Participants: Mike and Gayle Tucker
Series Code: MGH
Program Code: MGH000091B
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00:01 Welcome back.
00:02 We've been talking about 00:04 how to pray for your spouse and marriage. 00:06 And right now we're praying through crisis 00:08 and we're using 2 Chronicles Chapter 20 00:11 as the pattern for prayer, 00:13 with Jehoshaphat and the Kingdom of Judah 00:15 who was about to be overrun by these three nations 00:18 that are coming against him. 00:20 And so far in the prayer what we've had is, 00:21 we pray first about God. 00:24 Who god is? 00:25 We remind ourselves of 00:27 how big He is and how powerful He is, 00:30 and then we remind ourselves secondly, 00:32 of what God has done in our past history. 00:35 We remind ourselves 00:37 that He has been guiding every step of the way, 00:39 He's always been there. 00:41 I think following that, 00:43 the next thing that Jehoshaphat did is, 00:45 he prayed about what God had promised. 00:46 That's right. 00:47 He said all right, I'm here. 00:49 I've looked back to see what you have done before, 00:51 but you've also promised some things for the future. 00:54 Go back to verse 8, it says, they have lived 00:56 and they're talking about this land 00:57 that you've given to them. 00:59 You drove out the inhabitance and gave it to them, 01:01 He gave to us. 01:02 They've lived in it and have built you 01:04 a sanctuary here for your Name, saying. 01:07 Verse 9, "Should evil come upon us, 01:09 the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, 01:12 we will stand before this house 01:15 and before You for Your name is in this house 01:17 and cry to You in our distress, 01:19 and You will hear and deliver us." 01:21 Basically we're saying, Lord, we're doing 01:24 just what You told us because that has come upon us. 01:27 We, we're experiencing disaster or famine or pestilence. 01:31 It's come upon us and you said 01:34 that when it came upon us, we could come here. 01:36 When the temple was dedicated... 01:38 This is the place to come. 01:39 That was the instruction He gave. 01:41 God said come here. Come here. 01:42 When you are in trouble, come here. 01:44 Come here and pray and I will deliver you. 01:47 So we say to God, Lord, 01:48 it has come upon us, our family is... 01:50 Here we go. 01:51 In crisis. 01:53 I'm coming here, whether that's beside your bed, 01:56 it's in your closet, wherever it is I'm on my knee's, 01:59 I'm coming here to You. 02:00 You said come here to Me, this is the place. 02:03 You promised, Lord. 02:06 When we... Yeah, go ahead. 02:07 God will always honor His promises. 02:09 He will. 02:10 Always honor his promises 02:11 and so when we pray His promises back to Him, 02:14 his music to His ears. 02:16 He loves to hear us-- 02:17 Realize that our Father cares enough to make promises to us 02:20 and He's not going to let us down. 02:22 He will stand good for those promises. 02:24 I think, He loves the fact that we remember, you know. 02:26 Yes. 02:28 We remember that He's promised something 02:30 and then He loves the fact 02:31 that He's able to deliver on it. 02:33 Absolutely. 02:34 I have promised this. 02:35 And again, like we found in Psalm 23, 02:37 He will do it for his name sake. 02:40 He will do it because He is true to his name, 02:42 he is true to his word. 02:44 He will not allow His name to be-- 02:46 To have any blemish for not fulfilling His promise, 02:50 for not honoring what He has said he will do. 02:52 When you and I've made promises to our daughters 02:55 and then they comeback to us 02:56 and remind us of those promises, you know. 02:58 Yeah. 03:00 Daddy, you promised. Yeah. 03:01 Momma, you promised. Yeah. 03:03 There are times when you say, oh, I did. 03:05 I did, yeah, okay. 03:07 But because they remind you, you promised. 03:09 You said, oh, I did promise. I will do it. 03:11 Yes. 03:13 I will do this for you. 03:14 I want my children to be able to trust me 03:16 and depend upon me. 03:17 And so when I promise, I'd always try to fulfill that. 03:20 Well, if I as an earthly simple father can do that, 03:25 how much more does 03:26 the Heavenly Father long to do it? 03:28 He longs to do it. 03:30 And so when we come to Him and say, 03:31 You promised Lord. 03:33 Yeah. Yes, I did. 03:34 Yeah. Yes, I did. 03:35 And in my time, 03:37 I will fulfill the promise for you. 03:38 And I will fulfill it in the right way. 03:39 I mean, I think, that's the other part of the promise 03:42 that we know, then He's going to-- 03:44 It says, He will hear and save. 03:47 I will hear and save. Yeah. 03:49 So we don't know exactly how that's going to happen, 03:52 but we know that we're at the right place 03:54 and we're at the person, we're with the person 03:56 who has the power to do it. 03:57 And He has said, I will hear you, 03:59 it's not gonna unheard and then I will save. 04:02 I'm gonna come through. 04:03 Hey, God-- 04:05 You called God the, the Living One who sees me 04:07 and named the well Beer Lahai Roi, 04:10 the well of the Living One who hears me. 04:12 He hears, He sees, he's the Living One 04:14 who's there for you 04:16 and He hears and sees us today, does He? 04:17 Yeah. 04:19 The next thing that he praise about is, 04:22 he describes the problem. 04:23 So it's appropriate to describe the problem, 04:25 but he doesn't spend a lot of time on it. 04:27 He just lays it up before God. 04:29 All right. Verse 10. 04:31 He says, "And now behold 04:32 the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, 04:35 whom you would not let Israel invade 04:37 when they came from the land of Egypt, 04:40 and whom they avoided and did not destroy, 04:43 behold they reward us 04:44 by coming to drive us out of your possession 04:47 which you have given us to inherit." 04:49 There's a little side bar there. 04:51 Yeah. 04:52 It sounds it like a little bit of sour gourd. 04:53 So you wouldn't let us peel them on the way through? 04:55 Now look how they're rewarding us. 04:57 But, you know, what? 04:58 I think He's permitted that 05:00 because after all they're coming to drive him out 05:01 and to destroy all of Judah. 05:04 And, you know, what he's doing. 05:05 Yeah. He's being honest with God. 05:07 Yes, he is. 05:08 And when we come to God, 05:09 sometime we have feelings of unfairness. 05:11 We feel-- 05:12 This isn't fair. Right 05:14 I don't understand 05:15 why this is going on in my family. 05:17 Lord, I've tried to serve You, 05:18 I've tried to do what you've said to do. 05:20 And God can handle that. Yes, He can. 05:22 Because He handles our honesty better than our dishonesty. 05:25 Yes. 05:27 He says, I want you to be honest with Me. 05:29 I know what you're thinking anyway. 05:30 I know what's in your heart, so just say it. 05:33 We tried to standardize our prayers sometimes 05:35 to make them sound more Christian. 05:37 I think God wants them to be more real. 05:39 Absolutely. 05:40 You know, I'm angry, I'm upset. 05:41 Because it's a relationship. Yes. 05:43 It is a relationship. 05:44 And you can't be in relationship with someone 05:45 you're not being honest with Him. 05:47 Absolutely. 05:48 It's not a true relationship then. 05:50 So He says, come and lay it all out here. 05:52 And that's what he does. 05:54 Now he didn't dwell on the problem. 05:55 No. 05:57 He says, they are about to kill us and, 05:58 and, you know, we need some help 05:59 because they are bigger than us 06:01 and they're going to destroy us. 06:02 Yeah, I mean, that's pretty, pretty basic thing. 06:04 Yeah, pretty basic. They're going to kill us-- 06:06 They're going to kill us-- 06:08 Because we can't do anything about it. 06:09 So he's described the problem. 06:11 Now the next step, does he makes a request? 06:14 He makes a request and we find that in verse 12. 06:16 Verse 12. 06:18 He says, "O our God, 06:19 will You not execute judgment on them 06:22 for we are powerless against this great hoard 06:25 that is coming against us. 06:26 We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you." 06:31 I love that. I did too. 06:32 I love that. 06:34 First of all he acknowledges that we're powerless, 06:36 we can't do anything. 06:38 We can't do a thing. 06:39 But he ask God simply for judgment. 06:41 I'm not gonna tell you how to do this, Lord. 06:43 You know, I've got a few suggestions, 06:44 fire from heaven, lightning bowls, 06:46 anything of that you want to do, 06:47 just open up here to swallow them, 06:49 I don't really care. 06:50 It doesn't matter. 06:51 You are God, You take care of it Your way 06:53 and I'm going to trust You. 06:54 So here's my request. 06:55 Please execute judgment 06:57 and then we're just gonna keep watching. 06:58 We're gonna watch. 07:00 Lord, you know, 07:01 this cancer is about to take my life. 07:04 Yes. My eyes are on you. 07:05 Yeah. 07:06 I'm about to loose my home. 07:08 My eyes are on You. 07:10 My child has strayed away, my eyes are on You. 07:13 Yes. 07:15 No mater what the crisis 07:16 and some other crisis are horrible. 07:18 Yes, they are. Horrible things. 07:19 They are. 07:21 But my eyes are on You, because You said, 07:22 You would hear and save. 07:24 You said You would. 07:25 You can trust Him. 07:27 Well, that's the pattern for prayer. 07:29 He prayed about God. 07:30 He prayed about Gods acts in the past. 07:32 He prayed about Gods promises. 07:34 He described the problem 07:36 and he made a request and he said, 07:37 now we're just gonna watch and see what happens. 07:39 Stand back. 07:40 Stand back and God did not let them stand back for long. 07:42 No, He didn't. He sent an answer. 07:44 He sent an answer. 07:46 Verse 14, "Then in the midst of the assembly 07:48 the Spirit of the LORD came upon 07:49 Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, 07:51 the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, 07:52 the son of Mattaniah, 07:54 the Levite of the sons of Asaph." 07:56 And Asaph is the name I recognized. 07:57 That is the name we know. 07:59 Yeah, because when you read the Psalms, 08:01 some of the Psalms were written by Asaph. 08:04 And you study, you realize that Asaph was a Levite 08:08 whose job was to be in the house of God 08:11 and to write music for the worship, 08:13 that's what his family did, 08:14 but he was also David's personal prophet. 08:18 And so this man, 08:21 Jahaziel is a descendant of Asaph, 08:25 and so he's also a priest, he's a musician 08:29 and God spoke to a musician and gave him a word 08:32 and answered to the king's prayer. 08:34 Isn't that interesting? Yeah, it is. 08:35 He didn't make them wait. No. 08:37 Sometimes we do have to wait. 08:38 Yes, yeah. 08:40 But He dint make them wait in this case 08:41 and He sent an answer to a musician. 08:44 He said, listen to him because 08:45 I've spoken to him and He stepped up. 08:48 Verse 15. 08:50 He said-- 08:51 "And he said, listen all Judah 08:53 and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 08:54 and King Jehoshaphat, 08:56 thus says the Lord to you. 08:58 Do not be afraid 09:00 and do not be dismayed at this great hoard 09:02 for the battle is not yours but God's." 09:05 Oh, praise the Lord. 09:07 And He tells him what to do. 09:08 Gives them instruction. 09:09 Gives them instruction, but the first thing he says is, 09:11 do not be afraid. 09:12 The most frequently repeated 09:13 negative command of scripture is fear not. 09:17 Oh, man we fear all the time. 09:18 In fact that command is repeated 09:20 365 times in scripture. 09:22 One for every day of the year. 09:23 Yeah. 09:25 The one thing the God doesn't want you to do is, be afraid. 09:27 If you go to a religious meeting, 09:29 you hear someone preach 09:30 and the result in your heart as the child of God is fear. 09:34 What you experience was not the sprit of God. 09:37 He said, I'm not giving you a sprit of fear. 09:39 That's right. 09:40 He doesn't give you fear. 09:42 He comforts, He calms, He gives you a sprit of peace 09:44 because you've gone to the God of the universe. 09:47 We know how the story ends in our lives, 09:49 how the universe ends, God wins. 09:52 Yeah. 09:53 And we can be on God side 09:55 and when we're on God side, we win. 09:57 That's the bottom line. 09:58 So there's no reason for fear. 10:00 So he says, don't be afraid, don't be dismayed 10:04 because this battle is not yours, but Gods 10:06 and that's true of every battle of our life. 10:09 He's taken it out of our hands, we don't have to carry it 10:12 and we don't have to have the cloud over us, the burden. 10:15 And, you know, 10:16 maybe that the circumstance is still there, 10:18 the circumstance has not changed, 10:20 but we know that He has an end control, 10:22 He has it in His hands. 10:25 And the battle is not ours, He's gonna fight it. 10:27 Yeah. 10:29 But what happens next in the story is that-- 10:32 Instruction has given. 10:34 Jahaziel gives instruction directly from God. 10:36 Basically he gives the scouting report, 10:37 he tells them exactly where the enemy is located, 10:40 exactly where they're going to come up 10:41 and then gives them instructions, 10:43 go out and meet them. 10:44 Just go on out there. Go out and meet them. 10:46 And they're gonna come up there tomorrow morning, 10:48 so go out and meet them tomorrow morning. 10:49 So they would know exactly which way they're coming, 10:51 they know where they are and so that's what they do. 10:54 Well, that's a scary thought to though, isn't it? 10:55 Yeah. 10:57 All right, this hoard is still a lot bigger than we are. 10:59 Yeah. 11:00 And yet we're supposed to just go out there and meet them. 11:02 Yeah. But it's a-- 11:04 And he also told them they're not gonna fight. 11:06 Yeah, and he repeats that later on in instructions. 11:08 Fear not, again don't be afraid, 11:10 go out and meet them, but don't be afraid. 11:11 It's not your battle, 11:13 you're not gonna have to fight this battle, 11:14 the Lord is gonna fight it, so they did that. 11:16 They went out to meet them. 11:18 But you know, verse 21, 11:21 when Jehoshaphat consulted with the people, 11:23 he appointed those who sang to the LORD 11:25 and those who praised Him in holy attire, 11:27 as they went out before the army and saying, 11:29 "Give thanks to the LORD, 11:31 for His lovingkindness is everlasting." 11:33 They sent the army into battle. Oh, they sent-- 11:35 I mean, I mean, 11:37 the choir into battle ahead of the army. 11:39 They sent the choir? The choir. 11:41 If you're the choir director, 11:42 you don't necessarily want to show up that right, right? 11:44 That's right. 11:46 It's time for my assistant to get some experience. 11:47 Yeah, I'm a little hoarse today. 11:48 Yeah. 11:50 But he sent the choir ahead of the army. 11:51 So they start singing the song about praise to God 11:54 for his lovingkindness is everlasting. 11:55 That word lovingkindness. 11:57 We talked, last show about the word 11:59 "hesed" or "chesed," the fanatical love of God. 12:02 That's what this word is. 12:03 His fanatical love is everlasting, 12:06 there's no end to it. 12:07 So He's saying to our family when we're in crisis, 12:10 walk forward, do what I tell you to do. 12:13 Be obedient. 12:15 And do it singing and speaking about My love. 12:18 Yeah. 12:19 Just remind yourself that you are so dearly loved 12:23 that you can move forward. 12:24 Its okay, it's going to be all right. 12:27 You got nothing to fear if God loves you. 12:28 His crazy love for you, His fanatical love for you, 12:32 there's nothing to fear and that's what happened here. 12:34 They started singing 12:36 and these three armies heard the songs. 12:38 I think it scared them, they thought, 12:39 who gave them scouting reports, they know where, you know, 12:42 they are gonna kill us and they killed each other. 12:44 By the time Judah got to the vista point 12:47 where they could see the armies, 12:49 they were all dead, everybody was dead 12:50 and it took them three days 12:52 to carry the spoils of battle back home, 12:53 not only did they not get killed, 12:56 but they got rich in the process. 12:58 Wow. 12:59 God fought the battle... What an ending. 13:00 These guys killed each other and so they went home 13:03 and had a big celebration, singing praises to the God 13:07 who delivered them in the time of crisis. 13:10 Its true of every battle, isn't it? 13:11 Yeah. It's not our battle. 13:14 The reason it's not our battle, 13:16 it's because we can't fight it any way. 13:18 We can't. 13:19 When those big things come, 13:21 those crisis that we can not handle-- 13:24 We're powerless. Yes. 13:26 So let's be willing as a family to say, all right God, 13:30 we've got to hand this off to you 13:32 and we're going to trust 13:34 that You're going to take care of it 13:36 and our eyes are gonna be on You. 13:37 That's right. 13:38 We may have to move forward 13:40 and it may not happen the way we think. 13:42 And it's pretty scary. Pretty scary. 13:44 But He says you're not. 13:45 And we can trust him 13:47 because of His fanatical love for us. 13:50 The same is true for you. 13:52 God has the fanatical love 13:53 for you and for your family. 13:55 Trust Him in times of crisis. 13:57 Trust Him when times are good. 13:59 Trust him because 14:01 He wants you to be madly in love forever, trust Him. |
Revised 2016-06-09