Reading

Back to the Basics  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Intro:
Phone trading with a trusted neighbor
We are doing a series on seven practices for every Follower of Jesus as we go Back to the Basics in our faith
Last week we talked about praying
This week we are talking about Reading
Reading habits in general have declined in the last decade.
a study done at the beginning of the year showed that almost half of all Americans didn’t ready a book at all in the last year
specifically we are talking about reading your Bible
Ephesians 6:11–17 NASB95
Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Benefits of reading scripture

In a recent study, of over 40,000 people ages 8 to 80.
They surveyed people’s engagement of scripture
the results showed a profound discovery
The study indicated that when people engaged in the Scripture one time a week,
which could include a pastor instructing the congregation to “open your Bibles…”,
there was negligible effect on some key areas of their life.
The same result was true if people engaged in the Scriptures two times a week.
The result equaled little to no effect.
Three times a week saw a small indication of life.
There was a slight pulse, a faint heartbeat.
Something moved in the behavior of the person engaging in Scripture.
The eye opener happened when Bible engagement reached at least four times a week.
A steady climb of impact would have been expected,
but that was not the case.
The level was basically stagnant over days one and two,
with a small bump on day three.
But when day four was reached, the effects spiked in an astounding way.
The stunning findings included the following:
Feeling lonely drops 30%
Anger issues drop 32%
Bitterness in relationships drops 40%
Alcoholism drops 57%
Sex outside of marriage drops 68%
Feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%
Viewing pornography drops 61%
Sharing your faith jumps 200%
Discipling others jumps 230%
The reality is that with a lack of consistent Bible engagement defined as at least four times a week,
Christians have less confidence in sharing their faith with others
You are more vulnerable to falling prey to false teachings,
You feel lethargic and apathetic about consistently living out your faith in your circle of influence.
The studies show that the best spiritually based predictor among 13- to 17-year-old teenagers was engagement in Scripture.
The other side of the coin is equally conclusive and encouraging.
The more You read or listen to the Scriptures at least four times a week,
-the more bold you will be in sharing your faith and growing in your faith.
-Your lives will begin to have a profound impact on those immediately around you.
-There will also be fewer times of stagnation in your spiritual growth.
you will become viral in their faith.
Royal Rangers: Pledge allegiance to the Bible:
I pledge allegiance to the Bible,
God's Holy Word.
I will make it a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path,
and will hide its words in my heart
that I might not sin against God

Scripture’s promises concerning the Word

Psalm 119:105 NASB95
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
Psalm 119:9–11 NASB95
How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.
Joshua 1:8 NASB95
“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
Matthew 4:4 NASB95
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ”
Jesus countered someone blessing his mother for raising him after hearing him preach by saying:
Luke 11:28 NASB95
But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
James 1:21–25 NASB95
Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 NASB95
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
1 Timothy 4:13 NASB95
Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
Hebrews 4:12 NASB95
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
1 Peter 2:2 NASB95
like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

Josiah

Revival that was sparked by a rediscovery of the word of God
Context
Fall of Israel
around 60 years before the reign of Josiah
Hoshea was the final king of Israel
2 Kings 17:2 NASB95
He did evil in the sight of the Lord, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him.
All of the people of Israel were taken into captivity by Assyria and replaced the inhabitants of the land with men from Babylon and other foreign countries.
because these foreigners did not fear God, God sent lions among them as a plague
they had to send a plea to the rulers in Assyria to send back to them a priest of the God of the land to help them not offend him
while the fear of God was established, it did not stop them from worshipping their own gods
Reason for their fall was idolatry
2 Kings 17:13–20 NASB95
Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him. So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah. Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.
Josiah’s Evil Grandfather (who reigned 55 years)
2 Kings 21:10–15 NASB95
Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. ‘I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ‘I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’ ”
Manasseh’s son, Amon succeeded him and he was so evil that his servants conspired against him and killed him.
He only reigned for 2 years
Doing the math, Amon would have been about 16 when he fathered Josiah
Josiah was the last good King of Judah
He was only 8 years old when he began his reign
During his reign, the book of the law was rediscovered in the temple
2 Kings 22:10–13 NASB95
Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
a part of what was read to him was some of the prophecies that predicted the fall of Judah because of their sin
after inquiring of a prophet of the Lord, Josiah is told
2 Kings 22:18–20 NASB95
“But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord thus shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Regarding the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the Lord. “Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.” ’ ” So they brought back word to the king.
Josiah doesn’t just grieve the word of the Lord,
he acts on it and reforms Judah
2 Kings 23:4–8 NASB95
Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven. He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah. Then 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; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate.
Not just in Jerusalem, but across the land he took down all semblances of idolatry throughout all of Judah
It is noteworthy that many of the previous "righteous” kings of Judah are noted that they did not demolish the high places
Dieting: before beginning to eat your healthy food, there must be a purge of all of the unhealthy food in the house.
celebrating passover after the purge
2 Kings 23:21–25 NASB95
Then the king commanded all the people saying, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this book of the covenant.” Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, Josiah removed the mediums and the spiritists and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
His children would see the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the fall of Judah.
Two of his children would reign briefly, as well as one of his grandchildren.
And the last king of Judah was another child of Josiah
all of these children did evil in the sight of the Lord

Modern Idols

Baal -The Canaanite fertility god
recognized as sustaining the fertility of crops animals and people
His followers often believed that sexual acts performed in his temple would boost Baal’s sexual prowess, and thus contribute to his work in increasing fertility
Baal was worshipped with the use of homosexual and lesbian prostitutes and involved the people in sordid orgies including men, women, children, and even animals.
There are surprising similarities between Baal worship and much of the sexual identity issues plaguing our culture today.
looking at the trends over the decades and the escalation of free sexuality.
First it exploded as promiscuity,
and then to homosexual expression.
statistics show that Bestiality is now on the rise in some Western cultures.
Human trafficking of children and pedophilia is on the rise
But perhaps the most bizarre indicator of extreme change has been the redefining of male and female.
Common sense and biology have been replaced by vague feelings of “what I feel like, is what I am”
and it has become politically incorrect and taboo to define girls and boys according to their biological parts
Our culture has fallen head over heels into idolatry.
Every act of sex outside of marriage is influenced by the demonic force called Baal.
In a matter of speaking:
Every person committing adultery is bowing to Baal.
Every married couple involved in sex parties with other married couples (swingers) are bowing at the altar of Baal.
Every homosexual and lesbian act
Every cross dresser
Every gender binary and trans-gender person
Every person viewing pornography
Are being influenced by the demonic force influencing our culture
Our world is obsessed with demonic worship in the name of free sexuality.
Romans 1:18 NASB95
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Romans 1:25–26 NASB95
For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural,
Romans 1:28 NASB95
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
Romans 1:32 NASB95
and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
the second pagan god that is seeing a resurgence in modern culture is Molech
Molech- God of the Ammonites
Sacrifice to Molech, usually involving child sacrifice, especially firstborn males
Moloch was one of many pagan gods worshiped by means of human sacrifice.
Pagans who worshiped Moloch often sacrificed one of their own children,
who was ritually murdered and then placed in a sacrificial altar of fire.
The sacrifice of the child was to assure a blessing of prosperity for the family.
In short, a child was murdered for the promised convenience and prosperity the family was to receive from Moloch.
This sounds barbaric to those of us living in the 21st century.
It seems barbaric until it is realized that nearly 50 million babies have been murdered legally in the United States through abortion
for the convenience or prosperity of their mothers and other family members.
Abortion has the same intended outcome of personal and family prosperity as did the sacrifice of a child at the altar of Moloch.
Obviously, There are some differences between abortion today as a means of obtaining prosperity,
and human sacrifice to Moloch thousands of years ago. 
For one thing, the pagans actually buried their dead children
whereas in the United States and other Western nations their little bodies are flushed down toilets,
tossed in dumpsters or used in medical experiments.
Other than burial method, there is not much difference between the ancient ritual killings
and today’s medically sanitized disposal of the young to somehow benefit their elders.
altar call
get rid of any idols in your life, and make a commitment to serve the Lord, and read His word
besides the two idols I mentioned, there are countless idols in our lives
how many of you get the weekly report of phone usage?
How many of you avoid looking at it because you are ashamed at how many hours you have logged onto the device?
Come to the front to delete any app that the Holy Spirit is revealing to you has become an idol
come ...
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