When Your Back is Against the Wall

Rev. William "Buck" Day

This gentleman’s name is Patrick Dule.  He is forty-four years old and he has lost seven hundred pounds.  About two years ago, before he lost that weight, he moved to a new house.  He got there lying down in the back of a van.  When he got there, he needed three people to help him into the house.  When he got into the bed, he never got out, until a couple of years ago.  While he was lying in bed, he realized he’d reached a point of no return.  That he had to do something or he would die.  So he had the same surgery that so many have had, which is gastric bypass surgery.  He has now lost, some two years later, seven hundred pounds, and he now was three hundred seventy pounds.  Yet he’s not done.  Patrick is continuing to overcome obstacles in his life.  He is now an obesity counselor of all things.  He says, “I will know that I have lost enough weight when I can do what ever I want without worrying.”

You may not be in the hole that Patrick was in, but my hunch is that there are times in your lives when you have felt overwhelmed by the things that have come into you life, the problems that have happened in your life.  Those times when you maybe you feel like your back is against the wall, when you need a miracle in life maybe?  If you’ve ever felt like that, you know you’re not alone.  The world health organization reports that by the year 2020 clinical depression will outrank cancer as the leading cause of death and disability.  Beyond that it says that twenty-eight percent of United States workers feel overwhelmed at work either often or very often.  When we feel overwhelmed in life, we tend to have more conflicts in our world.  There tends to be more stress in our relationships.  We sleep less.  Because there are higher levels of stress, we usually have poorer health. 

What I want you to do today is to think about those places in your life where you feel like you’re up against it.  That maybe that there are people who are out to get you.  Where everything seems to be going wrong, and everywhere you turn there is a new headache and new roadblock. Maybe you’re approaching some impossible deadline that is coming.  Whatever it is, that is our setting for our story today. So, know that you are not alone.

 

Our story is about King Jehoshaphat.  King Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah which was the southern kingdom of the two nations of Israel.  He has three armies from three different countries all lining up together to attack him.  They are on his front doorstep, and he is not really prepared for them.  He could be what you might call up a creek with out a paddle.  He has quite literally his back against the wall, and he needs a miracle.  That is our course today. What I want to do is read some of the verses from the first 30 verse of 2 Chronicles 20.  As I read them don’t spend that much time thinking about the words per se but try to paint in your mind a picture of what the scripture is saying.  Our word is from 2 Chronicles 20 this morning:

Jehoshaphat was afraid.  He set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast through out all Judah.  Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord.  From all the towns of Judah, they came to seek the Lord.  Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah in Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and he said, “O Lord, God of our ancestors, are you not God in Heaven?  Do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations?  In your hand are power and might so that no one is able to withstand You.  Did you not, o our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people of Israel and give it forever to the descendents of your friend, Abraham?  If disaster comes upon us, the sword, or judgment or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house and before You, for your name is in this house.  And cry out to You in our distress, and You will hear and save. O our God, will you not execute judgment upon them for we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us.  We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.  Meanwhile all of Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children.  Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, and said, “Listen all Judea and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not fear or be dismayed for the battle is not yours but God’s’.  Take your position stand still and see the victory of the Lord on your behalf.  Oh Judah and Jerusalem do not fear or be dismayed.  Tomorrow, go out against them and the Lord will be with you.” Then Jehoshaphat bowed down with is face to the ground and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.  They rose early in the morning and rode out into the wilderness of Tekoa.  As they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me oh Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God and you will be established.  Believe His prophets.”  When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise Him in holy splendor as they went before the army saying, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His steadfast love endures forever.” As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the Ammonites, Moab and Mt. Sier who had come against Judah and so they were routed.

This is God’s word for us this day.   

Did you notice how we started that passage?  We started as these nations were gathering against the king, and the king’s response was, “I’m afraid.”  Isn’t that our natural reaction when something happens?  When the world is falling apart, we become afraid don’t we?  We become afraid, usually because we don’t know what’s going to come next.  Yet that fear is normal.  It’s not something we should fear.  It is part of our human emotions.  The difference, however, is what do we do with that fear?  Does it paralyze us or drive us to discouragement? Or does it motivate us?  That is what happened with Jehoshaphat.  The King moved forward.  He wasn’t intimidated by what was around him.  From this text, I think we can come up with six things to do when we are faced with an impossible situation; when we need a miracle.

The first one is that Jehoshaphat sought the Lord.  Our text says that he set himself towards the Lord and proclaimed a fast. The idea there is that Jehoshaphat turned his face towards God.  He pushed aside all the other distractions so that he could go before God and say, “God I’m here.  I’m listening.  What do you have for me?”  When you turn your face towards God it requires stillness.  It requires quite.  I think that’s why it says in the Psalms “Be still and know that I am God.” It doesn’t say know that I am God in the midst of all the chaos around you.  Be still.  I think it says that because we listen better when we remove the distractions from our world and are able to focus on God.  I think that’s probably why he declared a fast.  The spiritual discipline of fasting helps us focus our thoughts and our mind on God.  So when Jehoshaphat was in trouble, what does he do?  He runs to God.

The second thing he does is he prays about the problem.  As you look at the text, verses 5-12 are really his prayer to God.  I like the fact that before he prays he turns his face towards God, he set his attention towards God, and he gathers the whole nation of Judah around him.  I think that’s the sign of a good leader.  That he gets himself right with God and then draws the people around him and says, ‘Ok. Let’s go face to face with God here.’ Then he prays.  Listen to how he prays.  You want to know how to build faith in your life?  Pray like this.  It starts out by saying in verse six, “Are you not?”  In verse seven it says, “Did you not?” Then in verse twelve it talks about, “will you not?”  Jehoshaphat starts in verse six by reminding God of who He is.  He says, ‘Are you not the God who created all the heavens and earth? Aren’t you the God who has all power at your disposal?  Aren’t you the God who no one can stand against? God remember who you are.  You can do anything you want.’  That’s what Jehoshaphat is praying for.  So he starts by saying, God, remember who you are. Then he reminds God of what He has done.  He says, ‘Do You not remember who you drove the people out of this land and gave it to us?’  Remembering how God has been faithful in the past is key.  It’s key because it helps us know the kind of God we’re praying to.  But it also builds faith for us knowing what He has done in the past, He will do in the future.  So he reminds God of what He has done.  Then he asks God to do it again.  He says, “Will you not judge them again, God?”  God you’ve done it in the past.  Do it again.  Jehoshaphat is on his knees with his people, praying this kind of faithful prayer.  Prayer is the key piece. 

So after Jehoshaphat prays about it, what does he do next?  As part of that he admits that he needs help. He says, “God we have no power.  We don’t know what to do.”  Talk about vulnerability, about authenticity before God. That is a key.  That is a wonderful thing that he is completely straight up with God.  He lays all his cards on the table and says, ‘God, I’ve got no idea.  I need your help.’  Sometimes I think the way out of our troubles in our life doesn’t become clear until we take this step.  Until we fully surrender to God all of it and say, “God, I don’t know what to do, help me.”  At that point, I think God can open a door and go “Have you checked out this?”  I believe God wants to help us in our lives.  Not if it reinforces the notion that I’m in control of my life; that I can figure out my way out.  When we have that kind of an approach, I think God allows us to go down that road to wherever it takes us.  If you’re like me, more often than not, it leads to a dead end.  God desires his people to be reliant on Him, not ourselves.

Next, King Jehoshaphat focused on God and not the problem.  In verse 12 he says, “We don’t know what to do” but then one of those great little words, “But our eyes are on you.” There is power in that. Don’t look at the trouble. Don’t look at the situation.  Don’t look at the impossibility of what is.  Rather, look at God for the way out.  Not the problem.  This was driven home to me a few years ago.  I enjoy cars.  I have gone up and down through a lot cars in my life, and I kind of approach my car life, saying that if its just transportation, I would just assume walk.  And yeah, it has gotten me in trouble.  As a result of the cars that I have owned, one of the cars I’ve owned had an opportunity to go through a driving class.  We were doing this.  We were driving slalom through traffic cones.  I learned something very important there.  As you are driving through traffic cones, what you are supposed to do is not look at the cone you are trying to drive around, rather focus on the cones ahead of you.  You want to look at where you want the car to go, not where the car is. This comes into play in an accident avoidance scenario.  If you have to steer really quickly, what you want to do is focus on where you want your car to go, not the car that might hit you.  If you focus on the car that might hit you, you are going to be more apt to drive closer to it and possibly hit it.  That applies to our life with God in this situation.  When we focus on the problem, it’s going to overwhelm us more easily, than if we are focusing on where we need to go, in this case, on God.  Focus on God, not the problem.

The fifth step when faced with impossible situations is what I call, “Let God be God.”  Let God be God.  In verse 17, the Lord responds to the prayer of Jehoshaphat through a prophet and says, ‘This battle is not your, guys.’ In other words, stand back, let me take it.  You don’t have to fight this fight.  In the passage is says twice, “Don’t be afraid.” “Don’t be discouraged.”  If you think about it, think about God.  Has God ever lost a battle?  God doesn’t lose battles.  So why should we be afraid?  Ultimately, when we’re in trouble, it’s God’s reputation that is on the line, not ours.  When we look at the big picture we’re always on the winning team, regardless of the outcome, regardless of the hang-ups or the delays.  So when it comes to an impossible situation, and even when it doesn’t turn out like we had hoped, we’re still on the winning side.  When everything is said and done, God is going to be victorious. So let God be God.

The last step is to thank God in advance. In verse 21, Jehoshaphat says to his people, “Go ahead of the army worshipping, giving thanks to the Lord.”  It’s like he’s saying we don’t need arrows or spears, let’s just sing.  Thanking God in advance is all about faith.  Faith is thanking God in advance.  And praising is just the verbalization of faith.  So what happened in our story as a result of this faithful bunch of people?  Well it says the Lord set an ambush and so the men of Amon, Moab and Mt. Seir were defeated.  They really were confused to the point where they started fighting each other, while the Israelites stood on the other side of the valley singing and worshipping.  There is power in thanksgiving, praising and expecting.

Whatever it is that you’re facing today, when are you going to start thanking God for that answer? Are you going to start thanking God when it occurs?  Is that faith? Are you going to thank God after it occurs?  That’s not faith.  That’s gratitude.  Faith is thanking God in advance.  Let God fight those battles.  Give Him those impossible situations.  And if you do that, my hunch is that you will be more blessed than you can imagine.  In the process of it you might just be a witness to the people around you and to the world.  That’s what happened in our story.  You can read the rest of it.  You can read the last verses 25-30 of our text if you want to do that. 

So where are you right now?  What’s going on in your life?  Where are the issues in your life, maybe some personal problems, maybe some needs where you can apply these steps?  Are you in a pressure cooker at work?  Maybe your marriage is about to collapse.  Or you know that there are some people that are scheming to get you.  What are you going to do?  Remember these steps.  Start by looking at the problem from God’s perspective.  Remember that God can do anything.  What He has done in the past, He will do again.  Be honest.  Perhaps the thing that’s holding you back from God helping you is actually getting to the point of releasing the problem to God, saying God I’ve got know idea what to do.  Help me.  Maybe it’s putting quiet confidence in the Lord, saying God here are all the pieces.  Go for it.  It maybe also thanking God in advance, saying “God, I believe this can be a turning point, thank you in advance.  Change me wherever you need to change me, so that I can have the confidence of Jehoshaphat.”  Our God is always faithful.  He will never disappoint.  Many times what we need to do is just let go and let God have it. Amen.