AUG 18 2024 | Josiah S1E6 | Josiah Keeps the Passover

Sea Change Church · AUG 18 2024 | Josiah – S1 Ep 6: Josiah Keeps the Passover
2 Kings 23:21-25
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

I ask, God, that you continue to bless us here today, God, to teach us to be more like you. Bless Pastor Adam as he brings the word. We love you, Jesus. We ask you to shape us, God. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen. And the king commanded all the people, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.

For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel, or of the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that 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. This is the word of the Lord. I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do Eyeballs open up, if you would, to 2 Kings, I believe it's 23, verses 21 through 25.

This key word for today, I've been using a key word every week because I think it just helps it embed, the message of the word embed itself into my heart. It makes it easier for me. I'm kind of simplistic, so I kind of need that. Key word today, you can write in there, is keep. Keep is a really powerful word. When I first picked it, Jeff wanted me to pick necromancer.

He thought that was a great word. Not the word of the week, it's keep. And some form of the word keep is used 584 times in the scripture. 584 times this word. The more I dove into this word, the more I realized it's one of the most powerful words in the English language. And it's a word we're all in touch with, whether we know we're in touch with it or not.

And it is a word that God uses. He embeds into the scripture in order to have something that will establish in our lives. He uses that word in the scripture there. If you look at verse 24, I believe it is, he says that he might establish the words of the law. What establishes something in your life? Usually it's what you're keeping. If you keep a regular gym appointment, it's going to establish something in your body and in the chemistry of your body.

It means to maintain possession or to preserve something. I'm okay, Chris. To preserve something with care and attention. Now, here's a few ways that the word keep can be used. One, keep the faith, right? You've heard that one, keep the faith. How about keep up? Come on, keep up. You want to keep up if someone's falling behind. Keep your word. That's important, right?

You want to keep your word. What does that mean? It means you do what you say you're going to do. Keep your promises. Remember that song from the 80s? Promises, promises. One of the most loved bumpers we ever did here for a sermon. Keep a secret. It's important, right? Keep the peace. Keep your cool. You can keep a grudge. A castle has a keep in it. You can have a keepsake.

And my favorite, you can say to the kids, if you keep that up, I'm pulling this car over. A.W. Tozer says, we must be willing to let go of all that hinders us, to take hold of what God has given us, keep only what is good and discard the rest. I love that image. What we hold on to, what we keep, establishes in our life. What we let go of establishes something in our life.

We can keep a grudge. You can keep bitterness. Bible says, don't keep a record of wrongs. So if you come to your spouse or your wife and you say, hey, I've got 32 times here that you've done this thing and I've kept a record of it. Bible says, don't keep doing that. But as I'm saying this, you're probably thinking through your own life and saying, what am I keeping?

What things am I keeping? Keeping is what you are holding on to or what you were doing on a regular basis. Go to verse 21. As we see Josiah, as part of one of the most influential things that he did as a king, was not what he tore down, not what he built up. But what he remembered and what he began to keep ritualistically, religiously, with a heart's intention behind it.

And that's important with the things that you keep. Otherwise, it's just rote. The things that we keep, we want to have our heart behind it. So verse 21 says this. And the king commanded all the people, keep the Passover. Circle keep. Keep the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in the book of the covenant. Why did God, Jesus himself with the Lord's Supper, give us these things?

He says, just do it a lot. Just do it on a regular basis. It has to do with the idea of remembering who you are. The oftentimes, Josiah's people in the Old Testament, because they quit keeping the word of God, they quit keeping the rituals that God had called them to follow, heartfelt rituals, not just dead religious rituals. They forgot who they were.

The things that you keep remind you who you are. The things you keep in your marriage, your traditions, the things that we do. And so Passover, if you were a Jew, they still celebrate it today, represents when Moses brought the people out of Egypt. It was a big event, and God didn't want them to forget. Because God wants you to remember what he has done in the past.

We keep our birthdays. We keep our sobriety dates. We keep things in our marriages. We keep our anniversaries. We keep things on a regular basis in order to remember who we are. When a society can no longer hold on to the things that unify us and keep familiar traditions, you will forget who you are, and you will no longer have a society. And so, once again, let me read this again in verse 21.

And the king commanded, that's a commandment, all people keep the Passover to the Lord your God. To whom? To the Lord your God. As it is written in the book of the covenant. Not only is it a command, but it is doing it for the Lord your God. When we keep our anniversary and we celebrate our anniversary, it isn't just so we can go have brunch and go to the wine country and have a great weekend.

It is so that you can remember what God has done in bringing you together for his purposes. Whatever we keep, we want to keep it as vigil if unto the Lord. It says we even take care of our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit, unto God. And so, this is what he is doing. He has a heart's commitment. Let me read about the Passover. The Passover is a cornerstone of the Jewish faith.

Marking the deliverance, circle the word deliverance, because what we keep often delivers us, from bondage in Egypt. And God's covenant with his people. For Christians, it foreshadows Christ as the ultimate Passover lamb. Remember, they would sacrifice a lamb. Whose sacrifice brings spiritual liberation from sin. Now, the amount of things that Christians are called to keep, the list is a lot shorter, right, than it was in the Old Testament.

God was building something in the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, he frees us. But just because he frees us from the commandment, doesn't mean he frees us from the freedom to continue to celebrate and to remember those things so we can remember who we are. I would say that there were times in my life where I stopped keeping the things I should have kept.

Held on to the things I shouldn't have kept. And in the process, forgot who I was. I remember in PB, some of you have been here a while, you've told this story, but it was powerful in my life. I was in PB at the Oakwood Apartments, if you remember. A lot of debauchery at the Oakwood Apartments. I no longer called that, if you remember those in the 80s.

And I was there, and I'd get up in the morning, and I would keep my little stash of marijuana by my bed. And I would just get up, and I'd smoke marijuana. First thing in the morning, just wake up. Boom. Because that's who I was. And I remember, all of a sudden, it hit me different this time. And after I was high, I was sitting there. I began to cry.

And I began to think to myself, I don't know who I am anymore when I'm not high. That's a really scary thought, because I had been keeping vigil with that addiction every single day. It wasn't a weekend thing. It wasn't an every month thing. It was an every single day thing. And what I was keeping was affecting who I was. And I had forgotten the things that God had called me to keep, like regular attendance.

It says, in church, do not forsake meeting together. When you come today, and I'm so glad you're all back from vacation, it looks like, and it's awesome. It's awesome. So Josiah realizes these things are important. They had stopped keeping ritual. Ritual was so important when it's done for the right reasons. These are the things that we are called to keep.

If you look at the things that we're called to keep in the scripture that I think are still relevant for Christians, I'm just going to give you a few. There's a lot. I do want to challenge you. There's a great Bible website. It's called BibleGateway.com. If you go there, there's a search. If you just put the word keep in there, it'll come up with all 584 of those references.

And you can kind of dive into them. There's way too many. I just pick three. Three things, and we could have done a bunch more. But the first is out of Genesis, Old Testament one. We're to keep God's covenant. God has made it. There's an old covenant, and there's a new covenant in Christ, and we are called into righteousness. But in the Old Testament, it says, And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

So there's a covenant that God has, and he's made an agreement with us. That agreement is seen in our marriages. Some of you have just gotten married. I know we have people that are getting married next week and a few weeks after that. And so it's awesome when you're in a church where there's marriages and babies. And I've said this many times too, but the original elder that hired me here said, We've forgotten what babies look like at this church.

And he says, We want to change that. And we definitely have changed that. So I want to thank all the men that have stepped up to make that happen. Ladies too, I got you. I got you ladies too. Nine babies. I'd have seven now if I could do it over again, but I got two. We're supposed to keep our word. I want you to go with marriage. Our vows. Numbers 32.

32. If a man vows a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all the proceeds out of his mouth. Now there's a difference in the Old Testament and the New Testament with some of those ideas. Bible's really clear. Don't commit to something unless you're willing to commit to something.

Vows are super important because God does not break his vow to us. And so he says that for a reason because he wants us to emulate his character of who he is. He never calls us to anything that he's not willing to do himself. And so we're called to keep our vows. And it's really, really difficult to do that, especially when you realize maybe I did something a little too quickly, a little too rash.

How about the Sabbath? Remember the Sabbath day. This is one of the Ten Commandments, right? So Jesus fulfilled all those. So he removed the commandment, but he didn't remove the blessing. And he gave us the commandment to rest and to take a Sabbath, like a real Sabbath. Get away from our phones, perhaps. Get away from work. To just spend a day with God.

God wants a date day with you one day a week. He gives you six more days. Kind of do what you want. But it says in the commandments, and it says, and also is repeated in Hebrews 4 then, 4, 9 and 10. And the reason I'm giving this out of Hebrews is because this is a New Testament thing as well, right? And so it says, so then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

For whoever has entered God's rest has also rest from the works as God did from his. Now that Sabbath rest in the New Testament is speaking about Jesus being our rest. It's a more fuller understanding than just taking a Sunday off with God. There's a fuller understanding. But it doesn't negate that there is a blessing that comes when we follow God's commandments.

When we keep the Ten Commandments. Recently I was reading through the Ten Commandments. I'm trying to read the Bible every single year. I'm trying to get back into that. I did it for 10 or 12 years in a row. Then I took seven years off, or five, six years off, or I kind of just read as I went. And I'm back to trying to read through the entire Bible every year.

And I got to the Ten Commandments this year. And I felt like the Lord, I just read right through them. And I felt like the Lord said, stop, pause, button. Go back and read those again. Read them. And then I felt like the Lord said, read them again. Multiple times. He said, I just want you to linger on those. And as I read them, I felt the word that he said in my heart was, these still matter to me.

And the fact that you do your best to keep these matters to me. And I realize the things that he has given us, that he has told us to keep matter. Now Jesus came and he fulfilled all these. So the same curses that were involved in the Old Testament, that if you didn't do everything right, there could be a curse. If you didn't tithe, there was a curse.

There was all these things. Jesus fulfilled it. So now that curse doesn't exist anymore. So when you tithe or give your time, you don't have to do it. You do it in keeping with your love for God. And so we see that it's a little bit different now. But that blessing still exists. And so we found that in Hebrews. Let me just say this quote. The things we keep, you're thinking about these now.

You're thinking about your gym appointments. You're thinking about keeping your word. You're thinking about the commitments you made. I know we're all thinking about this. What are we holding on to? And things you wish you weren't keeping. A grudge. Frustration. The things we keep set a scaffolding for our lives. Upon which its success or failure. And I want to put the word often.

You can write the word often because I was a little too definitive in writing that statement. Often rest. Let me say this again. The things we keep. Remember at the beginning, those are things that you hold on to. Or it's things you continue to do. Set a scaffolding for your life. So you're building a scaffolding. So when you keep something, whether like I said, it's a gym appointment.

Or you keep your checkbook. Or you keep your mouth closed. Or you, whatever it is. Each one of these things you keep is a scaffolding. And if you've ever seen any put a scaffolding up. We're eventually going to get a scaffolding in here not too long. And we're going to fix this roof. And get it looking beautiful. But you can look up. It's got a little water damage and stuff like that on it.

We have to get a scaffolding. And they're going to build this incredible scaffolding that will go up and they'll just see it. And maybe you've gone to Paris where you couldn't see Notre Dame for like 36 years because of the scaffolding. And you've experienced that. I went multiple times to Paris. I never got to see it. All I got to see was beautiful scaffolding around that place.

The things we keep set a scaffolding for our lives upon which success or failure often rests. So the things you do regularly. Let me just go back to with your children. I tried to never miss what I called tuck-tucks. Okay? Tuck them into bed. Because I knew there was only so many. I'll still go in there. It's a little bit different now. I'll bring a face mask in.

Actually, Lucy tucks me in these days. She'll bring a face mask. She'll rub my feet. I'll say, I'm going to her room and she'll be doing her homework. I'm saying, can I get a tuck-tuck? I just need a tuck-tuck. That built something in our relationship. Showing up for Friday, I would be a playground dad on Fridays. I did it every single Friday for the entirety of Lily's elementary school and the majority of Lucy's elementary school, except that when I moved down here.

That set up a keep on my watch. That built something into our relationship. When my wife go away every single year, like we're going to do next week, and look at our values together. What do we value? What do we not value? What are we committed to? What do we want to let go of? That builds a structure. It's pretty simple, right? What are you keeping?

What are you letting go of? Your life will be scaffolded and defined so often if you keep a time with the Lord, like a regular time. Every day. You say, you know, I'm going to do it six days a week. Nothing legalistic, but I'm just going to show up. Whatever that thing is. A yearly pilgrimage where you take a spiritual walk. You go to your favorite place.

Maybe you're a Morro Bay person. You're like, hey, I got this little Airbnb in Morro Bay. And I go up there and I just seek the Lord. Or we go here. Whatever your thing is. Those things that you keep are building that. And what Josiah saw here is he wanted to keep the things most important that were important to the Lord. And everything that he did, he embedded in a ritualistic fashion.

And so, but one thing that we saw is that when he did this, keeping God's commands established, and released blessing into his life and the life to come. And it was because of verse 25. Go to verse 25. Before him, there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all, circle all of his heart, all of his soul, all of his might, according to the law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

Let's just talk about the before him. There's a pretty consequential king that the scripture says in this, that it said he was his father. Remember, Amnon was his father. He was wicked. So it said King David was his father. It says spiritually. King David was pretty awesome. But this scripture says there was never a king like Josiah, who kept it with all of his heart, his mind, his soul, and his strength.

You see, unlike David, who God says name will be forever remembered, and God has promises to David, Josiah never had a Bathsheba moment. He never had to take a census of Israel moment. Because the rituals that he kept, he kept them with all of his heart, all of his soul, all of his mind, all of his strength. That is one of the greatest commandments in the Old Testament, and one of the most difficult things to do.

And so we see that. I would say that our traditions, void of a heart's devotion, lead to empty, hollow, and false religion. Do you know that, that, that, that, that, um, dictate that people have, or that false narrative, or maybe it's true in some places, where that there, all there is is false religion. The only thing we have is false religion.

It means there's just a bunch of people, and they just do a bunch of, of stuff. But they don't actually have a heart that's attached to it. Just a bunch of hypocrites. And what we see here is Josiah, is Josiah was a man whose heart was attached to those things. People say all the time, I'm not religious, I'm just spiritual. You know, I, I don't believe in organized religion.

What, you just believe in disorganized religion? Like, what's the point? Tell the truth, let me just say something. I love religion. I love it. It says in the, in James that there's a type of, that is pure, and holy, and good, and righteous. And what is religion? Religion is a scaffolding of things you keep. Prayer times, missions trips, celebration days, festivals, Bible reading, prayer meeting.

It is a list of things you keep. That's just the stuff. But when it's followed by a heart's devotion that is like Josiah's, a king that was never like him before, and no one ever liked him afterwards. The greatest king in regard to that aspect of all time. It makes religion come alive. Without religious practice followed by a heart, if you just have people following whatever they want to do, you actually just have a bland nothingness of spirituality with no anchors.

What he does is he has religion. And so your prayer time that you do with the Lord in the morning, that's part of your religion. That is just a time on, what is religion? It is a time on your calendar, it is a place in the terra firma of your life where you show up to do something, and if your heart is attached to it, then it is pure and righteous religion.

And if your heart is not attached to it, you're just doing it because everyone else is doing it, then it is false religion, and God spits it out of his mouth because it's lukewarm and he has no time for it. But I want a pure religion like this man had a pure religion, and to keep those things in my life. Let me give you a couple reasons why I will close, why it's so important to keep the things that should be kept.

Psalm 119, 2. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies and who seek after him with their whole heart. There it is right there. You see that dualism? They're keeping, they're doing something with their heart. Go to another one from the Old Testament, one of my favorite, Proverbs 3, 1, and 2. My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep, where is it being kept?

Your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. This is an if-then proposition. This is a promise of God. He says, if you do these things with your heart, everything's not going to be perfect. I just started reading Job. I'm in Job. If you do a yearly Bible reading, you hit Job tomorrow. I'm one day ahead.

You hit Job tomorrow. I used to hate the book of Job. I'm scared of it. Love the book of Job now. Just love it. And what you find, that bad things do happen. But he says right there, if you do these things, don't forget, because the things you keep help you not forget. Don't forget, keep my heart's command for the length of your days and the years.

You will have life and peace, and they will be added to you. I want that. Well, that's the Old Testament, Pastor. I want to look at the New Testament real quick. John 8, 51. Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death. It means eternal life. 1 John 2, 3. 1 John, good book. And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

In the end of time, the way in which we will have known him, he says, besides our mouth confessing and our heart believing. Faith in our heart and mouth confessing is that we kept his commandments. Many people say, Lord, I did all this stuff. And you know what he's going to say? Who are you? We didn't know each other. Why? Because it's the heart that he wants.

Here's your practical takeaway, okay? Keep on keeping on. Keep on keeping on. I want you this week if you can. I went Monday morning. I've been going down to Balboa Park. I thought, I live in this beautiful city. I never use it. I don't go to the beach. Just sit at my house, look at a computer screen. So this week I decided I was going to go down to the beach.

So I went four times to the beach once in Encinitas for 45 minutes. Just a little quick one. And on Mondays I thought, I'm going to go down to that craft cafe. If you haven't been to the craft cafe on the corner there by the Mangane Museum, dude, unreal. Got to go there. So I went there and sat. And I thought, what am I going to keep? And I want to give you, find whatever your favorite place is.

It might not be the craft cafe. I know maybe you have kids. Maybe you'll have to pay to have somebody watch the kids. I don't know. But go make a thing. I want to keep this. And I'm going to let go of this. Just make a list. And then do it. And begin to keep that. This week I thought, I want to be more consistent with my quiet time. I'm not consistent enough.

I miss a day here. I miss a day there. I want to do it for love of God. Let's hold fast to the confessions of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. Let me say that again. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. Jeremiah Lampier is credited with being one of the key people who was part of the third great awakening.

And we live in an amazing country where God has blessed it with multiple revivals. Multiple. This was the third. The first great awakening, the second great awakening, the third was this one. And you have countries like Australia that have never had a revival. They've had some big ministries that have happened. But I would say many of my Australian friends would say we haven't had a true revival.

We're the whole nation. There was a man who was just a businessman. His name was Jeremiah Lampier. And he decided in 1857, September 23rd, 1857, to open up his business for a prayer meeting and to invite other business people to the prayer meeting. It was on Fulton Street. If you've heard the word Fulton Street because the Fulton Street revival comes after the name Fulton Street.

And he said, I'm just going to show up and pray. No agendas. We're going to read the scripture. We're going to read the songs. We're going to sing and we're going to pray from noon to one. Every whatever day it was. I think it was on Wednesday. Whatever, you can look it up. Whatever September 23rd was, 1857. The first day he had six people say they would come.

Only three showed up and they all came at different times. Which is tough when you're doing a prayer meeting, right? One walks in, another. Discouraged. Goes weak. Goes two weeks. Same thing. Then all of a sudden the word kind of gets out. 20 people showed up one day. Word got out a little bit more. Next thing you know, there's 100. Before you know it, they have to move the prayer meeting to all over New York City where people start showing up.

And now it's not just business people. It's white people. It's black people. It's all different types of people. Immigrants. Everyone is showing up and they're beginning to pray. And all of a sudden God starts doing a work. And it says that it is credited with over a million people being saved in the United States because of that prayer meeting. Or at least that was the impetus of that prayer meeting.

A lot of other things happened. This is at a time when the population of America was only 30 million people. That's a massive revival, right? Thank you. If you notice the date that this happened, it was right before something really important happened in our country. It was before slavery was abolished. And they said that many of the prayers, the abolitionists, much of the abolitionist movement, many of the people that were part of that came out of this particular prayer movement.

Why do I tell you this? Because God has been calling some of you and offering you the opportunity to start keeping some sort of thing. It might be being a playground dad like I was. It might be making a meeting, a prayer meeting at the top of the cross. I don't know, the cross. It might be a breakfast meeting. It might be just showing up to Starbucks and seeing people regularly and blessing them.

I don't know. But God is calling all of us. And imagine if we begin to start keeping vigil. Not just showing up, oh, it's Monday again. I've got to show up and just do it again, you know, or whatever this thing is. You show up with a heart's intention. I am keeping this job for this purpose. I am doing this for this purpose. Whatever it is to be like that person.

Because what we want to see is revival. And revival happens when the people of God remember who they are and they share it with people who don't know who they are. Let's stand if you would. Invite the prayer team forward. We want to pray for you. If you have never made a decision to follow Jesus, we want to invite you forward. We're going to pray with you to make a decision to follow Jesus.

We want to see you be baptized here after that. Be baptized in his name to spend eternity with him. But more than that, to join the discipleship journey to change the world. To do the type of things like the Graceful Warrior Project we've seen. To go to Africa. To maybe just go here in La Jolla. Maybe it's Chula Vista. Maybe it's Linda Vista. Maybe it's El Cajon.

Maybe there's, I don't know what your thing is. But it's time to start keep on keeping on. And start keeping the right vigils and the right things. We're going to sing right now as you just reflect on the Lord. And the prayer will be open and I'll close with a blessing if you would. And all the earth will shout your praise. Our hearts will cry. These combs will sing.

Great are you, Lord. Great are you, Lord. And all the earth. And all the earth will shout your praise. Our hearts will cry. These combs will sing. Great are you, Lord. It's your bread in our lungs. So we pour out our praise. We pour out our praise. It's your bread in our lungs. So we pour out our praise. You only. I want to encourage you. If you need prayer today, if you need a jump start, come forward for prayer.

If you're on the edge of your seat and you've been thinking about Jesus, come forward. We want you to know Jesus. We want you to follow him. We want to move forward. I want to bless you as a church to go out and find something you can keep on keeping on with. The thing I want to say is if Jeremiah would have given up in those first few weeks because no one showed up or whatever, he would have missed out.

Don't be surprised when the thing that you get all excited about, you've got to keep it on for multiple years. I wonder how many revivals were one prayer away when people stopped. With that, extend your hands. Lord Jesus, I want to bless your people, God, with ideas, with fresh imaginations. God, show them where you have anchored them, where you have rooted them.

And some people, you have put them in a place that they disdain, but they are there for a reason. And they need to reimagine why they're there. God, that you would turn that place into a blessing that they would find to be able to dance, God, amidst the rubble. And Lord God, begin to restore. We thank you for this message series on Josiah. We want to be like that.

I bless your people from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet that they might know you. And that they might make a difference and bring revival. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.