The Power of Praise | Part 2

How should we conduct ourselves in worship?

A love worth finding featuring real truth that never changes from the lessons of Adrian Rogers. Praise is a powerful thing in times of joy, in times of help, but especially in times of trouble. In 2 Chronicles 20, we see this power exemplified through King Jehoshaphat and the tribe of Judah. As they faced intense opposition, they learned that the battle was never theirs to win, but God's. Their part was to join the fight with praise. If you have your Bible, turn there now as Adrian Rogers concludes this insightful message, the power of praise.

2 Chronicles 20. The message tonight is a serious message, but a helpful message, and it deals with praise. It deals with praising God in the time of trouble.

The title of the message, the power of praise. 2 Chronicles 20, verses 1 and 2. And it came to pass after this also that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

Now, here is King Jehoshaphat, a good king. He loves the Lord, and he's told, you've got some enemies out there. There are three powerful kings that are coming against you. The inhabitants there of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir have come against you.

So, number one, a powerful foe. Every one of us who live the Christian life will meet opposition from time to time, and sometimes the opposition will be fierce. Not only was there a powerful foe, but thank God King Jehoshaphat made a positive focus. Look in verse 3. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. He set himself to seek the Lord. Jehoshaphat said, the enemy's out there, but God is up here, and I am going to seek the Lord with all of my heart.

And not only was there a positive focus, but there was a proclaimed fast. Look, if you will, in verse 3, the last part. And he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. God does business with those that mean business.

And when we have a positive focus, fasting just simply sharpens the focus. It causes us to think about God in a way that nothing else that I know of does. Now, the next thing I want you to see is a purposeful fellowship. Look, if you will, in verse 4. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all of the cities of Judah, they came to seek the Lord. Everybody came together to seek God. It was a purposeful fellowship to seek the Lord. Not political, not social, not racial, but spiritual coming to seek the Lord. A purposeful fellowship, verse 4. And then there was a prayerful faith. Now I want to read on through verse 13. Look at it.

Now listen to this. And they dwelt therein, 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, that is, they're praying on the basis of God's glory, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. Now behold, the children of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldest not let Israel invade, these, Lord, that you protected when they came out of the land of Egypt, they turned from them and destroyed them not. That is, we showed mercy to them. Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.

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, and all Judas stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

O God, we don't know what to do. We don't have any strength, but, Lord, our eyes are on you. And so what they did, friend, they just came to a prayerful faith and began to pray, not on the basis of what the problem is, but on who God is. Next thing, not only a prayerful faith, but a prophetic fact. Now they're praying, and when they pray, God begins to speak and answer. Begin now in verse 14. And upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mataniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. And the Lord said, Mark in ye all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude, the battle is not yours but God's.

Oh, oh, that's it, that's it, that's it. The battle is not yours but God, a prophetic fact. Now they're praying. They're seeking God.

They're saying, God, we have no might, we have no understanding, we don't know what to do, but we've set ourselves to seek you, we've gathered together to seek you, we've proclaimed a fast to seek you, and God then begins to move, and God begins to speak. And God takes a spirit anointed preacher to bring a message. Thank God that the Spirit of God does anoint. Thank God for spirit-filled messengers.

And the messenger said, here's the message from God. Here is the prophetic fact that we need to see one more time. Victory belongs to God. The battle is not yours but God's. Now, the prophetic fact brings us to the potent force.

And what is the potent force? Well, begin now in verse 16 and read through verse 22. Here's what the man of God said. Here is what the prophet said tomorrow. Go ye down against them.

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. For tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korhites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

And by the way, if you don't like loud music, you wouldn't like it here. They began to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God.

And boy, there's another one of these great statements in here. Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established. Believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. God raised up a prophet and God said, Believe him if you want to prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord that they should praise the beauty of holiness.

And there's another great phrase. Singers unto the Lord that they should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the Lord and to say, Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and to destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.

And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and behold, there were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped. Now, what is the potent force? The potent force is praise. Now, the prophet of God said, The battle is not yours, but the Lord's, but you have a part, and your part is praise, and you're not going to hide until it's all over. Now, a lot of us would have said, Now, God, when it's all over, when we have the victory, then we're going to praise you for the victory. But God says, Oh, no, the battle is mine. The battle is not yours, but you're not going to hide until it's over, and you're going to have to praise on the front end, not at the rear end, but you're going to have to praise at the beginning, not at the conclusion.

You can't praise after it's over because it won't be over until you begin to praise. I wonder, have you learned to praise God in your problems? You say, I can't praise God in the midst of my problems. Well, then go ahead and live with them.

Just go ahead and live with them. But, friend, if you will do what this wonderful 20th chapter of 2 Chronicles teaches us to do, you can praise and see God move. Did you know what praise is? Praise is faith expressing itself. That's all praise is.

Praise is just faith turned inside out. Now, we come to God. We must ask God.

That's what these people did. They came and they asked God. They said, God, deliver us.

Our eyes are on you. Help us. That's petition. But petition must be married to praise.

Petition says please. Praise says thank you. But praise says thank you on the front end. See, praise brings God into it. You remember that passage over there in Psalm 22 verse 3 where God occupies the praise of His people? What is God's address?

Where does God live? Praise is God's address. Wherever there's praise, God shows up. God occupies the praise of His people. The two wings of power are petition and praise. Now, let me tell you two things praise will do.

I love it. And it's right here in verses 16 through 22. Here's two things praise will do. Praise infuses the energy of God. Number two, praise confuses the enemies of God. Praise infuses the energy of God. Praise confuses the enemy of God. When you begin to praise, God's energy just begins to fill you. It infuses you with energy and power because God is in that praise. And when you begin to praise, not only is that praise very healthy for the Holy Spirit, it is the ambience, the environment that the Holy Spirit occupies, but Satan is allergic to it. Satan breaks out with hives. When you begin to praise, God, Satan gets confused. Now, here are these enemies.

Here are the inhabitants of Ammon and Moab, Mount Seir. And they're all coming against one enemy, against Israel. And here goes the army of God. And they're just going against the enemy.

And they're singing the battle hymn of the republic and they're singing victory in Jesus and they're singing what a mighty God we serve. And Satan goes bananas. I mean, they turned on each other. They began to kill one another and destroy one another.

They got in absolute confusion. Praise fractures the unity of the enemy. And praise formulates the unity of the believer. Oh, how we need to be bound together, praising the Lord God. What a potent force is praise. It infuses the energy of God. It confuses the enemy of God. And so there's a potent force. And now what happens?

Well, look, if you will, in verse 25. There is a provided fortune. And when Jehoshaphat and his 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 had stripped off for themselves more than they could carry away. And they were three days in gathering of the spoil. It was so much.

Now, how about that for a switch? Here they have an enemy. This enemy looks like he's going to destroy them. They say, oh, God, we don't know what we're going to do. Then God, as they seek the Lord in fasting and prayer, God sends them a message. They obey the message.

They began to believe God and praise God. The enemy is put into confusion. And now they're left with all this bounty, these spoils, treasure. For three days they're trying to load it up and carry it off.

They can't even carry it off. Did you know that Satan is God's messenger boy? You say, why doesn't God kill the devil? Did you know that God uses the devil?

If we will begin to praise the Lord, the devil will become our servant to enrich us. I have thought about the times that I've been in spiritual battle, and I guess I've been in spiritual battle all my life. Somebody asked me the other day, he said, are you under pressure? I said, I don't know. I don't know. I've never been any other way.

It's like the woman didn't know her husband was drinking when they came home sober. I mean, I've just been under pressure, I guess. I don't know whether it's pressure or not.

I just live this way. I'll tell you one thing. There have been some times when I've been under pressure, pressure. There have been some times when, I mean, it's really, really, really been tough. Every one of those times when I've turned to the Lord, not only has He brought me through, but He's made me rich every time, every time. I have come out with both hands full of rubies and diamonds and emeralds and gold.

And though I wouldn't choose it, I wouldn't take anything for it. Just thank God for the way that what the enemy meant for evil, God used for good. And David cut Goliath's head off with Goliath's sword. And God takes that which the enemy means against us for evil, and God uses it for His glory and His good. God wants to do that for Bible believers in America. And what we think are calamitous things that are happening in these days, if we will set ourselves, set ourselves, set ourselves to seek God in fasting and prayer and praise, let God do a miracle in America. And I, for one, am hungry to see it happen. And when it happens, nobody's going to get the praise but Jesus.

As a matter of fact, you'll have to get the praise before it happens. And it's just, it's a provided fortune, verse 25, and then verses 26 through 30, a peaceful future. Look, if you will, in verse 26 here. And on the fourth day, they assembled themselves in the valley of Barakah, for there they blessed the Lord.

Therefore, the name of the same place was called the valley of Barakah until this day. Then they returned every man to Judah and Jerusalem and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them to go again to Jerusalem with joy. For the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with saltaries and harps and trumpets unto the house of the Lord.

What a day that must have been. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they had heard that the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest round about, a peaceful future. It doesn't mean that the enemies loved him. They still hated him.

But you know what the Bible says? The Bible says, when a man's ways please the Lord, even his enemies will be at peace with him. It doesn't mean they'll love him. They're just afraid of him.

Just afraid of him. Wouldn't it be wonderful again if this world were afraid of the prayers of God's people? Wouldn't it be wonderful again if they say don't touch them, they're holy people. Don't mess with them.

God is with those folks. They don't have any respect for us today. They laugh at us. They mock at us. And well they ought because we deserve it. But friend, I want us to come to a place where they say don't mess with them. God is with them. And when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Well that's what happened a long time ago. Wouldn't you like to see it happen again? Amen. I would. Now I don't want anybody to get frightened now, but I want to give you ten facts. No, that's a lot.

They're going to be short. But if you've got some problems, here's what I want you to do. Listen to me now. Number one, you need to learn to see all satanic opposition as opportunity. Got it? See all satanic opposition as opportunity.

That'll put a different focus on it. Number two, seek God, set yourself to seek God before you take any action. Number three, remember those times when you seek God that he has shown himself faithful in the past, as Jehoshaphat did.

Think back on other times when he delivered you. Number four, begin to study the Word of God for a promise on which to stand. Number five, let the Holy Spirit of God make that promise real and live in your heart.

Number six, refuse any confidence whatsoever in the flesh. Number seven, give yourself to full, free, unrestrained, open worship and praise of the Almighty. Number eight, begin to praise God in the face of opposition and in the face of the enemy. Number nine, expect God to send confusion to your enemies. Number 10, get ready for a blessing. Get ready for a blessing.

That's what this chapter is telling us. Well, what a profound and timely message we've heard today. And at Love Worth Finding, one of our great honors is to come alongside you and help you praise God and help you pour out your heart in prayer. We want to invite you to our prayer community hosted on our prayer wall at lwf.org slash radio. You'll find the option there to either submit a prayer request or pray for others. This resource is one of our favorite ways to keep the ministry and the community praying continually for one another's needs. So if you can go to our website homepage at lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to our prayer wall. We can't wait to hear from you. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, request one by the title, The Power of Praise and call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD.

You can also order online at lwf.org slash radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. As we conclude today, remember this powerful word from Adrian Rogers. Praise infuses the energy of God and it confuses the enemy of God. Praise fractures the unity of the enemy and formulates the unity of the believer.

Leave the battle to God today, but join in the fight with praise and join us next time for more profound truth simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding. Before we go today, we heard from a listener in Florida who said this, the teachings of Pastor Rogers helped me better understand the Bible and apply the word of God in a practical way. I thank God for this ministry as I walk closer to Jesus.

That's the whole point of Love Worth Finding to help you walk closer to the Lord. We love hearing how these profound yet practical messages have affected your life. It is only because of your prayers and donations that we're sustained and can continue sharing, witnessing and spreading the gospel. As a way to thank you for your gift right now, we wanna send you the book, The Passion of Christ and the Purpose of Life, this powerful and poignant explanation of the gospel will help you understand the cross of Christ and what it means for you in a new impactful way. Request your copy when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEDGOD or you can give online, lwf.org slash radio.