Bishop Noel Jones - The Battle Is The Lords - 04-05-20

[Music] [Applause] into something in second chronicles chapter 20 and I I want to continue the theme of last week with a little different approach but second Corinthians chapter 20 beginning at verse 1 it came to pass after this also that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with them other beside the ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle then there came some that told Jehoshaphat saying there cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea in this side of Syria and behold they be in hazards on Tamar which is in Getty and Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast throughout all Judah and Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord and jehosophat's dad stood rather in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and said O Lord God of our fathers are not thou God in heaven and rule is not thou over all the kingdom of the heathen and in thine hand is not there not power and might so that none is able to extend thee aren't not thou our God who did it drive out the inhabitants of this lap before thy people Israel and gave us it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever and they dwelt therein and have built the essentially therein for their name saying if when evil cometh upon us as the sword judgment or pestilence or famine we stand before this house in thy presence for thy name is in this house and cry unto thee in our affliction then wilt thou here and help and now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who thou wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt but they turned from them and destroyed them not behold I say how they reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession which thou has given us to in heaven O our God wilt thou not judge them we have no night against this great company that cometh against us neither no we what to do but our eyes are upon thee and all Judea stood Oh Judah rather stood before the Lord with their little ones their wives and their children and then jahaziel the son of Zechariah the son of benaiah the son of Jil the son of mattaniah a Levite of the sons of Asaph came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation and he said hearken eeyagh Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and thou King Jehoshaphat thus saith the Lord unto thee be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but gods if I had a congregation before me I'd say let everybody shout Amen but say Amen wherever you are now I want you to notice something that is critical here and that is that faith cometh by hearing but also I could say very definitely that fear comes by hearing too that many times the fear that we have comes from many sources that speak to us that that gather their words in such a manner that when we receive these words they have a proclivity or a tendency to evoke a certain emotion in us that we call fear now in this particular text the word fear comes from a Hebrew word er and it means and it speaks of the emotion of fear and it also now deals with the fact that something has happened in our mind that causes our emotion to react and this now brings a sense of dread that envelops the individual completely and totally to the point where they are petrified or brought to the point where they are indeed very sad and very sorrowful now now that's JJ doing that it is critical to understand that this fear is not only affair that comes upon people who are outside of the kingdom of God but this fear comes upon those who believe and trust God and are within the circle of his blood I want you to understand this that because you're fearful at a time like this it's not a time for me or anybody from the pulpit or any Oracle of God to condemn you because of that emotion of fear the dread is there the disease is real the situation is upon us when deliverance comes deliverance cannot come if there wasn't something to be delivered from and I think I want to make this clear because many times as Christians we are told or were treated in a way as if we should Harbor some guilt because we have normal and natural human emotions many times we are made to feel when a loved one has died or we have lost something that's precious to us our dear to us we have had an accident we have come into a place where we're sick or we come into a place where we are now where there's a pandemic where things are being spread around where we have an invisible enemy where we don't know who's carrying it it's not like leprosy where you can see it coming from a physical point of view this is in the air we don't know how close we need to be to somebody we don't know how far we need we don't know if mass really work or they don't work we don't know a lot of things and because of the uncertainty of where we are and what we're dealing with there is fear there is going to be feared there's going to be some dread so nobody is saying that you have to come together to prove in a church environment and pack everybody up together to prove that you believe and trust God we believe in trust God and we're still adhering to certain principles that deal with the medical technical system that is God oriented and god-given because if God did not allow the principles of medicine to be exact then of course we could find no cures for anything we could find no vaccinations so I don't have to go and prove that I believe God by trying or testing God in a situation where he has allowed me to understand that there are certain principles that I need to follow to keep me from getting this sickness that's it I am NOT guilty because I followed the rules because the rules are indicative of the fact that there should be a rule that helps me to offset whatever is threatening me in the same way where I follow the principles of driving properly I found our principles of behaving properly I follow the principles of decency of hygiene I follow all the principles that I should follow so that things operate in the proper way there is no question in my mind now fear then is a part of what we go through because as you see in the text Jehoshaphat feared when he heard what was coming his way he was under the stress of having the responsibility of all of Israel and he's dealing now with the Moabites and the ammonites he's dealing with those people from Syria who are all coming against him if I understand the text correctly what I can see now is that he has at least two enemies against him and indeed and in fact the children of Moab the children of Ammon and with them other beside the ammonites so he is dealing with at least three major enemies who are coming his way and he has the responsibility of having to be the king or having to be the Sikora or the tapir of all of Israel now understand this it's one thing to be afraid when you are handling yourself it's one thing to have fear it's one thing for me to be in my house afraid when I am the only person here it's another thing when I have the responsibility of the City of Refuge when I have the responsibility of my family when I have the responsibility of multiple people around me who are looking to me for direction for guidance looking to me for a word from the Lord looking to me to bring in and usher in the kind of thing that eases the dread now notice it's one thing to fear when you're taking care of yourself it's another dimension of fear when you know that people are depending on you within your household see if you will there are times when you have to feed yourself and you alone no problem you can live on little or nothing you can have something that most people don't like but when you have mouths to feed and you have people who look to you and you are their sole breadwinner then this brings another dimension of fear that is stronger and more intense I don't want you to feel as a child of God that because you have moments of fear or that you feel afraid of the time in which we live that you're not a child of God or that something is wrong with your salvation it is human the Bible shows us that Jehoshaphat who was a good King who was close to the Lord who made many many great policy changes for the benefit of worshiping God throughout his life he himself was afraid now in verse 3 we must understand that fear ought to bring a certain action and the action that his fear brought him was to set himself before the Lord here is now where the devil has pushed us a little too far you have brought me to a place where I'm shaking or quaking you have brought me to a place where the situation is so ominous and it is so horrendous that it is totally out of my hands you have brought me to a place where I understand that I don't have the personal ability to handle what is before me right now I don't have the strength I don't have the ability I can't do it but because I can't get it done doesn't mean it can't be done because I don't have the army to defeat the ammonites and the Moabites and the others that have come along with the ammonites because I don't have the strength or the army to do it I happen to know someone who does this is a great mistake that the enemy makes and that is he pushes the child of God beyond the child of gods limit but he does not understand well he's finding out now I'm sure that the child of God has a shepherd now let me just deal with that form only I don't have the jaws the Sheep does not have the jaws of the wolf the Sheep is not a carnivorous animal the Sheep does not have the strength of the paws the Sheep does not have the short intestinal tract that makes it conducive for eating meat and being hungry in an hour the Sheep does not have the ability to track the Sheep does not have the hypocritical way of hiding him or herself in order to catch the prey the Sheep is not a hunter the Sheep is not vociferous the Sheep is not cruel or voracious the Sheep is docile the Sheep is weak the Sheep has no ability to fight the wolf by him or herself so then what is the protection that the Sheep as the protection that the Sheep has is the shepherd you see here is where the enemy who as a roaring lion secret whom he may devour but the righteous know where to go the righteous run into that sanctuary into that place where God is so in his fear he knew what to do I'm not going to sit around here and quake and shake I'm not gonna be dismayed and I'm not going to be broken I'm not going to be destroyed I'm not going to be demoralized I'm not going to be terrified in panic I am NOT going to lose courage even though fear is there fair coverage is not an absence of fear coverage is overcoming fear so what I do know is I know where to go when I am in this place where everything is going against me I know where to go and I know who to go to and that is the God of my salvation so notice if you will what he does he gathers everybody together now it's critical to understand this if I am the breadwinner and I'm the leader and we're going into a season of distress a season of horrendous testing then it seems to me like I need to gather everybody who is in my household who is under my guidance and I need to say to them if I go down everybody's going down with me if the breadwinner doesn't have the ability to take care of who is under his or her care then everybody's going to suffer so since all of us are going to suffer if something dreadful happens to the breadwinner then it seems to me like all of us ought to come together and all of us ought to gather together and unite in prayer to defeat this enemy that has come upon us so what Jehoshaphat did was what all leaders should do and that is gather everyone under their care and pull them in I'm talking to the mother who's over the household as a single parent I'm talking to two parents who are together in the house that the man or the woman who is leading lead the house I'm talking about gathering the children whether they're Christian or not whether they're saved or not everybody in here is going to be affected by this so we need leaders from the president from the governor's from the mayors we need everybody to gather everyone together and recognize that we can't handle this in a democratic environment without a theocratic move of God we need God to move here now he gathers them together and he goes into the house of the Lord the new Court and he now begins to bring God into the situation he talks to him first of all and he says to him now aren't you the God of our fathers aren't you the God of heaven now what he's doing now is he's placing by his questions he is dealing with awakening the self possession of a powerful God he is awakening him to understand how he views him are you not the God of heaven are you not the God of our fathers is there another or am i talking to the right person am I talking to the right God or is there aren't you the one who rules over all of heaven and earth aren't you the one who has all power and might that is in your hand aren't you that God that we serve the one who we live for the one who we live to extol and raise his virtues and honor him night and day aren't you the God that we have had a history with as a people aren't you the God that moved the inhabitants out of the land and gave it to us aren't you the God that gave it to your friend Abraham of whom we are the seed notice what he is doing he is going into his history and the nation's history with God I think it's important for you and I to understand that whenever we're facing what we're facing right now that we ought to go into the history that we have with God we ought not to sit here and act as if we have had no history with God let me let me point to you one I can't behave in a way that indicates I can't enter into the throne room of God I have to behave in a way as if he has already invited me to come when I am in a situation such as this I'm calling on all of you prayer warriors and all of you children of God who have had to pray out of a situation that might not have been as ominous as this not from an idiosyncratic point of view but from its global effect there's nowhere to hide in many instances we've gone through things where we could get away but in this case there's nowhere to hide so because of its global effect it might seem so ominous but you have been through some things that weren't global but idiosyncratically it was everywhere you were it was a complete problem for you in that state of being in that state of mind but you have a history with God and you have had times where you've had to go to him to overcome the fear of the situation to understand that you needed his courage his hope his expectation his faith his promise to get you through you have been there you have been there so you have a history with God and that's what Jehoshaphat called on he called on the history lord aren't you the god of my mother who prayed for me my grandmother aren't you the god of the people around me oh I've come to see about me from time to time who have lifted my neighborhood prayer aren't you that same God who has all power and might who runs the universe we have a history with you we have been with you through thick and thin then aren't you the one who have given us what we have you have given us the house wherein we have given us the car where in the end is that why we appraised you for it and thank you for it you have loaned us the money we have you have loaned us everything we have and you have given it to us so that we might enjoy it now Lord we can't even go outside we can't go to the restaurant we can't go to the church house we can't gather and assemble ourselves together and you told us that's what you wanted us to do but we can't do it now aren't you the God who had us together where we enjoyed each other's company where we could talk face to face to prophesy and we could encourage one another aren't you - God that allowed us to shake each other's hands down to the years and hug each other and show love and treat each other with dignity pass money to each other thank God we have a history with you that's exactly what Joseph it did that's exactly what we should do we have a history with you and what we have you gave it to us and you are the one that gave us the land you are the one that gave us these things and allowed us to have these things not only for our own comfort but so that we might bless others now Lord you told us that you have a place for us together and we can't gather in that place today but we're gathering it online all of us together we gathered on Friday night on the phone and we all prayed we all had a communal prayer on the phone we gathered in spirit when we couldn't gather physically and you told us that when we came into your sanctuary and your sanctuary where your name is now aren't you remembering my people who are called by my name they humble themselves and pray then I will hear no humble themselves and seek my face it's right here he is declaring that we're going to gather in the place where your name is and his name is where each one of us is right now we might not be in the same building same house we might be separated because of the edicts of our governor of the edicts of the president but we are together in spirit and there's only one name that we're gathering on there and that is the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in this name he says because I am the one who have given you and you have now understood my authority from a theocratic point of view I am the one who gave you everything you have for your own benefit and I am the one who will protect you when the sword comes when the judgment comes or right now the pestilence and we are praying that we stop at this pestilence that will not lead us into famine and he says now if we come in your presence and that's where we are no notice fear didn't move me just simply to quake and shake but fair moved me to the place where I know I can have deliverance and power and that is the name of the long is a name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous burning into it and our safe here is what fear has motivated fear has not motivated me to quit give up to lay down and despair and dismay fear motivated me to to the shelter of the Lord Jesus Christ run to the rock of my salvation and when I get to that rock I go in with the history that I have with him and I go in with the declaration of his promise you promised me that if I come into the sanctuary into the place of where your name is called and where your presence is you promised that when the pestilence would come and the famine that if we cried unto thee in our affliction if we called on you in that moment that you would hear and help now notice the significance of health he says to us if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves seek my face pray then I will hear and heal the condition then has brought us to the place where we humble ourselves for all of the pride of ownership for all of the pride of being America for all of the pride of being the greatest nation in the world for all of the pride of who we are and how Christian we are and how close to God we are over all of the pride of our religiosity all of the pride of our denominational Association all of the pride of our pious and worshipful ability to touch the throne of grace by the melodious euphonious voices of all of the pride of the size of our choirs the excellence of our bands of all of that pride we have now got to humble ourselves in the midst of that and understand that it's not just about having Church it's about having the church in us and so now we're forced to humble ourselves to seek his face yes to pray and we expect him to hear because we are now being afflicted the writer the chronicler shows us that he has to God with some strengths I have some strengths why what is my strength my relationship with God and in spite of my relationship with God I have to face this ominous and dreadful disease but we've gathered together then he continues as you notice he now turns and says let's take a look at the enemy we have been good to this enemy but we were good to them because you told us not to destroy it you told us to be good to them that despitefully uses us you told us that we should not seek revenge that vengeance is yours you told us to go by this enemy so we did what you said it's important then for the child of God who goes to God in prayer to be able not only to have a history not only to remember the promise but also remember the principles he asked and told you to walk by and this is significant because once I walk within the sphere of discipleship now I can expect to hear from heaven so one I'm humbled I'm humbled by the situation one too I seek his face 3 I pray when I get in its presence for I have his name 5 I can recall his promise 6 I can say Lord I have lived according to your precepts now we are looking to you after I have made my presentation and I have made my premise after I have humbled myself after I have sought his face now he says we look to you we look to you because at the end we don't have the power over this we don't have the strength so now our eyes are upon you I will look to the hills from whence cometh my help my health is not coming from the hills my help is coming from the Lord and I am looking to the hills from whence cometh my help because I have to look upward and outward to where his dwelling place is so I'm looking to the hills but I'm looking to the hills because I know that he is in a high place and I am reaching up to the high place through my spiritual connection to the God whom I serve and I'm expecting an answer I'm looking to him I'm not looking to the president I'm not looking to The Economist's I'm not looking to the medical technologist I'm looking to him so that he might give the answer to those that he has put over us that he might give the word to the doctors he might give the word to those who are researching to find what is wrong and how we can fix this for the vaccination it is God that we're asking to take over the mind of the scientists it's God that we're asking to take over the mind of the president the governor it's God that we're asking to take over the minds of those who are sending orders to us because we're going to acknowledge him so he will direct their path for us because he is the one who said their ordained we're going over the president said now we're going over the medical technologists heads we're going over everybody's head we're going to God because this is bigger than everybody if everybody could have handled this it would have been handled already the economy would be fine do you think that this president that we have wants his economy to go to the dogs do you think that Wall Street and those of us who were trying to help other people want this economy to go to the dogs none of us wanted to go to the dogs do you think the average person who's living on a day-to-day basis taking care of their own family they don't want it to go to the dogs if they could have handled this they say America is America's Democratic or America whatever you call it America is about money and when money is messin up in America everybody panics because America is about money you can say whatever you want America is my freedom America is about money and when money is in trouble everybody panics so if they could handle this it would have been handled nobody wants to have a car they can't drive anywhere nobody wants to have a house they can't invite anybody - nobody wants to have season tickets to the Lakers and can't go season tickets to the Dodgers season tickets to the RAM nobody wants I have a clonk Country Club membership and can't go and swing a golf club nobody wants to have a museum membership and can't go to the museum can't go look at the art come on this place is about money and choices and luxurious living if they could have handled it it would have been handled can't handle it so now we go to God and we say to God we have humbled ourselves we are seeking your face we are praying and now we want you to hear and heal the land we look to you now because nobody else can do it so now Lord with the creative power and your resurrection power that we know you have with the genius that you are because you are the ones who set all the principles together you are the ones who put everything natural in its place now Lord we want you to open their eyes to see what to do in this situation and here's what we're going to do we have now made this your battle and now the Lord began to move because now we have to have a word from the Prophet and jzl the son of Zechariah the son of benaiah the son of Jay al the son of mattaniah a Levite of the sons of ASAP came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation now notice who has to speak appraiser has to speak because Asaph was the one who wrote all the music to what David did in terms of lyrics Asaph I wondered why he spent so much time trying to tell us who this man was well for what is about to happen in the morrow and that is they're going to lead with praise for what's about to happen we have to define who this man is this man has to be authentic to talk to jostle back because yo Haase fat has listened to a lot of false prophets when he was dealing with a hat the last thing Jehoshaphat wants is another false prophet what he wants is somebody who can be authenticated by his own G G his own background and his own genealogy he has to have that right now and I'm telling you and forget my words genealogy is critical and I want to use that word but understand this background becomes important because now I'm going to hear a word from a prophet who I have heard many false prophets I don't want to hear another false prophet I need prophets who have had history with God prophets who don't only speak because of sensationalism but prophets who have been through something prophets who understand that it's not just a word of prediction but it's a word also of fourth telling not just for telling how do I behave now to change my future not my future that's not contingent on my present behavior this man is reaching for God and he needs to hear a voice from somebody who is connected to God not just to throw me out to be sensational but for me to lead the way God would have me to lead I have to have a genealogical association this man who was about to speak who is about to declare this battle is somebody who has a lineage of people who have operated in that space and it's critical to understand that you might not have from a physical lineage but you have Mentors you have had men who were strong in the word who spread that word and passed that word down to you so that you're not coming out of some subjective theological move to give yourself some sort of self aggrandizement and make yourself important I don't need that kind of prophet right through here what we need is somebody who is grounded in the word not in sensationalism we need somebody to speak forth that will lead us into the things of God with the power of God associated to his word and anytime a man can take your battle and bring God into the picture through the prayer of the king and now leave it for a prophetic word to those of us who are theocratic those of us who understand that we are the Oracles of God to speak the Word of God not seeking personal sensationalism not looking for anybody's money but speaking the Word of God in truth to the soul and heart of the individual who needs to come out of this circumstance because God has given them others to hold in their tear and to take care of I declare unto you right now the words of jahaziel when he said this battle is not yours this battle is the Lord's he is speaking to all of us today and he's saying right now for those of us who were called by his name for those of us who have a history with God for those of us who were able to declare that Lord you are the God who sits high and looks low for those of us who understands that there is no one like him there is nobody else but the God whom we serve that he is supreme that he is all-in-all that he is everything that we need for those of us who know that everything he has given he has given to us not only for our own comfort but to bless others for those of us who can declare that we have no power over this we are looking to you because you are the answer to this now we can get a word from the prophet from the prophet who has history with mentors not from somebody who just jumped up suddenly but somebody who has roots in a genealogical pool of mentorship my word isn't just coming from something I gained today but it's coming out of my experience for 40 50 years and it's coming out of those who were before me and those who were before them and those who were before them who understood the Oracle of God is a person who listens to God studies his word now we can declare in the midst of this coronavirus that this battle now is not ours but this battle is the Lord's and he is going to open the eyes of those who need the information to handle this sickness around the globe the answer is on the way and to the child of God I declared hold on to your faith hold on to your history with God believe God through this don't take any guilt on because you had felt a little nervous and fearful about this caused this to move you into that place where God Himself will respond to your cry I just believe something marvelous is going to take place something wonderful is gonna happen and in the midst of all the bad news gonna get some real good news that God has stepped in and to those of you who are not born again I extend Jesus Christ to you right where you are right where you are if you open your heart up to him and you receive him in your spirit he will work it out that those things that he says are essential for salvation you will have it when you get back to the house of God yes you will be able to cry out what men and brethren what shall we do and we will tell you that you ought to be repent be baptized every one of you in the name the only name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved and that is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit yes the Lord will upon your repentance receive you into the fold declare him accept him receive him and he will be the lord of your life I want to pray but before I pray I want you to remember that you will get no begging from here because all of us as I say and I'll say it every chance I get that all of us all of us are suffering lost in direct proportion to our fiscal financial responsibility all of us are suffering loss so when God blesses you in the middle of your loss reach out to us on all of those mechanics that you can give give from the app give from the cash app give from all of those things that we have supplied on Facebook on Instagram and also on the app to the church we love you we look forward to see you now next week also after we do our communion and servus there's a movie coming that I recommend to everybody it is the movie called revival you can download it to our app on our social sites as we're taking part of social distancing I wanted you to bring the movie revival into your home the movie revival is indeed an in fact a marvelous way to spend the Easter so click on the link on our social sites and click on the movie revival look at the trailer see if it's something that you would like and walk through the trailer and if you watch the trailer it will bless you and it'll help you to see what the movie is about and go from there that's all of our Easter plan that's what we're setting up we have another couple of things setting up that we're going to email blast you with but right now we want to close in prayer father in the name of Jesus we thank you for your word we pray that souls are encouraged and lifted today we pray Lord that we will not take on any guilt because we've been a little nervous and fearful about this but Lord we thank you because we know where to go when trials and tribulations have come upon us and you promised that if we come into that sanctuary and that we come in with your name and in your presence that you will so call all of our needs bless us now keep us keep us from this disease those who are in it pastor PG and others deliver them from it those who have transition bless their families confident console bless those on the front line who are fighting everyday for the benefit of others risking their lives I pray now Lord that you will supply every need and most of all use that great power you have and now we're looking to you to bring the solution through the instruments that you have chosen Thank You Lord amen god bless you we will see you soon

Channel: Official Bishop Noel Jones

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Length: 46min 59sec (2819 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 05 2020