The Life and Reign of King Josiah

The Life and Reign of King Josiah – By Aaron Brewer

foreign

in your Bibles to

Second Kings I did

I did decide to continue talking about

Josiah this morning as we talked about

for a few minutes in our Wednesday

exhortation

so we’re going to be spending the

majority of our time in Second Kings

this morning looking at the life and

reign of Josiah

he’s a great character to study in the

scriptures and as I said on Wednesday

he’s one of my favorite characters to

talk about and somebody mentioned this

morning we’re not given a whole lot of

good Kings to talk about you know we

have David and you know part of

Solomon’s Reign he was he was a a good

King and and even part of Saul’s Reign

he was a good King but after you get

past those three it starts to get pretty

pretty slim pickings on finding men who

were good men who were leading leading

God’s people

you know uh you know here and there but

by and large what we read is uh you know

such such and such a king died and and

the next one came next one came to power

and he did evil on the side of the Lord

as his fathers did before him and it’s

like wash rinse repeat for for most of

the Kings as we read through the Kings

Josiah is one of the the great

exceptions that we have and he’s a good

character to study and and while there’s

not a lot of pages devoted to him the

pages that are there about him uh are

rich in detail about uh what kind of man

he was what kind of uh character he had

what kind of leader he was and uh the

example that he said in his desire to

serve God is certainly something that uh

should should send a good example to us

as it did to his people

and so I would like to spend some time

looking at Josiah’s life this morning

in second Kings chapter 22 we’re given a

a brief introduction to him uh beginning

in verse one Josiah was eight years old

when he became king and he reigned 31

years in Jerusalem his mother’s name was

Jedediah the daughter of adaya of boz

scaff and he did what was right in the

sight of the Lord and walked in all the

ways of his father David he did not turn

aside to the right hand or to the left

those are good things to say about him

and as I said that’s there’s not a whole

lot of words there but what those words

say is powerful

he did what was right in the sight of

God he walked in the steps of of David

and it says he did not turn aside to the

right or to the left

and the detail we’re going to read about

him this morning uh bears that out how

intent he was on following what God had

had to say

he was awfully young to be taking over

as king eight years old

he had a desire to clean up the temple

and restore it

and uh verse 3 of chapter 22 it came to

pass in the 18th year of King Josiah

that the king sent shafen the Scribe the

son of azealiah the son of ashulum to

the house of the Lord saying go up go up

to helkaya the high priest that he may

count the money which has been brought

into the house of the Lord which the

doorkeepers have gathered from the

people and let them deliver it into the

hand of those doing the work who are the

overseers in the house of the Lord let

them give it to those who are in the

house of the Lord doing the work to

repair the damages of the house two

carpenters and Builders and masons in

Dubai Timbers and hewn Stone to repair

the house

however there need me no accounting made

with them of the money delivered into

their hand because they deal Faithfully

so his desire is to get the temple

cleaned up it had fallen into a state of

disrepair and and it needed a lot of

work

then he’ll Kaya the high priest said the

shape and the Scribe I found the book of

the law in the house of the Lord

and helkaya gave the book to Chafin and

he read it

there’s something in that that disturbs

you

there should be something there that

disturbs all of us

they found the book of the law like it’s

a surprise to him

here is the high priest

the one who should be the most familiar

with the law of God

and he said and he says we need to let

the king know that I found the law

so Shea from The Scribe went to the king

bringing the king word saying your

servants have gathered the money that

was found in the house and have

delivered it into the hand of those who

do the work Who oversee the house of the

Lord then shafen the scribes showed the

king saying halkia the priest has given

me a book and shafen read it before the

king

now it happened when the king heard the

words of the book of the law that he

tore his clothes

now we just talked about this in in

class uh last week

what is the

what is the meaning of tearing your

clothes

that’s a way that they showed grief and

Agony over what he’s heard what has

heard whenever the book of the law is

read to him

boy we’re not doing the right thing

and not only are we not doing the right

thing this tells me that God is angry

with us and he’s grieving over what he’s

found and so that’s how he demonstrates

his grief over what he’s heard is that

he tears his clothes

it is it is disturbing that it says that

they find the book of the law in the

temple it had been misplaced for so long

and ignored for so long and it was not

at the Forefront of their minds for so

long that they didn’t even know what

happened to it

is there something that we could

certainly make an application to today

could it be said that we as a society

have lost the word of God

oh I know you’ll hear people say that

this is a Christian Nation

um folks I’m here to tell you this is

not a Christian Nation in any way shape

or form and in fact to those uh to uh uh

I don’t know if I want to say a vast

majority of people but a lot of people

and particularly the people in power the

idea of religion is abhorrent to them

and the way that they rule this country

is to eradicate any semblance of

thinking about God or religion or

restrictions on your life so that you

can live in any way shape or form that

you desire so as a society I think it

would be fair to say that we have lost

the word of God it’s not that it’s not

available we just choose to ignore it as

a society

how far do we have to go to see the

devastating effects of a lack of knowing

understanding and following the word of

God

look at our Wicked Society

we have a great amount of things that

our society calls good that are evil

wicked things

look at the look at the uh the idea of

abortion in our society

and when some steps were taken by the

Supreme Court to at least slow down the

practice of abortion in our society the

Uproar and the and the screaming from

the rooftops about what a terrible

travesty it was to stop the slaughter of

innocent children

and that’s our society

these ideas that we have now of pushing

every kind of every kind of sexual

perversion that we can dream up and

calling those things good and that you

need to respect and honor and and and

and accept those things and if you dare

to speak against any of them as being as

being a perversion then what a horrible

person you are

in Isaiah chapter 5.

and in verse 20 we read woe to those who

call evil good and good evil who put

Darkness for light and light for

Darkness who put bitter for sweet and

Sweet for bitter

it’s almost like they knew of the

American society whenever this when this

passage was written because that’s

exactly as a society what we do those

things that are evil and wicked and

perverse and disgusting and Abominations

to God we call those things good

abortion and sexual perversion and all

of these things we call those things

good

and for those who speak against those

things we call them the evil ones your

your bigots and you you’re not tolerant

you don’t accept how people want to live

their lives

it isn’t that there’s new wickedness

there’s there’s nothing new Under the

Sun Solomon said we may think that we

live in the most wicked time there’s

ever been but you can study history and

you can study the history and the Kings

and there were some Wicked perverse

things going on in the time of the Kings

and certainly if you study the Roman

Empire they

you know they they were doing the wicked

things that we do in our society

thousands of years before we are

but there’s something there’s a

different aspect to it I think in our

society and it’s that we have no shame

at all we don’t try to hide any of it it

used to be that people were willing to

participate in the sins they’re going on

now but they tried to at least keep it

undercover do it in a closet you know

not bring it right out into the open now

now we are proud

to be involved in the things that we’re

involved in watch television commercials

how long is it going to take for you to

see a commercial where they are

advocating promoting and and uh cheering

homosexuality

ridiculous commercials I mean you know

you have medications designed for people

who engage in those kind of activities

and they have sicknesses from it and you

get those commercials but then you get a

Walmart commercial or a Coca-Cola

commercial and they’ve got homosexuals

and you know sitting sitting in their

bed or you got train you know uh

transgenders they used to call them

transvestites uh uh you know and and we

promote and cheer those things

there is no shame left in our society

people are immensely proud to flaunt

their wickedness

so I think it’s pretty easy to see what

a devastating effect it is that we don’t

have a knowledge or a desire to follow

God’s word in our society

I hope that we as Christians have never

lost the word of God to the extent that

it has to be found among the rubble

but how often is it that uh you think

maybe

can’t find my Bible or it’s been a while

since I read my Bible I don’t read my

Bible often enough and and I would be

the first to say that but I you know I

know where my Bible is and and you know

now we have smartphones and I’ve got

multiple translations on my phone I can

always find something to read

but you’ve heard dad talk about times

that he’s went to someone’s house for

Revival study and they’ll tell you I

don’t know where my Bible is

I’m having all these problems in my life

and I don’t know how to fix them when he

goes well get your Bob wild let’s stay I

can’t find my Bible

maybe that’s a lot of the problem right

there

if we don’t spend time in the word if we

allow other things in life to distract

us from studying it or if we choose to

ignore what we do read

that’s the same thing as losing it

if we’re dealing with troubling times

and we find ourselves asking why me why

is this happening to me or something to

that effect maybe we should also be

asking ourselves have we been spending

enough time in the word have we been

spending enough time in prayer

upon finding the word in the temple

hilkaya has it brought to the king and

Josiah has to make a decision what to do

with it

that’s the same decision the face that

faces us whenever we are before we

became Christians we had to make a

decision what to do with the word when

we heard it even as Christians when

someone approaches us and says

maybe you’re not doing things right

maybe you’re not doing things that would

be pleasing to God and here’s the

passages that show it we have to make a

decision what do we do with that Josiah

had to make that decision

here I’ve heard the here I’ve heard from

the book of The Law of God I have to

decide

am I going to ignore it or am I going to

heed it

well as we already read in verse 11 of

chapter 22 it says he was distraught he

mourned he he tore his clothes upon

hearing the word because he knew they

hadn’t been obeying it

and if you consider he was already

attempting to do some good things he was

trying to repair the temple

but he was not being obedient to God’s

commands and that’s what he discovered

by hearing from the word

good works

weren’t sufficient and that’s sometimes

how our society treats especially the

religious World At Large well I’m doing

good works

well who gets to Define what good works

are

it’s not us it’s God

and if we look in the word and find out

that what we might consider good works

aren’t there then it doesn’t matter what

we think are good works it’s not

sufficient we must be doing the right

thing according to God’s word Josiah

recognized that despite his desire to do

right finding God’s word showed he was

not being obedient

ah

and so as we continue reading in chapter

22

verse 12 then the king commanded hokai

the priest a haikum the son of Chafin

akbore the son of Micaiah Chafin The

Scribe and Messiah a servant of the king

saying go inquire of the Lord for me

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 has aroused against us

because our fathers have not obeyed the

words of this book to do according to

all that is written concerning us what

is his reaction to it

please go ask God what we need to do to

fix this

because I can read what you’ve just read

to me I can understand we’re not doing

the right thing that we are wrong

in our service to God and so go ask what

can we do to fix this

what is our reaction to learning from

God’s word I just mentioned a minute ago

somebody you know even as Christian

somebody may approach us and say you’re

not doing something right and here’s the

passage that shows that

nobody likes to be corrected nobody

enjoys being told they’re wrong but how

do we respond to it

we get angry

tell people we don’t want to hear we

were just talking this morning about

some folks that that that had passed

away that that had heard they’d heard

the word of God they’d been told you’re

doing thing things wrong and one of the

men Charlie was talking about he

literally said I know I’m wrong but I’m

not going to change so don’t come and

bother me about it

that was his reaction to learning you

know to hearing the truth

I don’t want to hear it

if we’re if somebody comes to us and

tells us that that and they show us from

God’s word that we’re not doing

something right we should be distraught

as Josiah was

we don’t really tear our clothes in our

you know in our in our society today

that’s not how we demonstrate grief but

we should have that at that same

attitude

it should it should hurt us to hear

we’re not doing things the way that God

wants us to do them

and so we should likewise have to have

the same desire to dig into the dig into

the word to go into it and study and say

what does God expect of us to be right

from him to be right with him and to

make the changes in our lives necessary

to be reconciled with him

we can’t we can’t uh go ask God directly

anymore to to to to speak directly to us

and tell us what can we do

we can pray and we can look at his word

because he’s going to tell us what we

need to know right there

we can pray and say Lord I want I want

to know what to do to make things right

with you and we can study from his his

word and find those things and then we

have to be willing to make the changes

in our lives necessary to be reconciled

with him

God showed Mercy to Josiah and that he

acknowledged his desire to do right and

and his repentant attitude in chapter 22

and beginning in verse 16.

thus says the Lord behold I will bring

Calamity on this place and on its

inhabitants all the words of the book

which the king of Judah has read because

they have forsaken me and burned incense

to other gods that they may provoke me

to anger with all the works of their

hands therefore my wrath shall be

aroused against this place and shall not

be quenched but as for the king of Judah

who sent you to inquire of the Lord and

this manner you shall speak to him thus

says the Lord God of Israel concerning

The Words which you have heard because

your heart was tender and you humbled

yourself before the Lord when you heard

what I spoke against this place and

against its inhabitants that they would

become a desolation and a curse and you

tore your clothes and wept before me I

also have heard you says the Lord surely

therefore I will gather you to your

fathers and you shall be gathered to

your grave and peace and your eyes shall

not see all the Calamity which I will

bring on this place so they brought back

word to the king what do we learn here

the Lord was going to show him mercy and

give him uh a reprieve from seeing the

things that were going to happen it

wasn’t going to change God’s judgment on

the people

but he says Josiah because because of of

your attitude and your repentant heart

and you demonstrating that you want to

do things the right way I’m I’m going to

I’m going to take you

you’re going to die before these things

happen so that you don’t have to see

this come to the land

we we’re going we’re going to see as we

read in in chapter 23

he has a tender heart for the people he

has a tender heart for for wanting to to

do things according to God’s Will and so

just imagine if God hadn’t had this

Mercy on him and he was alive to see

this Destruction come how much it would

how much it would hurt a man like Josiah

what’s Josiah’s response to you know

learning he’s going to be Exempted from

the from from the the punishment that

God’s going to bring to the land

well I’m good good luck to the rest of

you

of course not

what do you want to do

he went to work trying to get his people

to turn from their ways and to serve God

and we’re going to see he’s going to do

everything that’s within his power to

remove those Temptations from them and

we talked about that briefly on on

Wednesday evening

he’s going to do everything that’s

within his power to remove those

Temptations and and desires of the

people to to want to serve their their

idols

in chapter 23 beginning in verse one now

the king sent them to gather all the

Elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him the

king went up to the house of the Lord

with all the men of Judah and with him

all the inhabitants of Jerusalem the

priests and the prophets and all the

people both small and great and he read

in their hearing all the words of the

book of the Covenant which have been

found in the house of the Lord then the

king stood by a pillar and made a

covenant before the Lord to follow the

lord and to keep his Commandments and

his testimonies and his statutes with

all his heart and with all his soul to

perform the words of this Covenant that

were written in this book and the people

took a stand for the Covenant so what is

his desire

he’s going to have the book read to the

people he wants them to hear what he

heard and he wants them to have the

attitude that he has to serve to to

change their ways and to serve the Lord

and so he wants them to make a

commitment like he has made a commitment

it’s a good example to us

we should be involved in reaching out to

others with the good news of the saving

gospel

why would we want to keep that to

ourselves

Josiah had the had the the the privilege

of hearing from the book of the law and

his desire was to share it with the

people it wasn’t to keep it to himself

or well the people don’t really want to

hear this because well it’s going to

tell them they’re they’re not doing

things right and and it’s really going

to mess with their way of life so I’ll

just kind of keep this to myself no he

wanted to read to all the people and he

wanted them to change their ways

we who are Christians have received the

saving grace of God so why would we want

to keep that to ourselves why would we

not want to share that with as many as

possible and so our desire should be to

be as busy about the work of the Kingdom

as we possibly can

Josiah had a commitment to fully putting

away sin and that’s that was the gist of

our exhortation on Wednesday he had

this desire to fully eradicate the

idolatry from the land

um

he had done some work previously before

before this time if we were if we were

to go over and read in second Chronicles

34

that we have some detail of his efforts

beginning in the 12th year of his reign

some work that he had done trying to rid

the land of some idols

they didn’t find the book of the law

until his 18th year so he had already

been doing some work in the in that

regard before he found uh the the book

of the law in his 18th year

and then we read

kind of at the conclusion of the

accounting in second Chronicles 34

similar to what we read in Second Kings

23 that he had removed the Abominations

from all the country that was his desire

in Second Kings 23 beginning in verse 4.

and the King commanded hilkai the high

priest the priest of the second order

and the doorkeepers to bring out of the

Temple of the Lord all the articles that

were made for Baal for ashra and for all

the hosts of heaven and he burned them

outside Jerusalem in the fields of

Kidron and carried their Ashes to Bethel

then he removed the idolatrous priest

whom the kings of Judah had ordained to

burn incense on the high places in the

cities of Judah and then

and then the places all around Jerusalem

and those who burned incense to Baal to

the Sun to the Moon to the

constellations and to all the hosts of

Heaven

and he brought out the wooden image from

the house of the Lord to the brook

Kidron outside Jerusalem burned it at

the brook Kidron and grounded to ashes

and threw its ashes on the graves of the

Common People

then he tore down the ritual booths of

the perverted persons that were in the

house of the Lord where the women wove

hangings for the wooden image and he

brought all the priests from the cities

of Judah and defiled the high places

where the high priest had burned incense

from giba to Beersheba also he broke

down the high places at the gates which

were at the entrance of the Gate of

Joshua the governor of the city which

were to the left of the City Gate before

we continue

point out again what we talked about on

Wednesday these things were in the

temple of God

their their Idols they had put directly

in the house of the Lord that’s how far

they had gone into their wickedness and

their perversion

they didn’t even have

sense enough and shame enough to say

if we’re going to serve our serve our

Idols at least don’t put it in the house

of God they took him right into the

house of the Lord and we’re serving

their Idols there

verse 9 nevertheless the priests of the

high places did not come up to the altar

of the Lord in Jerusalem but they ate

unleavened bread among their Brethren

and he defiled tofeth which is in the

Valley of the son of hinnom that no man

might make his son or his daughter pass

through the fire to Molech then he

removed the horses that the kings of

Judah had dedicated to the son at the

entrance to the house of the Lord by the

Chamber of Nathan Malik the officer who

was in the court and he burned the

Chariots of the sun with fire the altars

that were on the roof the upper chamber

of ahaz which the kings of Judah had

made and the altars which Manasseh had

made in the two courts of the house of

the Lord the king broke down and

pulverized there and threw their dust

into the brook Kidron

then the king defiled the high places

that were east of Jerusalem which were

on the south of the Mount of corruption

which Solomon king of Israel had built

for Asher at the abomination of the

cydonians for keemosh the abomination of

the moabites and for milcom the

abomination of the people of Ammon and

he broke in pieces to Sacred pillars and

cut down the wooden images and filled

their places with the bones of men

moreover the altar that was at Bethel

and the high place which jeroboam the

son of nevat who made Israel’s sin had

made both that Altar and the high place

he broke down and he burned the high

place and crushed it to powder and

burned the wooden image

as Josiah Turney saw the tombs that were

there on the mountain and he sent and

took the bones of the tombs and burned

them on the Altar and defiled it

according to the word of the Lord which

the man of God proclaimed who proclaimed

these words

then he said what gravestone is this I

see so the men of the city told him it

is the Tomb of the man of God who came

from Judah and proclaimed these things

which you have done against the altar of

Bethel

and he said let him alone that they let

no one move his bones so they let his

bones alone with the bones of the

Prophet who came from Samaria now Josiah

also took away all the shrines of the

high places that were in the cities of

Samaria which the Kings of Israel had

made to provoke the Lord to anger and he

did to them according to all the Deeds

he had done in Bethel he executed all

the priests of the high places who were

there on the altars and burned men’s

Bones on them and he returned it to

Jerusalem

I know that was a lengthy reading but

what do we learn there

we’re given a lot of detail about how

far he desired to go and and getting rid

of this from the land

he didn’t just tell the people we don’t

need to do this anymore uh let’s let’s

take the stuff out of the temple you

know that’s that’s probably a bad idea

he pulled the stuff out he burned it he

pulverized it he went around the he went

all over the land pulling down their

idols and burning them burning their

Idols killing the high priest that sir

that served those idols

he wasn’t

vague in his message to the people we

need to be rid of this stuff God is

unhappy with us for this stuff that we

have allowed into our lives and into our

land

and as I said on Wednesday

he wasn’t going to make it easier for

them to go back to it

they would go back to it sadly we know

that they do

but they were going to have to do some

work to get back to it because he took

it out of the land that he burned and

crushes you know we he pulverized it to

dust there he left nothing for them to

build from they had they had to start

from scratch

such was his desire to be rid of all of

these evil things from the land

we can certainly learn a valuable lesson

from Josiah with that when we commit to

God we can’t give him a partial

commitment

we can’t leave the vestiges of our old

lives of sin nearby in case we decide we

want to use them again and sadly far too

many Christians do that

I’m going to become a Christian but I’m

going to leave this stuff right here

just in case I want to go back to it

in Ephesians chapter 4 we won’t go read

that account this morning but Ephesians

chapter 4

Paul gives us a good

uh a good lesson there about putting off

the old man of sin and the actions and

the Deeds the evil that he that he that

he that we participate in and we put on

the new man of Christ so in other words

we annihilate our old life of sin as I

said we don’t leave things nearby in

case we desire to go back to them we

fully eradicate it from our lives

as we’ve been saying Josiah had a fire

burning in him to do right you don’t you

don’t go into as much uh

difficult work as he did without having

a burning desire to do things the right

way

I think once Josiah

learned what God wanted I don’t think he

could be stopped in trying to fix things

in the land I don’t think there was

anything you were going to do to stop

him

he did all this good in trying to do

right the right things himself and to

lead his people in the right way and and

chapter 23 of Second Kings and verse 25

the verse we looked at on Wednesday now

before him there was no King Mike him

who turned to the Lord with all his

heart with all his soul and with all his

might according to all all the law of

Moses nor after him did any arise like

him as we said it wasn’t just

that he was such a good King and that

and and were even told that he followed

in the steps of his father David

we’re told he did even better than David

he went even further than David did and

and and and

Desiring to do things the right way

in Jeremiah chapter 20 I think we

we have the uh someone who had a similar

attitude to Josiah

and uh

Jeremiah chapter 20 and verse 9 then I

said I will not make mention of him nor

speak any more in his name but his word

was in my heart like a burning fire shut

up in my bones I was weary of holding it

back and I could not

what was Jeremiah’s attitude

at first he was like well I just don’t

want to talk about it but what it said

the fire burned in him so deep

he said I could not keep it in I think

that’s the attitude that Josiah had

it burned in him so deeply that he

wanted his people to turn from their

evil ways that I don’t think as I said

that he could be stopped in

pushing his people to do the right and

to rid the land of the idolatry

do we have that kind of fire new

Christians often do how often do you see

a new Christian will take off like like

a house of fire and they want to have

set up Bible studies with as many people

as they can and they they’re here

they’re always here at every service and

Desiring to be as involved as possible

and then sadly too many times as we grow

older the fire kind of Fades and we kind

of settle into a comfortable routine and

and it’s a ho-hum go with the flow

attitude

I guess we each need to answer these

questions for ourselves and I’m

particularly pointing at myself have we

let the fire die down in US

are we willing to be quiet

you know

the things that Josiah did they took

some time that wasn’t an overnight

process he didn’t accomplish those

things in two or three days it he had to

he had to be adamant to continue those

things for a lengthy period of time

those things couldn’t happen overnight

do we have that same kind of Desire or

have we let our fire burn down if we

have then we need to rekindle it and so

we need to be like Josiah and want to

rid ourselves and those that we come

into contact with desire to teach them

to put the evil out of their lives to be

like Jeremiah and say when we see

wickedness we uh are willing to speak

against it

there’s a trending there’s a trending

attitude among some that I see that are

that are Christians that are we need to

be careful how we talk about Sin we

don’t want to offend people

if you offend them they may not want to

talk to you anymore about it

should that be our first concern I don’t

mean we go out of the way to to offend

people and upset them where they don’t

want to talk to us but when we go so far

to the extreme that we don’t want to

call out the sin because we might offend

them well then we are not doing the

things that God wants us to do we need

to be willing to speak against

wickedness when we see it

we draw our lesson to a close this

morning

as we as we have looked at Josiah Prince

presents a number of lessons for us to

learn and he began serving God at a

young age

that’s a good example for for all of us

especially to teach our children that

you can begin serving God at a young age

you don’t have to be a full-grown adult

to begin serving God

he teaches us that he was

the attitude to have when we learn we

have not been properly serving the lord

he was distraught about it he was

agonizing over the fact to learn upon

hearing the word of the law that he had

not been properly serving God

and he demonstrated incredible

leadership and that he wanted his people

to serve God also and so he was fully

committed

to doing away with the evil in the land

to take away those things that

Temptation from among the people

and he remained committed until his

death as we as we talked about God was

going to exempt him from the the uh the

punishment he was going to bring onto

the land

and so uh he allowed

Josiah to die ahead of time that that he

would not see the things that were going

to happen to the land but he was

committed until until death came to him

to doing the right thing and and you

know we can read in Revelation Chapter 2

and verse 10 about remaining faithful

until death

that could be said about Josiah and it

should it needs to be our attitude that

we remain faithful until death

so as we draw to a close this morning I

appreciate your kind attention I just

want us to leave with these questions

are we committed

do we have the fire burning within us to

do right and to show others the right

way

or if we let it burn down and do we need

to rekindle it

I can’t answer those things for you as

you can’t answer them for me but I want

you to take those things with you this

morning and to consider those things and

uh if if you have changes that you need

to make in your life then then make

those things to make those changes so

you can be in a right relationship with

God as I said I appreciate your

attention this morning I hope I’ve said

some things that have been beneficial to

you

when I sing the song that was selected

for our encouragement