Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: I would like to share with you a verse of
Speaker 1: scripture that I pray will go off like a bomb,
Speaker 1: like the promise that it is when I read it.
Speaker 1: A certain number of you. I don't know how many,
Speaker 1: and I don't know where you are, but a certain
Speaker 1: number of you are going to know that this one
Speaker 1: is for you when I read the verse. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying this for everybody, but if it is for you,
Speaker 1: and how you can know if it's for you, If
Speaker 1: you're currently facing a battle that is bigger than you,
Speaker 1: then this verse is for you today. And so when
Speaker 1: I read this verse, it's not for everybody. It's for
Speaker 1: those who are facing a battle that is bigger than you.
Speaker 1: And the scripture is found in Second Chronicles, chapter twenty.
Speaker 1: In just a moment, I'll read it. I want to
Speaker 1: give everybody who wants to turn to it a chance
Speaker 1: to do that you got it, Rachel. When Rachel's ready,
Speaker 1: I'll read it, because she knows the Bible is so good,
Speaker 1: so she hadn't found it by now. I know somebody
Speaker 1: else is over in Galatians looking for Second Chronicles. You
Speaker 1: got it twenty seventeen. Listen to this. You ready? I
Speaker 1: don't think you are. This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 1: And really, I'm going to minister off of the song
Speaker 1: that we just sang. We were singing I'm going to
Speaker 1: see a victory, and we were singing Romans eight twenty eight,
Speaker 1: Genesis fifty twenty, one of the major themes of scripture,
Speaker 1: how God takes what the enemy meant for evil and
Speaker 1: he flips the intention of the enemy. And actually, you
Speaker 1: is it to produce a purpose through your life? And
Speaker 1: I'm going to minister off of that today. That song
Speaker 1: went so well with my sermon. It's almost like we
Speaker 1: planned it. It's almost like I texted LJ Wednesday and
Speaker 1: told him to do that song before I preached Second
Speaker 1: Chronicles twenty verse seventeen. The word of the Lord. You
Speaker 1: will not have to fight this battle six of y'all
Speaker 1: all right, if you want that to be your word?
Speaker 1: Shot When I read it. You will not have to
Speaker 1: fight this battle. Come on, punch somebody, say not this one,
Speaker 1: not this one. You will not have to fight this battle.
Speaker 1: You will not have to fight this battle. Tell them
Speaker 1: you will not have to You will not have to
Speaker 1: fight this battle. Take up your positions, stand firm and
Speaker 1: see Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will
Speaker 1: give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid,
Speaker 1: do not be discouraged. Don't believe that devil when he
Speaker 1: tells you that there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 1: Go out to face them tomorrow and the Lord will
Speaker 1: be with you. Let's give God a shout of praise
Speaker 1: for his proper amen. You may be seated in the
Speaker 1: presence of God. I should mention that yesterday marked seventeen
Speaker 1: years since I made the best decision of my life
Speaker 1: in Monks Corner, South Carolina, at the Old Santee Canal
Speaker 1: State Park, where I send my vows to the Hollyanna
Speaker 1: boyan out of my dreams. Sweating through my s and
Speaker 1: K two sizes too big, standing out in one hundred
Speaker 1: and four degree low country heat. Eric Phillips was a
Speaker 1: groomsman sweating and six ministers stood on the rostrum to
Speaker 1: share in seven different songs that we sang. It was
Speaker 1: quite an occasion. We made a big deal about it
Speaker 1: and everybody had to endure it. It was a big day.
Speaker 1: I sang a song to Holly on my Taylor acoustic
Speaker 1: guitar that I could barely afford that I had written
Speaker 1: for the occasion, And I'm going to write her another song.
Speaker 1: She doesn't know it yet, but I've already got the
Speaker 1: chorus and I'm working on it before we get to
Speaker 1: the twentieth anniversary, and I'm going to have it ready.
Speaker 1: It's a good song. It's kind of got a Tom
Speaker 1: Petty vibe with a little bit of Ed Sheeran, and
Speaker 1: I'm praying that it'll help me to unlock the doors
Speaker 1: of love that I need unlocked in moments of my
Speaker 1: life where I want affection, attention and intimacy with my wife.
Speaker 1: So y'all pray for me about that as well. Already
Speaker 1: got the chorus praying about the verse. So now I
Speaker 1: think I'm qualified to give marriage advice seventeen years something
Speaker 1: to say, not ready to do the parenting book yet,
Speaker 1: but the marriage thing. Really, I feel unqualified to give
Speaker 1: marriage advice because I feel like our marriage is strong
Speaker 1: mostly because of who I chose, And that's the honest truth.
Speaker 1: I'm not pandering now, I'm telling you the truth. I
Speaker 1: think that selection is so important. And I don't mean
Speaker 1: that God can't take a relationship that starts rocky and
Speaker 1: turn it into something that is really, really beautiful. Of course,
Speaker 1: he makes beauty out of ashes, that's what he does.
Speaker 1: But I think I get sometimes credit for things about
Speaker 1: our marriage that are really just a product of the
Speaker 1: character of the person that I'm married. And one person
Speaker 1: told me, who has a very psychologically based knowledge, that
Speaker 1: the healthiest part of me chose Holly. And I didn't
Speaker 1: even know what that meant when they said it, but
Speaker 1: it sounded true. So I'm saying it to you. When
Speaker 1: I chose her, I chose a union with her strengths,
Speaker 1: but I also chose to cover her weaknesses as her husband,
Speaker 1: and then she chose to cover my weaknesses. And I
Speaker 1: definitely got the good end of it. I promise you that.
Speaker 1: But you know, the thing about marriage is sometimes it's
Speaker 1: more helpful to look at an example than it is
Speaker 1: to listen to advice. Even Jesus he loved the church
Speaker 1: like he wants a husband to love their wife. So
Speaker 1: it's more of an example than an explanation. And people
Speaker 1: will give you marriage advice or life advice or parenting advice,
Speaker 1: but they'll give it to you based on ideal situations.
Speaker 1: And the problem with that is when someone is advising
Speaker 1: you but they don't know the exact nature of your challenges.
Speaker 1: They might give you a strategy that worked for them,
Speaker 1: but it might not work for you. Because every relationship,
Speaker 1: every challenge, every battle is not created equal. And I
Speaker 1: remember asking so many different couples before our wedding what
Speaker 1: advice they would give, and mostly you get the same
Speaker 1: old cliches, the same old tired cliches about you know,
Speaker 1: never go to bed angry, which I want to say,
Speaker 1: is a horrible, horrible thing to try, because the best
Speaker 1: thing to do sometimes is get some rest and come
Speaker 1: at it fresh in the morning before you say something
Speaker 1: you regret with your sleep deprived, delirious self, with your
Speaker 1: filter off. And now you're tired saying stuff that you
Speaker 1: would never say if it wasn't three am. So go
Speaker 1: to your corner and come out tomorrow morning. See I'm
Speaker 1: saying some of this advice that sounds good like, choose
Speaker 1: your battles. That's one advice you always get. Choose your battles.
Speaker 1: Don't fight over everything, which is great advice. You know,
Speaker 1: you have to decide in any relationship. This is not
Speaker 1: a marriage seminar, by the way, I'm just using it
Speaker 1: for an opening illustration. But you have to decide, like
Speaker 1: is this really worth waging a war over? Is it
Speaker 1: really worth If Holly still, after seventeen years, doesn't know
Speaker 1: how to correctly load the silverware in the dishwasher, and
Speaker 1: she thinks it's still okay to put the part of
Speaker 1: the fork that you put in your mouth facing up
Speaker 1: so that your hand touches the part that's going in
Speaker 1: your mouth when you get it out the next day,
Speaker 1: If she really still thinks that makes sense after seventeen years,
Speaker 1: is it really worth fighting about. No, I'm bigger than that.
Speaker 1: I'm not a petty man. I let it go. So
Speaker 1: they'll tell you choose your battles. Let your kids play
Speaker 1: the music too loud every once in a while, don't
Speaker 1: always choose your battles. Don't get tripped up over tiny things.
Speaker 1: Choose your battles. The question I want to ask today,
Speaker 1: and I guess you could use it as a title
Speaker 1: for the message as well. From Second Chronicles twenty is
Speaker 1: it's wise to choose your battles when you can. But
Speaker 1: what do you do when your battle chooses you? You
Speaker 1: do when something shows up on your doorstep and it's
Speaker 1: not from Amazon Prime and you didn't order it. What
Speaker 1: do you do when the devil drops something off for
Speaker 1: you to deal with that you did not directly cause,
Speaker 1: choose or definitely anticipate. Like Jehoshaphat in Second Chronicles twenty,
Speaker 1: who is told one morning in verse one, might I
Speaker 1: add in a time of spiritual renewal for Judah, the
Speaker 1: southern kingdom of Israel, in a time of great momentum spiritually,
Speaker 1: one day, just when everything's going good, you know how,
Speaker 1: just when you get something figured out, and just when
Speaker 1: you get in your groove, and just when you get
Speaker 1: in your rhythm, and here comes some news. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: after this first one, the Moabites and Ammonites and even
Speaker 1: some of the men Unites came to make war on Jehashaphat.
Speaker 1: And some men came and told Jehashaphat, I'm not telling them,
Speaker 1: you tell I'm not telling them. You tell him? Well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell him. Let's all tell them together. A vast
Speaker 1: army is coming against you from Edom, from the other
Speaker 1: side of the sea. This means they're sneaking up from behind.
Speaker 1: They're going around the Dead Sea and then coming back
Speaker 1: up to attack the people of God on a little
Speaker 1: known route because they can't use the normal trade route,
Speaker 1: and so they're sneaking up from behind, and they're twenty
Speaker 1: five miles out. That means that Jehashaphat doesn't have time
Speaker 1: to develop a strategy. He doesn't have time to build
Speaker 1: the armed forces to mount a defense. He doesn't have
Speaker 1: time to rethink the occasions that led up to this
Speaker 1: event is coming, and it is coming now. Have you
Speaker 1: ever got that phone call, that text message, that moment
Speaker 1: in time where something is sneaking up on you and
Speaker 1: it's only a day's march away. That means I have
Speaker 1: to deal with it tomorrow. I don't have time to
Speaker 1: read a book. I don't have time to watch a
Speaker 1: Ted talk. I don't have time to get my nutrition
Speaker 1: in my sleep. This one caught me off guard. This
Speaker 1: one slapped me up side the head. This one left
Speaker 1: my ear ringing. This one I can't even believe is happening.
Speaker 1: This one, I'm not even really sure if it's real yet.
Speaker 1: This one. I don't have time to call twelve people
Speaker 1: about this one. I don't have time to get everybody's opinion.
Speaker 1: This one, I don't have time to get everybody's advice.
Speaker 1: So watch what Chahashaphat did. He said, I don't have
Speaker 1: time for all that, so I gotta go to God.
Speaker 1: There's something about a surprise attack that will drive you
Speaker 1: into the presence of God. There's something about the one
Speaker 1: you didn't see coming that'll make you run to the
Speaker 1: place you should have run too. All along, I'm getting
Speaker 1: ahead of myself. But it said that they were coming,
Speaker 1: and they were already in ingetti, and so the response
Speaker 1: of the king is urgent. It says that in verse
Speaker 1: three he was alarmed, but yet he resolved. I really
Speaker 1: liked that. I really liked that he had a determination
Speaker 1: to seek the Lord even in the face of an
Speaker 1: unexpected attack. He had made up his mind who he
Speaker 1: would go to before he even knew what would come
Speaker 1: against him. And of course he didn't always respond this way.
Speaker 1: Nobody does. Come on, nobody does. Oh man, this is
Speaker 1: so difficult to get across the hypocritical Christians who always
Speaker 1: want to act like they always sought the Lord and
Speaker 1: prayed about everything, like you always prayed in tongues, like
Speaker 1: you always lifted your hands, like you always prostrated yourself
Speaker 1: before the holiness of His Majesty, the Great Jehovah, who
Speaker 1: fights your battles. No, Jehoshapad hooked up with Ahab and
Speaker 1: almost got himself killed two chapters ago because it seemed
Speaker 1: like the right strategy. Because when they wanted to attack
Speaker 1: a strategic city, the wicked king Ahab, and you might
Speaker 1: recognize his name from the prophetic account of Elijah. That's
Speaker 1: the one Elijah went to and he was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: it's not going to reign until I say so. The
Speaker 1: heavens are going to be like a voice activated shower system,
Speaker 1: and until I say so, it's not going to rain.
Speaker 1: That was ahap He said that too, And so Jehashafat
Speaker 1: got with that same king and went out to do
Speaker 1: what seemed smart, and they almost got killed. In fact,
Speaker 1: Ahab did get killed, and the prophet Makaiah tried to
Speaker 1: tell him these false bail prophets, what they're telling you
Speaker 1: is what you want to hear. But it's not what
Speaker 1: you need to hear. If you go into that battle,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get yourself hurt. And he did, and he
Speaker 1: barely made it out because he fought the wrong battle.
Speaker 1: Have you ever barely made it out because you fought
Speaker 1: a battle that you weren't supposed to fight. One time,
Speaker 1: my father in law were driving it was actually on
Speaker 1: the day of my wedding seventeen years ago, and we
Speaker 1: passed a couple who on the side of the road.
Speaker 1: They were fighting physically, But the interesting thing about it
Speaker 1: was the man was in a headlock and the woman
Speaker 1: seemed to have the situation firmly in control. I didn't
Speaker 1: see that till ill when I pulled the car over.
Speaker 1: I was going to get out and help because I
Speaker 1: thought that the man was beating up on the woman.
Speaker 1: But when I saw that the woman was taking care
Speaker 1: of the man, I figured, you know, just praise God
Speaker 1: for his sovereignty, that he knows what's best, and apparently
Speaker 1: this woman doesn't need my help. So I just drove off.
Speaker 1: But my father in law said, why did you stop.
Speaker 1: I said, I was going to get out and help.
Speaker 1: He said, no, no, no, never get in a fight
Speaker 1: between a man and his woman, because you'll step in
Speaker 1: to help them. And then if you step into their
Speaker 1: fight and it's not your fight, but you get in
Speaker 1: the middle of it, they'll turn around and both start
Speaker 1: fighting you. It's good life advice. Don't try to take
Speaker 1: on a fight that's not your fight, because you might
Speaker 1: find out when you take on a fight that's not
Speaker 1: your fight, you might find out that the surest way
Speaker 1: for you to get yourself in trouble is for you
Speaker 1: to take on a battle that doesn't belong to you.
Speaker 1: This is why Christians don't always need to share their
Speaker 1: opinion on every subject that is presented as a cultural issue.
Speaker 1: You've got to choose your battles and to know God.
Speaker 1: This is what Jahasipha wanted to know. Is this my battle?
Speaker 1: Is this my fight? Is this something that I need
Speaker 1: to be involved in? Is this something that I'm called
Speaker 1: to do? You'd be shocked how many people through the
Speaker 1: years have tried to get me to be more political
Speaker 1: from my pulpit. But that's not my fight. I vote,
Speaker 1: I'm involved. I lead thousands of people to make a
Speaker 1: difference in our community. I build something that represents and
Speaker 1: reflects unity to a broken fragmented world, and we do
Speaker 1: it together every six days and through the week. But
Speaker 1: you've got to be very careful that you don't expend
Speaker 1: all of your energy fighting battles that are not yours,
Speaker 1: and then you don't have any energy left for the
Speaker 1: battles that are yours. And now you've gotten so tired
Speaker 1: leaving comments on Facebook posts with people that you don't
Speaker 1: know in Idaho that you don't have any strength to
Speaker 1: engage with the people who live in your own house.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to run the White House. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to run my house. And I got my hands full.
Speaker 1: I got three people in my house who are dependents. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, when you're wearing yourself out swinging that stuff
Speaker 1: that's not even yours to fight. I'm bad about this though.
Speaker 1: I sometimes it's as if I don't have enough drama
Speaker 1: for my own self, so I start trying to control
Speaker 1: other people. You know how you can tell if you're
Speaker 1: fighting the wrong battles. If you are trying to control others,
Speaker 1: you're fighting the wrong battle. You can't control others past
Speaker 1: a certain point. You can only manipulate short term behavioral results,
Speaker 1: but you can't change somebody's heart. That's why even the
Speaker 1: New Testament says, as much as it is possible with
Speaker 1: you live at peace with all men. There comes a
Speaker 1: point where the peace of another person is not your responsibility.
Speaker 1: Your piece is your responsibility. And there comes a point
Speaker 1: where you have to say, that's not my battle, that's
Speaker 1: not my battle. I've done all I can do, but
Speaker 1: that's not my battle. In fact, let me give you
Speaker 1: a great little line to use the next time somebody
Speaker 1: tries to draw you into some gossip or draw you
Speaker 1: into some drama, okay, And they'll usually say, what do
Speaker 1: you think about so and so? You heard about so
Speaker 1: and so? What you think about People ask me this
Speaker 1: off time about another ministry, what do you think about
Speaker 1: so and so? And I learned this from an older minister.
Speaker 1: They taught me what to say, what do you think about?
Speaker 1: And here's what you say back, I don't. It'll work
Speaker 1: for a variety of situations. It can work for a
Speaker 1: situation that you're ignorant about and you only read headlines,
Speaker 1: so you really don't have anything to say because we
Speaker 1: can't trust the information that we're given. It can work
Speaker 1: about Donald Trump, It can work about Kanye West. It
Speaker 1: can work about somebody else that drops their kid off
Speaker 1: at school next to you, and they're having trouble in
Speaker 1: their marriage. What do you think about so and so?
Speaker 1: I don't. My heart is a full time drama factory.
Speaker 1: I do not need to borrow drama from anybody else's
Speaker 1: personal life. I got my own drama byod bring your
Speaker 1: own drama. I got enough. You brought your own drama
Speaker 1: to church without judging somebody else from what you think
Speaker 1: about them from ten seconds of their life compared to
Speaker 1: the entirety of it. I don't have time for it.
Speaker 1: And Jehoshaphat didn't run around looking at what other people
Speaker 1: were doing. He went to seek the Lord. He went
Speaker 1: to inquire of the Lord. And this is not just
Speaker 1: some glib prayer or this is not just getting some
Speaker 1: feeling and going with it and calling it God. And
Speaker 1: this isn't just slapping a scripture verse on something that
Speaker 1: you wanted to do any so that you can blame
Speaker 1: it on God when it doesn't work out. This is
Speaker 1: really seeking the Lord. In fact, the Bible says that
Speaker 1: he was shaken, but he wasn't. He wasn't. Maybe I
Speaker 1: should say it this way. He was shocked, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't shook who didn't see this coming. Amm and Moab
Speaker 1: and the Edomites. That's three of them. I could fight one,
Speaker 1: but there's three of them. It's bigger than me, and
Speaker 1: it's coming up from behind me. You got something bigger
Speaker 1: than you that came up from behind you. Jehoshaphat's prayer
Speaker 1: is interesting because he's praying about Amm and Moab and
Speaker 1: the Edomites from Mount Sierra. But we got three different enemies.
Speaker 1: We got the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's
Speaker 1: from first John, that's your the world, the flesh and
Speaker 1: the devil, that's the values that oppose your purpose. The world,
Speaker 1: the flesh that's the patterns that oppose your purpose. And
Speaker 1: the devil that is the principality that opposes your purpose.
Speaker 1: And I could fight one, But how do I fight
Speaker 1: the devil when I'm fighting my own flesh? How do
Speaker 1: I fight the world when actually there's a part of
Speaker 1: me that wants to do it like the world. I
Speaker 1: could fight one, but I can't fight them all, and
Speaker 1: they're bigger than me and it's coming up from behind.
Speaker 1: How do I raise kids in a culture where the
Speaker 1: information of the history of the universe is in their pocket.
Speaker 1: How do I have a sex talk with kids when
Speaker 1: they don't have to go to a gas station to
Speaker 1: see pornography, They can do it right beside their Bible lap.
Speaker 1: The nature of the battle determines the nature of the strategy.
Speaker 1: When you don't understand and the nature of the battle,
Speaker 1: you will not understand the nuance of the strategy. So
Speaker 1: you will fight the battle not understanding the dynamics of
Speaker 1: the battle, and you will lose the battle because you
Speaker 1: will wrestle on the wrong level. Can I preach you
Speaker 1: a little bit today? It's for fifty people that you
Speaker 1: are facing something that snuck up from behind. You didn't
Speaker 1: see this coming, and it's bigger than you. I don't
Speaker 1: know which one to fight next. When you understand the
Speaker 1: nature of the battle, you can understand the nature of
Speaker 1: the strategy. And that's why I got to ask God.
Speaker 1: Jehasha Fat resolved to seek the lure. That means he
Speaker 1: involved the priests, the levites, and they got together and
Speaker 1: he got surrounded by the right people. He's not going
Speaker 1: to Ahab this time. He's not asking all his friends
Speaker 1: what they think about at this time. He's not looking
Speaker 1: for celebrity culture to influence his decisions. This time he's
Speaker 1: going to the right place, but he doesn't have a plan.
Speaker 1: And I want you to see his prayer because it'll
Speaker 1: help you. If you're facing a battle that is bigger
Speaker 1: than you and it's snuck up from behind you. Every
Speaker 1: day this week, I want you to open your Bible
Speaker 1: to Second Chronicles twenty verse three, and following read what
Speaker 1: Jahasapad prayed, and then pray it. Because verse five says
Speaker 1: out loud, I want you to pray this every day
Speaker 1: this week. If you're fighting a battle that is bigger
Speaker 1: than you and it's snuck up from behind you, get
Speaker 1: in God's face this week for a few minutes every
Speaker 1: day and pray this prayer. Because Jehasafad stood up verse
Speaker 1: five in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the
Speaker 1: Temple of the Lord in the front of the new courtyard.
Speaker 1: This is Solomon's temple. This is the one they dedicated
Speaker 1: to God. This is the one where God promised to
Speaker 1: pour out his presence for any problem you face. He
Speaker 1: starts reminding God of what God said, O, Lord, God
Speaker 1: of our fathers, are you not the God who is
Speaker 1: in heaven. I love this man because he has already
Speaker 1: shifted his focus from what is coming against him to
Speaker 1: the one who reigns above him. O, Lord, God of
Speaker 1: our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven?
Speaker 1: You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power
Speaker 1: and might are in your hand, and no one can
Speaker 1: withstand you, Oh our God, Did you not drive out
Speaker 1: the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel? Remind
Speaker 1: God of what he's already done when you're not sure
Speaker 1: what he's doing right now. Not so he can remember,
Speaker 1: but so you can. Come on, You need to remember.
Speaker 1: This is not your first rodeo cowboy. This is not
Speaker 1: the first time you cry. This is not the first
Speaker 1: time you were sort of breath. This is not the
Speaker 1: first time you didn't see away clear. This is not
Speaker 1: the first time you were hurt. This is not the
Speaker 1: first time your heart was broken. This is not the
Speaker 1: first time you didn't have enough money. This is not
Speaker 1: the first diagnosis that came up from behind phyllis presence?
Speaker 1: Did you not do it before your people Israel? And
Speaker 1: give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend.
Speaker 1: Watch this, He said you gave it forever. And since
Speaker 1: you gave it forever, it can't stop now, since you
Speaker 1: promised to fulfill your purpose. No enemy from Ammin, no
Speaker 1: enemy from Moab, no enemy from Mount Sierra, no Eedom
Speaker 1: I can take it away. And when he says it,
Speaker 1: on one hand, he's praising God, but it almost sounds
Speaker 1: like he's blaming God. Notice the tone it shifts in
Speaker 1: verse eight. They have lived in it and have built
Speaker 1: in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, if calamity
Speaker 1: comes upon us, whether the sore judgment or plague or famine,
Speaker 1: we will stand in your presence before this temple that
Speaker 1: bears your name, and will cry out to you in
Speaker 1: our distress, and you will hear us and save us.
Speaker 1: But now, God, Great God, respectfully, King Sir, the Righteous One.
Speaker 1: But now here are men from Ammin, Moab and Mount
Speaker 1: Seer whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade
Speaker 1: when they came from Egypt. Oh Jehasha Fah said, this
Speaker 1: is not my fault. Now, last time when I hooked
Speaker 1: up with Ahab, that's on me. But this one, somebody
Speaker 1: shot this one. This one, we're doing the best we can.
Speaker 1: This one we're praying in the temple. This one we
Speaker 1: were acting according to the wisdom that we had for
Speaker 1: the situation we were in. This one. Nobody really knew
Speaker 1: how to do it this one, and we couldn't have
Speaker 1: prevented by obedience. This one is different. This one is different.
Speaker 1: And you're going through something right now that's a little different. Sure,
Speaker 1: you've got sin and you've got things you need to
Speaker 1: repent of, and I do too. And if you dare
Speaker 1: look at me with an angelic face when I say that,
Speaker 1: I promise I will prophesy and God will show me
Speaker 1: something about your life that you do not want on
Speaker 1: these imax screens. I'll do it. But this one, this battle,
Speaker 1: this coalition is three enemies. They joined up to fight me.
Speaker 1: And the whole reason they're even here is because when
Speaker 1: Moses led the people out of Egypt, you told him
Speaker 1: that he couldn't drive them out because they were the
Speaker 1: relatives of Esau. That's who the Edomites were. They were
Speaker 1: the descendants of Esau. And Esau was the son of Isaac.
Speaker 1: He wasn't his favorite son, but he was still his son.
Speaker 1: He gave away his birthright, but he was still son.
Speaker 1: And Isaac was the son of Abraham, and Abraham was
Speaker 1: God's friend, and so God did not let the Israelites
Speaker 1: drive out somebody that belonged to his friend. When you've
Speaker 1: got a friend who knows how to fight, it will
Speaker 1: make you confident. When you've got a friend who knows
Speaker 1: how to fight. I remember this kid we used to
Speaker 1: pick on in fourth grade called Eric Pye, but then
Speaker 1: Eric Pye made friends with Harry Walker. Eric Pye couldn't fight,
Speaker 1: but Harry Walker could. Harry Walker was seventeen with chest
Speaker 1: hair in the fourth grade. Harry Walker had a prison
Speaker 1: record in the fourth grade. Harry Walker said, you pick
Speaker 1: on him, you pick on me. Now look at somebody confident,
Speaker 1: say you fight me. You gotta fight my friend. This
Speaker 1: is a pold message. This is to know. It might
Speaker 1: be bigger than me, but it's not bigger than God.
Speaker 1: I'm a calm down. I'm a calm down. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: let us drive them out. We would have done it,
Speaker 1: but you wouldn't let us. This is not our fault. Well,
Speaker 1: you have to do when you fight a battle that's
Speaker 1: not your fault. Sometimes you fight against things that are
Speaker 1: in your genetics, but you still got to figure out
Speaker 1: what to do about that battle. And when it's that deep,
Speaker 1: it's that strong. Sometimes you fight against things that other
Speaker 1: people did, and if you go into shame and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: I take responsibility for my part, that's good. But it's
Speaker 1: tricky because before long, shame will drive you out of
Speaker 1: the presence of God, which is what you need when
Speaker 1: you're in a situation, even if you created it. So
Speaker 1: it's tricky because you can find yourself in a battle
Speaker 1: and you can say, well, I can't expect God's help
Speaker 1: in this situation because it was created by my hand.
Speaker 1: But Jehoshaphat is transcending all of that with his prayer,
Speaker 1: and he says, Oh, Lord, our God, we belong to you.
Speaker 1: We are your possession. And when we came into this
Speaker 1: land so many years ago, you would not let us
Speaker 1: drive out these enemies. And they're bigger than us, and
Speaker 1: they came up from behind us, and we're not to
Speaker 1: blame for this battle. And yet here it is so
Speaker 1: so now verse eleven, Oh Lord our God, see how
Speaker 1: they are repaying us by coming to drive us out
Speaker 1: of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. Now
Speaker 1: let me put this in here. I'm just going with
Speaker 1: the spirit today. I haven't opened my nose. I mean
Speaker 1: I got in my heart. I'ming. I'm preaching spirit to
Speaker 1: spirit today for whoever needs to receive it. And God
Speaker 1: gave me this word before I gave you this word
Speaker 1: for the battles that I face that are bigger than me.
Speaker 1: And he said, see how they are repaying us by
Speaker 1: coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us. Now,
Speaker 1: if it's God who gave it, then it's God's to
Speaker 1: protect it. That's about possession. It's not about how much
Speaker 1: power you have. It's about possession. And if you are
Speaker 1: God's possession and you are stewarding something that he gave
Speaker 1: you to possess, then it's not a matter of how
Speaker 1: much power you have that determines what happens next in
Speaker 1: this battle. When it's God's possession, it's God's problem. I
Speaker 1: don't want to cry telling you this if it hits
Speaker 1: your heart that if it's God's possession, is God's problem.
Speaker 1: And then you realize that you are his treasure, you
Speaker 1: are his possession, You are his daughter, you are his son.
Speaker 1: You are his friend, and your friend knows how to fight.
Speaker 1: It gives you the confidence, Oh, our God, will you
Speaker 1: not judge them? For we verse twelve. Have no power
Speaker 1: to face this vast army that is attacking us. It's
Speaker 1: bigger than us. It came up from behind us. We
Speaker 1: can't do it. We do not know what to do.
Speaker 1: If you're there right now, raise your right hand. I
Speaker 1: do not know what to do. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to fight. I don't know how to fix it. I
Speaker 1: can't control what comes against me. But our eyes are
Speaker 1: upon you, and God says, if you will change the focus,
Speaker 1: he will win the fight. If you will change the
Speaker 1: focus and stop looking at how big it is, but
Speaker 1: start praising him for how great he is. Help is
Speaker 1: on the way. Thirteen. All the men of Judah, with
Speaker 1: their wives and children and little ones, stood there before
Speaker 1: the Lord. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jehazeel,
Speaker 1: son of Zachariah, the son of Benaniah, the son of
Speaker 1: j Eo, the son of matt and Aiah, a Levite
Speaker 1: and the descendant of Asath as he stood in the assembly.
Speaker 1: Why did you read all those names, pastor Steven? Why
Speaker 1: didn't you skip over that that's not important to the story.
Speaker 1: It absolutely is because every name that was represented represented
Speaker 1: a generation that God was faithful in, and it meant
Speaker 1: that every single time that God got ready to pass
Speaker 1: his purpose to another generation, he didn't drop it, and
Speaker 1: he won't drop it now, and it won't stop with you.
Speaker 1: And you won't lose the battle unless you lose your focus.
Speaker 1: It's not about your power, it's about your position. Can
Speaker 1: I show you you got like ten more minutes. I'm
Speaker 1: so thankful that that prophet stood up and said what
Speaker 1: he said, because you know, everybody was starting to get
Speaker 1: ready to fight, and you know if they had fought,
Speaker 1: they would have lost. Isn't that the craziest thing is ironic?
Speaker 1: If they had fought, they would have lost. When you
Speaker 1: don't understand the nature of the battle that you're in,
Speaker 1: you use the wrong strategy and some of us are
Speaker 1: losing because we are fighting on the wrong level. To
Speaker 1: unpack it, I could use Ephesian six twelve. We wrestle
Speaker 1: not against flesh and blood, but that's what we fight
Speaker 1: against flesh and blood. We fight every battle physically, We
Speaker 1: fight people. We even fight people that are trying to
Speaker 1: help us. Because we're insecure. We fight. We fight the
Speaker 1: battle to protect our ego and to protect our pride,
Speaker 1: and then we lose the battle in our spirit, because
Speaker 1: we were more concerned about protecting our pride than we
Speaker 1: were about receiving God's power and his help and his
Speaker 1: provision in our lives. I was talking to somebody this
Speaker 1: week and they were saying all kinds of crazy stuff
Speaker 1: to me, and the Lord said, not this one. Don't
Speaker 1: fight this one. Learn the twenty percent that he say
Speaker 1: in this true. Keep your mouth shut, save your energy
Speaker 1: for the real battle. Sometimes I see a comment on
Speaker 1: Instagram about my preaching or shoes or something like that,
Speaker 1: and the Lord says, not this one, not this one,
Speaker 1: because if you convince a fool, all you got for
Speaker 1: a friend is a fool. Not this one. Somebody say,
Speaker 1: not this one. Mm hmm. I watched the movie about
Speaker 1: Jackie Robinson forty two, and there was a scene in
Speaker 1: the movie where the owner was telling him Gonna, We're
Speaker 1: gonna put you in the system and hopefully get you
Speaker 1: to Brooklyn to play professional baseball. But there's one problem.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do when they're screaming racist threats
Speaker 1: in your face? What are you gonna do when they
Speaker 1: attack you at every stop? What are you gonna do
Speaker 1: when they push you to the breaking point? And he
Speaker 1: jumped up in the depiction in the movie. I don't
Speaker 1: know if this happened in real life, but I like
Speaker 1: to think it did. And he said, what do you
Speaker 1: want a player who doesn't have the guts to fight?
Speaker 1: And he looked back at him and said, no, I
Speaker 1: want to I want a player who has the guts
Speaker 1: not to fight back. And here's the message. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: takes more faith not to fight back. Sometimes it takes
Speaker 1: more faith to just let God be God and be
Speaker 1: great in your situation, because if you manipulate it, you're
Speaker 1: gonna mess it up. If you start plucking tears, you're
Speaker 1: gonna pull up wheak. Sometimes it takes more faith to
Speaker 1: let God sort it out. And the prophet said, you
Speaker 1: have to understand the nature of the battle to understand
Speaker 1: the strategy. This is why we don't fight much in
Speaker 1: our marriage after seventeen years. It's not because we don't disagree,
Speaker 1: but we understand it's not me against her, it's me
Speaker 1: and her against it. If we thought it was me
Speaker 1: against her, we would fight each other. But we gotta
Speaker 1: line up on the same side of this problem or
Speaker 1: we're gonna lose this battle. And one time when we
Speaker 1: were first maybe a year and a half married. There
Speaker 1: came across our desk a bill for three thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have three thousand dollars, not just laying around,
Speaker 1: I didn't have it. So I did what I do
Speaker 1: when I'm afraid. I got angry. Did you hear me?
Speaker 1: When I'm afraid, I get angry because the anger is
Speaker 1: a camouflage for the fear, which makes me feel vulnerable.
Speaker 1: So I gotta get angry because that makes me look strong,
Speaker 1: because on the inside I feel weak. And I was
Speaker 1: yelling at Holly about the bill and it was only
Speaker 1: seventy percent her fault, and in the middle of yelling,
Speaker 1: I saw her countenance change. And I'm not saying this
Speaker 1: excuses me yelling I should have been more grown up.
Speaker 1: But she realized in that moment, he's not fighting me.
Speaker 1: He's not mad at me. He's scared about this, and
Speaker 1: if I can help him fight his fear, we can
Speaker 1: fix this thing together. But if you wrestle at the
Speaker 1: wrong level, you'll wear yourself out fighting it where it
Speaker 1: shows up. But where it shows up is not where
Speaker 1: it started. So if you got somebody and they have
Speaker 1: an addiction, you can't counsel them to win against addiction
Speaker 1: with willpower. It's not a matter of willpower, it's a
Speaker 1: matter of worship. Something in their life has started meeting
Speaker 1: the needs that only God alone can meet. And if
Speaker 1: you don't show them that God can meet those same
Speaker 1: needs that alcohol can, that God can meet those same
Speaker 1: needs that pornography can, that God can meet those same
Speaker 1: needs as overspending overeating can. If you don't fix the
Speaker 1: worship problem, you can't win it with willpower. Am I
Speaker 1: right about it? So you gotta fight with a focus.
Speaker 1: People say, focus, focus, fight with a focus. And the
Speaker 1: prophet said, this is not even about you. So don't
Speaker 1: be afraid. If it's too big for you, don't be afraid.
Speaker 1: This is what the Lord says to you. You got
Speaker 1: it on the screen verse fifteen. Don't be afraid, don't
Speaker 1: be discouraged, don't back down, don't get in your own
Speaker 1: head and try to figure it out. You can't figure
Speaker 1: this one out. And if you fight it, if you
Speaker 1: fight it, you're gonna lose it. If you try to
Speaker 1: meet the righteous requirements of the law in your own
Speaker 1: strength and don't let the power of Christ flow through
Speaker 1: you and the Holy Spirit direct you, you are going
Speaker 1: to keep losing the battles because you are wrestling on
Speaker 1: the level of what you can see. But it is
Speaker 1: not against flesh and blood. It's spiritual. He said, don't
Speaker 1: be afraid for this vast army. Vast army is the
Speaker 1: phrases they use when they were just saying it's too
Speaker 1: big for you. I know it's too big for you,
Speaker 1: but the battle is not yours, it's God's. When I
Speaker 1: say this, I want you to receive it like if
Speaker 1: it was just for you. If it's too big, it
Speaker 1: doesn't belong to you. If it's too big, you got
Speaker 1: to give it back to God. And we say the
Speaker 1: battle is the lord's, but we stress like it's ours.
Speaker 1: We say the battle is the lords, but we worry
Speaker 1: like it's ours. Now we've wasted all of our strength
Speaker 1: worrying when we could have been worshiping. The battle is
Speaker 1: not yours. Give it back. Quit doing God's job for him.
Speaker 1: God wants his battle back. God wants his battle back.
Speaker 1: Is too big for you. It came up from behind you.
Speaker 1: You can't do it. Give it back. You can't fight it.
Speaker 1: Give it back, you can't figure it out. Give it back.
Speaker 1: How do you give it back. That's a focus, that's
Speaker 1: looking beyond what's coming against you and looking toward what
Speaker 1: is within you, to know that greater is he that
Speaker 1: is in me than he that is in the world.
Speaker 1: And God wants his battle back. The battle is not yours,
Speaker 1: but God's. And tomorrow I want you to march down
Speaker 1: against them. I want you to march down against an
Speaker 1: enemy that you're not even gonna have to fight. I
Speaker 1: want you to get in position, not so that you
Speaker 1: can fight, not so that you can struggle, but so
Speaker 1: that you can see the deliverance that the Lord will
Speaker 1: bring about to Israel. This day, God is fighting for tudor.
Speaker 1: God is fighting for worshipers. God is fighting for praisers.
Speaker 1: God is fighting for his people. God is fighting for you.
Speaker 1: You're his friend. You get his help, you get his strength,
Speaker 1: you get his miracles, you get his wisdom, you get
Speaker 1: his provision, you get his angels. If you worship, you
Speaker 1: age the world. Where is too big for me? What
Speaker 1: do you do when the battle chooses you? You worship
Speaker 1: your way through it. Now that sounds good, but it
Speaker 1: feels stupid. Because here they come Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites. They
Speaker 1: were all big in their own right, and they're all
Speaker 1: fighting together, and so how are you gonna fight them?
Speaker 1: What are we gonna do, Jehasha bad, what we're gonna
Speaker 1: do about this situation? What are you gonna do about
Speaker 1: the prophet said you verse seventeen, will not have to
Speaker 1: fight this battle, but you're gonna experience the victory, not
Speaker 1: by fighting, but by focusing. If they would have fought,
Speaker 1: they would have lost. But because they focused on the
Speaker 1: goodness of God, you know what they did. I love
Speaker 1: this script sure. I think this scripture is a beautiful
Speaker 1: illustration and picture of the weapons of our warfare that
Speaker 1: pulled down strongholds in our life. It says that Jehasha
Speaker 1: fat verse eighteen bowed with his face to the ground,
Speaker 1: and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down
Speaker 1: in worship before the Lord. Then some Levites, that's the priests,
Speaker 1: some levites, the one who administered the levitical law, the
Speaker 1: priestly law, from the Coethites and Coralites stood up and
Speaker 1: praised the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very
Speaker 1: loud voice. Why why Because early in the morning they
Speaker 1: left for the desert of Tacoa, And as they set out,
Speaker 1: Jehosha Faz stood and said, listen to me Judah. Judah
Speaker 1: means praise, and people of Jerusalem have faith in the Lord,
Speaker 1: your God, and you will be upheld. Is fight or flight?
Speaker 1: Time is fight or flight. But when you can't win
Speaker 1: the fight and you can't run from it, watch this.
Speaker 1: This is amazing. They didn't have to fight it, but
Speaker 1: they did have to face it. And God wants to
Speaker 1: give you the faith to face it and to trust
Speaker 1: him to fight it. Do you have the faith not
Speaker 1: to fight it in your flesh, but to deal with
Speaker 1: it in your spirit? Jesus told Peter, puts your sword away.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes more faith not to fight. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: it takes more faith just to go to the cross
Speaker 1: and get over your pride and get over yourself and
Speaker 1: let him fight your battles. But what they did next
Speaker 1: is remarkable, especially considering the enemies. We're standing right in
Speaker 1: their face. The scripture says, after consulting the people, Johasapad
Speaker 1: appointed men to sing to the Lord. Singing is a
Speaker 1: strange strategy to fight three nations all at once. But
Speaker 1: sometimes the battle is so big that you know, I
Speaker 1: can't fight this on my own. I always thought that
Speaker 1: this scripture meant that when you're in trouble, you should sing.
Speaker 1: But some people can't carry a tune and they don't
Speaker 1: like music. Now I realize that the passage isn't about music.
Speaker 1: It's about focus. And I want you to look past
Speaker 1: your enemy and I want you to sing. It says
Speaker 1: that jehas fate appointed men to sing to the Lord
Speaker 1: and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness.
Speaker 1: Let's focus on him. Let's focus on what's right about
Speaker 1: God rather than what's wrong with our life. And if
Speaker 1: you will focus on that, if you will focus on that,
Speaker 1: if you will look past what's standing in front of
Speaker 1: you that's bigger than you, and look to the God
Speaker 1: who is bigger than it, and praise him for the
Speaker 1: splendor of his holiness. As they went out at the
Speaker 1: head of the army, saying, give thanks to the Lord
Speaker 1: for his love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord.
Speaker 1: I wonder, are there any praisers from the tribal Judah
Speaker 1: who are willing to use gratitude as a strategy for
Speaker 1: the battle that I'm in and magnify the Lord In
Speaker 1: the middle of the battle, And as they began to
Speaker 1: sing in praise, the Lord said ambushes against their enemies,
Speaker 1: and they were defeated by the angel armies of God.
Speaker 1: God is gonna fight what you can see by sending
Speaker 1: what you can't see. I declare an ambush against insecurity,
Speaker 1: and ambush against the diction, and ambush against depression, and
Speaker 1: ambush against the darkness in your life. And watch this,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna pray for you. The men of Emmine
Speaker 1: and Moab rose up against the men of Mount Sir.
Speaker 1: That's the enemies, to destroy and annihilate them. The enemy
Speaker 1: started eliminating the enemy. That's what happens when you let
Speaker 1: God fight your battles. He's gonna use everything then came
Speaker 1: against ste He's gonna use everything that the enemy meant
Speaker 1: for evil. He's gonna use a cross to create a
Speaker 1: space for resurrection for the glory of the Lord. He's
Speaker 1: in this place. Give him a sound pray. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who
Speaker 1: give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that
Speaker 1: this ministry is possible. You can click the link in
Speaker 1: the description to give now or visit Elevation Church dot
Speaker 1: org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the podcast. You can subscribe. You can share it with
Speaker 1: your friends. You can click the share button, take a
Speaker 1: screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag
Speaker 1: us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.