["Pomp and Circumstance"]
The faith by which they conquer death, Is still our shining shield.
Faith is the victory, Faith is the victory,
Oh glorious victory, That overcomes the world.
On ev'ry hand the foe we find, Drawn up in dreary rain.
Let tense of deeds be left behind, And hunger to the fray.
Salvation's helmet on each head, With truth offered above.
The earth shall tremble near our tread, And echo with a shout.
Faith is the victory, Faith is the victory,
Oh glorious victory, That overcomes the world.
To him that overcomes the foe, White raiment shall begin.
Before the angels he shall go, His name confess in heaven.
Then on earth from the hills of light, Our hearts full of the flame,
We'll vanquish all the hosts tonight, In Jesus' hungry name.
Faith is the victory, Faith is the victory,
Oh glorious victory, That overcomes the world.
If there's somebody here that's not saved, I pray that they would get saved,
That the message would touch their hearts, And that it would lead them,
I want to know more about your son Jesus Christ.
And we pray that you please just bless us Lord God now,
In Jesus' name, Amen.
You may be seated. Song number 17, one day.
Song number 17, turn to your left. Song number 17.
Song number 17, one day.
Song number 17, we'll sing it on that first verse.
One day when heaven was filled with his praises,
One day when sin was as dark as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin.
Well, Thomas, man, my example is he,
Living he loved me, dying he saved me,
Buried he carried my sins far away,
Rising he justified, freely forever,
One day he's coming, Oh glorious day.
One day they led him up Calvary's mountain,
One day they held him to die on the tree,
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected,
Burying our sins, my Redeemer is he,
Living he loved me, dying he saved me,
Buried he carried my sins far away,
Rising he justified, freely forever,
One day he's coming, Oh glorious day.
One day they left him alone in the garden,
One day he rested from suffering free,
Angels came down, or is doomed to keep vigil,
Hope of the hopeless, my Savior is he,
Living he loved me, dying he saved me,
Buried he carried my sins far away,
Rising he justified, freely forever,
One day he's coming, Oh glorious day.
One day the grave could conceal him no longer,
One day the stone rolled away from the door,
Then he arose over death he had conquered,
Now is ascended by Lord evermore,
Living he loved me, dying he saved me,
Buried he carried my sins far away,
Rising he justified, freely forever,
One day he's coming, Oh glorious day.
One day the trumpet will sound for his laughing,
One day the skies with his glories will shine,
Wonderful day my Beloved is one ringing,
Glorious Savior this Jesus is mine,
Living he loved me, dying he saved me,
Buried he carried my sins far away,
Rising he justified, freely forever,
One day he's coming, Oh glorious day.
We are currently going through the book of 1st Samuel and so I hope to see you there for our Bible study.
We are a family integrated church so just to give you a heads up you know the kids stay with us in the service
and so if you hear them you know kind of make a childish sound or something like that don't worry about that that's typically that's normal at our church.
Now we do recommend that if the if a child's kind of getting in a hand crying a little bit or a lot should I say
we do have mother baby rooms located in the back you can take your children to their speakers as well as monitors in those rooms
and then when you feel ready to come bring them back in you can do so there are changing tables available in those rooms as well should you need them
and then you see the so many times and teams the list of expecting mothers if you can continue to pray for them
and then some of the important reminders there at the bottom please make sure that you are supervising your children in the building
no children should be in the mother baby room or any other room alone without their parents for that matter
and then some of the upcoming church events of course today is Father's Day most important day of the year amen
and so happy Father's Day to all the dads hope you got your cup and your gift card inside the cup if you have not done so you can go to the back in the foyer
after the service and pick up one if you'd like but happy Father's Day to you and then we have the ladies prayer breakfast coming up on Saturday June 25th
the July birthday breakfast and Judea soul winning on Sunday July 3rd 4th of July picnic on the 4th at eucalyptus park
and then we have a samaria admissions trip coming up on Saturday July 30th and so we'll give you more details about that as we approach that date
no food to drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee please make sure you're not loitering in the fellowship or foyer during the preaching service
and then of course quiet time is from 3 p.m. to 4.15 throughout the whole building on Sundays so keep that in mind and make sure you silence your phones during the preaching
so as to not be a distraction during the service let's go to see our next song I'm bound for the kingdom raise your hand if you did not get a song sheet I'm bound for the kingdom
Amen so I'm bound for the kingdom we're gonna sing the song right here sitting on that first verse
you may ask me where I'm headed you may ask me where I'm bound well I'm going to a country across the sea
and I know I'll have a mansion and I know I'll have a crown well I'm bound for the kingdom of the free
yes I'm
to a country
I'm bound for the kingdom of the free
yes I'm bound for the kingdom of the blessed and the free
and by Jesus soon is coming after me
there is nothing to compare with the glory over there
yes I'm bound for the kingdom of the free
Amen wonderful singing at this time our ushers will be receiving the offering and please turn your Bibles to Joshua chapter 10
so
in Joshua chapter number 10 this morning
now it came to pass when Adonai Zadak king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai and 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 there were mighty
wherefore Adonai Zadak king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron and unto Pirim king of Jarmoth and unto Jephiah king of Lachish and unto Deber king of Egalon
saying come up with me and help me that we may smite Gibeon for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel
therefore the five kings of the Amorites the king of Jerusalem the king of Hebron the king of Jarmoth the king of Lachish the king of Egalon
gathered themselves together and went up they and all their hosts and encamped before Gibeon and made war against it
the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal saying slack not thy hand from thy servants 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
so Joshua ascended from Gilgal he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor and the Lord said unto Joshua
fear them not for I have delivered them into thine hand there shall not a man of them stand before thee
Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly and went up from Gilgal all night and the Lord discomfited them before Israel and slew them with a great slaughter of Gibeon
and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon and smote them to Ezekiel unto Makeda
and it came to pass as they fled from before Israel and were in the going down to Beth-horon
that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Ezekiel and they died
they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword
then spake Joshua to the Lord in that day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel
and he said in the sight of Israel son stand now still upon Gibeon and now moon in the valley of Ialem
and the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies
is not this written in the book of Jasher? so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hated not to go down about a whole day
and there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man
for the Lord fought for Israel Joshua returned and all Israel with him unto the camp to Gilgal
but these five kings fled and hid themselves in a cave at Makeda
and it was told Joshua saying the five kings are found hid in a cave at Makeda
and Joshua said roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave and set men by it for to keep them
and stay ye not but pursue after your enemies and smite the hindmost of them
suffer them not to enter into their cities for the Lord your God hath delivered them into your hand
and it came to pass when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter
till they were consumed that the rest which remained of them entered into the fenced cities
and all the people returned to the camp to Joshua and Makeda in peace
none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel
then said Joshua open the mouth of the cave and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave
and they did so and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave
the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmoth, the king of Lachish and the king of Egon
and it came to pass when they brought out those kings unto Joshua
that Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him
come near put your feet upon the necks of these kings
and they came near put their feet upon the necks of them
Joshua said unto them fear not nor be dismayed be strong and of good courage
for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight
and afterward Joshua smote them and slew them and hanged them on five trees
and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening
and it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun that Joshua commanded
and they took them down off the trees and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid
and laid great stones in the cave's mouth which remain unto this very day
and that day Joshua took Makeda and smote it with the edge of the sword
and the king thereof he utterly destroyed them and all the souls that were therein
he let none remain and he did to the king of Makeda as he did unto the king of Jericho
then Joshua passed from Makeda and all Israel with him unto Libnah and fought against Libnah
and the Lord delivered it also and the king thereof into the hand of Israel
and he smote it with the edge of the sword and all the souls that were therein
he let none remain in it but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho
Joshua passed from Libnah and all Israel with him unto Lachish and he camped against it and fought against it
and the Lord delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel which took it on the second day
and smote it with the edge of the sword and all the souls that were therein
according to all that he had done unto Libnah
then Horem king of Gezer came up to help Lachish and Joshua smote him and his people
until he left him none remaining
and from Lachish Joshua passed unto Egon and all Israel with him
and they encamped against it and fought against it
and they took it on that day and smote it with the edge of the sword
and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day
according to all that he had done to Lachish
Joshua and Joshua went up from Egon and all Israel with him unto Hebron
and they fought against it and they took it and smote it with the edge of the sword
and the king thereof and all the cities thereof and all the souls that were therein
he left none remaining according to all that he had done to Egon
but destroyed it utterly into all the souls that were therein
Joshua returned, dollars are with them, to Deber, and fought against it.
And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls of where they are in.
He left none remaining. As he had done to Hebron, so he did to Deber, and to the king thereof, as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.
So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings.
He left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded.
Joshua smote them from Kadesh Barnea, even unto Geza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon.
And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.
Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, under the camp to Gilgal.
Let's pray, dear Lord God. We thank you for this opportunity to gather for the preaching of your word.
We ask that you be with Pastor Mahia now. Please strengthen him, fill him with your Holy Spirit.
And please just help us to be edified thereby, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Okay, we are in Joshua chapter 10, and look down at your Bibles at verse number 1.
It says, And it came to pass, when Adonai-Zedek 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.
This morning, we're actually going to continue with our series entitled Epic Wars in the Bible.
And I thought to myself, you know, I should preach a Father's Day sermon, preach against the dads,
and tell them to be better dads, and we need to be better dads, and be nice to your wives.
But I think I'm going to give the dads a break this morning, and I think every dad enjoys a good war story anyways. Amen.
And so we're going to continue with wars in the Bible, and so I'm sure I'll apply something about dads throughout the sermon.
I'll figure something out, but we'll see.
So this morning, we're going to continue with Epic Wars in the Bible, covering some of the most legendary wars in the Word of God,
and extracting spiritual principles from them.
And so this morning, we're going to continue with Adonai-Zedek and Joshua versus Joshua.
Now, what's going on here in these specific chapters?
Of course, the book of Joshua is essentially the time period in the history of Israel where they're going into the Promised Land,
also known as Canaan Land.
And what God wants them to do is to inherit this land.
He wants them to conquer it, but obviously they have to put some effort into it, right?
It's not like they just walk into the land, and it's just given to them.
All these cities are theirs.
They don't have to do anything on their part to obtain it.
They actually have to go to war, they have to battle, they have to fight, and actually, in a sense, earn it.
And so that's what we see here, and up until this point, the children of Israel have already conquered Jericho,
and then they had the mishap at Ai.
What happened was that at Jericho, they conquered Jericho, and God specifically tells them,
hey, don't touch up the accursed thing.
In other words, you're going to see some Babylonish garments, you're going to see some spoils.
Don't touch the spoils.
The spoils belong unto the Lord.
Whosoever touches it is going to be cursed.
So then you have a guy by the name of Achan who goes into one of these tents.
He sees the Babylonish garment.
He sees the treasures, and he looks left, he looks right, but he forgets to look up, right?
And he basically takes them unto himself.
He takes them to his own tent, and he buries them under the earth, which, by the way, is kind of ridiculous if you think about it.
You steal this Babylonish garment, you take the silver and gold, and you can't even enjoy it.
Which, by the way, is a good principle that when you commit sin, you get to commit the sin,
but you can't really enjoy it because it's not a good thing to do.
There's consequences that come with it.
And so he does that, and of course the Lord reveals to Joshua that there is sin in the camp,
there is an accursed thing in the camp, and it's Achan.
And to make a long story short, Achan is Achan at the end of that story.
Because they stone him with stones, they destroy him to remove the accursed thing from Israel.
And one of the reasons why it came to that point was because of the fact that no one had the idea that
someone had taken it from the accursed thing until they went up to go fight up against Ai.
So Ai was actually a smaller city than Jericho.
And so Joshua thought, well, we'll just send a couple thousand guys there or a couple of soldiers there.
It's going to be easy to take over.
But because they didn't have God's favor with them, they essentially were just destroyed,
they were ashamed, they were embarrassed because of the fact that God allowed them to suffer defeat because of their sin.
So Joshua comes to God and he's just like, oh Lord, and he's just kind of been repenting.
And the Lord basically says, get up, go take care of the sin in the camp, come back to me,
and then we'll go back and take over Ai.
So that's exactly what happens.
They essentially remove Achan and his family from the camp.
They go back to Ai, they destroy Ai, they overcome Ai, they conquer Ai.
And now we get to this particular point.
Now Gibeon was another city that they were supposed to conquer.
Of course, all those lands were supposed to take over.
And the Gibeonites, not to be mistaken with Gibeah, Benjamin, Gibeon is a land of essentially the Hivites.
And so they hear about this and they're like, oh no, they're going to come after us next.
And Gibeon is a very large city.
So what the Gibeonites end up doing is acting like they come from a far country
and they end up lying and saying they come from a far country and hey, they need food, they need water,
they want to enjoin themselves through the children of Israel.
And they deceive Joshua and the Israelites into thinking that they're from some foreign land
when really they were the Gibeonites.
And the reason they did that is because they didn't want Joshua to whoop them.
They wanted essentially to be shown mercy, but they did it in a deceitful way
where they acted like they were part of another foreign nation.
And so this takes place.
So what happens is Joshua makes a league with the Gibeonites.
And they weren't supposed to do that.
They weren't supposed to be making any type of affinity or leagues with the heathen, so to speak.
And so they make this league with them.
They essentially start working for them.
They live among them.
And then what happens is the surrounding nations of the kings of Jerusalem
and the five kings that we look at here of the Amorites,
they hear about Gibeon making a league with Joshua and they're like, oh, we've got to go to war.
We have to try to fight against Gibeon because of the fact that they feared Joshua and the Israelites greatly.
So we've got to get rid of Gibeon because they've enjoined themselves to Joshua and they're going to take us over.
So essentially the war that we see in Joshua chapter 10 is a byproduct of the Gibeonites making,
or should I say the Israelites making an infinity or a league with the Gibeonites.
And that's one of my points that I'm going to make later on.
And so that's where we find ourselves here.
Adonai Zidek is essentially the king of Jerusalem.
He rallies these kings, these five kings of the Amorites to fight against Joshua and Israel.
And that's where we find ourselves.
Now, why is this battle epic?
What makes this battle epic?
Well, look at verse 14.
You know, I'll tell you why this battle is so epic.
It's literally because the Bible says it's epic.
Because look what it says in verse 14.
And there was no day like it, that before or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.
God is saying there was no day like this war.
There was no miracle that was performed, likened unto the war that we see here before it or even after it.
And in fact, there isn't a case where you have the Lord obeying the voice of a mortal man to perform such a supernatural act so that they can win a war.
And let me just say this is that Joshua in the Old Testament is a picture of Jesus Christ.
And in fact, another way of saying Jesus is Joshua.
But Joshua is a picture of Jesus Christ.
And essentially, the book of Joshua is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ when he comes to set up his millennial reign in the future.
Because when Jesus Christ comes to set up his millennial reign, he's essentially conquering the lands of this world and subjecting the heathen unto himself and unto the laws of God.
And so don't worry about whatever law is being passed right now or that we've got wicked magistrates.
One day we're going to take over.
And we don't have to do anything on our part.
This is something that is inevitable because of the fact that Jesus Christ himself, the Bible says that the government shall be upon his shoulders.
And I'm sure the gas prices aren't going to be that bad in those days.
But what we see here is that he pictures Jesus because in the millennial reign, that's essentially what we're going to be doing.
Subjecting the people.
And in fact, the Bible says that God's people will rule the nations with a rod of iron.
And that's what it's referring to.
But I want you to notice, go to John chapter 12, if you would.
Keep your place there in Joshua chapter 10.
And go to John chapter 12 because it says here that Joshua essentially asked the Lord to still the sun and the moon during this great battle, during this great war.
And the Lord hearkened unto Joshua in this particular petition that he had.
Look at John chapter 12 verse 27.
It says here, Now is my soul troubled in verse 27 of John chapter 12.
Now is my soul troubled.
And what shall I say?
Father, saving from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father glorify thy name.
Then then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
The people, therefore, that stood by heard it and said it, excuse me, said that it thundered.
Others said an angel speak to him.
Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sake.
So we see the parallel there between Joshua and Jesus, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of Jesus just as he hearkened to the voice of Joshua.
Now I want you to notice that he said this voice didn't come because of me.
It came for your sakes.
Well, in like manner with Joshua, the miracle that was performed wasn't necessarily for Joshua's sake.
It was for Israel's sake.
To increase their faith in God, but also to magnify Joshua in the sight of all the people.
To establish that he was a man of God.
To establish that he had God's favor.
To show that this is a man whom God has deputized to obtain this leadership position and to conquer these lands.
Go back to Joshua, if you would.
Chapter number 10.
And so it's an epic battle because the Bible says that it's an epic battle, but also because God intervened by means of a supernatural and cosmic miracle.
Which we're going to look at in just a bit.
Now let me give you a couple principles from this particular story that we can learn from.
Number one, let me say this, is that what can we learn from this battle?
Well, number one is that sometimes we ask for the wrong things, but still get great results.
Now what am I talking about specifically?
Well, as I mentioned, God prevented in this particular battle the celestial bodies from their usual course to assist his people in their conquest.
Look at verse number 12.
So they're fighting against these five kings.
And in verse 12 it says,
Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel.
And he said in the sight of Israel,
Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou moon in the valley of Ijalon.
And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.
Is not this written in the book of Jasher?
So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
So what was the miracle that took place?
Well, Joshua and Israel, they're doing a great job conquering these people, but Joshua was like, we need more time.
We need more daylight.
So in faith, he petitioned for the Lord to essentially stop the celestial bodies, right?
The heavenly bodies, the sun, essentially the entire solar system from moving in order to keep it as day so they can continue to fight.
It's a great miracle.
Now, let me just chase a little rabbit trail here.
Because of the fact that Flat Earthers, I know this is a Father's Day sermon, but you chose to come.
Flat Earthers will try to use this as a biblical text to teach geocentricity.
Whereas, of course, the Bible explicitly teaches a heliocentric model,
but the geocentric model essentially teaches that all the celestial bodies essentially revolve around the earth.
So they believe that Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto,
Pluto is not even considered a planet anymore,
and the sun all revolve around the earth.
This is what they teach.
And more specifically, the Christian Flat Earthers will say that, well, the sun and the moon, they're not literal celestial bodies.
They're just lights in the sky.
And they'll point to Genesis chapter 1 where God refers to them as lights.
Now, we obviously understand that the reason God refers to them as lights is because of the fact that they emit light, right?
But, folks, just because this light bulb emits light, but there's something physically there, you understand?
So they believe that the sun and the moon aren't celestial bodies but rather lights,
and the course of those lights essentially just kind of go around the flat earth
because they believe that the earth is like a disk, right?
It just kind of sits flat, you know, hangs upon nothing in space.
And then if you ever look at the flat earth model, you have the sun and the moon, and they're just kind of circling the world, okay?
That's how they view it.
So they'll look at a passage like this, and they'll actually use this passage to try to basically prove their point
because of the fact that it's like, well, why would Joshua say,
Sun, stand out still if the earth is revolving around the sun and the moon is revolving around the earth
and all the planets revolve around the sun?
Why would Joshua tell the earth to stand still?
The reason he's telling the sun to stand still is because it's the sun that's revolving around the earth, right?
That's what they claim.
Now, folks, you know, it doesn't take a theologian to see what's taking place here, okay?
Because what Joshua's doing, or as the Bible's describing it, is from Joshua's perspective.
Now, let me just show you the inconsistency in their rationale
because they're claiming that because Joshua said, Sun, stand out still, oh, there you go.
You know, checkmate right there.
That shows that the sun revolves around the earth.
Well, look at verse 27 because let's continue with that rationale.
Let's continue with that interpretation, this literal interpretation.
Look at verse 27.
And it came to pass at the time of the what?
The going down of the sun.
Now, folks, according to the flat earth, the sun doesn't go down.
It goes around.
Now, folks, we know that the sun doesn't go down.
Now, it looks like it sets, but we know it's not setting.
It's based upon the earth's axis, and that's why it looks that way, you understand?
And so when Joshua says, Sun, stand out still, obviously he knows that it's not necessarily the sun that's moving.
It's the earth's axis that's making it look like it's actually moving.
For example, you know, sometimes on the car ride home on Sunday nights or Thursday nights,
you know, you'll see the moon, and there's sometimes clouds, right?
And my daughter will always say this, Mom, Dad, the moon is moving!
Because it almost looks like because the clouds are kind of passing through it,
so it kind of gives this, you know, this visual as though the moon is actually moving around.
You understand what I'm saying?
And so this is actually from the perspective of Joshua,
and Joshua is simply stating what he's asking for is just for all the celestial bodies
to just stop moving so they can have more daylight.
But this shows you the inconsistency in their rationale because they don't even believe that the sun goes down.
They don't believe that. They believe it goes around.
So how would you explain verse 27 if that's what you believe in this geocentric model here?
He said, well, you know, the Bible says that the Lord set it upon the circle of the earth, though.
The circle of the earth.
Well, then, my question is, do you believe the Bible teaches a two-dimensional or three-dimensional world?
Now, if you think it teaches a two-dimensional world, then, yeah, that makes sense,
but this isn't a two-dimensional world.
We live in a three-dimensional world.
There's no such thing as, you know, a circle in a three-dimensional world where it's just completely flat.
You understand?
It doesn't exist.
And, in fact, if you look at other languages, Bibles and other languages such as Spanish, okay,
when you read Isaiah 40, verse 22, and all the Spanish Bibles, guess what it says?
Global.
It's the word that it uses, okay?
Well, why does it say globe and the King James?
Because, you know, the King James Bible expects for you to just be smart enough to know that when it says circle,
it's not referring to a two-dimensional object.
You know, the Bible actually, God actually expects for you to have some level of intelligence when you read the Bible,
you know, some common sense, you know what I mean, not to believe this nonsense, okay?
And so, you know, but here's the thing.
Let's extrapolate a principle from this particular thing because Joshua is saying,
Son, stand out still, right?
And what does God do?
He essentially just impedes the celestial bodies in our solar system from moving so as to keep it day,
keep it light so they can conquer their enemy.
Now, what is something that we can learn from this?
Well, you know, it teaches us that sometimes we ask God for specific things with specific results in mind
and God's just kind of like, I know what you mean by that.
Right, yeah.
So let me just help you out here.
Go to Romans chapter 8.
Let me show you an example.
Now, obviously, there's times in the Bible that the Bible tells us, for example, in James chapter 4,
you know, you have not because he asked not.
You have not because he asked amiss that you may consume it upon your own lusts.
So there's obviously times when we ask for the wrong things,
but it's not because we don't have the right intentions.
It's because of the fact that maybe we have an ulterior motive that's not good
and God doesn't give us the petition for which we've asked because it's the wrong thing.
It's like, Lord, please help me to win the lottery.
Please help me to just win the lottery.
Help me to just hit the jackpot.
You know, bless this, you know, poker game and help me to get the right hand.
Obviously, those are wrong things to ask for and you're not going to get it
because you're asking amiss that you may consume it upon your own lusts.
But there's other times that we ask for righteous things,
but we don't necessarily know the details of how to, you know, get to that final destination.
And God has to essentially filter that prayer according to God's will and then give you what you need.
Okay, let me show you an example.
Look at Romans 8 verse 25.
It says, but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities,
for we know not what we should pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit itself maketh intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercessions for the saints according to the will of God.
So what is the Bible saying?
You know, sometimes we intercede, we pray because out of pain, out of necessity,
we desire something that we believe is right that we see according to the Bible,
but we're not necessarily praying the right things, but God essentially filters that prayer.
The Holy Spirit filters the prayer and takes it to the Lord and says this is what he really meant.
This is actually what he really wants, right?
It's like he's asking for this, she's asking for this, but this is actually what they really need, you understand?
Like for example, you know, sometimes you go through a trial and the trial just won't change, right?
The trial just doesn't change, you're just in the same spot,
and there's nothing you can do about changing that situation in your life,
and you're just like, Lord, take away this problem, take away this, you know, fill in the blank,
and then God's just like, I'll just give you peace, how about that?
Because what you need is not for me to remove the problem, what you need is just peace, understand?
So sometimes we pray for specific things, and God's like, taking away the problem doesn't really help you,
because then there are other problems that are going to come.
What you need is just peace, what you need is faith, what you need is to walk with God, those are the things you need.
So often we pray for certain things because we have the right motive,
we want to be able to serve God effectively and be good Christians,
we ask for these things and God basically translates them and helps us to have the actual results that we need, you understand?
Because here's the thing, you know, we ask for blessings sometimes,
but the reality is this, is that some people can't handle some of the blessings of God, as of yet, okay?
Sometimes the blessing is too, you know, too big, too, you know, just too much of a blessing,
and sometimes Christians are not spiritually mature enough to handle that blessing,
so he gives you something that he knows that you need at this moment, you understand?
And so it's important for us to know that, you know, just as Joshua said,
Son, stand now still, God's like, well, what he needs is more light, so he can continue to conquer the enemy so he can win.
He doesn't know anything about, you know, the stars and the moon and the sun and how everything works,
but I know what he means by that, okay?
It's not because Joshua believes in the flat earth.
God's like, I know Joshua doesn't believe in the flat earth, but, you know, I know what he means by that,
and so I'm going to give him what he needs, which is more light to conquer his enemy, okay?
Go back to Joshua chapter 10.
So you know what? It can never go wrong for you when you pray.
Because at the latter end of Romans chapter 8 verse 28, after he says all that, he says this,
All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.
So after he talks about interceding and how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, he says all things work together for good.
So look, if you're right with God, you're reading the Bible, you're in church, you're trying to love the Lord,
you're trying to just be the best Christian you can be, and you're praying, you just can never go wrong with it.
Because as long as your heart is in the right place, spiritually speaking, and you are actively trying to live out the Christian life,
you know, God's going to bless you for that.
He may not give you exactly what you've asked for, but he's going to give you what you need.
And you know what? Sometimes we can get to a place in our Christian life where we can discern the will of God,
where God gives us the right desires, and we do ask for the right things, and then God gives us exactly what we ask for.
But until then, just keep praying, keep asking the Lord, keep petitioning, keep interceding, and God will answer those prayers.
He will give you what you need. He sometimes will even give you what you desire.
And so, that's important. Look at Joshua chapter 10.
The second thing that I want you to know is that victory was dependent upon, listen to this, the presence of the Son.
Look at verse 12 again. It says,
Now, go with me, if you would, to John chapter 9, and then we're going to go to John 15.
Hold your place there. So, let me repeat that again.
Victory was dependent upon the presence of the Son. Now, I don't mean Son, S-U-N.
I mean the Son, S-O-N. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, right?
And so, this is a great picture of the fact that when we're going through spiritual battles, when we're going through spiritual hardships,
we need the presence of Jesus in our lives. We need to make sure that Jesus Christ, that we're living a life that's pleasing unto the Lord, etc.
And in fact, let me read to you from Malachi chapter 4, verse number 2.
And the way it's spelled is capital S-U-N.
Son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and he shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.
So, the Bible refers to Jesus Christ not only as the Son of God, but even as the Son of Righteousness, capital S-U-N.
And you know what? Our Son that's in the solar system is a great picture of that, which is why we should believe a heliocentric model.
Because guess what? Everything revolves around the Son.
Just as everything should revolve around the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, the geocentric model is a selfish model, amen?
It's just all about us, and all about me, and what can God do for me, and what can the moon do for me, and what can the sun do for me?
It's not, hey, ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for the Lord.
You know, at the end of the day, the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the preeminent one.
He's the most important person in the story, and in fact, the entire Bible is about Jesus.
Everything revolves around Jesus Christ.
When you read the Bible, you should look for pictures of Jesus Christ.
Why? Because that's who it's all about.
You know, Jesus, when he's on the road to Emmaus, and he's rebuking his disciples for their lack of faith,
he tells them, O ye fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken,
and he says in beginning of Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Why? Because the entire Old Testament is about Jesus Christ.
The entire Old Testament is about the Lord.
It's about Jesus.
Everything revolves around the sun.
It doesn't revolve around us.
It doesn't revolve around the earth.
It doesn't revolve around the moon.
It revolves around the sun.
Okay, and obviously that's a great picture there, but the point that I'm trying to make here is the fact that
in order for them to be victorious over these five kings, they needed the presence of the sun there.
They needed the sun to literally be there to shine upon them, to be a light unto them,
to guide them in their way in order to have victory over the enemy.
Okay, now we're going to have you turn to John chapter 9.
Look at verse number 1 of John chapter 9.
It says here in verse number 1,
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth, and his disciples asked him,
saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Now, I really think that was just like a really dumb question,
because just listen to the question again.
He said, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
This is like a Catholic doctrine here or something like that?
He said, who did sin, this man?
Because he was born this way, he must have sinned when he was in the womb or something like that.
It's such a nonsensical question.
Look at verse 3.
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents,
but that the works of God should be made manifest in him,
I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.
The night cometh when no man can work.
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
So the Bible's telling us here, while it is day, we should work.
So while there's still light outside, he's saying we should work.
Now, what is he referring to?
He's referring to the fact that while we're still alive, we should seek to do something for God.
And when you think of what Joshua said, when he said, son stand thou still,
he's asking for lengthening of days.
Now this is something that we should pray for as Christians.
We should pray for length of days.
And look, any parent knows sometimes it's just like 24 hours is just not enough time.
Sometimes 24 hours is just not enough time.
Parents or when we're working, whatever it may be,
it's like there could just always be more time.
But the reality is this, that's why we need to ask God to lengthen our days
in order for us to get more done in the amount of time that we have.
To be productive for the Lord, etc.
But on a more spiritual practical level is the fact that we need to take advantage
of the time that we have here on this world to labor for the Lord.
And not waste our time frivolously as Christians just serving our own lusts,
serving our own desires, just doing our own thing,
we should seek to serve God while it is day.
Just as people work throughout the day, as the sun is up and then the sun comes down,
naturally it's supposed to mean that we go to bed and we start a new day.
Well in that manner, while we're alive, we should want to serve the Lord.
Because listen, the night cometh when no man can work.
And a lot of Christians, at the end of their life, they live in regret.
Because of the fact that they didn't serve God in their youth,
and now that they have more wisdom, now that they have more knowledge and more prudence,
they kind of think to themselves, I wish I would have just served God more in my youth.
When I had the energy, when I had the zeal, when I had the physical capabilities to serve God.
And so this message is also for the young people in our church, amen?
Hey, bear the yoke in your youth.
Sow in in your youth.
Serve God in your youth.
Expend your energy for God in your youth.
And you know what, not just the young people, but how about some of your 20 year olds and 30 year olds too?
30 is still young, amen?
Amen?
Yeah, that's right.
I'm 36 and I still have a lot of energy.
And I have to have a lot of energy because I got four little ones.
That require their father to have a lot of energy.
But you know what, how about this, even in your 40s you can have some energy, amen?
I don't know, I'm in my 40s, I'm getting into my 50s.
Then fix your diet, get on carnivore or keto, whatever you have to do.
Fast a little bit, get some more energy to serve God more.
You say, well you know, I think those years are over.
Folks, the day, it's not night yet.
You're still alive.
There's still an opportunity to serve God.
And look, as long as you're alive you can still win someone to Christ.
You can still be a blessing to someone in our church.
There's still purpose to life.
And you should work because the night cometh when no man can work.
And I guarantee you there's many Christians out there who, you know, they kind of give themselves a deadline
and it's just like, you know, in my 50s I'll really get serious about serving God.
Or in my 40s I'll really settle down and just, you know, but you know what, you're not promised tomorrow though.
You're not promised tomorrow and the last thing we want as Christians is just to pass off the scene
and then have all our works burn up at the judgment seat of Christ
knowing full well that we have the opportunity to serve God and we did it.
And look, obviously, you know, we have to serve God in a sense in moderation where we're just not burning out.
Because as Christians you don't want to just burn out in the Christian life.
This is a marathon. It's not a sprint.
It's not like, let me see how much I can get done today.
Well, you know what, get what you can get done today.
Get what you can get done tomorrow and the day after.
Don't burn out in the Christian life.
You know, pace yourself but serve God for the long haul, amen.
Your goal should be, I want to be here at this church or in a church or serving God for decades to come.
I want to be here for decades to come and I want to keep serving God.
Hey look, here's a good way to kind of guarantee that.
It's like, I want to keep serving God so that my kids are serving God.
Right? You know, for parents out there who kind of get discouraged in the Christian life,
you know, if anything, just keep serving God so that your kids are serving God when they're older.
So that you exemplify what it is to be a servant of the Lord so when your kids grow up, they want to serve God too.
Because there's nothing more grievous to a parent to have a child go astray and not serve God.
Well, one of the ways you can prevent that is by you serving God.
And exemplifying that, we obviously know that all children as they grow older have their own volition, etc.
But, you know, let's do our part.
And so, go to John 15 if you would, John chapter 15.
The point that I'm making is that any type of victory in the Christian life is always dependent upon the presence of the Son.
It's dependent upon the presence of Jesus Christ.
And we can't do anything apart from the Lord.
Look at John 15 verse 4 says,
Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, excepted abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches, he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.
Now, what is it saying?
You can't do anything of eternal significance without the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay.
You can't do anything of any value, eternal value, without the Lord.
Okay.
Verse 6 says,
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
Now, people who believe you can lose your salvation will often use a verse like this.
And they over-literalize it where it's just like, okay, are we all branches or something or what?
This is obviously hyperbole here and it's simply a symbolic representation that when you become worthless as a Christian, which the Bible talks about that.
The Bible literally talks about Christians being good for nothing.
Not my words, those are the Bible's words and I agree with them 100%.
But when you become a worthless Christian, you're like a branch that is broken off of the tree.
Right?
You begin to wither and then you're really good for nothing but to just be gathered and be cast into the fire to create warmth or something.
And what the Lord is basically saying is that some Christians become so useless that really God basically just takes them home.
Because our purpose in this life is to maintain good works.
Our purpose in this world is actually to do something for God and not just to be a Christian and just have the name of a Christian and just live a holy life.
That's important.
But all those revolve around the point that we're supposed to be serving God.
You understand?
Making some sort of eternal impact in this world via winning someone to Christ.
Look, that's why our church actively wins souls to Christ every single week.
And we make it in a point to train the people in our church how to preach the gospel.
We're not a church that just talks about preaching the gospel.
We all preach the gospel here.
You know, because sometimes the church is just like, oh, that's the pastor's job.
Or that's the evangelist's job.
That's the deacon's job.
No, that's everyone's job.
Matthew 28, 19 to 20, it's not like go ye therefore pastors and teach all nations.
He's talking to all his disciples.
Responsibility falls upon all Christians to preach the gospel.
And that's why in our church we make it in a point to help you and to train you to equip you
how to open your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel, to get people saved.
Because you know what?
Any Christian who loves the Lord wants to win their family to Christ.
They want to win their friends to Christ.
Or they just want to win people in general to Christ because they have this treasure in earth and vessels.
They want to be able to, you know, open their mouths and talk about the gospel
and know what the Bible says about eternal life and speak with confidence.
They want to do so.
And you know what?
Every Christian wants to be rewarded, too.
Understand?
And the Bible talks about rewards and the life to come.
Well, one of them comes about when we win souls to Christ.
Okay?
Go back to Joshua chapter 9, if you would.
Go to Joshua chapter 9.
And so victory was dependent upon the presence of the Son.
That's why he asked the Son to stand still, to shed light upon them as they fight.
And you know, in the Christian life, that's like us asking the Lord to let His light shine upon us,
which in the Bible is often synonymous with His favor.
Okay?
May your face shine upon us, as it's referring to in the book of Psalms,
it's referring to may God look kindly upon us.
May He favor us as we endeavor to serve Him.
Okay?
But the next thing I want you to notice is that this particular battle was the result of a bad decision.
So even though Jerusalem and the kings of the Amorites in these areas were supposed to be conquered,
the reason the battle was even provoked was because of the fact that the children of Israel made a league with the Gibeonites.
Look at chapter 9 verse 1.
It says,
When all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills and in the valleys and all the coast of the great sea,
over against Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, the Jebusite, heard thereof,
that they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel with one accord.
And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,
they did work willily and went and made as if they had been ambassadors and took old sacks upon their asses and wine bottles,
old and rent and bound up and old shoes and clouded upon their feet and old garments upon them.
And all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.
And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal and said unto him and to the men of Israel,
We become from a far country, now therefore make ye a league with us.
Man, they went through some pretty great lengths here to make it seem as though they weren't the Gibeonites.
OK, now the children of Israel were not supposed to make any leagues with any of the heathen.
God commanded them not to do that, but they did it anyways.
So because of this bad decision that they made in the past,
now they're kind of suffering for it in the future by having to fight for the Gibeonites to kind of help them out because they've already made a league with them.
Which leads me to my next point. Go to Joshua chapter 10.
Now what's the lesson that we can learn there?
You know, sometimes as Christians, the consequences that we're suffering today are often come as a result of the bad decisions that we made yesterday.
Actions have consequences.
And you know, we as Christians can't complain about the fact that we're suffering the consequences when it was you who chose to make the decision yesterday.
And you know, sometimes people just need to face the music.
And you know, they've got to sleep in the bed that they made and not try to run away from their problems,
not try to run away from the consequences of their actions, but just own up to it.
And think, well, you know, why is it for me this way? Why is it going this way? I just love the Lord.
Well, you know, this doesn't prove or disprove that you love the Lord.
It just proves that you made a really dumb decision years ago or something.
But who hasn't made a dumb decision in the past?
We all have made some sort of stupid decision, stupid action that had a consequence of 10 years, of 20 years or whatever it may be.
It's just the sin nature of man.
And this is proof of that.
They wouldn't have had to back up the Gibeonites if they had not made a league with them.
And the point that I'm trying to make is that we as Christians just need to own up to our bad decisions.
Don't blame people for the consequences.
Don't blame your wife.
Don't blame your husband.
Don't blame your state.
Don't blame, you know, your job.
Don't blame your boss.
Don't blame your church.
Don't blame your pastor.
Just own up to it.
Just say, you know, it was my fault.
This is my bad decision.
I did it.
Because we live in a world where they just want to point the finger at everyone else but themselves.
They just want to point the finger at everyone else and say, well, if I had just had this in my life, or if my mom would have just done this, if my dad would have just been this way, well, you know what, get in line.
And time machines don't exist.
So that's out of the question.
So the best thing for you to do is just say, you know what, I messed up, and now it's time to just own up to it.
And instead of exerting all this energy and complaining about the consequences of your action, use that energy to do the best with what you have.
Right?
Got yourself a bad hand in life because of your bad decisions?
Well, ask God for some wisdom to know how to deal with that situation and to play the right cards or do the right deal or whatever.
I don't know, I've never played poker, so I don't really know all the terms with that, okay?
You know, go fish, okay?
Go fish, okay?
And I know that's hard for a lot of people to hear because of the fact that some consequences to some people are worse than others.
But here's the great thing when it comes to being a Christian, is that no matter how bad of a decision we've made in the past,
God can always transform it into something good in the future.
As long as you, you know, issue the right elements and factors and you're serving God, you know, the Bible tells us that he can restore that which the locusts have eaten.
I mean, think about that.
You know, you could have destroyed your resources and your finances or your purity or whatever in times past.
Okay, but you know what, God can restore that which the locusts have eaten.
He can fix it all in the future if you just seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
These things can be added unto you, okay?
But here's the thing is that if you made a bad decision in the past, don't add rebellion to your sin.
So it would have been bad for the Israelites if they made this bad decision and say, we're not going to help you.
You lied to us.
The Gibeonists would have said, well, you made a league with us, though.
You made a league with us.
And it's like, yeah, but we didn't know, though.
So you guys are on your own.
That would have been wrong for the children of Israel to do.
Because essentially they made a covenant before God to make a league with them, even though God didn't approve of it.
They made a covenant before God that they would make a league with these people.
So it's their responsibility to kind of help them out when they're in need.
And it would be wrong for them to just disregard that covenant just because the people deceived them in times past.
Okay, so where are you going with this?
Well, you know, look at verse number six.
Let's read a couple of verses here.
It says in verse six,
Okay, so they're asking for help.
Now, how do we apply this?
Well, just because you made a bad decision in the past doesn't mean you should use it as an excuse to just keep making bad decisions.
You know what I mean? Because sometimes people will do that.
Well, this is just how I grew up.
This is just how I was taught.
I can't change anything.
Yeah, you can.
You know, just because your mom and dad or your aunt and uncle were alcoholics doesn't mean you have to be an alcoholic.
Did you know that?
Just because your brother or sister introduced marijuana to your life doesn't mean that you have to continue that cycle.
Whatever vice that your family or friends introduced to you prior to Christ or maybe even during when you were saved doesn't mean you have to continue that today.
Don't add rebellion to your sin by saying, well, I made a mistake back here.
These are the cards that I was dealt with back here, so I'm just going to continue to make these mistakes.
Folks, that's nonsense.
Just because your family was violent in times past doesn't mean you have to be violent.
Just because, and we could just go down the line of all types of things that maybe your family or my family has done in the past, it doesn't mean we have to be guilty of that.
We can change that in the future, my friends.
Don't use the character flaws of your past, of your family, to make an excuse why you're still losing today.
You know, your family might have been a family of losers.
But does that mean you have to be?
Well, I mean, I have the family name. It doesn't matter. You're a Christian. You're a son of God.
You're a child of God. You're a daughter of God. You have the Bible. God has a higher standard of living for you.
He wants to bless your life. He wants you to be a successful person. You don't have to adhere to those failures.
I mean, own up to them and say, yeah, that happened in my past, but it doesn't mean it has to be your present, though.
Hey, you know, you might have, let me just say, this is uncomfortable for some people sometimes.
You might have made a mistake, or you might have thought you made a mistake in marrying a particular person, right?
Because you made a covenant with someone, and now you feel like you just want to back out of that marriage.
You know what? Own up to it. Own up to it.
And, you know, my father-in-law used to say this, you know, maybe they weren't the will of God before, but they are now.
He says they are now. Because, you know, there's bumps in the road in marriage.
No marriage is just like a bed of roses. It doesn't exist. There's no such thing as this Disney marriage out there.
Where you live happily ever after, the frog turns into a prince, and the, whatever, sleeping beauty wakes up.
Sleeping beauty didn't wake up that way. Come on. Nobody wakes up like that. It's all fantasy, my friends.
The reality is this, is that we all have issues we have to deal with in our marriage.
When the Gibeonites, known as our spouse, okay, just to put it, you know, in these terms here,
you know, they come to us, we can't say, well, I thought you were a different person.
Well, of course they're a different person, because everyone puts their best foot forward when they want to get married.
I mean, is anybody going to argue against that? It's true.
We all put our best foot forward because we want to win our spouse over. You understand?
It's like, well, now he leaves this dirty laundry everywhere, and he doesn't put the cap back onto the toothpaste or something,
he leaves the toilet seat up, and, I mean, what do you want me to tell you?
What do you want me to tell you?
And obviously there's worse problems that people experience, but don't add rebellion to your sin and say,
well, I think divorce is the answer. Divorce is never the answer. It's not in the Bible.
The Bible never, never advocates for divorce, and in fact, let me just put it to you this way.
The Bible says God hated putting away. Putting away means divorce.
I mean, if that's the only verse we had in regards to divorce, that's all we need, because he says he hates putting away.
Okay, and so don't add rebellion to your sin by just continuing to make bad decisions,
help the Gibeonites out, fulfill your end of the bargain, so to speak, of your covenant or the promise that you made and do so.
But also, I want you to notice here that Joshua is a man of integrity.
So not only did he fulfill his vow and his covenant to the Gibeonites, he did it with haste.
Look what it says in verse number 6.
Men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the capital Gilgal, saying,
Slack not thy hand from thy servants, come up to us quickly and save us and help us.
Look at verse 9.
Joshua, therefore, came unto them suddenly and went up from Gilgal all night.
It wasn't like, fine, how many are there? I guess I can send a couple guys to come help you.
I mean, he treated it as though it was his own.
Right.
And the point that we can gather from this is that when it comes to serving God or fulfilling our vows or fulfilling our responsibilities,
we should do it with haste.
Right.
What does this mean?
Do it with some urgency.
And in fact, the Bible tells us in Psalm 119, verse 60, you don't have to turn there.
Turn with me if you would to Matthew chapter 4, though.
Psalm 119, verse 60 says this, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments.
What is he saying?
He didn't delay.
He was urgent about keeping God's commandments, my friend.
We as Christians should have a sense of urgency when we serve God.
Church should be important, my friends.
Reading the Bible should be important.
Praying should be important.
Winning souls to Christ should be important.
You know, loving our wives as Christ loved the church and reverencing the husbands.
These are important things that we should make haste to do and not just like, I guess I have to reverence my husband.
Oh, yes.
Here's the Father's Day point right here.
I told you I was going to give a Father's Day point.
You know, make haste to respect, love and reverence your husband.
You know, respect him, love him, speak highly of him to others.
Well, I don't really know that much to say about him, though.
There's not really anything highly I can say about him.
Well, you know, think harder than that then.
Spend some time, write on a sheet of paper all the great things about your husband.
And look, there's some great things about your husband.
You know, accentuate his good qualities, accentuate his strengths.
You know, well, he doesn't really have any.
Well, does he provide?
Well, yeah.
Okay, that's a great thing.
You know, is he faithful to you?
Yeah, well, you know, that's a great thing.
Does he love your children?
Well, yeah, he does love her.
Okay, that's a great thing.
You see, if you just think about these things, you know, you can come up with a list of more than ten things to say about your husband, to love and reverence.
Hey, make haste to love your husband.
Make haste to reverence your husband.
Make haste to respect your husband.
Why? Because that's a commandment of the Lord.
And David said, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments.
Make him a sandwich.
When he asks you to make him a sandwich, make haste.
They make the sandwich.
Would you like mustard or mayonnaise?
What kind of sandwich do you make haste for it?
You say, oh, man, I don't really like this kind of, it's Father's Day, amen.
But I preach this stuff even when it's not Father's Day, though.
But this is biblical.
And the reason a lot of people are bothered by this is because our culture has taught, you know, that the wife can disrespect her husband and belittle him and treat him like garbage.
Folks, it's not biblical.
It's wicked and it's sinful to do something like that.
And you know what?
If you want your husband to love you as Christ loved the church, which obviously is his responsibility to do so, but if you want your husband to be that way,
you know, a great way would be to also fulfill your end by reverencing him.
Okay?
And when a wife reverences her husband, he's motivated to love his wife as Christ loved the church.
And when a man loves his wife as Christ loved the church, the woman is also motivated to reverence her husband.
But if one of the parties is just not fulfilling that duty, we still have the responsibility to fulfill our end of the bargain.
Okay?
And so Happy Father's Day.
There's your sermon.
You know, at lunch today, hey, the pastor said to hurry up with my sandwich, okay?
But just making haste and serving God is important, right?
I mean, look at Matthew chapter 4, verse 17.
It says, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting in that into the sea, for they were fishers.
And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
He didn't say, hey, what's your schedule like?
You know, do you have time today?
He just said, follow me, I'll make you fishers of men.
Verse 20, And they straightway left their nets and followed him.
Now what does straightway mean?
It means immediately.
They're just gathering their nets.
He says, follow me.
They're just like, they just left it as is.
I'm sure, you know, the boss wasn't too happy about that.
Where are you guys going?
You guys aren't even done with the job.
But you know, when the Lord calls, he calls, amen?
This is a great example of someone who's making haste to keep God's commandments.
He goes on to say in verse 21, And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother,
in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.
And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him, the Bible says.
What does that show?
Making haste to keep his commandments.
Joshua didn't say, well, you know, I'm not really ready to conquer these lands.
And we're kind of, we've got something else going on in Israel right now.
But when we have time, we'll get back to you and help you out.
No, he committed.
He said, all right, well, you know, we already made a league with them.
So let's make haste and help them and be not slack in delivering them.
And let's just treat it as though there were Israelites.
And you know what?
Thank God he did.
Because now we have this really cool story here.
Right?
Really awesome story of the sun standing still, the moon standing still and having this great victory.
Go back to Joshua chapter 10, and we're pretty much done here.
Here's the last thing is that the last principle that we can learn is that God always makes up the difference.
OK, this story teaches us that God always makes up the difference.
What I mean by that?
Well, you know, Joshua had asked the Lord to make the sun stand still so they can continue to fight.
And they slew a lot of people.
I mean, they had a great victory.
However, look at verse 11.
And it came to pass as they fled from before Israel and were into going down to Beth-horon,
that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died.
They were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.
So before the sun stood still, the Lord actually just dropped a bunch of rocks on these people, stones,
great hailstones upon, great meteors, in a sense, upon these people.
And the Bible tells us that he actually destroyed more by the hailstones than the children of Israel did with the sword.
Now, what does that show us?
It shows us that, you know, God expects us to do our part and fight and be valiant and fulfill God's commandments.
And whenever you feel insufficient in doing so, don't worry, God makes up the difference.
So whenever you feel like, I don't know if I'm even making that much of an impact or am I even making a difference,
you know, I've only got one person saved or I've only been able to do this, I can only do that,
well, it's okay, God makes up the difference.
But what he expects for us to do is to do our part.
You see, he wouldn't have done this if the children of Israel didn't make haste to keep the commandments and fight against these five kings.
But because they actually put in the effort to fight and to go to war, to chase the enemy,
God showed himself strongly on behalf of them and dropped great hailstones upon them and slew a bunch of them.
And obviously the spiritual principle that we can learn is that, you know, whenever you feel insufficient or you think to yourself,
man, how am I going to make it at the end of this month or, you know, how am I going to pay the bills
or how am I going to, you know, just kind of conquer this part of my life, you know, do what you can and God will make up the difference.
And sometimes people think, yeah, but that doesn't seem reasonable, it's not logical, you know, okay, then you're not going to get anything.
Because obviously he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
So you kind of have to just put it in God's hands.
And you say, well, that's not, I need something of substance. He's not going to give you something of substance.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen.
He expects for you to just have faith that he will provide, that he will help you, that he will show himself strong,
but you have to do your part and actually put in some effort.
You know, the Christian life requires effort. Salvation does not require any effort whatsoever.
Salvation doesn't require effort on our part.
It's not like we have to work for our salvation or I got to repent of my sins to be saved or I got to keep God's commandments or I have to do all these things.
The Bible just says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
And the reason it says that is because God put all the effort in for us.
Jesus Christ died on the cross. He was scourged. He was spat upon. He was delivered. He died.
He went to hell for three days and three nights. He rose again the third day.
He did all the work so that we wouldn't have to do the work.
And in fact, the Bible says not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.
So the Bible refers to salvation as a gift. You don't work for a gift. A gift is 100% free.
And if anybody says, you know, well, you know, I think you still have to pay for the gift or something.
Well, you know, then you're calling God a liar.
OK, because the Bible says in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
So if he promises to give us eternal life and it's a gift, according to Ephesians 2, verse 8 and 9, we have to believe that in order to be saved.
But thankfully, you know, the Christian life or excuse me, salvation is it requires no effort.
But even after that, though, you know, the Christian life does require effort on our part. It requires us keeping God's commandments.
But the great thing about that is that whatever we do in this world, in this lifetime, by keeping God's commandments, don't worry.
God will make up the difference. If you feel insufficient, you don't have enough talents, you're not gifted enough.
You know, you don't have a good pedigree of a family or whatever. Don't worry. God will make up the difference.
See, I didn't grow up in a Christian home. It's OK. God will make up the difference.
Well, I don't really know much about the Christian life. Well, just do what you can. Do what you know you're supposed to do and God can make up the difference.
OK. Well, you know, I just don't know how we're going to make it by the end of the month.
Well, take care of whatever you can take care of. Tie them to the Lord. Pay what you can and God will make up the difference.
How do you know that? Because it happens all the time. It happens all the time. I'm sure there's people here that can testify of that.
I can testify of that. There's been times of, you know, that we needed resources and we did what we could and God made up the difference.
Because that's how it always works. And look folks, you know, we're a small church in the eyes of a lot of people.
But you know what? Our church does get a lot of people saved. And you know, one of the reasons why is because God makes up the difference.
OK. It's not because we're some great, soul winning church, evangelistic church. But we do what we can on our part by training people,
having soul winning times, encouraging people to go out soul winning and then what happens is God makes the difference up and we get a bunch of people saved and a great work is accomplished.
And so great story here with Joshua and it's a great principle for us to learn that, you know, we need to pray unto the Lord even for some of the most extreme things.
Because God can provide and show himself strong in a miraculous way, even for the extreme things that we ask for.
But just know this. He requires effort on our part as well. Amen. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the example of Joshua.
And I pray that you'd help us Lord to remember these things that in order for us to have any victory in our life,
it requires the presence of the Son and help us to take these things serious and to recognize that we need to labor while it is day.
And may you show yourself strong on our behalf, Lord, and continue to make up the difference. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Amen. Song number one hundred and forty five. It is well with my soul as our last song.
Song number one hundred and forty five. Song number one hundred and forty five.
Song number one hundred and forty five. Seen on that first.
When peace like a river attendeth my way.
When sorrows like sea bellows roll.
Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say.
It is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet.
Though trials should come.
Let this blessed assurance control.
That Christ has been guarded.
By.
And.
My soul.
Is well.
With my soul.
Is well.
With my soul.
My sin.
The place.
Is more.
My sin.
In.
Is.
No.
Praise.
My soul.
It is well.
With my soul.
Is well.
It is well.
My soul.
And more.
When my face shall be.
The clouds be rolled back.
As a scroll.
The trolls shall resound.
And the Lord shall descend.
Even so.
Is well with my soul.
It is well.
With my soul.
It is well.
With my soul.
Amen. What a wonderful scene. You are dismissed.