 Amen. All right, we're there in 2 Kings 23. 2 Kings 23 is actually one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. Probably my second favorite chapter in the Bible. And basically, just a quick rundown. We're going to be looking at this chapter a lot, so we'll get to know it pretty well. But just as an initial rundown, you have this king named Josiah. And Josiah, what makes him unique or special, is he right now, if you want to put the nation of Israel on a timeline, he lived during the very end of the timeline. Okay, by the time Josiah is born, the end is near, so to speak, okay? So this is towards the end of his nation, towards the end before God releases his judgment, his final judgment, known as the captivity on the nation of Israel or the nation of Judah at this point. And Josiah was actually, we see initially that he was a man who, he became king very young, but he feared God. He feared God and initially is the best as he knew how. He followed God as best as he could. And this is surprising because his grandfather was actually a man named Manasseh, who was, you could argue, was the worst king, the most evil king the nation of Judah had ever had. And Manasseh actually ended up getting saved towards the end of his life. The Bible says that he prayed and he realized the Lord was God and it says God forgave his sin, his iniquity. But as with us, just because our sins are forgiven does not mean our sins don't have consequences. So because of specifically what Manasseh had done, God said, I am going to destroy the nation of Judah. There is no turning back at this point. And when Manasseh died, his son, Ahaz came to power, who was Josiah's father, and he wasn't as bad as Manasseh, but he was also a very evil king. He was actually assassinated by some of his, some of his, some of those he trusted, some of those his, some of those in his kingdom. And the Bible says in the previous chapter that the men of the land killed those that had killed Ahaz, and his son Josiah comes on the scene as the king. So keep your place in 2 Kings 23. We are going to be coming back a lot to this chapter. So keep a ribbon or bookmark there. Turn back to 1 Kings 13. We're going to briefly go back in time about 300 years to 1 Kings 13. And so we're going back in time to the beginning right when the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah were split. So this is a long time ago. And of course, when the nation of you had David, King David, and King David's son Solomon reigned, and Solomon towards the end of his life made a lot of mistakes. So God told Solomon, you know, you've done a lot of good things. You've built the temple. But because of the wrong that you've done, I'm going to split the nation and your son's reign. And that's what happened. Solomon's son Rehoboam came to power and it was during Rehoboam's reign that God ripped the nation into essentially. Rehoboam went on to lead the nation of Judah. And God chose a man named Jeroboam to lead the nation of Israel. And God, Jeroboam was a good man initially. This is why God chose him. He had a prophet go to him and tell him that you are going to, I've chosen you to lead the other 10 tribes of Israel. But Jeroboam ended up devolving into sin. Very bad, actually. And Jeroboam caused the nation to sin so much and he started so much evil that throughout the entire history of the nation of Israel, whenever the Bible references the sin of the nation of Israel, it mentions this king or that king followed the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin. So not a very good way to be known in the Bible. But right when Jeroboam started this, the Bible says Jeroboam eventually built two golden calves. History repeats itself. He made one in Dan and one in Bethel, okay? And so right now Jeroboam is by the altar in Bethel and he is offering to false gods upon this altar. Obviously something that's very evil to God. And God sends a prophet to rebuke him, especially since this is a man that God had chosen. This is a man that God, this was not just a nobody. This was someone God entrusted to lead half of his nation. Look at verse one, 1 Kings 13 verse one. And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said, oh, altar. So this man, he is rebuking Jeroboam, but he's speaking figuratively to the altar. But he's really rebuking Jeroboam here and said, oh, altar, altar. Thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born under the house of David, Josiah by name. And upon thee, and again he's speaking to the altar, upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense unto thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day saying, this is the sign which the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be rent and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. So he gives two prophecies here. He says, one's a far out prophecy. One is of Josiah who would come 300 years later. And another is something that would happen in just a few moments. Look at verse four. And it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar saying, lay hold on him, and his hand which he put forth against him dried up so that he could not pull it in again to him. The altar also, keep in mind this is a, we're gonna see this later in the sermon, but these altars, this is a metal altar. This is not made of wood or foam or Ikea furniture board. The altar also was rent and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. So he stretches out his hand. He says, you know, get him, lay hold on him, and his hand dries up to where he can't even move it anymore and the altar splits into and all the ashes pour out. So this is what brings us to 2 Kings 23. In 2 Kings 23 essentially is, I think if you could put a title of this chapter on it, I think you could call this chapter Josiah's Zeal. This chapter is essentially, we've already at this point learned about who Josiah is and where he came from, but this chapter is really describing the rampage he went on to cleanse his nation from sin. And also you gotta realize as we look more into this in the sermon, this likely took some time. This was not something he did in a day. This was not something that took him a couple months. This likely took him years, maybe decades to do everything, to go to the extent that he went to. So let's go ahead and look at a preview of his works here. Look at 2 Kings 23 verse 15. So here specifically, this is the instance where he fulfilled this prophecy that was mentioned many years earlier. Look at verse 15. So he's just going on his rampage. He's tearing down altars. He's doing what he's doing. But look at verse 15. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel. So this altar, you gotta realize this altar is still here. This is 300 years later and this altar is still in the same spot. I mean, think about that. So think about the spot you're sitting on right now. Your exact coordinates right now, what do you think this area looked like 300 years ago? So this is a very long time later and this altar is still here, probably still in use. And look what he does to the altar in the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nabat who made Israel to sin, had made both the altar and the high place. He break down and burn the high place and stamped it small to powder and burn the grove. Think about how big of a deal is that he took this metal altar and he had people take, again, something that we read very quickly but probably took in a significant amount of time. He took this altar and he had it ground into little shavings of metal. He had it ground to powder, the Bible says, and burn the grove. And as Josiah turned himself, now he's done here, he's going on to the next spot. He spied the sepulchres that were in the mount and sent. So as he's walking away, he sees all these grave sites of the false prophets who used this altar at one point and sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres and burned them on the altar and polluted it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed. Who proclaimed these words? Then he said whose title is that that I see? So he sees a name on one of these grave sites and he says who is this? Whose name is this? And the man of the city told him it is the sepulchre of the man of God which came from Judah and proclaimed these things that thou has done against the altar of Bethel. So they're like, funny you ask, this is actually the guy who prophesied what you are doing right now. And he said, let him alone, let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. That was the prophet that got him killed that was buried with him. So here we see one of, perhaps one of the most powerful fulfilled prophecies in the Bible, but you got to realize that this prophecy wasn't just about this instance of the specific thing he did to this altar at Bethel. This was a prophecy of Josiah's entire life. It was this prophecy that this monster of idolatry and filth and backsliding and wickedness that Jeroboam was creating would one day be destroyed by a man who feared God 300 years later. The title of the sermon this evening is this, Destiny. Now the word destiny is defined as this, quote, the things that will happen in the future. And as the English language changes, this is a word that the tenses of are used in the Bible. But as with our modern vernacular, this word has kind of been tampered with to mean another definition I found. This is what a lot of people today would probably tell you they think it means, quote, the force that some people think controls what happens in the future and is outside human control. So you see this today in a lot of fiction, especially this idea of destiny where it's just this magical force that no human can really control, but it's just, you know, I'm destined to do this. I'm destined to do that. It's just this force that people just kind of like karma. People just kind of attribute things to. But tonight what I want to show you, at least as my way of introduction before we get into the sermon, that from God's point of view, this definition of this word is far from true, especially for the Christian. You don't have to turn there, but Ephesians 1.5 says, having predestinated us, so it uses the tense of this word here, into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. So Calvinists love this verse because they will see, see, we are predestined. We cannot, it's irresistible grace. God chooses certain people. He predestines certain people to go to heaven and some to go to hell. And there's nothing we can do about it. We're either chosen or not. If we're chosen, there's nothing we can change our eternal damnation. And if we're elect, if we're chosen, it's irresistible. We're just, that's just how it is. There's nothing we can do to change that. But obviously we know this is not what this verse is saying. So they're essentially taking the other, the new definition of destiny. That says it's just something that is beyond human control. Of course we know that this verse is saying that rather God has a will for each and every person, namely to get saved. But he desires that we would follow that will. We have free will we can choose. And obviously if we don't follow God's will, this verse is not saying that there's no consequences for not following God's will. But it's saying that humans have the choice to or to not to follow God's will. For example, I could say that I am tomorrow, I'm predestined to go to work tomorrow. Now I can wake up tomorrow and choose not to go to work. If I wake up and say I'm not going to go to work today, some invisible force is not going to drag me to work. What this is saying is that I am scheduled to go to work. I'm expected to go to work tomorrow. And if I choose not to, that doesn't mean that there won't be consequences for me not doing that. But just because someone is predestinated to do something that does not mean that they do not have free will or are not involved in that. So here's what we know so far. Everyone has a destiny that is born out of God's will for their lives. Now, will everyone fulfill or complete that destiny? No. Most people actually will not. Since the initial destiny for most people or what God expects of most people is to get saved, we know that most people are going to be saved. The way I like to think about it is essentially everyone that has ever lived, regardless of what they do in their lives or the choices they make, God has a plan for each and every person that they would get saved and they would follow him with their lives. Now, most people are going to take those instructions and crumple them up and throw them in the trash. But the point still stands that God has a plan, a will, a destiny for each and every person. So you say, okay, I have a destiny, especially since I'm saved. Whose responsibility is it to fulfill? I mean, is God involved in this? Is he going to spur me into this? Is this all on me? Is it someone else? Is it involve other people? Well, in 2 Kings 23, Josiah is going to be our test subject for this, but we see a man who succeeded in filling his destiny that was prophesied 300 years before. And so ask yourselves this, because you say, oh, I didn't have a profit to prophesy what I was going to do 300 years ago. So let's ask ourselves this, if the man of God 300 years before, if he never spoke that prophecy, would Josiah still have come and done what he did? Well, yes, of course. The prophecy was just something that God revealed to this man and he spoke this prophecy. So, okay, so if it wasn't this man's responsibility to, for Josiah's destiny being fulfilled, was it God that was responsible? Because remember, we have free will. Now, was it God's will, what he did? Yes. Did God help him as he did those things? Yes. Did God fill him with power and with the Holy Spirit as he did those things? Yes. But did God force Josiah to live out his destiny? No. See, we serve it all knowing God, who knows the end from the beginning. He knows, God has a plan for all of us. He has a destiny for all of us and he knows which of us will and which of us won't and to what extent we all will fulfill that destiny. But he leaves whether or not what we choose, if we choose to follow that will, that is left up to us. The way I think about it is, if you compare it to a building project, God is the architect and we are the builder. So, God writes the plans. He tells us in his word what he wants us to do in our lives and as the builder, we don't have to, we don't, there's nothing forcing us to follow those plans. The architect's not going to come build it himself. We can choose to follow those things. Now, if you have an architect that has plans and the builder does not follow those plans, there's definitely going to be consequences. There could be structural consequences. There could be financial consequences, legal consequences. But the idea being that it is still up to us as the builder to follow those instructions that God gives us. So, who's responsible? So, with this set, who is responsible for fulfilling Josiah's destiny? He was. So, who is responsible for fulfilling our destiny? We are. So, with that state set, with that idea set, let's look at this evening, how to find out what our destiny is and how to fulfill it. And let's use Josiah by seeing how he did it and see if that will work for us, okay? So, I have three points this evening, three things Josiah did to fulfill his destiny and how we can do those same things ourselves. So, the first thing this evening is this, go back to 2 Kings, but go to chapter 22, just the chapter before. We're going to see the origins of Josiah. The first thing Josiah did this evening is Josiah acted upon his destiny. He acted upon it. Verse 1 of 2 Kings 22, the Bible says Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign and he reigned 30 and one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedediah, the daughter of Boschath, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. So, you got to imagine, I mean, the poor kid probably didn't have too much of an idea of what to do. I mean, given all his relatives were very evil people and his nation was near destruction at this point, but whatever he knew he did in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father and turned not a side from the right hand to the left. And he came to pass in the 18th year of King Josiah. So this is a while later. That the king sent to, sent Shefan, the son of Ezaliah, the son of Meshalam, the scribe to the house of the Lord saying, go up to Hilkiah the high priest that he may summon the silver which is brought into the house of the Lord which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people and let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work and they have the oversight of the house of the Lord and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the Lord to repair the breaches of the house. So this isn't quite the point of the sermon what he does here is as he's trying to follow the Lord he says, hey, you know what we can do? Let's fix up the temple. That would be good to do. Let's repair the temple. It's kind of focused on fixing it up a little bit and look at verse eight. So they do this and as they're doing this project of fixing up the temple someone stumbles upon the Bible. Someone finds a Bible. They find the book of the law in Hilkiah the high priest and into Shefan the scribe I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. So this guy's the high priest. He knows what he just found and Hilkiah gave the book to Shefan and read it. And it's funny because you look at Shefan. Shefan doesn't quite understand what he's got here. Hilkiah does but Shefan doesn't really understand and Shefan the scribe showed the king saying Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book and Shefan read it before the king. So Shefan just he gets this book from this guy and he's like he said to read it to the king and he reads the book of the law which judging by his Josiah's reaction has been lost for a while in the nation. And it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest and the high came the son of Shefan and Akbor the son of Micaiah and Shefan the scribe and Ashaia the servant of the king saying go inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of the book that is found because here's what he realized when he heard the Bible great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us because our fathers have not harkened under the words of this book to do according to all that was written concerning us. So this moment this is a turning we see Josiah was he was doing what he could already but this is a turning point in his life where he hears the word of God he compares it to their current spiritual state and it lights a fire deep down in his soul and this the very next verse this is what brings us to 2 Kings 23. So just before we go any further let me give you a quick summary we don't have time to get you know everything he did but I'm going to give you just a quick summary from this chapter of everything that he did just to get get get the idea across of the extent to which Josiah went in 2 Kings 23 versus 1 through 3 he gathers all the people together he personally reads them the word of God and he makes a covenant with the people to keep the commandments of God in 2 Chronicles we're told he had the people stand in the covenant verse 4 he has all the idols brought out of the temple and has them burned in verse 5 he gets a bunch of the false priests together and has them executed verse 6 he destroys more idols and dumps their debris in the graves of the false prophets so he's just going to the extent of not just getting the job done but just adding insult to injury here verse 7 he destroys the houses of the sodomites and likely them as well verses 8 through 14 he continues going from city to city to city getting rid of more idols, altars and false priests verses 15 through 18 the verses will be read he fulfills that specific prophecy of that man of God verse 19 he destroys more high places verse 20 he executes more false priests and verses 21 through 23 this is interesting he holds the first Passover that the nation had had in a very long time in fact this was not first Passover in a long time but the Bible tells us this was the greatest Passover that ever took place in the nation of Israel 2 Kings look at chapter 23 verse 22 here God describes this Passover he says verse 22 surely there was not holding such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel nor in all the days of the kings of Israel nor the kings of Judah so this blew every other Passover out of the water he meant business with this and finally verse 24 wraps it up with him executing more false priests but please understand all these things that he did here this thing that likely took him decades this was not just the product of Josiah hearing the word of God this was a result of a turning point in his life where he didn't just hear it but when he compared it to their current spiritual state he made a firm resolution to actually act upon what he realized at that moment was his destiny you know we're not going to focus too much turn to number 32 we're really not going to focus too much on how to understand what your destiny is because quite frankly if you own a Bible if you hear the word of God preached on a regular basis then we really have no excuse for not knowing what our destiny is so that's not really the point of the sermon this is assuming we all are full well aware of what God wants for our lives but rather the point being Josiah the first thing he did is he actually acted upon that destiny that he realized that's the first step is actually acting upon it look at numbers 32 verse 10 so this is God describing essentially what happened with why the Israelites wanted the wilderness for 40 years they what was their destiny their destiny was that they would reach the promised land I mean I talk about quite a destiny there but because they doubted God and with the story of the specifically with the story of the 12 spies because of what they did God sent them wandering in the wilderness and they never reached that destiny they failed they never attained to that verse 10 the Bible is explaining this event and says and the Lord's anger was kindled at the same time and he swears saying surely none of the men that came out of Egypt from 20 years old and upward shall see the land which I swear into Abraham do Isaac and do Jacob why God why because they have not wholly followed me and the punishment was losing that destiny that they had waiting for them but why did they fail to attain it why did they not reach it because they didn't follow that destiny and instead followed their own will rather turn to Ezekiel 33 see going our own way contrary to what God wants will always lead to a failed destiny every time while you're turning to Ezekiel 33 I'll read you Ezekiel 33 16 through 17 where God is talking to Ezekiel about this coming wrath this coming judgment and he explains why it's happening he says son of man when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land they defiled it by their own way and by their doing as God says you know why this is happening Ezekiel this is happening they have this I have this great destiny for them but what I want in my nation to be and instead they're going to be judged and they're losing that destiny because they defiled it with their own way of doing things they knew what God's will was the Bible says they had the oracles of God they had prophets they had they had no excuse not to know it they just didn't follow it look at Ezekiel 33 verse 30 this these few verses here really explains this and puts this into perspective the Bible says verse 30 also without son of man the children of thy people are still talking against thee by the walls and the doors of the houses and speak one to another everyone to his brother saying come I pray you and hear with the word of the Lord that comeeth forth from the Lord so it sounds like they have a positive attitude towards Ezekiel's preaching and they came unto thee as come unto thee as the people comment and they said before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they show forth much love this is the quote that Jesus would quote in the New Testament for with their mouth they show forth much love but their heart go after their covetousness so God's saying Ezekiel they like they like your preaching they come to they come to your service but they just don't do it and that's why they they failed at their destiny verse 32 he says and lo thou were done to them is a very lovely song of one to have a pleasant voice and can play well an instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not and when this come with the past this meaning the judgment that Ezekiel's preaching about for lo it will come because whether they hear or not God's word is still true then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them so at that point when the judgment happens then they're going to know I should have listened I should have paid attention so the point being here it's not just enough to know about your destiny but rather to follow it you know the turn there but Matthew 4 18 through 20 here's another great example of this and Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers and he saith unto them here's them learning their destiny here is them the literal word of God in the flesh is saying hey this is your destiny this is what I want for your life and he saith unto them follow me and I will make you fishers and men and they straightway left their nets and followed him so it would have done them no good if Jesus came up to them and say hey this is your destiny I've just revealed unto you your God given destiny and then they're like cool and they just stay there and they keep business as usual what what caused the disciples to change the lives of so many people and and start the movement they did is because they didn't just here follow me but they actually followed it was due to them actually getting up and acting upon you realize was their destiny just like Josiah did turn to 2 Kings 22 so how do we fulfill our destiny well the first thing we see with Josiah is that Josiah acted upon his destiny that turning point in his life was not a turning point of him hearing it was a turning point of him acting upon what he heard so the second thing this evening is this of course Josiah was he acted upon his destiny but the second thing this this evening is Josiah was undaunted by his limitations look at verse 22 this this this parts may perhaps a little sad a little disappointing so he just heard the word of God he just had this this this revelation where he just understood his destiny and then so he goes and he says go get a profit go see what God I need to know what God wants me to do so he'll cry the priest look at verse 14 so he'll cry the priest and a high Kim and ikbor and she fan as as a Haya went on to hold up the prophetess the wife of shalom the son of tivka the son of heros keeper of the wardrobe now she dwells in Jerusalem the college and they commune with her and she said unto them thus saith the Lord God of Israel tell the man that sent you to me thus saith the Lord behold I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof even all the words of the book which the king of judahath read you say but but God doesn't God know what Josiah is about to do he's about to initiate the greatest revival that his nations ever seen doesn't God know this for verse 17 because they have forsaken me in a burning sense into other gods they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched but to the king of judah what sent you to inquire of the Lord thus shall you say unto him thus saith the Lord God of Israel is touching the words which thou has heard because thine heart was tender and thou has humbled thyself before the Lord when thou heard is what I spake against this place and against the inhabitants thereof that they should become a desolation and a curse and hath rent thy clothes and wept before me I also have heard thee say at the Lord behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave and peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place and they brought the king word again so essentially here's a summary of this God says the evil that the nation has done it doesn't matter it's too much judgment is still coming I have not changed my mind I'm not turning back I am still going to destroy this entire nation but because Josiah's heart God says he'll postpone it during his lifetime so imagine for a second that you're Josiah you are you fear God you follow the Lord and then you hear his word and you look at this nation that you are leading and you compare it to what you have just read and you realize you think what have we done so imagine your mind is running you're desperately thinking of a way to save the nation that you are responsible for because this isn't just some random man who realized what he's doing in his life is wrong he's leading a nation here and God just told them all these people it's all going to be destroyed so imagine you're looking at everything that needs to be changed and destroyed and done differently and all the work that has to be done so you go seek further instruction from God and God tells you Josiah I appreciate what you're doing this is great in fact I'll even do you a favor make sure that my judgment doesn't happen during your lifetime but it's sorry it's still going to happen just the same you know what most people who are doing that situation is they would say oh well good but what difference does it make I'm what's the point of even changing anything if I'm not going to see that and you think that's extreme but that's actually what Hezekiah did Hezekiah was a great King he did a lot of really good things but when he was told when he made a mistake and he was told of the judgment that would come second Kings 20 verse 19 I'll just read it for you here Isaiah the prophet tells Hezekiah what's going to happen in the next generation Hezekiah said on do Isaiah good is the word of the Lord which I was spoken and he said is it not good if peace and truth be in my days so Hezekiah had this mentality when he was faced with this where he said what it doesn't matter to me it I don't I don't deal with it's not my problem but Josiah the very next verse after this second Kings 23 starts and he initiates the greatest the greatest revival or the greatest the greatest change in his nation that's happened in a very long time his immediate response to hearing Hey Hezekiah you have to or Josiah you have this limitation that you're really not going to be able to make an impact past your lifetime his immediate response is okay good to know let's get to work so you say what does this mean for me well one of the reasons I think people never fulfilled their destiny the will of God for their life is because they're intimidated or hindered by their limitations turn to 1 Corinthians 1 is like to be honest is flawed human beings and a fallen world we all have limitations now some of those I think can be self induced but some of those can be very real maybe you say I don't have enough resources I don't have enough time to serve God to fulfill his will I don't have the health I've made too many past mistakes I don't have the skills I'm not good at this I'm not good at that and some of those some of those excuses or some of those limitations may be valid because again we're flawed human beings in a flawed world but imagine the limitation that Josiah was just given here he had this heart to do all these things for God and he was just told that no matter what you do Josiah you will not be able to make a change past your own lifetime and you know I was thinking about this and I wonder how many Christians because look as Christians we go slowly look we have opportunity to make eternal impact we have opportunity every week to not just change someone's lives not just change our family's lives our own lives in this lifetime not just to leave a lasting impact for generations to come but eternal impact every time someone gets saved but I wonder how many Christians if they got saved and God told them hey no matter what you do in your whole lifetime you're not going to make any impact that lasts beyond your lifetime I wonder how many Christians would immediately quit the Christian life that's not what Josiah did though he was so undaunted by his very valid limitation that no matter what you do look he was already told look Josiah you're fine it's not going to happen during your lifetime he could have gone home right there but despite that and knowing that nothing would change the wrath of God that was coming he still went out and did 2nd Kings verse 23 or chapter 23 you're there in 1st Corinthians 1 look at verse 26 excuse me you say but I'm limited I have too many limitations I'm hindered verse 26 the Bible says this for you see you're calling brother and how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called it's like the sermon this morning when God needs something done he doesn't he didn't choose the Delta Force he chose 300 random people who were just willing to risk their lives to serve God verse 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty see ironically against all human logic and understanding it is the most limited people who God uses to do the greatest things hands down you don't have to turn there but Exodus 4 verse 10 this is when Moses goes in and God appears to him in the burning bush and keep in mind too by this point by the verses I'm going to read you God he's already seen like three miracles here I mean he's seen this bush that that was not consumed God is speaking to the him out of out of the bush God's performed the miracle of the staff turning to a snake of the leprosy God's already showed himself in like four super natural ways already and God tells him hey Moses this is your destiny I want you to go to the King of Pharaoh and I want you to tell him my word and tell him to let my people go and verse 10 Moses says and Moses said unto the Lord oh my Lord I am not eloquent neither here to forward nor since I was spoken unto thy servant but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue look maybe maybe maybe this was valid maybe he actually had a speech impediment of some sorts but God God doesn't respond with oh I'm sorry I did not know that I completely understand I'll let you go with disability pay verse 11 and the Lord said unto him who has made man's mouth guys like I'm the one who designed your mouth what are you even talking about or who make it the dumb the deaf or the seeing or the blind have not I the Lord now therefore go I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say God didn't God didn't really think that was an excuse for Moses I mean again this may have been a legitimate hindrance that's probably why God chose Moses but God didn't see that as something that would have to hinder him God actually saw that as something that he would be able to use Moses even mighter than the average person and like I said I think a lot of the limitations we have can be overcome but even those that can't those things should not hinder us from serving God so I have an example for this and to illustrate this example I'm not a nerd I do not own Legos but I went to Walmart today and I bought a Lego set for the first time in like 15 years okay so I have a car here and you say many of you will be thinking this is is that a Ferrari? No, this is just a model of one but I'm going to use it to make an example okay let's say this is your car and you say you know I'm going to drive up to King's Canyon I'm going to go on a trip and for whatever reason you did not bring enough gas okay say you drive all the way up you get up to King's Canyon and then you go and you take selfies and you're going to come home and then you realize I don't have enough gas to get home I didn't bring enough gas now yeah that's a that's a bad situation to be in I'm not saying look I mean maybe maybe you're right maybe you're wrong maybe you have enough gas to get home and maybe you don't but you're instead of thinking of a way to fix the problem okay I have this limitation I don't know if I have enough gas this may stop me from getting home you can go get gas you can maybe ask someone for gas you can there is a number of things you can do you can try to go just start driving home and see how far you get but and I wanted I'm giving this example to show how absurd this is this idea of letting our limitation stop us or slow us down this would be like if it instead of trying to solve the problem it would be like if you know you say well you know what I guess I don't have enough gas to get home and I don't know so you get out of your car and you're looking at the edge over the canyon and you just push your car for cliff okay now you definitely don't have enough gas to get home okay so this but see this is what we do we all do this to an extent let's be honest where we have some we can do this in large in a big way and we can do this in small ways where we think I am limited so I'm not even going to try well now now we're definitely not going to get where we want to go so just think of how absurd that is next time next time that you get that idea just so I had this like massive limitation put on him of hey buddy like I hope you do well but it's not going to make a difference and he try he still tries as hard as he could with his entire life to make a difference so how do we obtain our destiny well one we saw Josiah acted upon his destiny like we saw this morning most people won't even do that most people won't even get to the first step of actually going out and on faith and attempting that but not only did that but he was undaunted by his limitations and he had good reason to be daunted by those limitations so third this evening is this here's the third thing kind of what I want to wrap up with Josiah wasn't just ready to act he didn't just he wasn't just undaunted by limitations he may have had but Josiah was ready to destroy here's what I mean by that most great kings in the Bible they're known for what they built David built up the nation of Israel Solomon physically built this massive temple and other structures Uzziah were told built great weapons of war great technology like trebuchets catapults Asa built entire cities Hezekiah built great infrastructure and Josiah built nothing all we see what Josiah did is just destroy things that's all he did his entire life and look when it comes to fulfilling our destiny the reason many people will fail is because okay maybe they realize their destiny and they act upon it maybe they're undaunted by their limitations but most people don't understand that in order to build the great Christian life you're going to have to destroy some things first some more than others because look what if Josiah let's think about this first thing what if Josiah just he just built he's just like hey guys we're going to build another temple let's do this and he went and started building this temple but all the altars stayed there all the all the filth stayed there all the sodomites stayed there all the false priests do you think it would have made much of an impact no he realized Josiah was wise enough to realize and you know maybe he didn't have the opportunity maybe he just wasn't in the cards frame maybe he realized that what he had to do in his life was just destroy you know he said I can't build what these other guys have built but you know what he so to speak he looked at he looked at his nation he picked up a sled chairman he said but you know what I can do I can knock some stuff down and that's what he did and look here's what applies here's how this applies to us building is the fun part right this is like this is the pastor calls this the bottle rocket Christian right this is the person who comes into the Christian life and they just want to build and they do for a little bit they build and they build they build and they build and they're learning this and they're learning that they're starting this and they're studying that but because they never destroyed anything in their life they disappear as quickly as they started is everyone wants to build building building is the fun part demolition is not the fun part my father in law would beg to differ but everyone wants to build but no one wants to destroy but you can't have the hardened successful strong Christian life without destroying things first during the second one is 10 here's what I mean by that before you can build a strong Christian life you must be ready and willing to destroy the altars of old friendships old sins in your life bad habits ways of life places you go places you don't go wrong ideologies all those things have to fall first before you can build anything solid on top of that I got more Legos so I want to give this example of if you try to come if we tried to do this if you try to come into the Christian life because just so he came into the Christian life and everyone before they're saved it's like we're trying to build a Lego set but we don't know what it's supposed to look like and we don't have the instructions right now we may have the general idea of what we're supposed to build but we don't know what it's supposed to look like so I built that first car and then the second car I didn't look at what it was supposed to look like and I didn't read the instructions I just started like putting piece together and this is essentially what Josiah did right because Josiah had good intentions he had a general idea just like as I started building this I know what a car looks like right I know the basic components the car is supposed to have but I didn't have the instructions so essentially this is all everyone before they're saved before they have the word of God this was Josiah he didn't have the instructions but he kind of knew what a car is supposed to look like here we go so I got this right here so I mean I got the general idea about right I mean I it's got wheels it's got four of them actually it's got a windshield it's got headlights there's a couple of tail lights right here I mean we got a steering wheel there's a driver with a wrench and I mean I got the general idea down but here's Josiah right he's trying his best he's doing what we can here's everyone here's all of us we're all building things the wrong way before we have the word of God because we don't know we're just we're trying our best and it's all wrong and then all of a sudden someone gets saved and they get the word of God and someone says no no no no wait hey it's supposed to look like this and we look at the Bible and we look at our life you're like oh okay but what if this I using this idea what if you built this mess which everyone's built but then you know how you're supposed to do things but you didn't want to like you just want to keep what you had and you're like well I'll just I'll try to take okay okay this goes here you know and you're trying to take this existing train wreck and you're just trying to kind of patch it together but you know what you have to do and you know what Josiah realized he said this isn't going to work I got to destroy first and that's what we have to do in our Christian life you can't you will not be able you'll be struggling trying to it's like Jesus said you can't serve God and man you'll be struggling to be fighting the world over here and and be a Christian over here and do what God wants you to do over here but you're still trying to keep things in the wrong spot over here and you're trying to steal parts to put them here and still parts to put them there you know what Josiah realized he said you know what I may not have the chance to build but you know what I need to reset everything first and look that's hard because think about it I mean that can be very personal to someone the things the things that they did their hobbies their habits where they their friends their their relationships in their life asking someone to rip that all down and start new can be very hard and I'm sure it was for Josiah too I mean think about it this you know this was the culture of his nation this filth and this wickedness that was the culture of his nation and I'm sure a lot of people didn't like it where he comes on the scene and he says hey this stuff that for generations we've learned to to adapt as our culture and adapt as how we're going to be we're ripping it all out we're ripping it all out we're literally going to beat it all to powder but he understood that that was necessary for anything of of of structure to be built the children of Israel they we read out of judges this morning the book of judges is just a back and forth of failures of the going to say it and then they get right and they come out of captivity and then they backslide again and back and forth and back and forth the reason they failed to subdue the promised land which was their destiny the reason they failed at that is because all they wanted to do is build what did God tell them what did God tell them for for decades before they came he said I want you to go in and I want you to wipe out every city I want you to go full Josiah on this place destroy everything have no pity wipe it all out and start brand new the way I want it done but where they fail is when they stopped destroying and they just wanted to expand they just wanted to build they took that Lego car that mess and they as they're tearing things apart they say maybe I can keep this on here maybe I can use this I'll just I'll just I won't destroy the whole thing and that's exactly what they did and that's why they failed because they just wanted to build but they didn't want to destroy because destroying is not always fun especially when it's what you're you've always known it can be really hard turn to 2nd Corinthians 10 if you're there we've had to turn there look at verse 10 or chapter 10 verse 4 here the Bible describes this for us this is what Josiah did in a physical way verse 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to God through the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations and every high thing that a result of itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and notice this and having inner readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled look God will avenge us of people but it's our job to carry out revenge on our own disobedience Josiah looked at this nation that he inherited I mean it wasn't his fault it wasn't his fault he didn't have to take responsibility for it but he got this nation handed down to him by his wicked relatives and he looked at this nation when he heard the word of God and he looked at all the sin all the filth all the disobedience and he straight up declared war on it and he said it's time for revenge and he succeeded 2nd Chronicles 34-33 you don't have to turn there it kind of sums up how he did it's his report card did he, okay he went out to destroy all of his look a lot of kings in the Bible destroyed to an extent but it always will say but there were some altars left and there were some girls left and some of the people still offered albeit some people still offered in high places let's see how Josiah did he says in 2nd Chronicles 33-34-33 and Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel Bethel wasn't even in Judah it was right outside but it wasn't even in Judah so he may have gone even overboard a little bit outside his jurisdiction and made all that were present in Israel to serve even to serve the Lord their God and all his days they departed not from following the Lord the God of their fathers and you know I think if if with the mentality that we have I think if we were God it's a good thing we're not of course but I think if we were God and we looked at Josiah's life we might think well that's cool and he did a lot that's a pretty cool chapter but eh he didn't really change anything he didn't really make an impact I mean as soon as Josiah died you know he made a very fool's decision toward the very end of his life that got him killed but I mean as soon as he died everything just fell to pieces like immediately just fell to pieces within days in the nation was judged we may look at Josiah if we were God we'd say well thanks for trying but you didn't really do anything but look at 2nd Kings look at verse chapter 23 verse 25 who realized when God explained in his word what he thought of Josiah you can make the argument that to God Josiah was the greatest king that ever walked the earth just because of what he was willing to destroy and you say more than David and better than Solomon and let's see what let's let's read it 2nd Kings 23 verse 25 if you're God says and like unto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and all his soul and with all his might just make sure we get it he says according to all the law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him he says neither after him or before him there was no one who was like Josiah no one turned to me no one served me with their soul and their might to the extent that this man did and all he did was destroy him he didn't build a fancy temple he didn't he didn't have the chance to for him he didn't build anything great he didn't he just ripped down everything that stood against God this is how special he was to God even though it all fell apart right after he died God looked at this man this man when he died he got to heaven God looked at him and said well done, thou good and faithful servant enter thou unto the joy of that Lord and then he destroyed the place this reminded me of Moses Moses the Bible tells us was one of the greatest prophets to ever live and he failed at leading the children of Israel you can look at it like that he even said Jeremiah is the same way Jeremiah at the end of his life after a whole life of preaching looked at them and said you know you guys haven't listened to anything I've ever said so by that standard by that human standard just looking at just looking at just at the earthly impact we'd say you guys were worthless you didn't even I mean you tried but you didn't do anything the God looked at this man he said you know what you know it's all gonna fall apart anyway but you know there was there was never a king I had who served me like Josiah did so look we may not I understand we're not we're not earthly kings we're not you know leaders over physical nations but we can still fulfill our God given destiny by doing exactly what Josiah did if we can act upon our destiny we can do everything he did if we can know our destiny and actually act upon it if we can remain undaunted by our limitations instead of just just giving up and shoving the car over the cliff and if we can if we are willing and ready no matter how hard it may be to let go if we can be willing and ready to destroy anything that hinders us from building a great successful Christian life that we will fulfill our destiny just the same as Josiah did let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer