Faithful: The Life of Josiah
Faithful to Trust in God • Message 3
Bryan Jones
October 20, 2024

A. Introduction
(1 Samuel 8:6-7; Proverbs 3:5-6)

Think about where we are: I mentioned this week 1.

Here is the setting: political corruption, bad leaders, the Word of God absent, false gods being worshipped, and people of God being unrepentant.

How did we get here?

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.”
1 Samuel 8:6-7 (NIV)

The people of God had put their trust in someone other than God, and this is why they are here.

Now, the times have changed, but I’m convinced the same pitfalls from Josiah’s days still exist today…

I memorized a verse years ago, and I must have said it 100 times before, but as I was preparing this message, something struck me, a phrase I have repeated countless times….

Trust in the LORD with all your heart;do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

Trust in the Lord…. With ALL your heart.

What struck me was this simple truth, it’s possible to give God a portion of your trust but not all your trust and not be aware.

Said another way, there are things daily that are competing for your trust.

As we continue in this series, Faithful: The Life of Josiah I want to draw attention to two things that I think compete with our full trust in God.

B. Pitfalls of Trust:

1. PEOPLE.
(2 Kings 22:1, 3-7; 2 Chronicles 34:3-7)

Again, the people of God are here because they wanted a king... the problem is they got bad kings and an 8-year-old king.

8 years old – Josiah became king (2 Kings 22:1)

16 years old – Josiah committed to God (2 Chronicles 34:3)

18 years old – Josiah repaired the temple (2 Kings 22:3-7)

20 years old – He began to bring renewal and reform (2 Chronicles 34:3-7)

So, part of the blessing of this is we know he was a beloved king and a good one… but let me just ask honestly, how much confidence do you have in an 8-year-old…

And would you trust your 16-year-old with your brand-new car if you got one? What about the future of the nation?

In some ways, Josiah’s age was a gift. It would have forced people to make sure their trust was in God.

Spiritual leaders

I was talking to an old friend recently that I knew almost 15 years ago. While I loved Jesus 15 years ago, I was different. I was still trying to find my way forward. And he asked, what are you doing? I said, I’m a senior pastor at church, and he said, what the whole church… and then he just goes… they let you do that… J … don’t you do just the love the honesty of people…

But sometimes God will choose the most unlikely people so that people don’t put their trust in the people of God. So, if you think God could never use your life, you are probably the exact candidate God will use!

Spiritual leaders are to be honored but not idolized. Listen, be weary of any church that has a celebrity pastor. If a church is more interested in their brand, their power, their resources over others, that’s a dangerous thing.

In Roman culture, when a general won a great victory, they would have a slave walk beside them at the huge triumphal entry, and they would chant this phrase: memento mori, which was a phrase meaning remember you are mortal, remember you will die.

It was a way of saying don’t take yourself too seriously.  That’s why I always noticed when I got to Brookwood that Perry would say, now you pray about this… it was his way of saying, You ask God. Don’t put me on a pedestal…

But what I’m saying is don’t elevate my, or a pastor’s voice above God’s voice… Keep Jesus at the center. You have the same access to God as I do.

Political leaders

The political leaders in Josiah’s day were kings and ours, in some ways, president.

3 approaches to politics:

Apolitical---------------------------------------All Political

Apolitical - is where politics don’t matter, don’t talk about it has no place.

All Political - is where this is the most important thing; it’s all you want us to talk about.

But here is another option –

Appropriately political - where we are involved in politics, but we put our trust in God.

I realize those who are apolitical, even me mentioning this, in your mind is too much. We should never talk about this…

And those who are all political, outside of me endorsing a candidate, or speaking specifically to every issue, will cause you to send me emails or thoughts… but I really feel our church is to be appropriately political.

3 reasons you vote:

Character

Competency

Policies

So, pray about it and vote, but put your trust in God!

Don’t elevate your friends, your spouse, or your boss’ voice above God… or even the future president. Listen to this quote by Oswald Chambers:

Our soul’s personal history with God is often an account of the death of our heroes. Over and over again God has to remove our friends to put Himself in their place, and that is when we falter, fail, and become discouraged. Let me think about this personally—when the person died who represented for me all that God was, did I give up on everything in life? Did I become ill or disheartened? Or did I do as Isaiah did and see the Lord?
Oswald Chambers

B. Pitfalls of Trust:

2. Money.
(2 Kings 22:4-7. C/R: Genesis 4:3-5)

There is almost nothing that can create more stress or a sense of security for us than money.

Money is not a bad thing… the Bible says it’s the love of money that is the root of all evil… meaning it’s when we put our trust in money.

Our security comes from the Savior, not our savings account… Amen.

What I find interesting is, this is such a short chapter and a portion of it is devoted to talking about money and people giving of their resources… and money… why? Because…

Before God can get a hold of our hearts, He has to get ahold of our wallets…

Think about it… Josiah is a blueprint for biblical revival, so notice what it says about the people.

“Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money the gatekeepers have collected from the people at the LORD’S Temple. Entrust this money to the men assigned to supervise the restoration of the LORD’S Temple. Then they can use it to pay workers to repair the Temple of the LORD.”
2 Kings 22:4-5 (NLT)

Some people think Hilkiah was the father of Jeremiah the prophet because it says in Jeremiah 1:1 that he is the son of Hilkiah, but we don’t know if he’s the same or not

A gatekeeper was someone who collected the offering and kept the temple in order.

But notice, it’s not a couple of people. It says it’s from the people… The people where all gathering together and trusting God with their resources…

This is important because this was a season of instability. Israel to the north had already been conquered. The economy wasn’t great. You have to imagine the stock market is down with a 16-year-old running things. Yet the Bible says despite all the reasons, they gave of their resources, they invested…

Because generosity is the mark of a changed heart… let me just draw out two principles we see in this text that we can miss on giving…

You don’t earn money; you are entrusted with it.

“Entrust this money to the men assigned to supervise the restoration of the LORD’S Temple. Then they can use it to pay workers to repair the Temple of the Lord.”
2 Kings 22:5 (NLT)

I cannot emphasize this point enough and it took me years to believe this… but everything you have; you’ve been entrusted with.

Do you know the Bible never uses the word give when it talks about the tithe… it uses the words bring and return… because it’s all God’s in the first place… you can’t give something that doesn’t belong to you… you can only bring it back or return it…

If you really believed everything in this world was God’s and we are just holding onto it… we will be people of generosity….

3 ways to approach money:

What’s mine is mine - selfishness

What’s yours is mine - stealing (unless it’s the government they just call it socialism…)

What’s mine is God’s - stewardship

Now how many of you are spenders? How many of you are savers?

My son is a spender. He got 60 dollars from his grandparents, and all he could talk about was spending it. And I’d say, don’t you want to save it… and he said, of course not, dad… I want to spend it… I said, why not save… He said, if I run out, I can just get more from you, and I know you’ve got a whole bunch of 20 dollar bills stashed…

Here’s what I’ve noticed about A LOT, not ALL, but a lot of spenders… they always think there will be more. Now he’s willing to spend because he thinks his father is generous…

So, what causes the children of God to give and tithe their money? It’s the belief that their heavenly Father is generous.

It’s all about the heart.

“They will need to hire carpenters, builders, and masons. Also have them buy the timber and the finished stone needed to repair the Temple. But don’t require the construction supervisors to keep account of the money they receive, for they are honest and trustworthy men.”
2 Kings 22:6-7 (NLT)

Motives matter… in giving…

It’s important to know giving doesn’t come from the hands; it comes from the heart.

When Josiah was giving these instructions, he was helping us understand the attitude of giving really does matter. They gave joyfully and trustworthy…

If we give with a spirit of pride or superiority or we give in a way that has conditions to our giving, then it’s not from the heart.

As followers of Jesus, we should give joyfully and sacrificially.

We see the heart of giving in the story of Cain and Able.

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Genesis 4:3-5 (NIV)

Notice that Cain’s wasn’t looked on favorably. Why? Notice the words first fruits… Able gave the first of what he had, he didn’t know if there would be a second or a third…

In many ways, Cain just gave from the extras…

Abel trusted God. And he said, I will give because I know my Father is generous, but he didn’t know what would come next.

… do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc. is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charities expenditure excludes them.
C.S. Lewis

Some people think, I will tithe one day once things are great or when this circumstance changes. Part of tithing is saying God, I trust you more than my resources…

Steph and I had a season off… gave 500 dollars… I was trying to work at Ace Hardware… you must stink at interviews… but we gave $500, and later than week someone said they felt led the exact amount of what we gave…

We just felt led because we know God is trustworthy.