Received this book when it was written and the benefit of us who hear it now Our passage this morning is is from chapter 5 Beginning in verse 18 continuing through verse 26 This is God's word eternally true The Rubenites the Gatites and the half tribe of Manasseh These are those parenthetically that are across the Jordan River they are East east of the Jordan and those that didn't settle west of the Jordan in the in the Promised Land. I see smiling at me
They had together 44,760 men ready for military service Abel-bodied men who could handle the shield and sword who could use a bow and he were trained for battle They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetsur, Mephish, and Nodab They were helped in fighting them and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them because they cried out to him during battle He answered their prayers because they trusted in him They seized the livestock of the Hagrites 50,000 camels 250,000 sheep and 2,000 donkeys They also took 100,000 people captive and many others fell slain because the battle with the gods And they occupied the land until the exile The people of the half tribe of Manasseh were numerous. They settled in the land from Basha to Bail-Hermann that is to Seneer Mount Hermann These were the heads of their families. Effer, Ashi, Iliel, Asriel, Jeremiah, Haudavviar, and Jadiel They were brave warriors, famous men, and head to their families But they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land whom God had destroyed before them So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of pool, King of Assyria, that is Tiglif Polizir, King of Assyria, who took the Rubenites, the Gadites, and a half tribe of Manasseh into exile He took them to Halah, Habor, Hera, and the River of Ghazim where they are to this day Here in the reading, let's give thanks to God for his word given to us the word of the Lord
Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we are grateful to you for this your word Written for the benefit that your people from the time it was written through till today
Illuminar our minds and hearts Give us understanding Bring to light your word
Build us up your body the church Jesus preached to us by your word We ask in your name Jesus Amen Assermin this morning is about crying out and crying There's a difference you know the the difference When we cry out we're often in trouble My daughters like the the movie a lot trek and In trek there's a a scene when when donkey his voice is Eddie Murphy is is in front of a dragon and He's in great terror Because a trek had gone up in the highest tower the highest room in the highest tower of the castle that the dragon occupies and rules And the donkey's left there in the first floor and his face to face with the dragon who's been breathing fire at him And he calls out he cries out
Hoping for Shrek to come and rescue him. That's crying out now when we talk about crying. We're talking about something different a Disaster a heartache a death some kind of loss even things like in the NCAA basketball tournament you see These players crying after they've lost because of heartache and because of something they wanted that was there and then lost to them Sometimes it's in a relationship when we are spurned By one we love We cry That's what this passage is about. We have two examples an example of crying out in an example of crying so to speak And this is what God speaks to us this morning and He would have us know that we is as believers in him or be to be people that your first point here that cry out to God We're to be people characterized by crying out to God When do we do this? Well, we do it when we're in trouble when we're afraid when we need wisdom And there's the decision to be made and we don't know what to do We cry out to him when we're up against insurmountable out odds in various contexts that were that were in We cry out to him when we're in need for something to happen And the church would cry out to him for for maturity We're cry out to him for him to expand his kingdom through us Where do we see this in this in this passage? Well, we see a great example of His people crying out to him and the result to this in the first section that we looked at from 518 Down through verse 22 And This narrative of what happened to God's people Cursing in five steps. We see the the first step here is the account of its it's verse 18 the number of men That's these trans Jordanian trans Jordanian tribes had the number of fighting men about 45,000 the number of men second step of verse 19 of this of this account Is we're told of the insurmountable odds that's your next blank insurmountable. That's ABLE. I looked it up to make sure
insurmountable odds facing These tribes were told that they were facing four nations Four different groups of people the head rights to tour in the fish no dab We're told later that there were Captives that far a number of captives that far outseated exceeded. They're fighting men Insurmountable odds the fourth step Verses 21 in the beginning of 22 we see the spectacular outcome God blesses his people with victory and they're able to take away as spoils of the victory all kinds of livestock There are a thousand one hundred thousand captives that they take away keep in mind They only had 44,000 some warriors and they take away over double Of who they were 100,000 captives And many others fell slain and then The fifth step were told that they lived at peace for a long time. They occupied this territory until the exile probably speaking of 734 BC when the Assyrian came to glass police or the third came through and carried them into exile But they had a long period of peace and and and inhabiting this land Great blessing that we see in these two steps four and five now. How do we get from step two these insurmountable odds? To this great victory Well, that's where step three comes in the turning point of this narrative. What made the difference between facing this insurmountable army of many nations and brought them great victory Well, what made the great difference was that they cried out to God that's your blank there God's people cried out to God and he answered their prayers They cried out to God and he helped them He helped them and he answered their prayer Prayer is the center point of this passage. It's the it's the apex you got if you if you study literature at all You know you got an introduction where they give you the setting and then they give you the problem What's going on? What's the what's the task at hand or if you watch a sitcom same thing? What's the subject about and then you reach a turning point in the story something happens That brings about then a resolution of the story and then an ending and that's just true of telling history There's a set up there's there's a problem Whether it be a war or an economic crisis. There's a turning point in a resolution And the turning point the thing that we're to look at the thing that we're to say that made the difference for God's people Is when God's people cried out to him That's what we're to see here from this narrative
Prayer is the center point and what happens in prayer a number of transfers happen in prayer We'll put it in a couple of different ways here first folders of transfer of trust That occurs We're told in this passage that the reason for their victory was they had put their trust in God. They had transferred Their trust to him. They were trusting not in here's your blank human ingenuity They weren't trusting in their numbers They weren't trusting in their bravery. They weren't trusting in how well they were trained They cried out to God. They trusted in him Instead of their own ingenuity of their own ability of their own strength They quit trusting in those things and trusted in God instead Second kind of transfer we have a transfer in prayer of responsibility This is all from the human perspective of what's going on as we pray and God sees what's going on in us as we pray We have transferred responsibility For the outcome to him
This is not saying that we're we're not responsible or that we don't be responsible. The Israelites still fought They still fought the battle, but the ultimate responsibility of what would happen of the outcome They had in their minds transferred to God They had acted faithfully but in prayer they transferred in their heart The responsibility of the outcome to God. That's your blank The transfer in prayer in your heart the responsibility of the outcome To God That is you quit thinking in your heart This outcome this set of circumstances in front of me or this set of circumstances in front of our church or whatever situation That you're we're in You transfer saying well, we got to do this and got to do that and if we don't do it or I don't do it It won't happen we transfer that and we say God this has to happen from you We'll act faithfully but ultimately it's going to happen because you cause it to happen We start thinking the outcome of this is ultimately depends on God Now there's another transfer last transfer we can talk about when we pray what happens in our minds and in our hearts There's a transfer or a switch In your cognizance or in your in your mind Of who the primary that's your blank you who the primary player is In the situation In one sense these transfers are all Three ways of saying one thing But emphasize some different aspects of this when we pray in our in our in our minds and our hearts. We are transferring To the primary player in the situation is We acknowledge that we're not the main player That no matter how good we are at doing something No matter how hard we try at getting something to happen if God doesn't want it to happen It's not going to happen Last night I got cold in my living room and you know what God did not want my pilot light to stay on in my remote control Gas law fire place No matter how hard I tried no matter how long I press that pilot light on Four minutes when I turn that thing to on The gas went right back in and it didn't start up
God doesn't want to happen. He wanted me to be cold. I guess Or I would have fallen asleep or something. I don't know But if God doesn't want us to happen. It's not going to happen in with Against by whatever He's going to cause what he wants to happen to happen
When we pray we're calling God to take over I remember last Last June I was watching the I don't watch much NBA Basketball, but I always watch playoffs at least by the championship series and I'll watch all parts of every game of the championship And usually that the two games before that I'll watch as much as I can But one of the things that talked about Kobe Bryant the one of the stars for the Los Angeles Lakers is that when he wants to He can take over any game that he's in He gets the ball brings it down and just takes over She's three pointers Dunks at whatever he wants to do he does makes the steals he can just take over That's what we do in prayer. We ask God in essence take over God I'm in this situation here. I would like this to happen. Would you take over here? You're the primary player God in this is the weather. It's going to happen or not not me my not my ingenuity not my skill Not my goodness or whatever It's you Where do we see this well the beginning of verse 22 look there It says they won the battle because the battle was God God was the primary player in this battle the battle was his that's why they wanted The writer of Chronicles is very clear about this Look back at verse 20 we see initially it says they were helped Then we're told you skip a few words who they're helped by God handed the Hagricks and their allies over to God's people Let's skip a few words We see it was God who answered their prayers Because they trusted in him God is the primary player through prayer. There's a transfer or a switch
That occurs Why was the battle gods? Well because they trusted in him we see that at the end of End of verse 20 that's your blank the battle was God because God's because they trusted in him now whether they want or lost the battle God was in control But God is waiting in heaven for his people to cry out to him So that he can affect the circumstances For their good and for his glory So that he can work with their actions to glorify himself instead of over and above and against their actions To glorify himself to God have been glorified and their defeat had they been faithless and not turned to him Sure, he could have been glorified It could have been pronounced Worldwide or at least in the region that when God's people don't trust in him They have no strength that brings glory to God A people who only have their strength. They've got their God is with them But you know God is is waiting to bless his people here and they turned to him and he says oh good Now I can glorify myself not through disciplining them But I can glorify myself through giving them great victory And it's because they trusted in him they said in prayer hey our God our Savior You take over take over this battle So us here now when you're in trouble When you've got circumstances in front of you where it seems like they're insurmountable ads Odds when you need wisdom When you have adversaries against you people aimed against you trying to do your harm when you need something to happen Or when we as a church need things to happen Whether it's land or building or more importantly whether it's whether or not God chooses to use us to bring people to himself Whether God causes us to be a place where people grow and grace grow and him grow and maturity In him we need God for all these things to happen the battle is his Not ours it's not by our ingenuity. It's not by the cleverness of our our session or our offices or you the congregation It's not by our ability God will use the things we offer to him but the battle is his He's the main player in all this
So what do we do we cry out to him? We cry out to him we say God here's the battle whatever it is Here's the battle Take over and that's the gospel What's every person's battle ultimately in life? It's a battle of what's going to happen to them in the long term Everybody wants well-being short-term and long-term, but most importantly it's a person's long-term well-being we make decisions if we're wise for our long-term well-being
And ultimately the long-term well-being is whether a person is blessed with God in heaven or cursed apart from God's kind presence In hell That's the battle who's the enemy it's not these four four tribes here these four nations The enemy is Satan himself the one who wants to devour the souls of men and women boys and girls The one who blinds the minds of unbelievers So they don't see the truth of the gospel
But when one cries out to the Lord and says God My sin earns me eternal death But oh God oh Savior save me But it's at that point When someone asks God to take over that God says And he gives all who turn to him peace as the Israelites had peace verse 22 dwelling in the land and he blesses Those who turn to him verse 21 and see physical accounts of of his blessing
Why does anyone win the battle for eternal life? Because they've realized they're sin they've cried out to God to save them And he does no one wins the battle for eternal life by being strong powerful moral and character No one wins the battle for eternal life by that Everyone who tries to win the battle by their own efforts. That's your blank by their own efforts Just gets crushed as God's people would have been crushed by this much bigger army Salvation is by grace by God's unmerited favor
And this gospel truth That we see blessing from God by crying out to him To show his mercy upon us and salvation is also true for us in our lives as believers
These were God's people here They were part of the covenant community God had did it it spoke into them and said I will bless you
But they were still to cry out to him And that's the way we're to live our lives by crying out to God in various circumstances that we get in in our lives Believers cry out to him in all circumstances of lives and trust that's your blank trust in his mercy and transfer the battles we face to him Through prayer So we cry out to God Secondly in this passage we have an example of crying Know nobody's crying here at least that we're reported of But there were sure certainly people that were that were crying because the results of what happens here from verse 23 onto the end of the chapter
Second thing God wants us to see through this second half of the passage here Now nobody cry in here at least that were reported of but there was certainly people that were That were crying because the results of what happens here From verse 23 onto the end of the chapter Second thing God wants us to see through this second half of the passage here is that you and I are to be faithful, that's your blank, to be faithful, be faithful to God after blessing. We see that over and over again in the history of God's people. When he blesses them, then they're unfaithful, they don't rely on him, they don't trust upon him, they don't cry out to him in unfaithfulness, creeps in. The biggest illustration is my own life, tell you, when church things are going well and my family things are going well, that's when I'm the worst, after those times. When I realize, wow, God is really blessing us here and here and here and in my family and with this and that and this and that, that's when it's hardest for me to be faithful, that happened in this time too, that tribes across the Jordan weren't faithful. The half tribe of Menace is singled out here, they were faithless, they had been blessed with the stuff that we saw above, they had been living in peace in their land, but verse 24, we see some steps here in this story, the first step, we see them experiencing God's blessings. The universe 24 gives us a description, gives them a very bold and favorable description. A life is okay, is what God is saying here, they were brave warriors, famous men and heads of their families, this is the picture of health, of vigor, of strength, of security, they were experiencing God's blessings, but then the third step of this story in verse 26, we find out that they get chastised, disciplined by God, by exile, they are chastised by exile. Now God has told his people about this through Moses, Deuteronomy 1, right before the people are about to enter into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, Moses writes the book of Deuteronomy as the second law giving to the second generation, the first generation that had come out of Egypt to die off in the wilderness, that their kids 20 and under, who had come out of Egypt 20 years old and under, were now about to enter into the Promised Land and Moses writes by the inspiration of Holy Spirit, the book of Deuteronomy, and right from the beginning in Deuteronomy 1, he says, but if you are unfaithful to the laws of this covenant, Exodus, Genesis, Numbers, Leviticus, if you are unfaithful to this, and you do not heed the words of the prophets that I send to you, then I will spew you out from this land. I will expel you, this is holy land, and if you are not holy, and if you are worshiping other gods, you are going to get kicked out, and that is exactly what happens to the half tribe of Manasseh here, they are deported, they are exiled. God noticed here in the passage, it says, God stirred up the spirit of Tiglach-Polizor. This pagan king, which is exactly what he told him he would do through Moses, I will cause foreign nations to come in and oppress you, to carry you off from the Promised Land to chastise you for your unfaithfulness, and that is the turning point in this story. The middle verse, verse 25, where they go from blessing to the ultimate curse of being expelled from the Promised Land, the turning point is their unfaithfulness, that is your blank, their unfaithfulness, they worshiped other gods, it says here they rejected the God of their fathers and prostituted themselves, the gods of the peoples of the land that God had kicked out before them, they had pagan gods that they were worshipping.
Now here is where we see the gospel, Jesus declares in Luke 24 that all the Old Testament scriptures had been talking about him. Where do we see that here? Well one of the curses that Moses told his people that they would receive, if they were unfaithful to the Lord, is by hanging on a tree, by being expelled, by being chastised by the nations for their unfaithfulness. So how does the gospel fit into this? How is Jesus fit into this picture? Here is how he fits in. We are the ones that are unfaithful. We are the ones who don't do and think and say what we ought to do, say and think. We ignore God's commandments, but you know God doesn't expel us instead. He expels us son. He sends his son out of heaven to earth. And he expels his son from Jerusalem to outside the city walls to bear the sins of his people. We are unfaithful. This is the gospel. We are unfaithful. And he, Jesus, gets chastised on our behalf. He takes the punishment for our sins. He gets expelled for our unfaithfulness. This also gives us a message for today, for how we are to live. We realize Jesus has taken our punishment. But also, Hebrews 12 tells us that God treats us as a loving father. And one thing that a loving father does is discipline his children. When they misbehave, he disciplines them. And it's not a pleasant thing for the time being, but it leads to a harvest of righteousness. The writer of Hebrews says, harvest of righteousness in peace. That's what this passage is talking about. God is disciplining his people here through exile so that they would come to their senses and repent of worshiping other gods, which they did. And he would bring them back to the land which he had. The people receiving this book of 1st and 2nd Chronicles were those people who had come back to the land after a period of chastisement in Babylon. In our lives, we can expect God to discipline us as people, as we disobey him because he's a loving father to us. But this is good news to us. This means that we have a father who cares. Father who cares about us, to discipline us, to chastise us when we do wrong because he wants us to have a harvest of righteousness and peace in our lives, through living our lives according to his law, through blank thers peace, a harvest of righteousness and peace. And this is a gospel message too, that even in our failings, which are many and daily, God treats us with His loving care, being concerned for our well-being in the long term, being concerned for our development, being concerned for our long-term receiving of His blessing through living according to His Word. So when God obviously blesses you in your life, God obviously blesses us in our church where to be faithful to Him, especially after the blessing when I was in my younger days when I could run a hundred yards without my chest hurting, lungs and heart and legs, playing soccer. I remember my dad had a job where he could schedule out and come to my games and he would do that. He would schedule out together with my mom and he would come to all my games. And I remember when we would, at some point along the line, maybe it was early in high school, when we would score a goal, you know, we're all excited and you do your dance whatever you do. And we'd come back and you know, they start the ball off and soccer at the center of the field and the other team kicks off to themselves. They pass the ball among each other at the 50 yard line, so to speak. But as I would be coming back and setting up again, I played right in the center of the field, very central position and I would look over and I'd see my dad and he'd say, John, score again. Get it in there, score again. And I learned that he never really, maybe he explained it too many, just became part of my thinking, but it became what we used to do. And being in the center of the field, I could do that. We'd score a goal and I'd look to the guys in the front that the forward, the main goal scores. And I'd say, okay, Tim, let's get it again. Let's score again. Let's lay it on them. You've seen game after game, whatever sport it is, where a team gets up and what happens, well, it's just not so important on this third and eight anymore. They're up a couple of touchdowns. You know, this possession isn't so important. We're up 12 points. You know, if I throw this pass away, or if I get the ball stolen as I'm bringing it up court, you know, we'll still be up 10. It's easy to be lax and to relax and then not pour it on after we've scored or whom we've been blessed by a goal, so to speak. The message here from this passage is this, be faithful, play hard, try to score even after the blessing. Don't take it easy, don't be sloppy, score again. When God's blessing you, be alert, say, hey, this is when I am most likely to be complacent, most likely to be unfaithful. It's now I've got to pour it on and be faithful to my God to love him with all my heart. Be faithful after the blessing. Let's pray. Our Father, it is our nature. We have wandering hearts and souls that stray from you. We are sheep, but thank you that you are our shepherd, a good shepherd that keeps us on course. Cause us when we receive blessings from you in our lives and in our church to be faithful to you. Cause us to be alert in our minds that we would not use your blessings as a time to be at ease in our determination to be faithful to you, but rather that we would pour it on, rejoicing in the blessing that you have given us and walking in further faithfulness to you. And cause us always our God to turn to you in various times, times of trouble and times of good things, to cry out to you, to transfer in our mind that the battle is yours so that as we know that and see the battle come out in great victory so that we know that it's you bringing it about, carrying us, giving us victory. Cause us to operate this way in our lives and in our church we asked in Christ name, Amen.