Sermon Tone Analysis

Today is a special day for our church family.

We have welcomed 9 new people into our church family as members, and we are launching into our biggest outreach of the year, Super Summer Slam.

Many of us have been praying for weeks, for the Lord to provide good weather, to make all of the plans and preparations to come together, to work in the hearts of kids and their parents to come to know Him as their Lord and Savior, and that we might see some of them come to church so we can continue to help them grow in the knowledge of our wonderful savior, Jesus.

Is prayer time special to you?

Is prayer time special to you?

Prayer is important, and special for all of us who believe in Jesus.

At least it should be.

How special is prayer to me?

How special is it to you?

How important is it to us?

How much time do we spend in prayer a week?

A day?

Today, I want us to begin to see how precious that time is, and to look at what Jesus taught us about prayer.

Pray

Jehoshaphat

I have been reading through the Bible with my family this year, like some of you who have also been following our annual reading plan.

Recently, we were reading about Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles.

In chapter 20, there is a vast army made up of three different armies that united to attack Judah.

When Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah heard about it, they were scared.

Jehoshaphat called for a fast for all of Judah, and the people came together to seek the Lord in Jerusalem.

Jehoshaphat prayed to the Lord, and I love the way he concluded his prayer…

“We do not know what to do...”

Jehoshaphat had the right idea.

Instead of trying to muster up some troops, instead of laying out a battle strategy, instead of preparing the city defenses, he cried out to the Lord, saying, “We do not know what to do.”

I’ll admit.

I am a doer.

I see a problem, I see a project, and I want to attack it.

I want to solve it.

I want to tackle it and get it done.

Doers never want to admit they don’t know what to do.

Instead, doers just start, and figure it out as they go.

That can lead to problems down the road when you don’t think things through properly.

The problem with doers, like myself, is that prayer can very quickly become an after-thought.

Instead of looking to God first, we just plow ahead.

I applaud Jehoshaphat, because I think he was a doer like me.

When you look at what is written about him, he seems like a doer.

But on this occasion, he didn’t just jump into action.

He cried out to the Lord, and encouraged everyone in Judah to come together to cry out to the Lord.

And instead of just doing, he prayed, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Our eyes are on you

While Jehoshaphat did not know what to do against this huge group of three armies, he knew that God did.

He knew that God could take care of this great army.

So, he and all Judah said, our eyes are on you.

We want to see what you are going to do.

You who brought our ancestors out of Egypt.

You who we have heard so much about, we are watching and waiting to see what you are going to do.

The only way we are going to have success is if you do something.

Asa

Jehoshaphat had likely learned this attitude of not relying on his own plans, or just forging ahead, and instead looking to the Lord through watching how God worked to save Judah in the days of his father, Asa, when another huge army had come to attack.

In , Asa had an army of 380,000 men.

But Zerah the Cushite came with an army of thousands upon thousands, and 300 chariots (the tank of the day).

You get the idea that Asa was way out-matched.

But even though he was out-matched, he was out there, as a faithful king with his army to do what needed to be done.

However, even though he was faithful to be out there, he knew there was no way they would be successful on their own.

So, Asa cried out to the Lord,

2 Chron 14:

“Lord there is no one like you”

What a short, honest prayer.

He told God exactly why he was coming to Him.

He did not go to another king.

He did not go to mercenaries to fight on their behalf.

He did not go the route of trying to bribe the Cushites with tribute.

He went to the Lord who is there to help the powerless against the mighty.

“We rely on you”

They were out there with their large shields and spears, and 80,000 of them with small shields and bows.

But they were not trusting in their armament.

They were not trusting in their battle strategy.

They were relying on God to work a miracle.

And they told Him so.

That day, God did provide the miracle.

And I believe that spoke to Asa’s son, Jehoshaphat, who learned from that example to trust the Lord.

We can trust Him because He is the one who wants to strengthen and save those who are committed to Him.

Unfortunately, later in his life, when another king was threatening him, Asa decided to trust another king.

He sent all the silver and gold from the Lord’s temple, and from his own palace and sent it to another king to fight against the king who was invading Judah.

That day, instead of relying on the Lord, he relied on another man.

It was on that occasion that a prophet came and told Asa,

It was toward the end of his father’s reign when a prophet told Asa,

What is God looking for?

That is back-ground for what God said in , when Asa failed to trust God when the Assyrians came.

God is seeking... fully committed hearts

Before, Asa had relied on God.

Now, he started relying on himself.

The prophet told him that he was wrong for doing this.

God wants to strengthen and come to the aid of people who are relying on Him.

He wants to come to the aid of people who say, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes on are you.”

But sometimes, even those who do so well on one occasion, fall away, and stop relying on the Lord.

Prayer becomes stale and old, and eventually, prayer is left behind as we rely on ourselves or others.

God says He is actively looking, He is seeking those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.

Fully committed: They trust in Him and act for Him.

Before, Asa was fully committed.

We saw how He trusted God.

We saw how he acted in faith, and took out his measly army against the vast horde, and then trusted God for the results.

After that victory against the Cushites, the prophet Azariah told Asa,

He was told that God would be with Him.

However, God is not going to act for them if they forsake Him.

God seeks those who are fully committed, but when we stop trusting in the Lord, He isn’t going to act on our behalf.

Asa forgot that, and though he had a great victory, later he had great defeat.

Thankfully, Jehoshaphat learned from that example, so he was fully committed to the Lord, and cried out to God saying, “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Just like Jehoshaphat was fully committed to the Lord, and cried out to God, we need to come to God, saying, “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

What about you and me?