Marcus Mecum - Don't Ignore Judah
2 Kings 3, let's look at verse 14. "And Elisha said, 'as the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, I would not see you," I wouldn't be having this conversation with you, I would want nothing to do with you is what Elisha, was saying. But because the king of Judah's in the room, we're gonna have a conversation. He then says, "But now bring me a musicians," the worshippers. "And the musician played, and the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, 'thus says the Lord: 'make this valley full of ditches'. And for thus the Lord says, 'you shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain: yet the valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink'. And this is a simple matter in the sight of God, he will also deliver the Moabites into your hand".
I wanna talk to you around this idea of don't ignore Judah. Don't ignore Judah. Or maybe a better way to say it would be, "Why is worship such an important part of the Christian life"? You know, I love preaching, I love opening the scriptures and talking from God's word with you. It's a blessing to my life. I love being the one on the receiving end of hearing God's word. Almost every day I'm listening to a preacher in some way, shape, or form, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So, I'm just always just trying to fill my life. You never know when faith is going to rise by a statement, a word, a scripture, something that's being said.
So, I'm just filling my life with just listening to the Word of God. I love the programs that we have around here to think that we're ministering to young people or college students like pastor Evan talked about. To think that we're ministering to thousands of families and hundreds of schools over the next couple weeks. And just to go back, you all are always around. We're always doing something, and it's wonderful, and I thank God for the programs that we have and what those things do.
I thank God for this beautiful space that we have to gather and to worship God. But I want you to know that as important as all of this stuff is, there is a place that preaching cannot take you, there is a place that knowledge and information cannot take you, there is a place that no matter how good of a church we have, no matter how great we are at what we do, none of this can really take you into spiritual maturity and flourishing spiritually with God. There are some things, there are some places in God that you only find when you value worship. And there's just some, it's a vein, it's a special place you lock into with God. I like that, Isaiah would say it like this, "Those who wait upon the Lord," that's worship, right? "Those who wait upon the Lord, he shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like the eagle".
The old timers would call that a state of rapture, where the goal is in my personal life, is that I worship in such a way that I may begin worship and I don't feel it. I may begin worship and there's nothing about it that, I don't have goose bumps or any of that kind of stuff. But as I continue to worship, as I continue to wait upon the Lord, all of a sudden, strength begins to come and I feel God begin to lift me out of that situation, and he renews my strength, and I begin to mount up. He begins to lift me out of that situation like the eagle. In a church service it can happen. In this service today it's gonna happen. Where the right song at the right moment can change the entire atmosphere of this place.
And so, in this particular text, the story is one that's so unique because the background here, if we were to go into it, is Jehoram, so, Israel and Judah, the nation had been divided if you've been in church any time at all, you probably know some of this, but the nation of Israel was divided for some time, and so, Jehoram is the king of Israel where Jehoshaphat is the king of Judah. And Jehoram's father was king Ahab, his mother was Jezebel, so these are extremely wicked, wicked leaders. They built idols to false Gods and false worship, they killed godly prophets. They were a terror to the people of God in their lifetime. And at the same time, Jehoram would have grown up watching things like Elijah called down fire on the prophets of Baal.
And so, though he watched his parents have a deep hatred for the things of God, he also begin to watch how God was protecting his people and how God was showing up strong on behalf of his people. So, when his father, Ahab, the wicked king died and Jehoram takes the throne, he has a different approach towards the things of God. He has a respect for it. Almost like a conviction that he can't go the way his father, Ahab, and his mom, Jezebel did. So, he starts tearing down some of the idols across the nation of Israel, and he starts removing the idols that were there for false worship. But the beginning of chapter three says he only did it partially. Like, a percentage of it.
So, he wasn't completely tearing down all these false idols, he was just, kinda, tearing down some of them, which, kinda, speaks to the fact that if it's possible, he's, like, half saved, right? He's, kinda, like, "Ah, I'm kinda saved, I'm kinda not saved". Which is the most miserable place to be, right, with God. The most miserable place to be with God is going half way. It is horrific, it is tragic, it is difficult, it is miserable, because you're always being torn one way or the other, and it is a difficult thing to live half saved. So, Jehoram is now king, he's going in a different direction than his father is, and Moab is a nation that has disrespected this king and he's going to war with them.
And so, he announces he's taking Israel to war with the Moabites. As they gather their army, as they prepare to March into battle, Jehoram is somewhat aware that he's not able to successfully fight the battle that he's entered into on his own. And so, he reaches out to Jehoshaphat, who is the king of Judah, and he asks Jehoshaphat to join him so they can go fight the Moabites. And the Bible says that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, immediately decides that he is going to join the fight with Jehoram, the king of Israel.
Now, what I want you to see real quick is Jehoram's not really living close to God, but he wants to find someone who is. So, in many ways, this is wise move on the king Jehoram's side of things because he is aware that he's not as close to God as he needs to be, but he knows Jehoshaphat is very close to God. He is a serious man of God. So, Jehoram says, "If I can connect my life to Jehoshaphat, there's the possibility that though I'm outnumbered by the enemy, there's the strong possibility we're done, it's over, we're finished. If I can connect with him, maybe somehow, we can get the advantage".
So, it's a high point for king Jehoram, but it's a low point for Jehoshaphat. It's a long point for Jehoshaphat because when Jehoram comes and asks him to go into the battle, Jehoshaphat doesn't pray, he doesn't seek God, he doesn't spend one second getting godly council, he just immediately says, "Yes, I'll go," which if you follow the life of Jehoshaphat was a continual weakness and actually ruined his legacy at the end of his life because his weakness was he did not know how to stay away from the wrong people. He was always connecting, always yoking his life to the wrong relationships and the wrong friendships, and so now, he does that same thing. He joins with this evil king and now they're going to battle together. They're in this journey to go fight the Moabites, they head into a desert, into a wilderness.
As they're going through the desert, as they're going through the wilderness, they start to notice that all the water sources have been dried up and the chance of them making it through this battle without the water that they're going to need, the soldiers they're going to need, and the food source, all the flocks that are following them, the food source that's following them, all of that needs water. Without the water, there's no possibility that they're gonna in the battle. So, here Jehoshaphat and Jehoram are, and they make a decision that they're gonna go talk to Elisha, and they're gonna ask Elisha what his advice is in this kind of a situation.
And so, they walk into the room with the prophet Elisha. When they walk into the room, Elisha looks at Jehoram and he is on his way out of the room. It's like he sees him, he's like, "Nah, I'm done". Because this man's parents on multiple occasions had tried to kill his mentor, Elijah, and tried to kill him, and so, he wants nothing to do with this guy. He has personal problems with this guy, he has emotional trauma with this guy. There is conflict with this person, there's drama with this person and when Elisha sees him, he wants to get out of the room.
And so, Elisha is about to miss an opportunity to not just have a miracle in his life, but thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people's lives are at stake with this decision. If Elisha walks out, the nation dies, the nation loses the battle. But as he's on his way out, the Bible says he sees Judah, he sees Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. And he looks at Jehoram and he says, "The only reason I'm gonna stay in this room is because of the presence of Judah. If Judah was not here, if the king of Judah was not here, there is no way I would be staying in this room". And what is he saying? He's saying, "I will not ignore Judah". Elisha said, "The only reason I'm even gonna have a conversation with you, comment on the situation is because Judah is here".
Elisha did not regard how he felt. He didn't look at his personal feelings, he didn't look at the drama, he didn't look at the conflict, he didn't look at the heartbreak, and the pain, and the fear, and the terror that he had been under by Jehoram and his family for year, he didn't look at any of that. The Bible says he decides to have a conversation with him because Judah was present. Had Judah not been present, the conversation is over. Judah, we know, is the tribe of worship and praise in Israel. It's the musicians. These are the people that write songs and sing songs to God.
This is the tribe that leads Israel into battle because it was always worship that was suppose to lead God's people into the battle and the struggle. Which is why we worship upfront in a church because worship sets the stage, worship is what we allow to go ahead, because what we're doing right now is not natural, it's spiritual. And we need angels, and we need the presence of God, and we need the Holy Spirit to be released in this place, and released in this atmosphere, and released in this room. And the way that happens is because be regard the presence of Judah. A church that ignores the presence of Judah is a church that misses out on the miracles. It's a church that misses out on the wins that God has prepared for them.
The only way they get out of the desert is they have to make a decision, we cannot ignore Judah. And the point is, every Christian is responsible. Whatever the room looks like, whatever your life looks like, the drama, the pain, the conflict, the issues, the concerns, the anger, all the stuff, all the stuff that goes on, it's your responsibility to make sure that you connect with praise. It's your responsibility you say, "Okay, I'm in a dry place and I could leave in fear, I can leave in anger, or what I can do is I can praise my way out of the dry place. I can praise my way out of the desert. I can praise my way out of the discouragement. I can praise my way out of the dark place, I can. I can praise my way out of the depression".
And this story teaches us, no matter what the odds are stacked against you, if you will keep praise alive in every situation, if you'll make a decision, "I will not ignore Judah". In church today, you came looking for something, you showed up, you want something, and you're gonna leave disappointed if you wait for the preacher to do it, and you're gonna leave disappointed if you hope that the people will be nice to you around this room. I hope they are. I hope it's a wonderful experience. But the truth is, you have everything you need and it's sitting right beside you, you just haven't acknowledged it yet.
He's right there, Judah's sitting right there. He's got his hand out. He's wanting to know, are you gonna take his hand? Are you gonna connect with his hand? Are you gonna use that hand and connect with Judah, or are you gonna ignore it? Today, you make the decision. Are you gonna connect with Judah, or are you going to ignore Judah? Now, talking about religious motions, I'm talking about the gift, and really even a weapon that God's given us, that if we'll connect with and not ignore it, it can change the situations in our life. Paul and Silas, we've heard it so many times, and the reason we hear it so much is because it's so well put. That they're in a filthy prison, they've been beat within inches of their life, they are surrounded by prisoners, and surrounded by guards, and surrounded by hopelessness.
And Paul, somehow, starts singing and worshiping. But if he looked at the room, if he looked at the hostility, if he looked at the wounds, if he looked at everything surrounding him, the stench, the smell, all the darkness, everything that they...There's no way. But Judah was there in that prison cell, and he made a decision. No matter how horrific life gets, I cannot ignore Judah. And the Bible says they started to worship, and they started to sing praises to God, and they started to, in that prison, change the atmosphere of it. And the prison doors begin to open and there are some things that are not happening in our life, there are some things that are not changing in our life because we have not learned how to connect with a spirit of praise.
We think it's just church, or a style of church, or a type of church, or that's for that church. Praise is not instructions that we get from the denomination we're a part of. Praise, and what it looks like, we get those instructions from the Bible. And the Bible has a clear expectation on you and i, and it doesn't check with us, he doesn't check with our opinion, he doesn't check with our religious background, he doesn't check with your personality profile, he doesn't check with your leanings. He doesn't care. God lays out what he expects from us when it comes to praise and worship, and the truth is, a lot of us, every week, ignore Judah.
David goes in the room with king Saul and he begins to worship, and the evil, distressing spirit left. And my thing is always when I hear that story, I'm like, Saul had access to the same God. He knew the same God. He had prophesied all night, he knew what worship looked like, he knew what the spirit of praise looked like, he had been caught up in multiple situations where God moved powerfully in his life. But somewhere along the way, he started thinking worship was someone else's job. He's gotten a nation to lead, he's got responsibilities, he's got his family, he's got decisions, he's got enemies, he got all this. Worship, not so much.
Elisha knew how to create an atmosphere that God would be attracted to. And so, the Bible says that they called for the worshippers, they called for the musicians, they called for the praisers to come into that place and to set the stage for what God wanted to do. Now, I think about how important it is that we don't just do this in church. That my hope is that you have some worship songs downloaded on your spotify, or your iTunes, or somewhere in your, whatever you use today. And my hope is that you don't let a day go by where you don't turn on some type of worship. A day doesn't go by where you don't just consider everything going on in my life.
Could I just take a moment and park it, and not ignore Judah? Not ignore that though all of this is important and though all of this is taking my attention, I need to take just a little bit of time and acknowledge Judah is in my life for a reason. The presence of Judah. The only reason Elisha stayed in the room, the only reason he even had a conversation was because the king of Judah was there. So, fill your car with worship, fill your home with it.
You see, the reason it's so important that you fill your life with worship is because you'll learn when you study the scriptures, and even when you just live your life this way, that God does regard worshippers differently. He always has and he always will. There is a special favor that God has with those who understand my job is to never ignore Judah. Never ignore a spirit of praise, a spirit of gratitude, a spirit of thankfulness, a spirit of acknowledging all that God has done in my life and without him, I would be nobody. In heaven, praise is going on continuously. And I just think if it's good enough for heaven, it's good enough for earth.
And so, as we're here gathered as a church, as we're here and we sing songs, what we're doing is we're praying that God would let it be on earth as it is in heaven. That we're not in heaven yet, but we have opportunities to get together and corporately reflect what it's like in heaven right now. And in heaven right now, there's continuous worship going before the throne, there's continuous praise going on before the throne, there's constant worship going on. And if it's good enough for heaven, it's good enough for earth. And you'll learn that your daily worship, your day-to-day worship is very important because you cannot worship powerfully in public if you're never worshiping privately.
So, private worship comes out publicly. It comes out when you're around other people. Without connecting with a spirit of praise, your walk with God will become dry, your walk with God will become boring, it'll become a life of no joy. But if you'll say, "God, I don't really know all that he's talking about, but if there's another level to my relationship with you that worship can bring, I wanna make sure that I don't ignore Judah". The Bible says it like this, "What you loose on earth is loosed in heaven, what you bind on earth is bound in heaven".
So, there are things in your life that are going on in that God wants to bring heaven into your earth, but you bound it. You got handcuffs on Judah. You've got Judah in a strait jacket, because this is how you see worship, just like this. "I love God, I do, I do". Well, let your face know. Let your hands know. Let your heart know. And I love this, every single person's mad at me right now, I'll go to a bangles' game and you'll be the craziest person there.
So, I know you have something in you that knows how to adore something you love, I'm just trying to get you to loose your worship to God and see that worshiping him is much greater than worshiping a bunch of, you know, guys, that care less about you, by the way. Elisha said, "Bring the musicians. Bring the worship. We need direction. We need supernatural directions," and Elisha knew that kind of direction comes when we worship. It comes when we embrace Judah in the room.