No Way Out (A Prayer for Desperate Times)

well good morning you know that that song is very appropriate for what we're gonna talk about this morning because I want to show you a prayer in Scripture that I have clung to for several years now that really lights a fire in my soul about who God is and what he's going to do and it's a prayer that has been prayed in an impossible situation and while I want to tell you about that if you've got your Bibles with you but you may want to go ahead and turn in the Old Testament to second chronicles and we're gonna be in 2nd chronicles 20 and read about a king named Jehoshaphat well his parents must have been great folks naming him Jehoshaphat I want to ask you this have you ever been with someone who is facing an impossible situation maybe there's been in their life the sudden death of a loved one maybe they've come home from a doctor visit and what they heard they didn't expect to hear you've got cancer maybe you know someone maybe you're in this position right now they've just lost their job and they don't know how they're gonna make it they don't know how they're gonna make it with that job they don't know how financially they're going to make it after a month or two and their backs are to the wall they know it's congregational care pastor here at crossings I talked to people like this sometimes on a daily basis and I find that they are like I would be if I were in their shoes they are often anxious they're often in a lot of pain and most of all a lot of times they're just plain afraid how do you help someone like this when they're in a situation like this and there's nothing you can do to control the circumstances well I've learned the one one of the best things that I can do is just to call them on the phone or join with them put an arm around them and just pray with them and not just so that we can ask for God's help but also I found that in praying with people one of the greatest comforts I think they find is that when we pray with them when we talk to God and in that prayer when we talk about God we have a great opportunity to reinforce who he is we have an opportunity to reinforce his goodness his strength his kindness in their lives especially when they find themselves in times of great uncertainty and it's interesting that sometimes when I'm when we've said Amen and we raise our heads the Holy Spirit has worked and I see people whose circumstances haven't changed but they have this look in their eyes like you know what I don't know what it's gonna be like but it's gonna be okay because we have a God who's in charge and we have a God who's bigger than this problem and you know when I find myself in impossible situations I often find myself going back to this passage 2nd chronicles 20 and praying some of the things that Jehoshaphat prays there it's a corporate prayer that he prayed out loud in front of the nation of Judah and I want to read it right now as you're turning to 2nd chronicles 20 I want to start out by reading the intro verses verses 1 through 4 it says this after this the Moabites and ammonites and with them some of the me unites came against Jehoshaphat for battle some men came and told Jehoshaphat a great multitude is coming against you from Edom from beyond the sea and behold they are in houses on Tamar that is in getti then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah and Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord so here's the setting we've got if we've got I've got a map if we could put that up for just a second we've got one map here just to give you a lay of the land here they've got enemies coming from Edom and Moab coming up from the south and it and when Jehoshaphat who's in Jerusalem where that gold dot is when he gets word that these armies are descending or descending on them he finds out that they are in getting so you've got three armies and as the parakeet flies about twenty-five miles away Judah's backs are against the wall there is no time to muster an army there's no time to make a great political speech to encourage everyone there's no time to do anything and it says in verse three the king was afraid now you've got to understand if you study Jehoshaphat and his rule in Judah youyou find out he was a great and godly king but even great and godly Kings are afraid sometimes and so what he does as a first resort is he calls all the people together and he says we're gonna pray and we're gonna fast and we're gonna call upon the name of the Lord our God so imagine that the Army is still perhaps moving right and you might even if you were real quiet at that time you could just be real quiet and you could hear him oh real yo it's kind of that feel you know you got flying monkeys and everything but the army is moving it and he says hey let's just stop and take some time to gather everyone together and let's come to the temple and let's pray and what's interesting to me is that this text does not then say and so they prayed about it which some texts say in the Bible but the text tells us exactly what Jehoshaphat prayed and every time the Bible tells us or reveals the content of someone's prayer I want to pay close attention to it and often I find that the prayers I read in Scripture are so much different than the prayers I often pray I'm often encouraged by them and this is to me one of the most encouraging prayers in scripture because it tells us how it's not a formula but it tells us how do we talk to God when our backs are against the wall verses five and six and Jehoshaphat stood in the Assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and said O Lord God of our fathers are you not God in heaven you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations in your hand are power and might so that none is with Abel is able to withstand you I gotta ask you a question have you ever in your life started a prayer by asking a question that's what he does here Jehoshaphat asks a rhetorical question a question he knows the answer to and they answers the question he says are you not God in heaven you are the ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth you are mighty you are strong you are powerful in other words you're bigger than even three armies that are looming there's a story about Mohammad Ali the great boxer back when I was a kid used to watch him that's when boxing used to just be on network TV was on ABC and you I used to love to watch muhammad ali and i was a fan of his and he called himself the greatest but i heard this story of muhammad ali early in his career he's on an airplane flying from one place to another which lands that's what you do when you're on an airplane okay I know that but he's flying and turbulence comes up middle of the flight so the planes shaken fasten seatbelt light comes on Mohammed Ali didn't buckle his seatbelt so the flight attendant comes down the aisle to make sure everyone's got their seatbelt fastened and she stops at his seat and says sir you need to fasten your seatbelt Mohammed Ali looked up and he said Superman don't need no seatbelt she looked back at him and said Superman don't need no airplane either buckle up you know whether you once called yourself the greatest or you just think you're you're something special the reality we know is that all of us have weaknesses none of us is invincible there is only one God in the universe and he is the only invincible one and it's interesting because now when we look at Mohammed Ali the man we once called the greatest who could take anyone in the ring can barely even lift his hand I think of Mike Tyson who came back later he came in the 80s when I'm in high school in college and I remember my dad and I paying pay-per-view to watch Mike Tyson fight and we thought it was gonna be a good fight it lasted like 40 seconds he was unbelievable and I remember thinking when I saw Mike Tyson I remember thinking no one will ever beat this guy he is going to retire undefeated but where is he now he's a shell of what he once was you know my favorite superhero is Superman and I don't understand what my kids don't give Superman the time of day I mean he was the best one he was powerful he could beat up anybody he could move large things he could do anything and I'm like why even I don't care about Batman and spider-man Superman's my god but the reality is as tough and as strong as he was we know that Superman had a weakness and that was kryptonite all superheroes have some weak link but J I Packer tells us sometimes because of that that's the way we think about our God he says in his book knowing God because we ourselves are limited and weak we imagine that points God is too and find it hard to believe that he is not but he isn't the reality is and this is what Jehoshaphat is saying is we are praying to a god against whom kryptonite he cannot stand God has no kryptonite he is the undefeated champion of the universe and when my back is against the wall one of the things I have to do when I pray is I've got to remind myself that I'm not praying to a guy that has a weak link I'm not praying to a homeboy I'm praying to the undefeated champion of the universe and that's what Jehoshaphat sets up there when you pray do you know who you're talking to do you realize the power that you are tapping into well that's how Jehoshaphat starts his prayer saying you are the undefeated champion of the universe and then he asks the second question verse seven did you not our God drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever through the descendants of Abraham your friend and they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name saying if disaster comes upon us the sword judgment or pestilence or famine we will stand before this house and before you for your name is in this house and cry out to you in our affliction and you will hear us and you will save us so yes the second question you said did you not give this land to Abraham our Father is this land not your land and this land is being invaded but this is your land and then he refers to a prayer that was prayed when Solomon built the temple there in Jerusalem they prayed a dedication prayer and in that dedication prayer they claimed a promise and said if were ever in trouble we will gather at this place we will cry out to our God and He will save us and what Jehoshaphat is saying is we're obeying that command we've gathered at this temple we're crying out to you and we need your help that's the marvelous thing about Jehoshaphat that I so greatly respect Jehoshaphat has a keen awareness of God's power of his promises of his covenant he knows that the Lord God has made certain promises and that the Lord God delights in upholding those promises for his people he doesn't do so begrudgingly he delights to keep his promises do you have this same kind of awareness in your soul but we worship not a God that breaks promises but a God that keeps them I remember a time where I had to kind of call on God and I was feeling desperate and I went to him with a promise it was about five or so years ago I was between ministries and churches and I was working a job that paid the bills but that's about all it did we didn't have a lot of extra and we had a wife still do had three kids still do a Jack Russell terrorist that turned 10 yesterday and we had two rats so we had lots of livestock and people to take care of that week I take the van into the shop and they find something underneath they said hey we need to repair this thing it's gonna cost you $900 then later on something else happened that put us out another $200 and then on Saturday night because this is the time when all major appliances break is on a Saturday night Saturday night at about 8:00 I open the fridge in our kitchen and we had just purchased it it wasn't it was less than 10 years old and it's not working fortunately it was February and we just put the stuff on the patio but we knew warmth was coming but the fridge goes out and I remember that night I was not the nicest person to be around in our household you know it's where Jenny says stay away from dad and I remember just just really being overcome with anxiety because we weren't he didn't have a lot of income we had enough to survive but our savings was being depleted it seemed by the day so what did I do you know what I went to the Lord and I said father this is hard and I'm I'm not a man of great faith right now but one thing I do know I remember what your son said in Matthew 6 said if you're seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness don't worry about the basics and I said Lord a refrigerator is the basics we've got to have this food inside you said Lord I don't know what's going to happen but we really need your help right now and I really am asking you father will you hold to your promise so what I did was I took to him a promise I'll finish the story later I would love to say the refrigerator started working right then it didn't but there was good news at the end so let me ask you this how many of God's promises are locked into your soul that you can say when you're desperate Lord you promised I'd do that my kids do that I promise to take them to Brahms tomorrow if I do that there will be reminders every 30 minutes tomorrow when I see them dad you promised and that's what Jehoshaphat is Sanger is saying Lord you promised you know one of the promises that I see in Scripture that I've locked in my heart and I hope I never forget it and it says so often where God says do not fear for I am with you I am with you and then Jesus I'm with you always even to the end of the age Hebrews 13 he will never leave you nor forsake you if nothing else that's what I can say God you told me you're with me and I need to know you're with me we claim the promises of God and then finally Josh fat talks to his father with I think a childlike faith because he kind of says look what's happening can you see this and in the midst asks a third question verse 10 and now behold the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt and whom they avoided and did not destroy look they reward us by coming out to drive us out of your possession which you have given us to inherit Oh our God will you not execute judgment on them for we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us now like I said earlier Jehoshaphat has a keen awareness of God's history I want to pull up one more math it's like Terry fakes on steroids I have two maps and I want to show you what he's talking about when Israel when God has finally said to Moses as an Israeli it is time for you to go to the promised land where they are is there at the lower part of that map somewhere and see that red line that goes all the way up north that was called the Kings Highway and it was four lanes had a Stuckey's had a loves country store just just had all the amenities and it was a great shortcut to go from south to north and so Israel kind of knocks the door of edom and says hey we're Israel God has given us this land that's just north of here it's kind of north and then we got to go west and we're wondering if you wouldn't mind if we use your highway we won't litter we'll pay for any damages everything will be fine you can trust us and eat them and this is the way the Hebrew reads Edom doesn't just say no they say heck no they say if you get on this Highway we will kill you and so Israel cries out to God and they say God what are we going to do and God if you'll put that map there one more time they have to kind of follow the path of that blue arrow that's kind of a rough deal but they have to go around and when they cry out to God and they say Lord can't you just changed their minds or can't we just conquer them because later they will conquer a couple of nations to get in and the Lord says something to them he says no I have preserved this land for them you are not to take it over you need to take the long way around we are going to have mercy on them so you see where Jehoshaphat's coming from now he says these are the same people upon whom we had mercy you let him go we let him go and it's almost like he's saying this is the thanks we get verse 11 when he says this again he says behold they reward us by coming out to drive us out of your possession this is the thanks we get and then he ends with this question o our God will you not execute judgment on them in other words what he's saying is are you a God of justice because I think you are and I just want to be sure are you not a God of justice you know often in the church and we rightly we should we emphasize that our God is a God of love that's what one scripture says God is love but God is also just and you know what when you are serving a just God and he's on your side that is great news and that's what Jehoshaphat emphasizes here that you're on our side and you're a just God I remember this sometimes I'll see a prayer request coming across my desk from somebody that might say something like you know what I've got a hearing this week that I'm a part of and I don't know what the judge is gonna do I don't know what they're gonna say and often when I pray for people that make that request whatever the situation is what I'll say is God you're a God of justice and I don't know who's right and who's wrong in this situation but my prayer is that full justice we'll be carried out that people in this case will be treated with equity that the truth will be there and that justice will prevail because you are a just God by the way have you noticed in all of this just how knowledgeable I know I've said it before but just how knowledgeable Jascha fat is of his God it takes me back to if you go back you don't do it now but if you turn in your Bibles back to Deuteronomy 17 back when Moses is riding out the law the first five books of our Old Testament God says something Moses you said here's what's gonna happen in a few centuries or however long it was these people are going to want human kings they shouldn't because I'm a good king and they don't need human Kings but they're gonna demand it and they're gonna whine about it so give them their human kings so he said when you get these human kings here's what these human kings are to do they are to take a copy of this law Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy and they are to hand write it out and then get the approval of the Levitical priests and then they are to keep it by their throne and they are to read from it all the days of their lives and it's not just because this law has civil laws that the King must know but it says later in that passage that they may learn to fear the Lord their God in other words if you're going to be the kind of king God wants you will be a king that is deeply soaking in his word his law and you know what I found this you know why do we as pastors often constantly encourage each other and and everyone who gathers don't Sonny why do we say hey stay in the word read the word every single day read through the Bible in here constantly be in the word why do we say that because if we don't know the one to whom we speak we don't really have a lot to say and that's why so many of us begin our prayers with thank you Lord for this beautiful day because we just heard that a million times we ask that you would bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies nothing wrong with praying that but I'm like that sometimes are you not where you're a robot did you know no one in the script services we bless this meal to the nourishment of our bodies it's it's okay and I do I knew this at nighttime praying with my kids and I found out that I'm getting robotic lord thank you for this great day help us to rest well tonight I want these kids to go to bed because they're driving me crazy in Jesus name we pray amen but you know what Jehoshaphat you read his prayer and you go do I ever pray like this why does he pray like this because his soul is deeply soaking in the Word of God and he doesn't sound like a robot and that's why I encourage you you know the staff at crossings is doing this this year for Christmas every one of the staff got a chronological through the Bible in a year and we're encouraged read through the Bible all year long and and and why is that because we need to know the Lord our God and you know what I tell people when I encourage them to read their Bible I say do this when you when you go into your daily reading time whatever you're doing don't go into it wanting to get something out of it just go into it wanting to know the Lord your God and you know what you may not get anything out of it today keep reading keep reading and what you find is that you read through the Bible this year and then you read through it the next and you read through the next your mind begins to know God almost as a default you begin to know how he works and how he functions and what he's like just from getting to know him each day and knowing who God is thanks all the difference in the world when we bow our heads and we pray to Him okay now we finally are getting to the request can you believe it's Jehoshaphat really hasn't made a request but now he gets there in verse 12 and I love this because I don't know how many times since I read this prayer this is what I say and and before we read this look up for just second if you're looking down the last minutes of this prayer this is great there's no big words in this last sentence the biggest word is four letters see we don't have to use big words there's no question we don't have to use big words but he says something with a lot of little words that you can even score well on words with friends with he says something here little words quite profound we don't know what to do but our eyes are on you we don't know what to do I call this the prayer of incompetent confidence I'm incompetent we don't know what to do wouldn't it be refreshing if one of these days the leaders in in our country our churches or something just came and said guess what we are absolutely helpless in this situation you know I could give you a good speech I could pass a good law but here's the reality I have no clue what to do let's all cast our eyes upon God and ask him to help us that's what a godly leader does he has no shame in saying I'm stuck we don't know what to do we're incompetent weren't able to do anything but our eyes are on you we turn this over to you because you can handle it it's kind of a reflection of first Peter 5:7 when Peter says cast all your burdens on the Lord for he cares for you it's this picture of the strong shoulders of God of him bending down and us taking our burdens and putting them on his shoulders for him to carry and you know what he wants us to do that and I've taught so many people this lesson I can't remember where I heard it a few years ago but I said you know sometimes when I pray and I'm worried about something and I feel like my back is to the wall I act as if I'm holding it in my hands you may want to do this with me don't worry I'm not gonna ask you to drink kool-aid or anything after this but just if you hold out your hands and you might have a burden right now I want you to just pretend like that burden is in your hands and so I pray to the Lord I'll say Lord I don't know what to do but my eyes are on you I'm taking this burden and I'm dropping it on you and you just turn your hands over and it's it's just symbolism there's not there's nothing magical about it but it helps reinforce this belief that here's what Jehoshaphat is saying here God it's not our problem anymore it's your problem you know God's okay with us saying that to him that's what first Peter 5:7 says that's what this verse says God this is not my problem this is your problem and I'm gonna trust you to take care of it so Jehoshaphat ends the prayer that's it and it says in verse 13 meanwhile all Judas stood before the Lord with their little ones their wives and their children I just picture this scene remember you can hear oh no no they don't know how close they are now maybe they're ten miles away maybe they're 15 miles away maybe they're 2 miles away and they're just standing there quietly I can envision a dad holding his wife's hand over here a kid's hand over here probably turning away from his child because he doesn't want to see he's done no no one's child see daddy cry because daddy's scared and they all just get quiet and a prophet stanza given a word from God and he speaks to the people of Judah and I'm gonna summarize what he says he says in a nutshell don't worry for tomorrow the Lord is going to defeat your enemies and you will not even have to raise a weapon but go to the valley of ziz tomorrow and you will find that your enemy will be all laid out you will not need to bring a single weapon and he says for the battle is not yours it's God's it's not your problem it's his problem do you think that would be kind of scary though is what he's really saying is go home have dinner play Scrabble watch a little TV just go to sleep like you normally go to sleep and wake up in the morning you've got to be trusting in God for this to happen because he's saying don't do anything and I have heard this then and this is where I struggle in prayer so often often when I pray and I pray I may pray just like the Lord wants me to and everything but once I say in Jesus name I pray amen my tendency is to then try to figure out now how am I gonna solve this myself I've done what God wants me to do but that's why I think when psalm 46 11 says be still and know that I am God this is the kind of situation that's talking about in fact some people believe psalm 46 was inspired by this story don't know if that's true or not but that's what he's saying he's saying be still and know that He is God don't try to do anything don't try to muster an army go home play games enjoy hee haw go to sleep and we're done that's hard for us sometimes I know it's hard for me and by the way you know when it says be still be still does not mean do nothing it usually just means leave that with God and then go on about your business so I go back to that story and then we'll talk about a couple other things but remember that story I told earlier about the broken refrigerator and the $900 car repair well that was on a Saturday night and we were involved in a little church startup I wasn't on the staff there but my wife and kids we were involved in this little church and and we were supposed to go to church the next day and I remember on Saturday night just going I just don't want to go and I was like Lance why don't you want to go in my my little man and so I was saying because I just want to sit here and stare at that refrigerator and just hope something will get better or maybe there's something I can do to fix it which is a dangerous prospect in my in my life but I had a duty the next day at church it was a church meeting in an elementary school and I was on setup team for that weekend so I had to go so I went and I thought you know what I think the reason I didn't want to go is because I thought I'm not gonna be able to worship because I'm gonna be worried about my fridge and the food but I went ahead and went and you know what's interesting is that as I was setting up I got to talking to a guy that was setting up with me and he began to pour out his heart to me and tell me what was going on in his life and he had a lot worse things going on the $900 car repair and a broken refrigerator and he seemed to be doing better than I was but it was like God said to me you just go you just wait on me I'll take care of this stuff you just go and do what you've been called to do and then after church I was talking to a guy so do you know a good appliance repairman he said I know a great one he said you'd never be able to find him but it charges $35 plus parts to fix minor things see here's his number so I went to church and in a sense what I did was I just left it all in God's hands and you know what I'm gonna go worship and I'm gonna leave this all on God's back and what happened was that was my way of being still and knowing that he was God now we won't read the rest of this story the rest of this story is wonderful Judah goes out the next morning they come out over the valley they look down the valley and all they see are dead bodies and they go and they take all their stuff and it's great God wins in the end but I still personally love to go back to this prayer it leaves such an impression on me it it the prayer to me is bigger than its answer because it magnifies the greatness the dependability and the wonder of God and when such prayers are prayed we may not have the results of this story but maybe our faith will be strengthened maybe we'll get a piece that chases out the darkness maybe our divine confidence will bloom like it doesn't in the easy times and two quick things before we close one what we're not saying today is that we need to pray prayers that impress people Jesus very much cautioned against that but here's my question when I pray do I leave an impression do I leave an impression on others that don't worry God's a big God a few years back I'll tell this story and will dismiss few years back is the story I thought of this morning we were living in Dallas and our phone provider you remember a few years ago and all the phone providers began getting into all the other businesses cable TV home repair internet all that kind of stuff well our phone company had to send a representative buying said hey we know you have phone service with us but we want to give you free for a month two million channels and a cable box in a remote and if you don't like it you can just call us back and we'll cancel it so I said that's great but I'll tell you right now we can't afford that but I'll try it out for a month I'm great with that but just know that I am gonna call you back in thirty days and we're not gonna want this he said that's fine that's that's the deal I said okay so sure enough we had it 30 days we enjoyed the cable and then at the end of 30 days I called him and said we're done well guess what happened a month later we get our bill and the bill has the charge for the next month that we told them we didn't want so I called the phone company and talked to somebody and and they said yeah we'll get this settled don't worry about it next month will be an adjustment I said no I want an adjustment now they said well we can't do that there'll be an adjustment next month so I said oh okay okay next month we get a bill and it's got this nasty note in it hey you're not paying your bills we're going to cut off your service so I call back and I got one of the best customer service representatives I've ever talked to because what you usually get when you call and know if you do this it's okay I know you got your script to stick to but when you say your call is very important to me no it's not when you say I'm sorry you feel that way boy no you're not you're just trying to process this thing okay but I didn't get somebody like that I got someone who was real and I told her I said she said how can I have you day I said let me just be honest I am extremely frustrated with you all right now and she and so she just listened and then she said that is unbelievable I can't believe you're being treated like this this will not stand we will get to the bottom of this today and I was like oh the angels are singing I think she was an angel you know some have entertained angels without knowing it in Hebrews I think she was one of those angels that I was entertaining but and and I said can I have your extension because every time I call nothing happens she said not only that I'll give you my email and we will get this taken care of and you know what I loved about that interaction is that often and I know this is probably your experience too but when we call a phone number like that what we get is robots who have a script that says I'm pretending to care right now but we don't get oftentimes real people that really hear us and are genuinely real and as I think about that I think about my own life and I think how many of my prayers are robotic where I I'm acting like I'm talking to a robot and not a God that loves me so deeply that's what I love about this prayer this prayer is not robotic this prayer is from the deepest emotions of Joshua fat but not just his emotions his knowledge of God and that's what we want to be next time God calls you to come alongside somebody the question you have to ask yourself the question I have to ask myself because I do this every day is am I gonna be a robot or am I going to be real are your prayers real read over this prayer some more meditate on it tonight get to know it let it soak into your soul and let's pray together now our Father we do thank you that you are a real God you are indeed very real you are great you are invincible you are the mighty one we ask your forgiveness for those times when we forgotten those things when we say prayers out of our rote memory and not out of our hearts when we say them out of little knowledge of you rather than great knowledge of you I pray for all of us in here father that we will be people who pray real prayers to a real God who is really strong and who wins in the end and we pray this through our great victories ascribe

Channel: Crossings Community Church

Views: 16,533

Keywords: Sermon, Message, Crossings Community Church, Worship, God, Jesus, Lance Ward, prayer, answered, effective, fundamental, principles, Matthew, Lord's Prayer

Id: F88v7KyCYoM

Length: 33min 36sec (2016 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 29 2013