2nd Chronicles, not 2nd Corinthians in the New Testament, but 2nd Chronicles in the Old Testament. In my Bible, it's page 508. It may be a little different in yours, but 2nd Chronicles, chapter 20. Just to get us into the subject area, we're going to read verse 22. Here in a few moments, we'll be looking at most of the chapter to break it down and see this important element of praise. We're going to find that God made a marvelous provision for His children when they began with praise. And from this, we're going to see that God wants us to have praise in our lives And He will provide for us in an unusual way if we will be careful to praise. Let's stand together, if you would, please. And we're going to read just one verse. We're only going to read the first phrase of that verse. Verse 22. And it reads, let's quote it together. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments. Let's stop there. Let's say that again. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments. Let's have a word of prayer. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we consider the subject of prayer, we've just read one little phrase of this whole episode of the history of the children of Israel, but it centers around praise. And Lord, we recognize from Scripture that that's very important. And Lord, help us to recognize that it was important not just on this occasion for these people under this circumstance, but Lord, it's an important concept that we need to continually practice as an important element in our lives to make provision for our spiritual growth to become like you. Lord, we pray then that we would begin to understand the scriptural concept of praise, that we would instill in our lives the practice of praise, and Lord, we pray that this week, Lord, as you give us the opportunity, day by day, would be a week of praise. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Every one of us face problems in our lives. That's not a revelation. That's not a new statement. That's something that we all experience. We echo the phrase, as Job says in Job 5, verse 7, Man is born unto trouble as sparks fly upward. Now, I'm an old country boy. I understand that. But anyone with any knowledge of fires understands this. that when you get out the newspaper and you get out the wood, and after 15 matches and 22 tries, and you throw away the newspaper and get out the gasoline and dump it on there, and then you take the match and throw it on there and kapoof, which direction do the sparks go? They always go up because heat rises. It's just a law of nature. If it's a law of nature that sparks always go up, then guess what, folks? According to this text, man is born unto trouble as Sparks fly upward. Are you here today? Amen. Glory to God. Have you been born? Amen. Praise the Lord. You're here. Guess what? We're going to face challenges. Well, Pastor, I didn't come today to be discouraged. I know that. I know that. But see, the statement's not over. We all face challenges, but here's the statement. What are we going to let the challenges and problems do? Are we going to be overcome? Are we going to be surprised? Are we going to be discouraged? Are we going to be fatigued? Are we going to quit? Or do we rise to meet the challenge? I'm here to tell you today, folks, you do not have problems in your life. You have challenges. Amen? If you find yourself saying to yourself this week, man, am I facing a problem, then you have forgotten a key law or a key principle from the Word of God is that God wants you to turn your problems into challenges. Amen. We need praise in our life to turn problems into challenges. We face difficulties in our lives. Turn with me, if you would, by way of illustration to Timothy. 2 Timothy 2, verses 3 and 9. It will also be on the screen up above. The Apostle Paul makes this statement. 2 Timothy 2, verse 3, Thou therefore endure hardness He didn't say if hardness comes. He says endure hardness. Well, Paul was talking to Timothy and Timothy was a special person and he was in ministry. And so this is a selective audience. Therefore, only select people need this. Did you see at the front of Timothy? This is for a select audience. And so don't bother reading lists unless you're in full time ministry. Did you see that anywhere in the front here? That doesn't say that. The principles we can see in this text apply to every one of us. So that means down the road of life, guess what? There's going to be hardness. It's going to be tough. Doesn't mean everything is tough. Doesn't mean it's always tough. Doesn't mean everything is equally tough. But there's going to be difficulties. Now, What happens when difficulties hit? Sometimes we don't know what to do. Sometimes our choices, the only choices we can make are not easy choices. Sometimes we have limited choices. But the question is, what happens then when we face difficulties? Do we quit? Do we give in? Do we stop? Do we stop trusting? No, we don't. We recognize that difficulties present us with a unique opportunity. And praise plays an important part of this. We can turn difficulties into opportunities if we have the perspective of praise in our life. Praise wants us to turn our problems into challenges, our difficulties into opportunities. And thirdly, our expectations. What did you expect? What do you expect out of life? Last night, it was a wonderful thing. Four o'clock in the evening. The music played. Here comes the bride. As I fall off the steps, here comes the pastor. And right down the aisle, I'll tell you what, if you remember your wedding the way I remember my wedding, I came in from the side and I stood down at the front. And the back door opened, and Linda walked down that aisle. I honestly thought an angel had floated down out of heaven. I mean to tell you, it was unbelievable. It was exciting. Now this is just a note. Young people, college people, you know, when such time as God leads you to get married and so on, forget about all the little details of the wedding when you get right there, guys, okay? and you'll see an angel come right out of heaven. Gals, when you're at the back door, forget about all the little things that didn't get done or not quite decorated and all that kind of thing, and just concentrate on that. Oh, it's an exciting time. It's an exciting time. Now, what was my point here? Oh, newlyweds. Newlyweds, there it is. Okay. I didn't bring my notes down with me. Now, as they stood here and said, I do, and I do, and they walked out and they greeted everybody. Now, the first thing that they were thinking about was just getting everything over with and honeymoon and so on. Okay, but what are they expecting? What are they expecting? They're expecting a happy life together. They're expecting kids, I'm sure. They're expecting a house and a job and all this kind of thing. Wonderful stuff. And it is. It's a wonderful time of life. But now, some of the folks that either have no hair or a lot of white hair, how have the expectations matched the result? Sometimes they match real good. Sometimes they don't match up all that much. Sometimes the expectations and the results differ. The wonderful job becomes laid off. and laid off for a long time. Sometimes even disabled. Sometimes kids. Sometimes there's an inability to have kids or not the ability to have as many kids as you would like. Or perhaps things like sickness or even death comes to visit your home. It's always tough when the kids pass away before parents do. It's a hard thing. So the life story doesn't always match up with the expectations. So here's the question. What are our expectations based in or on? You know, praise has an important message to give to us here. God would like for our expectations to become trust in God. God would like for our expectations to become a trust in God. Rather than expect from God a smooth path, a prosperous future, and whatever I want to be carried forth, we're going to find that if we'll trust in God, we'll have the opportunity every day to see unfolded God's plan. Sometimes that comes out as we expect. Sometimes it comes out differently. But we find that His way is perfect. And we find the key role to be played is trust. Do we focus on disappointments? Or do we focus on God? Now here at this point, it would be a good thing to think of your story. your family's story and your individual personal experience. Now, wherever you are in that story, that storyline has ups and downs. That storyline has peaks and valleys. That storyline has, in some cases, enormous peaks and blessings. And in some cases, some pretty deep valleys. In some cases, long periods of real exciting things. And in some cases, some real periods of challenges or difficulties. The key element that will turn it around in your life is praise. It will turn problems into challenges, difficulties into opportunities. and expectations into trust. Praise will turn, change, and transform your life. Let's turn back to this text and gain some insights into this praise. Second Chronicles, chapter 20, verses 1 and 2. The first thing as we turn here, we find this text. 2 Chronicles 20, verse 1, And it came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. And then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria, and behold, they be Hazazun Tamar, which is En Gedi. Alright, now. Here's the picture. Jehoshaphat's the king of the southern kingdom of Israel. He's sitting in Jerusalem. So you picture in your mind a map of Israel. If you're sitting in the capital city, more or less, his kingdom was from there south. And the enemies are coming at him from the east to his east. They're coming west. They're on the other side of the River Jordan. And so if the King Josaphat marches his people straight west towards the Jordan River, if he crossed the Jordan River straight east, he'd be kind of in the area where the Ammonites would be. If he turned south on the far side of the Dead Sea, that's where the Moabites were. If it went all the way south of the Dead Sea, that's where the Edomites were. Those are the three groups that are coming against Him. The first two are mentioned, the Ammonites and the Moabites. So they're coming at Him from the north side of the Dead Sea. Kind of straight for them, straight east. So He turns straight west to face them. Then the message comes. Hey, there's a big group coming besides these two on the east side of the Dead Sea. They're halfway up at the place called En-Gedi. How many have heard of the place of Masada? How many have heard of Masada? Okay, go a little bit north and you're right there. Okay, now if you know anything about Masada, what kind of country is that? Oh man, it's remote. It's desert. But there was a key feature on that western side of the Dead Sea, and that was the King's Highway. If you were going to take a trade route out of Egypt and go up to the Fertile Crescent, you could either go all the way across the desert, which was the hard way, or you could go a little longer, follow the King's Highway up past the Jordan River, past the Sea of Galilee, and then hang a right and you'd be in Syria and what would later be Persia and so on. So that was the more common route. As such, it was a very profitable place to be because although they did not have toll roads as we know of them, they in fact charged a tax for merchantmen to cross their territory. So with all this commerce going across this King's Highway, now, remember, we've got to go back several thousand years. We're not talking about four-lane roads. We're talking about a really nice dirt path. Okay? We're talking about one that could accommodate camels and carts and that kind of thing. And that route was a very profitable route. So as the king is facing west, he's preparing for an enemy to come at him from the east. He hears that somebody's coming. They're going to get him outflanked. He's going to be in a bad position. And so the problem is he's facing the Ammonites and the Moabites and he gets the news the Edomites are coming as well. Now, what's the natural thing? If you're a general, you're starting out with an army, and you hear an army's coming, you're going to think in military terms. You're going to think of, where can I hide? Where can I set up defense? Where can I build to get more soldiers? What was common in that day was to send a messenger out real quick to another country. and say, I'm going to send you a whole bunch of gold and silver and all the stuff that you want. If you'll send me a bunch more soldiers. It was typical that if you're facing an enemy from the south that you would go try to make an allegiance with somebody farther north. If you had time and you could get the job done, in this case, and many times they did, they would turn to the Egyptians and say, if you come out the back side, I'll come at the front side and we'll see if we can win this thing. So the normal routine would be to go into defensive mode into the behind the walled cities, to try to send out for mercenaries, to try to build defenses, to try to call out as many additional troops as they could. and to try to get in as strong a position as they could. But they're in big trouble. Verse three. And Jehoshaphat feared. So what did he do? He turns to God. And he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaim the fast for all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah that came to seek the Lord. And Josaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem and the house of the Lord before the new court and said, O God of our fathers, art thou not God in heaven? And so on. What he did was not immediately spend all of his energy to gather all of his resources that he could find, but he turned immediately to God. He turned his problem into a challenge. Now notice, they feared in verse number three. Joshua feared, and this is not an idle fear. When you're facing three enemies and you're about to be over-outflanked by a stronger, more numerous enemy, the result in these days was not just surrender, but was defeat. You could become a tributary nation, or if they decided, they could just clean the slate. Meaning they could take everyone out if they wanted to. And in those days, That was a real threat. A little bit later, the Assyrians would come. They were known for their extreme brutality. and their extreme bad treatment. What they would do is win the first couple of battles in the most gruesome possible way to send out this really strong message. If you continue to fight, that's what's going to happen to you. They could go into captivity. The fear was real. But the first thing they did was they fasted. He proclaimed a fast. The people gathered themselves. And they got together. Didn't spend time with other things. Didn't spend time with the pursuit of trying to make food. Didn't spend time with trying to have war counsels and other things. He just said, we're going to set aside every other activity and we're going to give ourselves. to seeking God. Verse 5, they stood and they prayed. Notice down in verse number 9, they claim the promises of God. Now, this is uncanny, actually. Notice, let's begin in verse 6. In this Jehoshaphat's prayer, he said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thy hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?" He's in essence turned to his theology book, the Bible, and he said, Lord, I know that you're all-powerful. He's recognizing a fact. A spiritual fact. Verse 7. "...Are not thou our God?" Meaning specifically of Israel. Isn't Israel specifically a special people to you? who didst drive out the inhabitants of the land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever. And thou dwelt therein, and they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary then for thy name, saying, If any evil cometh on us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help." Not only quoting theology, but he's quoting history. Turn back, if you would, to 2 Chronicles 7. God had sent Abraham a covenant. God did promise to Abraham that Israel would be a special people before the Lord. He did promise to Abraham a land. And under Moses, they went in and took possession of the land. He's quoting history. They did build a sanctuary and when they built the sanctuary, Solomon stood and dedicated that sanctuary. Now we're used to hearing verse 14. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will hear their land. But we forget about the setting. Verse 11. Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all that came into Solomon's heart to make of the house of the Lord and his own house, he prosperously effected. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, saying, I've heard thy prayer, have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. So here's what the king did. God, I understand your character, that you're all powerful. I believe that. Secondly, I understand history. You promised Abraham a land. You promised Abraham a people. And I remember what you said to Solomon. said, verse 9, if evil cometh upon us as the sword or judgment or pestilence and famine, and we stand before this house and in thy presence, for thy name is in the house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear. They claim the promise of God. They simply claim the promise of God. And so, he said, here's what I believe. Here's history. And Lord, this is what you said. So Lord, we're standing here right now and we're asking for help. Verse 10, And now behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and of Mount Seir. That's Edomites. whom Thou wouldst not let Israel evade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but turned from them and destroyed them not. Behold, I say how they reward us to come 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 how we what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee." He said, we don't have the resources, we don't have the people, And we don't know how that we would overcome such a multitude. But Lord, we know Your character. And Lord, we know history. And we know that You did not allow God's people in times past to destroy these people, but You said to spare them. And You said if we stand right here and we humble ourselves before You, that You would hear and You would hear from heaven. So Lord, here we are. Answer. They took that problem and they made it into a challenge. And they just went to the Word of God and the character of God and said, Lord, here we are. Now, folks, listen. We face problems in our life not nearly as direct as this, not nearly as huge as this, but in our own personal way, they are very big. We face problems from outside. employment, finances, we pray problems from circumstances, sickness, injuries, setbacks, difficulties, challenges, personal problems, disappointments and fears and bitterness and all kinds of things. And folks, I'm here to tell us from the word of God that God wants to take our problems and make them a challenge. The scripture says, turn to God, casting on him Our care, for He cares for you. Secondly, He wants us to get serious about repenting before God. Declare a fast. How often do we actually spend committed time in spiritual pursuits? Frequently, what we do with spiritual pursuits is we make it fit around everything else. I've seen on a couple of occasions God really bring revival to God's people. And you know what always attends that? The priority goes from way down here to way up here of what it means to pray. What it means to get right with God. What it means to get serious about a relationship with the Lord. We need to get serious with being right with God. How important is it to you that you'd be right with God. Well, here's the way it is, folks. Here's the facts. You're as right with God right now as you want to be. You are as right with God right now as you want to be. No, preacher! I want to be more like the Lord than I am right now. Really. Really? That's an aspirational goal. But how much of that aspirational goal is in effect right now? You know, if you get serious with God and say, Lord, point out to me, point out to me what you would have me get right with you. Usually you don't have to wait six months for an answer. In fact, most don't have to wait six seconds. Because it's kind of like right there. And folks, if this was an unsaved group, we could state some spiritual facts that are genuinely spiritual realities. If you don't know Christ as Savior, you're one heartbeat away from hell. You're one heartbeat away from everlasting judgment. Now that's serious. And when we begin to get an idea of the depth of that seriously, we begin to say, what's more important than that? Well, a lot of people say, well, I just want to have a certain feeling. Then I'll get saved. Wait, you mean to tell me you are willing to risk eternal judgment until you have a certain feeling? Forget the feelings. Go by the facts. Get saved and born again today. Well, I've had a lot of people say to me, when I get my life in order, preacher, then I'll get saved. Well, do you know what? Jesus didn't die on the cross for people that could get their life in order. People died on cross who were lost in sin. What you need is a savior, not someone who helps a little bit. Jesus saves us from all our sin. We don't save ourselves from sin. You see, if this was an unsaved situation, we could lay that out very and it would be very graphic and be very plain. But then when it comes to our walk with God, how important is God to us? You see, how important is it that we serve God today? Well, preacher, we're here hearing the message. Doesn't that mean something? Oh, folks, it does. You're the choir, folks. I mean, you're here. So, you have an interest. And that's a good thing. Then, let's take that interest and make sure that we're making continual progress. The Scripture would tell us here that we face problems, but God wants us to turn that problem into a challenge and accept the challenge to take God by faith. We're going to look at some practical applications of that in just a little bit. Our second main point here. They faced not only problems that became challenges and they accepted the challenge. They accepted the challenge to trust God, but they looked at the difficulties. And the difficulties are huge. Notice verse number 12. Wilt thou, O Lord our God, wilt thou not judge them for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us? Neither know we. We don't know what to do. What was the prospects? The prospects was captivity. The prospects was defeat. The prospects was perhaps death. The prospects were dismal. We don't have any strength. Yes, they had a certain amount of strength, but what they're saying is against this kind of a multitude, they did not have the resources. So what did they do? Notice verse number 13. And all Judah stood before the Lord with all their little ones, their wives and their children. This wasn't just a select few. This was everybody. Verse 14, then Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaniah, the son of Jeriel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation. He said, hearken ye all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you, be not afraid nor dismayed by reason this great multitude for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, go down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jerul. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand still, and ye shall see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them, for the Lord will be with you." What did he tell them to do? He'd say, here's in place of not knowing what to do, take one day at a time. And here's what you can do. Go and stand there. So they said, okay, God, we'll go and stand there. We're going to find in following text that he sends the singers out first. Had you ever heard an army with the singers out first? Well, I remember the old classic movie, Longest Day. I remember the D-Day invasion. How many remember that old John Wayne movie? Remember that? Boy, not very many. Folks, get out your history books. Come on now. John Wayne and the Longest Day, all right? So a group is sent out by, the British group is sent out by gliders. They glide into one of the one of the important bridges that needed to be taken, and they take the bridge. Hold until relieved. Hold until relieved. And then here comes the Scottish troops. And one of the guys is down at the bridge. Man, where are these guys coming? I don't know. And all of a sudden they hear what? Bagpipes. Are you hearing what I'm hearing? Yeah, here comes the bagpipes. OK, with the exception of the Scottish soldiers who have bagpipes in the longest day on the movies. Have you ever heard about singers going to war? Ever heard about that? We're going to find that they're in front of this army. Why? They're taking God at His word. They're taking God at His word. They're going one day at a time. And the Bible says in our text verse, And when they began to praise, God wrought the victory. Here's my point. Are we facing difficulties? Then let's change our perspective. Instead of just focusing in on all the difficulties that we face, let's take one day at a time, let's praise God, and let's make the best decision we can make before God, and let's keep going for God. Amen? Change your perspective. Change your perspective. Do what you know. Take one day at a time. Here's the third thing that we need to look at. We need our problems to become challenges. We need our difficulties to become opportunities. Folks, we are surrounded by opportunities to see God at work if we'll just look at it that way. The third thing is He'll transform our expectations. His initial reaction, their initial reaction was fear. The initial reaction was uncertainty. The initial expectation was doom. The initial expectation was defeat. Taking out of the land. We heard it as He prayed. captivity or destruction. That was their initial possible expectation. But they, because they sought praise, they specifically placed in their life praise, it became trust. God's plan. Verse number 20, And they arose early in the morning and went forth in the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established. Believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper." And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and to say, praise the Lord for His mercy endureth forever. They very specifically took the book of Psalms, laid it open, and began to sing from the hymn book some of the hymns that David had given them. Verse 20, and when they began to sing into praise, the Lord sent ambushments. What was happening? The Edomites are coming up on the east side. The Ammonites and the Moabites are coming on from the west side. And when the Ammonites and Moabites realized that the Edomites, if they get there first, they're going to control the king's highway and all the revenue that goes with it. We can't let them do that. It must have been going through their mind. So they hurry up and turn southward and set up ambushments as they're going along that road that goes up past Masada and through that wilderness. There's all kinds of deep canyons. There's all kinds of rocky areas. And that road would be greatly exposed. So sure enough, the Edomites fall victim to the ambushes of the Moabites and the Ammonites. Now, when they take out the Edomites, They say, well, we can't let them Ammonites have this because there's great wealth in whoever controls this road. So they began to fight against the Moabites. The Moabites said, we can't let them Ammonites have this because this is our area and we need the taxes and we need the money that's going to come from this. So they started to fight it out. So guess what happens? Israel comes, stands on the cliff. They look down. And all they saw was the leftovers of a defeated army. They didn't raise one finger. Notice the text. And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, verse 24, and looked into the multitude, behold, there were dead bodies fallen to the earth and none escaped. And when Jehoshaphat's people came, what did they do? They took away the spoil of them. They found among them an abundance, both riches with the dead bodies of precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves. More than they could carry away. And they were three days in gathering at a spoil. It was so much. All they did was go down and gather up the leftovers. All they did was gather up. The wallets, the purses. The savings and so on. And the goods and took them back. God gave a tremendous, tremendous victory. There was God's plan. They had taken God at His Word. They got serious about getting right with God. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and seek my face. They took that seriously. They came before God as a people. Not just one out of ten. Not just a few people. But with their wives, their children, the whole families came. And they got right with God. And they said, God, we're going to take You at Your Word. And God won the victory. Their praise came by faith. In verse 21, He appointed the singers to sing, and they praised, and at that point, they didn't know what was going to do, but all they did was praise God. And then later, they saw what God did. Now, many times, we get focused in on the great richest part. You know the great richest part down here? and say, boy, it doesn't happen very often with me where it takes me three days to carry away the gold, the silver, and the jewels. That doesn't happen very often with me. But you notice the main point? The main point is God won the victory in their life. Do you see it? What we got focused in on is what happens to our benefit and decide whether it's enough or not. You know, you value life a lot when you've been in a situation where you might lose it. You know, older folks will sometimes say, you'll say, well, hey, how are you doing? It's good to see you today. And they'll say, it's good to be seen. Now, that may be a cliche, but you know what? We have another day. Amen? And that's not minor league stuff. That's important stuff. Well, I'm not wealthy. I have never met anyone that considered themselves wealthy because everyone I have ever met knows of people that have more than they do. OK, so what's the definition of wealthy? The standard used to be a million dollars. If I just had a million dollars. Well, Now, that was probably over a year ago, but a lot of people's houses were worth a million dollars in a lot of different places. A lot of people's were? Well, yeah, way more than when I was a kid. Okay. Well, you're going back to ancient history. I am. I am. I remember taking the kids on our family, one of our family things was to, our community services, was to be quality control for the local Thrifty ice cream store. And I would take the kids down as our faithful, responsible duty, and I'd get the kids a 15-cent dip ice cream, and we would all test it to make sure it was good. And then we put our seal of a barbarian approval on the thrifty ice cream store. We had to do that every couple of weeks or so. Of course, they wanted to do it about every day if we could. You know what I mean? All right. And that's what we did. But folks, listen, I totally lost my point. I have to figure out where I'm at here. My goodness. You see, sometimes we like to say that wealth is this or that. Wealth is having a family. Wealth is putting food on the table. Wealth is seeing God's provision for today. David said, now I'm old, once was a young, now I'm old. And there's never been a time when I've seen God's people forsaken. and the righteous without bread. Pastor's text for today would have been, if he would have been here, see the lilies of the field, how they neither spin nor weave, but God's provides for them. Amen. What's wealth? If you had a lot of this world's wealth in the stock market a year and a half ago, then one thing that you are today is less wealthy than you were then. Does that carry with it? Disappointment and discouragement. And it does change the way you can do things because you have less to do things with. But you know what it doesn't change? It doesn't change that we're still a servant of God. Amen. It doesn't change that we can still trust God. It doesn't change that we can expect goodness from God. We may not always get the result that we are looking for, but God is still good. When the disciples followed Jesus, did they expect the crucifixion? They didn't expect the crucifixion, but the crucifixion was the way for spiritual victory. When the Apostle Paul went about the world to start new churches, did he expect to be imprisoned? In his words, though I am persecuted as an evildoer. Here he is trying to go out and do right best as he knows how, and not only is he in trouble for it, but he's being branded as an evildoer, a lawbreaker. According to the scripture, God's plan doesn't always match up with our expectations, but God's still on the throne and we can still trust God. You see, praise is made up of at least four ingredients, according to this text. It's made up of prayer, verse 18. It's made up of rejoicing, verse 26. Notice verse 27, I'm sorry. And 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 with singing. Verse 28, they came to Jerusalem with with psalteries and harps and trumpets under the house of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord was on all the kingdoms of these of these countries when they heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel. There was prayer, there was rejoicing, there was singing, there was worship. Let's just take those ingredients, those ingredients alone, and make a practice to praise by faith in our life. To see challenges instead of problems. To see opportunities instead of difficulties. To trust God instead of the expectations, negative expectations that we often get. Let's take out our prayer journal when it comes to praying. Let's get out a sheet of paper and write down the prayer requests. Let's write down the answers to prayer. Let's get serious about prayer. Let's take advantage of the opportunity of the discipline of a prayer journal. When it comes to singing, say, oh, here it comes. Now pastor's going to talk to us about what style of music and all this kind of thing. And I'm just going to plug my ears. Listen. Since when in the Word of God do you plug your ears about something you may expect somebody to say? You know what I'm telling you? Here's the Bible. The Bible says you need to sing to praise God. How are you going to put it into practice? You're not going to put it into practice with something that's talking about sin and corruption and things that are against God. That isn't going to build you up. I mean, you know that. So put in your life things that will build you up. On purpose. Put in your life the things that build you up. There are more avenues for music available now than it's unbelievable. You can go on the Internet and turn on an Internet radio station of I think there's 1,253 different styles. I had no idea. I am not saying that all of those glorify God, but I'm saying there's got to be some that do. So dial it in. There are messages. I think on Sermon Audio alone, there's over 10,000 messages. You can download everything from just reading the Bible to full messages. Download some stuff that's going to be a blessing to you. Put some praise in your life. Amen? I'm here to tell you, listen, Though you may agree with Rush Limbaugh on some points, you're not going to come out with the praise for God at the end. He doesn't deal with praise for God. Glenn Beck, though I may agree with some of his points, may disagree with others. Listen, if you listen to Glenn Beck all the time, what are you going to hear? Problem. Problem. Problem. Problem. Problem. Problem. I'm saying, let's be done with the problems. Let's take a look at the challenges. Let's take a look at the opportunities. And let's take a look at praising God. Well, we live in troublous times. Folks, have we ever not lived in troublous times? According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is still in charge. Amen? So let's live for God now. Amen? Then, on purpose, get out your prayer journal. On purpose, get some God-glorifying music in your life. On purpose, worship. That means your attitude and your focus is towards God. Now listen, what is your natural bent in life? Are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty person? Which is it? When you're presented with the facts, what do you tend to do? Do you tend to, the first statement that you make or the first thought you think is negative or is the first thought positive? Let's break it down. Okay, you just had a bowling activity the other night. Troops, I think we could do another bowling activity next month. What do you think? Okay, you're thinking something right now. What is it? Are you thinking, are you kidding? I didn't have fun last time. Who's gonna go? I'll go if they go. I can't afford it. Okay? Or do you say, I've got an opportunity to invite somebody else for a good you think? You know what I mean? Is the glass half empty or is it half full? Thanksgiving's coming. Thanksgiving's coming! Ten days of holiday or something like that. Isn't it something like that? Ten days. Two whole weekends. Oh my goodness. Ten days. Thanksgiving. What are you thinking right now? What are you thinking right now? I don't have money for an airline ticket. You know, I got six tests, 22 quizzes, and four term papers. You know? Or are you thinking turkey? That's my dad. No, whatever it is. You know what I mean? Whatever it is. Okay? All right, here's another set of facts. Flu shots. What are you thinking right now? Pain. 25 bucks. Get them dead chicken cells out of my body. I ain't putting them there, boy. I'll tell you what. I ain't putting nothing dead in me, you know. Get that stuff out of here. All right. Are you half empty or half full? Okay. Now, if you're a half-empty person, then you better pay attention to this principle right here. Because your natural thing is problem, problem, problem, problem, problem. Whenever somebody says something to you, you don't need someone to tell you the problems because you've got them all. Okay? Dr. Stratton, the worst kind of people you can have on your staff. What if all your staff people were half-empty kind of people? Folks, let's go ahead and let's have a great year at Colored Orchestra College. Everyone, but Doc, Doc, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We got this problem. We got that problem. We got this other problem. And you're trying to lead. And it feels like you got waiters trying to help wade through all the negativity. You know what I mean? All right. In our spiritual life, we can be the same thing. We can say God's not going to answer here. Never has. You know, God's never done anything for me. So what's that all about? Well, listen, if God's never done anything for you, you've never put God to the test in the right way. Because what you were praying for was a lottery ticket with a million dollars on it. What you were praying for was the stuff that you don't have any control over. It's best left in the hands of God. Now, it's right to say, Lord, here's a need. Lord, meet the need. All right. When you get serious about God, listen, and if you're the half glass, half full kind of person, you need to make sure that you're not half full of your own selfishness and your own self-centeredness. I had a little neighborhood kid, this goes way back years ago. He rides up on his bicycle. I knew this from the neighborhood. That's all I knew. Didn't know his name. I knew he lived somewhere in the area. And he said, he said, you want to know how to ride a bike? Before I even said yes or no, he said, I want to tell you. He said, and this is the way you do tricks. And I said, okay, go ahead. Tell me how you do it. First thing you do is you gotta have a lot of self-confidence. First thing you gotta do then is then you gotta really tell yourself that you can do this. And then you decide what the trick's gonna be. And then with real confidence, you confidently, you just really have confidence yourself you do this trick. And I go, boy, wow, that's good. This kid is about 100% full of himself, amen? You know? Maybe it was a good bicyclist, but looking at his weight wouldn't naturally tend towards good on bicycle tricks. You know what I mean? It's high center of gravity and other problems. You know what I mean? I'm familiar with that. I know what I'm talking about. Folks, if you're a glass half full kind of person, it's real easy to be confident in you and not confident in God. opportunities and the challenges to bring to a place where you depend on God, where you depend on God. Folks, God's at work in you. God's at work in you. And he wants us individually, personally, and as a group to recognize that praise is critical. Praise is important. It provides in this text a blessing. Verse number seven, they named the place. Burqa, Burqa, which means a blessing. They named the place a blessing. Verse 27, they came into Jerusalem and with joy. For the whole rest of this king's reign, he didn't have to worry about guys coming to attack him because they said, ha ha, don't you go against him. You know what happened to them Ammonites? You know what happened to them Edomites? You know what happened to them Moabites? You don't want to do that. That's right here in the scripture. So the realm of Joshua was quiet for God, for his God gave him rest round about verse twenty nine. And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that God fought against the enemies of Israel. There was peace. The other thing I see here is. Not a kingdom. Not a history narrative, but people. People God and his word and God answered on behalf of his people. You are important. God wants to use you in the life of someone else to be a testimony as a result of this notice and the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when he heard that the Lord fought against the Israelites. God wants to use your testimony wherever you are on the road of life. facing the challenges and the opportunities and the trust so that you can minister a living witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the world in which you live. Therefore, take one day at a time. Look forward, not backward. The Apostle Paul said, forgetting those things which are behind, I press towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of God. Now, why can't you? Why do we forget about the things that are behind? Because you can't change them. What happened yesterday happened yesterday. We can talk about it till we're pink. So what happened yesterday happened yesterday. So let's go forward. Well, if I had only or if I had it, OK, all right. We all play that. We all have been there. Certainly, it gives us guidance in making a future decision, a similar kind of decision. We'll know what to do. But we don't have to fret or stew about that because it's yesterday. Take one day at a time. Look forward. Praise by faith. The scripture says the just shall live by faith. That's not just some unseen thing. That's not just shall eventually go to heaven because Jesus died on the cross for me and I trusted Him as my Savior. It's not someday. It's shall continue to live by faith. Why? Because by faith, we're praising God. By faith, we're trusting God. By faith, we're looking at God. Not our expected outcomes. And we'll find when we do that, that our problems have become challenges. Our difficulties have become opportunities, and our expectations have a strong element of trusting God. How about you? And praise. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for this text and others that teach us so much about praise. Lord, there is so much in the scripture about praise that it's difficult to glean from one text all that can be said, but Lord, we're thankful for these points that are here before us. Lord, we're here by divine appointment. Lord, we're here not accidentally, but we're here because you would have us to be here. And Lord, we're here in place and time at this service, but we're also on a place in our life. We have a life story. And Lord, our life stories differ a lot. Lord, if there are those here that do not know Christ as Savior, Lord, I pray that today they would trust you as Savior. And Lord, those of us who know Christ as Savior, Lord, help us to gain a renewed focus on praise. Our papers, the Internet, and the news media surrounds us with problems, surrounds us with difficulties, and it's easy to get under the burden of those. Lord, help us to not focus on those things. But Lord, to praise you by faith. Lord, to pray. Lord, to trust you. Lord, to take one day at a time. Lord, to not look back, but to look forward. And Lord, to just praise your name. Lord, I pray you take all the people here, the half-glass, half-empty people and the glass-half-full people, and unite us in praise for you. And Lord, apply in our individual hearts the way that we need to improve our praise for you.