The Battle Before the Battle: The Witness Our Neighbors Can See

The unused invite is still facedown on the neighboring stoop. Last month this church said the battle is not yours after a named crisis went public on the block. One hallway received that sentence as cover. The sidewalk received a quieter indoor version by Tuesday: keep the seeking inside, because nobody on the street has to watch it.

A neighbor at the next stoop is deciding whether this church still seeks Yahweh where the street can still see it, or whether leftover indoor worship is the only public news the block is allowed to keep.

This is a sermon about the witness 2 Chronicles 20 already sets in public. If you preach it as a map of anyone's private panic, you will lie. If you preach it as Jehoshaphat of Judah under a real multitude, with a real Jahaziel and a real wilderness of Tekoa, you give this church a God who will not let leftover indoor seeking write the last sentence a watching neighbor has to live under.

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Hear the report as Holy Scripture tells it, from the World English Bible: "After this, the children of Moab, the children of Ammon, and with them some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then some came who told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea from Syria. Behold, they are in Hazazon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).

Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Judah gathered themselves together to seek help from Yahweh. They came out of all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh. Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in Yahweh’s house, before the new court; and he said, “Yahweh, the God of our fathers, aren’t you God in heaven? Aren’t you ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in your hand, so that no one is able to withstand you.