Joshua Study - 2026-04-29

Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.

If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.

Thank you for joining us today.

Okay, Joshua 10, 1 through 43.

Here is a quick reference chapter outline which we'll go through just to give you a perspective

in the first five verses.

There is an attack against Gibeon, and the city of Gibeon deceptively made peace with Israel,

and I think we remember that story where they dressed up as beggars and long travelers from

afar, and here they were in a neighboring piece of real estate, and they asked that there

would be a covenant that would be given them.

And when they deceptively received the covenant, the surrounding kings saw this as betrayal,

so Gibeon was targeted.

Number two, Gibeon cries out for help, verses six and seven, Joshua responds immediately

because Israel's covenant now required them to protect Gibeon.

Number three, God gives the promise of victory before the battle.

Think about this in our own lives.

The Lord tells Joshua, don't fear, I have given them into your hands.

Number four, Joshua obeys and advances nine through eleven.

God threw the enemy into confusion and sent hail stones from heaven.

And as we go through the scriptures, we understand that more people in battle were killed by

the hail stones than by the sword.

So in five it says that the sun stands still, and that's still an amazing thing in my mind.

How Joshua prays boldly and God answers miraculously and says that the Lord fought for Israel.

And number six, the five kings are defeated.

Joshua finishes what God began.

The kings were found hiding in a cave, and they were brought out and judged.

And lastly, in verses 28 through 43, southern cities were conquered by Joshua.

He continues the campaign to purge the land, and one city after another falls with

repeated success.

So here we have just a note.

If God gives promises, He keeps His promises.

Remember that.

I yellow line them.

I have given them into your hands.

And we would hope that in some instances when we pray for things that we understand that

God has given the situation into our hands.

And He sent hail stones from heaven.

He worked miracles.

And then it says that the Lord fought for Israel.

So often we take the mantle of resistance and fight ourselves, and we already know the answer

to that.

That really doesn't work very well.

It's when we let God work through us to fight the battles before us.

Okay, that's the background.

Now, the alignment with God's people brings opposition, and you can think about that in

your own life.

Like Gibeon, our new loyalty, which we now have in Christ, sometimes becomes difficult

in the sense that there may be loyalties that you have had in the past, and as you

begin to change those loyalties, they bring conflict in your life.

They may bring indecision because, gee, did I do the right thing?

And sometimes doubt.

However, changing sides and following Christ may make you, quote, unquote, odd.

How many have ever had that thrown at them?

Gee, you're different.

Don't like you.

In the eyes of our old friends, our work associates, our social connections, and others.

Before you were just another person talking the same stuff, trash, or whatever, doing the

same thing, doing what they do, now you're different, and you're no fun.

But you know what?

It's the best life, isn't it, when you're on this side of Calvary?

Oh my gosh.

What a contrast.

Priorities become different.

What are they?

Well, chasing for the approval of others and living only for personal gain just doesn't

fit any more.

And that is an adjustment.

That doesn't miraculously happen.

It becomes in those of you that have been following the Lord and you have ever worked

with people.

There is maybe some insecurities and some questions and maybe this and maybe that.

But as you begin to build a life in God, you'll see that there's no going back

because anything back there is what is empty compared to what we have.

So what does the living like a Christian life look like?

Our desires begin to change.

The values begin to shift.

And the things that once were felt as normal no longer really makes a lot of

sense.

Anybody identify with that?

So what matters is now honoring God and walking in obedience to Him like the

Gibeonites.

They considered themselves part of Israel.

They were the servants.

They hauled bricks.

They brought water.

They were the servants.

They assimilated in.

And so they made a life.

So now my question to you, what circumstances may have made you realize that

self-centered living was no longer satisfying?

What comes up to mind when we ask this question?

What instance or what series of instances made you realize that this just wasn't

satisfying?

What you were about?

Who you are?

It's kind of now put on the side and now you're wanting to follow the Lord.

What does that look like in your life or what did it look like?

Oh, good, good, good, good.

Yes, sir.

Having children.

Okay.

When you have children, it kind of makes you realize that self-centered

living is not going to do anything anymore.

Tell me, isn't it?

Yeah.

You know your peers, you know your peers, maybe you even work with them or

know friends, that they still don't give that up.

They still want life for themselves and then the kids get drug along,

secondary.

So when it says that you give your life up for your family, that's what

we're about, right?

Yes.

Okay.

Good deal.

What's your name?

I'm Isaac.

My name is Isaac.

Okay.

Isaac John here.

Good to see you.

Nice to meet you.

Anything else?

What comes to mind?

It's been so long ago, you forgot.

You want to say something, Charlie?

Well, I will.

It's embarrassing, but...

No.

Hey, we're all family here.

What are the reasons I'm here?

But about 20 years ago, well, I used to be kind of a drinker and

that thing there were about friends, you know, making, having the

wrong friends and trying to get ahead and impress people and stuff.

Yes.

Well, I got dragged out from after work with a bunch of people,

like all the people I worked with, and they had heard me, you

know, always talking about God and stuff to them, but I wasn't

being a good witness doing that, but I went out with them anyway

and they decided they were going to get me really drunk

because just to make me fall.

That was the challenge, right?

And so I got so bad that they had to, some guy had to drive

me home and get a cab and take me home.

And I just remember being upstairs, hanging over the toilet,

throwing up with my family, looking in the door at me with like

horror and shock.

And I just remember looking at them and saying, what are you

looking at?

And I decided just that morning when I woke up the next day

that that was it.

I was going to quit drinking and I stopped drinking after that.

So it's been like 20 years now, but I'm still paying the

price for everything I did before that going out drinking.

So and that's my story.

Yeah, you know, hugging the porcelain Goddess isn't fun,

is it?

Anything else?

Yes.

I think Ginny was first.

We'll let her go first.

I married the wrong person and I just wanted to be married in

the worst way and I wanted to be like other women and have

the respect and the social standing and got more confidence

at my job.

And of course at work, they're like, oh now she has a husband

and that that pressure is real in the workplace and in life.

You get more respect when you have a husband versus being

on your own.

It's it shouldn't be that way, but he turned out to be an alcoholic

and then he wanted me to drink with him.

And one night I had a margarita.

I just had one and I could only drink half of it.

And I was like, whoa, once once Charles brought this up,

this came to my mind and I was like and I could remember saying

to my husband, I've got to lay down and I went upstairs and my

bedroom was spinning.

This never happened to me before.

I was in my 30s at this point and I had to get up at 7 o'clock

the next morning to go to work.

But needless to say that marriage didn't work out because I

married the wrong man and didn't follow God.

God was telling me to get out of there and get rid of this

guy and I didn't listen.

And the consequences were grave a divorce putting a house up

on a short sale.

Disrupting everybody else's life and my kids turned out okay

despite that.

But now that I'm on my own.

I just I get up in the morning and I'm doing my devotions

and yes, Ryan after coffee.

But any yeah, well, we had a talk about that on Thursday

and Ryan said it was drugs, but anyhow, but you know, I just

I'm fine getting up doing my devotions getting to know

the Lord.

I am not concerned about what people think anymore and I

don't need a man.

I really want to get to know the Lord and just I'm good

the way I am.

Well, mine sounds like ditto compared to St. Jenny's.

I was just saying sitting here thinking it's it doesn't

pay to be unequally yoked to somebody and I thought that

I thought this Steve was a Christian.

I went to marry him if he hadn't been but he turned

out to be just nominally Christian and the same thing.

He wanted me to go drinking with him and he was mad at

me because I wouldn't go drinking with him and I'm like

we have three kids.

I'm not going to go drinking with you and leave the kids

alone.

What are you thinking and yeah, eventually the church

came and kicked him out of my house and then here I

was with three kids on my own.

So yeah, it's it pays to really know your relationship

with the Lord and put that first.

Yeah, the thought of that utopian marriage the thought

of that wonderful house with the picket fence and

the flowers.

Those things are euphemisms when you come down to

it when you get down to the practical aspects of

it.

If you don't have the Lord joining you together like

these two ladies have said, you know that that that

picture is quickly destroyed and fortunately whether

or not it's later in life or in the middle of your

life learning that is such a plus to be able to offload

those circumstances and that weight of sin and confusion

and argument and chaos so that you can have peace

in your heart.

You know, I mean that's that's that's what it is.

God brings peace.

Anyone else?

Any thoughts?

All right.

Okay, good.

Thank you for sharing.

So we have this.

Circumstance that we go through and let's look at

the progression of how we get to the abiding

peace of God.

Well, first of all, the self-life can be described as

my goals, my comfort, my decisions, my control, my

feelings, and you know, you can identify with this

either personally or through other friends that you

have my approval, my success, and of course, it's

all about me.

So that's where you start.

So as you come to Christ, there is now an awareness

that something is really missing.

You can't quite put your finger on it, but

something's missing and that's the awareness of

sin in your life.

That's the awareness that you do have limits and

it's an awareness that you really need God.

God begins now to draw you in your heart, your

mind, your will, and your life to himself as you

open up to him.

Seek me and I will be found.

And as you do that, that awareness becomes then

part of your life and you begin to surrender

what it is that you are.

Conscious decisions, not my will but yours, Lord,

letting go of control and pride and self-rule, slow

process.

Sometimes it doesn't happen overnight, but trust

then after you begin to get through some of these

things begins to replace the striving and that's

when the peace of God really comes when you

begin to offload these things.

So we have a self-life.

We have an awareness.

We have surrender and the next thing is then the

renewal process.

Thinking begins to change through Scripture and

if you don't get your nose in the word, you

won't know that there's a comparative analysis that

the Holy Spirit brings to your conscience so

that you can feed into your life blood and

into your spirit those things which are righteous.

So again, those desires come about through

Scripture, reading, prayer, praise and new

desires begin to formulate in your life.

It's less about me, less about the self and

more about God.

So you see the transformation slowly change and

your identity now shifts.

This is important.

It's from self-made to God-led.

It's as simple as I can put it in easy forms

as you yield to that process and this may

may take months or years depending upon where

you're at and what your willingness is.

And then after that, there is obedience.

Okay, wait till I get the end.

There's six of them across here.

Then you can have them all.

So you get the whole stuff.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but

then in obedience, faith becomes now visible.

Faith is something that is built within you

as you yield and as you walk with God and

sometimes you see the appearance of things

that materialize.

Other times you don't, you wait before the

Lord, but faith begins to be built.

Then there is a idea that choices align with

what God says in his word and not feelings.

Remember the other thing in self-life, my

goals, my comfort, my decisions, my control.

And now what is it that you want, Lord?

What are those feelings that you're giving

me?

This is different and then growth happens

through daily discussions and decisions

with the Lord about who you are.

And then last, God-centered life.

This is where you get the meat of what

you're being taught.

It's God's will.

What is it, Lord, that you want?

What is your will?

What do you want me to do?

God's glory, not my own, not for me,

but for him.

We are a lowly servant,

caring for those people that are coming

across our path.

As best we can to distribute the seed,

the love of God and God's purposes.

Lord, what is your purpose in this?

Where can I find you?

How can I get into understanding what

your purpose is?

And one big thing in this area, peace

abides in your heart.

How many realize that when the peace of

God comes, you just don't want to get rid

of it?

I mean, it's so precious.

I mean the abiding of God's presence

in your life.

And then purpose replaces the confusion,

the chaos, and all those many things

that represent the self-life.

And then out of that, you influence

others by how you live,

how you talk,

how you act, and how you do.

Not just the theoretical, but in the doing.

So that's the progression that we go

through to be able to be servants

of the Lord.

And not that you're not servants

in the surrendering to renewal,

the renewal to obedience,

but ultimately the God-centered life

is that you're just a lowly servant.

And I always say, my wife and I

always, we declare to one another,

Lord, it is better to be a door

servant in the house of God than

anything else.

And that's simple as you know,

it's nothing but being a servant

at the door.

So question,

what was or is the hardest thing

for you to release control over

coming from the past life into this life?

What's that look like?

And as you think about that,

some of you remember my litany

of stories in the sense that

in following the Lord, being a pastor,

being an elder in different churches,

I had to face in 2015 when I knew

that my wife needed to have

more care at some point in time.

So we moved to retirement community.

And one of the big things was

giving up my car collection.

Man, I had five beautiful gaggles,

you know, wonderful, worked on

them, loved them.

And that was a decision that

I had to make over a year's period

of time.

And the Lord said, well, do you,

what do you want the five cars

your wife?

So that was an easy decision,

but it took me time to relinquish

that I fought for that thing.

I said, no, we can do this.

You know, all these beauties in

the grave, it covers over and

take them out.

Oh, you know, all that stuff

and now it's gone and you know

what I don't even look back

and I don't even would I don't

even want to go back to that

arena anymore.

It's just so pleasant to be

where I am at in the Lord.

So what was the some of the

points in your life that turned

you?

It was when I, excuse me, was

about between 50 and 60 years

old.

I'm a lot older than that now.

I'm not telling what.

But anyway, I actually said to

the Lord, I was annoyed with

George about something and God

had put George in my life.

I didn't choose if you have to

know that.

I mean, I'm glad he did that,

but he was not my initial choice

and so anyway, I said to the

Lord one day, why isn't George

perfect?

You picked him out for me.

So why isn't he perfect?

And God literally said to me,

when are you going to realize

it's not about you?

And I was like, what are you

talking about?

He said, you have to be

willing to give me everything

Gail and just abandon yourself

to me and trust me completely

so that I can do anything with

you that I want and you have to

trust me and you have to yield

yourself to me completely.

And it was about a year that I

struggled with him over that.

But once I did, I'm like, why

did I wait so long?

This is amazing.

So yeah, but it was a big

thing.

Anybody else have anything that

was the big change in their

life?

Anybody want to share?

All right, that's okay.

Oh, Roger.

Hello.

Okay.

I would say money would be a

big thing, you know, you know,

in the early days here on the

edge of survival like all young

couples are and I would not

want to give up control of,

you know, feeling that I had

to, you know, I didn't mind

tithing but anything over that

that's right.

And so I'd say yeah, that was

an issue.

Okay, you know, I think perhaps

maybe you were like my wife's

mom.

They were they were preachers

kids and they didn't have a

lot of money and every time

she would go to a bill and my

wife would watch her mom, she'd

open her purse and there would

be an envelope in there.

Let's say for groceries, she'd

bring the money out and as the

cash register person took it

she would hold on to it.

She just didn't want to let it

go and then the man had to grab

it out.

So maybe you were the same way

with your checks.

Believe it or not a church.

I had gone to my previous

church almost 12 years.

I was known I had cleaned for a

lot a lot of the people and

I was just it was like it was a

I was so familiar.

I could like no one would blink

an eye when I would go downstairs

and in the library or the gym

or whatever.

So I but I knew I had needed to

lease some time and I'm like,

no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not

going to God and it actually had

to take a church splitting for

me to leave and then when I

came here, I realized how the

church was more religious and

more about things that I didn't

see that were I think they

meant well, but I thought they

were caught up in things that

were not important and and I

was like, this is hard going

to from a church that I'm kind

of everyone knows me to like I

barely know anyone.

God bless you, honey.

You know something in the in

the sense of life we we have we

have hopes and dreams and when

we relinquish that God I

believe gives us better than

what we would even anticipate for

ourselves and that's wonderful

that you relinquish that and to

support what she has said.

That's why it's important when

you see faces that you don't

know is to introduce yourself,

you know, be friend do and how

you don't know what's God's

going to bring about from that

and I give a testimony when

Jenny started to come here.

I don't know whether it was

Gail or whether it was myself

somebody invited you to a small

group.

Who was that?

Was that you or me?

I forget.

Okay, so, you know, and and I

could have gone down the aisle

that did whatever but she has

become such a precious part of

our group and it was only

because and I'm not using

myself as an example.

Somebody stepped out and offered

and befriended and here we are

good life in the in the sense

of the body of Christ.

I think one of the hardest things

even after I became a Christian

was getting secular rock and

roll out of my life and you

know, it didn't seem like a big

deal because I know a lot of

born-again Christians that

listen to rock and roll and

listen to secular pop music and

I mean I was getting the lead

out and you know at Calvary

Church of Satterton.

They just joked about it like

oh, yeah, you listen to Led Zeppelin

and well during covid.

I watched a YouTube channel

and God got rid of my television.

My my Verizon went on the brink

and then I got rid of them and

then I just realized I could

save money just by getting

internet and not the television.

So then I was watching YouTube

and came across good fight

ministries and they had this

whole segment.

They sold their souls to rock

and roll and I watched that

and I was appalled when I

realized what Led Zeppelin was

all about and you know when I

actually got the education

there and stop listening to rock

and roll secular rock.

I listen to Christian music

but not yeah, well, you know,

you know what's funny?

I made that progression.

I used to like 50s rock and roll 60s.

I mean up until probably 10 years

ago and now what's funny with

this new car I got that's part

of the transportation issue for

Joni and has a special gate in

the back and it has a feature

on the radio about sounds of

nature sounds of the universe

soothing.

So I made the transition from

rock and roll to classical and

it was nice but when I turn

on the radio even classical to

me is and all I do is when I

punch this thing it's birds

singing water flowing and it's

so soothing.

I can't get over it.

I mean, you know, you change in

the sense of what you listen

to not that there's anything

with rock wrong with with

classical but it's just that

your tastes begin to change.

Yes, Brian.

Specifically to that point

because this past the past week

two weeks.

I haven't listened to any music

at all and I went through this

cycle where the type of music

it's not it's not rock and

roll but it's basically, you

know, very secular and it's you

know, it's it's stuff that even

a lot of the stuff that they

say it's it's you know, and I

knew this and that was talking

about a hard thing to release

control over this.

So that was something that

especially going to the gym,

you know, like the type of

stuff like, you know, like it's

kind of like the heavy metal,

you know, stuff that's like

pumping you up and you know,

and it was just all it was it

was filthy.

Really.

If you really listen to the

words and like but then you

go to the beat and you can

like you can play off at all.

I'm just listening to the beat

but like you like pumping that

in like constantly and so,

you know, I went through a

period of time in this in

the last nine years that I

was you know that I didn't

listen to any music at all.

I was like taking everything

I couldn't like and I

remember thinking back and

most recently I was like,

you know, this last few months

I've been really getting on

track and I've been like,

you know, thinking back to

when, you know, I was on

point like long, you know,

and and I remember I wasn't I

didn't listen to any music at

all, you know, and once I

started listening to some music

and then I went back to kind

of what I liked, you know,

it was, you know, and so the

last so just speaking on

what she was saying in this

last question the last week

or two weeks and I almost I

almost gave in today, you

know, or or, yeah, on the

way home. I almost gave in

today and I put on the put

on Spotify, but advertisements

came on and I was like, I

really want to listen to just

one particular song and it's

very worldly, you know, and

I've and I went around the

block and I and another

another advertisement and I

couldn't, you know, to the

point where, you know, like

eventually I was like, you

know why and I just I just

turned it off. I'm like, you

know what, like, yeah, I

shouldn't be listening to

that anyway. And and so, yeah,

when you talk about the music

that so literally this last

week or two weeks and like

silence from that I feel

has, you know, it is I feel

has helped clear me out.

It's it's all that's your

spirit. Yeah. Good. All

right. Was that a hand for

something? Oh, you okay?

No. Okay. All right. So

here's another question along

those lines. If God is truly

at the center of your life,

what would others see differently

about you between B.C. and

A.D. not general things. What

would they see different about

you coming from the old life

to the new life? What would

that look like? All right. How

are you? Good. How are you?

Good. No problem. I would

say like related to the first

question. I think what people

would see differently about me

is that I'm not as self-centered

not selfish, you know, not

doing things just because

this is how I feel not

leading on my own understanding

and they would see that I'm

keeping God first because that

was my answer to the first

question. Like one of the

hardest things for me to release

control over is, you know, just

my life just in general, you

know, because you want to trust

God but things could go left

and you know, you want to you

always want to have a backup

plan just in case. So just

releasing all that and just

trusting God like kind of

like that blind faith, you

know, it's kind of it's hard.

But yeah, I think that's

what people would see. So you

didn't burn all your bridges

at first, right? Yeah. Okay.

All right. Anything else? Yes,

Dottie. When I was first saved,

my neighbor and my neighbor

and I before we were saved,

we used to sit and have coffee

together and sort of

philosophize over all the

different religions and ideas

and all that kind of stuff,

you know, and everything and

we thought we had it all

figured out. And then I

got saved and I was so

excited to run down to her

house. Wrong. And I'm a friend

who is just a coffee drinker

just having a good time, you

know, together and she kicked

me out. She said you can

leave and big time. She said

Dottie, you just can't say

it's just Jesus is the way

the truth in the light. I

said, well, I don't know. I

just found that out. That's

what we've been looking

for. Carol, you know, I found

out that she was a Rocha

Crucian. So no wonder there

were some things going on

that was quite different. And

so, but you know, about three

months later, the Lord worked

on me because I think I was

probably real preachy. And

yeah, and and the Lord said

me, Dottie, I want you to go

back and I want you to

apologize. Ask her forgiveness

for just not what I said,

but how I said it. And I

did and and Carol said, come

on in, have a cup of tea.

Did you get back to your

coffee? Yes, we did. Well,

yes and no.

Yes. Sometimes when you

have a difference now of

persuasion, you sit around

and don't know what to talk

about. I have my sons.

We'll turn it back on. So

you can pray for me. Next

Monday is our next time

together. So, you know, it's

not like an hour. I mean,

you know, two and a half

hours go by. We're still

having coffee and you know

in the restaurant and they

just about kick us out the

door for somebody else to

sit in that booth. But it

is what it is. But it is

hard to find that common

ground sometimes to to to

befriend people, but God

will give it to you. Okay.

So we have a couple of

questions we answered. Let's

take a look at a statement.

If Christ is living within

us, the evidence that others

will see is not what we

say or how we live our life

for how we respond and how

we treat others. What's

that look like? Well, first

of all, it's loving one

another in 1st John 5 to if

we love and obey God, we

will know that we will love

his children. Serving is

another aspect. 1st Peter

410. Each of you have been

blessed with some of God's

wonderful gifts to be used

in the service of others

to use your gifts. Well,

another exhortations showing

kindness to one another Ephesians

432 and be kind to one

another tender hearted

forgiving one another even

as God for Christ's sake has

forgiven you another

exhortations show hospitality

1st Peter 4 9 be hospitable

to one another without

grudging. So maybe that's

my challenge this week.

Forgiving one another

Colossians 3 13 forgive

anyone who does you wrong

just as Christ has forgiven

you and the last aspect here

of what we look like is help

the fallen and the needy

Ecclesiastes 4 10 if you

fall your friend can help

you up. But if you fall

without having a friend

nearby you are really in

trouble. So that is the

exhortation that we should

have loving serving showing

kindness showing hospitality

forgiving and helping the

falling now.

Yeah.

Showing hospitality

you have to understand that

when he says hospitable to

one another that means to

Christians it doesn't mean

that you can't show love to

outsiders but at the same

time you should not show the

kind of hospitality that

brings a person who is not

a Christian into your home

because that's opening the

door for seat.

It really is it's in John

3.

I'm a brother and the

in that exhortation.

I just want to make that

clear.

That's good.

It's saying in John

and I do.

We know that

we love this show.

Yeah.

Love everybody the same

love children or single

of everybody because everybody

is his children.

No, no, no, no, no, no,

that's how they shall know.

Yes, and not that we're

supposed to not be kind to

strangers.

It's not saying that it's

just saying be careful

who you're hospitable to

and bring into your home.

Do not bring somebody who's

not a person into your home

and like invite them in

and to stay for a while.

Yeah, same with open arms

you embrace somebody now.

I would embrace you as

arms because you're a

fellow believer.

I would still invite you

into my house if you were

not a believer, but I

wouldn't open my arms.

I would be kind to you

hospitable to you in order

to win you.

Yes, in order to befriend

you hope that you see

something in our lives

that you would want but

that's there's a differentiation

between Christian and

non-Christian.

Okay.

Yes, yes, yes.

I want to say I disagree

with that, but I do have

a question with that.

So I get what you guys

are saying about that.

But what about when Jesus

came down into the all the

disciples like none

of them were Christians.

None of them were anywhere

near what we're supposed

to be but Jesus opened

his arms to all of them

full-heartedly and he was

hospitable to all of them.

Like I just feel like if

we're supposed to be like

Jesus the culture kind of

says watch out for certain

people, but I feel like

Jesus if you look at what

he did in the Bible, it

kind of says the opposite

of that says it doesn't

matter what you drag

along behind you.

It's all is welcomed.

You know what I mean?

Like I feel like I kind

of look for the people

who are shunned against

the community Christians

have a home Christians

have the church as their

home. It's the people

outside the church who

don't have a place to

come and feel the

hospital hospitality that

Christians can provide.

Well, no, that's true.

And and and let me

differentiate a little

bit and help you out in

that when Christ started

his ministry, he eased

them into his understanding

and he worked slowly

with them and then he often

told them you do not

understand these things.

So he progressively opened

himself and his feelings

and that last day that

he was with them.

I wish that this cup

would pass from me and

he shared and he cried

with them. So you see

the relationship build

in a stronger sense

from when he started

with them and then

when he ended up with

them and that's basically

the same that we're

doing. Yes, we'll open

ourselves. Yes, we'll

manjah with them, but

as as they become one

with us, we open ourselves

totally without reservation.

Okay. All right. Good.

Good point though.

All right. Yes, Charlie.

What what Gail said,

it just reminded me of

something a long time

ago where I was going

to this church and

resist older woman and

she kind of took this

young guy under her

wing kind of and

you know, he was into

drugs and stuff and

she was trying to help

him and she would she

would do all kinds of

things for him and

take him to doctors

appointments and you

know, try to show him

God's love and

everything and then

one day he killed her

and he took he stole

he stole things from

her house that he so

he could get drugs.

And I think that's

kind of what

Gail means you have

to be it's good to

be kind to people

wise and wise

his serpents.

But you know the weeds

grow up with the with

the pears grow up with

the weeds.

So you have to you

have to be careful.

That's all and so

I mean if you have open

eyes and you try it

you try to be the

best you can towards

people and lead people

and just just have

some discernment.

That's all.

Well, a lot of you

never grew up with

the Jesus movement as I

did it and I ended up

with 40 kids in our

house in a home meeting 40

kids home meeting can

get that and I want

to tell you the stuff

that was off the wall and

so okay Lord, it was just

like babysitting 40

children.

You know, well, you know,

I'm living with this,

you know my over here and

then we're reading the

Bible and we're doing

this and something over

here and you know,

and I said, oh my God,

what you put me into but

you know out of that and

it fast forward about

four or five years as

some of the crowd thinned

out because we were preaching

the word and showing

them the light as we all

do I ended up with a couple

that we have a deep

Christian relationship with

after 35 years and

they know the Lord they're

serving the Lord and

the fruit of that

relationship in the

beginning was yes,

we opened our home.

Yes, we fed them.

But yes, now we have

somebody that's truly and

I don't consider them

a disciple anymore than

just a real dear friend

both his he and his wife.

I mean and that was a

progressive state,

you know over a period

of time and I'm saying

I'm not saying it takes

35 years.

But all I'm saying is

that there is a progression.

Yes, I'm not saying

that you shouldn't

be hospitable.

Georgia and I used to

participate in this

program called warm

showers where people

who are cycling across

the country could come

and stay at our house

overnight get a meal to

have a warm shower.

No charge.

One time we had this

young man who was

actually originally from

Taiwan.

He was studying in a

University in in

New York and we were

the first stop on his

trip across the country

and we shared the gospel

with him in our dinner

table that night and

he was amazed.

He said I've never heard

anything like this before

and so I mean opportunities

like that.

I'm not saying you

shouldn't be hospitable

like that.

I'm just saying just be

careful and don't have

people like Charlie was

saying come live in your

house for a while and

take over your life.

That's not proper.

Yeah, that's good.

Okay.

Yes, Brian.

You know, sometimes

I would feel that

that I was sort of called

just to to reach those

types of people like the

people that are outside of

the church, you know,

I've been quite the outcast

from the church from the

get-go growing up myself

and then sometimes I think

that like our God protects

me.

He allows me like and then

this you know, I was I

think about the verses

that talk about like

how the spirit, you know,

you can't fight the spirit

because it's more powerful

than you like it tells

us very clearly that

and so.

Basically, I used to

so I had to meditate on

on that because thinking

that like all right,

you know what I'm out

here and like, you know,

going into some real dark

heavy heavy spiritual

type of thing trying to

reach people that are

like, you know and basically

I'm not sure if basically

I think that we are supposed

to reach out to the people

that are outside of the

church and and basically to

basically pray to our God

to protect us from those

spiritual attacks and

still, you know, one way

or another.

I feel that there's a

type of people that I'm

extending a knowledge

branch to, you know,

there's no pre-qualification

to be friend.

There's no pre-pre-qualification

to bring them in.

It's just a matter of how

much you give of yourself

to them, you know,

and how much you open, you

know.

That's right.

You know, and this comes

and doesn't that bring

us full circle about when

we rely on God to direct

our paths, then he will

show us that individual

we should be going to that

group of people that we

should be going to, you

know, and and fast

forward in the sense that

yeah, we can go out and

evangelize but at the end

of the day, where did

God lead you in that

evangelistic out out flow

of your life, you know,

was it that you maybe

should have listened and

talked with this person

and so you didn't and

whatever.

So things kind of get

murky and confused.

Whereas when we have

God's leading the seed

is planted.

That's our responsibility

and whose responsibility

it is to bring increase.

It's his.

Yeah, so we just leave

it with the Lord.

All right.

So we're we're looking

at a lot of interesting

things here and in

verses 6 to 7 those

like the Gibeonites in

covenant can call for help.

So what's that look like?

The Gibeonites were not

Israelites by birth, but

they had the right to

call Joshua because they

had entered into a covenant

with Israel and when

they were threatened they

urgently sent word to

Joshua come help.

Don't abandon your servants.

It says come up quickly

to us and save us.

So Joshua responded immediately

and honored their covenant.

Here are some spiritual insights

into our covenant with God.

One covenant creates an

access to the Lord.

We are also in covenant

with God.

So prayer is again not

begging and some the

somebody that is distance to

us.

He is our friend.

He is our God.

It is calling upon a

relationship now already

established like a father

and son or father and

daughter.

So that gives us access to

covenant removes us from

standing alone in isolation

when we are in covenant

with God.

We are near we are never

fighting our battles alone.

Now, sometimes we choose

to until we understand

that relationship.

He wants all things brought

to him.

He desires to be our friends

our father covenant brings

a faithful response.

Joshua did not delay.

He went up from Gilgal

with his whole army

marching through the night

instantaneous response.

God responds to his covenant

people not reluctantly

but faithfully and often

swiftly.

And the last point is covenant

transforms our identity.

It's like the Gibeonites.

We were once outsiders,

but now we can say we are

your servants in Christ.

We move from outsiders to

belonging children who can

call on their father for

help when other one under

pressure.

We remember that we have

covenant backing.

He declared that to us when

we are overwhelmed.

We don't retreat.

We call for help and I

don't there's not enough

people in the church today

that call for help.

You come up to somebody

in church service.

How are you?

Oh, I'm fine.

Okay, I accept that but if

I keep hearing that all the

time and and and try this

on for size somebody comes

up to you and said,

how are you kind of give

it a give a rehearsed?

Well, you know, I had

this situation in my life

and I need prayer.

It's over kind of lay it

out there and see where it

goes.

I mean see how open people

become to that.

I mean we need to transfer

the help across the lines

and not just well,

I'm okay and when we pray

we approach God with

confidence not hesitation.

Okay, let's build on that

question.

What would confident prayer

look like in your life

right now?

What would you do with

confident prayer with the

confidence that you have?

My suggestion is this by

thanking him for answers

to prayer even before

they happen.

Go the next mile claim

that victory.

You know, you can dance

around that thing all your

life.

Lord, please help.

I'm being patient.

I've waited five years

for this.

Thank him.

I've gotten to the point

now where some of you know

that again, my wife is

disabled.

She has MS and naturally an

MS you die from complications.

That's not a happy thought.

But I started once again

after years of letting

God do what he was either

going to do or not do,

started praying for her

about three years ago.

And recently I just started

thanking him for her healing.

Not praying for her

healing but thanking him

for her healing.

So again, I had taken

that step.

All right.

God works through obedient

action verses 9 through 11.

Obedience then opens us

for God's power.

Joshua didn't wait for the

ideal conditions.

The weather was right.

The moon was not in the sky

so he could sneak up on them.

He just did it.

He acted on what he knew

was right.

God's intervention often meets

us in motion,

not in hesitation.

Well, I'm waiting for God.

Okay.

Well, you can wait for God.

But what action can you do?

Again, our action demonstrates

trust that we trust in him.

Again, marching all night

requires faith.

Gosh, Joshua couldn't see

the outcome yet.

Yet true faith isn't passive.

It takes steps forward

even when the full picture

may not be clear to us.

And then three,

God fights alongside our

obedience.

As Joshua engaged the army,

God threw them into confusion

and even sent hail stones

from heaven to kill them.

And the victory was clearly

God's.

It became, it came while

Joshua was actively engaged

in the battle.

Are we engaged in that battle?

And then fourth,

God's power always exceeds

our human effort.

I mean, I just can't say that enough.

I have enough mistakes in my life

to where I did something

and it was totally wrong

when I backed up and said,

okay, God, you take this

and you control it.

You work in it.

God worked things out.

Scripture says more died

from the hail stones

than by Israel's sword.

Our role then is obedience.

God's role is the outcome.

Like we plant seeds,

he brings the increase.

We obey

and he brings the outcome.

And he does far beyond

what we can do ourselves

when we stop sitting

and passively waiting

for God to show up.

And I've been in that situation

so I know those circumstances.

The question then,

as he calls us to step forward

in obedience,

what impediments cause us

to hesitate and not move forward?

What does our hesitations look like?

Why do we hesitate?

Fear? Fear of?

Fill in the blank.

Fear of?

Ah, boy.

A lot of the fears of...

Fear...

Being wrong?

Fear of not fitting in, maybe.

Okay.

Yeah, that's the fear of man,

that, isn't it?

That trumps the fear of God.

Yeah.

Okay, that's good.

Yes.

So, we are hesitating.

Why are we hesitating?

Well, related to the fear idea,

just like, well, in Joshua's case,

you know, they could be fearful of their life,

of dying.

That's one of the things

I think about when trusting God

is that, you know,

the Bible talks about when you serve God,

all those who live in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution.

So, you could suffer martyrdom.

You're putting your physical health

at risk and everything else.

So, things like that,

you think about it as just like, you know,

you may want to pull a Peter,

maybe deny the Lord,

just to get out of the physical torment

and punishment.

But yeah, it's stuff like that fear.

Well, you know, I have

tuned in on what they call 2CTV.

It's an Iran-y

journalist

that his parents are living in Iran

and he lives in the English settlement

outside London.

And every day he goes over what's happening.

And my heart bleeds for the,

and he shows videos

of the people and the martyrdom

that goes on just by virtue of them

wanting to be free

and then secondarily the Christian enclaves

within that.

And I've learned now through that,

that there is a tremendous outpouring

of the Holy Spirit

and universal visions of God

that people in thousands are coming to the Lord.

Now,

what's that have to do with what we're talking about?

Well, without persecution,

there probably wouldn't be the visitation

that's coming about.

It's amazing.

But yeah, you're right.

There's the fear of,

and you can fill in the blank.

Gail?

What's your fear?

Well,

it used to be

okay,

that I didn't trust in the sovereignty of God.

Because once I realized

and accepted the fact that God was sovereign

over everything

and that I could trust Him

no matter what the situation was,

then my fear disappeared.

I might still have a little bit of anxiety

and curiosity,

like how's this going to turn out?

But I don't have that same,

like,

I want to run away from this situation.

I can't,

I can't deal with this

because I'm just letting God just

play it through

and work in my heart to accept it

as His will being allowed

and that He is teaching me something through that.

Was that not a process?

It was a process,

a long process.

A to Z.

Yeah, I mean,

it's maybe sometimes a lifetime.

Ryan?

Yep?

Fear of moving forward without a vision.

Okay.

You know,

and so

the solution to that is pray for the vision.

It seems to be.

Because the vision accomplishes where you're going.

It's not this way and that way and back and forth.

Two steps forward, back.

Once you have the vision,

God then fills in the detail.

The calling of God.

You know,

when God called me to the ministry,

I said,

what's that?

I don't want that.

I was,

I was going down to the,

the Florida Atlantic Ocean Science Institute

to be a,

to be a naturalist

and explore the waters.

You had the calling before the vision.

Yeah, it was me.

Life turned around very quickly.

and that's a story for another day,

but it's the idea of what your vision is against what God wants for you.

You know,

I will say on this side of life,

it's a lot more blessed to stand up here at my age,

share with you the goodness of the Lord than it would be to be a successful marine biologist.

So anyway,

Amen.

So,

now there's something else?

Well,

wasn't it,

wasn't Joshua?

So didn't he have,

you know,

he was shown basically,

you know,

he was showing the vision that he couldn't be obedient without being shown something.

That's the whole point.

So without being shown something,

you know what I mean?

There's going to be fear because there's no vision.

There's no,

God didn't give him direction.

You know what I mean?

And being lost and being without purposes is where the fear comes from,

you know,

and so

I know I bounced around without a vision and I asked for prayer in this church

and I thank you guys for praying because you know,

I feel it's ready to move now.

So you were tethered out there pretty far.

Absolutely.

I was,

I was really trying to figure it out myself and I prayed for the vision and I see clearly now.

So I thought I'm not freaking out.

You know,

if it's in God's will,

you know,

I know it will be done.

But think about this.

Joshua had enough experiences with serving Moses and now he's the captain and all the miracles

that he probably didn't have fear.

But he didn't want to move without the Lord's blessing.

Think about that.

I mean that that's that's a mature statement of where I'm not completely there and that it wasn't necessarily fear in his part.

What he wanted to do is wait for God because he remembered what God did to the mountain when people didn't wait.

They built the calf.

You know,

the people were slaughtered.

People didn't listen.

They died in the wilderness and here is Joshua.

He made the transition because he trusted God.

That's a that's a tough thing to think about.

You know,

out of all those millions of people,

one guy made it.

Gee,

I was just going to say two guys didn't Caleb make it.

but I mean,

yeah,

yeah.

So Joshua,

what did he wait for?

Because it was,

you know,

this elite emotion,

so like no hesitation.

So that's what I was saying with that.

Yeah.

Okay.

God can't steer a parked car.

right.

You know,

you move and you know,

yeah,

so that resonated with me.

And so what,

what did he wait on?

So why?

He waited on the fishes.

Why?

Yeah.

Why did he wait?

Oh,

because he didn't hear from God.

Yeah,

he knew,

he knew what he had to do because there was a covenant established between the Gibeonites and them because he committed full force and measure to control and help the Gideonites for ward off.

The enemy which was they asked for help now.

Yes,

he did because they were now in covenant the covenant came after they deceived Joshua and the leaders.

Joshua and the leaders made a covenant.

Yes,

we'll take care of you.

You can be part of us and then they found out it wasn't a faraway land.

It was their neighbor next door.

But having made the covenant.

They were loyal to the covenant and then the act of obedience came when they were,

when he was asked to help for their protection.

Okay.

Yes,

study.

discussion tonight.

I was thinking of Joshua himself.

He believed God

and faith is really

the bottom line to all all this is really who God is and he was the one who

believed God with Caleb out of the 10 spies that went in in the first place.

So he waited all this time still in faith,

but he was learning.

He was building and understanding God's character understanding more of the covenant.

And so when he was ready to move take God was ready to move.

He knew his man and his man knew his God.

So he really had a relationship that that was fit for the battle.

There was no questions asked.

He am I doing the right thing because he already knew God was in back of him

because of covenant because of the obedience because of the promise that

God gave him and then he went forward now.

Excuse me a second here.

So I don't lose my voice.

Oh my gosh after eight o'clock now.

Yeah.

Okay, can God intervene

to accomplish his purposes?

We know the answer.

Yes.

Do we believe God can alter circumstances for his purposes?

Yes, we do.

So here are the

hailstones coming down.

Here is the sun and the moon stopping in their paths.

Oh, what a sight that was and these overt actions show God actively fighting

for the Gibeonites and completing the promise of covenant to them through

the Israelites about these wonderful miracles.

God is shown as Lord over all creation.

These miracles emphasize that the sun and the moon are created objects

under God's authority not deities.

This was especially significant in the ancient Near East where many

nations worship the sun and the moon Gods.

If you remember we talked much about this and the worship of all

these different things that were manifested in idols that the sun

and the moon the stars even some of the animals were worshipped and

we learned all that in Exodus.

These acts are a powerful criticism against pagan worship.

The Canaanites culture associated celestial bodies with divine powers

and Joshua 10 dramatically shows that what pagans revered really

just obeyed God's spoken word and did what he wanted them to do.

Time itself is under God's control.

The length and day symbolizes that God rules not only matter and

weather but time and seasons the time that the matter and the

weather I can get it's hard for me to I mean I believe it that get

my mind around the fact that he stopped time and he stopped the

seasons because of this need and he can accelerate or delay or sustain

whatever he needs to do for his purposes for your purposes and my

purposes that the Christ Christiology is the study of Jesus Christ

which supports Joshua as a historical type.

You know we see in Joshua his name Yeshua is the same root name

as Jesus is a type pointing to Christ Joshua's victory with

extended light foreshadows Jesus bringing the ultimate light and

final victory to us and the question is in what ways have you

experienced God accelerate delay sustained circumstances for his

purpose today and I won't ask that that we have gone past our

time so we'll finish the next two pages when God fights for

his people strongholds fall believe that believe that Joshua

faced a coalition of powerful Kings fortified cities united

armies and overwhelming opposition yet he knew what he had

to do by every human measure these were strongholds in other

words they were deeply rooted well-defined and intimidating

strongholds are one of the strongest releases of the enemy

when we try to fight alone.

He has a stronghold it's for us to ask the Lord to fight for

us and take these strongholds down but when God steps in the

battle everything changes he fights in ways we cannot and we

gave examples of that tonight victory is decisive when God

is involved and his presence turns defense into breakthrough

as it says in second Corinthians 10 for the weapons of our

warfare are the weapons of our wherefore are mighty through

the God to the pulling down of strongholds Amen for that.

All right.

Let's see what we got here.

God's victories.

We can we can shortcut that I want to kind of get to the end

remember this.

I'll go back a little bit at the bottom.

Not this question here but look at these resistance is of

resist on unresolved pain in your life build your life in

Christ confront reoccurring issues and stay faithful even

when progress feels slow.

Now what I'm giving you is a direct result of about three

and a half years of relationship and mentoring with

a man at Meadowood.

He started out a very successful individual think 1700 people

in the organization.

He was a an architect for he ran an architect firm.

He didn't know the Lord.

I met him in a when we had the Victory Garden at Meadowood

we were planning on who gets what plots to put vegetables

out and I won't mention his last name because I think

I don't want to embarrass him in this but we'll call him Bob

and he came to me and he said you know, he said we ought

to do this this and this and then I built a relationship

well all the time that we then when we start at the prayer

meeting on Wednesday his wife used to come and I said Bob

I said why don't you come you know, that's not for me.

So that was some years ago.

Well fast forward in our relationship of building him in

all those things that we talked about unresolved sin

doubt and so forth.

He now is presenting every fifth Wednesday.

That's his lot that he was willing to take an exhortation

about the Lord because now he knows the Lord.

He's asked me about the presence of God and we went

through that and this is what he says and this just blessed

me.

God is with us in a fresh new relationship every morning.

There's no tears that he doesn't notice.

God is never too busy to hear our prayers.

God is never perplexed or overwhelmed.

God is available to us at all times.

God is never taken by surprise.

God will not sleep and get drowsy.

God is never caught off guard.

God never gives us leftovers and God never comes up

short.

And God will not let you stumble.

I thought these things were again especially interesting

coming from a man that I knew that didn't know the Lord

to a man now that is serving and sharing in in a prayer

meeting and it just blessed me.

So I just want to give you those things as an example

of how God transforms people.

So Lord we thank you for your blessing tonight.

The good conversations that we have had.

Lord I trust that we walk away with a little bit more

of your understanding in our spirits that we can walk

closer to you serve you better.

Lord we thank you so much for calling us into your

kingdom each person here as they know you in the

name of Jesus and everyone said amen.

Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we

praise God and discuss his word.

Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday

mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.

Be blessed and have a great day.