Sermons - 2008 Week 28 - Jul Wk 2
How to Win a Battle You Never Fought
2 Chronicles 20:1-37
Jehoshaphat was faced with the threat of a vast army.
Yet, what did he do?
He called a prayer meeting of all his people and beseeched God to help them.
A man may do many things in times of crisis. Some cover up, some give up. Yet others panic, and others deny that they have a problem. Jehoshaphat resolved to turn to the Lord.
A crisis does not destroy man, but it is his response that determines what happens to him as a result.
The Chinese term for crisis is 危机。The first word means ‘danger’ and the second word, ‘opportunity’. With each crisis is an opportunity for us to trust in God. In a crisis, our greatest danger is discouragement.
There is nothing better, when in trouble, than to gather together to seek the Lord. Very often, this is done as a last resort, when it should be the first step to be taken.
We need to be students of the Word of God to know His promises and to claim them. Jehoshaphat’s simple prayer was a show of his faith in God’s character and His promises.
He had only one request – will you not judge them?
He had but one complaint – the enemies had repaid them by invading their territories. And he had one confession – the fact that he had no power on his own. It was a mighty worship service with a specific request.
We often confuse the form with the substance of prayer. We tend to focus on the manner in which we pray, but God looks at the internal quality that comes with it – our faith, sincerity, and honesty. Not whether we are praying while standing, sitting, with eyes open or shut.
Worship is an admission of dependence.
In Old Testament days, God spoke through His prophets. Today, we hear Him through the Scriptures.
In the battle that Jehoshaphat readied his men, worship was their only weapon. The choir led his army in the worship, which, in turn, led to their victory.
Two important applications
1. Great things happen to us when we realize our powerless condition. God delights to intervene on behalf of powerless people. It is said:
Blessed is the desperate that catches God’s hand
Blessed is our sense of helplessness if it gives us the energy of a desperate faith.
Our Christian living is a continuous process by which God is breaking us, and stripping us of everything until we say we need Him. He does it not to destroy us, but to take everything else away so that we have nowhere else to go but to Him.
Worship is the preparation for our weekly warfare. When it becomes our lifestyle, the battle is not ours, but our Lord’s.
2. The cultivation of worship is our only means of spiritual victory.
Worship is our response to God as we turn to Him in our helplessness. In Jehoshaphat’s time, they worshipped before, during and after the crisis.
Praise is not the prelude to the battle, it is the battle.
Worship is not the preparation for the strategy, it is the strategy.
Worship releases God’s power, and it honours Him. When we pray, we worship out of need. When we obey, we worship out of love. When we sing, we worship out of joy. When we give, we worship out of gratitude. And when we praise, we worship out of reverence.
The message can be summarized in the answers to 4 simple questions:
Who do I trust?
God.
How do I see myself?
Powerless.
What do I do in a crisis?
Worship.
What does God do?
Fight the battle for me.
Mr and Mrs ET Chua
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