"Lessons From A Kid King"

“Lessons from the Kid King”

February 19, 2012

2 Kings 22

In my devotion last week, my Old Testament reading happened to be in the book of 2 Kings. Wednesday I read chapter twenty two. I saw so many spiritual lessons in there that I thought we ought to take note of and I felt like the Holy Spirit was leading me to share some of those things with you this morning. They are pretty random and not nice and orderly; they don’t make an acrostic; they aren’t alphabetical like we preachers like to make our sermons – but THIS is God’s Word. Let me share a few things I noticed.

The first lesson or truth is this: “There is a blessing to coming to the Lord in your youth.” I have seen that over and over in my life. You can take someone like Bob who came to God early and has never had a drink of alcohol or took a drag off a cigarette. He is ninety one years old and not here today. Why isn’t he here? Because he is sick? No. Because he is senile and couldn’t get anything out of the service? No. He is ninety one years old and preaching in Dorris today. Existing for a long time isn’t a blessing – but living is. Being old and having a quality of life is a blessing. As long as you can be productive and be a blessing – long life is wonderful. It’s worth the aches and pains and inconvenience. One of the ways you experience long life is to come to the Lord early. And to live a long time for the Lord is to have an opportunity to store up a lot of eternal fruit.

One of our purposes as a church is to win people to the Lord. Statistics tell us that when we are young we are most receptive to the Gospel. I think, come Judgment Day, maybe we will find out that Julie bore more fruit than I did. She has been teaching the kids and sharing salvation with them for years now. How many she touched – only God knows. Sandy, Julie, Tina, Randy – and all our workers with the kids may be our most effective workers. Only time will tell. Only eternity will reveal it. Maybe my most effective work is dedicating the babies to the Lord and baptizing the children. We need to bring the kids to Jesus. The Bible says,

“Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:13-14

We need to bring children to Jesus so He can touch them today. Sometimes we adult workers think our work is more important and discount the children’s workers – but Jesus didn’t. Jesus used them as examples of how we all should be. He said, “Do not hinder them…” We must not hinder the children either. We need to bring them to Jesus early in their lives. It will bless them. It will bless Jesus. And it will bless the church in the long run.

One thought I had about Josiah was about who his mentor was. His grandfather, Mannasseh, and his father Amon, were evil men. They were murders and disobedient to God. They forsook everything the Lord taught. Why was Josiah different? I think it was because he went to Sunday School – or something like it. Sometimes when a king was just a child the priest took him under his wing. I think the priest, Hilkiah, did this with Josiah. I think he taught his about God; he mentored him – and when Josiah was just a child, He dedicated himself totally to Him and His service.

Have you done the same as an adult? If not – you should. There are great blessings for those who do – but we will get into that a little later. Folks, bring the children to the Lord.

Do you remember that old pizza commercial – “What’s on your tombstone?” In that commercial a tombstone was a pizza – but it’s a good thought to consider. Secondly, “What will be on your tombstone?” What will people say about you when you are dead and gone? This is what was they said about Josiah:

“He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.”

2 Kings 22:2

“Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.” 2 Kings 23:25