October 19, 2025 • 49 mins
We trace Joshua 10 from five kings attacking Gibeon to God’s hail and a halted sun, then pivot to why Scripture says the day was unique: God listened to a man. We rethink prayer habits—short, corporate, faith-filled—and ask God to involve us in the answer.
• five kings unite against gibeon
• overnight march and panic in the enemy
• hailstones fall and tip the battle
• sun stands still to complete the victory
• kings trapped, feet on their necks
• gospel thread from joshua to jesus
• prayer as the hinge between god’s work and ours
• corporate prayer as the biblical norm
• faith over fluency, short prayers welcomed
• gratitude as a regular practice in prayer
• asking to be part of the answer, not just the outcome
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Thomas (00:46):
And then we're gonna read.
Liz Toga (00:51):
Please turn in your Bibles to Joshua 10, 9 to 14,
which is on page 186 in the pewBibles, and follow along as I
read God's word.
So Joshua came upon themsuddenly, having marched up all
night from Gilgal, and the Lordthrew them into a panic before
(01:13):
Israel, who struck them with agreat blow at Gibeon and chased
them by the way of ascent ofBetharon, and struck them as far
as Azika and Makadah.
And as they fled before Israelwhile they were going down the
ascent of Betharon, the Lordthrew down large stones from
heaven on them as far as Azika,and they died.
There were more who diedbecause of the hailstones than
(01:34):
the sons of Israel killed withthe sword.
At that time Joshua spoke tothe Lord in the day, when the
Lord gave the Amorites over tothe sons of Israel, and he said
in the sight of Israel, Son,stand still at Gibeon, and moon
in the valley of Agelon, and thesun stood still, and the moon
stopped, until the nations tookvengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the bookof Jashar?
(01:56):
The sun stopped in the midst ofheaven and did not hurry to set
for about a whole day.
There has been no day like itbefore or since, when the Lord
heeded the voice of a man, forthe Lord fought for Israel.
This is the word of the Lord.
Will Hawk (02:13):
Thanks, Liz.
All right.
You may notice.
Did you want the left side?
unknown (02:18):
No.
Will Hawk (02:19):
Okay.
Oh, okay.
Uh, you may notice things areset up a little bit differently.
If you've been coming to MidTree for a period of time, this
isn't going to be completelyforeign to you.
Uh we, however, are going to bedoing something I've wanted to
try for a minute.
Thomas (02:34):
He has wanted to try for a minute.
Will Hawk (02:35):
And we may never do this again.
Uh, thank y'all for being achurch.
That is cool with uh doingthings differently and
stretching and trying differentthings from time to time.
I think that is sort of one ofthe personalities of Mid Tree.
We grow, we stretch, we don'tlean in too much uh to comfort.
And so uh what Thomas and I arehoping to do is look at the
(02:58):
passage that Liz just read,which by the way, a rainy Sunday
is the best Sunday to read thistext.
Thomas (03:03):
It's fun.
Will Hawk (03:03):
I know.
As soon as soon as I looked atmy uh weather app this morning,
I had two thoughts.
My windshield wipers are notworking, and I'm really pumped
the text that we're reading witha rainy Sunday and the doors
open and maybe being able tohear some of the rain.
So uh I'll frame it.
You agree?
I agree.
Awesome.
So let me frame it.
(03:24):
Thomas and I are going to teamteach through this.
A couple of things that you aregoing to want.
You're gonna want a Bible.
If you do not have a Bible, youare certainly welcome to use
your phones at this church.
Nobody's gonna look down on youfor phones or technology or
apps because we uh use them.
That being said, if you do nothave a Bible, just grab one of
the ones in the pew in front ofyou, make that your own, stick
(03:45):
your name in it, keep it foreverand ever, and we will replenish
it next week.
You do need to go ahead andflip to Joshua chapter 10.
You are also allowed to use thetable of contents here.
Completely allowed.
Uh so what we're gonna do, uh,maybe teaching you guys one new
word.
Thomas is going to exposit thetext.
We believe in exposition, uh,expositional preaching.
(04:09):
That's where you make the maintheme of the text, the main
theme of the sermon.
Uh, most people think it meansyou read verse by verse.
That happens to be, I think,the healthiest way to do it.
Thomas (04:19):
Yeah, it literally means to expose what the author meant
when he wrote it.
Will Hawk (04:23):
So our goal is not to give you our ideas, but what
God would have you to see.
And then I'm gonna I'll jump inoccasionally while you're
exposing.
Please, yeah.
Yeah.
And then uh I am going to applythe text and hopefully we'll
save a little bit of time sothat when Bennett and the team
come up, we're gonna pointtoward prayer today and maybe
some ways that we put anemphasis on prayer that actually
(04:46):
isn't biblical.
It's just the tradition thatyou've grown up in.
And so whether you've grown upin the church or church is very
new to you, I think there's alot for us this Sunday.
Thomas (04:54):
That's right.
Will Hawk (04:55):
You want me to pray for us?
Yeah, please do.
You can dive in and I'll getI'll get the uh screen set up.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, I am gratefulthat as your word says in Job,
you store up rain, you store upthe hail, you are overlooking
the battle, and you are the onewho wins it.
Thank you that we can see it inJob and we can read it in
Joshua.
And for those of us who are inChrist, we can see it in our own
(05:17):
lives.
And when we neglect to see it,when we doubt that your victory
is going to be obvious, that wecan find ourselves in a cloud of
witnesses.
Thank you for Jeff's testimony,uh, of pointing to what we
would quickly call success, thatyou do not always call capital
S success, but rather beingfaithful, being obedient,
trusting in you in the highs andin the lows, being led by your
(05:38):
spirit, that is the win.
And so, Father, I pray thismorning that would be the case.
I certainly pray for Thomas andI.
I don't want us to trip overone another.
I don't want us to get in theway of your spirit, but rather
would you utilize this time in away that causes us to love our
Bibles and be led by your spiritand apply them outside of 90
minutes on a Sunday.
So would you make us more likeChrist?
I pray in his name.
(05:59):
And all guys, people said,Amen.
All right, Thomas, take itaway.
Thomas (06:03):
Jeff, are you still in here?
Where's Jeff?
He went that way.
He did.
Jeff, are you still in here?
He did his part and he'sthrowing up in the bathroom.
Okay, that's fine.
I just had a question for him.
Okay.
Yeah, so basically, the the waythat I was thinking about this
on the way here is book readers,if you're a nerd like me, um,
like my portion's really gonnabe um, I think, impactful to
(06:26):
you.
You say favorite.
And if you are a podcastlistener or just casual I'm just
kidding, no, no, no.
I'm just kidding.
Yeah, I'm gonna hit the bookstuff.
Will is gonna hit the heartstuff, and so um and maybe we'll
give you a chance to do somehand stuff today.
That's right, hopefully so.
Um so turn to Joshua chapter10.
Uh on this slide, I've got justthe title, Five Point Inclusio.
(06:47):
Um, do we have it for backthere?
Will Hawk (06:49):
Hang on.
Uh oh.
It's telling me yes, but it'stelling me no.
Hang on, Josai's press.
Thomas (06:54):
Hey, there we go.
Okay, so yeah, uh, for notestakers in the room.
Um, I've just got five pointsfrom this text, and it's gonna
go through kind ofsystematically, but I want us to
see, because the order of thisis important, the order of what
happens in the text and where weare in the story, I think will
greatly benefit the applicationand kind of what we do as we
(07:16):
leave this room.
And so this isn't just gonna bean exercise in um book smarts
or knowledge checks, um, butreally I think when we kind of
are able to get handles onwhat's going on in these five
points of this chapter, um,we're able to see kind of how
the Lord works in a unique andunique way.
And so I'm gonna give you kindof the outline and then um we'll
(07:37):
give you texts and we're gonnago through.
I'm gonna be probably about 10minutes or so, so don't check
out.
But um I'm literally startingmy time.
You are says a pastor, I'mgonna be 10 minutes.
If you don't know what aninclusio is, it's it's this kind
of like poetic type thing whereit's like a mirror effect with
the main point, kind of the meatbeing in the middle.
(07:59):
And so if you look, A1 and A2kind of mirror each other, B1
and B2 are both miracles, andwe'll talk about what those are.
And really, there is a hingepoint on C, and we're gonna walk
through each of these.
And so, if you guys would umlook in the text with me, not
all of the verses are gonnaappear, which is why you need
Bibles, but if you guys wouldlook with me in verse 1.
(08:21):
As soon as Adonai Zedek, kingof Jerusalem, heard how Joshua
had captured Ai and had devotedit to destruction, doing to Ai
and to its king, as he had doneto Jericho and its king, and how
the inhabitants of Gibeon madepeace with Israel, and they were
among them, he feared greatly.
If you notice, we did skip onechapter, Joshua chapter 9, and
(08:45):
Will's gonna preach on that nextweek.
And it is awesome.
It really is awesome, and we wehate that we skipped it, but it
kind of worked better for ourcalendars.
And it's I sort of think thisteases it a little bit.
Will Hawk (08:54):
It does.
The the people that Joshua isgoing to come to the rescue of.
You read this chapter andyou're like, well, of course,
there's an allegiance made, youhonor your word.
The people Joshua comes to helpout were they're the big dogs.
Well, and they were alsobusters, yeah.
Like liars and deceivers.
And it would have been so easyfor Joshua to have gotten the
text and not opened it and justbeen like, We'll see what
(09:17):
happens without me.
Thomas (09:18):
That's right.
So, all that we really need toknow is that Joshua is in league
with this nation called Gibeon.
Uh, and they're they're they'rethese big dogs, and word
spreads, and these five kingshear about it the way that maybe
Rahab heard about Jericho orheard about what God had done on
the other side of the Jordan.
Word spreads that this kind ofsmall nation of Israel that's
(09:39):
doing these mighty acts hasgotten in league with or uh
gotten in allegiance with one ofour biggest, strongest,
mightiest towns, and it saysthat the kings feared.
This is the next section.
So Adonai Zedek, king ofJerusalem, sent to Horam, king
of Hebron, Piram, king ofJarmouth, and Japhthah the king
(09:59):
of Lachish, and to Debir theking of Eglon, saying, Come up
to me and help me, and let usstrike not Israel, let us strike
Gibeon, these people that arein allegiance with Israel.
Well, and they would have beenallies, they would have been
friends.
Will Hawk (10:12):
And so it's like one of their friends of the six left
to go partner with Israel.
They're upset, they feeldeceived by it.
Thomas (10:20):
Yeah.
For it is made uh peace withJoshua and with the king of
Israel.
Then the five kings of theAmorites, the king of Jerusalem,
Hebron, Jarmoth, Lakish, Eglon,gathered their forces, and they
went up with all of theirarmies and encamped against
Gibeon and made war against it.
And so this is uh the slide,these are the first ones are the
names of the places, the rightside are kind of the names of
(10:43):
the kings, and so what we havehere is uh this guy, this guy,
this guy, this guy, and thisguy, all going up to Gibeon to
attack.
Where is Joshua in this time,in this place?
We're gonna see he's all theway back here in Gilgal.
(11:04):
He he has conquered Jericho,he's conquered Ai, and he
actually goes backwards,presumably, to tend to not the
armies, but the people,presumably to go back to camp
and to say, hey, like we'rewe're doing it, we're we're
going through all these nations,like let's celebrate because
the Lord is with us.
And while he is going backwardsto Gilgal, all of these other
(11:27):
nations, these five kind ofsuperpower armies, gather at
Gibeon at night, and they say,We're gonna attack it while
Joshua is not there.
The battle of the five armies.
I was I was not gonna say it,but yeah, the orcs are there,
and the yeah, the elves.
And so, what happens?
Miracle one.
This is Joshua chapter uh 10,verse 9.
(11:50):
So Joshua came upon themsuddenly.
Joshua heard, hey, the uh ourally is about to get attacked.
Like Will said, they were alittle skeezy.
Joshua would have had everykind of moral right to say, I'm
all the way back here, I'm notgonna go help them.
They deceived me.
If you look back at chapter 9,uh the title is The Gibeonite
Deception.
He would have been well withinhis rights, again, morally, to
(12:12):
just say, you know, they'recooked.
I'm not there.
I can't do that.
Will Hawk (12:14):
He also never said he would defend them.
He just said, We're not gonnacome and kill you.
Thomas (12:17):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Will Hawk (12:18):
So this is going above and beyond.
Thomas (12:20):
And so in verse 9, Joshua came upon them suddenly,
having marched up all night fromGilgal.
He had marched all he heardword, and he picked up his army
and he said, We must go anddefend them quickly.
Will Hawk (12:32):
Twenty miles is how far they made them.
Thomas (12:34):
Overnight.
And the Lord threw them, beingthe kind of the five armies,
into a panic before Israel, whostruck them with a great blow at
Gibeon, and he chased them bythe way of ascent to Betharon
and struck them as far as Azekahand Macada.
And they fled before Israel,and while they were going down
the ascent of Betharon, the Lordthrew down large stones from
heaven on them as far as Azica,and they died.
(12:57):
There were more who diedbecause of the hailstones than
the sons of Israel killed withthe sword.
And so you get this picture ofthese five armies saying, We're
gonna attack stealthily atnight, kind of maybe at dusk.
Um, no one's gonna know, wordhasn't gotten out.
And Joshua is the one whoactually has the upper hand.
Joshua's the one who comes.
The Lord, kind ofsupernaturally, we'd say, throws
(13:19):
the nation into a panic, andthey flee.
And as they're fleeing,Joshua's chasing them, they've
got their camels, we'll seelater.
They've got their horses,they're chasing them, and the
Lord decides, miracle one, tothrow hailstones down at the
people.
And I wouldn't imagine golfballs.
Will Hawk (13:39):
No.
So we we did a little bit ofwork in my office earlier this
week.
The largest recorded hailstone,I think, in the world is 2.2
pounds.
Yeah, so not that big.
Not that big.
In the Bible, it's inRevelation 18, maybe.
God throws hailstones down thatweigh a hundred pounds.
(14:00):
I'm talking at binger pickup inhalf, kind of thing.
So when God decides I'm gonnaenter in, this is why Christian
read out of Job, by the way,that he stores up the hailstone
for the day of battle.
Like when God decides I'm gonnastep in, it is obvious that God
is raining down on these thisgroup of evil people that hasn't
(14:21):
repented and has been a thornin their side.
Thomas (14:23):
That's right.
And this generation of Israelhas seen many different miracles
from the walls of Jerichocoming down from just walking
around and blowing trumpets tothis, like the Lord fighting on
their behalf is a consistenttheme of these people.
Like they've they've wonbattles kind of with their own
swords and whatnot.
We see that AI and whatnot, butwe also see the Lord fighting
(14:44):
for them supernaturally withmiracles like this.
I don't want to slow you down.
Will Hawk (14:49):
Please.
But have you put yourself inthe role of the Israelite
soldier?
Like they are chasing a groupof people that are getting mowed
down by hail.
Yeah.
Do you slow your run a bit?
Like when you're running andthe guy 20 feet in front of you
just gets splatted by a hundredpound hail, do you just like
(15:09):
drop it to three quarters?
Retreat.
Yeah.
I don't know.
And like you're how do you howare you not tripping over this?
Thomas (15:16):
Oh, say the the uh the text I don't think explicitly
says, but I read a couple ofcommentaries.
They say they think none of theIsraelites got smashed.
Yeah, it was just the bad guys.
Right.
Will Hawk (15:25):
Yeah.
If God is the one since God isthe one doing this, this is very
accurate.
Yeah, yeah, unbelievable.
I like that a lot.
Simple.
Thomas (15:32):
Pinge point.
We're gonna skip it.
We see miracle one, somethinghappens kind of in this point.
C, the meat of the text, we'regonna close with it, but we see
another miracle.
It's actually what was read forus.
Miracle two is that the sunstands still.
As the hailstones are comingdown, as the people are uh being
chased off, as the army ofIsrael is victorious, and
(15:54):
they're like, let's get this.
Presumably, the sun starts toset, and the day would have been
over, and you can't reallyfight at night in this time
because you can't see who's fromwho, who's from who.
And the Lord intervenes, theLord steps in, and in verse 13
it says, And the sun stood stilland the moon stopped until the
nation took vengeance on theirenemies.
(16:17):
What Israel wanted, what Godwanted, was complete and total
victory to the point thathowever you want to slice it,
however you want to say it, thesun stayed up about a day longer
so that the armies of Israelcould see, so that they could
(16:37):
kill.
They didn't say, Great, thesun's coming down, we can take a
breath, we can take a breather.
They would have been tired.
They would have been they wouldhave been dog tired.
Yeah.
But the sun stood still andthey chased them all the way.
And it says, Is this notwritten in the book of Jashura?
The sun stopped in the midst ofheaven and did not hurry to set
for about a whole day, andthere has been no day like it
before or since.
(16:58):
And so that gets us to kind ofthe end point of this inclusio.
The kings gather, not for warthis time.
They gathered in their prideand their arrogance, and they
said, We're gonna put a stop toIsrael and doing all this.
But now we see them gatheredtogether for slaughter.
They thought they would be theones doing the slaughter.
(17:18):
They thought they would be theones holding the swords and the
knives, and instead we see thisin verse 16 the five kings fled
and they hid themselves in thecave of Macada.
And it was told to Joshua, thefive kings have been found and
hidden in the cave of Macadah.
And Joshua said, Roll largestones against the mouth.
Will Hawk (17:36):
Such a move.
Thomas (17:37):
I I love this, I've got a thought of this.
Uh roll large stones on thecave and set men by it to guard
them, but do not stay thereyourselves.
Pursue your enemies, attacktheir rear guard, do not let
them enter their cities, for theLord your God has given them
into your hand.
Um, two really quick points onthis.
One, uh Joshua here is justquoting scripture.
(17:57):
He's quoting the Lord'spromises to him, he's quoting it
to the people.
Like this isn't a new thought,the Lord your God has given them
into your hand.
Joshua's not just giving arah-rah speech at halftime
saying, you know, if we try hardenough, we can do it.
He's saying what he's heardfrom the Lord to the people.
And also, I think about thesethese five kings of of just uh
(18:17):
stature and the prominencecowering in a cave.
They roll a stone right infront of the mouth.
Sounds so familiar to somethingelse in scripture.
I just can't.
But they can hear Joshua, Ithink, um, giving these
commands.
Just leave them.
Leave them, and we're gonnakill their armies.
Like, think about being therepresentative of your nation,
(18:39):
hiding in a cave, hearing yourenemy talk about their battle
plans, and you're helpless.
You can't do anything, you'reterrified yourself, you know
what's coming to yourself, andand you all you can do is sit
and listen.
This is kind of the conclusionof that.
Then Joshua said, so they theygo, uh, they go into all the
towns, they battle, they win.
Um Joshua comes back and itsays, Joshua said, Open the
(19:01):
mouth of the cave and bringthose five kings out to me from
the cave.
And they did so.
And they brought those fivekings out to him from the cave,
the king of Jerusalem, the kingof Hebron, the king of Jarmouth,
the king of Latius, and theking of Eglon.
And when they brought thosekings out to Joshua, Joshua
summoned all the men of Israeland said to the chief, the
chiefs of the men of war who hadgone with him, Come near, put
(19:22):
your feet on the necks of thesekings.
And they came near and they puttheir feet on their necks.
And Joshua said to them, again,quoting scripture, do not be
afraid or dismayed, but bestrong and courageous.
I don't think I've got a slideon yeah.
Um, after this, we see that thekings are um kind of killed or
killed with the sword and thenhung on trees.
(19:45):
One one I think really maybeodd but cool thing to note about
the feet on the necks, likethis was a sign of uh
disrespect, obviously.
Like these kings are stillalive, they're cowering, they
know they can probably see thegallows, they can probably see
guys sharpening swords andwhatnot.
And Joshua says, come out, comeout now, take your sandals off,
(20:06):
and I want you guys to line up,and I want you to walk down,
and I just want you to put yourfeet on their necks, showing,
demonstrating how much totalcontrol we have as an army, how
much dominance, how much justthey were so arrogant to come up
and fight against our people innight, and now we are putting
(20:26):
our feet on their necks beforewe slaughter them and kill them.
Um makes me think of uh this isone of my favorite verses,
Romans 16, 20.
It's kind of a dual thought.
The God of peace, the God wholoves peace and order, and you
know, some would saynonviolence, I don't think
that's what it means, but theGod of peace will soon crush
(20:47):
Satan under whose feet?
Your feet.
The church.
Paul looks at the church thathe's writing to in Rome and he
says, soon the God of peace isgoing to have such a total uh
rout of your enemy, of your sin,of death, of destruction, of
all of these things, that yes,they're gonna be put under God's
(21:09):
feet, the heavenly feet, allthat kind of stuff.
But he looks at the church andhe says, soon your feet are
gonna go on this kind ofdisrespectful show of all of the
things that have been ailingyou, all of the things that um
have been just terrorizing youum during your lifetime.
You will have such dominancethat soon the God of peace is
going to allow you, Christian,to participate in that.
(21:33):
And so, just kind of one of theone of the gospel threads is um
we see these kings gathering intheir arrogance, and we see
what happens to them.
Um, and it's it's because theLord fights for the people of
Israel, the Lord fights forJoshua and all of this stuff.
And so we can find ourselves intwo camps today to kind of use
this language.
We can see ourselves aligningwith the strongest, the most
(21:57):
powerful, the most influential,the most um, however you want to
put it, we can do all that wecan to make ourselves the most
secure and we see where thatends.
Humble, humiliated, and not ina good way.
Will Hawk (22:10):
Arrogance keeps losing in Joshua.
Thomas (22:12):
Exactly.
Or we can align ourselves withthe people of God, the person of
God, rest in his finished work,and understand I don't have to
fight this battle.
I don't have to secure andfortify myself in the way that
the world might think, but I Iserve a king who's going to do
this to my enemies.
And so that gets us to kind ofthis middle hinge point of pause
(22:36):
prayer, yeah.
Will Hawk (22:37):
Can we hit a pause?
The fact that Joshua and Jesushave the same name, one in
Greek, one in Hebrew.
The fact that Joshua says, itmakes all the sense in the world
for Joshua to crush them.
He's the impressive one, he'sthe leader.
The fact that Jesus looks andhe says, Your feet are going to
be on the neck of the enemy.
(22:57):
Yeah.
The fact that he goes into acave of death where we deserve
to be.
People who want to act asthough we have it all together,
kings of our own world, puttingtogether whatever power,
prominence, and prestige we can.
And Jesus voluntarily walksinto the cave, knowing that it
(23:17):
is the only way we would ever.
We are the five kings.
Exactly.
We're not Joshua, we're notIsrael.
We are the five kings.
And as soon as that stone rollsin front, and we hear, let's go
and destroy this guy's entirelife.
You hear the footsteps walkaway, and then, son, do you want
to stay in there or do you wantto come out?
Yeah.
If you want to come out, I'mgonna have to go in.
I'm already on the way.
(23:39):
Do you want to come out?
Yeah.
And what an incredible,beautiful thousands of years
before meta-narrative forChrist, for Joshua to say, hey,
you can go in the cave or youcan come out of the cave.
But the only way you come outis if somebody else goes in.
Thomas (23:53):
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of times we we as peoplelike the saving aspect of what
Jesus does.
He saves us from our sins.
But sometimes we struggle withjust the lordship or the
kingship of him.
In order for us to come out ofthat cave, to be with him, we
can't be our own kings anymore.
We have to set aside ourpreferences, our desires, our
thoughts, and really yield themto the King of Kings, the Lord
(24:15):
of Lords, and say, Not my willbut yours be done, which Jesus
said before he went in the cave,which is really cool.
Um, and so the hinge point hereis prayer.
We we didn't read itnecessarily, but as the
hailstones are coming down, asthe sun starts to set, Joshua
probably looks over the land andhe says, The sun's starting to
set, and we could we could rallyour troops, we could recoup for
(24:37):
the night, but I don't want to.
I want total and completevictory.
I want all of these guys to bedestroyed.
I don't want thorns in oursides a week from now, a month
from now, years from now.
I want them decimated becausethat's what the Lord wants.
Will Hawk (24:51):
And so it feels like the closest thing in scripture
to this.
Thomas (24:55):
What is that for?
Will Hawk (24:56):
Third quarter's over.
Like, let's end well.
Yeah, let's not go intoovertime because who knows what
could happen there.
You could miss a kick orsomething.
You never know.
Thomas (25:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Will Hawk (25:06):
I didn't watch it.
Back to the text.
Thomas (25:07):
Josiah told me about it.
Will Hawk (25:08):
I don't know why that's so primed for me right
now.
Thomas (25:12):
Um, and in verse 12, at that time Joshua, and and this
is actually really subtlebecause the word prayer isn't
even used.
As we were reading throughthis, as we were working through
it, I was struggling.
I was like, is this a prayer?
You guys be the judge.
At that time, Joshua spoke tothe Lord in that day, when the
Lord gave the Amorites over tothe sons of Israel, and he said
in the sight of Israel, Sunstand still at Gibeon and moon
(25:35):
in the valley of Agilon.
That's the prayer.
Kind of this little section isthe prayer.
And in verse 13 is kind of theresponse or what happens, and
the sun stood still.
It doesn't even say the Lordanswered the prayer.
It doesn't say Joshua spoke andthe Lord answered.
It just says, Sun stand still,and the sun stood still.
And that is kind of what bringsus from, I'm gonna, this is
(25:59):
kind of my last point, these twolittle sections, we kind of see
God doing all of the work.
The Psalms would say that thethe that the Lord guides the
hearts of kings so that evenwhen they're like doing evil and
um conspiring against you,God's in control of that.
God is in control of uh thehailstones down to the
(26:19):
millimeter, dodging his peopleand squashing the enemy.
God is working, and in thesetwo, it really is Josh.
Ooh, uh, I can't spell.
That's why I don't do this.
I thought my handwriting wasbad.
You are giving me a gift rightnow.
This is youth group.
Um, it's Joshua kind of doingthe quote unquote work.
It's Joshua who uh goes afterthe armies.
(26:42):
The hellstones are probablyover.
It says they put them to deathwith the sword, and Joshua is
the one who gathers the kingsand says, bring them out.
What gets us from God's work toJoshua's work is kind of this
hinge point of prayer.
That's where the story, in mythe way I read it, turns from
the Lord kind of working andoverseeing to the people of
(27:04):
Israel really taking ownershipin the fight.
And it's when Joshua uttersthis kind of two-line prayer,
Sun stand still in Gibeah.
And so that's all I've got onthe exposition of it.
Will Hawk (27:16):
That's awesome.
Yeah.
All right, so now what doesthat mean for our prayer life?
Let me make a couple of notes.
Remember, if you have grown upin the church, you have prayed
before.
But if you have grown up in thechurch, there may be certain
things that you think are normalthat should not be normal.
And one of the things thatJoshua does in this teeny little
prayer that is a hinge prayeris I it challenges what I grew
(27:39):
up learning in the church forthe past 40 years.
First, starting with aquestion.
The Bible says this verbatimquote, there has been no day
like it.
What is it that made that dayso unique?
What is it that made that daystand out?
So this is the text.
Uh, we've already read it.
I'm not gonna read it to youagain, but the sun stops in the
(28:02):
midst of heaven, it doesn'thurry to set for a whole day,
and then the Bible says, There'sbeen no day like it before or
since.
Can I tell you what matters somuch in this?
The comma that follows it.
This sentence makes all thesense in the world, and it is
how most of us read thispassage, if it is a period, but
(28:25):
that is not what the Holy Spirithas preserved for us.
If we read this with a period,what it's saying is the sun
stood still.
The God who created all thecosmos looked at the sun, looked
at the earth, the solar system,and beyond, looked at the tides
that would be affected by this,and he goes, Whoa, whoa, whoa,
for just a minute, and theystop.
(28:47):
And we read it and we're like,never been a day like that
before or since, period, butthere's not, there's a comma.
What is it that stands out mostin scripture is not the sun
standing still, it's that theLord heeded the voice of a man.
What stands out in scripture isnot that the sun stops, but
(29:09):
that God stops to listen to aman.
So as we begin thinking aboutprayer, please keep this in
mind.
What is most unusual is notcosmic power God is putting on
display.
Let's be honest, he's beendoing this.
Yeah, hail just fell fromheaven.
God doing this kind of thing issort of what we have been
(29:29):
reading all throughout Joshua.
But this quiet condescension tolisten to the voice of a man,
that is what is so unique aboutthis day.
That is what scripture wantsyou to realize.
So, where does Joshua getprayer right where our emphasis
is often wrong?
It's not just a miracle thatGod speaks, it is a miracle that
(29:53):
he listens to you.
I know what we all want in ourprayers.
We want God to speak.
And most of us mean literally.
Most of us want that moment, wewant that confirmation.
I will know that I know that Iknow if God will speak, if he
will speak audibly, if he willspeak through someone else, if a
(30:13):
light will twinkle, ifsomething will be if he did a
miracle.
Yes, then I will know.
Do you realize what scripturesays?
It's not just amazing that Godspeaks, it is amazing that he
listens.
That right now all of you couldclose your eyes or not, because
that's not actually written inscripture about prayer.
And you could talk to God, andthe one who created all things
(30:38):
would listen to you.
Unbelievable, supernaturalcondom.
The psalmist would put it thisway.
I love the Lord because he hasheard my voice and my plea of
mercy.
Nothing in here about ananswer.
(30:58):
I love the Lord because heinclined his ear to me.
Therefore, I will call on himas long as I There's nothing in
this about an answer.
There's nothing in this aboutGod speaking.
The psalmist says, Do you knowwhat I love about God?
He listens to me.
(31:19):
Me of all of the things he canspend his time, energy, and
attention on.
If you do not believe that Godwants to hear you, even
cherishes listening to you, youare not going to appreciate
prayer.
And can I tell you what we dowith things we do not
appreciate?
We do not do them.
I promise you, look at yourto-do list.
(31:40):
Right now, some of your bedsare made and some of your beds
are not.
Do you want to know whose bedsare made?
The people who appreciate it.
Do you want to know whose bedsare not?
The people who do not.
Or the ones who have spouseswho appreciate it, so you
appreciate it on their behalf.
Okay?
If you appreciate something,you do it.
If you don't appreciatesomething, you do not.
And so if you do not appreciatethe fact that it is a miracle
(32:03):
that God wants to listen to you,prayer is gonna feel like a
chore.
It's gonna feel like a to-do.
It's gonna feel like a must-toinstead of a get to.
Second thing that I want you tonotice about prayer.
Joshua said in the sight ofIsrael, sun stand still at
Gibeon and moon in the valley ofAzilan.
(32:23):
I'm gonna give you the easiestactivity of the entire morning,
but I want you to actually dothis.
You don't have to talk, youdon't have to look at anybody.
I want you to imagine someonepraying, and I want you to
actually do it.
Imagine them praying, thinkabout their environment, think
about their posture.
Give me a head nod when you'vegot it.
Head nods, head nods, raiseyour hand if they're alone.
(32:45):
Go.
Raise your hand if they'realone.
Get them up.
Don't do the little Baptistone.
Like, raise your hand.
Okay.
Here's what I want you torealize.
One of the things, one of theemphasis that we get wrong about
prayer, he prays an incrediblefaith requiring prayer.
What happens if I ask God tomove in a powerful way and he
(33:06):
doesn't?
What do we think?
People are gonna question myfaith.
They're gonna question mysalvation potentially.
They're definitely gonnaquestion my leadership if I pray
for this and it doesn't.
Do you realize what Joshua isasking?
Hey God, would you just sort ofpause the sun for a day?
I kind of want to finish thisthing that you have already
begun.
Like, could you just hit pausereal quick?
(33:28):
And he doesn't squirrel, hedoesn't run away to some acacia
tree.
Like that's what I wouldimagine.
And Joshua squirrels away to anacacia tree.
And he prays to be alone withhis God.
Yes, in sackcloth and ash,rending his cloth.
No.
He's like, hey, Israel, listento this prayer.
Sun, stand still.
Moon, don't move.
(33:48):
Unashamedly praying a prayer offaith.
Thomas (33:52):
And one of my favorite things about this prayer is that
there's no precedent for it inscripture.
No.
Like he doesn't pray for morehailstones.
Remember Genesis.
Or a plague or something.
He says he just, I don't wantto say he just comes up with
something, but there's noprecedent for it.
And he prays in the side ofIsrael, talking about being not
wanting to be embarrassed infront of everyone.
Son will you please instill.
There's no he just told it.
Will Hawk (34:15):
Super bold.
In scripture.
Praying alone is the exception,not the norm.
If I have to say this 12 timesand finish on this point, I am
fine with it for a Sunday.
In scripture, praying alone isthe exception, not the norm.
Let me put it in differentvernacular.
If all you knew about prayercame from a Bible and not your
(34:36):
church tradition, you wouldassume that the majority of the
time when you close your eyes topray, somebody else is there
with you.
That is what you would assume.
The very first time we seeprayer, Genesis 4.26, people
began to call on the name of theLord.
Yes, we see Hannah and Elijahand Daniel pray, but in the Old
Testament, Israel gathers topray.
(34:56):
This is what prayer lookedlike.
It was a group of people andmultiple ones praying, and the
priests leading in the prayerswhile the people leaned in.
In the Gospels, yes, do we seeJesus go away to desolate
places?
You better believe we do.
But what does he do on the way?
Hey, Peter, James, and John,come here.
I want you near me, even ifyou're not exactly with me.
I want you praying for me,around me, about me while I am
(35:20):
going to the Lord.
If you look at the book ofActs, you can't find a solo
prayer.
When you look at the book ofthe Bible that talks about the
church, universally every prayeris being prayed by a group of
people.
There are more corporateprayers, that means community
prayers, than there are privateprayers in all of Scripture.
(35:42):
And most of us imagine prayerlike this.
That's fine.
There's nothing wrong with it.
You will see it in Scripture.
But you are going to theminority instead of the majority
in what it is that God givesus.
The third thing.
God values your faith, not yourfluency, which is a fancy way
(36:07):
of saying short prayers aregreat prayers.
I don't like that the churchthinks of prayer as an
individual's word.
And I don't like that thechurch, generally speaking,
thinks of prayer as somethingthat is impressive if it is long
with impressive words.
(36:27):
You're not do you want to knowwhat you actually see in
scripture?
Rebuke?
The exact opposite.
The Pharisee with these big,lavish prayers, Lord, I thank
you that I am not a sinner likethis man.
I fast and I tithe and I do allof these things.
And then you've got this otherdude that's kneeling, pounding
his chest, saying, Lord, forgiveme for I'm a sinner.
(36:49):
End of prayer.
And Jesus looks at and he says,Now that's a prayer.
That's a prayer.
And here we are.
And look, I I'm not saying ithappens in adults because if I'm
quite honest, I think wegraduate out of youth group and
assume we're never going to bein an awkward prayer circle
again.
Thomas (37:04):
Not true.
That's not the way it'ssupposed to be.
I think people who want to givelong prayers want to give long
prayers until they're next to aguy who wants to give long
prayers.
And then you're like, hey man,God heard you.
God heard you throw me under.
No, no, no.
You're the community that I'mnext to.
Like, you want to do it untilsomeone else is doing it, and
they're like, wrap it up, man.
God heard you.
Yeah.
(37:24):
Yeah.
Okay.
And then it's my turn, and thenI want to give this big long.
You know what?
Will Hawk (37:28):
Every staff meeting, we pray through the prayer
requests.
If you want to put in a prayerrequest, they're on the card in
front of you.
We would love for you to do it.
You can drop it in one of theboxes on the way out.
What does the staff hate for meto do when we go into prayer
time?
Thomas (37:40):
There's so many.
Come on.
Um we go into prayer time.
It's is it when you don'testablish an order?
Yes.
Because God is a God overthere.
Will Hawk (37:50):
Everybody wants to go.
Okay, where are we beginningand where are we ending?
And what is the flow of prayer?
And I'm like, guys, we arepraying.
Thomas (37:57):
We'll will always say, pray as you feel led, and always
everyone feels led in order ofwhere we're sitting.
Will Hawk (38:04):
But one of the reasons I like prayers that are
not so perfect and precise andordered, it forces you to pay
attention.
Do you want to know uh why youfall asleep when you're praying
in the morning?
First of all, stand up and walkaround.
That will help.
When you are praying withothers, you are not falling
asleep.
You don't want to look like afool.
You don't want to look like anidiot.
You don't want to get leftbehind.
(38:25):
Is it my time?
Is it that is a beautifulpressure to feel in prayer.
It is an activity, it is not apassive thing.
And that is one of the thingsthat we see put on display.
My favorite prayer story.
Where's John Keller?
I saw him walk in.
I'm not going to make him sayanything.
Okay, John.
Uh I'm probably 18, you're 22or something like that at this
(38:48):
point.
And we're at St.
Stephen's and we're praying.
And I had just started datingthis new girl whose name was
Karen Ann.
She had become a believer veryrecently, and the church that we
grew up in did thecongregational prayers of the
people.
Thomas (39:02):
I love it.
Will Hawk (39:02):
Yeah, no microphone.
You would just stand up, prayan out loud prayer in front of
the whole congregation.
And then, and I knew that thisgirl that I had been dating
wanted to pray out loud, but shewas a new believer, and it was
like gonna be a bit of astretch.
And the Sunday she decided topray out loud.
I'm sitting next to her, John'ssitting next to me, and it's
(39:23):
silent in the sanctuary.
I'm pulling my microphone awayfrom that.
And she goes, Dear God, it wasthe loudest beginning to a
prayer.
And it's between she'd been no,I don't think you know it would
explain a lot, but um no, shehad been waiting for weeks to
get that prayer out.
(39:43):
Yeah, that when it finallyhappened, both John and I like
jump and we like look at eachother in prayer and we're like,
what was that?
What was that?
Do you think God heard her?
I guarantee you God heard andto this day, it is one of the
funniest, but one of the mostbeautiful prayers because it was
this authentic, built-up, inthe moment, not polished, not
(40:08):
impressive prayers.
Why is public prayer achallenge for you if it is?
Why do we care what the peoplenext to us think when we are
talking to the God of theuniverse who pulled us out of
the cave of death?
Can our focus not be upwardwhile we are in community?
God values your faith, not yourfluency.
(40:30):
Small prayers, unimpressivelyworded prayers are beautiful.
Son, stand still at Gibeon andMoon in the valley of Azelon.
I've got a question, Thomas.
What do you think was Jesus'most meaningful prayer?
Um most meaningful, impactful,and don't take forever because I
(40:55):
want Bennett to come up here.
Not my will but yours be done.
Yes, Gethsemane.
Thomas (41:01):
Yeah.
Will Hawk (41:01):
Maybe second place?
I'm going Lord's Prayer becausehe's literally teaching us how
to do it.
Thomas (41:07):
I don't want to, I don't know that was a prayer.
Okay.
It was a model.
Will Hawk (41:11):
Fair enough.
It was a model.
I didn't pull all of these up,but I just I want to read to you
out of a section of Matthew 26.
Jesus in the Garden ofGethsemane, praying alone, but
not completely alone because thedisciples are near my father.
If it be possible, let this cuppass from me.
If there's a way for me not togo into the cave of death where
(41:32):
the kings, the people deserve tobe.
I don't deserve to be there.
If there's a way, nevertheless,not as I will, but as your
will.
Verse 42.
Again for the second time hewent away and prayed.
So leading them, he went awayand prayed for the third time.
(41:55):
Listen to what I'm about tosay.
I'm reading verbatim for thethird time, saying the same
words again.
Short prayers, repeated prayersthat are sincere prayers are
excellent prayers.
There's nothing wrong with usrepeating ourselves to God.
(42:17):
Prayer is communication, it iscommunion with God.
And the better you knowsomeone, the fewer words you
have to use.
The better you know the Lord,the more often you need to
simply say, God, you know, youknow.
I talked to a number of pastorsand I asked them, What have you
learned about prayer?
I'm talking to my congregationabout it, and I would have to
(42:40):
jump to the end here, and so Iwill.
Whether you begin with it, endwith it, or sprinkle it in
between, I always includegratitude.
Jamie Vizzini said, Will, Itook my kids on this vacation
and it was a long-needed one.
It was my first sabbatical, andwe were boogie boarding in the
ocean, and to the right, rainwas falling, and to the left,
rain was falling, and we couldsee it.
(43:01):
In that moment, I realized theGod of the universe will hold
the weather back if he wants usto enjoy time together and he
will let a storm on it if it istime for the storm to fall.
I was grateful for that littlewindow.
I had another pastor say, Well,most of my prayers look like
complaining to God, questioningGod, then asking for something.
(43:21):
So I have forced myself to begrateful.
I said, That's really funny,Kurt, because my prayers are the
opposite.
I just go for a walk throughthe woods at night when I'm
really angry or frustrated, andI just let it out.
And I let it out out loud.
And if Larry or his kids areout, they're not gonna be well
ministered to that followingSunday because Will doesn't hold
back with his complaints to theLord.
God, why?
(43:42):
How are you really in controlif this is what I'm actually
seeing?
But there's something thathappens on that walk when I bare
my heart and my soul to theLord.
All of a sudden, somewhere inthe middle, I say, But you are
God and I am not.
Your ways are high and mine arenot.
You see the end from thebeginning, and you are God and
deserve my worship, and my walkback is one of gratitude.
(44:03):
So whether you begin with it,end with it, or sprinkle it in
between, make sure gratitude isa point.
And the last thing that I wouldsay, it's it's point four.
Joshua doesn't pray and say,God, that hail is really great.
Could you just bring a littlebit more of that?
He says, I see where you'regoing and I see what you're
doing.
I want to be a part of it.
Why was Joshua's prayeranswered so quickly and so
(44:25):
profoundly?
He was praying exactly God'swill, but he prayed it like
this.
God, I want your will to bedone, but I really want to be a
part of it.
I'm not asking for you to crushthe enemy, I'm I'm asking you
to hold the sun up so that wecan be a part of it.
How often in your prayers toGod are you asking that you get
to be a part of the answer?
(44:46):
Or is your assumption that ifthe prayer is answered, you
aren't involved in the answer?
This is what Joshua straightensout, where our emphasis is
often wrong.
Be a part of the answer.
There's a million differentplaces we could go and things
that we could do, and Thomas,I've really enjoyed this.
Thomas (45:07):
Yeah, it was fun.
Will Hawk (45:08):
We'll see how the feedback plays out with the
elders and beyond.
But I'll tell you this (45:11):
here's what I would like to do.
Bennett, you how you feeling ontime over there?
Yeah?
What I oh, that's that's good.
Oh, we're doing fun.
Here's what I would like.
I I feel like I know my people,our people.
You like to be stretched, butnot too much.
Thomas (45:31):
Not to say not too much.
Yeah.
Will Hawk (45:33):
Okay, so here's all that I'm gonna ask of you.
Would you be willing to bestretched just a little bit this
morning?
Would you look at the screenand find an emphasis of prayer
that maybe you have been doing alittle bit backward or a little
bit off?
And could the next fiveminutes, as Bennett plays or
sings or whatever it is that hedoes, could this be an
(45:53):
invitation for you?
Could we just push past theprayer awkwardness a little bit?
And if you want to kneel,kneel.
If you want your prayer to beGod, it's a miracle that you're
just listening to me, and I wantto lean into that.
You open your Bible and youflip the Psalms, praise God for
that.
If you have been spending mostof your time praying alone,
gather your family or somebodyin the church that you know that
(46:14):
may be sitting next to you andjust say, can we just quietly
pray while Bennett is playing?
Can I lean into the communalreality of what scripture would
point to in prayer?
Maybe it's you just praying oneshort prayer over and over and
over because it is not yourfluency that God is impressed
with.
Short prayers are greatprayers.
(46:35):
Maybe you need to commit thatyou've been waiting for God to
do something when you need tolift your hand to help with it.
Maybe you just haven't beengrateful to God for what he's
already done.
So, whatever it is, this isyour space and God's space and
our space.
Let's pursue him togetherbiblically in prayer.
A minute when you feel led,just move us on into worship.
(46:58):
Thomas, you want to take thatside and I'll get this one.
If you want to come down, ifyou want to confess or celebrate
or pray with one of thepastors, we will be down here,
but this is your space.
This is your time.
Guys in the back, just leavethat for, just leave that up so
people can be well led.
We love you.
Let's go into a great time ofprayer together.
And then we're gonna read.
Liz Toga (00:51):
Please turn in your Bibles to Joshua 10, 9 to 14,
which is on page 186 in the pewBibles, and follow along as I
read God's word.
So Joshua came upon themsuddenly, having marched up all
night from Gilgal, and the Lordthrew them into a panic before
(01:13):
Israel, who struck them with agreat blow at Gibeon and chased
them by the way of ascent ofBetharon, and struck them as far
as Azika and Makadah.
And as they fled before Israelwhile they were going down the
ascent of Betharon, the Lordthrew down large stones from
heaven on them as far as Azika,and they died.
There were more who diedbecause of the hailstones than
(01:34):
the sons of Israel killed withthe sword.
At that time Joshua spoke tothe Lord in the day, when the
Lord gave the Amorites over tothe sons of Israel, and he said
in the sight of Israel, Son,stand still at Gibeon, and moon
in the valley of Agelon, and thesun stood still, and the moon
stopped, until the nations tookvengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the bookof Jashar?
(01:56):
The sun stopped in the midst ofheaven and did not hurry to set
for about a whole day.
There has been no day like itbefore or since, when the Lord
heeded the voice of a man, forthe Lord fought for Israel.
This is the word of the Lord.
Will Hawk (02:13):
Thanks, Liz.
All right.
You may notice.
Did you want the left side?
unknown (02:18):
No.
Will Hawk (02:19):
Okay.
Oh, okay.
Uh, you may notice things areset up a little bit differently.
If you've been coming to MidTree for a period of time, this
isn't going to be completelyforeign to you.
Uh we, however, are going to bedoing something I've wanted to
try for a minute.
Thomas (02:34):
He has wanted to try for a minute.
Will Hawk (02:35):
And we may never do this again.
Uh, thank y'all for being achurch.
That is cool with uh doingthings differently and
stretching and trying differentthings from time to time.
I think that is sort of one ofthe personalities of Mid Tree.
We grow, we stretch, we don'tlean in too much uh to comfort.
And so uh what Thomas and I arehoping to do is look at the
(02:58):
passage that Liz just read,which by the way, a rainy Sunday
is the best Sunday to read thistext.
Thomas (03:03):
It's fun.
Will Hawk (03:03):
I know.
As soon as soon as I looked atmy uh weather app this morning,
I had two thoughts.
My windshield wipers are notworking, and I'm really pumped
the text that we're reading witha rainy Sunday and the doors
open and maybe being able tohear some of the rain.
So uh I'll frame it.
You agree?
I agree.
Awesome.
So let me frame it.
(03:24):
Thomas and I are going to teamteach through this.
A couple of things that you aregoing to want.
You're gonna want a Bible.
If you do not have a Bible, youare certainly welcome to use
your phones at this church.
Nobody's gonna look down on youfor phones or technology or
apps because we uh use them.
That being said, if you do nothave a Bible, just grab one of
the ones in the pew in front ofyou, make that your own, stick
(03:45):
your name in it, keep it foreverand ever, and we will replenish
it next week.
You do need to go ahead andflip to Joshua chapter 10.
You are also allowed to use thetable of contents here.
Completely allowed.
Uh so what we're gonna do, uh,maybe teaching you guys one new
word.
Thomas is going to exposit thetext.
We believe in exposition, uh,expositional preaching.
(04:09):
That's where you make the maintheme of the text, the main
theme of the sermon.
Uh, most people think it meansyou read verse by verse.
That happens to be, I think,the healthiest way to do it.
Thomas (04:19):
Yeah, it literally means to expose what the author meant
when he wrote it.
Will Hawk (04:23):
So our goal is not to give you our ideas, but what
God would have you to see.
And then I'm gonna I'll jump inoccasionally while you're
exposing.
Please, yeah.
Yeah.
And then uh I am going to applythe text and hopefully we'll
save a little bit of time sothat when Bennett and the team
come up, we're gonna pointtoward prayer today and maybe
some ways that we put anemphasis on prayer that actually
(04:46):
isn't biblical.
It's just the tradition thatyou've grown up in.
And so whether you've grown upin the church or church is very
new to you, I think there's alot for us this Sunday.
Thomas (04:54):
That's right.
Will Hawk (04:55):
You want me to pray for us?
Yeah, please do.
You can dive in and I'll getI'll get the uh screen set up.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, I am gratefulthat as your word says in Job,
you store up rain, you store upthe hail, you are overlooking
the battle, and you are the onewho wins it.
Thank you that we can see it inJob and we can read it in
Joshua.
And for those of us who are inChrist, we can see it in our own
(05:17):
lives.
And when we neglect to see it,when we doubt that your victory
is going to be obvious, that wecan find ourselves in a cloud of
witnesses.
Thank you for Jeff's testimony,uh, of pointing to what we
would quickly call success, thatyou do not always call capital
S success, but rather beingfaithful, being obedient,
trusting in you in the highs andin the lows, being led by your
(05:38):
spirit, that is the win.
And so, Father, I pray thismorning that would be the case.
I certainly pray for Thomas andI.
I don't want us to trip overone another.
I don't want us to get in theway of your spirit, but rather
would you utilize this time in away that causes us to love our
Bibles and be led by your spiritand apply them outside of 90
minutes on a Sunday.
So would you make us more likeChrist?
I pray in his name.
(05:59):
And all guys, people said,Amen.
All right, Thomas, take itaway.
Thomas (06:03):
Jeff, are you still in here?
Where's Jeff?
He went that way.
He did.
Jeff, are you still in here?
He did his part and he'sthrowing up in the bathroom.
Okay, that's fine.
I just had a question for him.
Okay.
Yeah, so basically, the the waythat I was thinking about this
on the way here is book readers,if you're a nerd like me, um,
like my portion's really gonnabe um, I think, impactful to
(06:26):
you.
You say favorite.
And if you are a podcastlistener or just casual I'm just
kidding, no, no, no.
I'm just kidding.
Yeah, I'm gonna hit the bookstuff.
Will is gonna hit the heartstuff, and so um and maybe we'll
give you a chance to do somehand stuff today.
That's right, hopefully so.
Um so turn to Joshua chapter10.
Uh on this slide, I've got justthe title, Five Point Inclusio.
(06:47):
Um, do we have it for backthere?
Will Hawk (06:49):
Hang on.
Uh oh.
It's telling me yes, but it'stelling me no.
Hang on, Josai's press.
Thomas (06:54):
Hey, there we go.
Okay, so yeah, uh, for notestakers in the room.
Um, I've just got five pointsfrom this text, and it's gonna
go through kind ofsystematically, but I want us to
see, because the order of thisis important, the order of what
happens in the text and where weare in the story, I think will
greatly benefit the applicationand kind of what we do as we
(07:16):
leave this room.
And so this isn't just gonna bean exercise in um book smarts
or knowledge checks, um, butreally I think when we kind of
are able to get handles onwhat's going on in these five
points of this chapter, um,we're able to see kind of how
the Lord works in a unique andunique way.
And so I'm gonna give you kindof the outline and then um we'll
(07:37):
give you texts and we're gonnago through.
I'm gonna be probably about 10minutes or so, so don't check
out.
But um I'm literally startingmy time.
You are says a pastor, I'mgonna be 10 minutes.
If you don't know what aninclusio is, it's it's this kind
of like poetic type thing whereit's like a mirror effect with
the main point, kind of the meatbeing in the middle.
(07:59):
And so if you look, A1 and A2kind of mirror each other, B1
and B2 are both miracles, andwe'll talk about what those are.
And really, there is a hingepoint on C, and we're gonna walk
through each of these.
And so, if you guys would umlook in the text with me, not
all of the verses are gonnaappear, which is why you need
Bibles, but if you guys wouldlook with me in verse 1.
(08:21):
As soon as Adonai Zedek, kingof Jerusalem, heard how Joshua
had captured Ai and had devotedit to destruction, doing to Ai
and to its king, as he had doneto Jericho and its king, and how
the inhabitants of Gibeon madepeace with Israel, and they were
among them, he feared greatly.
If you notice, we did skip onechapter, Joshua chapter 9, and
(08:45):
Will's gonna preach on that nextweek.
And it is awesome.
It really is awesome, and we wehate that we skipped it, but it
kind of worked better for ourcalendars.
And it's I sort of think thisteases it a little bit.
Will Hawk (08:54):
It does.
The the people that Joshua isgoing to come to the rescue of.
You read this chapter andyou're like, well, of course,
there's an allegiance made, youhonor your word.
The people Joshua comes to helpout were they're the big dogs.
Well, and they were alsobusters, yeah.
Like liars and deceivers.
And it would have been so easyfor Joshua to have gotten the
text and not opened it and justbeen like, We'll see what
(09:17):
happens without me.
Thomas (09:18):
That's right.
So, all that we really need toknow is that Joshua is in league
with this nation called Gibeon.
Uh, and they're they're they'rethese big dogs, and word
spreads, and these five kingshear about it the way that maybe
Rahab heard about Jericho orheard about what God had done on
the other side of the Jordan.
Word spreads that this kind ofsmall nation of Israel that's
(09:39):
doing these mighty acts hasgotten in league with or uh
gotten in allegiance with one ofour biggest, strongest,
mightiest towns, and it saysthat the kings feared.
This is the next section.
So Adonai Zedek, king ofJerusalem, sent to Horam, king
of Hebron, Piram, king ofJarmouth, and Japhthah the king
(09:59):
of Lachish, and to Debir theking of Eglon, saying, Come up
to me and help me, and let usstrike not Israel, let us strike
Gibeon, these people that arein allegiance with Israel.
Well, and they would have beenallies, they would have been
friends.
Will Hawk (10:12):
And so it's like one of their friends of the six left
to go partner with Israel.
They're upset, they feeldeceived by it.
Thomas (10:20):
Yeah.
For it is made uh peace withJoshua and with the king of
Israel.
Then the five kings of theAmorites, the king of Jerusalem,
Hebron, Jarmoth, Lakish, Eglon,gathered their forces, and they
went up with all of theirarmies and encamped against
Gibeon and made war against it.
And so this is uh the slide,these are the first ones are the
names of the places, the rightside are kind of the names of
(10:43):
the kings, and so what we havehere is uh this guy, this guy,
this guy, this guy, and thisguy, all going up to Gibeon to
attack.
Where is Joshua in this time,in this place?
We're gonna see he's all theway back here in Gilgal.
(11:04):
He he has conquered Jericho,he's conquered Ai, and he
actually goes backwards,presumably, to tend to not the
armies, but the people,presumably to go back to camp
and to say, hey, like we'rewe're doing it, we're we're
going through all these nations,like let's celebrate because
the Lord is with us.
And while he is going backwardsto Gilgal, all of these other
(11:27):
nations, these five kind ofsuperpower armies, gather at
Gibeon at night, and they say,We're gonna attack it while
Joshua is not there.
The battle of the five armies.
I was I was not gonna say it,but yeah, the orcs are there,
and the yeah, the elves.
And so, what happens?
Miracle one.
This is Joshua chapter uh 10,verse 9.
(11:50):
So Joshua came upon themsuddenly.
Joshua heard, hey, the uh ourally is about to get attacked.
Like Will said, they were alittle skeezy.
Joshua would have had everykind of moral right to say, I'm
all the way back here, I'm notgonna go help them.
They deceived me.
If you look back at chapter 9,uh the title is The Gibeonite
Deception.
He would have been well withinhis rights, again, morally, to
(12:12):
just say, you know, they'recooked.
I'm not there.
I can't do that.
Will Hawk (12:14):
He also never said he would defend them.
He just said, We're not gonnacome and kill you.
Thomas (12:17):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Will Hawk (12:18):
So this is going above and beyond.
Thomas (12:20):
And so in verse 9, Joshua came upon them suddenly,
having marched up all night fromGilgal.
He had marched all he heardword, and he picked up his army
and he said, We must go anddefend them quickly.
Will Hawk (12:32):
Twenty miles is how far they made them.
Thomas (12:34):
Overnight.
And the Lord threw them, beingthe kind of the five armies,
into a panic before Israel, whostruck them with a great blow at
Gibeon, and he chased them bythe way of ascent to Betharon
and struck them as far as Azekahand Macada.
And they fled before Israel,and while they were going down
the ascent of Betharon, the Lordthrew down large stones from
heaven on them as far as Azica,and they died.
(12:57):
There were more who diedbecause of the hailstones than
the sons of Israel killed withthe sword.
And so you get this picture ofthese five armies saying, We're
gonna attack stealthily atnight, kind of maybe at dusk.
Um, no one's gonna know, wordhasn't gotten out.
And Joshua is the one whoactually has the upper hand.
Joshua's the one who comes.
The Lord, kind ofsupernaturally, we'd say, throws
(13:19):
the nation into a panic, andthey flee.
And as they're fleeing,Joshua's chasing them, they've
got their camels, we'll seelater.
They've got their horses,they're chasing them, and the
Lord decides, miracle one, tothrow hailstones down at the
people.
And I wouldn't imagine golfballs.
Will Hawk (13:39):
No.
So we we did a little bit ofwork in my office earlier this
week.
The largest recorded hailstone,I think, in the world is 2.2
pounds.
Yeah, so not that big.
Not that big.
In the Bible, it's inRevelation 18, maybe.
God throws hailstones down thatweigh a hundred pounds.
(14:00):
I'm talking at binger pickup inhalf, kind of thing.
So when God decides I'm gonnaenter in, this is why Christian
read out of Job, by the way,that he stores up the hailstone
for the day of battle.
Like when God decides I'm gonnastep in, it is obvious that God
is raining down on these thisgroup of evil people that hasn't
(14:21):
repented and has been a thornin their side.
Thomas (14:23):
That's right.
And this generation of Israelhas seen many different miracles
from the walls of Jerichocoming down from just walking
around and blowing trumpets tothis, like the Lord fighting on
their behalf is a consistenttheme of these people.
Like they've they've wonbattles kind of with their own
swords and whatnot.
We see that AI and whatnot, butwe also see the Lord fighting
(14:44):
for them supernaturally withmiracles like this.
I don't want to slow you down.
Will Hawk (14:49):
Please.
But have you put yourself inthe role of the Israelite
soldier?
Like they are chasing a groupof people that are getting mowed
down by hail.
Yeah.
Do you slow your run a bit?
Like when you're running andthe guy 20 feet in front of you
just gets splatted by a hundredpound hail, do you just like
(15:09):
drop it to three quarters?
Retreat.
Yeah.
I don't know.
And like you're how do you howare you not tripping over this?
Thomas (15:16):
Oh, say the the uh the text I don't think explicitly
says, but I read a couple ofcommentaries.
They say they think none of theIsraelites got smashed.
Yeah, it was just the bad guys.
Right.
Will Hawk (15:25):
Yeah.
If God is the one since God isthe one doing this, this is very
accurate.
Yeah, yeah, unbelievable.
I like that a lot.
Simple.
Thomas (15:32):
Pinge point.
We're gonna skip it.
We see miracle one, somethinghappens kind of in this point.
C, the meat of the text, we'regonna close with it, but we see
another miracle.
It's actually what was read forus.
Miracle two is that the sunstands still.
As the hailstones are comingdown, as the people are uh being
chased off, as the army ofIsrael is victorious, and
(15:54):
they're like, let's get this.
Presumably, the sun starts toset, and the day would have been
over, and you can't reallyfight at night in this time
because you can't see who's fromwho, who's from who.
And the Lord intervenes, theLord steps in, and in verse 13
it says, And the sun stood stilland the moon stopped until the
nation took vengeance on theirenemies.
(16:17):
What Israel wanted, what Godwanted, was complete and total
victory to the point thathowever you want to slice it,
however you want to say it, thesun stayed up about a day longer
so that the armies of Israelcould see, so that they could
(16:37):
kill.
They didn't say, Great, thesun's coming down, we can take a
breath, we can take a breather.
They would have been tired.
They would have been they wouldhave been dog tired.
Yeah.
But the sun stood still andthey chased them all the way.
And it says, Is this notwritten in the book of Jashura?
The sun stopped in the midst ofheaven and did not hurry to set
for about a whole day, andthere has been no day like it
before or since.
(16:58):
And so that gets us to kind ofthe end point of this inclusio.
The kings gather, not for warthis time.
They gathered in their prideand their arrogance, and they
said, We're gonna put a stop toIsrael and doing all this.
But now we see them gatheredtogether for slaughter.
They thought they would be theones doing the slaughter.
(17:18):
They thought they would be theones holding the swords and the
knives, and instead we see thisin verse 16 the five kings fled
and they hid themselves in thecave of Macada.
And it was told to Joshua, thefive kings have been found and
hidden in the cave of Macadah.
And Joshua said, Roll largestones against the mouth.
Will Hawk (17:36):
Such a move.
Thomas (17:37):
I I love this, I've got a thought of this.
Uh roll large stones on thecave and set men by it to guard
them, but do not stay thereyourselves.
Pursue your enemies, attacktheir rear guard, do not let
them enter their cities, for theLord your God has given them
into your hand.
Um, two really quick points onthis.
One, uh Joshua here is justquoting scripture.
(17:57):
He's quoting the Lord'spromises to him, he's quoting it
to the people.
Like this isn't a new thought,the Lord your God has given them
into your hand.
Joshua's not just giving arah-rah speech at halftime
saying, you know, if we try hardenough, we can do it.
He's saying what he's heardfrom the Lord to the people.
And also, I think about thesethese five kings of of just uh
(18:17):
stature and the prominencecowering in a cave.
They roll a stone right infront of the mouth.
Sounds so familiar to somethingelse in scripture.
I just can't.
But they can hear Joshua, Ithink, um, giving these
commands.
Just leave them.
Leave them, and we're gonnakill their armies.
Like, think about being therepresentative of your nation,
(18:39):
hiding in a cave, hearing yourenemy talk about their battle
plans, and you're helpless.
You can't do anything, you'reterrified yourself, you know
what's coming to yourself, andand you all you can do is sit
and listen.
This is kind of the conclusionof that.
Then Joshua said, so they theygo, uh, they go into all the
towns, they battle, they win.
Um Joshua comes back and itsays, Joshua said, Open the
(19:01):
mouth of the cave and bringthose five kings out to me from
the cave.
And they did so.
And they brought those fivekings out to him from the cave,
the king of Jerusalem, the kingof Hebron, the king of Jarmouth,
the king of Latius, and theking of Eglon.
And when they brought thosekings out to Joshua, Joshua
summoned all the men of Israeland said to the chief, the
chiefs of the men of war who hadgone with him, Come near, put
(19:22):
your feet on the necks of thesekings.
And they came near and they puttheir feet on their necks.
And Joshua said to them, again,quoting scripture, do not be
afraid or dismayed, but bestrong and courageous.
I don't think I've got a slideon yeah.
Um, after this, we see that thekings are um kind of killed or
killed with the sword and thenhung on trees.
(19:45):
One one I think really maybeodd but cool thing to note about
the feet on the necks, likethis was a sign of uh
disrespect, obviously.
Like these kings are stillalive, they're cowering, they
know they can probably see thegallows, they can probably see
guys sharpening swords andwhatnot.
And Joshua says, come out, comeout now, take your sandals off,
(20:06):
and I want you guys to line up,and I want you to walk down,
and I just want you to put yourfeet on their necks, showing,
demonstrating how much totalcontrol we have as an army, how
much dominance, how much justthey were so arrogant to come up
and fight against our people innight, and now we are putting
(20:26):
our feet on their necks beforewe slaughter them and kill them.
Um makes me think of uh this isone of my favorite verses,
Romans 16, 20.
It's kind of a dual thought.
The God of peace, the God wholoves peace and order, and you
know, some would saynonviolence, I don't think
that's what it means, but theGod of peace will soon crush
(20:47):
Satan under whose feet?
Your feet.
The church.
Paul looks at the church thathe's writing to in Rome and he
says, soon the God of peace isgoing to have such a total uh
rout of your enemy, of your sin,of death, of destruction, of
all of these things, that yes,they're gonna be put under God's
(21:09):
feet, the heavenly feet, allthat kind of stuff.
But he looks at the church andhe says, soon your feet are
gonna go on this kind ofdisrespectful show of all of the
things that have been ailingyou, all of the things that um
have been just terrorizing youum during your lifetime.
You will have such dominancethat soon the God of peace is
going to allow you, Christian,to participate in that.
(21:33):
And so, just kind of one of theone of the gospel threads is um
we see these kings gathering intheir arrogance, and we see
what happens to them.
Um, and it's it's because theLord fights for the people of
Israel, the Lord fights forJoshua and all of this stuff.
And so we can find ourselves intwo camps today to kind of use
this language.
We can see ourselves aligningwith the strongest, the most
(21:57):
powerful, the most influential,the most um, however you want to
put it, we can do all that wecan to make ourselves the most
secure and we see where thatends.
Humble, humiliated, and not ina good way.
Will Hawk (22:10):
Arrogance keeps losing in Joshua.
Thomas (22:12):
Exactly.
Or we can align ourselves withthe people of God, the person of
God, rest in his finished work,and understand I don't have to
fight this battle.
I don't have to secure andfortify myself in the way that
the world might think, but I Iserve a king who's going to do
this to my enemies.
And so that gets us to kind ofthis middle hinge point of pause
(22:36):
prayer, yeah.
Will Hawk (22:37):
Can we hit a pause?
The fact that Joshua and Jesushave the same name, one in
Greek, one in Hebrew.
The fact that Joshua says, itmakes all the sense in the world
for Joshua to crush them.
He's the impressive one, he'sthe leader.
The fact that Jesus looks andhe says, Your feet are going to
be on the neck of the enemy.
(22:57):
Yeah.
The fact that he goes into acave of death where we deserve
to be.
People who want to act asthough we have it all together,
kings of our own world, puttingtogether whatever power,
prominence, and prestige we can.
And Jesus voluntarily walksinto the cave, knowing that it
(23:17):
is the only way we would ever.
We are the five kings.
Exactly.
We're not Joshua, we're notIsrael.
We are the five kings.
And as soon as that stone rollsin front, and we hear, let's go
and destroy this guy's entirelife.
You hear the footsteps walkaway, and then, son, do you want
to stay in there or do you wantto come out?
Yeah.
If you want to come out, I'mgonna have to go in.
I'm already on the way.
(23:39):
Do you want to come out?
Yeah.
And what an incredible,beautiful thousands of years
before meta-narrative forChrist, for Joshua to say, hey,
you can go in the cave or youcan come out of the cave.
But the only way you come outis if somebody else goes in.
Thomas (23:53):
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of times we we as peoplelike the saving aspect of what
Jesus does.
He saves us from our sins.
But sometimes we struggle withjust the lordship or the
kingship of him.
In order for us to come out ofthat cave, to be with him, we
can't be our own kings anymore.
We have to set aside ourpreferences, our desires, our
thoughts, and really yield themto the King of Kings, the Lord
(24:15):
of Lords, and say, Not my willbut yours be done, which Jesus
said before he went in the cave,which is really cool.
Um, and so the hinge point hereis prayer.
We we didn't read itnecessarily, but as the
hailstones are coming down, asthe sun starts to set, Joshua
probably looks over the land andhe says, The sun's starting to
set, and we could we could rallyour troops, we could recoup for
(24:37):
the night, but I don't want to.
I want total and completevictory.
I want all of these guys to bedestroyed.
I don't want thorns in oursides a week from now, a month
from now, years from now.
I want them decimated becausethat's what the Lord wants.
Will Hawk (24:51):
And so it feels like the closest thing in scripture
to this.
Thomas (24:55):
What is that for?
Will Hawk (24:56):
Third quarter's over.
Like, let's end well.
Yeah, let's not go intoovertime because who knows what
could happen there.
You could miss a kick orsomething.
You never know.
Thomas (25:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Will Hawk (25:06):
I didn't watch it.
Back to the text.
Thomas (25:07):
Josiah told me about it.
Will Hawk (25:08):
I don't know why that's so primed for me right
now.
Thomas (25:12):
Um, and in verse 12, at that time Joshua, and and this
is actually really subtlebecause the word prayer isn't
even used.
As we were reading throughthis, as we were working through
it, I was struggling.
I was like, is this a prayer?
You guys be the judge.
At that time, Joshua spoke tothe Lord in that day, when the
Lord gave the Amorites over tothe sons of Israel, and he said
in the sight of Israel, Sunstand still at Gibeon and moon
(25:35):
in the valley of Agilon.
That's the prayer.
Kind of this little section isthe prayer.
And in verse 13 is kind of theresponse or what happens, and
the sun stood still.
It doesn't even say the Lordanswered the prayer.
It doesn't say Joshua spoke andthe Lord answered.
It just says, Sun stand still,and the sun stood still.
And that is kind of what bringsus from, I'm gonna, this is
(25:59):
kind of my last point, these twolittle sections, we kind of see
God doing all of the work.
The Psalms would say that thethe that the Lord guides the
hearts of kings so that evenwhen they're like doing evil and
um conspiring against you,God's in control of that.
God is in control of uh thehailstones down to the
(26:19):
millimeter, dodging his peopleand squashing the enemy.
God is working, and in thesetwo, it really is Josh.
Ooh, uh, I can't spell.
That's why I don't do this.
I thought my handwriting wasbad.
You are giving me a gift rightnow.
This is youth group.
Um, it's Joshua kind of doingthe quote unquote work.
It's Joshua who uh goes afterthe armies.
(26:42):
The hellstones are probablyover.
It says they put them to deathwith the sword, and Joshua is
the one who gathers the kingsand says, bring them out.
What gets us from God's work toJoshua's work is kind of this
hinge point of prayer.
That's where the story, in mythe way I read it, turns from
the Lord kind of working andoverseeing to the people of
(27:04):
Israel really taking ownershipin the fight.
And it's when Joshua uttersthis kind of two-line prayer,
Sun stand still in Gibeah.
And so that's all I've got onthe exposition of it.
Will Hawk (27:16):
That's awesome.
Yeah.
All right, so now what doesthat mean for our prayer life?
Let me make a couple of notes.
Remember, if you have grown upin the church, you have prayed
before.
But if you have grown up in thechurch, there may be certain
things that you think are normalthat should not be normal.
And one of the things thatJoshua does in this teeny little
prayer that is a hinge prayeris I it challenges what I grew
(27:39):
up learning in the church forthe past 40 years.
First, starting with aquestion.
The Bible says this verbatimquote, there has been no day
like it.
What is it that made that dayso unique?
What is it that made that daystand out?
So this is the text.
Uh, we've already read it.
I'm not gonna read it to youagain, but the sun stops in the
(28:02):
midst of heaven, it doesn'thurry to set for a whole day,
and then the Bible says, There'sbeen no day like it before or
since.
Can I tell you what matters somuch in this?
The comma that follows it.
This sentence makes all thesense in the world, and it is
how most of us read thispassage, if it is a period, but
(28:25):
that is not what the Holy Spirithas preserved for us.
If we read this with a period,what it's saying is the sun
stood still.
The God who created all thecosmos looked at the sun, looked
at the earth, the solar system,and beyond, looked at the tides
that would be affected by this,and he goes, Whoa, whoa, whoa,
for just a minute, and theystop.
(28:47):
And we read it and we're like,never been a day like that
before or since, period, butthere's not, there's a comma.
What is it that stands out mostin scripture is not the sun
standing still, it's that theLord heeded the voice of a man.
What stands out in scripture isnot that the sun stops, but
(29:09):
that God stops to listen to aman.
So as we begin thinking aboutprayer, please keep this in
mind.
What is most unusual is notcosmic power God is putting on
display.
Let's be honest, he's beendoing this.
Yeah, hail just fell fromheaven.
God doing this kind of thing issort of what we have been
(29:29):
reading all throughout Joshua.
But this quiet condescension tolisten to the voice of a man,
that is what is so unique aboutthis day.
That is what scripture wantsyou to realize.
So, where does Joshua getprayer right where our emphasis
is often wrong?
It's not just a miracle thatGod speaks, it is a miracle that
(29:53):
he listens to you.
I know what we all want in ourprayers.
We want God to speak.
And most of us mean literally.
Most of us want that moment, wewant that confirmation.
I will know that I know that Iknow if God will speak, if he
will speak audibly, if he willspeak through someone else, if a
(30:13):
light will twinkle, ifsomething will be if he did a
miracle.
Yes, then I will know.
Do you realize what scripturesays?
It's not just amazing that Godspeaks, it is amazing that he
listens.
That right now all of you couldclose your eyes or not, because
that's not actually written inscripture about prayer.
And you could talk to God, andthe one who created all things
(30:38):
would listen to you.
Unbelievable, supernaturalcondom.
The psalmist would put it thisway.
I love the Lord because he hasheard my voice and my plea of
mercy.
Nothing in here about ananswer.
(30:58):
I love the Lord because heinclined his ear to me.
Therefore, I will call on himas long as I There's nothing in
this about an answer.
There's nothing in this aboutGod speaking.
The psalmist says, Do you knowwhat I love about God?
He listens to me.
(31:19):
Me of all of the things he canspend his time, energy, and
attention on.
If you do not believe that Godwants to hear you, even
cherishes listening to you, youare not going to appreciate
prayer.
And can I tell you what we dowith things we do not
appreciate?
We do not do them.
I promise you, look at yourto-do list.
(31:40):
Right now, some of your bedsare made and some of your beds
are not.
Do you want to know whose bedsare made?
The people who appreciate it.
Do you want to know whose bedsare not?
The people who do not.
Or the ones who have spouseswho appreciate it, so you
appreciate it on their behalf.
Okay?
If you appreciate something,you do it.
If you don't appreciatesomething, you do not.
And so if you do not appreciatethe fact that it is a miracle
(32:03):
that God wants to listen to you,prayer is gonna feel like a
chore.
It's gonna feel like a to-do.
It's gonna feel like a must-toinstead of a get to.
Second thing that I want you tonotice about prayer.
Joshua said in the sight ofIsrael, sun stand still at
Gibeon and moon in the valley ofAzilan.
(32:23):
I'm gonna give you the easiestactivity of the entire morning,
but I want you to actually dothis.
You don't have to talk, youdon't have to look at anybody.
I want you to imagine someonepraying, and I want you to
actually do it.
Imagine them praying, thinkabout their environment, think
about their posture.
Give me a head nod when you'vegot it.
Head nods, head nods, raiseyour hand if they're alone.
(32:45):
Go.
Raise your hand if they'realone.
Get them up.
Don't do the little Baptistone.
Like, raise your hand.
Okay.
Here's what I want you torealize.
One of the things, one of theemphasis that we get wrong about
prayer, he prays an incrediblefaith requiring prayer.
What happens if I ask God tomove in a powerful way and he
(33:06):
doesn't?
What do we think?
People are gonna question myfaith.
They're gonna question mysalvation potentially.
They're definitely gonnaquestion my leadership if I pray
for this and it doesn't.
Do you realize what Joshua isasking?
Hey God, would you just sort ofpause the sun for a day?
I kind of want to finish thisthing that you have already
begun.
Like, could you just hit pausereal quick?
(33:28):
And he doesn't squirrel, hedoesn't run away to some acacia
tree.
Like that's what I wouldimagine.
And Joshua squirrels away to anacacia tree.
And he prays to be alone withhis God.
Yes, in sackcloth and ash,rending his cloth.
No.
He's like, hey, Israel, listento this prayer.
Sun, stand still.
Moon, don't move.
(33:48):
Unashamedly praying a prayer offaith.
Thomas (33:52):
And one of my favorite things about this prayer is that
there's no precedent for it inscripture.
No.
Like he doesn't pray for morehailstones.
Remember Genesis.
Or a plague or something.
He says he just, I don't wantto say he just comes up with
something, but there's noprecedent for it.
And he prays in the side ofIsrael, talking about being not
wanting to be embarrassed infront of everyone.
Son will you please instill.
There's no he just told it.
Will Hawk (34:15):
Super bold.
In scripture.
Praying alone is the exception,not the norm.
If I have to say this 12 timesand finish on this point, I am
fine with it for a Sunday.
In scripture, praying alone isthe exception, not the norm.
Let me put it in differentvernacular.
If all you knew about prayercame from a Bible and not your
(34:36):
church tradition, you wouldassume that the majority of the
time when you close your eyes topray, somebody else is there
with you.
That is what you would assume.
The very first time we seeprayer, Genesis 4.26, people
began to call on the name of theLord.
Yes, we see Hannah and Elijahand Daniel pray, but in the Old
Testament, Israel gathers topray.
(34:56):
This is what prayer lookedlike.
It was a group of people andmultiple ones praying, and the
priests leading in the prayerswhile the people leaned in.
In the Gospels, yes, do we seeJesus go away to desolate
places?
You better believe we do.
But what does he do on the way?
Hey, Peter, James, and John,come here.
I want you near me, even ifyou're not exactly with me.
I want you praying for me,around me, about me while I am
(35:20):
going to the Lord.
If you look at the book ofActs, you can't find a solo
prayer.
When you look at the book ofthe Bible that talks about the
church, universally every prayeris being prayed by a group of
people.
There are more corporateprayers, that means community
prayers, than there are privateprayers in all of Scripture.
(35:42):
And most of us imagine prayerlike this.
That's fine.
There's nothing wrong with it.
You will see it in Scripture.
But you are going to theminority instead of the majority
in what it is that God givesus.
The third thing.
God values your faith, not yourfluency, which is a fancy way
(36:07):
of saying short prayers aregreat prayers.
I don't like that the churchthinks of prayer as an
individual's word.
And I don't like that thechurch, generally speaking,
thinks of prayer as somethingthat is impressive if it is long
with impressive words.
(36:27):
You're not do you want to knowwhat you actually see in
scripture?
Rebuke?
The exact opposite.
The Pharisee with these big,lavish prayers, Lord, I thank
you that I am not a sinner likethis man.
I fast and I tithe and I do allof these things.
And then you've got this otherdude that's kneeling, pounding
his chest, saying, Lord, forgiveme for I'm a sinner.
(36:49):
End of prayer.
And Jesus looks at and he says,Now that's a prayer.
That's a prayer.
And here we are.
And look, I I'm not saying ithappens in adults because if I'm
quite honest, I think wegraduate out of youth group and
assume we're never going to bein an awkward prayer circle
again.
Thomas (37:04):
Not true.
That's not the way it'ssupposed to be.
I think people who want to givelong prayers want to give long
prayers until they're next to aguy who wants to give long
prayers.
And then you're like, hey man,God heard you.
God heard you throw me under.
No, no, no.
You're the community that I'mnext to.
Like, you want to do it untilsomeone else is doing it, and
they're like, wrap it up, man.
God heard you.
Yeah.
(37:24):
Yeah.
Okay.
And then it's my turn, and thenI want to give this big long.
You know what?
Will Hawk (37:28):
Every staff meeting, we pray through the prayer
requests.
If you want to put in a prayerrequest, they're on the card in
front of you.
We would love for you to do it.
You can drop it in one of theboxes on the way out.
What does the staff hate for meto do when we go into prayer
time?
Thomas (37:40):
There's so many.
Come on.
Um we go into prayer time.
It's is it when you don'testablish an order?
Yes.
Because God is a God overthere.
Will Hawk (37:50):
Everybody wants to go.
Okay, where are we beginningand where are we ending?
And what is the flow of prayer?
And I'm like, guys, we arepraying.
Thomas (37:57):
We'll will always say, pray as you feel led, and always
everyone feels led in order ofwhere we're sitting.
Will Hawk (38:04):
But one of the reasons I like prayers that are
not so perfect and precise andordered, it forces you to pay
attention.
Do you want to know uh why youfall asleep when you're praying
in the morning?
First of all, stand up and walkaround.
That will help.
When you are praying withothers, you are not falling
asleep.
You don't want to look like afool.
You don't want to look like anidiot.
You don't want to get leftbehind.
(38:25):
Is it my time?
Is it that is a beautifulpressure to feel in prayer.
It is an activity, it is not apassive thing.
And that is one of the thingsthat we see put on display.
My favorite prayer story.
Where's John Keller?
I saw him walk in.
I'm not going to make him sayanything.
Okay, John.
Uh I'm probably 18, you're 22or something like that at this
(38:48):
point.
And we're at St.
Stephen's and we're praying.
And I had just started datingthis new girl whose name was
Karen Ann.
She had become a believer veryrecently, and the church that we
grew up in did thecongregational prayers of the
people.
Thomas (39:02):
I love it.
Will Hawk (39:02):
Yeah, no microphone.
You would just stand up, prayan out loud prayer in front of
the whole congregation.
And then, and I knew that thisgirl that I had been dating
wanted to pray out loud, but shewas a new believer, and it was
like gonna be a bit of astretch.
And the Sunday she decided topray out loud.
I'm sitting next to her, John'ssitting next to me, and it's
(39:23):
silent in the sanctuary.
I'm pulling my microphone awayfrom that.
And she goes, Dear God, it wasthe loudest beginning to a
prayer.
And it's between she'd been no,I don't think you know it would
explain a lot, but um no, shehad been waiting for weeks to
get that prayer out.
(39:43):
Yeah, that when it finallyhappened, both John and I like
jump and we like look at eachother in prayer and we're like,
what was that?
What was that?
Do you think God heard her?
I guarantee you God heard andto this day, it is one of the
funniest, but one of the mostbeautiful prayers because it was
this authentic, built-up, inthe moment, not polished, not
(40:08):
impressive prayers.
Why is public prayer achallenge for you if it is?
Why do we care what the peoplenext to us think when we are
talking to the God of theuniverse who pulled us out of
the cave of death?
Can our focus not be upwardwhile we are in community?
God values your faith, not yourfluency.
(40:30):
Small prayers, unimpressivelyworded prayers are beautiful.
Son, stand still at Gibeon andMoon in the valley of Azelon.
I've got a question, Thomas.
What do you think was Jesus'most meaningful prayer?
Um most meaningful, impactful,and don't take forever because I
(40:55):
want Bennett to come up here.
Not my will but yours be done.
Yes, Gethsemane.
Thomas (41:01):
Yeah.
Will Hawk (41:01):
Maybe second place?
I'm going Lord's Prayer becausehe's literally teaching us how
to do it.
Thomas (41:07):
I don't want to, I don't know that was a prayer.
Okay.
It was a model.
Will Hawk (41:11):
Fair enough.
It was a model.
I didn't pull all of these up,but I just I want to read to you
out of a section of Matthew 26.
Jesus in the Garden ofGethsemane, praying alone, but
not completely alone because thedisciples are near my father.
If it be possible, let this cuppass from me.
If there's a way for me not togo into the cave of death where
(41:32):
the kings, the people deserve tobe.
I don't deserve to be there.
If there's a way, nevertheless,not as I will, but as your
will.
Verse 42.
Again for the second time hewent away and prayed.
So leading them, he went awayand prayed for the third time.
(41:55):
Listen to what I'm about tosay.
I'm reading verbatim for thethird time, saying the same
words again.
Short prayers, repeated prayersthat are sincere prayers are
excellent prayers.
There's nothing wrong with usrepeating ourselves to God.
(42:17):
Prayer is communication, it iscommunion with God.
And the better you knowsomeone, the fewer words you
have to use.
The better you know the Lord,the more often you need to
simply say, God, you know, youknow.
I talked to a number of pastorsand I asked them, What have you
learned about prayer?
I'm talking to my congregationabout it, and I would have to
(42:40):
jump to the end here, and so Iwill.
Whether you begin with it, endwith it, or sprinkle it in
between, I always includegratitude.
Jamie Vizzini said, Will, Itook my kids on this vacation
and it was a long-needed one.
It was my first sabbatical, andwe were boogie boarding in the
ocean, and to the right, rainwas falling, and to the left,
rain was falling, and we couldsee it.
(43:01):
In that moment, I realized theGod of the universe will hold
the weather back if he wants usto enjoy time together and he
will let a storm on it if it istime for the storm to fall.
I was grateful for that littlewindow.
I had another pastor say, Well,most of my prayers look like
complaining to God, questioningGod, then asking for something.
(43:21):
So I have forced myself to begrateful.
I said, That's really funny,Kurt, because my prayers are the
opposite.
I just go for a walk throughthe woods at night when I'm
really angry or frustrated, andI just let it out.
And I let it out out loud.
And if Larry or his kids areout, they're not gonna be well
ministered to that followingSunday because Will doesn't hold
back with his complaints to theLord.
God, why?
(43:42):
How are you really in controlif this is what I'm actually
seeing?
But there's something thathappens on that walk when I bare
my heart and my soul to theLord.
All of a sudden, somewhere inthe middle, I say, But you are
God and I am not.
Your ways are high and mine arenot.
You see the end from thebeginning, and you are God and
deserve my worship, and my walkback is one of gratitude.
(44:03):
So whether you begin with it,end with it, or sprinkle it in
between, make sure gratitude isa point.
And the last thing that I wouldsay, it's it's point four.
Joshua doesn't pray and say,God, that hail is really great.
Could you just bring a littlebit more of that?
He says, I see where you'regoing and I see what you're
doing.
I want to be a part of it.
Why was Joshua's prayeranswered so quickly and so
(44:25):
profoundly?
He was praying exactly God'swill, but he prayed it like
this.
God, I want your will to bedone, but I really want to be a
part of it.
I'm not asking for you to crushthe enemy, I'm I'm asking you
to hold the sun up so that wecan be a part of it.
How often in your prayers toGod are you asking that you get
to be a part of the answer?
(44:46):
Or is your assumption that ifthe prayer is answered, you
aren't involved in the answer?
This is what Joshua straightensout, where our emphasis is
often wrong.
Be a part of the answer.
There's a million differentplaces we could go and things
that we could do, and Thomas,I've really enjoyed this.
Thomas (45:07):
Yeah, it was fun.
Will Hawk (45:08):
We'll see how the feedback plays out with the
elders and beyond.
But I'll tell you this (45:11):
here's what I would like to do.
Bennett, you how you feeling ontime over there?
Yeah?
What I oh, that's that's good.
Oh, we're doing fun.
Here's what I would like.
I I feel like I know my people,our people.
You like to be stretched, butnot too much.
Thomas (45:31):
Not to say not too much.
Yeah.
Will Hawk (45:33):
Okay, so here's all that I'm gonna ask of you.
Would you be willing to bestretched just a little bit this
morning?
Would you look at the screenand find an emphasis of prayer
that maybe you have been doing alittle bit backward or a little
bit off?
And could the next fiveminutes, as Bennett plays or
sings or whatever it is that hedoes, could this be an
(45:53):
invitation for you?
Could we just push past theprayer awkwardness a little bit?
And if you want to kneel,kneel.
If you want your prayer to beGod, it's a miracle that you're
just listening to me, and I wantto lean into that.
You open your Bible and youflip the Psalms, praise God for
that.
If you have been spending mostof your time praying alone,
gather your family or somebodyin the church that you know that
(46:14):
may be sitting next to you andjust say, can we just quietly
pray while Bennett is playing?
Can I lean into the communalreality of what scripture would
point to in prayer?
Maybe it's you just praying oneshort prayer over and over and
over because it is not yourfluency that God is impressed
with.
Short prayers are greatprayers.
(46:35):
Maybe you need to commit thatyou've been waiting for God to
do something when you need tolift your hand to help with it.
Maybe you just haven't beengrateful to God for what he's
already done.
So, whatever it is, this isyour space and God's space and
our space.
Let's pursue him togetherbiblically in prayer.
A minute when you feel led,just move us on into worship.
(46:58):
Thomas, you want to take thatside and I'll get this one.
If you want to come down, ifyou want to confess or celebrate
or pray with one of thepastors, we will be down here,
but this is your space.
This is your time.
Guys in the back, just leavethat for, just leave that up so
people can be well led.
We love you.
Let's go into a great time ofprayer together.
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