This morning I’m going to begin a series on Leadership Stuff You’ll Need to Know. I’ve been saying for a while now…when we ask God for Wisdom or Favor…He will often send a new relationship…but not all relationships especially new ones are from the Lord… I believe every one of us needs to be connected to others in life, in various ways, and at different levels.
But it is important who and what we are connected to.
When I speak about Connections and Partnerships I’m talking about our:
• Attachments
• Affinity
• Allegiances
• Allies
• Alliances
Every partnership is going to produce something. Either great fruit of blessing or destruction. Every relationship has a SEED within it and it is either going to produce great fruitfulness or destruction.
So we better take into consideration to who, what and how we have attachments, alliances and connection…
Are they being fruitful or not?
2 Chronicles 18:1-
I.Jehosphat allied with or joined affinity with Ahab.
Ch. 17. vs. 3
Jehosophat was a Blessed man, but he allied himself with Ahab.
• Everyone should be connected – Genesis 2:18 says it’s not good for man to be alone.
• But who you connect with is vitally important
• Prov. 18:1 – “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desires: He rages against all wise judgment.”
o No man can be an island, we must be connected:
o But we better guard who and what we are connected to
o It’s not God’s will for His army to be a bunch of Lone Rangers who aren’t connected.
▪ We need to be connected to the Church
▪ You need to be connected to a vision and purpose larger than yourself
“GET CONNECTED”
Transition:Jehoshaphat made three alliances, partnerships that cost him dearly.
1. Marriage
2. Battle
3. Business
Let’s look at these three areas and the mistakes Jehosophat made so we might avoid these same mistakes.
A.By Marriage – 2 Chronicles 18:1 – Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance; and by marriage he allied himself with Ahab.
1.Allied himself with Ahab by marriage
2.Ahab was the husband of Jezebeland they had a daughter named Attalia who married Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram.
3.They were related through the marriage of their kids.
• It matters who your kids marry.
• Don’t think for a moment that it won’t affect your life.
B.Battle – 2 Chronicles 18:3 – So Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Will you go with me againstRamoth Gilead?” And he answered him, “I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war.”
1.People have made great mistakes by joining the wrong cause.
2.Anything God is blessing do not be in opposition to it; because you are attacking God.
• Example: God loves His Church, so anybody who fights against the Church is in trouble.
• Are there problems? Yes. But God is the corrector of His Church, not you or me.
• Be careful about speaking against ministries.
• We need to bless what God is blessing.
3.In battle people get hurt. People go to battle over an issue or take a side in a fight and it becomes destructive.
{BUILD THE RIGHT ALLIANCES}
C.Business – 2 Chronicles 20:35 – After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted very wickedly.
1.Ahaziah – the son of Ahab
2.Partnership is a spiritual issue.
• Light should not fellowship with darkness
• Not everyone in business needs to be a Christian to do business with them, but don’t get involved in crooked business practices.
Transition:These three areas are the three areas you need to guard the most, your marriage, where/who you battle with, and thirdly, in business relationships.
Here Jehoshaphat continually made destructive alliances that brought destruction to his kingdom and to his own kingship.
He had a skewered since of judgment because he had many great sons yet he chooses this evil kid of his Jehoram, who is married to Ahab and Jezebel’s daughter to replace him as king.
Jehoshaphat was a good man, a godly man, whom God protected, but he never learned from his mistakes.
We all have made mistakes in our marriages, our battles and in our business; the frustrating thing is when we keep making the same mistakes.
A good person can make mistakes in their partnerships and we want to look at Jehoshaphat’s so we might learn from them.
II.Jehoshaphat’s Mistakes
The first thing that caused Jehoshaphat to keep making these wrong alliances was:
1.A Lack of Real Convictions
• “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.”
• What convictions do you have in your life?
• Every person here must have a heart for lost people, to introduce them to Jesus.
• We are to influence, not be influenced.
• 2 Chronicles 17:3 – Now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father David; he did not seek the Baals
▪ Jehoshaphat abandoned his convictions he had received from David and allied himself with Ahab (2 Chronicles 18:2)
▪ Psalm says: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Nor stands in the path of sinner. Nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
o When Jehoshaphat aligned himself with Ahab, he violated this verse written by David.
• Don’t compromise your convictions, once you do, it becomes easier to violate those convictions.
2.A Poor Self-Image – 2 Chronicles 18:3 – “I am as you are”, “My people as your people”
• Ahab was evil but Jehoshaphat was godly.
o They were not the same, but Jehoshaphat saw himself as the same as Ahab.
• Too many times we make allegiances based on the way we perceive ourselves to be.
o Example: Have you ever seen a beautiful girl, full of potential, full of life and she gets tied up with a DEAD BEAT.
o Why? Because of the way she sees herself.
• People make decisions based on the way they see themselves. That’s why I continually preach that you and I need to get our self-image from Christ, not from our own minds or others’ opinions.
• A poor self-image will cause you to form the wrong connections
3.He Acted First and Prayed Later – 2 Chronicles 18:3-4 – I’ll be with you, but we’d better pray about it.
• People all the time have already made up their mind before they ever pray about it.
• Always pray first and act secondly.
4.He Wanted to Find Agreeable Counsel
• In the church world people seek counsel until they get someone to agree with them.
o Ungodly counsel doesn’t always come from ungodly people
• Jehoshaphat and Ahab consulted 400 people pleasing prophets.
• 2 Chronicles 18:5 – Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?” So they said, “Go up, for God will deliver it into the king’s hand.”
• How many times have I felt powerless because people won’t listen to sound counsel.
o Your heart can lead you astray
o Submission is an interesting word, because people are in submission to leadership until something is said and done that they don’t agree with.
LIVE BY GODLY COUNSEL!!
5.He Was Too Weak to Make a Stand– 2 Chronicles 18:7(c) “Let not the king say such things.”
• Jehoshaphat should have rebuked Ahab
• Jehoshaphat was a king as well
• Jehoshaphat’s strengths were also his weaknesses
o Our strengths are good, but the downside of them are our weaknesses
o Your strength may be you are strong-willed, but the downside is you are hard-headed.
• Jehoshaphat should have rebuked Ahab, but he was too weak to make a stand.
• I understand this because I hate confronting and confrontation.
o But we have to be men of God, unless you are a woman.
o Folks, stand up for what is right in your life.
• There are certain things I will never hear because people are afraid to tell me. I wonder what you and I would never hear if we would take a stand?
6.Jehoshaphat Was Naïve and Gullible
Ahab set him up – 2 Chronicles 18:29-30 Ahab was setting up Jehoshaphat. The enemy already said, “Kill only the king.”
• Ahab was manipulating Jehoshaphat – v. 31 – So it was, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, “It is the king of Israel!” Therefore they surrounded him to attack; but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him, and God diverted them from him. – God looked after Jehoshaphat but he remained gullible.
• Don’t join a battle that is against what God loves no matter how right it may appear.
7.Jehoshaphat Was Open to Deception
2 Chronicles 18:21-22
• One man had the true word of the Lord, but Jehoshaphat was open for deception.
• The trouble about a lying spirit is it seeps believable. It will cause you to think things which you know are untrue or spring to untrue conclusions.
• You can guard yourself from a lying spirit by keeping your heart pure, stay in the Word of God and always believe the best. And above all, Stand Up for What’s Right!!
Closing:
James says, “Don’t be double-minded because it will cause you to be unstable in all your ways.”
• Jehoshaphat was a good man, even a godly man, but he got in trouble in
o Marriage
o Battle
o Business
Because he was double minded…
PEOPLE, BE PEOPLE OF CONVICTIONS
“WE WANT TO MAKE SUCCESSFUL CONNECTIONS, NOT DESTRUCTIVE ONES
