Praise Your Way to Victory | Part 1

From the Love Word Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler, here with Kerry Baum, the CEO of Love Word Finding. Kerry, today we're in a series called Victory in Jesus and we want our friends to know that they can catch up on the entire series at lwf.org or at myLWF app, a great resource when you're learning about all the resources here at Love Word Finding Ministries. But today's message I'm excited about, Praise Your Way to Victory. Praise, a verb. You know, sometimes we have to pray, Lord, help us to praise our way to victory.

In the book of John, it talks about that the thief will come to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Yes. You know, I don't think I've ever heard a preacher more than Adrian Rogers talk about victory.

Right. You know, victory in Jesus. And so we don't need to walk in defeat. We don't need to walk as people with no hope. We don't need to walk as we're waiting for the day to happen, right? As believers in Jesus Christ, we can claim victory right now, right out of the gate.

Well, I think Adrian Rogers addressed that confusion when he had this to say. I believe that many Christians today don't realize that victory is possible. They think that Jesus died to forgive their sins, and one day He's coming to take them to heaven. And in the interim, they just have to tough it out and do the best they can until He gets here. But the God who gave Himself for us is the God who gave Himself to us that He might live His life through us. And that life is the life of victory, not in the sweep by and by, but as someone has said, in the nasty now and now, we can have that victory moment by moment, day by day, and we can reign in life, this life, through Christ Jesus. Well, that's wonderful. And I think praise or praising is very contagious. It's very infectious to other people, and it's a ripple effect. And so sometimes people are playing off our testimony or they're playing off our praise.

Yeah. Well, you know, Kerry, there's no greater victory for us as Christians than to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those who don't know the Savior. And this month of April, Love We're Finding has a wonderful resource. It's a book entitled Discover Jesus. Who is Jesus? How can I know Him personally?

How can I grow in Him in my maturity? But also, how can I share Him with other people? I think that's the essence of this book. For every $15 that our supporters give today, they will be able to put the life-changing book, Discover Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, into the hands of someone truly longing for truth. And for people who desire to know Jesus will receive this gift at no cost, thanks to our partners. Well, Kerry, this book has already helped lead hundreds of people to discover Jesus for the first time and hundreds more to discover their real and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And for that investment, like you said, only $15 can change a life. Well, and it can also aid them as they walk in victory, right? That's what we're talking about today, how to walk in victory.

And so we want to see other people do the same. Well, remember, friend, for every $15 you give today will help put a copy of Discover Jesus in the hands of someone who needs our Savior. Call 1-877-LOVEGOD, 1-877-LOVEGOD, or LWF.org. Well, Kerry, Nicole from Ministry Services here at LWF has joined us here in the studio to read some listener letters, which my favorite part of this time together. Nicole, welcome. How are you doing?

Oh, I'm so wonderful today, Byron. Thank you for asking. And I have brought a fantastic testimony that I know will encourage you.

Let me read it to you real quick. It says, My wife and I support your ministry financially and prayerfully each month. Upon being diagnosed with cancer in 2018, I've regularly listened to Dr. Rogers. My oncologist is a wonderful Christian and friend and mentioned how blessed he had been by his preaching. Early on in my treatment and later during the pandemic, Dr. Rogers preaching and teaching became an integral part of my daily devotion. I've been so blessed.

By the way, there is no evidence of my cancer. This whole experience has been such a blessing. Well, with today's message, Praise Your Way to Victory, here's Adrian Rogers. We'll be finding 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. If you are familiar with the Old Testament, you know this is a classic passage on praise and worship. Now, let me give you the background of 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. And without trying to be facetious, it's preceded by chapter 19. And in chapter 19 is the story of a revival under a good king whose name was Jehoshaphat. Now, you might think that if we have revival, that will be the end of our troubles.

It will be, but it will be the front end. Because when we have a spiritual blessing, it is just a fact that when God opens the windows of heaven to bless us, the devil opens the doors of hell to blast us. Is that not true? Certainly it's true. If you've ever been there, you know that the devil will fire up all of his artillery if a revival is going on. That doesn't mean that we're to fold up and go away. It just simply means that we're to stand up and pray. And we will have, can have, should have a victory if we learn how to praise. Now, look at the last verse of chapter 19, the last phrase in that verse. Here's what good King Jehoshaphat said to the people. He said, deal courageously and the Lord shall be with the good. That was a promise and that was true. But it certainly did not mean that they would not have any trouble. Because we're going to see right after this revival and right after this injunction to live courageously and to be good, there comes incredible problems.

And so, how many of you here have a problem or know somebody that's in a problem? Let me see your hand. Okay, so pay attention. You want victory. God did not cause us and call us to fail but to be victorious. And I love the New Testament that says that our Lord Jesus causes us always to triumph, not sometimes, always to triumph. Now, let me give you what happened to good King Jehoshaphat. It's one of the greatest blessings in all of the Bible.

This is a magnificent chapter. You will be incredibly blessed and instructed if you will open your Bible now and follow along with me and find out what happened to good King Jehoshaphat and what he did about it and what you can do when similar things happen to you. Number one, notice in verses one and two that he encountered a problem. In verse one, and it came to pass after this also that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with their mother besides the Ammonites came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

And there came some that told Jehoshaphat saying, there cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side, Syria, and behold, they be in Haazontaman, which is Ein Gedi. Now, here's the problem. They've just had revival, and then here comes the herald to say, look out, you've got some enemies that are coming. Now, you will encounter a problem, and when you encounter a problem, you need to see it as it really is a blessing in disguise. Now, you say, there you go with some of that happiness talk that preachers always give me when I have problems. No, a blessing in disguise.

Now, let me give you a better authority than Adrian Rogers. Let me give you James. James chapter one, verses two through four. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. That means different kinds of trials, knowing this, that the trying or the testing of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that she may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. God does not allow problems to come to you to hurt you, to harm you, but to build you. Now, Jehoshaphat learned that there were three wicked kings that were coming against him, and all of us have three wicked kings that come against us, sin, sorrow, and death, and he just simply encountered a problem. And that's the first thing.

Put it down, big, plain, and straight. If you are a Christian or a non-Christian, makes no difference, you will encounter a problem. Second thing, when he encountered a problem, he established a purpose. Look now in verses three and four. And Jehoshaphat feared.

Now, that doesn't mean that he was afraid of the enemy. It means primarily that he has the fear of God, and Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim to fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all of the cities of Judah, they came, this is underscored twice in my Bible, to seek the Lord. They came together in convocation. They came together in fasting. They came together with a focused purpose to seek God. He established his purpose. Now, he didn't do this after he tried everything else. Prayer, fasting, a focused fellowship was not his last resort.

It was his very first thought. The problem with many of us, we want to use God, do we not, as the spare tire rather than the steering wheel. We want to wait until we have a spiritual blowout and see if God will come and help us. Rather than doing as Jesus taught us to do and as Jehoshaphat did, that is to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these other things will be added to us. By the way, why does God allow us to have problems?

To cause us to do exactly what Jehoshaphat did to seek him. Did you know that if we never had problems, most likely we would not seek God? What are the times when you've grown the most? Be honest. When everything was fine?

No. The times that God was the nearest and the dearest and the most real to you? The times when you agonized in prayer and found God to be faithful?

Is it not true? That's when you were going through trouble. That's what David said, thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. Back in the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve, cursed is the ground for your sake. He didn't say for your punishment, for your welfare.

Why? Because if Adam and Eve had continued to live in the Garden of Eden with sin in the heart, they never would have sought God. But God puts us in a world of heartache, tears, and turmoil in order to bring us to him. And when Jehoshaphat had trouble, what was the next thing? When he encountered a problem, he established a purpose.

And that purpose was to seek the face of Almighty God. Now some of you are counselors. And if you're a counselor, as I am and others are, people come to you with their problems. If you help that person to solve that problem, but you do not bring that person to an encounter with God, you have miserably failed as a counselor. Your purpose as a counselor is not primarily to solve people's problems, but to bring people to a face-to-face encounter with Almighty God, to cause you to seek the Lord. And this is exactly what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

It's the time of need that we come boldly to the throne of grace. What did he do? He encountered a problem.

What did he do? He established a purpose to seek the Lord. Third thing he did, he examined his past. Look if you will now in verses 5 through 7. And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord before the new court, and said, O Lord God of our fathers, art thou not God in heaven, and rootless not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee. Now look at verse 7. Art not thou our God, who did drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gave it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever? Do you know what he's doing?

He's just reviewing the past. He's looking backward and he says, God, you have all power. You have power over all the nations, over the heathen. You are the one who gave this land to Abraham.

You are the one who drove out the Canaanites in the past. Lord, you have done it before. Now when you come to a problem, once you establish a purpose to seek the Lord, stop and think about those times when you've had difficulty before. And think of those times when God was with you and God did not fail you. He has never failed you and he will not fail you. And what he has done before, he will do again. And what he's done for others, he will do for you. He is the Lord.

He changes not. And God did not die for you and shed his blood for you to abandon you. Look back and remember those other times and see how God came through for you. Today is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.

God will take care of you. He encountered a problem. He established a purpose.

He examined his past and then he embraced a promise. Look, if you will, now beginning in verse 8. He speaks of what God did for the ancient people. And it says, And they dwelt therein, that is, in the land that God gave them, and have built this sanctuary therein for thy name's sake, if when evil cometh upon us as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, 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 thou wilt hear and help.

And now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and destroyed them not. Behold, I say, how they have rewarded us to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit." Now, what's he saying? He's saying, Lord, you gave us this land. And Lord, you told us that when trouble, difficulty, pestilence, famine, enemies came, Lord, if we would seek your face, that, Lord, you would hear, and, Lord, that you would deliver us.

And now, Lord, I'm holding you to it. I am reminding you, Almighty God, of your promise. You gave us this land, and this crowd has come to kick us out of the possession, Lord, that you have given to us. Look in verse 11. Behold, I say, how they rewarded us to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.

Now, listen. God has given us something better than the land of Canaan. God has given us victory in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the devil would love to kick you out of the land of victory and have you to live in the wilderness of defeat. And you don't have to take it.

You don't have to take it. You have to get a promise from God and stand on that promise of God. You are not going to embarrass God by embracing his promise.

You cannot do it. As a matter of fact, I was reading today from Hebrews chapter 13, verses 5 and 6, that really blessed me. Here's what the writer of Hebrews is saying in this passage.

Let your conversation, that is, your behavior is what that literally means, be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. By the way, that's a good injunction for all of us. For he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my Helper.

Now, put those together. He hath said that we may boldly say. Find something that God has said and say it boldly. If God says it, you can say it.

That's what Jehoshaphat did. He said, God, this is what you said. And because you said it, Lord, I am going to boldly say it. I am not going to let these people take away from me that which you have given me in verse 11. It is mine. They're trying to take it away from me, Lord, but you gave it to me, and they cannot have it.

I am standing on your promise. He encountered a problem. He established a purpose. He examined his past and found out what God has done. He embraced a promise. He found a promise of God, and he said, I am going to stand on that promise he hath said that I may boldly say.

Now, here's the fifth thing he did. He exposed his powerlessness. You see, he's not an arrogant man.

This is not self-confidence. Look in verses 12 and 13. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. Now, friend, that's underlined in my Bible. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. And Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

Can you see them standing there with their little children and saying, God, we don't know what to do? But, God, we've got a promise from you. And, God, our eyes are upon you. Our eyes are not upon ourselves. Our eyes are not upon our enemy. Our eyes are not upon circumstances. Our eyes are on you. And, Lord, if we die, we're going to die with our eyes on you. Do you think God's going to forsake people like that?

He can't do it. They've gotten a promise, and they are standing on the promise of God, exposing their own powerlessness. We don't know what to do. We don't have any strength, but we are looking to you. This afternoon when I was meditating on this verse, an old hymn came to me, and I got up and got my hymnal and just wrote these words out of it, Abide with me.

Fast falls the even tide. The darkness deepens. Lord, with me, abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, oh, abide with me. That's what he's saying.

I'm helpless. But, Lord, my eyes are on you. Now, not only did he expose his powerlessness, but he enlisted there for his protection. Now begin, if you will, in verses 14 and following. Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jael, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. And he said, here's a man now that God's Spirit comes upon him, and he says, Harken ye all Judah, and all ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord to you, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but the Lord's.

That ought to be underscored. It is in my Bible. Tomorrow go ye down against them, and behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jeruel. And ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you.

What he does now, as he exposes his powerlessness, he at this time engages or enlists his own protection. And God is saying to him through this man, and by the way, I love this, the Spirit of God comes upon one man in the congregation. And that man stands up to encourage all of the rest of them to take the promise of God and make it live in their hearts. Has God ever done that to you?

Have you been in a problem and some preacher or some song or some scripture or some book has just taken the Word of God and made it alive to you, makes it vibrant to you, makes it real to you, and God just speaks to you and God says, it's going to be all right. I, the battle is not yours, Jehoshaphat. And by the way, the battle never has been ours.

It doesn't depend upon our ability. It depends upon his ability and our response to his ability, which is our response ability to depend upon him. Now, he enlisted his protection and then, as we sharpen the focus, look at this, he engaged his preparation. He's getting ready for a battle now and notice what he does in verses 18 and 19.

And then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground and Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Whenever you have any kind of a problem, any kind of a battle, any kind of a situation, you establish your purpose to seek God. You get a promise from God. You stand on that promise. Let the Holy Spirit of God make that promise real to you.

And then you just simply began to worship God. It'll be a great day when we learn that worship comes before either work or war, that we must worship. And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message, but maybe today you have questions about who Jesus really is, what he means to you, how to place your faith fully in what he did for you on the cross. If you can go to our website, lwf.org slash radio, and click the tab at the top that says, find God's love. There are resources and materials there that will answer questions you may have about your faith. Well, thank you for joining us for our broadcast today and for studying in God's word with us. Be sure to sign up for our daily heartbeat emails. You'll get daily devotions and message links sent straight to your inbox. You can find out more at that website. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and join us tomorrow for the conclusion of praise your way to victory right here on Love Worth Finding.