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Thank you, John.

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I'm sure that many of us would share that prayer tonight, that we might be drawn nearer

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to the Lord.

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The problem is, we don't often want to walk the way that's necessary, that we might be

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drawn nearer.

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Because often it means walking for the children of Israel in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

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I want us to think together tonight about lessons in the Valley of Blessing.

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Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, this time as we open our Bibles to 2 Chronicles 20.

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You may recall that after the death of Solomon, the nation of Israel divided into two nations.

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There were those northern tribes called Israel, they retained that name.

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Sometimes they were called Samaria after the capital city.

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And then there was the southern kingdom, composed of Judah primarily.

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And it sometimes was called Judah, sometimes Jerusalem after its capital city.

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Of all the kings of the northern kingdom, there was not one decent one.

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They were all apostate.

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None of them walked after the god of their fathers.

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Of the kings of Judah, the southern kingdom, there were some good, more bad.

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As we look at Jehoshaphat, we're looking at one that was a good king for the most part.

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He was the son also of a good king, Asa.

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Not too much is said ill about Jehoshaphat, but there is one thing that he did that was

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a terrible mistake.

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At one point in his life, he made a military alliance with King Ahab of the northern kingdom.

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Ahab was probably the worst of the worst of the kings of Israel, that northern kingdom.

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Jehoshaphat almost lost his life over that deal.

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The thing that's commendable about him is that when he got back home, just being spared

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by the grace of God, and when he was confronted about his sin of compromise and alliance with

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the ungodly, he was willing to acknowledge that and confess it.

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The record of Jehoshaphat reminds us that God does not wait until we are perfect to

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bless us.

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I'm glad for that, aren't you?

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There wouldn't be a lot of blessing in my life if I had to be perfect first.

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As we look at the record of 2 Chronicles 20, I want us to learn several lessons regarding

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the valley of blessing.

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Lesson number one is this.

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Blessing is in relation to pressures.

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It came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with

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some of the Munites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat.

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Things had been going well since his escapade with Ahab.

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He had done some notable things, good things, in Jerusalem and Judah.

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Now suddenly there is new pressure.

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There is an alliance of enemies to the east and to the south, where they were located.

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Suddenly these were to the east and south of the Dead Sea area.

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This alliance was marching against Jehoshaphat.

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Some came and reported to him saying, a great multitude is coming against you from beyond

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the sea, the Dead Sea, out of Aram.

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Behold, they are in Hazesan, Tamar, that is, in Getty.

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That wasn't too far from Jerusalem.

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That was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout

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all Judah.

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So Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord.

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They even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord.

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Lesson number one is blessing is in relation to pressures.

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It would be nice if we could have all blessings in life without any stress, without any pressures,

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without any burdens.

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But life simply is not that way, and God has designed it so it is not that way.

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There would be no mountaintops if there were not valleys, and there would be no blessings

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if there were not burdens.

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God allows pressures to come to our lives for good purposes, just as the potter must

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apply pressure to the clay in order to mold it and to shape it.

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Just as he uses his skill to produce the desired vessel, so God lovingly and tenderly puts

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pressure on our lives to mold us by his skillful hands.

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Here the enemies had allied themselves against Judah, and that threat seems to have reminded

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Jehoshaphat of his need for the Lord.

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Are you ever like that?

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Things are going along great in your life, and suddenly something rises that you can't

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handle and you remember that you have need of the Lord.

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God allows burdens to remind us of our need of him, of our need to be moldable and yielded

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to his will.

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It's easy for us to grow careless and complacent when things are going easily.

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Thus God allows some hard things to come along occasionally to wake us up spiritually.

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We must learn not to resist that pressure from God, not to rebel against it, but rather

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to thank God for it.

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Boy, that's hard to do, isn't it?

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How easy it is to thank God for the blessings, but to thank God for the burdens?

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Yes, James says, count it all joy when you fall into various kinds of trials, pressures,

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stressful situations.

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We can thank God because he has a good purpose in it and will transform that burden to become

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a blessing.

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I am well reminded of a man by the name of George Hipshire who has been with the Lord

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I suppose fifteen years now.

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When I first moved to Kentucky I heard about this man.

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At that time he had already suffered from diabetes for a number of years.

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He had become, over the process of time, blind for the most part.

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He could barely make out your form if he got up close to his face.

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He had lost one leg by that time.

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This man had so many things going wrong inside of his body.

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But George, instead of complaining about those burdens, turned them around and made them

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points of blessing.

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We thank God for this illness that he had.

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I never once remember hearing him complain, though I visited with him on a number of occasions.

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By the time that George went home to be with the Lord he had lost the other leg, he had

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had a stroke so that he could not speak, he was paralyzed on one side.

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But he was a man through whom the radiance of God shone.

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Because he was willing to accept with joy the burdens that God gave to him, and he turned

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those burdens around, God transformed them, and they became blessings.

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The greater our extremity of burden, the greater our capacity for blessing.

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You remember that.

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The greater your extremity of burden, the greater your capacity for blessing.

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The second lesson that I want us to see in the text is this, that blessing is in response

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to prayer.

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Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before

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the new court.

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And he said, and he begins now to pray, he is not alone, many of the nations gathered

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there with him.

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God allows burdens to come to us to drive us to prayer.

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He wants us to see that there are many things in life that we cannot handle without him.

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We need to be reminded of that because we are by nature too independent.

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We are self-sufficient as proud human beings.

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God wants us to see our dependence upon him.

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Notice how he prays.

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In verse 6, he appeals to God's supreme authority.

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O Lord, the God of our fathers, art thou not God in the heavens?

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And art thou not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations?

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Power and might are in thy hand, so that no one can stand against thee.

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So he begins by worshiping God.

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Now did God need to be reminded of any of those things?

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Of course not.

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But you see, by uttering them, by reflecting these truths back to God, he was worshiping

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the Lord.

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That is the way we worship.

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And so he appeals to God's supreme authority.

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Now in verse 7, he appeals to God's previous actions.

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Didst thou not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and

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give it to the descendants of Abraham by friend forever?

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I believe this is the first time in scripture that Abraham is called the friend of God.

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Of course, it occurs again in the New Testament.

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He looks back at history, the history of Israel, and he appeals to God's previous actions for

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them.

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Lord, aren't you the one who drove out the nations before us in the conquest of Canaan?

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Of course he was.

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Verses 8 and 9, he appeals to God's promises.

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He says, And they lived in it, and have built thee a sanctuary there for thy name, saying,

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Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before

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this house and before thee, for thy name is in this house, and cry to thee in our distress.

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And thou wilt hear and deliver us.

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Jehoshaphat draws upon something that Solomon said on the day that the temple was dedicated.

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This is a few years before Jehoshaphat's time.

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He looks back upon the statements that Solomon made, and he draws upon one of the promises.

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That is, if the people would stand before the temple and pray in a time of distress

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and burden, God would hear and answer them.

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And so he appeals to the promises of God.

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Now what is he doing?

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He is telling you and me how to pray when we are facing pressures and burdens.

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For like him, we ought to appeal to God's supreme authority.

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We ought to appeal to God's previous actions.

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We ought to appeal to God's promises.

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Now in verses 10 and 11, he appeals to God's justice.

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Now behold, says Jehoshaphat.

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For the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom thou didst not let Israel invade when

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they came out of the land of Egypt, they turned aside from them and did not destroy them.

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Behold how they are rewarding us by coming to drive us out from thy possession, which

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thou hast given us as inheritance.

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You may or may not remember that when Israel was on its way to the promised land, they

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passed through the territory of the peoples now in alliance against them.

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They wanted to pass through them, I should say.

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They requested permission.

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And those people not only said no, but they sent a military force out to the border and

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they said, if you dare step foot in this land, we will fight against you.

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And so God told the people of Israel, rather than causing war and going through, go around

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their land.

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And so they did.

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Now Jehoshaphat's point is, oh God, before you wouldn't let us deal with them, now they're

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coming against us to throw us out of the land you gave us.

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So he's appealing, you see, to God's justice.

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He's saying, Lord, before you wouldn't let us throw them out of their land.

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Now don't let them throw us out.

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So in verse 12, he brings his prayer to its consummation with a request and a confession.

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Oh our God, wilt thou not judge them?

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There's his request.

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God, judge these nations.

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For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us, nor do we know

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what to do.

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A confession.

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He was without power to turn them back and he was without wisdom as to what to do in

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this situation.

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Do you ever feel that way?

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Do the problems that confront you bring you to the point of near despair where you say,

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I don't have the ability to handle this and I don't know what to do?

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That is exactly where Jehoshaphat was.

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And then he concludes with this marvelous statement of faith.

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He says, our eyes are on thee.

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That's what God wanted all along.

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The lesson that we're seeing here is that blessing is in response to prayer.

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My friend, when you are burdened, when you are under pressure, lay your case before God.

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What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.

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What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

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Oh, what peace we often forfeit.

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Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

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When the burdens are on you and you're passing through that valley of pressure and stress,

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lay your case before God and follow the example of Jehoshaphat, you can do no better than

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that.

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Blessing is in response to prayer.

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Blessing is in relation to pressures.

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But there's a third lesson.

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It is this, that blessing is in respect to the promises.

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Blessing is in respect to the promises.

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Some anonymous person has written, Terry at the promises till God meets you there.

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He always returns by way of His promises.

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Terry at the place of promises.

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The promises that are found in our text might be several, but I want to point out at least

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three of them.

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God did a very marvelous thing on that occasion.

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The nation was standing there, the children, the wives, the babies.

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Then in the midst of the assembly, verse 14, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziah,

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the son of Zechariah and all the rest of these people.

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And He said, listen all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat, thus says

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the Lord to you, do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle

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is not yours, but God's.

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Tomorrow go down against them.

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Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of

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the valley in front of the wilderness of Jeruel.

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You need not fight in this battle.

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Station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, oh Judah and Jerusalem.

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Do not fear or be dismayed.

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Tomorrow go out to face them for the Lord is with you.

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You see, God gave them some wonderful promises through His prophet, just as God gives us

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wonderful promises through this book, His holy word.

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In the first place, He promises them that they don't have to be afraid.

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He says, do not fear.

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You and I do not have to fear the burdens and the pressures that are on us, because

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God you see is in control.

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We do not have to fear the possible results.

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We do not have to be afraid of the uncertainties that we face, because God is greater than

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all of them.

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The first promise is you don't have to be afraid.

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Are you afraid tonight?

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Is a loved one of yours facing a disease that could take his or her life?

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I don't know if there is a greater burden that can come to a person than that.

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Are you facing the prospect of a divorce that you don't want?

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What a tremendous burden that is.

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What pressure.

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Are you facing the possibility of having to pick up your family and move because your

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job is being phased out here?

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That's a burden.

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Whatever your burden may be, whatever the prospects, the unknowns, the uncertainties,

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you don't have to be afraid.

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That's the promise of God.

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The second promise that I see in this text that we read, quoting the prophet Jehaziel,

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is that the battle is God's, not yours.

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You and I can absolutely wear ourselves out in battles that God never intended for us

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to fight.

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The battle is not yours, he says.

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It's God's battle if you give it to him.

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You may be very weary tonight because you have been fighting and struggling with pressures

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and problems that you can't handle.

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Please understand God knows you can't handle them.

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He's waiting for you to learn that.

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He wants you to let go and give that battle to him because it's his, not yours, to fight.

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That's a promise.

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Those first two promises rest upon the final one, and that is that the Lord is with us.

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The Lord is with Judah in that day.

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The Lord is with us today in facing our problems.

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We should not run from them, but we should face them just as God told his people then

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to do.

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He said, you go out there and face them, I'll be with you.

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It's more human to run.

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It's more human to turn tail and take off in the other direction.

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You know when we do that, those problems have a way of tracing our trail, don't they?

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Have you ever noticed that in life?

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If you don't face a problem, it has a tendency to pop up again.

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God wants us to understand that we should face our problems because he is with us.

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We don't have to face them by ourselves.

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The blessing that God wanted to give his people was in respect to the promises, and it still

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is today.

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The promises are ours if we will proclaim them by faith, and that's what the people

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did here.

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It says, they arose early in the morning, they went out to the wilderness of Tekoa.

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When they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, listen to me, O Judah, and inhabitants

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of Jerusalem.

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Put your trust in the Lord your God, and you will be established.

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Put your trust in his prophets and succeed.

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When he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those

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who praised him in holy attire as they went out before the army and said, give thanks

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to the Lord for his loving kindness is everlasting.

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So he led them out that next day, and they stationed themselves.

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They stood by to see what God was going to do.

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Blessing comes in respect to the promises.

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As we've read the text, we've come to the final lesson I want us to see, and that is

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that blessing should result in praise.

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And blessing should lead us to worship, as it did these people.

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Interesting, they put the musicians out there in front, those who would be singing praise

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to the Lord in their holy attire.

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It even gives us the scripture song they were singing there at the end of verse 21.

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And when they began singing and praising, notice that, when they began singing and praising,

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do you understand the power of praise?

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Hell stops up its ears when the people of God begin to praise him.

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It cannot stand a praising, singing people.

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That's why we believe so strongly around here in singing, in praising God and worshiping

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him in music.

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It says, when they began to do that, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab,

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and Mount Seir, who had come against Judas, so they were routed.

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Now it's possible that there were marauders or inhabitants of that area that ambushed

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them.

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That's possible.

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But I think the better explanation is a supernatural one.

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I believe that God sent an army of angels that materialized and fought against these

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people who were coming against Judah.

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And so overwhelming was this army of the Lord that these enemies were routed.

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It says the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, destroying

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them completely.

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And when they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

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So you see they were ambushed, I believe, by an angelic army.

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And at the same time, God changed their hearts and they began to fight among themselves.

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The two sides taking side against one, and when that side was done, then these two began

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to fight among themselves until they were wiped out.

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And it says, when Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, they looked toward the

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multitude and behold, they were corpses lying on the ground and no one had escaped.

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Everybody was dead in that army.

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Here's the blessing.

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God delivered His people.

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And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found much among them.

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And it says, they were three days taking the spoil because there was so much.

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On the fourth day, they assembled in the valley of Baraka, for they blessed the Lord.

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There they blessed the Lord.

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Therefore, they have named that place the Valley of Baraka until today.

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The Hebrew word Baraka means blessing.

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The lessons from the Valley of Blessing.

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They named this valley the Valley of Baraka because there God was blessed by His delivered

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people.

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And it says, every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned with Jehoshaphat at their head, returning

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to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies.

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And they came to Jerusalem with harps, lyres, and trumpets to the house of the Lord.

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What a grand procession, being led by the musicians who were playing on their instruments,

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crying out, praising God.

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The point here is that blessing should result in praise.

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Let us always be careful to give God praise when He pours out His blessing upon us.

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The blessing of the Lord, I should say the praise of the Lord, came even before the victory

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was there.

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But then it continued after the victory was theirs.

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And all of this that happened caused great fear to be upon the surrounding nations.

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It says the dread of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that the Lord

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had fought against the enemies of Israel.

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So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for His God gave Him rest on all sides.

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God knows when we need a burden, and God knows when we need a rest.

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God graciously gives us time of refreshment and rest after He has allowed pressures to

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come into our lives.

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Am I talking to someone tonight who is in the valley of pressure?

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Are you in the valley of burden?

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Will you there in that valley apply these lessons from the example of Jehoshaphat so

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that that valley of burden will become a valley of blessing?

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Believe me that God wants to do much more for you than you desire Him to do.

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And as you pray in response to that burden, remember you are not overcoming God's reluctance,

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you are laying hold of God's willingness.

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As you pray, remember not only does prayer change things, but more true, prayer changes

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us.

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Through our praying, God changes us so that God can do in and for us all that He wants

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to do.

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Blessing is in relation to pressures that God brings into your life.

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Blessing is in response to prayers.

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Blessing is in relation to God's promises, and blessing should result in praise from

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our lives.

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Let's pray together.

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I don't know where you are in the cycle of your walk with God right now.

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You are at a time of rest, a time of refreshment.

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Thank God for it, friend.

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But there are some tonight who are in that valley of threat, and you are tempted to be

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fearful.

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Follow Jehoshaphat's example.

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Apply these lessons, won't you?

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Let God turn that valley to the valley of Baraka in your life.

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Father, thank you that you never allow our burdens to be so great that we are overwhelmed

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unless we forget you and allow ourselves to be overwhelmed.

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Teach us, I pray, to trust, to pray, to claim the promises.

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Prepare us to receive what you want to give us.

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Rejoice and purify us so that we might be the channels of blessing that you want us

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to be.

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Forgive us if we have seen you as reluctant to help us, and show us afresh how willing

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you are to aid us.

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O God, may someone or some several tonight lay hold of that truth and find that valley

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of Baraka in their lives.

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In Jesus' name, amen.