Praising God to Victory

ACTOR 1) A King named Jehoshaphat - King of JUDAH

He put God first in all that he did.

God blessed him by giving him

Riches

and Honor - his kingdom and the kingdoms around his started to respect him and some even started to fear him because God also gave King Jehoshaphat a

this huge and strong, army

King Jehoshaphat, praised, honored and focused on God when things in his life were Good.

AND THINGS WERE GOING REALLY GOOD FOR KING JEHOSHAPHAT!

ACTOR 2) A King named Ahab - King of Israel

This king worshipped a false God named Baal.

King Ahab was only concerned with what was good for himself.

Alliance

Now king Jehoshaphat is in a pretty good position right. He has wealth and riches, the people honor him, and he has this incredibly strong army.

Well just like all of us....we can’t be content with what we have. We need something more.....(ACTOR 1 - KING JEHOSHAPHAT) King Jehoshaphat needs a girl in his life. So he marries a woman from Israel and he becomes allies with Israel. A kingdom that worships a false God...

So King Jehoshaphat - made this really bad decision to become friends with this kingdom that worships these false Gods. and one day King Jehoshaphat goes to Samaria, in Israel and meets with king Ahab. And there just chilling in their thrones next to each other and King Ahab leans over and asks King Jehoshaphat a question.

KING AHAB - “Will you attack Ramoth Gilead with me”

King Jehoshaphat - “yes, but first let us seek council from the Lord

WE WILL COME BACK TO THIS (PART IN A LITTLE BIT) WE ARE GOING TO SKIP AHEAD IN THE STORY A LITTLE BIT.

GO TO WAR!

-So King Jehoshaphat and King Ahab to go to war and King Ahab dies. and when King Jehoshaphat gets back to Jerusalem in Judah a man named Jehu ( a Seer) went to meet him. Jehu tells King Jehoshaphat “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because you joined with Israel the wrath of the Lord is on you. There is some good in you, for you have rid the land of the Ashrah poles and have set your heart on God.

So because of Jehoshaphat’s bad decision to be allies with King Ahab God’s wrath is on him now. Jump ahead and there are three kingdoms that join together and they are coming to take King Jehoshaphat out!

-Now Jehoshaphat hears this and he is worried. and 2 chronicles 20:3 alarmed Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all of Judah.

you hear that, as soon as hardship or trouble comes up he immediately takes it to the Lord.

Jehoshaphat praises God when everything is going awesome! and now when hardship arises he still goes right into praising God through prayer. He goes out and he tells his people hey we are going to fast and we are going to keep asking for the Lord’s help. He even uses part of Solomon’s prayer from years earlier.

My point is this guys. You will experience joy and excitement this year. You will also experience stress and hardship this year. Are you keeping your eyes fixed on God in both situations. The risk of losing your relationship with God happens in both situations.

-When we experience joy and excitement....and things are going good for us....We can start to get a mentality that I don’t need God. I got this...

-On the other side when things aren’t going well we thing that perhaps God has abandoned us, or we get mad at God for allowing this to happen.

Praise God in the good and the bad.

One last thing I want to touch on. I want to point out something that happens in this story that is bad, and a hardship for someone. going back to when Jehoshaphat said we should seek council from the Lord. When Ahab wanted the two of them to attack Ramoth Gilead.

-Ahab asks Jehoshaphat to attack Ramoth Gilead with him right? And Jehoshaphat says yes, but let’s seek council from the Lord.

2 Chronicles 18:4-12

King Ahab says ok and he brings in 400 prophets and they’re all saying the same thing. They’re all saying that King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat will win the war.

King Jehoshaphat says “is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here we can inquire of?

King Ahab replies, “ Well, there is still one prophet through whom we inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad.”

King Jehoshaphat still wants this last prophet to come. So they send an official out to get this last prophet. When the official gets to the prophet’s place he says this.

“Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.

Have you heard this in your lives?

- Hey everyone is doing this....You should do it to.

- You look prettier when you wear this.

- You look way better if you put a sweet looking dance celebration at the end of doing something awesome!

- These are the people you need to hang out with in order to be popular.

-This is what you need to do in order to be smart.

-We are bombarded with things we need to think, do, or say in order to be cool in the eyes or the world.

- Going back to the story. “Look the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”

-The prophet replies “as surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what God says.”

And when the the prophet gets back to the king he says what God tells him to say and no, one likes what he has to say.

- King Ahab says, “didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?

One of the prophets out of the 400 comes over and slaps him in the face and mocks him.

and then he gets thrown into prison.

Isn’t that incredibly bold? I mean, He goes into that situation knowing people are not going to like what he has to say.

And he praises God by sticking to the truth regardless of what people think, or the situation he is in.

So praise God today, tomorrow, this year regardless of things going bad or good for you. Praise God right now for the little things, Praise God for the big things. Praise God for Jesus our savior so we can be re-united with our creator.

Let’s pray and go into battle!