The Power of Prayer: Joshua's Bold Request

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Let's turn to Joshua, chapter 10.

If you have your Bibles, turn there with me.

We left off last week looking at Joshua and the people of Israel making an ill advised decision to make a treaty with the Gibeonites.

Remember, God had told them not to make a treaty with any people in the land of Canaan.

But because of deception and because of a lack of discernment and because of the lack of their willingness to go to the Lord for wisdom, they rushed into a league with really a nation that they weren't supposed to.

And that led to them having difficulties, but yet there was forgiveness, and yet there was still an opportunity for them to see God's hand working through them.

And they do see a victory in that, in the fact that the Gibeonites are now serving the people of Israel and serving the God of Israel.

But now we come to chapter 10 and, and we've learned a few things already through the first nine chapters.

One of the things that we've learned is that God made a promise to Joshua and by extension the people of Israel.

And he says that he would be with them.

He says, he says all the way back in Joshua, chapter one, verse nine.

I think it's important for us to see this really quickly because I think that we have to see the whole book of Joshua through the lens of this promise that was given to Joshua early on.

And, and so he says in, in verse eight.

Let's go to verse number eight.

He says, this book of the law, chapter one, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate there in day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.

For then thou shalt make that way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

And he says, so follow my word and you will have success.

He says, don't just know it, even though that's important.

Don't just read it and study it.

But he says, meditate on it and apply it.

Then he says in verse nine, have not I commanded thee, be strong and of a good courage.

Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee.

Whithersoever thou goest?

So he says, don't be afraid.

Don't be dismayed.

Have courage, have strength.

Why?

Because I'm with you.

Not because you're strong people, not because you have all these talents, but because of the presence of God.

And so the reason why we can trust in the promises of God is because of God's presence and his power and his provisions in our life.

And so God assured Joshua there in chapter one, he says, I'm gonna be there with you through it.

He says that in verse number seven, he says that in verse number six, he says, I'm there and I'm with you.

And just as I promised Moses, I am promising you.

And so think about that as we read through some of these historical accounts here in Joshua.

Because it would be tempting even for us to go through these struggles and start to question, start to doubt whether or not God is with us.

And so Joshua, chapter 10, it tells us that there's more opposition to the power of God working through Israel.

And anytime the power of God is leading people, there will be opposition to those around that are against the truth, that are against the power of God, that are against the work of God.

And that's what we see happening here in Joshua, chapter 10.

Now, my original wish was that we would make it all the way through this chapter.

But as you may or may not know, there's 43 verses.

And so I don't think we'll make it through this whole chapter here this evening.

We're going to try to take the rest of the hour to break down as much as we can.

And I'll try to find a good stopping place.

But here in verse one, it says.

Now, it came to pass when Adonized, king of Jerusalem, had heard how Joshua had taken AI and had utterly destroyed it.

As he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to AI and her king.

And how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them that they feared greatly.

Because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than AI and all the men thereof were mighty.

So what we see in verses 1 and 2 is this.

There's this king, Adonized king of Jerusalem.

Obviously, at this point in time, the Israelites had not made it to Jerusalem.

So that there's this king, this pagan king who was there, and he hears of what God is doing through the Israelites, through their victory at AI, through their victory at Jericho, and even their victory over the Gibeonites and the fact that the Gibeonites are now subjected to the people of Israel.

And so what does he do?

Verse 2, he fears that.

He fears God.

Now, he doesn't fear God in the proper way.

He fears what God would do to him in his rebellion.

That's essentially what we see here.

The king of Jerusalem, this guy was rightly alarmed because he heard of what was going on in all these powerful cities around him.

And so he hears that they're utterly destroyed.

And he says, I don't want to be destroyed again.

We know that there's two ways that someone can go when they come to that realization.

One, I want to be on the side of the Lord.

I want to submit to him, I want to obey Him, I want to have faith in him, or I want to fight against him.

What we're going to see is that he, along with these pagan nations, want to fight against God.

So verse three, we wherefore Adoni Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent unto Hoham, king of Hebron, and unto Pam, king of Jarmuth, and unto Jaffia, king of Leish, and unto Deer, king of Eglon, saying, come up unto me and help me, that we may smite Gibeon, for it hath made peace with Joshua, with the children of Israel.

And so again, instead of submitting to the powers of the Lord, the God of Israel, he says, hey, we need to gain a league against those people.

We need to fight against this God.

Verse 5.

Therefore, the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Latius, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together and went up, they and all their hosts in a camp before Gibeon, and made war against it.

And so we see that they attack Gibeon.

Now, what's the significance of that?

Remember now, Gibeon is an ally with is Israel.

They.

They made a pact, even though it wasn't a pact that was designed or organized by God, it was a design by the decisions of Israel, God blesses the Gibeonites because now they have subjected themselves to the people of Israel, and there was hope there and there was salvation there.

So the.

The king here, Adonai Zedek, he's the king of Jerusalem at this point, he calls in all these friends and he says, we're going to fight.

We're going to attack Gibeon.

And though they were afraid, obviously that's why they do this.

They're afraid.

They try to come up with a plan not to attack Israel directly, because in their minds that that wouldn't be smart.

Obviously, everyone that comes against Israel is failing.

So what do they do?

They try to attack Israel's friend.

They try to attack the ally of Israel.

And so they don't attack Israel directly.

They attack the subjects, the Gibeonites.

And that's sometimes how God works in our life.

Sometimes God allows for people to attack us directly.

And we know how to deal with that.

The Bible says that we have the armor of God.

The Bible says that Satan attacks us.

We have the helmet of, of salvation, the sword of the spirit, the breastplate of righteousness.

But oftentimes God reminds us and lets us know that the enemy doesn't always attack us directly, but he might attack people that are associated with us to test us and allow us to make a decision on whether or not we're going to trust in Him.

And so we're going to see verse number six, that the men of Gibeon that hear about this attack, what are they going to do?

Well, they're going to come to Joshua and ask for help.

They're going to come to Joshua and say, hey, Joshua, we made a pact with you.

We made a deal with you.

Are you going to help us?

Verse 6.

And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp, to Gilgal.

And that's significant because Gilgal has essentially been the centerpiece for the armies of Israel.

And so it shows the power.

It's an important place for Israel's conquest.

That's where they're centered there at this point.

And they say to him, slack not thy hand from thy servants, meaning, don't forget about us.

They'll pull back your power and your God's power with us.

Come up to us quickly and save us and help us.

For all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.

And so they go to Joshua, they go to the army of Israel.

And basically the Gibeonites look to the people of Israel as their help.

They look to the people of Israel as their protectors and ultimately the God of Israel as, as their help and their protector.

They weren't too prideful to ask for help.

And I think that that's sometimes in our life, one of the major reasons why we don't go to the Lord and ask him help, ask him for help or ask him for guidance, or maybe even ask others for help and guidance is because of our pride, our egos.

We.

We hold in this innate desire to do things on our own, to figure it out on our own.

We don't need help.

But the Gibeonites recognize that they're beyond their resources at this point.

They need the help of God and his people.

And so they say, please help us.

They come to Joshua and they ask for the protection of the promise of God.

And we're going to see that Joshua complies.

But let's see here how he responds.

Verse 7.

So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor.

So they take the call.

They say that they're going to help, obviously.

And, and we saw that in Joshua chapter nine, the leaders of Israel and all the people knew that they had made a bad vow with the Gibeonites, but they didn't turn back on it because remember, two wrongs don't make a right.

And so ultimately they say, hey, we're going to do the right thing and stand by these people that we vowed to.

Verse 8.

And the Lord said unto Joshua, so, so this is the validation that Joshua is making the right decision.

And, and what we can understand through verse eight, and I think verse eight is so important in this chapter because if Joshua would have went against the Amorites for the Gibeonites outside of the will of God, God would have condemned them and God would have basically allowed them to fall into a place of difficulty away from him.

But what we see in verse 8 is that, and I believe it's an implication that Joshua asked for wisdom.

Because remember before Joshua didn't go to God for wisdom.

He didn't go for, for guidance.

But Here in verse 8 it says, and the Lord said unto Joshua, fear them not.

Again, it's another reminder that when we have the promises and the power of God in our life and the provisions of God in our life, and when God is on our side, there's no reason to fear, no matter how big the enemy looks.

I, I often think about, and one of my favorite stories, probably all of you to some degree, at some point in your life maybe thought that your favorite story was David and Goliath.

Maybe it wasn't for you.

For me, that's just a story that I love.

Right.

I always see myself as David going out there and there's this big giant out there.

And I always, just as a kid, wanted to, to be like David.

And you think about that giant standing across the valley of Elah and, and all the fear that David could have had.

And think about all the other biblical Characters that could have had great points in which they could have feared.

But we see here that it's not because David was really strong.

It's not because Joshua had a lot of people.

It's not because even go back to the story in the Book of Judges with Gideon, right?

Gideon only reduced down to 300 men.

Now, why does God do that?

God uses the underdog to show that he is all powerful.

There's no one on this earth more powerful than him.

And so in this case, God reminds Joshua, hey, you got a lot of swords.

You got a lot of chariots.

No.

He says, no, I am with you, for I have delivered them into thine hand.

And so I think that this is so amazing to see that God gives a command and then he gives a promise.

When God gives us a command to do something, he attaches that to a promise.

In verse eight, he says, what?

What's the command?

Fear them not.

Fear them not.

Meaning the Amorites, the ones that are coming against the Gibeonites.

He says, you're doing a good thing.

Don't fear.

And then with that command comes a promise.

What's the promise?

For I have delivered them into thine hand.

There shall not a man of them stand before thee.

For I have delivered them into thy hand.

Meaning the victory is already done.

The.

The victory has already been taken care of.

The victory is in me.

And so this was the command.

Don't fear the Amorites.

Obviously, Joshua probably had a reason to fear in the eyes of man.

He's coming against, if you count it up, there's five kings that are coming against him.

Five different armies.

But God commands Joshua not to fear.

And so the command was joined with a promise.

And so Joshua could obey the command with the hope of the promise.

I want you to think about that here tonight.

When God gives us a command in scripture, we don't just look at the command and go, well, I better obey that, even though we should.

But when God gives us a command, he gives us the promise along with that, so that we can exercise faith.

So.

So God says, don't fear.

And here's why.

Have strength.

And here's how you can have strength.

And we see promise after promise in scripture that God gives to his people.

And we even heard this this morning, that it's really faith that activates and assimilates those.

Those promises in our life.

And so Joshua could have said, yes, Lord, I know I'm not supposed to fear, but what am I supposed to trust in?

Just don't fear.

And so it's I've used this example before.

You know, if I had some coaches that coached me and they said, stop making mistakes.

Well, how do I stop making mistakes?

Stop dropping the ball.

Well, teach me how to catch the ball, right?

I'm coaching, you know, fifth and sixth grade basketball.

And you know, if, I don't know if any of you have ever coached fifth and sixth graders, but they know everything.

They know how to play the game.

And you don't, you know, coach doesn't know anything.

And I'm sitting there going, come on, guys.

And it's frustrating.

It's frustrating to the point where it's like, what, what, what are we doing?

What, what's, what's going on?

Why, why, why, why are we just doing our own thing?

And essentially what we see here is that I can't just tell the team in basketball, hey, guys, make more shots.

I have to tell them, this is the hope, this is the objective, and here's how we're going to get there.

And that's what God does for us.

As the greatest leader ever, he says, this is the hope or the objective not to live in fear.

And then he says, this is how you get there, to trust in the promise of the victory, the trust in his presence in this victory.

And so I think that this is so important for us to understand because the command was joined with that promise.

And so Joshua could obey God's command to not fear by understanding and trusting and activating faith when it comes to the victory.

And oftentimes in our life, fear is what holds us back from fighting.

Fear holds us back from doing what God has called us to do in obedience.

So let me give you an example.

Maybe God is.

Is calling you to do something in your Christian walk.

And the reason why he's calling us to do it is because obviously he's designed for us to be used by him to do a certain work.

But we don't do it.

Why do we not do it?

Well, a lot of times it's not out of laziness.

I mean, maybe in some cases we say, well, I just don't want to do what you want me to do, God, because I just got a lot going on in my life that possibly could be the case.

But a vast majority of the time, I believe, is that many people don't do what God calls them to do because of a fear of failure, a fear of rejection, a fear of something.

And so what happens is that fear holds us back from doing what God has called us to.

To do.

And that's what he says here.

He says, really?

Look, Joshua, move forward.

So, so Joshua was commanded not to fear.

So in this instance, fear was unbelief.

It was a lack of faith.

And, and so there was a pastor one time that was preaching, and he was preaching this message about facing your fear.

And then he started in the middle of the sermon to, to transition, to say, faith in your fear.

And I'm going, is he just like, immediately has a lisp now?

Because I was trying to, like, I'm like, am I hearing him wrong?

Am I.

Am I having a problem?

But he, he switched because he says, instead of saying, face your fear, because that's what we tell people, just face your fear and get out there.

He says, bring faith to that fear, right?

Bring belief in that God is going to do what he says he's going to do.

And in so doing, we can faith in that fear, right?

We can, we can face that fear with faith.

And that's exactly what we see happening in this case.

Joshua says, okay, I'm going to go into battle.

And so for many of us, fear is, including myself, by the way.

Fear is a manifestation of a lack of belief in what God is calling us to do.

Because God says, do this.

Here's the promise.

I'm going to be with you through this.

And we say, yeah, but I'm scared.

Well, it's natural for us to be scared, but how do we deal with that?

We deal with that with faith.

And faith is the victory.

Faith is where we see strength.

Faith is where we see courage.

And so being unwilling to believe what God has promised is essentially, and I would say typically in Scripture, it's a show or a sign of a lack of faith.

And Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6 tells us that it's impossible to please him without faith.

And so verse eight, I think, is such a strong verse because he says, joshua, I know you're going into battle against five different nations.

I know that it seems tough, but I've already delivered them into your hand.

Verse 9.

So here's Joshua's response.

Joshua, therefore came unto them suddenly, immediately.

And so the idea would be this, that, that he doesn't wait.

He doesn't continue to ask God for multiple signs.

He doesn't say, well, when I'm ready, when I'm.

When I'm more experienced.

He says, okay, Lord, you've told me, I'm going to do this.

Now, there are certain things that God calls us to do, and there's certain things that God doesn't call us to do.

He doesn't call everyone to do everything.

He's not going to expect a new Christian who has just tasted of the grace of God to do something that may be someone who's been safer 40 years can do, right?

He, he's going to give the appropriate call at the appropriate time and the appropriate grace for the appropriate time.

And so oftentimes we look at a situation and we say, well, I don't know if I'm ready for that.

If God is calling you to do it, if God has commanded you to do it, you are ready.

It doesn't necessarily take experience, even though experience helps.

But what he says here is that the power is coming from the presence.

So he suddenly goes, and so I think that I've even done this, okay, Lord, you're calling me to do that, but let me put that on the back burner to a more appropriate time, an easier time, a more convenient time.

But the Bible says if God is calling us to do it and he's activating us, he's equipping us to do it, hey, it's time to obey.

And that's what we see happening in verse number nine.

Joshua comes out suddenly and went up from Gilgal all night.

So, so they go and they travel all night from Gilgal to meet their in Gibeon.

And so this took hard work, this took initiative.

This wasn't just like, okay, Joshua, walk five minutes down the road, fight a 10 minute battle and then you're going to be done, okay, because we're comfortable.

Sometimes when God asks us to do something convenient, easy, reasonable, but actually he asked Joshua to do something that is very difficult.

He asked him to basically travel.

And, and I did some research on how far this would have been.

Approximately they would have had to go up an elevation of about 3,000ft.

They would have traveled about 20 miles to get to Gibeon from where they are in Gilgal.

So this isn't just an easy task, this is inconvenience.

And sometimes God calls us to inconvenience our personal lives to do his work.

And so they travel a long distance and it says it was all night.

So the estimation if they were moving at a decent pace, it would have been about 8 to 10 hours of hard marching all the way through the night to get to where they needed to go.

And so a lot of times we think that God does not require us to work hard.

He does require us sometimes to have some effort.

Doesn't mean that the effort's in our own strength.

But sometimes when God calls us to move and to act.

It does take an effort.

It does take some sacrifice.

It does take a place sometimes where we are going to have to exercise some discipline.

Let's say, for example, God calls me to do a certain ministry because I don't want to pick on anything specific because I don't want anyone to think that I'm talking about you.

But let's say God's calling me to do something specific.

Okay?

And I say, okay, I can do that.

But I'm really.

My life is just super busy right now.

Okay.

I couldn't get to that.

Well, that might be possibly a time in which we need to reevaluate our priorities.

Now, I'm not teaching the whole idea that, hey, if you don't come to church every single Sunday for the rest of your life, you're in rebellion to God.

Because obviously I understand we have lives and we have things pop up in our life in different seasons, and I certainly understand that.

But if God is actively pressing on our hearts, pricking our heart in conviction to do something, and we are not able to do so, it might need to be that I must discipline myself to get to a place in my life where I am available to do that.

It might even be something as simple as reading my Bible every day or having a prayer life.

Well, I'm so busy, Pastor, I can't read my Bible every day.

I understand that sentiment.

I understand what you might be thinking when you say that.

But the Bible says that really where our heart is, that's what everything else is going to follow.

So if we decide, hey, reading my Bible every day is something that God is calling me to do, and I feel actively convicted to do so, then I have to make decisions that will open my availability to do that.

It's priorities.

And so Joshua makes supporting Gibeon a priority.

And that's what we see happening here.

And so it's not this idea, by the way.

It's not this idea that God helps those who help themselves.

It's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is, is that when God calls us to move, we move by obedience.

It's like when I have my children and I say, hey, guys, clean your room clean.

And they go, okay.

Them agreeing verbally to me saying, okay, I'll do that doesn't mean that they've cleaned their room, right?

That's.

That's verbal adherence to what I've said.

But the action proves that they're obeying.

So many times when.

When we hear a preacher Preaching or we read something in Scripture, or God is convicting our hearts, we say, oh, that sounds great.

Yep, I agree.

I'm going to do that.

It's until I believe, it's until we make that move that we've actually obeyed.

And so in this case, Joshua is moving, he's obeying.

And so let's see what happens, because it's.

It's not.

Joshua goes and does all this and God takes the credit, as some people might say, no, no, this is all God.

Joshua is just getting to be able to participate in the work of God.

He gets to cooperate with God.

And that's what it is for us.

God fights all of our battles for us.

God gives us all of the wisdom, all of the strength, all of the guidance, and we essentially just to get.

Get to be beneficiaries of his grace.

So look at it with me in verse number 10 says, and the Lord discomfited them before Israel.

And so the idea here would be that there was a defeat of the other people before the Israelites even got there.

And the Lord discomfited them before Israel and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth Horon and smote them at Azakah and under Amen to Makada.

And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel and were in the going down to Beth Horon, that the Lord casts down great stones from heaven.

The idea here would be hailstones, great stones from heaven upon them unto Azika.

And they died, and they were more.

And they were more which die with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.

So I want us to break down verses 10 through 11 because this is so neat.

Essentially what we see is that as Joshua is moving, God is already working ahead.

And so God is working with Joshua and the Israelites, and he accomplishes something great.

The enemies of God were already defeated before they got there.

The hailstones that fall killed the armies of the Canaanites.

And.

And I believe that this is something miraculous.

I don't think it's just by a happenstance that this happens.

I believe God ordains this to happen.

And so the hail comes down and it says there that it killed more than the sword killed.

And so God is working ahead and beyond the people of Israel to give them the victory.

And so God's work here, his miraculous work, was greater than Israel's work.

And that's how it always will be.

We don't look at a situation and go, wow, look how great we are.

Look how much we have done in this battle.

Look how hard I fought against sin.

Folks, every battle that we fight, God is fighting it even more on our side.

He is our stronghold.

He is our helper.

He is our strength and our shield.

And so what we can see here is that Joshua didn't just wait for the hill to come.

He didn't say, okay, Lord, you send it, then we'll go.

He goes.

And in tandem with faith, God proves that he is with Joshua by showing him that the victory was his.

And I think that that's what we have to see sometimes in our life, it takes us to exercise faith, to actually see God's hand working.

Because there might be some people that think, well, I'll move when I see it, or I'll believe when I'll see it, or I'll trust when I see it.

But actually it's believing in what God has said and then he will prove it.

That's really what faith is.

Faith is believing in something that we don't see.

Some of you that have been here long enough with me know that we talk about the word hope a lot within the New Testament.

What is that word, hope?

Well, it's not.

I hope that God will do this.

As we say in our English language today, like, I'm going to cross my fingers and maybe God will do this.

No, hope is a confident expectation that God is going to keep his word.

So if God says it, I believe that he is going to bring it to pass.

And that's what Joshua exercised here along with the people of Israel.

So we're going to get to verse number 12.

And this is.

This is really neat here because many of you probably know the story, and I've read the story many times, and I've thought really hard about how God did this.

I don't know how God did this, okay?

I don't know the science behind it.

Some of you that are more scientific than me probably have your theories.

I don't feel like it's my job to sit here and speculate how God does what he's about to do, but God does what he's about to do.

Okay, let's just say it that way.

If some of you want to come later and give me your theory about a comet flying by the, the.

The planet and the Earth tilting on its axis and doing all that, we can do that later.

But I think what we need to see here is that the Bible says here, this is the amazing story where God allows for light to be extended for a longer time.

The Bible says that the sun stands still.

You know, there's some people that will use this verse, these verses to discredit the Bible because they say the b.

The.

The Bible says that the sun stood still.

Well, the sun is already standing still.

We're the ones going around the sun.

You understand that?

We all say, as Brother Dan already mentioned tonight, a sunrise and a sunset.

We use that in our typical language.

Now, we all know that we are the ones moving.

Well, some people would argue that these days, but either way, typically speaking, the earth is moving around the sun, but we still call it sunrise and sunset.

This is just a.

A statement.

This is an idiom.

This is a figure of speech that the Bible is using.

The sun stands still.

What that means is that light was extended for a longer period than normal here.

And that's what we're going to talk about.

So verse 12, God's going to extend the day to maximize Israel's victory.

This is such a really interesting story.

Verse 12 Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel.

So we see in verse 12 that.

That Joshua speaks to the Lord.

So this is essentially a prayer to the Lord when the Lord is giving them the victory of the Amorites before the children of Israel.

And he said in the sight of Israel.

So he does this before Israel.

So picture in your mind, Joshua is.

Is talking to God.

He's praying together, because that's really what we do when we are talking to God.

We're praying to God and it's publicly before Israel.

What does he do?

He says, son, stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon.

And so essentially what Joshua is doing here is he's asking God to continue the miracles here.

He already saw God's miracle of the hailstones coming down.

And so now Joshua has the confidence to ask God in faith to make the sun stand still, to keep the day going.

He says, hey, we've got the momentum.

We're winning.

Let the light be there longer so that we can take more, so that we can have a larger victory.

And so he says here, Lord, please do this.

And it sounds in this language almost as if he's demanding God.

We don't believe that to be the case.

We believe that this is a pleading to the Lord in confidence, Lord, keep doing this.

Keep the light here so that we can continue on in this victory.

And so what does happen we see what happens.

Verse 13.

And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.

And so we see that God answers in this miracle.

And so it's a unique miracle.

God answers Joshua's bold prayer by allowing the day to be extended so that they could have a larger victory.

And again, I mentioned, as I was studying for this, there are so many different people to speculate how this happens, what happened.

Obviously, I will never know completely till one day maybe God will reveal that to us.

But essentially what we see is the result was clear.

The sun or some type of light source was able to shine on the people of Israel as they were continuing on in this victory.

And so it says here, and it's actually interesting reference, he says, is not this written in the Book of Jasher?

So that the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

And oftentimes people just skip over that.

What does that even mean, the Book of Jasher?

The Book of Jasher was an extra biblical book that was basically a history of this being done.

Like this is recorded in the Book of Jasher.

And anytime we have an extra biblical source inside of the Bible, some people get messed up with that.

They say, so now do we have to believe all the Book of Jasher, just like when the Book of Enoch is quoted in the Book of Jude, do we believe all the Book of Enoch?

Well, no, it doesn't mean that the whole Book of Jasher is scripture.

It just means that now the Book of Jasher has been quoted in scripture, therefore that part of it is inspired by God.

And so.

So that's essentially what he's saying here.

He's just referencing this other Book of Jasher, which again, we don't have time to turn down that rabbit trail.

But essentially he's just saying, this has been recorded by other people so that the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

And so obviously we see that this is miraculous.

This is something beyond human ability.

And now we see that God is with the people of Israel and he kept his promise above and beyond what they actually expected.

Verse 14.

And there was no day like that before or after it.

So this is a unique thing.

This is not the norm.

Okay, God does work sometimes in the normative sense, meaning God works a certain way, typically.

And then sometimes God does things beyond the norm.

Sometimes God does one off things.

And this is that to be that case.

I'm not saying that we should be expecting this to happen all the time in our lives today, okay?

Because that's what it says there.

It says that this was something like nothing before and not never happened before, never after it.

That the Lord hearkened unto the voice of man and the Lord fought for Israel.

And so the reality here is that this is such a unique thing that God does, but he does it obviously that he would be glorified.

He does this so that people could see the blessings of obedience.

He does this to see the power of God resting on the people of Israel.

So verse 15.

And Joshua returned and all Israel with him unto the camp to Gilgal.

And.

And then the result of this, verse 16.

But these five kings fled and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah.

And so Joshua was able to exercise his faith and God blessed him by giving him his promises.

And so Joshua didn't ask God to do the fighting for him, even though God did most of the fighting for him.

All Joshua simply asked was that, hey, Lord, give us an opportunity to fight for you more.

Give us an opportunity to continue on in what you have called us to do.

And I think this is a really appropriate thing.

Speaking of sun, do you guys see that on my face right now?

Step up a little bit here, like shining my light.

But I think it's a very biblical thing for us to say, lord, you're working.

Give me more time.

Give me more opportunity.

Let me be used by you, while I can be used by you folks.

We.

We are gifted.

All of us here are so gifted in.

In many different ways.

God has given us capability.

He.

He's given.

He's.

He's placed us in a time in history where we have so many resources at our fingertips.

Think about that.

A hundred years ago, we would have not had the same resources that we had today.

And some people look at the resources that we have as almost a negative thing, and they can't be used as a negative thing.

Certainly technology can be used for evil and it can be used for good, but it can be used for God.

And I think that that's one of many examples that we could look at to say, lord, give us more opportunity.

Continue this.

Think about in the.

In a day where we.

We weren't able to talk to people all over the world, but now we can today, what an amazing opportunity is to allow ourselves to be used by God.

And that's what Joshua was saying there.

Joshua was saying this.

He says, lord, just extend this light so that I can keep serving you.

That we can keep fighting for you.

And so Joshua wished to continue serving God.

And that's our prayer as well.

That should be our prayer as well.

We want to follow Joshua's example.

So why do we want God to work through us?

So that people will praise us?

Well, no.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 16 tells us that we would do these things so that people will see our Father and glorify him.

And so one of the many reasons why we should ask God to continue to work through us is so that he can be glorified so, so, so that he could be obeyed in this world, so that there could be growth when it comes to the family of God.

And so that ultimately we can see victory that's been promised to us.

I think that we should probably stop there because I will come back next week to look more at this victory.

Because the victory doesn't just end on, on that day.

There's an extension of this.

They chase down these five kings, and these five kings are caught.

And ultimately we see that Joshua and the Israelites completely wipe out these Canaanite kings.

And eventually we see throughout this chapter that there's continuous victory there in the southern land.

And I, I really do believe that even though we're living in a different time, we're living in a different culture, and even we're living under a different covenant, we right in the new covenant, we can still glean many principles from Joshua and the people of Israel as they continuously follow God and what happens in that case, and then when they don't follow God, what happens in those cases.

And so we're going to see throughout the book of Joshua that there is much land to be conquered.

There's many opportunities to trust in the Lord, but the promise of God stays the same.

From chapter one and then throughout the book of Joshua, we're going to see different blessings and inheritances that come to the people.

And then we're ultimately going to see that, that great statement at the end of the chapter where, where Joshua basically says, after all this, people were still going to the way of the pagan kings and the false gods.

And so essentially at the end of Joshua, chapter 24, he makes this, this statement, you know, who are you going to serve?

You got to choose who you serve.

You can't serve all of them because if you're serving other gods, you're not serving the one true God.

And that's, that's a conversation that I had recently with a, with a, a fellow who was seeking after the Lord.

I was wanting to make sure that he understood that when you come to Jesus, it's not just an insurance policy.

It's not just, hey, I've got all these other gods and then Jesus is just my add on.

He's just my, my safety net.

No, Jesus is the way, the only way to salvation.

We can't say that, hey, I'm going to try this.

I know where he was going with this, but I heard a preacher get up one time, he says, just try Jesus, try them.

But I'm like, I really have a hard time with treating Jesus as like a free one month trial.

Because folks, it's a commitment to giving our lives to Him.

I understand where the sentiment is there.

God, it's like he's going to change your life.

We believe that, we know that, but not everyone else knows that.

But until we completely give our hearts over to him and trust in him, we're not going to experience the promises of God that are given to us in Scripture.

And we mentioned it this morning, a child of God is someone who is what a child of God coming in faith.

And the Bible explains what it means to be a child of God.

I use the analogy in my Bible study this morning, said I love all the children here at this church.

I love every single one.

And I would sacrifice for all of them.

I would take care of all of them.

But my children are obviously unique in our relationship.

Right?

That's understandable.

And so God loves the world by sending Jesus to give that gift of salvation.

That's that general love, sacrificial love that he gave to all.

But when we come to him in faith in a personal way, there is that inner circle type of love that is unique to his children.

And I think that's important for us to understand.

And so again, I love the fact that we have a personal God who isn't just one way to go.

The Bible says he is the way, the truth and the life.

And that's really what we see in the book of Joshua is a challenge for people to align their hearts to the one true God.

And so may all of us align our hearts with the one true God.

There's intellectual adherence, but I do believe that there's a difference between intellectually agreeing with what the word of God says and then putting our hearts to it.

And as the Bible said in Joshua chapter one, to meditate on it and walk in it and not turn to the left or to the right.

I think that shows our commitment to the Lord and our hearts to the Lord.

Now are we going to be perfectly Faithful?

No, none of us could be perfectly faithful.

And that's the beauty of God's grace, is that when we stumble, just like Israel stumbled, He gave them time after time and time after time of mercy and grace to come and find in time of need.

And that's what we can do.

We can come back to him because his love is abundant for us.

His forgiveness is everlasting.

And if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And so I would encourage you to think about that.

Is there a battle that you are fighting right now?

Or maybe is there a battle that God wants you to fight that you're like, I'm not ready for that right now?

Well, the truth is, is that if God is calling you to something, it's not going to give you every answer right away.

I think of Philippians, chapter 4, verse 13.

Some people use Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ, meaning I can do whatever I want as a Christian and God's going to bless me.

Well, that's not what that verse is talking about.

If you look at context, that verse says, if God calls me to something, he will give me the strength to sustain through it, through his grace and through his strength.

Paul talks about being full and being hungry, being rich and being poor.

He says, hey, God calls us to many different things in our life, but what he does in his calling, he does give, promises to be with us through it.

So it doesn't mean I can just do whatever I want to do and then God will bless it.

It means that if God is giving me something in my life to do, he's going to strengthen me to do those things that he's calling me to do.

And so I think that that's something that we all need to pray about.

In my life, in my life, I will tell you this.

There are things that I'm comfortable with, and there's things that I'm not comfortable with.

The things that I'm not comfortable with, I try to avoid.

I try not to look at them.

I try not to even think about them.

I try just to say, lord, that's not for me.

But ultimately, some of you know what I'm talking about.

You get that tug on your heart that God will not let that go away.

And the truth is, is that we don't want to be deadened and apathetic to the tug on our heart for what God is calling us to do.

And it might be a ministry it might be a spiritual discipline that God is calling us to grow in, or it might just be a spiritual battle that we're fighting.

It might be a temptation, it might be a trial, might be a physical trial, it might be a spiritual trial.

But nonetheless, if God is allowing us to come to this in our life, it's a place of tempting.

Yes, but that word trial in the Bible, it could mean tempting, or it can mean test.

The temptation is not the sin.

It's just a test.

It is what we do with that temptation that allows it to be a test that we learn from or a trial that we fall into in temptation to sin.

And so what I would tell you is this.

If there's something that you're really wrestling with in your life, spiritually, in your thought life, in your.

In your actions, in your private life, give it over the Lord and say, lord, what are you teaching me through this?

How can I grow in your Word?

And as Joshua chapter one says, be in his word day and night.

Meditate on his Word, love his Word, and the word of God will dwell richly in our heart.

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way.

That's what Psalm 119 talks about.

But.

But you're hiding God's word in our heart.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path.

So we live in a dark world.

Turn on the news, it's a dark world.

And then turn it off.

And then say this.

The Word of God is my lamp.

It's what's going to shine brightly into my life and show me where the evil is.

Show me where God's plan is for me.

And the more and more we fall into love with the Lord.

That's.

That's really the best way that I can say it.

I know that it doesn't make sense for us to talk that way.

Maybe if you've never been around a church that talks about a person or relationship with Jesus Christ, but really, truly, it's loving Lord more and more every day.

Like, what if I told you I've been married to my wife now for over a decade, and I've just reached my.

My.

My peak in love, you know, I can't.

I don't know if I can love anymore.

Some of you might say, well, Pastor, I think you need to talk, you know, to someone.

It's the same thing sometimes we see with Christians.

They say, well, I've been saved for 30 years.

I don't know how much more I can love God.

Every day is a new day.

His mercies are new every single morning.

And so it's like waking up to a new revelation of God's love for us in our life.

And so it's growing in more and more and left.

It's not that God loves.

God grows in his love for us.

His love is abundant and infinite.

It's our love growing and knowing what he has done for us.

So I encourage you to think about that here this evening.

Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer, a few announcements and then we'll be dismissed.

Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us.

Thank you for the opportunity to come together tonight.

Thank you for this study in the book of Joshua, Lord, how you've shown us what it means to follow you and to trust in you and to know that we have no reason to fear because you are with us.

So Lord, I pray that you bless us as we continue on this week.

I pray that we can live boldly for you as as light in this world so that people can see our good works and glorify you.

And so we just love you and thank you for all that you do for us and who you are in our lives.

We love you, but we ask you to teach us how to love you more in our lives.

And we ask all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro at Middletown Baptist Church church.com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.