passover to what's going to come, but I want you to turn with me over to Matthew chapter one. And I want to invite you to circle something over there. Look at Matthew chapter one. Look at Matthew chapter one, and you're gonna see a list that in verse two begins with Abraham, the father of Isaac, Isaac, the father of Jacob, Jacob, the father of Judah, and his brothers, and it goes on and on, talking about various people. In verse six, you seek King David. David was the father of Solomon. It goes on to list the kings. Look in verse eleven. And Josiah, the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon, and it goes on to verse 16. And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Don't miss this. I'm not convinced exactly how much Josiah knew when it came to specifics, but I'm pretty convinced based on scripture that Josiah knew that he was in a long line and the plan of God to bring this promise to a reality. This Passover was just a picture of something that was coming much greater. And Josiah realized he was in a long line that one day, maybe he knew the specifics or maybe not, but one day his life was going to point to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. And he knew that generations would come and go, and they would seek after God and turn from God. But he knew that in the end Christ was going to bring salvation to God's people. And that's what his life pointed to. Now we find ourselves on the other side of this list. From Jesus came others who placed their faith in him. And here we are, 2,000 years removed. And instead of pointing forward to a promise that's to come, we're pointing backwards, and we have the opportunity to say in our culture to our generation, the gospel is the only hope we have. Apart from Christ, no matter how hard we try to reform our culture, no matter how many political measures we take, no matter how many things we do, Christ is the hope for each of our lives, the hope for our families, and the hope for the church, and the hope for the glory of God in the world. Everything point of the gospel. And I want you to let this soak in. We've talked already a lot around here about impact in the world for the glory of God. Impact in the world for the glory of Christ. And I want you to hear me say this morning. I am convinced more than ever. We don't have to know a lot of things to make a difference in this world. We don't have to be the smartest or the most intelligent people. We don't have to be the richest or the wealthiest. We don't have to be the most talented. And we don't have to have the most political power. I'm convinced that it'll make a difference in this world, we only need to know a few things. A few things that we would live for, and a few things that we would be willing to die for. A few things that would so captivate and consume us. Like the gospel of a God who became a man and gave his life so that the nations might know he is good. If we can get a hold of that and give our lives to that, let ourselves be consumed by that and captivated that by that, I'm convinced God will use us to make his glory known throughout the world. We are just a faith family and a long line and a history of people who have either pointed to Christ or pointing back to Christ. And I want to say to you this morning, we've got to be a church that pours ourselves into the next generation so that that line continues to point to the glory of Christ and the children and the students that are represented in this room today. And that is a tall order for all of us. It's a tall order for students to rise up to the occasion and say these things, and it's a tall order for all of us to set the example for what that looks like. But I want our prayer to be that God would raise up students at the church of Brook Hills who will impact their generation, who will impact this church, and who will impact all nations for the glory of Christ. I pray that that would be the thrust behind our encouragement to students, the way we pour our lives into them, and the way we make disciples with them. And I want us to be a church that is constantly telling students, teaching students to make disciples of all nations, and telling students they can impact the world for the glory of Christ. And we can't underestimate what will happen when some students just like Josiah get a hold of this and say to God, take my life and let it be everything you want it to be. I give myself wholly to you every facet of my life, my mind, my heart, my hands. Use me for your glory. Dear God, I pray that you would make us a church that raises up Josiah.
SPEAKER_00We hope you've enjoyed this week's episode of David Platt Messages. For more resources from David Platt, we invite you to visit radical.net.