St John the Beloved
Sermon and teaching audio from St John Church in Cincinnati Ohio.
St John the Beloved
Our Eyes Are On You
A vast army gathers, panic rises, and a king makes a surprising move: he admits he’s powerless and points an entire nation to fix their eyes on God. We walk through 2 Chronicles 20 and the story of Jehoshaphat to uncover a counterintuitive strategy for moments when life feels baffling: seek deliberately, stand firmly, and see what God will do on your behalf.
We start by reframing the crisis reflex most of us fall into—hypermanaging the chaos or escaping into distraction—and replace it with an intentional posture of prayer. You’ll hear how speaking to God about God steadies the heart, why confessing “we do not know what to do” is not defeat but wisdom, and how gratitude rewires our attention to notice daily deliverance. Then we lean into the prophet’s message: do not be afraid; the battle is not yours but God’s. That truth resets the roles in our struggles, calling us to active obedience without the crushing weight of self-salvation.
The turning point is worship before the win. Jehoshaphat sends singers ahead of soldiers, teaching us to praise in anticipation rather than only after results arrive. We explore what faith looks like in a risk-avoidant culture—taking steps toward hard places, expecting God to act—and why true establishment comes not from sharpened plans but from trust in God’s promises. The thread runs forward to Jesus, the better King whose perfect gaze on the Father secures our rescue and trains our reflexes for the year ahead.
If you’re facing uncertainty, anxiety, or decisions that feel bigger than you, this conversation offers a clear path: eyes up, heart steady, steps forward. Listen, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to help more people find these hope-filled stories.
Good morning, everyone. This feels like a wild card Sunday. You're not sure what you're gonna get. It's not printed in the bulletins, so but Pastor Billy is right. We are in the book of 2 Chronicles, which is probably not a part of the Bible that we we turn to that often. And it's uh compounded by the fact that if you you know read 1 and 2 Kings, the Chronicles seem just like a repetition of what you've already read in the book of Kings. But there's often a different bent to that story. And just to give you a little bit of context, this is a part of the Bible that is before the coming of Christ. And it's at a point in the history of God's people where there is this series of kings. So most of us remember or heard of King David, King Solomon, these relatively good, righteous kings. But then especially at the end of Solomon's reign and going forward in the history of God's people, it's mostly one bad king after another until finally God judges his people and sends them into exile. But today we're gonna hear a little bit about a relatively good king in the history of God's people. This is King Jehoshaphat. And this is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, beginning in verse 1. And I'm going to be reading until verse 23. So again, 2 Chronicles 20, beginning in verse 1. Now, this is a long passage, but I'll consistently refer back to it as we go forward so you know exactly where I'm getting things from. Let's hear from God's word in 2 Chronicles. After this, the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them some of the Mayunites, came against King 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 in Hazazon Tamar, that is in Gedi. Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed 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. And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord before the new court, and said, O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house and before you, for your name is in this house, and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save. And now behold, the men of Amon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy, behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. O our God, will you not execute judgment on them, for we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, son of Beniah, son of Jael, son of Mataniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, Listen, all Judah and 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. To morrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah in Jerusalem. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you. Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshipping the Lord. And the Levites of the Kohethites and the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tokoah. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established. Believe his prophets, and you will succeed. And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and said, Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures for ever. And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another. This is the word of the Lord. In this passage, there's uh the most famous verse is what I read, We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you, Lord. And I remember one time uh reading what a pastor wrote, and he said, Sometime this year you will have to pray that prayer. Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. And so that you can see this sermon almost as an early New Year's sermon as you prepare to close out 2025 and go into 2026. At some point, you will most likely have to pray this prayer. Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. Because all of us are at times faced with baffling, confusing situations, and we don't know how we're going to get out of them, and before which you feel powerless. And the question is, how will we respond when we come to those situations? And what I want us to take away from this passage is when life is baffling this coming year, fix your eyes on the Lord. When life is baffling this coming year, fix your eyes on the Lord. And I want to do two things this morning. I want to look more closely at the people's prayer that they are led with Jehoshaphat leading this prayer of the people. And then I want to hear God's, I want us to hear God's response to the people's prayer. And uh the first thing that I want you to notice is in verse 3, it says, Jehoshaphat was afraid when he was faced with this seemingly impossible situation. Uh Israel's enemies coming against them. And it says that he set his face to seek the Lord. Now, notice it doesn't just say that Jehoshaphat was afraid and sought the Lord. It says he set his face to seek the Lord. It's this very intentional language. Now, why is that? For most of us, I would venture to say, seeking the Lord is often not our first instinct when we're faced with a situation like Jehoshaphat. And that's because we have a conditioned response, an automatic response when crisis happens. You know, it's like when you go to the doctor and they hit your knee and your leg automatically moves. It's an automatic response. You don't have to think about it. And that's because we live in this sinful world that we've been conditioned in, and we often try to save ourselves, uh, usually through one of two things, either hypermanagement or some sort of escapism. And so when we have a situation we're facing and we go into hypermanagement, you know, that's when we say things like, I've got to figure this out on my own, I'm, or you know, we spiral and say, I'm a failure, I don't, I don't have time to pray or to uh to seek counsel. And the other option that we turn to is escapism. And that often looks like seeking temporary relief, uh, maybe uh through an addiction that some of us might struggle with, or through scrolling on our screens. You know, we're trying to distract ourselves from a situation. But this is a reminder that when life is baffling this year, we will have to set our face to seek the Lord. It's for many of us not going to be an automatic response. It requires an intentional act on our part to interrupt that cycle of fear that we often find ourselves in. And I want to look at this prayer that King Jehoshaphat offers. And uh, you know, what I love about the scriptures is uh if you're anything like me, prayer is sometimes a struggle because we don't uh know how to do it. Or uh there are uh, you know, prayer can seem overwhelming because there's all sorts of things we could pray about or you know, things we could bring before the Lord. But there are places like this in the scripture where it gives us a guide of how we can talk to the Lord and bring our hearts before Him. And uh one of the things that we see in this prayer is that Jehoshaphat begins in verse 6 by talking to God about God. He says in verse 6, O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? Now, why is he saying this? You know, it's not for God's sake, right? You know, God knows exactly who God is, it's for his sake, for the people's sake. He is talking about uh God's attributes, his power, his relationship with his people. Um, he talks about God's promises to give them this land. You know, he's reminding really himself about who God is. And then he states the baffling situation. He says in verse 10, and now behold, and then he lists about, he lists the situation that's actually happening with the people, this invasion of their enemies. And so when we come to prayer, what happens is there is this gap between what ought to be or what God has said should be and what's actually happening. And that's where our prayer lives. When we know what God has said, and we know who God is, and when we're facing a situation that doesn't seem to match with it, and that's that space where our prayer lives. We are claiming God's promises on our behalf. And then King Jehoshaphat says something very shocking in this prayer. In verse 12, he says, We are powerless before this enemy. Now, if you are a king in the ancient world and you're standing in front of your people, that's not a very uh, that doesn't seem like a very safe thing to say, guys, we are powerless before this enemy that we're about to face. And yet he's right. He acknowledges that before his enemies he is powerless. And that's a lesson for us as we think about our own salvation. Do you believe that in terms of your salvation you are powerless to save yourself? Some of us may have some experience with 12-step programs, and you know, I'll always remember the very first step of the 12 steps is we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable. And that's a good reminder for us. Do we believe that before our enemies, not just physical enemies, but our ultimate spiritual enemies, that we are powerless to save ourselves? And that leads into that next statement. This this prayer, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. You know, when it comes to exercise or sitting, we hear a lot about good posture, right? You know, you have to have good posture in order to benefit from something. This is the perfect posture of God's people, to have our eyes fixed on the Lord. And so when life is baffling this coming year, when you are facing your own crises, where will your eyes be fixed? Because there are a lot of things asking for your eyes. Who has your eyes? You know, it's like when our boys are in a busy place, you know, maybe playing at a playground, there's a bunch of kids running around and a lot of noise. And if you have children, you notice that every now and then they'll stop and look back, you know, where's mom and dad? Right? They're reminding themselves, where's my place of safety as they're playing? Or even, you know, you've probably had this phrase at some point in your home: find my eyes, find my eyes, because you know when you have a child's eyes, you have their attention. You want them to be looking at you. That is the reflex that we want to have within ourselves to be childlike in fixing our eyes on our Heavenly Father. And one of the ways that practically you can do this in your own life is when you notice that life is getting crazy, or when the anxiety is ramping up inside, and you can even feel the tension in your body. Just take a moment to sit down, you know, maybe take some deep breaths, and and that is a way that you can even condition yourself to fix your eyes on the Lord. You know, take yourself out of that crazy situation just for a minute or two. And again, as we've already talked about, there's so many of us with such limited time, but even taking a minute just to sit and breathe and remember the Lord is with me. I am not alone in this. So we've looked at this prayer that King Jehoshaphat offers on behalf of the people. And now I want us to hear how God responds to his people. And he does this through the prophet, uh, the prophet, one of the Levites that is in uh the group of people. And through this prophet, in verse 15, he says, Do not be afraid. It's the first thing that God wants his people to hear. And he says this twice, actually, in the passage. And of course, this invitation, this command, do not be afraid. It's one of the most common, common words that God speaks in the scripture. And then he goes on in verse 15, and he says, This battle is not yours, but God's. Now that is a tectonic shift in our thinking. The battle is not ours, but God's. God is the one who is doing the fighting on behalf of his people. Now that doesn't mean that God's people do nothing. He says later, go down to meet them. Go down to meet your enemy. But then he builds on this in verse 17 and says, see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. And so what is the action that God requires from his people? See. Watch the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. You maybe have heard at other uh in other sermons or other points that all of the scriptures point to Christ and the gospel. This is the gospel proclamation in this passage. It's the gospel being preached by God to this people. See the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. And so, as you're facing the challenges of this coming year, the question for us is not, first and foremost, how often are we reading our Bibles, or how often are we sharing our faith, or how much are you giving to the church? Those are all good questions to ask ourselves. But first and foremost, have you seen and are you seeing the salvation of the Lord on your behalf? Do we have eyes to see that? Keep looking for the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. And not on behalf of the person sitting next to you, not on not in some abstract way, but practically the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. And again, another practical way that you can grow in this, grow in this practice, is, for example, you can just take time every now and then and make uh a gratitude list. You know, we're we're in a season of thanksgiving, right? Uh and so you can take a few minutes, again, when when you're in the midst of craziness, to pause and uh reflect on what is God doing to deliver me? And you can, of course, think of the big major ways that God has saved you through Christ and is saving you, but honestly, in very practical ways. You know, God gave me a parking space really close to the entrance, and that was that was a gift. Um looking for these concrete ways that God is helping you, delivering you. And when we do that, it's pushing back against the lie, right? This idea, God has abandoned me, God is not with me, I have to do all this myself. And that's not true. And we realize that when we take time to give thanks. So this is God's response to this prayer. And then there's this amazing response to God's response. So there's this rhythm here, right, uh, that we see all throughout the scriptures, that we pray to God, God responds, and then we respond to God's response. And what's amazing here is that the people of God worship before God delivers them. In verse 21, they're singing this uh this praise, give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love, endures forever. And again, this is before God gives this uh miraculous deliverance at the end of our passage. Uh the enemy hasn't even been routed. And that's a reminder for us that we're we're not only to worship after the fact, but we worship in anticipation of God's deliverance. We worship in anticipation. And that's where we want to be, right? We want to be so certain that God is going to come through, that even in the midst of the crises and the storms that are raging, we can worship the Lord, knowing that his deliverance is guaranteed. We don't, we maybe don't know exactly how he's going to do it, but he's going to do it. We have that confidence that comes from remembering God's deliverance in the past. And then King Jehoshaphat in verse 20 says, believe in the Lord your God and you will be established. He does not say, pick up the sword and you will be established. He doesn't say, make a lot of money and you will be established. Doesn't say develop a five-year plan and stick to it perfectly and you will be established. He says, believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established. And that teaches us that whether it's in 2 Chronicles or the Gospels or in the New Testament, salvation has always been through faith. It's always been through resting in the promises of God to deliver us. Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established. This is all throughout the scriptures. What would unbelief have looked like for God's people here? It could have looked like trying to fight an overwhelming enemy on their own. You know, this is uh this corresponds to when we we make big plans and we we don't factor in the Lord at all. And that leads to anxiety and disappointment because we we realize that we're not up to that challenge. Or unbelief would have meant staying home and not uh going out to see the salvation of the Lord. So remember that God has told them don't just stay at home, go towards the enemy and watch me deliver you. And so they do not avoid that danger. They go out to see the salvation of the Lord. And that's practically what faith looks like for us as the people of God. It's taking risks for the kingdom of God and expecting that God is going to act, that he's gonna use whatever we do in faith to accomplish his purposes. It's seeing all of our trials, all of our risks as almost like a theater for God's salvation to be performed in front of us. And that's challenging, right? Because we're in a pretty risk-avoidant culture, right? You know, we even were singing the song earlier about how we are lulled uh to sleep by comfort and security. Um, it feels increasingly difficult to take risks uh for the sake of loving our neighbors and serving the kingdom of God. It's easier to avoid risky situations or vulnerability and offering help to others. But do we see here in this passage that if we trust the Lord and trust that as we go out, God is going to act. He is going to do his work, he is going to use these situations for his glory to accomplish his purposes. And this salvation, right, that that God brings uh before Jehoshaphat and before the people, it's only a partial salvation. And King Jehoshaphat, I mentioned he was a relatively good king, but he doesn't end well. Uh he actually ends uh really in on a note of unbelief. Uh he buys into the lie that he has to build this uh powerful navy in order to uh uh protect Israel or to bring back wealth for his kingdom. And so he ends uh in this unbelief. And it's a reminder that through his line there is a coming king who uh had such good reflexes of faith that his eyes were always upon his father. And of course, this king that comes later on is King Jesus, whom we're about to uh prepare our hearts for uh during the uh the Advent season. And so he is the King who trains us and leads us to keep our eyes fixed on our Heavenly Father when life is baffling, when we don't know what to do. And so, brothers and sisters, this year, as you approach 2026, when life is baffling, scary, uncertain, fix your eyes upon the Lord. Find his face, and let's not turn our eyes away from him. Amen.