Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20250409 - God's Help in Times of Trouble - 2 Chronicles 20

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#20250409 - God's Help in Times of Trouble - 2 Chronicles 20 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Well, good evening, everyone. Good evening.
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So, as you guys know, I'm the Mexican version of Pastor Ed.
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So I'm just joking. I'm just joking, sorry.
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But tonight, it's a privilege to share the word, to be just, you
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know, given this opportunity. And, you know, for a lot of you
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guys that don't know me, my name is Enrique.
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I'm one of the assistant pastors here at the church.
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I help oversee a few things here at the church, but one that's
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very dear to me is the high school ministry.
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So shout out to the high school kids that are here tonight.
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Yeah, there we go. There we go.
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Yes. All right, so tonight we're just
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going to talk about, you know, a few things.
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But in these few things, we're going to talk about, you know,
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some of the hardship maybe that you've been going through, some
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of the things that you've been wrestling with, some of the
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things that may have come out of the blue or something where you
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find yourself in times of trouble.
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And so let's go ahead and jump right in.
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We're going to be in Second Chronicles Chapter 20, Second
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Chronicles chapter 20, and we hope to get through all the
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chapters. So Lord be with us.
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So in life, we all go through something that brings us
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uneasiness. It brings us worry, it brings us
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trouble, maybe a situation where you don't know what to do.
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We come to find out that this trouble is something that we all
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experience in different seasons of life.
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For some here tonight, you may have lost your job.
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For some here tonight, your marriage may be holding on by a
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thread. For some here tonight, you might
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be dealing with anxiety or depression.
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For some here tonight, you might have received a medical
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diagnosis not long ago. And so the list can go on and
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on. But tonight my heart for you is
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that I want to share some principles with you that we can
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see in Second Chronicles chapter 20 and apply it to our lives
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where we can take this trouble and trust the Lord in the
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process. So let's pick up within verse
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one of Second Chronicles chapter 20.
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It says here it happened after that that the people of Moab
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with the people of Ammon and others with them besides the
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Ammonites came, came to battle against Jehoshaphat.
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Then some came and told Jehoshaphat saying, a great
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multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria,
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and they are in Hazizon Tamar, which is in Getty.
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And Jehoshaphat feared. So.
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Father God, we thank you, Lord, for tonight.
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We thank you for your love, your mercy, and your grace.
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Lord, we thank you for just the time it is to come and to
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receive your word, Lord, to receive a word through the
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worship. Lord, what a awesome just
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worship team that we have, Lord. And, and we just Lord give you
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tonight. We give you the things that
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we're wrestling with, Lord, the things that give us trouble.
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Lord, every person here tonight can fill in that blank Lord of
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what gives us trouble. But we know Lord, that with you
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nothing is impossible. Lord, we know that that with
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you, you were the great shepherd, Lord, that you were
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the same God in the valley and the same God on the mountaintop.
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And so we thank you and we praise you in Jesus name.
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And everyone said Amen. So there's a battle coming to
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Jehoshaphat. And so this is a battle that's
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coming out of the blue. You know they're coming to
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attack and the battle is real. And like our brother said last
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Wednesday, the struggle is real, right?
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So they're in this place. And even in our lives, we
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experience just things that come out of the blue.
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The enemy comes to battle Jehoshaphat.
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But even for us in in life, you know, even with our enemy, even
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with our circumstances, you know, we have also a spiritual
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enemy that comes against us. And the enemy is only good to
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kill, to steal and destroy. The enemy wants to destroy your
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life. The enemy wants to steal any
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peace. And the enemy comes to kill any
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hope in times of trouble. So that enemy doesn't want you
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to succeed in the things of the Lord.
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The enemy doesn't want you to advance in your walk.
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The enemy doesn't want your family to be rooted in Christ.
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The enemy doesn't want you in the presence of Jesus.
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The enemy wants you to be in the flesh and also in going in the
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wrong direction that the Lord never instituted the enemy.
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Also, as it says in Psalm 91, we won't read it, but in Psalm 91
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it says that the enemy throws fiery darts.
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So we have that of the enemy, but we also have a battle.
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We also have circumstances. We have things that happen in
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our lives. So again I remind you the
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battles real, the struggle is real.
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So the battle came to destroy Jehoshaphat.
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And before we even jump into the story, I want to give a little
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bit of context of where Jehoshaphat is now being found
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here with these rumours of war. And so King Jehoshaphat, if
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you're taking notes, was the 4th king of Judah.
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This was a weird time in Israel's life or the, the
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nation's life, where the north was split from the from the
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South and the north side was Israel and the bottom was Judah.
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And so Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, which was found in the
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South. And as you can tell, there was a
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lot of history between these two countries or these two nations.
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And previous to chapter 20, there's king, excuse me, King
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Ahab, that would come in to ask King Jehoshaphat, hey, let's go
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to battle, let's do these things.
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And Jehoshaphat would always remind him, well, we need to
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seek the Lord in this. And so you can kind of tell how
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the division was, where in the northern side, they were doing
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things in their own strength. They were following false
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paganism, things like that, you know, And then Jehoshaphat comes
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on the scene because many times what we see in the Old Testament
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is that there are some good kings and there are some bad
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kings. And by God's grace, Jehoshaphat
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was one of those kings that started off really well.
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And so his so so going down that road before we jump into chapter
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20, I wanted to share with you just his heart and how his
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relationship was built on God before finding himself in this
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trouble. So in Second Chronicles chapter
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17, verse 3, it says now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat
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because he walked in the former ways of his father David.
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He did not seek the bails, but sought the God of his Father and
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walked in His commandments, and not according to the acts of
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Israel. Therefore the Lord established
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the Kingdom in His hand, and all Judah gave presents to
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Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor and abundance, and his
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heart took delight in the ways of the Lord.
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Moreover, he removed the high places and wooden images from
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Judah. And So what I really like is in
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verse 6, even just to touch on it a little bit, it said that
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his heart took delight in the Lord.
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And so that same promise that is given to Jehoshaphat, God wants
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to also give you to be established in him because we're
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reminded over time that God is for you and that God is with
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you. And just like Jehoshaphat walked
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in his commandments, that we also would walk in those
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commandments so that we would also be established that God
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would strengthen us and that also God would settle us.
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Another Bible verse that's a cross reference is Psalm 37,
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verse 4. It says delight yourself also in
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the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart.
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We should want what God wants, walk in his ways.
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And also knowing that that we are in life and we're trying to
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to do our best, right? But as a pastor once said, you
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know, I've done a great job of breaking my life, but Jesus
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Christ has done a great job of fixing it.
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And so again, it's this, it's this picture of that foundation
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where Jehoshaphat was found. And so it also says leading up
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to chapter 20, this is right before chapter 20, it says in
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Second Chronicles chapter 19, verse 9, it said that he
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commanded them saying, thus you shall act in fear of the Lord
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faithfully with a loyal heart. So God doesn't want a piece of
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your heart. God just doesn't want your heart
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on Sundays or even tonight, Wednesdays.
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God wants all your heart, but he wants you to walk in courage.
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He wants you to be courageously seeking the things of of God.
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And so the one thing that I really enjoy, you know, about
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the Bible or one verse that really hits home is that even
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when we're faithless, God remains faithful.
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And so Jehoshaphat. So now we're at chapter 20.
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Wanted to give you guys some context.
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Jehoshaphat, he was a bright light in this time.
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If you caught on, it said that he had taken the dark paganism
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away. He was telling those he even
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sent some of his guys, you know, again, as you can see that you
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know, hey, we're going to teach him about the Lord because
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there's, there's fear and then there's a healthy fear of God.
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And, and many times we, we get those two confused.
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But what he's saying is that, hey, we need to fear the Lord
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because he's never failed us yet.
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And so just like the enemy in our lives and just like the
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troubles that we experience, you know, we have to understand that
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God is with us. And so the fear is real.
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But many times, as Pastor Ed will mention, that because that
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fear is real, it doesn't mean that that fear is telling us the
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truth. Jehoshaphat was met with
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opposition. He wasn't perfect, but we knew
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when his heart was aligned, aligned with God's heart.
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Watch out for that, brother. He was a bad dude.
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In verse #3 it says that Jehoshaphat feared.
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And so, you know, how about you? If you're sitting in this place,
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you're king, right? You're, you're, you're
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fortifying your city. And then the actual battle
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comes. I mean, I'm sure some of us
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wouldn't have peace about it. Some of us would be like, OK, we
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need to do this. We need to do that.
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But then you can also imagine, man, this also brings some
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emotion, you know, but it said Jehoshaphat feared.
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And so wouldn't you be freaked out, you know, if war was coming
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to you? Because Jehoshaphat in this
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opposition, he was a godly king. He was leading a godly nation.
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And in this he was showing us that, that, you know, even
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though the the fight was coming, he was still experiencing some
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emotions. And so the enemy groups got
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together as we can tell in in chapter 20 that the enemy groups
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came to attack. And sometimes it feels like it's
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an overwhelming odds, overwhelming odds in our lives.
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You know, when when anxiety attacks, when depression
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attacks, when fear attacks, when you know our mortgage payment or
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our, our, you know, car payment or you fill in the blank when
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something comes out of the blue and we just don't know where
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we're going, We're found in this trouble.
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And so the things I want you guys to understand is that
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tonight we're going to go through 4 principles that really
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would encourage us to know when trouble comes, this is how we
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should act. And so those four things.
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So point #1 if you're taking notes is our first point, Is it?
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We need to pray. It's not time to retreat, but
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it's a signal to pray. In verse 3 it says he feared the
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Lord and said to seek God. And so two things can happen. 1
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You can sit in your circumstance and live in it, right?
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I'm trying to face all this fear by myself.
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I'm in this panic. You know, fear is moving my
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life. You know, the definition of fear
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is, is as a painful emotion or passion excited by an exception
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of evil or the apprehension of impending danger.
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You know, fear messes us up. So the fear that, you know, the
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Bible even tells us that the fear of man will bring a snare.
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But but you know, the byproduct of fear is anxiety.
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It's depression, it's panic, and it tends to cloud our minds.
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And so in, in the clouding of our minds, you know, that's
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number one. So #2 is that it?
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It begins for us to signal, to start to seek the Lord.
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So number one, right, you can, you can fear your circumstance
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or #2 it starts to signal your heart towards the Lord.
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First. Peter 57 reminds us that cast
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all your cares to Him for He cares for you.
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Sometimes we are quick to retreat and to curl up and to
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just, you know, stop and and you know, not even leave our homes
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or or whatever it is we're found in this depression, anxiety,
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whatever it is, you know, we excuse me, we curl up into a
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ball. But what the Lord is reminding
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us here, just like Jehoshaphat to seek him in prayer.
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It says in second Timothy chapter one, verse 7, For God
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has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power of love and a
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sound mind. So pick up with me again in
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verse 3. And Jehoshaphat feared and set
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himself to seek the Lord and proclaim to fast throughout all
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Judah. So Judah gathered together to
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ask help, sorry, together to ask help for the Lord from the Lord
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and from all the cities of Judah.
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They came to seek the Lord. Jehoshaphat was terrified.
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He's alarmed, he's feeling this anxiety again.
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He's on his knees, he's begging the Lord, I need your help and
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it and it comes to this prayer and so and so I want to read his
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prayer. Pick up with me in verse 6 it
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says, oh Lord God of our fathers, Are you not God in
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heaven and do you not rule over the kingdoms of the nations and
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in your hand. Is there not power and might so
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that no one is able to withstand you.
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You are not our God who drove. Are you not our God who drove
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out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and
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gave it to the descendants of Abraham your friend forever?
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And they dwell in it and have built you a sanctuary in it for
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your name, saying, if disaster comes upon us, sword, judgment,
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pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this temple and in
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your presence. For your name is in this temple,
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and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear
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and save. And now here are the people of
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Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel
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invade when they came out of the land of Egypt.
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But they turned from them and did not destroy them.
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Here they are rewarding us by coming to throw at us.
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Throw us out of your possession, which you have given us to
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inherit. So there's a lot going on.
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And here's Jehoshaphat's prayer. He's saying, Lord, aren't you
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the one that did this? Aren't you the faithful one that
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did that? Aren't you the one that took the
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children of Israel out of Egypt? And it even says here that in
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our affliction we cry out to you.
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And there are moments like this in our lives that we experience
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when we are crying out to God in our affliction.
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For me, there was a time in my life a few years ago where I was
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working for a high school. I got a call.
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So my my position at a high school was a case manager.
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So I got a call on a radio. We all carried radios.
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And there comes on the radio, they say, hey, there's a student
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passed out in the bathroom. So I say, OK, all right, well,
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let's go and see what's going on.
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I go into the bathroom, the students about my size, just in
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one of the stalls. And, you know, I kind of, hey,
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are you doing OK? Like, can I help you?
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And he's kind of, you know, he's not making sense of what he's
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saying. So I think that he was under the
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influence. So I was able to get him up.
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And so we're we're walking outside of the bathroom.
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I'm taking him to the nurse. And what happens is he
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collapses. He collapses.
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And my reaction was to grab him. And with doing so, my back
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twisted and I ruptured one of my discs.
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And it was one of the most painful things that I had ever
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experienced in my life. At that moment, I was, you know,
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just like Jehoshaphat found in this trouble.
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Like, what do you do? And so you can also understand
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that in this time that pain. So what also happened was I was
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experiencing sciatic pain. If and if anybody's ever
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experienced that, you would never wish it on anybody.
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You know, you'd rather get punched in the face like 20
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times or something like that, you know, before you even felt
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that. But but that's another story.
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But the pain was there, you know, they would prescribe, you
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know, this medicine and, and it was really hard because I would
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only sleep 2 hours a night. And so my life was turned upside
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down. My life was, you know, hey, I'm,
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I'm this person now or this person then and now, now this
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person now. And so I'm crying out to God,
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just like the the children of Israel are crying out to God
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saying, God, where are you God, what is happening?
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I don't know how to deal with this.
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I've never been here before. And so we feel overwhelmed, we
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feel heavy, we feel this anxiety and we feel troubled.
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But God is reminding us that we can call out to him, call out to
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God because it says in verse 12, it says, for we have no power
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against the great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we
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know what to do. But our eyes are on you.
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Have you ever felt that way where things feel like they're
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too much? You feel like I can't handle
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these things at all. You feel like, what is it going
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to take for me to get to point A to point B?
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When I was going through all that pain from the pulpit to the
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guitar, it actually took me, you know, many steps and and it was
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just a, a very painful time where it affected not only my
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life, right, but as it, as it shows us here that it affects
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those around us. It affected, you know, my wife
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and, and just, you know, the things that, you know, we're
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going through where she had to like kind of help me to, you
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know, take me to places. And mind you, this was during
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right when COVID started. So there wasn't any way to
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really go get an appointment. There wasn't really any way to
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to go and, and really see what are my options.
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You know, if it wasn't any emergency surgery, no doctor was
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seeing you. And so I was in this place of
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just her calling out to God, feeling desperate, wrestling
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with my faith, wrestling God, what are you going to do?
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Because I didn't ask this upon myself.
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And I just I'm just reminded, you know, of just the things
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that that we can even see here because pick up with me in verse
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13 again, they're crying out and verse 13 says, no, all of Judah
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with their little ones, their wives and their children, they
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stood before the Lord. And So what did they do?
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They prayed, they stood there. If you guys are like me, I'm
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calling all the doctors, I'm calling everyone, Hey, I'm
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trying to get in help me out and and or even in your trouble,
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right, You're trying to do things look left, look right,
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you know, trying to, you know, ask for help.
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But I really love Psalm 46 and Psalm 46 says in one through 4,
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it says God is our refuge in our strength, a very present help in
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trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even
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though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried
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in the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled,
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though the mountains shake with its swelling, there is a river
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whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place
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of the Tabernacle of the Most High.
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And later in Psalm 46, it's a familiar verse for a lot of, you
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know, a lot of us where it says Be still and know that I am God
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because in my strength, I'm doing things, you know, where
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I'm freaking out, I'm panicking. I've never met someone that
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said, man, I'm so glad I panicked.
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Like now I'm here, you know, and so.
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Right. Yeah.
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And we get to a place where God's reminding us, hey, in this
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prayer, align yourself, align your heart with mine.
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And, and God's calling, you know, the Jehoshaphat and, and
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those around him to, to pause. And so that's our second point
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tonight is to pause. So number one, to pray when
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we're feeling this type of way, we come to pray #2 is to pause.
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And so the battle and the anxiety and the depression and
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the hard relationships, and even for some people here tonight,
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the medical diagnosis is he's here with you, God is with you,
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God loves you, God cares for you.
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Just like the struggle is real, so is God's power.
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And he will never leave nor forsake you, the Bible says.
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And so with that, again, I come back to that story because in
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that story, I tried it all. I think I had an epidural before
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my wife even had an epidural, you know, And like, there's all
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this medicine that I had in it. And can I be real with you guys?
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Like there was prescribed medication that, you know, thank
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the Lord I never got hooked on or anything because we're
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talking pain meds that are supposed to just really try to
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Take Me Out again. I was only sleeping two hours.
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And so, but praise the Lord that that none of that happened.
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But also, you know, knowing that there I came to this place where
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again, I'm wrestling with God, I'm wrestling with what's going
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on in my life. I'm wrestling with, you know,
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the even the student that that really, you know, as as Pastor
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Edward put it, you know that sometimes this stuff happens
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because of the result of someone else's sin.
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That might be some of you guys here tonight, right?
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Like it's, we never called it upon us, but it just happened in
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our life. And so I'm here to tell you that
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in this weakness, in in this pain, in this hardship, that it
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reminds me of just a verse that I was that someone had shared
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with me during this time. And it's a familiar verse that
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you know, it's in Second Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9,
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it says each time he said, my grace is all you need.
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My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about
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my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me.
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I had to trade my weakness for God's strength.
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I came to a place being found with anxiety and depression and
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and all the hardship and how it's affecting me and my wife
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and just the family around us. I had come to a place where the
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Lord was teaching me perspective is everything.
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I began to give everything to God.
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I began to give them my trouble. I began to give them, you know,
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those nights where I would cry because of how much pain I was
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in and just the things were. Lord, if you can just take this
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away, Lord, can you take this away?
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And really, when you read that verse, Paul said it three times.
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But God reminds us that we trade our weaknesses for His strength.
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And so there was a song that would that was also shared to me
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about what I was going through. And it's a song by Elevation
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Worship called Give Me Faith. And I'm just going to read a few
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few verses. I love what the worship team did
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where, you know, put a new song in my mouth and just so good how
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the Lord works. But in that song, it helped to
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put into words what I was going through.
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And it says here, I need you to soften my heart and break me
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apart. I need you to open my eyes and
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see that you're shaping my life and all that I am.
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I surrender. And then here's the part that
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really hits home. Give me faith to trust what you
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say, that you're good and your love is great.
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I'm broken inside. I give you my life because I may
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be weak, but your spirit's strong in me.
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My flesh may fail, but my God never will.
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I may be weak, but your spirit's strong in me.
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My flesh may fail, but my God, you never will.
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And so you can only imagine saying that and actually feeling
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it right. But there comes a place where we
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have to, even though we don't feel something, we have to
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accept it by faith. You know, if my life was going
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to be 1 of just where I'm hurt, I I need a cane or whatever it
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is, you know, that was going to be my life.
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That's what the Lord had for me. I was OK with what God put in my
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life. I had to surrender those things.
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And so pick up with me in verse 16 and and it talks about
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tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the
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ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook
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before the wilderness of Jerrell.
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You will not feed. Sorry, need to fight in this
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battle. Position yourself, stand still
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and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you.
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O Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or be dismayed.
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Tomorrow go against them, for the Lord is with you.
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Verse 18. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
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and his face to the ground, and all of Judah and the inhabitants
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of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.
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Then the Levites of the children of the Kahoa fights and of the
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children of the Korah heights stood up to praise the Lord God
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of Israel with voices loud and high.
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And so I got to a place where I had to remember God's
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faithfulness. I was born in tradition and born
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into, you know, knowing of Jesus Christ, but I didn't know him in
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this personal way. And I know there's a verse that
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says, well, God will use anything for your good.
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And, and I'm just reminded of God's faithfulness.
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And and even just like that song was saying that you know God,
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you will never fail. And I'm reminded because it says
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in Genesis chapter 15, verse one, very early on in the Bible,
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it says God appears to Abraham. We know him as Abraham in a
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vision and says, do not be afraid Abram, I am your shield,
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your exceedingly great reward. So guys like Abraham now or
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sorry, guys like Abraham now, Abraham, guys like David, guys
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like Jehoshaphat, guys like Paul, Lord trade this for me.
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I don't want to feel this anymore, but my grace is
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sufficient. And now by extension us, by
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extension you, If God was faithful to them, wouldn't he be
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faithful to us? Now the Lord starts to
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orchestrate the things behind the scenes.
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So as we can see just in this troubled time for the, the
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children of Israel, we see that Jehoshaphat, right, because he
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was led by the Lord, he aligned his heart with the Lord.
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You know, he comes to a place to pray, He comes to a place to
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pause. And now point #3 is he comes to
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now a place to praise, praise even before the victory.
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Jehoshaphat does the unthinkable.
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So for me, as I've mentioned, if you were here this weekend, I
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mentioned that my wife was, you know, ex military, things like
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that. She's the cool 1, you know, and
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so and I'm limited to what war is like.
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I just don't I don't know what that is.
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You know, some of you guys here tonight, you know, but what
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we're going to see here in verse 20 is that the Lord does the
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unthinkable. The Lord and Jehoshaphat, they
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send out the worship team. That's like sending out Pastor
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Sean Dio and Renee and then me with like a little tambourine,
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like what am I going to do, you know?
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But let's read verse 20, it says.
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So they rose early in the morning and went out into the
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wilderness of Toccoa. And as they went out,
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Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and your
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inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God,
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and you shall be established. Believe his prophets and you
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shall prosper. And when he had consulted with
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the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord and
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who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before
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the army. And they were saying, praise the
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Lord for his mercy endures forever.
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And so again, the Lord is going to orchestrate those things.
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And, and the Bible reminds us that his ways are not ours, our
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ways that his ways are higher than ours.
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You know, if there's someone like me, I would have sent like
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someone you see in the movies, like the Rock or you know,
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whoever, you know, some of you brothers and sisters here
31:19
tonight that you know, you can, you can go to war, but he sent
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the worship team. And so we're reminded that their
31:27
weapons were their instruments, the mirror.
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Sorry. So that the worship team came
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against the army and, and for us it doesn't make sense, but for
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God it does. And it reminds us that no matter
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what that this praises come in a fourth even before the victory.
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But God is also with them each and every step and a miracle
31:50
happened. And so they they praised God
31:54
before the victory. For us, it takes faith in
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moments like these, when we're feeling anxiety, when we're
32:00
feeling depression, when we're feeling fear, when we're feeling
32:04
things that make us troubled, but we have to come and give it
32:08
to God. And so that when we pray, we
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pause and we praise. And so as we're winding down to
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to where we're at, I want you guys to be reminded of a story
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that for some of us know very familiar in the Bible because we
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also see a time of prayer. We also see a time of just
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pausing and seeking the Father. And we also see a time of just
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praise. And I'm speaking about Jesus
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Christ, because if you're reminded that in the Garden of
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Gethsemane, you know, it's, it's, it was a time where he
32:50
came to really give it all to the Lord.
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You know, he, he was a he was in a place where, you know, Father,
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if you're willing, let there be another way.
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And for some of you that are not Bible students, right, He was
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getting ready to be betrayed, getting ready to be crucified,
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getting ready to to be beaten for for our sin.
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And so it's easy to praise when it's when things are good, but
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but we should also be able to praise when things are bad.
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You know, and we're reminded here in Scripture, you know,
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Jesus is going to become arrested.
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He came to this quiet place, the Mount of Olives.
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He came to pray. You know, Jesus knows the weight
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of the cross that is looming. Jesus knows what's coming, the
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betrayal, the torture, the death and his humanity.
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He asks the Father, is there another way?
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And the verse is not just obedience, but it's real
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surrender. He's in so much agony.
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The Bible even says that he's sweating blood and that he's not
33:58
numb to the pain. He feels it, but yet he's he
34:03
knows what he has to do. And so going back to to my back
34:13
surgery, there was a time where again, I had given it to the
34:17
Lord. I gave it to him and said, hey,
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if this is going to be my life, so be it.
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Like I it's, it's, it's all to you.
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God, I surrender everything and in that I was able to to find
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rest and and we're going to see in verse 20 at the end of the
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chapter. Let let's go ahead and read it
34:39
real quick and we'll draw some things out.
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But it says in verse 22. And the last, sorry, the last
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point is posture of rest. So prayer, pause, praise, and a
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posture of rest. So now when they began to sing
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and to praise, the Lord say ambushes against the people of
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Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they
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were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab
35:04
stood against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and
35:08
destroy them. And when they had made an end of
35:11
the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
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So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they
35:19
look toward the multitude, and there were the dead bodies
35:23
fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.
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Verse 25. When Jehoshaphat and his people
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came to take away their spoil, they found among them the
35:32
abundance of valuables on the dead bodies and precious jewelry
35:35
which they stripped off for themselves more than they could
35:38
carry away. That they were three days
35:40
gathering the spoils, because there was so much.
35:43
And on the 4th day they assembled the valley of Barucha.
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For they for their, they bless the Lord.
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Therefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Barucha
35:55
until this day. And they returned every man of
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Judah and Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to
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go back to Jerusalem with joy. For the Lord had made them
36:05
rejoice over their enemies. And so they came to Jerusalem,
36:08
and with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets to the
36:12
House of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all
36:15
the kingdoms of those countries. And they had fear, or they had
36:19
heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.
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When the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet for his God gave him
36:30
rest all around. And so for some of you guys
36:34
tonight, you've been praying for this type of rest.
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You've been going through a lot of trouble in life.
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And as I invite the worship team back up, for some of you, you've
36:47
been sick and tired of being sick and tired.
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For some of you here tonight, you might not have this
36:54
relationship with Jesus Christ. For some of you here tonight,
36:59
you might be thinking, you know what?
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I've done everything I've, I've tried it all I've, you know,
37:04
done. And to me, it sounds like you've
37:06
done everything in your own strength.
37:10
But what God is reminding not only the children of Israel and
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King Jehoshaphat is to come to a place of prayer, is to come to a
37:19
place to pause to know that he is God, is to come to a place to
37:24
know that we have this praise in US.
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And it's a come. It's coming to a place where He
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gives us rest, not only physical rest, even though He can, but He
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gives us rest for our soul. Matthew 1128 says.
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And so I would encourage you guys here tonight that if that's
37:45
you here tonight and you don't have a relationship with Jesus
37:48
Christ, I'm not talking about rededication, but what I'm
37:53
saying is that you're here. You've done it all.
37:56
The Lord is calling you, drawing you to him.
37:59
There's no mistake that you're here at a church on a Wednesday
38:01
night, but Lord is the Lord is calling you to a place of
38:07
relationship. If you remember when it all
38:10
started, Jehoshaphat walked in the ways of the Lord.
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And that's what God is wanting for you to walk in his ways.
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Because if you're like me, even before Christ, I did a great job
38:21
of breaking my life, but Jesus Christ has a great job of fixing
38:26
it. And so those are those things
38:28
that we would encourage you to come to a place of surrender,
38:32
come to a place to know that God is with you and that God wants
38:36
to encourage you. And it's not that because I
38:38
surrender these things that now I'm going to live a, a sinless
38:42
life in a, in a, in, in a life with no more pain or no more
38:46
sorrow, things like that. But that God says or the Bible
38:51
says that in this life you will go through trials and
38:55
tribulation. But to take her, take courage
38:58
because Jesus has overcome the world.
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And so if that is you tonight and you want this relationship,
39:05
it's a free gift that that the Lord gives us to put our hope
39:09
and trust in Jesus Christ. I ask you to stand to your feet.
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I want to pray with you tonight. God bless you guys.
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Anyone else you'll have someone on the prayer team or a pastor
39:23
come next to you and just going to pray with you.
39:27
But is there anyone else? I was reminded in our staff
39:32
DeVos, stay standing, please. I was reminding in our in our
39:35
staff Devo, one of our pastors love that brother Pastor Micah.
39:40
He he always gives us acronyms and in the acronym was dwell and
39:45
dwell was decide where each lives, each life lives.
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And that's a question for you tonight.
39:54
For some, you've been dwelling in just your own strength.
39:57
You've been dwelling in your own promises and your own things
40:00
about, you know, chasing all these things.
40:02
But God is saying, Hey, when are you going to dwell in me?
40:07
And so is there anyone here tonight that would say, I, I
40:10
want to pray And, and, and it's not the prayer that saves you,
40:13
but it's the business that you and the Lord do tonight,
40:16
accepting the free gift of salvation.
40:19
Is there anyone here else tonight and those that?
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Those that are here in this room, if you could just extend a
40:26
hand and I'm going to lead you guys through a prayer, make it
40:29
very personal to yourself, but just knowing that praying is
40:33
just talking to God, letting them know and and he knows
40:36
already, but that our hearts would align towards him and you
40:40
can say something like this. Dear God, I admit that I'm a
40:44
Sinner. I acknowledge my sin before you,
40:47
a holy and righteous God. I ask you to forgive me of my
40:51
sin. I accept the free gift of
40:54
salvation through your Son Jesus Christ, and I believe in my
40:58
heart. I confess with my mouth that
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you, Jesus, lived, you died, and you rose again to save me of my
41:06
sin. I give you my life from this day
41:09
forward. By the Lord's grace through
41:12
faith, you have been saved. God bless you guys.
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We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
41:20
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
41:23
prayer, call us at 87730 grace that's 877-304-7223.
41:33
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41:36
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41:41
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41:44
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.