What do you do when you don’t know what to do? 
      How many times, in your life and in mine, have we gotten to the place that we don’t have any more answers, we’ve run out of resources, we feel helpless and powerless about the situation we’re in? We, frankly, look at that situation and say, “Lord, I’ve done all I know to do, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t have any more answers. I’m up against a wall, Lord. I don’t know what to do.” We’ve all faced that. 
      What do you do when you don’t know what to do? When you’ve done all you know to do, you’ve tried to resolve the situation, but you haven’t been able to, and you’ve gotten to the place where you say, “Lord, I don’t have an answer. I don’t know what to do.” 
      In II Chronicles 20:12, you will find that King Jehoshaphat, who was a good and godly king, had gotten to the place in his life where he was helpless, he was powerless, and he didn’t know what to do. 
      Look at verse 12. The Ammonites and Moabites and the people from Mount Seir were coming against Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah. They were going to destroy them, and they were outnumbered. There was no way they could win. The tribe of Judah and Jehoshaphat, their King, were doomed. There was no answer. They had nothing to do. 
      But look what he said in verse 12. When I read this, I said, “Lord, This is exactly the way I felt so many times in my life.” In II Chronicles 20:12, he says, O our God, will you not judge them? He was talking about the Moabites and the Ammonites and the people of Mount Seir. O, our God, will you not judge them? For We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us. He said, “Lord, I have no power against this multitude. Lord, I’m helpless. We have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us.” Look at the rest of the verse. Nor do we know what to do. He said, “Lord, I’m helpless, and I don’t know what to do. 
      But look at the rest of the verse. Nor do we have any power against this great multitude that is coming against us. Nor do we know what to do. But our eyes are upon you. He said, “Lord, I’ve got my eyes on you.” The truth is, Jehoshaphat did know what to do. God brought him through the crisis. God brought him through the situation where he was helpless and didn’t know what to do. He did know what to do. 
      I want to give you six things to do when you don’t know what to do.
      Here is the first thing you do when you don’t know what to do. Number 1, deliberately set your face to seek the Lord. Look at verses 3 and 4. And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord. And from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. In verse three, he set his face to seek the Lord. 
      You say, “You’re saying that I am to deliberately set my face to seek the Lord? Do you mean that I am supposed to read my Bible?” Yes, but I mean more than that. When you don’t know what to do, you need to get into the Word of God and let God speak to you. But it’s more than that. “Are you saying that, when I don’t know what to do, I need to pray?” Yes. You need to pray, but there are some things that you need to remember when you pray. 
      Here are three things that are involved in setting your face to seek God. It involves the Word of God, it involves praying, but I think there are three things we have to do in order to seek Him the way He wants us to. First of all, we’ve got to remember the God we’re seeking. So many times, in a crisis, our vision of God and our understanding of God get diverted because of the crisis we’re in. The way you set your face to seek God is you remember the God that you’re seeking. Look at verse 7. Are you not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever? 
      Wait a minute, Jehoshaphat. The Moabites and Ammonites are about to destroy you, and here you’re praying and you’re reminding God that He told Abraham that he was His friend forever. What does that have to do with the battle? Everything. Jehoshaphat remembered, as he set his face to seek God, that God had given that land to Abraham and to his descendants, and that God had said to Abraham, “Abraham, I’ll be your friend forever.” 
      Jehoshaphat remembered that the God he was seeking was a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God. If you’re a Christian, God has entered a covenant with you through Jesus Christ that is greater than any covenant He ever gave to Abraham. The God we worship and the God we seek is a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God. The Bible says we have a new covenant. It’s based on better promises. He said, “I’ll write my law in your heart and in your mind. And your sin and iniquity I’ll remember no more.” He has made a covenant with you, and He can never break that covenant. If you’re His child, He’s your friend forever. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Someone said to me, “I’m committed to Jesus.” I said, ‘I’ve got good news for you. If you’re saved, Jesus is committed to you.’ And He is. 
      What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Set your face to seek God. How do you do it? Remember the God you’re seeking. He’s a covenant-keeping God. 
      There is a second thing in how you set your face to seek God. Remind yourself of His faithfulness to you in the past. Look back in verse six. So many times, we get in a crisis, and we don’t know what to do. We not only need to remember the God we’re seeking, but we’ve got to remind ourselves of how faithful He has been in the past. We can’t forget it. Notice what he said in verse six: Oh, Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over the kingdoms of the nations? And in your hand is there not power and might so that no one is able to withstand you. He said, “You’re God in heaven. Nobody has ever been able to withstand against you.” You see, he reminded himself of God’s faithfulness in the past. When you’re in a crisis and don’t know what to do, look back at all of the times that God has answered your prayers. Look back at the times the unseen hand of God carried you through that crisis in your life. 
      When I would get in a situation where I said, “Lord, I’m helpless, and I don’t know what to do,” do you know what often times He’d do? He would take me back to something that had happened the second year that I was in the ministry. 
      I never will forget the summer after my freshman year. I worked at a Christian camp, but that was over in August. I started my sophomore year, and I started praying in September. God had called me to preach, and I said, “Lord, next summer, I want to preach all summer. I want you to give me a place to preach.” I prayed September through April. I prayed all of the way, fully expecting God to give me a place to preach. 
      It got about April, and my wife and I were sitting at breakfast one day, and she said, “What are you going to do this summer, when school is out?” I said, ‘I’m going to preach.’ She said, “Where?” I said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t have a place yet.’ She said, “Well, in the meantime, why don’t you get a job? That would help us out.” I started to say, ‘Oh, you of unbelief.’ I had been praying for eight months for God to give me a place to preach, and she said, “Well, until He does, get a job.” Well, reluctantly, I got a job. I got a job at the Western Auto. That was not what I had in mind. I tried not to murmur. But I would go to work, and I would say, “Lord, for eight months I prayed for a place to preach, and here I am at the Western Auto. God, I don’t understand it.” 
      I had been at the Western Auto for about ten days. One morning, my wife and I were eating breakfast, and there came a knock at the door. I was on a football scholarship to the University of South Carolina, and it was one of the assistant coaches. He said, “I’ve got a good job for you this summer. There’s a state park called Edisto Island State Park, off the coast of South Carolina. It’s closed and not open to the public now. The superintendent is going to be gone, and I want you and your wife to live in the superintendent’s house and cut the grass and live there all summer. They’ll pay you good.” 
      I said, ‘Coach, is it an island?’ 
      He said, “Yes.” 
      I said, ‘It must be close to the beach.’ 
      He said, “It’s surrounded by water.” 
      I said, ‘It beats the Western Auto. We’ll take it.’ 
      We drove to Edisto Island. The first Sunday came. It was twenty miles to the closest church, Adam’s Run Baptist Church. My wife and I drove across the bridge, and went to Adam’s Run Baptist Church. I think that Sunday they had about 50, so they knew we were visiting. When it was over, we were standing around talking, and a guy said, “How did you like our preacher today?” 
      I said, ‘He was good.’ 
      He said, “He was filling in for us. We don’t have a preacher.” 
      I said, ‘You don’t?’ 
      He said, “No.” 
      I said, ‘I know one. Me. I’m a preacher.’ I didn’t tell him I had preached only once. 
      He said, “Why don’t you preach for us next Sunday?” 
      I thought, here I am, in the middle of nowhere, and he’s going to ask me to preach next Sunday. I got so excited, and got up a sermon, and I preached at Adam’s Run that next Sunday. 
      When I finished preaching, a guy came up to me. He was a member of Hopewell Baptist Church, about 10 miles from there. He said, “I go to Hopewell Baptist Church. We meet every Sunday afternoon at 2:00, and we don’t have a pastor.” 
      I said, ‘You don’t?’ 
      He said, “Do you think you could preach for us on Sunday afternoons?” I said, ‘I sure can.’ 
      I was preaching at Hopewell Baptist Church one Sunday afternoon, and a guy came up to me after the service from the First Baptist Church of Jacksonboro. Guess what. They didn’t have a preacher. He said, “Do you think you could preach for us on Sunday nights?” 
      I want you to know I preached every Sunday all summer. 
      Twenty five years passed. I would be in the middle of a battle, and I would say, “Dear God, I’m helpless, and I don’t know what to do.” Do you know what He would say to me? “Remember Edisto Island. Remember when you prayed for eight months, I took you to the middle of nowhere, and there were three churches without a preacher, and I gave you three chances to preach every Sunday.” 
      Some of you are going through a crisis now, and you say, “Well, Lord, I just don’t know what to do.” 
      I’ll tell you what to do. You need to remember the time that God has answered your prayer. Remember the time that Jesus Christ has helped you and brought you through to the other side. Set your face to seek God when you remember the God you’re seeking. Remind yourself of His awesome faithfulness and power to you in the past. Remember, there is no Plan B. If God doesn’t come through, there is no Plan B. For the child of God, It’s Jesus or nothing. 
      Look at verse 9. Look at what Jehoshaphat said. If disaster comes upon us, sword, justice, pestilence, or famine. He said, “God, it does not matter what comes into my life. We will stand before this temple and in your presence. Your name is in this temple. We will cry out to you in our affliction. And You will hear, and you will help. Lord, you need to understand, no matter what happens to us, you’re stuck with us. We’re going to be crying out to you.” There is no Plan B. There is only Plan A. It’s God or nothing. Do you know what our problem is? We get in a situation. We’ve prayed and cried out to God, and nothing has seemed to happen.
       Do you know what we do? We take it into our own hands. “Lord, I’ve waited on you long enough. I’ll try to work this out.” It’s not if it’s going to be a disaster, it’s how quickly it’s going to be a disaster. There is no Plan B for a child of God. Our eyes are on Him. We’re trusting Him. And we’re not going anywhere else. 
      Point 2: Do not give up when people disappoint you or discourage you. That’s what happened to Jehoshaphat. Look at verses 10 and 11. I want you to see the disappointment in his voice. He was disappointed. He said in verse 10, now here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir whom you would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt. But they turned from them and did not destroy them. Here they are now rewarding us by coming to cast us out of the possession you have given us to inherit.    
      “When we came out of Egypt, you said to us, ‘Leave the Moabites alone, leave the people of Ammon, don’t you destroy them, spare them.’ God, we did exactly what you said. We had mercy on them. We blessed them. But now Lord, the very people that we blessed, the very people that we spared, they’re the people who are coming to destroy us and drive us out of the land.” 
      So many times, we’re in a situation where we don’t know what to do, and the people who should bless us and should encourage us and should be there for us sometimes disappoint us. Why is that? Because they’re human beings. 
      When I say to you, don’t give up when people disappoint and discourage you, I’m not saying for you to be suspicious of people. I’m not saying for you to not trust people. I’m not saying for you to not love people and invest in their lives. But I am saying to you: don’t get your eyes on people. Don’t get your eyes on people. If you get your eyes on people, it’s not if you’ll be disappointed, it’s when you’ll be disappointed. The best person in the world could disappoint you. 
      Often times, we’re in the battle, and we don’t know what to do. Somebody who should stand with us, sometimes they criticize us, sometimes they don’t understand us, sometimes they say we don’t have enough faith. Let me tell you something. I’ll tell you who will never disappoint you. Keep your eyes on Him. His name is Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus when you’re in the middle of the battle. 
      The truth is, I want to thank God for all of the people who have encouraged me and blessed me and walked with me and my wife through difficult times. I praise God for them. But I also have to tell you there were times that I did not understand why people did not understand and were not there. I’m so glad that God helped me not to give up when people disappointed me and discouraged me. 
       You say, “What do you do when you don’t know what to do? I’m out of answers. My back’s to the wall.” 
      Number 1, deliberately set your face to seek God. Number 2, don’t give up when people disappoint you or discourage you. Number 3, remember whose battle it is. If you’re a Christian, you’ve got to remember that Jesus Christ is your Saviour and Lord, and He is going to fight your battle. So many times, we forget whose battle it is. 
      Look at Chapter 20, verse 15. Jehoshaphat said, “We’re helpless. We don’t know what to do. Here come the Ammonites and the Moabites. Look at verse 15. And he said, Harken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 
      Hallelujah. The battle is the Lord’s. If you are God’s child, Jesus Christ lives in your heart. He is your Lord and master. Every battle you fight is His fight. The battle is the Lord’s. If you’re a child of God, it is His battle. The Lord fights for you. The Lord fights for me. The battle is not yours, it’s God’s. 
      Do you know why David was not afraid of Goliath? Goliath was a big giant, but David had a big God. Do you know what David said to Goliath? “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine to stand against the armies of the living God?” 
      You’re facing some giants. Listen to me. It’s not your battle. It’s His battle. He wants you to depend on Him, lean on Him, trust Him, keep your eyes on Him. You do what He tells you to do. You listen to Him. You allow Him to be your strength. But you’ve got to remember that, as a child of God, we’re not fighting this thing in our own energy and power, but the battle is the Lord’s. 
      Look at the last part of verse 17. He tells us again: Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you. 
      Here are things to do when you don’t know what to do. Number 1, deliberately set your face to seek the Lord. Number 2, do not give up when people disappoint you or discourage you. Number 3, remember whose battle it is. Involve yourself with Him and allow Him to fight that battle on your behalf, whatever it is. Say, “Lord, it’s your battle. I want to cooperate with you.” 
      Here’s number 4. This is perhaps the most important. The fourth thing to do, when you don’t know what to do, is this: Worship God in the middle of the battle. Look at verse 18. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the LORD, worshipping the LORD. 
      Jehoshaphat said, “Let’s worship God.” He fell on his face and began to worship God, and the people of Judah began to worship God. 
      I would say, “Jehoshaphat, time out, I’m all for worshipping God, but they’re coming over the hill. Let’s kill a few of them before we worship God. Jehoshaphat, the battle is not won yet. Let’s win the battle, and then let’s worship God.” 
      But it’s easy to worship God when the battle is won. It’s real faith to worship God when the battle is raging. 
      What do you think that does to the heart of God? The devil attacks one of God’s children, then we’re on the ropes, and we don’t know what to do, but, all of a sudden, in the middle of the battle, you’re worshipping God. You’re praising Him and trusting Him. I think the Father says to the devil, “Look at that. Even though the battle is raging, their eyes are on Me, and their hearts are full of praise for the living God.” 
      Why don’t you worship God in the middle of the battle? You would say, “I don’t feel like it.” You’ll start to feel like it after you start. 
      I remember when my wife and I were going through difficult times. Do you know the only way I made it? I didn’t get my eyes on the lions. I got my eyes on the Lord. We worshipped God in the middle of the battle. 
      Here is the fifth thing to do when you don’t know what to do. Remember that God often gives the victory in unexpected ways, so that only God will get the glory. 
      Do you want to see how God gave the victory here? Look at verse 20. The Moabites and Ammonites and the people of Mount Seir are coming down on Jehoshaphat. They had been worshipping God, and then Jehoshaphat calls a meeting. 
      Look in the middle of verse 20. Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. 
      He said, “Now is the time for us to believe God and trust Him in the middle of the battle.” 
      Look in verse 21. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD. 
      Jehoshaphat said, “Here is my plan. We’ve got to get us a good choir.” Look what happened. They got a choir. They’re coming over the hill, but they’ve got a good choir. 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. 
      They went out before the army? Folks, that makes no sense to me. We’ve got a battle to fight, so we get a choir, and, on top of that, we send them out before the army? 
      Look what happened. As they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth forever. 
      When they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, and they came against Judah, and they were defeated. 
      For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped. They were singing. The people of Moab and Ammon turned on the people of Mount Seir and killed them. And then when they killed them, they turned on each other and killed themselves. When Jehoshaphat and the army got there, when the choir got there, they looked out, and they were all dead. Not one arrow had been fired. God absolutely had destroyed the enemy. 
      You say, “Why did He do it that way? Why did He do it with a choir and a song?” Let me tell you why. The next day, when Jehoshaphat met with all of his people, he didn’t say, “I’m the greatest General since Napoleon.” He didn’t say that. He said, “Did you see what God did? All we did was sing, and God destroyed the enemy.” Guess who got the glory. 
      That situation you’re in, you’ve cried out to God. You’ve said, “Lord, I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are on you. Lord, I don’t have a plan B.” Most likely, God will work in your life and bring you through in a way that is totally unexpected, so that only He will get the glory. It’s not how smart you are or how you’ve figured it out. God will do it in such a way that you will know it’s the living Jesus. You’ll know it. That’s why God will do it that way. He wants you to know it’s Him. 
      I’ve looked back at times in my life. There were situations that I had it all figured out: “God, you’re going to do it this way, you’re going to do it that way.” I had it all figured out. I had a plan. God didn’t do it that way. He did it another way. I said, “I never dreamed you’d do it that way.” He said, ‘I know, because it’s me and not you.’ When He does it in a way that you didn’t expect, you say, “Look what Jesus has done for me.” 
      Number 1: deliberately set your face to seek the Lord. Number 2: don’t give up when people disappoint you and discourage you. Number 3: remember whose battle it is. Number 4: worship God in the middle of the battle. Number 5: remember that God often gives the victory in unexpected ways so that only God will get the glory. Here is the last one: remember that the thing that the devil intended to destroy you, if you’ll turn to Jesus, and keep your eyes on Him, God will use it to bless you. 
      Look at verse 26. After God had given them the victory in a supernatural way, they went down to the valley where they were supposed to die. They went down to the valley where they were supposed to be destroyed. Look what they did. 
      And on the fourth day, they assembled in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the LORD: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day. 
      Do you know what that word ‘Berachah’ means? Blessing. They went down to the valley where they were all supposed to die, and where God had given them the victory. They worshipped God, and they named that valley ‘the place of blessing.’ Instead of the place of death, it was the place of blessing. 
      The devil is a liar. He is the accuser of the brethren, and he is a condemner. So you make some wrong choices, or some things happen to you, and, all of a sudden, it seems like everything falls apart. And then you look back at it, and this is what the devil says: “You’re finished. You’ll never get over that. You’ll never come back from that. Your life is history. It’s over for you.” That’s exactly what he wants you to think. 
      But I’m going to tell you something. I’ve made some wrong choices. I’ve been down some wrong roads. I made some plans that collapsed and fell apart. But my God is a God of another chance. He is a God of a lot of chances. I want you to know that He’s not finished with me, because I’m going to get my eyes on Jesus. And the very thing the devil intended to destroy me, I’m going to let God use it to bless me. I’ve got good news for you. If you’re a child of God, the devil doesn’t have the final word in your life. Jesus has the final word in your life. The enemy intended to destroy you, and said, “You’re finished. You’re history. You’ll never get over that.” You’ll say, ‘Oh, you’re wrong, because my eyes are on Him, and He’s going to bring me through to the other side. And I’m going to walk down in that valley where you thought I was destroyed, the valley of blessing.’ 
      Let Jesus have the final word in your life. Don’t you believe the accuser. You believe what God says.



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