The Lord laid it on my heart this morning to speak to the upcoming generations who are beginning to find their place in society; those who are considered Millennials and younger. So, let me get started with some terminology. Millennials, also known as Generation Y, were born between 1981-1996. The generation after the Millennials are called the Zoomers, also known as Generation Z, and they were born between 1997-2012. Between these two generations, you will find young adults from the age of eighteen, up to their mid-thirties. Of course, many are still just teenagers.
Now, we don’t know a lot about the Zoomers, but we do hear quite a bit about Millennials. They’re often seen as the ones still living in their parents’ basement. Allow me to share something from the Monster jobs website. It tells us this: “To some, the word ‘Millennial’ sounds like a dirty word . . . Managers view them as people who expect more than they deserve; society views them as the ‘me’ generation.” “They’re entitled,” “they want a trophy for showing up,” “they’re easily sidetracked by technology,” “they’re job hoppers,” and “they want special privileges.”(1)
Today’s message will speak to all young people, including our teenagers; but I am especially going to be addressing the Millennials, mainly because our Scripture is based on someone who, today, would fall into this generational category. Millennials have gotten a “bad rap,” and many feel directionless with no sense of purpose; and that’s where Satan wants you to be. You see, “the devil fears you, [and] here is his greatest fear about you – that you would find the one ingredient that would make you unstoppable . . . But what is it? We will see it in the account of a king – King Josiah.”(2)
“Josiah was the quintessential millennial in the Old Testament.”(3) “He was raised without moral training. He never had to work. He was oblivious to education. There was no [obvious] DNA for greatness there at all.”(4) But, something happened that led him to become a revolutionary for God by transforming a nation; and what I want you to see today is that, even though you may be down on yourself, the Lord can use you for greatness too! The Lord has called Millennials to be revolutionaries for the kingdom of God; and so I’ve entitled this message, “Named for the Revolution.”
Josiah’s Religious Reformation (2 Kings 23:1-15)
1 Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. 2 The king went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah, and with him 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. 3 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 this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 6 And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the LORD, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. 7 Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. 8 And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren.
10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. 11 Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. 13 Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon. 14 And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men. 15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image.
What we see here is known as Josiah’s religious reforms, which was a great reformation. Call it a revolution, if you will. So, what brought about this radical transformation of Jewish worship during this time period? Well, let’s take a moment to look at what the Bible tells us about King Josiah and it will all make sense.
“[Josiah] was eight-years-old when he became the king. His father was evil, but his grandfather was the most evil man in Jewish history. His grandfather was named Manasseh. Manasseh had a righteous father, but he himself became evil. You’ll remember Manasseh, because of the [account] of Hezekiah asking God to heal him, and he got a few extra years of life; and in those sunset years he gave birth to Manasseh (2 Kings 20:1-6, 21). He ended up being the most evil king in Israel’s history.”(5)
We read in 2 Chronicles 33:1-4, “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. But he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, ‘In Jerusalem shall My name be forever’.” I’m going to stop there, but the list of atrocities goes on and on.
Even with a grandfather as evil as Manasseh, “Josiah became the most radically righteous king in history.”(6) We read of Josiah in 2 Kings 23:25, “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 Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.”
“At the age of eight Josiah, who had no training and didn’t know God, was suddenly king. By the age of twenty-four he was overseeing the fastest moral decline the Jews would ever know. There were idols everywhere. There were more people visiting mediums than were going to the temple. The immorality was indescribable. There was no justice. Every fiber of infrastructure in Jewish sanity and morality, for all intents and purpose, was gone”(7) – a lot like what we see today in America.
“So, one day at the age of twenty-four Josiah, who had no future, who was not manly, let out a yell that had never been heard before in the palace in anyone’s memory. And he was yelling so loud and tearing his robe open; and he went from a kitty cat to a lion . . . He was unstoppable!”(8) What had happened was that the Book of the Law had been found, and as Josiah read the words, he fell under deep conviction concerning how far God’s people had fallen, and how they needed to repent (2 Kings 22:8-11).
Josiah “was completely a flame of fire, and proceeded to launch the fastest reformation [of all time]. It was fast, it was deep, and it reestablished righteousness in Israel. He got rid of all the witchcraft, tore down all the idols; whereas, his previous reformers left the high places, which were remote worshipping stations for idols. He wiped [all] those out! He made it mandatory to serve God in Israel”(9) (2 Kings 23:19-24).
“We have got to understand that the least expected, seemingly purposeless individual can be used by God. Don’t you dare look at millennials as lazy or fearful. They are in a holding pattern waiting for the Spirit of God to fall on them. You can look at a young person today and think, ‘They don’t even know what they’re going to do. They don’t even know why they’re going to do it. They don’t have any plan; they don’t have any hope.’ What they are is a canvass with nothing painted on it yet!”(10)
“Now, how do you explain this change? This man cleaned up everything, and I had to know what in the world changed this man,”(11) and the answer is found in 2 Kings 23:16-18. So, let’s take a look at these verses.
Grave of the Unnamed Prophet (2 Kings 23:16-18)
16 As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 17 Then he said, “What gravestone is this that I see?” So the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” 18 And he said, “Let him alone; let no one move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.
We see here how “Josiah began to exhume the graves of false prophets, witchcraft, and those who had been involved in evil, and burned their bones on an altar to erase from the memory of Israel the source of their dark ages. And he was going to one grave after another; and then came to one, and he said, ‘Whose grave is that?’ And a servant – we don’t even know who it was – unlocked the whole mystery. He said, ‘That is the prophet who, three hundred years ago, prophesied that you would do this’.”(12) Josiah then said, “Let him alone; let no one move his bones” (v. 18).
“Now, let’s go back three-hundred years. You’ll find that Josiah’s destiny was featured in 1 Kings Chapter 13. Here’s the back story, because you’ll need it. Solomon died and [his kingdom was left to his son who] was named Rehoboam, and he was a fool (1 Kings 11:43). He said this: ‘I’m going to raise taxes and lower services.’ That’s how the ten tribes were lost, was over taxes – and that’s what America’s facing. And so, Rehoboam said, ‘I’m going to do this to you,’ and they said, ‘No you’re not, because as a matter of fact we’re leaving’ (1 Kings 12:1-5, 12-14). And the only tribes left were Benjamin and Judah. So, Rehoboam created a power vacuum – a nation vulnerable; the hedges torn down.”(13)
“And there was an articulate, manipulative individual whose name was Jeroboam, who was waiting in the wings in Egypt to come back home and play his game on the Jewish people. And he started a new religion. And he told them, ‘This is how you came out’ (1 Kings 12:25-29). That’s what you want to do when you want to pervert a nation; you rewrite their history. You turn people into evil that weren’t evil, and you tear down their statues, and you redact, and you get the teachers unions to stand up there and talk about how systemically evil [the country] is. And this is what Jeroboam basically said.”(14)
Jeroboam “made two golden idols, because one of his evil conspirators said, ‘If you don’t create a counterfeit holiday for each Jewish feast, the people are going to get nostalgic and return to God’ (1 Kings 12:25-29). That’s what we did with Easter, Christmas, the Fourth of July, and anything that is scared, and anything that might lead to patriotism or honor; we had to destroy it.”(15)
“And so he built this golden calf, put it on the altar at Bethel, and then he said this: ‘These two gods are the gods who actually brought you up out of Egypt. They are the ones who made you great.’ What made America great was Christianity, but today people are substituting greatness with cheap counterfeits. So, Jeroboam said, ‘This isn’t what made you great. It wasn’t Moses, it wasn’t Jehovah, it was these golden calves right here,’ and they began to worship them (1 Kings 12:25-29). Well, that’s what we’re hearing today: ‘Thanksgiving is racist’.” As the evangelist Mario Murillo would say, “That statement [goes] over like a pregnant pole vaulter.”(16)
“So then, a prophet steps out of the bushes and confronts Jeroboam right there. The dawn of witchcraft, the dawn of idol worship, the dawn of three centuries of perversion – and it was not just the king. But a man of God stepped out of there in that moment, and he began looking at him, and he said these words, ‘If I am a prophet of God then let a sign occur.’ Now, the altar table was probably six inches thick, and inside were the ashes of previous sacrifices that were burned there. And he said, ‘If I am a man of God, let this stone split in half and all the ashes pour forth.’ And it did!”(17) (1 Kings 13:1-6).
“Now, when somebody points at a six inch thick rock, and it splits in half, do not try to arrest them. But Jeroboam pointed at the prophet and said, ‘Arrest Him,’ and his hand withered as he was pointing to the prophet. Now that’s when you stop! He said, ‘Pray for me; have mercy on me.’ He said, ‘I will, but first I’m going to finish my sermon. On this altar that you desecrated today, your bones and the bones of these false priests will be burned, because there will be born to the house of Israel a king’”(18) (1 Kings 13:1-6).
“Stop. Three-hundred hundred years later, a millennial [named Josiah] who doesn’t know why he’s born, doesn’t know who he is, and doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his life, is told by Hilkiah the priest [concerning] the temple that had been turned into a garbage dump – ‘We were rummaging through it and we found this book. It’s a three-hundred year old book!’ And he opened it and began reading it (2 Kings 22:8-10), and here’s what it said”(19) – and I want you to turn with me and look at what it said in 1 Kings 13:1-2:
He Saw His Name Written (1 Kings 13:1-2)
1 And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 2 Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! 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 men’s bones shall be burned on you’.”
When Josiah read this book, what did it say? It mentioned his name! “I said, ‘He saw his name!’ What do you do when you open a book that’s three-hundred years old? You don’t know what you were born to do, you don’t know who you are; you’ve been told by everybody, ‘Life is too hard, you’re never going to be able to change the way society is,’ and you open a book and there’s your name! And it says, ‘Get up, get dressed, because it’s time for you to change the world!’ Somebody say Amen!”(20)
“What would you do if you read a newspaper hundreds of years old that predicted your birth, said your name and listed the achievements of your life in advance? I’ll bet you would be stunned. I’ll bet you would know that nothing could stop you. Yet this is the very thing that Satan does not want you to see.”(21) What you need to understand is that your name is in the book, and there is a description of your life! It is a prophecy for all generations who live during the final days; who will take part in a great awakening.
We read in Joel 2:28-32, “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” We see this prophecy reiterated on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17-21), when the Holy Spirit was poured out in great power (Acts 2:1-8), leading to nearly three thousand people being added to the church (Acts 2:41).
This is the revolution you were named for! There is a great awakening coming and it’s going to begin with you! “Satan does not want you to see that you are here by design and that he is powerless to stop your destiny!”(22) Mordecai once told Esther, “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). But unlike Mordecai, I don’t have to ask, “Who knows?” for I am certain that God is raising up young people who will usher in the revolution – a great revival. And it begins when you read your name! It’s right there in God’s Word! It speaks of your generation; that you have a great purpose; that you have a destiny to light up this world with revival fire!
Time of Reflection
Probably nothing would get us more excited than to see our name and incredible deeds written down in a prophecy, like what Josiah read; but the most important place our name needs to be recorded is in heaven.
In the book of Revelation, we read, “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books . . . And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12, 15). We read concerning the New Jerusalem, “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life” (Revelation 21:27).
If you want to escape the lake of fire and spend eternity with the Lord, then your name needs to be found written in “the Book of Life.” Your name will be recorded there when you admit your sins, repent of them, and confess the name of Jesus as Savior and Lord. We read in Romans chapter 10, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame’ . . . [and] ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved’” (Romans 10:9-11, 13).
NOTES
(1) “Millennials, This Is How You Can Prove Those Negative Stereotypes Wrong,”
https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/how-millennials-can-debunk-stereotypes-at-work (Accessed December 31, 2020).
(2) Mario Murillo, “Here is What Satan Fears about You the Most,” Mario Murillo Ministries: https://mariomurilloministries.wordpress.com/tag/josiah/ (Accessed December 30, 2020); posted May 13, 2012.
(3) Mario Murillo, ShekinahWorshipTV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naVxZl0CQI8 (Accessed December 30, 2020); preached at Shekinah Worship Center on Sunday, January 19, 2020.
(4) Murillo, “Here is What Satan Fears about You the Most.”
(5) Murillo, ShekinahWorshipTV.
(6) Murillo, “Here is What Satan Fears about You the Most.”
(7) Murillo, ShekinahWorshipTV.
(8) Ibid.
(9) Ibid.
(10) Ibid.
(11) Ibid.
(12) Ibid.
(13) Ibid.
(14) Ibid.
(15) Ibid.
(16) Ibid.
(17) Ibid.
(18) Ibid.
(19) Ibid.
(20) Ibid.
(21) Murillo, “Here is What Satan Fears about You the Most.”
(22) Ibid.
