Impossible Moments - Part 13

Series Recap

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We have come to the end of our summer series. This is the last Sunday of Impossible Moments. We hope that you've enjoyed this series, that each week we've gone about studying a different impossible moment in the Old Testament. And we're hoping and praying that this could be a resource for all of us as we go through life and face difficult situations and your own impossible moments. We're hoping that you'll be able to have God's word on your heart. And that no matter what you face, you could even use this series. You could rewatch or re-listen to it and it can be just a source of comfort and joy to you. So today's gonna be a little bit different. We're not gonna introduce a new impossible moment. We are going to together, Pastor Chris and I, gonna look back on these last 12 weeks and kind of draw from all those various texts some important themes that we feel like have surfaced to the top and are reoccurring. Now there are many, there are many things from all these different texts, but we're just gonna focus on a few of them.

Yeah, absolutely. When we look at this and Pastor Andre and myself, we took time this week and kind of started compiling all the different amazing stories that we went through this past summer together and we were just floored. I mean, it's time after time after time again, these incredible, amazing moments when God shows up in the life of people, shows up where when all seemed to be lost, when people were at the end of the rope where there was no hope, there was nothing, their back was against the wall, were stuck between a rock and a hard place and yet God showed up. And yet. That was kind of the theme that we had in this and and there are so many ways that God intervened in the life of so many of these people and we just covered a snippet it feels like of the Old Testament there's so many more stories We could have gone into But God intervenes in so many incredible ways to benefit his glory to benefit who God is and There's there there's times where overcoming these impossible odds brought joy and life and his Righteousness into the world and whatever each scenario was there was only one explanation and that was God The only answer to how could this have happened? How could these people be saved? How could these people be redeemed? How could these people be rescued? It was simply God.

And when we look at that we see this character of God and he is a God who redeems And if you're jotting some notes down you can write that down that God is a God who redeems and we started even week one Where we kicked it off pastor Andre talking about baby Moses and This time in the Israelite history was a scary one They were stuck in slavery in Egypt to Pharaoh but basically be free labor to build whatever Pharaoh does hide to build and The Israelite population kept growing and growing and growing and so Pharaoh actually got fearful that he was actually going to be just outnumbered By all of these Israelite people in his own nation And so to put an end to this he said every baby boy and I believe it was like two and younger or something that Had been born killed He's like I'm gonna cut off the population. I'm gonna slow this down I'm not gonna allow this to happen anymore, and I can't even even begin to imagine Being a father or a mother in that time in Egypt Life is already horrible. All you have is your family to hold on to and then all of a sudden babies and children being ripped out of homes. Why? Because of the fear that Noah had, or no, no, the fear that Pharaoh had and his scared mindset and really being a coward in the way that he was trying to lead by fear. So Moses' mom has no other option but to take a chance. Puts baby Moses into a basket, takes him down to the river and lets him go. I can't even imagine being mom right there in that moment to set your baby into the river and just hope and pray that God would do something. And what I love about that story is the most, the last person you would think, Moses is rescued by Pharaoh's own daughter. And through a series of events, Moses' mom actually gets to raise the child as a surrogate mother and a nanny. And then God in this moment is redeeming Moses for an incredible plan that he has for his life. Later on, we read and we know that the story is that Moses is the one who eventually leads the Israeli people free out of Egypt. And it all started that day on the banks of the Nile River. God in his redemption makes a way even when there seems to be absolutely no way. Another story we talked about was Noah, which is one of the greatest stories of redemption in the Old Testament. And the fact that Noah in his faithfulness is leading and being an example to what is going to happen. God's had it with the human race. They're wicked, they're horrible. There's only one honorable man, one righteous man, and that's Noah. And God says, "I gotta hit the reset button." And so he sets Noah to build this boat, which has never been built before, there were boats then, to rescue people from rain, which had also never happened before. And Noah in his faithfulness sets out as a witness and is God's redemptive plan for humanity. I think in that moment, if anybody had come to Noah in humility and just said, "What's going on?" And heard the story of Noah and repented, I think Noah would have led him on the ark. I really think, but what we know about that day and age, only Noah was righteous. God had a plan for redemption. And even though there was so much more room for people on the ark, it was only eight people, Noah and his family that were saved in that time. Redemption was offered to all who were willing to repent and believe, how only few accepted. When we look at these different characters in these historical accounts through these stories, we see a really main common theme in them and that is godly character. There's a level of godly character that is with each and every one of these people that is awe-inspiring.

That we see and hear that their obedience did not necessarily equal their success. And that can be true for us today as well. That even though that we may be stepping in this way and follow God and be obedient in what he wants, that may not equal our success. We may have some success, but it doesn't automatically guarantee our success. We can go back to Noah. We know that some might look at his life and say, "Really, dude? All those years building the boat, you could only save your family?" But I love the way that God looks at it. God looks at it and he sees a faithful father who led his children, who led his spouse, who cared for those that were closest to him, that knew him. I love that part there. That if we're gonna lead anybody in our life to Christ, it's gonna be the people that know us the most that will see our true selves. I guarantee Noah didn't have perfect days. I bet Noah came home, maybe frequently, threw down his tools, Mrs. Noah's there. What's going on? Oh, it was another day, but he didn't give up. He stayed faithful, and his family and his children saw that in Noah and saw this godly character. Genesis 6:9 says, "Noah was a righteous man." And then in Hebrews 11:7, "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear, built an ark to save his family." That is the first time in the history of the scriptures that that word righteous and person was ever put together. There were none before that, to that time, that had ever even deserved that recognition of their character. I think when we see the story of Noah and his godly character, the fact that Noah's family were his only converts, I think is success.

And God sees that as a success as well. Another incredible story was Gideon. Pastor Lauren shared on this one, and Gideon sets out as an army of 30,000 facing 135,000 Midianites. The odds are against him. And then God in this series says, "Hey, Gideon, tell your army if anybody is afraid to just leave." And I can't, again, imagine Gideon going, "Wait, excuse me? We're already down and you want me just to let those who are scared leave?" And God says, "Yeah." So Gideon goes before the army and says, "Anybody who's scared left." His number goes from 30,000 to 10,000. And Gideon goes back to God and said, "Okay, God, what's the plan for a battle?" And God goes, "I got one more thing for you, buddy." He's like, "What?" He goes, "Take your whole army down to the lake, and I want them to tell them to drink water from the lake." So they go down, they drink water, and he tells them, he goes, "Anybody who just put their face down in the water and sucked it up and drank," he says, "send them home." He goes, "Only those who took a knee and squatted down and sipped water like this looking around." He goes, "That's your army. Those are the ones who are keeping an eye out. Those are the ones who understand what is going on around. Those are the ones who are keeping aware of their surroundings." And in the end, 300 men were left. And Gideon goes into battle, trusting God with a four to one ratio against him. And yet God brings victory. God brought victory to them. And it reminds us that we can trust who God says he is and who he says we are. So that when we face our impossible moments, we can know that he will equip us in whatever we need to do that he's called us to. 'cause sometimes this godly character is a moment for us in an impossible moment to grow, to change, to deepen our faith and relationship with God, knowing that he is going to do what he's going to do and we are called to this obedience, even if it doesn't necessarily equal our success. I bet Gideon thought he was gonna die on that battlefield that day. And yet he charged in a battle, knowing that Yahweh, that God was behind him. See, God's more focused on and concerned with our character, with our Godly character than any talent, human ability, human strength when we face these impossible moments together.

Yeah, part of that Godly character that develops in us is a spirit of humility. Humility is this virtue of submitting to God and really having an accurate view of where God is and where we are in light of where He is. It's about recognizing God as the one who reigns sovereign over all, and recognizing that we are made in His image. We are below Him, we serve Him, and we worship Him. These impossible moments in Scripture teach us that He is the one who works the miracles and performs the wonders. It's not the human heroes in the story that get the glory, but it's God. So humility in our series was a theme of our characters giving God the glory and not seeking any personal gain or fame, though that may have happened. Think of Daniel rising to power after he obeyed God, or think of David becoming king, or Solomon and the fame that he gained, all because of their godly character, but also because they were first humble before God.

In our series, we had a few different examples, and two that I'll point out are Solomon, recognizing that he could not reign over Israel better than God. He needed God. First Kings 3, 9 says, give your service, this is Solomon speaking, give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people God, that I made a sermon between good and evil for who is able to govern this, your great people. Solomon had a humility in knowing his limits. God, he knew that God had put him in that place, but he knew that God was the perfect King, the perfect ruler. And so he's humbling himself saying, God, I need you. Help me. There's also David who was characterized for a spirit of humility. Confidence in God, but he himself being humble. David knew who the miracle worker was. Where any victory truly came from, he knew that God was behind it. First Samuel 17, David says this, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion "the paw of the bear will deliver me "from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, this is in the David Goliath battle, "Go and the Lord be with you." And so there, as David is trying to say to King Saul, "Hey, I can do this." He's really not saying, "Look at me and what I did." He's saying, "Look what God did through me." He's having humility in that moment, giving God the credit, giving God the glory, saying, "I'm his servant. "He's used me before, he's worked through me. "I think he'll do it again." but he's pointing to God.

The second way in which we saw humility in our series was people who were for the first time exposed to God in his power and then turning to him, humbling themselves before God. And often it was people who were faced with God's power or miracle who then humbled themselves. So think of Nebuchadnezzar, when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fire, fiery furnace, and then they were saved. In that moment Nebuchadnezzar recognizes God as the true God, seeing that no one else could have done this. And in that moment, this is a king of Babylon who is at the peak of his power and he is humbling himself before Yahweh. Daniel 4, 3 says, this is Nebuchadnezzar speaking, "How great are God's signs, how mighty are his wonders. God's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion endures from generation to generation. So this is a foreign king humbling himself, recognizing the true power of Yahweh. And then later in that book, in the book of Daniel, King Darius, a different king, is interacting with Daniel. And Daniel is unjustly thrown into the lion's den. But he's saved by God without a scratch. He emerges the next day alive. And King Darius says this in response to seeing Daniel alive and seeing God work. He says, "I make a decree that in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed. His dominion shall be to the very end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”

And so the takeaway for us in this series, And this theme of humility is that we too should be desiring that God gets the glory, not us. So I just wanna ask, are we striving for that today and in our lives this week, are you striving that God's name be praised? Were we too self-focused right now that we're looking for something more about us, a little bit more fame, a little bit more glory, some more recognition. Instead, we should be striving that God receive glory and worship and are we eager to give him what he deserves? Now these Old Testament, these moments were in a good example of humility, but they also point to the one who was perfectly humble throughout his entire life and that is Jesus Christ, the ultimate example of humility. Philippians 2, five through eight says this, "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. In our lives today, when facing impossible moments, impossible situations, think of Christ and his example. humble yourselves before God, remain humble through all your circumstances. And when you endure and God provides a way for you to be on the other end of that impossible situation, continue to praise Him in your spirit of humility.

We have humility, our focus is different, right? We have a different perspective maybe on things when we have this humble heart and our perspective moves our focus to God, that it's more about God than it is about us, that it's more about God's faithfulness than it is about anything else. You talked about Daniel and the fiery furnace, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego took this stand against Nebuchadnezzar that said, "No, we're not gonna worship this statue idol thing that you built. We know the one true God, we know Yahweh, and we're only going to worship Him. And even though that in that it was gonna jeopardize their lives, they knew what the punishment was before they had to make that choice. King Neb made it absolutely clear that you going in the furnace was a result of not bowing down in worship. And yet they still obeyed because they had this eternal perspective that God's faithfulness might happen on this side of eternity, but God's faithfulness also might happen on the other side of eternity, but God's faithfulness will happen. They didn't step into that furnace knowing God is gonna save our physical bodies without harm right now in this moment. No, they were probably walking in going, "Okay, God, see you in a couple minutes. I'm headed your way." But God saved them in that. And their eternal perspective changed. God showed up and made a miracle happen before the eyes of not only them, but everyone else, including King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel in the lion's den is another great example of this. Again, decree given out by some hoodlums trying to control King Darius to say, "Hey, King Darius, we're gonna trip up Daniel and we're gonna say that for the next however many times, you can only pray to King Darius." And Daniel goes, "I'm too old for this." By this point in the book of Daniel, if you study that he had been through time and time and time again, of people trying to control Yahweh and he knew who was boss. And so without fear, he opened his windows and for not just once hiding, but publicly for everybody to know, prayed, and continue to pray his three times a day for everybody to see. And Daniel knew what the consequences were. He knew that he was gonna be thrown into the pit with these ferocious lions that were gonna tear him from limb to limb, but it didn't matter 'cause he had his focus on heaven. He had his focus on God and eternity, knowing that here and now is just so short compared to eternity.

See, when we have this eternal perspective, no matter what we're facing, no matter what we find ourselves going through, there is this peace and there is God's presence, even in the midst of chaos. And when we went through this series time and time again, we saw just these small glimpses of these amazing God moments that when faced against overwhelming odds, stacked against them, God brought his peace and his presence even in the midst of all of that. Moses in the Red Sea, seeing what he thought was gonna be drowned or being killed by the Egyptians. Joshua and his battle against the Amorites, that they were losing the battle, knowing that the sun was gonna go down and they were gonna be killed off in the dark. He prayed a bold prayer for God, stop the sun in the sky and God did. God went against physics and science. You know what that tells me? It tells me he's even in control of that. He is greater, he is even beyond that, which we know and celebrate and think about being regular time and time again. God can stop that, he can do what he wants. He is God. Having an eternal perspective changes our focus on what's important. Joshua knew it, Moses knew it, David, Daniel, Elijah, Gideon, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they all knew this. And when we have, and we see the faithfulness of God, our life is different. I love what it says in Philippians 4, seven, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your higher hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ. That's our perspective we have to have. And that's perspective we saw time and time again from these people.

Last of our themes this morning, again, there's so many more and we're just focusing on these four, is how in these impossible moments, obedience to God by his people, equated to a witness occurring and people knowing who God is. So when David obeyed God and fought the Philistine, the enemy heard about who Yahweh was and saw the power of God. As Noah obeyed the instructions to build this ark, as crazy as it sounded during that time, he was a witness to his own family about who God is and what he does. When Israel obeyed God's direction through Moses to walk through the water and then saw that water close in on the Egyptians, it was a witness to Israel, to Egypt, and to the rest of the world about how God takes care of his people, that this was the God of the universe. When Jericho was destroyed and Rahab obeyed the order to tie a red rope so that when the city fell, she and her family would be saved, that was a witness. So what God is capable of and the fact that he redeems, even people outside the nation of Israel. It was a witness to the rest of the world of who God was. And when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego obeyed God, which meant not bowing down to the king to worship him, they were a witness to all of Babylon, about God being the true God above any other gods. And the same with Daniel, when he was obedient to continue worship, to continue praying in his spiritual practice, instead of stopping regular communication with God, he was a witness to how God is deserving of our everything, even if that equates to our physical death. He's a witness to God being the creator over his creation, and to a witness to God who rules with true justice. So today, church, Spring Valley, as we are talking about our obedience, know that your obedience to God, And whatever situation you find yourself in is a witness to those around you. Your obedience to Christ is a witness to your family, to your kids, to the grandkids that you watch. Your obedience to Christ is a witness to your coworkers, to those above you, your managers, or to those below you working. Your obedience to Christ is a witness to your spouse, to your immediate family, to your girlfriend, boyfriend, to your close friends, those who need to see most how you are obedient to God and how you, as you do that, you are pointing them to Christ. Your obedience to Christ not only anchors you in this world that is trying to pull you away from God, constantly vying for your attention, seeking your loyalty and allegiance, but it also encourages and points people to the truth. Your obedience is like a beam of light in the darkness of this world. It can be a road marker for someone else in their own spiritual journey. And as you are obedient, they're looking to you and being encouraged to say, wow, okay, I need to do that. I need to be like them. Thank you for reminding me of what it looks like to follow God. Your obedience can be the loudest way to spread the gospel without even saying a word. And so here at Spring Valley, our prayer is that we are all together striving to be obedient followers of Jesus, conscious and intentional about how our obedience can be used by God for His glory as a witness for His kingdom.

So where does this leave us? Where do we go from here? Well, I got some people who are gonna pass out something this morning for you. I want you to take this home as a reminder of the series with us this past summer. And it's bubble gum. Yes, I'm, yes, we are handing out bubble gum today. Pastor Andre and I, we were working through this series and we came up with an acronym for us to remember this

And the first of which is "see." We see the character. We see these godly character matters. There's this core piece to each of these accounts of these people when they faced impossible moments that when they this unwavering character that is grounded in God as they walk through these impossible moments depending on God it changed who they are it grew their character it it made them put roots down deeper into their faith of Jesus and I think for us maybe the question to ask when we step into these impossible moments, maybe big, maybe small, maybe somewhere in between, is to ask ourselves the question in this, what might God be trying to teach me in this moment? What does God want me and my character to grow here and now? Again, this focus isn't for us to build up our success, But it's to give God the praise, the glory, and the honor that He is so deserving each and every time. God could be trying to mold something in each and every one of us as we walk through these impossible moments.

The next letter is H for humility. Time and time again, as Pastor Andre shared this morning of this idea at the center of the godly character, was humility and the remembering it's about God's glory. It's not about ours. For some of us, we want to step in and just grab life by the horns and say, I'm gonna take care of this. And sometimes we need to step in with the boldness and the faith that God's got our back like Gideon and make that happen. But at the center of Gideon was a humility to trust in God, that even if it didn't turn out the way they hoped, that God was still God. So when we walk into these moments of impossible situation, ask ourselves the question, how can God get the glory in this moment? How can we point people to Jesus in this time to give him the glory?

The next letter is E for eternity. to have an internal perspective. Trusting and knowing that this in our lives is in God's hands. Eternity, salvation is gonna happen for all who believe and accepted in Jesus Christ and believe on his name. So we may be rescued in our impossible situation on this side of eternity, but it may not be until we reach the other side that we have our focus and our rescue of God. I met a, ran into a friend yesterday I hadn't seen since pre-COVID. And we were talking and COVID came up and we were talking about how one of the greatest things that I think each of us realize is how fragile life is. That we run around thinking we have control of this life and That all that'll never happen I don't know how many times I said that and it kept happening and happening and happening and happening life's fragile Life's just a snippet here eternity is forever Let's focus on the forever Even while in the here and now now it doesn't mean that poof all of our problems are gonna disappear We're still gonna have our stress and our worries and their anxiety and our angst and everything we have to wrestle with every single day while here on earth. But when our perspective is a heavenly perspective, it changes the focus of how we deal with the here and now. And we all can do this to put our trust in the name of Jesus. That is our eternal perspective.

And then the last letter is W, is our witness. Our witness in focusing on Jesus. See some of you, you figured out the acronym before that, I'm proud of you. But you have an opportunity that as we walk through life, as Pastor Andre, I love what he said, he said there, he said, "Our obedience is like a beam of light "into the darkness of this world. "It can be a road marker for someone "who is on a faith journey. "It can be the loudest way to spread the gospel, "even without saying a word." That's what it's about. not forgetting what God has done for us before, time and time again. Pastor Lauren last week talked about the story of Rahab and how Jericho was scared when they heard the Israelites were coming for them. Why? Because they had heard the stories of God's victory. And we are here, how many years later, talking about these stories again and again. Why? Not just for the fun of it, not just to have a fun summer series, but to remember who God was so that we know we can depend on who He is and His nature and His character for now until forevermore.

So what does this mean for us here in 2023? Well, I think for us is when we face impossible moments, I want us to take a second and chew on it. To think about how our character might grow, how our humility might be more grounded in Jesus, how our perspective would be changed from here now to then and forever more in heaven, and then how our witness for those around us to then help direct and pull more people and push them to the cross of Jesus Christ. That's what we want you to do.

Impossible Moments - Part 12

Rehab’s Faith - Joshua 2 & 6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Welcome, we are so glad you are here today. I am honored to be back again and get to share with you another impossible moment. Today we are talking about Rahab. So it's, I feel like it could be a popular story but maybe a lesser known story. The cool thing about Rahab's story is that it's a smaller version, or a smaller part I guess I should say, of a larger story. So most of us, I think, if you've been in the church for any length of time, know the story of the Battle of Jericho. And that is the larger story. So if this is like a movie, and the movie was about the Battle of Jericho and walking around the city of Jericho and the walls come tumbling down, Rahab's story is like the setup. Or it's like the flashback to give some context, okay? So we're gonna dive into Rahab's story. Jericho, great story, another impossible moment, Completely different sermon, all right? So we're gonna focus on Rahab's story today. The other cool thing I love about her story is that Rahab has some really impossible moments herself, but then God uses her to bring about other people's impossible moments. And we're gonna look at all of that. We're gonna even like peek into the New Testament a little bit, even though this is an Old Testament story. We're gonna be in Joshua two, mostly today. So if you wanna go ahead and turn there, I'm gonna give us a little bit of background here. So we have the Israelites. They've been wandering the desert for 40 years. They came out of Egypt. They were disobedient. They had to be in the desert for 40 years, wandering around in circles. And Moses had led them this whole time. But Moses had died, and now Joshua was his successor and had taken over. So Joshua was kind of gearing up and getting ready to lead them into the promised land. The Promised Land was this area of land that God had promised the Israelites for like hundreds of years before that they were gonna have this land. And so they've been waiting a very long time for this land, but they had to take on some cities. They had to have all these battle plans. They had an army. They had to conquer some places in order to take this land. So that's where we are.

We are in Joshua 2. We're gonna start in verse one, And we're just gonna read through most of it. And we're gonna see what Joshua is doing here and how Rahab plays into this story. So Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Shittim. He said, "Go over the land, especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, "Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land." So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab. Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land. But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly, you may catch up with them. But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof. So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan. And as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Before the spies laid down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, "I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you. For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death. Our lives for your lives, the men assured her. If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.”

So as you can see, Rahab was like a major player here in this overarching story of the Israelites taking over the land. We don't actually know a ton about Rahab. We know she was a prostitute or had been at some time. We know she was a citizen of Jericho and that she had a family. And we know that she knew who God was. She had some frame of reference for him. The people of Jericho knew the stories of the Israelites. Some of these stories like the Red Sea crossing and coming out of Egypt, that was 40 plus years ago. They were still had this sense of fear and trembling because of what God did with the Israelites. She literally said their hearts melted in fear because of them. So there was already this sense of awe and fear towards Yahweh. Maybe they didn't necessarily worship him, but they knew who he was. Now there's some uncertainty of if Rahab was still a practicing prostitute, or if that was her past, but she was literally referred to as Rahab the prostitute. There was no question of what her profession was or had been, there was no question of the sins that she had committed, but that didn't stop God from using her in really big ways. Rahab declared a faith in God, and that in and of itself is an impossible moment. If we just like pause right there, like that and of itself between her profession, her citizenship, the fact that she was a woman helping two men from an enemy nation, All of these things create in this impossible moment for her to even declare a faith in Jesus.

But as it says in the second part of verse 11, "For the Lord your God is God in heaven above "and on earth below." She knew that Yahweh was Yahweh. And she knew who God was to the point that she was willing to stake her life on it. She lied to the king's representatives who came and asked her about the spies. She hid two enemy spies in her home. And then she trusted those enemy spies enough that they would keep their word and protect her family. But she could do that because she trusted in God. She knew that he would come through, despite the danger she was in. Rahab didn't grow up an Israelite. She didn't grow up knowing the law. She had no frame of reference or relationship with God like the people of Israel did. I mean, we already know the Israelites struggled to be obedient to God and have faith in Him and trust Him when things got tough. And yet Rahab's over here just living in this faith that is incredible. But she didn't have that history. And yet she still chose to trust in who God is. But here's what I find so interesting is that she learned about God through the stories and the testimonies of the Israelites. She placed her faith in Him because of what she had heard from other people who didn't know Him, who did have a relationship with Him. Your story, your faith journey is not just for you. It's for other people too. It's for their faith journey. It's to encourage others. Rahab would have no idea who Yahweh was had it not been for the stories of the Israelites and what God had done in and through them. So don't discredit your story. Don't keep it to yourself. It could be an encouragement to other people.

All right, we're gonna pick back up with Rahab and the spies in verse 15 here. "So she let them down by a rope through the window for the house she lived in was part of the city wall. She said to them, "Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return and then go on your way." Now the men had said to her, "This oath you made us swear, sorry, this oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless when we enter the land, you have tied the scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. And unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads. We will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear." Agreed, she replied, "Let it be as you say." So she sent them away and they departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, afforded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, the Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands. All the people are melting in fear because of us.

This recon mission that these spies went on wasn't, didn't end up actually being super profitable as far as military intel went. They didn't get a lot of information about this city. But as we know the story of Jericho, they didn't need a whole battle plan. They just walked around in blue trumpets. They didn't need a major military battle plan. But what they did need was a confidence boost. They needed to hear that God had gone before them and was gonna give them the land. And that's what Rahab's testimony did for them. It encouraged the spies, and they were able to take that back to Joshua and to the people and say, God has given us this land. This encounter with Rahab, this impossible moment in and of itself, the fact that God led these two spies to a prostitute's house who was going to protect them, grew the confidence and the faith of the Israelites. Secondly, this recon mission, it was for the purpose of Rahab. David Guzik, who's a commentator, he said, "There was another purpose at work in sending the spies, to save Rahab. In this, we see the extent God goes to in bringing one woman in her father's house to salvation, someone seemingly impossible to save.” God went to huge lengths to save one family out of Jericho. Without this encounter between Rahab and the spies, Rahab's family would have died. He went to great lengths to save her. And he is willing and wants to go and has gone to great lengths to save us. For those of us that have come to know Him or will come to know Him, He has done incredible things to bring us to salvation.

Real quick, we're gonna jump ahead to chapter six. We'll have it on the screens, but if you wanna turn there, we're gonna be in six, starting in verse 20, or chapter six, starting in verse 20. And this is right at the end of the battle of Jericho. So we're just kinda like dropping in here into the back end of the story. So they've marched around the city for seven days. And when the trumpet sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed. So everyone charged straight in and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it. Men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys. Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring her out "and all who belong to her "in accordance with your oath to her." So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord's house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute with her family and all who belonged to her because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho. And she lives among the Israelites to this day.

The walls just came crashing down. But did you catch what we read about Rahab's house earlier in chapter two? Her house was literally built into the wall. We don't know for sure, but I imagine when all the walls come down, her house would have been destroyed along with it, or should have been. I imagine like you had like a bird's eye view or a panoramic shot of the city that I just see just all this rubble and the walls down, but then just her house just perfectly untouched. I don't know that there's a lot of theological significance with this except to show us how cool God is. He's so powerful, He's so big that He can destroy an entire city and keep one house that's built into the wall still standing. Truly impossible things are impossible with God. He can do them. He is so powerful. He is so big. The entire city was set for destruction. The Israelites were only supposed to take the silver, the gold, the bronze and the iron pieces and take them to the house of the Lord. Everything else was to be burned and destroyed. This type of destruction was actually really common with the Israelites when the Lord would have them conquer a city. And the main reason for that was because you had this baby nation trying to learn to be set apart. trying to learn this law and follow God and do what was right. And so God wanted to destroy completely anything that would infiltrate that, anything that would negatively influence that. So he often commanded them to devote everything to destruction so that they would not be influenced to worship other gods or to have pagan practices. So this was actually very common. But God spared Rahab. Her life had been so transformed that God wasn't worried about her negatively influencing the Israelites. He allowed her family to live among them. It just, it wasn't gonna be an issue. Rahab's faith was so evident and so strong that it was actually referenced twice in the New Testament. First we see it in Hebrews 11 verse 31, says, "By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient." And then in James 2, 25 through 26, "In the same way was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

That's an impossible moment to me. Rahab's faith to that degree shows that God can use anybody. I mean, the New Testament writers still refer to her as Rahab the prostitute. That kind of, that identity had kind of been attached to her, but it didn't matter. God still used her for his glory and to accomplish his plans. Not only that, not only was her faith so big that it was acknowledged thousands of years later, but she actually became part of the lineage of Jesus. We see it in Matthew 1:5, Rahab was the great-grandmother of a man named Boaz that you might be familiar with, who was the grandfather of Jesse, who was the father of King David. And then we see that lineage continue from David to Jesus. She became a part of the impossible moment of Jesus coming to earth. Because she trusted in God. Because she was willing to stake her life on it and believe that he was who he said he was. There's a lot we can take out of this story from Rahab, but there's a few key things that I wanna focus on as we finish our time together that I really feel like point us to Jesus and boost and impact our faith a little bit. The first one is that our sin doesn't disqualify our salvation. Rahab didn't let her past or her present or her sin or her struggles or her citizenship or anything like that stop her from seeking God and putting her faith in Him. She didn't even discredit herself. She was bold enough to say, I believe in God. Will you spies, will you go into this agreement with me to protect my family? She didn't believe the lie that because she had the odds stacked against her, because she wasn't part of the Israelite nation, that she couldn't be saved. She didn't believe the lie that her sin would prevent her from receiving salvation from God. She knew and had confidence in the Lord and in His saving grace, despite her past. Maybe you felt that way about yourself. Maybe you think, I have this sin issue, this struggle. Maybe it feels like a monkey on your back that won't go away. Maybe you feel like that way about someone else. Maybe there's a family member or a friend that you just maybe feel like it's too far gone and isn't possible to save. But we can see from Rahab's story that no one is beyond the hand of God. No one is beyond his reach. There's hope for us all. Now, that doesn't mean we just choose to live in our sin. We still have to take that and lay it at the feet of the cross and give it over to God probably multiple times. and continue to trust that he has died for us and that he has forgiven us and ask him to keep working in our hearts and our lives, especially around that sin issue. But just because we struggle with that sin, it doesn't disqualify us from being saved.

Number two, God desires to adopt you into his family. He doesn't wanna just save you for the sake of saving you. He wants to transform you and bring you in, adopt you into his family. This is how much he loved Rahab. He didn't just save her and her family and say, "Okay, be on your way. Good luck." He literally brought her into the Israelite and she lived among the Israelites to the point that she married into the family and became in the lineage of Jesus. She wasn't an Israelite, but she was the far off grandmother of Jesus. She was adopted into this family of God. That's how much he loved her. That's how much he loves us. That's how much he loves the person you're praying for right now, that you want to come to know God. That's how much he loves the parent or the child or the spouse or the best friend or or the neighbor who you know doesn't walk with Jesus. He wants to transform their heart. He wants to bring them into the family. If you don't know Jesus yet like that, if you don't have a relationship with Him, this point is for you because I want you to know that He wants to transform your heart. He wants to adopt you into the family. And if you already have a relationship with Jesus, this point's also for you. just in case you missed it. This point is for you too, to not keep your mouth shut about what God has done in your life. Rahab knew the stories of God because of the testimonies of the people. How are your people gonna know what God has done in your life if you don't tell them? This is supposed to be an encouragement for you to continue to invite them to church or events, to invite them into your home, maybe for game night, you're just hanging out, to coffee, just being yourself and being a light, or, and I might step on some toes, to actually tell them about what God has done in your life, to boldly share with them the transformation that you've experienced. Us pastors, we love being here. We love this job, most of the time. We love sharing these things with you, but we're not just here to give you facts and information. We're not here to entertain or make you feel good with lots of fluff. Y'all can go read your Bibles and commentaries and all that stuff for yourself. We're here to equip you and to encourage you to go into your places and to be with your people and to tell them about Jesus. We want you to feel confident to go out, whether it's in your home or your neighborhood or your workplace, wherever you are, wherever you spend time to be that light. The Bible doesn't say you pastors are the light of the world. You super Christians are the light of the world. You theology students and Bible scholars are the light of the world. That you was plural, like y'all, y'all are the light of the world, all of us. We're all called to be disciples and go make more disciples. We don't know like anything about Rahab's family. We don't know if they believed in Yahweh. We don't know if they had a professing faith in him or if they were just kind of along for the ride. but her faith literally saved their lives. Now, hear me out. Your faith cannot save someone else's. Your faith will not save your children or your spouse or your parents. That's an individual thing with them and God, but your faith will create an opportunity for them to get to know who he is. So it's hard. It can be awkward. It can be weird. It can feel intimidating, but we are all called to be disciples, to share our story, to go saturate our communities. Because we never know what our story will do for someone else, to encourage them, to get to know Jesus and to be transformed and adopted into his family.

And finally, God is the God of redemption. And this feels so basic. You probably have heard it in a million other sermons, but God is the God of redemption. Not only did he save Rahab because of her faith, but he redeemed her. To redeem means to buy back or to pay the debt for. Her life was redeemed, as we've said, to the point that her faith was acknowledged multiple times in the New Testament. and she ends up being the far off grandmother of Jesus and being put in the lineage of Jesus, it doesn't get much more redemptive than that, my friends. Jesus has redeemed all of us, all sinners who claim Him, who proclaim Him and put their faith in Him and receive His gift of salvation have been redeemed. Rahab put this scarlet cord in her window as a sign, as a symbol of the salvation that was coming. It's reminiscent of the Israelites when they were still in Egypt and they had the plagues and they had to, for the 10th plague, they had to brush the lamb's blood over the doorposts of their home so that when the angel of death came, it would pass over their home and spare them. and it hearkens forward to Jesus. The blood of the lamb that was shed for us. He redeemed us. We deserve death. We're all sinners. We all deserve to pay the price of death, but not anymore. We have been redeemed. The debt has been paid. So we know from her story that our sins don't disqualify us, our bad decisions don't count us out. Our past doesn't define our future because we are bought with the blood of the lamb. Our lives and our stories are redeemed because of the God of redemption.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank you. We thank you for these impossible moments that we've been studying that just point us to how good you are, how big and powerful and mighty and awesome you are. God, may we be encouraged in our faith because of the big and small moments that you have shown us through these Old Testament stories. May you encourage us to go out and to tell other people about what you have done, both in the Bible and in our own lives. Help us to live boldly. Help us to invite, to talk to people, to have spiritual conversations. Help us to remember that we are a redeemed people who live on this side of the resurrection and we get to celebrate that. Thank you for your redemption. Thank you for adopting us into your family, for loving us that much, and for caring for us to the point of bringing us in. We love you, Jesus. We thank you for this day. Pray over our people as they go out into their worlds, into their spaces, with their people, God. Be with them, bless them, protect them, give them opportunities to share your love. We love you, Jesus. We thank you and praise you in your name. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 11

Lion’s Den - Daniel 6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Good morning everybody, good to see your faces. How are we doing We're doing good. We're doing well. See a thumbs up in the back. That was good. That's all I needed. Someone's doing well. It's okay if you aren't. It is? We're at church. Man, I'll be honest. I am feeling the season. The season for us is back to school. Everyone getting back in the groove. So you parents out there know what this is like. Getting school supplies and meeting teachers and all that stuff. It's good, it's busy, so I'm thankful for a Sunday where we get together and a little bit of a break, a little bit of a Sabbath. Excited to continue in our series. We're almost done, just a few more weeks. Today we're going to continue in our book, if you were with us last week or watching online we were in the book of Daniel. We're going to be there again.

Now if you grew up in church, and you were in Sunday school as a kid, we pretend that we had this big flannel graph, you know, you guys remember what those are? You have to be old enough, I think, to know what that is. And this was one of the most popular flannel graph Sundays in Sunday school, and that would be Daniel and the Lion's Den. They had the little flannel lions, you put them on there. And they were peaceful, if you know the story. But we're going to dive right in, Daniel and the Lion's Den, in the book of Daniel. Today's message is another impossible moment, but it's not just an impossible moment, it's also full of biblical hyperlinks. And you're like, "Andre, what in the world are those?" That's a fancy word. Hyperlinks is a fancy name for references in a certain biblical passage that hyperlink us to another biblical passage. And it helps us understand the trajectory and the tone for the story at hand. Basically, it's scripture helping us understand scripture, which is awesome. God has given us and provided us a way to better understand His Word. So throughout our passage I'm going to be referencing some of those today. The setting is the same as last week where Israel is in captivity to Babylon, except there's a new ruler in charge. And while last week we looked at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, today we'll look at the prophet Daniel himself. And how will Daniel respond to an impossible moment? Daniel is an advisor to the king. Remember the process for Israel being taken captive was that he took the brightest and the smartest, the strongest young people of whatever country they overtook, and they took him back to Babylon to use him for their own. So Daniel was one of those people. And his time in Babylon is one of success. He's got a track record, so far, of being very valuable to the kingdom and to the leaders.

By chapter 6, our point today, he's already had a few distinguishing moments. Upon his arrival, remember being taken captive, upon his arrival, the process for those captives was to be treated really well. They were given really great food, they went and were taught so that they could grow up to be influential leaders. But Daniel decides to make the process a little different. Instead of eating the king's food, he decides, he says, "Hey, we're only going to eat vegetables. No other of the nice, great, rich, awesome food that you have, we're just going to eat vegetables." And the king's like, "Well, why? I'm going to provide you all this stuff." And he says, "Watch God work. When we eat vegetables for a certain time, watch us be in better health than all the other people who are eating all your food." And sure enough, at the end of the time, on just a diet of vegetables, they are stronger, they look better, they are smarter. And it right away signals to the king in Babylon that this god, whoever the god of Daniel is, is he's got power, he's got influence, he can do things. Another moment for Daniel is that he interpreted dreams for the king. When no one else was able to provide answers for the king who had this dream, Daniel comes and by God, God giving him understanding and clarity to what's going on, Daniel's able to tell the king, "Hey, this is what your dream means." And then there's the incident, which you may also recall, which is the writing on the wall where God's hand appears before the king and writes some mysterious thing, and the king is freaking out. He's like, "What just happened? What is going on?" And no one is able to tell him what that means except for Daniel. Daniel comes and says, "This is by God, "and this is what God is talking about." So we know that Daniel's very important, and Babylon knows that Daniel is pretty important. He's a man of God, serving to the best of his ability in captivity, while still following and worshiping Yahweh. So we're gonna be in chapter six today, and before we get into our verses, I just wanna summarize the first part, it's kinda long. But we see that a new ruler has come into power, and he has appointed Daniel, along with two others, and 120 governors underneath them, to rule the entire kingdom. So there's three, Daniel's one of the three, and there's 120 governors underneath them. And Daniel's doing so well in this position that the king wants to make him in charge of all of it. He's like, "Wow, you are thriving. "My kingdom is great because of you. "Let's just put you in charge of the whole thing."

All right, pause here for our first hyperlink, all right? Gonna be using that word a lot, hyperlink. This is, if you're familiar with the Old Testament and its people and its stories, this whole plot might sound familiar because there was a man named Joseph, a different time, a descendant of Abraham, who was also taken captive, and found himself in a foreign land and started interpreting dreams for leaders, including Pharaoh, and rose to prominence, and was placed in charge of all of Egypt. And Joseph, way back in Genesis, is an example of someone who, coming from lowly places like Daniel, a captive, who by God's favor arises into a power of position and prominence to not only bless the foreign kingdom, but to bless God's people. And so this comparison, this hyperlink, is very present throughout the whole book of Daniel. We follow Daniel's story, you just keep them like, man, this sounds so familiar, this is just like Joseph. And it helps us to understand that God is the one really pulling the strings here. Even though Daniel is the vessel, he's the one chosen, the servant of God, it's God, just like we saw with Joseph, it's God doing the work. And as long as Daniel, like Joseph, remains faithful to God, there is blessing in his situation. Despite being a captive, God will favor him and use him for his purposes. And if you know the story of Joseph, it ends well. It's a good story, it's a happy story. He's a good guy doing great things, the leaders like him, and so we know, as we're reading the tone of this story, we're like, hey, this is gonna be a happy story, right? Even though it's gonna get a little hairy, it's gonna get a little scary, this is good. This is a good, something good is gonna happen. But before we get to the happy ending, we gotta go through our story. So Daniel is dealing with a lot of success in his position, and it's making the other leaders jealous. They don't like it. They don't like that Daniel is doing so well, to the point where they're gonna take some action. They just, they can't deal with it anymore, and so they are gonna do something about it. They know how much the king favors Daniel, and appreciates all that Daniel's done for Babylon. So they have to kind of get crafty. They gotta be creative in how to get rid of Daniel. Time for hyperlink number two. All right, the governors, these leaders who are jealous of Daniel, they hearken back to the snake in the Garden of Eden. They know that the straightforward approach will not be as effective as something conniving and crafty and sneaky, twisting words and truths to trap someone, just like the snake did in the Garden of Eden. They are going to try and bring the downfall of someone while presenting it as the best option. So that hyperlink tells us that these guys are bad. If it wasn't obvious, these are bad guys, and bad things are going to happen because of them. But also, they're going to get in trouble. So we kind of know where the story's going before the story even starts. A little more set up before we dive into our passage. These governors convinced the king with flattery and massed admiration, to pass a law that no other God or being can be worshiped besides the king for 30 days. It's not good. It's not a good law. The king signs off on it, but they know that Daniel, this is all for Daniel, they know that Daniel lives a life of integrity.

And there wasn't anything that they could catch him on. There was no dirt on Daniel. They tried, they looked, they said, if we could just get him on something, we can get rid of this guy. But there was nothing. nothing to blackmail him over, there was no leverage to be found to use against him, they had to create the situation for him to fail in. This is so evil and manipulative. This is like some of those political movies or TV shows, I don't know if you watch some of those, but it seems like every person in that show is out for themselves and everything they do is a chess move and everyone's got ulterior motives. I don't know if you've watched any of those. You just, you expect like in this show like something's gonna go wrong, someone's not telling the truth, I see a nod of head, yes. There are those shows out there. This is what's happening here. It's very, it's very bad. So King Darius, unaware of the ulterior motives, agrees to this plan. He's like, sure, yeah, that sounds great. Me, you wanna worship me for 30 days? Me only? Good with that. And this law is put into place.

And now if you would turn in your Bibles to Daniel 6, it'll be on the screen too. We're gonna start in chapter 6, verse 10. It says, "Now when Daniel learned that the decree "had been published, he went home to his upstairs room "where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. "Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, "giving thanks to his God just as he had done before. "And then these men went as a group and found Daniel "praying and asking God for help. "So they went to the king and spoke to him "about his royal decree. "Did you not publish a decree that during the next 30 days "anyone who prays to any God or human being "except to you, your majesty, "will be thrown into the lion's den?" The king answered, "The decree stands "in accordance with the law of the Medes and the Persians, "which cannot be repealed." Then they said to the king, "Daniel, who is one of the exiles "from Judah, pays no attention to you, your majesty, "or to the decree you put in writing. "He still prays three times a day." When the king heard this, he was greatly distressed. He was determined to rescue Daniel and made every effort until sundown to save him. This first section shows us Daniel's response to what just happened, and his response to this impossible situation of a law that tells him that he cannot worship Yahweh, his God, the God of Israel, is going directly to God. He just says, "I hear that, and no. I'm not going to obey that. I'm still going to pray. I'm still going to worship God." And Daniel is seeking God's counsel, his guidance, his direction, wisdom, discernment. He's even facing Jerusalem, which I love this note in here, which symbolizes that he is giving all of his focus and attention on God. Because think of this, he's a captive, right? From Israel, away from home, and he's looking back toward his land, where Jerusalem held the temple of God, where God was known to dwell. So he's looking at God's house and he's saying, "God, I'm surrounded right now by foreign people who are out to get me. You are the only focus I have. I'm looking out my window directly to you." It tells us that Daniel continued to do what he always did, which was pray. Daniel was consistent in his communication with God. so he could recognize and hear God's voice, because they talked all the time, three times a day, formally, probably more than that, informally. And it exemplifies the importance of remaining in close relationship with God.

So I want to ask us today, what is our relationship and communication with God like? Is he only hearing from us in times of need, when we are in crisis? Is he only hearing from us we have no one else to turn to? Are we treating God like a last resort? Or, is God hearing from us immediately as something comes up? Is God hearing from us when things are also going well? Is he a part of our regular rhythm in life? Does he hear appreciation for the good times and the bad? Does he hear from us often? Daniel had a healthy habit of communication, and it's something that we should strive for too. Well, like last week, it's Daniel's obedience to God that gets him in trouble. These men knew that Daniel wouldn't stop his spiritual practices, living faithfully to God, worshiping God, and so they knew that they could catch him praying, and they do. They go over, they see him, he's praying to God. So they go and confront the king about Daniel and how he's broken the law. And the king is distressed, he doesn't like it, which I find interesting. Usually our biblical characters are under attack even from the rulers, but this time the ruler's like, oh man, Daniel, I like Daniel, he's one of my guys. And he does not like that now Daniel's caught up in all of this and Daniel has to face punishment. And it even tells us that he tried everything until sundown to help Daniel get out of this situation. In verses 12 and 14, it shows that the king is limited in his power. Even though he put the law into place, he doesn't like what it's causing him to do, and he has no way to get out of it. He is bound by his own law. He can't operate outside the law. He can't change the law to do something that is right. The group of men who schemed all this make it very clear to him. They remind him, like, "Didn't you say this?" And he's like, "Yeah, I did." And as we see the limitations of a human ruler, We're reminded of who isn't limited. It's the God that Daniel serves. It's the God that we serve. Because God and His law, God and His word, are perfectly in sync. There are no moments where God is trapped into a situation by something He said, into regretting something that He enacted or that He is forced to do. Psalm 19, seven says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. As we see King Darius's limitations, we can be reminded of how powerful and perfect Yahweh is. God's law is not out to get people. It's there to help us grow closer to Him. The law of the Lord isn't a trap to get people into trouble. It's there that we would grow and and thrive in loving, perfect relationship with God, just as he intended.

So, Daniel's facing all this, let's see what he does. Verse 16 says, "So the king gave the order, "and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. "The king said to Daniel, 'May your God, "'whom you serve continually, rescue you.'" I love that. "A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, "and the king sealed it with his own signet ring "and the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. Then the king returned to his palace and spent the night without eating, without any entertainment being brought to him, and he could not sleep. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den. And when he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguish voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?" And Daniel answered, "May the king live forever. "My God sent his angel and shut the mouths of the lions. "They have not heard me, "because I was found innocent in his sight. "Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, your majesty." Stop right there. In this scene, it just shows Daniel's steadfast faith and trust in God. The king who is bound by law gives the order and throws Daniel in. But in this moment, the king is hoping that the God of Daniel will save him. Did you guys notice this? There's an unbeliever who is placing their hope in God. He doesn't necessarily know who Yahweh is, who the God of Daniel is, but he wants that God to save Daniel. I love it. I think there's something innate in humanity that recognizes its creator to some extent, and maybe in certain situations, there is something in us that when life is at its darkest, we look up and we cry out to God. And for us who believe, we know who that God is. We know who we're talking to. But for those who don't, we see that they too will look up and cry out to the God that they don't know, but asking for help and putting their hope in someone bigger than who they are. Obviously people don't, or maybe the thought of recognizing creator had never come to the forefront of their minds before they get into that impossible situation but when people are in their darkest moment and are so desperate, people are often brought closer to God's presence and that's the king here. The king, being in a dark and desperate moment, is being brought closer to God. Daniel's impossible situation continues as he's lowered into the den of the lions. And the stone is brought over and the kings and guards seal it. And the king is so anxious that he can't sleep. He's restless over Daniel's wellbeing, again, showing his care and concern for Daniel. In 19 through 22 is a beautiful picture of this unique friendship. As the morning rises, the king, first thing he does, runs over to the lion pit to see if Daniel is alive. And this picture that we get of the king running is not a very kingly picture. Kings are very noble, they're very articulated in what they do. They don't run to go see someone that serves them. This is not the scene. So it shows that he is so invested in Daniel that he does not care if he looks like a fool, running to where someone should have died. And the king is giving credit to Yahweh. He's just crying out in hope. He's like, I don't know if there's a voice that's gonna come from this pit. Has your God saved you? Because he knows that if Daniel is alive, the only way that he could be living is from Daniel's God. There's no other explanation. And to his joy, Daniel responds. He says, "I'm here, I'm still alive, King." And he explains, I imagine this like still in the pit, like Daniel's still in the pit, he's like, "I'm here, and here's how it happened. "The angel shut the mouths of the lions around me right now." Maybe he's like, "Can you get me out, "and I'll tell you all about it, "but can you get me out of this pit?" But he said, "The angel shut the mouths of the lions "and kept them from hurting Daniel "because he was found innocent." And I love that he puts that in there, just God saw me innocent, and by the way, King, I never really did anything against you either.

Now, time for a major hyperlink. All right, we're going to nerd out here for a little bit. And if you could just follow and track with me, I think it'll pay off. But come down this rabbit hole with me. What we see from Daniel here in this moment, in this scene, is also similar to someone else, not Joseph. We already did that hyperlink, different hyperlink. They also faced certain deaths. So if I had the big flannel graph-- I know Pastor Chris has talked about getting a flannel for Sundays because it's so exciting. But if I had one here, I'd like to be holding the next character and I'd be putting him out. Any guesses on who we're talking about here? Okay, yeah, I know a little call and response in church, you can speak up if you have any answer, if you're feeling confident. Okay, I'll just slap on the biggest, most used character in flannel graph. Jesus, if you had the Sunday school answer, that would be correct. Look at these similarities between Daniel and Jesus. Daniel faced leaders conspiring against him. Jesus also faced leaders at that time conspiring against him. Daniel, his first response is to pray to God. He goes up to his house and he prays. Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and prays to God. Daniel submits and is faced with the decision of a ruler over him. Jesus also submits and faces the decision of the rulers that decide his fate. Daniel is found guilty of the law and Jesus too is also found guilty of the law. Now the law for me would be like in quotes because the law was something just to trap these people. It was used not for the law's intention, but to trap Daniel and to trap Jesus. Daniel was found innocent in God's eyes and Jesus as we know was perfect and innocent in God's eyes. Daniel was put to death, put in the lion's den. Jesus was put on a cross. Daniel, saved by God, came out of the lion's den alive. Jesus defeated death, rose again, and there was an empty tomb. And Daniel had the king in the morning running to him to see if he was alive, and Jesus has Mary and the disciples running to the grave to see if Jesus is alive. I'm being a little, I think this is so cool. The mirrors here, the parallels between the two stories. I love it, these comparisons show us, again, a trajectory and a tone for the passage, and it is one of a miracle. The God of Daniel, the God we serve, is the only God who can do what he does, the only one who has power over death, who can make the impossible possible. Our minds being drawn to Jesus here remind us of this is how salvation works. By putting your trust in God, our faith in God, you will be saved. Daniel put his trust and faith in God and was saved. When we put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ, we too are saved. I love how the Old Testament points us to Jesus. And this story is like neon lights flashing. It's pointing us to Christ. Pointing us to the wondrous work that God would do in sending his son to earth. But, okay, hyperlink over, back to our story, we gotta finish.

Let's finish our chapter, verse 23. It says, "The king was overjoyed and gave orders "to lift Daniel out of the den, "and when Daniel was lifted from the den, "no wound was found on him, "because he had trusted in his God. "At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused "Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lion's den, "along with their wives and children. "Before they reached the floor of the den, and the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. Yikes. Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language and all the earth. May you prosper greatly. I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom, people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed. His dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves. performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. So that Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. This is all about King Darius' response to seeing God work. And King Darius invoked justice immediately. He orders the men who plotted this whole scheme be thrown into the lion's den And before the men even reached the floor, the lions devoured them, which show us, it's not just to show us that that's a crazy scene, but it's to show us that this wasn't like the lions were full or anything before Daniel was thrown in. There was no natural explanation as to how Daniel could be saved. These lions were ready to eat. They were ferocious. This was a whole thing that the Babylonians had set up. We keep these lions starving so that when we throw anything in there, they will kill anything in there. And so it's to show that this was indeed a miracle. The king continues in this joyous response. He sends to all the earth a command to worship God. See how this has changed from the very beginning of our chapter where the king enacts this rule of you cannot worship Yahweh, to now he's saying to all the earth, you must worship Yahweh. Oh, how the turntables. It's so cool to see a Gentile king using his power and authority to spread the name of God and to tell people to worship him. God used this entire situation, meant for the harm of one of his own people, to actually have the entire world hear who he is and what he can do. This is amazing. I get why this was a flannel graph story.

Everyone should know about what happened. King Darius has a response of seeing the Lord work and his response is worship. But what about us today? When we face impossible situations, what will our response be? We saw Daniel's, we've seen King Darius's, what about us? Well, we may not face the exact situation. I'm praying that none of us get thrown into a pit of lions. Yikes, would not be good. But we do, like we say every week. we all face our own impossible situations in our lives. What are we going to do? Well, number one, be like Daniel and go to God immediately. Just as Daniel went to his room and faced Jerusalem, his first thought, the first move, is to look to the heavens and pray. Get your attention focused upward on God. Start talking to him. Pray that God would give you direction. Pray that God would intervene. Share your feelings with him, whether it's frustration, or you're scared, you're hurt, maybe you're happy. Whatever it is, ask God for help, share, just start talking. Go to God immediately. Our first responsibility is something I call get eye contact with God. Do you know, okay, when you're in a situation, you're with maybe a spouse, a sibling, your best friend, and something happens, and your first reaction is to make eye contact with that person. Be like, did you just see that? Are we on the same page here? Did we both just register what just happened and acknowledge that? Do that with God. When something happens, be like, "Look at God." Be like, "Okay, God, we both just saw that? Okay, we want to get on the same page here." Make eye contact with God. Figuratively. Okay. Number two, live with integrity. This is all about remaining innocent in the eyes of God. Sometimes our impossible situations will tempt us to compromise, to look the other way, to live in a way that betrays God, betrays our belief in Him. It will tempt us to sin. Daniel could have stopped praying. He could have been like, "God, look, for 30 days I've got to not talk to you. Sorry, I'll talk to you later." Whatever. There could have been many things, many options where God turned His back on God. Our impossible situations will tempt us to turn our backs on God.

But like Daniel told King Darius in verse 22, he said that he was saved because he was found innocent in God's sight. We too wanna be saved by being innocent in God's sight. Live with integrity. All the time. When it's easy, yes, but also when it's hard. The that we had to Jesus is helpful here, right? Jesus, who was unjustly beaten, who was unjustly accused, unjustly put to death the entire time, He remained faithful, obedient, without sin in all of it. We too, that's gotta be our aim. We wanna be like Jesus. And to live with integrity, we need Jesus. We can't do that on our own. As hard as we may try, we will fail. We need Jesus. So part of living with integrity is depending on Christ. And number three, trust God at all times. Whether the impossible situation for you has just begun, or you're deep into a season of despair and chaos, remember that God works at any time, any time that he chooses. I mean, look at Daniel here. God was present with him through it all, but he also allowed Daniel to get to the worst part, which was being thrown into the lion's den. He could have changed King Darius' mind. He could have wiped out the men who plotted against Daniel. He could have done anything before Daniel had to go in the lines then, but he didn't. But it's at Daniel's moment when he's about to face death that God then intervenes. Pastor Lauren brought this up a few weeks ago with the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. Sometimes deliverance means still going through the entirety of the difficult situation. But it's the fact that you make it through. That's God's working in your life. So trust God at all times in your impossible situation. Trust Him at the beginning, when you're entering a dark season, and continue to trust Him when it's getting worse and worse and worse. Keep your faith in Him. Just because your impossible situation may be leading to your demise in the way you view it, it doesn't mean that God isn't gonna intervene at some point in some amazing way. And, just like last week with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, even if He doesn't intervene, He is still worthy of our praise. He is still good. This week, as we all go about our lives, our encouragement and prayer for you is that your first reaction to whatever is going on in your life is to pray, is to go to God, is to look heavenward and say, "God, that was something I need you right now." Get that conversation going. And then strive to live with integrity. Ask yourself this week, how can I live more like Jesus in my day to day? Are you asking God for strength and the provision through His Spirit to live like Christ in every moment? And let's grow in our trust and faith in Him, holding on when life is throwing us all over the place, on our knees in prayer, with our hearts looking heavenward, trusting God in every moment.

Let's pray. God, thank you for this story of Daniel in the lion's den, which is famous. We know that Daniel lives through this impossible situation, and I pray that it would bring us courage, it would bring us hope, God, for whatever we are facing. And if we're not facing anything, God, I just pray that it would strengthen our relationship with you. It would deepen our roots of faith and belief so that when we do face impossible situations, we are anchored to you, knowing that you can work out anything for your good, for your purposes. God, we pray for a deepening of our relationship with you. We pray for hope and despair. We pray for strength and weakness. We pray for joy and chaos. You know where everyone is at in this room and what they need. And I pray that right now, through the teaching of your word, through the worship, we do in singing that you would fill us up, that our hearts would be a little bit lighter leaving today. God, we know who you are and what you can do and we praise you for it. May we feel empowered and encouraged and equipped to give you our everything. Be with us this week. Draw us closer to you. We pray this in your name. Amen. - Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.

Impossible Moments - Part 10

Fiery Furnace - Daniel 3

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We've been bouncing around in our series in the Old Testament looking at impossible moments. where by human perspective there was no way forward, no option, no way to succeed. And by now we're in week 10 of our series, there's little to no surprise about how these sermons go, right? We know how it ends. We know that there's an impossible and probable situation, we know that at this point God intervenes in some way, whether through providing physical resources and answers or by providing supernatural answers. God is the one making the impossible possible. And so there are no surprises, and yet, each Sunday, a story can hit us differently. Each week we come here having experienced a different week than the week before, being in a different place, our hearts and our minds may be ready to pick up on a different aspect of God, of who He is and what He does. And so while we are week to week maybe repeating some similar themes in these stories, it only does our heart good to hear how amazing God is over and over and over again. All that to say, don't tune out. Don't tune out today, don't tune out, we still have a few more weeks in the series. Each week God may want to speak to you about something different.

So last week we were in Exodus, Pastor Lauren talked about Moses and the Israelites and as they were being led out by God away from Egypt, through the Red Sea, as a part of God's plan of deliverance. And today we're jumping ahead, far beyond Israel in the desert, far beyond Israel in the Promised Land, beyond King David and Solomon, so we're actually, sadly, the Kingdom of Israel is falling apart. We're going to be in Daniel today, and Israel's kingdom at this time, by this point, has been divided into two. We have the Northern Kingdom and the southern kingdom. And this foreign nation of Babylon has captured the northern kingdom of Israel. Part of the process of Babylon taking over nation after nation is that they would take the brightest and strongest young people of whatever nation they took captive. So they took the brightest and strongest of Israel back to their own so that way they contribute to the power in the kingdom of Babylon. And some of those taken from Israel were Daniel, and also three names that you may be familiar with, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those who were taken faced a new challenge of being immersed into a new culture surrounded with religious beliefs and practices that they did not hold and might even go against what they believed. And so they had to discern and navigate through that every day. They had to ask the questions to themselves, "How do I live out my faith in God? How do I believe and worship Him while being surrounded by false gods, false practices, and a view of this world that doesn't align with how God taught me to view this world?" So just imagine the daily struggle they faced in choosing God, it was a choice every day. And in that setting, following God was riskier, even more counter-cultural than what we experience today. While we at times may get a glimpse of having to choose Jesus every day in our settings, be it at school or at work or some social setting where we feel the waves of the world pressing in, We feel sin and darkness all around us. I still believe that Daniel's situation and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's, theirs was all that and more. Because their punishment for not following the religion of Babylon, not worshiping their gods, including their king, was death. We're gonna be in Daniel three, and I'm gonna summarize the beginning of this chapter. We won't read it at this point, but at the beginning of Daniel three, we learned that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had made a statue of himself, as you do, I guess, when you're king, you just start making statues of yourself.

By the way, in the Old Testament, if you just see someone making a statue out of gold, it never leaves, that's a down, that's a bad, bad thing. Don't do it, it always ends up bad, but he does it, it's gonna end up bad for him. But it was declared after the statue was made that all nations and peoples of every language are to fall down and worship the image of the king, and whoever doesn't will be burned up in a fiery furnace. And so the setting here in the eyes of the people, specifically the Jewish people who are now in Babylon, is that there are two gods. There's a false god, King Nebuchadnezzar, and the true god, Yahweh. Which god will the Jewish people worship and which god will they obey?

Daniel 3 continues that after this statue is made and the instructions are given to the people. If you were to worship it, you're to bow down to it. Some of the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar comes to him and says, "Hey, some of your officials," reminder, this is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They're not just brought to Babylon, but they hold important positions. They are officials in the king's cabinet. And so some others rat them out and say, "Hey, some of your officials are not bowing down to your statue, specifically Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." And Nebuchadnezzar is furious. He feels betrayed to an extent. He's like, "I brought you people here, you're mine. "I gave you positions of leadership." And so he goes up to these guys and he confronts them. He says, "Is it true, you guys? "You're not worshiping my statue? "You're gonna be thrown into the fire. "And if you're thrown into the fire, "I mean, if you don't start bowing down to the statue, "who's gonna save you?" And remember, throughout this passage, there's a comparison being made here between Yahweh and Nebuchadnezzar. Who is the real God? And Nebuchadnezzar is coming to the three Jewish men, obviously mad, but also, in his mind, as a God who can save them. He's doing them a favor. He's mad, but in his mind he's exercising his godly, kingly authority.

In verse 15 of chapter 3 it says, "Then what God will be able to rescue you from My hand?" Basically saying, "I'm coming to help you out, you three. I'm giving you a chance." Technically, you should already be thrown in because you haven't been bowing down, so that means you should be thrown into the fire, but I'm not gonna do that yet, bow down, just do it from this point forward. And because if you don't, then what God can save you? If I can't, as a God, as a king, then no one can. That's what Nebuchadnezzar is communicating to the three. Who can save them? Well we know, it's week 10 in our series, right? We know, we know what's gonna happen. So let's start reading in verse 16 their response, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to him, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty's hand. But even if He does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." We'll pause right there. What an amazing example of a God-honoring stance in an impossible situation. An amazing response by these three gentlemen, God-fearing, Yahweh-worshipping men who are less about defying the king and more about obeying their God. Now, their obedience to Yahweh does mean that they are defying the king's orders, but that's not their reason for their actions.

They are seeking to obey and worship God. And really that's the point of their response here, is we are taking a God-honoring stance in this impossible situation. These men fully know what they face being thrown into the fire, which is a sure death. There is no, by human means, there is no way to escape that, no way to survive that. And in their response we see incredible trust and faith in their God. They say, "God will save us and deliver us from your hand, and if He does not, we will still not worship these gods and these statues." The trust and faith in God comes from who they know God to be. They don't even know for sure what God will do, but they know what He can do. They believe that God will deliver them, and they share at the same time. They understand that He may not, and yet we're going to continue worshiping God and honoring Him and obeying Him no matter what. See, church, so often it's easy for our faith to become transactional. "God, if you do this, then I will give more of myself to you. God, because you did this for me, now I will offer more of myself to you. Now I will give more of my time or my finances." But that's not the case for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Before anything has happened, they proclaim their loyalty, their allegiance, and their obedience and their hearts and actions for God. whatever happens, whether they are saved from being burned to death or not, their hearts are clear. And that's what we need. Despite whatever happens in our lives, we need to be clear internally and know that our worship is for God. It's not contingent on how well or poorly life is going. It is consistent, it is always, and it is all of us worshipping Him."

Let's continue to read in verse 19 and see what happens next. "Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, "Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?" They replied, "Certainly, majesty. He said, "Look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, come here!" So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out of the fire, and the state traps, prefects, governors, and royal advisors crowded around them. They they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their head singed, their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants. They trusted in him and defied the king's command, and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own god. Therefore, I decree that the people of any nation or language, who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, be cut into pieces, and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other God can save in this way." Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

How amazing is this story right here? This is such an incredible example of obedience in an impossible situation. In verse 19, we see that the king ensured this impossible situation having the three men tied even tighter and the fire made even hotter. This is showing the full effort and capability of the king, his strongest men and the hottest fire, to the point where the fire even consumes the guards that were in charge of throwing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in. This is everything that King Nebuchadnezzar could muster. This is all of his power. And is it enough? No. Not for God. Because for God, anything is possible. And so these three men are thrown into the furnace, bound with all their clothes, their turbans and robes and all this, again communicated in Scripture to express that if the guards died just from being near the furnace, surely the three of them, with everything that they have on would be consumed in fire. But what happens next? There's four people in the fire. And I just, I love this moment. You want to talk about God meeting people where they're at, in their hardest situations, in the midst of whatever they're going through. This is a prime example. God sends an angel to be with them in the fire, to rescue them, to comfort them, to assure them that their obedience to God brought him joy. Can you imagine this scene, just being in the fire? This is all my thoughts on it, so this is not necessarily Scripture, but I just imagine this scene where maybe they're feeling terrified, confident that they made the right decision, but you can still be terrified about being thrown into a fire. And then you open your eyes after falling in, and you realize you're alive. And you look around and you see your friends also alive, and you see someone new. A divine being, an angel of the Lord there. And I just imagine that angel smiling, being like, "Yeah, this is happening. You're alive." And just, you can even hear the roaring fire. Fires are loud, just a furnace roaring. And I just imagine this calm joy swelling up inside of them as they realized that they didn't die, that God showed up. We knew He could. We said that He would, and He did. And maybe the angel is there saying, "Yes, you are alive. God loves you." They're just chilling in a fire, just walking around, just talking. This is amazing. One of the coolest moments in the Bible. They're just hanging out until Nebuchadnezzar calls them out referring to them as servants of the Most High God. From that moment, people know who they serve. The king sees now who they worship and sees the power of Yahweh. I think he recognizes how inferior he is. Everyone can see how the fire did not damage them at all. Their hair, their clothing, something that was impossible was made possible.

And then in verse 28 we see the kings praising Yahweh, looking back at the actions of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and seeing that this whole time they were just being obedient to God. The defiance to Him was all about them being obedient to Yahweh. and he even makes this decree that no others from any nation that Babylon is in control of can say anything against Yahweh. This is just an amazing account of God working in an impossible situation. And so now I want to finish our time this morning with focusing on how to have this obedience to God in the midst of our impossible situations. I know many of you have We are faced, or are facing, and I'm sure we all will face at some point in the future, more situations and moments that seem impossible. Maybe it's making it through a difficult, broken relationship, where the way forward with that person seems bleak, improbable, hopeless. Maybe there's someone that you're in a relationship with that just seems to be going in the wrong direction. And it's heartbreaking. Maybe it's navigating a difficult work situation, where coworkers or management or even the work you do is just soul-sucking, bringing you close to compromise, and there is little to no joy and what you spend so much of your day doing. Maybe it's processing the loss of someone close to you. Whether they have passed or maybe you're processing them being in the end of life stage. But maybe it's overwhelming, it's lonely, and it's terrifying to think of life without that person. Church, we face impossible situations in our lives, and what God desires of us, wants of us as we go through each of these, is our obedience to Him.

Obedience to God in impossible situations is of the utmost importance. Obedience to God in an impossible situation may mean not knowing the outcome of what will happen next. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they proclaimed their faith and trust in God without knowing for sure what would happen to them. Will you do the same? Will you have a faith that is untethered to what happens in the future, but anchored in the character of God? Obedience to God in impossible situations may mean trusting God more than you ever have. Talking about steps of faith here. When we face new situations, harder situations than we faced before, it requires a deep trust in faith. And will you trust God and have faith in Him when those moments come? Obedience to God in impossible situations may mean infuriating the people around you. Just like Nebuchadnezzar was enraged by the three men's obedience to God and therefore the defiance to Him, we may face similar reactions from people in our impossible situation. They may not understand. They may be confused. They may even be offended and upset by our obedience to Christ. But will you stand firm? Will you remain obedient to God? Obedience to God in impossible situations may mean the end of life as we know it. But Now I'm not talking necessarily about life or death situations. I think here in Rocklin, Roseville, Sacramento area, we're not facing a lot of those circumstances. But sometimes obedience to God still means a change to our lifestyle or our comfort. The reality is that we serve a God and belong to a kingdom that is not of this world. The things that people pursue and value in the world are different than what we as people of God what we value and what we pursue. So whether coming to faith in God and it's new for you or you've been following God for years, know that obeying Him may at some point mean a change, a drastic, life-altering change. And will you obey in that moment?

Obedience to God in impossible situations may mean entering or remaining in what seems like an impossible situation. Sometimes we're in the midst of difficult life circumstances, and sometimes they get even worse. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were facing death, the king then stoked the fire even hotter, tied the bonds even tighter. Sometimes our impossible situations are long, they call for endurance, they get worse. And when that will we continue to obey? Will we continue to follow Him? Now also, obedience to God in impossible situations also may mean the blessed experience of getting to feel God's overwhelming presence. Like the angel that came to comfort the three of them, when we are obedient to God, we can know that God will meet us where we're at. Who doesn't want to have the comfort and peace in his overwhelming presence in the midst of our chaos and darkness. Whether that's an angel of the Lord or you just know you feel in that moment, God is with you. You can know that God will be with you through it all. And lastly, obedience to God in impossible situations may mean people come to know and and learn who God is. At the end of our passage, even Nebuchadnezzar recognizes God as the most high God.

Your obedience in your impossible situation is a witness to people. God can use you in your experience to draw people closer to Him. So will you be God's witnesses in this world through your steadfast obedience to Him in all situations? That's a choice that you can make every day. Church, your impossible situations are not impossible for God. Take courage in whatever situation you are in. If you're in an impossible situation right now, take comfort in God. Know that you are loved and supported right here. And I don't want to just say that from the pulpit. You hear that week after week, like I hear that God loves me. We want to live that out. We wanna be there for each other as a church and family of believers here. I mean, you are loved and supported. Look around this room and we love and support you. We don't wanna just say it, we wanna live it out. And so I'll say this, if you are in that moment right now, you are feeling like you are in an impossible situation, we wanna pray for you. After this last song that we're about to sing and the service were dismissed, Come find myself, Pastor Chris, or elders, or just turn to someone next to you. If you trust them and are able to open up, be prayed for this morning. Do not leave this morning. If you are feeling like you need love and support, don't leave without being prayed for. And if you are not in an impossible situation, and that's okay, you're in a blessed moment of life, that's great, be there for someone else. Be a brother and sister in Christ today. Don't leave this Sunday only to check in next Sunday and say, "Hey, how was your last week? Was it good? Cool, I'll talk to you in a week.” Be there for each other now, throughout the week. Let us be the church, holding up those who are feeling down, supporting those who are in need of love. The best thing we can do to love someone is to pray and to pray with them. We can pray for them, we can say, "Hey, I'll be praying for you this week," but if you can, take a moment, pray for someone today. This is what being a part of God's family is all about. This week, let's remember this. In whatever situation you're in, family situation, relationship situation, work situation, and the others, in all situations, let's be obedient to God, faithful, and steadfast in everything, all the time with everything we have.

Let's pray. God, we are thankful for your example and account that you have shared with us through your word of what it looks like to be obedient in the most impossible of situations. God, to see how you empowered the three men in our passage and how you sent your angel to comfort. Lord, we want that in our lives. We want to feel your presence. If we are in the midst of something challenging right now, God, I pray that your presence will be felt by those who are feeling down, who are feeling hopeless, who are feeling lonely. God, this is our heart, that we would be obedient to you in all things. And we need your help to do that. God, through your Spirit, empower us, equip us, encourage us daily to be obedient to you. We want to give you all the glory. We want to give you everything we have. We want to live our lives for you. Help us, Lord, to do that. God, I pray that we as a church would grow in loving and supporting each other. For those who are feeling that they're in an impossible situation, give them the courage to speak out, to reach out, to say, "Because I need help. I need prayer. I believe that God is going to do something, but I just... Please be with me." And God, for those who are in a good place, help those to have courage to reach out and offer that support. We want to stand together united as a church, as a family, pursuing you together. So God we pray that you would empower us, equip us, and encourage us this morning. And that we would leave closer to your presence throughout this week, for you to continue to speak to us, continue to draw us closer to you. I pray this in your name. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 9

Miracle Through The Sea - Exodus 14

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, I'm Pastor Lauren if I haven't met you and I'm just honored to be with you guys today. We've been in our Impossible Moments series this summer, and we're just gonna continue on that. We are looking at Old Testament stories specifically, where there was just an impossible situation, and God shows up in really cool ways, in really big ways, and just does the impossible. So throughout this series, we've actually talked about Moses and the Israelites, and when Moses was a baby, and we talked about the manna in the desert. So we today are actually gonna talk about the Red Sea Crossing, which I feel like is a pretty popular story. I mean, Prince of Egypt, anybody like, is that a thing still? Like, I looked it up, it's like 1998 that that movie came out. Oh my gosh, that's a really long time ago. It doesn't feel, the 90s doesn't feel like that long, but it was. So Prince of Egypt, great movie, but it's a popular story. And I wasn't really sure, like, should we do this? People know it. But the more I dug into it and studied it, I realized there's just so much of God's power. It was truly an impossible situation. And I just, I think there's a lot for us in this story.

So we are gonna be in Exodus 14 today. So if you wanna turn there in your Bibles or your phones or on the screen, we are gonna look at Exodus 14. And we're gonna read most of the chapter today in smaller chunks, and we'll talk about it as we go. So I have some thoughts for us. as we go, so if you're a note taker, awesome, love it. If not, that's cool too, you can just follow along with us. But before we get started, let me pray. Jesus, I just thank you for who you are. I thank you for these impossible moments that we get to study and learn and remember to learn more about who you are and to grow our own faith, God. I just pray that you will be with us in this moment today, that you will speak to us and that you will be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so we're just gonna dive in. We're gonna just take it section by section here, but we're gonna start with Exodus 14, verse one. It says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back "and encamp near Pihiroth between Migdal and the sea. "They are to encamp by the sea "directly opposite Baal-zaphon. "Pharaoh will think the Israelites "are wandering around the land in confusion, "hemmed in by the desert. "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he will pursue them. "But I," the Lord, "I will gain glory for myself "through Pharaoh and all his army, "and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”

So the Israelites did this. Okay, so a little bit of background for us. The Israelites just experienced the 10 plagues in Egypt. So God exhibited his power and showed the Egyptians and the Israelites, through these 10 plagues, Pharaoh finally let them go, let the slaves be free. So they gathered up what little they had and all their people and they left Egypt. And they went out into the desert. And now here they are camping in the desert, facing the sea. God also said in this first part that he was gonna harden Pharaoh's heart. And that's a hard concept, I think, for a lot of people to reconcile. A lot of the time in scripture, that phrase is used a lot in the plague narrative and also in this sea crossing narrative. And it's often translated as God giving Pharaoh over to his own desires. He allowed him to make that decision. But in this case, it actually means to strengthen, which I found very interesting. It means to, it seems like Pharaoh needed to be strengthened. He had just lost his firstborn and he allowed thousands of slaves to leave his country. He was probably a little down and distraught, but God actually strengthened his heart, kind of revived him a little bit. And Pharaoh kind of woke up and realized, oh no, what did I do? But God says up front right here in these first four chapters, regardless of what Pharaoh does, regardless of his heart and heart, I'm gonna get the glory. He just tells them, the Israelites right up front, what's gonna happen. And as we'll see, everything that the Lord says is gonna be fulfilled. He says, "I am Yahweh, and everyone, including the Egyptians, will know it.”

So we're gonna keep going. We're gonna go down to verse five and read through 14. "When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, 'What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services. So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with them. He took 600 of the best chariots along with all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. And just as a side note, chariots were like top of the line technology at this time. So like, you had the Israelites with like nothing and then you had the Egyptians with the best of the best. So they're like rallying the troops ready to go. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt so that he pursued the Israelites who were marching out boldly. The Egyptians, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth opposite Baal Zephon. As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? This is a little tongue in cheek here because Egypt was actually known for the sheer amount of land they allotted for graves. So they were like, what, there weren't enough there? We gotta come out here to die? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert. how soon they forget what God has already done for them. They had barely even left Egypt and they already forgot that God had provided for them, that he did these powerful plagues and helped them escape slavery and now they're asking to go back. Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. "Stand firm and you will see the deliverance "the Lord will bring you today. "The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. "The Lord will fight for you. "You need only to be still.”

Verses 13 and 14 are basically a sermon in and of themselves so I'm gonna read that part again. "Moses answered the people, 'Do not be afraid. "'Stand firm and you will see the deliverance "'the Lord will bring you today. "'The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. "The Lord will fight for you. "You need only to be still." So that's our first part, our first notes, if you will, today. Don't be afraid, stand firm, and be still. Sorry, going fast. Don't be afraid, stand firm, and be still. The Israelis were terrified. This is they were terrified and they cried out to the Lord. They had a reason to be. They were literally in the middle of the desert in an unknown place coming out of slavery. And they were between the sea and a very powerful army. Anybody would be afraid in this situation. But Moses says, "Don't be afraid. "You don't have to be afraid because God is with us. "Yahweh is here. "He told us what he's going to do. "He's going to help us. "We don't have to be afraid." And then he tells them to stand firm. Stand firm in the faith of who God is and of His word. Now, I don't know how great their faith was. They'd been in slavery for over 400 years. Their faith might've been a little questionable. But Moses was affirming to them that God is trustworthy. He is worthy of putting our faith in. So he says, stand firm in that. And then he says, be still. And this doesn't mean to do nothing, like freeze up, don't do anything, don't move. Here, be still actually translates more to peace and silence. It's this idea of keeping your peace and closing your mouth and letting God do what only He can do. God didn't need the Israelites to give Him ideas of how to fix the problem. He needed them to be silent and to keep the peace He was giving them. Something else just to note here is this idea of deliverance. Moses says, "You will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today." I recently read another theologian talking about how the idea of deliverance often we think about, it feels like we're getting plucked out of a situation. Well, if the Lord will deliver me, he will take me out of this terrible situation. But sometimes like giving birth, You have to go through it. You don't get to be out of it. He takes us through it. He delivers us by walking through it with us, not just plucking us out of the situation. And that's, as we'll see, the literally had to walk through the Red Sea. They had to be delivered by going through it.

So after this, the Lord tells Moses to raise his staff and stretch out his hand, and the seed was gonna divide. And then he says, "The Egyptians are gonna come in after you, "but I'm gonna take care of it, "and I will receive the glory." So he's giving them step-by-step directions, which wouldn't that be lovely when we're facing a tough situation, when we're stuck in an impossible moment, I would love step-by-step directions. But here, God is actually giving that to them. So we're gonna skip down to verse 19. And this is kind of where the miracle happens. Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side. So neither went near the other all night long. So if you're not familiar, there was a cloud that literally led the Israelites through the desert. They knew if the cloud moved, we follow. But in this case, the cloud actually went behind them. They didn't need the cloud to direct, there was one way to go through the sea. They didn't need someone leading them, they need protection in the rear. They needed a wall behind them. But something I never noticed before was this idea of the light and the darkness. I had never seen this. How God, with this cloud, shone light on the Israelite side and darkness on the Egyptian side. Like the dividing of the water is like really cool. I think that's the miracle. But how cool is it that he gave this super practical gift of light and then the darkness to blind the Egyptians essentially. It was the middle of the night. They needed light to see where they were going. And he gave that to them. And he blocked the Egyptians. The reality is they were powerful, they were faster.

The Egyptians would have overtaken the Israelites had God not intervened. So he provided this very practical miracle for them by giving them the light and the protection. And while this light and darkness, it was very practical, it also is a vivid picture of spiritual light and darkness. One commentary I read said, "This is how it is for believers and non-believers. God's word and work are like light to those who believe, but are like darkness for those who do not. For sinners or those who choose not to believe in God, The gospel is offensive and like darkness. But for those of us who believe, who claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior, it is light. God's word and work are our light. Proverbs 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path." He doesn't promise to light the whole way, but he gives us enough light for the next step. We need His Word, we need the Bible, we need the work He does in our lives through our relationships with other believers. We need all of that to light our path. And He's good to do that. He's gracious in that. He wants to give us that. So He is our light. His Word and work are our light.

All right, I'm just gonna go ahead and finish out this story so we're gonna jump back into verse 21. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. Not muddy, not a little bit of water, dry land. The waters were divided and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued them and all pharaohs, horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. During the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt." Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and there are chariots and horsemen." Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and at daybreak, the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen. The entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea, not one of them survived, like God said. But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left. That day, the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses, his servant." All right, there was a lot packed into that. So Moses chose to be obedient. He said, "Okay, God, I don't know what you're gonna do, but I'm gonna stretch out my hand and raise my staff. So he did that as an act of obedience. It really was a sign of a prayer. And the waters parted. I picture it like walking through one of those aquariums where it's just like the wall of glass and you see all the fish come up to you, but there's no glass this time. It's just water. That's gotta be trippy. So he lifted up his hands, And this action wasn't the miracle. God used Moses, but it wasn't even, it wasn't Moses' power. It was a sign that the miracle was an answer to prayer. The east wind that came was from God. The east wind is what actually divided the waters. And that was a sign that it was by God's power. The miracle came from God. Matthew Henry commentary says, "God can bring his people through the greatest difficulties and force away where he does not find it. The God of nature has not tied himself to its laws, but when he pleases, dispenses with them. And then the fire does not burn nor the water flow." God is the creator. He made it all. So he's not limited by it. The width and the depth of the sea was not a problem for him. It did not thwart his plans. He made the sea, so why couldn't he divide it? He caused a natural thing like wind to come through and do this unnatural miracle in this impossible moment. After the Israelites crossed over, the Egyptians went into the sea, and God caused more confusion, jammed their chariot wheels. Technology's great until it's not, right? He used what their strength was against them. And then he told Moses, once again, "Raise your hand in your staff, and I will have the waters come back to their original place." And the Egyptians were drowned and washed up on shore.

But did you notice, before that happened, did you notice what was said in verse 25? He jammed the wheels, so he jammed the wheels. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt." The word the Lord there is not just another word for a God. They use the word Yahweh here. The Egyptians called him Yahweh, the one true God. Back in verse four, he said, "The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, "that I am Yahweh." And they did. They could see that God was fighting the Israelites battle. And they were terrified because of it. God used this not only to protect the Israelites, but to show the Egyptians who he was. (silence) Because of all of this, because of everything that happened, the being stuck in a tough place, this impossible moment, the parting of the Red Sea, the Egyptians coming in after them, all of it, this whole experience grew the faith of the Israelites. Verse 31 says, "And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses, his servant. God revealed more of himself to them through this in order to build their trust. He showed his power, his provision, his sovereignty, his all knowingness. He knew it was gonna happen. He told him it was gonna happen and it happened. See the Israelites, they knew about God. They knew about Yahweh because they had a family history of it. They had Adam and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and just, they had this history. They knew about God. But they had been in slavery for 400 years. So they still feared him, but I have to wonder if their relationship was a little unstable and their faith was maybe a little shaky. They needed to see God's power in order to grow their faith. So here's what I know is true for us too. We must truly know God, not just know about Him. The Israelites knew about God, but this experience helped them to get to know who He was. This week, a rabbit showed up on our porch. Literally looked like Peter Rabbit, hopped on our porch. It had a vest, like a harness, like it literally looked like Peter Rabbit. And so we've been fostering this rabbit all week long. And actually I had rabbits growing up, and so I know about rabbits. I've been Googling a lot this week. Learned a lot about rabbits. But I don't know this rabbit. I don't know its actual name. I don't know what kind it is. I don't know what it likes and doesn't like. But Chris and I actually had a dog for nine years. He was our baby before we even had kids. His name was Ace. We knew Ace. We knew about him. We knew facts. But we also knew him. We knew what he liked, what he didn't like. We knew that after a certain TV show, there was this jingle that played and if we didn't mute it fast enough, he'd howl. We knew this dog. I knew about the rabbit. I knew my dog. Now if the pet analogy is lost on you, what about humans? I was thinking how we know a lot about like celebrities, maybe what they've been in or who they're married to, how many kids they have, but we don't know them. I can't call them up and say, "Hey, wanna go grab some coffee?" But I know my husband. I know who he is, what he values. I know his character. I know facts about him too, but I know him.

We can know the Bible. We can know facts about God. We can know things that are true. We can memorize scripture and still not know who God is. Still not have a relationship with Him. But I do know that God wants a relationship with us. He wants to be known by us. That's why he reveals himself through scripture. Sometimes it's in a really ordinary things or simple conversations or silly things like a rabbit showing up on our porch. But it's also in the big moments too, in the impossible situations, in the hard things and the celebratory things, he reveals more of his character because he wants us to know him. He wants us to be in relationship with Him. So if you don't know God, you don't really know Him and you want to, or you wanna learn more about that, please come talk to me, or Pastor Chris or Pastor Andrei, we wanna talk to you about that, what that looks like. But if you do know Him, if you proclaim Him as your Lord and Savior, and you know Him and you have a relationship with Him, will you consider today the fact that it's really easy to slide back into just knowing about him. We can rely on facts and information and make it seem like we know him, that we're intimate with him without actually being in a relationship with him. We must choose to not be afraid, even when the circumstances feel impossible. We get to choose to stand firm in our faith, even when it's a little bit shaky. We get to be still, to hold onto the peace that only comes from God. We get to allow Him to be the light on our path, to light our way when things are really questionable. And we get to invest in this relationship that He has offered to us so that we can know Him.

I'm gonna pray for us, and we're just gonna go ahead and head out into food. We're so glad you're here today. I pray that you will know him today, that you will get to know him more and more today. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for revealing your character to us, for telling us more about you, for meeting us in the impossible moments. God, I pray that you will strengthen our faith, that you will grow us, that you will deepen it. God, maybe we haven't had a Red Sea moment, but there have been moments in our lives that have been tough, that felt impossible, that felt like we were between a rock and a hard place. And God, help us to trust you in those moments. Help us to believe who you say you are. And help us not to just rely on facts and information and things we can rattle off about you, but help us to get to know you. We love you. We thank you for this Spring Valley family. We pray over our lunch. God, may it be nourishing to our bodies as your word is nourishing to our souls. We love you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 8

Divine Wisdom - 1 Kings 3:16-28

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well it's good to be back with you. If you don't know, we were gone last week driving back home from San Diego. It's good to be back, enjoyed seeing some of you guys midweek this week at the Conversations event. I love, I just love that time. More time with church family, right? We see each other every Sunday, but glad we get to see some of each other in the midweek too. And this week we pondered and processed the pastor's approach and the congregation's approach to church and asked the question, who is at the center of our hearts and minds when we go to church? Is it us or is it God? So I just really enjoy that conversation. We're looking forward to the next one next month. But this morning, we're continuing in our Impossible Moments series. Last week, Pastor Lauren had a great message about Gideon from Judges. We watched it on our drive. We had our phone up there safely. It was totally fine. And I love this question that she asked, talking about being available for God. But then, are we willing to follow up that availability with obedience? That question just kept popping up in my head this week. And so, if you haven't listened to it, I would encourage you to do so. Go back and watch.

Today, we're gonna be in a different scene in the Bible. I love the format of this series, this little vignettes of the Old Testament that we're just kind of hopping around and seeing God work. And so, today we're gonna be talking about King Solomon in a career-defining moment that he had early on in his reign. Solomon, as many of you know, is considered Israel's wisest king, maybe the greatest king. And he was known for his wisdom. Even people who are not raised up in the church still have heard of Solomon in some way, whether they believe he was true or a fictional figure. But Solomon is a character known for his wisdom. And toward the beginning of his reign, the Bible tells us that Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given to him by David. In other words, he was walking with God. And I love what the Bible uses this imagery of, this illustration of walking with God multiple times to show when someone is living in righteousness, is living according to God's will and purpose. And so even from the very beginning, we have this image of Adam walking in the garden with God. That's a beautiful moment right there. We have Noah, who at that time was the only one walking with God. Or Abraham and Moses and even the Israelites when they were being good, 'cause they weren't always good, but they were walking with God at times. And so we see here Solomon is walking with God. Well as he's doing so, at the beginning of his reign, there's a moment where he's offering sacrifices to God, and God appears before him saying, Solomon, whatever you want, ask me for it, and I'll give it to you. Now that is a pretty sweet blank check from God, just like, hey, Solomon, whatever you want, ask and I will give. I'm hoping that God says that to me someday.

But how many of us in this moment, if asked by God, would our minds go directly to something that's maybe right in front of us, right? We just had a prayer time this morning and maybe that would be what we ask God. Hey God, I'm having relationship issues. Please bring restoration to that. Or God, finances are a huge hurt right now and more money would be really helpful. If you could give me that, that would be great. Or God, my health, or someone else that's close to me. Those are all good things, not wrong with asking, there's nothing wrong with asking for that. But Solomon asks for something else. And in chapter three of 1 Kings, Solomon responds, now Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child, and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant here is among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern these great people of yours? Now, a couple things. Solomon isn't actually a boy at this time. He's actually a father at this point. But it's an idiom in the Hebrew language to show the inexperience that he has, to recognize with humility that, hey, I don't know how to do perfectly what you've called me to do. And so God, you do. And so in comparison to you, I'm just a little boy when it comes to this matter of ruling over Israel. And if we can bring that verse back up actually, verse eight and nine in that passage is just so rich. Solomon here has the purest heart. There's moments of his reign that are up and down. And this is one of the highest moments of his reign. This is so good. We can, this could be a whole other sermon for another time but it's not, it's not, so we're just gonna breeze through this really quick, but the phrasing here, people too numerous to count, and the phrase, who is able to govern this great people of yours? There's a couple things, one is that it touches the covenant that God made back in time with Abraham, with Moses and Israel, too numerous to count, right? That's the covenant of I will give you a people that is greater than the sand. And so it communicates that Solomon is in touch to some degree with God's plan and direction, looking back over Israel's history, and also that other phrase of who is able to govern this great people of yours. God was meant to be king over Israel. And it wasn't until the people demanded that they have an earthly king, a human king, that God gave that to them, and then Saul became king. But this line acknowledges, Solomon acknowledging with humility that, "Hey, you've appointed me to this position, "but God, you are the one who can truly govern your people, perfectly. Even me, who you've called to this position, God, you are the true king. So it's just an amazing response to God's offer. And God is so pleased with Solomon in this moment. God is saying, yes, a ruler who gets it, right? Someone who knows their boundaries and their limits. Someone who wants to depend on me, Yahweh, depend on my qualities and my character. And so God responds to Solomon by giving him what he asked for.

In verse 12 of chapter 3, God gives him a wise discerning heart. And he also gives him what Solomon did not ask for, wealth and honor. And God says, "If you continue to walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you long life." I don't know if there could be a better start to a reign for a king. You get God's favor, you're receiving God's promise and giftings, securing God's partnership and blessing over your reign. This is pretty amazing, right? You get wisdom, you're getting wealth and honor as a bonus here, and if you follow God's commandments, you will also have long life. That's amazing. Now, while Solomon's reign gets off to a great start, his entire life is, again, an interesting case study. And it seems that he may have started at the top and and kind of slowly went downhill. But he was the wisest king, and he brought Israel into its most flourishing season, amounting wealth for the nation, prosperity for the kingdom, and world-renowned reputation for God and for the people. And so you may be wondering, well, Andre, where's the impossible situation? Sounds like everything's perfect. Sounds like he's got everything he needs. Well, right after this incredible moment with God, we are given a unique scene where Solomon gets to demonstrate the wisdom given to him by God.

So if you would turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Kings 3, we're gonna start at verse 16. You guys can follow along as I read aloud. It says, "Now two prostitutes came to the king "and stood before him. "One of them said, 'Pardon me, my lord, "'this woman and I live in the same house, "'and I had a baby while she was there with me. "'The third day after my child was born, "'this woman also had a baby. "'We were alone. "There's no one in the house but the two of us. "During the night, this woman's son died "because she lay on him. "So she got up in the middle of the night "and took my son from my side "while I, your servant, was asleep. "She put him by her breast "and put her dead son by my breast. "The next morning, I got up to nurse my son and he was dead. "But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, "I saw that it wasn't the son that I had born. "The other woman said, 'No, no, no, no, "'the living son is my son. "'The dead one is yours.' "But the first one insisted, 'No, the dead one is yours. "'The living one is mine.' And so they argued before the king. And the king said, "This one says my son is alive "and your son is dead. "Well, that one says, no, your son is dead "and mine is alive." So, maybe you have heard of this scene before. And if you haven't, it's a startling scene. Yeah, this is in the Bible. Two women have babies and one sadly dies in the night and the mother takes the living baby to try and pass it off as her own, swap the dead child for the living. And in this situation, this is just a terrible, awful scenario full of sorrow and distress. In the morning, that mother recognized that it wasn't her child that was dead and put together what had happened. And today, if this were to happen, we have ways of figuring this out. There's DNA testing. This is not an impossible situation for us today. But back in that time, this is an impossible scenario. It is simply one woman's word against another woman. this story or that story? Which one will Solomon believe? How will he know who is telling the truth?

So our predicament also reveals a couple other things. Just for some context here, as king, king gets to hear a lot of the big cases that are happening in his kingdom. There are judges for lesser cases. Not every single issue came before the king, but ones that were more difficult or ones having to deal with human life did get the attention of the king. And so we see Solomon's care here. From the social positions of these women, they're prostitutes, the simple fact that this case, given its nature, came to him shows that Solomon believes injustice and sound judgment be applied to all cases and made available to all subjects regardless of gender or social status. It's a very God-like quality that Solomon is exercising here. But the impossible situation remains, right? Who is the real mother? Now, of course, as the readers, we know, we get to read this, and we're reading it knowing who is who. But Solomon has to distinguish this harlot or that harlot. And so let's read what happens next in verse 24. "Then the king said, 'Bring me a sword.' So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order. cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other. The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, 'Please, my lord, give her the living baby. Don't kill him.' But the other said, 'Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two.' And then the king gave his ruling, 'Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him. She is the mother.’"

So here we have our ruling, right? This is Solomon giving his answer. He asks for a sword to be brought out to cut the baby in two, to give a half to each mother, which is very extreme. Each woman has a different reaction to Solomon's order. The first, the one we know to be the true mother, she's overwhelmed with compassion and love for her child. The Hebrew here in this phrase literally means that her bowels or her womb grew hot, which in ancient times is what they thought the emotions came from, from this the gut. And so she is feeling the verdict of Solomon's order. She's feeling the outcome in every fiber of her being. She is so moved out of love that she would rather surrender her child than have that baby die. It's another moment of someone in this story having godly character, an act of sacrifice, an act of love. The second woman sadly has a very different reaction. She's okay with this second baby dying, which is, again, a very extreme response, but we have to remember that she's already lost her child. Her state of mind is dealing with all sorts of emotions, anger, hurt, loss, pain, jealousy, and even a false sense of justice. In her mind, it's fair that the other mother also lose her child. Now, you may say, "How does that make sense?" Well, let's take this into a different scenario that maybe we can all relate to. Okay, we're going into a figurative story here. Let's say there are two little siblings. I didn't come up with names. So there's a little boy and a little girl, and their brother and sister. And on a summer day, they both get a popsicle, right? And one of them accidentally drops the popsicle. It's melting on the ground. And they're like, well, what do I do now? Well, my sibling has a popsicle. Let me ask if they'll share. Can I have some of yours? The other's like, no, this is mine. You lost yours. I get to keep mine. Well, now that first sibling who lost the popsicle is feeling, well, this is not fair. They're enjoying something, and I can't have it. So what do they do? They knock that one out of their hand. They knock it to the ground. And that one's like, what are you doing? He's like, "Well, if I can't have it, you can't have it." And in their minds, that is justice. That is fair. And I think... Now, given this context much more serious, but I think that's what is happening here. This mother is saying, "If I can't live the life as a mother, you can't either." It's a false sense of justice, but it's what makes sense to her in that moment. That's held in contrast. Her thinking is held in contrast to real justice and fairness and wisdom.

Solomon's verdict represented God's justice and wisdom. He was able to discern both of these women's hearts. Their reaction to this scenario was a glimpse into their hearts. The heart is typically something, the Bible tells us, that only God can know, only God can discern and understand what is going inside of a person's heart. But in this moment, Solomon, through God's wisdom and discernment, can see into their hearts. Maybe you too have had moments where you've been able to see into someone's heart, you've seen their motivations, their reasons for what they're doing. And sometimes it reveals the good. You see that that person was trying to love, that person was trying to care or be kind, compassionate. And other times you see in that person's heart the sin, the evilness, where there's jealousy or pride, selfishness. story is an illustration of Solomon's wisdom. He's a man who can see beneath the surface and discern people's motives and character. This impossible moment, impossible for everyone else except this man bestowed with the wisdom of God, who's able to see what usually only God can see, beneath the surface. And by God's wisdom, Solomon is able to discern who the the real mother is and give the baby back to her. Let's look at the aftermath of this ruling. Verse 28 says, "When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice." So the aftermath of this decision is that Solomon's reputation grows, and therefore so does God's because people know that God is the one who gave Solomon the ability to be able to do that. It was thought at that time that kings had a supernatural ability and wisdom. They had a connection to the divine. And this reinforces that their king, Solomon, truly did have a connection with God. Divine wisdom is more than just knowledge, which Solomon possessed in abundance, but it includes the ability to render difficult judgments. Solomon presented that he, as a king, had that ability. True wisdom is from God, and Israel knew this, and soon the whole world began to know this too. God, wisdom to help govern God's people is used perfectly here by Solomon.

This is a great scene, impossible scene at the beginning, undone by God's wisdom and a great picture of what God's kingdom could have looked like. Israel now sees this and says, "All right, this is our king. This is our king, that if he follows God, look at what can happen. We can have true justice. We can have an amazing era in Israel's history." Solomon navigated an impossible situation at the time in a cunning way finding the solution to determine the true mother and His wisdom and relationship with God are an example for us today. How do we like Solomon walk in wisdom? Well, we may not be Rulers over Israel. We're not I know all of you. We're here We're not over there and but you guys still have you in a sense you rule over your life and you have a responsibility to people in your lives, maybe your families, friends, maybe your kids. And so wisdom is still an essential part of living for God, something that we should all be striving for. Proverbs 9 10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." So it starts, walking in wisdom starts with fearing and believing God. Now, wisdom is a term with... It's a big term. It's got a large scope. And so from the Bible, we kind of see these different sides of wisdom. We see that there's perceiving wisdom, which is along the lines of what we read today, being able to discern situations around us through the lens of God. There's also action-related wisdom, which focuses on the right behavior. In everyday life, how are we gonna apply God's word and live like Jesus in every moment? There's also a communicating wisdom, which is focused on teaching and learning wisdom, like the book of Proverbs. So just as Solomon said in the book of Proverbs, we wanna live according to the wisdom of God, which is all those types of wisdom. So how do we do that? Well, here's a couple things. First, pray and ask God for wisdom. Simple step. Pray and ask God for wisdom. This goes back to early in the chapter, that example that Solomon gave us when he asked God for discernment. We are inexperienced, right, just like Solomon. And only God knows how to live this life in the best way. So let's ask God on how to do it. Let's ask Him for that wisdom. Pray every morning, "God, give me the wisdom to get through the day in a way that honors You. Give me wisdom to love and have compassion on those around me. Give me wisdom to be like Jesus in every situation I find myself in. Solomon writes in Proverbs 3.5, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." In order to not lean on our own understanding, we need to have God's understanding, right? We have to ask for that. If we believe that God is perfect in every way, that He is all-wise and all-knowing and and perfect in love, then why would we lean on our own understanding when we can fully depend on Him? He is the source of true wisdom. It comes from God. It's something that God gives, just like He gave to Solomon. And oftentimes when someone is able to give something, what they want is for someone to ask. So God is waiting for us to ask for wisdom. I love this quote about the connection between wisdom and God. It says, "In the Bible, intimacy with wisdom is not distinguished from intimacy with God. Divine wisdom is a communication of God showing the path to life.”

It starts with knowing God, having a relationship with Jesus. with God will lead to wisdom from God. We know that we cannot live righteously without Him. We need Jesus in our lives. We need the guiding work of the Holy Spirit and we need God's wisdom. So let's ask for it. Secondly, exercise wisdom in your life. After we've asked for that wisdom that we are assuming and we trust that God will give us that wisdom to help us honor Him and help us obey Him. Now we've got to live that out. Proverbs 8.20 says, "I walk in the way of righteousness along the paths of justice." Ephesians 5, 15-16 says, "Be careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." When approaching situations in life, it's easy to go through them quickly, relying on our own knowledge and our own wisdom. But what would it look like to pause and pray and discern what God might want us to do in that situation, to understand what the Lord's will is in that moment? There was a question back when I was growing up that kind of became gimmicky, but I think it still applies. WWJD, anyone know? Yeah? Do you anyone have a bracelet? Or like 10 on your wrist? What would Jesus do? Honestly, still a great question to ask. When trying to exercise wisdom in life, when trying to discern what God's will is, how to honor Him and live like Jesus, what would Jesus do?

At the board meeting we had this past week, the elders were talking about how as one gets older, the decision time becomes longer. At a younger age, we're so quick to just pull the trigger and keep going, almost like out of reflex, like just go, go, go, life is happening at a fast pace. But as one gets older, they realize in most cases that there is no need for a rush, and it's okay to sit and ponder and think about what might be the best way forward. I think that's what God wants us to do. Maybe we still do that quickly, but he wants us to take a moment to pause, breathe, and pray as we exercise wisdom in life. Exercising wisdom also means a submission to God's plan, realizing that I don't have it all figured out, but I do have the desire to apply God's truth, His word, to this situation. If we don't submit to God's plan, if we lean on our own understanding, then we are falling deeper into sin. Our own way, what we naturally think is best, is actually selfish and sinful. And thankfully, Jesus came to save us, "and He is the truth, the way, and the life." When I think of the wisest people that I've ever known, one of them being my father, it's not that he knew a lot, well, he does know a lot, but it's that he took the time, it was his approach. He did his best to apply God's word to every situation. That's still an example to me today. As frustrated as I was as a little kid as to why we haven't done this, and he's talking about it and thinking about it, I see now that he was just trying to best honor God in those situations. I also want to say this though, wisdom is often associated with age, right? The older someone is, the wiser they are, and generally that is true. But there are also younger people who apply God's truth and commands and decrees to life and are considered wise beyond their years. I think of the young people in this room who I think are personally very wise for just graduated and still in high school. 'Cause I know that you guys are trying to apply God's word to your life, and that is wisdom. Keep doing that. In our lives, how can we exercise more wisdom? How can we live more according to God's truth and will every moment?

Lastly, witness with your wisdom. Solomon's decision, his use of wisdom, became a witness and a testimony to God's role in his life in the nation of Israel. And the same can be true for us today. When we live a life that honors God, we exercise wisdom, sometimes through impossible situations that we face, people will notice. Whether we ever know about it or not, when we apply God's word to decisions we make, we are pointing people to God. It could just be one decision that someone witnesses and they see it and they turn towards him, or it may be a lifetime of decisions that exercise wisdom that finally make an impact on someone. But be aware and conscious that your wise decisions can be a way for the gospel to be spread. You know whose life was a great example of this? Someone who lived according to God's wisdom and pointed people to God? is Jesus. Sunday school answer, Jesus. One thing about Solomon is that he points to the need for Jesus. You see, even though Solomon was a great king, the wisest the world has ever seen, he could not, for the entirety of his life, walk perfectly with God. As wise as he was, he was unable to walk with God and live in the path of righteousness perfectly. And so Israel's wondering, well, if Solomon can't do it, Who can? Who is gonna be our perfect leader? And it points to the coming of Jesus. Jesus is the embodiment of perfect wisdom. Throughout his ministry, he is known as the wise teacher. He is the truth incarnate, and he communicates God's perfect will to humanity. What a blessing that we get to know Jesus, that we have his teachings through his word, and that we can seek to live like him. So, as we strive to live like Jesus, with God's wisdom, we can be a witness. Now, let me be clear. While sometimes our decisions that are wise decisions will point people to God, other times our wise decisions may be baffling to people. Know that what God considers wise, the world may consider foolish. It's still witnessing. It still points people to God, but it may not make a lot of sense to them. Ruth Haley Barton is an author and she has this to say about wisdom. She says, "Our ability to think things through and apply reason to our decision-making is a gift from God. However, the Scriptures are clear that human wisdom and the wisdom of God are not the same thing. Part of becoming more discerning is the ability to distinguish between the two." Paul says in 1 Corinthians, "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." He also says, "Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

I love what both of those, the quote from Ruth Haley Barton and what Paul is saying here, reassure us that following God may not make sense to the world. We may be getting weird looks, puzzled answers of, "Why are you doing what you're doing?" That does not, that's not what you should be doing. But as you live your life for Jesus, walking in wisdom, you are living in His perfect will, and God could not be more happy or pleased. Follow Jesus. It may not make a lot of sense to people, but it is the wisest thing you can do. So in whatever impossible situation you find yourself in, or just in your day-to-day life, how will you walk in the wisdom of God? Are you asking God for wisdom daily? First thing when you wake up, a simple prayer, "God, give me the wisdom I need to honor you today." Are you exercising wisdom in your life? Not just in the biggest moments where it's maybe obvious to stop and pray, but even in the small mundane moments? Are we exercising God's wisdom? And are you aware that when you walk in true wisdom given by God, you are a witness to the people around you? Our prayer is that God would give us wisdom here at Spring Valley Church and use us for His glory and for His kingdom.

You guys pray with me. God, thank you for the example of Solomon. It is so encouraging to see how you want us to walk with you. You desire that for us. You will give us what we need that we don't have on our own to be able to do that. You will give us wisdom, God. We pray today, the days to come and the weeks to come, that you would pour out on us your wisdom. Our desire is to walk in your paths of righteousness. We need your help to do it. We just prayed earlier in our service, God, about all these situations that are going on in our lives. And in every one of those situations, we need wisdom. God, we don't want to lean on our own understanding. We don't want to be selfish and prideful and go down the path that leads to sin. We want to walk in Your righteous paths. So God, from the mundane and the small stuff of life to the biggest decisions that we have in front of us, we pray for Your discernment, We pray for your guidance. We pray that we'd be able to see with clarity what you are calling us to do, where you are calling us to go. Pray that we would have patience to wait until you give us that wisdom. God, encourage each and every person in this room as we seek to live a life that exercises wisdom. And may we be conscious of how we are a witness to others as we do so. Give us strength. It is hard sometimes to go against the current of the world, to do what does not make sense in the world's eyes. But I pray that you would give us courage. Help us be steadfast in our decision to follow you every day. We love you, Lord. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 7

Victory Against All Odds - Judges 6-7

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

And we have been in a series called Impossible Moments, And we have talked about tons of stories. We've been focused on the Old Testament, but stories like Moses and David fighting against Goliath and Noah and the Israelites having food just appear for them in the desert. So many different stories of God just coming through when it felt impossible. And the thing I love about this series, and really, I mean, let's be real, it's all of scripture, but the thing that's really cool about this is we get to see these stories and be reminded, maybe we've heard them many times, so maybe we're being reminded of them, but we get to learn more about who God is. That really is the whole point of the Bible. He wants a relationship with his people. There's no other God that wants a relationship like our God. He wants a relationship with his people. And how do you build a relationship? You get to know them. And so through these stories and through his word, He reveals more and more of Himself to us. Now He's infinite, we're never gonna understand Him completely, but how cool is it that He is so good and in His kindness, He shows us His character and who He is. And in turn, because we're learning about God and because He created us, we get to learn more about ourselves and how we relate to Him, how we relate to this world. And so I just, I am loving this series.

And today we are going to focus on a story where God basically says, you know, this army is just too big. Ever heard anyone say the army's too big? Not me. Usually it's the opposite problem. But God said this army is too big. We are gonna be talking about Gideon. We're gonna be in the book of Judges today. But before we get started, let me open us up with some prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity to get to know you better through your word, through the people that you've used, through your scriptures. I pray that you will be present in this place, that you will be felt. Holy Spirit, come speak to us and to our hearts. We thank you so much for this opportunity to worship together and to learn more about you in your name. So while you're gonna be in Judges, We're gonna start in verse six. I want us to have a little bit of background of who Gideon is. You may be really familiar with him, you may not. Gideon was a judge, hence the book of Judges, but he was one of the judges of Israel. And the Israelites at this time were under oppression from the Midianites. And so there was a lot of distress, a lot of struggle. And we find Gideon in Judges six. We're gonna start in verse 11. You can turn there on your phone, in your Bible. We got it on this screen. We also have blue Bibles in the chairs. We're gonna be in the NIV version today. So turn with me to Judges 6, verse 11. And we find him in a winepress. So let's read. The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiserite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. Pause for a second. He was threshing wheat in a winepress, not typically what the winepresses were for, but he was scared of the Midianites. So he was basically hiding while he was getting his work done. So this little section's gonna tell us a lot about Gideon, and we're just making a note of that here. Okay, verse 12. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." Another translation says, "Mighty man of valor." 13, "Pardon me, my lord," replied Gideon, but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about? When they said, "Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?" But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian. The Lord turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" "Pardon me, my Lord," Gideon replied, "but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family." The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive." Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you." And the Lord said, "I will wait until you return.”

So Gideon goes off and prepares a meal, and brings it back to the answer of the Lord, and it burns like a burnt offering, and he receives that. And that's the sign for Gideon to know, oh, this is real, this is really the Lord talking to me. Okay. So, like I said, we learn a lot about Gideon here in chapter six, and he's not, doesn't seem like the guy for the job, you know, by human standards. He's hiding in a wine press, threshing wheat, first of all. But God calls him a mighty warrior. And God calls him that before he's ever gone into battle. That I find that so interesting. Gideon hadn't done anything of valor or of warrior likeness, but God calls him that. Gideon himself actually didn't really think very highly of himself because in verse 15 it says, "My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least, "I'm the youngest in my family." Birth order and clan order, that was all very, very important in this time. So he's like, "Are you sure you got the right guy? "Because I don't think I'm it." But something else we learn is that God says, "Go in the strength you have, not that you will have, "but that you currently have." So God is speaking into Gideon's life saying, "You have this strength. "I am giving it to you now. "You are a man of valor. "You are a mighty warrior right now, "before you've done anything." We see Gideon's lack of courage in this, and we see maybe his fear or his lack of confidence in God's choice of warrior.

But we also see some other really cool things from Gideon. He starts asking God for signs. You may have heard the idea of asking, laying out a fleece for the Lord. This is where it comes from in chapter six. He puts out a fleece and he says, God, if this is you, make the fleece wet and the ground around it dry from dew and God does it. And then the next night he said, okay God, I'm gonna ask you to do it again, but the opposite. I want the fleece dry and the ground around it covered with dew and he does it. Now, at first reading, I'm kinda like, oh, Gideon. Kinda pushing the limits here, asking God for all these signs, but it's okay. God wasn't offended by it, he wasn't intimidated by it. He actually, in his goodness, allowed Gideon to have these confirmations so that he could build his confidence. We may look at Gideon as modern day readers and say he had a lack of faith, but how many times have we done it? How many times have we questioned? God, is this really you? Are you sure? I don't think you have the right guy. I've definitely given God plenty of reasons of why I'm not the right person for the job, why I'm not capable or equipped or good enough. And God doesn't make mistakes. So, he has the right person. I think a lot of times we want to be available. I think Gideon, as an Israelite, as a follower of Yahweh, wanted to be available, but are we willing to follow up that availability with obedience? Honestly, for a lot of us, I think the answer's no. If we're truly honest with ourselves, because we're scared or we're unsure, we actually are putting more faith in ourselves other than God, or over God.

But the funny thing is, in this series, and really throughout the whole Bible, Every person that God used was not good enough. David was too small to fight Goliath. Moses should have been killed as a baby and then as an adult and had a stutter. Elijah was rolling solo up against 300 of Baal's prophets. Noah built an ark for somewhere that never had rained before. It didn't make sense. But God made them enough. He gave them what they needed. He equipped them and he called them to do it. So he was gonna make them enough. Same thing with Gideon. Maybe he was the least of his family. Maybe he was in the smallest clan. But God, as we'll see, as we continue, we'll see that God gives Gideon exactly what he needs. And he'll give us what we need too. He is not gonna call us to something that he will not equip us for. He's gonna give us exactly what we need. So now we have a little bit of background of who he was. We can see that he is not wildly courageous or wildly confident in himself, but he asked God to build his trust. He asked for signs. He even went so far as to tear down an altar of Baal. Now in that time, Yahweh and Baal were basically worshiped equally. For many people in the area, including Israelites, both of them were worshiped. So it was a big deal for him to tear down this altar. In fact, he was so scared to do it that he did it in the middle of the night. But in that time, he can't really tear down a altar of a god and it not be noticed. So they figured out who it was, but he did it. It also says that He was, that the Spirit came upon Him.

Now, as Christians and Christ-holders, this side of the resurrection, we hear that more of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or when a Holy Spirit comes into our heart or our lives. We are given the Holy Spirit. But in the Old Testament, most of the time, it's understood as the Holy Spirit coming upon someone. And we see here that Gideon had the Spirit of God upon him. He was anointed. He wasn't just told to go do something. God was going to go with him. Gideon also started building an army. He's like, "Okay, well, I gotta go defeat the Midianites. "I guess I need some people to do this with me." So he started growing an army. His trust in God grew. His confidence in who God said he was grew. So we're gonna go ahead and jump ahead to chapter seven. We're just gonna work section by section here. So Judges seven verse one, early in the morning, Jerubal, who's called Gideon, and all his men camped at the spring of Herod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley, near the hill of Morah. The Lord said to Gideon, "You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me." They would say, "My own strength has saved me." Now announce to the army, "Anyone who trembles with fear "may turn back and leave Mount Gilead." So 22,000 men left while 10,000 remained. The math is not mathing, okay? This is not making sense. First of all, just for some context, the army, the Midianite army had what was estimated as 135,000 men. So with 32,000 Israelites in their army, they were already severely outnumbered. But God said, "No, you're too big. "Because if you defeat them with 32,000 men, "you're gonna take the glory. "You're gonna say that you did it in your own power." And that's not how this is gonna go. So he said, "If you're afraid," which obviously many were, because they saw this vast army in front of them that they were going up against. So 22,000 went home. and they were left with 10,000. Seems really small amount of men to go against this army. I was reading a commentator on this passage and he said, "If we really believe the principle from Zechariah 4.6 "that says not by might nor by power, "but by my spirit says the Lord of hosts, "then our smallness does not matter. "If we really believe the principle, "some trust in chariots and some in horses, "but we will remember the name of the Lord our God," from Psalm 20, verse seven, then smallness does not matter. 10,000 men was small, but it didn't matter. All right, on to verse four. "But the Lord said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. "Take them down to the water, "and I will thin them out for you there. "If I say this one shall go with you, he shall go. "But if I say this one shall not go with you, "he shall not go." So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues "as the dog laps from those who kneel down to drink." 300 of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. So God basically said, if they get on their hands and knees and they put their head in the water and they're just drinking, They're not being alert, they're exposing their backs. Send them home. The ones that picked up the water and laughed at like a dog and stayed alert, stayed ready, were on the lookout. Those are the ones God wanted. Unfortunately, it was only 300 of them. But small doesn't matter with God.

The same commentator wrote, Now the Israeli army was less than 1% of its original size, and the proportion was 400 Midianite soldiers to one Israeli soldier, 400 to one. Gideon could only trust in God because there was nothing else to trust. Gideon already didn't have a lot of confidence in himself. Now he didn't have an army to put his confidence in. He only had the option to trust in God. Sometimes we feel that way, we get to the end of our rope, we got nothing left. Hopefully we put our trust in God before we get to that point, but sometimes it takes us getting to the end of our rope to realize he's all I need to put my trust in. All right, verse seven. The Lord said to Gideon, with the 300 men that lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home." So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home, but kept the 300 who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. God was gonna use 300 men. So now Gideon has asked for signs and he's received signs, building up his confidence. And then God pared down his army to 300, probably broke his confidence down a little bit. But God knew and He is good and He is kind. And so He's like, you know what? I'm gonna give you another sign, Gideon. I'm gonna show you that you can trust me. So we head into verse nine. During that night, the Lord said to Gideon, get up, go down against the camp because I'm going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant, Pirah, and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp." So he and Pera, his servant, went down to the outpost of the camp. The Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the other eastern peoples had settled in a valley thick as a locust. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore. Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. "I had a dream," he was saying. "A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed. His friend responded, "This can be nothing "other than the sword of Gideon, "son of Joash the Israelite. "God has given the Midianites "and the whole camp into his hands." He was telling the Midianites that they were already gonna lose. That's a confidence builder. When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, "Get up, the Lord has given the Midianite camp "into your hands." Dividing the 300 men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them with torches inside. "Watch me," he told them, "follow my lead. "When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. "When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, "then from all around the camp, blow yours and shout "for the Lord and for Gideon." Gideon heard the dream and the interpretation and his confidence was built again.

He knew God was gonna give him the victory. And what was the first thing he did? He worshiped. So I wrote this as a quick side note, but in the middle of the night, the Lord kept bringing this up to me. And I feel like this is maybe the most important part of this passage. Gideon worshiped God before he had the victory. So whether you're on a mountaintop and things are going well, and your relationship with God is good, and things seem to be smooth sailing, you get to worship him then. But even if things aren't going well, if things feel really low, if you are in the thick of anxiety or depression or financial crisis or relationship issues, whatever it may be, we still get to worship. Gideon knew that God was gonna come through. He knew he was gonna give him the victory. So he worshiped that part of God. He worshiped that God was good. He worshiped the God that was going to bring the victory before the victory came. And I know so many of us are praying for a victory in some area in our lives. And it feels really hard to worship right now. It feels like, what am I worshiping? You haven't given me the victory. I haven't seen the end. And for some of us, we may not even get the victory this side of heaven, but it is coming. And we get to worship now. We get to praise Him because of who He is, not because of anything He's done. So, even before they took the Midianite camp, even before they did anything, Gideon worshiped God because he was worthy. He was worthy of being worshiped. He was worthy of being honored and praised, simply because of who He was. So Gideon receives the signs, he builds his confidence, and then he gives his men empty jars, trumpets, and torches. What I find interesting here is that Gideon, of all the things he questioned, he did not question the weapons of choice. Now, scripture's not clear on whose plan this was, but because we know that the Holy Spirit came upon Gideon, it's safe to assume that this was the Holy Spirit's idea, to fight with torches and trumpets and glasses and essentially household items. If there's ever a time that I'm going to question God's plan, it's when he gives me a household item to go into battle. That's what I'm gonna question it, personally. Call me having a lack of faith, I don't know. But it's just, I struggle with that. But Gideon didn't, he just was rolling with the plan.

So, verse 18, we'll jump back in. "Gideon and the hundred men with him "reached the edge of the camp at the beginning "of the middle watch," so the middle of the night, "just after they had changed the guard. "They blew their trumpets and broke the jars "that were in their hands. "The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!" While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. When the 300 trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth-Shi-ta toward Zor-ah, as far as the border of Abel-Meholah near Tabeth. Israelites from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh were called out and they pursued the Midianites. The Israelite army, the 300 men, barely had to lift a finger. They blew their trumpets and they shouted. And now, granted, if you were in the dead of night, dead asleep, and then you're suddenly surrounded by fire and shouting and torches, That would freak me out too. But it says that the men held their ground. They literally just stood there. And the whole army, the whole many army got up and fought against each other. And the ones who didn't die ran. And then as we see more tribes of Israelites joined in and pursued them as they fled. But the 300 men didn't even have to fight. God fought. God won that battle. God did the work. Gideon and those 300 men just had to be obedient.

I'm not well versed in war strategy, but glass jars and trumpets don't seem like a great strategy to me, but it doesn't matter. He just wanted their obedience. And even more so, God got the glory. 'Cause not only were they severely outnumbered, it didn't make sense who he chose. The weapons of choice made absolutely no sense. So God got the glory. There was no argument of who won this battle. It was God. Gideon was the weakest. He was everyone's last choice to be called to do something impossible. It didn't make sense on paper. It didn't add up for our human minds. It doesn't add up. But it doesn't have to because in God's upside down kingdom, it works somehow, but it works. He doesn't need it to make sense. He just needs our obedience. He just needed Gideon to say yes, I'll go. It seemed like an impossible moment. It seemed impossible with 32,000 men. And then it seemed even more impossible, and more impossible. But that is when God shows off in the coolest ways.

So, a few truths for us today that we can take away from Gideon in his story. First of all, we can trust who God says He is and who He says we are. God is mighty and powerful. Scripture talks about that. He is all powerful. He showed that through this story, how powerful He is. But He's also trustworthy. And I know that through the failure of some human relationships, it can feel really hard to trust a God you cannot see. But I promise you, he is trustworthy. And because he is trustworthy, we can believe what he says about us. Not only can we believe what he says about himself, but we can believe what he says about us. He called Gideon a mighty man of valor, a mighty warrior before he ever went into battle. Gideon had to trust that. He had to trust God that he was gonna make good on it. God calls us beloved more than conquerors, his sons and daughters co-heirs with Christ. It may not always feel like those things are true. We may not always believe it, but it's true. And we can trust that.

Number two, we can know that He will equip us to do whatever it is He's called us to do. 2 Corinthians 12, nine says, "My grace is sufficient for you, "for my power is made perfect in weakness." God's power is made perfect in our weakness. I don't really know a better promise 'cause I feel pretty weak sometimes. But then God gives us his power, and he equips us, and he strengthens us. Sometimes we get caught up in our ability and what we can do, or our lack of ability. And we discredit ourselves, we discount ourselves, we tell God he's got the wrong person. Like Gideon, we list all the reasons why not. But we know that he equips those that he calls to do his work. We just have to be more focused on our availability over our ability. Second Peter 1.3 says, "His divine power "has given us everything we need for a godly life "through our knowledge of Him "who called us by His own glory and goodness." He's gonna give us everything we need for life and godliness and for what He's called us to do.

Lastly, we too are called to obedience even when it doesn't make sense. This kind of goes hand in hand with the last point of knowing that God's going to equip us, but we can know that he will equip us, we can know it in our head, and still choose to not be obedient. Gideon could have seen all these signs and know that it was truly God talking to him and still not been obedient. We can desire to be used by God, we can desire to be available and not actually take any action. But as Christ followers, we are called to a life of obedience even when it's hard, even when it doesn't make sense, even when we don't understand it. Which is like usually, right? Like, it's like most of the time. Just like Gideon, it's okay to ask for confirmation, to ask God for a sign, maybe it's in his word, maybe it's seeking wise counsel and receiving confirmation from another believer. Maybe it's just praying about it until you have a piece. But we can't let those things delay our obedience. We can't let those things be an excuse to not obey. Hold on, I gotta pray about it. Hold on, let me just, let me just say, pray about it, please, pray about it. But don't let it be an excuse. So often, God only gives us the next step. We don't get to see 10 steps ahead. We don't get to see the whole picture. Wouldn't that be nice? Can I get a text message, God? Like that would just be super helpful. Unfortunately, no, it's usually just the next step. But we can be obedient with that next step. And then the next, and then the next. Because God is trustworthy. He wants us to lay down our selfish desires. He wants us to lay down our own sin. He wants us to give up our own need for comfort. I don't like that one. He wants us to surrender to Him, to His calling, and to be obedient to what He's calling us to do. But the cool thing is, if we trust in who God says He is and who He says we are, if we believe that He will equip us to do what it is He's calling us to do. It's gonna be so much easier to be obedient and following Him every step of the way, even if it's just the next step.

Pray with me. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for this story, for Gideon and all of his fear and anxiety and lack of confidence. God, He still trusted you. He still took those steps of faith. He asked for signs and in your goodness, you gave them to him, God. And I just pray that you will help us as you call us to new things, new situations, new stages of life, God, whatever it is you're calling us to, no matter how big or small, God, give us confidence in you, not in our own ability, but in what you can do in and through us. God, you want to use us. You want us to be co-laborers with you. Help us to be available, to be open, and to just take action, to be obedient, to choose obedience even when it doesn't make sense. We love you, Lord. We thank you and we praise you in your precious name. Amen.

Impossible Moments - Part 6

A Prayer Unlike Any Other - Joshua 10:1-15

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

How are we doing this morning? We doing well? We doing good? Yeah, good. Another question, just gonna keep rolling through questions here. How are you guys enjoying this series? Impossible moments. Good? Like it. Yes, you don't have to say that. Thank you guys so much. That's great. I hope it's been encouraging. Bringing... It's alright? That's alright. That's fair. That's fair. Bringing good reminders of faith. We hope that that's happening. Or new insights that are drawing you closer to God. Pastor Chris, myself, and Pastor Lauren next week. We're just loving the series. Even for pastors most of the time, speak for every pastor. We love studying because I mean we get a lot out of it. We probably get more out of it than you do because we spend all week just like pouring over it and so we're really liking it. We're hoping that you guys are enjoying it too.

I want to start this morning with a truth that you probably know better than myself and that is that communication is one of the biggest components or keys to a healthy relationship. Good communication takes makes clarity, trust, intentionality, understanding between two people. Communication becomes effortless sometimes with another person when you're on the same page. And sometimes it even means little to no words can be spoken and you guys, two people can read each other's minds, just know exactly what the other person is thinking. Maybe it's just a nod or like that eyebrow look that you're like, I know, I know what my spouse or my best friend is thinking right now in this moment. I, again, you're going to get a lot of sports analogies from me and a lot of Lord of the Rings references. So I think of this in sports. You know, I played, I grew up playing soccer and I was most of the time in the back, defense, and I could tell when one of my teammates was wanting to make a run or go down the field, they'd look back and I could see the look in their eyes and I knew like, all right, he wants it down there. He didn't have to say anything. He wasn't yelling or anything like that. I just buy a look and I try and try my best to kick the ball downfield. Or football fans, if you're watching football, NFL or college, there's a broken play and the quarterback is back there scrambling, trying to figure out what receiver to throw it to. And sometimes the receiver, the quarterback and receiver just have this connection. No words are spoken. He just gives a look or a nod and the quarterback knows, "I know exactly where I'm putting this ball for my receiver to catch it." Communication can get to this point where it's effortless, where minimal, you know, actions are taking and two people can be on the same page. One last question for you this morning is, how is your communication with God? Have you ever had a moment where you've been on the same page with God? Where you felt that connection? Where maybe after something happened, you and God are processing together in the same way. You're like, "God, we're thinking the same thing right here. We just saw this, or we witnessed this, or we were a part of something." And you can tell that you and God are on the same page. Another way of asking this might be, "How is your prayer life? Do you pray and connect with God, not just in the morning, maybe not just at night, but throughout the day, just talking with Him, listening, talking, going back and forth?

Today we're going to look at the account of Joshua in the Old Testament and look at his example of communication with God. We're jumping a bit forward from our sermon last week where Pastor Chris talked about Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness. We're jumping forward to now they are entering the promised land. Before Joshua is in leadership, we get a little background on Joshua here, before he's in leadership we know that he is a courageous man. He is one of the 12 spies sent into the promised land by Moses to scout it out and he is one of the only two that believe that God can do what he says. That God said I'm gonna deliver you the promise, I'm gonna give it to you. Even though there's a bunch of people there, a bunch of enemies, I'm gonna give it to you. Well the other 10 spies say we don't think we can, we don't think it can happen Moses. We went there, we saw it, no good. But Joshua and Caleb are the only ones that say, "No, we've seen it. We've seen all the enemies and we think that God can still deliver the promised land." So we know that Joshua has faith. He sees God as a protector, as a leader, and he sees him more capable than other people seem to think that God is. Joshua has courage and his biggest leadership quality is his deep trust in God. If God is calling Joshua to do something, we see throughout Scripture, throughout especially this part in Joshua, that he goes no matter the circumstances because he trusts that the Lord will do what the Lord says he will do. Joshua is very much a new Moses in the eyes of Israel as they share in so many similarities. They both lead the people through water on dry land, they both send spies into the Promised Land, and they both are known for the reading of God's word before the nation of Israel. And so after 40 years of wandering the wilderness under leadership of Moses, Moses hands off the leadership to Joshua. And Joshua is gonna be the one who leads them into the promised land. And so they go from the wilderness and Joshua leads them through the Jordan River, which is a mini Red Sea moment. We think back to when Israel went through the Red Sea who escaped Egypt and Moses, God threw Moses, part of the Red Sea. Well now, Joshua parts the Jordan River. And the Ark of the Covenant goes through and the flood waters are so high, but still the waters separate and all of Israel passes through the Jordan River. He leads them against Jericho, Joshua does, and I won't go too much into that 'cause that might be another impossible moment we cover. But Joshua leads the people in obedience to what God instructs them to do at Jericho. And it is God who defeats Jericho, but it's Joshua and the Israelites who obey God's instruction and execute his plan. And so city after city, people after people, God is giving the Promised Land to the Israelites.

And right now at this point in Israel's timeline, it's all about capturing the Promised Land. God is fulfilling the covenant that he made generations ago to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, And then again to the Israelites in the wilderness, Israel will finally have a land to call their own. They've been made a nation, that part of the covenant was fulfilled, and now they're gonna have a place to call their own. In fact, in the book of Numbers chapter 34, while Moses is still alive in the wilderness, God gave the people the exact dimensions, the exact property lines that they would have in the promised land. This is amazing, they're in the desert, and he's like, "Hey, you're gonna have that land." They're like, "Okay, we've never been there. Don't worry, let me tell you exactly what every tribe will have. It's gonna go from this border over here to this border. This tribe is gonna have this much land. So God is doing it all. And that was before Zillow. So that's pretty impressive that they could know, heading into it, what they would have. That joke didn't land very well. It's okay. It's too scripted. It's too scripted. But God is setting it all up. And I wanna pause here. We haven't even got to our passage yet. So I want to pause here and just reflect on all that God has done for the Israelites. Because God is the one making it all happen. Israel's along for the ride, and they still have to do their part, but God is the one making it all happen. So God freed the people from slavery. He rescued them. God performed the miracles to save them over and over again. God provided food and sustenance, like we talked about in last week's sermon. God is fulfilling His promise, and God is the one fighting the enemies. look at all that God can do. Sometimes we need to pause and reflect on all that God has done in our lives and in the world around us. If there's nothing else you hear from this sermon, just do that. Sometime this week, later today or this week, just pause, maybe journal, get out and just start listing all that you know that God has done for you, for people you know in the world around you, and see how that list grows, and take comfort and joy and just reflect and praise God for what he has done. So far, they're not even in the promised land yet. God has done so much for Israel. Tonight, or today we're gonna take a closer look at this time when Joshua and Israel are taking over the promised land and something impossible happens.

So if you could turn with me to Joshua 10, as I, you guys can follow along as I read aloud. It says, "Now Adonai-Zadok, king of Jerusalem, heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies. He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai, and all its men were very good fighters. So Adonai-Zadok, king of Jerusalem, appealed to Ho-ham, king of Hebron, "Pyrrhum, king of Jarmuth, Japhia, king of Lachesh, "and Dabir, king of Eglon. "Come up and help me attack Gibeon," he said, "because it has made peace with Joshua and Israelites." Then the five kings of the Amorites, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachesh, and Eglon joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it. The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal. "Do not abandon your servants. come up to us quickly and save us help us because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us so Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army including all the best fighting men the Lord said to Joshua do not be afraid of them I have given them into your hand not one of them will be able to withstand you after an all-night march from Gilgal Joshua took them by surprise the Lord threw them into confusion before Israel so Joshua and Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth-horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Maquedah. As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth-horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them and more of them died from the hill than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, "Son, stand still over Gibeon and you moon over the valley of Ajailon. So the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies as is written in the book of Jashar. Sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since. A day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. And then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal. Would you guys pray with me? God, as we open up your word, as we dive into your truth, I pray that you would work in our hearts, soften our hearts to hear what your spirit has to say to us. I pray that we would be drawn closer to you, that we'd be made more into the image of Christ, that we'd be reminded of who you are and what you can do through this passage this morning. I give you all the praise. Amen.

Alright, a little background on our situation here. We're jumping into the middle of Israel's conquest into the Promised Land. So I have a map here. We have a map. We got a map. There's a map. It's a little small. The farthest point on the right is where we're starting. That's Gilgal, that's where Joshua is, and then over to the left. So they're starting that way, they're heading left, and it says that they entered into like the middle of the Promised land and then they kind of swept south and a study Bible says that the victories of Jericho and I give the Israelites a foothold in the center of the land effectively dividing it and preventing the southern and northern cities from taking a united front so we see that little marked colored portion is the southern conquest and context there our passage today is taking place in that southern conquest so seeing what God had done at the previous cities the people of Canaan who are already there have different reactions to what's going on and to Israel coming in and invading their land. Both reactions, there's two, are out of fear of Yahweh and his people. The first happens earlier in chapter 9 where the king of Gibeon set up a peace treaty with Joshua. They said they were from a faraway land and they told Joshua, "Hey, we've heard about all that Yahweh your God has done. We traveled all this way to worship your God." And Joshua was like, "That's great. Oh my goodness, come worship God. Of course. That'd be wonderful." Well, it turns out that was a lie. They were actually from the land, but they did not want to die. And so they told the lie so that they wouldn't be killed. Joshua and Israel are obviously upset, but they want to honor the covenant they made before God, not to kill the people. So they come up with this punishment for the Gibeonites to become woodworkers and water carriers for the people of Israel, which was primarily used for temple service. So the Gibeonites are now working for the Israelites and our allies. That's one reaction. The other reaction happens in our chapter, chapter 10. The people of Canaan come together and form an alliance and say, "We don't like what's happening. Israel's gonna invade our land. Let's come together. Let's stop them." And so the five kings, Adonai, Zadek, Hoam, Piram, Jephiah, Deir, they all come together and they attack Gibeon, Israel's newest ally. and they're testing Joshua and Yahweh and Israel. Is Israel really gonna honor this treaty? Are they really gonna be able to defeat all five of us together? And Gibeon, now in battle, sends word to Joshua, asking for help. Verse six, the Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp, "Do not abandon your servants. "Come up to us quickly and save us. "Help us, because all the Amorite kings "from the hill country have joined forces against us." So what does Joshua do? Verse seven, so Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. He goes. This is like, okay, one Lord of the Rings reference here. The third movie, Return of the King, The Beacons Are Lit. This is that moment. If you know, you know. If not, you can Google The Beacons Are Lit, that phrase. It'll pull up the scene. It is awesome. So this is that moment where they're calling for help and the people that they're calling for, they respond. They do what they were supposed to do. And Joshua and all his men, they march. they marched all night from Gilgal to Gibeon. It's 21 miles. That, I've done a few hikes. That's a long hike. After not sleeping all day, you're just awake, and then Joshua, your leader says, "Hey, we gotta go hike to go into battle." So not only are you just hiking, but you're bringing all your armor and stuff, and you're tired, and then you're gonna go straight into battle. So this is not ideal, but this is amazing that they are able to do this. And they get there, and God says to Joshua, verse 8, the Lord said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them. I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you." God gives complete assurance to Joshua, kind of in three parts here. The first part says, "Do not fear them. There may be five kings, there may be more soldiers on that side, but do not fear. Why? The second part of his assurance, I have given them over to you. God has given the enemy already over to Joshua and the Israelites.

This is a done deal. They get into battle and they can know that they're gonna win. Just imagine the confidence. Just knowing that going into war, this is a victory. I have only experienced that kind of level of victory maybe in in intramural sports in college, when as a senior we were playing, and then a bunch of freshmen who've never played before came to the field, and our team was like, "God, you have given us this victory. Thank you so much for this." That's the only way I can relate. But that, I just imagine, just the confidence of, "God, we got this. God has given this to us." And then the last part of that assurance is that the victory will be an overwhelming victory. It's not even gonna be close. God has got this. And so he offers his complete assurance to Joshua. What is Joshua's response? Verse nine, "After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise." Joshua shows immediate action. He moves against the enemy quickly. I love this, "Joshua had heard all he needed to hear in order to go and to go with God." What a good reminder for us today. When God calls, when God affirms, when the Spirit is leading you, not to wait for anything, but to go, to listen to that voice. Today we can follow Jesus through the guiding of the Holy Spirit, and we can follow with our everything in full confidence that God is going to do what He said He would do. Now it may be rare to have complete assurance from God, like Joshua does here. We don't often have that in life, where God clearly says, "I'm going to do exactly this." But nonetheless, our response to God's leading should still be immediate action and complete obedience. All right, so Joshua attacks and the Lord throws the enemy into confusion and the coalition of enemies begins to run. And as they flee, like out of a C.S. Lewis book or something, God starts hurling hailstones at them. This is just insane. More men died from the hailstones than by the hands of Israel. Can you just Just imagine a scene as an Israelite. You're fighting, they're in confusion, this is going great, you're already assured of the victory, they start running, and then God is sending hailstones to defeat them. Yahweh, your God, is fighting for you. He's on your side. Just imagine what that does for your belief and trust in God. Then imagine this from the enemy's point of view. It's not going well. The fight is not going well, you were already confused, your comrades are going down like and then you start running and it can't get any better because now stones are flying from the heavens and more people are dying. Yahweh, their God, is fighting for them, unlike anything they've ever seen before. A God, a deity, fighting on behalf of the people. It's the worst day of their lives, I think it's safe to say. And then Joshua speaks. Now Joshua and God throughout this time in Israel's history and definitely in this passage, are really on the same page. They are so in sync with each other. And I wanna bring back those questions that we asked at the beginning. Have you ever had a time in your life, be it a moment or a few days, a season, weeks, months, where you felt like you were step for step in stride with the Holy Spirit? If you have, if you can think of a time where you were like, hey, there is that time in life where just God and I were on the same page. Day after day, I just knew we were close. Our thoughts were aligned, our hearts were aligned. If you felt that, let that be a comfort, a guide, strive for that. If you haven't yet, that's okay. Maybe you can think of someone who you've seen their life and their walk with God, and that be a model. Or you can think of Joshua, strive for this. Joshua and God are so in sync, look what happens next. In verse 12, it says, "On the day that the Lord "gave the Amorites over to Israel, "Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, "Son, stand still over Gibeon, "and you moon over the valley of Ajelon." So the sun stood still and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies. As is written in the book of Jasher, "The sun stopped in the middle of the sky "and delayed going down about a full day." There has never been a day like it before since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. This is a prayer unlike any other that we've ever seen in scripture. And just to be clear on what happened here, Joshua, Joshua, the man, the human, told the sun to stay put so that Israel could continue the battle and continue to do what the Lord had instructed them to do. And God listened to Joshua and stopped the sun and the moon.

I don't know science that well. I don't know how this works. When I thought, I was like, I don't know, Did we stop orbiting around the sun? Did the sun, did everything stay? I can't explain it. I have no idea. Some people think that the theory is like some kind of eclipse happened. Rubbish, I don't think that. I think the only thing that makes sense is that God stopped the sun and the moon, just like it says in scripture, and that there has never been a day like it since. I mean, something impossible that no human could ever replicate. God did in a moment here. It's just amazing. I wanna spend more time though on the prayer because this prayer is also unlike anything else. A biblical scholar, John Barry, writes this. "The exceptional nature of this moment "is due to the specificity of the prayer "and immediacy of the response. "Even the life of Moses has nothing so immediate "and dramatic with such a direct "cause and effect relationship." Honestly, all this week, as I've just been reading this over and over again, I come to those 12 through 14, and I'm just dumbfounded. I'm in awe. I don't understand how this works. That's amazing. Never seen anything like it. Can't relate to it. I have not seen besides an eclipse, which again, I don't think that's what it was. That's just amazing that God would hold the physics of how the world works so that Israel could do what they were supposed to do. This isn't just about how great Joshua is It's not just about how great God is, which he is, but this moment highlights just how close the human-God relationship can be. This passage shows us that as we go about our lives in the day-to-day, we can be so in sync with God that we are attuned to more of what he is doing in and around us. This Joshua and God relationship is the goal that we should be aiming for. And so there are three reminders from the relationship between God and Joshua that I wanna bring to us today. First is the simple reminder that you have a relationship with God. It's a two-way street. He is continually involved in your life. And we have to continually make the efforts and put the work in and the time in to have a relationship with God. Just like we do with anyone else. Second reminder, God listens to us. God listens to his people. I think we've said this three or four times now in this series from different accounts of these impossible situations, but God is a God who listens to his people, responds to our requests, our prayers, our pleas, our cries. He may respond in the exact way that we want, or he may respond in a way that he deems better. I found that if he does answer in the exact way that I was hoping for, that's more of a reflection that I was more in tune with God rather than God just giving me exactly what I wanted. My desires at that time aligned with God's desires. We'll come back to that in a bit. The last reminder of this relationship is that God is for us. God is fighting for us. God can perform miracles on our behalf, not just for our benefit, but ultimately for His plan and for His glory. But there are many people who have a distorted view of God, who think of him more as a punisher or lean towards his anger, rather than his loyalty and love and compassion for his people. Remember that God is for you. Even just today, from the moment you woke up to now, when you're sitting here in church, God was fighting for you. God was doing things on your behalf. You may not be aware of them. Maybe you are. You're sitting here like, "Hey, I remember this moment "where blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." And I felt the Lord be there with me, comfort me, provide for me, or maybe you're unaware. You just showed up here and God had already, unbeknownst to you, he's been working in the background, fighting for you, supporting you, encouraging you. Remember that God is for you. This relationship between Joshua and God is so, so close. It's one of my favorite relationships in the Old Testament. But as we close, I wanna shift our focus towards our relationship with God and the approach and mindset that we need to have when following Him.

So when it comes to communicating with God, praying with Him, I want us to realize this. When our will is aligned with God's will, when we are in sync with the movement of the Holy Spirit, when we are step for step in stride with God, we will witness amazing things. We'll see God working in and through us, and we'll experience a life that nurtures deeper faith and stronger trust in God. I wanna say that again. When our hearts, our wills are aligned with God's heart and His will, we will experience a life that nurtures deeper faith within us and grows a stronger trust and belief in God. Look at the life of Joshua. Experience after experience, trusting and believing and seeing God work, he comes to this point where he and God are on the same page and he can tell the sun and moon to stand still and God is right in sync with him. This prayer from Joshua is a prayer unlike any other. And it should encourage us in our own prayer lives in a few ways. It should encourage us to pray with expectancy. When we pray, and I'll be the first to admit, this is me sometimes. We pray as if we were just going through the motions, just saying words, maybe like at a counseling appointment, where we're just venting our frustrations, stating our desires, but we don't expect God to do anything about it. We're just like, "Hey, I know I'm supposed to talk to you, God, so here's what I'm thinking, here's what I'm feeling, but I'll get back to work and I'll make my life, I'll try to do it myself." Or, "God, if you intervene, great, but I don't expect you to." We don't say that necessarily, but sometimes we're thinking that. When we are aligned with God, our prayers will also be aligned with his heart and we can expect God to move. We can expect God to do something about our situation. There was a well-known pastor a few years ago now, who had cancer and he announced to his congregation that he had cancer, that he was gonna get treatment and he stated, "I believe that God will heal me." And he said, "Even if God doesn't heal me, I will believe and preach and praise that God is good, but I believe that he will heal me. God healed him. He expected God to work. Still gonna praise him and honor him, even if he doesn't work in the same way, but God did. He prayed and talked about, and expecting God to do something. We don't always have to know exactly what God will do, but we can still expect God to work. And so we should pray knowing that, believing that. This passage also encourages us to pray with confidence. This kind of goes hand in hand with praying with expectancy. I love Joshua's confidence in this passage, all throughout Joshua's life. He's just so confident. And it's not a self-confidence. It's not about, "Hey, I know I can do this." It's all based on God, who God is, what God does, and we can have the same confidence. Let's pray and talk with God confidently, knowing that He is there, knowing that He will move in our lives, knowing that He will hear us and respond to us. Again, confidence isn't necessarily knowing exactly what God will do, but that God is there and He will do something. Think of that list that maybe you'll write this week of all that God has done in your life. Or look at Scripture. Have that list be a source of confidence for you moving forward in what God can do. And then lastly, this passage encourages us to pray in alignment with God's will. Prayers like, God, please give me more money. I'm not sure if that's really the answer that God is wanting to give you. Maybe it is. Bless you if that is the case. That may not be God's will for you right in that moment. that may not be what's best for you, though you think it's the answer, is that really God's will for you? Something that, a prayer that is in alignment with God's will may be more like, "God, please provide for my needs. "You know what I'm going through, "you know where I'm lacking, "you know that I need this by the end of this month, "I don't have it right now, "God, can you in some way provide?" Whether it's in cash or whether it's some other miracle or whether it's a way we don't even know, God can work. And we can pray with expectancy, with confidence, and in alignment with God's will, that he will do something.

There are so many stories that I've heard, there are people praying, "God, I don't have this for rent at the end of the month." And somewhere along the way, some person shows up at the door and says, "Hey, I don't know why, but God wanted me to give you this exact amount." And that person's like, "That's exactly what I needed." Countless stories of, I can't even think of the, There's a person in New York who started a ministry, and this is a long time ago, and they would just pray for every meal. They didn't ever have food, enough food, for all the people that they were trying to serve, but every time, God would provide in ways that they just had no clue. Someone would show up and drop off food, and then everyone would be fed. The story, even in the Bible, story after story, of God providing. So praying in alignment with God's will. Prayers like, "God, help me love my noisy neighbor." That is a prayer in alignment with God, 'cause God wants us to love our neighbor, like literally our neighbor. He wants us to love, He wants us to have compassion. Instead of prayers like, "God, please put Nashville on my neighbor's heart. "Please get them out of here, please make them move." Probably not a prayer in alignment with God's will. But sometimes when we pray in specifics, we close ourselves off to so many other ways in which God may work. When we're so focused on, "God, I need it to work in this way. "You have to do it in this way." We put the blinders on to other ways in which God can work. I'm not saying you shouldn't pray for specifics, we should, but also just be open to God, here's the need you provide. Here's what I'm thinking, you figure out the way. I don't have to determine the way in which you're gonna work. Pray in alignment with God's will, pray in a way that aligns with his character, and pray in a way that aligns with what he wants you to be, the image of Christ.

This story of Joshua and God today showed that God, again, can do the impossible. Even things that are set in order, like the rising and the setting of the sun, things that we have no human control over, God can control and do what is humanly impossible. We worship a God who can do the impossible, who we can have a close relationship with, who we can pray to, who listens to us, and who responds. This relationship that we have with God is the most important relationship we have. our communication with Him. It's the most important communication we have with anyone. So this week, today, moving forward, let that be a reminder that you need to invest in that time. Invest in your communication with God. We should strive to be step for step, in stride with Him and what He is doing in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Let's pray. God, thank you again for your word. And God, we just pray that you would make this a reality in our lives, that we would be drawn closer to you, that our relationship with you would be strengthened, that it would grow. God, that you would help us to communicate with you in confidence, knowing that you're listening, knowing that you hear us, and knowing that you will respond, whether it's in a way that we can imagine or whether it's outside the realm of possibility, but yet you can do it. I just pray that you would open our eyes to how you're working so that we could praise you more, so that we could have deeper faith and trust in you. I pray that we would be an encouragement to each other, that we would pray for each other. God, we know that this is a broken world, this is a world full of sin, and that we are all still struggling and striving to be more like you. So I just pray that as the body of Christ, we would come together and love each other, pray for each other, support each other, encourage each other. God, I pray that your work in us individually and corporately as a church at Spring Valley would continue, that you would grow us, God, closer to you, that we would reach this community, that your glory would be very apparent here. We pray all this, trusting you, knowing that you are gonna work and move. We pray this in your name, Amen.