Ingredients of an Epic Prayer

, well, let me invite you to, turn in your Bibles this morning to 2 Chronicles chapter 20. 2 Chronicles chapter 20, and why don't we go ahead and start with prayer. Father, we come before you this morning, because we need your help. I confess to you.

In front of this crowd that I am a weak and ignorant man. We are speaking on the subject of prayer. And to speak on this subject, Lord, I am way out of my league, and I do not have power in and of myself to be able to speak to this issue as is necessary. And I do not have in and of myself the knowledge that is needed to speak helpfully to your people.

So you must show up, Lord. We invite you here this morning and I ask that you would Help me through your Holy Spirit to say what you would once said to your precious people. I pray that you would perform in me a miracle of speaking of your truth. And that you would perform in your people this morning, Lord, in the coming moments, many, many miracles of listening.

We cannot even hear your word. Properly without your Holy Spirit's enabling. So I and all of your people, Lord, we, we just come to you and confess our helplessness and our need of you. We ask that you would look upon us with grace and mercy, and do something special in our midst in the coming moments this morning, we will give you all the praise and the glory for your matchless kindness to us.

In Christ's name, and all God's people said, Amen. Well, this is the final official. installment of our winter seminar on the subject of prayer. The title of the series has been Praying as We Should, and what we've sought to do over the last several weeks is to join Paul in the remarkable confession that he makes in Romans chapter 8 verse 26 when he says we don't know how to pray as we should.

We've tried to join Paul in that, to confess that ourselves. And then to open our hearts to the Lord and ask Him over the last few weeks to teach us to pray. It might be distressing to some to hear a man as Paul, who's an apostle known the Lord for a couple of decades or more, to confess that he doesn't know how to pray as he should, but The fact is that he's actually teaching us how to pray when he makes this confession. What he's saying is, if you want to know how to pray as you should, here's how to pray as you should.

Start off by telling God, I don't know how to pray as I should, and then invite the Holy Spirit to help you. And so I think if we began our prayers in this way, confessing our helplessness to even pray, and then asking the Lord, Lord, teach me to pray, not just generally, but in the next 5 minutes in the next 10 minutes, as I speak to you, can you teach me to pray? And then we seek to pray in a way that is responsive to the direction of the Holy Spirit. That's essentially what it means to pray with the help of the Holy Spirit, or to pray in the Spirit.

And we are hungry for this as elders, for this praying that should go on in our midst, especially in the coming weeks and months, because there are certain things that we have shared with you in recent weeks that, and we'll be getting into more detail in our annual meeting. There are things that we know that God wants for us as a church that are very clear in our church's future, and then there are things that I confess to you on behalf of the elders we're ignorant about. And we also realize our powerlessness to execute even some of those possible ideas.

and so as we're seeking the Lord, basically, what we're realizing is that if God is going to direct us, we're going to discern that direction in the context of the prayers of his people.

And just to read to you just a portion of the quote from Charles Spurgeon that we looked at a few weeks ago, he said, Our prayers are indicators of the movement of the wheels of Providence, believing supplications are forecasts of the future. He who prayeth in faith is Like the seer or the prophet of old, he sees that which is to be. Prayer prompted by the Holy Spirit is the footfall of divine decree, and we saw that footfall means the sound of approaching footsteps. So whatever God's determined plan is for Cornerstone, we're going to catch the sound of those approaching footsteps in the context of praying together, we will hear those approaching footsteps of his plan.

In the prayers of His people. And just where we're at as a church, I feel especially drawn to 2 Chronicles chapter 20 because in this particular chapter, we find the people of God facing some circumstances that we can frame in a way that's similar to where we're at as a church. This is a, the people of God in verse or chapter 20 who are being attacked by forces that they were no match for. And indeed, we as individual believers and as a church, we're being assaulted by spiritual forces of wickedness that we are no match for.

And those that were seeking to disciple and help, they're being attacked by forces that we are no match for. We are way out of our league in, in seeking to live the Christian life and to help other people to walk in victory. Another thing that we observe in this chapter is that the leader of the people of Judah and all the people themselves found themselves in a place of powerlessness and ignorance, weakness, helplessness, and they didn't know, they didn't have a clue what to do.

This was also in Judah's history, a hugely consequential.

Moment and the decisions that are made here will resonate for centuries and I believe that where we are in Cornerstone's history right now is hugely consequential and the way we respond and the decisions we make. And the changes that we perhaps even make in the way that we do things as a church will be of huge consequence not only today and a month from now and a year from now, but even thinking of the generations to come as they live in the good and perhaps decisions that we are making.

Now, and so, I feel drawn to this chapter. What we're going to do is observe a prayer that is found in this chapter.

And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be ingredients of an epic prayer. Ingredients of an epic prayer. Epic is a word that gets used a lot nowadays. In fact, it's probably overused.

But I want you to know I've never used it in a sermon. So you got to indulge me here. what we mean is out of the ordinary, something of massive consequence, and indeed this is an epic prayer in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. in fact, at the beginning of this chapter, it's amazing.

There is a king, King Jehoshaphat, who is fearful and shattered by the developments, and all the people are fearful and shattered and leveled to the ground as a result of developments and a crisis that they are facing. And the king and people don't know what to do, feeling totally helpless and powerless. But by the end of the story, God has won a great victory. The king is leading his people with confidence and with vision.

And the people are following, and they are experiencing the power of God and the wisdom of God and the victory of God. And all of that turned on a single prayer, we will look at and break down and dissect and we'll observe. Ingredients of this prayer. In fact, what we'll do is look at 7 ingredients with the time that we have of the hugely consequential prayer that is found in 2 Chronicles 20.

Now I know just real quick, I can't talk about this without also thinking of this that, you might not be the person who's interested in ingredients. there are some people, if they're eating some food that they really like, their big question is what is in this, and they want to know. And they're asking for the recipe. How many of you are like that?

OK, a few of you. I don't want to know if I really like something, I would rather not know because often when I find out what's in it. I lose my appetite for it. For example, I do not like sour cream at all, but I hear rumor that there are things that I like that have sour cream in them, and occasionally someone will let it slip and tell me there's sour cream in that, and suddenly I can begin to taste the sour cream.

And it ruins it for me. There have been times I've been enjoying a hot dog and someone has felt duty bound. To enlighten me as to what is in that hot dog, I'd rather not know. Just let me eat my hot dog.

my favorite fast food sandwich, up until two months ago was the McRib sandwich from McDonald's. up until 2 months ago, because someone 2 months ago from the church felt duty bound to inform me as to what the ingredients were in the McRib sandwich, and you can Google it if you're interested, and I've not ordered one since. So, Sometimes some of us may be afraid to look at the ingredients of something good, but I think we're on safe ground here. You will like everything you see and be instructed and helped in your praying.

the ingredients of this epic prayer that we see. The first ingredient that we'll observe as we just enjoy the narrative as it unfolds is seeking God. Prayer is amongst other things, seeking God. And watch how this is exactly what Jehoshaphat and the people do.

It says in 2 Chronicles 20. Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Meunites came to make war against Jehoshaphat. And so they're uniting together these three kingdoms, as it were, to make war against Judah and King Jehoshaphat. He doesn't know about it until someone comes and tells him.

Of them advancing towards Judah, it says in verse 2. Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat saying, a great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea out of Aram, and behold, they are in Hazazon Tamar, that is on Gedi. Now as you see on the map. this right here is Jerusalem.

That's where Jehoshaphat is. This is, where the Ammonites are. This is where the Moabites are. By the way, these are the descendants of Lot.

And then down here is where the descendants of Esau were. Sometimes this is referred to as Mount Cyr or the kingdom of Edom or where the Mayunites are, which was probably somewhere down in this area. And so what they have done is these three kingdoms as it were, have united together. They've come down around the south end of the Dead Sea and they're making their way up to Jerusalem and they are right about here right now in Ein Gedi, which is just on the western side of the Dead Sea, and they're about 15 to 17 hours of a march away from Jerusalem.

And so 3. Of these countries or kingdoms as it were, have united together against the people of Judah. you get indication later in the chapter that this is not just a normal army that is coming against the people of Judah. This is a migration of people.

This is the Ammonites and Moabites and the Edomites doing right now what the children of Israel did when they came into the land of Canaan. They didn't just send an army in to do the fighting for them. No, they brought their tents and their cattle and their gold and their silver and all their stuff. They are migrating into the land of Canaan and they're driving out the inhabitants before them and then they live right where they just drove the Canaanites out of.

And what's happening now is the Ammonites and the Moabites and the Edomites are coming together and they are doing the same thing. This is a migration of people as they are now moving into the region of Judah, and they're going to drive the Israelites out so that they can then settle there. Now when Jehoshaphat hears this, look what he does, verse 3, Jehoshaphat was afraid. So he's fearful.

He's thinking of his life, thinking in a couple days I may die. My wife may die. I may be beheaded. What about my children?

What about the people that I have been called to lead? He is genuinely fearful, and some of the language, like in verse 15 and 17, the word for shattered is used. This has leveled him to the ground. He is shattered by this and seized with fear.

But look what he does with that fear. Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. so he's basically saying, I'm going to seek the Lord literally in the Hebrew text, it says he gave his face to seek the Lord. He's turning away from all else.

And he's saying, I got to find the Lord in this situation, and I'm going to run to him. I'm going to seek Him, and I'm going to find him. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Essentially saying to them, I want you all to seek the Lord with me, put the food away, and let's go after the Lord.

So Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord. They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord. Now definitely, they want help from the Lord, but twice it says, once in verse 3, and then in verse 4 that they're seeking the Lord. Jehoshaphat is leading the way.

We must seek after and find God. Prayer is more than just making requests of God or obtaining something from God or seeking help from God. Prayer is above all, seeking God Himself, running to Him, seeking Him, and finding Him. There's a second ingredient.

Of the prayer that we find here in 2 Chronicles 20, and that is looking at God and voicing what is seen. That may seem odd at the outset, but we'll explain that a second ingredient of this epic prayer is looking at God and voicing what is seen. Prayer is many things. One of those things is prayer is looking at God and voicing what one sees when he looks at God.

It's interesting, Jehoshaphat in verse 3 is fearful. And so obviously that's where his focus is initially. But when all the people gather together and he's going to be praying to God, We see that already something is beginning to happen in the heart and the mindset of this man. Because when he prays, he doesn't just start his prayer saying, God, save our lives, and you got to help.

He doesn't even do that. He begins his prayer by coming into God's presence and basically just staring at God and voicing what he sees. Look at verse 60, Lord, Jehovah, The God of our fathers, are you not God in the heavens? And are you not ruler over the kingdoms of the nations?

Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against you. You can make quite a list of all the things that he's observing about God as he stares at him. You are Jehovah. You are the God of our fathers.

You are God in the heavens. When I look at the sun, the moon, the stars. You are the God of the heavens, all of the entities, the powerful entities that are seen there. You are the God of all of that, the Creator and sustainer of all of that.

And not only that, but you are the ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations. So all of the nations, Lord, you are the ruler over them. Nothing happens that is apart from your sovereign decree and allowance. Power and might are in your hand.

Meaning power is yours to give, Lord, you have all power in heaven and on earth, and any human entity that possesses any power, any king, any judge, any prince that has any power at all, they have power solely because you have granted that to them. All power comes ultimately from you and ultimately will serve your purposes. Look at this Power and might are in your hands so that no one can stand against you. God, when you determine to do something, your power is so great no one can successfully stand against you.

No one can stop your hand and say, Wait a minute, what are you doing? Your power is irresistible. When you determine to move in a particular way. Here's Jehoshaphat.

In a moment of crisis and fear, and he comes to God in prayer and how does he begin his prayer? He begins his prayer by just staring at God and voicing out loud what he sees. This is wonderfully instructive for us. I think there are times where we find ourselves in crisis or in great need.

And we come running to God, and with our head bowed and eyes closed, and which is OK, but we're not really looking at God. And so we're just pouring out our heart, how anxious we are, how burdened we are, and we're just pouring out our heart to God. And I think there are times where God wants to tap us on the shoulder and say, hey, hey, wait a minute, stop. Look at me.

Look at me. And, and tell me what you see. Take a few minutes and just stare at me. And I think if we took time to do that, 5 minutes into that, God would say, now, now what were you saying?

And our outlook would be shaped and informed by what we see. Jehoshaphat does not take inventory of his troops or his military arsenal. What he does is he takes inventory of his god and says, God, if you don't mind, let me just stare at you and just speak aloud what I see as I stare at you. In fact, in verse 12, he says, our eyes are on you.

We're looking at you, God, in this moment of need. We do so well to follow his example and realize that prayer is not simply talking to God, prayer is looking at God and just giving voice to what we see. We see this throughout the psalter. In Ephesians 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, and then begins the description of God.

Same thing happens in First Peter chapter 1. It happens throughout the Psalms. We need to spend more time in prayer looking at God. A few weeks ago, Carlos Cuellar in his message mentioned how his daughter Hannah.

looks at him sometimes and admires his muscles. Do you remember that? and she'll comment on how big his muscles are, and we all admire his muscles. But what it indicates is that Hannah, his daughter, doesn't just come to her dad and speak to her dad, she beholds her dad and beholds his muscles, and she's comforted by that.

I myself am comforted in having such a man on staff here at Cornerstone. But even that example from a few weeks ago, there she doesn't just relate to her dad and speak to her dad, but she looks at her dad. We do well to look at the God that we're speaking to. There's a third ingredient that we observe in this epic.

World altering prayer, and that is rehearsing God's story and one's place in it. Prayer is amongst other things, an occasion wherein we rehearse God's story and our place inside that story. prayer is a venue in which we preach the gospel to ourselves. It's, it's a venue in which in God's presence we gaze upon Him.

We cherish Him who He is, His power, His grace and His favor and His love, all those things about Him. But prayer is also a venue where we just rehearse. The favor of God and the goodness of God to bring everything up to speed to the circumstance that we are now coming to God with. Look what Jehoshaphat does in verse 7.

And keep in mind, they're in threat of their lives. And there is a very pressing need here. And here he is in front of people and he's praying, and he starts off by just, God, can I look at you and just describe what I see? And then he gets done with that, as it were, and then he goes centuries back, and begins to narrate.

A story. He says to God, did you not, oh our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend, forever? he goes on, they have lived in it and have built you a sanctuary there for your name, saying, should evil come 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 we will cry to you in our distress, and you will hear and deliver us.

So centuries ago, you led the descendants of Abraham.

Abraham, he was your friend. And your descendants, you led into the promised land, and you miraculously drove out the Canaanites in order to make a place for your people. And they have settled here. And Lord, about 100 years ago, a temple was built under Solomon.

And at the dedication of that temple, he said that this is where your glory and your name will dwell. And if we ever have a need, we can come to this spot, and we can make request of you, and you will hear. And deliver us. What he's doing is he's doing a little bit of storytelling to bring things up to the present circumstance.

Here's what's instructive for us about this. how, probably not a lot of us prefer to take a novel and open it 3/4 of the way through and start reading there to the end. OK, maybe some of you do, but most people don't. I think sometimes when, when we come to God in prayer, we open up 3/4 of the way through the novel and boom, we just come right out with the present need.

And I think God would say sometimes, whoa, wait a minute, don't, don't just open the book right there, and go voicing, whatever your request is. There's a story here, there's a narrative that this present circumstance fits into. Why don't you go back to the beginning and Rehearse the details of the story of my favor and the salvation that I have accomplished and will accomplish in your life, and then locate the present circumstance inside of that. Imagine coming to God in prayer and just saying to Him, what, God, you, you elected me before the foundation of the world that I would be holy and blameless before you right now in love.

You predestined me to be adopted as your son according to the good pleasure of your will. It pleasured you before the world was created to predestine that I would be adopted as your child. And in Christ I have been accepted in the beloved. In Christ I have redemption.

I have forgiveness, and And you're rehearsing, the fact that Christ came into the world and he died and he shed his blood so that you could have salvation and, and how God raised him from the dead, and Christ is now at the right hand of God and then God, you saved me many years ago. I came to you in helplessness and bankruptcy and, and put my trust in Jesus Christ and Jesus from that position at the right hand of God. God gave me righteousness and relationship and forgiveness for all of my sins.

And God, throughout my walk with you, you have shown your mercy and your grace, and then rehearsing some of the miracles, some of the provisions, some of the favor of God that He has shown you.

Take a little bit of time to tell that story in prayer to lead up to the present moment. And now God, here I am as a chosen one of you. A child adopted by you, forgiven, sanctified, and saved, upon whom you have lavished so much favor, and I have come to make requests of you. See that praying, the more trained we can become in praying in that way.

Prayer becomes a venue in which we're narrating and rehearsing the details of a story, a gospel story of God's favor. As we do that, we'll find our perspective being shaped and enriched. As we come to whatever the issue is that we're bringing before God in that moment. There's a 4th ingredient that's very much tied to the previous ones, and that is prayer is looking at circumstances through God's eyes.

A 4th ingredient of the prayer that we find here in this chapter is that Jehoshaphat is looking at their circumstances through the eyes of God. Prayer is not simply coming to God and talking to God. It's not simply looking at God and seeking Him. Prayer is amongst other things, gathering yourself in the arms of God.

And then from that vantage point, looking back at your circumstances, the way God would see them. Prayer is entering the mind of God, as it were, and then looking at your circumstances through his eyes. Think about it when you come to God in prayer, what do you look like? Do your circumstances look like through his eyes as he looks upon what you're going through?

Prayer is seeing that and giving voice to what your circumstances might look like through his eyes. That's exactly what he does in verse 10. He says to God, now see literally the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Cyr, whom you did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt. They turned aside from them and did not destroy them.

God, you told us when our forefathers came into the land of Canaan, you said, Leave the Ammonites and the Moabites alone, their distant relatives, and leave the Edomites alone. They are the descendants of Esau, they are relatives. And so Jehoshaphat is saying, we obeyed you and left them alone and came into the land of promise. But now verse 11, see how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from your possession, which you have given to us as an inheritance.

Oh our God, will you not judge them. This is amazing to me. And we already begin to see that a miracle has started in the heart of Jehoshaphat. He was fearful.

He was afraid for his life. But as he comes to God in prayer, and he gazes at God, he beholds God and gives voice to what he sees as he takes just a moment to rehearse some of the details of, of God's favor upon them as a people and their place inside that story. And then begins to look at their circumstances through the eyes of God. Now Jehoshaphat is giving voice to that.

He's gone from a fearful man, fearful for himself to a man who is seeing as God sees. So we see a miracle already taking place, and Jehoshaphat would probably say, no, no, no miracle has happened. I'm asking God for a miracle. But we would say, no, Jehoshaphat, listen to you pray.

Listen to how you're praying here. This is not where you were a little bit earlier. You're now speaking as if you're seeing things from God's perspective. Prayer is seeking God, it's looking at God, giving voice to what we see.

It is rehearsing God's story and our place in that story. And it is looking at our circumstances through the eyes. Of God When you come to God in prayer in a time of crisis or need, are you interested at all in how God might see your circumstances? Prayer is a movement towards God, into the mind of God, and then looking at your situation through his eyes.

There's a 5th ingredient of this epic prayer, and that is confessing weakness and ignorance to God. I don't know in all of Scripture if there are more startling words than what we find in verse 12. Spoken by a king in front of a nation. He says in verse 12, 0 our God, will you not judge them, for we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us, nor do we know what to do.

if you look at verse 13, look what it says in verse 13, all Judah was standing before the Lord with their infants, their wives, and their children. This is Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, standing before God and standing before all the men of Judah and the wives of Judah and the children of Judah, and all of them are looking to him for leadership. And here is a king who gets paid to know what to do. And to have the resources to handle things like this and in front of everyone, he says, God, I'm powerless.

I'm weak, I'm helpless. And I don't know what to do. I don't have a clue. What to do.

Imagine our president. Our country is in a whole world of mess. Imagine our president standing in front of our nation in a time of crisis. And saying I am powerless.

And I don't know what to do. That's almost unthinkable. He gets paid to know what to do and even if he doesn't know what to do, just act like what to do. That's what leaders do.

I'm sure people would advise him against that. His advisers would say, Don't you dare say that. Do what would happen to the stock markets? If in a time of great crisis you're like, I don't know what to do.

And I'm helpless. Those that are running for office, it's amazing. They all know what to do. They all, the problem with this country is that Policies are not being implemented according to my viewpoint.

People aren't doing what I think ought to be done. That's the problem with this country, and they all have answers. They all know what to do. And they're saying vote for me.

Here's a leader in front of his people saying I don't know what to do. And I'm powerless. And God says, that's my man. He gets my vote.

It is hard to be helpless. It is hard to be helpless before God. It is harder to be helpless in front of our wives and our children. But prayer is learning helplessness.

Paul Miller in his book A Praying Life says, I, for one, am allergic to helplessness. I don't like it. I want a plan, an idea, or maybe a friend to listen to my problem. This is how I instinctively approach everything because I am confident in my own abilities.

And he goes on to talk about how it took me 17 years to learn helplessness in my parenting. And he even does prayer seminars where he teaches people how to be helpless, and he says it was years into my ministry of doing these prayer seminars that it finally dawned on me that I don't really pray over this. I'm not really helpless in my teaching ministry as I seek to teach others. To be helpless.

This is counterintuitive. But God, as he invites us into prayer, he's inviting us into this place of helplessness. We need to become practiced at confessing our helplessness, our weakness, and our ignorance before God and man. This is what pleases.

God, there are people that you talk to sometimes and to hear them talk. Everyone else in the world is an idiot except them. Everyone over them, their bosses, they're all idiots. Everyone around them, everyone under them, they're all idiots.

Everyone else on the freeway, they're all idiots. I am the only wise driver, mistake-free, wise driver, employee, employer the world has ever known. They're very good at confessing the ignorance and the weakness of other people, and sometimes you want to ask such people, when was the last time you confessed your ignorance. Your stupidity, your weakness.

It's interesting how this is modeled in Scripture in Proverbs 30. Solomon has been giving a bunch of Proverbs, and he comes into Proverbs 30, and he says, what, I want to introduce you to a really wise man who's got some really great wisdom to give you. And his name is Ayur. And so let me, let me just offer him to you, and I'll just let him at you and just speak his wisdom to you.

And so this wise man Ayur stands in front of us and begins to speak his wisdom, beginning in Proverbs 30:2. And here's how he introduces himself to us. This is a wise man. Surely, he says, I am more stupid than any man.

And I do not have the understanding of a man. Neither have I learned wisdom, nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One. That's my resume. And then he goes on to speak wisdom expecting us to be interested in what he has to say.

It's like, what is that about? But actually these are the words of a truly wise man. The wise man is careful about saying, I know, I know, he's quick to say, I don't know. He, Paul says in First Timothy, I am the foremost of sinners.

I'm the most sinful man I know. Agur says, I am the most ignorant man that I know, and if I speak of anyone's ignorance, I will speak of my own. This right here, guys, is the beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom in the early chapters of Proverbs, Solomon says the beginning of wisdom is get wisdom.

and cry out for wisdom and seek wisdom as for hidden treasures and pray for it, go after it, seek after it, and only people Who realize they are ignorant seek after wisdom. If you think you're already wise, you don't go after more wisdom. And for those of you that are young people, I would commend this to you, the beginning of wisdom is to realize That you are ignorant, and you desperately are in need of wisdom from God. And the wisdom you do have that you wake up with in the morning, renders you a danger to yourself and a danger to other people.

You need to learn and grow in wisdom. And a wise man like this is modeling this for us. And here's Jehoshaphat in his prayer saying, I'm helpless. I am helpless.

And I'm ignorant. I don't know what to do, but God, my eyes are on you. And God says, I hear that prayer. I hear that prayer.

And he responds, and that leads us to 1/6 ingredient of this epic prayer, and that is that prayer is not only seeking God and looking at God. And rehearsing God's story and our place in it, and looking at our circumstances through his eyes. Prayer is not simply confessing weakness and ignorance to God. Prayer is also listening to God.

That's what God says. Here's how I want your prayer life to work. You come to me, and you pour out your heart to me, and then you fall silent and listen to me, and let me pour my heart into you. Make this a two-way conversation.

Look what happens after Jehoshaphat prays. It says an old Judah was standing before the Lord with their infants, their wives, and their children. So there's this hushed moment at the end of his prayer. let me say this more correctly.

The prayer is not over. The speaking part of the prayer is over. Now the listening part of the prayer begins. Verse 14.

Then in the midst of the assembly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jael, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph, just so you get the right guy here., so he, the Spirit comes upon this man, and he begins to speak. He steps forward, and he begins to speak verse 15, and he said, Listen, so God's responding to this prayer saying, Listen, it's time for me to speak and for you to listen to what I have to say.

Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says the Lord to you, do not fear or be shattered because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.

Tomorrow, go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley in front of the wilderness of Jeruel. You need not fight in this battle. Station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf.

Oh Judah and Jerusalem, do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out to face them, for the Lord is with you. Go out and face this onslaught. That was freaking you out hours ago.

Go face them. The Lord is with you and he's going to fight for you. And there's every indication that Jehoshaphat and the people listened, they received. And they acted upon And that leads to the final ingredient of this epic praying, and that is worshiping God.

Prayer is, amongst other things, worshiping God. Look what happens. Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground. And all Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord.

They have spoken. God has spoken, and they have heard, and they fall down and worship. And so there's a moment here where everyone is lying low before the Lord. What a moment this must have been.

And then look what happens, the Levites from the sons of the Kohathites and of the sons of the Korrahis stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a very loud voice. So while many are bowed low before the Lord, those that were musically gifted, trained and inclined, stand up and they began to praise the Lord with a very loud voice. Some are bowing, some are standing, some are silent, and some are singing really loud. The amazing thing is the battle hasn't even been fought yet.

The victory has not even been won. But God has spoken, and that's enough. That's enough. We're going to be OK.

Let's worship God now. Even though tomorrow hasn't come yet. And so they all go home that night, but verse 20, they rose early in the morning, and they went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Listen to me, oh Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established.

Put your trust in His prophets and succeed. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord, and those who praised him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, Give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness is everlasting. Which is a quote from the Psalms. So Jehoshaphat is now bold enough in his leadership to where he's like, what, we're going to go face these three armies.

we need a choir. We need some singers dressed in holy attire, and so we need to get them situated and so they're ready to sing and they're going to lead the procession out as we go to face this enemy. Verse 22, and when they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Cyr who had come against Judah, and so they were routed. You're like, Well, how did that happen?

Well, he explains, for the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Sier, destroying them completely. Somehow there was a spirit of suspicion that was aroused, and the Moabites and Ammonites united together against the Edomites and killed all of them. And then when they had finished killing all the Edomites, they turned on each other and became suspicious of each other, says and when they had finished with the inhabitants of Sier. They helped to destroy one another down until the last two soldiers were standing and they fought and they killed each other and they both fell over dead and no one escaped.

It says, And when Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, They looked toward the multitude, and behold, there were corpses lying on the ground and no one had escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found much among them, including goods, garments, and valuable things which they took for themselves more than they could carry. This is why we know it was a migration of people. This is not the way an army would normally travel.

And they were 3 days taking the spoil because there was so much. Then on the 4th day they assembled in the valley of Baka, which means valley of blessing, for there they blessed the Lord. Therefore they have named that place the Valley of Baraka until today. Every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat at their head, returning to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice.

Over their enemies. I want to make one closing observation. When did God cause a rout of Judah's enemies? Look at what it says in verse 22.

And when they began singing. And praising. God working a miracle of destruction and defeating the enemies of Judah was perfectly timed and coordinated with when the people of Judah began to sing. And to praise God.

Guys, worship and praise of God is an instrument of warfare. It's almost like God is saying, what, I wanna, I wanna route these people and destroy them, but I would sure love some worship music to do this too. And they began singing and praising, and God went to work in the context of their praise. I say this as an encouragement.

There are people in our church. who would say, what, I, I would love to sing and to praise God, but I am so far from where I need to be. I am so defeated. There's so much that needs to be done in my life, I dare not sing or praise God until I am where I need to be.

Let me just say you will never feel like you are where you need to be. Worthy to praise God. But my encouragement to you is, what God would say, sing and praise your way to the place where you need to be. Because when God's people sing praises and worship God, giants get slain, and victories get won.

Praise your way to victory. When you begin singing and praising. God works. So even if you're in a place of utter defeat, Sing and praise God.

Well, these are 7 ingredients of an epic prayer. I am very confident you could actually add to this list. There are so many things in here that we can be instructed by. May God help us to take these things to heart.

Let's look to the Lord in prayer. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment. We encourage you to give as the Lord leads you. To give If you're here today and you've never Had your sins forgiven or been made right with God?

You've seen here a model of how that happens. God says, Here's, here's how I want it to work. Just admit you're helpless, unable to save yourself. Admit that you're ignorant in your own wisdom.

You don't have the resources to save yourself. But I've, I've done all of that through my Son Jesus. Come to me in your bankruptcy and in your helplessness. Those are the people my favor rests upon.

The proud No. I dress myself in military array and fight against such people. But the humble, the broken, the helpless, the ignorant who are willing to confess that. They have my favor forever.

And for us as God's people, this is the way we ought to live our life. Prayer is a precious gift from God to us, and these are but 7 aspects of this glorious gift. May we avail ourselves of every one of them. Father, we thank you for the gift of prayer.

A gift that is so many things to us at the same time. Teach us to pray, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. But we confess this to you as a church and ask that you would guide us and teach us and make us strong in prayer. May we become comfortable with weakness and helplessness and ignorance.

And become practiced at confessing these things before God and man. That we might receive the help and the wisdom that comes from you. We thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you this morning. Receive these funds, and do much with them for the glory of Jesus.

We give them to you and give ourselves to you. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said,