Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Please be seated. Well, let's
turn to Second Chronicles Chapter Twenty, continuing
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to read through this book and preach
through it, the chronicler is giving us
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history of God's people, but through
it not just communicating to us bare facts,
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a mere timeline, nor is he
simply trying to entertain us or amuse
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us, though we certainly have those
things as well, but he is trying,
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as God's mouth peace, and succeeding, I might add, to teach
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us about the Lord, to teach
us who our king is and the kind
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of salvation that we have in him. So let's give our attention to the
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king's words, the Great King,
the king of kings. In Second Chronicles
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Chapter Twenty, I'm going to read
through Verse Twenty Three. After this,
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the MOABITES and the AMMONITES, and
with them some of the men unites,
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came against Jehosha fat for battle.
Some men came and told Jehosha Fat,
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a great multitude is coming against you
from Edom, from beyond the sea,
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and behold they are in has as
on Tamar, that is, in getty.
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Then Jehoshah fat was afraid and set
his face to seek the lord and
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proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah and
Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord.
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From all the cities of Judah,
they came to seek the Lord.
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And Jehoseph, Jehoshah Fat, stood
in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem,
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in the House of the Lord,
before the new court, and said,
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O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in Heaven?
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You rule over all the kingdoms of
the nations in your hand, our power
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and might, so that none is
able to withstand you? Did you not,
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our God, drive out the inhabitants
of this land before your people,
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Israel, and give it forever to
the descendants of Abraham, your friend?
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And they have lived in it and
built for you, in it a sanctuary
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for your name, saying if disaster
comes upon us, the sword judgment or
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pestilence or famine, we will stand
before this house and before you, for
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your name is in this house,
and cry out to you in our affliction
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and you will hear and save.
And now behold the men of ammon and
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Moab and Mountser, whom you would
not let Israel invade when they came from
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the land of Egypt, and whom
they avoided and did not destroy. Behold
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they reward us by coming to drive
out your possession which you have given us
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to inherit. Oh our God,
will you not execute judgment on them,
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for we are powerless against this great
horde that is coming against us. We
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do not know what to do,
but our eyes are on you. Meanwhile,
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all Judah stood before the Lord with
their little ones, their wives and
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their children, and the spirit of
the Lord came upon Jehaziel, the son
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of Zechariah, son of Benoniah,
son of Jeiel, son of Mattanyah,
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a Levite of the sons of Asaf, in the midst of the assembly,
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and he said, listen, all
Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat.
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Thus says the Lord to you,
do not be afraid and do not
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be dismayed at this great horde,
for the battle is not yours, but
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God's. Tomorrow, go down against
them. Behold, they will come up
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by the ascent of Ziz. You
will find them at the end of the
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Valley East of the Wilderness of Jeruel, and you will not need to fight
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in this battle. Stand firm,
hold your position and see the salvation of
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the Lord on your behalf, Oh
Judah, and Jerusalem. Do not be
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afraid and do not be dismayed.
Tomorrow, go out against them and the
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Lord will be with you. Then
Jehoshah fat bowed his head with his face
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to the ground, and all Judah
and the hat inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down
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before the Lord, worshiping the Lord, and the Levites of the Koothites and
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the Kora Heights who stood stood up
to praise the Lord, the God of
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Israel, with a very loud voice, and they rose up early in the
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morning and went out into the wilderness
of Takulla. And when they went out,
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Jehoshah fat stood and said, hear
me, the Judah inhabitants of it
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Jerusalem, believe in the Lord,
your God, and you will be established.
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Believe his prophets and you will succeed. And when he had taken counsel
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with the people, he appointed those
who were to sing to the Lord and
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praise him in wholly attire as they
went before the army and say give thanks
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to the Lord for his steadfast love
endures forever. And when they began to
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sing and praise, the Lord set
an ambush against the men of Ammon,
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Moab and Mount Seer, who had
come against Judah so that they were routed.
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For the men of Ammon and Moab
rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seer,
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devoting them to destruction. And when
they had made an end too,
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the inhabitants of seer, they all
helped to destroy one another. Sends the
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Reading of God's word, may bless
it to us. I wanted to title
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this sermon at the God who saves, but that would be the title of
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all my sermons, so I had
to try again and I decided to title
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it the courage of faith. It's
a phrase that describes, in a way,
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this story from our perspective, of
what we might hope to get out
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of this, the thing that we
might hope to be like. At least
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that's how I felt when I read
of Jehosha Fat, this amazing leader,
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calling on his people, I'm to
trust in the Lord, and I thought
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of myself. You know, in
my roles, in my particular callings,
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when we face difficulties as a church, when we face difficulties, is the
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Chelpka family. It is this my
response. Is this how I respond to
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say we do not know what to
do, but our eyes on on you
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to call, to call my children, my wife, my congregation, my
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friends and family, to wait on
the Lord and to trust him, not
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always. That's why I appreciate this
example and I'm thankful for Jehoshah Fat's faithfulness
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here. It's such a great example
and so much courage. They go into
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battle not knowing what will happen.
There is a great courage that is demonstrated
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here of faith, but at the
same time we have to remember that the
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courage of his faith is really secondary
to the main point, that God saves.
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That is really the point of this
chapter, the thing that God wants
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to communicate to us. You may
have heard of this super bloom happening in
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various parts of the country, these
flowers that have been dormant for who knows
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how long, hundreds of years,
maybe, just laying in the ground,
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these seeds everywhere, not doing anything. But then the right conditions come in,
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the right amount of rain in the
right ways, the right temperatures at
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the right time, and now you
have flowers everywhere. In some ways that
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courage of faith is like those flowers. We look at and we say wow,
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that's amazing, but we have to
remember that they're there because of a
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certain set of conditions, an environment
in which they are growing, and that's
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true of Jehosha fat's courage. It's
and the environment is not the strength of
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his will. The environment is the
salvation of the Lord, God's promise to
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David and to Solemnon to preserve his
people. Jehoshah fat is flourishing an environment
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in which God is is rescuing them, speaking to them. As we continued
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on reading, read of a sad
ending to Jehoshah fat's life as king,
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when he creates alliances with the King
of Israel, who is not doing these
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kinds of things, who is not
living in an environment that is trusting in
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the Lord or in which the Lord
is working? Deities very absent from it.
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All that to say that we have
this amazing example of a courageous faith,
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but you must remember that it's secondary
to the secondary to the work that
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God is doing. Courageous faith is
only known by knowing and believing in the
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God who saves, and I think
this. We consider this story, you'll
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see that in some pretty remarkable ways. So what I'd like to do is
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sort of walk through the story with
you. We'll look at it setting in
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conflict and then we'll sort of jump
back and forth between Judah and her things
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she's saying and then God's responses.
So back and forth, back and forth,
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is how this chapter moves. So
first the setting in the conflict on,
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just in case you missed it at
the beginning. They are facing this
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problem, these foreigners that the Momot
Moabites, the ammonites with them, so
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this other tribe than Moonites. They
come against Jehosha Fat, these people,
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people that Jehosha fat later says that
when they came into Israel, they didn't
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destroy them, but they specifically avoided
them. This is sort of his plea
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to God. Later he says,
we didn't destroy them earlier because we were
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depending on you, so please continue
protecting us against them. Nevertheless, he
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is facing what's described as a great
multitude, a great horde. Imagine being
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in a situation like that. Imagine
being here, being in a country and
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knowing that there are thousands and thousands
of people advancing on your country or your
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city. I've talked to people that
have been in this situation and it's very
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scary. You don't know what's hot
going to happen, you don't know where
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to go, you don't know what
to do, and this was their land.
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They didn't know if they were going
to be able to win this battle.
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Indeed, we know how they were
feeling. It says that they were
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afraid. That's what verse three says. Jehosha fat was afraid, and Jehoshah
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fat had had success before he had
seen the Lord's work. He had had
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success, but he was still legitimately
worried. So how does Jehosapha respond to
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this? We read that he was
afraid and he set his face to seek
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the Lord. He proclaims a fast
throughout all Judah. He calls all Judah
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together, and when it says all
Judah, they mean everyone, as we
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read in verse thirteen, their little
ones, their wives, their children,
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everyone's there in the fast. They're
humbling themselves before the Lord. They're expressing
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to him their great weakness and their
need for him. And then he prays.
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His prayer is admirable and worthy of
emulation. He first addresses the Lord
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according to who the Lord is.
In his truthfulness, he says, in
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Verse Six, Oh Lord, God
of our fathers, are you not God
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in Heaven? This is, of
course, how Jesus tells us to pray
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our father who art in heaven.
It's a way of establishing God's authority and
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his supremacy of all things. And
jehosaphat doesn't stop there. You rule,
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he says, over all the kingdoms
of the nations, in your hand,
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our power and might, and no
one is able to withstand you. JEHOSHAPHAT
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is establishing him his his strengthening his
faith by reminding himself and his people who
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the Lord is. And he does
so even more because, you notice,
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this isn't a serve and this is
a prayer. As he confesses these things
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and as a representative of people,
they are together putting themselves before the Lord
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in prayer, humbling themselves. They
add to these great expressions of his rule
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and his authority, proof of these
things. For seven and following, did
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you not our God dive out the
inhabitants of this land? From this and
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the verses following, he establishes and
speaks to God in a very personal way
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about their relationship. He talks to
God about the Covenant that God himself has
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made. He goes to God and
he appeals to the Lord, as the
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Lord in who he is as ruler, as sovereign God, as supreme in
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all things, but also as covenant
maker, Covenant Keeper, as Friend of
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Abraham, an amazing word. You
see, when he goes to God,
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he's not just appealing to some kind
of divine, the cosmic power that he
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hopes he'll somehow be able to channel
into this military victory. He's going to
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the one whom he has a relationship
with, not just him personally, but
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his people. Over and over we
read these phrases our God, your people,
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we are descendants of Abraham, your
friend. You've given us this land.
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Will you not defend it? So
this is what Jehoshah hat a praise
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to the Lord, and then he
speaks of his his great need. He
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says, disaster or you've caught called
us to pray to you. He says
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that in the following verses. And
then he calls him and says, listen,
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this is what is happening. These
people are coming against us. Now
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behold the men of ammon and Moab
and Mount Seer. And then he appeals
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to me, says, Lord,
do something. Will you not do something?
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Execute judge, judgment on them?
And then one of the most important
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lines in this chapter. He says
we are powerless a great this against this
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great horde. Joshaphat is talking to
the Lord. He's not just saying things,
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he's not just abstractly repeating religious things, he is appealing to him in
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the basis of their relationship and the
because of this reality that they are facing.
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When you pray, do you pray
like that? Are you just repeating
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words and phrases, or you talking
to God as he has revealed himself to
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us, as he has shown him
himself to you? Do you talk to
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him about your particular situations, about
the things that are immediately going on?
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This is what Jeoshah hat rightly does. Kenny says we got nothing, it's
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game over for us, Lord.
We are powerless against this great horde.
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And then the words I want you
to memorize. We do not know what
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to do, but our eyes are
on you. We do not know what
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to do, but our eyes are
on you. We do not know what
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to do, but our eyes are
on you. I think in a way
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the chronicler even expresses their weakness by
reminding us that even these little ones are
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there among the congregation. Sometimes people
ask me, perhaps they've asked you,
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why do we have the children and
worship with us. Of course we want
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them to learn and we want them
to grow, but maybe in a way
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there an expression of our weakness.
How we are all to come before the
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Lord. Why bother giving them what
they can't under stand? Well, maybe
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it's a good reminder that none of
us can really understand, that none of
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us really seek after the things of
God, that none of us can really
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know him apart from his working in
us. We are powerless, we don't
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know what to do, but our
eyes are on you. This is a
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confession of faith that really you can't
go wrong with. Pastor Schroeder was speaking
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about waking up this morning. You
saying wait, talking about waking up and
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reminding yourself who the Lord is and
what he is in the and they the
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strength in which we can rest in
him. I think this is a great
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expression of that feeling, a great
way to express our prayers. Do not
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know what to do, but because
our eyes are on him, we don't
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need to be afraid, we don't
need to fear, we don't need to
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be dismayed, and that's what the
Lord will say. A prophet sent by
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God comes to Judah, and I
love how it says in Verse Fifteen.
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Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of
Jerusalem and King Jehosha Fat. I love
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that because here Jehosha fat is recognized
as part of this group. This prophet
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doesn't come alongside of King Jehosha fat
and say hey, I heard something,
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let's work this out. You announce
it to the people. The Prophet really
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stands over Jehosha fat at this particular
moment. He doesn't submit himself to the
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king, even though he speaks respectfully
to him, but he declares with authority
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because he's speaking the words of the
king of kings. He's an emissary,
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an ambassador of God himself. And
so he says to all of them,
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to Jehosha fat, to Judah,
to Judah, and he says listen,
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here is the Lord's response. Do
not be afraid and do not be dismayed
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at this great horde, for the
battle is not yours but God's. So
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first he tells them, the first
thing he tells them is that their emotions
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need to change, and then he
gives them a reason why it's God's battle.
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I want to make just two comments
about that. First of all,
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that should be incredibly comforting to you
and to Jehoshah Fat, knowing who God
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is. But at the same time
I want you to also notice that it
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doesn't necessarily answer everything. God doesn't
spell out all the plan he will say,
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as he says a little bit further, he goes on to explain mean
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what he will do. He says
go up against them. They'll come to
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the ascent of Ziz you will find
them there. But then he says this
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very confusing thing. You will not
need to fight in this battle. Stand
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firm, hold your position and see
the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.
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Do you think that, upon hearing
those words of the Prophet, anyone
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among the thousands and thousands of people
were there, do you think any of
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them expected to see a bunch of
dead bodies the next day? I don't
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think so. I wouldn't think that. I would think why? I don't
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know what's going to happen. All
I know is that I'm supposed to stand
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firm. All I know is God
is saying the battle is his. He's
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saying don't be dismayed, he's saying
go out and be strong, but he
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doesn't exactly describe all the details.
They don't have know everything that is going
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to happen. Yet God simply says, go out, be strong and I'll
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take care of it. But notice
the actions of their strength. Sometimes God
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tells his people to go in with
strength and ferocity and to fight and tells
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them they will win the day,
and they do. Other Times, just
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to press the form point a little
further, God tells them don't do anything
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and watch and see the salvation of
the Lord. Does he remind you of
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Jericho, the priests and the people
going before the Lord, worshiping, going
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around and around the city? What
are you doing? Don't you have a
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battle to fight? And the walls
came tumbling down? Or does it remind
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you of the judges and God saying
reduce your people, reduce your people,
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too many fighters, too many fighters, too many fighters. All right,
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now you can go with this piddly
little group or Jonathan and his armor bearer,
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one sword between them both, no
other weapons in all of Israel.
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All right, go fight that Philistine
garrison. They climb up this hillside.
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All the people are the Philistines are
yelling down and I'm making fun of them
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as they're climbing up in this totally
unstrategic position, they get up and they
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slay them all. This is the
story of God's salvation, over and over
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and over again. I know you're
weak, I know your palace powerless.
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Watch and see what I will do. That's why we can have great comfort
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when we say we don't know what
to do, but our eyes are on
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you, because we're not appealing to
some kind of cosmic, abstract force,
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but we're appealing to Yahweh the god
of our father's, the friend of Abraham,
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the father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So God tells
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them to go fight, to stand
firm, to see what will happen.
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Now back to Judah. How does
Judah respond? They respond by bowing down.
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They respond by worshiping, and this
is the proper response. Standing firm
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in your faith is not an assent
in your mind to particular doctrines and checking
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boxes and saying, ah Ha,
I've checked doctrinal boxes. That's not standing
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firm in the faith. Standing firm
in the faith is not being stoic about
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things and saying, well, what's
going to happen is going to happen.
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I guess we'll just stand here and
see God is good. No, it's
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not stoicism. It's not a blind
faith either. It's not just waiting around
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going I don't know what's going to
happen, as though we were worshiped and
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believed in fate instead of Yahway.
Now they don't do any of those things.
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They do what all God's people should
do. When he says see my
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salvation, they worship him. That's
the proper response when God ever tells you
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anything, when God says here is
my salvation, here is the Gospel,
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stands strong in it to worship him. You might put it this way.
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If we want to be successful,
we should worship, because success is in
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submission. Success is not in trying
harder. Success is not in overplanning.
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Success is not in taking all things
into our hands. Success is going to
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the Lord and saying I'm weak,
but you are strong and I'm okay because
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I'm in you, and worshiping him, praising him, and that's what they
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do when they go out into battle. Jehoshaph had commands the priests and other
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others to go to sing, to
sing before the Lord, to praise him
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in holy attire. It's I think
it's a remarkable but these people are going
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before the army. They're not.
The musicians aren't standing in the back saying,
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all right, keep going, you
guys are doing good. I'm glad
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you have a swords in the front. No, they're going with their instruments
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and their voices out in front of
the army, praise and worship, leading
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the way. This is Judah's response. One more thing I want to remind
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you. I skipped over. There's
a period of waiting. Admittedly, it's
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short. Remember, God says tomorrow
these things will happen, and they rise
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early in the morning. I want
you to notice what Jehosha fat does in
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Verse Twenty. He preaches to them, he calls them to faith. He
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says, hear me, Judah,
inhabitants of Israel, believe in the Lord,
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your God, and you will be
established. Believe in his prophets and
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you will succeed. I just want
to point out that sometimes you know the
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sermon from the day before, it's
easy to forget the prophet just spoke to
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them. You would hope, you
would think that would be enough, but
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Jehoshah fat knows what you all know. It's so easy to forget, isn't
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it? To hear the gospel of
our salvation, to be sent out into
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the world and then to immediately get
clawvered by our emotions, by our fears,
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by our doubts, by the Great
Horde of Satan and all his evil
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ones. And so jehoshaphat is wise. He repreaches the sermon from yesterday,
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and you should too, when you
hear the Gospel preached you, when God
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proclaims his salvation to you and he
says wait and see, remind yourself again
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when you wake up in the morning, when you go throughout your day,
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or just remind yourself again and again. If I believe in the Lord,
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my God, I will be established, if I trust in his prophets,
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I will succeed. So they go
into battle, he, Jehoshaphat, sets
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up the priest, they go out
singing, of course, these great words
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that we read many times in strict
scripture give thanks to the Lord for his
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steadfast love and doers forever. And
they go out and they find that the
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Lord has already set an ambush against
the men of Ammin, MOEBB and mountseer.
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I think when you read that,
if you're reading it for the first
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time, you kind of think well, who's ambushing them? Right, all
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parties are accounted for. We have
Israel advancing and the three enemies. WHO's
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left? Where's the ambush coming from? And then he says, he says,
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the people that are ambushing them are
the inhabitants of Mount Seer. What's
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even going on? All of a
sudden one of these three armies turns and
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devotes the others two to destruction,
and you think, okay, well,
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that takes out too. There's one
remaining. What's going to happen now?
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And then the great surprise ending.
And when they had made into destruction,
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or, I'm sorry, they devoted
them to destruction, and when they had
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made an inhabit an end to the
inhabitants of seer, they all helped destroy
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one another. What's even going on? Honestly, I have a hard time
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even imagining how this could happen.
But this happens with the way of the
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Lord. When you see salvation playing
out in front of you, you're watching,
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you know, your Lord and Savior, who's been telling you for several
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weeks I'm going to die, I'm
going to be crucified, I'll be dead
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three days and then I'll rise again. And you're seeing it play out before
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your eyes and you're still going,
what's going on? I don't understand this.
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In fact, I'm very scared.
The disciples were afraid, they were
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didn't know what to do. They
were scattering, despite the fact that God
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had said, wait and see my
salvation. You know, when we read
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the Gospels, we get some details
that perhaps they didn't all understand in the
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moment. We see these disciples here, we see Peter over here, we
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get to an inner ear. It
gots going on behind the scenes with Jesus,
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in the courtroom scenes. We don't
always know the whole picture as God
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is playing out his salvation. But
it doesn't matter because, I'll remind you,
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you are not in control. It's
not your plan, it's not you
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who's masterminding everything and pulling all together. Your Salvation is not dependent upon you
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figuring it all out and being in
control of everything. Your Salvation is dependent
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on one thing and one thing alone, and that is Yahwah, the friend
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of Abraham, going into battle for
you. That's why we say, I
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don't know what to do, but
I'm waiting on you, I'm watching you,
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I'm trusting in you and I know
that I will be saved. I
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mentioned that this morning. I mentioned
this morning in Sunday school that, least
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in my opinion, the story has
kind of this anti climax. There's all
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this great worry, there's all this
great fear. Everybody's wondering what's going to
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happen. A prophet comes before them. You know, they're all gathered together.
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It's this great scene. They wake
up the next day, Jehosha fets,
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Jehoshah fat stands up, the priests
go out and then you expect this
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kind of eruption on the battlefield.
Instead they turn the corner and everyone's dead.
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It's this guy. I mean it's
amazing and it's sort of climactic in
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that way, but in another way
you sort of are left kind of puzzled
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and confused what even happened here.
I think that's purposeful. I think it's
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yet another way in which the Lord
is saying this is no big deal for
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me. It's really not a big
deal for me to cause the sun to
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stand still, to slay a great
horde, to orchestrate all the events of
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Providence to accomplish my ends, to
send a prophet, to establish a King,
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to raise our Lord Jesus from the
dead. It's not a big deal.
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I am God, Ruler of Heaven, ruler of the Kingdoms and all
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the nations. He is telling us
about himself so that, brothers and sisters,
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you can be courageous, so that
you can wake up in the morning
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and say, I will stand firm, I will believe what the prophets have
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said, I will trust in the
Lord, my God, and we preach
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the self this our are we preach
this message to ourselves again and again,
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and it's good and it gives us
that courage to not know what's going on,
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to not know how things are going
to play out, but to stand
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there and watch and receive. If
you go on to read, they go
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on to the battlefield. They didn't
read this part. They take this vast
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plunder, this huge amount of materials
from the army, and then not only
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are they are not only does the
are they at Peace Now, not only
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do they have freedom from this great
horde that was attacking them, but second
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chronicles goes on to say, but
they had peace on all sides. Why?
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Because everyone else was shaken in their
boots, all the people all over
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the land. We're going, okay, back off. Yah Way is at
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work. In other words, God
gave them more than they even asked for.
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They asked for protection against this great
horde and they got peace on every
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side. Ultimately, this is what
Jesus does for us, and he does
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it not just in this geopolitical way, at this moment, but for all
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eternity. When Jesus gives his life
on the Cross and rises from the dead.
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This is his great victory. We
read that he puts all authorities and
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powers to open shame. They're embarrassed
at the great loss at which they've faced
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at the hands of Jesus. This
story is a story about resting in God's
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strength. Our business is to believe
it. Our business is to not be
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afraid, to not be dismayed,
but instead to stand right in the middle
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of our discomfort, right in the
middle of our weakness, right in the
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middle of our powerlessness, and to
trust the Lord. We stand firm,
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not in ourselves, but in him
and him alone. What does that look
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like? It looks like worship,
it looks like prayer, it looks like
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fasting, it looks like humbling ourselves
before the Lord, our God, our
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maker, and saying you are great
and you're my friend. You've promised to
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take care of me, you have
promised me everything. In Jesus and him,
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I believe I am a friend of
Abraham because I am a friend of
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Jesus, and so Lord, God
father, Son and Holy Spirit, take
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care of me today. I know
that each of you are facing lots of
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different things. I don't say that
abstractly, but I say that because I
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know you, and I won't go
on to name them all, because you
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know them and we know them.
Whatever your situations are, there you're fighting
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a sin, struggling in a family
conflict, or facing a difficult job decision
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or anything. I tell you,
do not be afraid, but trust in
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the Lord. He's promised to take
care of you and he will. We
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may not see all the answers in
this life. We may have to wait
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till the consummation of all things in
the end, but boy will it be
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a consummation better than anything that's pictured
here on these battle fields. The victory
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that the Lord earns for us is
one that is eternal and forever. Give
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your heart to him. Let's pray
