A Dream Church Loves the Word

2 Chronicles 34

Toxic Parents

Inadequate

Domineering

Chemically Dependent

Absent

Abusive - verbally, physically, sexually

Bad Example

Enter a world 2600 year ago! A hero emerged that overcame this toxic environment.

Grandfather Manesseh

Set up pagan shrines

Worshipped Ba-al & Ashera (sex gods of Damascus)

Worshipped using astrology

Started messing with God’s temple - built pagan alters in the temple for the zodiac

Sacrificed his sons

Was into wicca - even set up a voodoo god and set it up in the temple

God stepped in - had the Assyrians remove Manasseh

READ 2 Chronicles 33:13 - repented

Father Amon

READ 2 Chronicles 33:22-23 - sinned even more / assassinated

READ 2 Chronicles 34:1-2

“turn form the left or right” = only Josiah

Josiah - 8 years old becomes king

1. A dream church seeks after God

Josiah restored the people - how? led them to seek God

When 16, began to seek God - eighth year of his reign

Think about how hard that must have been for Josiah to develop that kind of submissive heart at the age of 16. He did that without the aid of a church, or a youth group, or Christian music, or the internet. In fact, he didn’t even have a Bible. Today we have all those things and so much more available to us and yet how many times do we fail to take advantage of those opportunities to seek God like Josiah did and to develop a heart that is submissive to God?

Josiah sought God and in his reign, you had:

Idols dethroned

Temples destroyed

Altars desecrated and burned up

Priests debased by being burned on their own altars

False Prophets dishonored by unburied

Carcasses devoured

Got his people to restore the relationship between God & the people of Judah by purifying and rebuilding the Temple

Not seeking God:

build your self esteem

work

make sex no big deal

rely on technology rather than the ancient ways

discover inner oneness

do what makes you feel good

The New Yorker had a cartoon where a young boy in math class is standing at the chalk board with other students. The teacher has written the problem on the board for each student: 7 x 5 = __ . All the other students have the answer right: 35. But this boy has written 7 x 5 = 75. The teacher has obviously told him it’s wrong, and he says to her, “It may be wrong, but it’s how I feel.” That is a perfect metaphor of our culture.

Barber poles are red, white, and blue — a tradition that has nothing to do with the colors of the American flag.

The colors go back to the Middle Ages. Back then, people went to the barbershop for more than a haircut. They looked for barbers to perform medical procedures, including bloodletting.

Bloodletting was the procedure of choice for a range of maladies, from sore throats to the plague. In an attempt to heal the sick, barbers would simply cut open a vein and allow the blood to drain.

Disgusting? Yes!

On the barber pole, red represents blood, white symbolizes bandages, and blue is connected to the color of veins. According to the History website, barbers and surgeons were part of the same trade guild until 1745. It wasn’t until the 1800s that bloodletting fell out of favor with the medical community.

Now, any bleeding in a barbershop is completely accidental.

People will try just about anything in the search for healing and wholeness. The letter to the Hebrews reminds us that in the temple of Jerusalem, people hoped that the blood of bulls and goats would take away their sins and relieve their guilty consciences. But these sacrifices didn’t work. “Every priest stands day after day at his service,” says Hebrews, “offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins” (Hebrews 10:11).

Why seek God?

2. A dream church changes because of God’s Word

When 26, Josiah’s servants found God’s Word in the midst of the rubble.

The scroll is given two titles in the narrative: “the Book of the Law” (34:15) and “the Book of the Covenant” (34:30). The puzzling question for biblical scholars has been the identity of this book. The general consensus favors the book of Deuteronomy or

Hilkiah - Yahweh’s portion or spoil of war or booty

Shaphan - rock badger

Shaphan apparently did not realize the importance of the discovered book, since he left the report of it until after he covered the general progress of the work.

Immediately had it read in one sitting! Can you imagine?

Josiah’s choice?

1. No big deal - my intentions are good enough

Under the circumstances, I am ok

Circumstances are like a mattress: Get on top, and you rest easy. Get underneath, and you suffocate.

2. Change!

We complain about the Ten Commandments not being displayed in our courts, and we can’t even name all ten — and keep fewer of them than we can name. We whine about there being no prayer or Bible reading in our schools, and then we don’t pray or read the Bible in our homes. We complain about gay marriages causing a decline in family values, when the divorce rate among Bible-believing Christians is the same as rest of the culture. When it comes to sexual ethics among Christians, I wonder if the culture has not already won that war. And our financial ethics are not much better. You cannot live just anyway you want and still be a Christian. The Bible says, “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him” (1 John 3:6).

“The Bible is alive; it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”

Your choice:

Live a busy, noisy, non-stop life that leads to conflict, frustration, and stress

Learn to spend time in the Word - peace, deeper insight!

3. A dream church lives out God’s Word despite the culture

2 Chronicles 34:29-32

Josiah involves “all his heart and all his soul”

Josiah does what it says

James 1:22 - But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Josiah doesn’t go it alone

The fact that Josiah ‘made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God’ (34:33) suggests that it was no easy matter. We are told that ‘All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord’ (v. 33), but the implication is that no sooner had Josiah left the scene than they did turn away.

After Josiah’s death, the kings of Judah were weaklings, mere puppets in the hands of the politicians in Jerusalem or the nations around Judah. The last king was Zedekiah, and then the nation fell to Babylon in 586 B.C.

His parents toxic

The people agnostic

His religion chaotic

The Temple of God laid catastrophic

Yet something in his heart made God astronomic!

The whole nation was impacted!

D. L. Moody - The Bible wasn’t given to us to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.

We don’t like the Word because it:

Ephesians 6:17 - swing of the sword

2 Timothy 3:16-17 - correction

Proverbs 30:5 - it shields us

2 Peter 1:20 - the very thoughts of God

Hebrews 4:12 - scalpel dividing soul and spirit

BUT IF YOU COME FROM TOXIC ENVIRONMENT, THEN THIS IS WHAT GOD GIVES YOU!

James 1:25, the Message - But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

“. . . looks intently . . .” 1. Make the effort to spend time with God’s Word

“. . . and continues . . .” 2. Be a consistent reader; set attainable weekly goals

“ . . . not forgetting . . . but doing it . . .” 3. Combine Bible study with behavior change

The only book that you read and it reads you back!

Imagine the Dream Church living out God’s Word:

Past forgiven

Present purpose

Future hope

ABCD