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Last week begin this two part series, “What to do when you don’t know what to do.”
As I’ve heard from many of you this week, this is an appropriate topic because all of us experience times where we don’t know what to do.
We don’t know what the right answer is Everyone of us can tell stories and may be in one right now where we had no answers for the problems we face, no wisdom to bring to the table, no power to overcome.
And, as much as we might not like to ask anyone for help.
We need it.
Our text is .
Here we find a King that doesn’t know what to do about a significant problem that is addressing his people.
The King is the King of Judah; his name is Jehoshaphat.
He has gotten word that 3 of Judah’s enemies, the Moabites, Ammonites, and the Meunites, who live in nearby nations have joined together and are on there way to attack Judah.
If you were here last week, we talked about how King Jehoshaphat responded.
He asked for help from the right person and in the right way.
He proclaimed a fast from all the people of Judah.
Then, he called a meeting of the people of Judah in the temple at Jerusalem.
With the people gathered together in the temple, Jehoshaphat prayed a earnest prayer to God for help.
We took an in depth look at that prayer last week.
The overarching phrase that captivates my heart is the last verse in the prayer.
So, what are we to do when our we don’t know what to do?
The first point that was our focus last week was
1. Set your focus on God, not your problem.
I’m not going to go in-depth into his prayer again, but the heart of it was they had to put their focus on God and not their problem.
Problems always look bigger than they are when they are looked at alone.
But when we compare our problem to God, we are able to gain some perspective.
That perspective tells us that our problems are not as big as they feel at first.
Second, God is so big it would be foolish not to trust him.
And the more we look at God, the smaller our fear of the problem becomes.
That brings up the second action we can draw from our text.
2. Don’t be afraid, the battle is not yours but God’s.
In the midst of this prayer in the temple, God moves upon a man named Jahaziel to prophesy.
2 Chronicles 20:15-20
He tells them twice not to be afraid or dismayed (vv.15,17).
Why? God was going to fight this battle for them.
But they were suppose to do something, Stand and observe, “Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.”
(v.17)
+God says, “You are not going to have to fight this battle, but I do want you to come watch me show off!”
So what can we learn from that?
Stop trying to win battles that aren’t yours to fight.
That’s not to say that their aren’t battles that we are called to fight.
God would not have given us the armor of God and told us to put it on in if there were not battles for us to fight.
Or, when Paul says in “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
() You need to fight for faith.
You need to fight against temptation and sin.
You need to resist the devil.
But there are times where none of that is sufficient.
There are times where the battle is out of your hands.
And, instead of fretting saying, “I don’t know what to do.”
You need rest in God to fight those battles for you.
Notice what Moses said to the Hebrews when they were leaving Egypt in .
Sometimes the greatest thing that we can do in a battle is to “Be still and know that he is God.” (cf. ) Sometimes getting our souls to rest in God is a greater battle than we will ever have to fight our there.
When do you know when to stop fighting and be silent verses when to fight?
I think practically it is like this.
When you find yourself in a battle that is too big for you and you say, “I don’t know what to do!”
You always have to fight in God’s power, no matter what the battle is.
But sometimes it’s harder to rest in God’s power than it is to fight in God’s power.
What I mean by that is stop trusting in the power of your efforts to make the difference.
Stop trying to find the answers and start believing that God is the answer.
And start believing that God will fight for you and his efforts will make a difference.
It’s when you get to that place, fear starts to fade.
That’s where Jehosaphat was, “I don’t know what to do, buy our eyes are on you.”
(v.12)
He fought in this prayer.
But this fight was to lead the people to turn to God and place their eyes on him.
Jehoshaphat didn’t lead the people to immediately form a battle plan.
He lead the people to look to God.
That is how we must always fight.
When he did, the very first response from God was do not be afraid.
*When I was in the 7th grade I was the smart kid who was easy to pick on.
I was skinny as a rat.
As a result I got picked on a lot.
These older 8th grade boys use to shove me into lockers and beat me up in the bathroom.
As luck would have it, my home room class was put together by last names.
The boy who sat in front of me was named Kenneth Rome.
Kenneth was spending his third year in the 7th grade and was bigger than anyone in the 7th , 8th, or 9th grades.
He decided he wanted to move on.
During final the first nine weeks Kenneth asked me if I would help him study for exams since I was a “smart kid.”
Being the shrewd business man that I was, I cut a deal.
I would tutor him, if he would protect me.
Kenneth went on that year to make A’s, B’s, and C’s.
And from that day on, I didn’t get touch.
I couldn’t pick a fight with the eighth graders.
They weren’t afraid of me.
They were afraid of Kenneth.
With Kenneth on my side, it didn’t matter who was on the other side.
I didn’t fear, not because I had suddenly gotten bigger learned to fight better.
I stopped fearing because the one fighting my battle had changed.
Here’s why God doesn’t want us to fear.
Because when we no longer fear, it frees up room for praise.
3. Fight by Believing and Praising (v.18-19)
The first thing the people did when they received the word that God would fight for them is get on their knees and prayed.
Immediately before they ever left them temple.
+Let me ask you this: In the midst of the trouble.
In the midst of your trial, when was the last time you worshipped God simply for the promise of his help, before you ever saw the fulfillment of the promise?
That is faith.
That is what it means “to walk by faith and not by sight.”
*We have a tendency in prayer meeting to call out answered prayer and say, “Let’s praise God for answered prayer!”
And as we are about to see, we should praise God for answered prayer.
But, let’s praise God for the promise of answered prayer before we ever see the answer.
That’s what you do when you don’t know what to do.
I love they way they prepared for battle here.
The next day they get up early and go out to where the battle is going to take place.
Here’s the account of the preparing of the battle.
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