Hallelujah! What the devil has meant for bad, God has turned for our good. Now I can guarantee today when you were getting ready to come to church, you didn’t know that you were getting ready to fight a battle today, for the giants in the land are about to get their heads taken off by the people of God. We can fight in our heels, we can fight in our church clothes - because God is giving us the battle into our hands this day. The name of my sermon today is that “The Battle Belongs to the Lord”, amen. He is going to fight for us, he is going to deliver us. We said, this is the season of the Lord. It’s the season of His favor and He is going to allow you to be victorious in your life in places that God has never been able to do before; Because our hearts were not ready, because we weren’t in the place ready for God’s miracle, ready for His breakthrough this day. But today the Lord is going to bring you to victory over those things that you have seen season after season, year after year. God is about to do it. Hallelujah, thank you guys.

Some of us have seen these things, year after year; the doubts, the distractions in our life, the pitfalls, the curses that we have seen come up in our life and take us right back to where we came from. But God wants to give victory over our battles, over the enemies in the house of God this day, amen. He is going to do it for us. The battle belongs to God. Now I’m talking today to those of you who have been in the fight. Some of you have been toiling, some of you have been working, some of you have been praying all throughout the night that God would deliver you and your family. Today if you didn’t know that there was a war come on in, welcome, join in the ranks for this is the army of the Lord. Hallelujah, we are recruiting this day. See, there is an age-old war in the house of God. It is the war against light and darkness, against the kingdom of darkness and against the kingdom of God, against holiness and against sin, and this is the battle that we’re entering into this day - It’s the battle for your soul, it’s the battle for your family this day, that you would rise up and enter. Some of us have been fighting this war on three different fronts; The battle for ourselves, the battle for our family, and the battle for our church. Many of you have been fighting this day, and the devil has tried to take us out. But here we are in the house of God, He has spared you for such a time as this; For deliverance and for victory in the house of God.

Now today if you’re willing to join that fight, I say to you we are going to know that you need only to stand firm. Exodus 14 says, “Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of your God. For the Egyptians that you see today, you shall see again no more, for the Lord will fight for you and you will hold your peace.” We remember when God gave that message to Moses, He said go to Pharaoh, and tell him that I want my people to be set free. We know that Pharaoh doesn’t want to let you go. We know the devil doesn’t want to let you free. Let my people go that they may worship Me, let them go that they may worship Me. And Satan tries to put up a fight but he has nothing in comparison to God‘s power. He was not able to withstand the hand of God when He performed miracles, signs and wonders in Egypt. And of course, the people were set free to worship the Lord.

And so today we’re going to look at another story in the Bible, someone who experienced a mighty victory, and we’re going to learn how we also must prepare our hearts before the battle. So let’s open up our Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 17 verse 3, and this story is about King Jehoshaphat, he is the king of Judah in the Old Testament. And so we’re going to look at a little bit about his character first in chapter 17 and then we’re going to hit the real story that’s later in chapter 20. So the verse says, “The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of his father David before him. He did not consult the Baals but sought the God of his father and followed His commands rather than the practices of Israel at that time”. Now we can first see that it says the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, church are you with God? Is He with you? Are you in friendship with the Lord? Are you in communion with Him? And if you’re not this day, what are the things that we learn about Jehoshaphat’s life that we also may be with God? When we read this verse, we see that there is a distinguishment between Jehoshaphat and the rest of what everybody was doing. And I want to say to you this day, that if you want to be with the Lord, you got to be set apart. You can’t be doing what everybody else is doing. You have to be doing your own thing. You have to set your heart on following God. And so we see this distinction that they make here in the verse; It says that he turned away from idolatry, he did not consult the Baals, he followed the commands of God. He followed the ways of his father before him who also honored God, and he followed the ways of King David, who was a man noted in the Bible for going after the heart of God; this is how he was different from the rest of the world.

“...we have to be different from what the rest of the world is doing”

Church, we have to be different from what the rest of the world is doing. We can’t be worried about what they’re prioritizing, the practices of their idolatry. The world puts everything before God, everything, anything and everything, even food. Okay, what am I going to eat? We got to look at the circular. We’re going to go to five different stores. We’re going to see the prices. We’re going to time it out. How much time do we spend on trivial things of the world? But God wants you to prepare your heart for battle this day. And we must be like Jehoshaphat, for these are the kinds of followers that the Lord seeks; the ones that put God first, the ones that shun the idols and keep themselves away from the idols. You see, idolatry is when you put anything before God in your life. It can be trivial, I understand that. But it’s anything that takes your heart, that takes your attention, that you spend your time doing those things, and they become gods to us. We think that when we read about asherah poles in the baals in the Bible that it doesn’t apply to modern day, but it does because we know that everybody has idols in our society. They worship what they look like on social media, their careers, their future plans, being on sports teams. It’s whatever has your heart.

But this day God is looking for that remnant, the ones that will set their heart apart for Him and for Him alone. Who here will begin to make changes in their life, to search for God and to prioritize Him, to put Him above anything else. You see, some of us have thought that we are unique in the obligations. We think we are uniquely busy, but the reality is any one of us could spend a lot of our time trying to figure out how to make more money. I could spend hours working on my career and figuring out how I could buy a bigger house. I can spend a lot of time working on my social media page taking pictures - going and taking my family there and getting a photographer - a lot like the rest of the world is doing right now. But people of God, we set ourselves apart and we spend the time. We are in the season of isolating ourselves from the rest of the world, the things that we used to worship, and coming in to seek after God's heart. Would you be like King Jehoshaphat, who turned from the practices of the world and put Him first. This day the challenges may actually mean you’re about to make changes in your household. There may actually be some action on our part this day, that may mean there’s got to be a hold to the career change. That may mean if you’re a teenager in high school maybe you can’t practice in that season for the sport. Maybe that means you have to take a time out on whatever it is that you’ve been busying yourself with. So you can have a time of intentional reflection to seek out the plan and the face of God this day.

“His only requirement is that you would go and throw everything away, because nothing surpasses His greatness.”

Are you willing to search out the Lord? For He is not looking for those who were putting Him on the back burner, but for those who are going to choose - choose this day whom you will serve and prioritize the Lord in your life. It does not matter what age you are, you could be young all the way to old. We know what takes our hearts, we know what those idols are. And so this day we throw them down at the feet of God as we prepare for our battle this day, He will give it to you, but we cannot skip the step of preparation in the house of God this day. We must look at what those idols are and purge the land of your heart, purge the land of the high places, purge the places that have been dedicated to everything but God. This preparation is the most important step to the battle. Everybody wants to sing, everybody wants to march and say “Yes God, You’re going to do it” But this is the hard part, this is the only part that you can have participation in because the battle does belong to the Lord and He will slay your enemies, and they will be nothing but ash under your feet. His only requirement is that you would choose Him. His only requirement is that you would go and throw everything away, because nothing surpasses His greatness. Nothing can compare to the Lord our God. So this day we purge the land, we clean the house, we clean our hearts.

We learned this week that “Beulah land” was the land that was married to God and that is the place in our heart that we’re giving back to Him. Lord, let the land of our hearts be clean and pure of all the idols. Every high place must be made low and God alone will be elevated. See, it’s not easy to go against the grain in the world - I understand that. It’s not easy to have different priorities from the rest of the world. But this day I assure you, just as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 12, “If you pay attention to these laws, if you’re careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep His covenant of love with you as He swore to your ancestors.” And here are the blessings that He promises for you if you make this time of preparation this day. He will love you and bless you, He will increase your numbers, He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land, your grain, your new wine and your olive oil, the calves of your herds. You will be more blessed than any other people’s and - here we go - you will drive out the nations before you, for you will inherit the land. We are driving out the enemies out of the house of God this day. Every enemy of the Lord must leave this place, every enemy that is in your heart that would try to take God’s place in your life must leave. It must go - God said I will give you the nation, I will give you back the territory that has been taken from you. You will spread out. You will spread my gospel. You will take it over for the sake of yourself, your soul, your family, for your church, for your community. We’re taking back the land; Barnegat, Manahawkin, Lacey, Tuckerton, these places that we live in, these places that we frequent, Toms River - can’t forget my friends over there. All of these places where we are, God is about to bring that gospel forth with truth and power because when you are delivered from your enemies, you also will go out to deliver others.

This is the day of battle, this is the day of victory. We see that Jehoshaphat made the Lord his priority, and so when the day of trouble comes, you will call upon Him and He will deliver you in battle. And so we’re going to go on with our story and we’re going to move over to chapter 20; and so we’re going to see the battle that Jehoshaphat is going to get into. And this point that we’re going to see here is that we must not only prioritize God, but we must know our enemy. 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verses one and two, “After this, 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 is already in Hazezon Tamar (that is, En Gedi).” So I’m going to give you the Biblical theological breakdown of this scripture: you’re in big trouble. This means that your enemies have come against you, they have gathered together, and they’re very close. You’re not able to prepare. You can’t run away. You are outnumbered. You are surrounded, and everybody is going to die.

This is the type of news that Satan loves to bring to our door. He likes to strike us to the point where it feels like it takes your breath away. This is the bad news that we’ve gotten over the years that antagonizes you, that threatens you, that tries to shake your faith. We've gotta know our enemy. He has a big bark, but he doesn’t have the bite, for the Lord is our defender. It’s that bad news that sometimes feels like a death sentence. And for many of you, you know my family’s story - you know that we also have received this news, this blow against our family. Well somebody, somebody’s trying to shake us. Somebody’s trying to bring us down, somebody's trying to make us falter, but I tell you in the name of the Lord you cannot shake the Christian, you cannot bring them down. You cannot kill them, for we rise up in the name of the Lord. We have died to ourselves. We have died to our own life, but God has given us His spirit. The life that I have is not the one that I used to live, my life is new in Jesus Christ; You can not kill it, it can not die for He lives this day. These are the things that Satan tries to bring to your doorstep, to try to shake you, to make you lose your faith, to make you give up this day. But we are not giving up. We are standing. We are learning how to fight in the house of God. As we say in the church, the higher the level the bigger the devil, right? We know that as we rise up in the ranks in the Lord, as you’re growing in your faith, these things will come throughout your life because God wants to grow your faith. He wants to know that you’re not immediately (at the sign of danger) going to run away and lose hope and put your surrender flag up. He’s really willing to see that you’re going to rise up in your faith and begin to call on the name of the Lord in the face of danger. When Satan says these things are going to happen, we call on God. When we are threatened, we call on His name for we know that He answers us in our time of trouble. He is your helper, He is your redeemer, He is your savior, He is your friend and He will do it for you.

We have to understand we are fighting demonic structures. These are strongholds, rulers, principalities in the heavenly realms. We have to know that that’s what’s really coming against you; It’s not a person that maybe you are feeling hurt from, or someone who is attacking you, it’s Satan. He doesn’t want you to live. He doesn’t want you to have new life, but the Lord is going to deliver us. Have faith this day do not give up. And so I ask you, how are you handling that bad news? How are you handling that news coming to your doorstep? God is looking for those who will trust in Him. We sing that song “bigger the battle bigger, bigger my faith, bigger the battle, bigger my faith.” And we will grow and increase in our power, in our might, in our prayers to rise up to the occasion - Every time we go from glory to glory seeking after the powers of the Lord. For we have been called to demolish those structures, those powers, those principalities in our communities, in our household, within our own soul. We rise up against them in the faith of the Lord. We have the courage from Him, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So I say to you, get up! My dad said, wake up! Are you up today? Get in the fight, get in the battle, fight for yourself, fight for your family, fight for your church, fight for your community.​​ That we would not crumble, that we would not give up, that we do not put in the surrender flag when the enemy comes and tries to give us bad news.

But we’re going to see in our story even now what Jehoshaphat responds with. And so we will see that he inquires of the Lord. We’re moving on in our scriptures, and this is verses three and four, “Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek Him.” Wow he was alarmed, he did for a moment have to take a step back. This is big news. This is serious. We got to look at what’s happening here. And so he, as the leader over Israel, makes a very important decision. He resolved himself, and we need some people with a little resolve in this place. He resolved himself firmly on the course of action that would be taken for Judah. What did he decide to do? “We’re not moving. Nobody’s moving. Don’t make any changes yet we are going to inquire of God,” He was going to seek an answer from the Lord and he was calling everybody in Israel, “don’t make a move, don’t make a decision, don’t even say anything about what your conclusion is about the news that’s about to take place. We’re going to ask God, we’re going to seek the Lord and we’re going to ask Him what He thinks” This is the challenge for Christian households. Wherever you live and whoever you live with, somebody is going to have to rise up and say we are going to stand for what is right, we are not going to panic. We are going to put the Lord first. We’re going to open up our Bible. We’re going to pray, we’re going to worship God and we’re going to do whatever it takes, to seek the face of the Lord. Who here will rise up and say, “It doesn’t matter whatever everybody else is doing, it doesn't matter where anybody else’s faith is. I know that my faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ and He will deliver me; For He has sent His son to die for me and I have courage in the fact that Jesus loves me and gave His life for me. I will seek Him, and He will tell me how to win the battle.”

We seek the wisdom of the Lord this day. Now Jehoshaphat didn’t seek the generals. He did not seek out his advisors and I know that that would be the sensible thing to do. That’s what many of us probably would do. We would go to the experts, we would check out “What does Google say about this? What does WebMD say about this sickness?” And we go to everybody else, we seek every answer out in the world except the one that God wants to give. But this day, would you ask God, what do you want me to do with this? What do I do? How do I face this devil? How do I face this giant? Will you give the word? Is it going to be prayer? Is it going to be fasting? What should I do? Who should I tell? Who should I ask Lord? And God will give you the answer that you need. We do not seek comfort anywhere else, but Jehoshaphat went straight to the Lord. Verse 13, if you have it open, your Bible says that “No one is exempt from this, all the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord.” And so when he called everyone there he meant everyone. And sometimes when we’re seeking out God, we forget that our children are still held accountable to God, every man will have to give an account one day for their actions and what they have done in His sight. Bring your children to the church. Bring your children to the presence of God, bring the people who can listen to the feet of the Lord and inquire of God. This is the standard for Christian households - This is the standard for the church. Nobody can be left in a room with a closed door, nobody can be left with their headphones and still watching TV when the rest of the family is praying. It is for all of us to go and put the work in. You’re not exempt, he pulled them all from all places of Judah, Jerusalem and Israel. Come that we may seek the Lord.

And our pastors have done the same for us; they’ve called us and brought us, some of us kicking and screaming, but they have brought us all to the presence of God that we may seek the Lord, that we speak His deliverance, and that we may seek His answer this day. I’ll never forget as a child getting off the bus with my sister, my mom waiting for us and I’m like “Oh, what has she got?” She said come on, get a snack cause we’re about to pray. And so there in our living room, we went through really praying, laying on of hands, blowing the shofar (I will never forget), and falling prostrate before God, right in our living room. And this was a regular Wednesday afternoon, all before dinner on a regular day. She said we were going to pray for our family, “We have some work to do guys and so take off your book bags, let’s go get your stuff away. We’re going to do the homework later. Come in as we seek the Lord.” You see, you can do it. There are no instructions. Seek out the Lord this day and He will give you the answer. Prayer is the answer to release those powers. God is going to allow you to dispatch angels to be able to fight for you, to give the message of God to open up your ears. There are prayer teams in this church who are fighting it for you, to break those strongholds in your life and over your family’s life, that your ears would be open and attentive to be able to hear God. There is power in prayer, there is power in fasting. You see, prayer is a sign of submission. It is a sign of humility and we already spoke - we know how much the world hates humility. We understand that, because to them it’s a sign of weakness. But for you, you know that prayer is the power of God. It’s how we get things done. My friends, prayer is the currency of heaven.

And so we humble ourselves before the Lord, putting our trust in Him. I want you to think of this man as a king. I want you to think of his responsibility over his nation. What are the other things that he could’ve done other than seek out prayer? He really could’ve been saying, immediately, well the enemy is here, women and children, let’s get them out of here. He could’ve been having his advisors write a paper saying we’re going to give up land; a peace agreement, a treaty of some sort. Isn’t that the logical thing to do? But not for the people of God. We do not trust in our own wisdom. We do not do the things that the world does, but instead he sought God in prayer. Prayer is your power, prayer is where you meet with God, prayer is where He’s going to give the answer, prayer is the delivery for His people. We have to come to the place that stops trusting everything else, we’ve got to put it away. The job is not going to save you. Your savings account is not going to save you. The 401k is not going to do it, the intelligence, the degrees - Everything else that we trust in is not going to save you when it’s all said and done, but we must come with a feeling and with the heart of humility before God. Those who are meek; that’s who God is going to save this day. If you want your battle to be won, if you want God to fight for you this day, it is through the one who is humbly coming before God that puts out their hands and says I surrender to you Lord, I can’t do it. I am humble before you God.

Jehoshaphat comes and we can read in verse 12 if you have it, open your Bibles - This is exactly what he is saying, he’s really saying no one can rescue me. No one can help me, only You. And he says, “Our God, will You not judge them? Won’t You get them for me? We have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. What are we going to do? We do not know but our eyes are on you.” And so this is a king, this is a person of military might, this is a person of wealth. And there he says and speaks his humility for all of us to learn today. Lord, will You not help us? I can do nothing. I have no power against this army. And so as we face our giants, even today there’s nothing in our own strength and power that we are able to do to overcome or to overpower them. But God, but God in His strength, God in His mighty army, God will do it for you. He delivers us this day. And so we come to a place of complete surrender in the story. We see that Jehoshaphat is ready and he is ready, my friends, to receive the answer from God.

And so it says the Spirit of the Lord came on Jaziel and he prophesied the Lord’s answer to the people. He is ready to receive the battle plan. Church, I have a question for you today. Are you ready to receive the battle plan? God is about to give His answer for you, that you would trust in Him, and He would deliver you. Verse 15, “He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’”

Hallelujah, you will not have to fight this battle. He will fight for you this day. Every battle in the Bible had not been fought in the same way. He gives specific directions every time we face a new obstacle in our lives, but this day I have no doubt in my mind that this is the timely word of God. The Lord has spoken a word for you this day and I pray that you would receive it. The battle is not yours, but it is God’s. You will not have to fight this battle, God will do it for you. For the Lord has spoken; He is Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of heaven‘s armies, and He sends His armies to fight for you this day. You need only to stand firm and see, and watch the hand of the deliverance of your God.

Now, I worked for the army - some of you guys are aware - and during that time I was able to see a lot of army colleges. And in those places, in every single military service, they would have war colleges. And they would actually teach people the art of war. You can get a degree, a bachelor's degree in the art of war. And so in those places, they would teach people how to ambush, like seize another nation, how to attack their enemy through surprise or through confusing them.

And so I can see even in this battle, Jehoshaphat was a military expert, and yet he did not seek any of the military plans. Not any of his own wisdom. He understood the threat that was about to come against him, he knew that they were about to annihilate and completely destroy his people. And even then he was not going to rise against them in his own might - in his own military power. He trusted in his Lord, even though they were outnumbered and overpowered. Now I ask you even this day, how many of you would’ve been overpowered had God not saved you in the past, God has rescued us time and time again. We had called upon His name and He has answered us. He has delivered us. He has spared our life when we have faced the flames - we have faced arrows. When the enemy has come to take you out, God has been the one to rescue. Amen, Hallelujah. There is a war at hand. And God is giving us the victory. He is giving the battle plan. Maybe you thought it was going to be more elaborate this day, but this day the instructions are simple from the Lord. You need only to trust in God, you need only to have faith in Him. Would you rise up even judging your heart now? Lord, can my eyes focus not on the enemy? You see, I know who my enemy is, but more importantly, we know who our savior is. We know the Lord Jesus Christ, and we know that He is the strong right arm of God. He was the one who went to the cross and defeated our enemies by crucifying Himself and then raising again. He is our deliverer. And so we see our enemy, but we know that we see God and our eyes are upon Him.

As we come to this end of the story this day, we see that it is going to culminate in a great victory. It is the praise that we give. It is the praise of victory. It is the shout of victory that we even gave today. And so read with me verse 21, “After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat 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, for His love endures forever.”

Give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever. This is the battle cry of the people of God! You see Jehoshaphat didn’t see the battle won already. He was walking to the battle line and he decided to put singers at the front of the army and they would go forth singing and declaring the praises of God, and they would sing to the Lord, not because they saw the victory. but because they had faith this day. Our battle cry, our shout of victory is by faith, knowing that it is already done, hallelujah. It is already done.

Jehoshaphat leads the people in confidence, not of himself, not of his military power, not something that he already saw, but he was putting his singers there to say we will worship God based on who we know that He is. And friends, there is more power in that than you could ever imagine. They sang to Him, Praise the Lord, give thanks to God for His love endures forever. You see, that is the character of God. Who will trust in the character of God this day, give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever, His love is ahead of me, His love is behind me, His love is before me in all directions. It has surrounded me. It has lifted me out of the darkness. He has taken me out of the kingdom of darkness and brought me into the kingdom of light. His light and His love will deliver me from all enemies. No enemy could withstand the love of God; it already was proven on the cross that it couldn’t hold Him down. It was defeated on the cross, when He rose again, His love went to that cross. And His love was demonstrated for both you and for me.

“What thing of your past could separate you from the love of God?”

What army? What devil? What distraction? What curse? What thing of your past could separate you from the love of God? And you see, when they sang that song, when they began to praise Him, it was not based on something that they saw already won - They just knew it, that God had already done it, it is a matter of faith. My friends, this day, I’m calling you to walk, to walk for the battle belongs to the Lord and He is giving the victory. My family will serve the Lord, I will serve the Lord, I will be fruitful in His kingdom. My church will shine forth in a dark place, and we will bring many souls out of darkness and bring them into His wonderful light. He crushes our enemies. And so as they begin to praise, this is verse 23, “The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.” So really what that means is that when they began to sing, that the enemies began to destroy one another. They literally slaughtered each other until not one of them was left. And so the army of the Lord is marching through past the army and as soon as they look they see that not one of the enemies was there to fight, they did not even lift a sword. They did not lift a spear for the battle belonged to the Lord. It took them 3 days to pick up the plunder; The treasures, the blessings are all ours in the name of Jesus. This is our time church. This is the time of victory and I know that the Lord gave all of us this word this day.

I have no doubt in the timeliness of God decreeing this thing for you. We have not been able to maybe overtake these enemies in the past, but God is coming forward, this is your time of victory. We know that through the scripture we learned today that we must start with that heart like Jehoshaphat. Would you take the time to prepare your heart for the victory? That He would say to you, “I want to take the place of number one in your life, I want to be your number one. Because I have given My life for you and you have been My number one. I have given you everything, all that I own, all that God has given Me, all authority. All powers are Mine, but I share them with you. Everything that I am, everything that I have belongs to you and I share My reward with you this day.” And so we put God as the priority of our heart. We give Him that power this day. And so we know who our enemy is, but more importantly we know who God is. We trust in the character of the Lord this day, who will be faithful to overcome our enemies on our behalf. That you would be free, free to worship Him, free to exalt Him, that you would be honored in the house of God this day.