ARCC Sermons

ARCC Sermons

By Alamo Ranch Community ChurchReligion & Spirituality
Download on the App Store

ARCC Sermons episodes

  • August 13th - Day 225
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 13th
    Our bible reading today is in Jeremiah chapters 23-25.
    I was discipled to expect God to speak to me from His Word, the Bible. This morning is no different. After I repeat John’s request, Revelation 22:20, “Come Lord Jesus”, I repeat David’s song verse, Ps 119:18, “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things from thy word.
    Jer 23: “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭23:1‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    What a dreadful sadness and sorrow that God sees and projects upon all “false shepherds” and their flocks. These so-called pastors are the ones who do nothing but scatter the sheep and leave them defenseless against the wolves.
    “Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them.”
    How Sad for many believers in Judah during Jeremiah’s day, few true shepherds to guide them and feed them from God’s table. God calls His shepherds to attend to the flock of God. To be as “the good shepherd”, Jesus.
    Let’s listen to Jesus in John 10...“I am the “good shepherd, The good shepherd “lays down” his life for the sheep”.
    In other words, the good shepherd cares for the sheep more than he cares for himself. Wow, that’s our Jesus giving his life to save us, and giving us spiritual shepherds, pastors, who love us, attend to us, and pray for us and feed us from the words of God.
    Even as Jeremiah prophesied...quote...‭‭ “I “will” set shepherds over them who will “feed” them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭23:4‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    The good news? If the undershepherds don't care for and feed the flock, the Savior God will. For His redeemed flock will never go missing. Will never be left to be torn by wolves.
    The best news...for Judah and us...Jer 23:5,6
    “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭23:5-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    The King of Righteousness was coming. The answer to all “injustice in Israel”. The answer to all injustice in America I might add, and the world. And his name would be called Jesus, for he would save his people from their sins.
    There were better days ahead for the people of promise. Better than their deliverance from Egypt. Better than the parting of the Red Sea. Better than a land of their own. Ao what would be those better days?
    A KING...The “Lord is our righteousness” is his name. Jesus would be born to reign. Reign from the manger to the cross to the empty grave to the sky and back again. His righteousness would become ours. Said another way...His righteousness would become our “right standing with God”. Making us kingdom kids for eternity.
    Now that’s a wow. And 800 years before Christ, Judah was hearing and believing the same Gospel we spread today. Awesome!
    Have a great day
    6 min
  • August 12th - Day 224
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 12th
    Our Bible reading today includes some of my “sugar stick” passages that God has brought to my mind in very timely fashion over the years Jeremiah 18-22.
    “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭18:1‬
    O friends and family in the faith, this first verse in the reading takes hold of my soul’s desire every time I read it. “To hear God’s words”...for instruction, direction, encouragement, and promise. Jeremiah’s experience with God included conversations with God, personal ones, and very often initiated by God.
    I don't pretend to be of the spiritual advancement that Jeremiah must have been. But we do share the same calling to preach God’s message to God’s people. We share lapses in faith and tears for friends and family on their own difficult journey of faith. And we share a desire for the Lord, and an expectancy to hear God speak to our hearts. May we never lose that expectancy, friends.
    “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭18:2‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    Would you and I leave what we are doing and go down to the potter ‘s house to hear God’s voice? O dear ones, may we be willing to obey God’s instructions, the Holy Spirit’s promptings like Jeremiah, and go down to “wherever” in order to hear God’s words!!!!
    Remember with me Jesus gave a hard message to a great crowd following Him and His disciples and the vast majority of the great crowd turned and went away. Then Jesus asked of those who remained...” Will you leave too?” And Peter spoke up, “No...Why would we? You have the words of life.”
    Early in my Christian life, some teammates and some other friends at North Texas State University would ask me why I was so determined to go to church on Sundays. At that time I didn't know the Bible much at all. So I couldn't quote some bible verse to them. So I just said that Jesus used my pastor to speak his words and that I didn't want to miss a single one.
    And by the way...that girlfriend that became my wife, Beverly, she first told me that.
    O, Lord...”You do” have the words of life, and we don't want to miss a single one. So we will be listening to the Jeremiah’s you put in our lives. So bless our pastors with hearts that hear You speak, and we will be listening too.
    One more piece of the text...“So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me:
    “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭18:3-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    “Can I not do with you as this potter has done? God to Israel then.
    God our Savior to us now...“You are my clay”...”in my sovereign hands”to make you the vessel of my choosing and for my purposes.”And you will become marred by sin”...“But I will remake you as you stay on the wheel...” “That you may better serve Me.”
    O Lord, we are the clay. Help us stay on the wheel so that You can make us fit for your service and your glory.
    Have a great day
    7 min
  • August 11th - Day 223
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 11th
    Our Bible reading today in Jeremiah chapters 14-17.
    A strange command from God to His prophet Jeremiah...“The Lord said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭14:11‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    Wow, apparently things can get so sideways in the covenant relationship between God and his people, that the course is set and prayers and fastings will no longer make any difference.
    God actually told Jeremiah twice not to pray for unfaithful Judah. And in yesterday’s reading, we learned why. “Thus says the Lord to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, and do not dip it in water"
    “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”
    "Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was spoiled; it was good for nothing.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭13:1, 4, 7‬
    Another Wow. God’s testimony about Judah’s unfaithfulness to Him was awful, was terrible, and should have been convicting. But sadly it wasn’t.
    God told Judah that she was “good for nothing” at this time.
    I love you and I always will, but right now I can't use you. And until that rings a bell with you my warnings of judgment will come to pass.
    So we see, Judah was “made” and bought to cling to God like the linen cloth Jeremiah bought and wrapped around his waist.
    Friends that is what Jesus bought us for on the cross. That we might cling, and abide with Him and no other. Jesus paid for our sins on the cross and made us spiritually alive...brand new...to do life with Him as our Savior God and no other. But instead, like Jeremiah using the cloth for burial beneath the rocks on the wave lapping shores of the Euphrates river, Judah willfully used her life and devotions for something other than what God had made and bought her for.
    Oh, Lord, I've been just as guilty of that. Forgive me. Help me to desire You more and more that I might fulfill your purposes for me, not my own.
    Therefore, Judah was no longer profitable to God’s purposes...at least for a season. “So do not pray for the welfare of this people, Jeremiah.”
    Oh Lord, may You get my attention with far less. May You never have to command a loved one not to pray for me. I can't bear to think it.
    Continuing in the text...“Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭17:5-6‬ ‭
    The prophetic picture above describes a pathetic creature who turns away from the Lord. The best he has is like a “shrub in the desert”...spiritually dry, stunted, and barely alive...not much of a life.
    Judah was made for more than that. And those of us in Christ are made for more than that.
    O God help us not to turn from You during distress and drought, and yes COVID. Help us to cling to you and the refreshing life-giving drink that you are to us.
    Have a great day
    7 min
  • August 10th - Day 222
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 10th
    The bible reading today is from Jeremiah chapters 10-13.
    “Thus says the Lord: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them,”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭10:2‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    “The nations” spoken of here primarily referred to Assyria, Philistia, Egypt, Edom, and Babylon. God, through Jeremiah, warned Judah and the dispersed 10 tribes of Israel, over and over, not to “learn” their wicked ways...”teach” their wicked ways...”practice” their wicked ways.
    Let us note the song writer’s “Spirit breathed” take on the “wicked”...“The “wicked” watches for the “righteous” They are looking and planning for the opportune time to engage, trap, and destroy believers in Jesus, or as the passage ends...the wicked seek to put him to death...the “righteous one...Jesus” and all that are “righteous” because of Him.
    ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭37:32‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    Many in Judah had become enamored with the knowledge and ways of the wicked nations. They were spending time and energy in this endeavor, instead of coming to know the One God better. A lesson to the wise. Jeremiah continues...“don't be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations were”...“the nations didn't see the heavens as the handiwork of God that pointed to the gospel.
    No, the nations made “gods” of the stars and suns snd moons, idols to be served and worshipped instead of the One God.
    Jeremiah continued his message to Judah reminding them of “Him” who is so much better than idols. The one who saved them all these years since the exodus from Egyptian bondage. “He is not like these images you've made to worship. He is alive. Not like these dead sticks and stones. Not like these is “he” who is the “portion” of Jacob. In some sense, Yahweh belonged to the people of Israel, even as Jesus belongs to the saved this very day. And he is the one who formed all things. Creator of it all, is our Savior God. How Great is that!?! And Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. The chosen. The people of promise. God’s treasured ones. Promised Land people of the Lord, the Lord of angel armies is his name.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭10:16‬ ‭
    Jeremiah was preaching throughout Judah. In some sense, he was preparing them for the invasion of Babylon. “Gather up your bundle from the ground, O you who dwell under siege! Prepare for the difficult days to come...
    I'm so reminded of Jesus’ message to his followers in Luke 21 “...when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near." "Watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
    ‭‭Luke‬ ‭21:31, 34-36‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    Jeremiah was also speaking of a time of God’s judgment coming. A captivity, and a hard and long journey to come on the heels of the disobedience of God’s wayward people. For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring distress on them, that they may feel it.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭10:17-18‬ ‭
    “I, the Lord, am slinging out those who live here...” “I, the Lord, am going to bring distress on those who live here...” “...that they may feel it...” Will this wake up call for Judah sting? Oh yes, but one thing is for sure the Lord will hold Judah’s hand. Listen to the psalmist...“though God’s people fall, they shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds their hand.”
    ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭37:24‬ ‭
    Jeremiah told them so hard truth that would cut Judah to their hearts. But he also shared a great hope and promise of God’s salvation from whatever came next.
    Sounds just like the gospel of Jesus!
    Have a great day
    7 min
  • No Substitutes

    There are many wonderful pieces of wisdom handed down to us from the Creator God who loves us. However, all of that combined will never be a sufficient substitute for His willingness to physically come near to us.

    45 min
  • August 9th - Day 221
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 9th
    The bible reading today is in Jeremiah chapters 7,8,9.
    God used Jeremiah to speak to kings and government counselors and city councilmen as well as ordinary citizens in the countryside and in the town market places. But today God sends him to Solomon’s Temple at the time of a national holiday of feasting and worshipping. Perhaps the feast of the Passover when tens of thousands of people were in Jerusalem to worship at the Temple.
    During his 40 year ministry, Jeremiah would preach publicly in towns, villages, countrysides, and fortified cities. But scripture only records two times where Jeremiah publicly preached at the Temple gates. Today’s passage is the first mentioned.
    Jeremiah was to preach to the priests and scribes and Levitical Temple servants as well as the local and tribal worshippers of Yahweh that would have come in for the festival. And Jeremiah’s message was not a happy sermon for the “Temple goin’” folk.
    “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭7:3‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    Some say “this place” refers to the Temple. “Dwelling there” would mean staying there long enough to worship with their friends and families. Others say that “dwell in this place” refers to staying in Jerusalem rather than being taken away into Babylon. I lean toward this interpretation.
    Yes, I believe that God gave Judah one last opportunity to repent of the sins of their abominable pretense and avert the Babylonian exile. But they didn't and the rest is history.
    So what exactly made Jeremiah ‘s sermon so disturbing? What was in the content that would cause the young prophet the slightest pause? Jeremiah called the priests and worshippers at the festival “liars”. He said, “You come to this place...chanting “Temple...the Lord’s Temple”...your body is there but your hearts are somewhere else...This Temple calls you to worship your God Savior, yet you only go through the gates...you only go through the motions...your hearts are somewhere else. Your offerings at the Temple are ritually correct...people all around can see that...but what they cant see, God does...your heart is somewhere else.
    Reminds me of the message of the greatest prophet priest and king, Jesus Christ, to the religious people of his day. “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
    ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭15:7-9‬ ‭
    Like Jesus, Jeremiah was calling the spiritually backslidden Judeans hypocrites. They talked a religious talk, but their hearts were far from the true worship of their God. Their hearts desired another love. Jeremiah was passionately / tearfully working with God to call Judah back to the worship and holy service of the one and only God Yahweh, better known to us as Jesus!
    God forbid our own hypocrisy, brethren in Jesus. He deserves much more.
    Have a great day
    6 min
  • August 8th - Day 220
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 8th
    The bible reading today is in Jeremiah 4-6.
    God had an assignment for Jeremiah that would span the entire divided kingdom of Judah and Israel. His message might have been entitled: Unfaithfulness and The Repentance that Brings Restoration.
    Jeremiah compared unrepentant Israel to broken cisterns of polluted water in yesterday ‘s reading. Wow, Jeremiah said that God’s people had “turned away” from the streams of living water and “gave their energy and devotion” to building broken cisterns that could not hold any refreshment for their thirsty souls.
    Israel was doing life “away and apart” from God their Savior. And over and over, God sent his preachers to turn their hearts back to the Lord of life-giving drink. And they refused to turn back to God.
    Did God still love them? Absolutely. That is why He continued to woo her back. “If you return, O Israel, declares the Lord, to “me” you should return. Return to Me...He begged. Stop your backsliding ways and “return to me...”
    And what would that look like? “If you “remove” your “detestable things” from my presence, and do not waver,”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭4:1‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    Returning meant putting away the idols they worshipped. Putting away the pagan deities that they gave time and service to In place of God their Savior.
    And God through Jeremiah told them how God would reward their repentant hearts “If you return, O Israel, declares the Lord....you will not waver...(you will not be moved)...and you will swear that I live!”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭4:1‬ ‭
    “I will see to it that you are secure no matter what happens next”...and “You will be courageous to stand with Me...no matter what happens next...proclaiming that your God is not dead, but real and alive!”
    O friends, how that reminds me of a song By the Newsboys. My God’s not dead He is surely alive. He’s living on the inside. Roaring like a lion. Let hope arise and make the darkness hide. For my God’s not dead but surely alive. Living on the inside and roaring like a lion.
    And The name of this God that is alive and in me???? Jesus...that lion of Judah...the God Savior...that calls us back when sin sidetracks us. Restores us and secures us with a courage from above no matter what comes next.
    Have a great day...
    5 min
  • August 7th - Day 219
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 7th
    The Bible reading today is in Jeremiah 1-3, the beginnings of the ministry of a tender young man named Jeremiah.
    Listen to what God said to him early on...“But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.”
    ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭1:17-19‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    The young preacher began his ministry in Judah while Josiah the reformer was king. Suffice it to say Jeremiah had a great relationship with the king and much positive support and cooperation from his office. So, we could say that his beginnings in ministry were happy years. Spiritual revival fires were glowing with the glorious works of God.
    But God told him that the ministry honeymoon would not last forever. God told the rookie prophet to “arise”...” dress for work”. God had something to do in Judah in the near future. He was inviting Jeremiah to join Him. The work would not be easy. In fact, it would be hard and the cost would be great.
    By way of personal testimony, God had a similar conversation with me through my pastors, Paul Burleson and Jack Boggs, fifty years ago. They told me that my calling would include many rewards many divine highs, but they also told me that my calling to preach the gospel and pastor God’s people would be costly, very stressful, and demanding at times. Even including the dark nights of my soul. But bro Paul and bro Jack reminded me that Jesus would be with me, whatever came up or went down.
    “Dress for work”...God told Jeremiah...” get up every morning for work”...as a fellow worker with God. “Say to Judah “everything” that I tell you...” Jeremiah’s primary concern was fulfilling God’s calling upon his life. He was God’s messenger first and foremost. He would commit himself to sharing God’s message with God’s people, no matter what.
    Jeremiah could do other things besides preach. But he had to preach God’s very words, that was his God-given ssignment. That was his priority in ministry.
    O friends, our pastors can do many things, and they do, but we must remember to do all that we can do to free them up to preach and teach the Word of God to their church. To us.
    God told the young preacher not to fear those who would oppose him. God was not raising “ up an arrogant bully in Jeremiah. He was raising up a man of integrity and intense devotion to God and God’s people. A messenger who would faithfully “give” the people “God’s message”. Confident not in his skills, but in God’s through him.
    God told Jeremiah that there would be members in his congregation who would disagree with his message. He told him that there would even be some who would fight against him. Jeremiah’s job could be difficult, but he must never forget that it was fairly simple. “Just make sure you tell the people what I say...”
    Jeremiah did not have to be creative or clever. He just had to tell the truth as God gave it to him and the Spirit affirmed in his spirit. And then God said what every preacher must remember...”I am with you, declares the Lord.”
    Reminds me of Christ’s Great Commission to his disciples in Matthew 28...“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, “I am with you always”, to the end of the age.”
    ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭28:18-20‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    Thank You Jesus. We got up today to go to work with You. What a privilege.
    Have a good day.
    7 min
  • August 6th - Day 218
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 6th
    Our Bible reading is in the three chapters of the book of Zephaniah.
    “Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!”
    ‭‭Zephaniah‬ ‭3:1‬
    Must surely be referring to the spiritually lost and wicked of a pagan people. Who is this oppressing city? Who is this rebellious city? Who is this defiled city? Ready for a surprise? Not pagan Nineveh of Assyria. No...“Jerusalem of Judah”!
    Wow. The way chapter two ends, we might think first and foremost of evil Nineveh. But the prophet Zephaniah referenced the city’s prophets, priests, sanctuary, and law. He was addressing the city of David and her children of promise.
    Many people called by God’s name were selfishly oppressing the poor and the “faithful” of God in Jerusalem. The people of the Temple of God were defiling themselves at vain foreign altars, and calling their idolatry true worship...in Jerusalem. The city of the faithful followers of God who saw the judgment of God upon the rebellious northern kingdom were rebelling against the Lord’s words too...even in Jerusalem.
    We learn that Jerusalem was the “spiritually polluted” city. The prophet designated three reasons why. First, She was not obeying “his voice”. If Jesus has taught me anything it is that the “sheep recognize the voice” of the shepherd. Sadly, at times, I will recognize His voice but then I will follow my own. God help me! That same thing happened among the Judeans in Jerusalem apparently.
    Second, Jerusalem was not receiving correction from God. Correction came to Judah from the Lord, but they did not connect the dots. They just shrugged the correction moments off as “just bad times”, just “tough circumstances” to navigate. Happens to everybody.
    I'm afraid that’s sounds too much like me. No wonder God waits to give grace in those situations. I'm still trying to “figure my own” way out, instead of confessing sin and submitting to God’s correcting direction for my life.
    Third, She was not trusting in the Lord. Can't help but remember Bev’s and my life verse Proverbs 3:5,6
    “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding...but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”
    Judah never found God unfaithful in his love or in his promises given. However, counting on themselves instead of the promise and power of God became easier and easier for the unrepentant people of God.
    And Fourth, Judah was not drawing near to her God. I agree with David Gurzik’s comments...”Judah’s worst offense was saved for last in Zephaniah’s prophesy. God longed for relationship with His people. But Judeans, instead of moving closer to their Savior, they withdrew from Him. Nothing says rejection quite as painfully as “distancing oneself” from your loved one on purpose.
    No, the prophet wasn't promising God’s judgment upon a pagan city inside a godless country. He was prophesying God’s disciplining of His strong-willed children, for their good and God’s future purposes.
    Be alert church. Be alert San Antonio. Be alert USA. The God of our salvation is at work in and through the COVID 19 pandemic. Listen...He is speaking to us.
    Have a great day
    6 min
  • August 5th - Day 217
    Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
    August 5th
    Our bible reading today is in 2 Kings 22,23 and 2 Chronicles 34,35.
    The text...“Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”
    ‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭22:13‬ ‭ESV‬‬
    Josiah followed his father, Amon, as King of Judah. He was more like his great grandfather Hezekiah believing and following the Lord with his whole heart.
    Three hundred years earlier, at the beginning of the divided kingdom of Israel, a man of God prophesied that one day a child named Josiah would be born in the line of David and that he would become the king who would bring righteous worship back to Israel.
    Well, here he was and the first things he did included repairing the Temple, purifying the religious practices across Judah, executing the false foreign priests throughout Judah, and tearing down all the foreign god altars that had been built by his wicked grandfather, Manasseh.
    While the Levites were cleaning out the unnecessary stuff that evil priests had added to the Temple, they found a scroll. The Book of the Law that had been hidden. Shaphan the scribe gave it to the young king calling it simply, “a book”. I hope that didn't mean that a spiritual leader held the book in careless hands and heart. May it never be so in God’s church today.
    The young king read the Book...and his heart and life were both changed. First, he rent his clothes, confessing his own sins of disobedience to God and His commands. It sounds like he was reading either some or all of the book for the first time.
    This tells me something. Young Josiah must not have copied the 5 books of the law as was commanded in scripture. Apparently the wicked priests of his father’s day failed to guide the youthful monarch. Perhaps for very selfish reasons.
    “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.”
    ‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭17:14-15‬ ‭
    “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, "he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law”, approved by the Levitical priests.”
    ‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭17:18‬ ‭
    Secondly, after reading the book of God’s laws, Josiah sent a request to the prophets. “Seek the Lord for me and Judah.” Repentant Josiah “sought the Lord. He sought the will of God...” what next Lord”?
    And the prophetess, Huldah did so....”So Hilkiah the priest and Shaphan went to Huldah the prophetess and they talked with her. And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants...”
    ‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭22:14-17‬ ‭
    It would be some years before the Babylonian captivity, but God’s grace gave the people time to repent at His words and according to the spiritual revival in their young king’s heart.
    Repentance of sin brings revival to the people of God. That can bring righteous reforms to a nation. So be it in our day O Lord!
    Have a great day
    6 min

About ARCC Sermons

From the publisher's feed

ARCC exists to be a church that glorifies God by making disciples whose identity and joy are found and rooted in the gospel of Jesus.

More shows like ARCC Sermons

ARCC Podcast by Michael McCracken

ARCC Podcast

13 Listeners