A Desperate Prayer for Deliverance (2 Chronicles 20:1-30) Powerful Prayers Southern Hills Baptist Church April 25, 2016
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
A Desperate Prayer for Deliverance (2 Chronicles 20:1-30) Powerful Prayers Southern Hills Baptist Church April 25, 2016 WELCOME Welcome! Happy Sunday. It is good to be with you studying God’s Word. If you have your Bibles open up to 2 Chronicles 20 as we will be there momentarily. SERIES INTRODUCTION: POWERFUL PRAYERS Tonight we are kicking off a new series on prayer. Truthfully, we all fail to understand the incredible honor and resource that is available to us in prayer. God, the Creator of the cosmos, the Sustainer of all life and matter, the Writer of all past history and future events, invites you to come and share your heart with Him, to make requests of Him in your times of need. Insanity! You! Little, Old You! How insane is that?!? You! Little, old you!!! God almighty wants to hear from you!!! This reality should overwhelm us and bring us incredible Joy. Yet, all too often, we go about our days like nothing special is going on. A Friend in the Governor How honored, how empowered would you feel if the Governor of Texas had an open door policy with you and told you to swing by any time you wanted to talk to someone and to let him know if you needed anything? That would give you an extra dose of confidence each and every day, wouldn’t it? The trials of life wouldn’t be as harsh if you knew you had that kind of resource available to you. Your Pal the POTUS How much more excited would you be if it wasn’t the Governor of Texas, but the most powerful man in our country, the President? Lay aside your political affiliations for Just a moment and imagine that the President of the United States was your friend and he cared enough for you to invite you to share your heart with him whenever you wanted. Feeling Powerful and Confident How powerful would this make you feel? How much confidence would this give you as you walk through life and even the trials of life? It would feel as if you had a big, soft, cushy net beneath you as you walked the tightrope of life. I don’t think anyone would deny the great comfort they would get from a relationship like this. Something Better! And yet… And yet, we have something better a million times over as we have the ear, attention, and love of an infinitely superior and stronger ruler. We have the chance to go before the One who spoke matter into being, the One who wrote human history from start to finish! What a joy! What a privilege! What a resource! He invites you to come and talk to Him. He wants you to cast your cares before Him. He does not grow weary of hearing your needs. What Will You Say? You have been invited to talk to God. What will you say? How will you use this opportunity? Series Goals We are going to spend the next couple of months looking at prayers from the Bible, powerful prayers that were offered up by godly men. As we consider our own prayer life, this is so much here for us to learn. • Studying these prayers should educate us on how we ought to pray. • Studying these prayers should reveal more of the awesome character and person of God to us. • Studying these prayers should encourage us to pray more in our daily lives. Transition – Context With that said let me set the stage for the first prayer that we will be studying with the context of what has been going on leading up to 2 Chronicles 20... CONTEXT After the death of King Solomon a fight for the throne of Israel broke out between the sons of Solomon. Solomon had promised the throne to Rehoboam, but Jeroboam had a strong military behind him and the nation of Israel ended up divided. The Northern Kingdom kept the name Israel and the Southern Kingdom took the name Judah. Jehoshaphat Overview Jehoshaphat was the 4th king of the Nation of Judah. Overall, he was a godly king who led the nation of Judah in the ways of God. He was not perfect mind you. There was a particular incident that was recorded in 2 Chronicles of his failings where he defied God by making an alliance with a wicked country. This sin didn’t go unnoticed. Jehoshaphat was called out on this sin and repented. He turned from the faith he had put in worldly strength and put his full confidence back in God. This is what we see in 2 Chronicles 19. Here Jehoshaphat is working to restore Israel to a place of spiritual purity. To accomplish this he went out into the cities and appointed Judges, men who were to lead the city in keeping the law of God. He gave them all specific instruction to remember that their efforts were to be for God, not men, thus their integrity towards the law was critical. Everything Starting to go Right, Right? So as we enter 2 Chronicles 20 we see Jehoshaphat doing the right things. He has not only turned a corner spiritually, but he is reforming the nation he leads. Everything seems to be falling into place. Everything is headed in the right direction, right? Let’s see what happens…. Now hear the Word of God… 2 Chronicles 20:1-3a [1] After this the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat for battle. [2] Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, Engedi). [3] Then Jehoshaphat was afraid THE SITUATION: INVADERS ARE COMING! (vs. 1-3a) So, Just as Jehoshaphat seems to be getting everything together it all appears to come crashing down as he gets word that 3 nations that Judah had previously had peace agreements with were marching towards them ready to lay waste to Judah. Taken Off Guard The picture that the Chronicler is painting is of a nation and a king who have been taken off guard, a people who just had life flipped upside down on them. Judah was likely anticipating the blessing of God on their lives as they began to once again pursue Him whole-heartedly, they instead found themselves wondering if their lives would be cut short at the swords of traitorous neighbors. Life had Just blindsided them. Jehoshaphat’s Fear What we see at the start of verse 3 is that Jehoshaphat was afraid. Let me try to explain why Jehoshaphat was so scared. So the vast maJority of Judah’s defenses were positioned up north to protect themselves from Israel and Syria. Those were their two primary enemies. Thus, that is where they put all of their military resources. There had been no need to have a military presence in the south of Judah because all of their southern neighbors had never attacked them, as they feared Judah. No Earthly Hope So as Jehoshaphat gets word that these 3 nations have banded together to lay waste to Judah he knows that between the 3 nations the army is huge. Judah’s only hope against an army of this size and power would be if they were at full strength, but there was no way for Judah to be at full strength in the southern portion of their country as the maJority of their resources were up north. So, in other words, Jehoshaphat knew that he and Judah were doomed. He knew they had no military hope, no play, no winning strategy. He was feeling overwhelmed. He had to feel dejected. He and all his people were going to die or be taken as slaves to enemies. Application – Getting Hit Hard by Life Can you identify with Jehoshaphat? Can you relate to how he felt to some degree? Have you ever felt like this before? • Have you ever felt suffocated by the pressures of life and felt as if there was no way out? • Has life ever dealt you a blow so big that you were left feeling overwhelmed and hopeless? • Have you ever felt as if life sucker punched you and you didn’t have any idea as to how you would recover? • Have you ever faced a problem so big that you felt stuck and like you were Just waiting for it to all fall down on you? • Have you ever had something happen that was so unfair or unJust that it felt like the world was simply against you and there was no winning? We have all felt that way, right? What was it that left you feeling this way? Was it… • Health Concerns – Maybe you had never really been confronted with your own mortality, but all of the sudden the doctor is sharing news that feels like a shot to the gut. You start to realize that you might not be there to see your girls grow up. Or that someone you love only has a little time left. • Job Loss – Everyone finds a lot of their identity in their work. We all spend the maJority of our day at work so when it was ripped from you, you started to question who you are and felt lost, not knowing where you are headed next. • Finances – Worry can so easily creep into your heart and set up camp when you wonder how you are going to afford to keep the lights on.