What to Do When you Don't Know What to Do

In the sermon "What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do" by Tommy Walls, the focus is on finding guidance and comfort in the face of overwhelming difficulties, illustrated through the story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. Walls begins by addressing the common human experience of feeling besieged by multiple problems simultaneously, leading to a sense of helplessness and desperation. He recounts how Jehoshaphat, facing an insurmountable threat from multiple armies, turned to God for help by seeking the Lord, proclaiming a fast, and gathering the people to pray.

Walls outlines several key actions taken by Jehoshaphat that serve as a model for believers:

1. Invoking the Sovereignty of God: Jehoshaphat acknowledges God's supreme power and control over all nations and situations, reinforcing faith that nothing is beyond God's capability to handle.

2. Invoking the Providence of God: He recalls God's past deeds and faithfulness, reminding the people of how God had helped them before and trusting that He will do so again.

3. Involving the Promises of God: Jehoshaphat leans on God's promises, particularly those related to the temple, where God assured that prayers made in times of distress would be heard and answered.

4. Invalidating the Enemies of God: He points out that the enemies of Judah had no legitimate claim over God's people, drawing a parallel to the Christian's victory over sin and Satan through Christ.

5. Inviting the Presence and Power of God: Finally, Jehoshaphat prays for God's intervention, demonstrating reliance on God’s power to deliver them from their dire situation.

The narrative culminates in God’s miraculous intervention, where the enemies of Judah turn on each other, leading to their complete defeat without Judah having to fight. Walls emphasizes the importance of worship and praise in times of trouble, noting how Jehoshaphat's people sang praises to God, which led to their deliverance. He concludes by encouraging believers to trust in God's faithfulness, to stand still and witness God's salvation, and to lean on worship as a powerful response to life's challenges. Through the story of Jehoshaphat, Walls illustrates that in moments of uncertainty and weakness, turning to God and relying on His sovereignty, providence, promises, and power will lead to deliverance and peace.

Transcript

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I invite you this morning to second chronicles chapter 20 Second chronicles chapter 20 Have you ever been backed into a corner? Maybe you seem you were being assaulted from every angle and you're at wits end. I've counseled several people this past week and a couple of those that seem they were in this situation just assaults coming and after hearing one and then hearing another I was like what is going on seems like God's people are under attack or something's not right here and as they begin to share it was it wasn't that there was one thing that was a problem or with assaulting them that it was many things and as they continued I was like wow that's a lot and then they would add something else and I was becoming overwhelmed whoa we've all been there I know I have maybe you're there this morning assaults from every direction and you've come this morning with dire hopes of getting some help maybe your soul is crying out Lord help me Lord save me is my prayer for you this morning that the Lord would come to you and he would comfort you and he would strengthen you this very day in special ways I want to proclaim to you this morning what to do when you don't know what to do what to do when you don't know what to do in our text King Jehoshaphat finds himself in one of these very predicaments he was the king of Judah he had the favor and blessing of God he walked in the ways of his father Esa but he gets word that there's armies coming against him not an army but armies his backs against the wall they are way outnumbered there is no way for them to defeat these great armies that are coming against them let's read the text 2nd Chronicles 20 it came to pass after this also that the children of Moab the children of emen and within others beside the emanites came against Jehoshaphat to battle then there came some that told Jehoshaphat saying there comes a great multitude against you from beyond the sea on the side of Syria and behold they be in Hayes Azang Tamar which is in Gedi and Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast in all Judah and Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord and Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah in Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and said oh Lord God of our fathers are not you God in heaven and do you not rule over the kingdoms of the nations of the heathen and in your hand is it not power and might so that none is able to withstand you are not you our God who did drive out the inhabitants of the land and before thy people Israel gave us to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever and they dwelt therein and have built you a sanctuary for your name saying if when evil comes upon us as the sword judgment or pestilent or famine we stand before this house and in thy presence for thy name is in this house and cry unto thee in our affliction then you will hear and help and now behold the children of Ammon in Moab and Mount Seir whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt but they have turned from them and destroyed them not but I hold I say how they reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession which thou has given us to inherit here's our text Oh our God will you not judge them for we have no might against this great company that comes against us neither know we what to do but our eyes or upon thee father we thank you this morning for your word we thank you for this passage and what we see what we hear what's being done Lord knowing and realizing that there are many among us this morning who are come passed about with troubles on every side they're overwhelmed Lord they don't know what to do would you help would you minister today father through your word by your Holy Spirit give me help give us help to hear to understand to receive your word that Christ might be glorified for it's in his name we pray amen we don't stand a chance we don't know what to do but I think he does because he said our eyes are upon you our eyes are upon you what do you do when you've exhausted all strength in help when you're outnumbered when you're overwhelmed when there's too many enemies for you to stand a chance Joseph that's it our eyes are upon you what does that mean what is he doing well it means several things but I think the initial thing that we see there is that God we're looking to you our eyes are on you it's a it's a look of what are you going to do Lord what are you going to do now it's not like many of us sometimes Lord I've got myself in a mess and what are you going to do but Lord I'm helpless there's nothing I can do let me set my eyes on you let me set my face towards you and watch your mighty works in this situation it's a look of anticipation it's a look of confidence it's a look of reliance upon God that he's faithful and he's going to work for his own glory and thus my good so what does he do he turns his eyes upon the Lord and all the people are gathered with him and he's praying before the people to God and they're and he's saying Lord Lord how do we turn our eyes on the Lord and what does it mean to do that he's doing that in his prayer his prayer is that he calls this fast and all the people come from all the cities of Judah and they gather there and he begins to pray you've done that right you do that right in the midst of things coming and coming and coming it's time to pray it's time to pray the first thing we see that he does in verse 6 is that he invokes the sovereignty of God verse 6 and he said oh Lord God of our fathers are you not God in heaven Lord you're sovereign over everything you're in heaven you're over us you're controlling everything that's happening you are above us and you're controlling everything below you you are over all the kingdoms of the nations you're over all the king you're not just over the kingdom of Judah though you are our God but you are over all the nations you have all the power and might no one can withstand you you and do not rule over all the kingdoms of the nation and Lord in your hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand you this situation is impossible with men this situation is impossible with me and even all those I can gather to pray but this situation is not impossible for you Oh God this should be our automatic go-to amen in any trial in any situation calamity strikes an assassination attempt Lord you rule over all nothing is going to happen outside of your perfect wisdom and your perfect will never never once never has never will be there an oops in the economy of God it's definitely bigger than me but it's not bigger than my God it may be out of my control but it's in his perfect control so he invokes the sovereignty of God Oh Lord we know you are God in heaven we know that you rule over everything we know that you are going to control that you are controlled it is in your hand verse 70 invokes the providence of God verse 7 art thou art not thou our God who did drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and you gave it to your seed to the seed of Abraham your friend forever Lord we know what you've done in the past we know that your people were your people we know that your hand is upon us we know that you've brought us through so much Lord we know that you have been good to us and you're going to continue to be good to us this should be our attitude amid our maladies and let us wait and see what he does this time Diane and I are learning to think like this when we're have a situation that's outside our control which all situations are outside our control aren't they but you know something we just can't sing we're learning to say let's see what God does this time let's see how God shows himself faithful in this this time your house of fat looks back and it says Lord you've been with us you're not going to leave us now invokes the sovereignty of God invokes the providence of God then he involves the promises of God look at verses eight and nine and they dwelt therein and have built you a sanctuary therein for your name saying if when evil comes upon us as the sword judgment pestilent famine and the people stand before this house and in your presence for your name is in this house and they cry unto you if we cry unto you in our affliction you will hear and help us Lord Solomon built the temple Solomon dedicated the temple to the Lord and Solomon praised to the Lord this prayer now Jehoshaphat had brought back the priest had brought back the people and they were teaching the word they had probably read this recently where Solomon dedicates the temple pray Lord if at any time pestilence famine whatever comes upon us if we stand in this place and we seek your face and we call upon you we know you will hear and you will answer so Jehoshaphat is leaning on that promise he's standing on that promise and by the way Solomon dedicates the temple in second chronicles chapter seven and when he dedicates it the the glory of the Lord comes and takes the offerings burnt takes them up and the glory of the Lord fills the place and they're worshiping the Lord and God comes to Solomon and he says my name will be in this place and then he says verse 14 in second chronicles seven and that is what Jehoshaphat is doing if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face turn from their evil way and repent then I will hear from heaven and I will come and I will forgive their sins and I will heal their land so he involves the promises of God in the midst of your troubles look to the promises of God and see what he has said and know that he will never go back on his word he has promised to never leave us or forsake us he has told us that we are in his hand and no one can pluck us out of his hand he is in what's he doing he's promised that he would conform us to the image of his son this is his will for your life this is what he's doing in the midst of all of this coming down upon you he's faithful he keeps his promises lean on the promises of God in your time of turmoil so he invokes the sovereignty of God he invokes the providence of God he involves the promises of God and then in verses 10 and 11 he invalidates the enemies of God look at it verse 10 and now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir whom Lord you didn't let us invade them when we came into the land but we turned from them and we did not destroy them but now look what they're doing they're going to reward us for not destroying them by coming and trying to destroy us they're going to try to cast us out of thy possession which thou has given us to inherit Lord they have no right sin no longer has dominion over you the devil has been defeated greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world they have no power against us our possession is Christ Christ he is ours and we are his nothing yet nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord oh nothing nor any other creature nor any other thing in creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus the enemy that they're losers so he invokes the sovereignty of God invokes the providence of God involves the promises of God he invalidates the enemies of God and then he invites the presence of God the power of God there in verse 12 oh our God will you not judge them for we have no might against this great company that comes against us neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon you what's he saying come Lord come Lord show yourself strong on our behalf come Lord move come Lord do a work come Lord we we trust you we have confidence in you we're anticipating that you're about to do something then comes the reply verse 14 then upon Jehaziel the son of Zechariah the son of Benaniah the son of Jael the son of Mataniah a Levite of the sons of Esa upon him came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation and he said harken all you Judah all you inhabitants of Jerusalem and you okay Jehazephat thus saith the Lord unto you how did Jehazephat begin his prayer what did he do when he heard this news he feared the spirit of the Lord becomes upon the prophet here this says the Lord unto you be not afraid or dismayed by reason of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but God's tomorrow go down against them behold they come up by the cliff of ziz and you shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of jerur and you shall not need to fight in this battle set yourself stand still and see the salvation of the Lord with you oh Judah and Jerusalem fear not nor be dismayed tomorrow go out against them for the Lord will be with you what's the reply this battle is not yours but God's how many battles are yours are they not all God's is that God working in you both the will and to do his good pleasure are you not working out your own salvation with fear and trembling but it is God who works in you stand still and see the salvation of the Lord and Jehazephat verse 18 bowed his head with his face to the ground and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord worshiping the Lord and the Levites and the children of the cahathites and the children of the Korites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high go out before them here's where they are but you're not going to fight you're going to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord so Jehazephat receives this word from the prophet from God the Spirit of God had come upon and he bowed his head puts his face to the ground the people began to worship verse 20 they rose up early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tkohah and as they went forth Jehazephat stood and said hear me O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so shall you be established believe his prophets so shall you prosper and when he had consulted with the people he appointed singers unto the Lord that they should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and to say praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever praise the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever and when they began to sing yo this is good amen you know this passage don't you and when they began to sing and to praise the Lord and when they began to sing and to praise the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon Moab and Mount Seer which were come against Judah and they were submit they worshiped them to death they worshiped God and as they worshiped God the enemies killed each other verse 23 for the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seer utterly to slay them and to destroy them and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seer they turned on one another everyone helped to destroy another and when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness see they don't know what's happened they're worshiping the Lord they're singing praises unto the Lord they're singing his steadfast love endures forever his steadfast love endures forever and while they're doing that they don't know what's going on down there they come up to the rise they come up to see this great enemy that has come against them they don't know what they're about to see they just know it's a vast army way bigger than they are and they're all laying on the ground dead verse 24 and when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness they looked upon the multitude and behold there were dead bodies falling to the earth and none escaped if you read back won't do this won't go this if you read back a couple chapters it lists all the armies of Jehoshaphat and those around them hundreds and hundreds and five hundred thousand and this many thousand and this many thousand and that's the armies of Judah and so they were way outnumbered so here is a vast sea of bodies why do you go why do you go to war with your jewelry why do you go to war with your possessions of value so the people of God can take it that's what happened verse 25 and when Jehoshaphat and the people came to take away the spoil of them they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies and precious jewels which they stripped off for themselves more than they could carry away and they were three days gathering the spoil and on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Baraka for there they blessed the Lord therefore the name of this place is called the valley of Baraka the valley of blessing under this day and they returned every man of Judah and Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them to go again to Jerusalem with joy for the Lord had made them rejoice over their enemies and they came to Jerusalem with saltries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord and the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel do you want to turn the tide do you want to turn the enemies away do you want to have victory in your temptations praise the Lord worship the Lord I'm about to tell you something about myself that you may not shake my hand again I used to manage a funeral home and one evening late at night I got the phone call that there had been an accident two young men driving a car had veered off the road into a sheep's foot you know a steamroller type thing and the car exploded one of the boys I knew I had to go and tell the family that night that he had been killed in this accident the other boy I didn't know but uh we had the funeral for the one man from our young boy from our community and the father of the other boy came and afterwards we were understanding around and I asked him I said how are you doing and he said something to me that I've never forgotten and probably never will forget he said I'm worshiping my way through it and that's it that's it it'll work every time it'll work every time now notice verse 29 that all the cities all the realms about took note that God had delivered them and there was peace in the kingdom of Jehoshaphat you know people are watching you they see you going through your struggle they know you claim to be a Christian they're watching what will your testimony be that God is faithful or that God will fail you God will not fail his people you see something deeper here with me do you see the gospel here you see the gospel there in verse 12 he says we have no mind against this great company the ESV says we are powerless against this great horde is that not the testimony of every one of us that's been born again that we came to a point that we saw the enemy was greater that our sins were so piled high there was nothing we could do about it it we were powerless against our sins there was nothing we could do the law was condemning us the judgment was pronounced we were guilty and the wrath of God was bearing down on us we were condemned already and not only was all of this weight and all of this coming against us we were the enemy but then our eyes were opened our dead soul was made alive we turned toward the Lord our Savior our souls rose from the dead and we saw the way of escape we saw the way to pardon and we fled to Christ and his cross we were washed we were sanctified we were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God oh have you not had that day when your sin was so overwhelming to you you knew that you were a sinner you knew that you deserved the judgment of God and you sided with God against yourself and you knew he would be just you knew he would be right if he picked you up and threw you into hell that very moment but then the love of God in your repentance the love of God was shed abroad in your heart oh Lord I'm sorry Lord forgive me Lord what have you done in giving your son a sacrifice for my soul what glory oh we needed we needed someone to live a perfect life for us he came and he lived that perfect life for you oh we needed someone to die in our place to take the wrath of God to take our sin upon himself he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him oh what a savior oh what a savior he died our death he lived our life he was buried in the town but he didn't stay dead death couldn't hold him death had no claim on him and when it had done had searched he raged himself up ascended back to the father now seated at the right hand making intercession for us and he's coming again to receive us unto himself that where he is there we may be also