(The video of this sermon can be seen by going to ... www.cowetanazarene.org/videos.html)
I wonder if it would be possible for one or two young boys to teach us such valuable lessons that would not only impact our very lives, but impact the future of a nation? And if they could, what would that message look like?
This morning, we will inspect the lives of two very young boys and see if we can find anything in them that might be of help to us in our Christian walks and in our national health.
The two young boys I am referring to lived many centuries ago in Jerusalem, and one of them was the grandfather of the other. Of course, I am talking about Manasseh and Josiah.
Manasseh’s father died and he inherited the throne as just 12-years of age. He ruled for 55 years, and the older he got, the more ungodly he became. As king of Judah, he allowed God’s temples to be ransacked and left in ruins, often times he would even allow pagan idols to be built either next to, or even in, the temple.
He allowed the worship of any belief in Jerusalem as long as it was not the true belief in our LORD. He caused the unwarranted deaths of thousands of innocent people, and even threw an infant son of his in a fire to appease a pagan god. If there were any man who deserved to go straight to hell for having an ungodly heart, it was Manasseh. Or, at least, that is what we would believe at this point.
In the latter days of his life, Manasseh looked to the hills to find his God; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And with his God, he not only found the repentance of his soul, but also the redemption of his soul. This once-ungodly evil king, became a child of the Most High.
But his sin had taken its toll and the damage was done to his nation. When he died, his son Amon inherited to the throne, and he was just as evil as his father. Gives rise to the old expression; “Like father, like son.”
During his reign, he also allowed the worship of pagan gods and the ruination of the godly in Jerusalem. And just as his father had done before him, he allowed the deaths of many innocent and godly citizens.
When he died, his son, Josiah, was just 8-years old, and he inherited the king’s throne. But he was not ready to run a nation, so, the high priest in his evil father’s kingdom was allowed to adopt little Josiah and raise him as his own.
That high priest was named Hilkiah, and he was a very godly man. He loved God and was devoted to Him. So, when he adopted the king’s orphan son, Josiah, he began teaching the boy about God. He taught him to love God and to pray to God and to follow God.
Of course, we would all agree that an 8-year old is in no way capable of leading anything, much less an entire nation.
Can you remember when you were that young? What was your highest priority in life? I think mind was recess. At least it ranked much higher than studying, doing my chores, or anything else was supposed to do.
During that time, evil had come over both Israel to the north, and Judah to the south. Israel had already been overrun and taken captive by the Assyrians as punishment for turning away from God, and Judah was following quickly in their footsteps. This was the political and socio-economic situation in which Josiah inherited from his father. Absolute ruination of a nation. Very similar to what America is getting ready to go through today, for the very same reasons. It would seem at the onset that humans are not very good at learning from past mistakes.
And Josiah was about 20-years of age, when he took over as King of Judah. One of the very first things he did as king, was to officially order the rebuilding of the temple that his father and grandfather before him had allowed to be demolished.
He also ordered the demolition of the pagan idols and altars that were allowed in their times before him, and he wanted the evil ousted from his nation so badly, that he had all the evil priests taken out and slain.
And while they were rebuilding the temple, they found something that had been buried in the ruins and had been forgotten about for many years. They found the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible, known as the Law of Moses. Can you imagine living in a place where there is no Bible, and has not been any, for hundreds of years?
That means there was absolutely no moral code to live by, other than what you learned by what others words, or from your own heart. It would be like living in a vacuum.
So when they found this book, Josiah had Hilkiah read it to him. Upon hearing the words of his God, Josiah was moved so deeply by the Holy Spirit, that he, a Godly man already, repented of his sins and tore his robes in sorrow. And then he wept; openly and deeply, because he was so hurt by the distance between his heart and God’s heart.
And then, inspired by his desire to get closer to God, he called for a prophetess to find out what he should do next. She told him that, due to Judah’s sins, Jerusalem would experience disaster just as Israel had experienced, but it would not happen during Josiah’s lifetime. One man’s love of God saved his entire nation for an entire generation.
It seems that Josiah experienced what we talk about today; something we crave and yearn for: He experienced true spiritual revival. And then he called everyone together and had Hilkiah read God’s Word to them so they, also, could know what God wanted and expected.
2 KINGS 23:3 tells what happened then.
‘The king stood by the pillar and renewed the promise to follow the Lord and keep His commands with all his heart and all his soul; thus confirming the words of the promises written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to do the same.’
And when the people of Judah heard God’s Word, they also experienced personal revival. We need to realize that the beginning of any revival comes with the desire of the people to turn their lives back towards God. Without that true and purposeful desire of the heart, no change can ever take place.
And with no revival of soul, there can never be any long lasting survival of anything.
Along with the newly found spiritual rebirth of his country, there was something else that happened. He reinstituted the Passover. The Passover is the chief Jewish holiday celebration, and they were commanded by God to observe it every year forever. But the Jewish people had not celebrated it for over 700 years!
How cold and far away their walk of life would have to have been when there was no Word of God to read and no remembrance of what God had done for them in Egypt. What an utterly empty life they must have experienced. That would be like today’s Christian church not celebrating Communion since the year 1270 AD.
Please make no mistake about what we are saying this morning. Every word we are using to describe ancient Judah and her sins can be applied in full to America today. We are purposely walking away from our God at record speed, and while we are doing that, we are standing tall and being proud of what we are doing. If America experiences no revival of soul, I fear it will have no real survival as a nation.
And so what can we learn from the two young men we are talking about today? We can learn that evil begets evil, and unless God interrupts that pattern in some way, it just keeps getting worse and worse and continues hurting more and more innocent people.
In the case of Josiah, God used a man named Hilkiah to put a stop to the evil and bring about a revival to the Jewish nation.
Another lesson we can learn is that we will always have one of two things to look forward to. We will either have true repentance, or we will have deep punishment. And the choice of which we get is entirely left to us to make. And this also applies to a nation as well as to each individual person.
America has walked so far away from God, I think we have all but lost the ability to even feel or hear His call to us. We must make a choice … a choice to literally stop in our tracks and make an about face and turn back in the direction of our Savior.
But for that to happen, we must develop hearts that allow repentance; hearts that are humble and empty of pride; and hearts that honestly seek and yearn for revival – not only for ourselves but for our neighbors around us.
Judah was in the spiritual dumpster then just as America is in the spiritual dumpster today. When the leader of a nation pays more attention to polls or politics than they do God, the only natural thing to look forward to is the eventual disaster that will befall that nation. And it will fall upon that nation at the time God chooses.
What would we not give to have a leader in America who loved God enough to acknowledge Him in their daily lives? How badly we need a leader who will stand up and give God His due … even above the party of politics or personal legacy.
Two-thirds of all adults attending Protestant churches in America claim they do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They say they know about Him, but do not feel Him. Why is this? It is because our churches have failed to teach that the relationship with Jesus is infinitely more important than the religion of the church.
Many of our churches have abandoned those they were to serve. It seems to be more fashionable today to build big churches rather than worry about building strong Christians.
George Barna is a Christian pollster. He said that less than 5% of Christians do anything at all that would help anyone else know who Jesus is. That is like saying over 95% of all Christians are refusing to do the jobs God has ordered they do!
Mr. Barna continues by saying 61% of Americans believe the Holy Spirit is a figment of imagination and another 6% claim there is no real devil. He goes even further in reporting that nearly 60% of all Americans see no real need to go to church, as they are all going to go to heaven “eventually.”
Now, here is where I have a problem with that. The word “eventually” means “at some undetermined time in the future.” If you have two people, one being a Christian and the other not being a Christian, and they both die, the Christian goes to heaven, but where does the oter person go until that “undetermined time in the future” when they get to heaven?
Do they just hangout in a spirit cloud somewhere, or do they just stay asleep in their graves, or ….. or what? See, anytime you hear something that leaves you with more unanswered questions than it gives answers for, you can automatically chalk it up to a false teaching. And we know that false teachings are just lies to keep us from having to worry about the truth, right?
Actually, if you honestly analyze these theories that go against the Bible, you will find that it takes more faith to belief them than it takes to belief the Bible. Our problem with the Bible seems to be nothing more than, “if we don’t understand it, it must be wrong”
That is why God told us in Isaiah that His ways are higher than our ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts. There is no way that we, as mortal creations, can understand an infinite God. Maybe it would be much easier for us to just accept the fact that life does not revolve around us and our way of thinking.
As far as our churches, we need to house those who come and worship the Lord, so we do need buildings, and there is nothing wrong with having big buildings that house big gatherings, but is that what we are really doing today? My belief is that there are too many churches today that concentrate on building big buildings instead of trying to build strong Christians.
The successful church will not be the one that has the largest or newest buildings, but the one that has the largest heart for extending Jesus Christ out into our communities for others to know. In short, the successful church will be the one that has the biggest heart for Jesus.
But America is in a spiritual darkness today, and if there were ever a time for true revival, it is today. But to experience that kind of revival, we must start by making it a daily lifestyle to live for God again – in everything we do and say.
The people of Josiah’s day had never read, or even heard of, God’s Word. How many people today have never heard God’s Word? What are we doing to let them? Are we sitting in our sanctuaries waiting for them to come to us, or are we standing up and going out to them?
It has been said that the average Christian today spends more time watching TV in one night than they do reading their Bibles in six months. With that kind of diluted desire to know our God, how can we even be expected to “go forth” and to “do”?
Throughout history, spiritual decline has occurred when God’s Word has been neglected, and the only time revival has ever occurred is when people get into the Word of God and honestly apply it to their personal lives. To have revival means we must reacquaint ourselves with God and then to be open enough to feel the entire weight of conviction for our spiritual failings.
And while I am talking about spiritual failings, what is the #1 failing of Christians today from within the church? It is dissension. We harbor ill feelings towards our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Someone says something we do not agree with and the first thing we do is tell someone else about it. That is gossip. God says very plainly, “Don’t do it!”
We pat ourselves on the back and proudly proclaim that we follow Jesus, but sometimes we tend to treat our fellow believers as heathens instead of children of the Most High. And that shows our extreme spiritual immaturity – and every one of us is guilty of that at one point or another in our lives. Again, God says, “Don’t do it!”
There is a passage in our Bibles that warns us about things like that.
HEBREWS 4:12-13 says,
‘What God has said isn't only alive and active! It is sharper than any double-edged sword. His word can cut through our spirits and souls and through our joints and marrow, until it discovers the real desires and thoughts of our hearts. Nothing is hidden from God! He sees through everything, and we will have to tell him the truth.’
God knows everything we do and why we do them. If we dishonor others, we dishonor God. But to correct that sin, we must move the spotlight away from us and back onto Jesus Christ. It is not an easy job, and requires real effort, but it can be done and it must be done.
Let us put away all those things that put us at the center and do what Josiah did. After hearing God’s Word, he humbled himself and wept. He not only allowed the Holy Spirit to convict him of his sin, he sought Him to do it. And because one man experienced personal revival, the whole nation was saved for an entire generation.
I am sure that we all say our prayers, but when is the last time we prayed for God to do something besides supply us with what we want or to make life easier for us? When is the last time we spent any real time in prayer lifting someone else’s needs up? When is the last time we spent asking God to deal with our hearts?
True revival will never sweep over a nation until it first sweeps over the people. And that always begins with one person. Will you allow that to begin with you? Will you allow that to begin with you …. this morning?
Times of refreshing and revival are upon us, but we must first be willing to have humble hearts that seek to hear God’s calling. When Josiah heard God calling to him, he didn’t just sit back and analyze it, he got up and did something about it. He called everyone together and had the Word read to them. Afterwards, he asked them to obey and they did. Today, we call that an altar call. How many churches have quit doing that?
Josiah was a leader who trust in and relied upon God to help him. What would America give to have such a leader over us? With God’s leading, he had the pagan altars torn down and all the evil priests killed so his people could get back to the #1 business of worshiping God.
In order for America to survive, we must be willing to tear down all the idols we have built and refocus ourselves on the Word of God. We must call out our false teachers and demand they get back to the real and true Word of God as written in the holy Bible.
I want to read a passage to you about the beauty of God’s call when He tells us to turn back to Him. That passage is found in –
JOEL 2:12-17.
12 That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. 13 Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not to punish.
14 Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse. Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine to the Lord your God as before. 15 Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem! Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting. 16 Gather all the people - the elders, the children, and even the babies. Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room.
17 Let the priests, who minister in the Lord’s presence, stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar. Let them pray, “Spare your people, Lord! Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery. Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say, ‘Has the God of Israel left them?’”
In order to experience revival, we must stop acting righteous and start being righteous. We must feel the total weight of our sinful natures and we must seek God on purpose to have those sins lifted. We can no longer just go through the motions and remain empty of the Holy Spirit.
There is a story of a church whose congregations were ducks. That is okay because it was a duck church. Every Sunday, they would meet down on the corner, get in single file (as ducks tend to do) and they waddled down the street and into the church – as they had always done.
One Sunday, the duck pastor came out and preached a hard sermon on revival. He flapped his wings and pounded his bill on the pulpit with conviction. The congregation found it inspiring and they also stood, flapped their wings with excitement, and squawked in high voices. Everyone was so excited to hear about the change that had to occur before they could see a revival in their midst. It was a very beautiful and special day in duck church.
At the end of the service, they all gathered in single file and waddled out the door and down the street …. as they had always done …. unchanged from when they came in.
Let us be sincere and carry the Word of God out of the church with us. Let us not allow the devil to hijack us between the church door and our car door. Let us be serious about our walk with the Lord.
My heart is torn because I have seen too many Christians who have relegated themselves to being nothing but entertainers. They play an empty part in this play called Christianity. It isn’t about making people believe you are anything. It is, however, all about our praying to the Lord for our hearts to be changed and then pray to Him for other people’s hearts to change.
We must start realizing what the Apostle Paul meant when he said in 1 CORINTHIANS 6:17 –
“ … the person who is joined to the Lord in his heart is one in spirit with Him, too.”
