about the ministry in India. It brings back so many precious memories, times I spent there with you and Emmanuel and preaching there. Just so you all know, there is a table in the back. I hope you will join Craig and Debbie in the back and look over what they have there. But God is really doing an amazing work in India through the ministry that Craig represents, IRIF. Many of you recall the story when on one of my trips we were baptizing young men that had been converted. And there was a little boy that came into the river to be baptized. when there is a Hindu that has come to Christ, Emmanuel would say, give him a name. And they want us to choose a name for them. You know how we do that in the river. So I would choose, if it is a boy or a girl, I would try to choose a Bible name. And this little guy comes down into the river, you recall the story, and I am looking at him and I am about to give him a name. Emmanuel says, give him a name. He is a Hindu convert. And the little guy looked up at me and said, Spurgeon. And I said, Spurgeon. So I called him Spurgeon. I actually baptized him Spurgeon. I later found out that he was taught in his little village where he was evangelized. The pastor had told him the story about Spurgeon and he wanted his name. Now would you believe it, I actually, that's been many years ago, I communicate with Spurgeon on Facebook on a regular basis. He is walking with God. He is not in London, England but he is in India and he is now an engineer. He graduated from the school there at IRIF and it is amazing that he goes on for the Lord. And I have so many special memories that you have brought back to my mind. I remember one day Craig, I was really, really sick. I don't know if I had something, food poisoning or a flu. I was just deathly sick. And people come from miles and miles to hear the Word in these meetings. There will be thousands of people and some of them walk for hours to get there. And I got up this one particular night and I preached my heart out for about 45 minutes. And I got done. I thought, boy this is amazing. I got through it. I was in a sweat, I had a fever, I was trembling, I could barely stand. And I started to walk away and Emmanuel put his hand, he says, Bob, he says, gotta preach again. They've come a long ways, another sermon. And I'm thinking, you have got to be kidding me. But I thought, God, you've called me to preach. If I can't think of something to say, so I had the one message there. And what I did is I started reviewing in my mind the things I just preached. Jim Jones, who now is with the Lord, was over with me on that particular occasion. He is sitting behind me. And so I started remembering this message and I started going back point by point in my message. But I was starting from the end and going backwards through it. Just remembering the things and adding some more thoughts to it. got through it. When I got done I went down and sat down and Jim sat next to me and he says, Bob, I have never been a servant, never in my entire life where I have heard a minister get up and preach his sermon forwards and then backwards. But I do trust that in spite of that unusual circumstance that it was a blessing to those who heard the word. It is great to have all of you here today, particularly the men that are here on Father's Day. My heart goes out to all the fathers and all the men in the church. The text before us today in 2 Chronicles chapter 34, turn there if you would please, is a passage that has been speaking to my heart and warming my soul as I've been thinking about Fathers and Father's Day. And of course the application of this message will speak to every single one of us, whether you're a father, a husband, or a man, or not. God is so good to His people. When I think of the joys that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ it is a thrill to be amongst the elect of God and to be numbered amongst the Lord's people. Whether people are being converted in India out of Hinduism or whether they are being converted today in our country what a joy it is to know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Before I read our passage, our text in 2 Chronicles 34, let me remind all of you of this great, great salvation that we have in Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, this book, this Bible reveals to us God's marvelous plan of redemptive love in Christ. In order to be a Christian, in order to be a person who is going to have eternal life, we have to be born again. We know that we are all born as sinners. We are born with a fallen nature. Our entire being has been touched by the fall of Adam. Our intellect, our emotions, our will. We are spiritually bound. We are spiritually blind. We are spiritually dead. We are spiritually unteachable and because of that we need a touch of sovereign grace to regenerate us in order for us to have eternal life. You are not a Christian because you believe. You believe because God has come to you and given you the ability to repent and believe. And that is what made you a Christian. God's touch of grace on your life. And when He has quickened you and given you a life, when He has given you that gift of the new birth. When you come alive, when you are born again, your response is repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. And God is pleased to have washed you of all of your sins in His blood and cover you in His righteousness. And that is the joy of knowing God. Now next Sunday we are having a baptismal service and those who are planning on being I would invite you to come see me in my office after the service. We can go over some of the details. But when a person is born again and they know the Lord then they publicly profess before the world their faith in Christ through baptism. Salvation is a great gift. And this great message of Christianity it is so glorious. And when I think of all the other religions in the world they pale in comparison. to the glorious truths that we have in the Word of God. Now the story before us today is about a young man named Josiah. He was the king of Israel. He comes to become king at a young age of just eight years old. From the text that I am going to read you are going to see that from the very earliest days of this eight year old boy As an eight-year-old he had a love for God, a love for Jehovah, a love for the things of the Lord. Even as an eight-year-old and as we see this young man's life develop from the very beginning to the end of his life he has a remarkable and sterling character in his devotion to Christ. An example to every young man as he grows older, an example to every man, an example to every father, and an example to every Christian. Josiah comes to the land of Israel at a time of declension, a time of apathy, a time of a time of backsliding. So let's look at our text in 2 Chronicles 34 beginning at verse 1. You follow as I read some of these verses. It says, "...Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David. He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. 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. They broke down the altars and the bales in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down, and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and all around with axes. When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the Temple, he sent Shaphan the son of Ezaliah, and the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God." This young man, remarkable, at eight years old he becomes king. At the age of 26 he is leading a great reformation in the land of Israel. This man, this young man is remarkable. He is a sterling example of what every one of us ought to be for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow in prayer and ask God to speak to us today. Father in heaven, we are grateful that we could be here in your house on this day to give you glory. We are thankful for the fellowship we have in Your Son. We're thankful for His blood and righteousness. We're thankful for the gift of salvation and for Your mercy upon us. Father, we are an unworthy people. Father, we do not deserve the least of Your mercies, but yet You smiled upon us, not because of anything foreseen in us or anything that we could do or ever do. Purely by Your mercy and grace, You were pleased to draw us to Yourself. Our Father in heaven, we ask today that you might receive glory. Speak to every father that's here today. Speak to everyone who's here today, Father. Accomplish your eternal will. We'll give you all the praise. We'll give you all the glory. For we ask these things, Father, in Jesus' name. For His sake alone we pray. Amen. I said that this young man, Josiah, becomes king when he's just eight years old. and he is used of God in a remarkable way to bring revival and reformation to the land of Israel. He comes to the land in a time of its backsliding. He comes to the hour of his reign at eight years of age, a young boy, precocious, spiritual, tender in heart, eight-year-old boy who becomes king of a great nation. king of the people of God, the chosen people. But he becomes king at its darkest hour. This is not long after the days of Ahab. This is a dark hour in the land of Israel. In many ways it is much like the United States today. This land of ours is in a dark hour spiritually. There is a great spiritual crisis across our land. Can you imagine that we elect a president who is eight years old to try to lead this nation out of its morass, out of its darkness, out of the swamp of its apathy. Could you imagine an eight-year-old? He is king by the sovereign hand of God at eight years of age during a day of great backsliding. Now can I tell you something about backsliding? Backsliding is something that happens to those who know the Lord. An unsaved person, an unconverted person doesn't backslide. They don't know the Lord. They are not the Lord's. But those people who know God, who walk with God, who have been touched by grace, who have been saved, they can backslide. How does backslide take place in our lives? Backsliding is something that every one of us have to wrestle with. It can happen to anyone. And it begins when people begin to take for granted their relationship with the Lord. It begins when they begin to neglect the reading or the studying or the preaching of the Word of God. If you as a professing Christian begin to leave your Bible closed, If you begin to neglect the reading of the Word, it won't be long before you begin to harden in your heart, to be distracted by other things, to be led away from your personal devotion to Christ and backsliding begins with the neglect of Scripture. Now I want to thank every one of you for being here today on Father's Day. And I commend you. And I want you to know that we had our deacons meeting last week and several of our deacons come a long, long ways to come to church. And many of you come a long way. And when I hear of those who travel a great distance to come to worship at Berean I can only tell you how it humbles me. When I pray throughout the week for the services and I'm working on my messages throughout the week as I'm praying over what I'm about to speak I remember you in prayer. I'm thinking about how I'm going to apply this message to the people that will be there and I am absolutely humbled that there are so many that come such a great distance to be in the Lord's house. I can assure you that every single one of you I love and care for dearly. I know that not at all times can people be in the house of God. There are sometimes extenuating circumstances, illnesses, and various problems that keep us away from the house of the Lord. Some of you care for loved ones and fathers and mothers that are ill, that are shut in, and there are those that travel so long, and there are so many things that can keep people away from God's house. I understand all of that. But I would say this, all things considered we ought, all of us, be concerned to be under the Word of God. Because the Word of God speaks to the heart. If I said tomorrow at three o'clock in my home that Jesus is going to be in my house as my guest, in the flesh. And I invite you to come and enjoy a cup of coffee in my home throughout the afternoon with Jesus Christ. Would you come? And if you came, if he was in my home, could you be in the presence of Jesus and then say, as you walked out the door, Pastor, this was kind of a, it wasn't really as exciting as I thought I was a little bit bored by what he had to say. Could you really say that? To be in the presence of him. But this is what happens when we come to church on the Lord's Day. How often do people say, you know, I was bored or it wasn't relevant. It didn't speak to me. or your mind drifts and you're thinking other things. Do you understand what happens when you come into the presence of God on the Lord's Day? The heavens are mysteriously and mystically opened up. Heaven descends. We ascend. We meet in some mystical place, as it were. Angels are present right here. And Christ is amidst His church. He's amongst us. The Spirit of God is here. And in a way that I can't explain, God moves among His people. He touches hearts. He convicts of sin. He speaks to us. He comforts. He rebukes. He draws near. I can't explain it, but it's there. It's real. It's spiritual. It's mystical. But you know when God is touching your heart. God is here today, and he'll be here next week, and the week after, and I invite you to come to meet with Christ. I understand, I understand there are times when there are things that keep us legitimately awake, but oh, we ought to be under the Word of God. Backsliding begins when we take our Bibles, close it on our dresser or on our shelf, and it begins to collect dust, and we rarely open the Word of God. The psalmist said, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word, thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. It's when we take heed, when we listen to and study the word of God, God speaks and gets a hold of our lives. D.L. Moody once said, the old evangelist, God's word will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from God's word. The way to avoid backsliding is keep a short account with God. Draw near to Him. Be much in prayer. Make sure every day you meet the Lord. If you sin, if there's something in your life, confess it. Draw near to God. Open the Bible. Read the Bible. It will speak to your heart. Over the years, my father-in-law, who's now gone to be in heaven, was a man who constantly passed out Bibles everywhere he went, because he knew the power of the Word of God. My wife Mary is constantly giving Bibles to relatives and friends and passing out Scripture. Pastor Tipton is constantly passing out Scriptures to people, giving Bibles to people he meets. Dear friends, do you understand the power, oh the joy and the glory in this book? And this story about Josiah, a young man of eight years of age comes to the throne, a young man who's been touched by grace. How do you explain an eight-year-old who's spiritual? John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. That is, he's regenerated from his mother's womb. My wife believes that she was touched by God's grace and regenerated when she was four years old and gave evidence to everyone who knew her that that happened at that young age. Holy Spirit touches hearts and He does it through the precious Word of God. What we have in this particular passage is a remarkable story. You'll notice in verse 3 it says, year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. He's now 16, in the eighth year of his reign, 16 years of age, he begins to seek God with all his soul, with all his heart. How do you seek God? Let us not forget that there are ways to seek the Lord. As a matter of fact, in Chronicles, the same passage that we have here, there are verses that tell us how to seek the Lord. 1 Chronicles 22, 19 says this, God speaks. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. Therefore arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and of the holy articles of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the Lord. God is giving us wisdom here. Set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. Be concerned about worship. That's how you seek the Lord. In 2 Chronicles 7.14, God again says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." If you take that verse and break it down, here's how you seek God. Here are the steps. So succinctly put, in 2 Chronicles 7.14, humble yourself before the Lord. Drop on your knees in humble brokenness of heart before Him. Pray Talk to God. Bring your heart to Him. Open up your life. Bow down in humility. Confess your sins. Come. Bow down. Seek His face. Turn from your wicked ways. Repent. That is seeking God. And God's blessings and His glory will be upon you. I am taking as my theme this morning Josiah's response to the Word. What we have here in our passage is the story of a young man who becomes king, a boy, the boy king. At 8 years of age it says in verse 1, when he was 8 years old he became king. He reigned for 31 years. Verse 3, in the 8th year of his reign while he was still young he began to seek the God of his father David. So he is 16 years old. Then it says, and in the twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem. Now, he's twenty years old. Eight, he becomes king. Sixteen, he begins to really seek after God. At twenty, he's leading reformation, purifying the land. Verse eight, in the eighteenth year of his life, or his reign, he's twenty-six years old now, he's purged the land, and now he sends representatives to the temple to make sure things are done right in the temple. And here's what happens. He is living in a time where the country is backslidden and the scriptures have been lost. And as he sends these representatives into the temple something amazing happens. They find a copy of a law. They find a copy of the scriptures. Our text will go over, if you would, in verse 14. Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. Can you imagine living without the Bible? I can't imagine not having this book in my hands every day of my life. I can't imagine living as an individual on this planet without the word of the living God. But these people were without. They had so backslidden. The Bible was shoved aside somewhere in the temple. They didn't even know where it was. And as Josiah sends these people, the scribe finds the book of the law. It says, "'I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord,' and Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. So Shaphan carried the book to the king, bringing the king word, saying, "'All that was committed to your servants they are doing.'" And they have gathered the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have delivered it unto the hand of the overseers and the workmen. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king." That's the greatest gift. He said, he's found this book and he said, let me read it. He read the law, he read the scripture to the king. And then we have in verse 19, thus it happened when the king heard the words of the law that he tore his clothes. He was so smitten, he was so broken, so humbled he ripped his clothing which is a sign of a torn heart. So take as my theme today Josiah's response to the reading of the Word of God and I would pray every father here today that you would in a similar way understand how important it is to read the Word, to hear the Word and to respond like Josiah. There are five things, five ways in which he responded and I will give these five things as we go through our text. The first thing, the scribe reads to this young king. He reads the law. He reads the scriptures. And the very first thing as a response is that he is broken, deeply grieved over his sin. Look at verses 19 and 27 if you would please. It says, Thus it happened when the king heard the words of the law that he tore his clothes. If you go down to verse 27, when God finally speaks to Josiah, He says, "...because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against His inhabitants. And you were humbled yourself before Me and tore your clothes and wept before Me. I also have heard you, says the Lord." He was humble. He was tender. He wept before God. In other words, the Word really, really got a hold of him. He was already spiritually minded by the sovereign grace of God. He was already thinking of spiritual things. He had already led a great reformation in the land. He had destroyed all these things that were evil. But when he heard the Word read, it touched his heart. He was broken over sin. The second thing that happens when he hears the word, he said immediately, he sought counsel from spiritual advisors. He's listening to the word and it's like, I need exposition. I need explanation. I need someone to tell me what these things mean and what is God saying through this? It's wise. That's why you have pastors and elders and those who open the word of God. Look at, if you would, verses 20 and 22 in our text. It says, "...then the king commanded Hilkiah, Anakim the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king, saying, Go inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and Judah concerning the words of the book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us." He gathers these advisors and he says, Inquire the Lord. What does the Lord say? How do I apply this? What is God's message for me? When he heard the word, he's broken and tender and he weeps. But then secondly, he's wise in asking for advice and counsel. He's asking for people to give him instruction. The Bible says there's wisdom in a multitude of counselors and when you hear the word, that's why it's important to have spiritual counselors and advisors. more often than not it's found in those that are your spiritual leaders in the church. What's the third thing he does? He gathers, now that he's heard the Word, he understands what God is doing and saying, now he gathers all the people together so that they also can hear the Word. Look at it with verses 29 and 30. Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord." You see the progression here? He hears the word. It smites him. It crushes him. It humbles him. He goes to his counselors. What does this mean? What is God saying? What's his message? What's application? Explain it. And then he gathers everybody under his leadership, brings them all together, and he reads the word to them. You know the greatest thing a father can do for his family is to read the Bible. Give your kids, give your family, give your loved ones a Bible. Read it to them. Teach them the scriptures. Talk of the things of the Lord. What does Deuteronomy 6 say? In the morning when you get up, throughout the day when you go to bed at night, talk of the things of God. Spurgeon used to say, when thou goest, when thou liest out at night, think of Him. When thou risest in the morning, think of Him. Josiah gathers all the people together to hear the Word to read the word. The fourth thing he does is that as he reads the word to everybody, he makes a promise and a vow before the people to obey God. Verse 31 and 32, Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul to perform the words of the covenant that were written in the book. He makes a promise that he is going to keep the law and the words of God with all his heart. I would today that every father here would say in their heart, they would take this stand, that they would say, Pastor Dickey, with all my heart, with all my soul, When I hear the word, when I see what God expects of me, I vow before God with all my heart, with all my soul to do all that God tells me to do. Look at verse 32, and he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin He made them what? He said, take your stand. Reminds me of Joshua. Remember Joshua? They're getting ready to enter the land of promise. He says, but as for me, choose you this day whom you'll serve. The God of our fathers or the God of these idols? Choose you this day whom you're gonna serve. But as for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. Every father needs to be like Joshua. Every father needs to be like Josiah. He made the people obey. He's a God. That's the kind of leader we need in our land today. That's the kind of president. That's the kind of dad we need. A dad, a leader, a father who will say, this is right and this we will do and will not turn aside to the left or the right. We will obey God. We will do what is right before God. That's what he's saying here. Then the final thing. we see in our text is, he removed all the evil from the land, verse 33. Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel and made all who were present in Israel, he made them diligently serve the Lord their God. He removed everything that would be a hindrance. Every dad here today, you need to go through your home. First of all, go through your heart. And make sure there's nothing in your heart or your life that's grieving the Spirit or that's cluttering up your relationship with the Lord. Clear out your heart, the home of your heart, and then clear out your home. Make sure there's nothing in your home that's going to grieve the Holy Spirit. Nothing that pertains to satanic worship, ouija boards, anything ungodly, anything that's filthy. Get out of your house. Clean up your home. This is what Josiah did. All these things. He hears the Word of God as a young man. He is eight years old. At sixteen he begins to seek after God. At twenty he begins to lead the Reformation. At twenty-six he is cleaning up the temple. He finds the Word. They read it to him and he is smitten. He is absolutely overwhelmed by God's Word. He is broken over his sin. He seeks counsel from spiritual advisors. He has the word read to all those who are under his leadership. He makes a promise to obey the word and then he removes all the corruption and the filth in the land. Tell me, friends, is there a story in the Bible quite remarkable like this? A man like this? A young man, how do you explain this man apart that God used him, God raised him up and touched his life? You know, I thank God for every one of you. You all have your own story, your own testimony, how God has drawn near and come to you and blessed you, how he's all in his providence. He's brought us all together. We're a family. We love one another. We know one another. We pray for one another. And every story that you have, every testimony touches the hearts and lives of all who are here. There's no one here greater than another. We are all so important in the hands of God in that sense. whether we're a hand or a foot or an eye or a finger, we're all part of a body and every member has its importance and everyone should be special to everyone. Just as we are a body here, there are other churches that are, and when I hear of other churches that are struggling, I weep with them. And when I hear of other churches that are being blessed, I rejoice with them. We're a part of the kingdom of God, and what a joy it is to be in God's house with His people, to be here today with you, with you, my brothers and my sisters. When father and mother may forsake me, the Lord will take me up. And if earthly brothers or sisters forsake me, I have spiritual brothers and sisters a hundredfold over. and how blessed we are to have one another in Christ. Are there lessons to learn from this? First of all let me give you a few brief lessons as we wrap this up quickly here. I look at this young Josiah coming to be a king at eight years of age. But from the time of eight years old to the time that he dies this young king He does what's right before God and never wavers. It's possible to walk with God even in a dark time. And I would ask all of our young people today, you might be called upon in this world to learn what it means to walk alone if you're walking with Jesus. J. Oswald Smith wrote that wonderful hymn, I walked alone with Jesus in a fellowship divine Nevermore can earth allure me, I am his and he is mine. In the darkness, in the shadows, with the Savior I have trod. Sweet indeed have been the blessings since I've walked alone with God." Sometimes we walk alone. Notice also in our story how important it is to be under the preaching and teaching of God's Word. All of this great revival was because they found the Scriptures and they read it. Make sure you're reading the Word on a regular basis. We see also the lasting impact of David. Look at our text if you would please at verse 2 in our story here. chapter 34 verse 2 it says, And he, Josiah, did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the ways of his father David. Now David is a ways back, but a godly man's posterity can touch generations way down the line. Craig Darling has seven children and now nine grandchildren. And those nine will have great-grandchildren and so on and so forth. And a godly man will affect generations a long ways off. Josiah was walking in the ways of David his great-great-great-grandfather. How important it is to be a godly man. You notice also that Josiah made all the people, he made them take a stand. He knew what was right and he said, like Joshua, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. And he basically by the power and courage and strength and force of his character he made the nation do what is right. We need to make sure in a godly way, in a gentle way, in a holy way, in a prayerful way we need to make sure that our families do what is right. Young people, if your mom and dad have rules and regulations and things they want you to do, they are trying to lead the family. Remember they are responsible to God to lay down principles and scriptures and laws and so forth. Obey your mom and dad. They are doing what is right for you. We are also reminded how pleased the Lord was when Josiah responded well to the Word. Look at verse 27, if you would, in our text. So we can find verse 27. Do you want God to hear you? Do you want God to take notice of you? Then hear Him. Then humble yourself before Him and God will look upon you like He looked upon Josiah. It will move the heart of the Lord if you respond as He did. We also see how great was God's wrath. In verse 21 Josiah says, for great is the wrath of the Lord when people sin. God is a holy God and His wrath is great. Josiah purged the land of all the evil. Is there anything in your life that needs purging? And finally I would say this, Josiah is a great example of what a true follower of Christ should be. Can I summarize what Josiah did? This is all from our text. He did what was right. He lived a godly life. He sought the Lord. He was unwavering He was broken and repentant. He purged all the sin out of the land. He sought godly counsel. He led those around him to obey the Lord as well. And here's what's really important. All through his life, he never, he never turned back. We start the race, my dear friends, finish well. Those of us that are older, we're drawing near to the end. Finish the race well. Don't waver. Don't stumble. Don't turn back. You've come so far. Make it to the end. Lean across that finish line. Hit the tape with your chest as you're running as hard as you can. Finish the race for the glory of God. I'm amazed at this young king named Josiah. All week long as I've been studying this passage and working on this, I kept saying, Lord, make us like him. make uses like Him. May God bless you today. Happy Father's Day to our men. May the Lord smile upon everyone here. May you be committed to the Word of God and remember the importance and the power of God's Word. Our Father and our God, we give you glory. We worship you and glory in your Son in His infinite and marvelous grace. Father, may we respond to your Word as this young king did. And whatever you're pleased to do in our lives, in our homes, in our church, we'll give you all the praise and all the glory. For we ask these things for Jesus' sake. Amen.