[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Way Community Church Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission is to show people the way to life with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Darahal and I am the pastor of the Way Community Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you would like to join us as a member or of you simply need prayer,
[SPEAKER_00]: or if you want to worship through giving, you can find the links and the transcription of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're going to conclude our ready series looking at a story of a king who had to approach a familiar issue in a unique way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we want to be prepared to do things God's way, and sometimes that means that the last minute, we may have to change or adjust to what the Lord is calling us to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to encourage you to prepare with an open heart to receive what the Lord wants to say to you and to be close to the Holy Spirit so he can speak uniquely to you even if you're facing a familiar issue.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to grab your Bibles and join us in the Book of Second Chronicles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's study God's work together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Join me now in the Bible in the Book of Second Chronicles, Chapter 20, is where we're going to be and there's a word there from the lower, which I think is just profitically accurate for a white right where we are even today.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are not in a space we expected to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the last minute, we had to make a change.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's because we prioritize your safety and will be in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God has given us this medium and this opportunity to still worship virtually without putting anybody at risk or at danger.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's your pastor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for trust to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to thank my team for supporting me, giving me wisdom and insight, data and information I need to make the decisions that benefit us all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm thankful to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love all y'all and I pray that you are safe and warm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Chronicles chapter 20 is where we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm going to preach for the most part of the whole chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let me just read a few verses to get us started.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll start in verse number 14, come down in verse number 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we'll go to verse 20, one through verse number 23.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we're gonna start in verse 14, come down in verse 17, then we will go to verse 21 through 23.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Chronicles 20, the word of the Lord says, in a new and international version, then the Spirit of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: came upon Jahazil, the son of Zekaraya, the son of Bineyaya, the son of Jayil, the son of Mattanaya, Levi, and descendant of Asaf as he stood in the assembly for 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, listen, King Jahosephat, and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what the Lord says to you, do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the battle is not yours, but God's tomorrow, march down against them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will be climbing up by the pass of Z's and you will find them at the end of the Gorge and the desert of Geruel.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will not have to fight this battle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take up your positions, stand firm, and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Judah and Jerusalem do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1st, 21, Joseph had appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army saying, give thanks to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: for his love and doors forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Amin and Moab and Mount Seer, who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Aminites and Moabines rose up against the men from Mount Seer to destroy and annihilate them.
[SPEAKER_00]: After they finished slaughtering the men from Seer, they helped to destroy one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to say this word today is for the person who is used to doing something one way and you can't figure out why God may be trying to get you to do it another way.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, in this story, we got a king in war, but he puts the worshipers in front of the warriors.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to continue our series, ready with this thought in mind, ready to pivot, ready,
[SPEAKER_00]: to pivot, ready, ready to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord has blessed me, and my goal is to use the blessings he's bestowed upon me, to serve others for their betterment.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there is one thing I have deeply desire that the Lord has not graciously given me and that is the ability to carry a note in a bucket.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it is about my ear, but my ear just don't hear right, and because my ear don't hear right, my vocal culverts cannot sing right.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would think though that with all the music I love and all the people I love to hear sang and the gifts I love to enjoy from that standpoint that I would be able to carry a tone in the bucket, but I can tell you even when I sang in the choir I was loud.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was strong and usually I was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't sing, but I love singing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of my favorite singers is the iconic Lauren Hill.
[SPEAKER_00]: Learn Hill, many of us know her voice, her vocal imprint is so unique.
[SPEAKER_00]: It cuts through a regardless of how low or how high the volume of the song might be.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know her voice when we hear it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I commend to you her album Unpluged.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is one of the most theologically dense pieces of music I've ever heard.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she has one song on the album called Old Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even as I read this passage about the people in Jerusalem being in war, I can hear her prophetically singing out on that album, just God's heart and love for God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lauren has done a lot to bless us musically, but I'm grateful for also how she's best us.
[SPEAKER_00]: and her acting.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my favorite movies is Sister Act 2 and you might recall Lauren was a young lady in the movie and that movie I really think exposed the world to her and jealous singing and she plays a girl in the movie whose mom don't want it to sing but she is attending this Catholic high school where they form a choir to try to help the school raise some funds.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't
[SPEAKER_00]: was a long time ago and so the movie ends with this huge choir competition in the state where they're located and they plan to sing a song in robes that they hope will help them win the choir competition except there's another school made up of predominant voices and faces
[SPEAKER_00]: in their own unique cultural expression.
[SPEAKER_00]: And right in that moment, the lead actor will be Goldberg, who is the teacher and director of the choir, forces her choir to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to think this whole time they've been planning to sing this song one way.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've been planning to dress this way as they sang the song.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the last minute, the leader said, I know what we plan to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know what we straddle jobs to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know how we envision this in the choir robes, but take off your robes, all the singers are watching learn that she stands out there on her own trying to get this opening no out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they hear over the radio, your teacher said, take off your robes, take off your robes.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were forced in that moment to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Being forced to pivot means that I may not do it the way I had desired.
[SPEAKER_00]: Being forced to pivot means I may practice it one way, but have to perform it another way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the capacity to pivot is developed in us as we keep our ears to the mouth of God to hear in every season how he wants us to enter, navigate,
[SPEAKER_00]: or negotiate our experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then my desire as your pastor is to nurture this congregation to the extent that we are ready to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about how profitically accurate it is but even when we are now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had these grand plans for our third anniversary.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had guest speakers who would come in and food trucks that were going to bring us specialty drinks.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's our anniversary.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am playing the preach on our anniversary.
[SPEAKER_00]: The choir had a whole,
[SPEAKER_00]: likely one of my favorite gospel artists but here we are in a virtual space because we're in a season of situation that is out of our control here me now and you know you matured to the point that you're ready to pivot when you can pivot without getting bent out of shape.
[SPEAKER_00]: None of us have mad today about the grace of God that have forewarned us of the weather disaster to hit this weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of being bent out of shape that we were forced to pivot, we should be grateful for the provision God has given us and the wisdom and foresight and tools so we can be ready to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: This first is not just prophetic for our church, but it could have a layer of application for your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what area of your life are you not ready to pivot at the last minute?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's something that you have so fixed in your mind to do one way that if God asks you to do it another way, you will refuse to be obedient?
[SPEAKER_00]: or something you're so used to, the input to get you this output that now God is saying, hey, I'm gonna still give you the output of victory, but you gotta put a different input in because I am God and I am sovereign.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna challenge you there.
[SPEAKER_00]: to be ready and willing to obey God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's why, because we came in the 2026, agree that not only is our one word pivot and our thing verse 1 Peter 315, but our big idea is that God develops readiness through repeated obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the Lord may be calling you that some area of your life to obey him to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: which means it won't look like how you thought it would look.
[SPEAKER_00]: It won't go how you thought it would go.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may not even feel how you thought it might feel.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in that moment, your reliance is not on your preparation, it's not on your skills and ability, it is not on your strengths and your attributes in that moment of pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your reliance is on the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been having this conversation about ready now for a few weeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: We started the year asking the question, are you ready?
[SPEAKER_00]: Then we moved to Joshua chapter one, and we thought about what it means to be ready for God's next move.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then last week, we had a serious conversation about the end times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Recognizing that when we are ready for Jesus' return, we get the right, the top thing, right, and when that top thing is right, when the priority is in place, all the other important decisions we have to make fall into line.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might recall that we spent time in Matthew 24, looking at the fact that real servants are ready, and then we read down into Matthew 25,
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been doing this New Testament Old Testament back and forth because my goal as your pastor is given some broad view of this central thing that God requires his children to always be ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: To be ready, we started a new Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you ready?
[SPEAKER_00]: Came to the Old Testament, ready for God's mold.
[SPEAKER_00]: Went back to the New Testament, ready for Jesus's return.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we found ourselves back in the Old Testament, being ready to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've never read the book of the second Chronicles, I want to just tell you from the outset, it's a real long book.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be honest with you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying don't read it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should read all the scripture at some point, but I'm telling you it's a real long book and you may get lost in the sauce in the beginning of first Chronicles if the first nine chapters of genealogy is something that overwhelms you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to be sure, it's in scripture because it was not only God breathed, but it was purposeful for where it was placed.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the English Bible, Chronicles is in the middle of the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get to the prophets, right after we read about David in the book of 1st and 2nd Samuel.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in the Hebrew Bible, Chronicles is one book together, not 1st and 2nd, but one whole book together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Chronicles is the last book of the Hebrew Bible, it's the last book of the Hebrew Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: of the history of God's people that's leading us into the expectation of the birth of God's son or the coming of the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So on the Hebrew Bible, this book Chronicles is one piece and first Chronicles starts with Adam's name as it retraces an overview of the whole Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then second Chronicles, the book we're in today, it ends almost on the cliffhanger.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost like an ellipsis at the end of the book.
[SPEAKER_00]: It, it, it because it's helping us to focus on the fact that all this I just told you from Adam through all these Old Testament kings and all these names you came from now on and then these stories of these good and bad leaders some who led the people of God, some who led people away from God that now put God's people in exile the book ends as it were with a dot, dot, dot because in the Hebrew Bible, it's the last book.
[SPEAKER_00]: which then awakens our expectation for the Messiah to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second, Chronicles tells us about these kings, leaves us on a cliffhanger, because we're still looking for the king of all kings.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's one in the lineage of Jesus, who we have zoomed in on today.
[SPEAKER_00]: His name is Jehovahfat.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the king in Judah.
[SPEAKER_00]: By this time, God's people have split.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of all 12 tribes together, there are 10 tribes in the north and two tribes in the south.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of one, you nine-eight country, they have now split into two separate sovereign states.
[SPEAKER_00]: The north is called Israel, and its capital city is Somaria, and the south is called Judea, and its capital city or Judah, and its capital city is Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're reading now about the southern part of God's people.
[SPEAKER_00]: This place where not only Jerusalem is, but Bethlehem is there as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we read about this a session of King, Psalm Good, Psalm Bad, but we find ourselves in a story with a good King, who loved the Lord, who fear God and who led God's people to fear Him as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we learned from Second Chronicles, between chapter 17 and chapter 20 is that God
[SPEAKER_00]: But your host of fat had to handle his current fight in a different way than a king normally would.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we clearly see is it's a fight he can't avoid and it's a fight he cannot approach the way he normally would.
[SPEAKER_00]: God promised victory, but your hosts of fat had to be ready at the last minute to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's our big question.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to wrestle with this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is this, can I obey a pivot that does not make sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I obey a pivot?
[SPEAKER_00]: that does not make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to tell you, as your pastor, I don't lay this on you lightly.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not my goal to be happy hazard with something so wady.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand what it means to try to use logic to preempt the move of God and it's not that I don't want to obey.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just that I'm trying to understand as much as I can as I obey.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there are times children of God where my understanding will fail me.
[SPEAKER_00]: with our obey or not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there one area in your life where God has asked and you this question?
[SPEAKER_00]: Forcing you to ask yourself this question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can our obey a pivot that does not make sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: There are two things I want to share from my heart and from Jehovah's century about a pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first is this number one.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see a pivot in worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had to correct his allegiance.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a pivot in worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: It happens before Chapter 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: It actually goes back to Chapter 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll see from verse three down to verse number nine, key phrases that indicate that not only did Jajosephat pivot in worship, but Jajosephat called the whole nation.
[SPEAKER_00]: to pivot in worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: By now, there's been a succession of kings, some of which have moved God's people into worshiping idols, but your hosts of fad is one who pivots or turns God's people back to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: In 2 Chronicles chapter 17, you'll see in verse number 3, it says the Lord was with your hosts of fad because he followed the ways of his father David before him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did
[SPEAKER_00]: He sought the God of His Father, followed in His commands, rather than the practices of Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you go down a verse number six, his heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Furthermore, he removed the high places and the ashore polls from Judah.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you jump down a verse number nine, it says that he sent out all these Levites, verse nine says, and they talked throughout Judah.
[SPEAKER_00]: taking with them the book of the Law of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: They went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see that?
[SPEAKER_00]: The first, his heart is described as being true to God just like David, his forefather.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loved the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't consult these false idols, as a matter of fact, he tore down their places of idolatrous worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: He followed the commands of God rather than the practices of Israel where he lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was devoted to the ways of the Lord, and because this was his personal
[SPEAKER_00]: Orientation to God's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: He led God's people through the Word of God in verse number nine to pivot back to the Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: For us this brings to bear the simple truth that every one of us will have to decide for ourselves where our true
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we may love the lower, but when life gets sticky, we learn if our allegiance is really with the lower.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a part of growing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a part of maturing into your own faith, realizing that you have some good examples, or you have some bad examples.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot give your good examples the praise for your good, just like you came to blame your bad examples for when you mess up.
[SPEAKER_00]: God gives us authentic stories through people we love, people who've gone before us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just that we read about in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking about people who are alive and well now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some good examples, some bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the goal is for us to learn from them and in the spirit of humility to make the choice for ourselves if I am going to have a heart, that's true to the Lord, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless if I've had a bad teacher, the question is, am I a good student?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to say if I've had a good teacher, the question is will I learn from them and practice their ways?
[SPEAKER_00]: And being able to look at examples here me now without venerating them or judging them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Laura, thank you for the stories you've given me of people who've come before me and helped me in my humanity to have some humility and make an honest choice for myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Will I make a pivot in worship in you?
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the truth, here's a major key.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can choose our choice, but not its ripple effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: When it comes to worship, when it comes to where my true allegiance lies, we can choose our choice, but not its ripple effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jehosephat chooses to worship God not knowing the impact we have a net positive when a war shows up three chapters later.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Chronicles details for us, not just the choice that Jehosephat made, it tells the truth on the choice every other came before him made and the ones after him with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this particular case, Jehosephat chooses to pivot and worship to God hear me now and away from the false idols.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we read in chapter 17, there were two idols that are named in 17 that had a stronghold on Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: These two idols are the Baos or Baal and Ashara.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are two idols who are named in second column of chapter 17.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any idol, that's a false God, is really a demon who is masquerading as a deity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any idol that's a false God is a demon masquerading as a deity and Paul tells us we don't fight against flesh and blood but we fight against person personalities and powers of darkness and high places.
[SPEAKER_00]: What Paul is helping us to understand is that certain regions all got to fight certain demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in the city of Atlanta, there's a different demon at work than in the city of Philadelphia.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the city of Philadelphia, there's a different demon at work than in the city of Denver.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you go to different cultures, a different people group, so different ethnic pockets around the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may see darkness, but darkness will show up in different shadows in different places.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Israel, in Jajoseph as time, the Bales and the Ashera were the false idols of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both the Bales and the Ashera were the gods that the Canaanites serve.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this is connecting us back to the story of Joshua.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember when we preach a few weeks ago, I narrated for God's next move, and God moved them into Jericho Jericho with the first seated A conquered in the land of the Canaanites.
[SPEAKER_00]: God said, wipe out the Canaanites because the Canaanites as an idolatrous people would lead his people away from him in false worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the disobedience then has translated to a stronghold now, and these can and I gots are still in glory from the one true God because the allegiance of his people has broken covenant with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this is a serious issue when it comes to idolatry.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a matter of fact, idolatry is a carnal sin for those who are in covenant with Jehovah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exodus chapter 20 tells us the the 10 commandments.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at the first two commandments.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's said in God spoke all these words I am the Lord your God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I brought you out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is making this clear Build and bring you out of Egypt Assure it and bring you out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I'm brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery Exodus 20 verse 3 You shall have what church know other gods before me
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse four, you should not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below.
[SPEAKER_00]: You should not bow down to them or worship them for either Lord or God and what jealous God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's, God is not saying I'm jealous of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's saying I'm jealous for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm jealous about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want what's not best for you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not jealous of him, jealous about.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I punished the children for the sending the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but I show love to a thousand generations to those who love me and keep my commandments.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what God is saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're gonna enter a covenant, here's a mutual agreement.
[SPEAKER_00]: We gotta, we gotta set this out from the beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be your God, I'm gonna fight all your battles, as long as you trust me, you're gonna always get the victory, I'm gonna provide for you, protect you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's all I'm saying, don't give my glory to another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we can read that and say, whoo, I mean, okay, God, that's a little harsh, except.
[SPEAKER_00]: We should understand the harder God when it comes to this, cause then I ain't a wife under the sound of my voice, who don't wash all of these clothes, cook all these meals, figure out how to pay these bills, you don't stretch every dollar that he bring into that house and then you won't him at the 20 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go give your glory to another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all know what Mary J. said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, all these years, I supported you, all these years, I was your assistant, I worked with you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a husband under the sound of my voice, who will work hard, work your finger to the bone, break your back, to meet all her requests on the Honey Doolis and then she go give your gratitude to somebody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tell you what, when Mother's Day rolls around, it's not a mother under the sound of my voice, who won't your child or go right a little, a little flicked it little, happy Mother's Day card, and misspelled Mother's, M-U-T, H-E-R-Z, happy Mother's Day.
[SPEAKER_00]: They smell like the cows with Chick-fil-A, it's fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's your baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want your child.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna give a happy mother's day card to some other mother when you don't want who carried them or adopted them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want who feed them and love them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want whose womb aches when they cry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a father under the sound of my voice, who works hard to provide for your children and come through some day in June won't them think in somebody else instead of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: to be jealous for is an expression of love.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a covenantal bond.
[SPEAKER_00]: What God says is, listen, if we don't have this agreement, I'm gonna take care of you, but you have to be true to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, y'all like rev.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going on and on about all these idols in your host of fat day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It ain't even really like that for real, and now I dance time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are still even to this day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many idols, false deities, and demonic ways in our culture that we got to decide to remove from our lives, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to be very vigilant.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't let witches we don't know on social media or friends we do know cause us to not worship the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: to deter our allegiance from Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says it is the way in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 23, 21.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, no, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not to God, and I don't want you to be participants with demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot drink a couple of the lower and a couple of demons too.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot have a part in both the lower table and the table of demons.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a major key.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pivoting and worship is not just about what I remove from my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here it is, y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about what I replace it with.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can't be ready to pivot until you realize, in my life, I got a turn from some things, I got a turn to some things, what you mean, you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't turn from burning sage to weegee boards.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you turn from the opposite is what you turn to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jehovah Realize that his choice as a king
[SPEAKER_00]: was not just for him, but it was also for those he led to worship the ones who got.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's important that we pivot and worship, especially if we're people of influence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because even if you not a pastor in the seminar too that I am or you don't have this spiritual office or opposition of authority, people still watch you and take cues from your manner of being.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you wanna be one who is true to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 9 says that they took the book of the law and they taught this book of the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: What that means is that they're pivoting their worship back to God and the book of the law is pointing them to God and to God's ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this term pivot, I keep using it, but let me define it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pivot is a central point around which something turns.
[SPEAKER_00]: So think a door on a hinge or think a revolving door when you walk into the mall.
[SPEAKER_00]: It pivots around a central point.
[SPEAKER_00]: PIVITs around the heart because the heart is the center of worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: So whether we know it or not, we already worship from the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: The question is, where am I worshiped?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's in my heart?
[SPEAKER_00]: The song is said in this way, I seek you with all my heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not let me stray from your commands.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not send against you.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, I'm gonna pivot away from the false and I wanna pivot to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's the top of the year, so a lot of us are on a dieting.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're trying to figure out what not to eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna tell you, if you dieting, it's not just about what you don't eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about what you do eat to replace what you don't eat no more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me help you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're gonna diet, don't just not eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's something that you should be eating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm not a vegan.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it's the lowest will for my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: That I ever be a vegan.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I am curious about how vegans replace me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll be on social media and I'll see that vegans will take poor pork out of their diet, but put jackfruit in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, they'll still have tacos and they'll still have, you know, sandwiches, they'll still have the things that we like, that taste almost like what we eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they don't just remove something from the diet.
[SPEAKER_00]: They put something in its place.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just calling out to people of God to pivot in worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then number two, and I'll be done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only when I pivoted in my worship, and my capable of making a pivot in warfare.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is calling you to approach our own problem a different way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to be able to do it the same way you've done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you do, you're going to miss the unique glory in this season of your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just a pivot and worship, it's a pivot in warfare.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everything I've said, up until this point, was just a backdrop upon which to place this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the application.
[SPEAKER_00]: The application is I'm going to pivot in my warfare, the way I approach issues in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're in Chapter 20, which we already read.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to
[SPEAKER_00]: Command to you, verse 13 through 23.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to read it all, but essentially what happens is some enemies come up against jahosa fat and juda
[SPEAKER_00]: Jajosephat goes and prays to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then a prophet says, you're gonna still go fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go down tomorrow and fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: The victory is gonna be yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: You won't even, I'm telling you's gonna be a sweatless victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna stand and see this salvation of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the next day, when the battle starts to happen, Jajosephat pivots in his strategy as a king and puts the choir in front of the warriors.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the choir starts to sing, and the next thing you know, the enemies start fighting each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they don't even have to raise a hand in God's people, have a sweatless victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of attacking his enemies with an army, he puts the choir out front.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we learn from this is this, when you change how you worship, you automatically change how you fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you change how you worship, the way you approach every fight in your life changes, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you approach battles a whole lot differently once you've gotten your worship in the right place that it should be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what's interesting is y'all, Jajosaphat is a king.
[SPEAKER_00]: This means he's a sovereign ruler over a geopolitical realm, which means he's supposed to have an army and chapter 17 tells us that he set up military garrisons.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 17 tells us he's got all these people in his army, what are described in the Bible as mighty men of valor?
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 18 tells us he tries to go fight with another King who does not fear the Lord and in that battle that King ends up losing his life and your host of fat makes it out by the hair on his chinney chin chin and with your host of fat learns in that moment is that he had to pivot from from an army to a choir because his confidence was in God.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you're saying real here is what I'm
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in America in a day in time where our nation done function is way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, militarism is not the confidence of the godly.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you think you're secured, because America got the biggest army, you do not have a godly confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Militarism is not the confidence of the godly.
[SPEAKER_00]: My security is not an effect that we have the largest navy.
[SPEAKER_00]: The biggest air force, the biggest army, that is not where my security lies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's why, because having a strong military and using it to get your way in the world is not the approach to Godly take to conflict.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm saying this and I'm doubling down on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing full well right now, we got a leader trying to use military and strong arms somebody to buy a country that nobody even said was up for sale.
[SPEAKER_00]: You better hear me, don't get lost in the sauce of those who don't know the difference between true Christianity and patriotism.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are not the same, militarism and true Christianity are not the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: right and jahosa fat learned it's the heart way you know sometimes you do things guys wait but then you don't want to be judgment on the people who don't so jahosa fat in chapter 17 turned his heart to the Lord his heart to the Lord in chapter 18 he goes to war with jessa bale's husband
[SPEAKER_00]: Brother, how are you going to worship God turn away from Bill and then go to war with a king whose wife is Jezebel and they worship Bill?
[SPEAKER_00]: How you do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because sometimes you don't want to sing so holy like you can't just be down with the people that you used to be down with.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what he learns is in the middle of this battle God had a way of protecting Jehosephat who was dressed like a king but also judging a half who tried to disguise himself in the army.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says that your host of fat was dressed like a king.
[SPEAKER_00]: The enemies tried to attack him in chapter 18, but the Lord kept them away from him.
[SPEAKER_00]: A half said, now I'm an outsmart guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, not gonna get me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He dressed up like a random warrior.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Bible says one of the enemies just shot an arrow in the air at random and it landed in it, him.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you saying, Real, I'm talking to the people who you knew that you loved the Lord, but you still went to the party anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking to the people who you knew that you was going to church the next day, but you still went to the club, but you're afraid is anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking to the people who knew how you was raised, how you was trained, but you still have friends who love, who weren't trying to live like you were trying to live.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have all learned the same thing, Jajosa fat learns, and that is this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes the only difference in an outcome between the Gali and the Angali is mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you mean, how I go to the same fight I shouldn't have never been in and I survived and they didn't survive.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't take no credit for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: All I can say is God, thank you for your mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't get mercy without learning from mercy.
[SPEAKER_00]: The mercy it took to survive one fight teaches our hearts how to seek God in the next fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jehovah's-Fat knew I ain't going into another war again when I was talking to the Lord for real.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and here's the question, what do you do when fights pop up that you used to handle in one way?
[SPEAKER_00]: We also used to handle in things one way, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You used to somebody trying you and you just cut them out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you just been doing this all your life, all your life you had to cut.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been a good cut so she was knee-hout to a grasshopper.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't get your light to the Lord and Lord says, bless and don't curse, you're like, oh, we, I don't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, what do I do when the fight pops up and the Lord tell me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't handle this the way you normally handle this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer is I got to seek the Lord on how he won't be the handle this time because I can miss how I did it last time that the Lord wants me to do it different this time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm almost done.
[SPEAKER_00]: I promise you, in Exodus 17, God told Moses, hit the rock and water's going to come out.
[SPEAKER_00]: The people need a water, Moses hit the rock, hmm, water came out the rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got the golly results.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in numbers chapter 20, people need water again, this time God said, speak to the rock, but instead of speaking to the rock, Moses hit the rock, rock twice, boom, boom.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second time he hit the rock, water flowed out.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first time God said, hit the rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second time God said, speak to the rock.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both times Moses hit the rock, which I mean, as Moses was more loyal to how he wanted to do it than to who was telling him what to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the mistake he made was thinking, just because you got water to flow, don't mean God is glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: What you say, Ralph, when I refuse to pivot, hear me, I may get results, but God won't get glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the goal is not my results.
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is God's glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the big question, and I'll leave you be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I obey a pivot that does not make sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you smart, I know you got proven strategies, I know you got in results before doing it one way, but what if the Lord has tell them you this time?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to send an army into a fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to send a choir, they don't make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: No soars, just songs, no shields, just choir robes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to put that out for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't ask me if you don't make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just trust me enough to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: The result is victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna get victory, but I just victory, I won't glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you don't do this my way, you may get results, but you're gonna steal my glory in the process.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you trust me enough to not put you in a scenario
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I'm calling you to pivot, you pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: How did your host of fat?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, the old testament doesn't say the Holy Spirit, told him, what he says is when the enemy came against him, he started praying in faster.
[SPEAKER_00]: Second Chronicle, Chapter 20 verse 3 through 4, it says alarmed, the host of fat resolved to inquire of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.
[SPEAKER_00]: to seek help from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek help.
[SPEAKER_00]: CJ Hosefatt had been in a fight before that mercy barely got him out of.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, Lord, I'm not going to do another fight until I humble myself and I fast and seek your face.
[SPEAKER_00]: And somewhere between fast and can seek in his face, that he filled the function of the Holy Spirit, to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he pivoted, God got the victory and the glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's an action item for all of us involved today as I birthday, with three years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for our birthday, we're gonna proclaim our first church-wide fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen, we give God praise for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't seek the Lord together now.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fast don't start today, and the fast don't start tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: You welcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, the fast is gonna start February 18th.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ask Wednesday, and if the Lord says the same as we bring a conclusion to our ready series, we're going to go right into a faster series, and my desire as your pastor is to help you get close to God, close them up to here, ready to pivot.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if the Lord says, hey, I notice this is a fight like the last fight, but we're going to take a different strategy, and I'm going to give you the victory, but I'm going to get the glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, I love you, I thank God for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you all for pivoting today.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were ready to pivot.