Ep. 10 - Fostering an Obedient Heart
Episode Transcript
Ep. 10 - Fostering an Obedient Heart
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[00:00:00] JC Schroeder: Welcome to Bite Size Seminary. In this podcast, we discuss issues in biblical studies, theology, ministry engagement, and following Jesus. I'm JC Schroeder. I'm an instructor at The Ezekiel Project School of Evangelism. And a Th.M. student at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. If you want to be challenged by new ideas and encouraged by old ones, then keep listening.
[00:00:31] Today, we're going to talk about how to foster an obedient heart. We'll look at the example of King Josiah and 2 Chronicles 34 and discuss some actionable steps to take, as we seek to draw closer to the Lord.
[00:00:44] One final thing, if you enjoy the podcast, would you consider giving an honest review or even sharing with a friend? You can also sign up to receive episodes, emailed directly to you at bitesizeseminary.com. If you want to contact me, you can do so on the website or connect with me on [00:01:00] Facebook or Twitter. All right, let's dive in.
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[00:01:03] Introduction
[00:01:03] JC Schroeder: As Christians, we should all desire to love and obey the Lord more. And we do. But how do we do this? How do we keep obedience from being a laundry list of do's and don'ts? King Josiah's attitude, which we find in 2 Chronicles 34, I think is just a powerful example for us to think about of the sort of attitude and heart that we should have before the Lord.
[00:01:40] The Example of Josiah's Obedient Heart
[00:01:40] JC Schroeder: What I find crazy about the Bible's description of king Josiah is that he becomes king at eight years old. His father and his grandfather are kings of Judah. They were quite wicked and went against the Lord. King Manasseh was one of the worst Kings in Judah's history. And just totally [00:02:00] going against what the Lord had commanded him and Judah and Israel. But Josiah, when he becomes king, he becomes king at eight years old. And then the Scriptures tell us that he has a few different periods in his life. When he turns eighteen, in the eighth year of his reigning, he begins to seek the Lord. Not just of something that he's being told, of something that he was forced to do or pressed to do by his teachers or by his family members. But he himself makes that decision that he is going to serve the Lord and seek the Lord himself.
[00:02:37] We have a second stage in his life a few years later in his twelfth year of reigning. When he's 20. He embarks on a massive religious purge in Judah and even parts of the northern kingdom of Israel. He goes and he rids his country of the idols and the false worship within the covenant between God [00:03:00] and Israel, which they had broken. And he seeks to restore that true worship to God in his nation, not only for his own heart, but for his nation.
[00:03:08] And then we come to this third period in Josiah's life, which 2 Chronicles tells about when he's 26 years old in the 18th year. Hopefully I have the math on that, right. The 18th year of his reign. And what he does is he seeks to restore the temple in Jerusalem. It had been under illrepair for the last number of decades because of the previous generations of kings had not served the Lord and had instituted false worship. So you see, that Josiah makes these kinds of steps in his worship of the Lord, is that he's trying to turn everyone back to the Lord as his role as the king of Judah. And then he wants to create this place and restore to this place for true and right worship to the Lord. And so he begins to restore, or he [00:04:00] commissions to restore, the temple in Jerusalem.
[00:04:03] As this restoration process, goes on, his servants find the book of the covenant hidden in the temple. What I find interesting is that this is a common thing in ancient near Eastern temples and religious structures is that they would hide or that they would secure religious documents, scriptures. In the walls or even in, a sort of, library sort of area. So this is perhaps not unusual in the Book of the Covenant being lost. But for whatever the case, the Book of the Covenant, most likely this is Deuteronomy, or maybe it's the rest of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, but most likely it's Deuteronomy, is brought before Josiah, by the secretary. And the secretary, Shaphan, he reads this to the king.
[00:04:54] And as Josiah is sitting there listening to the Book of the Covenant being read [00:05:00] to him, his countenance perhaps begins to change. We don't know how long Shaphan reads this document, the Scripture to King Josiah. But as he hears this, as Josiah hears, these words from God, his own word, being read to him, perhaps his face changes, perhaps he begins to realize that the sin of Judah is far deeper than he has realized. He stands up. Grabs hold of his clothing and tears it, showing his contrition, showing the seriousness of the moment.
[00:05:42] And then he commissions his servants to go and to inquire of the Lord. He sends them to a prophetess that lives in the city of Jerusalem. "Go. Ask the Lord, ask this prophetess to ask the Lord for us. What's going to go on, how can we repent? How can we fix this? We have [00:06:00] sinned before the Lord."
[00:06:01] She tells them that the Lord is going to judge Judah for the long history of sin, primarily from Manasseh. And how the people and how the king had turned their hearts away from the Lord, how they had broken his covenant with them. And that even with the reforms that Josiah has instituted, the Lord is going to bring judgment upon the nation.
[00:06:27] But then she makes this additional line. This is in 2 Chronicles 34:26-27. She conveys this message from the Lord. "'But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus, shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and [00:07:00] wept before me. I also have heard you declares the Lord.'" I love that line of how the Lord describes Josiah and his heart. It says the beginning of verse 27: "because your heart was tender."
[00:07:17] When Josiah is hearing the Word of God, the Book of the Covenant being read to him, he had a long history of faithfulness and obedience to the Lord. He had instituted a large purge and a restoration of right worship to the Lord. He had instituted the restoration of the temple, the place of worship. He had sought the Lord from an early age. And when he hears the words of the Book of the Covenant. He might've been tempted. And I might have been tempted to go. "Yeah, that's right. We're doing pretty good. We're doing the best that we can. And, uh, you know, we're all set. We've been doing that. Well, let's move on to the next issues at hand." But [00:08:00] his heart was tender to what God had to say. He was not callous, nor self-congratulatory. He heard what God said in his word. And he knew the inner sinfulness of his heart. And the sinfulness of his people. And his next movement is one of repentance and of worship to the Lord and seeking the face of the Lord.
[00:08:25] I just really liked that rendering of that word "tender" that his heart was tender. I think of the numerous times in my life when I have had a sunburn. It seems like if I just go outside for a few minutes in the sun, I get sunburned. And I can think of one time when I got a really bad sunburn. I couldn't even lay down and sleep because my skin was so sensitive to the touch. Like you barely touch it and you felt every single press on the skin or when you dry off with a towel, you can feel every single fiber [00:09:00] from the towel on your skin and you just have that tenderness when you have a sunburn. That is the type of attitude that Josiah had. That is the type of mentality that he had in his heart of tenderness. Every little touch from Scripture, he felt. And that attitude, that feeling of tenderness in his heart was not one from trauma from the sun, it was not a harshness from the sun. It was the right response to the word of God.
[00:09:34] And we see in the following verses in 2 Chronicles 34, and I would just really encourage you to read this chapter. It's a fabulous chapter. And even the, the, the subsequent chapter in 35 as well of the heart of Josiah is that he goes, and he leads his nation to recommit to the Lord. He doubles down on his faithfulness to God. He doesn't rest on his laurels. He rests in the Lord. He rests in, we need [00:10:00] to further obey him. And so hearing the word of God in the Book of the Covenant and having that right attitude in his heart leads him to greater obedience and faithfulness in his life.
[00:10:17] Fostering an Obedient Heart
[00:10:17] JC Schroeder: Now did Josiah do everything right? No, of course not. He, he has some failures. But his heart attitude is in the right place. And I think this is a great example for us to follow as believers. We want our hearts to be in a similar place of that tenderness to the voice of God. We want to be careful against excusing or slanting our own sin. It's so easy for us to deceive ourselves into thinking that we are being obedient. When really we are just pleasing ourselves. Or we are slanting what Scripture says. So that it gives us a more favorable reading [00:11:00] for us. I think of that verse in Ephesians 4:30 when it says "Be angry and sin not." Many times when I think about that, I think, yeah, that's right. I'm being angry, but I'm not sending, but like, whoa, slow down here. That's a tough line. There is a righteous anger, but when I'm angry, that doesn't mean I have a righteous anger.
[00:11:19] James 1:22 talks about the deceitfulness of our heart. "But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves." And Josiah gives us this reminder of the need for us to have this tenderness in our heart, that we feel every movement of Scripture, so that we may obey him. And this is not some slam of you're not doing enough. This is not some do better episode because you are not enough. That's not what I'm trying to do here. And that's not what the [00:12:00] Lord is trying to do. He's not trying to push us down and say, "Do better! Here's your list of do's and don'ts. Make sure you follow them!" That's not what he's trying to do, and that's not what I'm trying to do here. But it is a reminder for us that we can get lulled into a sense of self-congratulation, but what we need is self-reflection. Looking at our hearts, comparing them to the word of God, and allowing God's word to speak to our hearts and bring us closer to him. So Josiah gives us this great example of the right spirit, the right heart, to have this tender heart in our lives.
[00:12:42] Actionable Steps for an Obedient Heart
[00:12:42] JC Schroeder: And what I want to do here is just give a few actionable steps for obedience and for fostering an obedient heart. I have eight things. #1 Bask in the holiness of God, and remember the destructive power of sin. The [00:13:00] more we rest, the more we think on who God is, how great, pure and holy he is, how utterly different he is from us. It reminds us of our very creaturely nature and our sinful nature that sin in our lives does not profit us. It only destroys. But God only heals. He only brings flourishing to us. And so we want to remember how pure and holy he is and how we are separate from God and how he desires for us to follow him. He desires that we would rest in him. That we would obey him in the power of his Spirit. So bask in the holiness of God and remember the destructive power of sin.
[00:13:49] A second step that is helpful, I have found, for fostering an obedient heart is when you're reading Scripture is don't use inclusive or plural words. What I mean by that [00:14:00] is when we're reading Scripture don't use words like "we should all do this," or "you should do that," or "they should do that." But make it personal. So we should use words. I just said, we, I should use words like "I," or "me." "I need a tender heart." "The Lord needs to work in my heart." "I need to foster an obedient heart." It's easy for us when we use words, like "we all need to do this," or "you need to do that" to subtly move the emphasis off of myself on to someone else. And just utilizing that singular language of I or me can help me focus that application of Scripture. Now, of course, we need to apply scripture correctly. Not everything in scripture applies directly to us. But. That is a helpful step to keep us [00:15:00] from pressing Scripture off of ourselves.
[00:15:02] #3 Read Scripture regularly from various sections of Scripture. It's so easy for us to get stuck in a rut, to only read sections of Scripture that we're familiar with and thus it can lose its sort of punch that it should have in our hearts. God has given us a wonderful volume of Scripture. There is much for us to listen to in the Old Testament and the New Testament. And there are lots of sections that we are not familiar with as believers. And I think it's so helpful for us to regularly be reading Scripture, of course, but also regularly reading from various sections.
[00:15:44] Last year and I doing this again this year in my Scripture reading plan, I'm reading from a plan that has me reading from four different sections of Scripture to read the whole Bible in a year. It was fabulous last year. It forces [00:16:00] me to read sections of Scripture. I wouldn't normally gravitate towards. But the Lord uses those to speak to my heart. So keep it fresh.
[00:16:09] #4 Be wary of feelings of satisfaction in your Christian life. If you think that you're doing everything great and everything perfect. You might want to just check your heart to see are you deceiving yourself? Now, again, this is not a, you should feel terrible about yourself all the time. That that's not what we're talking about here, but if we feel super great and that we're always obedient and we're not recognizing that we are sinful people, that it's easy for us to stray away from the Lord, we can become complacent in our lives with the Lord.
[00:16:44] # 5 Tackle your struggles head on. Don't ignore them. For many of us, there are things in our hearts that we know that we struggle with. The Lord wants us to not ignore them, not to put them off to the side, [00:17:00] but through the power of the Holy Spirit, deal with them. Maybe we need to have focused reading on Scripture about a particular issue that we're dealing with. Maybe we need help from your church, from another godly individual, maybe from a counselor. Tackle your struggles head-on. Don't ignore them.
[00:17:22] #6 Ask yourself when reading, "do I do this?" "Am I guilty of this?" Or "how can I do better?" That's the type of attitude that Josiah had. When he heard the words of the Book of the Covenant, he didn't go "Yep. We have been doing that or doing good. Check check, check." He goes, "oh, we have failed the Lord." His heart was tender.
[00:17:44] And then #7 confess your callousness and plead for help to be tender to the Word of God. That's a great prayer to pray. The recognition of that our hearts are naturally resistant to what God wants because of our sinful [00:18:00] nature. And we must plead to the Lord to soften our hearts, to give us a heart of flesh, not a heart of stone. That we may hear God's word and be obedient to him.
[00:18:11] #8 Approach scripture, the way you would, the voice of God. Now we frequently think of if only God would speak to me directly. Uh, God has through his word. So when we are listening to God, we want to listen to God's word as if he was directly speaking to us. Now that doesn't mean that everything, as we mentioned earlier, everything is there directly applicable to us, but the Bible has just the same authority as if God audibly spoke to you right now.
[00:18:44] And now just one more bonus actionable step is to read in community. One of the things I love about what the Lord has done for us and with us is that he has brought us together into the [00:19:00] church. And we all have different perspectives about how we see Scripture. And we can speak into each other's lives and speak into each other's readings of Scripture and strengthen and highlight, "Hey, maybe you're reading that wrong" or, "Ooh, that's a good way, I need to do that as well." So being in that community, is so important for our lives.
[00:19:24] Conclusion
[00:19:24] JC Schroeder: So I think hopefully these are actionable steps that you can take, that I can take for fostering an obedient heart before the Lord so that we can become someone like Josiah, whose heart was tender before the Lord.
[00:19:39] Now just one final reminder as we think of these actionable steps. And just this overall thing. Is that this is not a to do list. If you follow those eight steps, you're gonna become a great Christian. No. Not necessarily. It's not about the steps. It's about our heart before the Lord. It's about the Lord working in our hearts. [00:20:00] But we do want to make those strides, to know the Lord better and to be obedient to him in all areas of our life. And no matter who we are, or wherever we are, whatever age we are. Maybe we're not someone like Josiah, who's had these periods of faithfulness. Maybe we have greatly failed the Lord. The Lord still loves us. The Lord still loves you. And the Lord desires that our hearts would be drawn to him. That our hearts would be tender to him and to his word. I love that verse in James 4:8 "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." That's a wonderful promise.
[00:20:44] That's all we have for today. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider following the podcast and or giving an honest review. You can also find a transcript of today's episodes at my website bitesizeseminary.com, where you can also connect with me, [00:21:00] or also on Twitter or Facebook. You can see all the links in the show notes below. Thanks for listening.