Joshua 10: Make War, Trust the Lord.

Joshua chapter 9, just to recap a little bit for you guys, the Gibeonites, rather than rebelling and fighting against Israel, they decided to use deception.

Joshua 9 · chapter mention

Okay?

They decided to use deception to make a covenant with the people of God.

Now, this is no small thing.

This is a very easy thing to glaze over.

We were praying this morning, and we sometimes will just string together, it's just like a just another Sunday today, and then we had just another Sunday last Sunday.

But the reality is we have God's word in front of us, and we want to make sure that we give it attention.

We want to make sure that we elevate that to the place where we are reverent and we're listening.

God, what do you have for us?

Okay?

So the Gibeonites, in this deception, they put on their worn-out clothes.

Okay, they grabbed old bread, they put on worn-out sandals, okay, and then they they they claim to have come from a distant land.

They even have their water sacks, their wineskins that have all burst.

And they're like, hey, we we come uh from far, far away, making sure that far, far away, right, is outside the boundaries of where where uh Hebrews, the Israelites, were to come in and destroy.

Right?

They wanted to say they were from further away than that.

Okay, that's why they that's why the big uh deception, that's why the ruse.

Okay.

Of course, uh they had heard what God had done.

They they had heard uh about the the parting of the Red Sea back as they were wandering in the wilderness.

They heard about the Jordan River being held back, they heard about Jericho.

Okay, they're they're hearing about all of this, and they're like, we don't want any part of being on the wrong side of the Lord.

And that's, I mean, you can understand that heart.

The problem was how they came to the Lord.

They came through that deception and through that human cunning rather than brokenness, repentance, and ultimately just a full surrender.

But Joshua he made his own mistake, right?

The Bible says that he did not ask counsel, or some Bible translations might say he did not inquire of the Lord.

And instead he just he felt the wineskins, they smelled or took a bite of the moldy bread and go, yep, that's old.

Their story must is checks out.

And he makes covenant with them.

Three days later, three days, they find out they weren't distant travelers.

They're from 12 to 15 miles away, and they made covenant with this people that they were actually supposed to bring the sword and judgment.

That's what they're called to do.

And this is these are these are heavier portions of scripture.

I'm fully aware of that.

So on one side with the Gibeonites, you have the sin of commission.

They commit a sin in deception.

And you have on Joshua's part of the sin of omission.

He didn't go to the Lord like he was supposed to.

He left something out.

And maybe the Gibeonites were right to seek peace, but Joshua, in failing to inquire of the Lord, he missed an opportunity to shepherd them into the right way to approach the Lord.

So now Israel is bound by oath, right?

They got this full covenant, and the Gibeonites are becoming woodcutters and drawers of water in the temple.

And I mentioned I think that the modern church has a lot of people doing something similar, coming near to the Lord, but still we we oftentimes we try to approach God on our own terms.

And you guys, it's the modern church, but it's me.

I do that sometimes.

I'm I'm very quick to let a lot of me, a lot of Ben Alderman, kind of weave its way into the way I want to worship God and live for God.

You know, I want to make sure I get enough of what it is that I like, and rather than surrendering it to the Lord.

And so uh it's not just the modern church, it's me, but it is also the modern church.

You know, we want peace, we want blessing, we want purpose, right?

We those are all great things.

You tell somebody who's lost that they can have peace and blessing and purpose, salvation, what does it cost?

A full surrender.

And now all of a sudden you kind of start to lose people, right?

They don't want that.

They'll take the peace and the blessing.

Full surrender?

Repentance?

I don't want that.

Side note, I actually was at an event yesterday, or I put on an event yesterday, and there was a guy wearing a shirt, and his his gym name was on it.

And it just said, repent Jim.

That was it.

Repent Jim.

Like that's it.

He named his gym repent.

You know?

And I'm like, wow.

I don't even know how to it's almost like a play on words, it's kind of freaked me out a little bit, but anyway, uh, I just thought it was really cool because a lot of people don't want repentance.

But all in all, Joshua chapter 9 reminds us, don't just come near to God.

Joshua 9 · chapter mention

Don't just draw near to him.

Come to him his way.

That's what we are supposed to do in surrender, in brokenness.

So let's pray before we jump into uh chapter 10.

And I'll be full disclosure.

I'm gonna like we sang a couple of older songs.

Lord, I lift your name on high.

That's probably like 35, 40 years old, something like that.

Am I right, Kevin?

Yeah, okay.

And then uh as a deer panteth for the water, right?

How old is that song?

Let me know.

Even older.

Even older, right?

42 years, maybe, you know.

No, it's it's it's it's it's even older, right?

I'm gonna actually uh I'm gonna steal a prayer.

How bad is that?

That is not good.

That's like lying in church, you know, stealing a prayer.

But I mean, I actually am.

I'm gonna steal a prayer from the Puritans.

The Puritans, you guys, if you don't know, uh I didn't know, honestly, for the longest time who the Puritans were.

There's not a lot of names always associated with the Puritans because they almost just like, hey, I'm gonna preach the this is the they would get that term, but preach the word, uh, share the gospel, right, and then die and be forgotten.

And they were totally happy to do that.

You know, the Puritans were awesome, awesome people.

English Protestants in the 1500s, 1600s, uh, they wanted to reform the Church of England, kind of kind of start to remove a lot of the extras that were infused from the Catholic Church, and they they wanted to just be pure and they emphasized serious preaching, personal holiness, prayer, living every part of your life for the glory of God.

They were amazing.

Um and I I stole this prayer from them uh from a book called The Valley of Vision, uh, with no author.

No author.

And if you don't have it, it's an awesome book.

Just you're allowed to go on your phones right now if you want to to order Valley of Vision, and you will not regret it.

And this is their prayer, and I hope that we can make it our prayer this morning.

Lord, high and holy, yet gentle and lowly.

You have brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths, but I see you in the heights.

Surrounded by mountains of sin, I still behold your glory.

Teach me this paradox, that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be lifted high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the humble spirit is the joyful spirit, that the repentant soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess everything, that to carry the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, and that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, even in the daytime, stars can be seen from the deepest wells, and the deeper the well, the brighter your stars shine.

Let me find light, your light in my darkness, your life in my death, your joy in my sorrow, your grace in my sin, your riches in my poverty, and your glory in my valley.

Lord, I stole this prayer because it reflects the heart that I want to have.

I pray that I could see you, that I could know you, Lord, that I could experience this being brought low to see you lifted high.

Keep your hand on us, Lord, watch over us.

Bless this time in your word.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So Joshua chapter 10.

Joshua 10 · chapter mention

Um I don't know, do you guys' Bibles have headings on them?

The heading says the sun stands still.

The sun stands still.

Um, and we're gonna get to that because that's one of the, in my mind, one of the kind of craziest miracles that we see, um phenomenons we see within scripture.

But before we do that, let's let's take this in stride, and we're gonna go to chapter, uh, sorry, to verse one here.

It says, As soon as Adonai Zedek, King of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, doing to I and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, 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.

So Adni Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king of Hebron, to Piram, king of Jarmuth, to Jephiah, king of Lashish, Lashish, sure, and to Deber, king of Eglon, saying, Come up to me and help me, and let us strike Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel.

Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lashish, and the king of Eglon, gathered their forces and went up all their armies and encamped against Gibeon and made war against it.

We saw this sort of hinted in chapter 9, verse 1.

And then we got into the Gibeonite deception.

But before that, this was this rallying was starting to happen.

Okay, and now here we are, we're seeing it's happening, and we're seeing it unfolding, and it's motivated by this treaty that the Gibeonites had made after seeing what happened to I.

And also we see that I had been destroyed, and uh, but before that, I had actually won a battle against Jerusalem.

I'm sorry, against the Hebrews.

So it's interesting because when the Gibeonites here have made this uh this treaty, this this covenant with the Hebrew people, we see that the world around them is not really happy.

Right?

Their countrymen, their their the their fellow people are not very happy.

And I don't know about you guys, maybe you have given your life to the Lord, or when you decide that you're gonna give up something for the Lord and realize it's no longer for you, that the people around you, they don't always take it that well.

You know, your family members.

So a lot of us have family members who are not believers, and it breaks our heart.

But really, what infuriates them sometimes is when we get almost too serious for the Lord.

And they they're not gonna necessarily war against us like what happened here.

But there is, there's this real pushback, and almost like a stiff arm that the world gives you, whether it be a coworker, a family member, an old friend, because when you start living for the Lord, you know what?

Your life is different.

You look different.

You come to Christ, you begin to follow him, and you start conforming into his word and his Christ-likeness, right?

You you I I also I've run a business for years, and over the time I've run that business, I the business I have now, I've been a believer the whole time, but there's been moments where the Lord kind of brings me along and he's like, I don't have that for you anymore.

And people start to look at me and they go, Oh man, I kind of feel like you're a little different now.

You know, it's like a nice way of saying, like, what happened to you.

Everyone claims to have no problem, right, like with what you believe, but for some reason it seems like they actually they actually do.

But you know what?

We know that that's gonna happen.

When we give our life to the Lord, we we see a lot of times that when those uh ideologies are competing, even within family, we see mother against daughter, father against son.

We see that separation starting to happen.

So it's happening here.

They start to mobilize against against Gibeon.

Right?

These kings they rally together.

They see it as betrayal.

They see wait a second, you, these guys came in to destroy us, but then you made covenant with them.

Well, now we're gonna kill you.

I don't know if you ever tried to leave a gang.

You at least have seen a movie or read a book or know somebody who has.

It's not good.

And it's not easy.

I work at the Overcome Project.

I have a few friends who've been in that life.

It's not easy.

It's hard.

So they come against Gibeon for this betrayal.

And this is consistent too with what I was talking about a second ago, right?

About how when we come to the Lord, people are like, oh dude, I thought I knew you.

Friends who are like, oh yeah, that's cool.

But then all of a sudden your invitations to parties or social gatherings, they start to just kind of dry up.

Right?

Like, hey, what'd you do this weekend?

Nothing?

Really?

Oh yeah, well, I hung out with Joe.

Joe?

Joe?

Yeah, Joe.

Oh.

Oh, okay.

I didn't get the call that I'd normally get.

And you might say it or you might not, but you start to feel that sort of, like I said, that that cold shoulder, that stiff arm, you're like, oh, this is what being Christian's like.

If you're a single person, dude, that's really hard.

It's really hard.

If you have a family and you can go to your wife or your husband or your kids or your, you know, a little bit easier.

But if you are a single person and you start getting the cold shoulder from the people you've been associating with, who's your social circle?

People who found like your faith is no problem with them, but they just want nothing to do with you.

So, not the same level of violence being leveled here, right?

But it hurts nonetheless.

Verse 6 it says, The men of Gibeon, and maybe this will be a clue for us, sent to Joshua at the camp of Gilgal, saying, Do not relax your hand from your servants.

Remember, he's still identifying himself as servants.

They said, We will be your servants, we will cut wood, we will draw water, right?

Don't relax your hand on us yet.

Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us.

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

So I mentioned, what do we do when we're in that place where we feel the cold shoulder from the world, when we feel the out right of the world, being on the outs with the world?

The men of Gibeon, they do the right thing here.

They do.

They call on their new leader, they call on the people of God.

Joshua mobilized the people of war, the warriors, and the mighty men of valor.

The warriors who've done mighty things.

Like he's like, You need our help?

You are us.

You get us, you get all of us.

And I believe, church, that's who we're supposed to be.

Not everyone who comes to Christ is gonna keep all their friends.

They're gonna feel alone, and then they're gonna go through stuff.

Their ties to the world are gonna start to get severed.

And some will lose all of it.

I know people who have given their life to the Lord and they've lost all their friends.

Me, I was naive enough when I was younger.

I was like, I'll just be a Christian and be really cool.

And I'll keep all my friends.

Some of you are probably that cool.

I am not that cool.

I am just not that cool.

I am not cool enough to keep all the other cool kids around me when I'm not doing what they do or talk like they talk or go where they go.

I'm just not that cool.

And quite frankly, I don't really care.

You know, you lose a lot of people around you, and that is hard.

I cannot discount that.

I'm not in that place anymore.

I went through that 25 years ago.

But some of you guys will go through that in 25 days from now if you give your life to the Lord, or if he calls you something, you go, like, man, it's hard to give away your old life.

But you guys need to know, and we need to remember, and they need to know that they can call upon the church.

They can call upon God's people.

That's who we're supposed to be.

That's why fellowship, you guys, is so important.

Coming in here and being the disconnected Christian that comes in, sits in the chair, and then gets up and leaves without opening the window to your soul for other people to see and speak into your life, you're missing something.

Fellowship is not going to church.

Fellowship is deeper than that.

Can you call upon someone?

Do they know that you're a Christian?

Do you know that they are?

Do they know what you're going through?

What battles are coming against your life?

Do you need prayer?

And I'll tell you this much, you guys.

It's not just on them.

We see people go through stuff.

And I'm like, I gotta get to lunch.

My team's playing at one.

They need prayer.

I could tell they're gonna be a that's gonna be a that's gonna be a time suck right there.

Rich, why don't you pray with JP today?

I'm gonna be out.

You know, I'm gonna go this way.

You know, like like we want to offload some of that burden.

I'm telling you guys, it's not just the believer who's hurting, but it's also the church.

If we're not doing our job, they come to us and they go, hey, can you can you help me?

I'm going through something.

And we're like, you know, and we're like, he's not talking to me.

Can't be talking to me.

I don't have time for that.

We need to be more like Joshua.

Joshua says, like, you need help.

What do you need?

Here's all my resources.

Here's everything that I have.

Right?

And what was Joshua?

Joshua, but but just a hand of the Lord.

You're here this morning, so that's probably not you.

We haven't made those same pro those same same uh mistakes.

But if if you're new in the Lord, okay, and that very well could be some of you, or maybe you're not new, but you've been walking for a while, sort of uh a half in, half out, showing up, but not really being known, uh, the battles are gonna come.

The testing is gonna come.

Will you find your safety among the people of God?

Will you find it in your independence?

That's a weird place for some of us who are just real extroverts and need people, but there are people who are like that.

I just do this on my own.

Are you gonna find it in your old friends?

I don't want to make those new connections.

I want Christ, but I want to keep all the old connections.

See, if you find it in your independence, you may.

You might actually be all right.

This is a weird thing to be, okay?

The Lone Ranger Christian.

You might actually be okay.

You know, because God has you.

If you're truly a believer in Christ, nobody's perfect, right?

You might fall into that trap.

Your theology is such that you're like, I don't need the church.

I don't need people.

I go there, and some of them are judgy, and then some of them are hypocritical, and then some of them aren't like walking according to the way they're supposed to be walking, and then the preacher's confusing.

You know, like but you're gonna work so hard at keeping yourself on track that you are now no longer a blessing to anyone else either.

You are, you're cut off from anybody affecting you, but guess what you can't do?

You can't give, you can't reach out, you can't help.

You're not part of that cycle of what's supposed to actually happen.

All your energy just goes into making sure you're doing the right thing and that your slate is clean before the Lord.

But it's really hard to make progress.

Like you're a closet theologian.

Who are you preaching to?

No one?

Who are you sharing with?

Who are you teaching?

Who are you raising up?

That's where the independence, you gotta be careful of that.

Fellowship is one of the main tools God's given us for our growth.

So, maybe you say, you know what, I'm gonna I'll run to my old friends.

Again, I didn't have great connections in the church.

In fact, I started going to church that was really far away from me.

I didn't have a lot of money.

Getting to church all the time during the week wasn't easy.

And just wasn't, quite frankly, all that practical.

So I had some old friends.

You know, I had people co-workers.

The interesting thing is when you go through a battle, if you run to old friends, they're typically gonna go, oh yeah, come on in.

Come on in.

And they'll open their homes and their as long as you take their advice.

Right?

They'll they'll tell you, you know what you need to do, you need to practice some mindfulness or some meditation, you know, you need to, you need something like that.

You know, they're gonna give you some worldly counsel, but they don't have any regard for the ways of God.

So if you show up and you're like, yeah, what about praying?

And they're like, dude, you should read this book.

You should check out this podcast.

This book and this podcast, together with some mindfulness practices, journaling consistently, man.

If you're not consistent, it ain't gonna work.

This is the type of advice that they're gonna give you.

They're not gonna recommend the word of God.

They're not gonna recommend fellowship, they're not gonna, they're gonna recommend the the word of God, they're gonna want words of men.

They're gonna be like, this guy, this doctor, this psychologist, this person, right?

Maybe they're the, you know, this is the not the age I'm at anymore, but maybe they're just gonna recommend, you know what you need?

You know, you're you need a girl's trip.

A girl's trip will be a great reset, or a guy's trip.

Let's get the boys together and let's all go to Nashville.

Somebody's like, oh, convicted.

And that's that's an option.

But if those people are not of the Lord, pretty soon what you find is that light within you gets snuffed out.

Again, you may have this ember inside of you that's the Lord and salvation, but it's not doing anything.

You're not blessing anyone, you're not blessing the Lord.

And these aren't really hypotheticals.

You guys, some of us in here have made those mistakes.

Raise your hand.

No, I'm just kidding.

You can.

Okay, great.

That's great.

Okay, cool.

I knew it hit somebody.

Yeah, but I got this.

I got this.

It only gets so far before leading towards emptiness.

The half-in, half-out mistake.

There is perhaps nobody more miserable on planet Earth than the one who holds on to Jesus internally and privately, but then publicly just follows the course of the world.

Looks like the world.

I'd really just want my cake and eat it too.

But you guys, the Gibeonites in this new covenant have shown us such a better way.

They're not perfect.

Right?

We we saw that already.

They're not perfect.

But what would they do?

They ran to the Lord and the resources he has.

Do not relax your hand from your servants.

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

Everyone is coming against us.

This would test the alliance, right, of Joshua.

They've been friends now for like 10 minutes.

And it started with a lie.

These guys pretend to be poor and travelers.

This is a great way just to let them learn their lesson.

Get rid of a problem.

We haven't even been on like a softball team yet together.

You know, or invite him to our fantasy football league.

That's not what happens, though.

Joshua mobilizes.

He and all his best men show up.

I hope we're like that church.

I really do.

I hope that reflects rest life.

I hope that reflects every Bible-believing church out there, everybody who's been transformed by the Holy Spirit, that they show up when the people of God need them.

It's not that their faith is too small that they need you.

You are what God put in their life that they need.

Don't get it twisted and think that you won't be there someday.

Because your faith is so strong.

And you are so good that you're like, oh yeah, I'm not gonna ask for help.

That way, when people ask me for help, I don't have to help them.

I can just say, you need to get right with the Lord.

You have a I have somebody in my life who's very close to me right now going through massive marriage issues.

And like, dude, you've got to put yourself around people of God who care about the outcome of your marriage and who love you and love the Lord.

You know what he said to me?

If God's gonna fix this, he's just gotta come in and do it in our hearts.

No way.

No way.

God is wanting to use people.

You know why he says that?

He's been bouncing around churches for the last 10 years, never put down roots, not known, afraid to show people who he is, living on the persona of how everyone thinks he is.

We can't fall into that trap, you guys.

Verse 8, and Joshua, excuse me, and the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands.

Not a man of them shall stand before you.

Five kings rallying together.

They've decided to reject the pagan ways.

Okay, that's what they're doing, and make covenant with the people of God.

And they get the whole army.

We talked about that.

And that's great, but what they get more than that, and this is what it shows us in verse 8, is they get more than the whole army of God.

They get the prophetic promise of Yahweh.

That's the word for Lord there.

That is better.

That is the power.

We know that Joshua's army can get defeated.

It got defeated by I.

But with the Lord, that's what they're getting.

They're getting the promise of God.

And Joshua hears the word of the Lord.

Victory is going to be theirs.

Yeah.

Joshua still shows up.

Yeah.

Joshua still marches through the night.

The horse is still prepared for battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.

It's by faith that we move and work out that victory with fear and trembling before the Lord.

And then we see the battle here.

It ensues here in verse 9.

So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal, and the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them all the way by the way of the ascent to Beth Haran, and struck them as far as Azekah and Mekeda.

And they fled before Israel while they were going down the ascent of Beth Haran.

The Lord threw down large hailstones, or large stones from heaven, on them as far as Azekah, and they died.

There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with a sword.

The Lord, you guys, is the star of the show here.

It's not the valiant army.

Yes, they showed up.

But what happened?

More died from the hailstones than from all these mighty warriors, than all the men of valor.

The Lord threw them into a panic.

The Lord threw down the hailstones.

At that time, verse 12, Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the Son of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon in the valley of Ajelon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped until the enemies took vengeance on their enemies, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Is this not written in the book of Jeshar?

The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a 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.

So Joshua is in the midst of this battle, and he knows that victory is his.

And he's learning, like us, slowly to inquire of the Lord, to petition the Lord, who goes before him, who fights for him, gives victory over enemies, and has told him personally, we know, to be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go, and he has become bold in his prayer.

He's marched through the night.

And I don't know if it's out of being tired and not wanting this to go on forever.

He asks the Lord to make the sun and the moon just stop and stand still until the battle is won.

And that says in verse 13 that the sun and moon stopped until they had taken vengeance on their enemies.

He has bold prayer gets a bold answer.

It does.

That's what we see here.

And I think we need to take a page out of Joshua's book.

Oh, that's really fun.

This is a book.

Take a page out of Joshua's book.

And how to fight sin in our own life.

How to fight the battles in our own heart.

Don't raise your hand.

Anybody fighting some of the same battles?

Been fighting some of the same battles for a long time?

In your own heart?

Our identity, our finances, our eyes, our selfishness, our anger.

We can ask for things.

Bold prayer.

Prayers that reflect a big faith.

I think that we don't ask for things like that because we don't think the Lord can deliver.

Like I.

This alcohol, it's never gonna go away.

It's been something I've dealt with for my whole life.

And now I'm approaching 50 or 20.

And you think that all of a sudden like you can't you can't be beaten.

If you think that God is not capable of healing you from the sickness or or the addiction or the substance or the old relationship, then you won't pray like that.

You don't think he can get a hold of your narcissism and your anger?

So you don't lift it up to him.

And the sun standing still, the moon holding its place for a whole day?

I'm supposed to pull from this how I'm supposed to pray?

Come on.

What a joke.

Because if you struggle with Genesis chapter one, in the beginning, God spoke, then you will struggle with this.

If you can accept Genesis one, then you can accept this.

The world-creating God of the whole universe, who upholds all things by the word of his power, he's not relegated to the unknown aspects of science that we haven't figured out yet.

We can't just go, yeah, dark matter.

You guys know about dark matter?

Two-thirds of the gravity we can measure in space.

We don't know where it comes from.

And we go, that must be God.

The gravity we know how it works.

Guess what?

That's also God.

It's not just the unknown areas that he's Lord over or he shows up in.

It's all areas.

He governs over the rules that we think we know.

Well, this is how this works.

The earth spins at 30,000 miles an hour, whatever the heck it is.

Some of you guys are a lot smarter than me, and you just rattle off stuff like that.

How's anything to stop?

Because if it stopped, everything would just fly apart.

Gravity would stop, and the earth would just explode.

Really?

That's what you think you know.

But God, when he steps in, things work differently.

You know if you have faith of a mustard seed, and you say that mountain to move over there, it'll move.

We don't talk like that to the Lord in prayer.

Because oftentimes we don't believe.

For me, I believe Genesis 1.

But sometimes I don't pray like that because I don't think God's going to move like that for me.

He might do that for someone else, but he's not going to move like that for me.

And I don't know if you guys are in that place, but he will move for you if we call upon him.

The Gibeonites were a mess.

They weren't special.

They hadn't done anything amazing for the Lord yet.

They hadn't gone and defeated, they hadn't done anything.

They didn't even come to him the right way.

Like, help.

And the Lord goes, Yes.

And he moves.

That's incredible.

That is literally incredible.

And it goes to show that we don't serve a God who looks at us and goes, like, well, you haven't done anything yet, and you aren't worthy of my love and affection.

You call upon him like he is God and you have nothing in humility and he shows up.

Who looks good in this story?

Him.

When you go, yeah, I called upon the Lord, and he answered.

Why'd he answer?

I'm just a pretty good dude.

You know, I try to do my best and I'm pretty smart.

Oh, this sounds like a story about you.

This is a story about God.

So let us have faith that trusts and stands upon his promises and the fact that he does mighty things.

Not that we are so deserving of mighty things.

It's almost funny.

In this, uh, is this not written in the book of Jashar?

The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a 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.

The book of Jashar is what most scholars just think is a collection of writings and songs and different things that these guys would have understood and be able to reference.

And there's been no day like it before or since.

And you guys, you know what?

There are things that sometimes I think that when we get to heaven, we'll have speculated about how it worked.

How it actually worked.

Is there a natural explanation for how the sun stood still?

And if you look and you research, you'll find there's different theories that a comet came so close to the earth that it kind of shifted the axis, so we leaned into the sun a little bit longer, and just that couple degrees created a longer day for that portion of the world.

Possible.

Possible.

Some say because of the hailstones, the massive hailstones, it was just like so much of a storm that it appeared dark and almost like the day was longer because the sun never came up.

Possible.

Maybe that 30,000 mile an hour rotation, it could be 3,000, I don't remember.

Okay.

Was just like kind of he put the brakes on it, it just turned a little slower.

Possible.

I don't know how God did it.

How God did it is an okay question when you read something like this.

It totally is.

It's a fair question.

How did God do it?

But the real question this morning is do you believe that God had the power to do it?

See, when we get to heaven, some of these mysteries are going to be a lot more clear.

Oh, Josh, what really happened?

You know?

I still don't know, bro.

Go out.

Like, I don't know how that really goes.

But do we believe that God has the power to do that?

He does.

If he wants to stop the entire universe, fold it into a paper airplane and then unfold it, he can do it.

He can do it.

So, verse 16, I'll move through this a little quicker.

So these five kings fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makeda.

Still no repentance, right?

Still, still no repentance.

400 years of just kind of going their own way, being a pagan, seeing themselves lose, coming against the Lord.

Could have just come, Lord, we're idiots.

We've been doing this for a long time.

Forgive us, total surrender.

Nope.

We're gonna hide.

And that'll work.

It was told to Joshua the five kings have been found hidden in the cave of Mekeda, and Joshua said, roll a large stone against the mouth of the cave and set men to guard it.

But don't stay there yourselves.

So he secures the high value targets, but then continues.

In battle, pursue your enemies.

It goes on in verse 19.

Attack the rear guard, do not let them enter the 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, and they were wiped out, and when the remnant of them had entered into fortified cities, then all people returned safe to Joshua in the camp of Mekeda.

Not a man moved his tongue against the people of Israel.

No one spoke against Joshua and his people.

They saw that the Lord was with them.

Those people?

The Lord's with them.

Can't argue with that.

Matthew 16, 16, and verse 18.

Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

And Jesus in verse 18 answered back to him, and I tell you, you Peter, you are Peter, and on this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

When the people of God walk in the will of God, we get to witness the power of God and experience the deliverance of God.

So the Lord is saying if you want to see more power, more deliverance, more victory, we need to be careful and examine ourselves as a church.

Men, a little bit more men here than women this morning.

Wonder why?

But not that many more.

I wonder why.

Not calling out any lazy men out there, just saying.

Kind of an interesting statistic.

Statistics can be bent and twisted, you know?

But I'm just saying.

Are we walking in the will of God?

That's the question.

Is there something inside these four walls or inside our heart that we've adopted from the world?

A priority?

An attitude?

A posture that's not really for us as believers.

It's hindering us from what we could be seeing and experiencing of God.

And you guys, honestly, I'm not here this morning.

Sometimes I do this and I think I overstep.

So your pastor admitting that at times I can overstep.

I'm not here to point fingers and tell you what that is.

I'm not.

I'm here trying to point you to Jesus and to his word and encourage you to listen to the Holy Spirit.

Where are we not experiencing God because we're not walking in alignment to him?

But walking, as Ephesians 2 would say, following the course of the world.

In what areas of our own life are we doing that?

Because the rest of this chapter, I just I don't have time to go through it in detail.

But it shows a brutal conquest over the seven remaining cities in Canaan, in southern Canaan.

It says it here.

It says, Then Joshua said, Open the mouth of the cave, and we'll see what happens to these five kings here in just a second.

And they did so, and they brought those five kings out to him from the cave, and the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lashish, and the king of Eglon.

And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men who of war who had gone with him, Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings.

Then they came near and put their feet on their necks, and Joshua said to them, Do not be afraid or dismayed, be strong, courageous, for the Lord your for the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.

And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees, and they hung on the trees until evening, made an example of them.

But at the time of the going down of the sun, Joshua, but at the time of the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves, and they set large stones against the mouth of the cave, which remain to this very day.

As for Mekeda, Joshua captured it on that day and struck it, and its king with the edge of the sword.

He devoted to destruction every person in it.

He left none remaining, and he did to the king of Mekedta just as he did, just he had done to the king of Jericho.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Machetta to Libna and fought against Libna.

And the Lord gave it also, and it gave it also and its king to the hand of Israel, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it.

He left none remaining in it, and he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libna to Lashish, and the Lord seed laid siege, and laid siege to it, and fought against it.

And the Lord gave Lashish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libna.

Then Haram, king of Gezer, came up to Lashish, and Joshua struck him and his people until he left none remaining.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lashish to Eglon, and they laid siege to it and fought against it, and they captured it on that day, and they struck it with the edge of the sword, and devoted every person in it to destruction that day, as he had done to Lashish.

Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron, and they did the same thing there.

And then in verse 38, they did it to Deber, and then it says in verse 40: So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and Negeb, and the lowlands and the slopes, and all their kings, and he left none remaining, but devoted to destruction, all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded.

And Joshua struck them from Kadesh, Barnea, 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, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.

Then Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the camp of Gilgal.

Church, we want to see victory over the sin and in the battles in our own life.

But oftentimes I don't think we're willing to make war with those sinful areas.

One of my favorites, and I quote him probably too often, but John Piper puts it like this.

I hear so many people murmuring, why am I this way?

Murmur, murmur, murmur.

I invite you guys to make war on your sin.

Be brutal against it.

People are not your enemy.

My enemy is me and my flesh.

Yours is yours and your flesh.

Your sweet, beautiful kids, theirs is theirs and their flesh.

We are all sinful.

All of us are sinful.

If I told that to my mom right now, mom, my biggest problem is me.

She would look at me and go, you're there's nothing wrong with you.

She would admit there's something wrong with her.

But to see me that way, God pulls no punches, guys.

I need to make war against the sin in my own heart.

And yes, there is victory.

That's the good news.

There is victory in Jesus.

The cross, our sin has been paid for.

It has.

Our guilt removed.

Condemnation was born on Christ, by Christ.

Our sin separated as far as the east as from the west, it says.

But like Joshua, we still have to walk in faith and by the Spirit make war on sin while still trusting the Lord for victory in Christ.

It's a weird paradox.

It's already been secured through his death and resurrection.

Just like Joshua had already been promised victory, but what do you have to do?

He had to go and take it.

Guys, we have victory in Jesus.

The cross has paid it all.

And we then just get to go and work from a place of victory.