GoQuestion : How to Crush Your Enemy Without Even Touching Them

GoGroup Question
Ice breaker : Distribute a piece of paper for each member.Take time to think and then write your opinion about : What Go Group means to you personally? It can be positive or negative comments. Please relax, You may enjoy your snack or drink while you think.After you all finish writing, read and share it to your group.Leaders, please collect all the comments after you finish.You can email all of the comments to icagosolid@gmail.comWe will make an opinion pooling about GoGroup.Let's find out together what improvement can we make in the future.All of the pooling will be published on : http://gosolid.blogspot.comWithin two weeks, we will choose the most quality comment and prepare prize for it.The quality comment doesnt always a positive one. It can be critic, dissapoinment or suggession. All of this is made for improvement of all gogroups.

Now. let's go to the main disscusion!

How to Crush Your Enemy Without Even Touching Them (by Scott Stricker)

1. In what occation do you usualy sing? (church, birthday party, happy time, in the bathroom)
2. And what make you sing?
3. In no 1 and 2, did anybody say about singing in time of sadness or in the difficult situation or sing when we face enemies? May be this is a not common idea to sing in the difficult situation. But actually in our scripture today 2 Chronicles 20 about King Jehosaphat who sing in this difficult situation. How could it be? Is that possible? What's your opinion about this? Is that make sense?
4. Singing that we are talking about is not just ordinary singing. It is PRAISE (Praising God). For us Christians it become make sense because of what we have leart from Scott's sermon. There are three points that say why we should Praise.-Change Our Focus-Change is Coming-Chance for Deliverance(for complete sermon note see below)Please, if there any testimony about praising God and how it affected our life, please share.
5. This is the conclution for today discussion. How is our praise and worship life. Do we do praising God everyday? How often? Do we realize the power behind the praise? 6. If there any commitment you want to make related to praising God, let's pray together and keep reminding each other about it.

SERMON NOTE
How to Crush Your Enemy Without Even Touching Them by Scott Stricker
“Praise is Powerful” Choose to Praise

(vs 1 -4) After this, the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites declared war on Jehoshaphat. Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, "A vast army from Edom is marching against you from beyond the Dead Sea. They are already at Hazazon-tamar." (This was another name for En-gedi.) Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance. He also ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting. So people from all the towns of Judah came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord's help.

The king and all the people got together and sought the Lord’s help. He answered them through a prophetic word.

(17 – 19) But you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then stand still and watch the Lord's victory. He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you!"

18 Then King Jehoshaphat bowed low with his face to the ground. And all the people of Judah and Jerusalem did the same, worshiping the Lord. 19 Then the Levites from the clans of Kohath and Korah stood to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud shout.

Choose to Praise

Jehoshapat and the people faced what was an impossible situation but they didn’t sit around complaining or feeling sorry for themselves. They grabbed a hold of the prophetic word, a promise from God, took it as fact, and began to PRAISE the Lord.

We also have the promises of the Lord. He promises us that he will never leave us or forget about us, He will work all things together for good, and that He has a plan for us. But, often times when we face our battles we choose to worry, to doubt, to complain and in doing those things we forfeit the power of praise.

• Hebrew word for praise is HALAL: to praise, celebrate, glory, sing (praise), boast
• Celebrate
• Glory
• Sing
• Boast

Change Our Focus

(vs 12b ) "For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you."

They said, “God, we know that we are outnumbered and that we can’t beat them. But we are not going to look around at how bad things are how horrible our situation is, we are going to look up.” And then they put their words into action. * (vs 21) Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army

That is looking up! They put their worship band at the front as head of their attack formation.

Where are you looking, around you or up?

Darlene Zschech

"I learned we’ll never find hope looking at our circumstances," she says. "It’s only found by fixing our eyes on Jesus who doesn’t change and who’s always faithful.“

When we are surrounded by circumstances and difficulties we can experience the POWER OF PRAISE by looking up

Change is Coming

Don’t just Praise God when things are going good. Don’t just praise Him after he answers your prayer. We need to praise him… - Before the Battle v. 18 ...all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD - During the Battle v. 22 As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. - After the Battle v. 26 On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, where they praised the LORD. This is why it is called the Valley of Beracah to this day.

Many of us don’t have a hard time praising God when we see the light at the end of the tunnel or when we can see that the victory is ours, but it can be hard for us to praise him before we see any results

Darlene Zschech commented that praise is "thanking God for things even though they’re not there yet," she says. "It’s appreciating Jesus not [just] for what He can do, but for being your Savior. And there’s power in that.”

Chance for Deliverance

(Vs. 27-30) Then, led by Jehoshaphat, all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the LORD had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies. 28They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple of the LORD with harps and lutes and trumpets.29The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. 30And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.

Chance for Deliverance

Talk about being delivered and the joy that comes with it. I believe that when we praise and worship the Lord it will release His power and we will experience wonderful things like.. miracles. - It’s not our own power but the power of God that delivers us and gives us victory over our enemies and problems.

Challenge

Choose to praise God and keep your focus on him. Don’t just praise him afterward but before and during your battle. Allow him to deliver you as you praise him. * Deut 10:21 o He alone is your God, the only one who is worthy of your praise , the one who has done these mighty miracles that you have seen with your own eyes.