Latest revision as of 22:53, 30 July 2022

Theological Proposition/Focus: God is much bigger than any mistake God overcomes mistakes and turns them into blessings because God is committed to His people.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: God's people regularly get themselves into trouble but this does not mean that God has abandoned them, rather from the midst of trouble God's people should cry out for help.

Introduction:

Image: PKs are experts at following the rules "to the letter" and no further.

I grew up as a pastor's son and I will tell you that being a pastor's son, I worked really hard at following the letter of the law and finding every possible loophole.

My mom would tell us we each needed to go out and pull 100 weeds, grab a handful and count the roots.

No running in the church sanctuary so we played walking tag.

Bottle rockets were illegal so what did we do? We strapped fireworks to arrows and shot them into the air.

But I have been outdone, NYC banned dogs in a subway unless they fit in a bag. The results have been very humorous.

Just google "dog in ikea bag" and you will see some of the ways people have kept the letter of the law completely missing the idea behind the law.

Growing up my brothers and I worked to find all the loopholes we could find. When I consider what happened to Joshua with the Gibeonites I would have been looking for the loophole, the way out and in Joshua 10 I think we see a big loophole but Joshua had made a commitment and I believe that God honored Joshua's commitment to not just the letter of his word, but the idea standing behind the oath he had taken.

Need: We need to understand that God has committed himself to us and because God has committed himself to us, we can also keep our commitments. Ultimately, we can confidently commit to Him.

Subject: Commitment

Preview: Today we are going to look at an important battle in the book of Joshua as we look at this battle we will see that we can place our confidence in God, we can depend on God, and we can call on God.

Text: Joshua 10:6-43

Setting the Stage:

Recall that the theme of the book of Joshua is that God is the one who delivers Israel. God is the one who is leading Israel. It is all about God!

Before we dig into Joshua chapter 10, I want to remind you of

Background: The rushed decision of Joshua 9.

Recall that out of fear

the Gibeonites chose to trick Israel into a treaty.

and Joshua told Israel that they needed to keep the oath they had made despite the false pretenses. So we find ourselves in a situation where Joshua and Israel are allied with a city within the land of Canaan.

This sets us up for the ability to study the first five verses of Joshua 10 and understand the situation that Israel had found themselves in.

Background: The situation of Joshua 10:1-5.

Note: Read Joshua 10:1-15.

When word of Gibeon's treaty reached the king of Jerusalem the king realized he had a major problem. Israel had destroyed AI and Jericho, now with Gibeon on their side it seems Adoni-Zedek figured a preemptive joint strike was in order. No longer would Israel be faced with fighting a lone fortress, now alliances has formed in opposition to Israel. The first step in this allied attack was to cut off Israel's ally.

Body

Today we are going to do something a little different. Instead of taking one section at a time, I am going to take the entire passage and then pull out three main ideas that you can use in your life.

God's people can loyally place their confidence in Him (6-15).

God expects His people to confidently act with integrity.

What does this look like? Two ideas come to mind

God expects us not to be conformed to the world but transformed (Romans 12:2)

God expects us to hold not just to the letter of our word, but the idea behind our word.

When I think about living the letter of the law in contrast with the idea behind the law I am reminded of my childhood.

Joshua boldly stepped out to honor his commitments.

The march from Gilgal to Gibeon was 25 miles ascending 4000 feet.

God's people should not fear.

We see Joshua mustering the entire army together and marching through the night. We see God approaching Joshua to remind him that he has nothing to fear because his confidence is in God. God places special emphasis on the complete victory He has assured by stating that not one of them will be able to withstand Joshua.

Then, in complete faithfulness, we see that.

God's people should confidently look for victory.

We are going to skip a lot in 28-43 but look at verse 40.

It seems that God used the attack on Gibeah as the spark through which all the dominos might fall.

Previously Joshua had conquered two cities, now they were all falling like dominos.

Remember, Israel did not see victory at every turn because God used defeat to teach them a lesson.

We may not see victory everytime but we should look for victory and when we suffer defeat we ask "what is God teaching me?"

So, with this in mind, I want to remind you of Pauls's command in 2 Timothy 1:6-12.

Image: Paul called on Timothy to be loyal to the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:6-12).

Paul, writing from prison reminds Timothy of what loyalty to the Gospel looks like.

Exercise and fortify Spiritual giftedness.

through power, love, and self-discipline.

Join in suffering for the sake of the Gospel

Embrace the humility implicit in the Gospel

Keep the message of the sound teaching.

Guard the truth of the Gospel.

MTR: Search your life for any areas where your loyalty has wavered.

Image: Getting out of the trouble you put yourself into, pulling a camper.

Have you ever gotten yourself into enough trouble that you needed help to get out of trouble? The first time I pulled a larger trailer behind my truck was a few years ago. Many of you who have pulled a trailer know that the hard part of pulling a trailer is backing a trailer. Well, Emily and I did pretty well for most of the trip. We were able to back the trailer into our camping spots and felt like we were managing well. Then, as we were driving to a new location we saw a beautiful footbridge off the highway near Valentine. We decided we wanted to hike the trail and look at the bridge. So, without thinking I pulled off the highway into this small one-way-in parking area. As soon as I pulled in, I knew I was in trouble. There was nowhere to turn around with the camper on the back. Try as I might, I could not get turned around. Finally, after 30 minutes of brainstorming an older gentleman walked up to me and said, my wife and I have been doing this for years, I grew up on the farm backing trailers up to the loading dock. Do you mind if I hop in your truck and back the camper all the way out? He recognized that I was in trouble and that I was not going to be able to get myself out of the trouble.

We often get ourselves into trouble, thankfully God is willing to help us out.

God's people can depend on God even when they get themselves into trouble (6-15).

God can indirectly intervene on behalf of His people.

I love the wording of verse 10

The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel (10)

And the enemy fled.

Nevertheless, God had promised Israel that not one would withstand Joshua (verse 8) and so we see that

God can directly intervene on behalf of his people.

Notice God's direct intervention in verse 11

Joshua was enjoying a great victory, but the enemy was fleeing, and a fleeing enemy is an enemy that might regroup. The passage tells us that more people died from the hailstones than people who died by the sword. God was at work in a powerful way.

Israel had put themselves in trouble because of their lack of discernment, but God still helped.

Image: I am encouraged by how many times Peter got himself into trouble and Jesus still helped (Matthew 14:28-32).

I am reminded of Peter in Matthew 14:28-32.

Peter confidently asked Jesus to call him out of the boat.

When he looked at the wind and waves his faith stumbled and he began to sink.

Who's fault was this? It was Peter's fault! But it was only Jesus who could help Peter and so he called out. The result was amazing.

MTR: Ask yourself, where do I need to ask God for help?

We should be discerning people, we should be careful not to get ourselves into trouble,

but sometimes we will. Even when you do get yourself into trouble,

don't hesitate to reach out to God and ask for help.

God's people should boldly call on God (6-15).

I suspect that Joshua was emboldened by God's provision and promise. Joshua, confident and assured of God's intervention stepped out in faith and made a bold request.

Bold requests may be unbelievable.

Joshua asked for the impossible.

The mathematician and physicist in me looks at this request and is in complete shock.

The earth's rotation of 1000 mph is what causes the sun to appear to traverse the sky.

Stopping the earth's rotation causes so many headaches. Centripetal forces cease, significant inequalities in heating and cooling begin, and momentum factors in somewhere. Nevertheless

Bold requests may receive amazing answers.

God answered Joshua by granting his petition. In fact, while this is unbelievable, we are invited to

go ahead and fact-check by looking in a no longer existing book of Jashar.

Note: There are psuedogriphical books by the name but these are known to be forgeries. It is also interesting that.

The Sun and Moon were Canaanite deities, God proved he was greater.

God acted in one of the most powerful ways imaginable. In my mind, this makes the top three. Creation, the resurrection, and the changing of the Earth's rotation.

We should be known as a people who call on the Lord (Phil 4:6).

In Paul's exhortations at the end of the book of Philippians is a gem.

Do not be anxious for anything, is not command to be carefree, but rather a command not to be anxious.

Four words describe the believers communion with God

προσευχῇ (prayer)- describes a believers approach to God

δεήσει (petition)- requesting for a specific need

εὐχαριστίας (thanksgiving)- a heart attitude of thanksgiving

αἰτήματα (requests) - definite specific requests

MTR: Pray specifically, pray boldly, look for answers.

Image: Specific prayer, amazing answers.

I want to share with you a couple of examples of specific prayers that resulted in amazing answers over the past few months.

Examples

For several months we prayed and now

Church contractor is exactly who we pray for.

Pray for opportunity to visit, they stop in.

On two separate occasions, I have had a situation where someone in the church was hurting and needed council. I began praying for the person and that God would provide us the opportunity to give this person counsel. What has blown my mind is that within half an hour, without any warning, the individual I was praying for walked into the church building.

Conclusion: God's people can trust God to faithfully fulfill his promises (16-43).

We are not going to read the rest of the passage because I don't want to put you to sleep with a bunch of place names, but I do want to remind you that God gave Israel a complete victory.