Judah Arise | Ben Armstrong | New Horizon Church

Well, we've just had like an overflow weekend. And what

I love about God is he knows what he's doing.

Even when I don't know what he's doing. We know

in part right. And you know what I love about

the way that God works is, you know, sometimes I

feel like, yeah, I am a friend of God. Amos

three seven says God does no secret thing without revealing first,

revealing it to his friends or servants, the prophets. And

sometimes I think, oh, you know, God's gonna let me

know all of the details.

No, he doesn't do that.

He gives me a little puzzle piece and I bring

my peace and I brought my peace this weekend. But

it was crazy how Dwayne brought his peace, Todd brought

his peace, Ivan brought his peace, the worship team brought

their peace, the Parking attendance brought their peace. Like everyone

brought their peace. And it brought a richer story, a

bigger picture to the whole thing. And God knew what

he was doing and it was all from the same puzzle.

I'm like, high five God, that was amazing. How did

you do that? That is so cool?

Like he's sneaky like that, and what it does for

us as well. Is it keeps us super humble, keeps

us super humble that, Hey, we don't have it all,

but we get to partner together to see His kingdom,

come to see his will be done on earth as

it is in heaven, and we just get a little

scratch and sniff about what He's about to do. And

we're living in that. You guys, remember scratching sniff stickers.

They still have those. I don't know, you know when

I was a kid. You know, you scratch them, You're like,

smells so good, and then you eat the sticker and

it doesn't taste as good.

You're like, I'm one of those kids.

Maybe just maybe it'll taste good, but it tastes kind

of like soap. It was nasty. Too much information. Hey,

I'm excited to be with you this morning. And it's

even more crazy this morning because I believe God is

doing a continuation and a culmination of what has happened

at the summit at Judah Arise and and God gave

me this message before I knew what was going on.

And and uh and even.

Jasmine, where did did Jasmine leave the services? She's still here, Jazz, Hey,

thank you for writing that song. I feel like you

wrote it for this moment and it is a now

song for the season. And uh, and you already know

what I'm going to preach on because you were here

first service. But it was like we planned this, didn't. Yeah,

our spirits knew what our minds did not.

It was awesome.

And I just believe as well, Pastor Dwayne choosing to

do communion this morning as well matches up with what

I believe God is releasing in this season, in this

Communion revival.

And if we're not careful.

We come to the communion meal and we just take

communion and go, oh, that was nice, and we forget that. Actually,

what we do at church is the communion feast. What

we do in worship, what we do in receiving the Word,

it has an ability to be communion and we can

feast from a rich meal in everything that we do.

And I believe there is a shift that is coming

and that is this new Communion revival. That is this

new era, this new epoch, this new historical season that's

been prophesied is what we get to live in all

the time. And I want to give you some keys

this morning that will help you in the process because

sometimes I hear new era or God's doing a new thing,

and I get really excited because I don't like the

old thing?

Right, anyone ready for a new thing? Yeah?

We're like, uh, yeah, Lord, how about we do something different?

How about we do something new? God give us a

new era? And we get so excited about the word,

and then we realize I have no idea what that even.

Means anyone else.

I think of Abraham himself when God says, hey, go,

I'm gonna send you to a land, and Abraham's like, well,

where is it?

Where am I going? Just go?

That takes a lot of faith that, it takes a

lot of courage. I'm like, God, I would like to

know the details. I would like to know what the

new era is like, like what what? What are the

details of the new era? Like what am I supposed

to do?

How am I.

Supposed to act? Like what what's the next step? It's

like my wife when I try and surprise her with

a special getaway, she says, no, no, no, no, I

need to be psychologically prepared. You need to tell me

what exactly what we're gonna What are we gonna do?

Baby?

It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be new, it's gonna

be something you never experienced before. No, no, no, no,

you need a psychologically I'm like, no, babe, I'm not

doing it.

Trust me. I don't know if she trusts me fully.

We just celebrated our twenty eighth year anniversary and I

surprised her. We we we flew to Nashville and there's

this really great resort out there and I had a

bunch of points and uh and so I got this

great place for free and it's pretty expensive. But but

I'm I'm like, hey, baby, pack your bathing suit. She's like,

where are we going, you know, and and pack this

and pack that. And she's like, well, you need to

tell me. Come on, I need to know. And I'm like, nope,

you're just gonna have to trust me on this one.

And guess what, I think I won some trust.

I did it. I did a good job. I did

a good job. She celebrated me.

But this is us in the body of Christ. Sometimes

we're like, God, I need more detail than that.

Anyone. Okay, I was thinking I was at the wrong church.

Uh No, I I just like, I'm just telling on myself. Maybe,

but I believe if God has set up strategies in

the spot of not knowing where he just gives us

the big overarching picture and we have no details to it.

He just says I'm doing something new. Maybe he doesn't

even give us a picture of it. And I want

to unpack a story this morning that I think is

going to give us a strategy for this new season,

a strategy for what it looks like to live in

a communion revival where we're fixated and we're focused on

one thing, and it doesn't matter if I'm in abundance

or lack. It doesn't matter if I know where I'm

going or I don't know where I'm going. It doesn't

matter if I've got long hair or no hair. I

see some of you out there open Heaven, if you

have your Bibles. We're gonna read a large portion of

scripture and then I'm gonna unpack it around The idea

of this season turned with me to Second Chronicles, chapter twenty,

and I don't know if this is an anchor scripture

for this house, but it seems like it is with

Judah Arise and the whole whole message with Jasmine's song,

and it feels like it's it's it's maybe.

An anthem for this house.

But I want to unpack it in maybe a way

we haven't looked at it before.

And I'll tell you what we are a generation.

We are a family that is called to the impossible.

We are called for the impossible. So let's read starting

in inverse in verse one. After this, the Moabites and Ammonites,

with some of the Unites, came to wage war against Jehasaphat.

Some people came and told Jehasaphat, a very vast army

is coming against you from Edom, from the other side

of the Dead Sea, that is Ngetti. Alarmed, Jehasaphat resolved

to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast

for all of 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 Jehasaphat stood

up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the

Temple of the Lord in front of the New Courtyard,

and said, Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you

not the God who is in heaven? You rule over

all of the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might

are in your head hand and no one can withstand you,

Our God, Did you not drive out the inhabitants of

this land before your people Israel and give it to

them forever, to the descendants of Abraham, your friend. They

have lived in it and have built in it a

sanctuary for your name, saying, if calamity comes upon us,

whether by sword of judgment or plague or famine, we

will stand in your presence before this temple that bears

your name, and will cry out to you in our distress,

and you will hear us, and you will save us.

But now hear the man.

Of Aman of Moab Mount Seir, whose territory you would

not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt.

So they turned away from them and did not destroy them.

See how they are repaying us by coming to drive

us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance,

Our God, Will you not judge them, for we have

no power to face this fast army that is attacking us.

We do not know what to do, but our eyes

are on you. We do not know what to do,

but our eyes are on you. All the men of Judah,

with their wives, their children, and their little ones, stood

there before the Lord. Then the spirit of the Lord

came on Jehaziel, son of Zachariah, son of bena Ayah,

the son of all those other guys. I thought I

had it, and he said, listen, King jeha Safat, and

all live in Judah and Jerusalem.

This is what the Lord says to you.

Do not be afraid, and do not be discouraged because

of this fast army, for the battle is not yours,

but God's.

Tomorrow. March down against them.

They will be climbing up the path of Zizz and

you will find them at the end of the gorge

in the desert of Jerul. You will not have to

fight this battle. Take up your position, stand firm and

see the deliverance the Lord will give to you to

Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.

Go out to face them, and the Lord will be

with you.

And I'm just telling you.

There are so many spots in the Bible where God

says I will be with you, and that is the difference.

Jehasafat bowed down with his face to the ground, and

all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, Jerusalem fell down

in worship before the Lord. Then some of the Levites,

the Coathites, and the Korah heights stood up and praised

the Lord, the God of Israel, in a very loud voice.

Early in the morning, they left for the desert of Tacoah.

As they set out, Jehasaphat stood and said, listen to me,

Judah and people of Jerusalem. Have faith in the Lord

your God, and you will be upheld. Have faith in

his prophets, and you will be successful. After consulting the people,

Jehasaphat pointed men to sing to the Lord and to

praise him in the splendor of his holiness. As they

went out at the head of the army, saying, give

thanks to the Lord for his life endures forever. As

they began to sing and praise, the Lord, set ambushes

against the men of Aman Moab and Mount Syr who

were invading Judah, and they were defeated the Ammonites. The

Moabites rose up against the men of Mount Seir to

destroy and annihilate them, and after they slaughtered the men

of Sir, they helped to destroy one another. When the

men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the

desert and looked towards the vast army, they saw only

dead bodies lying on the ground. No one had escaped.

So Jehasafat and his men went down to carry off

their plunder. And they found among them a great amount

of equipment, clothing, and also articles of value, more than

they could take away. And here's a great one. There

was so much plunder it took three days to collect it.

And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley

of Berika, where they praised the Lord. This is why

they call the Valley of Berika. They call it that

to this day. Then, led by Jehasaphat, all the men

of Judah Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the Lord

had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies. They

entered Jerusalem and went to the Temple of the Lord

with harps, liars and trumpets, And the fear of God

came on all the surrounding kingdoms when they heard how

the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel, and

the kingdom of Jehosaphat was at peace for his God

had given him rest on every side.

Wow.

Yeah, we can give God praise for the testimony of

his goodness. What an incredible story. But this is not

just an incredible story for way back then. This is

a mandate for the season we are stepping into. And

I believe that God has called us to face impossible situations,

to face down impossible enemies. And there is a strategy

inside this story that I think will help us step

into communion with Him, that gives us victory in every situation,

that gives us breakthrough in every situation, that causes us

to live as a generation of overcomers, of a generation

who will be known as the ones who defeat the impossible,

that we will actually raise our children on the bread

of the impossible. They will feast on him possibilities so

much so that the impossibilities they feed they face are

so much greater than what we ever face. And they

will look at it and laugh. It's kind of like

how Caleb and Joshua they said, Hey, hey, these will

be to us our daily bread. The giants in the land.

We're gonna feast on impossibilities. And this is what God

is opening up to us. Let's start in verse three.

This is strategy for us. Alarmed, jehasaphat Re resolved to

inquire of the Lord and proclaim a fast for all

of Judah. Has there ever been a situation in your

life where you've been surprised by adversity? Has there ever

been a situation where God has called you to something

and it seems impossible? Like my bank account doesn't match

the words you just gave me, right, Uh, the situation,

my community, my network doesn't match the situation that you

just called me to.

This is this is crazy? God. I thought you promised

me this job and now everyone's against me in this job?

What is the deal? God? How do I even? How

do I even face this?

And I love a jehosaphat resolve, and I think this

needs to be the position of us as the church.

I'm going to inquire of the Lord. I'm going to

start first.

By turning away from the situation and turning towards the

one who has all the answers.

And maybe, just maybe I need to call a fast.

Maybe, just maybe it's a season to actually say no

to listening to other voices. And like I said last night,

maybe it's time to do something crazy. Do a fast, right,

actually fast not just from something, but feast on something else.

It is time to set our affection on God alone.

I'm going to inquire of the Lord, and I'm going

to silence every other voice that is opposition that actually

makes my problem bigger, that exalts the problem over God, and.

I'm going to feast on him. I don't know if

you're getting this. We we'll keep trying.

Towards the end of verse six, power and might are

in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Verse seven,

it goes on to say, you know, you gave this

land to us, and the descendants of Abraham, your friend.

And it's like, hey, remember your friend over here were

your friends. You gave this to us, What are they

doing here? In verse nine, we will stand in your

presence before the temple that bears your name, and we

will cry out to you in our distress, and you

will hear, and you will save us. What's happening is

they're saying, I'm gonna inquire of the Lord. I've got

a situation here that's impossible. I cannot face this. I'm

gonna inquire the Lord. I'm gonna silence voices. I'm gonna

feast on you God, and I'm gonna remind myself of

your ways and your goodness. This is called adoration and gratitude. See,

I had a dream some years ago. Bill Johnson and

I were driving down this country road and he said

to me, he said, Ben, do you want to know

a secret?

And I said sure.

He said, did you know that many people are one

measure of gratitude away from their breakthrough? They're literally one

measure of gratitude away from their healing. And I have

seen in meetings NonStop wherever I brought that up, when

people put gratitude on their lips, breakthrough begin to happen.

I've seen hundreds of people healed just by putting thankfulness

on their lips.

No one laid hands on them.

They just started to exalt God and have gratitude for

what he has done. See, this is the remembrance I'm

remembering God's goodness. The power of the testimony is so important.

You may say, but Ben, I don't have a testimony.

You know what I do when I don't have a testimony,

I feast on someone else's. Why Because I'm part of

the body of Christ and their testimony is my testimony.

They're part of my I'm part of the family of God.

You have testimonies. Stop saying you don't have them. I've

got a feast when sometimes what we do is we

allow other people's testimonies to actually depress us. Not not

you guys, just telling I'm Ben Armstrong. Sometimes I hear

their testimonies and the first thing I do is, though

you've never done it for me?

Well, God, what about me? Do you even care about me?

Do you see me? Over here? Seems like everyone on

Instagram is getting their breakthrough. I got nothing.

My air conditioner doesn't even work, Like, what the heck?

That doesn't feel like overflow? You just paid off that

guy's house. My septic doesn't.

Work a little too close to home right ever? Had

those six situations happen?

And what we do with the testimony is we depress ourselves,

not knowing that the testimony is actually supposed to enrich you.

It's the testimony of Jesus Christ.

That prophesies in your life.

And they're making this praise and adoration and the remembrance

of a testimony an adoration to God. And they're lifting

their spirits up and they're seeing how big their God is.

They're magnifying him instead of the molehill of the army

that's against them.

And I love this because it's at.

This point we come to verse twelve, and at the

end of verse twelve it says, we don't know what

to do, but our eyes are upon you.

Wow.

Wow, I don't know about you, but you're facing things

in your life. I can almost guarantee it where you

don't know what to do. And the whole goal of

the enemy is to keep your eyes off him and

your eyes on Satan. This is what Pastor was talking

about yesterday at the conference. And if you weren't there,

you need to get the videos.

It's worth it. Charge extra. Listen.

They're resourcing you. It's worth investing in your life. You're

investing in not just you, but.

Your whole family.

And they said, God, we don't know what to do,

but we're not going to look at the enemy.

Our eyes are on you.

And then it goes on and thirteen. All of the

men of Judah, with their wives, their children, and their

little ones, stood before the Lord. It is a mandate

that generationally we would face the impossible, and we wouldn't

stare the impossible down. We'd stare in the eyes of

Jesus Christ, and we would stand in his presence as

a family. That the men the wives, the children, and

even the little ones. Your kids are never too young

to be exposed to the presence of God. Sweetheart, you

were called to the impossible. You're a giant killer. This

is your mandate. This is what your family carries.

You do this, you live this way, and your focus

isn't on the problem. Your focus is on Jesus.

And as we focus on Him, as we expose our

children to the presence of God, Almighty God, we bring

them in worship. You know, there is no junior Holy Spirit.

That's what we always say. We expect encounters with God.

And as a matter of fact, sometimes our kids are

having greater encounters than we are. Why Because you're looking

at problems, they're looking at God. They take Him at

his word, and at that moment, all of a sudden,

something shifts and the prophet of the Lord makes a

declaration over them and says, you.

Know what, you don't have to fight this, This is

not your battle. The battle actually belongs to the Lord.

And now they get pumped and they do something that

I think is again a mandate of this new era.

It's called worship.

There is going to be a worship movement that rises

up that all it does is focus and magnify God,

and people will run to him because of that level

of worship. They begin to worship and praise with a

very loud voice verse nineteen.

And then they go out.

And Jehosaphat verse twenty one appointed men to sing to

the Lord and to praise him in the splendor of

his holiness.

Gosh, have we done that?

Have we praised him in the splendor of his awe

of his set of partner He is.

Not like us, He is so huge.

If we would just begin to exalt the vastness of him,

What happens in that exaltation, what happens in that praise,

What happens in that worship is we begin to have

eyes to see more of who he is, and how

set apart he is, how holy he is, how majestic

he is, how splendid he is. And when we see

that man, it's like, Wow, what what else is there?

I feel invincible?

Yeah? Why?

Because He's invincible and we've raised him up above all

of those things. Give thanks to the Lord for his

love endures forever. Gratitude again, is such a valued commodity

in the kingdom. Gratitude adjusts our heart and opens the

way for God to move in our life. So they

do this, and as they go out and worship, God

fights the battle for.

Them, and the enemies turn on each other.

I don't know how God's going to fix the issue.

I don't know how He's going to do some things.

In my life that he's promised that he's declared over me.

I just need to step out in faith, and I

need to keep my eyes on him. I need to

feast on his presence. I need to have a level

of adoration and gratitude that says God. I don't know

what to do, but my eyes are on you, and

I need to train that. My daughter's facing a situation.

She's actually stepping into a season of real breakthrough and

and and and she she just purchased her second and

third house and and she's like, Okay, we're we're stepping

into this in faith, but then there's closing costs.

I don't know what to do, she says, Dad, what

do I do?

I said, I don't know what to do, but you

need to keep focused on him. This is a breakthrough season.

You're gonna take land you have. You have set this

apart in your heart to do and we're gonna get breakthrough.

You're gonna get breakthrough. And and here's what happens chapter

twenty verse twenty five. There was so much plunder that

it took three days to collect it. Oh my goodness,

that's chapter twenty verse twenty five.

What did we just step into? Twenty twenty five?

And we're about to step into the triple blessing anointing

of God.

We're about to plunder the enemy, and it's going to

be so much plunder.

I actually believe this is not actually just speaking of

three days.

I think this is three years of plunder.

I think this is starting in twenty twenty five, twenty

twenty six, twenty twenty seven is going to be plunder

the likes of which the church has never seen before,

the likes of which you're families never seen before, the

likes of which you individually have never seen before.

But it's not because we did something other than communion.

That's what it is.

I'm focused on him, I'm focused on his presence, I'm

focused on his goodness. I choose to worship him above

anything else. And here's what happened on the fourth day,

right after the plunder. What did they do they worshiped again.

Here's the deal.

I worship in lack, and I worship in an abundance.

I worship when I'm facing enemies, and I'm worshiping when

I'm sitting in peace. Because what's it about. It's about

worshiping anyway. It's about being fixed on Him no matter what.

This is what enforces the kingdom, and you were called

to this. I'm going to invite the worship team to come,

and I want you guys to just stand up for

a moment. In First Samuel, chapter seventeen, we see a

story of a young man, and I think I hear

a story of a whole family.

Here. You've got.

A guy named David, and he's got brothers, right, and

his brothers are in the army, the army of God,

who were actually called to defeat giants. But something happened

to those brothers who were trained in warfare to defeat

giants because they came under a fear narrative. The giant

Goliath came out and taunted the armies of Israel for

forty days. And guess what, the problem got really big,

and it took a little cheese boy, Che's delivery boy

David was coming with milk and cheese, right, He's come

to deliver it to his brother.

She's delivery boy who was sitting out in the woods

with his sheep playing a harp ring. But what they

didn't know was this young man had lived in communion,

that this.

Young man was feasting on a voice that no one

else was hearing. And when he shows up, he says, hey,

how dare you? You uncircumcised philistine? Defy the armies of

the living God. Now I'm gonna feed you to birds

and worms, your dead meat.

I was made to destroy the impossible things. How do

I know that?

Because I've been feasting on the God who defeated all

of it. And I don't listen to the noise that

Satan is making, and I don't make the problem bigger.

I make the solution my main focus. And I'm telling you, church,

we are a church of worship. We are a church

that feasts on the wine of His goodness. We are

a church that receives the full gift of himself, Jesus Christ, himself.

I don't go to God to get victory. I go

to God to get God. And because I have him,

just like giddy.

The Lord is with you. Therefore you are a mighty warrior.

It's because of your relationship that the outflow of your

life looks crazy, looks amazing, looks incredible, and it testifies

to the world of the very same relationship that they're

hungry for. They're not just hungry for victory, they're hungry

for God himself. And we're gonna worship as a church.

And it was such an amazing deal. Judah, arise f.

That's a message.

You knew my message. Oh it's not My message, is

God's message to us. But we're gonna end our time

together and we're gonna step.

Into a new era.

Of the normals of the testimony of Jesus Christ in

this story that prophesies the future we step into. These

are behaviors, These are habits that we can implement in

ourself and our family and our communities. And as we

do this, I guarantee you we're gonna see victory like

we have never seen before.

Let's worship Him together.