Confidence in Leadership
Tom Shrader examines the development of confident leadership through King Jehoshaphat's response to crisis in 2 Chronicles 20. When faced with a vast enemy army, Jehoshaphat demonstrates the pattern of alarm followed by prayer and trust in God's sovereignty. Shrader emphasizes that true confidence comes not from human strength but from understanding that the battle belongs to the Lord, resulting in peace even amid overwhelming circumstances.
“The Christian life should not have you all bound up and in bondage and so tight - I don't know of a more freeing life than the Christian life.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Studies in Leadership
Recorded: February 20, 2003
Duration: 42 min
Themes: leadership, confidence, prayer, trust, crisis, humility, faithfulness, vision, facing overwhelming challenges, leading through crisis, pastor, elder, mentor, new to leadership, struggling with fear, church leader
Scripture: 2 Chronicles 17, 2 Chronicles 18, 2 Chronicles 19, 2 Chronicles 20, Romans 8:28, 1 Corinthians 10, Proverbs 29:18, Ephesians 1:6, Philippians 1:6
Theological Themes: sovereignty of god, divine authority, servant leadership, biblical leadership, providence, spiritual warfare, prayer life, godly character
Full Transcript
This is a study in leadership, looking at different aspects we would want to find in a leader. Probably the first two weeks, you were taken a little off guard because those are not qualities or characteristics typically associated with leadership. The first week, we looked at humility. Typically, I don't think along that line in a leader. Not only is that important in a leader, that's important in a servant leader.
Let me make that distinction that when we talk about leadership, we're not talking about some authoritative, dictatorial approach. We're talking about servant leadership. Part of servant leadership is that characteristic of humility. The second week, we talked about loyalty or faithfulness. Last week, we talked about a characteristic that you would expect to see in most leaders, and that is vision. You expect to get some sense of that vision thing. Today, we talk about confidence.
Defining Confidence
Let me give you Webster's definition of confidence. Faith or belief that one will act in a right, proper, or effective way, a relationship of trust or intimacy. For me to presume that I can improve on Webster is silly, but the one thing I might do for our discussion is change the word "or" to the word "and," and try to string all of these things together. So I'd read this way: Faith and belief that one will act in a right and proper and effective way, a relationship of trust and intimacy. That's what we as leaders would want to have as we want to have confidence of those around us.
We measure that in all sorts of ways. We talk about consumer confidence. Consumer confidence is high or we're coming in a time of potential conflict with Iraq. Therefore, things are unstable. We'll see stocks fluctuate huge amounts over a couple of pennies in the dividends that they'll pay.
Crisis in Leadership
When we talk about leaders, we talk about a crisis in leadership. I made these notes and tucked them away because I knew they fit in this area. I've been hauling these around in this file for a long time. In 1992, that's 10 years ago, when George Bush was running for re-election, George Will wrote this: that George Bush is the president least deserving re-election since Andrew Johnson. Now that takes you back to 1868 and a president who was impeached.
At the same time in that election, he was saying that Clinton is the worst thing that's happened to the Democratic Party since, and I forget who he used, it was nominated in the 103rd ballot. We're talking about confidence. There was, if you remember that election at all, a lot of concern about confidence in leadership. George Bush had made the comment, "read my lips" and taxes, and it raised taxes, fundamental error. But went ahead and said, "I don't get the vision thing." So now we're confused there. Then Clinton, he had all the baggage that, there's so many people say, "oh, I didn't know that about him." We all knew, we all knew that about him. What are you talking about? I called that wrong. I said when people got in and finally voted, I just thought they'd say, "well, gee, we got to go with the known quantity," but we didn't. But confidence, we talk about it in a variety of ways.
Our Outline
Let me take you through the outline, because some of you will have a cow if we don't get this part done. Point A will be Jehoshaphat. That's our model for the day. He is the development of confidence. So we'll see how his confidence is developed. B will be the test of confidence. Lastly, and very quickly, the lifestyle of confidence. We see the development of confidence. We see it come very clearly in Jehoshaphat's life.
Jehoshaphat: Model of Developing Confidence
He was one of the kings of Israel. Israel was actually led by judges, but they wanted to be like the rest of the world. They wanted a king, so that kingly line begins with Saul in 1050 BC, and then David and Solomon, on down to Asa, and then in 870 BC, Jehoshaphat becomes a king.
If you have your Bibles, we're going to be there, 2 Chronicles. My sense would be you probably weren't there last night in your private time. So it's toward the front, if you want to look. Let me give you a little bit about him in this idea of the development of leadership. In 2 Chronicles, Chapter 17, he comes on the scene as the king. He's a man of great personal strength, financial strength, spiritual strength.
In the Old Testament, oftentimes, obedience and prosperity were linked together. In fact, God, in a sense, had made a promise to Israel that went like this: if you obey me, I'll prosper you. Now, I don't believe that that promise is for you and me today. You will see these charlatans on TV who will be trying to sell you that. They'll be living in the Old Testament. But, by and large, what they're doing is taking out of context promises that were made to Israel and trying to say they apply to you and me, which they don't. Although, we may, in fact, experience some level of prosperity, what we have promised is spiritual prosperity for sure. As long as they were obedient, they would prosper. In fact, Jehoshaphat was.
Jehoshaphat's Alliance with Ahab
In 2 Chronicles, Chapter 18, he decides to associate himself with this guy by the name of Ahab. Now, Ahab is a bad dude. As bad as Ahab is, his wife is worse. What's her name? Jezebel. We know we got to watch out for Jezebel. Here's the deal. Ahab wants to go to war with this other country. He convinces Jehoshaphat to join forces with him. Jehoshaphat is leery about this, so he says, "don't you have prophets," because that's what they would
God was speaking through prophets in that day. He said, "Don't you have prophets?" Ahab replied, "I've got 400 prophets, and they're great prophets." "Well, what makes them great?" "They always tell me what I want to hear. If I say go to war, they'll ask what I think we ought to do. I'll say I think we ought to go, and they'll say they think I should too."
"Don't you have a true prophet?" "Well, I've got one guy that bothers me, because every time he tells me something, it's not what I want to hear." So they brought him in. They told him about the war, and he said, "You can go to war. You'll be victorious. But here's the deal - the king is going to be killed."
Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "Listen, I've got a deal for you. I want you to be king for a day. I'm not going to give you a lot of authority or power, but for a day, will you be the king?" Ahab dressed up like a private. They fought the battle, and the enemy would not kill anyone. Finally, in frustration, they were defeated. One of their soldiers, frustrated, fired an arrow into the air. It sailed through the air, as it were randomly, although divinely directed by God. It hit right where the armor links together, pierced Ahab's chest, and killed him.
Jehoshaphat learned a valuable lesson in this process. In 2 Chronicles Chapter 19, here's this loving, disciplined, wise, organized, strategic kind of king who's saying, "Here's what God wants me to do." That's the development of this man.
The Need for Leadership Development
So often, my fear is that we want leaders, but we don't really allow them time to develop. You need to let people have time to grow. People change, and we need to understand that. We need to be sympathetic to that, wise as we deal with relationships and all those things. But people are in process. That's the development of it.
The Test of Jehoshaphat's Leadership
Now, here's the test of Jehoshaphat's leadership, and we want to apply it to you. If you have your Bible, turn to 2 Chronicles Chapter 20. Here's the challenge: After this time of prosperity and nurturing and growing, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and some of the Menuhites want to make war on Jehoshaphat. Now, you all live in the rich part of town. Out where I live, I'm a hill billy out in Gilbert. In Gilbert, we spray for these things, these bites. But you don't here.
Some men came to him and said, "A vast army is coming against you." There's the challenge.
Your Personal Challenge
Here's where you're going to have to do your part on today's lesson. I don't have the foggiest idea what that vast army is that's coming at you. It's maybe an army that came a week ago. It maybe came today, or maybe it's going to come in the next week or so. But something is coming against you - some challenge, some problem, some difficulty, some opportunity.
It may be a major client that moves away. Maybe a job promotion. It may be that Arthur Anderson's been doing your books. It may be a spouse that goes south, a friend. I don't know what it is. Something's going to come. There's going to be that moment in your life where somebody comes in and they either declare it or you just instinctively know it. There is a challenge coming to you.
The Right Response to Crisis
Look at his reaction. It's verse 3 and 4. I'm going to give you a second to read it on your own, those of you that have it, and I'll read it to the rest of you: "Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and He proclaimed a fast for all of Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek Him."
There is something in there that is so good. I mean, it is so practical, so good. Take a second. Those of you that have that word in front of you, look at it. See if you spot it.
The challenge comes. The word comes. He is alarmed. He has an emotional reaction. Haley's always got different phrases. Haley's got great ways of saying things, and she would say at this point, "He's sweating his pits out." He's alarmed. That's a natural reaction.
The Key to Spiritual Maturity
But look at what happens. He resolves to inquire of the Lord. Here you go: When stuff comes into your life - that army, that blank that you filled in a minute ago - when that stuff comes into your life, you're going to be alarmed. There's going to be a flinch. If somebody jumps out from behind a tree and says "Boo!" you're going to jump. You're going to have natural reactions.
If you get a call and the call says, "Listen, we're downsizing and starting with you," you're going to have a reaction. If you get a call - I mean, it's so cold now. Last night the phone rang and it was somebody. Susan had gone to the doctor, I think on Monday, and it's, "I'm calling for Susan Schrader. I'm calling on behalf of your doctor. I'm calling for Susan Schrader. This is the code and you need to plug this in."
This is so cold, and I keep telling her whenever they call like that, I said they're not going to say, "Well, you got three weeks to live." I'm not going to do that. I guess I should have probably asked her if she was okay. I guess she was, because I assumed she was. They're not going to call you with bad news.
But let's say they call you and they say there's a spot on the x-ray. It's got a spot on the line and it doesn't look good. Not only does it not look good, we just don't think it's going to work very well. I expect you to have a reaction. Got no problem with that.
Here's the key. This is the mark of spiritual maturity: What's the time lag between when you're alarmed and you resolve to inquire of the Lord? I'm not trying to deny you of your human reaction. You're human beings. We're humans. We're going to flinch. But how long before we gather ourselves and we go to the Lord?
Go ahead and have that reaction, but you need perspective. You need last week's lesson vision. Proverbs 29:18: without vision people perish. That doesn't mean clear strategic thinking in a 10-year plan. It means without the Word of God, without soundness. How do you, when you're alarmed, settle your heart? When you're all excited and you're looking for duct tape, how do you relax and catch a breath in the midst of all that?
I think this stuff does apply because I look at that and listen to Tom Ridge. Great news - yesterday I've been without television for 10 days. Yesterday the Cox guy comes in the morning. He comes when I'm not there and says to Susan, "I'm here to install the phone." She said, "That's great. What about the computer?" He said, "I don't have an order for the computer." She said, "Well, I ordered the computer too." He said, "All right." She said, "What about the TV?" He said, "I don't have an order for the TV." She said, "Let me tell you something. At 4:30 he's going to be here tonight to watch Seinfeld. If you guys put these in order, you better do the TV first and then the computer. He couldn't care less about this phone."
That guy was there from 8:30 until 3:45 yesterday, but that's his job, so let's not throw him any sympathy. The point is I got a television. That's the point in this whole thing. I watched a little Oprah so I can feel everything relaxed.
Finding Perspective in Times of Alarm
I watched Tom Ridge and he says you need to get a room and you need to get the duct tape and put plastic on it. If you're new to the valley, let me help you out here. If it's July and you duct tape yourself into a room, the least of your problems are chemicals. You're going to die. It's hot. I don't want to make light of this stuff, but you know, whatever it is, it is. I mean use your head, be prepared, get some water, get batteries and all that kind of stuff.
But you know what? I can't imagine being all tied up in your shorts over this thing. It just is. If they're going to lob one of these dogs in here, I hope they hit square at my house when I'm sitting in it. That's the way it is. Now it's not going to necessarily be that - no likelihood for you. It's going to be that blank that you filled in. There's a time of alarm, but there's a time when you resolve to go for the vision. Where you find the vision is in God's Word. God's going to tell you what to do or God's going to give you principles on how to act wisely.
The Petition - Jehoshaphat's Prayer
Now you resolve. There's the reaction. Now here's the petition. I feel badly for those of you that don't have a Bible in front of you and we don't have a capacity here to do the overheads, but let me just read it to you. Jehoshaphat stands up and prays. Here's what he prays:
"Oh Lord God of our fathers, are You not the king who's in heaven, who rule over all the kingdoms of the nation? Power and might are in Your hand and no one can withstand You. Oh God, did You not drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to them forever? Have they not lived in it, build a sanctuary for Your name, saying if calamity comes upon us whether it's by the sword of judgment or plague or famine, we will stand in Your presence before this temple, Your name in the temple that bears Your name, and will cry out to You in our distress and You will hear us and save us?"
Listen, if you're one of those people - and one of the easiest ways to throw guilt on a Christian is to say this: "How's your prayer life?" Because you'll find guys and they'll say, "I'm spending hours in the Word." "How's your prayer life?" "Probably not very good."
A Pattern for Prayer
Here's a little pattern for it - that old acrostic ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. He starts with this prayer that just says, "Oh God our God, didn't You drive the inhabitants out of the land? You're the God who's in heaven." We begin to thank Him for what He's done and who He is.
First Corinthians 10: Paul's writing to these people at Corinth. He said, "Remember what happened to your forefathers. Remember what's going on here." God's past record provides us the confidence to live in the present and face the future. He says look at what He did. They took it, went out in the desert to meet people. They didn't have any resources and He feeds them. He gives them water. He gives them provision. He's going to take care of you now.
I love the way this prayer ends, verse probably 12: "For we have no power to face this army that's attacking us." Listen to this prayer - you don't hear this prayer from a leader very often: "And we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on You."
Honest Leadership in Crisis
Here you go. Now let's try to tie it together. What we've got in this first 15 minutes: you've got this thing that's attacking you, you're alarmed, now you begin to respond, now you begin to pray openly and honestly. How do you survive in the midst of this? Well, you don't know what to do. That's okay. It's okay to say "I don't know what to do." There's nothing wrong with that.
I watched the other night before I lost my cable - I watched the Democratic presidential candidates gathering. You've got Carol Moseley Braun and you've got Dick Gephardt and all these other guys. I just know there'll be all these debates and they'll ask them questions. I absolutely guarantee you will never hear this answer: "I don't know." I wish one wanted to say, "I don't know. Yeah, I need it." That's a good one. There's something to me about honestly saying "I don't know."
So now you're sitting, you don't know. Here you go. I don't do much counseling now because we have staff people basically to do it, but I do. If I do it, it's rarely - I mean it's a session. Here's what I try to do when those armies are attacking and you're trying to figure out. I try to say this: "Okay, think about this now. Tell me about your life as a Christian. Tell me about your family. Tell me about what God's done in your life." I try to get...
The person talking needs to say, "Here's what I've seen God do. God's done this and God's done that." Oh man, I never—I forgot about it. And then He did this. And then my question now is, what He did in the past—is it bigger than what you're asking Him to do right now? Don't you think He's going to take care of this now?
He gives us wisdom. He gives us wisdom so we got to figure things out, but this is about trusting Him. And that's how he prays.
God's Answer to Jehoshaphat's Prayer
Now he gets the answer. This is a great answer. Here you go—if you're sitting here, you got your pencil out, you're already going, "Okay, the army's coming. I got my petition. I need an answer. What's the answer?"
Here's His answer. Second Chronicles 20, verse 14: the Spirit of the Lord comes upon one of the prophets. He stands up. He says, "Listen, King Jehoshaphat. Listen to everybody that lives in Jerusalem. This is what the Lord says for you to do." Ready? "Do not be afraid or discouraged."
Yeah, I want to plan. What do you—do not be afraid? Do I just—and they go ahead and... When I'm fearful, I'm usually discouraged. When I'm discouraged, I'm most often afraid.
Now don't be afraid and discouraged. Why? Because there's no real problem? No, there's a real problem. There's an enemy coming. Because you're so strong? Here you go: because don't be afraid or discouraged because of this army—the battle's not yours, it's God's.
The Best Counseling Advice You'll Ever Get
I'm going to give you right now the best counseling advice you can get, whether it's for free or 150 bucks an hour. I'm giving you the best counseling advice you're going to get: "Why so downcast, O my soul? Put your trust in God."
I had a guy—I got a call one day, and this guy says, "You don't know me," and then he dropped like five big names of people that I would know. Oh yeah, so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so. And I said, "Yeah, I read the paper. I know who they are."
He said, "Well, you know, I want you to know something. I'd like to meet with you." He said, "I've listened—here you go—I've listened to all of your tapes." There's no way, but I let this go. I figure he's under duress. So I said, "Really? You know, I've listened to them all." I said, "Okay." And he said, "We need to meet. I need help." And I said, "Okay. Well, let's—why don't you swing by and we'll get together."
We get together. We go in, and I did not—I mean, I will periodically use a little hyperbole, okay, but this is—I'm not. Okay, why did I disappoint you with that? And this is not hyperbole. I walked in and I said, "How you doing? I'm Tom, how you doing?" And he said, "Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink?" And I said, "No." And he started.
And he talked literally for 60 minutes. He didn't stop. I didn't stop. I didn't ask a question. I didn't ask anything. Business was in trouble. Business is failing. Other business succeeding. Problems with his wife. Problems with his mistress. His daughter, I think, was a lesbian, or her son was gay. His daughter, I think, was a lesbian, or her son was gay. One was on drugs. I mean, it was whatever—whatever it was, this guy had it going on.
Literally for 60 minutes. He'd cry a little bit. He'd talk a little bit. He'd cry a little bit. Then he stopped and he said, "What do you think?" And I said to him, "I don't even know the question, but I do know that Jesus is the answer."
The Problem with Cultural Christianity
Then he was one of these church guys that called himself a Christian, but is no more Christian than this thing right here. That's what we got going on. You got a nation—we got 120, 130, 140 million Christians? There's no way. There's no way.
I've shared with you before, and you all know this—my favorite story because I've asked hundreds of people, "You're a Christian?" And my favorite answer is a guy who said, "Not in the biblical sense." Now why I like that—I like that because it gets a laugh, and I like it because it makes me laugh. But I like it because it illustrates a point, and the point is this: he considered himself a Christian.
Said another way, he would have said, "Yes, I'm a Christian, but not as the Bible speaks of it." Let me help you out here. If you're not a Christian as the Bible defines it, you're not a Christian at all.
What's the Bible say a Christian is? The Bible doesn't say, "Well, a Christian's a good husband or a good father, a good mom or good friend." It says a Christian is somebody who acknowledged that Jesus is Lord and believed that God raised Him from the dead. A Christian is somebody who understands that their sin has separated them from God, and there is a gulf so big that there's nothing any person or church or individual or group can do to bridge that gap—that we're saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it's a gift from God, that we would not boast.
What he meant was, "I'm a Christian in my own terms, or in what my church defines as Christian." I don't care what your church defines. It's irrelevant. What does the Bible say?
The Battle Belongs to the Lord
If I'm a Christian, then all of a sudden what I understand is that I don't have to be afraid because the battle is His. Romans 8:28: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good," and everybody goes, "Yes!" We're not done reading yet. "And we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose."
See, if you're not a biblical Christian, then it isn't going to work out for you. I hate to break the bad news to you, but it ain't going to work out for you.
We've said this to you many times: if you're not a Christian, this right now, here, this life is as close to heaven as you're ever going to get. If you're a Christian, this is as close to hell as you're ever going to be.
See, if you're not a Christian, don't you be drawn comfort from this. You should be afraid. You should be discouraged, and the battle's yours. Good luck.
See, this is written to us. It's not written to them. Number two: that guy that's out there trying to plug away on his own, doing the best he can, kind of darkens a church door at Christmas and Easter and maybe a wedding or a funeral and one other time through the year—9/11 or something—he'll come around. That's not what it's about. It's about a person who...
knows Christ in a personal way and once I do I have no reason to be afraid. I'll be alarmed. I'm going to duck. But once I stop that and as I grow and as I mature, the time gap between my natural response to seeking the Lord begins to shrink.
And so he begins to pray and he gets an answer. Let me go back to the beginning. I don't know what you started with. I don't know what you said at the beginning, but this is the army. This is the problem. This is the challenge. This is what's attacking me right now.
I know whatever it was, if you're a Christian you go to the Lord, you pray about it. You trust Him, you try to gain wisdom. You try to gain insight. You're going to find that in His word. You're going to find it from people who know Christ in a personal way. And then don't be afraid, don't be discouraged.
The Strategy: Praise Before Battle
You need a strategy. You probably don't want the one he uses here. Here's the strategy he uses.
In verses 20 and 21, they're ready to go to battle. Early in the morning they leave for the desert. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, Judah and the people of Jerusalem. Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld. Have faith in his prophets and you'll be successful." 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 to the head of the army, singing "Give thanks to the Lord, for His love endures forever."
Now I doubt this is the strategy Donald Rumsfeld's getting ready to use. I doubt he said get the glee club, put him in the front and have him sing. But that's what he did. Apparently he said when they hear your voice, when they hear this music, it's going to kill him. So maybe you've been to this church he's talking about right here. There's the strategy.
His Love Endures Forever
Let me spend time on it. "Give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever." Do you hear what this says? It doesn't say your love for Him endures forever, though it will if you're a believer. Here's about His love. Couldn't we get to the point where we understand your life isn't about you? It's about Him. His love endures forever.
Romans chapter 8, the very verse that we looked at: "And we know God causes all things to work together for good who love Him and called according to His purpose." And then He says, "Listen, all of those that He called, He justified. All those He justified, He sanctified. All those He sanctified, He glorified. What can separate us from the love of Christ?" And it's not height, not depth, no other created thing. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.
That's what he's singing about. His love endures forever. If you're one of His kids, not by natural birth but by being born again, if you've come to Him in repentance and faith, nothing can separate you from Him. That's a little comfort in the midst of a trial and tribulation.
Freedom in Christ
It's not about you. It's about Him. Nothing can separate you from God's love for you. No height, no death, no any other created thing. And in one of my Bibles I've written "Tom Schrader can't even separate myself from God's love" because He who began a good work, Philippians 1:6, He began a good work will continue until the day of Christ Jesus. That's the promise that you have.
So you're sitting here and you're all uptight and here you come, you're in that alarm stage. Relax. Take a breath. Go to Him, pray. He'll give you a strategy, trust Him.
I don't know most of you at all, but I can tell you this: I know what God wants from you. He wants you to obey Him. And the way that you obey Him is you trust Him. In fact, that'd be a catchy little song: "Trust and Obey." Catchy little way to go about this. He wants you to trust Him and obey Him. If He says do it, do it. If He says stay away from it, stay away from it, and then use godly principles the best you can to make decisions the way that you want to do it.
This Christian life should not have you all bound up and in bondage and so tight. I don't know of a more freeing life than the Christian life. Because God says this: here you go. If the Bible says do it, do it. If it says stay away from it, stay away from it. Everything else, you do whatever you want to do. There's a lot of freedom there, man.
You don't have to be like me. I don't have to be like you. We don't have to be like each other. We don't have to judge each other's brains out about lifestyle and whether you smoke a cigar or go to a movie or have a drink. You figure it out. You can be here today and smoke a cigar and be okay. Ladies, it doesn't look good on you, but you get the drift. Or you can be here today and smoke a cigar and not be okay, or go to a movie. What's your conscience say? In these areas of freedom, it's a very freeing life.
The Victory: God Fights for His People
There's the strategy. Let me give you the close here. Here's the victory. God gives this victory.
Verses 22 to 28: they begin singing and praising, and now the Lord set an ambush against the people who are coming against them. There's three tribes. They begin shooting. They're killing each other. There's one tribe left. It begins shooting its own men. And they're slaughtering all these others. The men of Judah, hear this, they never fired a shot.
The men of Judah came to this place that overlooks the desert. They look down and they see only dead bodies lying on the ground. No one escaped. By the way, if you're sitting here and saying, "Oh, this is just a little," I believe this is a true story. I don't believe that you read this, though, and say this is now the pattern for warfare. This isn't about Jehoshaphat. This is about God and His provision. This is how great He provides. You don't think He can fire an arrow in the air, and it hits this guy right now? Sure. That's the kind of God that you serve.
Everybody's dead. So look what happens. Jehoshaphat and the men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them great amounts of equipment and clothing and articles of value, more than they can carry away.
so much plunder, it took them three days to get it away. This looked like one of the riots in L.A. They're hauling off VCRs, microwaves, clothes, three days of this, just hauling it off. All the equipment, all the stuff, and they take it back. They assemble together, and they begin to praise God.
This is about God's victory. I'm telling you, when that enemy comes against you, and you're alarmed, you gather yourself, you petition Him, you pray, He begins to work, and you will see in your life victory. And that victory may mean that the circumstances don't change a lick, that you stay right in the middle of your problem. That's okay.
The promise here is not, I've got a problem, God takes it away. The promise is, you've got a problem, a challenge, an opportunity, and God comes alongside more frequently, and just joins you in the midst of this.
The Visible Difference: Peace in God's Presence
In fact, the last point, the result is that there is this visible difference. The fear of the Lord comes upon all the kingdoms of all the countries, and they heard how the Lord has fought against the enemies. And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given Him rest on every side.
There's the promise you have. I'm telling you, you come to Christ in repentance and faith, and you live for Him, here's one of the things you're going to experience. Peace, not the absence of turmoil, but the presence of God. Listen, you can be sitting in peace in the midst of the most overwhelming circumstances.
You can be going to the doctor, and he's saying, listen, you aren't going to make it, and you've got peace. I've sat with a guy, a couple of years ago, I sat with a guy, and the doctor is there right before I came in, and he said to him, when you go to sleep, you're going to die. You're not going to make it through the night. When you go to sleep, you will die. Your body is done, your body's whipped. You're going to die when you go to sleep.
I came in right after that. I know people that'd be wiping and crying, and the family, tearing. You know what the guy was doing? Laughing, happy as can be. I called the next morning, I said, how'd he, when'd he die, and he said, he stayed up all night, he's still awake. He was awake the whole night, and sure enough, about 10 that morning, he went to sleep, and once he went to sleep, his body just shut down. See, that's peace. It's not the absence of all of this, it's the presence of God in the midst of these. That's the promise you have.
Four Keys to Confident Leadership
Well, some of you are a little nervous, because there's five minutes left, and you're looking at those blanks, and saying, how are we going to get them in? You're a little tight, a little upset. You didn't hear this, you're alarmed, but you haven't gone to the Lord in prayer yet. Here we go, we'll get them to you fast.
Number one, this is a lifestyle. He practiced righteous living. It's so important to see that. The man that surfaces in this crisis was a man that already was in place. When somebody says to you, golf is a great character builder, that is not true. Golf's a great character revealer. That's what times do.
That's why when you see it, you take, and I'm doing some presidential stuff, but you take LBJ, he's so flawed that you're bound to see him not be able to handle Vietnam. Nixon, and what's his thing? I mean, the guy is so fatally flawed, and I got to spend a second on it. I hear his name, it makes me think of it. But when I say, what we're talking about is character.
When we define character, and bear with me, when we define character, we say character is what you do when nobody's looking. You got a president of the United States who's doing stuff with everybody watching. He's lied to a grand jury, and his supporters' best argument is, we don't care what he does when he's by himself. In other words, character doesn't matter. Character matters, and that's what you're going to see in crunch time.
I got to tell you, and I don't want to get into Bush and War and all that stuff, I'm really impressed with the guy. I like him way better than the old man. I mean, here's what he says, here's what he does. Boom, boom, no disconnect. Character. How do we know you got character? We're going to put a little pressure on and find out. And then when the pressure comes, the temptation comes, the challenge comes, we're going to find out what's in there.
Conventional Wisdom and Divine Intervention
Here's the second thing, he applied conventional wisdom. He was normal living. He's just studying, he's preparing, he's moving along. That's what about chapter 19's all about. Nothing extraordinary.
And then a challenge comes, number three, and then he seeks divine intervention. He petitions God. Here's what Paul gives you. Here's the advice Paul gives you. Two pieces of advice on prayer. Number one, pray without ceasing. Number two, be anxious for nothing, but pray about everything. So there's the strategy for you. Seek God's intervention.
He's willing, number four, to practice unorthodox methods. Now, as I said, there's not a school, you don't go to West Point and they say to you, put the singers in the front of the line. But he understood what God had said.
Wisdom in Unorthodox Methods
I'll give you a great example of this. The mid-80s, in the boom, I get three or four, 83, 84, when everything in real estate's exploding. I had guys all over saying, buy real estate, buy real estate, buy real estate. They're not making any more of it. If you got to leverage yourself to the hilt, you leverage yourself to the hilt. You do whatever you got to do. Buy real estate, buy real estate, buy real estate.
Now, here's the problem. I think the scripture does not say don't use debt, but the scripture says you need to be wise in these areas. If you would've followed that, you could've bought a whole boatload of real estate in 88 and 89 for cash. There are buildings around here that they built for 100 and a quarter a foot that were selling for 19 bucks a foot. If you would've not said, you know, I'm
I'm gonna gag. Well, I shouldn't say that, because one of you is, never mind. I'm gonna gag.
If I got another guy, say, "Well, I got these tax problems, and this is with my accountant. What does God's word say to you?" Just because you got a sharp tax guy that says you need all this leverage, is that the prudent thing to do? The unorthodox methods may be contrary to human wisdom, but it's godly wisdom. Godly wisdom works.
That's why, by the way, you'll see a couple who aren't Christians at all, but they've got a marriage that works. You know why? They're following godly principles, typically. Or you'll see people who don't give a rip about the scripture who have these godly kids. Why? Unknowingly, they're raising their kids by godly principles. These principles work.
Guaranteed Godly Success
Here's the last thing: He enjoyed godly success. I can promise you that if you're a follower of Christ, that if you obey Him, I can promise you, listen closely now, godly success. I can't guarantee what's gonna happen in the world. I can't guarantee whether your stock's gonna explode and split and divide. I can't guarantee whether your house is gonna sell like that for full asking price. I can't guarantee that you're gonna have health. I can guarantee you godly success.
I can guarantee you that if you love the Lord, you follow Him, you obey Him, you trust Him, you will have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. It's just going to happen. That's the deal.
The Simple Answer to Our Struggles
Why so downcast, oh my soul? Maybe you came in here today just dragging. Here's what you need: Trust in the Lord.
Now I know your response, and you're lucky because we only have 60 seconds to deal with this. Your response is, "That's so simplistic. That's so simple. I need something more profound. Give me a book. Give me a tape. Do you know a Christian counselor? Do you know who's going to..." Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know one real well. Here's what he ought to say to you: Trust in the Lord.
We need to work some of these things out. I'm not minimizing your difficulties. I'm not saying you don't have problems. I got problems, okay? I got issues. I just went 10 days without cable, okay? I got difficulties. I can relate, but you know what? It doesn't matter.
Here you go. This just popped into my head. This is a great illustration. If your stack of problems is this high, and it's overshadowed you, here's what you need. You need something to overshadow the problem, and the only thing that can overshadow the problem is the Lord Jesus Christ, and His grace, and His mercy, and His peace.
To those of you who say, "I'm sorry, that's too simple," I want you to understand something. The Christian life is a simple life. It ain't that hard to figure out. It's hard to do, but it's not hard to figure out. Halfway through this series, we'll continue next week.
Father, help us see this truth. I pray for those that are here today that are hurting, and I hope they don't think that we just glossed over some huge problem in their life. What we did was give them the only true answer. That's to know You. To those that are here that can't say that they're Christians, they might say, "I'm Christians," but not in the biblical sense, God, I pray that You'd convert them, that they'd talk to the person that invited them, or whatever it would be, and they'd find peace and comfort in You, and You alone. God, thank You. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus. We pray in His name, amen.