My name is Kyle Tolbert. I am the student pastor here at Grace. I am not the head pastor, so if this is your first time and you leave here and you're like, that guy does not know what he's talking about, I promise Nate will be back next week. He heard the student pastor was preaching and he headed right down to Florida, which is a joke. He actually, one of his good friends had his father pass away, so we definitely want to keep Nate in our prayers as well as keeping his friend and their family. Fun story about that song, when I was in high school, that song was popular. And by popular, I mean amongst like Christian folks because they just played it on the Christian radio station that we listened to all the time. And so me and one of my buddies, my best friend Brandon, we would ride around in the car. And when you don't have girlfriends, you sing two-part songs with your bros. And so he's got a great voice. He's kind of got a rocky feel to his voice. And so he obviously did the guy part. And then because of my just like immense, incredible range, I do the girl part, you know, the real high stuff. And so I came in and I was very excited to let Steve know that because he was like, this is the song we're going to do for this week for the hero. And I was like, dude, what if we do it, and I sang it for him, and I was like, what if we did it, and it's just me singing? And so fast forward a couple weeks, and it is now right now. And so apparently he decided that that was not the move, because clearly that was not me singing, because it sounded just, it was good, but I mean it was a little off. But it's awesome to be here this morning. We're talking about Obscure Heroes, the series basically that we've been doing for the entire summer of just talking about different people, different people and different stories within the Bible that maybe don't get told all the time, maybe that people don't quite know quite so well. And so this morning I am going to be talking about Josiah, which is a great name, so very excited to be doing so. But before I jump into really talking about Josiah, I want to jump into a little bit of history behind the Israel that Josiah was coming into. Josiah was a king in Israel, and so before we talk about him, we need to know what's going on behind the scenes, because who doesn't love history before I tell you history? And so basically, Israel was formulated by somebody who is not an obscure hero in the Bible is Moses. So God goes, tells Moses, hey, go get my people, tell Pharaoh to let my people go. We've seen the movie. Maybe we've even heard or read the story. But Moses goes, he brings Israel out of the Israelites, he brings his people out of slavery in Egypt and is basically walking them to what is referred to as the promised land, aka where Israel will establish roots. As they're going through this process and as they're in their camps and they're doing these things, they're basically building a nation. God is bringing them laws and he's bringing them rules. We know the Ten Commandments. We know these commandments. We've heard these things. God is giving these people the list of rules and laws of how this is how I want your society to function. This is what it'll look like. This is how you will live. These are the things that you need to value. These are the laws and the rules that you need to follow. And so as they go into this nation, there's something called a covenant that God makes with his people. And he says, you are my people. I've brought you here. I will continue to provide for you. I love you. I will provide for you. I will bring rain for your crops. I will protect you against other nations. I will do all of these things. But you have to uphold your end of the bargain. You have to continue to serve, to love, to worship me and me alone. There should not be other gods. There should not be other idols among you that you are worshiping or that you are following. In the same way, you should be living through these rules. They called it the book of the law. It's basically what we know and what we see as just like the Bible up to this point is what they had and what they walked through. And so he's saying, you need to follow these rules. You need to follow these laws. If you can't do these things, then I will send you into exile. There will be peace. I'll bring you peace. I'll do all this stuff. But if you can't uphold your end, then there will be consequences. And so there's a lot of listed there, the good and the bad, a lot of the covenant you can find in Leviticus 26. And so I'm just going to read all of it. Just kidding. But I am going to read Leviticus 26, 17, because I think it sets us up well for where we're going. It says, I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you. Basically, this is just part of it. There's plenty more things. There's a lot of turmoil and death and disease that will come if they don't uphold this covenant. But this is where it talks about that he is basically going to send these people into exile. I think we know what exile is. It's basically sending people to live amongst people that are not theirs. And normally, just away from their home, away from their families, and away from the people who are like them. They're basically trying to live wherever they can, and in this time, normally what it means to be in exile is you're oftentimes slave labor, or you're just trying to find whatever you can to survive. And so it's, let's just say it's not good. And so now this, so we know that, now we know that as Josiah is coming into rule, he's coming into rule in Jerusalem, there are parts of Israel that have already been overcome and overtaken by other empires. And so this has already been going on. And so Josiah comes into rule in Jerusalem. And I think the way to intro Josiah is by the way that it intros him in scripture. And so that's what I want to do. We're going to be reading out of 2 Kings 22. And the reason why I want to do it, as opposed to just telling you who he was, is because I think it establishes well who he is. It establishes that he was the king. And it also establishes that my man was the king. And what I mean by that is this dude was the absolute man. Very clearly, you read three, it's like he's the guy who when he walks in, everyone goes, this guy, this guy's here, and you know it's going to be a great night because our boy Josiah is in the house. And so that's where we're going to start. We're going to start off with 2 Kings 1 and then 3. Number two is a lot of names. No need to read a lot of names because we're talking about Josiah this morning. Josiah was eight years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem for 31 years. So off the bat, it's like, wait, what? He was eight? He was eight years old? Yes, he was eight years old when he became king and it said he reigned for 31 years. So clearly he was doing something right. I know sometimes people rule a long time because they're bad or whatever, but hey, that's why we have verse 3, because we realize that he was not bad. And so verse 3, to continue, said, And before we keep going, and this isn't my main point, or I guess it kind of is, but how incredible and what an incredible thing to be described as. That the description of Josiah is one, that he was king when he was eight, so this guy's been the king forever, figuratively and literally, but that he was seen as right in the eyes of the Lord, that he never wavered, he never turned to the left or to the right, but he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and he followed in the footsteps of David, who is considered the greatest king of Israel. That's a good intro. That's good stuff. That's awesome. The first record after that, as it continues, of the first thing that the Bible talks about build up the temple. Also, go buy some wood to make it look nice. Essentially, as you guys have probably picked up, even this nation is in a bad spot. There's not people that are really following, worshiping God. And so, therefore, the temple is kind of run down. And so he's like, I feel like this is important. I feel like we need to build this up. I feel like this needs to be something that we're paying attention to. And so they go. They go. They give the money. They build up the temple. They make it look nice. And in the midst of that, the high priest at the time goes to Josiah's secretary and, and, and says, hey, I found the, the book of the law. And as we've already discussed, the book of the law is basically the book of rules of, of how they were meant to live, of the way that society runs, of, and it's, it's scripture. It's who God is. It's what God is. It's what God has done. And then it's also outlines the covenant that they have to follow. And so, um, he's like, oh, okay. So he reads some of it to the secretary, and the secretary goes, this is important. Like, this is something that I need to bring to Josiah. And so robes after you read things. I don't often, nor do I own robes. So maybe if I did, I would do it more, but I don't know. But basically, in this time, in biblical times, the reason why people would be overwhelmed with sorrow and torment, and they would tear their robes. And it was basically this look of, it was either sorrow or guilt or whatever it was. And basically what had happened is he was overcome with grief and guilt of, I have been living in this nation, and I've been ruling these people, and I had no idea that I was doing it so wrong. I had no idea that this is how I should have been leading, that I should have been leading my people this entire time to follow this book and to get rid of all of these idols and these gods that are trying to overtake this area and dealing with these false prophets who are basically talking about, hey, this is all okay. This is all good. People who are saying they're hearing from God and they're really just lying. All of these things were happening in his empire and in his country. And he realized, I'm at the forefront of this. I am the king who's allowing this to happen. And therefore he tore his robes because he was so overwhelmed. Because what he finally realized is, oh my gosh, look at this God. This God is so much better and so much greater than anything I ever knew or realized. How could we not be living our lives for them? And so he reacts. He said, so his next move, he tells Shaphan and he tells some of his other men, he said, go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people of all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord's anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the word of this book. They have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us. So he's like, I just read the covenant, and I know for a fact that what God said not to do, we're doing. I know for a fact that it's because of our fathers, the people who came before us, that they have built into this nation, and because down the line, people cared less and less about God to the point that it's a big deal for them to find the word of God. To the point that this book that should have been at the helm of what they did in this society is something that is a big deal that they found. It's like, oh wait, what is this? And so he's like, I need you to go and talk to our forefront prophetess and ask her what she has to say. So at this time, prophets and prophetesses, they're not people who, they're not preachers, they're not pastors, they're literally people who have a direct line and a direct contact with God, and they're able to tell the people what God has to say. And so they go and they talk to her. We go verses 15 through verse 20. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words that you have heard, because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord. When you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, then they would become a curse and be laid waste. And because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring this place. So they took this answer back to the king. I imagine this has to be a hard thing, right? It's got to be a hard thing to hear. In one hand, you're happy to hear, oh, wow, so because of my repentance and because of my tearing my clothes and realizing that the rest of my life was spent worshiping and serving this God, because of that, I get to die in peace, but that doesn't mean that the rest of my people do. I feel like there has to be a serious confliction inside of him of, I'm so happy that I get this, but at the same time, it sounds like, regardless of what I do and regardless of what I bring for these people, it's not going to matter. They're still going to experience this hurt, this exile, and this pain. I'm sure he's hit with a crossroads, but instead, we get his response. It starts in 23. The entire 23 basically just outlines his immediate response and then what he does for the remainder of his rule. So I'm going to read the first three verses. It says, Then all the people pled of God to my people. I have to let them know who this God is and this God that they should be loving and they should be serving because of how great and how vast he is. And this God who's telling us not to do all of these things, yet we're doing them. And the rest of his time, everything else in this story is basically him saying and doing all of the things that it asks him to do in this covenant and within this relationship. He goes and he starts burning up all of the other gods and he defiles all of these things that build up those gods and lift them up. As it talks about, he brings the covenant and has everyone commit to that covenant. And so for the rest of his life, his goal and his mission is to make sure that Israel knows this God and they have the ability to worship him. And that's a cool story, right? Let's get a thumbs up for that story. Like, it's great. That's awesome. That's awesome to hear. But when I started to think about it and when I started to read it and look more in depth, I was like, wait, I think not only was it really cool that he did this for God, I think that Josiah realized something that sometimes we forget or sometimes it's very hard to forget in this life. And it reminds me of this guy in my AP calculus class. I don't know if you know AP, advanced placement. It's just like, it's basically just hard classes. AP stands for hard classes, essentially. I know the letters don't match up, but trust me, I'm right. So we had AP calculus, and I had it with a bunch of my buddies because there was only one class offered for AP calculus at the time. And so a lot of my friends were in the class, and it was tough. I mean, I love math, and I worked hard, and so I was really growing from it and whatnot. But like, I'm not going to lie, it was tough. It was the hardest math that I had done. And so because of that, I'm like having to really like work at it. I'm working hard on homeworks. I'm like staying after class sometimes. I'm doing a lot of studying, all this stuff. One of my buddies was kind of in the same boat as me of, like, having always been good at math. He had never really had to try much in math, and that was kind of the way that he went about his AP calculus, you know? Like, we'll just say he was more concerned with getting a level 50 in Halo 3 than he was about getting a grade 100 in AP calculus, which is a funny joke for maybe two people in here, but those two people loved it. So, but the deal was he just didn't put the time and he didn't put the effort into preparing and getting ready for that first test. So here comes that first test. We take it. He gets the grade back, and my man got closer to a 50 on that test that he did in Halo. And what I mean is he got a 47 on the test. And so, which is bad. Like, 47 is bad out of 100. I think we can all agree. He had failed a test. And the thing is, he's a smart dude, especially in math. He had never come close to failing a test. So he's freaking out, you know? Like, he's like, what do I do? I don't know what to do. And so we so we're like, well, why don't you just like stay after, like when we head to lunch, you stay after for a couple minutes, just ask if you can take a retest. It's a first test, maybe she'll let you. And so he does, he stays after, we head on to lunch. And so he shows up a few minutes later, comes to the lunch table, and you know, we're like, I mean, we're good. Like, we're like, we're supportive guys or whatever. So we're calling him 47 the whole time at lunch. But we're like, so 47, like, did, what did she say? You know, like, is she going to let you take a retest or not? And he's like, no, she said no. And so everyone's like, oh, she's the worst. Like, you know, whatever. I can't believe she's like, you take a retest. Which like none of us really thought or believed because it was like early enough on syllabus day that she read that we couldn't take a retest where we weren't all not paying attention. So we knew it was happening, but sometimes you got to stand up for a homie. So she was the worst at that moment. And then he goes, but I asked if I could stay after a few days this week and next week to learn the stuff. And so once again, being supportive or whatever, we're just making fun of them. Like, dude, I don't think you get it. Like, you failed the test. It doesn't matter anymore. Like, you don't understand it. And so it was really funny until we get to the other fun thing about AP classes is that you take an AP test at the end of the year. And this test is basically just, it's a list of all, a bunch of the stuff that you worked on. It's very hard. It's even harder than the class, which is just, I was so thankful for. You always just say so thankful of like, this was the hardest thing I've ever done. Now let's take a test that's way harder than that. But that's what it was. And so we get into it. And the deal with AP tests is if you get a good enough grade, you don't have to take the class in college. And so that's the goal, you know. And so we take this test. Well, wouldn't you know that a lot of the questions had to do with that first test, the stuff that we had learned in that first section. So we get our AP tests back, and he passed it. And he's thrilled, and he's so excited. And I was like, what a smart guy. You know, like a guy who I originally called 47 and thought was quite a dummy actually was a really smart dude because what he realized is right now this is awful. I just failed a test. This is really bad for me right now. But there is something that is far more important and a far bigger deal on down the line that I know that I need and I'm going to be prepared for. I think that that is what Josiah realized for his people. I think when he read the book of the law, he truly realized and he truly understood his purpose, his life, and the life of the people on the planet. And I think what he realized is that this word of God is meaningful. It's real. It's a huge deal that it had changed his entire life. It had changed the way he looked. It had changed the way he thought. It had changed the way he acted. And it had changed his perspective on his life and the people's lives. You like how I backtracked because I forgot to say that? Me too. But it did. It changed his life, and it changed his entire perspective. And I think that what happened is the same thing that happened to my buddy 47 back in high school. I think what he realized is there's no way that I can save these people from what's to come here. Regardless of what I do, regardless of what I do to bring these people, regardless of how many people I have commit to this covenant and live out this covenant life, they're still going to deal with this exile. But what I think he understood and what I think he saw for the first time when he was hit with the word of God is that spiritual exile was far more devastating than physical exile. I think what he realized is, yes, I can't save these people on this earth. Yes, I can't save my people from the death, from the destruction, from the exile that's to come, but I will not be the person that allows them to be exiled for eternity. That there is an eternal home, there is an eternal resting place, that is the goal. Yes, I'm going to do everything I can to protect these people here, but my main and my ultimate goal is to make sure that these people are pushing ever more, ever more onto this this road heading to eternal life with God. Because what he realized is the ultimate prize is not on this life and not what you get to do in Israel or what we get to do here in Raleigh. It's what we get to experience when we finally get to meet God face to face for the first time in a perfect eternity. He said, is going to be built around the promise of I am going to make sure you know who this God is and you know that regardless of what happens to your home right here, that you have a true and an ultimate home in heaven. Turns out, my man was super right. They end up being exiled. Israel's able to come back in the future and is built up again, and yet still people talk about that they feel like wanderers, that they feel like sojourners, that even in their own home, the home that was built for them by God and given to them by God, they still didn't feel fully at home, like there was something missing. Jesus came, and he gave the perfect explanation for why. Jesus comes, and he describes why why and he tells you how you can figure it out. And so he comes and he basically, he looks at him, he says, Wanderers, this is not your home. You don't feel fully at home because you're not home. He says, you are citizens of heaven. Your heart belongs to heaven. Your heart belongs to God in eternity. You're here now, but your heart belongs to God in eternity. And so I am building a road. I'm making a path for you to go to your true home. Jesus comes. He lives a life of homelessness. He literally embodies a sojourner. He embodies a wanderer. Someone who walks from place to place is constantly put down. Most people hate him. A lot of people are following him as well. Basically embodying the fact that I am here to tell you that this is not your home. I'm here to tell you that this place is temporary and you should look forward to forever. That I have a Father who created you and His sole mission is to bring you to Him and all it takes is for you to come to Me. I've provided the path by dying for you, by killing the sin that has created this world that is imperfect and I want you to come and be a part of it with me. And my man Josiah, he knew it all along. His whole perspective, his whole mindset, everything that he did was completely changed when he was hit with the word of God because he understood for the first time, this isn't for me. This place, I'm going to do what I can here, but I've got a promise of eternity. And he realized that for his people. He said, I want these people to know that it is going to get bad, and it is going to get rough, and there are going to be bad things that happen and hard things that happen, but I promise you that this is not it, that there is far more than this. And so what did he do? He read this book to everyone. He wanted to make sure everyone could hear it and had access to it. And then he spent his entire life dedicated and devoted to these people getting to know God and to experience God. And so my question is when we're hit with the Word of God, when we spend time in the Word of God, when we're going to church and listening to sermons, when we're reading for ourselves, when we're listening to things, when we're doing devotions, when we're doing these things, are we allowing the gospel? Are we allowing the word of God? Is the word of God impacting our life? Is the word of God impacting my life? I put my because I think we should think about it in a very specific to me answer. I know a couple months ago, we kind of talked a little bit about this. We talked about reading Scripture. And Nate preached. He posted a question on Facebook. He said, just looking for some genuine answers, if anyone's willing, I just want to know how many of you feel like you get an adequate amount of time in the day or in a week spent in Scripture, getting to just spend time diving into Scripture and focusing on it. And he said he got a few responses that were kind of like, well, I just do devotion books, or I just listen to the Bible. I don't read it, I listen to it, or I just listen to sermons or whatever. And then all of that to say that the question at the end said, does that count? And his point, the point of that message and the point of him talking about that was to say, if you're asking if it counts, then you're probably not doing it in the right way. That if you're trying to do it as something as a check box of, I know I should read my Bible, so I'm just going to get through some of it. If you're doing it that way, then you're probably off. But what I will amend is that there is kind of a way to tell if it counts, and that is, is the Word of God impacting your life? It changed everything about Josiah. Has it changed everything about you? Or is it consistently changing you? Is your attitude, is your mindset, is your heart, and are your actions being impacted by this word of God? And so the first question, how do I see God? Are you consistently growing in who you see God and the way that you see God working in your life? One thing that my campus pastor at UGA used to say a lot is, are you worship by that, is are we worshiping God because of the things that he's provided for us? Because this is a church with a lot of awesome families, with great friends, with great jobs, and all of these incredible things. Are we worshiping God? Do we see God as someone who gives us those things and therefore we worship him? Or are we worshiping him because he's incredible and he's good? And yes, we're thankful for these things, but mostly we're thankful for him, for who he is, for his creation of us, for his son. Why is it different? Because when you worship someone for what they give you, then that builds a contingency plan. It means I'm only going to worship you while these things are going well. When you worship the benefactor, when you worship the person for who he is, then you can be Israel, then you can be exiled from your nation, you can be split from your family, you can see people die, or you can lose people in your lives, and you still love God. We just sang about, we just sang It Is Well. It Is Well was written after a man lost his wife and his kid. He wrote, It Is Well With my soul. He wrote those beautiful words amidst the biggest tragedy that he's ever experienced and that any of us could even imagine experiencing. That's someone who knows God. That's someone who has been impacted by the word of God enough to know that God is good regardless of what's going on in this life. The next question kind of stems from that is how do I view my life? Do you feel like you're wanderers or like you're sojourners on this earth? Like I love my life, I love my family, I love the people that are in my life, but man I cannot wait for heaven because I just can't wait to be with God. I know that it's very easy. A lot of us would say, obviously, yes, we want to go to heaven over going to hell, but how many of us are ready to go to heaven and leaving this earth? Oftentimes, I think we just think about it's the next place we'll be with our family, but guys, there's so much more important thing. Like when we realize who God is, what we realize is that heaven isn't just the next place that you'll be. It's the most perfect and incredible place that you'll be because you're finally with this God who created you and you no longer have anything that is pulling you away from him. You just get to experience the greatest joy that you could ever fathom. Pastor named John Piper, he writes good books and he's insane to listen to. Check him out. He said, There's a lot of big claims in that. And I'm not standing up here saying everyone needs to feel this way or you're not going to heaven. But what I am saying is that when we spend time in the word and when we allow the word to truly change our hearts and impact our hearts the way that I believe Josiah did, then it will change our hearts to move us to a place that we just love God and we love Jesus and we're so ready to see him and to meet him face to face. We're so tired of this earth and the things that are weighing us down and the things that are hurting us and the things that are causing us depression. We just want this joy of getting to know what this is. Are we ready for heaven because we're ready for perfection or are we ready for heaven because we're ready to see the face of God, and we're ready to meet Jesus? And the final question is, how do I live my life? This is a big step, and this is the scariest step. The consequences are far bigger for this one than for the other two, because those are personal. But you look, you see the way that Josiah reacted. You hear the words from the prophetess basically saying, you're good. You've figured it out. You've given your life to God and because of that, he's going to spare you from this exile and he's going to bring you to him. Was his reaction, all right, great, I'm good. Now I'm just going to keep leading and we'll just do our thing. No. His reaction was, if I'm good and I get to have this relationship and I get to go home where I get to meet my maker, then I want everyone else to have this ability too as well. I want everyone to understand that it gets better than this. I want everyone to understand that this is a God who wants to meet them and wants to bring them to his home. I want them to understand that regardless of how good or how bad this life is, your heart rests in heaven, and therefore, you've got something to look forward to that is better than any day that you'll spend on earth. Is that our hearts for people? Because I think if we believe that we are wanderers on this earth, I think if we believe that this earth is not our home and our home is in heaven, then we start to look and care a lot less about the consequences that come from bringing the gospel and from living out a Christian life in the open, in public, around the people that you interact with. I think we worry a lot less about those consequences and worry a lot more about the eternal consequences of what it means if I know that I have this gift and I have this salvation and I have this overwhelming joy that I'm holding back from you and I'm not bringing you, then I'm basically looking at you and saying, I know that this isn't it. I know that there's this perfect home that is greater than anything you could imagine and this God who created and loved you with every single aspect of his being, but I'm not going to tell you about him because I'm a little bit nervous about how you'll feel about me. And I'm not saying this to say, oh, you're the worst if you don't do it, because it'd be saying, Kyle, you're the worst for not doing it. I understand that it's hard. I understand that it's difficult, but that's why it's so important to figure out the first two. It's why it's so important to figure out and to understand who God is and therefore understand who you are and the fact that your life, the reason why when you accepted Christ, you didn't immediately die and go to heaven is because you are here to bring people to heaven with you. And it doesn't have to be an entire nation of people. We're not Josiah. It doesn't even have to be standing up on stage and preaching. I know not everyone has this gift. I know some people are nudging right next to you and saying, who does this guy? But when you start thinking about the world, when you start thinking about the nation, it gets big and it gets hard. But when you start looking at people and when you say, Thomas, Rachel, I know these people. I know they don't know about this. They need to know. Because it's the biggest, it's the most important aspect of my life. And much more importantly, it should be the most important aspect of them. I want them to come and experience this joy that comes from Christ. And I want them to ultimately have the ability to experience the joy of that eternal life with this God who loves us and created us and has given us everything. Let's pray. God, thank you for who you are. God, thank you that regardless of our situation here on this imperfect world, God, that we always have you to look forward to. That one day we will be able to see you face to face and be overwhelmed with the joy of who you are and get to spend eternity with you without death and disease and heartache and heartbreak and exile. God, I can't wait for that day. God, I pray that as we read scripture, as we grow closer to you and learn more about you, God, that we continue to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of you, of your love, of your goodness, and of your mercy. And I pray that that leads us on to bringing people with us. That our whole goal, our whole mission is to go and make more disciples of you so we can have more people in our true home. We love you. Amen.