The God Who Fights for You | Joshua 10

Turning your Bibles to Joshua chapter 10.

Joshua 10 · chapter mention

We're marching through the letter, the letter, the story of

Joshua this spring season here at Saint City, we've been going

chapter by chapter, marching through it, getting to know the

God who saves, who fights, who keeps his promises.

In fact, that's why we get our sermon series titled Not even 1

is because at the end of Joshua, it recaps for us the whole point

of the book that not even one of God's promises has failed.

It didn't fail then, it won't fail you now.

And so we're getting to know the promise keeping God.

If you don't have a Bible, there's one in a seat in front

of you nearby on the floor. It's on page 185.

You can find it either there and you could keep that Bible if you

need, but also you could turn to it on a device if you like.

I I prefer a hard copy, but to each his own, I guess.

Let's start here today. We all I've had the experience

of fighting a battle too big for just us to take on.

Let me put this in a in a way that you might relate to anybody

ever been to the Uno table before with the family or

friends? You are fighting a battle that's

too big for you and here's how it goes down at the Uno table,

you're playing Uno. You get to a number of cards

that people feel threatened by, and what happens next?

They gang up on you, don't they? You get hit with a draw 2, you

get hit with a skip, you get hit with a reverse.

The whole table is suddenly against you.

And it does. It feels personal, doesn't it?

Like Uno gets personal, it gets vicious at the Uno table, and

depending on your house rules, you can get down to that one

card. You can be so close to victory

and a draw 2 comes up at you. Just gone Draw 2 and some house

rules. You can stack those draw twos,

can you not? And it can get real aggressive

against you, man. I don't like the feeling of

people being against me. I don't like the experience of

feeling outgunned and out manned at the Uno table.

But the Uno table of life, there's other battles that we

fight that you can feel that same experience.

It's just magnified and it's far less, far more, excuse me,

serious, than a card game with friends and family.

You can feel the sense of fighting a battle too big for

you, related to a health diagnosis, related to a

relational conflict, related to your financial outlook, your

professional aspirations. You can feel a sense of, wow,

this battle is way too big for me to take on.

I'm overwhelmed by the reality of what I have to carry as a

husband or father or as a parent.

I'm overwhelmed by what I have at work or a diagnosis.

You can have an acute sense of this thought that this battle is

too big for me. And so the natural response, the

fleshly response can be like, I've got this.

I just got to, you know, push through this.

I, what doesn't kill me is just going to make me stronger, and

you're just going to get there in your head real fast.

And I can relate. In fact, I get there too, in my

mind and in my head and in my thoughts where I feel

overwhelmed by the battles that I'm fighting in life by show of

hands. Who here has experienced what

I'm talking about this morning, the experience of taking on a

battle that feels too big for just you?

Anybody relate to that? Keep your hands up high.

Look around you. Look around you right now, St.

City. This is an experience we all

grapple with. You've either had it or you're

having it. It is a moment where you feel

like the battle is too big and the whole world stands against

you. The temptation is this thought

to think like, now I am the victim.

And we'll say things to ourselves like this, and I'll

say things like, to myself, just like this.

Maybe you can relate. Like, why do I keep doing the

thing I don't want to do? Why does everything in my life

feel like it's falling apart? Why does my mind keep telling me

things that are not true? We will only ever see ourselves

like a victim if we only ever see just ourselves in the fight.

But what if? What if Joshua tennis true?

And what if you're not alone in the fight?

What if you're not alone in the struggle?

What if God was trying to declare to you and remind you of

today that you might feel overwhelmed, overrun, outgunned,

but you are not a victim. In fact, the enemy would want

you to believe the lie that you are a victim.

Because God wants you to realize today that you in him you are

not a victim, but a victor. You are not the conquered.

You are a conqueror. That when God fights for you,

he's a warrior who does not lose.

In fact, jot down this big idea. God is a warrior who fights on

behalf of his people that the meaning of Joshua chapter 10 why

Joshua 10 · chapter mention

it's preserved for us for thousands of years so that the

Saints of 2026 can look back on a text that's thousands of years

old. What can what principle can we

grab? What truth of God can we

understand and could be meaningful for our life.

Here's what God wants to tell you about himself today is that

he is a mighty warrior who fights on behalf of his people.

People. Let's go to the text so you can

understand it and see it for yourself.

Joshua chapter 10 verse one, if you're there, say I'm there.

Joshua 10 · chapter mention

That's right, you are. As soon as Adonis Zedek, king of

Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured AI and had devoted it

to destruction, doing to AI and its king as he'd done to Jericho

and its king, and how the inhabitants of giving and

giving, excuse me, had made peace with Israel and were among

them. This king, AZ, let's call him,

he feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city, like one of

the royal cities, and because it was greater than I and all its

men were warriors. Let's stop right there and catch

you up. If you haven't been with us

marching through Joshua. Here's what's happened in the

book of Joshua. Josh has been appointed the

successor to Moses. They have crossed over the

Jordan River and taken Jericho, not by force but by walking

around the walls. And God miraculously saves the

Israelites and gives them the city of Jericho so the walls

couldn't stop them. Then they get to another nation

called AI later in the book and God tells us that the way they

beat them though AI has a bunch of weapons and military

experience that God is bigger than their weapons.

And now we have 5 different neighboring nations who are

hearing about this God who does not lose, who fights on behalf

of Israel. And they are shaking in their

boots. They are real worried because

guess what, they took down AI, they took down Jericho and now

Gibeon, the strongest of the nations has joined forces with

Israel and they're like, oh shoot, we don't stand a chance

by ourselves. What do we need to do?

Verse 3, AZ, king of Jerusalem sent to Ho Ham, king of Hebron

to Pyram, king of Jarmouth to Jaffe, a king of Lakish, and

Debbier, king of Eglon, saying hey, come up to me and help me

and let us go. After that nation who joined

Israel, Gibeon, for that nation has made peace with Joshua and

with the people of Israel. Then the five kings of the

Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmouth, Lakish, Eglon

gathered their forces and went up with all their armies in a

camp against Gibeon and made war against it.

So Gibeon is now running solo squads versus all these other

nations. It's 1V5 and Gibeon's like, hey,

Israel, we're threatened. We're not Jack Reacher.

We don't get to take out five people.

We don't feel like that sense of strength.

We need your help, Israel. So the men of Gideon, verse 6,

what do they do? They sent to Joshua at the camp

in Gilgal saying, hey, do not relax your hand from us.

Your servants come up to us quickly and save us and help us

for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the Hill

Country. They're gathering against us.

They're making war against us. So Joshua went up from Gilgal,

he and all the people of war with him, all the soldiers, all

the mighty men of valor, and Joshua and the Lord said to

Joshua, do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands.

Underline that expression right there, for I have given them

into your hands, says the Lord. He's saying, hey, this battle,

it's over with before it even starts.

I have given them into your hands.

Don't be afraid not of man of them shall stand before you.

So Joshua verse 9 came upon them suddenly, having marched up all

night from Gilgal. He's marching through the night

to this city. He doesn't give up.

And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck

them with a great blow at Gibeon, and chased them by the

way of the ascent of Beth Horon, and struck them as far as Akka

and Makada. In verse 11.

They fled before Israel. While they were going down the

ascent of Beth Horon, the Lord threw down large stones from

heaven on them as far as Azaca, and they died.

There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons

of Israel killed with the sword. I wonder who wants the credit

for this battle with that sentence, verse 12.

At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord

gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel.

And he said in the sight of Israel, before everyone hears

his prayer, sun stand still at Gibeon, and moon in the valley

of Ihalan. And the sun stood still, and the

moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the book of Joshar, which is a Hebrew

book that isn't Canon? Like it's not scripture, but

they knew about it. The sun stopped in the midst of

heaven and did not hurry to set up for about an entire whole

day. There has been no day like it

before or since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for

the Lord fought for Israel. So Joshua returned, and all

Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal.

Let's stop there for a moment. How do we sense God's victory?

How do we sense His triumphant character when we feel our

defeat ability? Well, listen to this.

When God fights for you first, the impossible becomes

inevitable. How do we sense God's victorious

character more and more in our life and our defeatability, our

overwhelmness less and less? Well, first we have to believe.

We have to know that when God fights for us, when He fights

for you, the impossible becomes inevitable.

It's a guarantee. It's as good as done.

There's three impossible things in those first 15 verses that

happened that just are kind of mind boggling.

Look back at verse 11. The Lord threw down large stones

from heaven on them as far as Azaca, and they died.

Now, I don't know exactly all the sins of these five nations.

I know that they've had 400 years where they've heard of God

at work, where they've been asked by God to repent of their

sin, where they could have by His grace and mercy turned from

their sin and toward God. But God in his judgment to them,

guess what he's saying, Hey, your wickedness is so great.

Here's how we're going to win this battle with hailstones from

heaven that are big enough to kill.

That feels pretty impossible. I haven't been on this earth for

too long, but I haven't seen rocks fall from heaven in such a

way that they, like a Pokémon attack, take out people.

That's not something I've seen very often.

It's pretty impossible. And God in his fighting for

Israel, guess what, the impossible has become

inevitable. He said, hey, guess what, You

don't need to be afraid. They're in your hand.

Do not worry, Joshua, do not worry people of Israel, I've got

this, I've got you. I will fight for you as a mighty

warrior. And my plan of attack is

hailstones. And God we know, wants the

credit for it because the second part of the verse, the there

were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of

Israel killed with the sword. God wants the people of Israel

to be real clear on who the victory belongs to.

It's Him. Not only do we have hailstones,

though, we have a cosmic weather event that's never happened ever

again. The sun stood still.

What's the Bible saying with that?

It means there was something proportionate to the creation

account. In Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

God made the sun stop in the sky, stop orbiting earth around

the sun. How he can do that?

How can he create the universe with just his breath?

He's God. Does this make scientific sense?

Absolutely not. It's impossible.

But remember, when you're going to follow Jesus, when you're

going to believe in this God, the impossible has to be

possible. Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

That's an impossibility. It defies logic and science.

There has to be a position and a place in your heart and room for

you to go. Hey, God, you're big enough,

strong enough, powerful enough that you can do things that

boggle the brain, that you can speak and galaxies are formed,

that you can whisper and hurricane can stop, that God can

hear a prayer of a man named Joshua, and the sun can stop or

stop moving in the sky. This is just par for the Bible

course of how big God is. This is certainly miraculous,

certainly an impossibility, but if he can create the world with

his words and he can create the sun with just his very breath,

he certainly can tell it to hold off a second.

And time stood still because of the prayer of Joshua, the leader

of Israel. The impossible becomes

inevitable when God is fighting for you.

Now, I don't want you to hear that the impossible thing that

you're thinking for God to do in your life, that it's inevitable

that He will do that exact thing.

The temptation is that God would actually serve us and whatever

impossible thing we want, He has to do because we've asked Him

for it. That's not actually true.

What's inevitable about God is that He is going to do

impossible things around you and in you and through you, but it

might not be the impossible thing you asked for.

It's going to give. He's going to give the thing

that gives him the most glory. He's concerned about making His

name famous, not yours. He's concerned with making more

lives. Change the world, change not

just your world. And so he's going to answer

impossible prayers in your life, and he might do the very thing

you've asked. But what's inevitable is that

God is going to do things that bring His name glory.

When God fights for you, the impossible becomes inevitable.

Is saying that, hey, just because you asked for it doesn't

mean that's what you'll get. But guess what?

God will do something that blows your mind.

He is still in the business of doing the impossible.

He still can. He still does, and I believe he

will. Hudson Taylor, the great

missionary to the nation of China, said it this way that

every great work of God has three stages.

First it's impossible, then it's difficult, and then it's done.

If you want to see God at work greatly in your life, it's going

to start with an impossibility, then it will be difficult.

You will have to persevere, you will have to endure, and before

you know it, guess what? It will be done.

It'll be finished. God has already done the most

difficult thing, the most impossible thing in human

history. He has paid for the sins of the

world, and he has risen again three days later so that we and

all who call upon his name could be saved from sin.

That is the greatest impossibility on planet earth,

and he's already taken care of that.

The thing you're asking God for, the impossible thing you're

asking it is a small thing in the hands of a God that big.

If the God who Joshua prayed to can make the sun stand still, He

certainly can save the friend that you are praying for.

He certainly is over the health condition that has chronically

plagued you for years. That relational beef that keeps

lingering in your life? God is big enough to overcome

it. When God fights for you, the

impossible becomes inevitable. I believe He still does

impossible things. Friendships that felt dead?

Guess what He can bring to life conditions that were diagnosed

and stated by doctors as as good as being done and over with.

Pack your bags to the next side of life.

Guess what? It's not done until God says

it's done. And a few weeks ago we prayed as

a church family for impossible prayers to happen.

I just want to read a few of them for you.

That God, God would provide somebody in their life to be

married. They feel it's impossible for

them to find a spouse for salvation for their family.

For this person felt it's impossible to have the fruit of

joy in the thick of motherhood and the busyness of life.

Someone asked for God to save their brother.

Someone asked for their grandpa to be healed from leukemia.

Someone asked for deliverance from anxiety.

Someone asked for their roommate to know Jesus, for their

coworkers to know Jesus for the salvation of their four

siblings, for their brother to know Jesus, that God would take

away their pride and that they would humble themselves and all

they do. Somebody asked for freedom from

lust. This is what we mean when we say

impossible. At Saint City, there are things

that were like, man, God, I don't know what how we're going

to get past this, how I'm going to get through this.

Listen to me, if God can call the Son to stand still, he can

answer those impossible prayers. Do not give up and praying them

just cuz he hasn't answered them yet.

Do not lose hope, do not lose heart.

Keep praying them. St.

City, do not give up. Our prayer team is still praying

for these very things. So please, if God is answering,

please let us know. We'd love to know by the way,

that God's answering them. Let us know at the tent.

Let us know the services, but in the meantime, keep persevering

in prayer. We are persistent in prayer at

Saint City. We continue steadfastly in

prayer. We do not lose heart because we

still believe in the God who can make the sun stand still.

And if he can do that, he can hear your impossible prayers and

he can't answer them. He is able, He is capable.

He is the God who fights for us on behalf of His people.

Amen. Amen.

But not only that, how else do we sense God's victory more and

our defeat ability less? When God fights for you #2 the

enemy is placed under your feet. Not only is the impossible

inevitable, but when God fights for you, the enemy is placed

under your feet. Psalm 110 verse one says the

Lord says sit at my at my right hand until I make your enemies

your footstool like an Ottoman, like kicking your feet up in

triumph. And these people, the

Israelites, they've experienced God's victory and where their

feet go already. First it was the Jordan River.

In chapters 3 and 4, they walked where no foot had gone before,

at the bottom of the Jordan River because he parted it so

they could cross it. But not only that, they walk

around Jericho and guess what? The walls fall down.

And yet still they lack some confidence.

Look at verse 16. These 5 kings, they're fleeing.

The sun has stood still, things are going crazy.

Joshua and the people of Israel are dominating these five

nations. And the five kings were found

hidden in The Cave at Makata. And Joshua said, hey, roll large

stones against the mouth of The Cave and set men by it to guard

them. But don't stay there yourselves.

Pursue your enemies and attack their rearguard.

Do not let them enter their cities, for the Lord your God

has given them into your hand. When Joshua and the sons of

Israel had finished striking them with a great blow until

they were wiped out, and when the remnant that remained of

them had entered into the fortified cities, then all the

people returned safe to Joshua in the camp, and not a man moved

his tongue against any of the people of Israel.

Then Joshua being the leader that he is, here's what he says

next. He says, Hey, open the mouth of

The Cave and bring those 5 kings out to me from The Cave.

And they did so. They brought out those 5 kings

out to him from The Cave, and the king of Jerusalem, of

Hebron, Jarmouth, Lakish and Eggnon.

And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, he summoned

all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of

Ward, gone with him, Come near and put your feet on the necks

of these kings. This is such a baller move by

Joshua. I mean, this is for sure like

going to make the movie if Joshua ever becomes a movie.

Like, there's this moment where all the commanders are coming by

and they're putting their feet on the literal throats of their

enemy. It's dramatic, it's epic.

It is battle imagery on purpose. The enemy that they feared, the

enemy that they fought, guess what?

It is now under their foot, the enemy they thought they couldn't

beat, the enemy that they were afraid of had been beaten.

And we know they were afraid because look what Joshua said in

verse 25. He says next, do not be afraid

or dismayed. Be strong and courageous.

It's one of my favorite things about Joshua as a leader, by the

way, one of the every time he opens up his mouth, he's just

repeating what God has said. Hey, God has given them into

your hand. Hey, be strong and courageous.

That's something God had told him and now he's telling others

to do the same. Be strong and courageous.

He's repeating God's words to them to put courage into them,

to keep fighting the fight, to keep taking ground for the

Kingdom. Joshua's doing this as a leader.

And he says, hey, though, for thus the Lord God will do to all

your enemies against whom you fight.

I mean, this is a visceral moment.

He's making sure they not only conceptually agree that God can

fight the battles, He wants them to have a deep, impersonal sense

that they're over their enemies, that their enemies are beneath

their feet. This is as humiliating and as

defeating of a posture as there is in the ancient Near East.

This was a sign for everyone. We beat you, we're over you.

You have no power here. And they needed a confidence

boost, apparently, despite all that God had done.

They walked through the Jordan River, they walked around

Jericho, they saw AI beaten, and even still, they needed

encouragement. They needed a confidence

booster. I just find that encouraging,

that I need that too, that I've seen God move in mighty ways, in

big ways here in my life, and yet I still need a confidence

booster. I still need God to remind me of

the things he can do and will do.

I need him to point me to, hey, guess what, you're still over

that. Hey, guess what, you have beaten

that. Hey, you are victorious because

I am a warrior who has fought that battle for you.

I need a confidence booster sometimes.

Now my daughter Blair, she's almost 8 now and she has fallen

in love with the sport of gymnastics.

And one thing I love about their training process in gymnastics,

as a non gymnast myself, I don't know why you guys think that's

funny looking at me. But in gymnastics, they don't

just start them up on the beam or on 2 bars and launch

themselves to the other bar or doing all kinds of, I don't even

know the names of this by the way, all kinds of cartwheels and

flips on the beam. That's not where you start to

get confidence because you won't have confidence if you don't

know where your feet are supposed to go on the beam.

If you don't know where your feet are supposed to go on the

spring to do the vault. If you don't know where your

feet are supposed to go on the floor to do that flip, to do

that move, that. Sometimes the best thing to do

is bring you back to the basics of where you need to put your

feet, the fundamental and they're building my daughter's

confidence in what she can do by reminding her of the very simple

thing of here's where you put your feet, here's where you put

your hands, here's how you do it.

That they're boosting your confidence little by little by

saying you don't need to be afraid.

You don't need to be scared of this because you know what

you're doing based off the thing you've already done.

In our fight against our enemies, we need confidence

boosters too. We need to track our winds.

We need to see the small victories that will produce

larger victories in our faith against our enemies.

Romans chapter 16, verse 20. If you like studying the Bible,

Romans 16:20

just read this verse later, but here's what it says.

It says the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your

feet. The God of peace, the one who is

going to make all the wars and all the fighting stop.

Here's what he's going to do. He will soon crush Satan under

your feet. I find that interesting that

it's not under his foot. But we get the opportunity to

stomp on our enemy. We get the opportunity to stand

over our enemy. And I just wonder today, what

enemy do you need not fear because you stand over it?

What enemy do you need not be afraid of because you stand over

it? Maybe it's a sin struggle.

Maybe you feel like it has more power over you.

Maybe it's your gossip being heart.

Maybe it's a chronic discontentment.

Maybe it's a critical spirit or unforgiveness.

Maybe it's a battle with lust. Maybe, just maybe, you're still

getting beaten by it because you're not remembering the

victory you already have. It is crushed under the foot of

our Savior. And because that's true of Him,

it is true of us that we can step on the throat of our sin.

It's not stepping on ours. We stand on it.

Maybe it's the enemy of Satan that you feel the sense of

spiritual attack and persecution rising up in your life.

You feel the division in your heart, and you just feel

overwhelmed and overrun by all that he's doing against you.

Listen to me. That's a defeated enemy.

That's a beaten enemy. You can Captain Morgan, that

guy. OK, Put your foot up on his

throat and let him know. Guess what?

You're over Him. You have the authority over sin

and Satan because Jesus purchased it for you.

You need not fear Him. We are storming the gates of

hell. We are not keeping back the

gates of heaven. We are unleashing the light in

The Dark World. That's what we're called to be

as Christian. Winning the campus, winning the

world and the gates of hell will not prevail against God's

church. We don't need to be afraid.

Do not cower, do not be fearful, but know that that enemy you

stand over as well. And finally, death itself, you

need not be afraid of it. That's one of the most crazy

things about Christians. We don't have to be afraid of

death. There's every reason to be

afraid of death in this world if you don't have Jesus.

But if you do, you don't need to be afraid of it, because to live

is Christ and to die is gain. That Jesus Christ conquered

death itself, so we don't need to be afraid of it.

We stand over to the throat of death.

Our enemy of death has been placed under our feet because of

what Jesus Christ did. When I fight, when God fights

for me, the enemy is placed under our feet.

Finally, when God fights for you, the judgement falls, but

not on you. When God fights for you, the

judgement is going to come and it's the conviction sentence is

going to land, but not on God's side.

Those who fight with God, those who God fights for, guess what?

The judgement isn't against you. He doesn't oppose you, He is

with you. The rest of the text I'm just

going to kind of fly over it because it's kind of saying the

same thing again and again is that then Joshua and all of

Israel with him passed on verse 29 from Akada to Libna, and

fought against Libna. And the Lord gave it also, and

its king into the hand of Israel, and he struck it with

the edge of the sword and every person, and he left none

remaining, And he did to its king as he had done to the king

of Jericho. Then Joshua's going to go

through all five nations, and he's going to do what God told

him to do. He is going to devote them and

their inhabitants and their things to destruction.

Verse 40. So Joshua struck the whole land,

the Hill Country, and then again in the lowland, in the slopes,

and all their kings. He left none remaining but

devoted to destruction. All that breathe just as the

Lord God of Israel had commanded him.

Joshua struck them from as far as the Ganesh Maria, as far as

Gaza and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon and

Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time.

There it is again because the Lord God of Israel fought for

Israel God's people. Then Joshua returned in all

Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal.

Listen to me. God is executing A righteous and

perfect and good judgement here. He's like a judge when he's

reading the letter of the law. And it's like, hey, you speed,

you get a ticket. You were going 30 miles over

this payment. Here is a ticket that is just,

that is good. That is the letter of the law.

That is justice. What is hard to grapple with as

human beings is that the wages of sin is death, that that is

the right sentence. That is justice for sinning

against God, rebelling against him, having pride against him,

standing against him. These people have turned from

him and they have acknowledged that they don't want to live

with God. They don't want to be on his

side. They want to fight against him

and his people. And so they try and they fail.

And so God executes his judgment through Joshua and the people of

Israel, a just judgement, a swift judgement, A righteous

judgement. And Joshua does what he's

supposed to do. He devotes things to

destruction. Now that phrase devoted to

destruction happens five times here in this little section,

verse 28, we see at first that Joshua captured on that day,

struck it, and it's king with the edge of the sword, and he

devoted to destruction every person in it.

That's in verse 28. Verse 29 and 30 is the same

idea. He left none remaining in it.

Do you see it in verse 32? He left none remaining in it.

Again, every person in it was captured and struck.

Verse 35, it explicitly says it was devoted to destruction.

Verse 37, for the people of Hebron, that they were devoted

to destruction and every person in it.

Verse 39, it said again, he was devoted to destruction.

This is like that moment in Toy Story 2 that's happened here in

the Bible, Toy Story 2. Here's what happens.

The whole plot centers around a yard sale where the toys don't

want to be devoted to destruction.

They don't want to have to be given away.

And there's this famous toy in Toy Story 2 named Weezy, this

raspy Penguin who's lost his voice and quite frankly is a

garbage toy at that moment. And the mom acknowledges it, but

that's their friend. That's their buddy that's

Wheezy. We got to save him.

So he gets put out of the yard sale.

He gets devoted to destruction. And what happens is is a bunch

of toys go and try to save him. Woody goes out there, he tries

to save and he gets devoted to destruction.

And Al from AL's Toy Barn takes him and the story goes away.

But the point of a toys perspective in that is, hey, a

yard sale is code for trash, garbage, devoted to destruction.

It is a grave reality of the world that to reject God in this

life is to reject his salvation and therefore say yes to the

yard sale for your soul to be devoted to destruction.

This passage, this remaining little chunk talking about the

conquest of Southern Canaan, it's a warning and a wonder.

It's meant to tell you, hey, a yard sale is coming.

It is going to happen sooner than you think.

And you need to realize that there is going to come a day

where destruction is going to be upon all who have rejected God.

In fact, you know who God opposes in this world?

The proud says the Bible. Do you want to have God fight

against you? Do you want to have the God of

the universe stand against you? Then be proud.

Say to yourself, I don't need God.

I've got this. I am right because there's a way

that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death.

Every religion in the world is why God stands against it right

there, because it's rooted in the pride of thinking we can

save ourselves from our sin. We can save ourselves from Satan

and death, that we can be a better person.

We can follow these truths. We can acknowledge like, hey, if

we just do more good things and our good outweighs our bad, if

we go to church just enough, if we pray just enough, guess what?

At the end of the day, God's going to look at our Ledger and

he's going to say, hey, you did more good than bad, guys.

That is a faulty understanding of what's happening in

Scripture. You can't do enough good.

You can't obey enough commands to be saved.

You need a savior. And I have great news for you

today. I have good news.

Is that Jesus Christ? Here's the wonder of it.

Jesus Christ was devoted to destruction, so you wouldn't

have to be. How can God be good in Joshua

10? Here's how.

Listen, look closely at the Bible here Jesus Christ was

saying, hey, guess what? I will be devoted to

destruction. I will take on sin.

I will take on the penalty of it.

I will take on death so every person doesn't have to.

I will go to the cross and I will be holy.

I will be perfect. I will live the life they should

have lived so they can be forgiven of their sins.

Don't you see? The wonder that happens is that

we have a better Joshua once again we have Jesus Christ who

has saved us from sin, who can deliver us from the judgement of

God. That is coming and it will come

one day or someday for you. But listen closely.

You need not have it fall on you.

It can fall upon Jesus that he can be crushed for your

iniquities. He can be punished so you would

have peace. He can bear your sin.

If you would turn to him and turn away from your pride, you

would humble yourself and say, God, I need you to deliver me

Hosanna, save me, save me, rescue me.

Rahab did it in Joshua too. She realized she needed

salvation and these people could have done the same.

But in their pride they turned away from God and they said I

don't need you to save me, I can try to save myself.

And they found out that is a fool's errand.

And my plea with you this morning is that you would look

to Jesus to be the one to save you from God's judgement such

you would be spared of the destruction that comes in the

life to follow the the judgement that is just that is good.

God is saying for you today. Jesus is announcing for you,

Hey, let me fight this battle for you.

Let me fight it for you. Let me beat sin.

Let me beat Satan. Let me beat death forever.

Such you can be saved. You know, there's a way to read

your Bible that I think goes back to our, our intro today

that often we'll read the Bible. We put ourselves in the we have

a tendency to like see ourselves as the hero in the story.

You know, you can relate to, you know, Luke Skywalker.

Nobody ever goes, you know, I'm Darth Vader in the story, right?

And when we read the Bible, we can do the same.

We can go, hey, I'm I'm Israel, I'm David.

I'm blank fill in the hero of the story, in this case, Joshua

and the people of Israel. And what happens is if you see

yourself as the hero, whenever something bad happens to you,

you can begin to once again see yourself like the victim because

every hardship that comes your way, every difficulty that comes

your way, it's in the hero's journey now so that you can be

the person that that you want to be.

The Bible is very clear. You are not the victim in the

story. You sinned against God.

You are more like the villain in the story.

You're the one who needed saving.

And the good news of the gospel is this, that you don't have to

be the victim and you don't need to stay the villain.

You can be the victor because the hero of the book is Jesus,

and he died so that you would be spared the judgment of God.

That's the wonder of the Bible, that we who have all the sin in

the world and Jesus who had none of it, that God could treat us

as Jesus deserves to be treated because he was treated as we

deserve to be treated. And that is the entry point.

It's faith in Jesus so that God would begin to fight for you so

that you can enlist yourself in the army of heaven.

That's the way it's saying, God, I need you to fight for me.

I can't overcome this circumstance.

I can't beat this anymore. I can't be saved and rescued

from the things that are in my life that enslave the sin, the

world, all of it, every enemy. I can't beat them, but you can.

I have good news. God is a warrior who fights for

his people. And you're going to see it time

after time, after time again, and you'll realize that in

Christ you are not a victim, you're not a villain, You're a

victor because of what God did for you.

Would you pray with me? Lord?

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the

reality that you have beaten sin, Satan, and death through

your Son. That judgement doesn't need to

fall on us, but you can fight for us.

That Jesus Christ was the warrior who took on the battle

that was way too big for us, who fought enemies that we couldn't

beat. And that life, Lord, can feel a

lot of times like it is stacking against us, that people are

rallying around US, against us, that the circumstances are being

too difficult. But God, there is good news.

We are not alone in the fight. We are not alone in the battle.

But we have a God who fights for us, who is with us in the

presence of evil. And so God, I pray for every

heart here today who is painfully aware of the reality.

They need you. They're actually discouraged

right now because God, they're like, God, it was another

weekend. It was really hard.

It was really difficult. The trial was really felt.

The attack was really great. And I pray God that right now,

in this moment, your spirit would rush into the room and

they would have a sense that you would even whisper to them, God,

I'm with you. My presence is with you.

I'm fighting for you. I have not abandoned you.

I have not forsaken you. That we would humble ourselves

and turn to you for the fight and we would say God fight for

me. In fact, if you need to, if you

need that today, would you just say it out loud?

God fight for me, God fight for me.

God fight for me, fight for me, because when the Lord fights for

you, the impossible is inevitable.