Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION

Well, I do hope you haven’t scammed any elderly women, but whether you’ve gone that far or not, you’ll probably agree that our society, the church included, seems more interested in following “mammon” than it does the scripture.

Our relationship with the Word of God can be a little tricky for those of us who claim to be believers.

NEED

For some of us it goes right over our heads.

What I mean is that we don’t understand it.

We read it on occasion, and walk away really confused.

Like the seed sewn by the pathway in the parable of the soils in the Bible, we don’t comprehend what we read or hear and our enemy is quick to come and snatch it out of our minds.

It goes over our heads and, very quickly, out of our hearts.

If that’s you this morning, I believe God wants to open the eyes of your heart to His word.

Listen!

For others it doesn’t go over their heads, it just stays on the page.

We know it and we may even be able to quote it, but it’s just ink on paper that seems millions of miles away from our real lives.

The Bible doesn’t make impact on us and we wonder why, when we may even attend church every week, we’re still basically the same people we were when it all started.

The answer is simple: ink and paper can’t change you.

God’s wants to get his Word off the page and into your life.

Listen!

And for many of us the bible that goes over our heads and stays on the page also remains on the shelf.

Our homes are decorated with Bibles of all shapes, sizes, and versions, but they are mere ornaments with little impact.

We aren’t impacted by the Bible because we just don’t read or study it, and not reading God’s Word is just as bad as not having it.

God wants to get His Word off the shelf and into our hands.

Listen!

BACKGROUND

There is no better example of how God’s Word can change our lives than a King of Judah who was one of the best ever.

His name was Josiah.

Now Josiah lived in a very difficult time.

You think America is bad?

You think this country has left its Christian heritage and drifted far from God? Well, you’re probably right, but I have to tell you, our country has nothing on Judah as it was in Josiah’s day.

Things were really bad.

The people, following the example of their sorry leaders, hadn’t just dabbled in idolatry, they had given themselves to it with abandon.

In the middle of this terrible state of affairs, Josiah comes on the scene and brings, if only briefly, a great revival in the land.

Now I say “briefly” because, although Josiah really made an impact for God, it lasted no longer than his own life.

While he made remarkable changes to Judah’s idolatry, once he was dead, Judah went right back to her sin.

What I want us to see from these chapters today is the reason why there was such a difference between Josiah and Judah.

Why did he have such a genuine heart for God and why did Judah not experience the same life change that he did?

Well I think the answer is really very simple.

It had to do with how each related to God’s Word.

While repairing the temple of the Lord, someone finds the Book of the law and decides to read it to King Josiah.

Look what happens in 22:11: Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes.

Now that was an interesting reaction.

It’s not everyday that someone just starts tearing their clothes when they hear God’s Word.

But the King’s reaction shows just how seriously he took what he heard.

When he heard God’s word, it was so moving and convicting that he tears his royal robes as a sign of great repentance and conviction.

You might say it like this: Josiah internalized the Word of God.

And his people?

Well, they heard the word and they even followed along with Josiah when he tried to implement it, but there was a big difference between them.

You see, while Judah heard the Word, Josiah internalized it, and there is a massive difference between the two.

And it is this difference which makes the difference in our lives.

Only internalizing the Word of God will change your life.

You say, that’s great, Rusty, but what does it mean?

How can I internalize the word of God so that my life really changes?

Glad you asked, because this story of Josiah gives us some answers.

In the first place, you internalize God’s word when you:

DIV 1: SEE YOURSELVE IN IT.

EXPLANATION

Josiah did that.

That verse we just read, 2 Kings 22:11, tells us that when he heard God’s word, he tore his clothes.

That was a sign of mourning and repentance and his encounter with God’s caused him to assess himself and his nation.

After he hears God’s word read to him, he says in v 12:

Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, 13 “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

Probably other kings of Judah may have read or heard those words read and it went right over their heads.

Others had heard it read and those words had remained ink and paper, but when Josiah heard those words read, he saw himself and his people in those words.

He realized that because of God’s word, he and his people were in great danger because he says in v 13, “great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us because our fathers have not obeyd the words of this book.

He saw himself in the word of God.

If only the people of Judah would have seen themselves as he did.

History, however, tells us they didn’t.

It’s interesting to note that Jeremiah the prophet was a contemporary with Josiah, only the prophet lives a lot longer than the king.

After the great revival of Josiah, and after his untimely death in battle, the prophet observes Judah’s quick return to idolatry and gives them God’s opinion of their treason.

Jeremiah 7:13 says:

And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

15 And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren— the whole posterity of Ephraim.

16 “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.

Though Josiah genuinely saw his need of change and his own failure when he heard God’s word, the people never seemed to get it.

They never internalized it by seeing themselves in it.

They heard the word, and even, on the surface at least, acted on it, but they never internalized it.

They never saw themselves in it.

And they ended in diaster.

Christian, if your life ever changes it will not be because you simply have quiet time; it will not be because you come and hear the Sunday message or even by a DVD; it will not be because you read through the Bible in a year.

Your life will change only when you internalize the word of God by seeing yourself in it!

ARGUMENTATION

And I know what some may be saying: You’re probably saying, “That’s just fanaticism, Rusty!

Nobody takes the Bible that seriously!”

To which I would say, EXACTLY!

And that’s just the problem.

If there is to be the full-hearted devotion to God that really burns in the heart of all of us; if there is to be life change because of the Word of God, there must be a willingness to see ourselves in the pages of this book.

To look at our lives the way the Bible does.

ILLUSTRATION:

Andras Tamas is the name officials gave a certain man decades ago in a Russian psychiatric hospital.

He'd been drafted into the army, but the authorities had mistaken his native Hungarian language for the gibberish of a lunatic and had him committed.

Then they forgot about him.

For 53 years.

A few years ago a psychiatrist at the hospital began to realize what had happened and helped Tamas recover the memories of who he was and where he came from.

He recently returned home to Budapest as a war hero, "the last prisoner of World War II."

Not only had this man forgotten his real name, he hadn't even seen his own face in five decades.

So, according to one news account, "For hours, the old man studies the face in a mirror.

The deep-set eyes.

The gray stubble on the chin.

The furrows of the brow.

It is his face, but it is a startling revelation."

Imagine looking at your own face in a mirror and not recognizing it.