The Grove 10 Years – Week 6

Good morning, everybody. What an exciting morning to wake up and feel a little cool air. Right? Was that not refreshing today? Yes. So great to be with you today and have the opportunity to just open up God's word together. I love, love, love... Did I say love? I love this text that we're going to dive into this morning as we continue in our teaching this fall as a response to our 10-year celebration, looking at the four pillars of our church. The DNA, if you will, of who we are and what we seek to accomplish in this community for the glory of God.

And so, just as a reminder, our mission statement is this: that we exist to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus Christ who bear much fruit. And so having tackled our first pillar of biblical preaching a few weeks back, and then spent a few weeks already on our second pillar of intentional worship. Last week, Pastor Amir walked us through what was a description of a wholehearted worshiper. Somebody that worships in spirit and in truth. And this morning, we're going to continue with intentional worship, looking at worship as a weapon to wield.

Worship as a weapon to wield. You say, "Worship. I thought worship's like what we just did, right?" No, no, no. Worship is so, so, so much more than what we've just participated in. So I would challenge us this morning as a church not to limit our understanding, if you will, of worship to just 30 minutes on a Sunday morning. But that it would live and walk in our hearts and minds every day as we go out, and we are continually putting truth into our hearts and minds, and then the outflow of that truth in our lives is worship.

Worship is a 24/7 lifestyle. So our big idea this morning is this. Worship is a 24/7 weapon. Worship is a 24/7 weapon. You say, "Why a weapon?" Because we live in a world that is opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We live in a world where the enemy of our soul is the god of this world, and he hates the fact that God has redeemed us and given us hope in Christ. And so he throws an onslaught of opposition and affliction upon us. Fear. When I wield the weapon of worship against fear, it shifts my attention from the size of the threat to the greatness of our God.

Psalm 56:3-4 says it this way. It says, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you, in God, whose word I praise. In God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?" Fear. The enemy attacks us with worry, anxiety. And when I wield the weapon of worship against worry, I'm reminded of the fact that I control nothing anyway. And I worship the one who controls it all. Philippians 4 says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving and praise, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." He goes on and he says, "Whatever things are honorable and whatever things are true and whatever things are right and whatever things are praiseworthy and whatever things are good and, well, what is of good repute, and if there's any excellence, and continue on in that, and dwell on those things." Because that is a weapon against the onslaught of anxiety as we worship and praise with thanksgiving the one who is in control.

How about this one? Shame. Shame is another one that the enemy loves to throw at us as an onslaught of opposition against our worship. But when I wield the weapon of worship against shame and against condemnation, it reminds me of what Christ has done to overcome. What Christ has done to overcome, and it gives me hope. How about despair? Discouragement? Any of you in despair this morning? Discouraged? When we wield the weapon of worship against despair and discouragement, it speaks hope back into our soul.

Psalm 42:5 says, "Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Wait for God. For I shall still praise him for the salvation of his presence." Worship is a 24/7 weapon, church, to be wielded against the onslaught of the enemy against God's children. Here's one for you. Idolatry. Idolatry. We place so many things and thoughts and actions and you name it, in the place, the throne that God so deserves in our lives. And when we wield the weapon of worship against idolatry, we are reminded that Christ is worth so much more.

So much more, church. What about loneliness? You say, "I'm lonely." When we wield the weapon of worship against loneliness, we're reminded that the communal gathering of God's children brings about community. Community. Colossians 3:16 speaks of it. It says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God."

Where does that happen? It happens in this place. And we could go on. We could talk about temptation, and when we wield the weapon of worship against temptation. It shows us that whatever that temptation was for does not have lasting joy. Only lasting joy is found in Jesus Christ. How about suffering? You go on and on. And pride. But I want us just to note that worship is a 24/7 weapon against the onslaught of opposition that the enemy of our soul continues to invade our minds and hearts with.

See, worship means to ascribe worth to. To ascribe worth to who? To the one who it is worthy of it. You say, "Well, of course. Jesus Christ is worthy of our worth. He is, of course, worthy of our praise." But the question is, do we remember that? Do we ascribe worth to Christ in every circumstance of our lives? Just means that when we have opportunity to sacrifice, albeit in our time and our talent and our treasure, are we ascribing the worth that is due the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Or do we hold back and give worth to things that are of lesser value? See, genuine worship is not something that we can just muster up and we put on, but rather it is a spiritual response to the outpour, an outpouring of our hearts to the ultimate realization that we are not God. That he is God, and he has done great things. So this morning we're going to see just how the people of Judah wielded the weapon of worship against the apparent onslaught and the apparent impossible situation that they found themselves in.

May we learn to use this weapon, if you will, to worship Christ, who is worthy of all of our praise, our adoration, our affection, our obedience, our trust, and as a weapon against the daily battles of our life. May we wield it well. So we're going to dive in together this morning to 2 Chronicles 20. If you have your Bibles, open them up to 2 Chronicles 20. Where fear magnifies the threat, and pride magnifies the self, and idolatry magnifies the useless, and shame magnifies the past, worship magnifies the Lord Jesus Christ.

You say, "Well, how do you know if I am a worshiper, a true worshiper?" I love this quote from Louie Giglio. As you're turning there, listen to this. He said this: "How do you know where or what you worship? It's easy. You follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money, your allegiance, and at the end of the trail, you'll find a throne. And whatever and whoever is on that throne is what is of highest value to you." You want to know where you give your worth?

You want to know where you ascribe worth? You ascribe it to wherever your trail of time, affection, energy, money, allegiance leads you. So who's on that throne in your life this morning? Is it the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, let us learn together how to wield the weapon of worship of Christ against the onslaught of the enemy in our lives this morning. 2 Chronicles 20. If you're there, say, "I'm there." I'm there. We're just going to dive into it this morning.

He begins, he says this. He says, "Now it happened after this, that the son of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Ammonites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, 'A great multitude is coming up against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram, and behold, they are in Hazazon Tamar,' that is, En Gedi." Okay, so what we have here is we have King Jehoshaphat, who is a king of Judah, and this is about 60 years after Solomon.

And so what's happening is he has been informed by his spies that there's a great multitude of people coming up against him, and the scriptures say that it is the people of Moab and the people of Ammon. And they're hanging out down near En Gedi. And what does it say? Verse three, "And Jehoshaphat was afraid." That's natural. Wouldn't you be afraid if you knew that armies that were way outnumbering yours were surrounding you? Of course, you'd be afraid.

We have a tendency to do this all the time. However, notice something. He doesn't wallow in his fear for long. And Jehoshaphat was afraid, and what? It doesn't say, "And Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he sat in that fear for weeks. And it began to tear away at him." No, it doesn't say that, does it? What does it say? It says, "Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he set his face to seek Yahweh, and called for a fast throughout all of Judah." He turned from his fear, and he sets his face on the Lord Jesus Christ.

What did he turn? He turned his attention. It's amazing. Isn't it amazing when we are fearful, how it draws our attention? And it's the only thing that consumes every thought of our body. And it says he turned his attention away from fear, and he turned it to Yahweh, and he sought his face. Not only that, he calls for a fast. Notice he is running quickly to God, and he is getting to God as fast as he can. Now, we do that at times in other contexts.

Let me give you one. When I was six years old, I was trying to help my mother. I thought it would be a nice thing to do. And so I was going to bring my plate from the table, and I was going to bring it up, and I was going to put it on top of the countertop and have it be easier for her to put into the dishwasher. And so as I was walking across and I was setting the plate up on the countertop, I slipped and fell, and the drawer in the dishwasher was open, and a steak knife was sticking out.

It went into me here, went three-quarters of an inch from my heart, and I stood back up quick and pulled the knife out myself, and I had a big white shirt on, and it had big blood all over. We just hung out for a couple of hours. No, we didn't. It was an emergency. You know what you do in an emergency? You get to help fast. Jehoshaphat, right now, he's in a situation, and he's got to get to God, and he's got to get to God right now. It's a 911 here, and it leads us to our first of six worship lessons that we find from a king of Judah.

Listen to this. When fear rises, get to God ASAP. We need to draw near to God, and he will draw near to us. We desperately need God, and we need him when? Now. We need him now. We don't need him later. By the way, that's why whenever I'm in a dishwasher situation, and if I come to your house and a knife is sticking up, I'm going to turn it over. I'm just going to do that. It drives Carla crazy that I do that because it doesn't get as clean on the face down as it does face up.

But live with that. Just that's the way it goes. Sorry, where were we? Notice he doesn't just seek after the Lord, but he calls upon all of Judah to seek the Lord and to fast. I find that so interesting. If you knew that an army was going to come upon your army, would you call your army to a fast? I can remember when we were going to battle. When I say that when we were going to battle, I'm talking about football, right? When I was going to battle in football on Friday nights, the first thing we did after school was we went to a local place called Ponderosa.

Nobody's ever heard of Ponderosa, so don't worry about it. You have? Yeah, there are no more Ponderosas anymore. It was a cheap steakhouse, and that's why we went there. And we ate steak. Why? Because it was protein. We needed to build up for the battle. Jehoshaphat does the opposite. He calls for a fast. Wouldn't that weaken his soldiers? I would've thought so. And he's asking all to fast. Why? So they might heighten their attention that has now been turned to the Lord.

See, that's what fasting is. Fasting, it means to get our focus on God and get it on God quickly. When we fast, we are denying the physical and heightening the spiritual. That's what we're doing. So church, starting this afternoon, we're doing an all-church fast for the next week. Anybody sign up? Oh, come on. Nobody? All right. I see one person out of guilt. Lewis over here because he's an elder. He's like, "Okay, Pastor, I got to follow you, man.

You're killing me." No, it's not going to be any fast. You can do it anyway you want, but I'm not going to. I'm not calling it. I want us to see a principle here, though. He doesn't face his opposition alone. He calls upon others to join with him. He calls upon many to join with him, and that would just be advice for us this morning, church. Whatever struggles you're going through, whatever opposition you're going through, whatever affliction you're going through, you need the people in this room around you.

That's why I'm so excited about our small group ministry, which launches this week. Because doing life together with other believers is what we need. We don't go it alone because the opposition is real. The affliction is brutal, and sometimes we just need somebody to put a head on a shoulder. When fear arises, get to God ASAP. Second lesson that we learn from this king of Judah is that when we don't know what to do, we pray. When we don't know what to do, we pray.

Look at verse five. "Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of Yahweh, before the new court. And he said, 'Oh Yahweh, the God of our fathers, are you not God in the heavens? And are you not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in your hands, so that no one can take this stand against you.' " Notice how he begins his prayer. He doesn't say, "Oh, Yahweh, I've got this horrible situation."

No. He starts out by, he doesn't know what to say, so he's going to say the things he knows. What does he know? He knows who God is. That's what he starts with. "This is who you are. You're the God of the fathers. Are you not God in heaven? Are you not ruler over the kingdoms of the nations? Do you not have power and might?" And he goes on. Not only is he going to tell us who God is, but now he's going to say what God has done. Verse seven, "Did you not, O our God, dispossess the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it to the seed of Abraham your friend forever?

And 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, will we stand before this house and before you and cry to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.' " So not only does he say what God has done, but he also now shows a promise that is almost spoken of by Solomon in verse nine. He took a quote exactly from Solomon's prayer earlier in 1 Kings.

And we come to verse 10, he says this, "And so now, behold, the son of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt. They turned aside from them and did not destroy them. And behold, they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from your possession, which you have caused us to possess." Isn't that interesting? They're reminding now God, they're saying, "Hey, God, we got a situation. It's a pretty serious situation.

The people that you told us not to drive out earlier, they're now rewarding our kindness with evil against us." It's almost like they're like, "God, why didn't you just let us get rid of them?" I wonder if it wasn't for this moment. I wonder if it wasn't for God to show them again how awesome God is. If God had allowed them to send them out earlier, they would never have experienced this. They would never have witnessed God and the way he acts in this situation on their behalf.

I don't know. It's cool to think about. But look what he says in verse 12. "O our God, will you not judge them?" It's kind of like what we hear the martyrs under the throne in Revelation when they're crying out and they're saying, "O God, how long? How long, O God, until you avenge our blood? How long?" He's crying out. He's saying, "O God, will you judge these people? Will you not judge them?" And then he says this profound statement. "For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us, and we do not know what we should do, but our eyes are on you, Lord."

Now, I don't know what circumstance of life you are in right now. And maybe this morning you're walking through fear, anxiety, despair, desperation, sickness, relational disorder. I don't know what you're walking through right now, but I know this, that if we get our eyes off of it and get them onto the Lord, he will bring peace to the situation and the circumstance. For they are powerless, surrounded on all sides, and they can only do one thing.

They can acknowledge it before God. They can confess their situation, and they can acknowledge that their eyes are on him. I think it's a lesson for us. Have you ever been there? You ever been in a powerless situation where there's nothing you can do? I've been in a few. I remember them. Several years ago, we had a health challenge and scare with Carla. Her blood work and some physical complications seemed to indicate that she was headed towards a very scary diagnosis.

The doctors had decided that the only way to find out was to do exploratory surgery and to see whether or not that this was a serious type of cancer and begin to treat it. And I'll never forget that moment the night before the surgery. The four of us, Carla and I and our two kids, we got on the floor of our family room and we got on our knees and we cried out. And we said, "God, there's a circumstance and it doesn't look good. But we don't want to look at the circumstance.

Our eyes are on you, God. We're turning to you." That wasn't the only time we would get on our knees and we would pray as a family. We do that often. Almost every Sunday night, we would lay flat out on our face together as a family and pray together. But this was one of those unique circumstances, and it called for a special cry to the Lord. And what came when we finished prayer, and there wasn't a dry eye among us, Carla made the most profound statement, and it changed the way that I look at trials the rest of my life.

It changed the way that my kids looked at trials the rest of their lives. She said this, and I'll never forget it. She said, "We must never begin to doubt in the darkness what we know to be true in the light." Church, you cannot doubt in the darkness what you know to be true in the light. What do we know to be true in the light? We know that God is sovereign, that God is good, that God is accomplishing his greater purpose in our lives. We don't know how every circumstance will work its way out.

We don't know. But we do know that God is good and that God is sovereign and that God is in control. And if we have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not begin to doubt that. We will not ask the question of ourselves, has God stopped loving us? Of course not. I was reading this week in one of my devotional times, a book called "The Gospel-Shaped Life" by Ian Hamilton, and he was quoting a man whose last name was Voss. And he asked the question, he said, "Has God stopped loving me?"

And the answer was, "No. He couldn't stop loving you because he never began loving you." And I'm like, "What? What do you mean never began loving us?" And then he used Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 3. It says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." There was no beginning. It was everlasting. God will never stop loving you, his children. He loves you. But we live in a sin-filled world, and the result of that sin has effects on us. And so we walk in darkness with no doubt because we know what the truth is in the light.

And look at verse 13. "Now all Judah was standing before Yahweh with their little ones, their wives, and their children." I love that. Don't you love that? That is so incredible. They've got the nursery there. They've got the middle school there. They got the upper school there. They got the college students there. They got everyone there. Nobody said, "I'm staying back" on this one. They gathered together in a fast together and they prayed together.

Awesome scene. I want to watch that reel one day in heaven. It had to have been an awesome scene. I thought about it a little bit and I wondered to myself, what would this look like for us right now, as a church, as a people, a people who are in fear, a people who are anxious, a people who are worried, a people who are sick, a people who are desperate, a people who are built up with pride, stuck in idolatry, dealing with shame and condemnation, those that are tempted to wander, those who are suffering, those who are lonely.

And then I thought, that's everybody in this room, in some way, shape, or form, experiencing these things. And I'm going to ask us to do something a little bit different right now. I'm going to pause in this message, and I want you to close your eyes. And I want you to acknowledge whatever that is in your life right now. Say unto the Lord, "God, I'm surrounded on all sides here. It's rising up against me, God. I'm tired of fighting. I'm weak, Lord."

But just confess that your eyes are on Him. Your eyes are on Him. Get to God as soon as you can. Pray. "God, I don't want to begin to doubt in the darkness what I know to be true in the light. God, the enemy of my soul wants me to question your love for me. But God, my eyes are on you." Father, we do turn to you. We set our attention on you, God. For yes, you are the God of our fathers. You are the God of heaven. You are the ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations.

Power and might are in your hands, oh God. There's no one who can stand against you. There's nothing that can stand against you. You are sovereign, and you are our God, and we are your people. And Father, you have accomplished great work in our lives by the power of your Spirit. But God, we're up against it right now, and your people are calling out to you. Your people are crying out to you this morning. Lord, there are those who are anxious, there are those who are fearful, there are those who are sick, there are those who are in despair, there are those who are living a life of self-indulgence, pride, envy, shame, loneliness, temptation, suffering.

God, help us to turn from that and set our eyes on you, and have your way in our hearts, Lord. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. There's a third lesson that we learn from this text, from this king of Judah, is that when God speaks, we take a stand. When God speaks, we take a stand. Not only do we get to God ASAP, and not only do we pray and we fast, but when God speaks, we take a stand. Look at verse 14. "Then in the midst of the assembly of the Spirit of Yahweh came upon Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah and the son of Benalia and the son of Jaelal, the son of Mattaniah and the Levite of the sons of Asaph.

And he said, 'Pay attention, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says Yahweh to you.' " Okay, so apart from me just butchering those names, and it's not that I haven't read through it all week. I've read through it many times out loud trying to do it, okay? But right now, God's about to speak, so listen up. Right now, God's about to speak into the situation. What is God going to say? Look at verse 15. He says, "Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's."

Have we not just sung that this morning? The battle is not ours, church. The battle is God's. He says this. He says, "Tomorrow, go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley in front of the wilderness of Jeruel. You need not fight in this battle. Take your stand. Stand and see the salvation of Yahweh on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out to face them, for Yahweh is with you."

Wow. You see, before God changes the battle all around you, allow Him to change the battle within you. And whatever you just cried out to God in those moments prior, allow this to speak over that. What did He just say? What did they just hear? They heard this, "Fear not. The battle is the Lord's. Go and face it, and when you do, stand firm in your faith and watch what God is going to do." Now church, if we would just do that, the testimony of the goodness and the grace of God would be spread throughout this community because each of us are experiencing some sort of opposition and affliction.

And if we would just commit to fearing not, battle is the Lord's, stand firm, and watch and see what He will do. Can we do that? That's what He's called the people of Judah to do here. These are the words of God to the people of Judah who are surrounded by armies that want to destroy them. There's a fourth lesson that we get here, and that is that while we wait for God to perform His word, we are to believe and we are to worship. And while we wait for God to perform His word, we are to believe and we are to worship.

You say, "Well, how do you know that?" Because that is exactly the model that Jehoshaphat gives us. Look at verse 18. He says, "So Jehoshaphat bowed his head and his face toward the ground, and all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before Yahweh, worshiping Yahweh." How awesome would it be if an army surrounded by multiple armies would fall on their face and bow their head before Almighty God and worship Him and praise Him and thank Him?

Why? Because it shows that they believe what He's told them. They believe what He told them. That's how they could do that. There's no other possible way you would do that unless you believed what God had said He would do. And there's a sense of relief, if you will, as they worship the Lord, and that worship is wielding a weapon against the onslaught of the enemy in their lives. Jehoshaphat bows, Judah falls before the Lord. Levites stand and worship.

Look at verse 19. It says, "And then the Levites from the sons of the Kohathites and all the sons of the Korahites rose up to praise Yahweh, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice." The worship team just came out, and they just started praising God, all before the battle. All before the battle. But they believed God, and they believed God's word. And I believe this is such a great illustration of the gospel to us. You see, they are powerless to save themselves.

There's no wisdom. There's no military wisdom. There's no incredible surprise attack that God gives them. He doesn't tell them that they have superior weaponry or they don't. They don't completely understand all that is before them yet, but they are completely and utterly powerless against what is before them, and they know it. And all they have to do is believe the word of God. But isn't that the same with the gospel? We are powerless before God.

We cannot save ourselves. There's nothing that we could do ever to earn God's rich favor in our lives. It isn't about how good we are or if we're better than our neighbor, or if we share more mission trips than anybody else, or we've given the gospel to more people than anybody else. You can never do enough good to earn the favor of God. You can't do it. This is why Jesus said, "Come unto me, all who are heavy laden, and I will give you my rest."

You see, it isn't about our behavior. It's rather about belief. Believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That's what Paul says in Romans, that we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and we believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. And he says if you do those two things, you're saved. Saved from what? Saved from the wrath of God that's going to come upon the unregenerate world and bring destruction and send all of those souls to hell.

Maybe this morning, that's your opportunity. Cease striving. Stop attempting to perform to gain the approval or the acceptance of Almighty God. That would be the equivalent of Jehoshaphat saying, "No, God, you tell me it's not my battle, but I'm going to go and we're going to bring our guys and we're going to fight and we're going to do it because we're going to do it." No. No. Believe the word of God. Believe the word of God that God has already accomplished salvation in Jesus Christ, and believe unto Him.

I love that they worship with a loud voice. It's not about their pitch or even if they can hold a tune. All that matters is who is it that they praise, and are they directing their praise to Him right now? But I would remind you this. The outcome isn't determined by our praise. We don't manipulate God into changing our circumstances or fighting our battles. But we do make it very clear and articulate the proclamation of our hearts that we have enough faith to believe God and His word and to obey it and act on it, and that's what He's calling us to do.

And there's a fifth lesson that we learn, and that is when you come to the moment of truth, faith marches forward in praise. This is the moment of truth, right? God has told them what to do. He's told them to take their stand, to watch and see, to not fearful about what would come, to go tomorrow and face them. Look at verse 20. It says, "And they rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa." It's about 12 miles southeast of Jerusalem.

"Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Establish your faith in Yahweh your God, and you will be established. Establish your faith in His prophets, and succeed.' And when he had taken counsel with the people, he caused those who sang to Yahweh and those who praised Him to stand in holy attire as they went out before the army, saying, 'Give thanks to Yahweh, for his loving kindness endures forever.' " Stop there for a second.

I love the fact that Jehoshaphat said, "God's going to fight. We're going to worship." How do you know that? Because he put the choir in front of the army, and he said, "Sing. Sing loud and praise the Lord." And not only did he say sing loud and praise the Lord, but what he said was, in doing so, you are reminding yourselves of the covenant that God made with David. At the end of verse 21 there, it says, "Give thanks to Yahweh, for his loving-kindness endures forever."

That was a direct quote from the Davidic covenant of 2 Samuel 7. And so when they began singing with joy and praising, verse 22, "Yahweh set a ambush against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were defeated. Indeed, the sons of Ammon and Moab stood against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to devote them to destruction and to utterly eradicate them. And when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to bring one another to ruin."

Just stop there. We just have to just look at what just happened. In other words, you've got Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, and these guys are all together. "Yeah, let's go kill these guys from Judah. Let's get after them. Come on." And on their way, they're looking at each other. "Wait a second. I'm going after you, bro." "Wait, you're going to come after me?" "I'm going after you." They totally forgot about Judah, and they destroyed each other.

Well, God did that. God did that because the people of God had faith, and they marched forward in praise. That's why God did it. He was staying true to his word. He was holding true to his word. He'd already said the battle belonged to him. He already said you don't need to fight. What he said was take your stance. But they still needed to do it in faith and to act in that moment of truth, to march forward. Worship as a 24/7 weapon to wield against the onslaught of the enemy.

So let me ask you, are you a holder, a carrier, of the weapon of worship? Do you have spiritually a concealed weapon permit? How about this? Do we have a spiritually revealed weapon permit? Maybe we need to reveal that weapon more often in our lives. See, worship displaces all of the onslaught against it. How? By magnifying Jesus Christ in our lives. My perspective changes when I lift him high. And there's a last lesson that we learned from King Jehoshaphat, and that is when God acts on his word, we give him glory.

When God acts on his word, we give him glory. Look at verse 24. It says this: "Now Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, and they turned toward the multitude, and behold, there were corpses fallen on the ground, and no one had escaped." You have to understand what just happened in verse 24. The choir has been worshiping God, praising God, leading the way for the army, and they come up upon the place where they could actually see. And what do they see?

Now, they don't know this is going to happen. They know God said the battle was his, but they don't know what's going to happen. They come up and the enemy's obliterated. That causes you to worship. Amen. Right? Amen, God. Praise God. Amen, God. I was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital that day 15, 16 years ago, and the doctor came in. And he said, "Scott, your wife's okay." Amen, God. Thank you, Lord. But he didn't have to say that. It could've been the alternative.

And even then, we say, "Amen, God." Why? Because life here is not our home. That's right. This is not our joy place. This is the place where we are to represent the one who has given us joy. And we're going to spend way more time with him than we spend here. So whether it's 30, 60, 90, it doesn't really matter. What matters is how we live it and how we walk in it. And here, Jehoshaphat and his people, verse 25, "Came to take their spoil and found much among them, including goods, garments, valuable things, which they took for themselves more than they could carry.

And they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much. Then on the fourth day, they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, which is the Valley of Blessing, for there they blessed Yahweh. Therefore, they have named that place the Valley of Berachah until today." They worshiped God. They remembered what he had done. Worship is a 24/7 weapon for us to wield. So let us get to God quickly. Let us pray and fast. Let us stand and watch. Let us believe and act by marching forward with praise and glorifying God.

Let's pray. Father, we're so humbled by the example that we've just walked through. Humbled because we realize we fall short. We fall short, God. Oh, that we would have the faith to believe that the battle is yours. Grant us that faith, God, that in the circumstance that is afflicting us, that we could cease striving, and we could find rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope, because this world is not our home. And so, Father, this morning, I pray for my brothers and sisters here who are hurting, who are struggling.

I pray, God, for their hearts to be turned away from the affliction and their eyes to be on you. And Father, if it's your will, I pray that in your supernatural, sovereign way, you would meet their need. But even if you're not, even if you choose not to, we stand committed to worship you. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.