I invite you this morning to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. 2 Chronicles chapter 20. Have you ever been backed into a corner? Maybe you seem you were being assaulted from every angle. And you're at wit's end. I've counseled several people this past week, and a couple of those, it seemed they were in this situation. Just assaults coming. After hearing one and then hearing another, I was like, what is going on? Seems like God's people are under attack or something's not right here. And as they begin to share, it wasn't that there was one thing that was a problem or was assaulting them, that it was many things. And as they continued, I was like, wow, that's a lot. And then they would add something else. And I was becoming overwhelmed. I'm like, whoa. We've all been there. I know I have. Maybe you're there this morning. Assaults. from every direction. And you've come this morning with dire hopes of getting some help. Maybe your soul is crying out, Lord, help me! Lord, save me! It is my prayer for you this morning that the Lord would come to you, and He would comfort you, and He would strengthen you this very day in special ways. I want to proclaim to you this morning what to do when you don't know what to do. What to do when you don't know what to do. In our text, King Jehoshaphat finds himself in one of these very predicaments. He was the king of Judah. He had the favor and blessing of God. He walked in the ways of his father Asa. He gets word that there's armies coming against Him. Not an army, but armies. His back's against the wall. They are way outnumbered. There is no way for them to defeat these great armies that are coming against them. Let's read the text. 2 Chronicles 20 It came to pass, after this also, that the children of Moab, the children of Ammon, and with them others beside the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There comes a great multitude against you from beyond the sea on the side of Syria, and behold, they be in Hazazan-Tamar, which is in Gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast in 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 Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah in Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord before the new court, and said, O Lord God of our fathers, are not you God in heaven? And do you not rule over the kingdoms of the nations of the heathen? And in your hand is it not power and might, so that none is able to withstand you? Are not you our God, who did drive out the inhabitants of the land, and before thy people Israel gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever? and they dwelt therein, and have built you a sanctuary for your name, saying, If when evil comes upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then you will hear and help. And now, behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they have turned from them and destroyed them not. But behold, I say, how they reward us to come, to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. Here's our text. Oh, our God, will you not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that comes against us. Neither know we what to do. But our eyes are upon thee. Let's pray. Father, we thank You this morning for Your Word. We thank You for this passage, and what we see, and what we hear, and what's being done. Lord, knowing and realizing that there are many among us this morning who have come past about with troubles on every side. They're overwhelmed, Lord. They don't know what to do. Would You help? Would You minister today, Father, through Your Word, by Your Holy Spirit? Give me help. Give us help to hear, to understand, to receive Your Word, that Christ might be glorified. For it's in His name we pray, Amen. We don't stand a chance. We don't know what to do. But I think He does, because He said, Our eyes are upon you. Our eyes are upon you. What do you do when you've exhausted all strength and help? When you're outnumbered? When you're overwhelmed? When there's too many enemies for you to stand a chance? Jehoshaphat said, our eyes are upon you. What does that mean? What is he doing? Well, it means several things, but I think the initial thing that we see there is that God, we're looking to you. Our eyes are on you. It's a look of What are you going to do? Lord, what are you going to do? Now, it's not like many of us sometimes. Lord, I've got myself in a mess. And what are you going to do? But Lord, I'm helpless. There's nothing I can do. Let me set my eyes on you. Let me set my face towards you and watch your mighty works in this situation. It's a look of anticipation. It's a look of confidence. It's a look of reliance upon God that He's faithful and He's going to work for His own glory and thus my good. So what does He do? He turns His eyes upon the Lord. And all the people are gathered with Him. And He's praying before the people to God. And He's saying, Lord, Lord. How do we turn our eyes on the Lord? And what does it mean to do that. He's doing that in His prayer. His prayer is that. He calls His fast, and all the people come from all the cities of Judah, and they gather there, and He begins to pray. You've done that, right? You do that, right? In the midst of things coming and coming and coming, it's time to pray. It's time to pray. The first thing we see that He does in verse 6 is that He invokes the sovereignty of God. Verse 6, and He said, O Lord God of our fathers, Are you not God in heaven? Lord, you're sovereign over everything. You're in heaven. You're over us. You're controlling everything that's happening. You are above us. And you're controlling everything below you. You are over all the kingdoms of the nations. You're not just over the kingdom of Judah, though you are our God, but you are over all the nations. You have all the power and might. No one can withstand you. And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nation? And Lord, in your hand, is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand you? This situation is impossible with men. This situation is impossible with me, and even all those I can gather to pray. But this situation is not impossible for you, O God. This should be our automatic go-to. Amen? In any trial, any situation, calamity strikes, an assassination attempt, Lord, You rule over all. Nothing is going to happen outside of your perfect wisdom and your perfect will. Never wants, never has, never will be. They're an oops in the economy of God. It's definitely bigger than me, but it's not bigger than my God. It may be out of my control, but it's in His perfect control. So, He invokes the sovereignty of God. Oh Lord, we know You are God in heaven. We know that You rule over everything. We know that you are going to control it. You are controlling. This is in your hands. In verse 7 he invokes the providence of God. Verse 7, Art thou, art not thou our God? who did drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and you gave it to your seed, to the seed of Abraham, your friend, forever. Lord, we know what you've done in the past. We know that your people, we're your people. We know that your hand is upon us. We know that you've brought us through so much. Lord, we know. that you have been good to us, and you're going to continue to be good to us. This should be our attitude amid our maladies. And let us wait and see what He does this time. Diane and I are learning to think like this. when we have a situation that's outside our control, which all situations are outside our control, aren't they? But, you know, something we just can't seem to... We're learning to say, let's see what God does this time. Let's see how God shows Himself faithful in this. Jehoshaphat looks back and he says, Lord, you've been with us. You're not going to leave us now. He invokes the sovereignty of God, he invokes the providence of God, then he involves the promises of God. Look at verses 8 and 9. and they dwelt therein, and have built you a sanctuary therein, for your name's saying. If when evil comes upon us, as the sword, judgment, pestilence, famine, and the people stand before this house and in your presence, for your name is in this house, and they cry unto you, if we cry unto you in our affliction, you will hear and help us. Solomon built the temple. Solomon dedicated the temple to the Lord. And Solomon prays to the Lord this prayer. Now, Jehoshaphat had brought back the priest, had brought back the people, and they were teaching the Word. They had probably read this recently, where Solomon dedicates the temple Lord, if at any time pestilence, famine, whatever comes upon us, if we stand in this place and we seek Your face and we call upon You, we know You will hear and You will answer. So Jehoshaphat is leaning on that promise. He's standing on that promise. And by the way, Solomon dedicates the temple in 2nd Chronicles chapter 7. And when he dedicates it, the glory of the Lord comes and takes the offerings, takes them up, and the glory of the Lord fills the place. And they're worshipping the Lord. And God comes to Solomon, and He says, My name will be in this place. And then he says, verse 14, in 2 Chronicles 7, and that is what Jehoshaphat is doing. If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, turn from their evil way, and repent, then I will hear from heaven, and I will come, and I will forgive their sins, and I will heal their land." So he involves the promises of God. In the midst of your troubles, look to the promises of God, and see what He has said, and know that He will never go back on His word. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He has told us that we are in His hand and no one can pluck us out of His hand. What's He doing? He's promised that He would conform us to the image of His Son. This is His will for your life. This is what He's doing in the midst of all of this coming down upon you. He's faithful. He keeps His promises. Lean on the promises of God in your time of turmoil. So, He invokes the sovereignty of God. He invokes the providence of God. He involves the promises of God. And then in verses 10 and 11, He invalidates the enemies of God. Look at it. Verse 10. And now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom, Lord, you didn't let us invade them when we came into the land. But we turned from them and we did not destroy them. But now look what they're doing. They're going to reward us for not destroying them by coming and trying to destroy us. They're going to try to cast us out of thy possession, which thou has given us to inherit. Lord, they have no right. Sin no longer has dominion over you. The devil has been defeated. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They have no power against us. Our possession is Christ. He is ours and we are His. Nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, nothing, nor any other creature, nor any other thing in creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God. That's in Christ Jesus. The enemy... They're losers! So He invokes the sovereignty of God. He invokes the providence of God. He involves the promises of God. He invalidates the enemies of God. And then He invites the presence of God. the power of God. There in verse 12, O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that comes against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon you. What's he saying? Come, Lord. Come, Lord. Show yourself strong on our behalf. Come, Lord, move. Come, Lord, do a work. Come, Lord, we trust you. We have confidence in you. We're anticipating that you're about to do something. Then comes the reply. Verse 14, Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaniah, the son of Jeael, the son of Mataniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, upon him came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. And he said, Hearken, all you Judah, all you inhabitants of Jerusalem. And you, O King Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you." How did Jehoshaphat begin his prayer? What did he do when he heard this news? He feared. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon the prophet here. This says, the Lord unto you, be not afraid or dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, Go down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz. And you shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeru. And you shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourself, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not. nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you." What's the reply? This battle is not yours, but God's. How many battles are yours? Are they not all God's? Is that God working in you both to will and to do His good pleasure? Are you not working out your own salvation with fear and trembling, but it is God who works in you? Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. In Jehoshaphat, Verse 18, bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites and the children of the Kohathites and the children of the Korites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. go out before them. Here's where they are. But you're not going to fight. You're going to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. So, Jehoshaphat receives this word from the prophet whom the Spirit of God had come upon. And he bowed his head, puts his face to the ground. The people began to worship. Verse 20, they rose up early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established. Believe as prophets, so shall you prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, that they should praise the beauty of holiness. As they went out before the army, and to say, praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever. Praise the Lord, for His steadfast love endures forever. And when they began to sing, y'all, this is good. Amen? You know this passage, don't you? And when they began to sing and to praise the Lord, and when they began to sing and to praise the Lord, set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they were smitten. They worshipped them to death. They worshipped God. And as they worshipped God, the enemies killed each other. Verse 23, For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir utterly to slay them and to destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, They turned on one another. Everyone helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, see, they don't know what's happening. They're worshiping the Lord. They're singing praises unto the Lord. They're singing, His steadfast love endures forever. His steadfast love endures forever. And while they're doing that, They don't know what's going on down there. They come up to the rise. They come up to see this great enemy that has come against them. They don't know what they're about to see. They just know it's a vast army way bigger than they are. And they're all laying on the ground dead. Verse 24, and when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked upon the multitude, and behold, there were dead bodies falling to the earth, and none escaped. If you read back, I won't do this, won't go to this. If you read back a couple chapters, it lists all the armies of Jehoshaphat and those around them. hundreds and hundreds and five hundred thousand and this many thousand and this many thousand. And that's the armies of Judah. And so they were way outnumbered. So here is a vast sea of bodies. Why do you go to war with your jewelry on? Why do you go to war with your possessions of value? So the people of God can take it. That's what happened. Verse 25, And when Jehoshaphat and the people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them an abundance, both riches with the dead bodies and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves more than they could carry away. And they were three days gathering the spoil. And on the fourth day, they assembled themselves in the valley of Baraka. For there they blessed the Lord. Therefore, the name of this place is called the Valley of Barak, the Valley of Blessing under this day. And they returned every man of Judah and Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them to go again to Jerusalem with joy. For the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel. Do you want to turn the tide? Do you want to turn the enemies away? Do you want to have victory in your temptations? Praise the Lord. Worship the Lord. I'm about to tell you something about myself that you may not shake my hand again. I used to manage a funeral home and one evening, late at night, I got the phone call that there had been an accident. Two young men driving a car had veered off the road into a sheep's foot, you know, a steamroller type thing. And the car exploded. One of the boys I knew, I had to go and tell the family that night that he had been killed in this accident. The other boy I didn't know, We had the funeral for the one young boy from our community, and the father of the other boy came. And afterwards, we were kind of standing around, and I asked him, I said, how are you doing? And he said something to me that I've never forgotten and probably never will forget. He said, I'm worshiping my way through it. That's it. That's it. It'll work every time. It'll work every time. Now notice. Verse 29 that. All the cities. All the realms about took note that God had delivered them. And there was peace in the kingdom of Jehoshaphat. You know, people are watching you. They see you going through your struggle. They know you claim to be a Christian. They're watching. What will your testimony be? That God is faithful. Or that God will fail you. God will not fail his people. You see something deeper here with me. Do you see the gospel here? Do you see the gospel there? In verse 12, he says, we have no might against this great company. The ESV says, we are powerless against this great horde. Is that not the testimony of every one of us that's been born again? That we came to a point that we saw the enemy was greater That our sins were so piled high, there was nothing we could do about it. We were powerless against our sins. There was nothing we could do. The law was condemning us. The judgment was pronounced. We were guilty and the wrath of God was bearing down on us. We were condemned already. And not only was all of this weight and all of this coming against us, we were the enemy. But then our eyes were opened. Our dead soul was made alive. We turned toward the Lord, our Savior. Our souls rose from the dead And we saw the way of escape. We saw the way to pardon. And we fled to Christ and His cross. We were washed. We were sanctified. We were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. Have you not had that day when your sin was so overwhelming to you? You knew that you were a sinner. You knew that you deserved the judgment of God. And you sided with God against yourself. And you knew He would be just. You knew He would be right if He picked you up and threw you into hell that very moment. But then, the love of God, in your repentance, the love of God was shed abroad in your heart. Oh Lord, I'm sorry. Lord, forgive me. Lord, what have you done in giving your Son a sacrifice for my soul? What glory! Oh, we needed someone to live a perfect life for us. He came and He lived that perfect life for you. Oh, we needed someone to die in our place. To take the wrath of God. To take our sin upon Himself. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh, what a Savior! Oh, what a Savior! He died our death. He lived our life. He was buried in the tomb. But he didn't stay dead. Death couldn't hold him. Death had no claim on him. And when it had done its search, he raised himself up. Ascended back to the Father. Now seated at the right hand. Making. intercession for us and he's coming again to receive us unto himself that where he is there we may be also let us pray oh lord great is your word great is the gospel of the lord jesus christ apply it to our hearts May this salve be a comfort to your people. Maybe some were right on the verge of giving up. But now your spirit has given them hope. Much hope in a sovereign, holy, righteous, wise God. In Christ's name we pray.