Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the Erickson Covenant Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us today.
We confess that we don't have all the answers, but as a community, we seek to find and follow Jesus and to discover daily the life he has always wanted for us.
We hope this message will be encouraging and will inspire you to take the next steps on your spiritual journey.
If we can help you in any way, please connect with us. The easiest way is through our website at Erickson Covenant. CA.
Let's get started.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Well, have you ever felt powerless? I think in this season, sometimes we think about that.
Peter and I, there are certain things in life that come and we really see that we have no control.
We're powerless before an onslaught that we can't conquer.
Peter and I lived in Fort McMurray when fire swept through that area. If you remember, it was now 10 years ago, but the fire destroyed 2,500 homes, about a thousand other structures and commercial buildings, and it forced 88,000 of us to evacuate.
Yeah, the fire was massive. I think it was almost 600,000 hectares, which is about 6,000 square kilometers huge.
It was a big thing.
And I was working as a counselor at the time.
Once everyone was allowed to come back, I heard some pretty harrowing stories. Harrowing and sad.
Sad about all the losses people had faced and harrowing about some of the escapes that people made.
And I just wanted to share one of those stories that really stood out to me, and I'm going to make it so that it doesn't give away anything that I shouldn't give away as a counselor.
So the fire actually came in really fast, and the particular person that I'm talking about was in his home at the time. He saw it coming, and it was in that neighborhood that it was really sweeping in quickly. There wasn't a lot of time even to get an evacuation notice, though he'd had an evacuation notice. He just thought that he could manage and that he would look after things.
So he was afraid of the fire in that sense, but he was very afraid of losing his property and all his possessions.
And that's kind of what drove him to his next decision.
He was afraid.
He grabbed his garden hose and a ladder and he went up on the roof and he started to water everything down as good as he could. I mean, he was watering and just doing everything he could, thinking that he could protect his property. And he could see the fire burning some of the other houses in his neighborhood. And it kept getting closer and closer. And the house next to him was on Fire.
And he just kept watering with that tiny little garden hose, hoping and praying, maybe not praying. He was not someone who would have prayed, but trying to manage and control that situation.
Then there was a loud explosion and some embers flew up at him. And it was the barbecue propane tank of his neighbor, which is right against his house.
The embers and ashes were coming up on his clothes. He had work coveralls on, and he started to just madly scrape those embers off so he didn't catch fire.
And as he was doing this, fire all around him and still with that garden hose in his hand, taking off those embers in this stifling heat and smoke everywhere, he suddenly had a moment of pause and a moment of clarity.
I can't stop this.
I am. This is too big for me.
I either have to get out of here or I'm going to perish in this fire, too.
And so he went down the ladder, he got in his vehicle, and he drove away.
Sometimes it takes a while before we have that moment of clarity, doesn't it? Where we see something is way too big for us and where we need to change, have a change of plans.
Well, the story I want to talk to you about, for many of us, this story is about, from the Old Testament, is about powerlessness and how do we pray when there's nowhere else to go.
There are many situations that come into our lives, and a lot of you have experienced them.
Unwelcome news, hardship of a close friend, deaths, losses, things that we would never want to come in our life, but there's nothing we can do.
A bad diagnosis. Many of you have experienced that already, and if you haven't, you will.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: So
[00:05:27] Speaker B: today we're going to look at an ancient prayer that's both simple and profound.
We're going to learn it together and embrace the message that it embodies and hopefully remember to say it as we need it.
It's a confession of human powerlessness in the face of unconquerable odds.
It is the lifting up of our eyes, independence, the seeking of God's guidance and intervention to help us.
The prayer is from 2 Chronicles 20.
It was the prayer of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, when he discovered that he was about to be attacked by a massive army.
I'm going to fast forward right now to the key element of that prayer, and we're going to say it together.
Let's take a look.
We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
Let's say that once more.
We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you,
[00:06:38] Speaker A: Lord.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: I just ask, as we open your word today, that your spirit would enlighten its message. Set it on flame in our hearts, Lord, and help us to order our lives in the way you're asking us to today. And we'll thank you in Jesus name.
Okay, so far in our series, we've gleaned several really powerful insights that have been personally very helpful for me.
The prayer of listening, Lord, speak. Your servant is listening.
There was a prayer of the discerning heart. Give me wisdom, Lord, give me wisdom.
And then last week, we numbered our days.
Teach me to number our days. They are numbered. Teach me to use them well.
And now today we're going to have the prayer of powerlessness, which is a prayer of looking up.
Looking up.
So we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
Let's take a look at the passage today found in 2nd Corinthians 20.
The Moabites and Ammonites, with some of the Meunites, came to wage war against Jehoshaphat.
Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, a vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It's already that Hazazan Tamar, that is Ein Gedi.
Jehoshaphat was told that an army was approaching, a large army, the Moabites and the Ammonites.
They were actually the tribes of Lot's children. They were two of Lot's sons.
And they were, in that sense, they were sort of a cousin of the people in Judah. And when Israel returned from the Exodus, they were told not to attack them and not to take their land. It was Lot's land that Abraham's nephew, so the children of his nephew. So it was the Moabites and the Ammonites and the Maonites that came, the Menites. We don't know much about them. It was an Arab tribe.
But these three tribal kingdoms, for whatever reason, formed an alliance against Judah. And they were coming down around the Dead Sea and up, and they were now at En Gedi, which was about 50 km from where Jehoshaphat was in Jerusalem. Now, 50 km is like here to yak that in ancient army terms, you know, marching army terms, they were two days out, really, two to three days they would be in Jerusalem. Not much time to gather your forces and defenses.
It was terrible news for Jehoshaphat to receive. And upon hearing it, it says Jehoshaphat was afraid.
Now the NIV says he was alarmed, like Surprised? It wasn't surprise. It was fear.
He knew that there was a certain calamity about to happen and there was nothing they could do, nothing he could do to protect his people.
This was a problem that was way too big for him to manage.
Now, what do you do when you're afraid?
I find people kind of have different ways of handling it.
Some people get really busy. They dig in and they try all kinds of strategies and try and control a situation.
Like our man in Fort McMurray.
We get busy and we just are totally frantic.
Some of us are so overwhelmed, we're paralyzed. We don't know what to do right? What can we do? We can't do anything. I don't feel like doing anything. I'm not going to do anything. This is inevitable.
And then there are other people that just numb it out, you know, alcohol, pot, a thousand shows on Netflix.
Mindless things. Just numb the fear.
Jehoshaphat could have done those things.
He could have busied himself frantically trying to gather an army.
He could have tried to garner a defense draft. Every able bodied person find weapons of some kind. He didn't have time to make them.
Like my client on the rooftop. He could have run around looking for a garden hose.
That is not what Jehoshaphat did.
He had a moment of clarity, a pause.
He realized that he and the people of Judah were powerless before this great army.
There was nothing they could do.
The most urgent thing for him was to ask and seek and rely on God as their only hope. There was nowhere else to turn. No plan B.
That kind of powerlessness draws us to prayer.
So Jehoshaphat resolved in his mind to inquire of the Lord.
He proclaimed a fast and sought the prayers of the entire population of Judah.
It was not unusual in the time of the kings. And if you read any of those stories in the Old Testament, you'll see that the kings often inquired of the Lord before battle.
Now, they weren't necessarily very sincere about it. They already kind of figured out what they were going to do. They were going to get an alliance with Egypt, or they were going to do this or they were going to do that. But they wanted a kind of rubber stamp of approval to prove to everyone that this was going to be okay. This was God's war. We'll win it. But really, they had their own agenda. And because of that, oftentimes the temple courts were filled with false prophets, people, people that were yes men that would stand up and say, yes, King, your plan is God's plan.
And when anyone stood up, which had a different thing in mind, said, no, don't do this or do something else, the king would quickly say, what's wrong with you? Why don't you like me?
And they would kick the prophet out, sometimes kill them, sometimes beat them, sometimes exile them.
And so, in other words, the kings often sought the Lord, but they didn't do it sincerely.
They didn't really do it in any other way but ritualistically.
But Jehoshaphat was sincere. He was sincere in wanting to know God's guidance, and he was sincere in wanting to obey what that guidance was when it came.
So let's go back to the story.
Everyone fasted.
Now, there is a ritualistic type of fast. I don't know how many of you fast, say, at Lent.
And then, of course, there's the Muslim prayer at Ramadan. There are other things that we do, saying, I'm going to fast from my cell phone for a few days, or whatever.
But this wasn't that kind of fast.
This is really a time that comes out of urgent need. I'm sure many of us, myself included, have fasted at times when we felt an urgency from God to present our needs or the needs of someone else.
I personally understand fasting as laying aside our distractions.
It's kind of a symbol of this physical side of me isn't as important as the spiritual side. And like Scripture says, man does not live by bread alone.
But it's also something even deeper.
And I once had a friend of mine explain it to me like this.
She said, when I fast, I take all my thoughts and plans and agendas and. And opinions, and I lay them on the altar and I let them go.
And I ask God to speak to me, because only that way can I hear his voice among the melee of what I already think.
I lay that out. A fast is also a laying out of our own plans and agendas, our own thoughts about something, and letting God tell us what he thinks. I believe that was the kind of fast they did, Lord, and even more so, they didn't know what to do. They had to look to him for guidance.
So everyone fasted, and everyone came.
They came and gathered in Jerusalem, in front of the temple, a place that they considered to be very special for God to hear them.
They stood there, their men, the women, it says, their children and their little ones, their babies, and they asked for God's help.
Once they had all gathered, Jehoshaphat stood before them and he prayed.
Now, the structure of the prayer is kind of instructive it's typical of most of the Old Testament prayers. When you go through them, it first recounts the actions and promises of God.
It recounts the acts that God has done in the past. It tells about the present situation, and it stretches out into the future and expectation of what God will do.
Jehoshaphat does this in the prayer, and he outlines it using rhetorical question.
Are you not?
Did you not?
Will you not God? Are you not the God who is in heaven?
The ruler of nations with power and might no one can withstand?
This is directly to the point.
The nations and armies coming against Judah were not all powerful.
God was the ultimate commander in chief.
He was the one with power.
Are you not God?
The great power of the universe, the ruler of the nations, the God in heaven. This was the right perspective.
Some of you draw or paint.
I sometimes do. Not very good.
But I can become quite caught up while I'm drawing a painting or anything.
I get into the details and I'm really focused and I'm really intense and almost OCD to get that just right. And every once in a while, I have to step back, I mean, kind of way back, and kind of look at all the moving parts of the picture and see, does this all fit together? What's happening in this picture?
When we ask God, when we say, are you not the king of the nations, the one that sits in heaven, the one with all power? When we ask him that, we are stepping back from our minuscule view on that problem, and we're looking at the big picture. We're getting perspective.
Are you not the God of the universe?
Are you not the God of mercy? Are you not my father?
Are you not all knowing?
The need for us to recognize who God is when we face a problem is very important.
Did you not, Lord? Did you not?
And then in these ancient prayers, they often went through a long reminiscence of all the things that God had done in the past. Have you ever done that for yourself?
I can remember in times, maybe dark times or heavy times, where I've sat down with a pen and paper and just written down what God has done. I mean, not just simple events, but events where I actually could not explain it any other way than God intervening in my life.
And I write those things down and I remember, I force myself to remember in that time of struggle that God has intervened in my life before. And he's done it this way and this way and this way and this way.
God, you are all powerful.
God, you have done this in my life.
And then it talks about, will you not?
Now Jehoshaphat said, will you not judge them? Jehoshaphat was upset that these nations, that they, the Israelites, had avoided attacking because of God's command, that now they were turning around and attacking them.
And Jehoshaphat felt they need to be judged.
Will you not judge them? Will you not step in for us? Will you not protect us?
Will you not, leaning into the future, giving your request and we need to do the same thing? Will you not? And ask boldly what it is we need him to do?
Will you not heal my friend's daughter?
Will you not have mercy on them and bring a way out of this situation?
Will you not?
That was the substance of his prayer.
And then he kind of came to the crux of it.
We are powerless before these vast armies.
They knew they had no physical strength or capability to do anything.
We do not know what to do.
We have no ideas, no wisdom to manage it.
There is no workable human strategy.
But our eyes are on you.
This is the look of a child to a parent.
So powerless and so defensive. I watch the little ones around here, and I know how much they depend on us to care for them.
The look of a child to a parent so much in need of protection. The psalms reflect this upward gaze of the powerless and dependent. Psalm 123:1 2 I lift up my eyes to you, to you who dwell in the heavens. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us mercy.
Psalm 25 My eyes are ever on the Lord, for he only will release my feet from the snare.
Psalm 121 I lift my eyes up to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
I remember when we lived in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It's really quite a beautiful city. As you can see, we were surrounded by huge mountains. And no matter where we were in the city, we could see the peaks.
And often when I was weighed down by the pressures of our work there, I would look up and see those mountains. I would look up and remember the God who made them and the God who loved me and knew what was going on.
It gave me comfort and perspective.
There were so many things I didn't know how to handle and so many things I could not control.
But I could look up and say, I do not know what to do, but my eyes are on you.
After Jehoshaphat finished the prayer, the people seemed to simply Stand there in silence. It's such a pitiful picture, really. The scripture says they stood there, the man, the women, the children and the babies, and they waited.
They waited to hear from God.
So how did the story end?
Well, God responded to the prayer of Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah. He did it really directly. It says that the spirit of God came upon a Levite named Jahaziel who delivered God's word of comfort and direction. He said, do not be afraid, do not be discouraged at this great horde, for the battle is not yours, but God's.
God commanded them to simply take up their positions. In other words, go down towards that opposing army, then just stand still and watch him deliver them.
Now, I don't know about you, that sounds pretty scary to me.
I mean, we're all going to get up, we're going to not run that way. We're going right to the people and we're just going to. Going right to that army and we're just going to stand there. We aren't going to fight.
We are just going to watch God do His work.
Now, if it would have been me, I might have said, thank you, Jahaziel, for sharing. Is there anyone else that has a word?
I think I might have done that. But no, it seems like they received this right away as God's word to them. And it says the other Levites began singing and praising and worshiping God.
They believed that was God's word to them.
And not only that, they followed the direction that it gave. The next day they went out and Jehoshaphat had a bunch of men go forward in the front, singing, singing, great is your and your loving kindness is unending.
Now, I don't know. That wasn't part of God's direction to him. That was maybe like an add on, like, let's just make sure this is going to work.
I don't know. But he had a choir go in front of them as they walked, and they went forward and they came upon the army. And then God caused the army to fight among themselves.
And all they saw was corpses.
And for three days they collected the plunder. And they received all the riches of that enemy army, more than they could carry away.
So we can pray to the one who can do something when we're powerless we can look up.
So what can we glean from this story?
First and foremost, God is bigger than any problem we face.
And he's committed to us.
He can be relied upon when we come to him in our time of need.
You know sometimes he doesn't always answer the way we want him to, but we can rely on him to answer.
When we're afraid and feel powerless, we can turn to him and look for guidance and help. In that sense, even though we feel like we're helpless in the face of trials, we really aren't. There is one place we can go where we can find help, and that's in the great King and God and Father of us.
Secondly, feeling scared and powerless, it's kind of okay.
It's a doorway that helps us depend on him. James 1:5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it'll be given to you.
Rather than allowing fear to take the driver's seat, rather than taking things into our own hands, we should, when we feel that way, determine to seek God's direction and help.
We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
Thirdly, I wonder if this prayer of dependence and powerlessness is only concerned with extreme crisis.
Perhaps in the daily events of life, we need more of a humble recognition that even though we are not in crisis, we are still not in control of things and we don't have what it takes to live a holy life.
I used to think spiritual maturity was about being confident and knowing what to say or do, being able to manage life.
But maybe in part that's true, but I recognize it goes so much deeper than that.
I had a long time spiritual mentor for most of my adult life.
I once mentioned to her that I had been deeply influenced by the maturity, love for others and spiritual strength she demonstrated.
You know what her response was?
She laughed and she said that from the inside, looking out, the only thing I see is my weakness and how little I know.
But I thank God because from the outside, people are seeing Jesus and I know it's Jesus they're seeing and not me.
There's something very profound about a deep humility that comes from knowing we're powerless and knowing we need God in our life.
We need deep humility and dependence.
And what about the things we find difficult to manage in our daily lives that have taken over or robbed us of our freedom? Is that an area of powerlessness too?
For many years I worked with people who struggled with addictions.
And the first three steps of a 12 step program speak to this very thing. So if you're interested in knowing more about that, celebrate recovery. We'll help you out.
The first step is to admit powerlessness over addictions, compulsive behaviors, the hurts, habits and hang ups that are in our lives.
The next two steps invite us to believe that God is the One who can help and to commit ourselves, commit our life and our issues to Him.
To admit powerlessness is a difficult step.
You know, we always have a plan.
We keep trying, scheming, organizing.
It can be hard for us to recognize that something is too big for us to fix and we think we can do it on our own. It's hard for us to see when it's time to admit we can't conquer it.
That we're weak and incapable and trying the same thing over again for the hundredth time is not going to produce a different result.
Perhaps the need to recognize our powerlessness is not just about when we're faced with a crisis or a life and death situation, but it meets the rub. In our everyday life, we are powerless to live a holy life.
We need to look up and turn our eyes to Him.
So here are some suggestions maybe gleaned from these texts.
Consider a situation that you are struggling with.
Can you humbly come to God with this prayer?
Lord, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you.
And then if you're willing to pay attention and then wait and pay attention to his answer. Do you do that? God does answer. Oftentimes we pray and then we don't look for his answer.
Sometimes we need to sit and think and watch what is his answer and wait for it and listen for it. He is going to hear us. He does hear us and he does answer us. Sometimes it's not quite so direct as the spirit of the Lord coming on someone and saying, God told me you were praying about this. And God told me this is what you have to do. You know, I've had that happen once in my life, but it is not a frequent occurrence. Usually it's something very quiet and something that either happens in my life, a verse that I've heard, something he's brought to mind. And sometimes when I pray about something, I already know deep down what the answer is. The Spirit's already placed it there and I need to pay attention to that little voice.
So we need to pay attention once we've prayed to what the answer is, and then we need to do it. And I have to tell you, sometimes the answers are scary. Just like with Jehoshaphat.
I remember a time, and if I told you this before, just give me some grace. I'm old, but when I was a young believer, I was a new Christian. I was going to college. And I was really burdened for my fellow college students, and they were. And I remember praying very earnestly, God, we need to have a Bible study here. Will you bring someone to teach the Bible here?
And as I was even praying this, a verse that I'd memorized that week, which was, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And. And I knew God said to me, you are the one.
And I can tell you a shot of adrenaline went through my system like you would not believe. I had never taught a class. I had never stood in front of people and talked. And here I was, a pretty new believer six months in. I really didn't know anything.
And I thought, well, maybe I know what the lady that's been discipling me. I can certainly do those lessons she's doing with me, with other people. And I was sitting there thinking, and I was scared. Well, one of the things that that lady had taught me from the beginning was, if you know God wants you to do something, do it right away before you chicken out.
And so within 10 minutes, I go down to the registrar's office, I book a room, I make an advertisement, I go home, and I think, what have I done?
But it's really important when we hear that answer, to have a heart that's ready to do the guiding thing that God has asked you to do.
And that's really important because sometimes I think we come to God in praying and we aren't ready to listen and do what he asks us to do. It scares us, we're afraid of it, and we need to do it. If we're going to come to God and ask for his advice, we better be ready to take it.
So I also wonder if maybe just that structure of prayer is helpful for anyone.
Are you not?
Did you not?
Will you not?
That might be helpful for some of you as you structure your prayer. And what about fasting? Have you considered that there's lots of information online about how to do a good biblical fast safely and also with spiritual intent.
So as we close today, I want to remind you that we have people that pray, and maybe they could come up front here now. And if we.
If you have anything that you would like others to pray with, or if you have a need that's heavy on your heart, you can share it with them. I think getting together and praying with others is one of those steps. It's really hard to do, but sometimes it's what we need to do.
And my desire for myself and all of our church community is that no matter what we face, we can humbly come to God and say, lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: Thanks for listening in today.
We hope you feel encouraged and challenged.
If you know someone who would benefit from what you have heard today, please share this podcast.
For more information or if you have questions, you can connect with us through our website, Erickson Covenant Ca.
You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Erickson Covenant Church.
