Guest preacher Rev Robert Cunningham preaches from 2 Chronicles 20:1-30. He examines how our darkest moments can be transformed into stepping stones towards strength and success with God's mercy and grace. Turning to Jesus in our weakest moments can be our ultimate source of hope, assurance, and salvation.
Robert Cunningham is the Director of Christ for Kentucky, and the host of the Every Square Inch podcast.
Guest preacher Rev Robert Cunningham preaches from 2 Chronicles 20:1-30. He examines how our darkest moments can be transformed into stepping stones towards strength and success with God's mercy and grace. Turning to Jesus in our weakest moments can be our ultimate source of hope, assurance, and salvation.
Robert Cunningham is the Director of Christ for Kentucky, and the host of the Every Square Inch podcast.
Thank you. I do a fair amount of guess preaching, speaking and whatnot so I've been through a lot of introductions. This is the first one that says I'm wearing your underwear. So, and good job with the reading. Ashley, right, well, well done. The dirty ministry speaker is. None of us know how to pronounce those names, so we just say it with confidence that you think the preacher says it. That's the way. So Ashley did a good job. I'll say it, like her. So it's an honor to be with you.
Robert:It's my understanding you are currently in a series through the book of Exodus, and Damien asked when the environment become preachy. He asked if I could maybe choose an Old Testament passage that is somewhat related to the theme of Exodus, and I thought of this one obscure passage that takes place roughly 600 years after Moses and the Exodus, where God's people experience another but lesser known deliverance of the Lord and that I personally will forever associate with the city of Orlando. And let me introduce things by sharing why that is so. It was around this time, gosh, it's been. It's over 10 years, about 12 years ago, that I'm comfortable now to confess I was a very young, arrogant, driven by an unhealthy ambition for ministry success and esteem, about to be called at a very young age to pastor a fairly large church. I was on that perilous and problematic track of celebrity pastor nauseating thing that we do in evangelicalism and, to my shame, I was loving it Well in God's mercy. He broke me, and that might be too soft language. You can call it ministry burnout, call it a nervous breakdown, call it whatever you want, but I collapsed into a season of despair, crippling anxiety and depression. Think about pastoral ministry. I could barely get out of bed and complete the smallest of tasks Almost overnight. I went from brash confidence to just broken despondence. What happened to me?
Robert:Well, as I said, I was a few months away from transitioning into senior leadership at our church and I was replacing a legend in the Presbyterian world named John Sartel. You probably are not familiar with John Sartel. Ashley actually told me before the service that she visited TCC when he was our senior pastor and so she will get this. But you probably don't know him. But he's a legend in this denomination. He was there at the beginning helping to establish the PCA, and he's exactly what you would expect when you think of old school. You know man's man confident leader, just enormous stature and countenance, intimidating figure, brooks Brothers suit, every single day. I think he slept in a Brooks Brothers suit, booming voice that literally sounded like the voice of God.
Robert:Well, because of the nature of my story, personally I tend to have a complicated relationship with men like John, candidly, just almost an insatiable desire for their approval and blessing. And so while I was working as an assistant with him, my wife would tell you, I was exhausting myself, trying to impress him, trying to imitate him anything for that approval and blessing, which was no easy task. Despite how much I presented myself as his confident protege, I always felt inferior in John's presence. Now I'll give you one story here that kind of stands out to me as a picture of my life during this season. I was newly married, no kids yet, just our tiny little fluffy lapdog, bailey. Well, john Sartel wants to have us over for dinner for the first time, newly hired at the church. He wants to have us over for dinner and Abby, my wife Abby, decides that she wants to bring Bailey with us to play with Sartel's dog Jack. Now, jack is a dog that perfectly fits Sartel's persona Pure bread champion, alpha male hunting dog. Our Bailey was the opposite.
Robert:So we pull up to John's house, abby's cooked something that she's brought over and she grabs the dish and says you grab Bailey. And I said can we flip that? Can I get the food? And you get Bailey. She said what are you talking about? Just no big deal, get the dog. So here I am, showing up at the Reverend John Sartel's house with an oversized gerbil in my hands, and John opens the door, looks at me, looks at Bailey, direct quote what is that? I said this is Abby's dog, bailey. And John says well, let's take her out back so that she can meet Jack. We'll go out in the backyard, put Bailey in the grass. She's just barely enough big enough to hop around in the grass like a bunny.
Robert:And what follows is one of the most masculine things I've ever experienced. Jack, the alpha dog, runs over to Bailey, lifts his leg and pees on my dog and then I kid you not John yells atta, boy, jack. That's what I'm following and I tried everything I could to prove to John, prove to our church that love John, that I was as strong as him. But I wasn't strong. I couldn't maintain the demands of my own ambition and arrogance and so it caught up to me and I collapsed emotionally, spiritually, I fell into a pit of anxiety and depression. It was very close to leaving ministry altogether In desperation.
Robert:My wife calls my dear friend who's here, michael Blackston, here in Orlando, essentially saying I don't know what to do with my husband. Can you help? Michael says put him on a plane, fly him down here. I know the person he needs to see. Just over a decade ago I landed in Orlando's airport in a state of panic. I spent several days in the office of a counselor you have several of those in this city, I hear. She was more of a prophetess than a therapist. She did a soul surgery on me which then led to a long and healing long healing and sanctifying journey that in many ways I'm still journeying through. I think I will be on that journey until Jesus is done with me.
Robert:But there was one passage of Scripture in particular that she shared that became a theme for me in that season. It's the passage that is before us this morning. This somewhat obscure passage has ministered to me in countless ways and my hope and prayers that it will do the same for you. This morning we're going to explore it. I know it's a long passage and you might be nervous about where this is going. We're just going to explore it in two different ways. There's so much I could say, but I'm just going to boil it down to two. We're going to look first at the weakness of our strength and then the strength of our weakness. But let's start with the weakness of our own strength. Let me catch this up on the context here, because I know it's probably not much of a familiar passage for many of you.
Robert:The King of Jude at the time of our story is Jehoshaphat. Toward the end of his reign, he famously led the nation through a time of wonderful reforms. That's the chapter before where we are in chapter 20. Chapter 19 details these changes. He establishes judges who will rule and justice According to the fear of the Lord. He restores the ministry of the priesthood that I believe Damien preached on last week. He gives order, direction, guidance. Judah is in a good place, perhaps the healthiest place it has ever been.
Robert:And then our passage where all the surrounding nations conspire together against Judah for its destruction, isn't that interesting. Just when everything is going great in Judah, judah is about to be annihilated. Now what do you suppose God is up to with that strange twist of providence. I'll tell you what I think is happening. Judah had it all, yet was lacking that one key biblical component humble dependence. The right leadership was in place, the correct infrastructure had been established, the people had all bought into the vision. All the keys to success are there, and yet they are ripe for failure. And they are ripe for failure because they are ripe for self-reliance, and so what God does is mercifully position them at the brink of destruction so that they may come face to face with the weakness of their own strength and learn the painful yet blessed lesson of dependency. He gets this confident nation, led by this confident, gifted leader, to the point where they are so scared, so helpless, so desperate, that all they know to do is cry out to the Lord. Watch it unfold After all the reforms led by Jehoshaphat.
Robert:Listen to the confidence of the last phrase of chapter 19,. Deal courageously, and may the Lord be with the other, be with the upright. Such courage, such zeal. Let's go. Judea, chapter 20.
Robert:After this, the Moabites and Ammonites, along with all the Mionites, came against Jehoshaphat for battle. Some men came and told Jehoshaphat a great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea. And behold, they are at Hazazon Tamar. Essentially, that means they are at the border. Now watch the change in disposition. Then Jehoshaphat was afraid. This confident leader, the man with all of the answers in chapter 19, is suddenly afraid and set his face to seek the Lord and proclaim a fast throughout all Judah and Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord, from all the cities of Judah. They came to seek the Lord.
Robert:The gifted leader and his confident nation have collectively fallen to their knees before the Lord in desperate fear, and so Jehoshaphat does the only thing left to do he prays. And look at the last sentence of his prayer in verse 12, the embodiment of desperation and dependence. We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do Now. Here's the foolishness of biblical truth. They are now, in this moment, surrounded by enemies on all sides, seeing and owning their helpless estate, admitting the weakness of their own strength. We don't know what to do. They are now 10,000 times more powerful than they were in chapter 19, when they had it all together. Here's the point, and this is reinforced in every page of scripture.
Robert:In every other realm, greatness is found in competency. Within the kingdom of God, greatness is found in dependency. In every other realm, whether it be athletics, education, medicine, business, art, science, anything else you do in this world, greatness is found in competency. Within the kingdom of God, greatness is found in dependency. It is not that competency doesn't matter, it does.
Robert:The reforms of chapter 19 were good moves by Judah. It just can't end there. They were missing the key component that must accompany excellence this needed humility. And God has mercifully positioned Judah on the path of their needed humility. Now, judah would probably not view it as merciful. God's humbling is often scary and painful, but it is the mercy of God when he gives us the gift of dependency. It is God's mercy to force us to face the weakness of our strength, even if it comes by the hand of his bitter providence. And that is what is happening in our text. He has taken Judah and terrifyingly brought them to the point where all they know to do is cry out to God. Lord, we don't know what to do. And here's the tricky part. This dependency and humility is not something that any of us can conjure up. Authentic helplessness and desperate prayers cannot be manufactured.
Robert:The reason why the nation is crying out we don't know what to do is because they don't know what to do, and this makes application for us this morning a little complicated. How in the world are we supposed to apply the story to the 21st century American context, surrounded not by enemies but by prosperity? I think our world, the culture as we know it summed up well. My Uber driver over here this morning was listening to Jelly Roll. Apparently there's an artist named Jelly Roll. I don't know. I don't know, but anyway Jelly Roll was preparing my heart for worship this morning and but his lyric on the way over, I think, sums up American Christianity.
Robert:Quote from Jelly Roll I only talk to God when I need a favor, so tell me who the heck am I to expect a savior? Well, what if you are that dependent and desperate? You just need eyes to see it. Those difficult seasons of life that I described introducing my sermon that I went through, those difficult seasons of life that we all journey through, when we feel utterly helpless. Some of you may be there as we speak I don't wanna downplay that you might enter the room ready for this sermon but these some of you might need a different lesson, and it's this though you may not be in those moments, these desperate moments are not isolated times of dependencies. They are reminders of our constant dependency. In other words, it is not just in those moments of weakness that we are desperate. We are always desperate, and it is in the moments of weakness we actually have eyes to see our desperation.
Robert:Judah needed God in chapter 19, when all was well, just as much as they did in chapter 20. It's just that in chapter 20, god graciously gave them eyes to see it. Here's the point. Do not be deceived, do not be fooled by the veneer of American comfort and prosperity. You are right now, in this very moment, totally and utterly helpless and dependent upon your God. Some of you feel that right now, in this moment, but many probably do not. So for the latter, let me take a moment to pull back the curtain and show you how desperate you are. I'm telling you upfront what I'm gonna do here. I'm intentionally going to try to freak you out a bit and try to get you where Judah is in our passage.
Robert:Let me pull back the curtain First. You live in a world that is antithetical to God in every way. Since the fall of the year, in every way since the fall, every culture is the same A mixture, yes, of so much beauty, but profound brokenness as well. And ours is no exception. When you consider the progression of secularism with all of its implications, the growing levels of unbelief, the rejection of goodness and truth and justice, when you consider the marginalization of religious claims outside of revival, christianity in America is soon to be in crisis, just like the rest of Western society. I was just in the United Kingdom and it is like walking through the ruins of Christianity. So reality check here. Our culture, with its billions of dollars in media, its massive institutional structures, its near monopoly on higher education. Give me a break. This world laughs at our cute little, helpless congregations, as does the prince of this world.
Robert:As scary as the world may be, let us not forget that we are just. These are all just manifestations of a much greater battle that is taking place as we speak. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We aren't playing games here. I believe that the powers of hell utterly abhor this church and, as glad as I am that you are here this morning, you need to know that by being here, you are choosing to place yourself and your family in the crosshairs of evil spiritual forces. I truly mean that. I believe Satan hates healthy churches like this one and will do everything in his power to undo it. But it's not just the world, it's not just evil spiritual forces, the world. We haven't even gotten to our greatest enemy, the enemy within right.
Robert:Forget the world, forget the devil. You're like me. You are experts at devouring yourself. You are always just one moment away from anger and hatred and bitterness and envy and gossip and sexual indiscretions and hunger for power control. You are just moments away from these things destroying you, your family, perhaps even this church community. So let me be brutally honest. When you consider the world that is against this church, the powerful forces of evil that despise this church and the sinners that fill this church, let's be honest. This church and as people have no chance. Aren't I the most encouraging guest preacher you've ever had?
Robert:So then, what are we supposed to do Exactly? That is where Judah is in our text. We don't have to have armies around us to cry out. We don't know what to do. We need only to wake up to the realities that are around us every day until it gives way to that collective corporate cry. We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. It is not pleasant to confess the weakness of our strength, but it's good. In that confession, you are ready to discover our second point this morning the strength of our weakness. This is very important. Desperate humility does not lead to the loss of confidence. It is the pathway into true confidence. Our self confidence goes to its grave so that a God confidence might rise from that same grave. As we go through that painful dismantling Of our strength, we are surprised to discover on the other side a new found strength that was unavailable to us while our eyes were upon ourselves. That is what happens in our text.
Robert:The proud king has nowhere else to turn, so he turns to the Lord in prayer and essentially his prayer reminds us of two things. Here's what we see in his prayer two things that God is sovereign and God is faithful. Look as he first proclaims God's sovereignty in verse six oh Lord, god, our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations in your hand or power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. He looks at this impossible situation, powerful nations gathered together against him, he says but you rule over these nations. Yes, this threat is more powerful than me, but you are more powerful than the threat. And this is true of every threat and every enemy. God reigns over them all. But it is not just that. God is sovereign, he is faithful, meaning he has a proven track record of leveraging sovereignty for the good of his people. That's what Jehoshaphat brings to mind. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people, israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend? He is saying are you not the same God that did the impossible for our four fathers before us?
Robert:The Exodus, moses, the whole story that you're studying together as a church. Wasn't that you who did that before? This is what you've always done. Do it again, god, do it again, and the Lord indeed does it again, as has happened many times in so many ways throughout redemptive history. God hears the prayers of the desperate and responds with mighty Exodus.
Robert:Look at verse 15, as the prophet speaks up, listen all Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says the Lord to you do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. I love that. The battle's not yours, it's God's. Do you know what owning the weakness of your strength does? It takes the battle off your frail shoulders and hands it to the strength of God, who is sovereign.
Robert:Verse 17,. You will not need to fight this battle, but stand firm, hold your position and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. That's almost a direct quote from Moses before the sea, as Pharaoh's armies are bearing down on him, and he had the audacity to say the Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still. And that's what happens in our passage. Essentially, god confuses the armies which have assembled against Judah. They destroy themselves. It's almost comical. When Judah comes out to fight the next day, they're greeted by defeated enemies. And in this way Satan, chronicles 20, takes his place in the long history of dependence met by deliverance.
Robert:Just another chapter with the same story of God blessing weakness. You ever wonder why? Why does it seem like every story in the Bible is the same? God saves the day. Why would God make it so that his purpose is advanced through weakness, not strength? Well, in this way God gets the glory, because only in this way is it clearly his work, his strength, his wisdom, his power and therefore his renown. He loves it. He loves it when his people confess.
Robert:We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. Because then our God says, now that eyes are upon me, watch me do what I do. It's not just a Jehoshaphat, it's every, every major character and event in the story of redemption Abraham, god promises to fix the world through his descendants. He waits. He waits 100 years old, wife as well, past childbearing age. What are we going to do with that, lord? We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. God gives them a son, moses. He leads God's people out of slavery. They come to the shores of the vast sea, pharaoh's army bearing down upon them. They had no escape the Lord. We don't know what to do. Our eyes are upon you. As I said, moses says it's okay, lord, we'll fight for you. You just be still. God parts the sea. His people walk through dry land, david. The people of Israel are paralyzed by the Philistine army, their great champion, goliath. Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. Okay, I'm going to use a shepherd and a slingshot and slay the giant, and on and on and on.
Robert:The Old Testament story goes until a strange twist in the story when Jesus of Nazareth comes onto the scene and something changes. All the desperate start looking toward him with their I don't know what to do, but my eyes are upon you, jesus, and the death here and the lame walk and the blind sea and the leprous are cleansed and ultimately a countless multitude of sinners have looked to this same Jesus with I don't know what to do, but my eyes are upon you. And if you're outside the Christian faith this morning here investigating the claims of Christianity, thank you so much for being here and I don't know your story. Maybe there's intellectual doubts, maybe there are moral doubts, maybe there's hurt by Christianity, harm by the church. Whatever's going on, if you're here, let me cut through all the noise and just say I'm going to simplify it as best I can Christians are these people who just say we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon Jesus. There you go, there's Christianity, and these countless multitude of sinners have looked to this same Jesus with.
Robert:We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you and our eyes follow Him to a lonely hill and a rugged cross to witness the greatest exodus of deliverance. See Him do the impossible Forgive what is unforgivable, justify what is unjustifiable. Indeed, save what is unsalvageable. And then they bury Him, and then all of creation looks upon a tomb where all God's promises lie, dormant and dead. Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes even still are upon your lifeless body. And then, three days later, he rises from the grave and all hope is restored.
Robert:Now here we are, 2,000 years later same cry, same confession.
Robert:Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you, trusting that the apostle Paul knew what he was talking about and he was telling the truth when he says when you are weak, then you are strong, because in the confession of the weakness of your strength, you are prepared to discover the strength of our strong Savior.
Robert:Let me pray, lord Jesus, and so, collectively, together, we now say it In our hearts we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.
Robert:Hear our cry and answer as you have done, for some are here this morning and they didn't need the sermon to stir their hearts to confess that they are circumstantially experiencing that they come to church, barely hanging on with the only cry. I don't know what to do. But I'm here again this Sunday to fix my eyes upon you. I pray for them in particular, that you would hear their prayer and that, by your spirit, you would overwhelm them with your faithfulness and confidence. For many others, life might be good. We need eyes to see our desperation cut through American prosperity and comfort and help us to see that we are utterly dependent upon our God, that we truly don't know what we're doing and we don't know what to do. But our eyes are upon you. You have never, ever said no to that prayer, and so hear our prayer and, by your spirit, come visit us with the assurance of your salvation Through Christ, our Savior. We pray Amen.