Cry Out To God!
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Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. And he wrought evil in the sight of the LORD; but not like his father, and like his mother: for he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom. And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool. But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
And king Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time, and numbered all Israel. And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab hath rebelled against me: wilt thou go with me against Moab to battle? And he said, I will go up: I am as thou art, my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses.
And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they compassed about him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him; and God moved them to depart from him.
And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD. And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high.
And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
Intro:
Scriptures declare that King Jehoram of Israel went out of Samaria and numbered the people. Now Jehoram was the son of King Ahab, his mother was Jezebel.
The Bible declares the Jehoram “did what was evil in the sight of The LORD but not to the degree of his father Ahab and his mother Jezebel. He did one good thing, he tore down the pillar of Baal that his father did, but he continued in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and let the people of Israel to commit idolatry.
When King Ahab and Jezebel died, King Mesha of Moab decided to rebel against Israel. King Mesha had been paying an annual tribute of 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.
King Jehoram messaged King Jehoshaphat of Judah and asked Jehoshaphat to join him in battle against the King of Moab.
Now why would King Jehoram ask King Jehoshaphat to join him in battle? ANS: Because God was with King Jehoshaphat.
Why was God with King Jehoshaphat? Well, let’s start with the fact that Jehoshaphat was the son of King Asa of Judah. And we been studying King Asa and the fact that King Asa did right in the sight of God. King Asa was responsible for a religious revival throughout of Judah by abolishing idols, tearing down altars, cutting down groves dedicated to pagan gods, cutting down the Asherah poles.
(Back track to 2 Chr. 16)
Jehoshaphat’s father was a good king, up until the end of his life when King Asa took the treasures from the Lord’s house, gave them to King Ben-Hadad of Aram and made an alliance with a godless nation (verse 3)
Lord help us to not try to figure out things on our own.
Lord help us to not make the mistake of taking matters in our own hands.
Help us Lord not to link up and be in league with people who are against you.
But Lord help us to fully depend on you, even when it seems that we are fighting a losing battle.
The Bible says King Ben-Hadad attacked King Baasha (Israel) and King Baasha flees. It sounded like a brilliant plan and it actually worked. King Asa used the lumber and equipment left by Israel to fortify Geba and Mizpah (verses 4-6)
I promise I’ll get to the good part but the Old Testament is about stories and learning from those stories.
But after his perceived victory, the prophet Hanani (verses 7-9), came to King Asa and prophesied, “because you have put your trust in the king of Aram instead of in the LORD your God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram.
Lesson to be learned, you can lose your blessing when you get in league with the wrong people.
You can lose your blessing and your victory when you put your trust in people instead of God.
You can mess yourself up, lose your blessing, abort your victory, and cause yourself more heart ache, when you take matters into your own hands instead of seeking the LORD until He answers you! The prophet Oded told Asa “If You Seek the Lord, You will find Him”.
Hanani prophesied to Asa and said “Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the LORD and he handed them over to you.”
And herein is the problem with us sometimes, we get so caught in the moment that we forget what the Lord has done for us previously.
We get so caught in the moment that the first thing we do is seek PEOPLE instead of seeking God.....LORD HELP US!
We forget where the LORD has brought us from. And that is why some of us are struggling spiritually, because we trying to work things out on our own.
We opening our mouths and saying things that we have no business saying.
We are operating in our flesh and doing things that are not the way of the LORD.
Hanani then says “The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
Don’t you realize that you serve a God that sees all, knows all, and is in all?
He knows what you are in, what you are dealing with, He knows your frustration or your pain. Encourage someone and says “He knows”.
It is a foolish thing when we stop depending on God....it’s only going to make matters worse. Listen when you belong to God, it is a foolish thing to leave Him, go out on your own and try to do things your way! It’s only going to make life worse!
Hanani tells Asa “From now on you will be at war.” Asa experienced 35 years of peace, the LORD blessed Him and he did something foolish and a lot of times the reason why we are suffering is because “WE HAVE DONE FOOLISHLY CONCERNING THE LORD.” ANNNDDDD our flesh will want to blame everyone else but the person who is actually really responsible SELF.
You made the choice, you acted without first consulting God, matter of fact some of us were so full of self.....that we made our self God....because when we prayed we thought God was talking but it was really your flesh. Because when God speaks sometimes it is not comfortable, when God speaks, we have to make our flesh line up with the will of God, when God speaks, sometimes we’ve got to let some things go, when God speaks sometimes we have to turn away, when God speaks, it might not make any sense but we have to trust Him!!!
So Asa did like some of us do when the word of God found Him, he got mad. So mad that he had Hanani thrown in prison and put him in stocks. Then Asa started to oppress some of his people.
The Bible says in the 39th year of Asa’ reign a severe disease inflicted Asa’s feet. Yet, Asa did not seek the LORD’s help. I don’t know if it is because he was stubborn, he was mad, or he felt the LORD had abandoned him, or if it is unbelief.
Because most of the time with us, we don’t seek the LORD because of unbelief, or because we are stubborn, or we mad because the LORD didn’t do this or that for us. But the LORD says....I’m right here.....I’m everywhere.....all you need to do is seek me and you’ll find me.
Instead Asa sought the physicians but the physicians couldn’t do nothing. There are some things that people can’t help you with.....only The LORD can help you and bring you out!
Consequently King Asa dies and his son Jehosaphat becomes king of Judah.
Chapter 17 of 2 Chronicles declares that “The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father’s early years. He learned that when his father stuck with the LORD, the LORD blessed him. But when he turned from God he suffered.
Bible says, he did not worship the images of Baal. He did not do what everyone around him was doing, but he made up in his mind that for God I’ll live and for God I’ll die. And someone this morning you need to come out of the world and be ye separate says the LORD and touch not the unclean thing.
Someone today, needs to make up in their mind that I’m going to live for Jesus, I’m going to put the LORD first in my life, and anything that God is not pleased with, I gotta tear it down!
Verse 6 says:
He was deeply committed to the ways of the Lord. He removed the pagan shrines and Asherah poles from Judah.
Chapter 18 then tells us that Jehoshaphat made an alliance with wicked King Ahab and married one of Ahab’s daughters. See when you do something against God’s will, you might not pay for it right now....but there can be consequences down the road.
Jehoshaphat didn’t learn his lesson from his father. He didn’t need nobody else but the LORD. That’s a lesson for you to learn....you don’t need to hook up with wicked evil people....as long as you have God on your side, you WILL SUCCEED!!!
Ahab enticed Jehoshaphat to join forces with him to recover Ramoth-gilead the bible says.
Even though Jehoshaphat did a foolish thing......I still sought the LORD. He said “Before we go into battle let’s find out what the LORD says.” So Ahab summons 400 prophets to prophesy whether they should go up to battle. And all of them prophesied and said “yes” and “God will give the king victory.”
Herein is the problem, Ahab got a bunch of lying prophets that told him what he wanted to hear. But Jehoshaphat knew something was off. He asked “is there not also a prophet of the LORD here? We should ask him the same question. Ahab said there is, but he never prophesies anything good to me, all he prophesies is trouble.
What Ahab didn’t realize is that the prophet was prophesying trouble in order to get you to repent and turn from your wicked ways!
I don’t have time to get into specifics, but Micaiah prophesied, and told Ahab, go up and be victorious for you will have victory over them. But Ahab knew there had to be more to it. Ahab demanded that Micaiah speak the truth and Micaiah told him “I saw Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd, ad the LORD said ‘their master has been killed. Send them home in peace.”
Ahab says “see didn’t I tell you, he prophesies nothing but trouble on me.”
So they go into battle, Ahab tells Jehosaphat to dress in his royal robes, but he was going to disguise himself.
So in verses 28-34 the Bible then says the go out to battle and the King of Aram issued an order to only attack the king of Israel, don’t bother anyone else.
Sometimes we don’t always make the right choices, but when the favor of God is on you.....God will work for you even in times that you don’t even realize He is working.
The Aramean army saw Jehoshaphat in his royal robes and they went after him. But the Bible says in verse 31 “But Jehoshaphat called out, and the LORD saved him, God helped him by turning the attackers away from him.”
I got to get ready to sit down.....but the LORD says that whosoever will call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved. Let’s deal with salvation first, you been living a life that opposes God and God has been calling you. But yet, you’ve continued to do what you want to do and now you find yourself in trouble.
But if you turn from your wicked ways and call on the LORD the LORD will answer and everything that is coming against you.....He’ll cause it to turn! God will help you like he helped Jehoshaphat.
Let’s deal with the saints of God now. If you find yourself in trouble....now is not the time for you to be silent, you need to call out....you need to cry out in faith and believe that if I cry out....The LORD will turn whatever it is around for my good.
The Bible says that when they realized it was Jehoshaphat they stopped chasing him. Ahab tried to hide, but you can’t hide from God, God will find you. The Bible says that an Aramean soldier shot a random arrow and the random arrow struck Ahab and Ahab died that night.
Yet because of Jehoshaphat, the LORD gave them victory over the Arameans. Jehoshaphat lost his father in law, he was alone.....but this was good for Jehoshaphat because he needed to experience the move and the power of God for himself.
There came another time, in which Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir came up to fight against Jehoshaphat. 3 against 1, outnumbered. And Jehoshaphat was terrified. But when fear set in, he called everyone to fast and to seek the LORD’s help.
And guess what yall.....IF YOU SEEK HIM.....YOU WILL FIND HIM!
The met at the Temple and Jehoshaphat began to cry out to God......tell your neighbor when things get a little tight.....cry out to God! They began to remember all the promises that God made to his people, that whenever they are faced with any calamity, such as war, sickness, drought, we can come to stand in your presence before this Temple where your name is honored.
WE CAN CRY OUT TO YOU TO SAVE US AND YOU WILL HEAR US AND RESCUE US!
I know we cried out last week, but someone is still in trouble this week. Come on, lift your hands and say “LORD, WE CAN CRY OUT TO YOU TO SAVE US AND YOU WILL HEAR US AND RESCUE US!”
When they finished praying, the prophet Benaiah received a word from the LORD.
He said “Don’t be afraid.....don’t worry.....don’t be discouraged by this mighty army.....don’t be discouraged by this thing. Can you receive this word.....don’t be discouraged by your trouble!
Matter of fact, you won’t need to fight this fight.....you won’t need to do nothing but trust me.
The next morning (verse 20) Jehoshaphat was encouraged by the word of the LORD, he said Believe in the LORD your God. Just holler at someone and say “Believe in the LORD your God, stand firm in Him, believe in the word of God and you will have victory!”
They were so encouraged, they believed the word of the LORD so much that they got a praise team together. I want you to grab a some people and make a praise team.
King Jehoshaphat put the singers out front of the army! This is how much faith he had. The praise team began to sing “Give thanks to the LORD; his faithful love endures forever!”
That’s it....God is faithful, and his faithful love endures forever. And if he loves me.....He’s going to fight this battle and I’m going to praise Him for doing it.
The bible says the moment they opened their mouth to praise the LORD, the LORD caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting one another.
He turned it around for them. Grab your neighbor by their hand and say these words with truth and authority “GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD; HIS FAITHFUL LOVE ENDURES FOREVER!” Say it 7 times.
Now that was a command.......Now start giving God thanks......start praising Him for what He’s getting ready to do in your life!
