Standing Ground: Prayer & Praise

Okay, so we are finishing up Ephesians, and we're just gonna jump right in.

We're gonna dive right into it because we've got a lot to cover today.

This is part of my um, we're gonna go over one of my favorite Bible stories, so I'm gonna try not to spend too much time on it because it is one of my favorites.

But let's go to Ephesians 6, 18 through 20.

Paul is wrapping up his analogy of this battle that we're in, the spiritual battle that we're in.

He's gone through all of the armor, we're all suited up, and this is how he kind of puts the period on what he's talking about.

He says, Pray in the spirit at all times and on every occasion.

Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

And pray for me too.

Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan that the good news is for the Jews and Gentiles alike.

I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God's ambassador, so pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him as I should.

If you were going to sum up what Paul says here, he says, pray in the spirit all the time, everywhere, for everyone, and please pray for me.

Okay?

So he ends this battle analogy with pray all the time, everywhere, for everyone.

And so I wanted to dig into that a little bit.

What does that actually look like?

What is prayer?

And I know there's a lot of young people in the room.

The Bible wasn't written in English.

Jesus didn't speak English.

The New Testament was written in Greek.

And so sometimes when I come across something that I'm like, hmm, I wonder what that really, really means, I'll go to the Greek word and look it up and find out.

I'm not super smart, I don't speak Greek, I'll probably butcher how these words are pronounced, but I can Google it and I learn from it.

So when you look up what this word prayer means, it's the word prosucomi.

Prosucomae.

Can you say that?

Prosucomi.

I had to practice like 20 times to get it to come out right.

And there's like a k in there, and I don't speak like that.

So um prosuchomi.

Prosucoma is actually a compound word.

Pros means to, like to give something to.

And ukomi means your wishes and desires.

So prayer is taking your wishes and desires and giving them to the Lord.

It's that simple.

Whatever's on your heart, whatever is on your mind, big, small, in between, it doesn't matter.

It's giving that to the Lord.

That word is actually very closely related to another Greek word.

Pros qau.

Can you say that?

Pros q now.

Pros q now.

Again, a compound word.

We know what pros means.

It means to give something.

Know means to bow and kiss the feet.

Okay?

In the culture that the Bible was written in, it was very appropriate that if you met someone that was way above you, a king, a mighty prophet, that you would actually greet them by getting on the ground and kissing their feet.

And this word is how we're supposed to approach God.

It says in his word that we are supposed to pray in the spirit, that's what Paul says.

And we're also supposed to cross Q now in the Spirit.

Does anybody have a guess what that means?

It's worship.

Prayer and worship go together.

The Greek words are actually very, very closely related.

That when we go to the Lord in prayer and we go to the Lord in worship, we are to come and lay at his feet and kiss his feet and ask him for what's on our hearts.

Now, when we do that, it is powerful.

It's not a little thing.

When we pray and when we worship, it has effect on what's going on in the spiritual world.

I think that's why Paul puts this here.

He's like, hey, y'all are in battle.

Y'all are fighting.

Use everything you've got.

And prayer and worship is something you've got that you can use.

The Bible is full of people who cry out to the Lord and it says he hears them and answers them.

Over and over and over again.

I cried out to the Lord and He heard me and He answered me.

I cried out to the Lord and He heard my prayer and He came to my rescue.

We have to believe that if God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then when we cry out to the Lord, He will hear us and He will answer us.

In fact, there's a story, and this is my favorite.

Okay.

There's a story in 2 Chronicles where prayer and worship go together in an actual physical battle.

Exactly what we're talking about.

So we're gonna go through that story today.

It's 2 Chronicles 20, and we're gonna read the first 21 verses.

And I really want you to visualize what's happening here.

Okay?

Put yourself in their place.

Alright, it says, after this, and actually, okay, I'm gonna stop right there, real quick.

I'm not gonna stop every two words, I promise.

But the after this is really important.

Because when you start reading something in the Bible and it says after this, well, you might want to know what happened before.

So, what happened was, I'll tell you, the um the nation of Israel, okay, has been divided into two kingdoms.

There's a northern kingdom that they call Israel, and a southern kingdom that they call Judah.

Israel is ruled by King Ahab.

He's bad.

He doesn't love the Lord, he doesn't listen to the Lord, he's very defiant against what the Lord says.

The southern kingdom, Judah, is ruled by Jehoshaphat.

Isn't that a great name?

Okay.

So Jehoshaphat and Ahab go into battle at Ahab's suggestion, okay, the bad dude.

They go into battle, and Ahab dies.

The Lord told him he was gonna die, and he thought he could like freak out the Lord, like not like disguise himself.

I don't know how he thought he was gonna do that.

So he dies.

Jehoshaphat barely escapes with his life.

That's the after this.

Okay.

Israel, the northern kingdom, is in chaos.

Their king has just been killed.

It's turmoil.

Jehoshaphat is the king of this small little kingdom, and his only ally is in chaos.

He's in trouble.

It says, after this, the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Mayunites, we'll say that's what we call them, declared war on Jehoshaphat.

No wonder.

He's vulnerable.

There's no one to come to his rescue.

He had the whole nation of Israel fighting with him and he barely escaped.

What's he gonna do on his own?

Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, a vast army from Edom is marching against you from beyond the Dead Sea.

They are already at Hezazon Tamar, which is another name for Engedi.

So Jehoshaphat was terrified.

He is terrified.

He barely escaped.

And now he has to face three nations by himself.

But I love what he does here.

He says he was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance.

He also ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting.

So the people from all the towns of Judah came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord's help.

So he tells the whole nation, Hey, we're in trouble.

They're coming after me, which means they're coming after you too.

Don't eat, don't do anything, just seek the Lord.

Jehoshaphat stood before the community of Judah and Jerusalem in front of the new courtyard at the temple of the Lord.

He prayed, O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven.

You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth.

You are powerful and mighty.

No one can stand against you.

O our God, did you not drive out those who lived in this land when your people, Israel, arrived?

And did you not give this land forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham?

Your people settled here and built this temple to honor your name.

They said, Whenever we are faced with any calamity, such as war, plague, or famine, we can come stand in your presence before this temple where your name is honored.

We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us.

And now see what the armies of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir are doing.

You would not let our ancestors invade those nations when Israel left Egypt.

So they went around them and did not destroy them.

Now see how they reward us?

For they've come to throw us out of your land, which you gave us as an inheritance.

Oh our God, won't you stop them?

We are powerless against this mighty army that's about to attack us.

We do not know what to do, but we are looking for your for to you for help.

So what he's doing, he's standing in front of all of the people of his nation.

And he's not saying they're like, I am a great king and we're gonna do this.

He's saying, We can't do this.

But God, you can do this.

And he goes to the Lord and he says, God, you promised that we could live here.

You told us to come here.

And now look what's happening.

You gotta do something.

I love this example that he sets.

He said, They're threatening what you promised me.

So do something.

Then, verse 13, as all the men of Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, wives, and children, the spirit of the Lord came upon one of the man's men standing there.

His name was Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, son of Beniah, son of Jael, son of Metaniah, a Levite, who was a descendant of Asaf.

I don't know who those people were, but they did.

So that's good.

All right, he said, Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem.

So the spirit of the Lord has come upon this man.

We're talking about praying in the spirit.

We're talking about worshiping in the spirit.

God is spirit.

And when we step into his presence, the deepest, deepest part of us that is spirit can cry out and join with his spirit.

And this is what's happening to this man.

And here's what he says.

Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem.

Listen, King Jehosaphat.

This is what the Lord says.

Do not be afraid.

Don't be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours but God's.

Tomorrow, march out against them.

You will find them coming up through the ascent of Ziz at the end of the valley that opens into the wilderness of Jerul.

Now he's telling them where to go.

This army is camped out, and God says, Hey, this is what I want you to do.

I want you to march up this ascent, this hill, this lookout.

That's where I want you to come from.

You're gonna kind of take this turn, you're gonna march up, and then you're gonna look out over this huge army that's coming against you.

In verse 17, he says, But you will not even need to fight.

Isn't that interesting?

Take your positions, then stand still and watch the Lord's victory.

He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem.

Do not be afraid or discouraged.

Go out against them tomorrow.

The Lord is with you.

So, somewhat specific directions, but not terribly specific.

Hey, there's all these nations that are coming against you, so go up to a really high place where they can see you really good and stand there.

I got it.

Okay?

That's what he's telling them to do.

But what good news for the people of Judah.

God has said, I will take care of it.

You were desperate, and you came to me and you prayed, and I've got it.

I've got it.

So, and in verse 18, King Jehoshaphat bowed low with his face to the ground.

Do you see the worship, the kissing of the feet?

And all the people of Judah and Jerusalem did the same, worshiping the Lord.

Then the Levites from the clans of Kohath and Korah stood to pray the praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud shout.

Now these Levites were special Levites.

The Levites were a group of people, a tribe, that was set aside to teach in the temple, to take care of the temple.

And these Levites were set aside even from that to lead the praise and worship.

So they began shouting loud to the Lord.

Early the next morning, the army of Judah went out to the wilderness of Tokoa.

They do exactly what the Lord said.

On the way, Jehoshaphat stopped them and said, Listen to me, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God and you will be able to stand firm.

Believe in his prophets and you will succeed.

I can kind of see it.

Okay, so the army has gathered.

It's very small, especially compared to what they're going up against.

They kiss their wives and children goodbye.

They have on their armor, and they start marching out.

Now, they've got to march a little ways.

And in their mind, you're thinking, do you think God's gonna do it?

Do you think he's gonna do it?

He's gonna do it.

He's gonna do it.

He's gonna do it.

He's gonna do it.

He's gonna do it.

And you can see as they're walking, like, I really hope he does it.

We're getting closer, we're getting closer.

And Jehoshaphat stops him and says, Guys, stop! Believe what God said.

Believe it.

He's got it.

So he gives them this pep talk, like brave heart style.

All right.

And then he says, After consulting the people, the king appointed singers to walk ahead of the army, singing to the Lord and praising him for his holy splendor.

This is what they sang Give thanks to the Lord, his faithful love endures forever.

This is how much Jehosaphat trusted what God said.

He didn't put archers in front, he didn't put swordsmen in front.

He knew they weren't gonna have to fight.

He put the worshipers in front.

We're just gonna sing as we go.

We're gonna march up and we're gonna sing.

And that's what they did.

What an amazing picture of how to battle with worship and prayer.

It doesn't say they sharpened their swords, it doesn't say they stayed up all night practicing battle tactic.

They worshiped, they prayed, and they trusted the Lord to do it.

Now, this is an old testament story, and there are a lot of people who might say the Old Testament is irrelevant, it's ancient, it's old, it's old covenant, you don't need to read it.

That's not true.

It's God's word.

And there is good stuff.

It is rich with stories that relate to what we're going through today, and this is one of them.

We can draw so many parallels from this story to like just like this minute, what's happening right now.

Verse one after this.

The enemy attacks when we're vulnerable.

We are in a battle, and the enemy attacks when we're vulnerable.

He knows when you're tired, he knows when you're overwhelmed, he knows when you have finals on the horizon, he knows when you've got something big going on at school, he knows when your marriage is struggling, and he does not play fair.

Okay?

When you are vulnerable, he attacks.

We need to be on guard.

Paul says, be alert.

Pray all the time.

All the time.

Because you can't be vulnerable.

You've got to be ready.

The enemy attacks when we're vulnerable.

And I will say this: sometimes we're vulnerable because of things out of our control.

What happened to King Ahab was not Jehoshaphat's fault.

The fact that this nation that was supposed to help him failed was not his fault.

Sometimes our circumstances that are out of our control put us in a vulnerable position.

So then we need to do what Jehoshaphat did.

In verse 3, Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance.

When we find ourselves in a vulnerable position, when we know that the enemy's coming, we know that we're we're in a position that could kind of go either way.

It is our responsibility and privilege to walk into the throne room of God, fall at his feet, kiss his feet, and say, God, this is what I need.

Okay?

I love it.

One of the versions when I was reading this, it said that Jehoshaphat set his face to seek the Lord.

And he wasn't going to leave till he had an answer.

We can do the same thing.

It's the same God.

Jehoshaphat wasn't anyone special.

He's just a person.

He was a terrified, scared person.

And he went to the Lord and he set his face to the Lord and said, I'm not leaving till I have an answer.

I'm in trouble.

Help me.

And we can do the exact same thing.

Another parallel we can draw in verse 8.

In verse 9.

I said, Your people settled here and built this temple to honor your name.

Now I know this isn't a temple, and I know that the church is not a building.

But we do have a building.

And we're in it right now.

This building was put here by people who love the Lord.

It was put in this place by prayer.

And it has been set aside for us to come and worship the Lord.

So see the see the parallel.

It says they said, whenever we're faced with any calamity, any calamity, war, plague, or famine.

Now I don't think many of us are in actual war.

Okay?

And we're not facing plagues, and I don't think any of us are in famine, but spiritually we might be.

And I would imagine that everybody sitting in here has something, when you talk about giving your wishes and desires, something that sits right there that you can feel, that you know, I need to give this to the Lord.

And this is a place where you can give that to the Lord.

It could be struggle, it could be anxiety, it could be addiction, it could be worry about what's going to happen at school.

You can give that to the Lord here.

This place has been set aside for that.

You come and stand in your presence before this temple where your name is honored, we can cry out to you to save us.

And this is the beautiful part.

You will hear us and you will rescue us.

So we can come to our church and know that the Lord hears us and he will rescue us.

Whatever you bring to him, he will rescue you.

Do you believe that?

Okay, so bring it all, right?

Like don't hold anything back.

Bring it all.

All right.

And I love this part.

God doesn't waste anything.

This I was reading the story four months ago and had no idea that we'd be talking about it today when all the kids are in the room.

God doesn't waste the detail.

Look at this, verse 13.

As all the men of Judah stood before their Lord with their little ones, wives, and children.

We're all here today.

Men, wives, and children.

And I think Israel recognized something that we often fail to recognize.

We know we have individual battles, we could probably all name them.

I could write you a list of what I battle.

But we think our battles are individual.

That when I battle control and anxiety, that's a battle I'm fighting, and I just gotta fight it.

Our battles are not individual.

Israel knew their battle was corporate.

The threat on Jehosaphat was a threat on all of them.

So, men, whatever you're battling at work with coworkers, with friends, whatever is going on that you battle all day long, it affects your wives.

Don't pretend like it doesn't.

It affects them.

Women, when you're battling control and anxiety and trying to keep it all together, that affects your kids.

Kids, when you're battling stuff at school, let me tell you, you might be shorter, your battles are not smaller.

When you're trying to battle who you are, when you're trying to figure out where you fit, what God wants you to do, what God doesn't want you to do, when you're trying to balance it all and you're fighting that battle, it affects your family.

What you battle affects your brothers and sisters.

It affects our whole family as his hands.

Our battle is corporate, it is not individual.

The person sitting next to you, behind you, in front of you, that whole battle is ours.

Does that make sense?

So whatever is going on, it affects all of us.

But there's good news because we can battle all together.

You are now not alone in your fight against the anxiety and fear.

You have someone sitting next to you in front of you and behind you who wants to battle with you and win.

Right?

Okay, so our battle is corporate.

When we come before the Lord corporately, in prayer and worship, otherwise, why are we getting up so early in the morning and coming here, right?

Right?

I had to find four pairs of shoes this morning for my kids.

It was a lot.

All right.

So when we do all of that to come here, we're doing it for a purpose.

Because when we battle together, when we pray together, when we worship together, amazing things happen.

Let's take a look at what happened for the Israelites and believe that this will happen for us too.

2 Chronicles 20, 22 through 24.

At that very moment, they began to sing and give praise.

Now, this is as they're walking up that ascent.

The Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting amongst themselves.

The armies of Moab and Ammon turned and fought their allies from Mount Seir and killed every one of them.

After they had destroyed the army of Seir, they began attacking each other.

So, I love this.

Just picture, I just picture it in your mind.

It's so good.

When the army of Judah arrived at the lookout point, so they're going up, they can't see them yet, and they're like gonna get to the edge and look over.

When they get to the lookout point in the wilderness, all they saw were dead bodies lying on the ground as far as they could see.

Isn't that incredible?

Not a single one of the enemy had escaped.

I have to stop here, I just have to ask, How'd the last guy die?

Like, I can't figure that out.

Something happened.

I don't know.

He tripped and fell and hit his head.

I don't know.

They're all dead.

So they walk up to the top of the lookout.

The enemy is completely annihilated.

When we join together in worship and prayer, the enemy is annihilated.

Do you want your enemy annihilated?

Whatever you are battling, and hear this whatever you are battling, picture it annihilated.

Whatever that is, it can be annihilated, and we can do it together.

The person sitting in front of you, behind you, next to you, do you want what they're battling to be annihilated for them?

I do.

We can do that together.

It gets so much better.

Okay.

So not only is the enemy annihilate, there's more.

Alright.

Second Chronicles 20, 25 through 28.

King Jehosaphat and his men went out to gather the plunder.

Oh, I love this.

They found vast amounts of equipment and clothing and other valuables, more than they could carry.

So they're standing on this lookout.

There's all of these armies, three nations worth.

And they just get to go around and pick up all the good stuff.

Alright?

There was so much plunder that it took them three days just to collect it all.

On the fourth day, they gathered in the Valley of Blessing, which got its name that day because the people praised and thanked the Lord there.

It is still called the Valley of Blessing today.

Then all the men returned to Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat, leading them overjoyed that the Lord had given them victory over their enemies.

They marched into Jerusalem to the music of harps, lyres, and trumpets, and they proceeded to the temple of the Lord.

When we battle together, when we pray and we worship in the presence of the Lord, not only is the enemy completely wiped out, we get to gather plunder.

When you are thinking about that thing that you battle, what does it the enemy steal from you?

Joy?

Relationship?

Love?

Peace?

Rest?

When the enemy is annihilated, you get to gather all of it back.

And I'm talking about three armfuls of it.

What they found in that plunder was more armor, more than they could handle as a nation.

Three nations worth.

Whatever the enemy has taken from you in that battle, God wants to give you back three times as much.

And when we battle together, when we worship together and we pray together and we come to the Lord and seek his face, we get to gather plunder together.

We get to have joy together.

We get to have victory together.

We get to have freedom together.

Do you want that for you?

And do you want that for the person in front of you, behind you, and next to you?

I do.

I want this church to be a family where we have abundant joy, abundant love, abundant peace, where our enemy is annihilated, and then we get to take all the good stuff.

But there's more.

Okay.

All right, verse 29 and 30.

When all the surrounding kingdoms heard that the Lord Himself had fought against the armies of Israel, the fear of God came over them.

So Jehoshaphat's kingdom was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.

So when you battle, when we battle together, and I mean every single one of us, men, women, children, men lead.

Raise your hands, praise the Lord.

It gives your wives and kids permission to do it.

When we battle together, our enemy is annihilated.

We get to gather all the good stuff, and then we're so powerful we just wants to leave us alone.

And we get to rest.

And we get to rest together.

How beautiful is that! Not only does God win, he gives us the blessings, and then we can just be sheep and rest.

So the worship team wants to come back up.

This worship team, they're our Levite priests.

Okay?

They lead us into the presence of the Lord.

Every week they pray, they prepare, they pray over the songs we're going to do, they practice.

They're here late during the week, working on leading us into the presence of the Lord so that when they get here on Sunday, they can just worship with us.

They're leading us up the lookout together, all of us.

They're leading us up the lookout.

So when they say, hey guys, stand up, raise your hands, when they shout out, follow it, they're walking into the presence of God, and we get to follow them into battle.

So I felt like this, like maybe like this is just a story.

Some people might be thinking, this is a story in the Old Testament, this isn't really for me.

And I had someone tell me this once.

When God says something once, you pay attention.

When he says it multiple times, you really pay attention.

And he says so many times that he will win for us.

Deuteronomy 24.

For the Lord your God is going with you, he will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory.

Romans 8 31.

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these?

If God is for us, who could ever be against us?

Joshua 1 9, this is my command.

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Psalm 44, 5.

Only by your power can we push back our enemies.

Only in your name can we trample our foes.

Deuteronomy 3 22.

Do not be afraid of nations there, for the Lord your God will fight for you.

Joshua 23, 10.

Each one of you will put to flight a thousand of the enemy.

How many people are in here?

How many thousands of enemies can we put to flight?

For the Lord your God fights for you just as he promised.

Sometimes when I read stories in the Bible, they just jump out like this is for today, this is for now.

And then I like to make it personal.

Not in a way that changes the scripture, but in a way that really drives it home for me.

So I want to read what Jehezeel said when the Spirit came upon him.

But I want to make it personal for us today.

Because we're about to worship.

We're about to fall at the feet and kiss.

We're about to bring our wishes and desires, all of us.

And if there's not a battle that's right in front of you, look around.

Find someone, battle on their behalf.

Here's what Jehaziel says.

And this is in 2 Chronicles, made personal for us, my paraphrase for us.

Listen, all you people of his hands.

Do not be afraid.

Don't be discouraged by how big your enemy may seem, for the battle is not yours, it's God's.

On Monday morning, you march out against it.

It'll be waiting for you, but you won't even have to fight.

Armor up, take your positions, stand still and watch the Lord's victory.

He is with you, O people of His hands.

The Lord is with you.

Don't be afraid or discouraged.

Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you for being with us.

Thank you for being a God who is with us.

You're in the thick of it, you're in the battle.

You fight for us, and we just get to stand still and watch.

I pray that you embolden and encourage each one of us to walk directly into your presence as you say we can.

In Ephesians and Hebrews, you say we can come boldly.

So we come boldly.

We throw open the doors of heaven, we walk straight to your throne, we fall at your feet and we kiss them.

And we say, Jesus, this is what's on my heart.

And you say, Tell me about it.

Let me handle it for you.

We put on our armor.

We're ready to stand and do some battle.

In your name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.