II Chronicles 20 tells us that while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah that Ammon, Moab and other countries gathered together as one large army and declared war against the nation of Judah. The Scriptures tell us that after the king got this news that he was afraid, that he turned all of his attention to seeking the LORD and that he ordered everyone in Judah to begin a fast. Verse 4 of chapter 20 says “So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.” The entire country came together because of an unbeatable enemy. As a little bit of an aside, sometimes God uses our adversity to lead us to sit down and “dwell” where we have become accustomed to just passing through and visiting. Judah possessed the presence of God, they were God’s people, they carried God’s favor and the promise of the eternal nature of David’s throne and yet they had become used to living with occasional visits in God’s presence and religious observance of God’s Word. The presence of an enemy too great for them to defeat on their own led them to stop passing through God’s presence and instead come and sit down with God. If we are honest, part of our fallen condition is that we are forgetful in prosperity and desperate in adversity. We run to God when we are afraid but then we drift from God when we are satisfied. Israel did it, Judah did it and the church continues to do it. We have to learn to live where we belong and simply pass through where we are visiting; Paul told the Philippians that our “citizenship is in heaven” and Peter “urged” us to learn how to live like pilgrims, strangers, aliens and refugees in this life because this is not where we belong this is simply the road we take to get to our Father’s house. The attack of the consolidated nations drove Judah to where they had been meant to live in the first place, in God’s presence seeking God’s face; may we not wait for adversity to take our positions where we belong. The entire nation gathered and their king, Jehoshaphat stood up and prayed. He reminded God of all of His promises, He reminded God of how Israel had not harmed the Ammonites or Moabites when they traveled from Egypt to the Promised Land and he wondered aloud if this was now how they would be rewarded for that kindness from centuries ago, by being attacked and displaced. Then he closed his kingly prayer, with these famous words “For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” What kind of king admits that he doesn’t know what to do? What kind of king confesses weakness? What kind of king gathers his people to tell them that he doesn’t have a plan? What kind of king submits himself to the power, wisdom and strength of another? Kings were and are meant to lead their people into battle, to set a standard of bravery, strength and strategy, kings are supposed to know what to do because if kings don’t know then who does? This morning we are going to talk about weakness, about being secure enough to confess it, confident enough to endure it and loved enough to choose it. What I pray we will see today is that some of our weaknesses are purposed and some of them are planned but some of them need to be chosen because some of what we often call weakness God has designed to create dependence, community and relationship. I pray that today we won’t see Jehoshaphat, but that we will see Jesus as a king who has chosen weakness so that He can rely upon the strength of His Father