Find The Book
Pastor Matt Bell
Sermon Summary
In this sermon, Pastor Mark explores the story of King Josiah from 2 Kings 22, focusing on the rediscovery of the Book of the Law during the temple's restoration. The pastor contrasts Josiah's righteous reign with the wickedness of his predecessors, Manasseh and Amon, highlighting that one is never too young to pursue the Lord. Through the narrative, the message emphasizes three main points: the recovery of God's Word, which must remain central in our homes and churches; Josiah's broken, repentant response to hearing the Law; and the reality of God's holy wrath against sin, which was ultimately absorbed by Jesus Christ on the cross. The sermon concludes with a call to prioritize daily Bible reading and an invitation to trust in Christ's saving work.
Sermon Transcript
Introduction: The Divided Kingdom and Wicked Kings
So last week, we looked at a king in the northern kingdom of Israel. And last week, Pastor Matt talked about how the kingdom of Israel had split after King Solomon ruled, and when his son took over, there was a civil war that took place, and the kingdom split in two, into two kingdoms. One kept the name of Israel, and that was the northern kingdom, and then the other kingdom was the kingdom of Judah, which was the southern kingdom.
And in our passage today, when we come to 2 Kings 22, about 200 years has passed. And during that time, the Northern Kingdom has been taken away into captivity by Assyria. At that time, Assyria was the leading power of the world, and they came and conquered the northern tribe of Israel, and took them away into captivity. This was done because of their wickedness and because of their rebellion. And because they refused to heed the warnings of the prophets who came and prophesied to them, saying, if you do not repent, judgment is coming. They didn't obey the prophets, they continued to go against God's word and serve idols and pagan forms of worship. And so the northern tribe was taken away into captivity. And so now only the southern kingdom of Judah remains.
And as we come to 2 Kings today, we're going to be looking at a king whose name is Josiah. But before we read about Josiah, I think it's important that we look at the previous two kings before him. So Josiah's grandfather, his name was Manasseh. And Manasseh ruled Judah for 55 years. He was the longest reigning king over the kingdom of Judah. And Manasseh was more than likely the most wicked of all the kings in Judah. So not only did he reign the longest, but he was the most wicked, and so he created this culture in Judah that was full of idol worship and pagan forms of sacrifice. Manasseh even offered up one of his own sons to the false god Molech in child sacrifice. He built altars in the temple that Solomon had built for the worship of the one true God, Manasseh built altars for false idols, for false gods in the temple. He was a wicked king. He introduced the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, and he was involved in the occult with witchcraft and divination. And so imagine 50 plus years of a nation just steeped in this wicked form of worship and idolatry.
And Manasseh, we don't see it in 2 Kings, but actually in 2 Chronicles, which details the same account. It does mention that Manasseh before he died, he did have a period of repentance, but the damage that he had done throughout his whole life was hard to stop that momentum. And so after Manasseh died, Josiah's father, Amon, ruled for two years. And he went back to the wickedness that Manasseh had done before he repented. There were two more years of that. He only reigned for two years because some of his own servants came and assassinated him and killed him. And so after Amon, now Josiah is now the king, and this is where we come to our passage today. Josiah takes over the throne after his wicked grandfather and his wicked father.
Reading the Word: 2 Kings 22:1-13
So if you could stand with me this morning, I'd like to stand as we read this passage together. We're going to be looking at verses one through 13. And it begins by saying,
"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, 'Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house.'"
Now skipping down to verse 8, it says,
"And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, 'Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.' Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, 'Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.' And Shaphan read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, 'Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and 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 is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.'"
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, I thank you for this book. Lord, I thank you that your word is alive. Father, as we look at some truths from this passage today, Lord, I pray that you would stir within us a desire for more of you and more of your word in our lives. Lord, we thank you for this. In Jesus' name, amen.
Josiah's Early Reign and Care for God's House
Amen. Well, you may have a seat. So I've got three points this morning as we work our way through this passage, but first, I think it'd be good if we could just acknowledge the fact that Josiah was only eight years old when he began to rule this nation. Imagine this. Just imagine the state of the nation as he takes over. It's full of spiritual decay. It's full of idol worship, child sacrifices. It's just steeped in pagan rituals. And here comes an eight-year-old boy to rule the nation. And I think it's absolutely fascinating that it says that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.
I think perhaps the reason it tells us who the name of his mother was is so that we could recognize the work that his mother had done in raising Josiah. Josiah was eight years old when his father was killed. He didn't grow up with his father in the home. Even his father was wicked, his grandfather was wicked, but somehow he was raised in the ways of the Lord. I don't think it's too much assumption to say that his mother had a big part to play in that.
But what we see in this is that you're never too young to begin your walk with the Lord. I know we have some young people in here. I don't think we have any eight-year-olds in here. I think they're all at Sunday school. But I do know we have some teenagers in here, some young people, and I want to encourage you, don't wait until you're older, whatever that means. I don't know what it means to be older or getting older. But I remember when I was younger, when I was a teenager, I almost had this sense of, I believe in Jesus, but the grownups, they've got it figured out. They're kind of holding down the fort with the spirituality and God's house. And when I get older, I can start taking my faith more seriously. Don't fall into that trap. Jesus said when he was talking to the children and the disciples were trying to keep them away, saying, Jesus, what are you doing talking to these kids? Don't you know that the things of the Lord are for the older people? He said, no, let the children come to me.
Listen, young person, Jesus is calling you today. Jesus is drawing you close today. The kingdom of God is not just for adults. So whatever age you're at, maybe you're eight years old, maybe you're 88 years old, God is calling you today and God has a plan for your life. And as you continue reading the chapter of 2 Kings 22 and move into 2 Kings 23, you see what a life submitted to the Lord can do. As later, we'll see that Josiah will bring reforms to the nation of Judah. And so, don't sit on the sidelines, just waiting to get older to get serious about your faith. If you're young in here today, trust in the Lord, pursue him with your whole heart, and he will use you to do great things. I truly believe, like he used Josiah here in this passage.
So continuing now with this story in verse three, Josiah begins this project to renovate the temple. He notices that it's becoming disrepair, not only in disrepair, but there were things added on to the temple that had to be torn down as there were altars built to these false gods in the temple. And so Josiah sends his secretary to tell the high priest to collect the money in the temple. They had this money box that when you came to worship, you would drop in your money. And I imagine that was still going on even as people came to worship false idols and false gods, they were still adding to the offering box. And so Josiah tells the high priest to collect all of this money and let's begin restoring the house of the Lord.
And I want to highlight here Josiah's care for God's house. This is a lesson that I think all of us can learn, that it is good for us to take care of the house of the Lord. And I'm so thankful that we do have a generous church that gives weekly, and part of your offerings, it goes towards keeping this house in order, keeping it updated, keeping things in repair. And so as you're sowing into the kingdom, part of that investment is doing just this, what is going on here is helping to keep God's house in order. And so we all play a part in keeping this church a nice place of worship. And I'm very thankful that we do have a nice place to come and worship the Lord. I'm thankful that we can have air conditioning and electricity, but all of this is only possible because of your generosity and because you care for God's house. And so let's continue to have this care for the house of the Lord as we see Josiah did as well. And so Josiah begins this project to renovate the house, to repair it, to restore it.
1. The Recovery of God's Word
And so now we come to verse 8. And this brings us to the first of our three points that we see today as we look at this story, and the first is the recovery. We're going to look at the recovery as God's word was recovered. So looking again at verses 8 through 10, this high priest, he comes to Shaphan the secretary, and he says, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord. I have found the Book of the Law.
What an amazing discovery. I can't think of a greater discovery in all of the world. Scientists are finding out new things and new species as they go lower into the ocean. These are great discoveries. They're finding new universes and planets and galaxies, which is amazing. But I don't think any discovery is greater than what is found here as the high priest finds God's word. And what has been found here, this Book of the Law, this refers to the first five books of the Old Testament, which was known as the Torah or the Pentateuch. These first five books that Moses had written. And the fact that it was either hidden or it just had been completely lost, just shows you where this nation was at spiritually. That God's word was nowhere to be found, more than likely over the span of 55 years as Manasseh and Amon had ruled the nation.
And this never would have happened if the kings had been obedient to what God's law had prescribed for them as kings. Before the monarchy took place, before Saul was even king, before the Israelites had even gone into the promised land, God, through the voice of Moses, commanded the people on what the king should do when he sits on his throne and begins to rule. And we see this in Deuteronomy 17. And Deuteronomy 17 verses 18 through 19, it says:
"And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them."
This had not been happening. I don't know how long this had been neglected. We are told later that once Josiah begins his reforms, he reinstitutes the Passover, which had been, it says, neglected since the time of the judges. So we know that none of the kings of Israel nor Judah had kept the Passover. So what that tells me is, I think that not one king obeyed this command that God had prescribed for all of the kings to do. Because if any of the kings had done this to write down the whole copy of the law and to read it daily, they would have seen, hey, I'm supposed to keep the Passover. And we're told that none of the kings kept the Passover.
And so it's no accident to see how, and it's not a coincidence, that the nation of Israel had been taken away into captivity because they had abandoned God's Word. And when you fail to read God's word, when you fail to obey God's word, it doesn't matter if you're a king or a commoner, moral compromise and rebellion will always coincide with that. Failure to read God's Word and obey its commands will always lead to moral compromise and rebellion.
And again, I find this interesting that the law was found inside the temple. That all the while, while this pagan worship and idolatry was going on inside the temple, God's word was there, but it was just collecting dust. It wasn't being opened. It wasn't being read. And sadly, over the last 50 years, there's churches in America where the same thing has been going on. Where they've been so concerned with their programs and appealing to the culture, and trying to please the lost with their programming, that they've lost sight of the word of God. And so their sermons are now more of self-help, and how do you find your best life now, and we'll throw a couple of verses in there if it will help support my argument. But God's word isn't the center of the Sunday morning in many churches, sadly.
And we know that this was going to take place. Paul tells us this in 2 Timothy chapter 4, where he says:
"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."
And so sadly, this is happening in some churches today where sermons are dumbed down and movies are brought in because we need Hollywood to enlighten us on how to follow Jesus. So we'll watch a movie and say, this is what the movie says about our Christian walk with the Lord. Or we have props and smoke and flashing lights, and I'm not saying that if you have those things, you're a church that's condemned to hell. But a lot of pastors have lost sight of the centrality and the power of God's Word, and they're focusing more on what the world wants. And the sad thing about that is, when that is your approach, you're constantly going to be chasing the next thing, what's popular, what's a fad.
But Isaiah 40, verse 8, it tells us this:
"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever."
And so I'm thankful that as a church here at Christ the King Church, that we elevate this book. We make sure that God's word is magnified, that God's word is exalted, that we make God's word central, not just on Sunday mornings, but in all of our lives. And I know that that is one of the reasons why you're here today is because you know that when you come to church on a Sunday morning, the book is going to be open and read.
And so, there's another application for us here. This idea of having the book in the house, but it not being opened, it not being found. And that's in our own houses as well. When I ask you, where is the book in your house? Where is God's Word in your house? Is it somewhere sitting on a bookshelf all the while? If you would look at your week and how you spend your time, that everything else is elevated above the Word of God. Let's not let that be said about us. Let's open the book. Let's find the book. Let's treasure God's word. Let's read his word and endeavor to obey it.
Fathers and husbands, listen, this responsibility falls on you all the more as leaders of your home to find the book and to open it and to read it, not just with yourself, but with your family as well. Let's let God's word be central in our home. If someone stepped into your house for a few days and they watched how you orchestrated your home, they should be able to say, in this house, God's word is central. And if it's not, why is that? Maybe work has gotten busy. There's a stressful time of your life, and you're getting home exhausted, and you just want to unwind and chill, or spend time with your family, which is great. It's good to rest. It's great to spend time with your family. But if that is what's taking place over you spending time daily in God's Word, it's going to be an endeavor that is not going to bear fruit. But when you open God's word, even when you're tired, even when you're exhausted, and you endeavor to do what it says, and you recognize this is the living word of God, you will receive power and strength from his word, and that will allow you to be fruitful as you do these other things in your home.
And so I want to charge you and encourage you to recover the centrality of God's word in your life. I want to echo what Pastor Matt said last week that the daily reading of God's word and reading through God's Word, from Genesis to Revelation daily over the years, is the greatest way that you will grow in your life spiritually. If you are looking to grow in your walk with the Lord, there's no better way to do it than to open God's Word daily and read it. Now, there's a lot of other ways that you can grow spiritually. I'm thankful that we have sermons to listen to, and there's great podcasts and content, things that can teach you God's word and help you grow, but nothing can take the place of the daily discipline of spending time in God's Word.
And so maybe at the beginning of the year, you were inspired and challenged to get in God's Word, and you maybe were reading through the plan pretty well the first couple weeks or first couple months, but now you've found yourself in April, and you've fallen off of that. I want to encourage you to go home and pick up the book, to go find the book and share it with your family. I have found the word of God again, and we are going to read God's word and start today. Don't worry about catching up. That happened with me a few times when I would do a Bible reading plan. I'd get so far behind, I would just say, well, I'm so far behind. I'm just not gonna read the Bible anymore. This year, I'll wait till January next year to try again. Don't let that be you. Don't burden yourself with trying to catch up on the front of your bulletin today. It shows you where we're at today in the Bible reading plan. Just go home, open there, and start reading. And I promise you, if you do this daily and you submit to his word, that you will grow in your walk with the Lord. Okay, well, let's move on here. So that's the first thing we saw, the recovery.
2. The Response to God's Word
Now let's look at how Josiah responds to this book being found and read. Let's look at the response that we see in verse 11. It says, when the king, when Josiah heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. Josiah was cut to the heart. Josiah was undone. When Josiah recognized how not only him, but the whole country had been failing to obey God's law, it produced this brokenness and this mourning inside of him. In those days, to tear your clothes was a sign of mourning and brokenness and contrition. A lot of people would tear their clothes when they heard that a loved one had died. And so in a way, Josiah was saying that he recognized the spiritual death in the nation as he was exposed to the word of God.
Josiah, the first thing that he focused on as a king was the physical problem. He was trying to restore the temple and remove the idols, the things that he could see physically. But as he heard God's word read to him, he recognized that the problem was much greater. That there was a spiritual problem in the nation as well. And I imagine that as he heard that account of Deuteronomy being read, and he recognized that him as a king, his responsibility was not only to read this law, but to write it down and have the high priest examine it, to make sure it was accurate. That broke him as well as he recognized all the ways that as a king, he was failing to obey the word of God.
And this is what God's word does. This is one of the reasons that as you read God's word daily, it will help you grow in your life because God's word exposes the sin that you have in your life. God's word confronts you where you're at. It illuminates our failures and shortcomings. That's one of the reasons why we have God's law. It acts as a mirror to us in our lives. It shows us the character of God. It shows us what God cares about and what he's asked of us. And as we read God's word and see his commands and his laws, it exposes our shortcomings. It exposes our sin.
Hebrews 4:12, it says:
"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
How many of you have experienced that piercing sword in your life as you have read God's Word? A lot of times, honestly, it can be painful, feeling that conviction, recognizing where you've fallen short, recognizing what God is asking of you, the reformation he's desiring in your life, the things that he's asking you to forsake and get rid of. It can be painful. It can be challenging. But our response should be that of Josiah, when we recognize how we have fallen short, our response should be brokenness and contrition.
Also, in the book of Hebrews in chapter 3, verse 15, it says this:
"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."
This rebellion was talking about the people of Israel as they were wandering in the wilderness, and they continued to harden their hearts against the Lord. Even in that time, God was speaking to them. God was giving them his word, yet they were hardening their hearts. Listen, do not harden your heart against God's word. God has given us his word so that we can know how he wants us to live and how we can relate with him. But if we read his word and our heart is hardened and we have no desire to obey it, it's a fruitless endeavor, and we will continue in our rebellion.
So heed the words of this passage as you hear God's voice, as you hear his word preached, as you hear his word, as you read it daily, allow the Lord to soften your heart. And this is only a work that the Holy Spirit can do. So this is a prayer that all of us as believers need to have. Lord, soften my heart today to receive from your word, to hear from your word, but also to have the desire to obey your word. And so when you're confronted in your sin, don't harden your heart.
Josiah could have hardened his heart when he heard the word read to him, he could have said, you know what, tuck that away. Let's not tell anybody about this. I didn't know about this. Obviously, my grandfather didn't know. Let's just tuck it away, forget about it. Let's keep doing what we're doing. But he didn't. He had a brokenness and that brokenness, as you continue reading the passage, you'll see it leads to reformation, that Josiah brought about a period in the nation of Judah of reform. As he tore down the idols, he reinstituted the Passover. He brought the nation back to a true form of worship, and that all started with him, his response to the word of God when it was read to him. So that's our second point.
3. The Reality of God's Wrath and Christ's Grace
Now, our final point this morning is the reality. And what is this reality? Well, looking at verse 13, the second half of verse 13, Josiah said:
"For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us."
Josiah realized that God's wrath was being poured out on the nation because they had refused to obey his word. And that is the reality for all mankind who is lost in their sins as well. That there is coming a day of judgment where God is going to pour out his wrath on all of those who are not in Christ. You see, the law had exposed Josiah to his shortcomings. He realized that he was a sinner, and he realized, no doubt, as he read Deuteronomy chapter 28, and it talked about what God would do to the nation if they refused to obey his commands. The blessings that would come with obedience, but also the curses that would come with disobedience. And the same is true for us today who are in our sin.
Romans 3:23, it says this:
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
You see, nobody is immune to sin. There's not one person in here who has never sinned. And so that means that there's gonna come a day of judgment where God is going to pour out his wrath on all sin that has ever been committed. Now you might say, well, that doesn't sound very loving. Why would a God who is loving pour out wrath on mankind? Because yes, God is loving, but God is also holy. And God is also perfect and righteous and pure. And God is also a judge and as a holy and righteous judge, God cannot tolerate sin. If God were to just overlook sin and say, well, you know what, I just love everybody, so I'm not going to judge sin. He wouldn't be a good judge. He wouldn't be a righteous judge. And so you can't separate God's love from his holiness. You can't separate God's love from his righteousness. These things have to work together. And so all sin will be punished.
Romans 6:23, it tells us:
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
And so all of us have sinned, what we have earned because of that sin is death. But God. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Listen, if you are in Christ today, that wrath that you deserved, that wrath that you earned, that death that you earned for your sins has now been applied to Christ. That is why Christ in the garden, that's why he was sweating drops of blood. That's why he was praying, Father, if there was any other way, take this cup from me. The cup that he was talking about was not the cup of pain and suffering he would feel physically on the cross. The cup that he was talking about was the cup of wrath that was going to be poured on him for the sins of his people. But then Jesus said, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And so because of Christ and because of his love for you, he went to the cross.
Romans 5:8 tells us this:
"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
So all of us at one point were lost in our sins. We deserved God's wrath, but even while we were lost in our sins, before we had decided to follow Jesus, Christ died for you, making it possible for you to be reconciled back to him. You see, the love of Christ was manifested on the cross. That is why Good Friday is a good Friday because it's the greatest display of love that has ever been poured out as Christ died on the cross, absorbing our wrath, absorbing our punishment, absorbing the death that we deserved. It was poured out on Christ.
But not only does Jesus take your punishment, this passage tells us he gives us eternal life as well, which Romans 6:23 told us. We have been given his righteousness. So not only now do we not have to fear that day of judgment, we can look forward to that last day where we are going to meet Jesus face to face because we are covered in the righteousness of Christ. But not only do we not have his wrath poured out on us, as Peter said, as he preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17), he said, God's spirit is now being poured out on you. So we in Christ don't have God's wrath poured out on us. We have his spirit now poured into us, and we can now walk in the fruit of his spirit and in the power of his spirit. And this is only possible because of the work of Christ.
Conclusion and Invitation
And so wherever you're at today in your life, know this, that Jesus Christ has given his life so that you can be saved. You may have come in here today far from the Lord. You may have come in here today lost in your sins. You may have come in here today with your heart hardened, but as you have heard the gospel, as you've heard God's word, even over the last few minutes, God is stirring your heart. Listen, do not harden your heart. Look to Christ. Look to our sacrificed Messiah who laid his life down for you because of his love for you, and trust in his sacrifice, and you will be saved. Look to Christ today.
But the first step is that brokenness over your sin. Have you experienced that brokenness? Have you experienced that point where you've recognized what your sin is in light of who God in his holiness is? Let's have that response of Josiah, let's be broken over our sin, and let's repent and take it to the Lord and trust in Christ today. As you do that, you will be saved. You will find healing, you will find restoration. There will come reformation in your life as you submit to Christ, and then you open his book.
If you're here today and maybe this is you, maybe you're hearing what Jesus Christ has done for you and you're choosing today to serve the Lord, but you're thinking, oh, this is great, but I don't have a Bible. Come talk to me after church. I will get you a Bible today. There's nobody in here should go home today without a physical Bible if you do not have a Bible. We will get you a Bible today because we want you to start this journey of following Jesus and getting into his word every day. So look to Christ today. Stop trying to live a life of your own good deeds, of your own merits to get you into heaven. Listen, no good deed will ever be enough to get you into heaven on your own merits because all of us have sinned. We've all fallen short. We all need the saving work of Jesus Christ. So look to him today.
Why don't we stand this morning? I believe that there are some of us in here today that if you're honest, you have lost the book. That the cares of this life, the busyness of life has distracted you. Maybe you've been bitter against God for some reason. For whatever reason, you have stopped reading God's word. You have stopped opening his word. You have stopped leading your family in the reading of his word. Look, if that's you today, there's no condemnation. I think if we're all honest, we've all had that time in our lives where we've not read God's word as we should, or maybe we didn't view God's word as it really is, his living word spoken to us.
Maybe recently you've just viewed God's word as a checklist that you just go to every morning to knock it off your day so you can mark off that box saying, I've read the Bible today. Maybe you've lost sight of what God's word really is, his living word speaking to us. Let's go back to the book. Find the book. Open his word daily. Ask the Lord to stir within you that desire to read his word. And then as you read it, obey it. As you read it, tell others what it says. As you read it, share it with your family. And I truly believe that as we do this daily in our lives, that our lives will flourish, our families will flourish, our communities will flourish, and like what happened in Josiah's day, we will see revival happen in our city and in our country.
But look, if those that are in here today, if we're not opening the book, if we're not opening God's word daily, who's going to do that? And so let's endeavor today to go back to God's word. There's no better day than today to begin your journey of reading through God's Word. And we can reclaim this year of the Bible. Like I said, maybe you've fallen off. But you can start again today. And again, it's not just so you can say, oh, great, I read the Bible today. No, it's because of what happens when you read God's word and submit to it daily. Amen.