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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Joshua 10
No matter how much we like to think differently, we are insecure people. We are always worried about being forgotten or abandoned. This is true of all our relationships including God. We worry that God will not show up to help us and save us in our times of need. Joshua 10 tells us of a grace filled God who helps and saves even the most unworthy sinners just like us.
Transcript
[Music]
Well for those uh who have not been been with us maybe visiting today or if uh you haven’t been here for a while just a reminder of we’re going through the uh the Book of Joshua and we’re doing this for a reason because while we’re here uh at uh Ocean Park Baptist I believe the Lord’s preparing us for uh the promised land of the of the building that that he has uh provided for us that we’re in the midst of building and and in Joshua’s time uh God Was preparing his people uh that they would be uh his light to the Nations and he was preparing them not just to conquer the land he was preparing them to trust him and to be the kind of people uh that he wanted them to be that he they might truly be a reflection uh of him to the Nations around them a blessing to the Nations as God had called uh Abraham long before to be and so that’s what’s happening in the Book of Joshua God is preparing them as a people to occupy the land uh and and I believe he’s preparing us in this time as we uh as we wander here at Ocean Park Baptist for a time he’s preparing us to be the people he wants us to be to be a light for the gospel in the new land that he’s calling us to that we get to go watch uh we get to go uh see what’s the uh the update of what’s been going on firsthand uh today which which is exciting now for those who may just be stepping into Joshua uh as it was reminded to me and hearing it out loud it’s a little more striking this is a violent book it is a violent book If you ever wanted to know where does Jr tolking get uh the imagery for many of the battles that that he wrote about uh and Lord of the Rings and and the selan and his Works uh it comes from Joshua a lot of that imagery comes from Joshua of course tolken was also uh fought in World War I and was in the trenches and so we saw things firsthand but it it is a violent book and it can be it can be hard to kind of reconcile can it uh and so I’ll remind you I mentioned it weeks ago when we were uh really getting into the Battle of Jericho uh we have to understand that what’s going on here isn’t a universal principle that God has called uh his people to wipe out uh all those who are are opposed to uh to the one true God this this this isn’t that at all this is a specific instruction a specific time it’s a time of judgment that God has placed upon uh the the Canaanites the amorites uh all those ites that were living in the land of Canaan uh God had waited 700 years 700 years he had waited uh for them and hopes that they would turn and turn to him and uh but the time of judgment has come and this isn’t just a a judgment uh a physical judgment this is a spiritual judgment God is going to war with the false gods of the Canaanite people and he is showing them to be superior that they uh that that they cannot overcome him and so it does seem violent uh and it is we can’t right we’re we’re not not can’t just uh explain it away we have to accept it uh for what it is and how serious God is about demonstrating his righteousness and who he is and using his people uh as his holy Army to bring the this cleansing that he has called them to but but the book is also full of grace it’s full of grace and sometimes in some unexpected places and we see that in particular I Believe In this passage in Joshua 10 this morning last week we were introduced to the gibit uh Chuck preached a sermon on on Joshua N but do you remember the giban ites came to uh they had seen what had happened at Jericho uh they had seen what had happened at AI uh they knew that that that this massive army of the Lord was coming uh and so they decided and they were fearful of it uh and they recognized that there was something that was going on here that God was with them and was they were having great success and so their idea of out of this fear a right fear by the way uh their idea how they should act out of the sphar was to deceive the people of Israel and Joshua and so they came to them and they told them that they were they were from a far off land but they had heard what God had done and they wanted to make a covenant with the people of Israel a treaty and uh and so the people of Israel uh questioned them a bit but then made that agreement with them that they would uh that they would be uh that they would be partners in this or that they would not destroy them only then to find out that these were the gibeonites these were people of the land of Canaan uh they had tricked them and so when they found out they went and they they they faced them but they what what what did they deserve the giban ites they deserved to have the treaty ripped up uh and to uh and for to have the full Judgment of God upon them but that’s not what happened actually the opposite happened they said no we made a treaty with you and we will honor that if we if we don’t honor that then God’s Wrath will be upon us only you will will be you will serve the Lord and his altar by being wood cutters and serving the table uh that’s what what you will be with in our midst and so uh that’s how the gianitsos
Tua 10 we we run into the these gibit again uh and we run into a testing of what this treaty is really going to do for them and so we we learn in chapter 10 that the five Kings of the of the of the region uh of the Hill Country have come out to fight against the gianitsos
[Music] sit by and let this happen and so they raised up all the the major Kings of the Hill Country and they assembled together these five Kings assembled their armies together and made war against the gianitsos
going to be afraid but there’s a less obvious reason for why they would be afraid as well and I think the the fear that they’re feeling is a fear that Israel is going to abandon them there’s a fear that Israel and by by connection God himself who they’ve seen do all these Mighty works is going to abandon them that God and Israel are going to relax act their hand why why would they have that fear well I think there’s a number of reasons but because they had deceived in the first place right they had deceived and so they knew in their own hearts that they had tricked them into making that Covenant uh and out of that you know that uh out of fear about what God would do to them of what he had seen happen in Jericho uh but they when they found out they didn’t break the treaty the people of Israel as I said before the Covenant stood but now that Calamity is upon them and the mighty these Mighty Warriors which we were told the people of gibian are Mighty Warriors they’re afraid they’re afraid that Joshua and and Israel and by extension then God himself is going to abandon them all they had to count on was the grace of God that’s all they had to go on because they certainly didn’t do anything to earn the right did they they did quite the opposite they deceived they had earned the right to be uh they out of their own uh deviousness to be destroyed they had earned the right to be neglected in this moment of their greatest need and there and then their heart of hearts they knew it they knew it now all they could rely upon was the good graces of Joshua and Israel and God himself so they cried out for help come up they said come up quickly and save us and help us that’s all they could do in this place of need this place of complete fear was to cry out to God help us save us so what did Joshua and Israel and God do with these devious Sinners who had tricked the people of Israel and God himself what would God do with them well the first thing we’re told is that Joshua went went quickly he responded he responded quickly making uh making marching throughout the night which was not an easy thing to do and especially if you knew cut the next when you got there you were going straight to battle marching through the night uh was something that was dangerous if anyone who studied history uh you if you in the Roman EMP Empire if you’ve ever studied uh I was I’ve been listening to the short history of podcast I highly recommend it if you have’t listen to it uh it’s really really helpful but uh when you listen to the the great uh slave revolt and Sparticus and the historical The Narrative of it what what got Spartacus in the end in all of their great Army was that they were surprised because pompy’s Army marched through the night his Legion and they weren’t expecting it when it got there and they were defeated the same thing happens here they marched through the night to get to them they came quickly they risked it all they pushed harder to come and help to save these devious sinful people who would trick them and when they got there they took the Amorite King by surprise secondly we see that God was with them and we see that in a number of ways number one God gave his Assurance in verse eight the Lord said to Joshua do not fear them for I have given them into your hands so God by supporting Joshua in all this is supporting the gibit these sinful devious tricksters secondly in verse 10 we see that the Lord uh threw them through the the five Kings and their armies into an absolute Panic before isra Israel so God is reaching God is helping God is answering their cry for help even though they didn’t deserve it and then in verse 11 the Lord threw down large hail stone Stones upon the amorites killing more than the Israelites did with their swords God was involved God was supporting the gianitsos
has right verses 12 to 14 the sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day there has been no day like it before were told or since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man Joshua for the Lord fought for Israel God was in this why would God go to such an extent to make the sun set still in the sky because again he’s making it clear this is a spiritual battle he’s defeating these false gods these demons that they’re being worshiped in the land of Canaan and he is defeating them he is there he doesn’t want anyone to mistake it that this is just a bunch of just an army coming in who’s mightier who’s going to get the glory he’s making it very clear that it’s him that he’s the one and so finally the five Kings were defeated as they were hiding in those caves and we read about
that so Joshua Israel and God did all of this for a bunch of undeserving
deceivers yeah it’s true that this battle served a greater purpose right of of continuing the purpose of the conquest of the land it certainly did but there could have been better more advantageous ways for for Israel have entered into battle with these
Kings but what an incredible picture even in the midst of all the violence in the midst of all the Judgment what an incredible picture of God’s grace at work for the gianitsos
Sha 10 we are the giban ites we’re the undeserving recipients of the grace of God I know we want to be the Mighty Warriors uh I know that’s who we we want to be we want to be Joshua we want to identify with all them but in this in this account we’re the gibeonites Romans 58 but God showed his love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us while we were still sinners Sinners while we were just like the
gianitsos so that when the face of of a great Army was in front of them they were fulled of
fear it’s hard for us to trust because of the grace we’ve received that he’s with us in our greatest time of need it’s hard to trust that he’s going to actually Deliver us it’s hard for us to trust that that he’ll provide for what we need when we need it not what we want when we want it now if we had done something to earn our Salvation if we had been done something that we could cling on to and we could we could call God on then we could demand God to act on our behalf well I did my part of the bargain now you’ve got to do your part of the
bargain but instead God has called us to trust him alone to trust his grace alone and that my friends is the hardest thing of all
we’re all Afraid on some level that God is going to relax his hand just as the gibeonites were afraid we’re afraid that God’s going not going to come through in other words that that word relax what another way of translating it is to abandon there’s this part of us and every single one of us there’s there’s a fear that God’s going to abandon us and and it’s that fear of Abandonment from God that makes us do some really unhealthy things it’s that heart that that that fears that abandonment that makes us act out of it uh one of those things is we build up walls in our relationships with God and we build up our walls with relationships with others we’re probably we we can become afraid of being vulnerable with people because being vulnerable means that we’re we’re we’re just opening ourselves up to being
hurt because we think that we can’t trust God that he’s really going to be with us that if we are vulnerable that he’ll always be there to save us and that he’ll never leave us or forsake us another way is that uh in our fear we have this tendency to quickly attach ourselves to people and things other than God to look to them for our help to Pride to them for uh for salvation we can’t trust that God’s going to be the one to help us because we have this fear of Abandonment so we had better get obsessed about our financial portfolio right we better pay attention every day to the state of the market because those are the things that are going to save us because God will abandon us we may not say it outright but we’re think deep in our hearts we’re thinking it and it’s coming out or maybe it’s this we had better be overly controlling of our children’s lives and not give them freedom to make their own mistakes you know the whole helicopter Mom and Dad
thing it’s a great Temptation because it’s hard because we think God’s not going to be there to help them I’ve got to do it I’ve got to be the one to to save them I’ve got to be the one to protect them from every bad thing that could ever happen to them why because we have a fear that God will abandon and that he won’t act to help and to save another is that in our fear of Abandonment we can have this tendency to run away from relationships from growing closer to God because again we’re afraid that he’s going to leave us or from running from other people because we have this fear that they’re going to let us down as well or how finally this one a fear in our out of our fear of Abandonment it causes us to become emotionally
unavailable even to the people that we love most in our
lives even to
God maybe you prefer in worship that uh that becomes dry and root because you’re you’re we’re because become afraid that if we really give ourselves fully over to the Lord because what if he doesn’t show up what if he doesn’t show up what if he isn’t there what if he doesn’t come to meet me in my time of need how about in our marriages or our closest relationships and friendships we can become afraid out of this fear of Abandonment to be emotionally available because what if our spouse or our friend our loved one what if they don’t reciprocate it so we just become unavailable to protect ourselves all of this stems from our spiritual insecurity we’re fragile because in the depths of our heart we are incredibly insecure we do not believe that God is going to help us we do not believe that God is going to save us we don’t believe that God is going to be there when we really need him just like the gibeonites but the hope of the Gospel is this that just as God fought for those deceiving giban ites by his grace alone God always comes to help us he always comes to save us when we cry out to him the God who sent his son into the world to die for us while we were still sinners while we were still
deceivers he promises us that same God never to leave us and never to forsake us every struggle we Face may not be as o overwhelming or as obvious as Joshua 10 and the five Kings of the ammonites standing uh and making war against us but we know even in what we’re facing that as Paul proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 57 God has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ things may not always work out the way that we want them to but we know that we have been given the ultimate Victory and Jesus’s victory over sin and death itself and his resurrection from the grave and because of that we’re free we’re free to let God and others into our lives we’re free from the need to rely on the stock
market and ourselves as our children’s saviors and protectors we’re free to stay in relationships even the really difficult ones and the risky ones because God is with us always even to the End of the Age we’re free to make ourselves emotionally available to God and to people in our lives because he’s here and he is reigning
Victorious all
because we are fully secure in our relationship with God because of the finished work of Our Savior Jesus Christ do you know that kind of Freedom have you found yourself emotionally unavailable to the people you love or maybe even hiding away from God out of
fear have you found yourself facing these fears of Abandonment of God maybe you’ve given up hoping for things or expecting God to show up because you’ve been hurt so many times because things haven’t worked out the way that you want them to but what we’re learning in Joshua 10 and what God wants to prepare in us as a heart for a people who are going to be a light to the Nations is that we be a people of great expectation that he is with us that we’ve been given the Victory and that he will never leave us or forsake us even if he doesn’t show up the way that we may want him to in the moment he shows up the way that we need him to every
time friends our relationship with God is ruled by
Grace not by law let us re choice and let us find Freedom in the victory that we’ve been given amen [Music]
