JOSHUA 10:6-15.
IS ANSWERED PRAYED A MIRACLE.
A young boy was telling the pastor that his mother said his prayers for him each night. "What do you mean, your mother says your prayers for you?" the minister inquired. The youngster replied, "When mom tucks me in she always says, Thank God he’s in bed.
Prayer is a place of refuge that is provided by the Lord to His Children. Often in the bible we see words like shelter or our secret place when the bible talks about praying to the Lord.
Psalm 32:7. You are my hiding place: you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.
We all want a place to go when we’re stressed or sad, tired or lonely, fearful or tempted, disappointed or discouraged; a place where we can unload our burdens and get some relief. When we go to prayer we are to be seeking the face of the Lord. I think to often we go to the Lord seeking his hands.
Let’s say we need a favour. Who are we going to ask, a friend or a stranger? Naturally we’re going to ask a friend because we have a relationship with them. The closer the friend the more we may feel inclined to make bigger requests. That’s why we need to constantly nurture our friendship with God. Friendship is a two-way street. God is the initiator but we’re given an opportunity to reciprocate. If we come to God ONLY when we’re in trouble and not on a daily basis what kind of friendship is that? We’re just using God because this relationship is only one way.
When we feel insecure and inadequate we need a refuge or a shelter. We need a retreat and prayer can transport us to such a place!
Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart & lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, & He will make your paths straight."
If we get sick, we can call the doctor or go to the emergency room. If a natural calamity destroys our property, we can fill out an insurance claim. If company comes unexpectedly & we’re short on food, we can go to the supermarket. If our clothes wear out, we can go to a clothing store. If we run out of money, we can use plastic. If we don’t have enough to make ends meet, we can get a loan or go to the food bank. If we’re having relational difficulties, we can go to a counsellor. Now when you think about what is available it is no wonder that people say with all of this, who needs God? Most of us here probably don’t think that way. We all know that we need the lord! Each week we gather in His name to sing songs of worship and praise. We take time to read and study the Bible and we pray believing in the power & importance of prayer. Maybe we feel that since we think that we can’t pray that we don’t have a regular time of prayer. Maybe we think that since everyone else is going to be praying then the lord doesn’t need our prayers? Do we really believe that God is a prayer-hearing & a prayer-answering God? In our modern society maybe we become Christian humanists who believe that as humans we can do anything if we take the time to plan carefully & implement the plan. There are people in today church societies who believe that God no longer has the power He had in Bible times?
In Woody Allen’s Love and Death, Napoleon walked by his lady’s room & heard voices. "I was praying," the lady explained. "But I heard two voices," Napoleon said. "I do both parts," she replied. Do we take care of both parts? We talk to God & then tell Him what His answer should be? Then, if He doesn’t do what we ask, we just don’t pray?
I hope that we all understand that we don’t pray because we believe in prayer; we pray because we believe in God. If we do believe that He is the all-powerful God of the Bible, who hasn’t put His power on hold then we will pray. You see, the power of prayer is the power of God.
Psalm 115:3 declares, "Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him." God does whatever He pleases & He doesn’t need our vote - nor does He wait for our veto.
So if we’re going to talk about prayer, the first thing we need is to realize the awesomeness of God. Some have been taught that the only reason we pray is to change ourselves. But the Bible does not teach that as a reason to pray. Instead, the Bible teaches that prayer affects God & that prayer can affect circumstances. The background for today lesson is that 5 kings got together to fight against the Gibeonites because they made a treaty with Israel. Joshua and the Israelites marched all night. Then in Verses 12-15 we have a miracle. Joshua prayed and the sun and the moon stood still. Time froze. Is this hard to believe? Well that depend on what you think of God. Do you believe that God created everything? If God is the creator then can’t God Sovereignty act over everything that he has created to allow him to interfere so that his purpose will be accomplished?
For many people today the question that so often comes to mind is how could that happen. Many people are bogged down on whether the Lord stopped the sun & moon or did the Lord just stop the earth from turning. I was asked one day how could time stop and yet the Israelites keep fighting.
Here is the thing. Whether the sun or the moon stopped is not the point of this story. The Lord intervention is the point. The point is that the children of the Lord have a God who is willing to do amazing miraculous things in order to accomplish his purpose. Joshua knew that when the Lord told him that he would be with Joshua and the people of Israel that he could put his faith in that promise. If you want to see the amount of faith that Joshua had look at his request.
I. DID YOU KNOW THAT PRAYER AFFECTS GOD? When our children talk with us about their lives we are touched by what they say. I believe that our Lord is also touched when his children go to him and share with him about their lives. I believe that as we look at a few situations in the Bible we will see that God is affected when His people pray.
A. Moses was called by the Lord to lead the people out of Egypt. After coming through the Red Sea, they stopped at Mt. Sinai for a time. While Moses was having a long talk with the Lord on the mountain the people got impatient. They took off their jewellery gave it to Aaron and he melted it down, poured the liquid into a mold shaped like a calf. We know that they worshipped that golden calf by sing dancing and bring offerings to this golden calf that they had declared was the god who had brought them out of Egypt. We know that God was not pleased!
In Exodus 32:7-10. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt! The LORD said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.
Even though God told Moses to leave Him alone, Moses immediately began to petition the Lord so that He wouldn’t destroy His people.
Deuteronomy 9:18-20. I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed in doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was wrathful against you in order to destroy you, but the LORD listened to me that time also. The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.
The scripture gives us the impression that Moses kept petitioning for 40 days & 40 nights.
Exodus 32:14 So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.
Our prayers can make a difference with God? God listened carefully & changed His mind. There have been people who say that God never changes His mind, but listen to what God says about Himself.
Jeremiah 18:7-8 God says, If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down & destroyed, & if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent & not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
While God will never change His mission, His goal, or His plan for the redemption of mankind but He will & can change his mind in response to the prayers of His children. The Lord has demonstrated this many times in the Bible. The point of this story about the sun and moon isn’t to impress us with the power of the Lord. The point of this story is to impress upon us the miracle of you and me calling out to the Lord with the understanding that the Lord not only hears but he answers. I know that there have been times when we have prayed and the Lord has been silent or we think that he has been silent. The Bible informs us that the Lord not only hears but He answers our prayers. What we need to understand is that the Lord always answers according to His purpose and His plan for our lives. I believe there are many times when we had received an answer from the Lord and because it wasn’t the one we wanted we felt that the Lord didn’t answer.
II. PRAYER CAN AFFECT OUR CIRCUMSTANCES. When we pray we are talking to the One who is our sustainer and giver of life; so when we pray to the Lord our prayers can also affect circumstances. One of the messages of the Bible is that God is all powerful.
Genesis 18:14 we read, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
When Gabriel brought the message to Mary that she would have a child; Mary asked how this is possible. We find Gabriel response in Luke 1:37. Nothing is impossible with God.
Jesus, who knows God better than anyone, said in
Matthew 19:26 With God all things are possible.
The people closest to God; his angels and his son have proclaimed the awesome power of God. The think is shouldn’t we who are Christians proclaim this truth to the world by living and praying like we actually believe that the Lord is able to do anything. One of the things that the Bible teaches is that any time God speaks to nature; nature has no option but to obey. Mankind is the only part of creation that God has given the freedom to listen to a command & then decide whether to obey it or not. Nothing else has that option. That’s the reason God could say to the Red Sea, "Open up," & the sea opened up. Joshua and the Israelites’ have come through a period of time where they have been actually a part of the scene when the Lord had intervened so that his will and purpose could be completed. Joshua has a battle on his hands and he realizes that the day was going to end before the battle was over, so Joshua prayed for more daylight. This wouldn’t be a problem for Joshua because he saw that the lord had provided not only food and water but as the Bible tells us their clothes never wore out. Then Joshua saw the miracle of the nation crossing the Red Sea. Joshua knew that the Lord could do what he had asked.
The Bible says God caused the sun to stand still. Some people say this shows the Bible does not know anything about science, because it’s not the sun that moves but the earth. Since God created everything I am sure that he knew that. I suspect God may have said something like Earth, stop right now in your tracks. The Lord did and can if it fit into his purpose stop the earth from spinning and allow everything else to continue simply because the Lord is in charge. Don’t let the phrase "the sun stood still" bother your confidence in God’s Word. I guarantee the next time you watch the weather on television, you will see something like "Sunrise at 6:45" & "Sunset at 7:10. I also guarantee the that you will never heard anyone say Tomorrow morning the earth is going to rotate so that the edge of the circumference of the sun will appear on the horizon at 6:45 A.M. Who wants to hear all that where "sunrise" & "sunset" communicates clearly to us? When Daniel was thrown to the lions it wasn’t that the lions knew that Daniel was a servant of the Lord; it was the Lord who wouldn’t allow the Loins who were starving to eat. Remember when Jonah was thrown overboard? The Bible says that God provided a sea monster to swallow him. God commanded a sea monster to swallow Jonah whole and the Lord also shut down the sea monster stomach system so that Jonah could survive. Jonah was in that sea monster for 3 days & 3 nights. I know that if I was there I would try to get out by yelling, tickling the ribs or whatever was on the inside but nothing worked. Jonah finally realized that he was in a crisis & started to pray. Aren’t we often the same way? As soon as Jonah finished praying, the Lord ordered the sea monster to spit Jonah up onto the beach.
III. WHAT ABOUT TODAY? But what about today? Does God really continue to hear our prayers & intervene in our lives today? I’m convinced that He does.
Ron Morse was working with some villagers in northern Thailand and that area was having the worst grasshopper plague that anyone could remember. Finally, the leader of the village said to Ron, You go away and gather you’re Christians and to pray for 3 weeks that the grasshoppers will leave the Christians’ fields but not the non-Christians’ fields. If, when you return in 3 weeks, the grasshoppers have left the Christians’ fields & are still in the non-Christians’ fields then I’ll help you lead this whole village to worship your Jesus. The Christians prayed and three weeks later Ron came into the village & was devastated by what he saw. It was obvious that the grasshoppers were still in the Christians’ fields. In fact, there were more grasshoppers in the Christians fields. But upon more careful examination, they found that the grasshoppers in the Christians’ fields were only eating the weeds they were not touching the rice while the grasshoppers in the non-Christians’ fields were eating the rice & not the weeds. There were so many grasshoppers in the Christians’ fields that the dung they left fertilized the ground so that there was an abundance of rice to feed all the people.
Missionary Jim McElroy wrote I was called to come to the village because a baby was deathly ill. The child had not nursed for days and was turning gray. His eyes were rolled back; he was lifeless, listless and apparently just moments from death. Jim turned to the Filipino preacher & said I didn’t know we were coming here for a medical reason. I brought no medicine. Did you? The Filipino preacher said no. What shall we do? Jim said let’s just pray. While they were praying fervently for God’s intervention, the little infant reached up and touched one of the men who were praying. Before they finished, the infant moved toward the mother’s breast & began to nurse. The following Sunday was Easter. As Jim was preaching outdoor in a neighbouring village he saw coming over the brink of the hill a woman carrying a baby. Behind her were over 20 adults. As they got closer, Jim recognized the mother & the baby who was looking very healthy. The adults had come to accept Jesus Christ and be baptised.
I want to close by offering some help.
Psalms 103:11. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him?
Isaiah 55:8-9. My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways & my thoughts than your thoughts.
A. When we pray we need to be sure that what we are praying for is within the Lords will and the Lords purpose.
These two stories don’t mean that God will always answer "Yes" to our prayers. We have all experienced the "No" answers. We must be careful or we might be lead to believe that we can order God around with our prayers.
B. God does not honor the "name it & claim it" game some people play as if they can tell God what to do.
Lamentations 3:37. Who can speak & have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
Our God listens carefully to our petitions, prayers, intercessions, agonies, & heartaches. But He will not permit us to dictate to Him what we want Him to do for us.
C. When we pray we must be prepared for the LORDS answer.
When we pray there are time when we feel that we know what the answer should be.
When we pray for someone to be healed & that person doesn’t receive healing that does not mean that God didn’t hear your prayer. Nor does it mean that the Lord didn’t answer.
D. Understand that Satan is the prince of this world and that he has the power to interfere and even hinder the Lords answer.
Daniel 10: 12-14. Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to the days yet future.
E. Don’t lose site of Jesus mission and purpose for our lives.
The Lord will intervene in our lives but his intervention is always for the purpose of accomplishing his ultimate will
Our trust in the power of God continues not because we always get our way, but because we have placed our faith in the Lord who we believe knows what the best is for us.
Let suppose you and two children are going to a store. Before you enter the store you let the children know exactly what your purpose is. Now as you are walking through the store you pass some items that look very attractive and the children feel that these items are really necessary for their lives. So they begin to petition you saying that their lives just won’t be complete without that item. They go on saying that their entire friends have one and if you don’t agree you will be depriving them of a necessary item for their lives. Here is the thing. What they are asking for is completely reasonable
to them and they just don’t understand why you are saying no. The thing is their petition was outside of the purpose that you had declared before you went into the store. Now what they asked for was something that you could provide but it was outside of the will and purpose for their lives.
So often we are like this with God. We are asking for things that God can and is able to give to us his children but what we are asking for is outside of the Fathers purpose.
F. Don’t take the Word of God out of Context.
To pray is to tap into God’s power. If Christians don’t believe in the living Lord who can and does answer prayers? Ephesians 3:20-21. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church & in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever & ever!
