David Hughes - David Hughes - The Power of Proximity

Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen, I want you to give it up for all the ladies in the house. Men, make some noise for the ladies in the house. Here's a ping pong ball for the ladies in the house. Ping pong ball, enjoy. Trust me, you're gonna need it later on, the ping pong ball. If you're a guest, I'm David, I'm one of the pastors. I'll give you one, Quincy, you got one. There you go. I'm a pastor. Listen, we are celebrating all the ladies, but especially the moms today. My wife is here. Lisa does many things well. She's a great wife, she's a great leader at the church, but she's a sensational mom. We have, have a ping pong ball, have a ping pong ball. Listen, we have three good kids, and people ask me, is there a formula? I would say God's blessing, because I know a lot of great people who have rascally kids. We're fortunate God has been good to us. I would say that, and a brilliant mom. A brilliant mom makes all the difference. Involvement, Luke, in a good student ministry helps a whole lot too. Michael, have a ping pong ball. My wife, have a ping pong ball. And by the way, my mom is watching from Indiana right now.

She's under the weather. Say hi, mom. Hi, mom. Hi, mom. Good to see you. Happy Mother's Day, mom. I wish you were closer. Anyways, we're celebrating moms, and we're in the midst of a series right now about, anybody, you got, oh, good, good, good, good, good. Good, here, just for you. Good, all right, all right. About breaking bad habits. Anybody got a habit, an annoying habit, a troublesome habit, a toxic habit? Who has a habit you're trying to figure out? Raise your hands, be honest in church. Well, if you're here as a guest, we're all trying to figure out how to get a handle on that annoying habit that's been around for way too long. And if willpower would have done it, you'd have been there, but you've tried before, and you've not been able to break that cycle. But today, we're gonna break that chain. So whether it's troublesome or fully toxic, or maybe it's not just a habit in your life, but it's a cycle that's been in your family for generations. Generational dysfunction is hard to deal with.

We tend just to recycle that bad behavior we grew up with. So if it's been something that your mom and your dad dealt with, or their mom and dad's, if you've been in your, I don't know, maybe it's something, it's addiction or alcoholism, or maybe it's just something as simple as living paycheck to paycheck, which is not sinful, but it is stressful. How can you break those cycles? Because God wants you to be free. My God is all up into freedom. And if you're wondering about why the ping pong balls, just stay with me, I'll explain this at the end if time allows. But I'm not gonna tell you right now, because I want those people watching online to stay with me the entire time, have a ping pong ball right there, I promise it'll make sense. So find your Bibles, find your Bibles, go to 2 Kings, go to 2 Kings chapter 22. I want you to visit a story about an amazing chain breaker named Josiah, Josiah, when I say three, church, shout the name, Josiah. One, two, three. Josiah. A remarkable leader of the people of Judah, a direct descendant of David, an amazing, amazing young leader, worth our time and study, but he is a chain breaker

because he stepped into a situation of generational dysfunction. Now I don't believe in generational sin, that I'm guilty for something my parents did, no, no, no. But I do believe that bad examples leave a mark. So if you've grown up with some kind of negative example in your family, how can you break that cycle and break free? Josiah does exactly that. Stay with me, I mentioned him a couple weeks ago, you might recall, his dad's name was Ammon. Ammon was a bad dad, like everything he did was bad. Ammon became the king of Judah at a very young age in his 20s, but he is so wicked and so evil, his own counselors bump him off, they assassinated him after two years. So that is Josiah's dad. Josiah's daddy's dad is Manasseh. When I say three, say the biblical name Manasseh. One, two, three. Manasseh. Oh my gosh, he is the worst. He literally is the worst king to sit on the throne of Judah. I mean, he's profoundly pagan, he's sensationally sinful, he's such a wicked man, he replaces the worship of the true God with all this worship of pagan, Canaanite deities, he sacrifices his own children to these pagan gods. He is horrible, he's horrible. He's not just the worst king ever in Judah,

but one of the worst leaders in world history. Put Manasseh up there with Hitler and Mussolini and Saddam Hussein, bad, bad, bad. He's the worst, he's the worst. But he reigns for 55 years. So Josiah comes to the throne as a young man after almost six decades of dysfunction. But he breaks the cycle, he breaks the cycle. Let me show you, I'll introduce you to our young hero, Josiah. Let's read together right now, let's pick it up. How about in 2 Kings 22, verse one. So Josiah was eight years old, very young, when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem 31 years. His mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adeah. She was from Bozkath, ready? He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed in the ways of his forefather David, not turning. Aside to the right or to the left. I love that description. So Josiah right or left? He's he's not perfect, but he's directional He has his flaws has a sin We all do but the direction of his life was following God with passion His dad didn't do it his grandfather surely didn't do it, but he breaks the chains Now there's somebody here go. Okay, David. It's Mother's Day. And all we're doing is talking about a bunch of dudes You got a good young King Josiah got two bad dudes Manasseh and Amor just talking about these men these King Where's the mom? Did you catch it? There's a mom in this story. I'll back up says in verse 1 Josiah was 8 years old when he became king and he arranged to lose him 31 years his His mother's name was Jededah was Jededah. I want to study Jededah for just a moment with you

I think though she's barely mentioned the scripture. She is worth our attention and study today Jededah means beloved of God Beloved of God, we know her dad's name her region the rest is a bit of conjecture We can speculate on this amazing woman the mother of this young boy. Guess what? She she's a single mom Her husband got bumped off when her little boy was 8 She's a single mom in a danger environment, but she raises up a remarkable kid What can we learn from this brief mention of Jededah a couple things number one? We all need help Say it with me. We all need help. Come on louder like it's true. We all need Parents the Bible calls us to be the first line of defense for our kids It is not the government's job to raise our kids. It's not the school's job to raise our kids It's not the media's job. Good night to raise our kids. It is our responsibility before the Lord to raise our children So whether it's a two-parent home or a single-parent home you are the first line of defense But we all need help. We all need help. So here Jededah She's a she's a single mom. Her husband's assassinated because he's so bad So wicked when her little boys in the second grade, he's eight years old. So I think freckles on his face. No front teeth He's in a precarious situation why he can be assassinated to the ancient world. You didn't elect your Kings Kings were often the result of a coup Violence or some of a bump off the existing king and the assassin would take his place. So here's this little boy who's vulnerable So what does Jededah do? She she finds some godly young men in the story other men to mentor him to protect him guys Like a show them and Stefan and and he'll kind of real weird names, but great people we all need help We all need help. We all need help. We have a Tremendous staff at our church. I love our staff. Those are staff very very young people Most of them come from like great solid church-going families good daddy good mom But I have a lot of our staff people one of the parent wasn't around very much typically the dad They've come to church. They found a spiritual family. Listen if you're if you're if your family is weird find yourself a new family and And the church becomes a spiritual village What a brilliant thing Jededah did

I'm here thinking how'd she get married to this bad guy in the first place? We've all seen that some amazing woman and her husband's kind of a knucklehead, right? How did that happen? It wasn't her choice Back in this time, especially when it came to royal marriages marriages were arranged So her father a day had picked had picked number one the name for his daughter means beloved of God But though he said one thing he did something else Like he said my girl's beloved of God, but he marries her off to a wicked man from a wicked family Why well Manasseh and Ammon the Royals so maybe for economic advantage political advantage your kids can tell when you say one thing Do something else So she's married to this terrible guy Ammon. Uh, he's weak. He's wicked. He's entitled He's selfish and the ladies he gets assassinated I was just thinking to myself kind of reading the lines between the lines of subtext It's great. I wonder ladies when her evil husband bumped off. Do you think she was sad? Was she devastated? Was she kind of relieved? But she had a problem on her hands. Here's her young son. He's eight years old and he's so vulnerable So she finds she handpicks these godly good young men to mentor and protect him Vital that's what the church can do for you. You got to find a way to get involved coming to worship is great Thank you for being here today. Maybe came because you love your mama, but you're here today Worship is phenomenal protect this habit But church becomes your family when you get involved when you find a life group or a lifeline a community Change always fleshes out by way of community If you don't have a group you're involved in fix that today take that step to find that Spiritual faith your family's weird. Don't kick him to the curb, but get you a new family get you know I'm so grateful for my church family. We all need this so much. And what did these men do? What did Hilkiah and Shephen do? They protected him by probably keeping him protected from other people. They probably limited access to young Josiah. You may not know, but the leaders of Israel typically held public court, Moses and Solomon. Anybody could come with their case and plead their case. But Josiah's just eight. They kept him away. He starts his public reforms at age 20. So for 12 years, they protected him by limiting access. Not everybody needs a piece of you. Not everybody wants a piece of you. They're part of the problem. You've got these troublesome, dysfunctional, toxic people that want a piece of you. You've

got to limit access. That doesn't sound very spiritual. Multitudes followed Jesus. He chose just 12. And sometimes he just picked three from the 12. Mount of Transfiguration, going a little deeper in the Garden of Gethsemane. He chose just Peter, James, and John. He had his inner circle. He would limit access. I'm not sure how Nathaniel and Bartholomew thought about that, but Jesus didn't care. Limit access. Protect your kids. Who are their friends? Who are their companions? They kept him protected. Young people, if that sounds kind of harsh, kind of harsh, maybe you're somebody and you're here in high school and middle school because this guy starts his public reform. You're going to see very, very early in his life. And you're like, man, I wish I was more popular. Maybe you think, I crave popularity. I wish I'd gone viral at some point, young person. You're thinking, I wish I sat at the cool kids table. I wish I made the varsity, but I didn't make the cut. And maybe you prayed and asked God to help you with those things, help you make the team, help you be more popular. And God said, no, that is not God being unkind or uncaring. That's probably God protecting you by eliminating access to you. That's not God hurting you. That is God helping you by God hiding you. Because listen, there's certain things can happen in the spotlight. You can grow a platform in the spotlight. You can grow popularity in the spotlight. You can grow influence in the spotlight, but you cannot grow character in the spotlight. Character normally is developed in the hidden place. So maybe God's keeping you away from the spotlight right now. You're a little hidden more than you'd like to be, but God's making you strong. He's refining your character. He's building your spiritual shoulders. So someday when God lays the responsibility of the spotlight on you, you'll be spiritually strong enough to bear up under his weight. Don't resist the fact that God is growing you and in God's due time, his right time, he will reveal you. They protected him by limiting access to him. Back to the story. Let's jump, because there's parallel accounts, 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. In 2 Chronicles, it gives us this detail. It says in verse 3 of chapter 34, in the 8th year of his reign. So let's see, 8 plus 8 is, thank you, make you do math on the weekend. So he's 16. Let me just stop right there. The boy is 16. That is young. That is young, right? He just traded in his restricted license for his real license for the family camel. He's young, can't drive past 11 o'clock at night. I mean, he's not old enough to go to the junior prom. He's 16. Look what this, teenagers, look what he does. In high school, in the 8th year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to... This teenager's seeking God. He's seeking God. He's hungry for God. He's thirsty for God.

He's not hungry for power. He's not hungry for prestige. He's not hungry for fame. He's a king. He's hungry for God. What changes the game is this young man who so wants the favor of God, the touch of God in his life, to be used by God. And think, he didn't grow up that way. His dad was a knucklehead. His grandfather, a jerk. But he wanted to break a chain. So he wants to find God. He's seeking God. Young people, the greatest thing you can do with your life is be a God seeker. To be saved and to seek, to seek and be saved. Now, here's a cool detail. As he's seeking God, he's just 16, well, he does several things. He starts reforming the people of God. He renovates the temple. The temple's been in disrepair for, gosh, 60 long years. Desecrated. It's all falling apart. So they do some house cleaning. They clean up the temple of God. He sends a crew in there. He pays for it himself. And there's a very interesting thing that happens as they're cleaning the house of God. It says now in 2 Kings 22, Hilkiah, the high priest, said to Shephaim, the secretary, I have found the book of the law in the temple. Stop, stop. So Josiah's seeking God, but there's no Bible. If you're new to our church, we love the Bible. I put the Bible behind me, on either side of me. I want to saturate and permeate your life with the word of God. We're big on Jesus and his word. So no matter who the teacher is, me or any of the guys, I think I'm scheduled to be back next week. Sorry about that. I will teach you the word of God. God is transformative. If you take what the Bible says and you apply it, God will change your life for the better, amen? But you track it with a story. Here's a young guy who's seeking God but doesn't have a Bible. History, Manasseh was so intense on his seeking to eradicate the worship of the true God, he was so very pagan, he tried to destroy every single copy of the Torah. You see, later in history, if there was a synagogue in a village anywhere, a synagogue would have a copy of the Torah,

the first five books, the books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. But this was before the synagogue. All the copies of the Torah are at the temple and there's not very many. Why? No one had a smartphone. We have the Bible now in our smartphone, right? You can have the Bible. If you don't have the Bible on your smartphone, you're not smart enough to have a smartphone. Put the Bible on your smartphone. And then, of course, it's 2,000 years before the advent of the printing press. So every copy of the Torah had been carefully and painstakingly hand-transcribed, but Manasseh, so evil and so wicked, tried to wipe out every copy of the Bible and he almost did it. And so, Josiah is seeking God. These godly men are seeking God, Hilkiah, Shep, and his mentors, but they don't have access to a Bible. Manasseh's wiped them all out except one. Do you know the Bible is indestructible? The Bible says about itself it is indestructible. Isaiah chapter 40, Matthew chapter 24, it says heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of God will never pass away. You see this tested throughout history.

Not just Manasseh, but Nazis in Germany, and communists in China, and Cuba, and jihadists have all sought to wipe out the word of God, and the word of God's better today than ever before. It's one of the all-time bestsellers in all of history. So they find one last copy of the word. So here's a young man seeking God, but I want to say if you want to seek God, you must develop a heart for God's word. Look at his heart for God's word. So when he finds out, when he finds out that they found the Bible, they bring the news to the young king, and the king says, oh my gosh, you found the Bible. We thought the Bible had been destroyed. Take the Bible, it's so valuable, and so precious, and historical. Put it in a museum. He doesn't say that. When they bring him the news, we have found the Torah, he says, please, bring it right here, and read it to me now, all of it. And they read the whole word of God to him, right there, one setting. By the way, you're not impressed enough with that. There are, don't check me on this, 5,852 verses in the Torah. That's about 125,000 words based on your language or translation. That would take 14 to 16 hours to read at one time.

Young man says, I want it all now. I'm taking that apart. He didn't say, 15 minutes a day. In a couple months, we're done. How about this, an hour a day, in two weeks, I'll know the whole word of God. I want to hear it all right now. Did they Uber eat? Did he take bathroom breaks? I love his heart, young people. He was so hungry. He didn't just listen, too. It says that he listened, he wept. He recognized they were so unaligned with God's word. What God had taught, the people were not doing. He was not doing. It broke his heart. He tears his garment. That was a sign of mourning like at a funeral back in the day. His heart was broken for the word of God. No wonder God uses him. We've got a teenager seeking God's word. And then he says in verse 13, same chapter, he says, inquire of God. Inquire of God means this. What does it mean? Explain it to me. I need someone to explain it to me. I want to understand it

because the blessing is not in just the hearing. It's in the doing of the word. I want to apply the word of God to my life. So go inquire, meaning this. Go find me a good Bible study teacher. So verse 14, here's what they do. It says, Hilkiah the priest, Ahicham, Akbar, Shefan, Azariah went to speak to the prophetess. She's a Bible study teacher. The prophetess Huldah, who's the wife of Sholom, son of Tikva, son of Harhash, Kippur. Okay, verses like that are why you don't read your Bible. I get it, I get it. Wow, those are some names there, right? Oh my gosh, gonna go to Huldah. And who's Huldah? He's the wife of Sholom, son of Tikva, son of Harhash. Aren't you glad someone invented last names? Aren't you really happy someone invented it? Come on, I'm so glad my name is not David, son of Charles, son of Orville. That's what would be our name, right? I'm David Hughes. I wish he had last names in the Bible. Oh, Bible study teacher, Huldah. Is that Huldah Jenkins or Huldah Jones? Oh, Huldah Jenkins, she's great, right? It'd be so much more simple. Actually Old Testament would be Huldah Weinstein or Huldah Goldberg, right, right?

But it's the prophetess Huldah. Why, because the king wants to understand how to apply the word of God. By the way, you up for a deep dive? Anybody up for a deep dive, deep dive? No extra charge, deep dive? I think it's like six people. I'll do it for the rest of y'all because they wanted to. I think it's interesting. He chose Huldah the prophetess because Jeremiah has begun his ministry. Jeremiah's a very famous prophet, but I think probably the reason that the king and his mentors chose Huldah is she is older. Jeremiah's a contemporary of Josiah, so he's a young guy. He's passionate, he loves God, but he's young. They went to the older person. Why? They wanted to understand the Bible. Stay with me, stay with me. Manasseh did what? He wiped out almost every copy of God's word. Manasseh waited for 55 years, so he needed someone old enough to predate Manasseh. Now, Huldah didn't have a copy of the Bible when she was a kid. You didn't have your own copy. You went to the temple and you listened, and you listened, and you took notes,

and you listened, and you memorized. She listened so carefully to the word of God. Here, decades later, she's the one who understands how to apply the word. I point that out because I love how the generations work together in the family of God. I love you got a young guy. He's 16, 16. He's a sophomore in high school, but he's hungry for God, wants to know God. He brings that young person energy. He's a Gen Z, he's an alpha, right? He's bringing his energy, his passion, his enthusiasm. Then you have a very senior, senior adult. She brings what? Wisdom, insights, experience of life, right? We need each other. I love our church is multiracial. I love our church is multieconomic, but I love our church is multigenerational. We need each other. And it gets even better, it gets even better. And after they explained the word of God to him, he calls a national assembly. Everybody has to show up, why? Because he's the king. And the Bible says everyone comes, the famous, the obscure, the wealthy, the poor, says the greatest to the least, they all show up. And what happens at this big gathering,

it says King Josiah, now about 20 years of age, he stands up and he reads the word of God in its entirety to everybody. 14 hour church service. You don't think it's remarkable for a political leader to do that? Would you imagine in America, think about your favorite president during your lifetime. Think about whoever you, your guy, woo, your guy. Imagine your guy on the White House lawn has his speech prepared. Here's the secret service, here's the press corps. Here's all his counselors, here's the cabinet. He says, no, I'm not gonna read this speech. Instead, I think today I'm gonna read to the American people Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. He reads it with great sincerity. Would that shake up our nation? How about this? Imagine your least favorite president during your lifetime. And God so touches that guy that he's doing the state of the union. Do you pray for those political people you don't like? You should. The Bible says pray for your people in leadership, the ones you like and the ones you don't. Pray for them all. Imagine God got ahold of that guy. It's the state of the union address in front of Congress. He throws aside his speech.

He picks up a Bible and he reads Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts with incredible brokenness and contriteness where you can tell he's moved and he's resolved. He closed his Bible and says, from now on, America, we're doing this. This is our new game plan. This is our nation. That would bring about a change. We need a change. Our city needs a change. Our state needs a change. Our nation needs a change. Our world needs a change. And it begins with you and me. We gotta change. We can talk about freedom and equality and great values, but we walk in bondage like everybody else. As God's people, they won't believe our message. We gotta get free. So listen, we've been talking about this idea of breaking bad habits and bad cycles for several weeks now. I've been saying this. If you're here and you're coming and not even a Christian person, these powerful biblical principles and strategies are transferable. They'll work whether you have faith or not, but there are some things, as a person of faith, where you have an advantage. Here's the main one.

You have the Holy Spirit of God living in you if you're a saved person. If you're not a saved person, we can change that in about five minutes and 13 seconds. There'll be prayer partners at the edge of the stage, but one of the benefits of salvation, in addition to heaven and forgiveness and acceptance of God's family, is the Holy Spirit of the living God comes to live inside you. I think God's favorite thing to do is change people. That's his end product. So the Holy Spirit lives in you and he brings his qualities of character or his fruit. And it says in Galatians 5.22, here's what the fruit of the Holy Spirit is on the screen right now. It says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Look at this list. Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. How do we change? I need self-control. The Holy Spirit has perfect self-control. He now lives in me. So here's the secret for people who know God, you press into the Spirit, you walk in the Spirit. The Bible says you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. That's too complex. I love what it says in James 4 verse 8. So I began to grow as a Christian.

I found this amazing verse. I love his clarity. It says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. What does that mean? Don't overly complicate it. Have a heart for God. Have a heart for God's Word. Have a heart for God's house. This is gonna be all you like church, but you miss too much. What do you get better at doing one time every month or every six weeks? This needs to be a protected habit for you and your family. Your kids need this. You're chasing other things. Travel sports are great, but so she has a great crossover, but no spiritual foundation. We need the church. A heart for God, a heart for his Word, a heart for his house, and a heart for his people. You draw near to God. You draw near. When you draw near to God, his change becomes yours. His self-control becomes yours. Think about this way. If you're out hiking in the wilderness or camping, why you do that, I have no idea. But you're out camping for some reason and it's bitterly cold. Hard to imagine right now since it's 97 degrees. It's bitterly cold. You're about to freeze and you stumble upon a campsite. Nobody there, but there's a raging fire. Raging fire and you're freezing to death. Well, how do you take advantage of the fire? Do you meditate on fire?

Do you go to Wikipedia and study what it says about fire? Do you watch a podcast about fire? If you're freezing and want to take advantage of the warmth of the fire, what do you do? You draw near and you warm up. Hebrews says our God is a roaring fire. You want his love, his peace, his power, his transformation. You draw near. I'll be honest. Some of y'all, you're saved people, but you're too far from God. There's too much space. You see what God's word says, and there's space. You don't obey, there's space. God cannot bless over that space. You don't get it done. You're too far from God. That's why your habit's not changing. Example, ping pong balls. Imagine a ping pong ball represents your habit that you can't change. Whatever it is you can't change. Whatever it is, it's a substance. It's alcohol. It's your anger. It's dead. I don't know what it is. Divorce. Someone says he's married in your family. No one keeps a job in your family. Whatever it is, this cycle's been going and you can't change it. Imagine my mug up here I have all the time. By the way, it's a cup of coffee.

It has room temperature water. My mug represents the God of change. The God of change. And the only way you can change is give your habit to God, all right? Demonstration. If you're on the front row and front row only, I want to ask you to take your ping pong ball and throw it in my mug. And that was a baseball player. That was sad. Oh, that's pathetic. Come on, guys. Oh, wow. Wow. Oh, that's not even close. Not even close. Come on, keep them coming. How about second, third row if you got a ping pong ball? Go ahead, give it to me. Let me see. That's pretty good from out there. Come on. Second, third row. Go. Let's see. Oh, sad, sad. Terrible. I feel so bad. Oh, that was a little better. Not, oh, man. Come on, girl. Oh.

Man. Come on, girl. Oh, it's not hard. So, obviously, I'm the most athletic person in the room. No, no. Obviously, I'm what? I'm close. I'm near. God loves you so much. Jesus died for you. He cherishes you. He adores you. Just the way you are. He loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way. Aren't you sick and tired of being sick and tired? This is going to break a generational dysfunctional chain today. You grew up in a home and maybe mom and dad loved you, but they were so screwed up and so messed up because their mom and dad were screwed up and messed up and their mom and dad's been, but guess what? Do you want to pass that on to your kids' moms, dads? Break the chain. Jedidah took advantage of the resources, put the right people around her kid, raised him in the house of God. He revered the word of God. Josiah changes the game. There's a generational national shift when a 16-year-old starts to seek God. Salvation, seeking God. Salvation, seeking God. How are you saved? Says Romans 10, 13, for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

You're in everyone. The prayer partners are coming. I'm going to pray for you. Everyone coming back next week. We're doing Mother's Day again next week. Y'all come with your mama next week. Amen. Father God, thank you for who you are, the freedom you want us to enjoy. So, Father, help us claim it. It is our birthright in Christ. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Give us your self-control in Jesus' name, amen.