A Time of Restoration 10/10/2021
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 37:55
0 ratings
· 93 viewsFiles
Notes
Transcript
This morning I want to preach to you about revival. Personal revival, church wide revival, a revival of God working in a generation that has gone far from God.
What is meant when I use the word “revival”?
A current definition of revival is the act or instance of reviving.
Revival is to rekindle a flame that was nearly extinguished. To bring life to something that was almost dead.
In the course of living life for our God, it is possible to allow some crucial things to slip away. Revival is a time of restoration of things which have been lost.
Look at someone close and admit “I need a revival.”
A Time of Restoration
A Time of Restoration
Josiah is going to serve as our example, his story is found in 2 Kings 22. When Josiah was eight years old he became the King of Judah.
Immediately he brought some change to the people and the country. In a culture and society that had declined into evil as normal. Josiah made a decision...
2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
An eight year old decided to do what was right.
What a difference a decision makes.
It was a wrong decision made by the people who spied on the promised land that brought a generation to die in the wilderness.
Lucifer’s decision to follow pride cast him out of a position that had him next to God.
Jonah’s first decision, not to obey God, put him in the belly of a whale. His second decision delivered himself from the whale, and gave the city of Nineveh opportunity to repent and be delivered from judgement.
What a difference a decision makes.
Decisions you make today will have a lasting impact.
We do not know who influenced Josiah or how he came to know about the one true God. We do know that he decided to do what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
Josiah’s decision to seek God and rebuild the Temple resulted in revival, the discovery of the Book of the Law, and restoration of the glory of God to the nation of Judah.
2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
He did what was right, or what was righteous.
Righteousness is an abstract term that is often difficult to define and appreciate. But there are two verses in the Old Testament which provide us insight into God’s expectation for us when He speaks of righteousness.
6 And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’
Belief and Obedience
Belief and Obedience
Too many people try to separate belief and obedience. Both are necessary in God’s Kingdom, belief and obedience are woven together in the fabric of faith.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
The revival that occurred during the reign of Josiah was a revival of righteousness - he believed the Lord and he obeyed the Lord.
At the age of sixteen, Josiah begins to seek the Lord.
3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.
Notice the progression in Josiah’s life. First he began to seek God. Then he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem.
Seeking the Lord is always the first step of restoration.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Seeking the Lord is always the first step of revival.
Then four years later Josiah began to purge the land of false worship, idols, and idolatry. It all began with repentance.
Repentance leads to the ongoing process of sanctification. (Explain)
Josiah used what knowledge he had to remove the things he knew were not pleasing to God.
Many people try to use the excuse, I don’t know where to start… start with the things you know are not pleasing God. Sadly, too many Christians learn to live with sin because they fail to put out of their lives the things they know are sin and displease God.
Scripture does not tell us that the Lord will wrestle sin from our lives. Actually, it says just the opposite. The Lord instructs us to put certain things out of our lives.
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,
10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
Cost of Restoration
Cost of Restoration
Restoration costs you. Revival has a cost associated with it. A sacrifice.
3 Now it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the Lord, saying:
4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people.
We don’t know when Josiah began the collection process for preparing to restore the Temple. But by his eighteenth year leading there was sufficient money in the treasury to begin the work.
Josiah was leading the people to revival and restoration, and an important point is that this revival and restoration required a surrender of their finances to God.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What do you treasure?
The work of God costs a sacrifice.
The work of God requires effort.
The Temple did not restore itself. People had to be invested. Sacrificing time, talents, and finances to the work of God.
5 And let them deliver it into the hand of those doing the work, who are the overseers in the house of the Lord; let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work, to repair the damages of the house—
6 to carpenters and builders and masons—and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.
During this time of restoration the Word of God is found...
8 Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
In the middle of revival they found the key to sustained revival. Hilkiah was holding in his hands the thing that could direct Judah and keep them from sinning against God.
He was holding in his hands a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path.
It should strike us that there were two types of treasure in the hands of the caretakers of the Temple. While the doorkeepers brought in money, and workers brought in stones and timber for repairs (sacrifices), Hilkiah was bringing out something far more valuable.
You will never regret what you put into the Kingdom and work of God when you understand that what comes back is so much greater than what you have given!
Impact of the Word
Impact of the Word
11 Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes.
Josiah starting with what he thinks is the right thing to do, God rewards him with more truth that gives him more insight. Josiah recognizes how far they had been led from the things of God.
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.”
Now Josiah wants to know what more do we need to do...
19 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 would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord.
Because Josiah responded to the Lord, the Lord heard Josiah. Josiah restored the covenant with God, the passover, removed sin, and continued in the process of sanctification.
It is not enough to just be a Christian. We must seek truth, fall in love with truth, and walk in truth.
Restoration will cost you, but it is worth every sacrifice!