20061213 Josiah (Kids Club)

Josiah

Kids Club Wednesday 13 December 2006

This afternoon we get to learn about a king whose name was Josiah.

Who would like to have a guess as to how old Josiah was when he became king?  8 years old.

Who here is 8 years old?

His dad Amon was the king before him, but he was a very bad king.  He worshipped idols and totally ignored the living true God.

Josiah’s dad Amon was actually killed by some of his people.

And then Josiah was made king.

Josiah wasn’t like his dad.  At the age of 16 he made the decision to start to follow God – he is not really sure how to follow God but he does his best. He began to purify the country by destroying all of the pagan God’s that had been set up in the time his father had been on the throne.

He was a young king who chose to stand against a long and sinful family history.

He destroyed

·        Pagan Shrines

·        Asherah Poles

·        Carved idols

·        Images of Baal and incense altars

And then something very exciting happened.  The Book of God’s Law (early Old Testament books) which had been lost for many years was found in the temple.

So now young king Josiah was able to read God’s instructions for living, which had been lost in the years of his fathers.  He was so upset that his people for many years had neglected worshipping God and had gone their own way.

So he read the book (probably book of Deuteronomy) to the people and after this made a promise before God to follow what God had instructed the people to do in the book.  And the people also made a similar promise.

And the whole nation changed.  There was a real revival, because of this one young boy’s faith in God.

What can we learn from young King Josiah?

1.     You can make a choice to follow God no matter what family background you come from.

2.     God changes you through his Word.  This book will change your life if you will let God.  Importance of reading God’s word.

3.     Need to chuck out stuff in our lives that leads us away from God.
eg Josiah – idols.  You eg. Might be lying, stealing from parents, maybe you treat a sporting star or movie star as an idol.

Back in the time of Josiah, this was before Jesus lived physically on earth, so we have a huge advantage over Josiah.  In that we can know what God is like through getting to know Jesus.

Through knowing Jesus we also have someone who has taken the penalty for the bad stuff that we have done and we can be confident that he is covering us.

We just need to receive this gift by faith.

Who would like to receive this gift this afternoon.