Clean Sweep

  1. In 2 Kings 23, we read about Josiah making a clean sweep of all of Israel’s atrocities, as much as was in his power to do so.
  2. Here finally was a king that removed the high places. He emptied the Lord’s temple of all the idols and filthy practices of the idol worshipers.
  3. He gets rid of the priests and even the horses and chariots that had been dedicated to the sun.
  4. I appreciated that a lot because it would be easy to justify keeping useful horses and chariots.
  5. There’s no place for keeping anything back. We give it all up for God. We dedicate everything to Him and need to remove anything that we’ve dedicated to anything else.
  6. If something represents your dedication to something other than God, then pray about getting rid of it, letting it go for the sake of loving God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.
  7. Josiah also reinstated the Passover celebration which was remarkably absent all this time.
  8. To celebrate the Passover, you need to make a clean sweep. They have to get every last crumb out of their house. There can be no yeast.
  9. Becoming a better person isn’t what we’re after. We’re after being perfect as Christ is perfect.
  10. It’s not in our power to do so. We give up our lives and take on His perfect life. We will never be good, but God is good. It’s His life that we live in our flesh.
  11. We’ve got to make a clean sweep of it. Getting rid of most of your addiction, bad habits, sinful attitudes, ungodly entertainment, etc. is leaving yeast there to just grow back.
  12. We’ve got to make a clean sweep.
  13. Let the word of God be your broom.
  14. That the command to love God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength be your dustpan.
  15. Clean it all out and live in the freedom of a pure heart.
  16. For it’s the pure of heart who shall see God.