This Isn't Your Battle

It's wise to choose your battles when you can. But

what do you do when your battle chooses you? What

do you do when something shows up on your doorstep

and it's not from Amazon Prime and you didn't order it.

What do you do when.

The devil drops something off for you to deal with

that you did not directly cause, choose or definitely anticipate.

Like Jehoshaphat in Second Chronicles twenty, who is told one

morning in verse one, might I add in a time

of spiritual renewal for Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel,

in a time of great momentum spiritually, one day, just

when everything's going good, you know how, just when you

get something figured out, and just when you get in

your groove, and just when you get in your rhythm,

and here comes some news.

The Bible says, after this first one.

The Moabi and Ammonites and even some of the men

Unites came to make war on Jehashaphat. And some men

came and told Jehashaphat.

I'm not telling them. You tell him. I'm not telling them.

You tell him. We'll all tell him. Let's all tell

them together.

A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from

the other side of the sea.

This means they're sneaking up from behind.

They're going around the Dead Sea and then coming back

up to attack the people of God on a little

known route because they can't use the normal trade route,

and so they're sneaking up from behind, and they're twenty

five miles out.

That means that.

Jehashaphat doesn't have time to develop a strategy. He doesn't

have time to build the armed forces.

To mount a defense.

He doesn't have time to rethink the occasions that led

up to this event is coming, and it is coming now.

Have you ever got that phone call, that text message,

that moment in time where something is sneaking up on

you and it's only a day's march away. That means

I have to deal with it tomorrow. I don't have

time to read a book. I don't have time to

watch a Ted talk. I don't have time to get

my nutrition.

In my sleep.

This one caught me off guard. This one slapped me

up side the head. This one left my ear ringing.

This one I can't even believe is happening. This one,

I'm not even really sure if it's real yet.

This one.

I don't have time to call twelve people about this one.

I don't have time to get everybody's opinion this one.

I don't have time to get everybody's advice.

So watch what Chahashaphat did.

He said, I don't have time for all that, so

I gotta go to God. There's something about a surprise

attack that will drive you into the presence of God.

There's something about the.

One you didn't see coming that'll make you run to

the place you should have run too.

All along, I'm getting ahead of myself.

But it said that they were coming, and they were

already in in Getty, and so the response of.

The king is urgent.

It says that in verse three he was alarmed, but

yet he resolved.

I really liked that.

I really liked that he had a determination to seek

the Lord, even in the face of an unexpected attack.

He had made up his mind who he would go

to before he even knew what would come against him.

And of course he didn't always respond this way. Nobody does.

Come on, nobody does.

Oh man, this is so difficult to get across the

hypocritical Christians who always want to act like they always

sought the Lord and prayed about everything like you always

prayed in tongues, like you always lifted your hands, like

you always prostrated yourself before the holiness of his man.

Just see the great Jehovah who fights for battles.

No, Jehoshaphat hooked up with Ahab and almost got himself

killed two chapters ago because it seemed like the right strategy.

Because when they wanted to attack a strategic city, the

wicked king Ahab, and you might recognize his name from the.

Prophetic account of Elijah.

That's the one Elijah went to and he was like, Hey,

it's not going to reign until I say so. The

heavens are going to be like a voice activated shower system.

And until I say so, it's not going to rain.

That was Ahab. He said that too.

And so Jehoshaphat got with that same king and went

out to do what seemed smart, and they almost got killed.

In fact, Ahab did get killed, and the prophet Makaiah

tried to tell him, these false bail prophets.

What they're telling you is what you want to hear,

but it's not what you need to hear.

If you go into that battle, you're gonna get yourself hurt,

and he did, and he barely.

Made it out because he fought the wrong battle.

Have you ever barely made it out because you fought

a battle that you weren't supposed to fight. One time,

my father in law were driving. It was actually on

the day of my wedding seventeen years ago, and.

We passed a couple who on the side of the road.

They were fighting physically, But the interesting thing about it

was the man was in a headlock and the woman

seemed to have the situation firmly in control.

I didn't see that till I pulled. When I pulled

the car over, I.

Was going to get out and help because I thought

that the man was beating up on the woman.

But when I saw.

That the woman was taking care of the man, I figured,

you know, just praise God for.

His sovereignty that he knows.

What's best, and apparently this woman doesn't need my help.

So I just drove off. But my father in law said,

why did you stop. I said, I was going to

get out and help. He said, no, no, no, Never

get in a fight between a man and his woman,

because you'll step in to help them. And then if

you step into their fight and it's not your fight.

But you get in the middle of it, they'll turn

around and both start fighting you.

It's good life advice.

Don't try to take on a fight that's not your fight,

because you might find out when you take on a

fight that's not your fight, you might find out that

the surest way for you to get yourself in trouble

is for you to take on a battle that doesn't

belong to you. This is why Christians don't always need

to share their opinion on every subject that is presented

as a cultural issue. You've got to choose your battles

and to know God, this is what your Hosiphat wanted

to know. Is this my battle? Is this my fight?

Is this something that I need to be involved in?

Is this something that I'm called to do? You'd be

shocked how many people through the years have tried to

get me to be more political from my pulpit. But

that's not my fight. I vote, I'm involved. I lead

thousands of people to make a difference in our community.

I build something that represents and reflects unity to a broken,

fragmented world, and we do it together every six days

and through the week. But you've got to be very

careful that you don't expend all of your energy fighting

battles that are not yours, and then you don't have any.

Energy left for the battles that are yours.

And now you've gotten so tired leaving comments on Facebook

posts with people that you don't know in Idaho that

you don't have any strength to engage with the people

who live in your own house. I'm not trying to

run the White House. I'm trying to run my house.

And I got my hands full. I got three people

in my house who are dependents. Yeah, I know, when

you're wearing yourself out swinging that stuff that's not even

yours to fight.

I'm bad about this though.

I sometimes it's as if I don't have enough drama

for my own self, so I start trying to control

other people.

You know how you can tell if you're fighting the

wrong battles.

If you are trying to control others, you're fighting the

wrong battle. You can't control others past a certain point.

You can only manipulate short term behavioral over resil, but

you can't change somebody's heart. That's why even the New

Testament says as much as it is possible with you

live at.

Peace with all men.

There comes a point where the piece of another person

is not your responsibility.

Your piece is your responsibility. And there comes a point.

Where you have to say, that's not my battle, that's

not my battle. I've done all I can do, but

that's not my battle.

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