Good evening. Good evening. It's always good to get to come preach to your friends, right? See, I don't know why y'all don't know what that's like. It's really good to come and visit good see familiar faces. I see these kids as they're moving up. And I don't know whether it'd be heartbroken or really, really happy because I feel like I would probably be working with the kids if I was still here. So before I really even get into the message, the last time that I had a part in VBS, I sit and watched all those kids walk by. And some of them aren't kids anymore. Y'all gave me into that and it's good to see them here because that's my point I'm making, they're still here, amen? So tonight, in tonight's message, if you'll be turning to 2 Kings chapter 22. Talk about a game changer, it's a word that people use today. Grant has not given me the wireless, so I feel kind of confined. I like to walk, so I feel kind of confined right now. That's why I'm so nervous. I like to walk around and jump around or do whatever. But in 2 Kings chapter 22. Just take a few awkward minutes to get things started here. We're alright. I'm already nervous so y'all should get a little bit nervous too. Stick it in there. If you'll stand please to honor the reading of God's word. Three verses. Verse number eight. And Hilkiah the high priest unto Shaphan the scribe had found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought the king word again and said, thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have oversight of the house. And Shaphan the scribe showed the king saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king and it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law that he rent his clothes. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this day. Just thinking about the word of God should bring us all to our knees, the gravity that's within it. And Lord, it can be a life changer as well as a game changer in our life. When we see a man here, Josiah, that was doing right, But when he got hooked up to the Word of God, he really changed his thinking, he changed his whole efforts of his life. Lord, I pray tonight that if there's someone here that's, they're saved and they're not into the Bible, I pray that this message will spark an interest in the Word of God, that they will decide to read it and allow it to soak into their life and allow it to start making the changes that it can make. through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the power of being a child of God. I also pray tonight for someone here that's lost. They've never trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior. That they see that the book that maybe they hold in their hand or someone else is holding in their hand has the plan of eternal life and that plan is in the person of Jesus Christ. So I pray, Lord, that you'll use this message. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. I want to ask you a question. First of all, I'll ask the awkward question. I've never asked this question here. How many of y'all read your Bible every day? Raise your hand. Okay, y'all look around at the ones that didn't raise their hand. Brother Grant, take notes. No, I'm just kidding. As a child of God, we should read the Bible every day. Now, I know you say, well, I don't have a Sunday school class. I'm not a preacher. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. If you're a young person, you better make sure you're in it. If you're a middle-aged person in your 20s and 30s, man, you really need it. Then when you start getting old, you know, like my older than me, not as old as I am, I'm not old yet, you're really going to need it. But the question I really want to ask you, has the Bible changed you? I mean, you read the Bible and has it changed you? Second question, is it still changing you? Third question, has it stopped changing you? So you ask yourself those questions. I don't want to see no hands. I just want you to know that if you're a child of God, the Bible should be center of your daily appetite for your spirit. It should be in the middle of what you do. Now, you say, I don't have time. Well, before I was a preacher, I didn't have time either. But I soon found out, Andy, that God would show me how to get time. And I did it a few ways. I won't go through all that because I got a message I gotta preach. But if you just read two verses a day, and maybe write it on a card, stick it in your pocket, and as you're walking through or standing there, you got a minute or two, you just look at that scripture. Maybe take a pencil and on the back of that card, write a thought. Say, well, God spoke to me that way. But we see a man here, Josiah, that when he read the scriptures that most commentators think that they read from Deuteronomy chapter either 4 through 17. So I'm going to ask you to turn to chapter 4 of Deuteronomy for just a moment because Yeah, we see Josiah here. He sees what he has been read matches the current conditions. And folks, I'm not talking about physical conditions. I'm talking about spiritual conditions. In Deuteronomy chapter 4, I'm going to read some of these verses and we're just going to go through chapter 6. Not going to read them all, but we're going to read several verses. Verse 24. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. Verse 29, But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul, When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt make obedience unto his voice. For the Lord thy God is a merciful God. He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them. In chapter 5, verse number 6, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. From the house of bondage thou shalt have no other god before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven images, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children upon the third and the fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Keep the Sabbath day and sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Look in verse 16. Honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, neither shalt thou steal, neither shalt thou hear false witness against thy neighbor. Turn over to chapter 6, please. Verse number 1. Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord thy God commandeth to teach you that ye might do them in the land where there ye go to possess. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son, and thy son's son, and all the days thy life, that the days may be prolonged here Therefore O Israel and observe to do that it may be well with thee that ye may increase mightily as the Lord thy God of thy fathers hath promised in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul and all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shalt be in thine heart. Look verse 11, in the houses. full of good things, which thou fillest not and wells dig, which thou diggest not vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantest not, thou shalt have eaten and be full. Then beware, lest thou forget God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and swear by his name, ye shall not go after other gods. or of the gods of the people which are around about you. For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth." You say, man, Rick, why are you reading all them verses? Put yourself in Josiah's place. He'd never heard the word of God read to him like it, and all of a sudden this man comes up and reads possibly these scriptures. I don't know, but it says, like I say, most commentaries say from chapter 4 through chapter 17. Maybe he read the whole thing. And there's something that happened to Josiah. He felt conviction because his people were not following the Word of God. I want to ask you today, do you feel any conviction over anything that was read there? I mean, I know some of you all, and you know me. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Is that not probably the most difficult one? You say, no, wait a minute, Rick. I'm just asking the question. Thou shalt not kill shouldn't be the worst one, but is there someone that you hate? Is there someone that you hate? Jesus said, if you hate your brother, what? Somebody tell me out loud. It's murder. How many of y'all murdered somebody this year? Short year. What about last year? I'll tell you a quick story. There's a person that I know, had known for a long time. And I won't go into detail, but a few, several years ago, an incident happened. And I kind of held a grudge against that person. So he had surgery here a few weeks back. I'm going to pray for him, Gary. I bowed down to pray and God said, you can't pray for that man. I said, Lord, I'm going to pray for him. I'm going to pray that he does good. He said, you can't pray for that man. And I just pretty much, I mean, I didn't hear an audible voice, but Bradley, I said, why can't I pray for him? He said, because you're holding something against him. How many of us hold stuff against people? And God doesn't want us to do that. I mean, these are the simple things. I'm talking, really this message is a grand scheme because there's a revival that breaks out in Israel. But how many times do we just read something in the Bible and say, you know what? That's for the more spiritual person. That's for the person that, you know, that's for the preacher. That's for Grant. He needs to understand that. Ricky, he needs to get that. No, Josiah felt the gravity of the Word of God that was read to him. He said, oh God, he started tearing his clothes off. When was the last time you felt just ashamed to be in the presence of God? See, I remember coming to this church, and I bought a red King James Bible. It was a Thompson Chains reference, Patrick, just like this. This one's black. I know it's not the same, so don't get me on that. And I started to read that thing. And you know, Brother Jerry was still preaching, I think, at that time. I was reading that Bible a little bit every day, and I didn't know a whole lot about the Bible. And I was reading that Bible, and I don't remember what I was reading. I was reading, one day, I can take you to the place in my house, and I'm reading it, and I'm like, oh God! You know you're accountable to that Bible. You know, kids, those things, those flannel, graph, whatever you hear in vacation Bible school, you know you're accountable to that. You know I'm accountable to that? See, Josiah got serious quick. It says in verse number 11, go back to 2 Kings 22. I'm going to give you all the quick version because I know they say, great, it gets out of here really early, right? It says, and it came to pass when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he rent His clothes. I want to ask you a question, Mount Hebron. I love you all as much as I love anybody that I love in this world. I wouldn't want any of you, as well as myself, to have to pay a consequence for failing to follow God's Word. So that's why people preach the Word of God. Yeah, we preach it so people can get saved, yes. If there's somebody here lost today, I'd love to see the Holy Spirit bring about conviction and bring them to the place where they say, I need Jesus because I don't want to go to hell. I understand that. But saved people in the world today need to understand that the Bible is still the rule of authority and it's still the thing that we need for our life to help us through this life. And it will always be what we need to get us through this life. Josiah's seen the sin of his people. He's seen the judgment that God was going to bring forth. He's seen the destruction because God laid it right out to him. I want you to look in verse number 13. He says, Go inquire of the Lord for me for the people in all Judea concerning the words of this book that's found for great is the wrath. of the Lord is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, due according unto all that which is written concerning us." Think he was worried about what was going to happen? Think he thought that God was going to keep his word? Yes, sir. I want to ask you again, has the Bible changed your life? Is it still changing you, or has it stopped changing you tonight? You know, Hebrews 4.12 tells us that what? The Word of God is what? Quick, powerful, sharper than. See, that day I was reading my Bible, Brother Anthony, the Bible had already just cut me right in two. But you know the Bible has to cut you before it can fix you. The Bible has to get into you before you can get it out of you. I don't care who it is. If God says something to you, I preached a message last week and I don't like to rehash things, but you know if God has spoke to you about anything, God has asked you to do something and you didn't do it, you're in unbelief. Because you don't believe that God can do what he said he can do. Now, I realize it's sin, it's disobedience. I get that. But if God has spoke to you about something, and you say, yeah, Lord, I know I need to do that, and you haven't done it, you're in unbelief that God can't do it. And I'm talking about something as simple as saying, okay, I've heard Rick's message. I really need to start reading that Bible every day. And you pray, and you really get serious, and God says, yes, I need you to start reading your Bible every day and start getting serious about the Word of God. And God speaks to you and says, yes. Two weeks later, You're still wondering when you're gonna start doing that. You need to get in there and let God start working at it. Working in you. See, Josiah, he ran his clothes. He knew what the word of God had said to him. And I think he was scared. Proverbs 1, 7. You need to see this. I'm sure you've read this verse, heard it. need to turn over and read it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. I mean, y'all over right now, get over there and look at it because you young people need to see this. I'm gonna read it again. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. I mean, you teenagers have had your mom and dad tried to tell you something you say, I got it. I got it. See Amelia was afraid I didn't know how to get here tonight. I drove this road for 20 or 25 years and she just hadn't experienced it. And that little boy that we used to bring called Nicholas, when he got 16, there was nothing I could tell him, Brother Grant, because he had the answers. I want to tell you young people, you ain't got all the answers. You want me to repeat that adults? You adults want me to repeat that? You do not have the answers. Keep listening to your parents. Keep reading the Bible. Keep letting God speak into your life because you ain't got the answers. Because if you ever get to verse 11, if you ever get to verse 11, that's when God can start doing something in your life. When you can hear, read the Bible, and you just decide that you need to rent your clothes off, and I'm not talking about taking your clothes off, I'm talking about, oh, I mean, he was grieved, he was mourning because he had read something that was real to him. See, when the Bible tells me that the wages of sin is death, young people, that is a warning to you. If you've not trusted Christ as your Savior, The wages of sin is death. That's separation from God for eternity. And everybody wants to go to heaven, but I'm here to tell you that it only goes through Jesus Christ alone. But what I want you to make sure you understand, you better fear the opposite. Because if you were to pass from this life, Without Jesus Christ, you will spend eternity in hell. And God, in the final judgment, will cast you into the lake of fire. He won't do it because He wants to. It's because you rejected His Son. The second thing, Josiah took this as a personal Situation he responded personally. We've already read it there in verse 13. He says go inquire the Lord and guys Y'all know who he got Brother Grant, you know, he got okay. Hang on. I love this part because I In verse number 14, let's read it. It says, So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahiakim, and Agbor, and Shaphan, Asahiah, went to Huldah the... Say it out loud. Prophetess. He went to a woman. Now that tells me a couple of things. We shouldn't limit our prayers just to men, amen? I've prayed with some women that have probably more power in their prayer than I've ever experienced. But secondly, it tells me that maybe there was no men that were stepping up that were readily available and had the power of God within them. And it's not a male or female thing to start with, because you know what? Whether you're male or female here tonight, we can all speak to the same God. Girls, boys, men, women, it does not matter. See, he took this personal because he said, you may have missed that first part, he said, go ye and inquire of the Lord for who? For me. Then he said, for the people. He said, for me, if you're here tonight, and you say, I just don't know whether I can, I know I need something from God. Get somebody that you feel like has the touch of God upon them and ask them, hey, inquire the Lord for me. You girls getting ready to have you an all night sleep in or whatever you call it? Think about the spiritual part of this thing first. It'll be fun, I realize that. But you know, get real with God and say, I need God. I want to inquire of God. I want to find God. And you know what? The Bible tells me if you'll seek Him, what? He will be found. He will be found. I will tell y'all something right now. Grant asked me to preach and I wasn't really with the mindset, so I'm kind of a little out of sorts here. Trying to cut some of this off so I don't go too long, but I really don't care to go long but the same token I want to give you the the deal here it sounds like that Josiah didn't speak to God, but look in verse number 19 It says because that heart was tender and And thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me. Also, now get this, I also have heard thee. Not only should you get someone to inquire of the Lord for you, but you better be doing some talking yourself. You better be talking to Him. It doesn't take the King James language of prayer. It doesn't take the religious verbiage to talk to God. Just tell Him what you got on your heart and say it straight and plain and be honest with God. If you ain't got what you're looking for, you ask Him and He might give it to you. If he rent his clothes in verse 11, and he felt the gravity, can you only imagine what he might have said to God? I mean, think about that for just a moment. And I'll be the first one. I may sit now, I read my Bible every day unless something really bad major happens. That doesn't happen very often at all. But sometimes I'll read the Bible and I'll get done and I'll go, what did I just read? Let me done. Yeah. But Josiah, he didn't just hear. He understood what was being said. And some days, I know this for a fact, and Grant would raise his hand up first, I know there's some days I read the Bible and I almost can't get up out of my chair before I hit my knees and say, God, I hear you. See, Josiah heard. And I just want you to think for a minute, what did he say to God? Did he say, oh Lord, forgive me my sins, bless my day, let's go? Did he say that? What do you think, Bradley? I think he got down to business. I think today, and I haven't been around here for a while, but I think today in all churches, we need to get down to business with God and be honest with him and say, okay, God, this is where I stand. And you can even say something like this. Start changing me. Because I got a real good thing to tell you. You can't change yourself. You can't change yourself. Now, you can submit as Romans 12 says, you can give yourself a living sacrifice, but God's going to be the one that changes you, folks. And the biggest part of that's going to be right here in the Word of God. I also want you to know that his heart changed. He had a humility before God that was just unmatched. Look over in chapter 23, verse 25. And I'll show you where this message really began for me. Unfortunately for you, it probably won't end here, but verse 25, likened to him was, and it's talking about Josiah here, there was no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his might, according to all the law of Moses. Neither after him arose there any like him. That kind of reminds you of some verses you hear in the New Testament, right? Go to Matthew chapter 22. You've read these verses. Many of you kids may even have it memorized. Love the sound of them little babies, amen? Verse 36, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, With all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind, this is the first and great commandment. The second is likened to it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Look what Jesus says, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. That's a pretty heavy verse right there, I don't care who you are. But I also want to let you know that the Bible got into Josiah. Josiah was not happy, Anthony, until he told somebody. He was not happy until not only he heard the Word of God, but until he was for sure that the people heard it. Look in chapter 23, verse 1, And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, his statutes, and all his heart, with all their heart and with all their soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. I'm going to ask you this evening, are you willing to stand with the Bible? You say, I own a Bible, Rick. No, I'm asking, are you willing to take this Bible and digest it? So that you can begin to give God your heart, your soul, and your mind, and all your strength, and all your effort. You young men that have new wives, you want to love your wife as much as you can, right? I tell this to everybody. If you want to love your wife as much as you want to, I can tell you the best way to do it. You love Jesus Christ more, and you'll love your wife more. I'll guarantee it. Because Jesus loves perfectly. He loves you so much that He died on a cross for you. And this whole book, folks, details what God has done for us. It's not what we got to do for Him, it's what He's done for us. And I want to challenge you tonight, as the song leader comes, I want to ask you those three questions again. Has the Bible changed you? Is it still changing you? Or has it stopped changing you to this day? And then the last two questions. How's God speaking to you right now? And will you respond? Let's pray. Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for your Word. Lord, it's so good to be here. Lord, I pray that the love and the mercy and the grace of your Word have been poured out upon people tonight. Lord, my solemn prayer is that if there's a young person here that's lost, or anyone that's lost, I pray they'll come to know Jesus Christ. And as important, I pray if there's a person, young or old, And their Christianity has grown stale, and the Word of God has not become part of their life. They don't have to come to the altar, but I pray that they're praying right now, God, help me to want what's in your Word. Help me to feed upon it and live by it every day of my life. Lord, I just pray the invitation is in your hands. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.