Faith in the Face of

Here have ever Struggled in the
area of trust or faith not in the fact that Jesus Christ is
your Savior but through trials How what would happen in them
have any of you ever doubted or you don’t have to put up your
hands? I just wanted to make sure that I’m preaching to more
than myself this morning so today I want to talk to you about faith
and Again, it’s not faith that Jesus Christ died on a cross
and was risen and he’s our Savior, but that he’s our Lord and in
control of everything. I’ve thought about preaching
this passage before, and just the time wasn’t right. But this
time when I was asked, it was kind of like, okay, this is the
one. And it’s kind of like a culmination of things I’ve read over the
past year, A video I watched called The Insanity of God, if
you would, I would recommend it. It’s not God is insane, but
the gospel message to those in third world countries is to them
insane that God would give up his only son. And also, the SGA
updates we’ve been getting, things that Carol and I have been going
through, the title Faith in the Face of
is based on a book that I read several months ago, Imprisoned
with ISIS, Faith in the Face of Evil. And it’s a story about
Peter Jasik. He works with Voice of the Martyrs. He had been with them for 10
years. And many of the jobs or his responsibilities
was to go to dangerous countries and talk with pastors and laymen
and just basic Christians and try to gauge what kind of support
and encouragement they could give. And on this particular
journey to the Sudan he was going home and as normal he had code
words that he would send to his wife and he would they would
know where he was and at all times, and he had like three
connections on this flight home to Czechoslovakia. They had a
time down to the point where when he left baggage claims,
she would pull up and pick him up. Well, this time when he was
at the airport in Sudan, what he thought was a basic security
check turned into a 445-day imprisonment with ISIS in deplorable conditions. I mean, read the book and it’s
just incredible what he went through. Yet his faith remained
strong. Not only that, but he had mental hurdles. His father,
who is very close to, died while he was in prison. His daughter
went through some very, what would be very strong life events
that he had to miss. Just missing his wife. would
be was just a huge drain on him. So I got to thinking about, OK,
me, when does my faith start to waver? When did it start to
shake? What triggers that? And I just
got to thinking, man, I really fall short. So this morning,
as we go through this, Faith in the face of you fill in your
own blank. The passage is 2nd Chronicles
20. Now, when you think of passages
on faith, this probably isn’t one of the first ones that comes
to mind. But to me, it’s a great passage on faith. If you go to
2nd Chronicles 20, I’m going to start in verse 1. Go to verse
25. Now it came about after this
that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon together with the
sons of Munites came to make war against Jehoshaphat. Then
some came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude is
coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram, and behold,
they are in Hazan-Tamor, that is, in Gedi. Jehoshaphat was
afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed
a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to
seek help from the Lord. They even came from all the cities
of Judah to seek the Lord. Then Jehoshaphat stood in the
assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before
the new court. And he said, O Lord, the God
of our fathers, are you not God in the heavens? And are you not
ruler over all the kingdoms of the kingdoms of the nations?
Power and might are in your hand so that no one can stand against
you. Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of
this land before your people Israel and give it to the descendants
of Abraham, your friend, forever? 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, we will
stand before this house and before you, for your name is in this
house. and cry to you in our distress,
and you will hear and deliver us. Now behold, the sons 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. See how they are rewarding us
by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have
given us as an inheritance. O our God, will you not judge
them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are
coming against us. Nor do we know what to do, but
our eyes are on you. All Judah was standing before
the Lord with their infants, their wives, and their children.
Then in the midst of the assembly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon
Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of
Jeal, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite, of the sons of Asaph. And he said, Listen, all Judah,
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says
the Lord to you, Do not fear or be dismayed because of this
great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Today
or 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 Jerual. You will need not fight
in this battle. Station yourselves, stand and
see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow
go out to face them for the Lord is with you. Jehoshaphat bowed
his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping
the Lord. The Levites from the sons of
the Kohathites and the sons of the Korahites stood up to praise
the Lord God of Israel with a very loud voice. They rose early in
the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. And when
they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Listen to me, O Judah
and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Put your trust in the Lord, your
God, and you will be established. Put your trust in his prophets
and succeed. When he had consulted with the
people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who
praised him in holy attire as they went out before the army
and said, give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness
is everlasting. When they began singing and praising
the Lord, When they began singing, praising, the Lord set ambushes
against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come
against Judah. So they were routed. For the
sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount
Seir, destroying them completely. And when they had finished with
the inhabitants of Seir, they helped destroy one another. While Judah came to the lookout
of the wilderness, when they came to look out of the wilderness,
they looked towards the multitude, and behold, there were corpses
lying on the ground, and no one had escaped. When Jehoshaphat
and his people came to take their spoil, they 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. Jehoshaphat was one of the good
kings, kings of Judah. He followed his
father Asa, who was also a good king for, he’s known as a good
king, but at the end he kind of slipped. He made a pact with
the king of Ammon and the Lord rebuked him for it by the prophet
Hanani. And when Asa was approached,
he put Hanani in jail. Now Jehoshaphat, and we’re going
to find out later, also was rebuked because of an alliance he made
with Ahab. And Hananiah’s son Jehu came
and rebuked Jehoshaphat, son of Asa. So you’ve got that little
tandem working there. But when he was rebuked, he listened. Now Jehoshaphat was a godly king.
He, in American parlance, would be called a hawk. because he
was a political leader who favored strong or aggressive military,
a military policy, but not necessarily through war. We read in 2 Chronicles 17 that
the Lord established the kingdom in his control and all Judah
brought tribute to Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was a good king because
he followed in the ways of his father David. He didn’t follow
the Baals, and he took down the Ashram. I mentioned the alliance
he had with Ahab. Ahab, the wicked king of Israel,
who was married to the infamous Jezebel. Jehoshaphat arranged
for his son to marry Ahab’s daughter. And through that alliance, they
also became involved in a war And instead of listening to God’s
prophets, they listened to Ahab’s counselors. Now, Ahab’s counselors
were just yes-men. They said, oh, yeah, go. You’ll
succeed. And so they went into war, and
they didn’t succeed. Ahab was killed, but Jehoshaphat
was spared. Now, we can read this, this passage
we just read, And maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I can’t
get the full effect of the fear because I haven’t really lived
through or in a war. So I don’t know, basically, what
it’s like to have an attack be imminent. I did see, with this Ukraine-Russian
war, I did see a video that somebody in Ukraine took with missiles
flying over their house and exploding just beyond them. And just the
video was terrifying, just because of the power and the might that
those missiles had. And you could hear crying and
screaming in the background. But I’m in Colorado listening
to that. And so I can see, man, that’s some scary stuff. But I can’t get the full effect
of it. However, it could be coming soon
here. I sincerely believe that we are
a nation under judgment. We’re not going to face judgment.
We’re in the middle of it, so it’s not coming. We’re in the
middle of it. And with decisions made in the past weeks, and we
see how evil is just flourishing, seems to flourish through this.
If you’re a Christian, follow Christ. If you’re a church, you
have a target on your back. So again, I ask, how is our faith
when foundations start to crack. When the ground we stand on starts
shaking, and I’m not talking about an earthquake, but what
we normally take as true starts to falter. When a friend becomes
an enemy. When our financial position,
once secure, is gone. When our health is taken away
from us. In our passage today, Judah is
facing attack from three bordering nations. And even though Jehoshaphat
had formed a large army, these bordering nations would have
dwarfed Judah’s army. So I want to give you five steps
that I see in this passage of true faith. The first step. True faith requires knowing who
God is. And you’re saying, well, duh. But don’t be too quick with that. The great theologian Oprah Winfrey
once said that God is a feeling experience, not a believing experience. And what she meant is that feeling
is on the inside. Believing is on the outside.
So basically, what’s true for you, that is what God is. Unfortunately,
God is not also thought of very highly in a lot of churches today.
Pink, you know, wrote the attributes of God, which the men are going
through. And on the supremacy of God, he wrote that the God
of the 20th century no more resembles the supreme sovereign of the
Bible than does the dim flickering of a candle, the glory of the
midday sun. The God, who is now talked about
in the average pulpit, is the figment of human imagination.
The heathen outside of Christendom form gods out of wooden stone,
while the millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture
a God out of their own carnal mind. In Psalm 50, God rebukes
those who pretend to worship him, saying, these things you
have done, and I kept silence, you thought I was just like you.
meaning that they, as long as they gave a sacrifice and did
the minimal things, that they were okay no matter what they
did. They took God’s patience for acceptance. In his book,
Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer says, that what comes to mind
when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
The most important fact about any man is what he, in his deep
heart, conceives God to be like. David knew who God was in First
Chronicles 29. First Chronicles 20, blessed
are you, O Lord, God of Israel, our father forever and ever.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and
the victory and the majesty. Indeed, everything that is in
the heavens and the earth, yours is the dominion, O Lord. And
you exalt yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come
from you, and you rule over all. and in your hand is power and
might. Paul knew who God was. From Acts 17, when talking about
the unknown God to those in Athens, the God who made the world and
all things in it, since he is the Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he served
by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives
to all people life and breath and all things. And he made from
one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the
earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries
of their habitation. For in him we live and move and
have our being.” Another passage we don’t have time to read today.
If you want to know what God thinks, turn to Job 38 and see
his response to Job. Jehoshaphat knew who God was. There was no cabinet meetings.
There was no consultation with generals. He went straight to
God. In times of distress, do we do
that? Or do we try and figure things
out first and then go to him for confirmation or for blessing? Not only did he go to God first,
but Jehoshaphat prepared them to go to God by declaring a fast,
to humble themselves before God. And then when it came time, Jehoshaphat
offered the prayer. He didn’t leave it to the priests.
He himself gave the prayer. Verse 5, then Jehoshaphat stood
in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the
Lord before the new court. And he said, O Lord, the God
of our fathers, are you not God in the heavens? Are you not ruler
over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are
in your hand so that no one can stand against you. One pastor noted that the nations
around had their local gods. Moabites had their god. Philistines
had their god. Ammonites had their God. But
Jehoshaphat called on the God of all the kingdoms, of all nations,
of all earth, and indeed, heaven himself. There is no domain over
which God does not rule and have control. So another way to put
it is that God is sovereign. Now, I mentioned Pink in his
book, Attributes of God. 17 or 19 chapters on the attributes
of God. There’s the solitariness of God.
This includes the fact that God has no beginning. He has always
been. The immutability of God. He doesn’t change. His nature
and being are infinite. The faithfulness of God, much
more. Many of these I can read, and I know they’re true, but
I in my finite human mind, I can’t grasp the fullness of it, which
God is beyond our comprehension anyway, but it’s just so difficult
sometimes to fully understand. However, the one I have come
to have some sort of grasp on, some sort, in a human, finite
way, is His sovereignty. I have no clue how he accomplishes
this. It’s an attribute that we all
need to cling to. God’s sovereignty. Spurgeon said
this about God’s sovereignty. Of all his attributes, this should
be the most comforting to us. There is no attribute more comforting
to his children than that of God’s sovereignty. There is nothing
for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than
the doctrine of their master over all creation, the kingship
of God over all his works. When we can get a hold of this,
we can be comforted in knowing that even in the most adverse
conditions, God has a purpose for them. Yet we will struggle
with knowing and wanting to know the details. We want to know
the details, we want to know kind of purpose, and we want
to kind of know the duration so we think we can handle it
better. But the believer needs to rest
in the fact that God knows and is in control. And if we can
get a grasp on that and his promises for the believer, they will be
much comfort. Colossians 1, 16 through 17 says,
for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth,
visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through
him and for him. He is before all things, and
in him all things hold together. Carthus said this on his sovereignty,
God has an intention within his actions that is not purely arbitrary. And it is not left to choice.
God is purposefully taking all contingencies, all actions, all
events, and working them together to a predetermined end. Nothing
is by chance. Nothing is happenstance. Nothing
is a surprise to him. Nothing is outside his box. There
are no oops, how did that happen to God? It is all within the
framework of his plan. In these absolutely crazy times,
When up seems to be down, black seems to be white, Carolyn is
always quick to tell me, God knows. And that can be a comfort. Even though that doesn’t change
the situation right now, it gives a comfort knowing that our God
is in control. What are our thoughts of God?
I don’t doubt that most of you have very high thoughts of God,
but our actions have to meet our attitudes. Are your heart
and head in sync? Do we say we know God is in control,
but struggle to fully believe it? So not only does truth or
true faith require knowing who God is, but true faith also requires
having a good memory. Verse seven, did you not, O our
God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people
Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever? 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, we will
stand before this house and before you. for your name is in this
house. And cry to you in our distress
and you will hear and deliver us. Now behold the sons 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. See how they are rewarding us
by coming out to drive us out from your possession which you
have given us as an inheritance. Jehoshaphat continues his prayer
and recounts the experience of God’s goodness to Israel and
his past promises. He recalls God’s promise to Abraham
to make a great nation out of him and give him the land. In Genesis 15, we can read that,
on that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your descendants,
I have given this land. from the river of Egypt as far
as the great river, the river of Euphrates. This land was Israel’s,
and God gave it to them and promised them that land. And Jehoshaphat
says, are you now going to let them drive us out? No, you gave
us this land. You promised us this land. He
also recounts how Israel was not allowed to invade these same
countries who are now attacking them. If you go to Deuteronomy
chapter 2, you can see where those those commands were met. It says, then we turned out and
set for the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea. As the Lord
spoke to me and circled Mount Seir for many days and the Lord
spoke to me saying, you have circled this mountain long enough.
Now turn north and command the people saying you will pass through
the territory of your brothers, the sons of Esau and who live
in Seir and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. Do
not provoke them. For I will not give you any of
their land, even as little as a footstep, because I have given
Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.” He says the same of the other
countries in verse 9 and verse 19 of Deuteronomy. God, you didn’t
let us attack them, and now they’re coming after us. Are you going
to let this happen? Moses did the same thing to the
Israelites when they were about to go into the land, when he
was about to be laid to rest. He reminded that the Israelites
of what great nation has a God so near to it is the Lord, our
God, whenever we call on him. He reminded them that he fed
you with manna. Your clothes did not wear out
and your feet did not swell. Joshua took over from Moses,
and he was going to bring them into the land. And he recounted
God’s goodness once again to the Israelites. And he said,
Choose this day who you will serve. As for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. So he told them to remember and
respond. What can you remember? What promises
does the believer have? Now you may not have dramatic
moments in your life that you can specifically point to, like
Jehoshaphat recalls for the nation of Israel. Several, not issues,
but several instances in my life are very innocuous. I look back
now and I see them, but I wouldn’t see them then. If they made a
life, a movie of my life, it would be rejected. Or it would
be rated B for boring by the Motion Picture Academy. I can look back now and see moments
how God protected me. So part of my prayer would be,
God, I thank you for placing me in a Christian home, even
though that didn’t take until 1978 when I was a junior in high
school. My house was full of music. I
wanted to be an athlete. I prayed through my high school
years, Lord, let me be a shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers,
or let me play for the Lakers, or use me in music. Or use me in music, whatever.
I want these two things. Look what happened. Lord, I thank
you for the day when my world seemed to come down because what
I thought I would be doing for the rest of my life fell apart.
And I remember being in my room in my parents’ house, door shut,
you know, wallowing in pity. And my dad, who was a well-known
musician in Christian circles, look him up, Charles Magnuson,
was practicing for concert that night and he was playing this
song and it was a song called I have a friend who loveth me
and if you don’t know it it says I have a friend who loveth me
he gave his life on Calvary upon the cross my sins he bore now
I am free forevermore My Savior’s love so full and free doth light
the weary way for me. It fills with joy each passing
day and drives my sorrows all the way. I have a friend, a mighty
friend, upon his power I may depend. He reigneth over every
land or valley, hill, on sea, and strand. Oh, hallelujah, he’s
my friend. He’ll guide me to the journey’s
end. He walks beside me all the way and will bestow a crown someday. And if I hadn’t been in church
all those years, it wouldn’t have meant anything to me. But
on Wednesday nights, while my parents were in choir practice,
I had to be there. I had no ride home. So I’d walk
around church, and I’d hear music. And it just became ingrained
in me. And to this day, I can hear something
or words of those old songs will come and be such a comfort. I
will also say, Lord, thank you for, even though these couple
of influences in my life weren’t the best, it brought me to a
church in Southern California where I got involved in the music
department. And unexpectedly and undeservedly,
They asked me to lead a choir and lead music. I didn’t have
a degree. I didn’t have any experience.
And it’s been 32 years now that I’ve been doing that. I also
had a choir practice. God had me notice a young lady
playing a violin. Her name was Carolyn Richards. And we’ve been married 32 years. I could go on and on. What would
your prayer be? What instances can you look at
and say, God, you brought me through that. I thank you. If
you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, I can help you with some
of it. Because there is a similarity in all of our experiences. and
you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working
in us, sons of disobedience. Among them, we too, all formerly
lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were nature, by nature, children of
wrath, even as the rest. But God, Being rich in mercy
because of his great love with which he loved us, even when
we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and
seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that
in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of
his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace,
you have been saved through faith. and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. How about this from Colossians?
For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred into
the kingdom of his beloved son. What promises do we have? I can
only name a few because I could go on forever. Hebrews, I will
never leave you or forsake you. In Luke, consider the lilies,
how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. But
I tell you, not even Solomon was clothed himself like one
of these. But if God so clothes the grass
of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow thrown into
the furnace, how much more will he clothe you, O you men of little
faith? who did not spare his own son
from Romans, but delivered him over for us all, how will he
not also freely give us all things? Now that’s not a he wants you
to be rich verse, but he will give us what we need. We can
keep God’s promises and count on them because his promises
puts his integrity on the line because he cannot lie. Recall your life. and see all
that he has done for you. Know and rely on his promises,
for they will not fail. What did we sing earlier? Jesus,
Jesus, how I trust him, how I’ve proved him o’er and o’er, or
how he’s proved to us. Not only does true faith require
knowing who God is, true faith requires good memory, but also
true faith requires a humbleness or a lack of pride In verse 12
we read, O our God, will you not judge them? For we are powerless
before this great multitude who are coming against us. Nor do
we know what to do, but our eyes are on you. What were Jehoshaphat’s
options here? He could have swelled with pride
at the army he had built up, trusted foolishly in them to
take down the enemy. Could he possibly have felt a
little anger? Because we read that he followed
the ways of the Lord. And the Lord was with him. He
took down the high places. And this is how I’m repaid? Have you ever felt that God owed
you something? Have you ever felt, hey, I’ve
been doing good. And then something happens. And
you’re going, well, wait a minute. I was working on that thing you
pointed out to me and I’ve been doing good on it. Shouldn’t I
be rewarded? Do we feel God owes us something?
If the only thing we received from God was our salvation, wouldn’t
that be enough? Why would we ever think that
God owed us something after he and only by his doing and his
grace and mercy saved us from an eternity in hell? Thankfully,
Jehoshaphat didn’t choose any of those options. He did not
care what his image might suffer if he said, hey, I don’t know
what to do. God, I’m looking towards you. He showed strength,
actually, by declaring to God, I need your help. Our eyes are
on you. He went to the strongest weapon
he had, and that was prayer. I read this from one of the SGA
updates. When the world is falling apart around us, it is really
hard to see the path forward. We don’t know what the future
will bring and likely strength and hope have fled away. But it is often in those times
that we come to the end of ourselves and our self-reliance that God
speaks most loudly to our hearts. Now, I looked up humility. Merriam-Webster
describes humility as freedom from pride or arrogance, which
is a good thing. But when you look at other definitions,
they basically put it as a weakness, saying no self-worth. That’s what a lot were saying.
A sense of unworthiness, a lack of confidence. I don’t think
humility is that at all. Being humble does not mean you
are unworthy. It just means you realize your
limitations. Arrogance is pride, and that’s
a sin. It makes you believe more than
you are. Why does it take desperation to move beyond ourselves? One
said this, I don’t pray as I ought because I’m self-sufficient,
which the Bible calls pride. My pride makes me think erroneously
that I can handle things by myself with a little help now and then
from God. So I rely mostly on myself and a little bit on God. We can be confident in a time
of crisis if we let our great need drive us to prayer and faith
in our great God. The problem is that in today’s
society to admit that we don’t know what to do is a sign of
weakness. Whether it be a small issue like
a house repair, or rescuing yourself out of a financial condition,
by taking it on yourself in pride, a small issue can grow exponentially
because it gets the best of us. As one wrote, unfortunately,
a recognition of our great need does not automatically drive
us to our great God. So not only does true faith requiring
knowing who God is, but true faith requires a good memory.
True faith requires a humbleness or lack of pride. And true faith
does not necessarily mean we sit back and do nothing. Verse
14, then in the midst of the assembly, the spirit of the Lord
came upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah,
the son of Jael, the son of Mataniah, the Levites of the sons of Asaph. Listen all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you. Do
not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for
the battle is not yours, but God’s. 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. Station yourselves. Stand and
see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. O Judah and Jerusalem,
do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out and face them,
for the Lord is with you. We have to be ready to be the
answer to our prayer. Even though the word to them
from God was they would not have to fight, they still had to go
out. I think sometimes we figure that
faith includes letting God do all the work. God, you can do
all things. So go at it, and I’ll just sit
back and watch. And that’s not how it will be.
There are times where God will provide us, provide for us without
having to act. I mean, there are times where
maybe you get a gift that’s unexpected and that was an answer to your
prayer. But many times he’s gonna call you to go out. He wants to use you to
accomplish the prayer. One wrote that God will have
us bring our contribution of activity as well as devotion. However, it may not be that kind
which we would select if we had our choice. We must let him choose
our service as well as our inheritance for us. Whether that be high
or humble, greater or smaller, we should be more than content
that he is calling us to service where Christ is our captain.
We should not be surprised or taken back that God would want
us to be part of the answer. We sing a song facing a task
unfinished, and verse three says, we bear the torch that flaming
fell from the hands of those who gave their lives proclaiming
that Jesus died and rose. Ours is the same commission,
the same glad message ours, Fired by the same ambition, to thee
we yield our powers. The next verse says, oh father
who sustained them, oh spirit who inspired, savior whose love
constrained them to toil with zeal untired. From coward us,
defend us from lethargy awake. Forth all thine errands send
us to labor for thy sake. I heard a day about It was another
SGA update. But there was a group needing
to get through a border crossing. And the message is, this young
man was just being his usual self, thoughtfully going back
and forth, helping the women and children all around him with
their luggage as they waited in line to get up to the border,
with his obviously pregnant wife by his side. At one point, when
all the male border agents were busy with other people, A very
young lady, customs agent, noticing how he was serving, waved them
over to herself, stamped their passports, and waved them through.
Such an amazing answer to prayer, and another clear instance of
the Lord inclining someone’s heart toward his people to provide
for their needs according to his will. Lastly, not only does
true faith require knowing who God is, but true faith requires
a good memory, True faith requires a humbleness or a lack of pride. True faith does not necessarily
mean we sit back and do nothing. True faith gives praise to God
before we see the answer or outcome. Verse 18, Jehoshaphat bowed his
head with his face to the ground and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord.
Verse 20, they rose early in the morning and went out to the
wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat
stood and said, listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
put your trust in the Lord, your God, and you will be established.
Put your trust in his prophets and succeed. When he had consulted
with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and
those who praised him in holy attire as they went out before
the army and said, give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness
is everlasting. When they began singing and praising,
the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Moab and Mount Seir
who had come up against Judah. So they were routed. Now the word was the battle was
the Lord’s. You won’t have to fight in this battle, but you
do have to go out and see the salvation of the Lord. Now, even
if you’re confident that you don’t have to fight, Wouldn’t
you normally send out the army first? Maybe there’s some traps.
Maybe there’s some arrows that are going to come. They’re going
to miss. But put some of those with experience
out there. No. Send the praise team out. Sometimes I hear people say,
and maybe it’s a flaw in me, but they’re testifying about
something that had happened in their life, and they say, God
answered my prayer, blah, blah, blah. And sometimes I feel like they’re
saying, God answered my prayer in the way I wanted him to. If I was to write a book on prayer,
The title would be, no is also an answer. God saves us many times by saying
no. When we bring our request before
God and ask him to work in certain situations or ask for healing
or whatever, do we end the prayer with thanksgiving? Knowing, just
knowing that the sovereign God hears us Whatever the outcome, that He is with us and He has
our best in mind. Now, one pastor wrote, waiting
for an answer before praising God is not faith, it’s gratitude. Now, you may say to me, and I’ll
get this out of the way, John, It doesn’t always end like it
does for Judah here. No, it doesn’t. In this world, we will have trouble. Take courage, I have overcome
the world. That’s a promise that we have
in John. If things always went well, we
wouldn’t have a book called Fox’s Book of Martyrs, a book about
those who gave their lives for Christ. People end up in jail. They go through long sessions
or seasons of suffering. It’s a good chance. Many of us
here, all of us here, some of us here will be persecuted, truly
persecuted for our faith. But for the Christian, we know
that God is sovereign and there is a purpose for what we go through. If there wasn’t a purpose, we
would that there would be no comfort. But we read in 1 Peter
1, six through nine, in this, in this you greatly rejoice,
even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have
been distressed by various trials. So that the proof of your faith
being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though
tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory
and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you
have not seen him, You love him. And though you do not see him
now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible
and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith,
the salvation of your souls. Did you understand that? You
can rejoice. We can rejoice in our sufferings
because God is working in them. And even if the ultimate happens,
And we were to die, which is going to happen at some point.
What did Paul say? But I am hard pressed from both
directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ,
for that is much better. Yet to remain on in the flesh
is more necessary for your sake. That’s the ultimate. When our
time here ends and we’re up in heaven with him, that’s the goal. What is in us that causes us
to worry, to doubt, to get anxious? I’ve come up with three reasons.
You may have your own. I’ve come up with three. The
first one, I’m pretty much going to discount, but I’m going to
put it out there. I think this is the least likely
reason. We think the issue is too big
for God to handle. So let’s get rid of that one
right away. I don’t think there’s anybody
here that doesn’t think of God and think, well, that’s too big
a job for him. I don’t see that. But if you
do, we can talk. Number two, you believe with
all your heart God can do all things. Nothing is too difficult
for him. It’s just that you struggle believing
God would do that for you. I will confess, I struggle with
that. If Isaac were to come to me and
say, hey, pray for us, we’re going through this situation, and there’s this in it, there’s
this in it, I would right away, and fully believing it, say,
God can work through that. He parted the Red Sea. He raised
Lazarus and Jesus from the dead. He can handle that. But I struggle that he’d do it
for me. Why? I’m the psalmate. Who am I, oh God, that you consider
me? Lastly, and I think this is kind
of prevalent. Maybe I’m wrong. I think that
our faith fails sometimes because we are afraid of what His will
is for us. That it will not match up with
ours. That it won’t be as good as ours is. After all, don’t
we know what’s best for us? And God doesn’t know that if
He gives this to us, my faith in Him will grow because He gave
me what I wanted. Is it possible we don’t trust
the one who created us, who knows us better than we know ourselves,
who knows what is ahead, who sees the big picture when we
can only see what is right before us? Is it possible that our believing
God can do all things is head knowledge and not fully heart
knowledge? I know very well that it is hard
to let go of what we want or think would be best for us. However, I can think of many,
many times where what I thought or what I wanted, what would
be best for me didn’t come about. And what God provided was much
better. And we can easily look back and
say, that’s a good thing you didn’t give that to me. What gets in the way? Where else
do we think we can go? Why don’t we go immediately to
our sovereign God, the one who is supreme above anything else? I encourage you to look back
at your life and see how God has worked in it. Don’t ignore
the little things. Recall his promises for you.
Remember, he is the one who moved first, not you. Remember, you
were headed for hell. And you couldn’t do anything
about it. until in His grace He gave you faith as a gift.
That faith to not only understand and believe what was accomplished
by Christ’s death and resurrection, but also the faith to, accompanied
by the Holy Spirit, to follow, to be obedient and depend on
and trust that He will not leave you alone. So do as Joshua. called on the Israelites to do. Remember, respond, and rejoice. Father, we thank you. Not only that you are faithful,
but you’re patient with us also. And that you do not.