 Let's start this. Why don't you guys turn to second Kings chapter three? You know what's amazing is that we have the privilege of worshiping King Jesus. We're able to come and freely worship him. We're able to gather as a church family and we're able to worship him. We're able to spend time alone with ourselves and individually worship him. And we have this amazing privilege that we are able to worship the Lord any place, any time. And you know, when we have the privilege and I hope we get used to worshiping our God because for eternity we will be before the throne of Jesus Christ and we will be worshiping him. So I hope you guys enjoy worship. Amen, Jack, God bless you. And this evening I wanna share a little bit of something about worship. And I've entitled this message, worship in warfare. Well, what do you mean? Usually warfare, we're to put on the armor of God, we're to get on the belt of truth, we're to get the sword of the spirit, we're to get the shield of the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith and we're to stand fast. And we're to go out there and say, Lord, I am ready for battle. But one of the things that we often miss is our worship for Jesus Christ because it's our worship of a lifestyle of worship that gets us through the battles. And I wanna share something with you this evening out of Second Kings, chapter three, as we see here how worship prepares the Israelites to go into battle. We have the biggest weapon that we can ever have in our Holy Spirit and in Jesus Christ. And when we live a lifestyle that reflects His love, we live a lifestyle that reflects a life sold out to Jesus Christ, we live a life that's in worship to Him. And this evening I wanna share as we look at Second Kings, chapter three, verses 20 to 27. Now, it's a little difficult because I'm picking this up right smack in the middle of chapter three. So I better do some explaining of where we're at. But I first wanted to read this and then I wanna give a recap of what's going on with the intention that weapon, that worship is a weapon. Now, let me ask you guys this. I know I'm speaking to a bunch of perfect Christians this evening, amen. But how many of us are going through battle? Even at this moment, me, I'm going through a battle. I'm going through a difficult time. I'm going through hard time. I haven't been fired yet, you guys. So far, I'm doing okay. But how do we respond in these difficult times? Let's take a look at Second Kings, chapter three, beginning with verse 20. And I promise you, I will catch us up to where we're at. In verse 20, it says, now it happened in the morning when the grain offering was offered that suddenly water came by the way of Edom and the land was filled with water. Verse 21, and when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to bear arms and older were gathered and they stood at the border. Verse 22 says, then they rose up early in the morning and the sun was still shining and on the water and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood and they said, this is blood. The kings have surely struck swords and have killed one another. Now therefore Moab to the spoil. So when they came to the camp of Israel, Israel rose up and attacked the Moabites and fled before them and they entered in the land, killing the Moabites and they went in verse 25 and they destroyed the cities. So what's going on here? Well, earlier in chapter three, we see that actually all the way back to the beginning of Second Kings, the first verse that says in Second Kings chapter one, verse one, it says, now when Ahab died, the Moabites rebelled against Israel. What had happened is all this time since the time of King David, the Moabites had been under the government, under their serving as what's called a vassal, that they were paying tribute to the nation of Israel. They would give 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams and the wool of them as a tribute tax to the nation of Israel. But as soon as Ahab dies and as soon as King Azahaya dies, which are part of the Northern Kingdom, right away Moab rebels. But what's interesting about this passage here is that when Azahaya took the throne as the King of the North, he did nothing against the rebellion of the Moabites. He just let it go. But then when he died in battle, his brother came to the throne and his name is Jo Ram. King of the North, he wants to start a coalition to go and put the Moabites back in check. So you wanna give up, given us tribute? No, no, no way. We're gonna come back and we're gonna attack you and you're gonna become tributes to us again and you're gonna pay even more taxes. The King of the Moabites, his name is Misha says, huh, no you're not. So what Jo Ram does is he comes in, I wanna show you a map to kinda give us a perspective here. Now you see in the blue is the kingdom of Israel. You see that it's split with a mauve color kingdom of Judah. The King of the North was the King of Israel. That was the capital of the North. Jo Ram, the King of Israel, comes down to Judah, picks up the King of Judah, the King of the South. His name is Jahashaphat. And he says, listen, we're related. My son is married to your daughter. So why don't we go and attack the Moabites? And Jahashaphat says, my people are your people and my horses are your horses, let's roll. So they come down and they now enter to the King of Kingdom of Edom and they get the kingdom, the King of Edom to join them in this attack. Well what happens is you see that body of water there, that is the Dead Sea. And what they wanna do is they wanna surprise the Moabites in attacking. So what they wanna do is they wanna come down through the South. When you read 2 Kings chapter three, you will see that the three Kings now come down through the South and they wanna go through the Kingdom of Edom and then what they wanna do is attack the Kingdom of the Moabites, right there in purple. And the reason why they've done this is because Ammon, the orange color, and the Moabites are friends. So if Jo Ram, the King of the North, would have came from the North, the Ammonites would have said, oh no, no, no. We're joined Moab and it would have turned out into this all out war. But what happens is they go through the South and that Kingdom of Edom, I don't know if you guys ever been to Southern Israel, it's not the Garden of Eden. It looks like you're going down to Mexicali. It looks like it's the way it's all dried in it and it's really hard, it's hard dirt and it's just nothing out there. And what happens is that they find themselves without water. So these three Kings get together and they gather all their military forces and they gather their animals and all the special forces that were included and they come down through the Kingdom of Edom and they find themselves stuck without water. And the Bible says in 2 Kings chapter three that they were going round about. They had no guidance. They had no provisions. They had no way to tell where to go. Proverbs 14-12 says there's a way that seems right to a man but in its end is death. See friends, when we venture out into the work of the Lord and we never seek His guidance, we never seek His provisions, we never seek guidance from our Savior Jesus Christ, we will find ourselves in the wilderness lost. And now these three Kings are out there with no water and they're dying and they are saying, the King of the North, Joram says, the Lord has brought us out here that we may die. He begins to blame God for his dumb decision. He's now blaming the Lord saying, Lord, it's your fault for bringing us three Kings out here so that we can die. I start thinking about in my life how many times I've done the same thing. Lord, I wanna do this, but I never inquire of the Lord. Instead, I lean on my own understanding and I go out and do this venture and I find myself in a roundabout, in a spiritual wilderness, dying of thirst, hungry and nothing to provide. It's because I didn't seek the counsel of the Lord. I don't know if you guys have ever been in that situation where now you begin to blame God. God, it's your fault. You're the one that brought me out here. The Lord says, I was never even inquired of. And now these three Kings find themselves out here and they're blaming God. And Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, finally says, is there not a man of God out here? And one of the servants of the King of the North says, yes, there's a man named Elijah. He's a man of God. He has poured water over the hands of Elijah. He's a man of God, set apart for God's work. And now they get to this place and Elijah comes to them and the three Kings come to Elijah and Elijah won't even look at the King of the North. He says to Jehoshaphat, he says to the King of the North, if it wasn't for Jehoshaphat, I won't even look at you nor would I even see you. And I started thinking about that. Joram represents wickedness. He represents the flesh. He represents sin. His father Ahab was one of the most wicked Kings of the entire Northern Kings of Israel. And this man of God comes up and he says, if it wasn't for Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, I won't even look at you nor would I even see you. And I started thinking about that. We must have that same attitude when it comes to sin, when it comes to the flesh. We're not to recognize it, we're not to entertain it, we're to shun it. And the Elisha's picture of that to me spoke to me and saying I don't need anything to compromise my walk with the Lord. It's already hard enough. And Elisha says something interesting when you look at verse 15 of chapter three. And this is where I wanna start developing this theme of worship as a weapon. Because we see in verse thing, the first thing that Elisha asked is he didn't ask for anointing oil. He didn't ask for a prayer chain. He didn't call his best friend. He worshiped. He worshiped the Lord. It says here in verse 15, now bring me a musician and then it happened when the music musician played that the hand of the Lord came upon him. Friends, if we're ever gonna do a work for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we must have a lifestyle and an attitude of worship. And it says here that the hand of God came upon him and he tells these three kings, now the word of the Lord comes. What's interesting about this is that we see worship of the Lord, the Lord speaking and action being taken. And that's how it usually works. When our lifestyles are an obedience to the Lord, our life is a reflection of worship to the Lord. And as we continue to worship the Lord and we continue to seek his face, the word of God will come and then dwell within us and now we're able to go out and do the work of the Lord. But sometimes we have that backwards. Lord, I wanna live my own way, but I still wanna do your work and I wanna worship you, but you need to do for me first before I put my faith and trust in you and hear from your word. And a lot of times we have that backwards and what happens is then we find ourselves in the wilderness and the Bible says that these three kings and everybody were in a roundabout. They had no guidance. I was, I gave this message on our Tuesday morning a few weeks ago. I don't know if you guys ever been to TJ. Anybody been to Tijuana? If you ever get stuck in one of those roundabouts and traffic, you'll still be there to this day. They drive like they're from TJ, right? You go down there and we've been down there to go to Insanada and we get stuck in those roundabouts and you can't get out of it. And that's what I thought about when they said they were walking roundabout in the country of Edom. But worship, Elijah begins to do individual worship and the hand of the Lord came upon him. If we're gonna be used by a Lord and Savior, if Jesus is gonna use you, we must have a heart of worship. And when we have a heart of worship, the word of God is able to come within us and move in us and it's stirred up and we're able to do a work of the Lord. And he tells the three kings, look in verse 17, you will not see rain, you will not see any wind, but yet this valley will be full of ditches. So dig, wait, wait, wait, did I hear that right? Wait, you want us to dig? We've been out here seven days without water and now you want us to dig? We didn't even bring any shovels. We came out here to fight. We came out here to do battle. We came out here to conquer and crush the Moabites and you want me to do what? You want me to dig ditches? In verse 16 he says, thus says the Lord, make this valley full of ditches. But Lord, I didn't come out here to dig. I came out here to fight. I came out here to bring victory. I came out here to do this. I came out here to do that. And he says, no, dig. Have we ever had a request like that from the Lord before when we think that Lord, I want to do this work for you? Yes, then why don't you dig your ditches and allow me to work so I can provide provisions for you? But you're not going to see it in the regular way. You're not going to see the rain cloud. You're not going to see the wind. You're not going to see any of this, but I'm going to provide for you. Do you trust me? Me, if that was me, I would say, Lord, you know, show me a sign first. Why don't you show me first that you'll provide water and that all the people will have something to drink and that all my military people would have refreshment. Show me that, then I'll dig. God says, no, the word of God says dig. You know, when we dig ditches in our life, we're anticipating the hand of God to move and bring provisions. And he tells him in verse 16 that you are to make this valley. Now, I don't know if you guys ever been to a valley. A valley is big. And he says, make this valley full of ditches. It was no easy task. And he tells them to go out there and he tells them to begin to dig. Now, I don't know about you, but if all of us were stuck in the desert and we've had no water and I come up to you and say, God bless you guys. You know what we're going to do? We're thirsty, we're exhausted, we're hungry, we're tired, but I want you to dig ditches. You guys would stone me. What are you talking about? I see Gary Yamamoto back there. He'd come up and, you want us to do what? You wanted me to dig a ditch out here in the middle of nowhere when we have no water. There's no even a sign of rain and you want me to do what, Lord? But when we're in worship to God, we hear from the word and we act in faith. And so the Lord speaking through Elijah, he tells him to dig. And not only will I provide water for you, but I will also deliver the Moabites into your hands. See my friends, when we have a life that reflects worship to our King Jesus and we're in his word and things may not be going as we plan as they go in and we may be in a difficult place where we find ourselves in the wilderness. The word instructs them to dig. It doesn't make sense, but Lord, I'm going to trust in you anyways. I don't have the tools to dig. I'm hot, I'm thirsty, I'm exhausted. I have no way to do this, Lord, but I'm going to trust in you. That only comes from a heart of worship. And in verses 17 and 18, we see that the word of God comes to Elijah and says, you will not see rain. You won't even see wind. It's not going to look like you typically think it's going to look like. I'm going to do something in your life that is so big that not only am I going to provide water for you, but I'm going to go beyond and provide a victory over the Moabites for you. Isn't that amazing when we have a life that's worshiping the Lord, that God provides for us, that his provisions are always in abundance, but it may not look the way it will look. It may look different, but he says, you know what, I want you to dig your ditch because not only am I going to come and provide for you, but I'm going to give you victory. What about those who may be struggling with addiction? Dig your ditch. What about those who are struggling with pornography? Dig your ditch. What about those who are struggling in their marriages or financially? Dig your ditch and worship the Lord and live a life that reflects God's word and he will make the provisions for you. And in verse 19, he says, then you shall attack. God's not only going to provide water for their cattle, for their people, but he's also going to give them victory over the Moabites because we had a man of God worship the Lord. Now in verse 20, we see a transition here. It says, now it happened. Well, what's it? God's promise. God's promise that if you dig these ditches, I will provide the water for you. And it says in verse 20, now it happened in the morning when the grain offering was offered that suddenly water came by the way of Edom and the land was filled with water. Let me say that again. And the land was filled with water. Was it a semi-filling? Was it just a quarter of a filling? No, the words of Jesus are always faithful and true. And we can put our trust and hope into him even when it doesn't look good. See, the word of the Lord came true. And we know that the word of the Lord is always faithful and true. And we know that the Lord says that he will always do. And this is confirmed by how this verse began. Now it happened before the word of the Lord that instructed these three kings through Elisha, there was worship. And now we'll see here another act of worship in verse 20 when it says that a grain offering was being offered. Now a grain offering is a type of sacrifice described in the Old Testament, specifically in Leviticus chapter two that the Israelites were to offer to God. It was an act of worship to the Lord. It would be an offering that is with wheat or barley depending on what is available, but it was an offering that was offered to the Lord. While other sacrifices had very specific instructions from God and how they were to be offered, the grain offering was a little different because it had some flexibilities based on what was available. A grain offering could be given to God either uncooked or cooked in an oven or in a pan. You can see that in Leviticus chapter two verses four through five. But the requirements were the grain offering where it had to be grounded. It had to add oil to it and it had to have salt. Those were the only requirements of the grain offering. But when a person brought the grain offering to the priest, a small portion was given to the priest and the rest was offered to God. The grain offering is often described as a most holy part of the food offering presented to the Lord. The purpose of the grain offering was to worship God and acknowledge his provision. See the act of faith it took for them? They had to present an offering to the Lord, thanking him for his provision and for what he's going to do. It was to be given out of a person's free will, just as our worship today is a free will offering to the Lord. What's interesting to note that during the time of the Israelites, 40 years in the wilderness wandering, grain would have been quite scarce. This made grain offerings more costly and precious for the people to offer to God. Given a grain offering in those circumstances, represented that the Israelites had complete dependence on God to provide for their daily needs. If the grain offering is similar to our offering of worship, this is something to consider my friends. How much does your worship to the Lord cost you today? Does it cost you 15 minutes on Sunday morning and 15 minutes on Wednesday night and we expect to go out and live a victorious life? This specific offering was to be made on the promise of the provision of the water that the Lord provided in verse 17. This provision that the Lord is making with water and the provisions to defeat the Moabites, but we first see that there was an act of worship through Elisha and there was an act of worship by the people. We notice in verse 20 that when this grain offering was offered, it was then that the water came by the way of Edom to provide water. And as mentioned early in verse 15, we seen something similar in regarding the musical instrument that was brought and played and the hand of the Lord and the word of God came upon Elisha, which is a representation of what individual worship looks like. See, when we worship the Lord individually, we're to go into a place where our praises and adoration go out to him and we're to get into his word and be led by his Holy Spirit. And then we see the grain offering that is made by the people to the priest and the provision of water from the Lord was given and this is an example of corporate worship. Woven into our passage here, my friends, is the importance of worship, the importance of individual worship and the importance of corporate worship. But do we truly understand what worship is? Because if we're gonna use worship as part of our warfare, we must understand how worship works. We know that worship comes from the name worthiness of him. We are to worship the Lord. One of the things I believe that has been forgotten when it comes to worship, that is it is a very powerful weapon in our fight, in our spiritual battle. Very powerful, but do we understand worship? Many of us don't think that worship is a weapon that we can use when we're battling against the wiles of the enemy. A lot of times we think that worship is the music that sets the mood for a church service or we think of it as something that we place softly in the background as long as the song is catchy, right? I mean, I hear people say, you know what, I don't like that worship song or you know what, that worship song isn't catchy enough. But when did worship begin? What does worship have anything to do with us? Worship has everything to do with Jesus Christ. I think as parents, we often think that worship is an alternative to play in the car so our kids aren't listening to songs that are glorifying hookups and drugs. But in fact, we are wielding and holding on to a very dangerous weapon when we worship God. It's not just a peaceful setting in a coffee shop-like atmosphere in our church lobby. And for the sake of time, as worship encapsulates a lot of different things, but for the sake of time and for this study, I like to focus on worship on a couple of ways. See, we discuss when we think about battle, we think of the armor of God. We think the breastplate of righteousness, as I mentioned earlier, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, the only offensive weapon that we have, right? The belt of truth, the helmet of salvation. We think of these when we go into battle. And we see that Paul uses metaphors of armor, but he caps his discussion with four words, that reference prayer. In Ephesians chapter six, verse 18, it says, at the end of the list of the metaphors that he gives us to fight in a spiritual battle, he gives us worship. Because he says here in Ephesians chapter six, verse 18, praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all of the saints. Prayer, it urges us to be persistent. It urges us to be persevering in the spirit, seeking our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and we can use it as a critical weapon in our arsenal to fight against the spiritual forces that are coming against us every single day. But less familiar is the role of worship, especially corporate worship in spiritual warfare. Often here, I don't need to go to church. I don't need to go to church. My temple is the, my body is the temple of God. Wherever I go, I'm chadving church. But the Bible tells us not to take the assembling of the brethren, right? And we see here, even in corporate worship here this evening, that is a powerful weapon to fight against discouragement, to fight about worryness, to fight against all these things that are constantly pressing against our hearts and our minds. And oftentimes we think that worship is just something we do on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. And we don't understand that worship is a powerful weapon in our arsenal, in our fight against the enemy. Because when we come together in worship and Jesus Christ is glorified and he's the center of our worship, what happens is that this unity begins to take place. And as this unity begins to take place, there's encouragement and there is this excitement that begins to happen. And we begin to start singing, I raise a hallelujah. How do we raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies? The importance of individual worship and corporate worship. When we love, we're worshiping. When we are in God's word, we're worshiping. When we give our finances and our time and service, we are worshiping. It is a powerful tool in our warfare because it aligns our hearts and our minds with the Holy Spirit. Worship refocuses our perspective. Psalm 22.3 says, but you are holy enthroned in the praises of Israel. It reminds us of God's promises. When we worship, we're reminded of God's promise. I raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies, louder than the unbelief. My weapon is a melody. Heaven comes to fight for me. Worship and worship releases God's power. Look what it says in verse 21 here. And when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to bear arms and older were gathered and they stood at the border. Then they rose up early in the morning and the sun was shining on the water and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood. And they said, this is the blood the kings have surely struck swords and they have killed one another. Now therefore Moab, go to the spoil. So when they came to the camp of Israel, Israel rose up and attacked the Moabites and they fled before them and they entered their land killing the Moabites. God's power was released. Do we see the importance of worship? Worship is not something that we just do. It's how we live. Worship is a lifestyle. Worship is always keeping Jesus front and center in our lives. It's keeping him front and center when we're at work, worshiping him. It's keeping him front and center in my marriage. I mean, I'm hoping my wife was more listening to that part than I am. You guys, that was a joke. You're not laughing, huh? Worship, Jesus, worshiping Jesus is a lifestyle. It's not something we do. It's the way we live. It's the way we glorify our Lord. First Chronicles chapter 16 verses eight through 11 says it really nicely. Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name, make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful acts, glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice, look to the Lord and his strength, seek his face always. That's the lifestyle of worship. So how are we doing in this area? Does our life reflect worship to the Lord? Or is it something that we do for a few moments on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings? Because if we are not worshiping the Lord and not living a lifestyle that reflects Jesus Christ, then how can we ever be victorious in our battles? How are you fighting your battles this evening? Do you raise a hallelujah? Or are your knees praying? Or are you worshiping the Lord? It's hard to do that when we're upset. It's hard to do that when we're going through difficult times. It's hard to do that when we're in the wilderness, but when we do so, we're bringing glory and honor to his name and he will make provisions for us. We dig our ditches. The priests in Jerusalem were offering, the drain offering early in the morning and when they offered that water came flooding in from the way of Edom, God's provision, God's love and his spirit will flood into our lives. That will give us the strength that when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that we will fear no evil. Why? Because your rod and your staff, they comfort me. See, oftentimes in that valley of the shadow of death, Lord, where are you? I don't see you, Lord. I don't feel you, Lord. I don't even know that you're there, Lord. And Jesus is saying, I see you and my eye is on you. As an eye, my eye is on the sparrow. And oftentimes we're thinking, but Lord, where are you, Lord? I don't see you. Trust me because I see you. And when this water came flooding in, the worship that happened and this water that came in, it filled the trenches and it formed pools on the earth and the soldiers and the cattle and the animals were able to drink until they were full. And in verse 21, we see, but the Moabites, they assembled an army at the border. They knew nothing about the rain. God, it was amazing that God provided this miracle through this act of worship, these acts of worship, that the sun reflected on this water. Edom is known as red. And between the reflection of the sun and the pools and the ground that was red to the Moabites, it looked like blood and they said, you know what? They killed each other. Let's go after them. We're gonna get them. They've been delivered in our hands and they go and the Israelites destroyed them, confident in their safety and their opportunity for wealth. The Moabites attacked the camp of the three kings and were suddenly defeated and chased away. And when we look at verses 20 to 25, when the morning comes, everything unfolds as Elisha predicted, water flowed into the dry land. The Moabites made a mistake of the sun's glow as water for blood and they presumed that this coalition has fought against each other and they attacked and Israel sadly defeats them. And Elisha proves to be an accurate prophet of the Lord. And the kings now know who he is and what extent the Lord will use him, worshiping the Lord. We have this amazing privilege every day of our lives that we can worship the Lord through our lives. And when we worship the Lord through our lives, as I mentioned, Jesus is glorified. Did you know friends that you may be the only Jesus people see? And if you're one of these Eors and you call yourself a Christian, what kind of worship is that? Oh Lord, but when we walk in confidence knowing that my Lord and savior is ordaining my footsteps and that I'm going through this with him, why ask what we worship the Lord? Why not worship the Lord? Think about all the great things he's done in your life. He has a track record that is undefeated. It's unparalleled. He has been victorious in our lives. Why would we not worship him? Well, you know, they looked at me wrong and so, really? But what about all the great things that Jesus has done in your life? But you know, we start making these excuses. What's interesting in here in verse 25, it says that they destroyed the cities and each man threw stones on every good piece of land and they filled it and they stopped it all with springs of water cut down all the good trees but they left the stones of karash, kyr, haraseth intact. However, the slinger surrounded and attacked it. They were saying this land that represents the enemy, this land, throw rocks on it, destroy it so it will never be able to produce anything again. See, friends, when we're in an attitude of worship, when our lives are aligned with the word of God and we have Jesus Christ the center of our lives, we will want nothing to do with the enemy. We will want nothing to do with our flesh. We will want nothing to do with sin and in verse 25 here, Elisha instructs them, throw rocks on the slan, throw rocks on it because we want nothing of it to ever come back again and that's the approach we should take when it comes to sin, when it comes to the flesh and when it comes to the world. We're to destroy it, but that only comes through worship. When we live a lifestyle that is worshiping and honoring the Lord, sadly to say, in this passage, we see another type of worship. Look what it says in verse 26, when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords to break through the king of Edom but they could not. Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place and he offered him as a burnt sacrifice offering upon the wall and there was a great igniting nation against Israel so they departed from him and returned to their own land. We see another act of worship here. Despite this success of this victory of Israel, it proves to be temporary because we see this horrendous act take place here. The battle could not have gone much worse for Misha than it did and his defeat was in total. Misha's enemies came and they scorched to earth, destroying every field and every fountain in Moab and when crisis came, Misha had two ways in dealing with it. Neither one of them involved prayer to God. First he tried handling things on his own. It tells us in verse 26 that he picked up 700 men who drew their swords and they tried to run and break through the barriers of Edom which is how most people deal with their problems. I'll do it on my own. And then he does the most horrendous act that we see here. 700 men weren't enough and it didn't break through so it didn't work so he did one more thing. He takes his oldest son and he nails him to a wall and lights him on fire. And Israel sees this and great hatred was for Israel because of this and the battle was even finished because it said that all of them left and returned to their own land. Imagine the sounds and scream of this child being nailed to a wall and lit on fire. The scream of the child himself and it was so horrendous that the nation of Israel who were there to fight the three kings were so disgusted by this horrendous act that they went away to their own land and this king of Moab, Misha, now takes problems into his own hands and this is the trouble when we try to solve our problems on our own understanding is that we begin to sacrifice the very ones around us that God has entrusted us to care for. We end up sacrificing in pursuit of things in the ancient texts called Misha's inscription the Moabites of Tribute, all their disasters because their God was angry at them. Their God his name is Kimash. And they thought because the Israelites are destroying us he must be mad, so you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna offer the next heir to the kingdom. And he now gets his son because he thought that a human sacrifice would appease his God. But what he was really doing is that he was handing his son over to Satan. Kings sometimes did that in ancient times but it was still a shock for the king's son to be burning to death on the city wall. Imagine the sounds and the screams of this young man burning on this wall as they are offering a sacrifice to their God, Kimash. And in their rage and in their frenzy Misha's soldiers finally succeeded in driving the enemies away but in the process they lost the heir to their kingdom. This true story is so barbaric that it may be tempting to think that what does that have to do with us today? I'm glad you guys asked. Who would ever wanna sacrifice their child to the devil? Yet anyone who ever kills or wounds a child is making this exact sacrifice. Consider the woman who sacrificed her bodies of their unborn children so that they can keep their scholarships, their jobs, their boyfriends. Consider parents who angrily beat their children to stop them from misbehaving. Or consider the men who sacrificed their souls of their sons and daughters on the altar of prestige, on the altar of career, on the altar of finances and what's the difference? There's still a sacrifice in our children for many things. Even if we never commit infanticide according to God's law we still may be guilty of murder. Oftentimes we have given up our children to the God of soccer on Sundays. Oftentimes we've given up our children to the God of sports and athletics on Sundays. Oftentimes we've given up our children for careers. Oftentimes we've given up our children and even our wives for the sake of pursuit of worldly things. So what's really the difference? It's just like putting our children up there and lighting them on fire and offering to Satan because we are worshiping the things of the world. And it's sad because there can be a little bit of Misha in all of us. The selfish father who gets unreasonably impatient with his kids and angry mother who even for a moment has ever wanted to strangle their children. I mean, Lord, convict me of that every day because I think I go through that every day. But the crazy thing is that when crisis came Misha turned to himself and his son over to the devil. A lifestyle of worship the Lord and God provides or a lifestyle of worship to the world and there's loss. Who are we worshiping this morning or this evening? What are you worshiping this evening as your lifestyle reflect the worship of our true Lord or have our pursuits been shifted and refocused to the things of the world? Because if we are doing that style of worship it's just a matter of time until we have sacrificed our children. By contrast, a man named Howard Hendricks tells a story of an Ethiopian man who did the exact opposite. This man's name was Wanderow. And when crisis came he turned himself and his son over to the Lord and hear how this man Howard Hendricks describes the story and I want to close with this. Wanderow was a 20 year old was 20 years old when missionaries arrived in his village. They had a book that told about a creator and said that people should worship him and not Satan as Wanderow and his people did. Within a few weeks of hearing this message Wanderow publicly announced I renounce Satan and I followed Jesus. He was baptized and immediately he asked to be taught to read so that he could learn more from this book that the missionaries were teaching from. And it was clear from the outset that Wanderow's love for the Savior had become a driving force in his life. When his infant son was dying of a fever the witch doctor implored him to make sacrifices to demons but Wanderow refused. I love my baby boy but I will not sacrifice to the demons. I will not sacrifice him to the demons again. And the boy died and the villagers went into their customary rituals of mourning. But as they were wailing and cutting themselves in a demonic fury Wanderow rushed among them and saying stop I miss my child but God has given me a peace in the face of death. I believe that my child is safe in the arms of Jesus. And when the moment of crisis came Wanderow turned to the living God and found a peace that triumphs over death. A life that worships the Lord. When your moments of crisis come my friends whether large or small whether great or big where will you turn to for help? You see the contrast of worship? A lifestyle that is worshiping our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A lifestyle of worshiping things for the world. One worship will honor the Lord. The other worship will cost us our family. Who are you worshiping? Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. We've been set free. Why wouldn't we worship? Why wouldn't we sing our praises and glory to Him? Why wouldn't we live a lifestyle that reflects Jesus Christ as resurrected and living in our lives? Why wouldn't we? Because we were once blind but now we see. Why would we not have a lifestyle that worships Jesus but so many times we think that we can turn here and worship this way and add a little bit of worship from here and now we have this vessel of God that is contaminated and cannot be filled by this Holy Spirit. So who are you worshiping? What does your lifestyle reflect in worship? May our lives always be a life song that sings to the Lord. Does our life reflect the gratitude and worship for what Jesus has done for us and when we face difficult times or that we are in a fierce battle, we can trust and have faith in the Lord and we're to worship Him with our heart, with our lives, with everything we have and He will provide the provisions we need in our lives. Friends, we need to dig our ditches and we need to make sure that the vessels of our lives that is for the Holy Spirit to be poured in is emptied of ourselves, it's emptied of the world, it's empty of contamination that allows the spirit of God to fill in that we may be used and that God will be able to provide provisions for. You may be the only Jesus Christ that people see. How are you representing Him? Are you representing Him of a lifestyle of worship to Him? Or are you living a lifestyle of worshiping just like Misha? Let's pray. Father, we pray.