Place: Mona Open Bible
Text: 2 Chronicles 34:1-21; 1 Kings 22&23
Date: Sunday, December 30, 2007
Theme: Youth Arise- get up/stand up
Introduction
Youth Arise(dub poetry)
Youth arise and tek yuh right place (x2)
Crime and violence and immorality
Youth arise and tek yuh right place
I am a youth arising to tek my place
I am a youth arising to spread God’s grace
I am a youth
Injustice and murder all about the land
Yuh brother in need mi seh lend him a hand
Youth arise and tek yuh right place
Speak out mi brother, speak out mi sister
The next victim may just be your mother
Mek Jamaica full a peace and laughter
Youths arise and tek yuh right place
Observation
Josiah’s context is one where the people had turn away from God. The context was uncensored. All kinds of evil pervaded the land.
1. Injustice
2. Immorality
Questions to consider
• Why do I need to arise
Josiah was growing in a context that had become anti-God. His father and grandfather (Judah’s most wicked king) had led the nation further and further away from God. Idol worship was the order of the day. All kinds of foreign gods were brought into Judah and it seemed the norm to be evil. The people seemed to have forgotten the precepts of the Lord.
After-all they were being led by men who themselves had nothing to do with God. His grandfather had shed innocent blood that filled the streets of Jerusalem from one end to the other. He led the people to sin much more than the heathen nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. Wickedness was what this young king had grown in; much like our context today.
Jamaican Context
• Crime and violence
• Injustice
• Family disorder
• Youth lewdness
• Sex craze
• High level of secularism and materialism
among youths
• Moral depravity
• Substance abuse
• High illiteracy rate among youths
• Father and mother wounds high among youths
• Emotional instability
• High level of unwanted and unplanned
pregnancies among girls
• Anger and frustration
• Sense of hopelessness
• Immorality
It is in this context that the Lord desires for us as young people to arise and take our right place. Josiah could have followed the trend but he made a change. He dared to be different in a world that said he should be like everyone else.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth…” and in verse 14 he says, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house”.
Young people you must arise because you are salt and light. Since you are light you cannot be hidden. Let your light shine bright. We need to arise because our context requires someone to stand up and declare Christ. The word declares in 1 John 2:14, “I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Talking is not enough. Saying something is wrong will not be enough. It’s time to get up and do something about the context. Young people arise!
• What am I arising from
Josiah was arising from his context of shame and wickedness. His father and grandfather before him had brought much damage to Judah- spiritually. He was arising from
A. Moral depravity
B. Idolatry
C. Immorality
D. Sacrificial murders (2 kings 23:10)
We have been chosen for no other time like now to arise from
• Complacency
• The place where if it doesn’t touch us
then it doesn’t bother us
• A context of injustice
Leviticus 19:15 says, "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
As youths we are to arise from the place where all we do is talk about it to the place where we do something about it. The commander in chief is looking for some young generals who will get up and begin to clean house. Arise, arise, arise!!!
• What am I arising to do
Young people Josiah did not just feel he needed to arise, but he took steps after he moved away from the status quo. What about you this morning, what are you arising to do? What do you think God wants you to do? What changes do you need to make, in order to affect the world around you?
Let’s examine what Josiah did:
1.He was crowned king at age 8 after the death of his father Amon. He comes from a line of good kings except in 3 generations; his father, grandfather and great- great grandfather. For 8 years his life laid silent until he was 16 years of age.
2.At 16 he sought the God of his father David according to 2 Chronicles 34:3. Josiah had a desire for God as a young man. Josiah wanted God’s direction. There is a cry for young people who will stand up like David and say, “As the hart panteth for the water brooks, so my soul panteth for you O God”
If as youths we are going to arise and take our rightful place or make a change to our context, we must become God seekers. There needs to be a hunger and thirsting for God among youths today.
David says to us like water is essential for the deer’s survival especially when being pursued, even so his very existence depended on God. Is your soul thirsty for God this morning?
3.At age 20 he began to purge major areas of the kingdom. He was on a path to destroying all sense of idolatry. He burned the bones of the priests who had done sacrifices that were not unto God. He had some of these bones removed from tombs. He broke down ashera poles, smashed idols and images. Then the king went back to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 34:3b-7).
4.At age 26 he decided to purify the land and the temple (2 Chronicles 34:8-21). It was during this campaign that the book of the law was found. When Josiah read the word he was convicted even more. The bible says, he tore his robe and repented.
He saw what God was saying and immediately started reforms for the nation. How many of us here this morning own a bible, yet so few persons around us are ever affected by the truths found in God’s word. The word should cause us to make changes in line with God’s word that will affect our lives. You will not know what God desires from you if you are not reading the will he left for you. Young people our greatest hurdle is a lack of knowledge and understanding of God’s word.
There needs to be heard a cry like David in Psalm 51, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence; take not your Holy Spirit from me”
The word of God offers a direct plan, an outline as to what man must do to stay connected to God. The question is have we been following the plan.
A. The word guides (Psalm 119:105)
The psalmist says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. All he is saying is, without your word Lord I would be left in the dark. I would not know where to go or where not to go. But your word offers direction for me.
He took the law and read it to his people and renewed the covenant that they had made with God to live right before him. He reinstated the Passover festival. For all that he tore down and destroyed he replaced with positive things; things that would uplift the people.
Young people, Josiah became king at 8 years old ,and between 16 and 20 ,he began to seek the Lord,and began leading his people back to God. At 26 he brought the nation to it’s pinnacle of change. What are you arising to do?
What can we learn from Josiah’s life?
1. See the problem
2. Seek God (34:3)
3. Start the process for change (34:3b)
4. Stand for godly principles (34:4)
5. Stay the course
Conclusion
“This is the air I breathe”
