This is How I Fight My Battles

We are going to emphasize prayer for the next year at the Crossing.

Just for the next calendar year, we are going to do everything we can

to go further in our relationship with Jesus by becoming people of prayer.

And so we started last week by saying,

let's just commit to praying for each other without ceasing.

And we asked you to share prayer requests, and many of you did.

You shared all kinds of things that are happening in your life,

and people took those home and prayed for you this week.

In just a moment, I want to share some of those requests,

and I just want to pray for all the requests that have been shared so far.

But before we do that, I need to ask you a favor,

and that is to help us in our next sermon series.

In January, we're going to start a sermon series dedicated to prayer,

and we're at the point where we want to pick the passages that we're going to preach on,

but we want your input, especially in this form.

What questions do you have about prayer?

I mean, just think about it.

You've thought about prayer.

You've heard about prayer.

But my guess is there are some lingering questions that have stuck with you.

Like, maybe you have questions about unanswered prayer.

Or maybe you have a question like, why do we pray in Jesus' name?

Or maybe you have a question about prayer and fasting.

Those often go together in the Bible.

What's the relationship?

Like, what's your question about?

And we want you to let us know that, and there's lots of ways to do that.

You could write that down and stick it in one of the offering towers when you left.

But one of the things you can do is just scan the QR code on the seat back in front of you,

and that would just bring up a little form that you could write in your question,

either now or sometime later in the day.

But we want to hear about your questions.

We're not sure we can answer every question, probably not,

but we at least want to try to answer the ones that are most frequently asked.

So do that at some point, all right?

Let us know what your questions are.

Now, if you had a chance to look at the Pray For Me walls out in the cafe or in the foyer,

what you noticed, probably, if you're like me,

is just there's all kinds of prayer requests out there, right?

It was a diverse set of prayers.

Some of them fairly light, and some of them, man, super heavy.

There were all kinds of prayer requests.

I just want you to know they all pleased God.

Every single one, God saw.

Every single one pleased him.

Because it says in Philippians 4, 6,

don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

And when Paul wrote pray about everything,

what he did is he gave us permission to bring all our requests,

all our burdens, all our worries, and all our concerns to God.

And what that means is that every prayer offered sincerely is one that pleases God.

And as the year goes by,

we just want to share more of those.

And so we have like cards in the seat backs in front of you

that you can fill out a Pray For Me card

and just put your request on it and post it on one of those walls.

But then we want you to also take one.

Take a prayer request home and go home and pray for that person.

You can put your name on it if you want.

You don't have to.

I saw some people putting their first name on there.

Whatever you want to do.

But would you do that today?

Leave a prayer request.

Take a prayer request.

Because we want to be the kind of church that prays for each other.

I took some pictures of prayer requests out there that grabbed my attention.

And I just want to share them with you and then pray for people.

Here's one that says,

Supernatural healing for my son's traumatic brain injury.

How to better minister to my aging father.

He's 88.

And engage in spiritual discussions with him.

This person says,

I'm being pushed out at my current job.

I need to find a new job.

But more than anything,

I just want to move forward in a career that I studied so long for.

Pray for the struggle of being a Christian in Greek life in college.

Pray that the relationship with my parents would be healed.

And my parents would want a relationship with their grandkid.

Pray for the struggle of being a Christian in Greek life in college.

Pray that my family can come out of the sadness and extreme darkness of the death of a loved one to suicide.

I pray that my dad can understand how much God loves him and wants a relationship with him.

Pray for my brain cancer to remain stable for a long time.

I would really like to become a mom.

Things are heavy.

They're real.

Don't you want to pray for people?

Pick up a card and take it home and pray.

But for now, let's just pray for the people who shared that I just read, but for all of us.

Father, we bring all these requests before you.

And we pray that you would have mercy on these people.

That you would hear their request.

And you would work out your will in their life.

I pray for all of us, Father.

We all have burdens and concerns and worries, and we bring them to you this morning.

We don't know what your will is for any of our lives.

We don't even know what to ask.

We don't know what to ask for half the time.

But we know that you've called us to lay it all out before you.

And so in faith, that's what we do.

Lord, hear our prayers.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Those people that shared those requests, the ones I just read, the ones that are on the board,

they all feel like, man, life can be so overwhelming.

And I know you've had that feeling too.

Like, life is too much for me right now.

This morning, we're going to look at three Old Testament stories

that teach us how to respond when we feel that way.

The first story comes to us through a king named Jehoshaphat.

It's a fabulous Old Testament name, right?

King Jehoshaphat.

And we find his story in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

Here's verse 1.

After this, the Moabites and Ammonites,

with some of the Mennuites, came to wage war against Jehoshaphat.

Notice that Israel is always being attacked by the ites, right?

Moabites, Ammonites, Mennuites.

And we have our own ites that attack us, right?

Health ites, infertility ites, porn ites, guilt ites, depression ites, worry ites, loneliness ites.

We all know what it feels like to be surrounded by,

those who are attacking us.

Verse 2.

Some people came and told Jehoshaphat,

a vast army is coming against you from Edom,

from the other side of the Dead Sea.

So Jehoshaphat finds out.

It's not just the Amorites, Moabites, and the Mennuites that are coming,

but now there's also a vast army from Edom that is coming to attack you.

And so what do we expect Jehoshaphat to do?

Well, we know what he's going to do, right?

We've seen this movie, right?

He calls his generals together.

They lay out war plans, and they go to battle.

Why do I know that's what he's going to do?

Well, not only have I seen the movie, but it's exactly the same thing I do.

When I'm surrounded by my problems, what I do is I try to solve them.

Maybe you call a friend and seek advice.

Maybe you sit there for a moment and pout and feel sorry for yourself.

Maybe when you feel surrounded by your problems, you have another drink,

or you get a second job.

Or you check your finances.

Maybe when you're surrounded by your problems, you get a lawyer or a counselor.

I mean, some of those things are really good things to do,

but I'm not sure that they should be the first thing that we do.

It's sure not what King Jehoshaphat did.

It wasn't the first thing he did.

Verse 3.

Alarm, Jehoshaphat resolved 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.

See, the very first thing that Jehoshaphat does is he calls people to pray.

When he's surrounded by his enemies, when he's under attack,

when there's a vast army pressing in against him,

when he doesn't know exactly what to do,

what he does is he calls a prayer meeting.

See, Jehoshaphat teaches us that when we are surrounded by our enemies,

that we must fight our battles on our knees,

praying.

Zechariah 4, 6 says,

See, Jehoshaphat is overwhelmed,

and he knows that he must call on God,

because when he calls on God,

then God's strength shows up,

and God's power shows up.

See, what we learn here is that when we trust in our might,

and we trust in our power,

we will never win.

But when we trust,

trust in the Spirit,

we can never lose.

The old saying goes that Satan mocks at our toil,

and he laughs at our wisdom.

But Satan trembles when we pray,

because when we trust in our toil,

in our wisdom,

we trust in our strength,

human strength,

but when we pray,

we trust in God's strength.

Why is it that Jehoshaphat is so quick,

to pray,

and I only pray after I've tried everything else?

Why is it that prayer is Jehoshaphat's first option,

and it too often is my last option?

Well, he answers that question inside his prayer.

Here's part of his prayer in verse 12.

He says,

Jehoshaphat says,

Our God,

will you not judge them,

these vast armies that are pressing it against me,

these enemies that I face?

Will you not give me victory?

For we have no power to face this vast army

that is attacking us.

We do not know what to do,

but our eyes are on you.

Do you see the answer there?

Jehoshaphat's first option is to pray,

because he senses deeply his own need and his own weakness.

He says,

I don't know what to do.

Don't you feel that way?

Don't you sometimes just go,

I don't know what to do.

I don't know how to solve this problem.

I don't know the right thing to say at this point.

I don't know what decision to make.

I don't know what to do,

because I don't know what tomorrow holds.

And Jehoshaphat says,

I don't have any power.

Don't you feel like that?

I don't have any power against my enemies.

I can't change that person's heart.

I can't resolve that conflict.

I can't break the power of this addiction.

I don't have power over these unwanted desires

that I'm faced with.

See, until we admit that we can't do life on our own,

until we embrace,

our need,

we will never pray,

because we pray when we recognize

that we are utterly dependent on God,

that we can't do life without him.

So we have this illusion in our head

that it's strong Christians who pray, right?

Like, if I were a stronger Christian,

then I would pray more.

But I think that's got it exactly backwards,

because strength never leads to more prayer.

Weakness does.

When we feel strong,

we are more likely to rely on ourselves.

When we feel weak,

we are more likely to rely on God.

So we think that when we are strong,

we pray,

but really it's when we feel our weakness

that we pray.

Weakness leads to God-reliance.

And the reason that we won't pray

is because many of us would rather rely on ourself

than on God.

We would rather rely on ourselves

than on God.

See, what prayer does,

prayer is bringing our helplessness.

Prayer is bringing our weakness.

Prayer is bringing all that need before God.

It's saying, God, I need you to show up here

because I can't handle it.

And so if prayer is bringing our helplessness before God,

one reason we don't pray

is because we are allergic to admitting our helplessness.

Surrounded by his enemies,

Jehoshaphat gets down on his knees and he prays

and God shows up to fight his battle.

Verse 15.

This is what the Lord says to you.

Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army

for the battle is not yours but God's.

I mean, how many things in our life do we need to say?

How many areas, how many battles are we in

where we need to say, this is not my battle,

this is the Lord's battle.

The battle belongs to God, not me.

He continues.

As they began to sing and praise,

the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab

and Mount Sire who were invading Judah

and they were defeated.

As they began, the Ammonites and Moabites

rose up against the men from Mount Sire

to destroy and annihilate them.

After they finished slaughtering the men from Sire,

they helped to destroy one another.

So do you see what happened there?

Is that all the armies that were coming up against Israel,

they all turned on,

each other and they destroyed each other

and the reason they did it

is because the Lord had set ambushes for them.

When Jehoshaphat got down on his knees and prayed,

God showed up because it was the Lord's battle

and God fought for him

and every time God fights, God wins.

It turns out he's undefeated.

He's never lost a battle.

He's never ever failed you.

So what we learn from this story

is that when we are surrounded by our enemies,

that we must get down on our knees

and pray because God will fight our battles.

The second story from the Old Testament

comes to us through a wicked king,

a wicked foreign king that is hunting down

the prophet Elisha with the intention

to capture or kill Elisha

and when this foreign king finds out where Elisha is,

we find out, here's what he does.

Second Kings six.

The king sent horses and chariots

and a strong force there.

They went by night and surrounded the city.

When the servant of the man of God,

that's Elisha, when Elisha's servant

got up and went out early the next morning,

an army with horses and chariots

had surrounded the city.

Oh no, my Lord, what shall we do?

The servant asked.

Don't be afraid, the prophet answered.

Those who are with us are more

than those who are with them.

And Elisha prayed, open his eyes, Lord,

so that he may see.

Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes

and he looked and he saw the hills

full of horses and chariots of fire

all around Elisha.

I want to make sure you understand

what's happening in this story.

Elisha and his servant are staying at this place

and the king's hunting them

and the servant goes out in the morning

and he sees that the king's forces

are all against him and he's scared,

he's alarmed and for good reason.

But Elisha says to him, don't be afraid.

Why not?

Because those who are for us

are more than those who are against us

because he's afraid.

Because he's afraid.

He who is in you is greater

than he who is in the world.

And so then Elisha prays

and when Elisha prays,

his servant is able to see reality.

When Elisha prays,

the servant is able to see

what can only be visible

through the eyes of faith.

And when he sees things as they are,

what he sees is that God's angelic forces

outnumber the enemy.

But it only happened

because Elisha prayed.

That servant, he felt surrounded

by his enemies, but he was really

surrounded by God's love.

You probably know who this is.

This is John Cena.

He's a WWE tough guy, right?

And then somewhat of a minor movie star.

And if you don't know him,

then you probably know this guy for sure.

This is Dwayne the Rock Johnson,

WWE guy, major movie star, right?

His movies turned out to be a lot better

than John Cena's,

which is why you probably know him.

But these are intimidating guys, right?

They're strong, they're muscular,

they're athletic, they're coming for you.

Well, they look very, very intimidating

until you see them standing next to Shaq.

Because Shaquille O'Neal is a very large human, right?

And so when you see the Rock and John Cena

standing next to him,

they look like his little buddy, right?

They're not nearly as intimidating.

Your problems, the things that weigh you down and burden you,

they feel like Dwayne the Rock Johnson and John Cena.

They've shown up at your house

and they are there to destroy you.

They are there to kill you.

And you feel intimidated, you feel under the pressure,

you feel alarmed, and rightly so,

until you remember that compared to God,

compared to God's power and God's love and God's might,

then your problems, your problems, your problems, your problems,

well, they aren't so intimidating anymore

because God shows up.

See, the second thing we need to learn

is that God is far stronger than any enemy that we face.

The third Old Testament story comes from another king.

This is Israel's king, Hezekiah.

And Hezekiah is king of Israel

when the Assyrians come from the north.

Under the leadership of King Shennacherib,

the Assyrians said,

hundreds of thousands of armies to attack Israel.

And the Assyrians, a fierce and ferocious army,

they practiced what was called siege warfare,

which is very common in the ancient Near East.

They would come down to a walled city like Jerusalem

and they would surround it.

And the idea was to starve the people out

and force them to fight on the Assyrian army's terms.

And so hundreds of thousands of Assyrian soldiers

are surrounding Jerusalem.

And they're feeling very confident about themselves.

So the Assyrians send an emissary up to the walls of Jerusalem

to shout over it to the people.

And he's trying to intimidate them.

And he's mocking them.

And he says, look, I know that you guys

want to have an alliance with Egypt, right?

And you think that's gonna save you, but it's not.

He goes and he says, we would give you horses.

We would give you 2,000 horses

if you had any riders to put on them.

And then the emissary, the Assyrian emissary,

the Assyrian emissary,

starts to mock God.

And here we find it in Isaiah 36.

The Assyrian guy says, do not let Hezekiah, your king,

do not let King Hezekiah mislead you.

And he says, the Lord will deliver us.

Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands

from the hand of the king of Assyria?

And so the emissary from Assyria is saying,

look, your king is saying the Lord will deliver you.

Do not listen to him.

He is speaking foolishness to you.

Because the king of Assyria is greater than your God.

It is foolish to trust in God.

That is what your enemy will always tell you.

Now, what will Hezekiah do?

How will Hezekiah fight this battle?

Isaiah 37, 15.

And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord.

Hezekiah prayed to the Lord.

Hezekiah fought this battle on his knees.

He didn't put his trust in horses,

or chariots.

He didn't put his trust in generals or soldiers.

No, he got down on his knees and prayed

because he knew this was the Lord's battle.

He needed God to show up.

And God did.

Because God always does.

Verse 16.

The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,

enthroned between the cherubim.

This is Hezekiah's prayer to God.

You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth.

You've made heaven and earth.

Give ear, Lord, and hear.

Open your eyes, Lord, and see.

Listen to all the words.

The Shennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

His prayer goes on.

It is true, Lord,

that the Assyrian kings have laid waste

all these peoples and their lands.

They've thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them,

for they were not gods,

but only wood and stone fashioned by human hands.

Now, Lord, our God, deliver us from His hand

so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know

that you, Lord,

are the only God.

Then Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah.

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.

Because you have prayed to me

concerning Shennacherib, king of Assyria,

because you have prayed,

because you've prayed,

then the angel of the Lord went out

and put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp.

Do you see that when Hezekiah prayed,

God showed up,

and the Lord went out,

and he fought that battle.

Hezekiah got down on his knees

because he knew his own helplessness,

and he knew his own weakness.

He knew that he couldn't defeat these enemies

in human strength.

He needed God to fight for him.

But that phrase, because you prayed,

that's the phrase.

That's what we need to hold on to.

Because you prayed, God answered.

Because you prayed, God acted.

Because you prayed,

God defeated.

Because you prayed, God showed up.

Because you prayed, God gave you wisdom,

and God gave you endurance,

and God gave you strength,

and God gave you faith.

Because you prayed,

God took away those unwanted desires.

Because you prayed, God sustained you

when He didn't take away the unwanted desires.

See, this morning, your enemies,

they surround you,

and you're helpless.

I don't know if you're there yet.

If you get it,

yet, but you're helpless to fight the battle because the battle is not yours. The battle is

God's. So now you have to make a decision. How will you fight this battle? With your power and

your wisdom or with God's power? Will you fight this battle on your knees? See, the most important

place that you can kneel is in your heart. Say, God, I can't do this, but you can. I need you.

God, I'm on my knees and my heart, just my posture, my attitude. Please show up, God.

But you know that we're complicated beings, right? Our mind, our bodies, our soul, it all kind of

fits together, emotions. So sometimes I just need to do something with my body to help me

have that right posture toward God, calling on God. So for me, sometimes I just turn my palms up.

I just say, God, I need you. Help me. I need your wisdom. I need your power. I need your love. I

need you to fight this battle because I can't do it, God. Sometimes what I have to do is just like

get on my knees, knees. Like to say, I don't just need to be on the knees of my heart, but I need

to be on my knees. I need to be on my knees. I need to be on my knees. I need to be on my knees.

To remind me of my helplessness. Because when you're on your knees, you don't feel like you're

in control. You don't feel powerful. You feel vulnerable. And this is where we are. This is

our life. We can't defeat the enemies that face us, but God can. And when I'm on my knees and I

call out to him, he shows up and he fights my battle. Getting on my knees helps me embrace

my helplessness. And when I'm on my knees and I call out to him, he shows up and he fights my

helplessness. So in just a moment, we're going to sing a song. It's kind of like a prayer more

than a song. It's kind of like a prayer. And as we sing, I pray that you would get on your knees,

invite you to get on your knees and your heart. Maybe for you, it's just go palms up.

Maybe some of you need to come down front here. And you just want to come down front and get on

your knees like this and say, God, will you fight this battle?

God, I'm overwhelmed. God, I need you. God, I'm calling on you. Help me, Lord. Let's stand and sing.