Youths Arise

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.