“My Attitude Towards the Word” – FBC Morning Light (6/9/2023)

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Monday morning to you. Hope you had a good weekend and getting the week off to a good start.

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Had a great week last week at church with our vacation Bible time. A lot of good attendance.

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Children came and learned much about God's big plan for our lives in creation and so on.

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Today we're reading in our Bible reading plan in 2 Kings 23 and 24, in Romans chapter 4 and in Psalm 119 verses 17 to 24.

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That's the third stanza of Psalm 119. And I want to look at both the 23rd chapter of 2

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Kings as well as this section in Psalm 119 because we're challenged in these passages regarding our attitude toward God's Word.

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And that is a good question for us to ponder. What is my attitude toward God's Word? And so first of all,

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I want to look at Josiah's attitude in 2 Kings 23.

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Because remember, Josiah turns out to be a pretty good king in Judah. One of the better kings of Judah's history.

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And in the quest to refurbish the temple, they find a copy of the scroll.

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They prompt Josiah to find out what does this have to say, what's our fate, because we have been so negligent toward God's Word and so forth.

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Well anyway, he gets a hold of God's Word, he hears what it says, and then this is his response in 2

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Kings 23 verse 3. Listen. It says, Then the king stood by a pillar. You had the whole people come together, the congregation come together.

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The king stood by a pillar and he 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 all his soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book.

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And all the people took a stand for the covenant. So here's the king who's taken over the throne in a time of spiritual decay.

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He realizes just how far removed from God's Word the nation has become, and he makes a commitment,

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I'm going to obey his Word. I'm going to follow this covenant that God has made with us.

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I'm going to keep his testimonies and his statutes and his commandments and so forth. In other words, you get the sense of Josiah saying, whatever

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God has to say, I'm going to listen to it. Whatever God wants me to do, I'm going to do it.

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Whatever principles God lays out in his Word, I'm going to live my life by those things. And that challenges us, doesn't it?

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Is that our attitude? Do we have that attitude when we go to church on Sunday?

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I hope we open our Bibles on a daily basis when we do. Do we have this attitude that says, whatever

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God tells me to do here, I'm going to do it. Whatever God reveals about himself,

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I'm going to believe it. I'm going to hold firmly to his Word. That's a challenging position that Josiah has taken.

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Interestingly, the congregation, all the assembled people, they stood with the covenant. Basically, they were saying, yeah, we're right with you,

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Josiah. We're going to be just like you. When you continue reading in our reading today, you get to chapter 24.

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Josiah dies, and very quickly another king comes on the throne, and he turns his back on everything that Josiah stood for, and so do all the people.

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Unfortunately, one man's obedience cannot compensate for the whole nation's rebellion.

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Nevertheless, what I want you to get is Josiah's attitude toward the Word. Is that my attitude toward God's Word?

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Then we jump to Psalm 119, and in this third stanza of the 119th

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Psalm, we are challenged again with a couple other statements that have to do with the attitude toward his

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Word. Verse 17 says, deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep your word.

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Is that my desire in life? I want to live so that I might obey.

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Verse 18 gives us a good verse to pray before we open the

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Scriptures. Verse 18 says, do not hide your commandments from me. Verse 18, open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law.

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We should go into church on Sundays, and we should open our

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Bibles with that prayer on our lips, or at least on our heart. Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

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Don't go to church passively. Don't open the Bible in a passive sort of an attitude.

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Be proactive and ask the Lord to open your eyes that you may see.

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Then thirdly, in verse 24, we're challenged by this statement of the psalmist when he says, your testimonies are my delight.

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Your testimonies are my delight and my counselors. Ask ourselves, are they?

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Is God's Word my delight? Do I look to God's Word for counsel?

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Those are some challenging questions to ask ourselves, are they not? Especially in this day and age when there's so much personalization, individualization, in our approach to living the quote -unquote

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Christian life. We go to all kinds of counselors except God's Word. We delight in reading all kinds of stuff, and hearing all kinds of stuff, and watching all kinds of stuff, but what is our attitude toward God's Word?

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Let's think about these things today. They're certainly challenging to us, and hopefully those challenges will direct us to a better approach to the

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Word. Help us, Father, to have these attitudes toward your Word, attitudes of wholehearted commitment, attitudes of a desire to see what you have for us, and an attitude that delights in your law.

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This we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your