When We Don't Know What To Do

When You Don’t Know What To Do – 2 Chron 20 Pastor Matt Davis – 10/31/2020 – cobonline.org So, for today's message, we're going to be in Second Chronicles, Chapter 20. While you are turning there, I'll give a little bit of an introduction to what's going on here in chapter 20. This is the invasion of Judah. With King Jehoshaphat. Wow, I totally butchered that name. Yeah, Josephat I don't know why I butchered it. It's because I'm... I was tired enough I actually thought it was Tuesday. Like, I'm never behind my pulpit preaching on Tuesday, and I thought it was Tuesday. So a little bit of issue. I did not sleep well yesterday, and I had an injury and so I'm slightly confused, I guess. But this is the invasion of Judah, under Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat says, I don't know what to do. He says, I'm lost. And even if I could take care of this on my own, I couldn't do it. Because I don't know what to do. I think that we've each been there where circumstances in our life, where trials were, where circumstance, whatever it may be. Things just got so tough that we sat there, we wanted to pull out our hair. And we said: I don't know what to do anymore. We just said, I'm too worried. I'm too lost. I, I don't know how to navigate this. I don't know what to do. Even if I had the power and the control. I couldn't do anything about it. I'm powerless. And King Josephat he is in the same position right now. So as we read Second Chronicles, Chapter 20. Tonight, I want to pay attention to what they do; I want to pay attention to how God responds. By the way, we've got our official church mascot down here, sittin' at my feet. He wants every week, I don't pick him up and say hi, he will never leave me alone. So we got that out of the way. Starting in verse one of chapter 20: "It came to pass after this also, about the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there can be some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they being Hazazazontamar, which is Engedi. And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help the Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord." Okay, so we read here, that "the children of Moab, the children Ammon, and more other than the Ammonites", they're coming against Judah to battle; they're coming to wage war. And Jehoshaphat was warned, "there is a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea, on this side, Syria. So Jehoshaphat, he's going well, I can't handle this. This is out of my control. And in verse three, he responds, it says that he feared! How many times do we fear that the problem is when we fear, we overreact or we react too quickly. When Jehoshaphat feared it says he set himself to seek the Lord. What a great response to fear. When we get in a place we feel uncomfortable, where we are afraid, where we are worried or stressed. You know, what better response than to turn and say, Okay, well, this is bigger than me, I'm going to seek the Lord. "And he proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah, the entire land of Judah, the whole nation fasted. "And Judah, I gather themselves together to ask help the Lord even out of all the cities of Judah that came to seek the Lord." I can't think of a better response. I wish that I would respond this way every time my life got out of control. I wish that as Christians as a people This is how we would respond rather than fearing and acting irrationally or acting harshly or acting, to quickly set ourselves to fast and to pray and seek the Lord. We're going to see the prayer of Judah in the following verses, verses five through 13. "And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in a house of the Lord before the new court, and said, O Lord God of our fathers, are not thou God in heaven? And rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heaven, All the kingdoms of the heathen. Heathen not heaven. Thank you for correcting me, "and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heav heathen?" I try to do that again. And in thine hand, is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Are 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 forever. And they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name saying, if when evil will come up 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, and then thou wilt hear and help. And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom thou wouldst is not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turn from them and destroy them not, Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of that possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. O 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. And all Judah Stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children." What a great and awesome prayer. So in front of the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, so before the nation, King Jehoshaphat he stood and, and he prays and I just love the way that he prays. He does not pray saying, you know, God, this is what I think this is what, what should be done. This is what he says, "O, Lord of our fathers, are you not God in heaven?" King Jehoshaphat, he recognizes who he is talking to. He's like, "are you not God?" You know, he says "do you not rule over the kingdoms." There is nothing out of God's hand God rules over the kingdoms and King Jehoshaphat he, he recognized he, he came to this realization that no matter what the kings of the earth, say, God is the final authority. God has the final word. So he says, "in thine hand, is there not power, and might that no one can withstand thee." King Jehoshaphat, he starts by telling God who he is. He's like you're God, you are in heaven, you rule over the nations, you have power and might in your hand. He says you... this is who you are, he says "are not thou our God who drove, who did dri drive out the inhabitants of this land?" Now, he's reminding God, now you're the person that drove the people out of the land of Canaan, before our ancestors when they came out of Egypt, you're that God. He says, "you're the God that gave this land to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever." So King Jehoshaphat starts by proclaiming to God who he is and reminding God, what he has done. Not that God has forgotten, but King Jehoshaphat is declaring, you know, this is who I'm talking to. I'm talking to this God. And he says, "so when evil come upon us" He said, "Will you not protect us? Will you not judge the nations that we did not destroy and this is how they reward us." So after he proclaims to God, you know God, this is who you are, you are our God, you are the power and the might. And so will you protect us? Why don't we do the same? You know, when circumstance falls upon us, when trials, when we begin to tremble in fear before our fellow men before those are the earth. We must remember that our God is the God of heaven and of Earth. Our God is the ruler of the kingdoms, we must not forget that in his hand there is power and might. And we must declare that before our enemies, and ask God for help. God hears King Jehoshaphat. He answers his prayer in verse 14: "then upon Jahaziel the son of Zachariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel Jeiel, thank you, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite, of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. And he said, Harken ye, all Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid or dismayed by reason, of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's." Gonna stop right there. A specific wordcame as an answer to the prayer. Okay, now we have the word of God. And oftentimes we find the answers to our prayers in the Word of God. But often, we need more specific we need a word specific to our circumstance can we cannot go to the Bible tomorrow and get an answer as to whether we should wear red or blue. Now, I don't think that's something we should pray over anyways. But I'm giving something true. 'Kay we can't go to the Bible, and see whether we should take job a or job B. We often... and back then in King Joseph that's time of the Bible wasn't even written. So when we pray to God for deliverance, we need to listen for the word of the Lord, specific to our situation. And I love what the Lord says, he, "Thus saith the Lord unto you," he says, "Be not afraid or dismayed by reason of this great multitude." Okay, what this means, and I kind of preached on this this morning, but what this means is we do not stand on our feelings. When we stand on our feelings, we may get afraid. We may reason and justify that we should do X, Y and Z. We may stray from the truth. What we need to stand on is the word of God. So he says, "Do not fear. Do not be afraid or dismayed by reason of the great multitude. He says, "For the battle is not yours, but God's." Okay? These words have applied for all of eternity. While this is specific to Judiah, and King Jehoshaphats dilemma, being under siege and invasion, we must remember, the battle was not ours. This is not our fight. We are in God's fight. We just happened to be here. We're the bystanders. We're the, we're the ones caught in the middle of this great battle. But the battle is not ours. It is the Lord's. Wow I've got great news for you. Okay, I've read the end. The battles won! At no point in time is our enemy ever going to be declared victorious at no point will his trumpet sound and will his gospel runner go ringing and telling square that the battle has been won. Because our God has already won. The battle is not ours. It is Gods. In verse 16, The word of the Lord continues: "To morrow go you down against them: behold, they come up with a cliff of Ziz. And he shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. And ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O, Judah and Jerusalem. Fear are not nor be dismayed to morrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you." I just love this. He tells them the battle is not yours, it's God's. And then he says, I just want you to go and I want you to stand yourself. And I just want you to watch. 'Kay. You don't have to fight, I will fight the battle. God says, I will do the work. But I want you to go. I want you to stand yourself and he says, more specifically, I want you to see the salvation of the Lord with you. Remember, when we are fighting our earthly battles, the Lord has told us he will fight them for us. When we get afraid, when we start to tremble, when we start to get dismayed by reason of this earth, we must remember the Lord has said the battle is not yours, it is God's. And he says, you do not fight this battle. Just set yourselves, and standstill, and watch for the salvation of the Lord is with you. He even reminds them again he says, fear not and be not dismayed, because The Lord is with you. Here's the response of the nation, verse eighteen: "And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord." Notice this is immediately after receiving Word of the Lord. They began to worship and thank and praise Him. They didn't wait for the morrow to come and wait to see God deliver they worship and thanked him immediatly. Because when the Lord says, "I will be with you, I will fight the battle and I will win the battle", Our God is not break his promises. He is a God of his word. He is a God we can trust and stand on because he is perfect. He is all knowing. He is God Almighty. And the proper response when we receive Word of the Lord is to worship Him. Not Okay, God. Well, I'll believe it when I see it. The proper response is in faith, we thank him for what he said he will do because it's already been done. And verse 20 it says that "they rose early in the morning, and they went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, oh, Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, that they should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth forever." I just, I love the response of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat he gets afraid and it says he turns to the Lord and declares a fast. And he prays. He declares thou are God. Thou are ruler. He says, will thy not have mercy on us? Will you not punish those who see to reward us with destruction? And when they receive the word of the Lord and faith, they fall down and they worship the Lord. And he says, "Have faith and believe in you will prosper." And they appointed people to sing praise and to worship the beauty and holiness of the Lord. Because his mercy hath edureth forever. They haven't even seen the results yet. If we continue reading verse 22: "And when they began to sing into praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab and mount Seir, which will come against Judah; and they were smitten" Notice the Lord waited for them to act out in faith before He moved. When the people began to sing, when they acted out in faith and praise the Lord for He said would done... would do, it says they sent ambushments, or God set ambushments. "For the children of Ammon and Moab, stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they have made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another." Verse 23 tells us the enemy of destroyed the enemy. They ended up going to war with each other and work to destroy each other. Verse 24: "And when Judah came toward the Watchtower in the wilderness," when, when Judah finally made it there it says, "they looked into the multitude, and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth and none escaped." The Lord had finished the battle before they arrived. And they arrived and they look on the battlefield, and everybody is dead. "And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil them, they found among them an abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil was so much. And on the fourth day, they assemble themselves in the valley, of Berachah; for they blessed of the Lord: therefore, the name of the place was called the valley of Berachah unto this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem, with..." Shawnee? Psalteries. "Psalteries, and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about." In closing I just want to remind you guys, when we feel overwhelmed, when we get to that point where we say God, even if I had the power, I don't have the knowledge or the wisdom, I don't know what to do; Let us turn to prayer. Let us not act out irrationally, let us not just jump into action. Let us turn and face the Lord, seek Him. If we must fast, let us fast. If we must turn to the word, let's turn to the word. If we need to just hit our knees... if it's four hours, if it's for days, let us seek the Lord; let us pray for deliverance to our mighty God, because He is the God of our father. He rules in heaven. He ruleth over the kingdoms of the earth, and in his hand is power in might that no one can withstand him. He is our God that brought the Hebrews out of Egypt. He is the God that part of the Red Sea. He is the God that came and died on the cross and rose again. And he has told us the fight is not yours, it's God's. So let us be encouraged with the Word of the Lord. For he said, Fear not nor be dismayed for the Lord will be with you. And that us worship the Lord and praise the Lord and give thanks unto the Lord. Because from this day, until we rapture, the Lord is with us. The battle has been won and it's his. And let us not get dismayed, and troubled, over the worries of this earth, over what's going on. Let us not be worried about 2020. Let us not be worried about our finances. Let us not be worried about illness or sickness. Let us not be worried about our enemies. But let us rejoice in the Lord. And let's look fast to His coming. Let's pray. Father God, Lord Jesus, Lord, we thank you and praise you, and Lord, what a wonderful and mighty God that you are. We are so grateful that the God we serve is the God of heaven and the God of Earth. That the God that we serve as the ruler of the nations, and that the God we serve is mighty, and no one can overcome him. And so Lord, as we close this we depart. I just pray that each of us will lift up our cares to you, that we will cast them upon you, and that we will go forth singing praises and thankfulness and holiness to you because we know that you will accomplish these things for us. For we know that in you we have peace and comfort and rest. So Lord we depart today, with your word for us that we should not fear, that we should not be dismayed by reason of this earth, but we will stand firm in faith on you. We'll stand firm in our faith in your word, and your promises where they are true. Lord, I pray for Lupa and I just pray for her cancer surgery that she's going through. Lord, I pray for healing and I put her in your hands. Lord, we ask that your mighty hand move over her for thou are the healer and the miracle worker. Lord, I pray for your spirit to be upon us as we depart in Jesus blessed and beautiful name. Amen.