Wednesday Night Service 7PM -

Hello everyone. All right, let's start with a word of prayer. Dear God, thank you so much for this beautiful weather that you've blessed us with today. Thank you for the ability that we have to gather here together as followers of you and to fellowship with one another and to be refreshed by each other and by your Holy Spirit. Please be with us this evening and help us to keep our

minds and hearts focused completely on you and let go of all the distractions that we've been dealing with this week so far. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. I'm going to have you guys stand up for the first song like we're supposed to do, so if you guys will stand up with me for the last song. Where you go, where you stay, I'll stay. And place our complete trust in you and know that

wherever we need to go, wherever you send us, that you're going to be there with us and that you'll never leave us or forsake us. No matter how crazy the world gets, we can follow you and we know that it's all under control. Thank you for giving us that peace that we really don't deserve, but we appreciate and are so, so grateful for. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Baby, that is really, there it is. Okay, I was about to get real serious with that. All right, good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 19. 2 Chronicles, chapter 19. So, last week we started into the life of a guy by the name of Jehoshaphat, which, while he was a great king, also has a fantastic name. I always like to point

that out. As always, I like to say, if you've got a tiny person on the way, just don't rule that one out, okay? Just keep it top five. Jehoshaphat was a great king and really followed the Lord wholeheartedly. That really is the testimony of his life. There was one area of weakness that Jehoshaphat had in his life, and he didn't pick good friends, right? He made really bad decisions with the alliances that he

had. The first thing that he did is he aligned himself with King Ahab by his son marrying Ahab's daughter, and we will see in a couple of weeks. By the way, I got to say this real quick, otherwise I'm going to forget. It's written at the top of my notes, and I didn't do it because I jump straight into things like I always do. Next Wednesday, we will not have service as usual here. We will meet over at the Courts of Praise that we're doing

over at the college because I want all of us to be involved in that and support what's going on over there. So next Wednesday, if you show up here at the church at 7, no one's going to be here. So instead, at 6.30, you should show up over at the college, the auditorium gym, and take part in what's going on over there. I wrote it in my notes, and I just jump in. That's what I do. I

get excited about the Word. Then when the microphone did the thing, and I got confused. So all right. Meanwhile, back at the Bible study. So the problem that he has is he first of all made an alliance with Ahab by his son marrying Ahab's daughter, which in a couple of weeks, we will see the effect that that had upon his son. But then Ahab was about to go into battle, and he asked Jehoshaphat for their armies to go

along with the northern tribes. And Ahab said, well, I mean, that seems like a good idea, but perhaps we should find a way to do that. So he said, well, I'm going to go with Ahab. I'm going to find a prophet, a prophet of the Lord to give us a little bit of a word. So Ahab brings in all these prophets, and the prophets are like, oh, you should absolutely go to war. This is going to be the

greatest war you've ever fought ever, probably the greatest. And everything's going to go really great, right? And he says, well, is there a prophet of the Lord here? He says, yeah, there's this one guy. His name's Micaiah, but he always says bad things about me. I don't know why. He said, well, let's bring him in anyway. And so Micaiah, of course, prophesies exactly what's going to take

place today. Ahab is not going to survive the battle. Well, Ahab does not survive the battle. Despite his disguising himself as one of the soldiers, because he could not run from God's judgment, and because God was gracious, and because Jehoshaphat loved the Lord, God spared his life when he cried out to the Lord. Well, that brings us to chapter 19, which we read the first part,

but I want to spend a few minutes commenting on it, because we're going to look at three things tonight as we finish up Jehoshaphat's life. We're going to see his second revival. We're going to see him face an overwhelming enemy. We're going to see him face an overwhelming enemy. We're going to see him face an overwhelming enemy. And then we'll just kind of conclude this little life of

Jehoshaphat. And so again, the battle has just ended. Jehoshaphat's life has been spared, and we pick up in chapter 19, verse 1, and it says this,

So Jehoshaphat found himself in a place where he was aligning ultimately with an enemy of the Lord, because of Ahab and the things that he had done, he was really an enemy of God because of the idolatry that he had brought into the land. And so Jehu, the prophet, shows up. Interestingly enough, this exact same guy would confront Baasha, who was actually Ahab's father. So this guy would confront Baasha, who was actually Ahab's father. So this guy would confront Baasha, who was

really a strong prophet of God. And he said, what are you doing? Why would you help the enemies of the Lord? Why would you put yourself in a position to help the enemies of God? I want you to understand there's some good in you because you have done a lot to do away with idolatry, but you have a problem. And essentially, he tells him, you need to remedy this problem.

Well, this is exactly what Jehoshaphat does. His heart is sensitive to the word of the Lord, his heart is sensitive to the things of God. And so when he is confronted with this issue in his life, he begins to institute reforms within the land, and he brings about this second revival. Notice what it says. So Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem, and he went out again among the people

from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and he brought them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers. Again, if you're an underliner, that's a fantastic verse to underline, because it's a fantastic verse to underline, because it's a fantastic verse to underline, I want you to take note of what had happened in the land. Remember, when Jehoshaphat first became king, he had instituted reforms and revival within the land. Remember, he had driven out the foreign gods, he had sent out teaching parties, if you will, to teach the people about the law of God, to teach the people how they were supposed to obey God. And for a time, Judah lived in revival.

But when Jehoshaphat's heart began to wander from the Lord and make alliances he should have never made, the people were not going to obey him. And so when Jehoshaphat's heart began to wander from the Lord, the people followed suit. And we are reminded, especially us as men, and we need to pay attention to this, that when leaders of homes drift from the things of God, families tend to follow. When leaders of churches drift from the things of God, people tend to follow. When leaders

of nations drift from the things of God, the people tend to follow, because there are unintended consequences always to our sin. And we see that this was true in the land of Judah, because if they had not drifted from the things of God, they would not have been able to follow. And so, when Jehoshaphat, as a prophet and prophet said, let's make a plan, let's do what we're supposed to do, what we're supposed to do, what's best for our sin. Jehoshaphat would have let them drift from the things of God, then Jehoshaphat would have not had to bring them back to the things of God. However,

as God instituted a reform in his own life, as conviction set into his own soul, and he said, Oh my gosh, what have I been doing? This was a terrible idea. I've been drifting from the things of God. I've led the people to drift from the things of God, but now it's time to bring them back. And there's an indication here that Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem. In other words,

establishes himself in jerusalem and he went out again among the people in other words this was not just something that jehoshaphat sent other people to do he was a part of it because he wanted people to know this was my mistake this is how i'm going to remedy it and so he goes out amongst the people and he brings them back to the lord it says in verse 5 and he appointed judges in the land and in all the fortified cities of judah city by city he said to the judges consider what you are doing for you do not judge for man for when the lord who is with you when you rent the lord's with you when you render judgment now then let the fear of the lord be upon you be very careful

what you do for the lord our god will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or the taking of a bribe in jerusalem also jehoshaphat appointed some of the levites and the priests and some of the heads of the father's households of israel for the judgment of the lord and to judge disputes among the inhabitants of jerusalem and he charged them saying thus you shall do in the fear of the lord faithfully and wholeheartedly whenever any dispute comes to you from your brethren who live in their cities between blood and blood between the law and the commandment statutes and ordinances you shall warn them that they may not be guilty before the lord and the wrath may not come on you

and your brethren thus you shall do in the fear of the lord and the wrath may not come on you and you shall not be guilty behold amariah the chief priest will be over you and all that pertains to the lord and zebediah the son of ishmael the ruler of the house of judah and all that pertains to the king the levites shall be officers before you act resolutely and the lord be with the upright and so not only does he institute changes but ultimately spreads righteousness throughout the land by not only teaching them but giving righteous judges who will continue to rule over the people in a sort of way. Well, as I was thinking about this, I thought about revival, right, and what was taking

place in the land, and what revival looks like, and what it looked like there, and some principles that we could potentially apply to our own lives. So I wrote down three things that I thought were kind of interesting about this second revival that Jehoshaphat instituted within the land, and so these are kind of what God spoke to me. The first thing I took note of is that revival is not a once-done action. Revival is not a once-done action, and I think that's important for us to remember, because if it was, we would never need the continual repentance in our lives, right?

But what we find is that we, because we are human beings, and because we are flawed, and because we have weaknesses in our lives, we have a tendency to go kind of up and down in our walks. Hopefully, as we walk with the Lord, the ups and downs become a little more smooth, the downs get a little more smooth, and the ups and downs get a little more smooth. And so, as we walk with the Lord, the ups and downs become a little more smooth, the downs get a little more smooth, and the downs get a bit less deep and the the ups get a little more leveled off and and hopefully as we continue to walk with the Lord we become a little bit more more level as we walk but what we realize is is

there's a continual need for revival in our lives there's a continual need for that to take place and there's a continual need for that in our communities and in our churches because if it was a once done thing well we wouldn't have to keep having them over and over again right but because it's a necessity continually in our lives and in our culture God continues to give us that grace and so we have to understand that that that as God brings about the next revival in our lives it's just simply preparing us for God to continue that that work that takes place having grown up in the Calvary Chapel movement I knew everything about the revival that took place in the 60s and 70s and what I've realized is is that that that was not the only

time we needed that in our culture that was not the only time we needed that in our community that was not the only time we needed that in our families it's something that needs to continue to take place and we're seeing seeds of that happen in the world today but but the necessity of it to continue to happen over and over again is is always going to be there so revival is not a once done action the second thing that I took note of is that conviction is what ultimately leads to revival convicted ultimately leads to revival. It would be great if revival was just the exciting feeling that happens and everybody gets the warm fuzzy on the inside and everything is good. But that's not revival. That's good steak, right? Revival is when

conviction takes hold on the heart of people. It is when the truth of sin takes hold on the life of people and the reality of God's grace to overcome that sin takes its hold on the life of people. But it always begins with conviction. It always begins with the Holy Spirit convicting us of sin. And if I may add on to this point and say revival never starts in the

world, it always starts in the church. Revival never starts among the unsaved, it always starts among the saved. You see when God begins to convict the church and say this is the sin you've allowed to take place way too long in your church. This is the sin you've allowed to live entirely too long in your heart. This is the sin that's overcome the sin that you've

allowed to live. And when the church begins to repent of sin because of conviction, then the world begins to follow suit. Never in scripture is it the other way around. Never in history is it the other way around. Revival must begin, we're told in 1 Peter, in the house of God. And if it begins in the house of God, then it can spread everywhere else. But it always

begins with conviction. And then number three, revival always leads to righteous living. Revival always leads to righteous living. This has been my one concern with what I see going on in the culture today with everybody posting their baptisms on Instagram and social media and all these kinds of things is it's like that's great, but is it leading to a righteous life? Because revival will always lead to

righteousness. That's what it did here. It first took its hold on Jehoshaphat's heart. He went, whoa, I made an alliance I should have never made. I got to get back to Jerusalem. I got to get back to leading the people. And so he went out amongst the people and he brought them back to the Lord. And his bringing them back to the Lord led him to now send out judges to make sure

that righteousness is what was taught and instituted in the land. It's what's true in our lives. It's what's true in our church. And it's what's true in the culture. Revival always leads to righteous living. Any revival that does not lead to righteous living, listen, is a counterfeit revival. We have to know that. And so those are some notes I took on what revival looks like based on what I saw in the life of

Jehoshaphat. Well, now we come to chapter 20. Everything is going great in the land. Like revival is spreading. People are coming to know the Lord. Like Jehoshaphat's where he needs to be. He's following the Lord closely. And you would think at this point in time, he gets to ride off into the sunset. Everything is perfect. They all lived happily ever after. But we know that that's

not the case. Chapter 20, verse 1. I've entitled this chapter Facing an Overwhelming Enemy. It came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Muneites, Muneites, I don't know how you say that, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. And some came and reported to Jehoshaphat saying, a great multitude is coming against you

from beyond the sea. And they said, I don't know how you say that. I'm from the Kaaba. I'm from the Kaaba. By the way, that means the world will soon go to war. Hazzesah and Tamar, that is, in Getty. The Ammonites and the Moabites were always at war with Israel. If you remember, they had quite the beginning in their life, those two groups of people. They were actually descendants of Lot through an

incestuous relationship that he had with his daughters. And because of that, there was always this, first of all, immorality amongst them. But they were always at war with the children of Israel from the time that they came to Israel. And came across the wilderness to try to enter into the land. They were always at war with them. And sure enough, when everything was going great, when everything was going perfect,

when God was really at work in the land of Judah, an enemy arises against them. Have you ever noticed that that's kind of what happens in life sometimes? That you start overcoming some things in your life, like God starts really working. You're like, man, God is speaking to me. Like, I've never gotten this much out of God's word before. Like, healing is coming in my family.

Like, God is just bringing a revival into my life and into our church. And it's just cool to see what God's doing. And it's usually around that time that an enemy arises against us. Why, in the best of times, does an enemy arise against us? Because listen, brothers and sisters, we need to understand something. Just like the children of Israel always faced the Ammonites,

and the Moabites, who always wanted to destroy them, we face an enemy that always wants to destroy us. And when God is at work in our lives, the enemy wants to work overtime to destroy us. He will either try to destroy us through lethargy, by us drifting from the truth, by us drifting away from what God would want us to do. That's one way he seeks to destroy us.

We just don't notice it, because we're doing it to ourselves at that point in time. Or he will try to overwhelm us. He will attack us from the outside, when God is the most at work in our lives. So I just want you to know something. If you feel like there's an incredible amount of pressure in your life, if you feel like the enemy is really coming against you in your life,

I want you to know there's a really good chance you're exactly where God wants you to be. You're doing exactly what God wants you to do. And the greatest thing that the enemy wants you to do is stop what God is doing in your life, and slip back into that lethargy and back into that compromise. Instead, what you need to do, is you need to face the enemy head on.

Notice what happens. It says in verse 3, Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he turned his attention to seek the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah. So Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord. They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah in Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court.

I want you to pay attention to something. We are reported right there that Jehoshaphat was afraid. The man who had instituted the revival, the man who God had miraculously saved in battle, sees that the enemy that he faces is very real, it's a very real threat, it's a very real problem, and he's completely willing to admit, I am afraid right now of this enemy that I'm facing. And again, fear can do one of two things in your life.

Fear can either cause you to run, or fear can cause you to turn in. Fear will either cause you to run from God, or run to God. In this case, Jehoshaphat does exactly what he's supposed to do, because the fear that he had in his life caused him to run to God. Can I say, that's one of the benefits of when your life is on track with God. When your life is on track with God,

and difficulties come into your life, the fear begins to set into your life, if you have a strong walk with Jesus, the potential of you turning towards God is a whole lot greater than you turning away from God. This is exactly what he does. Notice what he does, he says he did two things. He says he turned his attention to seek the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah.

In other words, he set his heart to seek God, and he told everybody else to do the same thing. He proclaims a fast throughout Judah. And what he's going to do is, he is going to gather together with all of the nation of Judah, and he is going to offer up this beautiful prayer to the Lord. Why? Because when I am afraid, that is when I need to trust in Him. Because the only place that there is for answers,

and the greatest place of difficulty, is in the Lord. And I'm here to tell you right now, don't try to find the next self-help book, don't try to figure out what the best piece of advice that you can have is, because the only thing that I can tell you to do in the hardest times of your life, is it's time to seek the Lord. Sometimes people don't like to come to me with their problems, because I will always tell them the exact same thing. I actually had somebody tell me one time, if you're just going to tell me to read the Bible and pray, then I'm just not going to come talk to you.

And I said, then don't text me anymore, because that's what I'm going to tell you to do. Because that's the only place you're going to find an answer. Because God's the only one, who's going to be able to solve that problem. God's the only one who has an answer for that. And so this is what Jehoshaphat does. So Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah, and in Jerusalem,

in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and this is what he says,

they have lived in it, and have built you a sanctuary there for your name, saying, should evil come upon us, the sword or judgment or pestilence or famine, and we will stand before this house, and before you, for your name is in this house, and cry to you in our distress, and you will hear and deliver us. Now behold, the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you did not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, they turned aside from them and did not destroy them. See how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from your possession, which you have given us as an inheritance. O our God, will you not judge them?

For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us. Nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on you. I love the way he begins this prayer. There's a handful of things that I would like to point out to you about this prayer. The first thing I want you to take note of is that he, first of all, takes time to praise God for who he is.

That's what it says right there in verse 6. He says that he is the God of our fathers. You are the God in the heavens. You are ruler of all the kingdoms. Power and might are in your hands so that no one can stand against you. He takes time to praise God for who he is. Why? Because as we've pointed out before, praise puts everything back in perspective. Praise resets the perspective of our lives.

Because when the problem is right in front of our face, we forget to see how big God is. But as we begin to praise God, it puts everything back in perspective and we are reminded that God is bigger than what I'm facing in the moment. God is bigger than the issue that I'm facing right there. So he starts off by praising God for who he is. The second thing he does is he praises God

for what he has done. He says, Are you not the one who drove out the inhabitants of the land and gave it to your descendants? They have lived in it and have built a sanctuary to your name. And then he's going to talk about the promises in just a minute. But the next thing he does is he praises God for what he has done in the past. Why? Because as we've said before,

past faithfulness creates present confidence. As we remember what God has done for us before, it creates confidence for the moment. Can you feel the confidence welling up in Jehoshaphat right now? He was afraid when he started to pray. And so he starts off saying, Lord, I'm terrified. But you are God. You have always taken care of these things in the past. And as a matter of fact,

you have made us promises. Because that's the third thing he does, is he remembers God's promises. Verse 9. Should evil come upon us, or the sword, or pestilence, or famine, or judgment, we will stand before this house and before your name, and cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us, and you will deliver us. That's the promise that you've made.

You see, he chooses to believe the promise more than the problem. And then the last thing he does, finally he gets to making the request. He says, Now behold, verse 10, the sons of Ammon, the sons of Moab, and Mount Seir, whom you did not let us wipe out, they are rewarding us by coming out to drive us out of our possession. We are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us.

Nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on you. Again, if you're an underliner, verse 12 feels like a fantastic one to underline, and maybe an even more fantastic one to memorize. Because how many times do we find ourselves in a place in life where we find ourselves saying, I am powerless before what's in front of me right now, and I have no idea what to do. But Lord, my eyes are on you.

I probably can't count how many times that I maybe haven't used that exact prayer, but those were the words. Those were the intent behind the words that I was saying. Where I said, Lord, I literally don't know what I'm going to do next. But I'm just going to keep my eyes on you. Because one of the things I've learned in the past almost 30 years of walking with Jesus

is that I'm not going to keep my eyes on you. I'm going to keep my eyes on you. I'm going to keep my eyes on you. I'm going to keep my eyes on Jesus. As if the most important place to keep my eyes focused is on Jesus. The very first message I ever gave, I'm sure I've shared this with you before, the very first message I ever gave when I was in Bible college,

I was 20 years old and I didn't know anything about anything. But I had learned one lesson in my life. Turn your eyes on Jesus. Because that's the only place where you're going to find any help. Because if I'm focused on Jesus, I can walk on the water. But if I take my eyes on Jesus, I can walk on the water. But if I take my eyes off of Jesus, I'm absolutely going

to sink. And that's where Jehoshaphat finds himself. He says, I am completely powerless to handle what's in front of me today, but my eyes are on you. So I suppose my second question for you is this. Can you relate to Jehoshaphat here? If you found yourself in a place where you go, I don't know how to handle this one. This is bigger than me, God. This is bigger

than I can handle. But Lord, my eyes are on you. And I'm going to keep my eyes on you. I've got several situations right now that I can tell you that that's exactly how I feel right now. And it's so good to know that I'm not the only one that feels that way. So let's look and see how God responds. And all Judah was standing before the Lord with their infants

and their wives and their children. And then in the midst of the assembly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Zechariah, the son of Jehoshaphat, and Israel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph. And he said, Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and king Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord, Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's. Can we just go ahead, let's just read that again, OK?

Because I think y'all just again this underlined and start. I'm not saying I'm better than you. I'm just saying maybe you should do that too. It says, and he said, listen all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat and everybody's sitting in Calvary Chapel of Ark City right now and everybody's watching online right now because this is what the Lord says. Don't fear or be dismayed because

of the great multitude that is before you. For the battle is not yours but God's. I don't know who needs to hear that tonight, but the battle is not yours but the battle is God's. The problem is not yours but the problem is God's. It's his problem to solve. Stop trying to solve it. It's his battle to fight. Stop trying to fight it. It's his issue. Rest and let God deal with it. He goes on from here

to say this, tomorrow go down against them. Behold they will come up by the ascent of Zs and you will find them. them at the end of the valley in front of the wilderness of jer uh jeruel you need not fight in this battle station yourselves and stand and see the salvation of the lord on your behalf oh judah and jerusalem do not fear or be dismayed tomorrow go out to face them for the lord is with you jehoshaphat bowed down his head with his face to the ground and all judah and the inhabitants of jerusalem fell down before the lord worshiping the lord the levites the sons of the koathites the sons of the korahites stood up to praise the lord god of israel with a very loud voice

i love this he goes here's what i want you to do you're going to head into battle but i want you to know something you're not actually going to fight matter of fact you're going to station yourselves but you are going to stand still and you are going to see the salvation of the lord does that verbiage sound familiar to you you i hope it took you all the way back to the children of israel standing at the edge of the red sea with the entire egyptian army pursuing them a body of water that they can't cross standing in front of them and them absolutely terrified going moses why did you bring us out here to kill us and god speaks to moses and he says tell the people to stand still and see the

salvation of the lord for the egyptians that you see before you today you will see again no more forever this you need to know something when god says stand still and see the salvation of the lord it's time to rest and know that the battle belongs to him and again i don't know who needs to hear that tonight maybe it's just me maybe i preached this entire message for me but maybe it's for you too that you need to stand still and see the salvation of the lord and i love the way that jehoshaphat and everybody else responds this is the most faithful response you can have. The battle has not been fought yet. The battle has not been won yet. And yet Jehoshaphat's faith is so strong that he just simply begins to worship the Lord. Because he

praises God for what he knows he's going to do, even though he hasn't seen it in front of him yet. Can we just say that worship is always intended to be worshiped through faith, not always by sight? That sometimes we praise God for what we know he's going to do, not for what we've already seen him do. And so he takes time to worship the Lord. The Levites do the exact same thing.

And now it's time for the battle. So they rose early in the morning, and they went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, listen to me, O Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in his prophets and succeed. When he had consulted with the people of Judah, he said, listen to me, O Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised him in holy attire as they went out before the army and said, give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness is everlasting.

So they get ready to go to battle, and they're heading out. And on their way, he's like, listen, I've kind of got a crazy idea, okay? Follow me on this. What if, and again, what if, what if we put the worship leaders in front of the army, right? You can imagine every gentleman at that point in time going, that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard in my life. Why, what, those guys are great with the trumpet. Like, that dude kills it, right? Like, every,

every time we get together, like, I am just hands up. I love it. I don't think he's going to win the battle for me. And you can imagine the musicians going, I'm with him, right? That doesn't seem like a good idea. This guitar is only going to do so much. He goes, no, no, no. All right. What did God say? Did you notice what he told him to do? Put your trust in God and in his

prophets. Can I put that to you in our language today? Put your trust in God and the promise of his word. And if you're going to put your trust in God and the promise of his word, then let's put the worship leaders first. Because if God's already won the battle, if the battle is the Lord's and not ours, well, then let's start praising him for what he's going to do. And everybody goes,

okay, all right. Feels like a bad idea, but let's do it. Let's, let's do this thing. So they put the worship leaders first. You know why? Because worship is warfare. Worship is warfare. Do you know that? When you, when you show up here on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night, listen, I watch it happen, okay? I'm not going to get too critical, but I'm just going to say what I see.

What I see is the first three and a half songs, everybody's just kind of like, you know why? Because you don't feel like worshiping. Why? Well, you yelled at the kids on the way to church, and the coffee maker didn't work, and, you don't even know if you wanted to show up, because quite frankly, you're tired of listening to that guy anyway, and, and you don't even know if you want to be here. Honestly, sleeping in

sounded a whole lot better that day, and I don't even like the songs that they chose. I don't even know the songs that they chose, and, and I don't even think they cared that I know the songs that they chose, and so I mean, this is you, the first three songs of worship. And I, and I, I can hear it. Like first service, I sit back there. Second service, I sit up here, but first service, I sit

back there, and I kind of watch as the service goes on that pretty soon some people start letting some guard down, and, and by the last song, everybody's singing, and it's great. What if we started off that way? What if you just started off, you showed up Sunday morning, or God forbid, on a Wednesday night, and, and you just sang out with all of your heart, because you realized that when you showed up, it wasn't about you. It was about warfare, and what you were doing is proclaiming who God is until you believe it. What if it's because you're proclaiming who God is

until you begin to rest in it? That might change the way we worship. I'm not saying you need to bring a flag. I might ask you to put the flag away if you bring a flag. I'm not asking you to run around the sanctuary. I'm asking you to find a seat if you run around the sanctuary. I am saying, sing out with all your heart, because that's what God really wants. He wants your heart, and what if we turn worship into warfare? What if you got,

listen, I know this is, don't, just go with me here, okay? It's a wild idea, but I think you can do it. What if, what if on your way to church, instead of yelling at your kids, you turn some worship music on, and you all sang on the way to church? My kids will not sing. You don't need them to. You just sing. My kids hate when I sing. Mine too. It doesn't stop anything,

right? They're like, Daddy, shh. I'm like, nope. Belting it out, right? Worship is warfare. What if, again, you do you. What if every day you set aside a time, in your day, where you worship the Lord, where, where you just sang out to the Lord, where no one can hear, right? Like, I kind of remember when I first, when I first started following Jesus, I was working at a Prairie View Christian camp, and, and I just drive a tractor all day, mowing and stuff

like that, and, and I just turned those into praise sessions. Like, I was very new in my faith at that point, really new in really having a heart devoted to the Lord, and man, I just belted out, just me and the dog, right? And the Kubota tractor I was riding on, not a soul in the world could hear, and so I started singing out to the Lord, and it changed my perspective. What, what if you lived a lifestyle of worship? This would indicate that maybe that might change

the overwhelming circumstances that you face on a consistent basis, because I want you to know what happens. When they began singing and praying, praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Moab and Mount Seir, or of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah so that they were routed. Notice, for the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, destroying them completely, and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Mount Seir, they, they helped to destroy one another. Do you understand what that's saying here? They all killed each other,

in the battle, like they're singing, they're confused. They're like, why they got the guitar out front? That feels weird. What's going, what are you doing, right? And they just start attacking each other, and they kill each other, and pretty soon they don't have to do anything in the battle because they took care of it for themselves. They all destroyed each other's army. Why? Because they

started with worship, and God set an ambush, and God won the battle. Why? Because the battle was not theirs, it belonged to God, and so they worshiped God for what he was going to do, not what they'd already seen happen. turned into warfare that ultimately won the battle I would say that if you lived a lifestyle of worship it just might deal with some of those overwhelming circumstances you deal with so it says when Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness verse 24 they looked towards a multitude and behold they were corpses lying on the ground and no one had escaped when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil they found much among them including goods and garments and valuable things they took them for themselves more than they

could carry and they were three days taking the spoils because there was so much and on the fourth day they assembled in the valley of Baraka for they blessed the Lord and therefore they have named that place the valley of Baraka until today and every man of Judah in Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat at their head returning to Jerusalem with joy for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies and they came to Jerusalem with harps and lyres and trumpets to the house of the Lord and the dread of God was on all the kingdoms of the land when they heard that the Lord had fought against their enemies so the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace for God gave him rest on all sides you notice how they ended the battle they they went and

took all of the spoils and they came back to Jerusalem you know what they did notice what they did first 28 let me read it again they came to Jerusalem with harps and lyres and trumpets to the house of the Lord and In other words, not only did they begin the battle with praise, they ended the battle with praise. I got to thinking about this. Again, asking myself a question. So if we all face overwhelming enemies sometimes, I do think we all face overwhelming enemies sometimes.

How do we win the battle against overwhelming enemies in our lives? I wrote down five things. I think I had to put these up here. Number one, you got to be honest. You got to be honest. You got to be honest about the enemy that you're facing. And when I say be honest, you got to be honest with yourself. You got to be honest with yourself about the enemy that

you're facing. And you have to be honest about the fact that you're scared of the enemy that you're facing. I think one of the great disservices we do in our walk with the Lord is when we say the fake, oh, God's got this, right? When on the inside we're like, I don't think God's got this, right? I think the best thing we can do is go, I hope God's got this because you know what?

I'm pretty terrified by what's going on right now. I have had to learn in my life. I have to be incredibly transparent with the Lord and transparent with people because if I'm overwhelmed, I need to say, I am overwhelmed. If I'm terrified, I need to say, I am terrified. If I'm afraid, I need to say, I'm afraid. Because I got to be honest. Because if I'm not honest with myself and I'm not honest with

you, then I'm not really going to face the battle that's in front of me. And sometimes we have to stop saying the right thing and start saying the real thing. Because as the body of Christ, there are too many people that walk around and put on the mask of, I'm completely okay. Everything's great. Everything's great. I've got this. When on the inside, the exact opposite is true.

And nobody can help you and nobody can pray for you and nobody can be there with you because you've never been honest with yourself and you can't be honest with people. We have to be honest about the stuff that we face and the things that we deal with. Because if we can't be honest about our fear, then we will never take step two and seek the Lord. Right? So number one, you have to be honest.

Number two, you got to seek the Lord. You got to seek the Lord. In that moment, when you face that honesty, you have to take all of those burdens and lay them on the Lord. You got to take all of those things and roll them over to Jesus. You got to seek the Lord. And if that means proclaiming a fast in your household, if that means proclaiming a fast for yourself, if that means reaching

out to some friends and saying, hey, I got this situation going on and I don't know how to handle it, would you guys be willing to commit for the next week with me to just fast and pray? Listen, that's what the body of Christ is for. That's what he did with the whole land. He called all of them to fast. And if you need to gather some people around yourself and say,

hey, commit to do this with me, commit to pray with me about these things, then that's what you need to do. Because that's seeking the Lord. But it's all about your heart being turned toward God and saying, Lord, I'm completely overwhelmed, but my eyes are on you. I'm completely overwhelmed, but I'm seeking you with this. Don't hold on to yourself. Give it to the Lord and let him handle it.

So number one, you got to be honest. Number two, you got to seek the Lord. Number three, you have to trust God. Do you remember what he told him? He said, believe God and believe his word. Believe God and believe his word. I don't know why this keeps coming up, this aspect of the fact that what we ultimately have to do is choose to believe what God says and not what my fear says.

Choose to believe what God says and not what my emotions say. But this must be really important. It's really important to keep coming up because this is exactly what he tells them that they need to do. Believe God and trust his prophets. Believe God and his word. Trust God with the overwhelming battle. Number four, worship first. Put worship at the front of every battle that you have.

Put worship at the front of every circumstance that you deal with and watch what God is able to do. The pastor that I served under in Johnson County was one of the least musical human beings I've ever met. He was one of the most musical human beings I've ever met. He was one of the most musical human beings I've ever met. He was one of the most musical human beings I've ever met.

He was one of the most musical human beings I've ever been around in my entire life. That's why we got along so well. But he challenged us all all the time to do something. He challenged us all to write our own worship songs. He goes, nobody else ever has to hear it. But you write a worship song that is you worshiping God for who he is in your life. I came to find out later that we sang a couple of his songs in

church. And I always thought that that was kind of fascinating. But what if you were a worship singer? You did that. Right? I'm not musical. Me neither. And yet I come up with little things all the time. Short little choruses that I just sing to the Lord that nobody else is ever going to hear in my entire life. Because I don't need anybody else to hear them.

That's between me and Jesus. What if you worship God first? Then number five, worship God last. Don't allow God to do an amazing thing in your life that you don't praise him for. Don't allow God to do an amazing thing in your life that you don't follow up with great praise. I love that on Sundays we start with praise and end with praise. We sing some music before we begin.

And again I'm going to challenge you to do something here. I watched this happen, okay. Not picking on anybody. I do it sometimes too. The message is preached and you are just ready to go to lunch. And the last song is sang. And you are like, meanwhile you could be worshiping last. You could be finishing off what God just did. And you are like, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. That's amazing. You'll find it changes everything of who you are. That's how you win the overwhelming battles. Well now we come to the conclusion. It says. Now Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah.

And he was 35 years old when he became king. And he reigned in Jerusalem 25 years. His mother's name was Azuba, the daughter of Shelhi. He walked in the way of his father Asa and did not depart. apart from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord. The high places, however, were not removed. The people had not yet directed their hearts to the God of their fathers.

And the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first to last, behold, they are written in the annals of Jehu, the son of Hanani, which is recorded in the book of the kings of Israel. And after this, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, allied himself with Ahaziah, king of Israel. He acted wickedly in doing so. So he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish.

They made ships at Ezeon, Geber. And then Eliezer, the son of that guy, of Meresheth, prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the Lord has destroyed your works. So the ships were broken and could not go to Tarshish. Poor guy just really struggled with making the wrong friends. We're reminded, at the end of the day, we're all just people.

Revival is not a once-done action. Amen. Father, we come before you, and I thank you for the time that we have in your word. And Lord, I thank you that you are gracious with all of us, that you are slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and mercy. And so, Father, may we rest in who you are today. May we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the battle is yours, not our own.

And Father, may we continue to trust in you. Amen. And so, Father, we thank you for the time that we have in your word. And we thank you and we praise you for who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.