Sermon Tone Analysis

*Faced with an impossible situation?*

*(2 Chronicles 20:1-13)*

* *

*How do you usually respond when you are faced with an impossible situation?*

* *

*I.                   **Negative Responses*

 

#.

*Fear (v.3)*

 

1It came to pass after this also, /that/ the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them /other/ beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

2Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they /be/ in Hazazontamar, which /is/ Engedi.

3And Jehoshaphat */feared/*,

 

•     54% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of being in a car crash.

•     53% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of having cancer.

•     50% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of inadequate Social Security.

•     49% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of not having enough money for retirement.

•     36% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of food poisoning from meat.

•     35% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of getting Alzheimer’s.

•     34% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of pesticides on food.

•     33% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of being a victim of individual violence.

•     32% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of being unable to pay current debts.

•     30% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of exposure to foreign viruses.

•     28% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of getting AIDS.

•     25% are “afraid” or “very afraid” of natural disasters.

Fear?  Living in Iowa, we never know if a Tornado is going to come and destroy our homes.

We never know if when we are driving at night a deer will jump out and destroy our car.

We also never know if the doctor will tell us that we have cancer.

*Ill.**

Kathy Harvey*

*/Usually fear is the first response to any crisis./*

When we stepped out by faith and obeyed the calling of the Lord, our first response is fear.

We are living in the unknown.

How are we going to pay our bills?

When are we going to be able to raise our support?

There is fear.

Fear cripples the believer and causes the next negative response.

#.

*Bitterness** (vs.

10-11)  *

 

10And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not; 11Behold, /I say, how/ they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit

 

*/This usually happens when we don’t get our own way.

/*

 

*Illustration:  Ardys Elmore*

 

*II.

**Positive Responses*

 

*/A.

/**/Seek/**/ the Lord./*

When you see big problems on the horizon, seek the Lord before you do anything else.

What does that mean?

It means to do what Jehoshaphat and Judah did.

They remembered who God is (v.

6), what He did in the past (v.

7) and what He said He would do in the future (vv.

8–9).

It means to trust Him and keep your eyes on Him by faith (v.

12).

 

and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

4And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask /help/ of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.

5And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court

 

*Explanation:  */He set himself to seek the Lord,/ and, in the first place, to make him his friend.

Those that would seek the Lord so as to find him, and to find favor with him, must /set/ themselves to seek him, must do it with fixedness of thought, with sincerity of intention, and with the utmost vigor and resolution to continue seeking him.

3.

He /proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah,/ appointed a day of humiliation and prayer, that they might join together in confessing their sins and /asking help of the Lord./

Fasting from bodily refreshments, upon such extraordinary occasions, is a token of self-judging for the sins we have committed (we own ourselves unworthy of the bread we eat, and that God might justly withhold it from us), and of self-denial for the future; fasting /for/ sin implies a resolution to fast /from/ it, though it has been to us as a sweet morsel.

*What does it mean to seek the Lord?*

*/ /*

*1.      * *Remember who God is (v.

6)*

 

Verse 6:  And said, O LORD God of our fathers, /art/ not thou God in heaven?

and rulest /not/ thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen?

and in thine hand /is there not/ power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

*/ /*

*/God Is All-Powerful./*

God’s power is unlimited.

He can do anything that is not inconsistent with His nature, character, and purpose (Gen.

17:1; 18:14).

The only limitations on God’s power are imposed by Himself (Gen.

18:25).

“Impossible” is not in God’s vocabulary.

God creates and sustains all things; yet He never grows weary (Is.

40:27–31).

*Ill.**

Abraham and Sarah *

 

*2.

* *Remember what God has done (v.7)  *

 

7/Art/ not thou our God, /who/ didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?

Can you count all the times that God has delivered you in the past?

Jehoshaphat remembers what God did for His people in the past and that was great comfort for him.

*3.

**Remember what God said He will do (vs.

8-9)*

* *

 8And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, 9If, /when/ evil cometh upon us, /as/ the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, (for thy name /is/ in this house,) and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.

Illustration:  The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians.

He had the sentence of death.

*2 Corinthians 1:8-10 * 8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:  9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:  10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver /us/;

 

*4.

**Remember who you are (v.

12)*

 

12O our God, wilt thou not judge them?

for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes /are/ upon thee.

*Explanation:  *He professes his entire dependence upon God for deliverance.

Though he had a great army on foot, and well disciplined; yet he said, /"We have no might against this great company,/ none without thee, none that we can expect any thing from without thy special presence and blessing, none to boast of, none to trust to; but /our eyes are upon thee./

We rely upon thee, and from thee is all our expectation.

The disease seems desperate: /we know not what to do,/ are quite at a loss, in a great strait.

But this is a sovereign remedy, /our eyes are upon thee,/ an eye of acknowledgment and humble submission, an eye of faith and entire dependence, an eye of desire and hearty prayer, an eye of hope and patient expectation.

/In thee, O God! do we put our trust; our souls wait on thee.’’/

*Ill.**

When I memorized Scripture at school for a scholarship.

*

 

*/B.

/**/Hear/**/ the Lord./*

God always has a special word for those who turn to Him for help.

When you face a battle, spend much time in His Word and in prayer, for then He will give you that needed word of encouragement.

13And all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

*God speaks to us through His Word.

*

*Illustration:  Warren in LaGrange*

A woman went to her pastor for marital counseling, and after a few preliminaries, the pastor said he had a few questions that would help identify the problems if she would just answer his questions as openly as possible.

When the lady agreed, he began by saying, “Do you have any grounds?”

To which the lady responded, “Why, yes we do, we have about ten acres just north of town.”

“No, ma’am, that’s not what I mean.

What I mean is do you have … well, do you have a grudge?”

“Oh, no, but we do have a nice little carport.”