HOW TO WORSHIP INSTEAD OF WORRY

Worship From A to Z
Part 1
Rick Warren
June 17-18, 2006

“Go to the Lord for help and worship Him continually.” Psalm 105:4 (TEV)

WORSHIP IS...
ASKING
BELIEVING
CONFESSING
DEPENDING
EXPRESSING
FINDING

“The Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Meunites, joined forces to make war on King
Jehoshaphat. He received this intelligence report: ‘A huge force is on its way from beyond
the Dead Sea to fight you. There's no time to waste...’” 2 Chron. 20:1-2 (Mes)

ASK ________________________________________!
“Jehoshaphat was afraid, so he decided to ask the Lord what to do.” 2 Chron. 20:3 (NCV)

“The entire country of Judah united in seeking God's help — they came from all the cities to
pray to God.” 2 Chron. 20:4 (Mes)

BELIEVE ________________________________________ !
“Jehoshaphat went and stood before them and prayed aloud…” 2 Chron. 20: 5b-6a (TEV)

• REMIND MYSELF ______________________________

• REMIND MYSELF ______________________________

CONFESS __________________________________________________ !
“We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We don’t know what
to do...” 2 Chron. 20:12 (NLT)
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DEPEND ________________________________________ !
“’We don’t know what to do, BUT we are looking to You for help.’ All the men of Judah
stood before the Lord with their little ones, wives, and children.” 2 Chron. 20:12b-13 (NLT)

“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!’” 2 Chron. 20:15 (NIV)

“You won't need to fight in this battle. Just stand strong in your places, and you will see the
Lord save you.” 2 Chron. 20:17 (NCV)

EXPRESS ________________________________________ !
“Then the king chose men to be singers to the Lord, to praise him because He is holy and
wonderful. As they marched in front of the army, they said, ‘Thank the Lord, because His
love continues forever’.” 2 Chron. 20:21 (NCV)

“At the moment they began to sing and to praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon,
Moab, and Mount Seir to begin fighting among themselves, and they destroyed each other!”
2 Chron. 20:22 (LB)

FIND ________________________________________ !
“When the army of Judah arrived at the lookout point in the wilderness, there were dead
bodies lying on the ground for as far as they could see... King Jehoshaphat and his men went
out to gather the plunder. They found vast amounts of equipment, clothing, and other
valuables—more than they could carry. There was so much plunder it took them three days
just to collect it all! On the fourth day everyone gathered in the Valley of Blessing, which got
its name that day because the people praised and thanked the Lord there.”
2 Chron. 20:24-26 (NLT)

“Then, led by Jehoshaphat, all the men of Judah returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the Lord
had given them cause to rejoice ...” 2 Chron. 20:27 (NIV)

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 HOW TO WORSHIP INSTEAD OF WORRY
Worship From A to Z
Part 1
Rick Warren
June 17-18, 2006

Have you ever had one of those days when just nothing goes right? It seemed like every single
thing in your life that day just goes wrong and you go, “Let’s just go back to bed!” Brian Heise
had one of those days – a true story. Brian Heise of Provo, Utah recently had a very bad day.
First his apartment became flooded from a broken pipe in the apartment upstairs. His manager
told him to go rent a water vacuum. That’s when he discovered his car had a flat tire. He
changed it and went inside again to phone a friend for help. While he was standing in water he
got an electrical shock so bad that he accidentally ripped the phone off the wall. By the time he
was ready to leave again water damage had swelled his door jam tight and he couldn’t get out.
So he had to yell to a neighbor who came over and kicked down the door. While all this was
going on somebody stole his car. However it was out of gas so he found it a few blocks away.
But he still had to push it to a gas station. That evening he attended a military ceremony at his
university. He injured himself somehow very severely when he sat on his bayonet, which the
guy who had stolen his car had tossed in the front seat. Doctors were able to stitch up the wound
but nobody was able to resuscitate Heise’s four canaries that were crushed by falling plaster from
the wet apartment cement while he was away. When he got home he slipped on the wet carpet
and injured his tailbone. Heise began to wonder if “God wanted me dead but just kept missing.”

Have you ever had a day like that? Just a little bit overwhelmed. When you do, when you feel
overwhelmed, when you’re stressed out, when you’re at the end of the rope you’ve got one of
two alternatives. Worry or worship. You’re going to do one or the other. If you worry, you’re
not going to worship. If you worship, you’re not going to worry.

Philippians 4 “Don’t worry about anything. Instead pray about everything. Tell God what you
need and thank Him for all He has done.” The Bible says you’ve got two alternatives – worry or
worship. You can decide what you’re going to do this next week. You’re going to have
problems this next week – I guarantee you. You’re going to have problems. You’re going to
either worry or you’re going to worship.

The antidote to worry is worship. The antidote to anxiety is to adore God, to ask God. The
antidote to panic is prayer and praise.

Today we’re going to start a new series that I’m calling “Worship from A to Z.” We’re going to
take the 26 letters of the alphabet and look at different aspects of worship.

Most people when I says the word “worship” they think of music. Like “First we have the
worship, then we have the sermon.” As if worship is just music. Yes, singing is one kind of
worship. But worship is an entire lifestyle. The Bible tells us to worship God continually. You
can’t sing continually. Worship is far more than just music. Than just singing, than just praise.
Every aspect of your life can be an act of worship. Literally every aspect of your life can be an
act of worship to God. It is the first purpose of life. You were created to know and love God.
That’s called worship.
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In this series we’re going to look at what does it really mean to worship. How do I do it? Why
do I do it? What are the benefits of doing it? How can every area of my life, everything I do,
how can that become an act of worship?

Each week we’re going to look at different words. Today we’re going to look at words from A
to F. Worship is Asking, worship is Believing, worship is Confessing, it is Depending, it is
Expressing and it is Finding.

During this series I want you to do a little reading at home. Two of the pastors of our church,
Pastor Buddy Owens who’s written many of the small group curriculums that you’ve studied in
your small groups. Pastor Buddy Owens has written a book called The Way of A Worshipper.
and pastor Rick Muchow has written a little book called The Worship Answer Book. Both of
these are available out on the table in the pavilion after the service. I want you to get both of
these books and read them as your summer reading in the next four weeks. They’re short, quick
books. You can take them to the beach with you, stick them in a backpack. These books parallel
what we’re going to talk about the next four weeks and they’re written by two of our pastors.
The Way of A Worshipper and The Worship Answer Book.

The first six aspects of worship Asking, Believing, Confessing, Depending, Expressing, Finding
– can all be seen in one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It’s found in the Old Testament book
of 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. It’s the story of when three enemy nations ganged up on Israel to
defeat it, to annihilate the nation of Israel. That sounds familiar. There was a king, King
Jehoshaphat. (How would you like to be named “Jehoshaphat”? What do you call him for
short? Jo? Phatty? J-Phat? Let’s call him that.) King J-Phat’s pretty ticked. He’s pretty upset
because three enemy nations are coming against him. In this story that we’re going to look at
today we find the six aspects of worship that will eliminate worry out of your life. If you will do
what we’re going to do today you’re not going to worry. You’re going to choose worship over
worry. And it’s a whole different way of looking at worship than you’ve ever thought about.

Before we actually look at this story I want you to think in your mind of a battle you’re facing.
Can you think of something that’s really a struggle you’re facing? Maybe it’s an interpersonal
conflict. You can’t think of a battle, let me say it like this “What’s got you worried?” I want
you to get something specific in your mind that you can go, “Yeah, I’m worried about that.”
Health, finances, relationship – whatever. “I’m worried about that. Am I ever going to have a
baby? … Am I ever going to get married? … Am I ever going to get the job I want? …” What
are you worried about? Get that in your minds. Because if you will do these six things that King
J-Phat did we’re going to see a dramatic reduction of worry and a dramatic rising of peace in
your life. A to F in the A to Zs of worship.

What do you do when you’re overwhelmed?

A – You Ask God for help.

Before you do anything else you go directly to God. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go
directly to God.

First, the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 20, “The Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Meunites, [can’t
confuse these with the stalactites or stalagmites or the electrolytes. These are three enemy
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nations. Like the out-of-sights! They… ] joined forces to make war on King Jehoshaphat. [ He
received this intelligence report:] ‘A huge force is on its way from beyond the Dead Sea to fight
you. There's no time to waste.…’” Get this: The odds are now three to one. Three enemy
nations line up and say let’s just annihilate Israel. They’re going to come against you. Have you
ever had one of those kinds of days you think everyone is ganging up on you? Everything’s
piling in on you. This is the way Jehoshaphat feels. Three enemy nations say “Our goal in life is
to take you out.”

What do you do? A – You ask God for help. Before you do anything else you turn to God.
Verse 3 says this: “Jehoshaphat was afraid so he decided to ask the Lord what to do.” Notice
two or three things.

His first reaction was fear. That’s pretty normal. Considering the odds fear is reasonable. Let
me say this to you – it may be a shock to you but, fear is not your problem. Fear is a normal
reaction in life. It’s quite normal. In fact in some situations if you’re not afraid there’s
something wrong with you. Fear is a normal reaction.

Your problem is not fear. Your problem is what you do with it. When you face a problem and
you begin to be afraid don’t let it intimidate you; let it motivate you. Let it motivate you to pray
more. Let it motivate you to worship. It’s not fear that’s the problem. It’s what you do with it.
Do you use it to let it discourage you? To cause you to want to give up? To throw in the towel?
To be afraid to try to do something that you think I couldn’t ever do and you’re ready to give up
without even trying and let yourself down without any effort? Or do you let it motivate you?
Fear is a good thing if it causes you to turn to God. Fear is a good thing if it causes you to pray.
If it causes you to ask God for help. You let it motivate you. So his first reaction is fear but his
response is to pray.

Notice he says, he’s going to ask the Lord what to do. Too often when we pray we treat prayer
like it’s the last resort. Like it’s the last thing you do instead of the first choice, the first thing
you do. Sometimes I’ll be with people who have a loved one who’s sick and they say, “All we
can do is pray.” Then somebody will go, “Has it come to that?” Like now that it’s hopeless let’s
start praying.

You should have been praying a whole lot earlier. It should have been your first choice, not your
last resort. There’s no problem too big to pray about and there’s no problem in your life too
small to pray about. You just pray.

What Jehoshaphat wanted was he wanted God’s perspective. He said, he’s going to ask the Lord
what to do. What you do when you pray is you say, God, how do You want me to think about
this? There are different kinds of prayer. You pray one way when you’re sad. You pray another
way when you’re happy. In this chapter we’re taught how to pray when you’re overwhelmed.
We learn six things that we are to pray. The first thing is say, “God what do You want me to do?
I need Your perspective. Help me to see this problem from Your viewpoint.” Not only did
Jehoshaphat pray when he was overwhelmed but he got other people to pray. And you need to
do that too. You need to ask as many people as you can to pray with you. That’s why we have
these little cards in the seat rack in front of you so you can pull them out and write a prayer
request so the rest of our family, our church family, can pray for each other.

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Notice verse 4 “The entire country of Judah united in seeking God’s help. They came from all
the cities to pray to God.” So the first aspect of worship is asking. Did you know that when
you’re asking God for help that’s worship? Anytime you’re asking God for help you’re
worshipping because you’re saying I’m trusting you.

B – Believe God can handle your situation.

This is what Jehoshaphat does. In verse 5 he went and stood before them, the whole nation, and
he prayed aloud. In the next six verses, verse 6-12, he gives us a model prayer on how to pray
when you feel stressed out, when you feel overwhelmed. There’s two real big keys that you
want to remember when you’re stressed. You want to remember who God is and remember
what He’s done.

First, I remind myself of who God is. That’s the first thing I do in my prayer. In my prayer
I remind myself of who God is. I focus on His strength and His character and how big God is.
God is all-powerful. There’s nothing too big for Him. He can handle anything, including the
problem I’m facing right now. The Bible tells us that with God all things are possible. So the
first thing that Jehoshaphat prays, “I’m just going to remind myself of who God is. That I serve
a big God. He’s much bigger than my problems.” In verse 6 he says this “Are You not the God
who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nation and power and might are in Your
hands. No one can withstand You.” Already he’s feeling a little bit better. He’s got an enemy
coming against him, he’s under pressure, he’s under a deadline, he’s stressed out. He takes his
eyes off the problem and he puts his eyes on God’s strength and God’s power. He thinks, I see
this problem coming at me but God aren’t You going to be able to take care of me? I know who
You are. You created the entire universe. This is a piddly problem to You.” So he reminds
himself of who God is.

Second, I remind myself of what God’s done. He recalls times in the past when God has
helped other people and even times when God has helped him. Jehoshaphat’s prayer talks about
“God, didn’t You help people in the past? That’s a comfort! I know You have power and I
know You’ve done it in the past. I know who You are and I know what You’ve done. This is
giving me confidence to handle this situation I’m facing.” Verse 7 he says this “Didn’t You
drive out those who lived in this land when Your people arrived.” He goes back remembering
when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land of Israel when God said this is
going to be your home. When they got there, there were enemies who didn’t want them to come
in and live there. God said it’s ok, I’m going to take care of you. They had pervious battles and
God helped them win all those battles and they were able to settle in the land of Israel.

So he says “God, didn’t You do this before? Didn’t You help other people with their battles?
Didn’t You drive out the enemy before? I need You to do it again.” This is very important.
When you pray, when you’ve got a problem in front of you, you go, “God, here’s the problem:
A, I’m asking for help. B, I believe You’re going to help me because I know who You are and I
know what You’ve done in the past and I’m going to ask You to do it again.” Does that make
sense. “I know who You are – You’re all powerful. I know what You’ve done. You’ve helped
a lot of other people. Now, God, repeat performance! Instant replay. Will You do it again?”

Later on in this passage he mentions three specific areas in the past. He says You’ve helped
people with the sword of judgment. You’ve helped people in tragedy. You’ve helped people
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with their physical needs in times of shortage. You’ve helped people with material needs.
You’re faithful in every area. So I want You to do it again.

The C is going to be taught by Pastor Buddy who wrote this book. Would you welcome him?

Buddy:

So after I have asked God for help and after I have reminded myself and actually reminding God
of what He’s done, of who He is, then I come to the third point.

C – Confess my inadequacy.

I was thinking the other day about all the problems I’ve ever had. All the challenges I’ve ever
faced. Every crisis, every conflict, every relational problem. Every financial problem I’ve ever
faced. And I realized they all have one thing in common – me. They all have me. So I might
just be the root cause of some of these things. I have to confess my inadequacy. That takes
humility.

Verse 12 “We are powerless.” Remember in verse 6 they said, God You’re powerful. Now in
verse 12 they’re saying, “We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us.
We don’t know what to do.” We’re confessing our inadequacy.

This can be a hard thing to do. Confessing inadequacy is humbling yourself. And it’s never fun
to humble ourselves. But we have to humble ourselves and it’s better to just get it over with.
Because if you don’t humble yourself now, God’s going to give you a lot more opportunities in
the future to humble yourself. You’ve just got to get it over with.

Why does God want you to humble yourself? What is so important about that to Him? Is it like
you’re some kind of a threat to His self-confidence? Of course not. God wants you to humble
yourself because the Bible says that “God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble.”
The Bible is telling us that pride is a repellant of God’s grace. But humility attracts the grace of
God. God wants to pour His grace into your life. But He won’t do it as long as pride is in the
way. So you’ve got to humble yourself and confess your inadequacy.

Here’s the great thing about confession, about confessing your inadequacy. Confession is just
telling God what He already knows. When you confess to God, “I can’t handle this,” it’s not like
you’re telling Him something that’s going to surprise Him. This is not news to Him. Confession
literally means to say the same thing. That’s what that word “confession” means. What you’re
doing is you’re saying to God what He’s already been saying all along. In fact, Jesus told us in
John 15 “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” For those of you who like to do all kinds of word
studies. You get out your lexicon, you get out your Greek and Your Hebrew and your Aramaic
books and you want to go chase back to the original meaning of the text. If you look up that
word “nothing” what it literally means is… nothing. “Apart from Me you can do NOTHING.”
That’s what Jesus has been saying. That’s what God’s been trying to say. That’s what he’s
trying to get through my thick bald head – “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

But - Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” I can do
all things through Christ. But apart from Him I can do nothing. He is powerful, I am powerless.
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There’s no middle ground here. It’s all or nothing. I just have to confess my inadequacy. I have
to say, “Lord, I cannot do this apart from You. So I’m looking to You. I don’t know what to do
in this situation.” God’s never going to force Himself on you. If you think you can go through
your problem, if you think you can face your challenge without God, then you probably will.
That’s a scary thought. Because I don’t want to face anything without God. But He’s not going
to force Himself into my situation. But He will respond to an invitation. If you say, “Lord, I
can’t do this. I’m powerless. I need Your help.”

I believe that God allows these hardships into our lives to teach us things about ourselves and to
teach us things about Himself. There’s the sense in which any kind of a difficulty is really a
question, that God’s asking you a question. Have you ever found that when God asks you a
question it’s not because He’s looking for information? He just wants to know if you know what
He knows. So if I’m facing a situation and God is saying, “Buddy, do you have a problem with
anger?” I can say yes or I can say no. I could say, "No, I really don’t have a problem with
anger.” Then God will set about showing me how much of a problem I really “don’t have” with
anger. If He says, "Buddy, in the midst of this situation you’re facing do you have any problem
here loving annoying people?” I can either say yes or no. I should probably just say “Yes. Yes
I do. I have a huge problem loving annoying people.” Because if I say no, I don’t have a
problem loving annoying people then God will say, “That’s great! And since you don’t have a
problem loving annoying people I’m going to give you a whole bunch of them.” Then that
would be annoying.

So it’s better just to humble yourself, confess your inadequacy. Tell God what He already
knows. Until you do, you’re never going to get to the next point in the outline.

Rick:

When Buddy was talking about inadequacy I was thinking about what happened on Friday
morning. Have you ever found yourself in one of those situations you’re going, “What in the
world am I doing here?” Ever been in a place like that? You’re never going to guess what I was
doing Friday morning. Not in a million years. I was in Hollywood at the Sony studios doing a
photo shoot for the cover of Newsweek with Brad Pitt! The stud and the dud. Brad pit – prune
pit. What in the world am I doing here? I’m just a pastor of a church of a bunch of great people.
Then I thought, “Confess your inadequacies.”

In fact, everybody has this issue that Buddy was just talking bout. I was with a group of CEOs –
world class CEOs this week. A couple of days I did a retreat for them in Colorado. These are
well known CEOs. If I told you the names you’d know the names of these people. As we sat
around the table and I was kind of helping them with their lives, the personal sense of
inadequacy kept coming out. Even when you’re successful sometimes behind that you feel so
insecure. Everybody has insecurity. It doesn’t matter how famous you are. One of the guys just
broke down, sitting there at the table. He began to weep and we began to help him. I just
thought, everybody needs to deal with this. You don’t push it down. You confess it out. You
don’t repress it, you express it. So when you feel overwhelmed – A, I immediately turn to God.
I ask God for help. B, I believe He can help me. I know who You are and I know what You’ve
done. C, I confess, I don’t think I can handle this on my own.

D – Depend on God to save me.

In verses 12-13 of this chapter, 1 Chronicles 20, it says this “ Jehoshaphat prayed, ‘We don’t
know what to do but we are looking for Your help.’ All the men [circle that] stood before the
Lord with their little ones [that’s babies] and their wives and their children.” Notice that the
men set the example of dependence upon God. “We’re depending on You to save us.” The guys
who are supposed to be the strongest are showing the most dependence.

Since this is Father’s Day let me just chase a rabbit here for a second. Guys, if you want your
wife to feel secure, if you don’t want your wife to worry, you want your wife to feel secure in
your leadership and you want your children to grow up feeling secure and not insecure, here’s
how you do it. As a father, as a husband, the quickest way to make your wife and your children
feel secure is for you to personally and publicly express your dependence upon God. Why?
Because they’re not then just trusting in your leadership. They realize that you’re trusting in
God’s leadership who’s much bigger than you and that doubles the impact. If you want your
kids and your wife to feel secure you publicly demonstrate your dependence upon God.

One of the best ways to do this baptism. If you’ve never been baptized, baptism is saying, “I’m
publicly saying I’m trusting God with my life. I’m trusting in Jesus Christ. I’m not going to go
through life just on my own energy, trying to solve all the problems in my family on my own.
I’m trusting God.” That gives a wife enormous security. We’re going to be baptizing today after
every service. You might consider doing it today. We’ve got a change of clothes and the
water’s warm and everything.

But here’s the point. When you depend on God to save you and the problems you’re having –
financial, relational, career, whatever – God’s response to your dependence is this “Good!
Relax! I’ll help you with it.” The moment you say, “I’m depending on You, God,” God says
“That’s what I’ve been waiting for. Relax!”

“This is what the Lord says to you. ‘Don’t be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army,
these things that are pilling up against you for the battle is not yours but God’s.’” That’s pretty
cool! You want to know why you’re wiped out and fatigued all the time? Why you’re always
tired and stressed out? Because you’re trying to fight battles that God never intended for you to
fight. They’re not your battles. They’re God’s. God is saying, “I don’t want you to fight it. I
want you to trust Me.”

You try to fight God’s battles and that’s why you get tired. We assume God’s role and we think
it’s up to us to make everything work in life. And that we’ve got to solve it all and we’ve got to
control it all. We’ve got to micro manage it all. Instead of saying, “I’m going to trust You, Lord
to do this. To fight the battle.”

When we try to fight God’s battles, we inevitably fail. Because you’re not big enough to fight
God’s battles. We fail and then we come crawling back to God and we go, “Oh, God! I’m so
sorry. I’m really sorry. I’ve let You down.” And God says, “No. You’re not letting Me down.
And you didn’t let Me down because you weren’t holding Me up.” You don’t ever let God
down. You don’t ever let God down. Because you’re not holding Him up! He holds you up.
You don’t help God. He helps you. The battle is not yours. It’s God’s.

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In about ten days I have to go off on a trip. I’m going to be in eleven different countries meeting
with the presidents of each of those countries and teaching Purpose Driven seminars and meeting
with business leaders. First, I’m going to get on a 747 and fly to Sydney, Australia. (The first
person I meet with is the Prime Minister of Australia.) When that 747 starts running down the
runway at LAX I’m going to start flapping my arms. And as it gets faster, I’ll get faster. The
flight attendant is going to come back and say, “Can I help you Mr. Warren?” and I’ll say, “Oh,
no! I’m helping you!” She’ll say, “Sir, you don’t have to flap your arms to get the plane off the
ground.” I’ll say, “Oh, yes I do! If it’s to be it’s up to me.”

That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s not up to you; it’s up to God. It will finally take
off. My arms start getting tired – I’m about out of flapability! Pretty soon I stop, it doesn’t
crash. Surprise! Surprise! It wasn’t up to me in the first place.

Let me ask you. Are your hands getting tired? What are you flapping about? Some of you are
flapping about your kids. “I’ve got to make sure they turn out perfect!” And you’re flapping all
over the place. Some of you are worried you’re not going to get married. I’ve got to get that
schooling… I’ve got to get that job… You’re flapping about the finances and you’re flapping all
around. Your arms are getting tired. Finally one day you’re going to get so tired of flapping,
trying to make it happen you’re going to quit. “I give up! Lord, I can’t do it! I give up!” And
God is going to say to you, “Great! I’ve been waiting for that.”

Some of you know that in my younger stud-ly days I was a lifeguard for three years. Any
lifeguard will tell you, you can’t save anybody as long as they’re trying to save themselves.
When you swim out in the ocean and somebody’s out their flailing around in the water trying to
save themselves if you go up and try to save them they will pull you down with them. You have
to swim out and tread water until finally they give up. Once they give up it’s quite easy to save a
life. You just put a hand over the shoulder and you swim back to shore. But you cannot save
them as long as they’re trying to save themselves.

Some of you, God has been trying to save you for years. Some of you men. Some of you
women. You haven’t let Him because you’re tying to save yourself. God sent Jesus to earth to
be your Savior. “Unto you is born this day a Savior.” If you didn’t need a savior, God wouldn’t
have wasted the time. You’re not going to make it on your own so you just need to own up to
that. You need to admit it. You need a savior.

You say, “I’m tired. I give up.” God says, “Now, I can get some things done in your life.
Depend on Me.”

This is very strange battle. Verse 17. God says “You won’t need to fight in this battle [what
kind of battle is that? He says you’re not going to have to fight in this battle.] Just stand strong
in your places. [In other words, sit down and shut up. Stand strong in your places…] and you
will see the Lord save you.” That verse, by the way, 2 Chronicles 20:17 is the middle verse of
the Old Testament. It’s God’s problem, let Him solve it. It’s His battle. Trust Him to work it
out. So many times we have this Atlas complex like we’re carrying the whole world on our
shoulders, that it all depends on us. You can resign a the general manager of the universe and
it’s not going to fall apart. Just let God be God. Let go and let God. Relax. You depend on
God to save you.

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Twice in this story God says, “Don’t be afraid.” There are 365 fear nots in the Bible. That’s
one for every day of the year. God is saying to you, you don’t have to be afraid. Trust Me.
Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged. Why? Why does God say you don’t have to be afraid?
Has God ever lost a battle? No. God does not lose battles. Nobody’s stronger than God. I’ve
lost a lot of battles in life. And so have you. You’ve lost a lot of battles in life. You’ve lost a lot
of conflicts in life. Things haven’t always turned out the way you wanted it to turn out. Because
you’re trying to fight the battles instead of letting God. But God never loses a battle. So if I just
A, ask You to help; B, believe You can do it because I know who You are and what You can do;
C, confess my inadequacy; D, depend on You to save me. Then God says, “You can relax. I
don’t lose battles.”

For thirteen years we had a battle trying to find land for a church that went from two people to a
hundred to a thousand to ten thousand and on and on. We just kept growing and we didn’t have
any place. In those thirteen years that we kept growing without a building we had 79 different
locations we used over those years. I never once got discouraged. That is the honest to God
truth. I never once got discouraged. Why? I just said, “God this is Your battle. It’s Your
church, not my church. You’re growing it and You’re bringing all these people so obviously
You’ve got some place in mind.” The place that He had in mind – here – there weren’t even
roads to when we started the church. There was no Foothill Ranch. There was no Rancho Santa
Maragarita. El Toro Road was a one-lane country road, not eight lanes. There was no Portola
Parkway. God knew exactly what He was going to do long before any of us ever thought of
Saddleback church.

But we’re on the winning side. You relax because we can’t lose. I’ve read the last chapter of the
book. We win. We win! We may lose a few battles here and there but people who trust in God
win.

So what does God want you to do when the odds are against you? He says in the verse, “You
won’t need to fight in this battle, just stand strong.” Circle “stand strong.” That’s what God
wants you to do when you feel overwhelmed. Stand strong is a mental attitude of quiet
confidence. It’s saying, I’m just going to be quiet – stand strong. Just stand there.

I want to tell you how hard that is to do when you’re an activist like me. When I see a problem
I’m like, “You let me handle that problem. I can take that on. I’ll solve that situation. I’ll
resolve that conflict.” God says, “You just stand still and watch Me do this. Trust Me.”

I want you to write this down. It’s one of the most important life lessons you’ll ever learn. It is
never God’s will for me to run from a difficult situation. It is never, never, never God’s will.
You want to know God’s will for your life. It is never God’s will for you to run from a difficult
situation because God wants to teach you to trust Him. If you run, as Pastor Buddy said, you’re
going to face it again. If you run out of a relationship, you will face it again. If you want out of
a problem, you’re going to face it again. If you run away from a stressful situation, just cop out
and flee, escape. I don’t care how you escape – whether you use drugs or pills or drink or
physically move, if you just escape from your problems, you’re going to face them again.
Because God’s more interested in your character than He is in your comfort. He wants you to
learn to trust Him. He wants to teach you He’s sufficient for every situation.

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As I’ve said a thousand times, you never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve
got.

What do I stand on? The Bible says in verse 20 “Believe in the Lord your God and you will be
able to stand firm [that’s stability] believe in His prophets and you will succeed.” Notice
everybody wants two things in life. They want stability – stand firm – and they want success.
You want a stable life and you want a successful life. That verse tells you the two ways you get
it. You believe in God’s character – who He is – and you believe in His prophets – that’s what
He said. What are God’s prophets? It’s the stuff that is written in the Bible. This is God’s word
but He spoke it through human beings. He says you believe in who God is and you believe in
what God has said and say you’re going to have stability and success in your life. You trust Him
in those areas. That’s the D.

The E in worship – see how worship is far more than music? It’s Asking, Believing, Confessing,
Depending….

E – Express thanks to God and in advance.

The key is the “in advance” part. Express your thanks to God in advance. That means before the
problem is solved, before you face the battle you start thanking God for the victory in advance.

This is very unusual way to organize an army. “Then the king [that’s J-Phat] chose men to be
singers to the Lord [in other words he creates a choir. Like we had on stage here today, men’s
choir.] He chose men to be singers to the Lord, to praise Him because He is holy and wonderful
and as they marched in front of the army they said, ‘Thank You Lord. Thank the Lord because
His love continues forever.’” This is a weird way to organize a battle. He puts the choir in front
of the army.

The enemy’s on the other side of the valley on the mountain. The Israelites are over here. It’s
three to one. And Jehoshaphat says, “Ok, here’s our battle strategy tactics. Those of you guys
who are good at music and singing, I want you to get out in front and you’re just going to start
singing, ‘Thank You God! Thank You God! I’m praising You God! You’re a cool God! God
You’re neat!’” And the army behind the choir is going, What is going on? Patton would have
had a panic attack. This is not traditional battle strategy – put choir in front of the army. He says
“You guys get up front and you just start thanking God in advance.” The army’s going, “What’s
going on?” And the enemy on the other side is going, “What is going on?” And the choir is
certainly going, “Yeah! What is going on? We’re walking out here on a battlefield with no
weapons.”

This is a symbolic gesture. It is an object lesson. It is thanking God in advance for deliverance.
Thanking God in advance for solving your problems. If you wait to thank God until after the
problem is solved, that’s gratitude. But if you thank God in advance of the problem being
solved, that’s faith. Thanking God in advance is faith. That’s what faith is. If you wait until
after, that’s gratefulness. But if you thank God before “Lord, I thank You that You have the
answer to this problem, even before we see the answer.” That is faith. God says I’m going to
honor faith. Be thankful in advance. Praise is verbalized faith. They’re saying, Give thanks
Give thanks!

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One of the cool things I got to do this week. On Friday I was invited to speak at a Jewish
synagogue service a Sabbath service. It was at Temple Sinai up on Wilshire. The largest
synagogue on the west cost. We took some of our pastors, I spoke and we had a wonderful time.
They were there singing all these songs from the Old Testament, the praise songs. They were
kind of dancing around the room. I got involved in that. That was kind of cool! I thought,
Maybe I’ll get you guys doing that someday. Yeah, right!

They were just rejoicing and thanking God. I’m thinking, This was probably what the Jewish
people did in the story. They’re out there singing, praising God. They thanked God in advance.
That’s what God wants you to do because there’s power in thanking God in advance.

Look at the effect, the next verse, verse 22. “At that moment [in other words at the moment they
began to sing and praise, from the moment they began to sing and praise] the Lord caused the
armies of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir to begin fighting among themselves and they destroyed
each other.”

That’s my kind of battle! I don’t even have to pick up a weapon. He makes the enemy start
fighting each other and they start killing each other. That’s what God says I want you to do.

Here’s the last step we’re going to look at today. We’ve got more next week.

F – Find the blessing in the bad.

Let’s just review. God says, Ask Me for help. Believe I can help you. Confess your
inadequacy. Depend on Me to save you. Express thanks in advance and I will give you victory.
They started fighting among themselves and they killed each other off. You know what a
battlefield looks like with a bunch of dead bodies? It looks bad. It’s not a pretty sight at the end
of a battle. There’s bodies strewn all around. It’s bad. And God says, “I want you to find the
blessing in the bad. Because I’ve got some stuff I want to give you that’s out there on that
battlefield. Some spoils of war. Some plunder. Some left over stuff.”

“When the army of Judah arrived at the lookout point in the wilderness there was dead bodies
laying on the ground as far as they could see. [That’s the bad] King Jehoshaphat and his men
went out to gather the plunder [the spoils of war, pick up the good stuff] and they found vast
amounts of equipment and clothing and other valuables more than they could carry away. In
fact there was so much plunder it took them three days just to carry it off. [God wants to bless
your life so much that you can’t even handle it. It took them three days to carry off all the stuff.]
On the fourth day everyone gathered in the Valley of Blessing which got its name that day
because the people praised and thanked the Lord there.”

Notice the results of choosing worship over worry. If you’ve got problems in your life this
week, you say, I’m going to do these things instead of worry. If you do these things, spend the
time you’d normally spend worrying doing these things, God says here’s what happens when I’m
allowed to solve your problems – more blessing than you can handle. More blessing than you
could possibly handle. God always outdoes our expectations. So they named the place the
Valley of Blessing. The Hebrew word is the word Barachah. Barachah means Blessing. They
said we’re going to just name this place the Valley of Barachah, the valley of blessing because
there’s so much blessing that we not only didn’t have to fight the battle, we’re going home
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richer. We’re going home more blessed – physically blessed, materially blessed. We’re going
home because we trusted God.

My big question to you is as your pastor who cares about you and I love you, I’m going, how can
I help my people, my flock, how can I help you get from a battle which is overwhelming and get
you into the valley of blessing. I want God to bless your life. I want God to bless my life. I
want God to bless all of our lives. How do we get to the valley of blessing? These six steps.

Since it is Father’s Day I want to say a special word to the guys. To the men. Guys, God wants
you as a man to lead the way in worship. God wants you as a man to lead the way in worship.
With your girlfriend, or your wife, your family. He wants you to lead the way. “Then, led by
Jehoshaphat, all of the men of Judah returned, joyfully [in other words, they’re praising God,
they’re thanking God, they’re worshipping] joyfully to Jerusalem. The Lord had given them
cause to rejoice.”

The greatest thing you can give other people is a heart dedicated devoted to God and leads in
worship. Personal worship, family worship, whatever kind of worship.

Ronald Reagan will be remembered in many, many ways. The history books will say he was a
great actor, or he was an average actor. They’ll say, He was the governor of the largest state in
the United States. For eight years, Ronald Reagan was the leader of the free world. They’ll talk
about all the things that happened because of his administration. That eventually the Berlin wall
came down, communism crumbled, that he held the line and the cold war was ended and we’re
not at war with the Soviet Union any more. All of these different accomplishments. But that
wasn’t his greatest accomplishment. It’s what he did with his own son. At his funeral Michael
Reagan gave a testimony to his dad about how his dad led him to Jesus Christ. And how his dad
first lived a life of dedication to God, to Christ. And that he knows he’s in heaven and that as his
son he taught him that and he became a believer and Michael Reagan said, I intend to pass that
heritage on to my kids. He said that’s more important than anything else that my dad did
because it’s going to last forever. I want you to watch just part of his testimony. This is at the
funeral of Ronald Reagan. This is his son.

You knew my father as Governor, as President but I knew him as Dad. I want to tell you a
little bit about my dad. He gave me a lot of gifts as a child. He gave me a horse. He gave
me a car. He gave me a lot of things. But a gift that he gave me that I think is wonderful for
every father to give every son. The gift that he was going to be with his Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. I can’t think of better gift for a father to give his son. I hope to honor my
father by giving my son Cameron and my daughter Ashley that very same gift he gave to
me. Knowing where he is this very moment, this very day, that he is in heaven, and I can
only promise my father this, Dad, when I go, I will go to heaven too. And you and I and my
sister Maureen that went before us we will dance with the heavenly host of angels before the
presence of God. We will do it melanoma and Alzheimer’s free. Thank you for letting me
share my father Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Guys, a million years from today your career is not going to be worth squat. None of your
accomplishments are really going to matter a million years from today. None of your hobbies
are going to matter a million years from today. None of your golf scores or sports or any of that
is going to matter a million years from today. But whether you yourself are in heaven and your
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family is in heaven and your friends around you are in heaven is going to matter. It is going to
matter. It’s going to matter more than anything else you do in life. And that’s the greatest gift
you can give to the people you love, that you choose to become a godly man and you choose to
become a spiritual leader. And you choose to become a person who says, I am not ashamed to
publicly say I owe my life to Jesus Christ, that I would have nothing without God and I am
totally dependent upon Him. As best I know how I’m going to live for Him. It not only gives
stability and security and as God says, success. It gives an eternal legacy.

How do I get started as a spiritual leader? You can start by reading these two books. The Way
of A Worshiper and The Worship Answer Book. Good summer reading. Kenny Luck is the
Pastor of Men here at Saddleback. I’m going to ask him to come and talk about a few
opportunities since it’s Father’s Day. Then I’m going to ask him to pray for all the dads here
today.

Kenny:

I can’t shake all your hands on the way out but ladies, your husband just met who I hope is going
to be his new best friend. At this time I’d like all the fathers to stand. I’d like to pray a prayer of
blessing over the dads.

Father, You say in the Word, that “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.” God,
there’s the man we think we ought to be and then there’s the man You’ve created us to be
and we’re learning today that You’ve created us to be spiritual leaders, to have influence, to
leave a wake of life and blessing, to leave a legacy. Thank You for these men who are
standing right now. Thank You for the responsibility You have given them. We lay our
hands on them by faith and we ask You to bless them, to encourage them, to strengthen
them. To not be the men who they think they ought to be but to be the men that you’ve
created them to be. A godly man – God’s man. So thank You for this wonderful day to
celebrate the privilege of stewardship, of being a dad. We ask Your blessing on each and
every one of them. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Rick:

Let me just close by talking to all of you just a minute – men and women. What this story
teaches is a very important truth. That God loves to pour His power into people who will say I
need You. To admit they need Him. God loves to pour His blessing and power into people who
choose to worship instead of worry.

I don’t know what you’re going through this week. You may be a single parent just barely
making ends meet and wondering how you’re going to keep it all together. Or you maybe facing
some kind of problem at work. A health problem of some kind. Maybe the pressure is really
getting to you. Maybe you’ve been going through a period of depression, discouragement,
you’ve been struggling with worry and anxiety. You’re not sleeping well. Maybe you feel like
everything’s just ganging up on you. You’ve got two choices – worship, the six things we just
talked about. That’s worship, not just singing. Worship or worry.

Prayer:

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I’m going to pray a prayer now of worship and I’m going to invite you to pray it in your
heart. First, ask God for help this next week. Right there where you’re seated. You say,
“God, I need Your help in my life.” Next, believe He can handle what you’re facing. Say
something like this in your mind: “Lord, I know that nothing’s impossible with You. Lord, I
know You’ve helped people a lot in the past. So I’m asking You to do it again with me. I’m
believing you can handle the situation. Help me.” Next, confess your inadequacy. Just be
honest to God. Say, “Lord, You know it’s not getting any better in my life. You know that I
have problems I can’t handle. I admit that a lot of the time my biggest problem is me. I’m
going to go under unless You bail me out. I need Your help in these areas. Jesus Christ, I
need Your help. I’m expressing that.” Next, depend on God to save you. Jesus Christ came
to be your savior.

God has a specific word for you today. This is God talking to you: “You know that battle
you’re fighting. It’s not yours. It’s Mine. Relax. Trust Me. I’m still in control. I want you
to stand firm in quiet confidence and watch Me handle it for you.” So in your heart just say,
“Jesus I give it to you. I want to stand firm in quiet confidence.” Then finally express your
thanks to God in advance. Say, “Jesus, You know I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by…”
whatever it is, the thing you’re facing. “Sometimes I feel confused and sometimes I’m so
tired I don’t think I can put one foot in front of the other. Today, I’ve realized this is not my
battle. It’s Yours. I want to give up trying to win it on my own power. Instead, I want to
trust You for the victory. Help me not to be afraid. Help me not to be discouraged. I
believe that today is the turning point as I turn it over to You. I thank You for the victory in
advance. Thank You for the answer in advance. I thank You for the solution in advance.
I’m giving my whole life to You. I want to lead others to do the same. I’m taking this step
of faith and thanking You in advance for working the whole thing out.” In Your name I
pray. Amen.

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