“Xtreme Faith: Demanding the Impossible”
Joshua 10:1-15
If confession is good for the soul, then my soul should feel good this morning. Over the years I’ve asked God to do some pretty amazing things. But after encountering Joshua, I must admit that I’m not sure I’ve ever asked God for the impossible – let alone demanded it. I’ve limited my faith to the probable, the likely, the difficult but doable requests and challenges. Therefore the God I’ve represented, the God whose glory I want to show, has been limited. So I’ve learned from Joshua – and am eager to share some of what I’ve learned with you.
I’ve learned, first of all, THE MARKS OF A FAITHFUL PERSON. Joshua, like most of us, learned faithfulness the hard way. Marching around Jericho until the walls fell, and then destroying it, was easy. It went as God had scripted it. But then Joshua attacked Ai and was defeated – only then did he realize he had followed his script and not God’s. Once he followed God’s strategy Israel defeated Ai. But then, because he failed to consult God, he was duped into making a treaty with the neighboring Gibeonites. He quickly discovered that he had been deceived, but reacted as a person of faith. He demonstrated his INTEGRITY OF HEART. He did not destroy them. And when the Gibeonites learned that they were to be attacked by a coalition of enemies because of their association with the Israelites, they approached Joshua and asked for help. Even though Joshua knew he should not have entered into the treaty, he honored his word that he would protect them. He was faithful to his word and God honored him for his faithfulness – for God, too, keeps His word. When we have integrity, when we are faithful to our word, we experience God’s integrity and faithfulness.
Concerning the coalition of enemies, God said to Joshua (8), “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.” Think about it – if God stands behind a covenant between Israel and the Gibeonites that should not have been made, will He not much more stand behind His covenant when his people are faithful? That’s what Joshua believed, so Joshua then demonstrated ENERGY FROM THE PROMISES of God. He launched a surprise attack during the night. Verse 9 – “After an all night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise.” The march was not easy; it was a long journey from Gilgal to Gibeon and was uphill all the way. But under Joshua’s leadership the Israelites marched on to victory. God faithfully responds to faith.
While he was a pastor in Houston John Bisango described a time when his daughter Melodye Jan, age five, came to him and asked for a doll house. John promptly nodded and promised to build her one, then he went back to reading his book. Soon he glanced out the study window and saw her arms filled with dishes, toys, and dolls, making trip after trip until she had a great pile of playthings in the yard. He asked his wife what Melodye Jan was doing. “Oh, you promised to build her a doll house, and she believes you. She’s just getting ready for it.” “You would have thought I’d been hit by an atom bomb,” John later said. “I threw aside that book, raced to the lumber yard for supplies, and quickly built that little girl a doll house. Now why did I respond? Because I wanted to? No. Because she deserved it? No. Her daddy had given his word, and she believed it and acted upon it. When I saw her faith, nothing could keep me from carrying out my word.” We demonstrate energy from the promises of a faithful God.
Yet Joshua was just getting started in his bold faith. Note the third mark of a faithful person – Joshua demonstrated CLARITY OF COURAGE. He knew that if God promises victory then God will do whatever was necessary to bring about that victory. So as night was about to fade into daylight, thereby exposing Israel’s approach, Joshua demanded the impossible. Verse 12: “On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: ‘O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the valley of Aijalon.” Did you catch that? He told – demanded – the sun to stand still. How did he dare do that? Joshua had Xtreme Faith in an Xtreme God for whom nothing is too hard or impossible. God created and rules His world; He is not bound by its laws; the world, the entire creation, is His servant. This knowledge, coupled with God’s promise of victory, armed Joshua with courage – it was clear God would do whatever was necessary to bring about that victory, even if it meant stopping the sun in its tracks! As Steven Furtick asks, could it be that God intends for us to have the same kind of audacious faith as a normal way of life?
Integrity of heart, energy from promises, and clarity of courage – such are the marks of a faithful person, one who dares demand of God the impossible. Let’s focus more on God for a moment. Consider some STORIES OF A FAITHFUL GOD. Consider what God did in JOSHUA’S STORY. (9-11) “After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. 11 As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the LORD hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.” (13b-14) “So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!” God was faithful; God did the impossible in response to the demand of the faithful. Through the centuries many have tried to explain – or even explain away – this miracle. Some have claimed to prove it occurred. But here’s how to explain it – God is a God of supernatural resources and supernatural power. Here’s the point - God is still a God of supernatural resources and when we are faithful we have access to those resources. God is still a God of supernatural power and when we are faithful we have access to that power.
Consider some CONTEMPORARY STORIES. I’ve mentioned several times during this series the impact of Steven Furtick through his book, Sun Stand Still – What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible. Steven and his wife, and their four-month old child moved to Charlotte, North Carolina with seven other families to start a new church. These eight families had been meeting and praying for a year to discern God’s will for them. They believed God was leading them to Charlotte – an already heavily churched area. So they all packed up and went. Here are Steven’s words: “We set a goal of reaching over one thousand people in our first year of ministry. Since the average church size in America is fewer than one hundred and twenty, and the first rule of goal setting is attainability, I guess we were overshooting it a bit. But we wanted to see God accomplish something so exponentially amazing that it would leave no doubt who deserved the credit. In fact, several times during those months of casting vision, I told our little group, ‘I want to know what it means to live life and do ministry at the speed of God. I want to see God do so much so fast that the world will have to take notice.’…The story of our church is still being told…But…after just four years of ministry, our church has grown to more than six thousand regular attendees. Since our opening day more than five thousand people have publicly professed faith in Christ. I’ll never forget the time we baptized over a thousand adults in a two-week period. (One Easter) over seven hundred people committed their lives to Christ…If we have the audacity to ask, God has the ability to perform…The same power that stopped the sun and raised Christ from the grave lives in every believer. God still demonstrates his power and supplies his provision in direct proportion to the faith of his children.”
A second story from Steven’s church verifies his point. In 2008 the church was poised to sign a contract to occupy a forty-two-thousand-square-foot facility in a local shopping center for their worship center. But at the last minute, one of the other tenants chose to exercise a clause in the lease to deny them occupancy. This company couldn’t stand the thought of a church being in there. So Steven and his prayer people prayed. They went to the facility that very night and prayed in Jesus’ name. They did so for a solid year. Every day as he passed the facility he prayed – for a solid year. Each time he prayed “Father, I thank you that our church will have worship services in that warehouse and we will reach thousands of people for Jesus Christ, according to your perfect plan, in your perfect timing.” By September of 2009 they were worshiping there. How? The business that had kept them out of there went bankrupt. Steven wrote, “Not just that one store. The whole chain. Twenty-seven stores nationwide. I’m not saying God put them out of business. But it makes you wonder…”
All this is exciting to hear. But what about OUR STORIES? Many of you can tell of God doing the impossible in your life. But how many of us can really claim to have asked God for the impossible? What about our future? The challenge from Joshua is to begin writing our story. We need to be praying sun stand still prayers. Understand that to do so we must PAY THE PRICE. It’s never easy – not pray once or twice and sit back to see what happens. It’s praying, day and night, for as long as it takes for God to make everything ready. Great things usually grow slowly in the soil of prayer, patience, perseverance, obedience, and sacrifice. God often links His doing the impossible with demanding from us the uncomfortable and inconvenient. He could answer the prayer immediately, but He takes time to prepare us for the answer. Paul referred to it as God circumcising our hearts. God needs to work in us before He can work through us. God may call you to pack up and go; he may tell you to unpack and stay; but He will demand that you persevere and let him circumcise your heart – which, as Steven Furtick cleverly points out, may be more painful than physical circumcision! Most all of us want to have a story to tell – but are we willing to pay the price of prolonged obedience?
And are we willing to PRAY THE PRAYERS? The prayers we pray must be prayers WITH POWER. Steven Furtick wonderfully calls this praying like a juggernaut, which is “a large, overpowering, crushing force in motion.” Athletic teams that are on a winning roll are often called a juggernaut, an unstoppable movement. The Bible is filled with juggernaut prayers. Abraham pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah; Moses pleading for God to spare Israel after they worshipped the golden calf; Elijah whose prayer began and ended a three-year drought – and James 5:17 points out that he was just a man like us. And what about the juggernaut prayers of the Apostles who prayed not for safety but for boldness to preach the Gospel, and then felt the whole house where they were praying shake with the Spirit of God – and then went out an preached so that thousands were saved? Juggernaut prayers. Quoting Steven Furtick again: “Elijah had access to an all-powerful God who could stop the rain. We have access to an all-powerful God who can stop the rain. Joshua had access to an all-powerful God who could make the sun stand still. We have access to an all-powerful God who can make the sun stand still. The only difference is that Elijah and Joshua had the audacity to pray prayers that lived up to God’s character, God’s heart, God’s resources, God’s will, and God’s abilities. That’s what it means to pray like a juggernaut: to pray prayers worthy of the God we’re praying to. After all, we’re praying to a God whose capability always exceeds our audacity. You don’t ever have to worry about putting God in an awkward or embarrassing position. You’re not going to back him into a corner. You won’t ever challenge him to do something beyond his aptitude.”
Second, we must pray WITH PURPOSE. We pray God’s agenda, not ours. What we pray for must fit His plans, must coincide with His purpose. 1 John 5:14-15 states “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we have asked of him.” We not only pray as if we have it – we act as if we have it!
Third, we must pray WITH PROMISES. Our prayers must be built upon the foundation of God’s promises – just as Joshua’s was. Moses, David, the Apostles all prayed to God while reminding Him of His promises and past actions, and then calling upon His faithfulness. Remember how the hymn puts it? “’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take Him at His word, Just to rest upon His promise, Just to know “Thus saith the Lord.” Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er! Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more!” Jesus has proved Himself again and again – pray with His promises.
I want to share with you one sun stand still prayer that has risen in my heart after reading Furtick’s book and preparing this series of messages. Some months ago Dale Lewis looked at me with that infamous twinkle in his eye, and told me I couldn’t retire until Hope’s mortgage was paid off. I joke about it frequently. But it struck a chord in my heart. As I have pondered and prayed about the sun standing still, I have been led to believe that God is just waiting to do what we deem impossible. I believe God wants to do that. (Don’t panic – I’m not announcing my retirement to challenge God to speed up the process! I don’t know when that will happen – although I can assure you it will be before the 15 or 20 years for which our mortgage is currently scheduled!) I believe that when God led us to expand and build He knew what the economy was going to be all along – even if we didn’t. I believe He is leading us forward – through the night uphill all the way – so he can declare such a mighty victory that the world will have to take notice. I believe God wants to reward your faithfulness. I’m beginning to pray and claim this possibility. I believe and pray that the same God who transformed Zaccheus from a taker into a giver, who multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed the multitude of thousands, who promised to give to us what we ask in His name, who promised to increase our store of seed and enlarge the harvest of our righteousness and to make us rich in every way so we can be generous on every occasion, can and will do the impossible and wipe away our mortgage within the next few years – maybe even earlier. Not so we can boast of what we’ve done, but so that He can receive the glory and we can move forward in new and increased areas of mission and ministry. I don’t know how He will do it – or when. But He will. I believe He’s touching some of you right now who will be part of it – he’s piercing some hearts. He may use one generous individual – He may use all of us. He may just do it or He may show us how to do it. But He will do it. But we must be willing to pay the price He will demand, and pray the prayers with power and purpose upon His promises. I only know I cannot sit back and wait for Him to do it all; I need to pray and to get to work as He leads me. Hopefully you’ve been inspired this morning to pray your own sun stand still prayer. Go for it. Yet I invite you, in addition, to join me, to form a band of juggernaut pray-ers – like Steven Furtick and the six families – who will activate audacious faith, approach God with boldness, ask specifically for the impossible, advance toward the answer, and give God all the glory. If you’re willing to join me, let me know. We’ll join together. As Numbers 23:19 states: “Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” I can’t wait to see how God will make it good! “Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er! Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more!”
