The Power of Praise

Cathy and I are delighted to be here. And some people say, how long are you going to be there? Until we're not. And so whatever that timeframe is, we don't know. Lord does.

He hasn't filled us in on that, so we're gonna just be here until he brings the right guy to be your next pastor. But what that does is it introduces you to change. Don't you love change? Some of you are going like, oh, yeah, I love change. And then you are having to sit by yourself somewhere because the people around you don't.

It's a crazy thing, because all change, to one extent or another, all change represents loss. You're losing something. Even if you're banging your head up against the wall and you change by not doing that, you lose the pain, but you lose something every time change happens. And so when the loss comes, with it comes a lot of uncertainty. And that uncertainty can lead to all kinds of things like anxiety and nervousness and maybe even just plain purity, fear.

You don't know what's gonna happen next. And so in a transition period like this for Southbridge, there's gonna be a tendency for some people to kind of say, well, I'll watch for a while and see what's gonna happen around here. But you're afraid of what that might look like, might not like the next guy. I might not like that guy who's doing the interim stuff. I might not really appreciate the values of all these things that are going on here.

And so just recognize that change brings that kind of sense of uncertainty and fear among us. It does. It happens all the time. And so the question that I'll ask you, maybe you're not concerned about that at all, because you just go to church here on Sunday morning. You've been doing it for years, and this is just where you're going to go.

And whoever's preaching, whoever's leading, you don't care. You're just going to show up. That's great and wonderful for you, but maybe you're afraid of something and you haven't really acknowledged it necessarily to yourself. You haven't even said to yourself, you know, that scares me to death. But maybe you just started a new school this year if you're a student, or you started at another level of studies that are beyond you and you're scared to death because you look at the curriculum and think, like, man, I have no idea I'm gonna do this.

Or maybe you're on a new sports team or a new season has started and you're not sure what that's gonna look like. And you're kinda anxious going into it. Maybe you started a new.

Maybe you just got a new baby Wendy in your family. Little grandchild's coming in. You don't know what all is there, but you're not sure what the future holds for any and all of these things. And so the Lord wants us to understand that whatever the need is. What did the song say?

My father has it. Every resource we need has been amply provided for us by the Lord God through his son, Christ. More than abundantly provided for. And so as we think about this, it kind of occurs to me. I remember one of those old Indiana Jones movies.

Some of you remember that, that kind of stuff. And there was one scene where Indy's running through the marketplace and this whole gang of people are attacking him and chasing him through the marketplace. And finally it kind of clears out and there's this giant guy with a big scimitar sword there, and it's just him and Indy, and he's staring him down. And. And you're thinking, like, what is he gonna do?

What is he gonna do? And. And he doesn't have a cemetery. He doesn't even have a pocket knife. And so he's standing there and the movie's building up, building up.

And then he realizes, oh, wait, I got a gun. Bam. And it's over. You don't bring a knife to a gunfight. So anyway, that's the moral of the story.

Let's pray we can go home. No, what we're saying is that he had the resource. Already they're building a suspense. The fear is building in that situation. But he already had what he needed.

When you came to Christ, you received everything you will ever need. God has granted us according to these great and magnificent promises in the Scriptures, everything pertaining to life and godliness. I didn't make that up. That's two Peter, chapter one. And so what we're going to do today and next week, we're going to walk through a couple of different pictures of what this might look like in practice.

How do we understand these things? Today we're going to be talking about a threat that absolutely seems too big and will absolutely overcome the nation of Judah. And this is a risky thing. The first sermon, preaching as an interim, but I'm going to have to say throughout the sermon, the name Jehoshaphat. So at least it's not Mephibosheth, you know, but Jehoshaphat.

So we're going to be saying that A lot. So if I mix it up, but my tongue gets twisted sometimes. That's what I'm talking about. We're good on that one. And you'll get a chance to pronounce it in the car on the way home.

He said it wrong the whole time, but you'll be all right. But what he's dealing with is a threat that seems too big to handle. And then next week, we're going to talk about the passage that's a very similar passage over in Nehemiah where he's talking about a task that seems too overwhelming to overcome the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem at that time. And so why. Why, David?

Why are you doing this? Well, the fear part can come into play for you, and you don't need to be carrying that. God has already provided everything you need to handle that fear. Whatever that fear is stemming from and whatever the task that he's put before you, whatever he's called you to do, he is more than able to. Isn't that great to know that he is more than able.

Here's just a thought, just to kind of start this interim off on the right note. Somewhere out there. This sounds like the start of a Disney song. Somewhere, you know, somewhere out there, your pastor to be is probably preaching right now. He has no idea that God's gonna tap him to be your next pastor, but God already knows who it is.

Could you just tell us and save us some trouble? He doesn't work that way, so he wants us to trust him in the interim. And so the task that we have is to look at the task and recognize that God is too big for you to find the right guy to be the next pastor. Anyway. It wasn't too big for Nehemiah to rebuild the walls.

It wasn't too great a threat by these mighty armies of the Moabites to. To attack Jehoshaphat. So what is it that he wants us to understand? So if you'll take your Bibles with you, I hope you have them with you. And we're going to use them every week, just like you did when Scott was here.

And I asked what version of the Bible Scott was using it, and they said, lately he's using the niv. So that's what I'm going to be using for right now. And if you tell me we don't like the niv, we're waiting for Scott to leave and ask somebody to change. Well, that's. That's what we are.

So let's begin reading. I'm just going to read verses 1 to 12 of 2 Chronicles. Chapter 20, it says, and after this, the Moabites and the Ammonites, with some of the Maonites, came to make war on Jehoshaphat. Some men came and told Joshua, a vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the sea. That's the Dead Sea.

They're already at Hazazan. Tamar, which is in Gedi. And alarmed Jehoshaphat resolved or set his heart or set his mind to inquire of the Lord. And he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord.

Indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him. Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah, in Jerusalem, at the temple of the Lord, in the front of the new courtyard. And he said, o Lord, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.

O our God. Did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel? And did you not give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend? They have lived in it. They have built in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, if calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment or the plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your name, and we'll cry out to you in our distress, and you'll hear us and save us.

Now here are men from Ammon, Moab, Mount Seiro, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt. So they turned away from them. They didn't destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. O Lord our God, will you not judge them?

For we have no power to face this vast army that's attacking us. We do not know what to do. But our eyes are upon you. Does that strike a chord with you? We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on him.

Let's pray together and get into this. Father, thank you. That your word is filled with truth that transforms our lives, realities that will shake the foundations upon which we are building our lives and establish us with the unshakable rock of Christ upon which we can build that which can never be destroyed. Lord, you are building your church. You're building Southbridge, you are building the kingdom.

And the gates of hell will not and cannot prevail against those things. And so we ask you now, Lord, to give us freedom from fear.

Give us the opportunity to take whatever it is that's making us nervous or anxious or worried. Or uncertain. And, Lord, and cast that upon you. Because, frankly, Lord, the truth is, most days in our lives, there are moments which come which force us to say we don't know what to do. But our eyes are on you.

Why? Because, Lord, we know you're the one who does know. So teach us, Father, and we will give you praise in Christ's name. Amen. Well?

Well, here we have King Jehoshaphat. He has come to the reality that there is an army approaching. And it doesn't say how far outside of Jerusalem they are, but they're coming from the southeast. And so they've got to cross a mountain range from the Dead Sea area. If you've ever been over there, you know there's a big mountain that has to go over to get there.

They're by the region of Ein Gedi, which is where David and his men were hiding for a period of time from Saul, and they're on their way. And so it's not a matter of wonder if they will ever do anything wrong here. They're coming, and they have one stated intention, and that is to destroy Jehoshaphat and Judah and take over Jerusalem. There's no question that's what they have in mind. But instead of cowering in fear, which would be the normal response in that situation, Jehoshaphat does things that are totally different from the way a normal human being would handle those things.

And that's what we want to learn from today. What happens when. When the power of praise overcomes whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. We are a people who are recognizing that God has given us the same privilege. His fear served as a catalyst or a call to worship.

Not run, not convene committee meetings, not establish plans and systems and organizational structure. That's not what he was doing. His call was to worship and listen. What happened when that happened first, that call to worship, the power of praise was there to overcome the darkest fears that he had. Because reality was, he was fearful.

He was scared to death. He didn't know what in the world they were gonna be able to do. And so this invasion struck his heart. And what happened was that fear gripped him and turned his attention. It says that he set his mind, he set his heart, or he focused his attention and.

And proclaimed a fast for all Judah. He resolved to seek the Lord, and they all came together to seek help from the Lord. From every town in Judah to seek him. And so he says, lord, I'm gonna seek you with determination. This is not gonna be something that I'll have a little two minute prayer time, the first thing I get up in the morning and then call it a day.

He says, I'm resolved to seek you, and I will turn my attention both to fast so that I take time out of my regular course of days that I will not eat during that time, I will. I will not drink during that time. I will be praying in those normal times when I would be doing something else. And what I'm gonna call you to do as a people, he says, I want you all to join me in fasting with me and seeking the Lord together.

Now just picture this for a moment that the head of our governments in the world today. So you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna call a time of fasting and seeking the Lord together.

Which Lord are we going to seek? How are we going to do it? We're going to have the imams and the priests and the gurus and the, you know, sheiks and all. Who are we going to pray? How are we going to do this?

There was no question in his mind. We're seeking the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Together. We are coming before the Lord and we will seek the Lord. And so the circumstances prompted him to do something that had not been done yet.

He gathered all the peoples together. In verse four, it says the people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord. And from every town they made the trip, they came to Jerusalem to be able to seek God together. He gathered the people. And then as they gather together, he doesn't have the crowd rally in a political sense.

He calls them together. And he, as the king, leads them in prayer.

He didn't ask one of the priests, he didn't ask the high priest, he didn't ask the prophets. He, the king stood in front of the people and he prayed. And what did he say when he prayed? God, do something to wipe those people out. They're coming.

This is terrible. You got to get rid of them quickly. The thing that I fear the most is happening, Lord. Stop them. He's not praying that at all.

What does his prayer consist of? He says, God, verse six. You're the Lord of all.

Just stop and think about that for a second. He's the Lord of all. Is he the Lord over the Ammonites? Yeah. How about the Moabites?

Maonites? Sounds too much like mayonnaise. Doesn't it? But the Maonites and those from Mount Sarah, he's the Lord over all them. Is he Lord over Judah?

He's the Lord. He says, God, you're the Lord of all. And God, here's what we know you have. Verse 7. You've shown your power before.

We've seen you do stuff. We know how powerful you can be. And, Lord, here's the reality. In recent days, you have seen our devotion to you. Verses 8 and 9, you've watched as we have been faithful to you, Lord, why is this coming now?

That's not what he's asking. He says, you've seen our devotion to you. And now, lord, in verses 10 to 12, let's put this thing in context now. You hear like we're hearing, Lord, you hear the enemy's threats.

You hear what they're saying. And then he comes to that place that. That we want to really hang our hats this morning. He comes to admit his helplessness. Lord, we.

We don't know what to do.

But our eyes are on you. Nothing is better than fixing our eyes on you. That's what he's saying. And so he leads in this time of prayer. And as he's leaving in that time of prayer, the Spirit of God responds by sending a prophet to him.

And the Spirit began to direct this conversation. And so he comes to a place where he says, now, Lord, I prayed. And then the Lord says, I've heard. And he sends, jahaziel has his prophet, and he gives him words for him to understand and obey. So he listens to instructions.

In verse 15, he says. He said, listen, King Jehoshaphat, this is Jahaziel. Listen all who live in Judah. Listen all who are in Jerusalem. This is what the Lord says to you.

Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army, for the battle's not yours, but God's. And then verse 17, you'll not have to fight this battle. Well, that seems kind of little Pollyannish and a little kind of weak knee to be able to answer the prayer like that. I mean, you're not going to have to fight. Well, if we don't fight, they're going to wipe us out.

God. No. He says, listen, this battle is not yours. You're not going to have to fight this fight. It's not going to be your job to do it.

You take up your positions, you stand firm, and you see the deliverance the Lord will give you. O Judah, in Jerusalem, do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. You go out to face him tomorrow. And the Lord will be with you.

What are you afraid of? Did you answer that question while ago? Put. Put that in this context here? What am I afraid of?

What somebody said to me on social media. I'm afraid of what somebody might think about what I said about or did about. What is it that you're afraid of? That battle's not yours. It's the Lord's.

You're not gonna have to fight that battle. The Lord is with you. And so they were walking with the Spirit's direction. They listened to his instructions. And then in verse 18, it says, they did the only thing that they could do.

Jehoshaphat, the king, standing in front of him, he bowed his head with his face to the ground. And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. They fell down in worship. And after they had all fallen on their faces before God said, this is who we serve. This is our God.

What is this enemy who's coming from the southeast to try to overtake us? We serve this great and glorious God. And so they fell on their faces to worship him. And then as they're falling down on their faces, the Levites and the worship leaders and. And everyone started getting back up on their feet, and they stood up and they began to praise God with a very loud voice.

It says in verse 19, we need to instruct some people in the church sometime about that very loud voice that God calls us, Right? Because when we're singing some glorious songs, we have a lot of people who are kind of doing that penguin praise.

We're praising God now. Can you sense it? No. It says they praise God with a loud voice. Look at that.

In verse 19, some of the Levites, the Kohathites, the Korathites, they stood up, praise the Lord. They got a visual with a very loud voice. They were excited about what God was doing. They're ready to go. They rose up in praise.

Now here's the little nuggets here of truth. Worshiping instead of worrying will always win the day. So when you're anxious, when you're nervous, when you're worrying, when you're distraught, when you're afraid, let that be your call to worship. Paul says it a different way over in Philippians chapter four. He says, don't be anxious for anything, but in everything, with thanksgiving, with prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to God.

And he will guard your hearts and your minds with a peace which surpasses all comprehension. You won't even be able to understand what he's doing. It's gonna be so awesome. And so they stood up and worshiped him. So the power of praise has led them thus far.

Now what happens in the morning? They went on to bed that night, the army's coming, they're marching, and they go to bed at peace. Some of them, you know, some of them are worry warts, and they're not accepting the peace, but they're. They're in bed and they sleep, and they get up the next morning and they use this power of praise to express their. Their deepest faith.

Because what we see is Jehoshaphat was a faithful king, a faithful leader. Faith had established his confidence in what's happening. He has now gained God's perspective. He has now been able to take this. This vast army as it's described here, and he's been able to take this huge issue that's facing him, this vast army.

And he's put it in the context of the God who created heavens and earth and everything, that it's in those places that dwells there. God's saying, you know, I'm bigger and I'm more powerful, and you don't have to worry and you don't have to be afraid. I've gained God's perspective here. Now, is this unique to this scenario? No.

Peter and John, over in Acts chapter four, had been arrested for preaching in the name of Jesus, the resurrected king. And they had been hauled in before the Jewish leaders and threatened to preach no more in the name of this Jesus. And I love the response Peter and John gave them. Said, look, you decide. Is it more important to listen to you or to listen to the resurrected king of glory?

We're going to listen to Jesus, thank you very much. Beat us, jail us, do whatever you need to us. But when we're out of here, we're going to keep preaching the name of Jesus. And so they go back. They let them go after they've warned them to don't do this anymore.

They go back to the house, church, where the people were praying for them. And they say, here's what the threat was. Here's how they were attacking the work of the kingdom. And so instead of thinking, how do we escape? How do we get out of town?

How do we avoid all this conflict and battle? Let's just run. It says, no. Oh, Lord God, they prayed just like Jehoshaphat did. You're the one who made the heavens and the earth and everything that's in them.

You are the God who has done magnificently beyond what we could ever ask or think. And then they go through and they pray the same kind of prayer that Jehoshaphat prayed and Jahaziel prayed. And then it says, when they rose from the place of prayer, the last thing they prayed, lord, give us greater boldness than ever before. Not shut us up, Lord, or give us a way to be surreptitious in how we do it. But, Lord, make us bolder.

Get us in their face even deeper if we need to. But we want to proclaim Jesus as Lord. And it says they got it from the place of praying. And in verse 32, it says the place where they were meeting was shaken and the Gospel went out in a powerful way. So this is not unique to Jehoshaphat.

You want to translate it into the New Testament, there it is. But here's what our calling is today. To be able to understand God. What is it that we're supposed to do? We've gained your perspective.

So now what we can say is we believe your promises. We believe what you're going to do. We have heard your word. So verse 20, chapter 20 of 2 Chronicles. They rose early in the morning and they went out to the wilderness of Tekoa.

And when they went, Jehoshaphat stood and said, listen to me now, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in his prophets and you'll succeed.

Trust in God's power. Just do it. Why? Because Luke 1:37, nothing will be impossible with God. That's very simple.

Literal Translation of the Greek. In Luke 1, it says, no word of God will be without power. God is the powerful one you can trust. So faith established the confidence that he had. And now that trust and that faith shapes his plan.

What's the battle plan here? Jehoshaphat, you're the king. You're in charge of this whole thing. What are we going to do? He says, well, no, let me think.

The Lord said, the battle is not yours, but God's. Let's work off that plan. If that's what he says, let's do something really crazy. Let's lead with praise. How about that?

Excuse me. You don't do what? Let's lead with praise. Let's lead with worship.

Where are the guys with the spears and the swords and the bows and arrows and the she? What? Leave with praise? Yeah. He consulted with the people and told them what was going to happen.

And he says, verse 21. He had consulted with the people. And he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised him in holy attire. What's it saying? He said, choir, get on up here, you guys.

All of you who are in the choir, run. All your choir robes, all your holy attire people. You guys who sing to the Lord, who lead us in praise, we want you to come on up here. Oh, yeah, we're going to have a nice little word of prayer before we go to battle. Not exactly.

What are we going to do? He says, I'm going to put you in front of the army.

Lord, in modern times, they call that cannon fodder.

You think maybe we don't necessarily think this is a great idea. He said, no, we're going to leave with the choir. The singing and the praising of the worship voices express the deepest faith that God, you are the Lord who goes before us and the battle is not ours. You told us that. Now, does this mean we do every battle like this?

No, but this specific one, he says, put the praise in front. He expressed his deepest faith and says, now go forth with thanksgiving. And so the choir and all their singers together started going forth, singing from Psalm 136 and leading the way and praising the Lord God. And there we sing again and again. Give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever.

And as they began to sing him praise God begins to do what God only can do.

You know the story you say, is this the one where God wins? Yeah, this is the one where God wins. That's how it comes out. What happens, he says, when fear becomes faith, worry becomes worship. You see how that works?

When fear becomes faith, worry becomes worship. So what happened? They rise above this most dangerous foe and do what God's called them to do. They didn't understand. They didn't have a rational explanation for what was going to happen.

They couldn't. They didn't know. They'd never seen anything like this before. But God says, you rise up and go. And Psalm 73 says something of the same kind of thing where the psalmist was saying, why are the wicked prospering?

And all the bad guys are winning all the time, and it looks like they're prevailing over everything. And then he says in verse 16 and 17, when I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight. I couldn't figure this out. Do you read the papers? You get up this morning and read it and say, lord, why are the bad guys winning?

He says, but when I pondered to understand this, I did so until I came into the sanctuary of God. And then I perceived the end that God was going to accomplish. He wins, and we're on his side. And so what happened? Jehoshaphat went from fearful to faithful to now favored.

He is the favored one of God. In this dramatic series of events, the enemies of Judah, through no work of the hand of the choir or the army, they turned on themselves.

Verse 23, if you want to see what happens. As they began beginning verse 22, when they began to sing and praise the Lord, set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Sarah who were invading Judah. And they were defeated. The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Sarah to destroy and annihilate them. And after they'd finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

What? I thought they were attacking Judah. The Lord's going, yeah, yeah, they were. Watch what I can do. He said, this is what I do.

The battle's not yours, it's mine. You will not have to fight them. You just go forth with words of praise. Battle is not yours. The battle is the Lord's.

He says, the battle isn't yours. But the blessing will be if you will allow me to show you the way to walk. This is the way it'll work. You're. Your enemies will be routed.

And that's what happened with all these troops who had allied together to come against this group. And they said, this is where we're going. We're going to tear them down. We're going to destroy this. This is going to be great.

We're going to wipe out Judah. And the Lord just says, no, they're routed. They're not going to do anything but destroy each other. And then this amazing thing happened. When the people of Judah, remember the choir in front of you got this picture.

Armies are in the back, choirs leading forth. Give thanks to the Lord for his goodness. Mercy endures forever. You know, they're marching out there, and then they come over the rise, and they see the armies, or shall we say the dead bodies of the army.

And instead of finding that they were in the middle of a battlefield, they're at Costco. I mean, there's just this vast array of stuff that's been left by the armies that had just defeated themselves. And it says that this abundance was received. They got these bountiful possessions that had been left behind by these armies that came to not just win the battle, but to then occupy. And so as occupying forces, they were bringing all their household goods and all this other stuff with them.

It took Israel, I mean, Judah. It took him three days to carry all the stuff back to Jerusalem. There was so much stuff we'd have settled for the victory. Lord, he says, I know you would, but I never do things just a little bit.

Abundance was received, and the blessing then brought great rejoicing. Look at verses 26 and 27. On the fourth day, they assembled in the valley of Baraka, for there they blessed the Lord. Therefore they named the place the Valley of Baraka. Until today, every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat as their head.

And they returned to Jerusalem with all joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. So now, what was it that you were worrying about a while ago? What is it that we're afraid of individually? What is it that as a church, it would be easy for us to get kind of nervous? What's this next season gonna look like?

What's the next chapter gonna look like in the life of South Beach? What's the next thing gonna happen in the life of my child? What's gonna be the next thing that happens on this thing that I'm afraid of or that thing that I'm afraid of? What. What's God going to do now with this?

He's going to do what he always does. He will prevail. Whatever you need, My Father has it. Your Father, if you're in Christ, has all you need. Again in Philippians 4, after Paul says he will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus with his peace, he later on says, my God shall supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

So there is good news as reported. And so what happens is that. Look at verse 29. They've come back home. They've entered Jerusalem, went to the temple of the Lord.

Hearts, lutes, trumpets, they're rejoicing all over the place. And then verse 29, the fear of the Lord came upon all the kingdoms of the countries. When they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies, Jerusalem, they didn't just beat the ones who came. They planted seeds of absolute fear in the hearts of those who would ever think about coming after them again.

God did that. So what did he do? The God who does all that still has the power, through praise, to inform the surrounding unbelieving nations and the tribes and the peoples who are all around us. He has come to be able to show us that when there's power in the praise of his people who trust him and worship Him. And then let their fears become faith, so that their worry becomes worship.

What happens is that the testimony of that starts spreading through your neighborhoods. It spreads through your offices. Did you know what happened at that church last weekend? Or have you heard what happened here? And the testimonies begin to go out, and God begins to do things.

And the people who are praising God and giving him the credit for all he's doing bear witness to something that has this incredible attraction to it. And people want to know. Okay, tell me more about the God you serve.

Have you met the resurrected King of glory who defeated death in the grave forever and ever, who's coming again? And he would like you to be on his team. Would you like to meet him? You don't have to be afraid. How many times did Jesus say, fear not, little flock.

Don't be afraid. I will be with you. The promise is there. And so, a little sidebar. This all happened.

And I don't know what the status was on the ground there in Judah, but when this all happened, it built this incredible, durable fellowship among the saints there. Second Chronicles, verse 30. So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, and his God gave him rest on all sides. Well, Jehoshaphat finished this chapter in his life fulfilled. Lord, what started off as a scary time has ended up as a glorious season.

Praise be to the God who brings contentment into the community of faith. Let me ask you something. How much of the turmoil that you hear about in churches be tamped down and overcome if the people were appraising and worshiping people instead of a people? That's not even a Hebrew phrase. That's just.

Yeah, you been there? What are they gonna do about this? What about that? I don't know what to tell us. We don't get.

And God just says, hey, try this. Blessed be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who has delivered us from sin and death and has come in the person of Christ and has given us life forevermore? Why would we want to worry about junk when God has established his kingdom over all things and we are the recipients of his blessing and his glory, and we can be a community of contentment and a people with peace because the God of peace is watching over our hearts and bringing praise to his name. Southbridge. God's got stuff in store for you.

You believe that? Three of you do. Great. Okay. There may have been seven.

Yeah. But God has plans for this church. He did not begin it. 20 years ago when Scott and Shanna came here and some of you started gathering Together. He didn't do this as just a little accident of history that will be a footnote in 10 years.

Believe it. There will be threats, there will be attacks, there will be things that happen from inside and without to try to take down the work that God has begun here. Don't let it happen, because the power of praise will overcome it all. And so the question back to our starting point is, what are you afraid of for the church, for your children and your children's children, for your work, for the nation whose news we read every day and wring our hands and wonder what, Lord? How, Lord, Where, Lord, can we turn from?

2nd Chronicles 20 and Acts 4 and Revelation, all of it. We have the word that God is on the march and we have have peace with all who will praise him. And so in John 4, Jesus says, Look, the Father is looking for a certain kind of person and he's looking for you to be that kind of person. He's looking for those. Jesus told the woman at the well.

He said, the Lord's looking for someone who will worship him. How? In spirit and in truth, acknowledging who he is and with a spirit that's saying, yes, Lord, I believe who you are. So next week we'll talk about Nehemiah, how that whole transaction took place and how God gave him what he needed and gave the people called by his name the efforts that work the vision to do what he's called them to do there. And so today we talked about the threat coming.

Next time we'll talk about this task that's huge. Southridge has a huge task ahead of us, taking and building upon the foundations that God has been working through these years. And how do we do that for the glory of his name? That's what we wanna know. And then Scott mentioned something last week in closing.

He said God's interested in the people, not just spirit and truth, but a people who are desiring to know him in Christ. And so starting the second Sunday in October, we're gonna begin a several week series on what does it mean to know Christ, to know him as he really is. Not the comic book caricature of Christ that gets portrayed sometimes in the culture, but the biblical picture of who he is as Christ, the sovereign King of glory. And so October 11th, we begin there. And so next week, come and let's think about Nehemiah.

Invite some friends to come with you. Say, no, we didn't close the door and turns out the lights when. When Scott left. We've got things going on and God's still working. So let's join hands and be a people who are content with nothing less than praising the king of glory.

Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you for your mercy upon us. We thank you for the power that did not cease with the last page of the New Testament, the bet that continues on generation to generation the same.

Lord, you are a good and glorious God and we love you and we want to trust you more than we do. But Lord Jehoshaphat said it well, we don't know what to do, so we have to keep our eyes on you. So we pray, Lord, show us your way. Lord, if there's somebody here this morning who doesn't really know that you are that trustworthy one, they don't really know that you are in their lives because they've never really understood what it means to trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and to be made new in Christ so that they could be indwelt by the spirit of the living God who does such things as these. Lord, we pray that even this morning before they leave here, they'll talk to one of the pastors or one of the elders or someone here to find out how they too can become a part of the family of faith that calls your name.

So, Lord, we love you. We're so grateful for you. We praise you for these people and for the works that you will do in and through us in this next season of life. We praise you for this. In Christ's name, amen.