I lose things.
I lose things a lot.
I never seem to know where things are until I need them.
Particularly, on Sunday Morning—I discover things missing.
Our Sunday Morning practice is toward the door and stop and say…
“Monica where are my keys,
Where are my glasses,
Where is my wallet,
Where is my sermon,
And by the way can you see if my Bible is in the study?”
But I think we all lose things.
The title of my message today is,
What happens when We Lose our Bible.
We have a problem of losing our Bibles.
Not just misplacing it because you forgot where you read it last.
We have a problem when we lose it in our hearts when we misplace our Bibles and forget where we put it!
This morning, we are going to talk about a man—who discovered what happens when we lose our Bibles and then when we find them again.
But before we look at our story, Let us Pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Help us to open your word tonight and hear what you have for us to hear.
Help us to return each day to the place where we left our Bibles,
and open it and apply it to our lives.
You speak Lord, move me out of the way.
That you may receive all the Honor and the Glory.
In Jesus Name I Pray,
AMEN
Please turn to you Bible this morning to 2 Chronicles 34.
In this chapter, we find the story of a young and Godly king, Josiah.
Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He was king over all of Israel.
When he was 16, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David.
Four years later, he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem.
Then when he was 26, he began to clean up the Temple of God.
And in verse 14, is where we pick up the story:
14As Hilkiah the high priest was recording the money collected at the Lord’s Temple, he found the Book of the Law of the Lord as it had been given through Moses. 15Hilkiah said to Shaphan the court secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the Lord’s Temple!” Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan.
16Shaphan took the scroll to the king and reported, “Your officials are doing everything they were assigned to do. 17The money that was collected at the Temple of the Lord has been given to the supervisors and workmen.” 18Shaphan also said to the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” So Shaphan read it to the king.
19When the king heard what was written in the law, he tore his clothes in despair.
Josiah tore his clothes in despair, because they discovered the Word of God.
They had found the word of God and heard what it said and what it declared and Josiah tore his clothes.
Our problem is that we don’t care anymore what the Bible says, we have heard so much about the love of God that we don’t even know the passages that pronounce judgment.
Discovering the word of God—uncovers what happens when we lose it.
How do we know that we have lost the Bible in our lives?
1. The first thing we find, when we lose our Bibles is the building up of Pagan Shines.
Chapter 34, verse 3-5
3During the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David. Then in the twelfth year, he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem, destroying all the pagan shrines, the Asherah poles, and the carved idols and cast images. 4He saw to it that the altars for the images of Baal and their incense altars were torn down. He also made sure that the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images were smashed and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5Then he burned the bones of the pagan priests on their own altars, and so he purified Judah and Jerusalem.
As Josiah began to seek God, He realized that somewhere down the line that the people had begun to worship other things.
This had crept in slowly, but now it was everywhere. And where was the Bible? It was missing.
We worship our idols today on a daily basis. They may not be graven images of gold, but there are things we worship none-the less.
We worship them with every ounce of our souls.
When our life begins to seek after the things of this world, more than the things of God, we have lost our Bibles.
When we put more confidence in our jobs than in Christ, we have lost our Bibles.
When we get our pride from the status we’ve attained and lose our humility before a perfect God, we have lost our Bibles.
When we seek after the momentary thrill of an adulterous affair rather than not forgetting the wives of our youth, we have lost our Bibles.
When we speak words of filth rather than words of praise, we have lost our Bibles.
When we would rather gossip on the phone rather than pray to the Father, we have lost our Bibles.
2. The second way to know that we have lost our Bibles is that we have an absence of Worship.
Verse 11:
11Thus, they hired carpenters and masons and purchased cut stone for the walls and timber for the rafters and beams. They restored what earlier kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.
The temple was the center of all Jewish worship.
To neglect the temple meant to neglecting worship all together.
And we find, as we lose God’s word from our hearts, that we begin to neglect worship all together.
We begin to sleep in on Sunday Mornings.
We begin to get too busy for activities of the church.
We begin to get to busy to pray with our family.
We get to busy to have a personal quiet time.
Worship is the priority of the Church…we are to Glorify God.
I once heard another Pastor define worship as meaning:
to experience an awareness of God,
to recognize his holiness and majesty and
to respond in loving obedience to his leadership.
It is out of Worship that we sing our praises to God.
It is out of Worship that we bow before the throne of Grace in Humility.
It is out of Worship that we listen intently to the Word of God.
It is out of worship that we share the gospel with our neighbors.
It is out of Worship that we do missions—declaring to everyone – what a magnificent, infinite, transcendent, unique, wise, loving, and Holy God we serve.
When we lose our Bibles we allow our worship to fall into ruin…worship is no longer important to us.
We show up for church on Sunday and go through the motions and it makes no difference on Monday.
Are you worshiping in Church?
Are you coming before God, humbly, before Him just to worship Him?
Are you coming to church or chapel because that is what you do, or are you coming because that is where God is, and you want to meet him?
Is church merely entertainment, or do you come to worship?
Are you joining with other believers in worship, worship of a holy and righteous God?
Are you worshiping at home?
Do you Children see you put God first in your life and spend time teaching them to worship?
Do you gather with your spouse to simply worship the God who brought you together?
Does your house stand as a lighthouse to your neighbors, as a place of prayer and worship?
Are you worshiping personally?
Do you have a time where you get alone with the Father and simply worship Him?
Do you have a personal devotion time where you read your Bible and pray?
Do you have a time Just to Love, Adore, admire, praise, and simply worship Him.
This is one of the hardest disciplines as a Christian in the Army. We all wake up early, with a 0630 formation, some of us work late. We are tired, we are rushed, and then wake up to do it all another day. When do you find time to meet with God?
I have found that if it doesn’t happen first thing in the morning, it doesn’t get done. Once I step out the door, even if I come back briefly to take a shower, I never come back.
If you are going to live a life worshiping personally—if you are going to find your Bible in your personal life—you will need to get up just a little bit earlier to make that time for probably the most important appointment of the day.
Do you seek to lead others to worship Him, at work, at home, when you go to friends? Are you seeking to lead others to worship Him?
When we neglect our worship and it dissolves into ruin—we have lost our Bibles.
Then Praise God, we find our Bibles!
Verse 15
15Hilkiah said to Shaphan the court secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the Lord’s Temple!” Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan.
What Happens when we Find Our Bibles
We realize that we have sinned against God!
V25
25For the people of Judah have abandoned me and worshiped pagan gods, and I am very angry with them for everything they have done. My anger will be poured out against this place, and nothing will be able to stop it.’
We realize through the lens of Scripture that we have sinned against God.
The Bible is a very long yardstick that we continually fall short of because of our sin.
Sin is anything that we say, anything thing we think, or anything that we do that makes God unhappy.
We see that “All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.”
And that the wages of that sin is death! And we see that we sin—we make God unhappy on a daily basis!
We see that no matter what we try…what Bible class we take, what Bible verse we memorize, what radio station we listen to—We have sinned against God!
We see that when we find our Bibles, when we finally take the time to apply the Word of God to our hearts and life—we see that we are sinners before an angry God.
We each have sinned greatly against our Holy God. I think the biggest sin is apathy. We know that we have sinned but we don’t even care.
When we find our Bibles we are to humble ourselves before Him. We are to confess our sin, specifically.
This is one of the most humbling acts of the Christian, to specifically confess our sin before God.
But God already knows. But we are to confess them to Him and he will forgive.
Then we are to turn from them. That is repentance. Turning from our sin and turning to Christ.
2. But then we also see that we are sinners before a loving God as well.
Verse 27
27You were sorry and humbled yourself before God when you heard what I said against this city and its people. You humbled yourself and tore your clothing in despair and wept before me in repentance. So I have indeed heard you, says the Lord.
He heard and protected.
A loving God who loves us—who knows that we all deserve death.
But to make sure that the payment is paid, sent his perfect Son to die in our place.
So “if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.”
God loves us, and He said, “if you love me, keep my commandments.”
It is a tall order not to lose or Bibles—almost as it is to not lose our keys.
But we must stay the course and grow in the knowledge of the God of Heaven and His Son Jesus.
In interpreting this passage many say look what the Bible can do to a society—and it can—But the point is Ladies and Gentlemen– Don’t lose the Bible in the first place!
If you have found that you have lost your Bible, Lost God’s word from your heart, you need to repent today.
Christian, you need to turn from your sin and follow Christ.
You need to have a fresh awakening, a new understanding of the word of God as you compare it to your life.
But you may be here this morning.
And you at church tonight, and you don’t really believe that you ever did accept God’s word in the first place. And you need to ask him into your life today you can do that this today.
Let us pray.
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This sermon was preached at Memorial Chapel at Camp Red Cloud, Korea on 14AUG16.
All scripture in this post: New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.