From Overwhelmed to Overloaded

we're going to be doing a whole lot of flipping around a whole lot of flippin I want you to go to second Chronicles if you will and I'm going to actually begin at the first verse and then I'll try to call it out as I go but I'm excited for God's a word thank you praise team band everybody for taking us into the presence of the Lord beginning at the first verse the Bible said sometime later the Moabites and the ammonites accompanied by the me unites they join forces to make war on Jehoshaphat verse 3 shaken Jehoshaphat prayed because sometimes when you really shake it to the cordless that's what you do so shaken Joseph had prayed and he went to God for help and he ordered a nationwide fast the country of Judah United in seeking God's help and they came from all the cities of Judah to pray to God go to verse 25 and when Jehoshaphat and his people came to carry off the plunder they found more loot than they could carry off equipment clothing valuables as a matter of fact it took three days to cart it away and on the fourth day they came together at the valley of blessing Baraka and they blessed God that's how it got its name the valley of blessing now just a few verses earlier in verse three shaken some translations say was trouble he was worried he was bothered but here now just a few late verses later and there's a whole lot of stuff that happened in between and I'm gonna try to hit the highlights of it today but I want to just talk for a few moments from a particular subject look to your neighbor on your right and say neighbor being overwhelmed by the battle - being overloaded by the blessing tell somebody else being overwhelmed by the battle to being overloaded by the blessing it all happened in a day's journey from overwhelmed to overloaded well not just overloaded with troubles of burden of pressure but overloaded by the blessing sphere to God we thank you for your word it's a timely word we honor you your word is always on time I pray for the anointing to deliver it into this room thank you for touching your people thank you for speaking confirmation in this house somebody came to hear have your way in here today God take over this room right now just take it over see what you want to say and do what you want to do and will thank you for it in Jesus name somebody just stand there for a second clap your hands and give God a praise in advance come on praise Him in advance for finding you today for speaking to you today for giving you a word that you can walk out here with and live with all week long thank you too dad god I thank you today for your word in Jesus name Amen and amen on your way down just hit somebody tell him from overwhelmed too overloaded overwhelmed to overload it y'all got to say Amen real loud because I can't really see y'all good because the lights are in my face so I know you out there cuz of philia but say man every now and then thank you thank you y'all are awesome one of the most common complaints that that I hear or common phrases or common sentences or words that I hear today and probably you here too is is the phrase I am just over well over well now most of the time the people who say that they're telling you the truth because there is a lot today that we can find ourselves overwhelmed by there's this there's just too many decisions that have to be made there's one of the worst things I can stand it is when I you know cuz I will usually spend Saturday prepping for today and I come in here and preach this first service out preach second service and when church is over if my I can't take it when my family looks at me and says where are we going to eat I just want to bop him upside the head cuz I haven't been listening and hearing and I've been focused and I've been delivering and I made a I've made a hundred decisions in the last 24 hours if not more on what we're doing right here right now and so the last thing that I want you to say to me is where are we going to eat so if you have a catering business we would love frite no I'm just kidding I'm just kidding most of the time I want to go home and go to bed because I'm just wore out but but I feel like it can just in case somebody one somebody make a decision on where we can go eat so that I can I can just walk out here and you say here's where we're going to eat today obviously nobody can do that so but the truth of the matter is is that there are so many decisions if you really stop to count the decisions that you make every day of your life you would be shocked to know how many decisions you make there's just there's there's so many expectations that you that you and I feel like we have to meet there's calls that have to be returned or you have to make the decision not to return the calls there's there is request that you have to fulfill there are emails that you have to answer or you don't answer and there are there are social media inbox messages so and then if that's not enough on Instagram then you got to go to Facebook and they've got inboxes and we got so many boxes we're about to be boxed in is what we're about to be we've got friend requests that we should answer we've got and then when we go home and sit down and turn the TV on we have too many channels to choose from I just just overwhelmed I'm like when I was a kid we had three channels abies CBS and NBC that was it and they went off at two o'clock in the morning but they like that today and now we got so many things and then when you do decide to go somewhere to eat some of these restaurants there the menus are so complicated you just want to shut it like don't even go to the Cheesecake Factory I'm just telling you never go there when you're tired and when you're really hungry because you're just like what what is all of this right here you know I I got tickle s yesterday because I was reading a story about this woman who said that she she said I moved into a new apartment and I was glad to begin there and that by the time I'm getting everything unloaded unpacked I realized I don't have a toilet brush for the bathroom so she said I went to Amazon and I started looking for a toilet brush she said do you know they sell on Amazon they sell 1161 different kinds of taller brushes now imagine that she said after about an hour of comparing the brushes and comparing the price difference in the brushes and reading all the conflicting reviews that came with all of the brushes she said I finally just got up got dressed I jumped in my car I drove to the local dollar store I walked in and I bought the only brand of toilet brushes that they sold there's so many options and the more that our options increase our level of certainty about our choices begins to decrease because when you you make a choice you say okay I'm gonna use this I'm gonna take that and but because you have so many options you're like I don't know I I don't know if that's what I should do or if I should and the next thing you know you're just consumed she said I wasted an hour just looking at all the reviews and the prices and comparing and I just wanted to toll it rush nobody was gonna see if it was just a toilet brush I mean it's crazy the options that are out there today have you went to the coffee aisle in the grocery store Lee I mean if you're a if you're a newcomer to coffee you are gonna be confused as I don't know what because there are so many options that are in how about toothpastes have you ever looked at how many options we have with toothpaste listen I just want spearmint I want peppermint all right I just want gel I want pace listen why do I have to go through all of that stuff just give me something that will help me and help people that come in contact with me and God forbid that you ever get a cold because if you ever have to go to the medicine aisle listen you go to the medicine aisle they say do you want something for runny eyes or do you want something for runny nose do you flu symptoms or do you have a cold is your ears burning or are they tingling or are they ringing is this your sinuses or is this your allergies or do you want non-drowsy or drowsy do you want 12 hours or do you want 24 hours what do you want I want you to go away that's what I want seriously it can be totally overwhelming I mean I used to think Baskin Robbins 31 flavors was overwhelming it's a breeze now when I was a kid I thought it was overwhelming because as I grew up we only had chocolate or vanilla and occasionally we would have Neapolitan does anybody know any apologies all my old folks they know what that is that's that's that's when you get all three vanilla chocolate and strawberry so those are fun things that we can laugh about it comes to being overwhelmed but there are some serious things today that are overwhelming people people are overwhelmed by their debt it seems like just it's just overwhelming the way especially if you have credit card debt how it can just the compound interest and god forbid that we would ever oh that I rs anything because they're gonna get compound interest they're gonna get penalties they're gonna get all of that stuff people are overwhelmed student loans they they are there they're overwhelmed by child care costs like I have to have a family I want to have a family but I make it costs me just as much to put them in in daycare as it does I feel sorry for kids today people today I didn't have all those options when when my kids were coming up and but to think about it today it gets overwhelming people get overwhelmed by health care costs like do I do I do I do I pay for my medicine or do I repair the roof that's over my head you know it's just it gets overwhelming and then and then yours there's your workload you've got to work and you got this load and just as soon as you think you have got your desk pretty much cleared off here comes about a truckload of other things and next thing you know it's out of control people are overwhelmed by regret they've been through stuff then it's it and they've got so much regret that it just stays present and forefront in their minds they're over there overloaded by shame they're overloaded by guilt they're overloaded by worry and by fear some people are overloaded by the by the lack of security they want to be and want to have more security overwhelmed by pain overwhelmed by loss overwhelmed by anger overwhelmed by by grief overwhelmed by resentment and bitterness overwhelmed by the conflict between you and your kids or if everything's good between you and your kids it's between your kids and your kids and it's just so much so so much as it's causing us to be overwhelmed should we stay here should we move should we do this should we do that it's it's it can be absolutely overwhelmed it if you weren't overwhelmed when I got up you're overwhelmed right now overwhelmed in our families overwhelmed in our marriages we're living in the same house but we're also living in two different worlds it can be overwhelming what do you do when you find yourself overwhelmed and so today that's that's what I want to talk about in the man that's gonna help me talk about that is that I I really like him he's a cool guy his name is Josh AFET I mean listen a name like that is overwhelming can you imagine can you imagine when you go to kindergarten please spell your name spell jaws how many syllables in my name that's overwhelming can you imagine what he what he felt like when he had to write and imagine his nickname think about that people that didn't want to call him Joe ha stuff that they probably just called him Jay fat or fat you know it's just that's overwhelming in and of itself hello can Jay fat come out and play today it's crazy but I really like Jehoshaphat I like him because he's a good guy he was a good King and he is a really good leader he had a strange name and I don't know why his mother did that but anyway I hope you're naming jaha's have had him here today just come down here right now I'm gonna pray for you so the Bible tells us that that he was a great leader he led the entire nation of Israel into a revival it was it was just a reviving that he brought death to them and in second chronicles 19 and 4 the Bible says that King Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem and he went among the people from bear Sheva to the mountains of Ephraim and he brought them back to the Lord God of their fathers he went to all of the little cities he didn't just go to the big cities he went to all the little cities he went to where the real people lived and he got down with him and he hung out with him and by doing this he caused them to turn their hearts back to God you would be amazed to know just how far it how far reaching your willingness to come to where people are what would really go it could possibly cause them to turn their hearts back to God and so because of his efforts that he was a great success and there was a great spiritual awakening that came to Israel it was really he and the spiritual awakening was very good for the nation of Israel however we all know that that good is often going to be followed by something bad if we can just be honest today it's a good time but you can't hardly enjoy the good time for fear of what the bad time is going to bring we know that for every mountaintop you can always expect that there will be a valley we know that with every high somewhere there's going to be a low we know that with every setup there's probably somebody waiting in the wings to set you back it's just life it's it's it's how it's it's how it is there's always the day after the wedding everybody looks forward to the wedding it's exciting you build to order but then there's the day after when it's all over if there's the day after Christmas we're excited about Christmas but then you wake up the next day after Christmas and your kids are already bored and you don't spend a thousand dollars on a little toys and they look at you and say can we go to Chuck E Cheese you know it's it's the day after the Super Bowl party everybody's excited on the day but then there's the day you wake up and it's over how about the New Year's Eve party everybody's excited New Year's Eve it's all changing we're getting everything behind us hallelujah but then you wake up in is January 1st and we're just back to our routine so on a personal note I I have noticed that on the heels of most every one of my life's greatest blessings or greatest achievements or greatest victories or one of my life's greatest testimonies right on the heel heels of that there will always come a test anybody ever noticed that it's just you no sooner get through celebrating till you realize oh shoot I'm in the middle of another test and this this particular happens it particularly happens when we make a fresh commitment to God anybody ever made a fresh commitment to God you're in church on Sunday and you're excited tears are rolling down your face you feel God you're like God I'm gonna be I'm gonna change my life bringing my life into alignment with you I'm getting my house in order Cod I'm gonna get it all together and and next thing you know here comes a test without fail that happens and and sometimes the test comes through people that you love because not everybody is happy about your commitment to Christ and somebody is going to challenge your decision the enemy's going to always make sure that somebody is there to challenge your decision somebody is gonna be angry because you have made up in your mind I've changed uniforms today I've changed sides I've changed ugly gence as I am in the Lord's army today somebody is going to be upset at that upset about that because anytime you are the friend of God you are the enemy of Satan it just happens to work like that and and so that's that's what happens here that's what was happening here in second chronicles chapter 20 and verse 1 it says in the King James or in the New King James it says after this after this after what after after the spiritual awakening happened that I just told you about after this the armies of the Moabites the ammonites and some of the Mia Knights declared war on Jehoshaphat of course they did because we just come through a great celebration so he is the king of a small country called Israel and three of his his enemies that get together and they decide that they're going to gang up on him you ever felt like the life just ganged up on you maybe I'm preaching to the wrong Church by I'm gonna find somebody else to preach this to cuz they'll get it I said do you ever feel like life just has ganged up on you so then the Bible says then then some messengers came and they told you Hoss effete in an inner that a great multitude or a huge combined army is coming against you and they're coming from the Dead Sea and Jehoshaphat starts feeling overwhelmed because his enemies are ganging up on him and and I and I know it that's that's like sometimes you feel like I don't know where you've been hit on the right and then as soon as you're like pulling yourself together from that here comes something out on the left and and you're being hit on every side by by the enemy and it seems like everything was going right but now it's all going wrong at the same time anybody know what I'm talking about anybody had a week like that so that's what King Jehoshaphat was feeling and things were going good the nation was was in revival all of a sudden he hears that the three armies of his enemies have United together and they are on their way to destroy him so now he's facing a triple threat and he did just to be honest he's a king but he is overwhelmed the Bible says that shaken Jay said yeah that's what I'm gonna call him Jay fat said himself to seek the Lord he's overwhelmed he's scared and he's shaken but look what he does he sets himself to seek the Lord he went to God for help and he also ordered that the entire nation make a sacrifice and begin a fast now there's a lesson right there in that all by itself wouldn't you feel overwhelmed by a problem do not let that problem intimidate you but make it motivate you to pray more okay why why should I be intimidated when I can be motivated look at somebody and say don't be intimidated be motivated I'm overwhelmed but at the same time I'm more motivated to seek God in prayer I'm motivated to trust him more I'm motivated to believe more I'm motivated to depend and lean upon him more I'm overwhelmed but I'm also expecting more so you won't either do one of the other you'll be intimidated and you'll back up or you'll say oh right and you'll become motivated and you'll get yourself ready for whatever you have to get yourself ready so the first thing that Joseph had does is he makes it a matter of personal prayer the second thing that he does is he gets not only himself but he tells the whole nation around him to pray I want you to look at your neighbor and say neighbor I dare you to pray about it now look at that same neighbor and say back to their neighbor I dare you to pray about it see well what I want to pull from this story today there are five things that I'm gonna give you that Jehoshaphat did when he felt overwhelmed so if you are in this place get your iPad get pin get something out because I'm gonna give you something to take home with you today because I want you to put this in practice every time that you feel as if you are overwhelmed and and you know what if you don't feel like you're overwhelmed today take this down anyway cuz one of these days you're gonna wake up and see where is that message pastor Brady was preaching about being overwhelmed so I want you to write this down what do you do when you're overwhelmed the first thing that Jay fat did what he did I person said it the first thing that Jehoshaphat did when he let me say it like this there are five things he did and they worked for him and I would almost stake my life on it today that what I'm getting ready to tell you if that they work for him but they're gonna work for you too I'm telling you I'm convinced up there there are five thinks the first thing that there are five right moves that he made when he was overwhelmed when you're overwhelmed you can't afford to make a wrong move so I need you to write this down the five write loses one of the first write moves he made was he turned to God write that down the first right move he made was he turned to God he didn't turn to friends he didn't turn to his military capabilities he didn't turn to his weapons he didn't turn to human reasoning he didn't turn to social media to take it out on social media he didn't turn to to rant to anybody he didn't turn to his followers he didn't start developing a plan there's nothing wrong with the plan everybody needs a plan but before you develop a plan you need to pray and as you pray God will give you his plan and not your plan okay so you've got to turn to prayer before you turn to your plan prayer should be our first choice and not our last resort I said prayer should be our first choice and not our last resort oftentimes we wait till we get to the point where prayer is the last thing that we can do we've all heard people say well all we can do now is just you're heard somebody say that before all we can do now is just pray we've done tried everything we know and so all we're gonna do right now is we're just gonna put it in the hands of God and we're going to pray no we should have prayed before you ever done anything else prayer should have been our first choice and not our last resort I'm so most say until somebody hears it today God is saying you're not praying to me you're asking everybody else you're trying to work it in your head you're trying to figure out how you can do it you're trying to make your next move and God said stop a minute and talk to me about it you should go straight to God and say God I got trouble coming from everywhere I've got financial trouble I've got to help him tails issues I got family trouble I got emotional trouble Lord I'm spiritually in trouble and I need your help somebody said I need your help that's what Jay Joseph had did Jehoshaphat said not only am I gonna pray about it he said but I'm gonna get this entire nation to pray he said the country in in verse 4 in the message he says the country of Judah United in seeking God's help they came from all of the cities of Judah to pray to God see once it gets the whole nation to pray once it gets gets everybody all the national leaders to come together and pray then he opens up his mouth okay first he's just praying to God second he gets everybody else in there to pray with him but then when everybody gets there he publicly opens his mouth and he starts calling on the name of the Lord sometimes you can't just pray in your head and you can't just bring in your heart sometimes you got to open your mouth and let everybody around you hear you call on God sometimes he wants to hear your voice and then good enough for me to pray for you some situations you got to pray for yourself he did that that's leadership right there that's amazing leadership right there if we could get some of our political people our spiritual people our social leaders our local leaders our national leaders to come together and pray to lay aside denomination and pray just set aside our differences and pray to put our logos and our egos in the floor and just begin to pray I believe that we would hear from heaven did somebody say man right there cuz there's no problem that is too big and there is no problem that is too small for us to pray about if it's big enough for you to worry about it's big enough for you to pray about hallelujah so I want to teach you exactly how he prayed because I believe that if you'll apply this to your life when you're overwhelmed let's go work for you too so so what did I say the first thing he did was he turned to God for help okay and then in verses all the way down from verses 6 to verses 12 he asks God for questions he asks are you not do you not is there not will you not each one of those requests was a way of praying to God because of of heat because of the fact that he was under attack so the first thing he said that the Bible says he did he turned to God in prayer the second thing that he did was he focused on God and not the problem now hear me I know that's going right over your head today and you're adding think about going in one ear and out the other but I dare you to apply this to your life he's focused on God and not his problem have you have you have you asked anybody the question like have you ever just looked and say hey how are you doing and their answer is B will be like well under the circumstances I'm doing okay well number one why are you under the circumstance you need be on top of the circumstances okay not on dirt but on top all right circumstances are like a mattress if you get on top of it you'll rest if you get underneath it you're gonna suffocate tell somebody to get on top get on top so when you need when you pray you need to turn your focus off of the problem and turn your focus on to the solution turn your focus on to God and if you continue here's why because if you continue to look at the negative if you continue to focus on the problem where the focus goes the power flows and what was little becomes big big big big and bigger so if you focus on the lack the black is gonna get bigger if you focus on the problem the problem will get bigger if you focus on the negative all the negativity is going to get bigger and you will continue to feel overwhelmed so Jehoshaphat made the decision in prayer and he asked it for ways I told him to put I got my notes y'all gotta up up under number two I want you to write a B C and D here's the four ways he did it when he began to pray the Bible said he remembered how big God was he remembered how big God was the bigger you realize how you're God the bigger that you recognize how big your God is the smaller your your problem is going to become your problem is going to shrink when God expands in your life do you understand that when God gets big the problem gets small so you me and here's why because he is all-powerful he is always in control he is all-knowing there is nothing that is too hard for him and with God all things are possible so he said in verse 6 are you not God in heaven this is how this man is praying are you not God in heaven do you not rule over the kingdoms of the nations and is your hand and in your hand is there not power and is there not mine so that no one is able to withstand you when's the last time you went to God like that he called God out that's exactly what he did he's saying yeah I've got some problems but I know this I know that you are bigger than my problems so he remembered how big God was second thing he did is he remembered what God had done in the past well write that down you gotta remember what God has done in the past he said I realized that I've been in tough times and tight places before but I also know that I'm still here I know that I have survived them I know that I have come through them I know that I have outlasted them I know that I have outlived them because I know and whom I have believed and I and persuaded that he was able and if that God did it from me then the same God that did it for me then is gonna do it for me right now look at somebody say he'll do it again so he said in verse 7 he says Oh God did you not drive out those who lived in this land before you brought your people Israel here he's reminding God you did this before he's saying hey aren't you the one that brought us here we didn't even come here ourselves we didn't ask to be here you're the one that established us you brought us in and you brought us in through Abraham and then we went down into Egypt and we got enslaved for 400 years and when Moses brought us back did you not take care of those enemies for us then and now they're trying to return and here we are trying to get in our homeland and you took care of them you wiped them out from us and now God here they come again he says you took care of them back then and you took care of them in my past you won't take care of them in my future do you hear the confidence he's saying I know who you are and I know what you're able to do if you don't know that in your belly then you'll never get anywhere in God but you at some point you've got to say I know you are and I know what kind of power you had you need to remind yourself when you are feeling overwhelmed that one God is a big card and number two if he helped you before he will help you again and then I love how he starts recollecting this in verse 9 he said you helped us when we face disasters you were there for us when we were in wars you there went disease hit us you were there when we were facing famine he said I remember how big you are I remember what you have done and here's the third one I remember what you promised well look at your neighbor and say neighbor you got to know what he's promised there are 7,000 promises in the Word of God and a sure sign that you don't know what God has promised to you is the fact that you worry you can't worry and believe his promise at the same get somebody tell him I believe God I believe God Jehoshaphat said God I know how I know you're big I know what you've done and I also know what you promised does anybody know what God has promised you he said I know what you promised and because of that he said I'm up staying on your promise did he did you not give this land to your friend Abraham and to his descendants and did you not give it to us forever you did not put a time frame on this you said this was ours forever didn't you promise this property to us did you say this was our land didn't you say this was our parking lot did you say this was our church didn't you say this was my house did you call it the promised land on purpose so I want to know how you gonna keep your word God are you gonna let these three enemies come in and try to wipe us out he's overwhelmed but his confidence is coming back I can hear it he said I remember how big you are I remember what you've done and I remember what you promised fourth thing he said I remember your character he said I know what kind of God you are I know that you're a good god I know that you're a faithful God I know that you're a loving God I know that you're a fair God I know that you're an honest God I know that you are just and I know that you are even-handed so here let me really quick in one minute give you just a little backdrop to this story for hundreds of years earlier when Moses got the Jews out of slavery and started brought them back to the promised land there were three tribes that had already moved in while Israel had been enslaved three tribes and their names were the Amorite the Moabites and the me unites and God specifically told the Jews as he was bringing them in don't worry about them don't fight them let them live right there leave them alone let them stay where they are he said I don't want you to fight them I don't want you to wipe them out I don't want you to get into this battle because this battle is not yours just leave them on the right side of the Jordan so now you're up to date a hundred years later there are three tribes and now they are uniting together attempting to try to destroy Israel are you kidding me we could have wiped you out when we came back but we let you live their wing charge you no rent we you stay right where you were we were obeyed God we could have killed you but we'll let you live and now you gonna get together and act like you don't kill us you are kidding me so you know it's awesome that does he immediately goes to appealing to the character of God and he does it in verse 10 in verse 12 and he said look here you didn't let us touch them when we got here at first we detoured around them we did not lay a hand on them and now they have come to kick us out of the country God that you gave us oh dear God won't you take care of them we are helpless before these vandal hordes ready to attack us we don't know what to do we are looking unto you so do you see what Jehoshaphat is doing right there he's saying God I don't know how to fix it but I'm turning to you I'm overwhelmed I don't have the answers there is no way I am going into battle because the odds are against us it's three armies two one if I take our armies in there their army in there that we are going to lose so I'm turning to you and I'm choosing to focus on you and I'm gonna focus on the problem promise and not the problem but but he said in doing so I'm gonna remind you number one how big you are you're all-powerful you're all knowing you're all able you're capable number two I'm gonna remind you what you've done for me in the past you've been there before you helped us out of tighter places than this I'm gonna remind you number three what you promised us about our future I'm calling you out on the gaudy then you said it or you didn't either you gonna do it or you're not going to it and I'm asking you God keep your word keep your word to my family keep your word to my household keep your word keep your promise to me and number four he said I'm I'm gonna ask you to fulfill your character I'm gonna asked you to be who you are well okay so y'all got that all that is up under number two I ain't got time to wait I gotta keep moving so the thing that Jehoshaphat did that was right that you got to do what I got to do that's right his number one he turned to God for help number two he focused on God and not the problem the third thing that he did that was right he admitted his inability he admitted his inability the first step toward victory in any area of your life is to come out of denial and admit that you can't fix this I can't do it on my own I can't get out of debt on my own I cannot find a job on my own I cannot pay back these school loans on my own I can't raise these kids on my own I cannot face retirement on my own I'm overwhelmed and I am admitting to you my in abilities that's what that goes all the way back to that thing that gives you grace when you come before God and say I'm gonna tell you people think I got it together but the truth is I ain't got it together I can't fix it if you don't help me if you don't fix it it's not going to be fixed he said we are helpless and we don't know what to do what is he saying right there he's saying we don't have the power and we don't have the knowledge oh it's hard to admit that you don't have the power and you don't have the knowledge you are the king you're that king of your world and you find it hard to go to God and say look I'm powerless I'm helpless and I don't know how to do this and I love what the next verse says he said now all of Judah this was the real men with their little ones who with their wife's so they weren't ashamed they didn't have these milli goes okay cuz they knew what they were in trouble they let their wives and their children see them calling on the name of Jesus they stood before God together and the wives just didn't wait on the husband's the wife's began to pray out to God cover our house cover our family cover our children why because if one of us can put a thousand to flight two of us can put ten thousands of flight and the Bible said that the whole Potter's House Lord I mean the whole nation started calling on the name of the Lord what do you do when you're overwhelmed hit somebody and tell them get honest before God my marriage looks like an angle make it God this dream looks like you will never come to pass the plans that I have are all jacked up I need you to help me if you don't help me I'll never get a harvest if you don't help me I'm not gonna make it so what do you do when you're overwhelmed you pour your heart out you poor young nuts out and you surrender everything to God you turn it over to him and you trust him and when you do here's how God responds he said in the fifteenth verse he said listen all of you are Judah you inhabitants of Jerusalem and you took King Jason thus says the Lord to you don't be afraid but that it happened till he got honest that didn't happen until he was got honest privately and he got honest publicly it's sad when your title won't let you access the help that's right in your house in your home in your business and your family because you got to keep being who you are defeat it at all but when he cried when he gathered people around him that have the same heart the same mind the same vision the voice of the Lord begin to speak do not be afraid don't be dismayed because of this great multitude why why why are you telling me that because this battle is not yours this battle is God well listen to me I'm your pastor I love you I want your marriage to make it I want your children to make it I want you to make it I want you to get out of debt I want you to get to where you can live comfortably in God but I'm gonna tell you the truth and I can tell you because I know what I'm talking about the reason that were stressed out the reason that we're exhausted the reason that our marriages are falling apart the reason that we're weary in well-doing the reason that were checked out the reason that were wore out the reason that were burned out is because we are trying to fight battles that are not ours to fight you've got a discern what is your battle and what is the Lord's you don't have the energy you don't have the knowledge you don't have the power and the reason that we're feeling frantic about all of this stuff is because we're trying to be God we are not God God is God I said God is God God is saying did I ever ask you Jos a pet to fight these three armies Oh No haven't I always taken care of you yeah you've always taken care of us haven't I made some promises to you well I don't know who I am talking to today and who God brought me here to preach to but I came to tell somebody that God brought me here to tell you that this battle is not yours this battle is the Lord's this problem is not your yell that big thing that's in your face right now God said that thing right there this ain't your battled this ain't your problem this is not your situation it's not yours to fix it is God's to fix and if you stop trying to fix what God has not called you to fix then you will stop being a failure because you're in over your head and God said I want you to humble yourself I'm wanting you to swallow your pride and I'm wanting you to invite me into your struggle but we keep failing oh god I'm such a failure I messed up I'm so sorry hold up you did not let me down cuz you never held me up to begin with I won't tell you that right now oh you ain't that powerful see some of us you have you ever have you ever have you ever sat on a plane and you know it's getting ready to run down it's going down the runways getting ready to take off have you ever just started flapping your wings like it was your responsibility for that plane to take off some of you are exhausted right now because you're walking around flapping your rings trying to get your dream off the ground trying to get your business off the ground trying to get your relationships off the ground you've been flapping so hard and you have been doing so long that now you're about to give up you're about to throw in the towel you're about to quit hello and God is saying right back to you uh listen go ahead quit in whatever you know whatever you need to do he said it's about time it's about time you give up because that is not the strategy I gave you the strategy I gave you is something different and if you start trying to make it happen and just let it happen you will find out that you got some jet engines attached to you and those jet engines will do all the lifting tell somebody let God do the heavy lifting you're slapping and all you're flapping in the world is never going to be enough come on somebody repeat this with me God is God and I'm not God is God and I'm not close your eyes and say it God is God and I I am NOT God the Sun in verse 17 you will not need to fight in this battle look at somebody and tell him it ain't your battle position yourself he said you ain't gonna have to fight but this is what you're gonna have to do position yourself stand still but stand still and see us you know what salvation means the complete deliverance spirit soul and body stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you old Judah is with you all Jerusalem and that happened Jeff had bowed his head and with his face to the ground and all Judah and all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem they bow down before the Lord and they started worshiping the Lord he's saying boy you can worry or you can worship you can panic or you can praise you can run or you can rest and sometimes it takes more courage to do nothing than it does to do something be stale rest relax and stand firm here's the fourth thing I got a stop for a thing that he did what was right he thanked God in advance but verse 21 after talking it over with the people Jehoshaphat appointed aquire for God so he's like ok just say not battle but this is our opportunity to worship I want you to sing and I want you to sing and I want you to say and the Bible said that he he we dressed them in holy robes they even had they even had choir robes Thank You Hafsah fans today and he said I'm dressed him in holy robes and they were to march ahead of the troops and they were to sing and to give thanks to God because his love endure it forever so you got the army back here and you got the choir out there that's Judah out there and you got the fighter back here look at somebody say sends you the first since universe send you Bray's out first that's what he was doing he was sent the praises out in advance and oh hear me today Church and when you start to thanking God in advance for miracles I'm telling you God tells miraculous sometimes we gotta stand still and say thank you sometimes we gotta stand there and when we want to move we gotta resist the urge to move and say nobody it's my job just to say thank you and the Bible said as in verse 22 as soon as they started praising and shouting to God somebody say at that moment at that moment if you were smart you would be like oh god I just thank you right now that moment God sets ambushment against the men of Amnon against Moe who did it who did it they didn't have to do it God did it and as they were as they sang the men of Amnon of Moab and Mount Sierra as they were attacking Judah they started attacking Judah they started attacking the praises and next thing you know God got involved and all of them ended up dead can y'all pull it up can y'all pull up verse 24 verse 24 pull it up on the screen so it saved me a minute's time verse 24 hello okay so when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness they looked toward the multitude and they were dead bodies these are the people that were coming after us keep it going keep it going there were dead bodies they had fallen on the earth and no one had escaped keep going and when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies did somebody say I'm going in for the kill I'm going in for the kill there was precious jewellery which they stripped off for themselves more than they could even carry away and they were that for three days you're alone three days three days they were saya three days just gathering up the spoil and they did that because there was so much keep going keep going and on the fourth day they assembled in the valley of Baraka for their they bless the Lord I bet you better bless the Lord therefore the name of that place was called the valley of Baraka until this day keep it going and then they returned every man of Judah and Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat in front of them so it was Judah in front of them now Jehoshaphat is there he said Jehoshaphat said to them go back to Jerusalem and boy y'all better go back with joy I'm telling somebody in this place when you go home today you better go back with joy why why because the law I had made them rejoice over their enemies keep going so they came to Jerusalem and they got strained instruments they got harps they got trumpets and they took it to the house of the Lord and the fear of God was on all the kingdoms I bet there was the kingdoms whose countries when they heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel keep going then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet why in other words all of his enemies shut up because God I don't I don't know for in the message version because I think mine reads a little bit different but all of his enemies shut down why cuz they heard about how not how they fought they're better yeah see people might be a match for you they're not a match for your God here's the fifth one and I gotta stop here's the fifth thing that he did that was right that you gotta do he discovered the blessing in the middle of the bed one of the things that happens when you stop flapping your wings and you stop trying to make things happen and you stop pretending like you are God and like you are so in control of your own life as you get blessed beyond measure God took them from the valley of the battle over to the valley of baracan that means the valley of blessing from the valley of the battle to the valley of the blessing God wants to give you so much that you have to share it with other people just imagine that just imagine that for a minute don't let that go over your head Ino out your ear can you imagine God flipping the script in your life in a 24-hour period I've read you the Bible today I this is not my story this is God's story this is what I'm telling you he flipped that script they got the prophetic word they went to sleep they got some rest then they got up and they got the victory they went from being overwhelmed by the burden to overloaded by the blessing and let me tell you somethin verse 27 can you pull up verse 27 for me in verse 27 the Bible said they were then they returned every man of Judah and Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat in front of them to go back to Jerusalem with joy for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies in other words it wasn't they themselves who got the victory this was hand given to them God did this for them you know there are some battles that when you win you're so exhausted from the fight because there is a fight that I'm not to fight right out of you there's some battle you win but you're like I need time to recover before I can enjoy what I want not this time they got the spoils they went back home rejoicing what was the difference this battle was the Lord's they didn't earn it they didn't fight for it they didn't beg for it they didn't buy it all they did was just receive it because when you do those five things y'all got all of them can we put them up just put them up on the screen real quick one two three four five one two three pray about it thank you he focused on God and not the problem he admitted his inability he thanked God in advance and he discovered the blessing in the bad y'all got that come on jump up on your feet all over the building just look at somebody and tell him I'm going after the blessing I'm going after the blessing I've had some tough times I've been in some tight places but it's getting rid of shifts because I'm getting a focus on God I'm get rid of call on God and not my neighbor not my friend not my buddy not my mama not I put my daddy I'm getting a call out God and I'm gonna look at bad things and I'm most searched until I find the good things there were dead bodies everywhere they climbed over the bad days and they got the rings off that finger and they got the jewelry off their neck are y'all here at me be careful that you don't throw away the bad cuz your blessing might be right in the middle of it and sometimes you gotta be willing to say hmm this is a little weird but give me what belongs to me this is mine hear this I got a stop here this right here they didn't come after the enemy when they got back to their land and realized they had been inhabiting that place God said don't touch him because there's a time there's a time frame be careful what you try to uproot outside of the timing of God hello don't stir up the devil if you can't cast him out all that means is you gotta get before God and you got to hear him more clearly but if you will all this overwhelm stuff I want every person that's been feeling overwhelmed to lift both of your hands right now in this building Father in the name of Jesus I see hands all over this building today I believe that we've given you our people this word we're gonna stand on your word if it worked for Jehoshaphat if it works for Judah it's gonna work for our us if it worked for their house it's gonna work for our house so Lord today we just surrender everything to you Lord we lay it all down right here in this room we asked you God for help we admit that we can do it by ourselves we absolutely need you in our lives we praise you in advance for what you're gonna do we love you we trust you we rest in you and we promised God that we're not just gonna discount things because they look bad but Lord we're gonna look into the band and we're gonna see the blessing that you have appropriated for us well you have blessings put in crazy places but that's all right God cuz we're going from being overwhelmed by the battle to being all God to being blessed to living in the valley of the blessing I want everybody to get something I do this periodically because I want to remind you of this I want you to get something in your hand that's heavy that you don't mind losing for a moment please don't grab your iPad or your iPhone because then you're gonna come back and ask me to pay for it and I'm not paying for it I have a parking lot to pay for that's that's my paper but I want you get something heavy get your Bible get your notebook put your wife down sir get something heavy and then move your move yourself a little bit and give yourself some space you're like space I wish I couldn't give [Music] this represents what's overwhelming you okay it's in your hands right now but it's all get ready to change and on the sound and on the count of three I want you to drop with passion what you have in your hands and when you do there's a sound that you're gonna hear ricocheted throughout this room and God said that is the sign that this battle is no longer yours it is mine and from this day forward you have committed it to my hands one two three drop it [Music] [Applause] give it to cog right now don't you pick it up again don't pick it up again stand still see the complete deliverance of the Lord over your children you can't Britt you can't control anybody's life you can't even control your own get it to God get your marriage to God get your broken heart to God give your bitterness to God get your disappointment to God get some failure to God give your Santa God [Music] give it to him don't you pick it up again [Music]

Channel: Sheryl Brady

Views: 41,058

Rating: 4.768868 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Sheryl Brady, Sheryl Brady, The Potter's House of North Dallas

Id: boprvxQo7zY

Length: 67min 12sec (4032 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 03 2019