Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Host Pastor Lee Day.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
Worship Wins The War
Fear showed up with a coalition army, and Jehoshaphat did the unexpected: he called a fast, gathered families, and sought God’s face. From that moment, everything shifted. A Spirit-breathed word reframed the fight—show up, stand firm, and watch the Lord save. We walk through the drama of 2 Chronicles 20 and the simple, powerful practices that turned panic into praise and a battlefield into a place of breakthrough.
We share how the community’s shared prayer and fasting aligned their hearts, why posture matters when worship gets real, and what it looks like to obey when obedience feels counterintuitive. The twelve-mile march becomes a living lesson in perseverance. Then comes the move no strategist would suggest: appoint singers ahead of soldiers. Their song—give thanks to the Lord, for His steadfast love endures forever—anchors identity and invites God’s action. When praise rises, God sets an ambush, confusion scatters the enemy, and the threat collapses on itself.
Along the way, we get practical about choosing worship over feelings, resisting easy distractions during corporate praise, and learning to hold position when anxiety screams for quick fixes. If you’ve felt surrounded by pressures you can’t beat in your own strength, this story offers a clear path forward: seek, listen, obey, and sing. Join us for a faith-stirring journey that will reshape how you face battles at home, at work, and in your heart. If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review so more people can find hope.
What's going on, everybody? Welcome to Be On Sunday. I am Pastor Lee Day, and I pastor Christ Family Outreach Church located in Amelia, Virginia. And on today's episode, I have with me my wife, Erica. Erica, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00:I'm doing great. Glad to be here.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm glad you are. As you could probably tell, I've lost my voice. I'm, well, not completely, but I'm working on getting it back. And uh so if I squeal a little bit, please just deal with it. Do not adjust your volumes. It is what it is, and I'm just gonna give you the best that I got to give you. But I'm excited about today's episode because we're gonna be taking a look at the 20th chapter of 2 Chronicles. So if you've got your Bibles, go ahead and crack them open at 2 Chronicles chapter 20. And Jehoshaphat, he is the king of Judah during this time. And he's about to be attacked by the Moabites, the Ammonites, and some of the Munites. And Jehoshaphat gets word that these people are going to attack him. And the third verse tells us that he was afraid. And so this can be a very normal emotion, especially when you find out all of these people groups are coming at you. And because he gets afraid, the Bible says that he sets his face to seek God. And he proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah. And the fourth verse tells us all the cities of Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord God. Now I just mentioned this thing, Erica, a moment ago called fear. Fear can be a normal tactic that the enemy uses. But notice notice what Jehoshaphat does when he's hit with fear. He sets his face to seek God. And as we get hit with fear, as people get hit with fear, as Christians get hit with fear, our number one go-to should be to seek the face of God, to seek his counsel, to get wisdom from him. The 13th verse tells us that all these people that gathered, Erica, it wasn't just the men, but it's also all of the children and all of the wives, and they come together to seek God for help.
SPEAKER_00:I love that.
SPEAKER_01:Now, I wonder what would happen. I'm gonna make this point, ask this question, I'm gonna get out of the way, and I'm interested in your take on this. Erica, I wonder what would happen if we had everyone, everyone seeking God. Imagine what would happen today if our state, our nation, this world, our communities would just simply seek God for help. What would that look like?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I love that. I love how the children, the men, the women, everybody was involved in that.
SPEAKER_01:Everybody.
SPEAKER_00:And it's mentioned twice here that word seek. And that word seek is actually has the basic sense of worship, which we're gonna get into later on in this chapter about worship and the importance of it. But it also means to discover God's will. Here he had a higher trust in God than in his army. And I love it when it says in verse three, alarmed, because he was alarmed, there was a vast army against him. Jehosaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord. And then he proclaimed a fast for all of Judah. And in that, just seeking God's will for what do I do next? And when you say the word fear, and how many times in our life, maybe it's not a physical army around us, but we feel the enemy around us.
SPEAKER_01:We feel the a spiritual battle going on.
SPEAKER_00:A spiritual battle, or you know, even in the physical realm, the thing, the things that go on in our life, you feel like everything's hidden you from all sides. And do we resolve, just like Jehosaphat, to inquire on the Lord and what to do, or do we act in fear?
SPEAKER_01:Second Chronicles chapter seven, verse fourteen says this if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. So the 14th verse of chapter 20 tells us that the Spirit of the Lord God came upon a man named Jehaziel, and today's episode is all about one of the things that he said. So I'm gonna read that. Second Chronicles chapter 20, 16 through 23 says this. Tomorrow 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 Jerul. 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 and 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 Kohathites 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 Tekoah. 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 say, Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever. And when they began to sing in praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Amon, Moab, and Mount Sierra, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. For the men of Amon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Sierre, devoting them to destruction. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Sierre, they all helped to destroy one another. So there's a lot right there. I know I just read a lot, but but but it is packed full of so much good stuff. And if you're riding down the road right now, I just encourage you, go home, get in your Bibles, and check it out for yourself and just kind of take time and marinate in it.
SPEAKER_00:Read the whole chapter. It's really good.
SPEAKER_01:It's so, so good. But Erica, there's a really lot of great stuff happening in that text, and and we can pull a lot of it, all of it, really away and and and put it into our personal lives right now. And so let's just go ahead and and get started. What's your take on this right now?
SPEAKER_00:Just so much. Um, I love how it says that after they had gathered, how the spirit of the Lord just came upon that prophet and just that prayer and that prophecy is just amazing. And King Jehosaphat and those people had two options. They could either believe what the Lord said and told them, even though in the natural it didn't make sense, or they could decide we're gonna take up our swords and we're gonna fight because that's the only chance we have.
SPEAKER_01:And it may not be the easiest route.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:You know, they still had to go and face their enemy, and I think that's the important piece to understand here. Just because God is gonna fight the battle for them doesn't mean that they don't have to show up to the battlefield. The 16th verse tells us that. And so let me just say this God fighting your battles for you does not mean you do not have to go to the battle line and do anything. You you still got to go there because he gives them some instruction.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, they fasted and prayed before they even received the word, right? They fasted and prayed.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. I mean, what we don't need to do in life is pretend that our enemy doesn't exist. Jesus says that there is an enemy out there that wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And so the 17th verse says that they did have to go down against them. So they don't just uh they don't get to just stay home.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:The 17th verse says they do have to go down against them. They had to face their enemy, and they still had to take a stand. It actually says this you don't need to fight this battle, but you do need to stand firm and hold your position. Those are the directions given by the man of God. Stand firm and hold your position.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I like that. And I and not only when they got instruction that day, it said early the next morning they had left for where they had to go. And this was actually a 12-mile track that they had to walk in order to get there. So can you imagine walking those 12 miles? It tells us in verse 20, when they left for the desert of Tacoa. This was a 12-mile track away. And so just think about what was going on in their minds as they're trekking to where this vast army was. And how this is spiritual. Yeah, it wasn't like it was just like right there. Um, and just having to pray through that. And so I think about some treks in our life where the Lord allows sometimes things to go on maybe a little longer than we think, and we have to endure that. But during that time, he's just strengthening our faith.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. When the people get this word, as God is speaking through Jehaziel, the people all bow down and worship. I love that piece. They all bow down and worship, and that heart posture continued on onto the battle line. Rather than take a natural defense and put the warriors out front, you know, just in case, they so trusted God that they put people in front of the warriors to worship God. So we've got the worshipers out front of the warriors.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and don't you think it was just the Lord preparing their hearts even before they had to go that 12-mile track of getting their heart posture ready before the Lord and true worship of him and who he is?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, absolutely, because as the enemy has mounted up for this attack, they had to be ready. And so here the enemy is they're getting ready for the attack, but the worshipers, they're just faithfully worshiping. And that the 21st verse says that they gave thanks. They gave thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever. Think about that. They're praising God for his faithfulness and his steadfast love. Meanwhile, there's there's these these three people groups, there's these enemies advancing that want to annihilate them and wipe them off this earth. And they're out there just they're out there just praising God right there, literally praising God on the front lines here, on this battlefield, if you will. And so it's like, God, if you had us then, then we believe in faith that you got us right now.
SPEAKER_00:I like right here as well, where, and I think there's something to this, where it says that Jehoshaphat, he bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down and worship before the Lord. Then some Levites from Cahoaphites and Korites stood up and praised the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. Early in the morning they left for the desert of Tokoah. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem, have faith in the Lord your God, and you will be upheld. Have faith in his prophets, and you will be successful. And after consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness. So Jehosaphat consulted the people after that. And then he appointed certain men to sing to the Lord in the front. And it wasn't that everybody wasn't worshiping, it was he appointed certain ones to be in the front line. It wasn't just whoever went up there. And so I and I have to wonder were those the ones that praised the loudest or had the most sincere heart or knew how, you know, you know, those people that just really know how to worship and you just want to glean from them and worship like them. I I have to, I have to think that it's not the quieter worshipers that were in the front that he consulted, that he put up front.
SPEAKER_01:The ones that can worship in spirit and truth. Yes. Those are the ones that God is is looking for. The 22nd verse tells us that when the people began to sing in praise, God set an ambush against the enemy. Let me just say this, friends. Maybe something is in your way today, in your way tonight. And the only reason it hasn't moved yet is because you're too busy focusing on that thing or that person or that problem, that storm, rather than placing your faith in God concerning the situation. In faith, begin to sing and begin to praise. In faith, trusting God is going to deal with what you've got going on in your life.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, amen to that. I did want to talk about Psalms 95, 6. It kind of goes with this a little bit. And it says, Come, let us bow down and worship, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. And in so many of these scriptures right here, it does talk about one, their heart posture, but two, their physical posture of bowing down. And I think that that's important for us. There's times where the Lord has called me to physically get on my knees and bow down. And there's just something about getting down on your knees or either lying prostrate before the Lord that just enhances that time of worship before Him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, the enemies, according to the text, they go on destroying one another. And they had begun united in wanting to destroy Judah, but then God gets involved and the enemies destroy one another. And so the key takeaway to this entire chapter, in my opinion, is worship came before the battle, and it was worship that won the war.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And how many times can we do that in our own lives? How the enemy really wants us to destroy ourselves or destroy each other with conflict or um arguing or looking around at the enemy and what could happen instead of first, just like Jehosaphat did, seek and inquire the Lord and what his will is and what you should do next in your next steps. And then just listening to what God has to say and worshiping him through it.
SPEAKER_01:I think worship is something that should be a huge discipline in our lives. And it is something that if we're honest with one another, that we have to grow in, we mature in. Uh, worship is something that we all should be doing to our Heavenly Father because he's worthy of it all. He's he's worthy of all praise, all honor, glory, uh, all the credit, all of our worship. He he's worthy of it all. And I think that worship does bring breakthrough, which is why the enemy does not want the church to worship in spirit and truth.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Because the enemy knows that when the body of Christ does that, that breakthrough does come, that that miracles happen, prayers begin to get answered. The spirit of God is moving. As God's people cry out to him and they worship in spirit and truth, people are set free, walls fall, people are delivered, and the enemy does not want to see Christians becoming stronger through this thing called worship. God is pleased. The word of God says that he inhabits the praises of his people. And so when we come into church or um as a family on Sunday mornings, you know, we have to have the mindset, what am I bringing to my heavenly father today? What what what type of noise am I going to make? What type of song am I gonna give to my father? And it doesn't have to be the the best noise in the house, but it but it has to come from the heart. And it has to be genuine and it has to be real. And that's what God is looking out for. That's what he's listening for. That's what he wants to receive, that's what he wants to inhabit right there. Praises of his people that are worshiping in spirit and truth. This whole thing wasn't about Judah defending itself. This whole chapter is about Judah receiving instruction from a man of God and then being faithful to trust God, believe in God, believe in what he said, and worship God even in a tense moment when the enemy is marching towards them. That's what this whole chapter is about. Being able to worship God even when the flesh may say, no, you don't have time to do that right now. Being able to worship God even when the flesh says, no, no, no, pick up your sword, pick up your shield, pick up your spear, pick up your whatever, go here, go there. Your calendar is busy, the agenda is full. Being able to worship God even when it may not be easy, and that is what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that comes too um in your maturity in Christ and some decisions you have to make of am I gonna choose to worship Christ this morning, even if I feel like things aren't going in the direction I want them to go. And if I'm battling with a sickness, I'm battling with a wayward child, I'm battling with um a spouse that we're just not getting along, whatever it is, and you may not feel like you want to worship, think about their circumstance. Their circumstance was they were getting ready to go against a vast army, and they chose to worship in the midst of that. And can you and I choose to do the same? And there's times, you know, in my in the beginning of my walk with the Lord, it was more of a feeling, okay. Well, I really don't feel like worshiping, or I'm worshiping and I don't necessarily feel anything. And it's not about feelings, it's about God being worthy of our praise, no matter the circumstances, no matter what you feel. But what I've learned through that is in the battle sometimes of worshiping, no matter if I feel like it or not, that if I continue to push through with that, he breaks through every time.
SPEAKER_01:Every time.
SPEAKER_00:Every time.
SPEAKER_01:Every time. You know, being a pastor of a church, I've heard all different reasons on why people don't worship. And it to me, it's only natural because the enemy doesn't want God's people worshiping. So so many distractions can can can catch people off guard if they're not willing to break through and really go worship. But, you know, just things like the music is too loud or the songs are too long, or the kids over here crying. Yeah, the the the the the the babies crying over here, or the room's too cold, or you know, people one row back say, Well, it's too hot, you know, and all these things. And and and we forget what we're really there for.
SPEAKER_00:We're there to usher the Holy Spirit in.
SPEAKER_01:We're not we're not there to be comfortable.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We're not there. The church is not there to be made comfortable. We are there to worship, we are there to give God what He deserves. We're there to worship. And and it's not about the temperature in the room from the thermostat. You know, we are there to worship, but how easy it is for small things to distract us, and really that should just prove the point to how important worship really is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, in our 920 prayer meeting before church, I usually always pray, Lord, may our worship please you. May our worship please you in spirit and truth. And and that is just my heart's desire for for me and for our congregation, is that we would finish our worship service and that it would be pleasing to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. When it's all done and the instruments are done playing and the people are done singing, have we pleased the heart of God? Yeah. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity that you give us to encourage the listeners to minister to them. Father, what we get from your word and the teaching from your Holy Spirit, the importance of worship, even in the midst of a battle in life. Father, we thank you that we have this opportunity to draw closer to you. And we ask all this in the name and the blood of Jesus Christ and all God's people said. Amen and amen.
SPEAKER_00:Amen.
