Cameron: 00:09

Lord, we thank you for meeting with us this morning, And pray father, that you would reveal yourself in power as we seek your face. Lord, may your glory be known. May you renew and revive us, Lord, as we respond to your word. Father, I pray that you would, that you would transform us with your heart with transform our hearts. In our love of others and our love for you.

Cameron: 01:17

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay. So here's what we're gonna do. Imagine that, imagine this.

Cameron: 01:35

Someone says this of you. Well, look. Listen. The lord said this of someone. I want you to try and guess who it is.

Cameron: 01:42

K? If you're here for service, you're not playing the game. Okay? Not allowed to play the game. So the Lord said this about someone, Neither before him or after him was there any king like him who turned to the lord as he did with all of his heart, with all of his soul, and with all of his strength in accordance with the law of Moses?

Cameron: 02:10

Who is it? David. Not David? Hezekiah. Not Hezekiah.

Cameron: 02:18

Josiah. Did I hear someone say Josiah? Who said it? It was Josiah. Yes.

Cameron: 02:24

It was said of Josiah. Now what a tremendous thing to be said of someone, let alone someone, who existed and functioned as a king of Israel in such a, like, incredibly dark and evil time. We're gonna talk about Josiah, today. I I meant that this series would be a 2 or to 3 week series where we talk a little bit about him in the next couple weeks as well. And I think we're still gonna be able to do that, but we kinda cover the whole story of Josiah this morning and ask some questions about our own lives, our own families, our own church, and our own region.

Cameron: 03:18

What does it take to experience the things that Josiah experienced? Because what I mean, honestly, what a thing to to have, said about you. What a thing to have said about you that that there was no one like him before. No one like him after that turned to the Lord in such a significant way with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all of his mind, and with all of his strength. Like like, this is the guy.

Cameron: 03:49

This is the example the Lord said. But what was the story behind Josiah? The story of Josiah is found in 2 separate places in scripture. We're gonna be today in the book of second kings, starting really in chapter 21, which is the story of what happens before Josiah. But that's critical to what happens with Josiah to understand that.

Cameron: 04:19

Now, 2nd Kings is the front of your bible. Maybe 8 chapters or 8 books in or so, something like that. What was the story behind Josiah? Well, Josiah was born into a time of tremendous tremendous evil and spiritual decline. The the, there had been generations upon generations upon generations disregard of worship in the temple and the sacrifices that came that happened people called out by God to be a blessing to the world.

Cameron: 05:32

It was in such a destitute place of evil that the word of the Lord had all been, but forgotten in the nation. Now, Josiah's story doesn't really start with him. It starts, I really think, with his grandfather. Josiah's grandfather was a king, a name, a man named Manassa. Mean, for lack of a better term and pretty objectively, the most evil, wicked, and godless king that the nation of Israel, the people of God, ever had or ever knew.

Cameron: 06:19

He, he went out of his way to defile the temple create, alters to other gods and sacrifice to other gods in the temple to worship the, the word says to worship the starry hosts, to consult with and use mediums and spiritists. He was he was objectively, an extraordinarily pagan king. A man who had no regard for the things of the Lord, for the law of the Lord, or for the temple itself. In 2nd Kings chapter 21 verses 2 through 6, we see kind of a description of who Manasseh was and what he did. Said he did evil in the eyes of the Lord following detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

Cameron: 07:19

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He also erected altars to bail. He made a share of holes as Ahab, king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, with which the Lord had said, in Jerusalem, I will put my name.

Cameron: 07:43

In both the courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, and practiced sorcery and divination, consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord provoking him to anger. Now, he goes on and on and on in, 2nd Kings 21 to describe the level of evil and darkness and pagan worship that existed in the leadership of Manassa. But what was, what was, not insignificant is that the evil, practices or pagan worship of Manasseh did not stop with him.

Cameron: 08:37

Manasseh passed those types of practices on to his son, the next king of Israel, a king by the name of Amon. And Amon had a very short window of his leadership, over the nation. But even in that short window, it says that he he adopted and followed the same practical practices that his father Manasseh had did. If you look in, 2nd Kings chapter 21 verse 21, He walked in all of the ways of his father. He worshiped the idols his father had worshiped and bowed down to them.

Cameron: 09:19

He forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. Now, Amon was the father of Josiah, of whom the Lord said, there is not a man like him. There is not a king before him or after him who has turned to the Lord with all of his heart, with all of his soul, with all of his strength in accordance with the book of the law. And so here you have this man. We're gonna we're gonna learn here in a minute that he wasn't a man when he turns to seek the lord.

Cameron: 09:55

Okay? He was a boy. But here you have this man or this boy, Josiah, who has no genealogy or lineage of faithfulness. No father or no grandfather from which to look at and to say, this is my example. This is who I'm gonna follow.

Cameron: 10:14

This is how I'm gonna model my faithfulness off of or who I'm gonna model my faithfulness off of. Josiah was without example in his desire or his pursuit to seek the Lord. And and Josiah, you would, by all accounts, you would think that he would need someone like that. Because in in the time that Manasseh, his evil grandfather was ruling, The Lord finally had enough. He had enough of the generational wickedness that the nation of Israel was pursuing, the idolatry that the nation of Israel was pursuing, the the pagan and godless and dark leadership of the kings of Israel.

Cameron: 11:06

And so in second Kings chapter 21, God finally declared to the nation, I've had enough. Judgment is coming. And not just small amounts of judgment, but because of your idolatry, I am completely wiping you out. Says this in, second Kings chapter 21 starting in verse 12. Says, therefore, this is what the Lord says, the God of Israel says, I'm going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.

Cameron: 11:52

I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria the plumb line used against the house of Ahab I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish. Wiping it and turning it upside down. I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance. I will hand them over to their enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all of their foes because they have done evil in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day their forefathers came out of Egypt until this day.

Cameron: 12:34

If you remember from a couple months ago, when we, preached a series called Talking Points, where we talked about the integration of faith and politics. And we talked about the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Right? How they were they were faithful to to the Lord in a foreign in the land of Babylon. Right?

Cameron: 12:58

The Babylonian people had come into Israel, had had laid waste to Jerusalem, and then had carried off all of the men back to Babylon and put them in service of the Babylonian Empire. And this was the reason that Babylon was able to come in and do this is because God removed his hand of protection from the Israelite, from from the Israelite nation because of their wickedness. But that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood in his faithfulness to the Lord and, right? We went through that whole story. The Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, as well as the exile of the Israelite people into Babylon is or was the judgment that the Lord was describing was going to come in the time of Manasseh.

Cameron: 13:59

So so when he says your enemies, I'm gonna hand you over to your enemies, you will be looted and plundered by your foe because you have done evil in my eyes and provoked my anger against you because of your unfaithfulness. He's talking about the coming Babylonian army that would take over and be the hand of judgment on the nation of Israel because of their idolatry. And then it did happen. And now we have the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the years and generations that Israel spent in exile in Babylon. So God's judgment was coming.

Cameron: 14:39

Manasseh, the grandfather of Josiah, tremendously wicked. Amon followed in the same paths, tremendously wicked. And then Amon's window of leadership was very short. He was killed by his own royal court. And as it goes in kingdoms like that, it's just next man up.

Cameron: 14:59

Who's the oldest son of Amon who will now take the throne of Israel and lead this godless nation? Probably, in the same way that his father and grandfather led. Right? Because we know we follow the example of those types of people of people, in front of us. And so Josiah, at just 8 years old, it says, in 2nd Kings chapter 22, at just 8 years old, Josiah's father Ammon was killed, leaving Josiah not as just a little boy anymore running around the proverbial castle grounds, but now as king over the nation and people of God.

Cameron: 15:44

But in such a tremendous way and without really any explanation whatsoever as to how this could happen outside of the miraculous intervention from the Lord himself. We are told that Josiah did not follow in the ways of his grandfather and father of the and the kings before him. But instead, it says in verse 2 of 2nd Kings chapter 22, it says this, Josiah, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all of the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. That Josiah, as a child, as a small boy, he even himself somehow had the miraculous foresight. Who was his father?

Cameron: 16:46

Amon. Right? Why does it say here that he, that he walked in all of the ways of his father David? It's a really interesting phrase here. Because David was not his father.

Cameron: 17:00

But what it comes clear is that Josiah, not having a generational lineage of faithfulness to the Lord, looked back into the spiritual lineage of the people of Israel and said, I will lead in the heart and spirit of the of my spiritual father, David, that I will look to someone else. If my father couldn't get it done, if my grandfather couldn't get it done, if there was no one that I could draw on as an example to follow and that followed the Lord, then I'm going to look to someone that I knew, and I'm gonna insert myself into their spaniel, spiritual lineage. I am a son of David. He is my father, and I will lead in the spirit and the heart of David. In the spirit and the heart of David.

Cameron: 17:50

I don't know if this is encouraging for you, but it's encouraging for me to know that if I look back on my lineage and can't find faithfulness anywhere, that a man like Josiah, whom the Lord himself said there was no one before him or after him, was able to look even past and beyond into a spiritual lineage or to a spiritual point where it's like, no. They're my spiritual father. I'm leading in that way. I'm following their direction. And may we be the type of people.

Cameron: 18:25

Right? And we're gonna I I I gotta preach my whole sermon right here in this sentence. Right? May we be the type of people that create a spiritual lineage for the people behind us so that we put no stumbling block of idolatry in their way, and they can trace their faithfulness back to us. I would also say this.

Cameron: 18:52

It's clear here, that God was indicating, that God was showing that there is no that there is no moment of being spiritually of age to accomplish great things for the Lord. That Josiah, at age 8, sought the Lord with his whole heart in a way that the kings and generations before him did not. This made me ask, like, an even introspective question of myself this morning as pastor and leader of this place. Like, hey. What do you how serious are you taking your kids' ministry?

Cameron: 19:37

How seriously you're taking ministry to kids, discipleship to kids. Oh, there's words like spiritually babysitting them down the hall and downstairs right now. We're we're doing the important work. Us adults up here are getting transformed in our hearts because we're gonna be on the front lines of seeing our families transformed, our our communities transformed, our churches transformed, our region transformed. And what god is saying here in the life of Josiah was like, hey.

Cameron: 20:03

Look. I am not looking for the person that is of age to do the task of bringing renewal and revival to the nation, to the world, to the heart, to the family, to whatever. I am simply looking for someone who will seek me with all their heart. And whether that be a 40 year old man or whether that be an 8 year old boy who is seeking after me, the Lord says, it is on him that my spirit will rest. Do not think that our kids cannot seek God with all of their heart and do what we are unwilling or unable to do because we fail or refuse to.

Cameron: 20:45

God will use any and all who seek him with all of their heart before he can or will use someone who does not seek him. There is no of age with God. There is only a willingness to seek him. And Josiah was willing to seek him when others would not. How did Josiah seek the Lord in this moment of opportunity to lead?

Cameron: 21:15

Began to do some things right off the bat, like, without any pausing, without any stalling. It's it almost seems like first order of business when he gets into kingly office. Rebuild the temple, everyone. Rebuild it. I want you to take all of the money that's been that's been given at the gates for people to use the temple.

Cameron: 21:43

I want you to get every stone mason, every carpenter, every artist. Get them to the temple. Rebuild that thing. You have all the resources at your hand. I'm not gonna ask for an account of how much money it costs.

Cameron: 21:58

Rebuild it. Go to the place where God said that he will put his name and make sure it is as it should be. 2nd Kings chapter 22 verse verses 4 through 6 show us that the very first thing that Josiah did was to begin to rebuild the center central or the central place of worship for the nation of Israel. Go and get it done, he says. Have them get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people.

Cameron: 22:35

Verse 4 in, 2nd Kings 22. Have them entrusted to the men appointed to supervise the work in the temple. Have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the lord. The carpenters, the builders, the masons. Have them purchase timber and dress stone to repair the temple.

Cameron: 22:52

They need not account for the money entrusted to them because they are acting faithfully. They are doing the thing that they're supposed to do. Just get it done. Restore the temple. Renew the place of worship.

Cameron: 23:08

Bring it back to where God God's name is supposed to be there. It has been defiled by altars and idols to other God. We will reclaim it as the place where God's presence rests. Go and get it, Josiah said. Go and do it.

Cameron: 23:26

While doing so, while all of these workers were, you know, working on the temple, I imagine they, like, tore down a wall or something like that, like, I don't know, Chip and Joanne Gaines style or something like that. And they find this scroll. And what is interesting to me, it should be I don't know if it's interesting to you or not, is when they came across the scroll, when they came across the scripture, they were like, what is this strange thing? Like, what do you like, what do you mean what is this strange thing? Is it this is it's a temple.

Cameron: 24:03

And isn't like the law pretty important to you, Israelites? It's clear that so many generations of unfaithfulness have gone by that they no longer even recognize the word of the Lord. They have forsaken it so much that it had been squirreled away behind a wall that they did not find it until they went to go remodel the temple. And when they found it, they brought it to Josiah. And they were like, we found something.

Cameron: 24:34

It's like a book or something. And as they started to read it, Josiah was like, what have we done? We have sinned against the lord. We have broken his covenant. We have abandoned his law.

Cameron: 24:59

Josiah was so full of the Holy Spirit that he started the renewal of the temple and the rebuilding of the temple before they found the book of the law, before they found the scripture hidden in the walls. He was so attuned to God's purposes of renewal that that he was already moving in that direction when now the book of the law came. We can read it here. 2nd Kings 22 verses 8 through 10. I found the book of the law in the temple of the lord gave it to a servant who read it.

Cameron: 25:43

And the servant took it to the secretary of the king who reported to him, hey. Your officials have done all you wanted in the temple of the Lord, entrusted it to the workers and the supervisors. But, nah, but we've also kind of the priest has given me a book and is asked me to read it out loud to you in the presence of the king. Verse 11. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his robes.

Cameron: 26:09

So what have we this is this is like a universal symbol for what have we been doing. I am undone. I am in mourning. I I humble myself before the before the truth and the reality of God's word, which is now being which is now being revealed in my life, and I am realizing the sin that we have been under. And so he says this.

Cameron: 26:32

Josiah says this to his, to his high priest. He says in in 2nd Kings 22:13, go inquire of the Lord for me. Go inquire of the Lord. In the in the in the revelation of the book of the law being revealed, I need someone to go and ask the Lord. Basically, what are we what are we supposed to do, Lord?

Cameron: 26:54

What? Tell me what to do. It's which is an interesting con con, set for you and I. Right? To say for the king to say, hey.

Cameron: 27:02

Would you go inquire for the Lord for me? Because when you and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, is filled with the Holy Spirit, has been forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, right, we have full and permanent access directly to the father. Right? We pray in Jesus' name to God, the father, as Jesus has taught us to pray. We can go we don't need you don't need me to go inquire of the Lord for you.

Cameron: 27:30

You can go and inquire with the Lord for yourself because Jesus has made access to the father through his sacrifice on the cross. But they they had no concept of that. Right? Because they this was pre Jesus. Right?

Cameron: 27:44

So they would be like, hey. Go inquire of the Lord for me. And what it meant was go ask go ask the one who speaks on behalf of or in the name of the Lord and ask them what this means. Josiah is like, get me the person who can tell me, who can speak to me on behalf of God. We need to act and respond, and we need to do it now.

Cameron: 28:14

Interestingly enough, those people were called prophets. We have a lot of their books. Right? Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, Amos, Hosea, Joel. Right?

Cameron: 28:27

Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, Amos, all of these books in the Old Testament, these prophets, right? They spoke on behalf of the Lord, sometimes not too popularly. Interestingly enough, at the time of Josiah's reign, one of the prophets in the Northern Kingdom was a man by the name of Jeremiah. Pretty popular prophet. We got a whole book of, we got a whole book of his life here in the scripture.

Cameron: 29:00

Think, oh, that's got to be the guy. Right? It wasn't. Josiah went and inquired of the Lord, of a prophetess, a woman who spoke on behalf of the Lord in faithfulness to his calling on her life. Her name was Hulda.

Cameron: 29:20

We see her talked about in verse 14. The prophetess Hulda. She said to them, okay. You wanna know what the Lord says in light of the law that you have found? Verse 15.

Cameron: 29:36

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. Tell the man who sent you to me this. I, the Lord says, I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all of the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against them and it will not be quenched. Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you have heard. So hold up, the prophetess speaking in the name of the Lord, just essentially confirmed what was spoken in judgment back in the time of Josiah's grandfather, Manasseh.

Cameron: 30:31

Judgment is coming. It's coming in completeness. You will not like it's coming because of your unfaithfulness and your worship of other gods. Here is an incredible moment, though, An incredible moment. We don't see this very often in the scripture.

Cameron: 30:52

Then hold the goes, but there's more. There's more to this whole judgment story. I've got a message specifically for Josiah the king. She says this, starting at verse 19. Because your heart was responsive And you humbled yourself before the Lord.

Cameron: 31:19

When you heard what was what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and lead waste. And because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. When they say I will you will be gathered to your fathers. This is a way of saying a euphemism to say you will pass away and you will join your fathers.

Cameron: 31:49

Right? You'll be gathered to your fathers in death, but you will do so in peace. Your eyes will not see all of the disaster I am going to bring on this place. Because you were responsive, because you have humbled yourself, because you have tore your robes, because you have wept in my presence, you will not see with your own eyes the judgment and destruction that I'm going to bring on the nation. The lord literally pressed the pause button on judgment for that man because he was responsive to the lord's to the lord's word.

Cameron: 32:37

How often do you think the Lord's mercy interjects itself into the judgment of our lives and saves us when we are responsive and humble to his word? But when we sit continued continually in abstinence and, like, just closing our ears to the word of the Lord as it's proclaimed over us, the judgment of the Lord comes. What the prophetess says here about Josiah is instructive for us. That judgment was paused in Josiah's life because his heart was responsive. He heard the word of the Lord, and he responded.

Cameron: 33:27

He did not sit in complacency. He did not wait. He did not like, oh, when it's a good time to follow, when it's a good time to make these changes, when it's a good time to change the trajectory of the nation, when it's more convenient, when I have more resources. No. Josiah was responsive in the immediate as he tore his robes in repentance for the evil that the nation had done.

Cameron: 33:54

And the Lord opened a window of escape in the midst of judge in the midst of judgment for him. What is clear then throughout the rest of the chapter, we see this in 2nd Kings chapter 23, the whole of the chapter, is that Josiah goes on an all out assault against the evil and wickedness that the nation, that the nation brought on. He went on an all out assault against the, against the patterns of unfaithful kings and priests. He laid to waste everything that set itself up against the holiness of God, the word of God, and the consecration of the people. And in 2nd Kings chapter 23 verse 3, it said that Josiah made a public statement and declaration, reestablishing the covenant between God and the people.

Cameron: 34:59

He stood he stood up in front of all the people and said, listen. Today, at this moment, in this time, everything that we have been doing, all of the wickedness, all of the darkness, all of the evil, all of the idolatry, all of the sin, it is now over. It is laid to waste, and we are reestablishing a covenant relationship with God. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which have been found in the temple of the Lord. This is second, Kings 23:2.

Cameron: 35:32

Now verse 3, the king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord, to follow the Lord and keep His commands, regulations, and decrees with all of his heart and all of his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in the book. Then all of the people pledged themselves to the covenant. Now, if you read into the rest of the book the chapter, 2nd Kings chapter 23, you'll realize what Josiah actually did. And it reads like a laundry list of things that he did. But one of the first things that he did is that he tore down all of the high places.

Cameron: 36:15

What does that mean? What is a high place? Well, in pagan worship and in pagan idolatry, there was this understanding that gods were up there and we were down here. And so the point was to build your altar to that god or your your statue to that god in the highest geographical place that you could get it. On top of a mountain, on top of a temple, on top of a building.

Cameron: 36:46

Because it was important to you to get in physical proximity to that god so that he could hear your prayers. He wanted to get physically closer to them. So all pagan altars, deities, worship, temples happened high on mountains or on the top of buildings, because they felt like they needed to get closer to those pagan deities. And so when you read that that that Josiah tore down the altars in high places, It is a reference to every pagan alter, every every pagan image, every idolatrous image that was set up in high places. He went and tore it down and destroyed it.

Cameron: 37:32

Not only did he destroy it, it says that he took the priests that offered sacrifices to those gods and he slaughtered them. He broke down the altars, and the asherah poles, and the bales. He put them in a big pile. He burned them. Then he took the the like the ash, and he ground it into dust, and threw it into the sea.

Cameron: 38:07

Josiah literally went scorched earth against all of the wickedness and pagan worship in the nation of Israel. He left 0 stones unturned. You can read all of it in 2nd Kings chapter 23. He tore down every idol and destroyed it, leaving no vestige of it for future generations to find. Oh, that we would be the people that would do such extraordinary spiritual violence to the high places of our own heart that the peep that the generations that follow us would have no evidence that it even existed.

Cameron: 38:59

Finally, at the end of second Kings chapter 23, the final reform or renewal that Josiah implemented was a reestablishment of the Passover feast, which had been essentially done away with for 400 years up to this point. Now, the Passover for the nation of Israel or for Jews is equivalent to what Easter is for you and I as followers of Jesus. It was the primary celebration, the central moment of their relationship with God, where God delivered them from slavery to Egypt, led them out in triumphal possession, provided for them, and led them into the promised land. And they celebrated that as Passover every single year. Thank you, Lord, for your deliverance.

Cameron: 39:52

Thank you, Lord, for a freedom from slavery. Thank you, Lord, for for making us new and making us a nation. And they had not celebrated that Passover, it says, in 400 years. They had completely forgotten who they were as a people. Think about it.

Cameron: 40:12

What what would become of our identity here if we spent generation upon generation upon generation upon generation not celebrating Easter? Not retelling the story of Jesus, like, triumphant victory over death and the grave so that we may too, by faith in him, live eternally, be resurrected from the grave, be freed from our sin. What would happen to us as a people, our identity, our understanding of who God has made us to be? It would completely empty us of every bit of spiritual power and connection that we had to the God that created us. And it was the same for the nation of Israel.

Cameron: 40:58

They had forsaken the Passover Festival, which had reminded them of who God was for them. And now Josiah is like, we're going back to that. We're gonna remember who we are. We're gonna remember what god has done. We're gonna celebrate god's deliverance because god is continuing to deliver us even now.

Cameron: 41:25

Now listen. The story of Josiah is incredible. And what I would offer it as for you and I, is whether you wanna say call it an outline, whether you wanna call it a guide, whether you wanna call it a methodology, whatever word you want to use, receive it as this this morning is that Josiah gives us a pathway or a methodology at how to experience renewal or revival when everything in us and around us is spiritually dead. When tremendous evil has done nothing but encompass our lives, when all we can experience is the seeming absence of God, where we don't know even who we are anymore in our identity with the Lord. Josiah's response and his life is the perfect example for someone who says, no longer do I want to be dead in the darkness of my godlessness, but I want to know what it takes to be renewed and revived and established again as a son, as a daughter, as a child of God.

Cameron: 42:43

Whether as, lord, I need renewal in my heart. I really need renewal for me. Lord, I need renewal in my family. Lord, what do I do? Whether I need renewal in my church or in my city or my region, lord.

Cameron: 42:55

I need I need something to change. Listen. This is what Josiah did, and this is what we can do. Number 1. What is the methodology of renewal in Josiah's story?

Cameron: 43:18

The number one point of the of renewal in Josiah's story is is we need to get back to worship as the center of all that we do. At some point in the nation of Israel, they took the center of worship, their temple, and they turned it into a place of pagan idolatry and worship. Moment was like, no. Hold on a second. That is a place where the name of the Lord belongs.

Cameron: 43:46

That is where we call on the name of the Lord. That is where forgiveness of sins as offered. We are getting back to the centrality of worship in our lives, of recognizing the name and the power and the presence of God, and asking that the Lord would come and meet with us in this place, that he would envelope us with his presence, that he would drown us in his glory, that he would overwhelm us with his love. That is why we pray prayers like, lord, we seek your face, not your hand, lord. We don't want you we don't need your don't don't give us your blessing, lord, if it comes without your presence.

Cameron: 44:39

Don't give us your gifts if it comes without your presence. Lord, we don't want your we don't want your gifts. We don't just want your blessings. Lord, we want your presence. Show us your face.

Cameron: 44:52

And as a people, as a person, we cannot experience renewal and revival in the Lord apart from his very presence with us. The spirit of God inhabits the praises of his people. We are a people that is worship is central to who we are. We cannot be who we've been created to be outside of it, pursuing the Lord's face. Even before Josiah found the book of the law, he had a heart that sought to engage God in worship.

Cameron: 45:46

Rebuild the temple, the place of worship. That's where we're going. That's what needs to happen first. Get there. Build it.

Cameron: 45:51

Build it. Build it. Build it. Build it. We must worship.

Cameron: 45:58

The number 2 thing. The second thing. We must recover and honor the word of the Lord in our lives. We must recover and honor the word of the Lord in our lives. Listen.

Cameron: 46:23

As soon as that scroll was opened and the word of God was read to Josiah, the scriptures say that he was responsive to the word, and that it would it caused like a 180 in his life. And he was like, I am like, I am undone in the presence of the word being proclaimed over me. It takes a responsive heart to the Lord. When Josiah knew and when when Josiah had new insight into how out of step he was with the holiness of the Lord, he responded to the word of God and left no stone unturned. We need to if you want renewal and revival in your own heart, in your family, in your home, in your church, it comes from a resp immediate responsiveness to the word of God.

Cameron: 47:34

To not simply be hearers of the word, but to be doers of it. To not let it just skip across the soul or the surface of our hearts, but to let it take root, so that we receive it and do it. To not be people who are simply, we're we're just complacent and comfortable to hear the word, but to knew nothing about it. To become responsive means we're going to internalize it and obey it. I can't tell you how many times over the course of 20 years of preaching god's word that I have gotten emails or comments after a sermon that said, man, I really you didn't you didn't really read from the bible much in this sermon.

Cameron: 48:32

You you didn't read much from it. You know, it's just like 1 or 2 verses or so. Listen. So many times, right, has the heart's response been, if I read more of it, would you do more of it? If I just stood up and read it, would that equal obedience to it?

Cameron: 49:03

Or is there something else going on? Right? It it is not a it is not a volume that creates responsiveness. It is a heart that desires to seek after the Lord. And when you have a heart that desires to seek after the Lord, when the word of the Lord comes to you, this is not just fanciful stories or good wisdom or good advice that you would get at Oprah's book club.

Cameron: 49:30

Right? This is God's very word to us. And unless we are responsive to it in faithfulness, it will not renew and transform who we are. And we stand under the judgment of God for words that we have heard but not obeyed. Be responsive to the Lord.

Cameron: 49:56

Isaiah chapter 66 verse 2 says, this is the one I esteem, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Number 3. If you want renewal and revival in your life, you better be ready to tear down the high places of idolatry in your heart. You better be ready to do spiritual violence to the idolatry that you have let take root in your heart. We we need to do spiritual violence to the sin of our lives.

Cameron: 50:46

And listen, Stop glorifying the idea of perpetually struggling with sin. Oh, I'm just struggling with this thing. I'm just struggling with this thing. I'm just struggling with this thing. I'm just struggling you're struggling with it in perpetuity over the whole course of your life because you're not doing spiritual violence through repentance, and and trusting in the Lord.

Cameron: 51:12

You're not doing spiritual violence to the thing that you're struggling with, And it's no longer a struggle. Now, it's simply a stronghold. Maybe the truth is, is that we simply like our sin. And we are not willing to pursue God in wholehearted devotion and consecration. It no longer is a struggle.

Cameron: 51:43

Now it's a stronghold, which is like a strongholds. Struggles turn into strongholds. Strongholds turn into generational curses. When we don't do spiritual violence to the idolatrous high places of our hearts, they become strongholds, and we pass them on to our children. But if we are willing to do spiritual violence to the places and the ways that we have set up someone or something else in the place of God in our lives.

Cameron: 52:17

God will bring renewal and revival and refreshing both to us and to our families. I've shared this story with you many times, so I'm not afraid to share it again one more time. This is my this is this is my story. 1 of this is one of one part of my story. This coming I I shared with you before that a part of my story is addiction to alcohol.

Cameron: 52:44

I'm an alcoholic. This coming April this coming April will be 9 years that I've been clean and sober from alcohol. And I may thank you. And and and and listen. Alcoholism and addiction is a stronghold of my family.

Cameron: 53:09

It has deep claws and roots in virtually every member of my family, every generation before me. And I was right on the precipice of it becoming, something that became normal for my kids to see. My kids are young still, but I could look back on the way that alcohol destroyed my mom, Took her life. Right? And I could look full I could look back to see that it was currently destroying the rest of my family.

Cameron: 53:47

And then I could look forward and ask the question, am I ready to walk carrying that stronghold? Or will, in this moment, am I willing to do spiritual violence to the high place of addiction to alcohol so that it does not become the generational reality of my kids? So that it no longer becomes just the story of the Lionheart family. Now it's the story of the one who saw the high places and said, absolutely not. We are tearing it all down.

Cameron: 54:24

We are laying it to waste. We are taking the ashes, and we are grinding them into dust. And I will take every bit of that, and I will throw it into the sea so that there's not a generation of Lionheart after me that has any awareness that at one time and at one point, alcoholism and addiction was a part of our family line. It ends here. Now.

Cameron: 54:49

Right here. You must be willing to do spiritual violence to the things that are keeping you in bondage and idolatry with extraordinary prejudice. Meaning, what are you talking about? What what do you what do you even mean? Like, it depends on what it is.

Cameron: 55:19

Now I've got a pornography problem. Great. Take your phone and crush it. Turn off your Internet. Well, I can't do that.

Cameron: 55:32

I mean, we live in, like, this, like, digital age. I gotta have my phone. No. You don't. You're complacent in the struggle.

Cameron: 55:46

You're playing spiritual patty cake with a high place in your life. Get serious about it. You must take decisive action. Number 4, Josiah turned in repentance. He had a tender heart before the Lord.

Cameron: 56:10

And in humility, he had wholehearted repentance immediately. You want to see renewal and revival in your heart, your family, your home, your church, your world. You must turn in repentance immediately at the moment of its recognition of your of the, like, breaking to the holiness of God. Now the question is, what did in Josiah's life, what did all these reforms produce? What was actually the fruit of them?

Cameron: 56:42

Because if you actually look at the next couple of the next couple of kings after Josiah, they didn't follow the lord either. 4 or 5 more kings later, the Babylonians came, destroyed them. Right? Remember what I said that the judgment was coming. Right?

Cameron: 57:02

And it was coming in the Babylonians and they took and they carried off these people over here. Just Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were discipled and raised in Josiah's Israel. In the window that Josiah turned the nation back to god, a generation of men and women was raised that could survive a spiritual exile. We have an opportunity in the renewal of our own hearts, in the renewal of our families, in the renewal of our churches to create a window in the darkness of the world where a generation of men and women are discipled to Jesus in order to march forward into a kingdom of darkness that we know oates for them. We can do spiritual violence by getting our hearts right.

Cameron: 58:18

The message and the life of Josiah is clear. Turn to the Lord when you hear his word. Tear down the high places of idolatry and sin in your life. Do violence to them without regard for any other consequence in your life other than your pursuit of holiness and you're seeking after his face. Nothing matters more.

Cameron: 58:48

Nothing is more important. Nothing will change your life more significantly than the full out assault against the idolatry of your heart. The turning to him, the repentance of your life, the centrality of worship, the honor of his word. Let it be so. Let let us be renewed and revived.

Cameron: 59:17

Let us be changed and transformed. Let everything that has been consuming and dark and godless be overwhelmed by god's glory, by his transformation. Come, lord Jesus. Renew us. Revive us.

Cameron: 59:44

Breathe life into us. Return our hearts to you. We're responsive to your word. We return to worship. In Jesus' name, amen.

Cameron: 59:56

Conduit, you are loved. We'll see you next time. Go in peace.