Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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The Wheel: Worship Part IV

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Jehoshaphat’s Crisis

Open your Bibles to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles chapter 20. 2 Chronicles is after 1 Chronicles. Did that help? No? Yeah. We’ve been talking about prayer and praise, prayer and worship. And before we move on to the next spoke in the wheel, I wanted to talk about the power of praise and prayer. 2 Chronicles 20, verse 1, it says:

It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said: “O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’ And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the Lord. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.” And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with voices loud and high. So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.” Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped. When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies, and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the Lord; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah until this day. Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies.

(2 Chronicles 20:1–27)

The people of Israel, Jehoshaphat, was confronted with a problem. And it was a real problem. Moab, Ammon, and others, a great multitude had come against him. And the thing we need to understand about the problem here that they were facing was that it was a big problem. It wasn’t a little problem, it was a big problem. A great multitude that came up against them. But the problem was compounded by the fact that not only were they faced by a big problem, they didn’t have a solution. As he prays, he says to God, we have no power. We do not know what to do. So the problem is, they’re confronted by an enemy. They have a lack of resources. They have no power, he says. They don’t have a plan. They don’t know what to do. So really, they have two problems. Problem one is the external threat. Problem two is the internal threat. So these two problems make one insuperable huge problem. You ever had a big problem? Big, big problem. What do you do? Well, what we often do is we worry, don’t we? We fret. What did Jehoshaphat do? Jehoshaphat, in the midst of this huge problem, he goes to God.

Realism and Faith

He goes to God. And I want you to see how he deals with his problem. And it was a real problem. First of all, realism. Realism. Jehoshaphat acknowledges the problem. In other words, he’s a realist. No self-denial, no doubting the gravity of the situation, no false optimism. He says our enemies are large, our resources are nil. That was a true assessment of the situation from a human perspective. Realism, sober realism. And that’s what I love about Jehoshaphat. He wasn’t putting on a facade. Wasn’t acting like, oh well, you know, it’ll work itself out. He admitted that there was a serious situation that had to be dealt with. So his response is realism, but it’s not pessimism. And a lot of times people who are pessimists claim that they’re realists, “just being realistic, you know.” Ever heard that one? Indeed you are, but you’re leaving something out of the picture. Because in addition to his realism, Jehoshaphat was a man of faith. A man of faith. You see, his realism was not pessimism. Why? Because of where he placed his eyes. And he says in verse 12, and I want you to see it. “O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power”—there’s the realism—“against this great multitude”—there’s the realism. It’s a real serious threat. “Nor do we know what to do”—there’s the realism. But what does he say? “But our eyes are upon You.” So what Jehoshaphat was saying is, God, we see the problem but we’re looking to You. He saw the problem but he was looking at God. He saw his enemies but he was looking at God. He saw his weakness but he was looking at God. He saw their lack of plans but he was looking at God. Our eyes are on You. The word “You,” which means God, the Lord God, Jehovah God, the only God, occurs 18 times in seven verses. His focus was on God, not on the enemy, not on the problem, his focus was on God, the solution. You see, the only way to biblically evaluate a situation or to biblically evaluate a problem is to look at it through the lens of God. You may know every detail about the situation and you may have completely and accurately, prospectively assessed the situation and the problem, but if you leave out God you’ve left out the most important factor. You see, from a human point of view, Jehoshaphat was going to be defeated. There is no question about it. They were outnumbered. They were outgunned. They had no plan. They were going to lose this battle. But there was one factor that was left out and that was God. There’s a huge difference, and I want you to hear me. There’s a huge difference between seeing a problem and dwelling on a problem. I’m going to say it again because some of you are bottom feeders and you dwell on the problem. There’s a difference between seeing the problem and dwelling on the problem. You can see a problem and you can realistically assess that problem and you can admit, it’s a huge problem, but if you look at the problem and leave God out of it then you’re dwelling on the problem.

I love Jehoshaphat’s prayer here. Let’s look at it a little more closely. Because it shows his focus. He acknowledges God’s sovereignty in the situation. In verse 6, he says, [audio unclear] Read through this text sometimes and notice how often he uses the word “our,” or when speaking to God he says “You,” and he talks about Your people Israel, Your sanctuary, Your name. In other words, the destiny of God’s people and the name of God are wrapped up together because God owns His people, they’re in a covenant relationship. He also mentions God’s promise here in verse 9. This is quoting earlier when the temple was established and Solomon prayed, if disaster comes upon us, sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this temple and in Your presence, for Your name is in this temple, and cry out to You in our affliction and You will hear and save. So he’s claiming something that God had said earlier. He’s claiming God’s promise. In other words, our eyes are on You, God. Not on the situation, not on our enemies, our eyes are on You. Our eyes are on Your sovereignty. Our eyes are on Your power. Our eyes are on Your ownership. Our eyes are on Your promise, God. Our eyes are on You. Because You, God, You are the solution to this situation. You, God, are the solution. It is all based upon faith. As it says in Colossians, as you have received the Lord Jesus—how did you receive Him? By faith. His prayer is an evidence of faith. I mean, it’s an amazing prayer. [audio unclear]

The Singers in Front

God is going to say, put the singers in the front. No swords, no bows and arrows, no clubs, no slings, drums, maybe. A couple string instruments, maybe a couple reed things. You talk about leading the lambs to the slaughter, right? Put the worship team in the front. They’re going to be destroyed based upon sheer numbers. It was that simple. They’re going to lose. Then God, God, because everything’s in His hand. You listening? Say yes. Everything’s in His hand. So God compounds the problem! Because He puts those in front who are least able to solve the problem. You get the picture? So from a human point of view this makes no sense. Because that’s faith. You know, we Christians are so used to the cross and the blood that to us it seems to make sense. But you put yourself in their shoes. That’s cool. So worship then becomes an act of faith, an evidence of faith. We are called to worship God, amen? Not only for what He has done, not only for who He is. That’s why we praise Him. That’s why we worship Him. But the amazing thing about this passage to me is that they were praising Him for what He was going to do. Not just for who He was, or what He had already done. They were praising Him for what He will do. And it says in verse 22, now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir who had come against Judah, and they were defeated. When were they defeated? When they began to sing and to praise. That’s when their enemies were defeated. When they began to sing and to praise. I like what one author said, he said, basically, there are two kinds who come to church to worship. Some come and worship because they have joy and some come to get joy. And those who have joy, he said, have a clean heart. Those who don’t, don’t. Some of us are waiting for God to do something before we’re going to give Him the glory and the praise He deserves. Some of us have our eyes on our problems and not on our God. There are so many lessons here, but time doesn’t permit it. I want to mention a couple. One is this. If you are a child of God, no matter what problem or situation you are facing, you must turn your eyes on God. Your problem might be big. Your situation may be grave. But our God is bigger and greater than anything that is confronting you. Anything. If you are a child of God, you need to learn to worship God for three reasons.

Worship Him for Who He Is

One, simply for who He is. God is sovereign, and His sovereignty governs your situation. You are not in your situation by happenstance. He is overseeing the details of your life, and you might not like it, and you might not understand it, and that’s okay, because this should be driving you to the throne of grace to get help in time of need, and you should be asking God for wisdom, as it says in James 1, but asking in faith, and God designs these difficulties and trials to drive us to Him so that we might be sanctified. You hear me? And He’s governing your life. And you need to praise God that He is not only sovereign, you need to praise God that He is powerful. And His power is stronger than all of your troubles. And whatever trouble you’re in, if God wanted to deliver you, He could do it now. Now! If He chose to do it. I know what you’re thinking, why didn’t He do it then? Well, maybe He’s waiting. He’s waiting for you to begin to thank Him. Because you see here, it’s when they began to sing and praise that their enemies were destroyed. You see, I believe that just like in the book of Job, I think the whole point of the book of Job, I think Satan asked the right question. And the question is, do we serve God for mercenary motives or not? Do we serve God because He gives us good things? What if God takes the good things away? Do we still serve Him? Do we still bless Him? Do we still thank Him? Or do we curse Him? Job’s wife said, curse God and die. Now, there’s a real realist. That’s, this is something that we will all face in our Christian life. We will all be brought to the point where we have to answer that question. Trust me, you will be brought to that point. And the reason God is intervening in your situation is something that He knows, I don’t, and something He may share with you in due time, but you won’t know if you don’t seek Him. And I can guarantee you this, you will never see deliverance if you don’t begin to praise Him. You won’t, it will not happen. God is powerful and sovereign over your situation. And let me assure you of this, my friend, God is faithful. He is faithful to His Word. Our God cannot lie. He is the God of truth. And if He has spoken something in His Word, He cannot break His Word. And you have every right to take your Bible and to go into God’s presence and point to the verse and say, God, You said, God, You said, you have every right to do that. And you stand on His Word, and you believe in His Word, and He will fulfill His Word because God responds to faith. Worship Him in faith. Do not fear nor be dismayed. Worship Him, and He will in due time.

And secondly, not only do you need to worship Him for who He is, you need to worship Him for what He’s done. Friends, I don’t want to sound unsympathetic to any trials that any of you are in, because when I’m bummed out, I’m bummed out. And I don’t like it. It’s bad. But let me tell you something. The trials of this life, compared to the glory to be revealed, are nothing. And I know that when you’re in them, that might not comfort you. That’s something the Holy Spirit has got to show you. But let me tell you, the Word of God says this life is a vapor. This life is just, it’s all it is. I wish I had a match up. That’s what it is. And I know it can be hard, and I’m sympathetic for your trial, but let me tell you something, it’s going to be over soon. And you’re going to have an eternity of bliss. And the Word of God says that every one of your tears will be wiped away by God Himself. Every one of them wiped away by God Himself. And I read it the other day and I just started weeping. What a tender, loving God. What God has done for the believer in delivering the believer from hell and by granting the believer heaven is so incomparable that if we would set our eyes on Him, if we would set our affection on things above, how we would be praising Him in spite of our situation. And we’re destined for glory, my friend. We are destined for glory. Open your eyes. And then we need to thank God for what He will do. And that’s the hardest, because that takes faith. It’s one thing to thank God for what He’s done. That’s palpable. You have evidence. It’s one thing to thank God for what He’s already done in terms of your salvation, but to thank Him for what He will do, well that takes faith. But you have promises, and in Philippians 1 it says God will perfect that which concerns you. In Romans 8 it says that He will work all things for good to those who love Him. Now that is a Scripture that you can stand on by faith. You can take hold of that by faith, and you can thank God for those promises. [audio unclear] This is what we do, amen. We are to be a people, a people of worship, in our Christian lives. Paul says the Christian life, there’s a war and it’s real.

Stand and Praise

Ephesians 6:10 says:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

(Ephesians 6:10–12)

What Paul is saying is the real battle isn’t human. It’s not human circumstances. It’s not people. That’s what’s going on in the spiritual realm. “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth”—truth. Listen, truth means seeing things as they are. Jehoshaphat saw truth because he didn’t just look at the problem. He looked at God. “Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit”—all prayer and supplication, all kinds of prayer, that includes worship, that includes praise, that includes intercession, all kinds of prayer—“being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” The battle is real, but we are promised victory if we stand. You just have to stand. It doesn’t even say march, it just says stand. We stand in truth, we stand by faith, we stand in the Word of God, and we stand by prayer, and we stand by worship. The conflict is real, the wrestling is real, but here’s the way I like to talk about the Christian life. There’s two kinds of Christians. Well, let me put it this way. All Christians are in a battle. We’re all battling. Paul uses the analogy of wrestling because that was the common Greek, that was a big Greek game, right? So we’re wrestling. So you never get to the place in the Christian life where you’re done. But you do get to the place where you’re on top. And so there are Christians who are wrestling on top, and then there are Christians who are wrestling on the bottom. And God wants you on top. And the way you get on top is you learn to praise the Lord and thank the Lord by faith, by faith. Believe the Lord and you will see His salvation. Promise from God, amen?

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and praise the Lord. Lord, You are so worthy of our praise for what You have done for us in saving us. God, we can’t—words are just really not sufficient, Lord. But, Lord, You are worthy of our praise for who You are. You’re sovereign, You’re powerful. Lord, You are faithful to Your promises to Your people. Lord, You are good. Lord, You are holy. And we thank You and praise You for who You are. And I thank You, Lord, that You never change. You never change. Our situation might change, and things might be at different times in our life in turmoil. But God, You never change. You are a rock. And Lord, we thank You for what You’re going to do. We thank You for what You’re going to do in our individual lives and our families. We thank You for what You’re going to do in our church. We thank You, Lord, that You have good things in store for us because Your heart is toward us and You desire to bless Your people. So we worship You, we praise You, we exalt You, and we honor You this morning. Amen.