New Year Recalibration: Turning to God

Turning to God Series: New Year Recalibration (#1) Jan. 5, 2020 Rev. L. Kent Blanton Introduction • January is a time of recalibration (e.g. evaluation, planning, setting of goals, turning over new leaves) • Businesses focus on corporate recalibration in January; individuals focus on personal recalibration • January is also a perfect time for spiritual recalibration • A phrase the Bible uses to describe spiritual recalibration is turning to God. (See Deut 30:10 “For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut 30:10 (ESV) • What does it mean to “turn to the Lord” or to “turn to God? Josiah’s Spiritual Example • Josiah was king of Judah from 640 to 609 BC. He ascended the throne at age 8. • Josiah demonstrated a heart that turned to God. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. 2 Kings 23:25 (ESV) Lexical Background: Turn to the Lord • Term “turned to the Lord” is a common phrase within the Old Testament (OT) • Most common Hebrew word for turn is shuv (šûb) • Most commonly, shuv refers to changing course or direction, or returning from a journey or location (e.g., Gen 14:7; Prov 30:30) • Shuv can be used metaphorically to connote repentance as turning away from the wrong path. Used metaphorically, shuv connotes changing one’s orientation to God. This reorientation can be either positive (turning away from sin and to God) or negative (turning away from God and to sin) • In the OT, Israel’s relationship with God is conceived as a kind of journey, with obedience depicted as Israel walking toward, or with, God (Ex 18:20; Judg 2:22). • The covenant relationship is understood as walking in obedience to Yahweh (Ps 86:11; 2 Chr 6:16; Jer 6:16; 7:23). • When one sins, or turns away from God, this is understood as heading in the wrong direction. The individual or community must then turn (שׁוּב, šûb) back toward God (Jer 3:12; 4:1). • Repentance, however, is not just a change in direction in terms of action but also a change in the orientation of the heart that results from an acknowledgment and regret over wrongdoing (Jer 7:3–7; Ps 51:10; Hos 7:14). • When the Hebrew prophets proclaimed impending destruction as a result of Israel’s sinful behavior, the prophets called for repentance. If the people would turn (שׁוּב, šûb) from their wrongdoing (e.g., Isa 31:6; Jer 3:12), they could receive forgiveness and thus avoid disaster. • But Israel continually refused to turn back to God and suffered the consequences (Hos 7:14; Jer 8:5; Isa 63:10). Spiritual Climate of Josiah’s Time • Josiah followed a long line of kings who for the most part turned away from God. The spiritual state of God’s people had come to an all-time low with the reign of Josiah’s grandfather, King Manasseh. • Manasseh reinstituted idolatrous worship, including building altars of worship to Baal, Asherah, and other foreign gods in the Temple, itself. Manasseh also practiced sorcery, divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists, murdered many innocent people, and even sacrificed his own sons in fires of worship to false, foreign gods. • By the time Manasseh’s grandson, Josiah, came to the throne, the Temple was in significant disrepair, the book of the Law had been lost, and most of the people had become entrenched in worshipping other gods. • In the case of King Josiah, shuv is used to speak positively of him turning away from sin and to God. Josiah: A Case Study • ‘What did turning to God specifically entail in Josiah’s life and what can we learn from his example? • Josiah demonstrated a heart that was turned to God through . . . • Zeal for corporate worship. • Ordered that the Temple be repaired and that worship of Yahweh be reinstated (2 Kings 22:3-7) • Reinstituted the Passover festival (2 Kings 23:21-23) which had not been regularly publicly celebrated since the time of the Judges (Jos 5:10-11; for one exception see 2 Chr 30:15-17) • Personal evaluation: • Does your zeal for worship evidence a heart turned toward God? Is corporate worship a passion or an optional activity to be engaged in if you have time for it? Are you regularly present in corporate worship because you love God and want to declare his praise with his people, Christ’s church? • Or, does your frequency of attendance in attending corporate worship fit the mold of those Christians mentioned in Hebrews, those who failed to regularly assemble together regularly (Heb 10:25)? God says through the writer of Hebrews don’t do that. Don’t turn away from God by failing to regularly show up for corporate worship. • Do you enter whole-heartedly into worship, or do you stand and sit as a spectator like a consumer at a performance? • Are you on time for worship gatherings because you don’t want to miss ministering to God in the assembly, or are you habitually late? Is your mindset that as long as you arrive in time for the sermon that you’ve done your duty and arrived for the “good stuff”? • Far too often, our actions, such as habitual tardiness to corporate worship, evidence self-centered hearts focused upon what we can get, rather than on what we can give to God and Christ’s Body. • Whatever your specific responses to these potentially uncomfortable questions, God says to you today, “Turn to me!” • Reverence for God’s Word • While the Temple was being repaired, the Book of the Law which had been lost was discovered by the workmen. (1 Kings 22:8, 10-13) • When Josiah heard God’s Word read, he did something drastic. He tore his robes and wept! In Bible times, ripping your clothes was a sign of extreme grief and distress. This practice always marked a tragic situation, like death, shock or extreme shame.  • Tearing one’s clothes was also sacrificial, as clothes were relatively much more expensive than they are today. Ripping your clothes was a way of showing that status and respect mattered little in light of the tragic circumstances. • God’s Word cut Josiah to the quick. He knew immediately that he was a man of unclean lips and lived among a people of unclean lips. He feared God’s judgment upon himself and his people. • What did Josiah do next? He sent the priest and other officials to go and inquire of the Lord for himself and all the people. He was saying, “Guys, we’ve blown it, big time. Go ask God what’s going to happen to us.” • The priest and officials went to inquire of the Lord through a prophetess of the Lord, Huldah. In those times, the Holy Spirit didn’t dwell inside believers. They had to rely upon individuals upon whom the Holy Spirit would rest to hear direction from God. • Huldah responded that God’s people had passed the spiritual line of “no return.” Because of their persistent refusal to turn to God, coming judgment was unavoidable. But because of Josiah’s repentant heart, he would avoid judgment and captivity (1 Kings 22:15-20) • Josiah also demonstrated his reverence for God’s Word by ensuring that all the people heard it and were exhorted to follow it (1 Kings 23:1-3) • Personal evaluation: • Does your reverence for God’s Word indicate a heart turned toward God? Are you hungry for God’s Word? Do you regularly read God’s Word? Is your mindset, that you can’t live without it? • Like Josiah, do you believe that the Bible contains God’s blueprint, his commands for life? Or do you treat the bible as a book of suggestions meant to be lived out in ages gone by, but not today? • Like Josiah, do you have a hunger to hear God’s now Word to you, to understand the relevance of the Bible’s contents to your everyday life, and to hear God’s perspectives on your life situations? Or do you practically attempt to keep God from getting too close because of what he might say or ask of you? • Whatever your response to these questions, God says to you today,” Turn toward me.” • Repenting of sin • Josiah didn’t just listen to God’s Word. He responded to it in obedience. • Josiah responded to God’s Word by going on a rampage – a holy rampage.. He declared a holy war on sin (1 Kings 23:4-15, 19-20, 24). • God’s Word had recalibrated Josiah’s heart. His heart was turned toward God. Josiah determined when he heard God’s Word that he was going to obey the Lord. He was ruthless in destroying any and every vestige of idoltary, false worship, and occult practices in the land. • Personal evaluation: • Have you allowed God’s Word to recalibrate your heart? Or do you take a casual attitude toward practices the world says are “no big deal” or even normal/good? • Idoltary hasn’t ended in our contemporary world: • The worship of Plutus, the god of wealth, now takes place at the mall, at the office, on the stock market floor, and in show homes. • The worship of Nike, the god of sport now takes place at the stadium, arena, or in front of the TV. • The worship of Ares, the god of violence and war, is worshipped now on gaming machines and screens in living rooms, dens, and bedrooms. • The worship of Zelus, the god of envy and jealousy is given wings on Instagram, Facebook and Hollywood tabloids. • The worship of Caerus, the god of luck, is worshipped on the casino floor, at the race tracks, and at the lottery tills. • The worship of Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual desire, now occurs in the cosmetic department, on magazine covers, in movies, and proliferates on the internet. • Not much has changed from Josiah’s time. The names of the idols have changed, but the demonic power behind them and the human behaviour they inspire have not. • Like he did in the Garden, Satan still offers us the lie that God is holding out on us. That he wants to spoil our fun. That turning away from God and his paths is the only way to experience life to the max. • Unlike Adam, Josiah chose to recalibrate his life by turning to God and away from sin. He demonstrated a heart turned to God through his zeal for corporate worship, his reverence for God’s Word, and his choice to repent from sin. Summary & Application • Josiah demonstrated a heart turned to God through a zeal for corporate worship, a reverence for God’s Word, and by repenting from sin. • Like Josiah, God is calling us as to recalibrate our lives and to turn to him. • How do we turn to God? We must ask God to show us. • Principles that may help us determine how we need to turn to God: 1. Where darkness is exposed to light, the light always wins (John 1:5; 8:12; Luke 1:79). The only way to be free is to expose the darkness within us, to bring it to the light. We must ask God to reveal the darkness inside us. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Ps 139:23-34 (NIV) • Using a Spiritual Inventory such as Sin-ventory - Its purpose is to help believers examine themselves and become aware of areas of darkness within us that we may be overlooking or ignoring. A spiritual inventory like Sin-ventory can help us identify our besetting sins, as well as our depth of discipleship and faith. 2. We can’t do it alone. We need each other (Gal 6:2). We need to be honest with one another. We need to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). We need to encourage and pray for one another (1 Thess 5:11). We need to hold one another accountable. • Personal example from Pastor Kent’s life 3. Take steps to increase our chances of success. Steps like: • Reading God Word. (e.g. utilising Read Scripture App) • Praying daily and at special prayer gatherings in the church • Choosing community. Are you in a small group? • Serving in Christ’s Body. What steps do you need to take to position yourself for success? • Now is the time for spiritual recalibration. • As we begin 2020, God is calling to you and to me to turn away from all other gods, all other loves, all other priorities. • Like King Josiah, let us be individuals and a people, who turn to God.