Amen, right so keep a finger in 1 Kings 22, well in fact you don't have to keep a finger there,
just have an idea of around where that 1 Kings Chronicles books are and go over to
Proverbs chapter 24, so Proverbs chapter 24,
Proverbs chapter 24 and we're going to look from verse 15, so Proverbs 24 and verse 15.
Proverbs 24, 15 reads,
and the title of my sermon today is bounce back ability in the Christian life, bounce
back ability in the Christian life, I'd like to pray before we continue,
Father thank you for this great church, thank you for all the people that made it out
here this morning and Lord I just pray that you just help them to just have attentive ears now and
to just take to heart what I preached today, help me to just preach it accurately and boldly and
help me to preach fully your spirit Lord and to just preach the message that you laid on my heart
today and help me to just get it across clearly and succinctly today and in Jesus name pray all
of this amen. What is bounce back ability? What is bounce back ability? Well basically it's a
sports term that's used to describe the ability to recover after a setback, anyone heard the term
bounce back ability before? Yeah a couple of football fans out there you wicked bunch,
it is you hear it in football sometimes they've got a little bounce back ability but it is a
sports term that we hear with other sports as well, now in life it's essential because there
are a lot of setbacks in life aren't there, just in life as a general fit, just away from the
Christian life right now there are a lot of setbacks aren't there, a lot of people will go,
I don't think anyone's going to go through life however much wealth however much sort of fortune
or anything else you might feel they have without going through setbacks and often major setbacks
and and whatnot in life and and I would say this is probably heightened in the Christian life,
why is it heightened in the Christian life? Because our standards are higher so we maybe
recognize or they should be higher we maybe recognize pitfalls and and setbacks more than
others and if you're wondering what I'm talking about well for example the regular the regular
unsaved guy in this nation at least probably wouldn't see a week where he's ended up spending
every evening up till 1am watching some addictive series on Netflix as much of a setback in his life,
he might look back and go that wasn't a bad week maybe or at least yeah well I maybe but maybe I
was a bit tired that week but it was quite addictive, I would hope that the average Christian
on the other hand at least a bible-believing Christian who's trying to live by the word of
God would see that as a setback in their life, they would see that as that was a bad week,
that was a bit of a failure, that was a pitfall that they fell into, the next thing you know they
were staring at some wicked series on Netflix every night because these series can be addictive
can't they for many and and that's a pitfall that I hope as Christians you try your best to avoid
and you do your best to avoid. For example that would be one thing now I would say that works
across the board with many temptations in life, if you think things like covetousness, sexual lust,
pride, idolatry, many of those things maybe someone in the world might not just might not
see that as a pitfall when they've slipped into that, they might just see that as well that's just
the way I am, I would hope for most people sitting here if you have some problem with one of those
things and many other sins you can think about in life, many other pitfalls that you've fallen into
however briefly you would consider that as a setback I'd hope in life, you're going to look
at that as a setback which means that as a Christian suddenly you've got a whole range of
things which are maybe not setbacks to those in normal life that they at least won't feel like
they're setbacks they won't feel like they're pitfalls. Now praise God that hopefully you do
have those different standards I hope everyone does here but like I said that's that's going to
make you feel like you're you're always navigating pitfalls, that's going to make you feel like you're
just always navigating trying to avoid the latest setback, the latest trap, the latest snare,
the latest pitfall and look whether or not you've got you know even if you feel like I'm quite good
at that brother and I've got you know the best sat nav going you know I can avoid them I can
navigate them I'm in the word of God look however good your sat nav is there always ends up a time
where it keeps trying to take you back to that diversion doesn't it you try to usually late at
night when you're tired and and you're like I'll find another way in the you can go miles and that
sat nav will just take you around that roundabout back around to that diversion where that exit
shut anyone ever had that happen yeah there's a lot of I can see some people are still recovering
from this that is frustrating isn't it okay and and look however good you think you are those
those those setbacks those pitfalls you will eventually stumble into them however good your
sat nav is you're going to eventually it's gonna it's gonna malfunction sometimes right
it late at night the cones are out for no reason anyway okay so it does happen doesn't it but it is
just a setback isn't it it's a setback it's an infuriating setback and sometimes you in the
Christian life can maybe keep going towards that coned off it should be a coned off exit
and you might keep feeling yourself drawn there but it is only a setback and you can recover from
it can't you okay I hope everyone here understands you can recover from the setbacks you are going to
have setbacks you are going to now and again fall into that pit now have a look down at proverbs 24
see as Christians we're not immune from falling okay and I know that that might be news to some
of you some of you might have thought but I thought when I got saved I would never have to
fall into any form of pit again and of course none of us are going to go into the bottomless pit
but there are many pitfalls in life aren't there proverbs 24 and verse 15 is actually a warning to
the wicked not to mess with God's children it says lay not wait a wicked man against the
dwelling of the righteous spoil not his resting place for a just man full of seven times and
rises up again but the wicked shall fall into mischief and the point being that whereas the
righteous a just man rises when he falls the wicked fall into mischief and mischief isn't
this sort of you know cheeky chappy you know a little bit naughty but it's probably fairly
innocent sort of bad stuff no mischief is harm hurt injury or damage okay it is serious okay
the wicked will fall into that the wicked who lays weight against the home of God's people
is going to fall into serious harm and that can happen can't it there could be wicked people that
want to try and you know do something to your home want to you know maybe you've got a wicked
neighbor maybe you've got someone who's who's stalking you or something else it does happen
doesn't it but they're going to come into mischief and that's not a good thing the just man on on the
other hand could fall seven times and still rise up again for a just man full of seven times and
rises up again now that's climb back ability isn't it yeah he can rise back up now that's at the
least climb back ability but we want bounce back ability because that climb can be a little too
slow for some can't it a little too tiring and sometimes when you're climbing back up
you do get a little tired that climb can feel a little bit a little bit fatiguing and you end
up back in the pit in the mire and the longer you're in there the harder that climb becomes
climbing back down unfortunately many do to wallow in that mire and they give up they give up on the
climb and the longer you're down there like i said the harder it is to get back the best time to get
back is straight away okay you bounce straight back anyone ever done any you do anything with
with wheels you ever whether it's i don't know scooters mountain biking road racing anything
like that when you go when you when you use that what do you do sorry what do you do with that
daniel you use it to get back up quicker don't you you don't start putting your brakes on when
you get to the bottom of the hill before you have the uphill coming because you're going to find that
uphill that little bit harder aren't you and it's the same for me when you when you go through a
trial when you go through a struggle the best time to get back up is straight away you want to bounce
back not slowly climb back because otherwise you lose that momentum and i was thinking about this
subject thinking about that bouncing back thinking about coming back from from like i said pitfalls
from times in your life that are hard from the many many and like i said many setbacks every
single one of us here will go through on a weekly basis will go through at least on a monthly basis
and and for me the first person that came to mind with jehoshaphat because jehoshaphat when you
actually look at his life there are many times when he actually bounces back there are many times
when he comes back from setbacks now many will see him as just one of the righteous kings yeah
jehoshaphat was one of the good guys innocently wanted to help out israel probably got that a
little bit wrong but his heart was in the right place yeah but his reign like i said actually has
a lot of setbacks but always followed by the right response and that can't be said for all kings in
the bible can it that can't be said for all kings that we see described as righteous kings of good
kings who walked in the way of a you know of either david or one of their good fathers or
whoever else because often often it might start well and then it ends in a bad way and in fact we
see that with jehoshaphat's father asa but jehoshaphat actually always bounces back
he always seems to get back on the right footing and i chose first kings chapter 22 and you're not
going to go there because the chapter for me is just a good summary of his life and we see
obviously that that that main event where he goes to try and go to war alongside a um ahab but but
we're going to look at a few places in the more detailed second chronicles accounts so if you go
to second chronicles in chapter 17 it's going to be a bit of a study of jehoshaphat's life here but
we i believe we can learn a lot from it because we get to see just how well things seem to be going
firstly in chapter 17 for jehoshaphat up until the point that we started in in our bible reading
with first kings 22 so this is sort of pre first kings 22 second chronicles in chapter 17
says this second chronicle 17 and from verse 1 reads and jehoshaphat his son talking about asa's
son reigned in his stead and strengthened himself against israel now like i said he was a good king
but he ends up with this foot disease he doesn't seek god instead he goes straight to the doctors
and he ends up with a bad a bad end to his life now just a quick point on that that doesn't mean
going to the doctors means you're going to have a bad end but you should be seeking god shouldn't
you you should be seeking god and god might lead you to doctors god might lead you to someone who
can heal you of something and and and he might not but we should be seeking god in any situation any
issue anyway let's continue verse two and he placed forces in all the fenced cities of juda
and set garrisons in the land of juda and in the cities of ephraim which asa his father had taken
and the lord was with jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father
David has sought not unto baalim but sought to the lord god of his father walked in his commandments
and not after the doings of israel therefore the lord established the kingdom in his hand
and all juda brought to jehoshaphat presence and he had riches and honor in abundance and his heart
was lifted up in the ways of the lord moreover he took away the high places and groves out of juda
so it's a great start for his reign isn't he sought the lord he walked in his commandments
had a heart for god he's getting rid of idolatry then verse seven says also in the third year of
his reign he sent to his princes even to benhale and to obadiah and to zechariah and to nethaneel
and to micaiah to teach in the cities of juda and with them he sent levites even shamaya and
netheniah and zebadiah and azathel and shamiramoth and johannathan and adoniger and toberger and
toberdoniger levites and with them elishema and jehor and priests and they taught in juda and had
the book of the law of the lord with them and went about throughout all the cities of juda and
taught the people so they're teaching the word of god it's looking rosy here isn't it it's looking
like a righteous king and the fear of the lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands around
about judas that they made no war against jehoshaphat also some of the philistines
brought jehoshaphat presence and tribute silver and the arabians brought in flock 7 700 rams
and 7 700 he goats and jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly and he built in juda castles and
cities of store and he had much business in the cities of juda and the men of war mighty men of
valor were in jerusalem so he's got riches store trade is good he's surrounded by tough guys
what could go wrong well here comes a pitfall second chronicles chapter 18 and look at verse 1
second chronicles 18 look at verse 1 now jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance
and joined affinity with ahab basically he's just yoked up with one of the most wicked guys around
okay king ahab the king of the now northern king of israel as opposed to southern juda
and ahab well you don't have to turn there but this is what first king 16 says of ahab okay so
first king 16 just listen for a second from verse 30 and ahab the son of omri did evil in the sight
of the lord above all that were before him and it came to pass if it had been a light thing for
him to walk in the sins of jeroboam the son of neba that he took to wife jezebel the daughter
of ethebel king of the zydonians and went to serve bale and worshipped him and he reared up an altar
for bale in the house of bale which he built in samaria and ahab made a grove and ahab did more
to provoke the lord god of israel to anger than all the kings of israel that were before him and
there have been some wicked kings of israel up until this point pretty much all of them were
but he did more to provoke the lord god of israel to anger than all the kings of israel he
he's worshipping satan okay he's a satan worshiper he's this guy is full on wicked and jehoshaphat
makes an alliance with him okay jehoshaphat this righteous king of juda makes this alliance with
him now i don't know maybe he thought he could really you know reunite the kingdoms maybe there
were some other incidents of the gifts that we see in the next verse or two but what did
what did jehoshaphat's great great great great great i think that's a complete guess but it's
about that many greats grandfather say in psalm 101 verse 4 king david said a froward heart
shall depart for me i will not know a wicked person okay so he's not really got an excuse
here is he i don't think he's he's in the dark about how wicked he is he said king david said
i will not know a wicked person in psalm 101 verse 4 and that's a pitfall that many of us
can fall into as well okay and it is something that many of many of us here can stumble at
okay when it comes to family friends outside of church outside outside of here it's very easy to
fall into that to to want to still find good in someone who you know deep down is a wicked person
you know someone that you shouldn't be around that they're only going to cause you trouble
they're going to cause problems are going to be bad for your family your kids if you have families
and kids whatever it is but a lot of the time we still want to try and find an excuse don't we
because it can be uncomfortable it could be hard to not to either break fellowship break affinity
or to not have it when it or not to respond when it's being sought after by someone else yeah
well he said here he says here where you are it says in verse two and after certain years
he went down to ahab to samaria and sometimes you might think well it's not really a problem
but eventually you're going to get a problem from it and ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in
abundance and for the people that he had with him and persuaded him to go out with him to ramoth
gilead so jehoshaphat who's got riches and honor in abundance we saw in verse one but ahab manages
to sweeten him up with some fresh lamb and some fresh beef yeah whatever it was i don't know if
it was because it was just being given to him or something else i'm sure he'd already eaten some
nice stuff but he he's offered him this and he persuades him he persuades him to go with him to
fight for the border town of ramoth gilead look at verse three and ahab king of israel said unto
jehoshaphat king of judah wilt thou go with me to ramoth gilead and he answered him i am a zawat
and my people as i people and we will be with thee in the war so he slipped all the way into
that pitfall now hasn't he okay he slipped into it it started off as you know as an error he
shouldn't have joined he shouldn't have been going down to see this wicked guy shouldn't he
barring going down with a sword to probably cut his head off and instead he's trying to hang out
with him suddenly he's getting given you know he's laying on the feast for him he's taking him
out for dinner and all the people with him and next thing you know he's saying my people is your
people and it sounds so nice and we like to sound so as the world tells us the christians should
sound don't we oh well you know we i'm kind to everyone you know you know i i'm i'm what the
world says the christians should be like i'm just gonna be best friends hang out go out for dinner
you know not have a problem with anyone because you know god is love but is that what the bible
is that how the bible tells us we should be now we're told to not even know a wicked person we
should hate those that hate god and i believe that look okay we might see a time later in ahab's life
where he seems to at least get a bit humble for a while but that doesn't mean that this guy wasn't
a wicked person okay he was a wicked guy and i don't believe that that had anything to his
salvation at the end by the way so okay so he's he's yoked up with this wicked king okay to go
and fight alongside him he's he's messed up isn't he okay he's messed up he's offered to partner up
with the wicked king ahab i believe he probably knows he's in the wrong okay this is some weakness
this guy has but deep down i believe he knows in the world it's a guy that's been sending people
out to teach the word of god in every city i think he's pretty aware that he's in the wrong here
so does he now just sink further and hide from god because many people would wouldn't they many
people right i'm in the wrong now i don't want to hear what god's got to say now i'm just going to
start to avoid avoid maybe my bible reading maybe i'm going to avoid church for a little bit avoid
the preaching whatever else because i'm in the wrong and i don't want to hear that i'm in the
wrong well look at verse four joshua said unto the king of israel inquire i pray thee at the
word of the lord today so his response after this he's just agreed he's just said i will be with you
then he says let's inquire at the word of the lord today and when you feel like you've made
a mistake you can either hide from god or you can inquire at the word of the lord today today
yeah we all make mistakes we're all going to make errors of judgment it might not be identical to
this it might be in a completely different unrelated area of life we're going to make
errors we're going to make mistakes what shall we do inquire inquire at the word of the lord
inquire at the word of the lord if you're a bit unsure if you're you're you don't want to hide
then and go well i just don't want to hear it look i want to know i hope everyone here you want to
know if what you're doing is pleasing god don't you you want to know if what you're doing is the
right thing you have to inquire the word of the lord and he said today you didn't say let's
inquire the word of the lord at some point he said today today inquire the word of the lord today how
do we do that with our bibles don't we how do we do that with our bibles and but you need to know
your bible don't you so you might have something pricking you i don't know if i'm doing the right
thing here but if that's that's 1189 chapters is a large bible to know where to go to to find
a solution for that isn't it if you're reading your bible one verse a day and you're going to
get through it in three years time sorry one chapter a day you're going to get through it
in three years time or whatever it is you it's probably going to take a long time to find out
where you're going wrong yeah it's going to take a long time and then add in those those days where
you're kind of skim reading and you mind somewhere else or something else it might take you several
years to find that out unless you're fortunate enough for the preacher to preach that sin
but if you're not in church that's not even going to necessarily happen anyway right maybe
he preaches that day when you're not there but look you need to read your bible you need to
inquire the inquire at the word of the lord today verse 5 says therefore the king of israel gathered
together of prophets 400 men and said unto them shall we go to ramoth gilead to battle or shall
i forbear and they said go up for god will deliver it into the king's hand so he's got
400 so-called prophets but jehoshaphat smells a rat here doesn't he okay he's there's he's 400
guys but he's not happy with them but jehoshaphat said he said not hear a prophet of the lord besides
that we might inquire of him so again at this point you might be thinking okay good good
bounce back there as well he smelt out the false prophets maybe you could say he shouldn't have
left it to ahab to select the preachers right maybe i think at this point they're somewhere
in between they're kind of near the border maybe he could have sent for his own preachers it's like
ahab saying something along the lines of you know we've got joel osteen here we've got rick warren
we've got uh what's it what's that wicked witch joist mayor yeah and they're all saying you do
what's in your heart champ you just do what you feel right because no one can stop you
but he smells a rat doesn't he he's like what is his positive only preaching yeah and we
should smell a rat when we hear positive only preaching shouldn't we well he's responded well
here the king of israel said unto jehoshaphat there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of
the lord but i hate him he said for he never prophesied good unto me but always evil the same
is my kaya the son of imla and jehoshaphat said let not the king say so so he basically
he's going to bring in the hate preacher who he hates because really let's be honest when it
comes to hate preachers or at least you know real men of god they call hate preachers it's really
them that hate the preacher that's why they're a hate preacher why do they hate the preacher
because he preaches on their sins because he preaches things which are affected because he
doesn't preach all the positive stuff that you want to hear and when it comes to ahab he's a
wicked person so he's going to be getting a lot of preaching against him isn't he yeah but look if
you're if you're hating a preacher and obviously people will try and justify it people will try
and find a way and you know this is i'm i'm defending here against you guys if you hate
this because you're wicked it could there could be any other reason that i'm joking but what i
am saying is that look you might try and justify why you hate that preacher that preached something
that really got under your skin that really hit you but really you've got to question yourself
don't you you've got to say what is it really now it might be well actually no i do find that guy
really annoying okay fair enough yeah but you've got to be honest with yourself don't you and so
often it's because they're preaching something which affects you it's because they're preaching
something that that annoys you that angers you that upsets you same here with with my car he
said i hate him okay now while they're waiting okay they get really charismatic with their
preaching the holy horns come out the guy's got these are the i think these are the horns
unbelievable isn't it they you know they and look some some of these preachers can be can be
enjoyable too i'm sure that guy with the horns out i'm sure probably all of us here would have
probably enjoyed that sermon you would have sat there and gone yeah this guy's got some horns
got these so what's gonna drive them back and everyone's going amen you know everything else
but it doesn't mean it's the right message does it and look there are some people that have the
gift of the gab aren't there there are some people that can wow they look good up there
they're smooth with the way they talk and they use some really theological words and they sound very
you know very well read and learned and everything else but they're still false prophets and this guy
is a false prophet anyway what happens we'll just summarize for time makiah comes tells them that
ahab will fall okay so again he doesn't give him that positive sermon that it won't be successful
does jehoshaphat listen we'll look at verse 27 and makiah said if thou certainly return in peace
and have not the lord spoken by me and he said harken all you people so the king of israel and
jehoshaphat the king of judo went up to ramoth gilead so another error by jehoshaphat right
jehoshaphat this holy king this great guy yet again another error he says bring him the man
man of god comes in but he still goes up to ramoth gilead now it looked like he was getting it right
he's messed up again what's the result we'll look at verse 29 and the king of israel said unto
jehoshaphat i will disguise myself and will go to the battle but put thou on thy robes so the king
of israel disguised himself and they went to the battle that's a bit obvious isn't it i i feel like
he knows what he's doing here i feel like he's probably got an inkling that maybe they're going
to go for him that at least now jehoshaphat's going to look like the king i don't know because
he's deciding that he's going to disguise himself but jehoshaphat's still going to be in his kingly
robes yeah well what happens now the king of syria commanded the captains of the chariots that
were with him saying fight ye not with smaller greats save only with the king of israel well
who's going to look like the king of israel jehoshaphat okay so ahab's ahab's disguised
they want to kill ahab he's disguised jehoshaphat's the one in the king's robes the pit fools looking
bad right now isn't it not looking good for him at all and you could say well you kind of brought
it on yourself jehoshaphat you've yoked up with this guy you've you've you've then you know by
god's grace realize that the prophets are a bunch of clowns so you've got in the man of god but
you've still just gone oh i'm still gonna go anyway well look what happens and it came to
pass when the captains of the chariots saw jehoshaphat that they said it it is the king
of israel therefore they compassed about him to fight so it's got even worse for jehoshaphat okay
they think he's ahab he's about to get killed what does he do does he bemoan his luck does he
just kind of wallow in a pit of depression ah is it all me my fault or maybe it's god it's your
fault you should have you know you should have showed me you know it was your you sent those
false prophets to me you know you should have made it clearer that my car was tend you and you could
see how many people would have you know many christians sadly sitting here would have had
different variations of those sorts of things and well jehoshaphat doesn't know but jehoshaphat
cried out and the lord helped him and god moved them to depart from it for me he cried out to the
lord he cried out and the lord helped him he cried out to the lord and what does what what does
god want us to do in our times of trouble cry out to the lord cry out to him look you might
have dug that hole yourself yeah you might have literally seen that pit and jumped two footed into
it and said that swamp at the bottom is going to break my fall yeah you might have you might be the
reason that you're in it you might have no one to blame but yourself but you can still cry out to
god he wants you to cry out to him okay and what does jehoshaphat do he cries out to the lord
he dug the pit himself he he laid the trap almost himself he's jumped into it but he cries out to
the lord and the lord helped him and god moved them to depart from him and look many many would
sink further wouldn't they there many would would tell themselves that he won't forgive them after
what they've done they're the problem of course god's not going to help me now how many christians
will say that in life but he cried out and the lord helped him okay cry out to the lord god
wants you to call to him he wants you to pray to him for it came to pass that when the captains
of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of israel they turned back again from pursuing him
right so that's a quick bounce back isn't it he was literally about to die and instead the wicked
king ahad died it says in verse 33 and a certain man drew a bow at a venture smoked the king of
israel between the joints of the harness therefore he said to his chariot man turn thine hand at
thou mayest carry me out of the host for i am wounded and the battle increased that day how
be it the king of israel stayed himself up in his chariot against the syrians until the even
and about the time of the sun going down he died now that could have been a different story
couldn't it right that could have easily been a different story jump forward to second chronicles
in chapter 19 and verse 1 and jehoshaphat the king of juda returned to his house in peace to
jerusalem and jahu the son of hanayni the seer went out to meet him and said to king jehoshaphat
shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the lord therefore is wrath upon thee
from before the lord nevertheless there are good things found in thee and that thou has
taken away the groves out of the land and has prepared thine heart to seek god straight into
the next setback what's the next setback he's gone home and now he's getting preached at
okay he he's getting preached at there's going to be some wrath from god he's being told god
is angry at you shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the lord therefore is
wrath upon thee from before the lord now there's a bit of positivity to finish off the sermon here
but how's he going to respond to the rebuke how's he going to respond to it to knowing that god's
angry with him see he could hide from god like many people do blame someone else couldn't he
blame the preacher what do you know you don't know what it's like for me you don't know my
situation my circumstances you don't know what led me to that well no what does he do look at
verse four bounce back ability jehoshaphat and jehoshaphat dwelt at jerusalem and he went out
again threw the people from beersheba to mount ephraim don't miss this and brought them back
unto the lord god of their fathers he went soul winning that's what he did his response i've been
preached at i'm i'm in the wrong here god's angry with me i better get busy for god i'm out soul
winning he went out he went out again through the people from beersheba to mount ephraim and
brought them back unto the lord god of their fathers what a great response that is isn't it
yeah i'm in the wrong yeah god's angry with me yeah that preacher's told me that i'm out of line
here i'm wrong here it's too late i've already done it it's not that i could suddenly stop doing
i've done it what am i going to do i'm going to get busy with the things of god i'm going to go
out i'm going to go and preach to god so i'm going to do what god wants me to do i'm going to bring
them back unto the lord god of their fathers he continues and he set judges in the land throughout
all the fenced cities of judas city by city and said to the judges take heed what you do
for you judge not for man but for the lord who is with you in the judgment therefore now let the
fear of the lord be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the lord our god
nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts now he's even learning and teaching from his previous
era of gifts from ahab i think that's how he's responded now he's he's taking lessons from it
as well he's doing the things of god he's applying what he's learned to to teaching the people
he got back in the things of god he learned from his mistakes right now jump forward to chapter 20
chapter 20 where jehosh faces next challenge we're going to look at it from the beginning
from verse 1 so second chronicles 20 and verse 1 it came to pass after this also that the children
of moab and the children of ammon and with them other besides the ammonites came against
jehoshaphat to battle then there came some that told jehoshaphat saying there cometh a great
multitude against you from beyond the sea on this side syria and behold they being hazays on tamar
which is engedi so he's got this huge confederate army descending on him basically now many would
have maybe reached out to another empire offered treasures of protection money to to someone to
help him or even to the army coming look look we'll just give you some money we don't have to
go to battle don't have to go to war just just depart from us and verse three then begins with
and jehoshaphat feared there's a pitfall he's scared that's when people pull away from god
isn't it a lot of the time that's when they stay in that pitfall how does jehoshaphat respond and
set himself to seek the lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all judah now he's also learned from
his past mistake here it said just getting some random profits in finding an online sermon that
might answer it he seeks the lord himself and what does he do he gets together with god's people look
at verse four and judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the lord even out of
all the cities of judah they came to seek the lord he's in trouble he's in fear what does he do
he gets in church with god's people yeah he gets in church with god's people he gets amongst
men and women of god to seek god together now eventually the word of the lord comes to them
and they're promised victory they prepare for battle okay how do they do that well jump forward
to verse 20 verse 20 says and they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness
of takoa and as they went forth jehoshaphat stood and said hear me oh judah in the inhabitants of
jerusalem believe in the lord your god so shall you be established believe his prophets so shall
you prosper and when he had consulted with the people he appointed singers unto the lord
and that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and say praise the
lord for his mercy endureth forever and when they began to sing and to praise the lord set
ambishments against the children of amum moab and mount seer which were come against judah and they
were smitten sounds like good old-fashioned church service to me that doesn't it they're
singing praises to the lord together and the end the enemy ends up turning on each other after that
jehoshaphat and his army gather loads of sport and everyone fears him again what did he do though
what did he do when the fear came when he was in when he was in fear when he when the army was
coming when that when you feel like the next closing round you in life when times are hard
do you run the other direction you go well this is the time to go back to me old friends now this is
the time to go back to my old life no you get in church you make sure you're around god's people
you get together with god's people you seek the lord that's what he did and in fact it looks like
a church they're even having a church service just before battle and sometimes you need a church
service before battle don't you yeah and look if you come to church regularly you're going to be
having a church service just before battle because you're going to have battles you can have battles
you're going to have all sorts of trouble in your christian life and if you're in church regularly
you're going to be having those services before you're going to be singing praise with with god's
people and you're going to be able to deal with it like they did here i mean they smash them they
they don't even have to draw a sword i think i think here they they end up turning on each other
and they gather loads of spoil everyone fears them again well promise 24 16 said for a just man
foolish seven times and rises up again but the wicked shall fall into mystery and with josh
fact there you're just seeing him falling rising falling rising yeah making an error coming back
making an error coming back and that's what we all have to do okay and it sounds obvious it
sounds simple was there some deep secret to what he did no pitfall setback number one he's offered
to partner up with the wicked king haihab does he now just avoid god's word in case he's approved
by it no it's said in jehoshaphat said unto the king of israel inquire i pray thee at the word
of the lord today is it a difficult concept no you've you're making a mistake you're doing
something wrong what should you do inquire the word of the lord go to the word of the lord find
what god's got to say open up your bible read your bible read your bible every day and it's going to
help you avoid those pitfalls in the first place when you're in them it's going to help you bounce
straight back out of it and that is the time sadly so many times when people stop reading their
bible so many people here if i ask for a raise of hands well i'm sure if i said to them the last
time you had some grief over the last few times that you had a bit of a low point did you open
up your bible and read it at all that day and so many people will say no so many people say that's
the time when i didn't open my bible when i shut my bible when my bible didn't get open sometimes
maybe for a day for two days maybe for a whole week maybe for longer but that's when we need
to inquire the word of the lord right that's when it's so important you have to turn to act 1711
says of the Bereans these were more noble than those in thessalon and ica in that they received
the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so
that's what that's what we should be doing shouldn't we searching the scriptures daily
and whether and and not just for what we're being preached to and yeah you should be searching
because i'm saying things that you're unsure about you should be going away and searching
the scriptures because it's not what i say it's what the word of god says but i would apply that
to other areas of life as well search those scriptures daily are you making the right
decision in this are you are you making you know is that the right thing to be doing in your life
is that the right choice to be making with that job or is that the right decision to be making
with your kids search the scriptures daily but sadly so many people won't when they feel that
fricking when they feel that slight bit of guilt that slight bit of i might be in the wrong here
that's when the bible suddenly ends up shut for a lot longer pitfall setback number two
he was surrounded he was about to get killed did he just say oh well it's probably chastisement i
don't deserve to live how many christians will do that well what could i do god's god's whooping me
nothing i can do but jehoshaphat cried out and the lord helped him cried out again i won't ask
to raise your hands how many people here the last trouble the last issue the last problem last time
maybe you felt like you might have even been getting it at the hand of god did you resort
straight to prayer how many why how many times is that when the prayer life is weakest that's when
the prayer life suddenly ends but that's when he wants you to be cool he acted the most that's when
he wants you to draw nigh unto him right psalm 102 verse 17 after turn there says he will regard
the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer when you're in a hard time when you're in
a bad time in life he will regard your prayer if you're destitute he will regard it he will not
despise your prayer so many people think he i can't i can't even approach god after what i've done
i can't i can't even face god i can't pray to him he doesn't want to hear me after the behavior
whatever it is i've done recently the way i've behaved the things i've done but that's when he
wants to hear you most that's when he wants you to draw an eye on him that's what he wants you to
call out unto him pitfall setback number three in jehoshaphat's life there that we've seen
he got preached at god's angry with you oh well you know you should toughen up it do you know how
many people just can't take hard preaching so many people just can't take it they can't take being
preached at they start to find a reason to get angry to hate the church to hate the people to
hate them the preacher whatever else he's got preached at god's angry with you did he get angry
at the preacher did he drift out of church well you know i don't like i don't like that sort of
church because it you know they they push soul winning too much there and i they don't know what
it's like for me they don't know how hard i find it or that that church you know they they encourage
you know they try and encourage mums to look after their kids at home what sort of what sort
of a church you know they just don't understand what it's like nowadays they don't understand the
modern life well he didn't do any of that did he and he went out again through the people from
Beersheba to Mount Ephraim and brought them back unto the lord god of their fathers he went soul
winning he served the lord he said that preaching's hitting me that preaching's pricking me so what am
i going to do i'm going to go and work for god i'm going to do more for god yeah i'm i'm wrong
i've done something wrong i'm going to serve the lord i'm going to go out soul winning you know
there's an old saying that you know some people say that soul winning covers a multitude of sins
yeah we would go a bit far with this yeah when they think that they can literally just live this
wicked life for as long as i go soul winning once a week at least i'm soul winning but you know what
there is with it with many things which are distorted and lied about there is some element
of truth in it isn't there that look you shouldn't be planning to live wickedly because you so win but
on the flip side still go soul winning yeah there's no like well i better not go soul winning now
because i'm living in this sort of sin no go soul winning yeah get people saved get people saved
get back on track with god yeah you'd have to turn to james 5 20 says let him know that he which
converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a
multitude of sins now you could argue that that's talking about the multitude of sins of the sinner
safe from death but you could also argue that it hides your own sins as well because when you go
out and you preach the gospel look that pleases god doesn't it yeah that pleases god and maybe
he's gonna maybe be a little bit easier on the chastisement and other things when you're literally
doing nothing for god josh fat went out and served him pitfall setback number four he's got this army
descending on him he's scared of what's to come does he run the other way get out of church hide
away i don't need all this don't need all this hardship don't need all this persecution i i i'm
done with it no i'm just i'll just go down to you know liberal baptists down the road
you know they can preach out the niv and i could just you know say well at least i'm turning up
and judah gathered themselves together to ask help of the lord even out of all the cities of judah
and they came to seek the lord no he got together in a real church which is the people the
congregation of believers okay and look you you can you can go off eat look and again look you
find a good church good luck to you you know we're not trying to preach we're the only place
you can go in the uk i'm sure there are places out there with safe people and there's safe
parcels preaching the gospel but i tell you what you better make sure you go somewhere like that
if you're not here yeah make sure that you're in a church where there are saved people and it's
someone preaching the gospel with the king james bible okay and that there is some element of
going out and preaching the gospel because that's the first works and if you if the churches are
doing that they're not a church are they so you need to find that and if you don't find that you
need to look you need to be around god's people and in the hardest times of your life that's when
you need it the most and that is a time in life when so many people skip church with so many
people aren't in church you ring someone up you speak to someone oh how you been where you been
your messenger just had a lot going on had a real ah had all these dramas had you name it the list
comes out some might not even tell you that so where do they need to be in church you know what
you know what would be a better a better argument would be no life's been great actually i've
actually had a really good easy time of life that's why i'm not in church that would make more sense
okay that okay it wouldn't be right but it would make more sense yeah actually things are going
really swimmingly right now so i just thought i'm gonna avoid church for a month but oh yeah i've
got all this drama and everything and then why aren't you in church why are you not in church
like i said doesn't have to be here but make sure you're in church around save people that's what
jehoshaphat does there i've turned there psalm 27-5 says for in the time of trouble he shall
hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me he shall set me up
upon a rock and look that's one of the great things about church church is protection church
is where you can be hidden from trouble church is where the lord wants to wants to put his arm
around you and he wants you here he wants to gather you under his wing but again how many
people when they need him most will run the other direction now we've got a bit of time so i want to
i want to i want to um i want to look at a couple of other places as well uh with jehoshaphat we're
going to see before we do i just just just to make this clear okay with this sermon here is
like you've got to get your mind right with it you've got to get your head right
you are look you're going to have pitfalls it doesn't matter how smart you are it doesn't matter
how wise you think you are it doesn't matter you know you look if you're if you just end up
getting so knowledgeable and so learned in the bible and so spiritual you're just going to end
up having just craftier pitfalls to deal with okay that's just life you're not going to get
to the point where there's no pitfalls you're always like the front of our bulletin just going
to be dodging and stepping over different potholes in the ground and look you might
you might be good at some but you're going to get caught with other ones and those potholes
just get more complex and harder and more difficult okay they're going to come the the
question for everyone here is how are you going to respond when when you have that pitfall in
your life how are you going to respond when you have that setback now hopefully you'll be like
you don't have to turn that micah in seven micah seven verse eight which says rejoice not against
me oh mine enemy when i fall when i fall not if i fall when i fall i shall arise that's what you've
got to say i shall arise when i sit in darkness the lord shall be a light unto me because it all
comes back to the lord doesn't it you have to stay close to him he's the one that will pull you up so
it's literally like you bounce down and bounce back up or you can try and do it your own way
or you can just go well yeah but well yeah but how many buts are there but it doesn't it doesn't stop
there so we're going to look at a few other errors by jehoshaphat and more bouncing back his whole
life is just bouncing back from from problems mistakes setbacks uh look down at verse 35 where
you are there verse 35 um i think you were in um you should have been in where were we second
codicles chapter i don't have it in my notes here was it 20 20 okay look at verse 35 it says and
after this did jehoshaphat king of judah join himself of a haziah king of israel who did very
wickedly so he's at it again he's joining up with wicked kings of israel again and he joined himself
with him to make ships to go to tarshish and they made the ships in easy on giba now maybe it's to
do some trade or something like this to maybe get things from for you know from afar but god's not
happy okay verse 37 says then eliezer the son of dodova of marasha prophesied against jehoshaphat
saying because thou has joined thyself with a haziah the lord had broken thy works and the
ships were broken that they were not able to go to tarshish now go back to first kings 22 where
we started with the bible reading where we see a bit more to this story go back to first kings 22
so we've just seen that he's joined himself with him to make these ships
the lord you know sends a prophet against him says you know that it's all been broken all this
all these ships that you've made to be able to go to tarshish first kings 22 and verse 45 first
kings 22 45 says now the rest of the acts of jehoshaphat and his might that he showed and how
he warred are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of judah and the remnant
of the sodomites which remained in the days of his father ace we took out of the land i mean this is
a this is a righteous king isn't it and by the way whenever you read through the the books of kings
and chronicles and you see them taking down the house of the sodomites these are the most
righteous kings okay these are people tearing down the house of sodomites getting the sodomites out
of the land getting them out of the land that's what a righteous king should be doing then uh it
says there was then no king in edom a deputy was king jehoshaphat made ships of of tarshish to go
to ophir for gold but they went not for the ships were broken at easy on giba so we just saw that
jehoshaphat was told why they were broken it was because he had joined himself to ahaziah did he
sulk did he get angry with god did he get get down on himself no respond in the right way look at
verse 49 then said ahaziah the son of ahab unto jehoshaphat let my servants go with thy servants
in the ships but jehoshaphat would not jehoshaphat would not second time lucky tells ahaz
i think he's telling him we're done we're done okay it's cut off i've just been preached against
i've been told that i shouldn't have done that i've just done you know my old kind of my old
favorite sin of yoking up with the ungodly whatever it is maybe he just felt he was too nice or
something else but he says no he says no we're not going together it's done the ships are broken i'm
not going with you and sometimes we do return to our old sins don't we god whoops us but if you're
alive and still breathing there's always time to repent okay there is always time in your life to
repent okay unless you're literally he strikes you down and you're dead god always wants you to come
back and here look this is something he's already been guilty of he's already paid the price for
nearly he's already had problems from and even then look he he still turns around and he gets
it right and and when it comes to jehoshaphat there was then even one last chance to err or
err however you want to say it and bounce back turn to second kings three now second kings three
where he's at it again he's teaming up with the king of israel although this is slightly different
where he's not gone to samaria this time to go and yoke up with him it's the request comes the other
way it comes to him but he's at it again it's the same issue of jehoshaphat yeah and look just
because oh well i've gone back into the old sin again now god's going to be done with no he's
still not done with him look what happens second kings three but it came to pass when ahab was dead
this is verse five sorry second kings three five but it came to pass when ahab was dead that the
king of maya rebelled against the king of israel a king jehoram went out of samaria the same time and
numbered all israel so jehoram or joram has taken over from a his eye then he went and sent as the
king of israel this is then he went and sent to jehoshaphat the king of judah saying the king of
moab has rebelled against me wilt thou go with me against moab to battle and he said i will go up i
am a zawar my people as i people and my horses as i horses you're like what on earth joshaphat you
just never seem to learn do you okay so he gives the same speech now you could argue here maybe
you know maybe joram or jehoram here he you know he's quite new to the throne maybe he's not quite
aware how wicked he ends up being as well i don't know but he said first day and he said which way
shall we go up and he answered the way through the wilderness of edom so the king of israel went and
the king of judo and the king of edom and they fetched a compass of seven days journey and there
was no water for the host and for the cattle that followed them so they've got no water okay it's
all gone a bit wrong straight away he's made another error of judgment he's yoked up again
with a wicked king of israel jehoram gets all negative now and the king of israel said alas
the lord have called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of moab so this is
the king of judo the king of israel the king of edom so he's just like look oh the lord's done
this we're all done for yeah so he's got the negative guy there as well it would be easy to
think yeah we're you know what was i doing i've messed up again you know he's got us all together
to kill us but jehoshaphat said is there not a prophet is there not here a prophet of the lord
that we may inquire of the lord by him and one of the king of israel's servants answers said
here is elijah the son of shafat which poured water on the hands of elijah and jehoshaphat
said the word of the lord is with him so the king of israel and jehoshaphat and the king of edom
went down to him so he's learned from his mistakes this time isn't he he didn't say oh yeah gets a
profit he's going where's an actual prophet of the lord and he's not disappointed because he's
got one the one of the you know greatest prophets ever elijah and he listens and he then follows
exactly what elijah tells him to do as well this time okay so he doesn't just kind of go yeah
whatever we could do it our way this time he listens they end up all getting water so they
end up you know not all dying of thirst and they and and the animals with them and they also
destroy the moabites too verse 24 says that when they came to the camp of israel the israelites
rose up and smote the moabites that they fled before them but they went forward smiting the
moabites even in their country so this time it works out and for me this is the last major event
of his life the last major event of his life is a victory in battle after another error again
error after error setback after setback pitfall after pitfall whatever you want to call it
and again he ends up on the winning side they end up destroying the moabites they carry on
i think and and and go it says they're even in their country and he returns back to jerusalem
and and you know when you kind of look at it together that seems to be the last bit that we
really get recorded in his life so you've got those major four responses that we went through
at the beginning jehoshaphat learning from then you got after this jehoshaphat learning from
earlier mistakes in his life and for me that's how you achieve bounce back ability in a christian life
the immediate response in any situation is to seek god isn't it seek god we we you know we we
started with you know uh in proverbs we started with with our our verse of the week and a just
man rises seven times yeah seven times and that just man that righteous man is i believe not just
someone that's saved and obviously there's no righteousness without salvation but as well look
if you're living for god if you're doing things for god you are going to i would hope i would hope
when things go wrong you're going to turn to the word of god when things go wrong you're going to
pray to the lord when things go wrong you're going to respond by working for the lord and
when things go wrong you're going to get your backsides in church and you should be you should
be in church anyway so it shouldn't even be a decision you have to make and that's why a just
man fall of seven times of lies again but the wicked fall into mischief don't they because
that's bounced back ability in a christian life and it has to be seeking god learn from past
mistakes and and like i said it's not if you fall it's when you fall we should be bouncing straight
back up okay and look i said i want to preach this today because i believe sometimes it can
be shocking for many people it can be shocking the amount of what you feel like is just setbacks and
problems and issues and hard times and times of feeling low times of feeling depressed times
you're like what what happened to the joy what happened to the easy christian life what happened
to what is a lot of a lot of lies out there there's a lot of lying out there there's a lot
of bad preaching there's a lot of wickedness being preached out there and we get infected by it and
then we start to feel shocked when we go through and like i said with our perspective probably more
setbacks than others because we see so many things for what they are is a setback which many won't
but the answer is to bounce back quickly the answer is to seek god every time the answer is
to be that just man is in a simple case but with the examples of jehoshaphat he gives us clear
examples there i see in in in the life of jehoshaphat and then at the end of that he's
learning and learning and he's growing and he's learning from his mistakes and he seems to just
be getting back quicker and quicker and quicker and just dealing with things better and better
and better but he's not perfect is he and it's the guy that got the sodomites out the land it's the
guy that that that seemed to to be a man after god's own heart really you could say look he
you know he he walked after his father david i would say he was just he was he was a great guy
he was a great king but he made mistakes didn't he everyone here is going to make mistakes it's
how we respond which is the question okay how are you going to respond when you're in hard times
when you make mistakes when you're in error when you fall into certain different pits don't have
to turn there last verse i just want to read to you psalm 37 and verse 23 says the steps of a
good man are ordered by the lord and he delighteth in his way though he fall he shall not be utterly
cast down for the lord upholdeth him with his hand so that's what it comes to doesn't it when
you fall are you going to reach out for the lord or are you going to carry on falling are you going
to wallow in the mire and on that let's go to the lord in prayer father i thank you um thank you for
the great examples that you give give us in the word of god that the examples in in righteous
men's lives and how look however great they were however blessed they were and you know however
much they got many things right they still make errors they still make mistakes there's no one
perfect there's no one who never makes a mistake the only one who is is you the only one is the
lord jesus christ who came here and did not have to bounce back from any any sort of error or lack
of judgment in life but for the rest of us they're all these men of god that we can see how they do
that and and lord it's just so clear that they do that by just turning to you turning to you
and the various ways turning to you and through the word of god through prayer through serving
you through being amongst your people lord and help us to all want to do that help us to all
to seek that help us to all to understand that life isn't a bed of roses but but that
it's how we bounce back that's important how we bounce back from adversity lord help us to all
do that help us to all be bouncy and not to be you know spongy help us to just bounce out of
those pitfalls and lord and get back get back into church be in church be just just doing the
things of the lord and help us to go out this afternoon help us get people saved lord help us
preach the gospel and help us to encourage them to want to serve you as well to want to
live that that amazing life that that comes from trying to be a follower of your word in
jesus name we pray all of this amen