INTRODUCTION – PREACHING PREDICAMENT
I have known about preaching today for quite a little while now as its been on the roster for a couple of weeks -. But boy have I struggled with what to preach on.
From grace to eternity, from Jesus to Jehoshophat, from Genesis well ok I must admit not quite to Revelation - for the past few weeks I have been asking God to just let me know what it is that He needs us to talk about this morning. I don’t often struggle with this. I mean knowing what to say doesn’t usually allude me. I get myself into hot water because my mouth engages long before my brain is even awake. But in finding something to share with you today - I struggled.
STRUGGLED BECAUSE GOD WORKING – CONVO IN HEAD
Maybe I struggled more than usual because over the last month God has really been working on things in my life. You know what that’s like, when you have so many conversations in your head that you get confused between what was said and what was said for real.
ASKED FOR HELP – MEN DON’T
Being a man of course didn’t help much as you know we are not allowed to ask for help. But I mean desperate times call for desperate measures and so I asked for help. Not that it helped much. Asked three people got three totally different answers.
PREACHERS BLOCK
And so I sat – preachers block.
Oh I had enough of what God was doing in my life to fill a whole lot more than an hour of preaching, but I just didn’t know what to say to you.
I begged God to talk to me – show me, tell me do whatever but get me a message.
TAKE A BREAK
And so sitting in front of my laptop I decided to take a break. Go outside and have a swim, put the curtain rails up that Leanne had been asking for me to do for a few too many weeks. Take your mind of it I said.
IT CAME – DID NOT WANT DAY TO END
And then I got it. You ever just had such a good day that you pray it never ends. It does not necessarily have to be a day of extra-ordinary proportion. In my case it was swimming with my kids and working around the house. But I did not want it to end. It was a family day for a change and I was enjoying it. Lord I kind of don’t want this day to end. As I said that to the Lord, maybe you can guess what I thought. I thought of Joshua 10:12-13.
IT CAME TO ME – QUESTION
And God answered me by asking me – What would happen if we all took time to simply be with Him?
If we all asked to Suns to stand still, communities to rebuild, crime to relinquish its grip, unbelieving hearts to turn, healing to occur– what would happen if we all prayed and took the time to hear from God.
INTRO JOSHUA – 30 INSTANCES
Joshua was indeed one of the finest leaders of the OT. But in going through the book of Joshua, there are over 30 instances of where Joshua speaks to the Lord. He had some serious prayer life going on.
But as I looked through this book, I noticed that despite there being these 30 instances of Joshua talking to the Lord, there were way more than that of where God spoke to Joshua.
JUST TOO BUSY
In Psalm 46:10 we read, "Be still, and know that I am God . . ." Joshua would have had to be still, take the time to hear what God was saying.
How many of us actually sit still long enough to worship the Lord and hear him speak to us?
Most of us seem to be very busy people. We’re always in a hurry. We walk fast, we drive fast, we talk fast, we eat fast, and after we eat we all too often stand up and say, "Excuse me, but I’ve got to run."
Someone once observed that we are the only species alive that has a fast lane. Some of us are so obsessed with our schedules that we are sitting here this morning thinking about what we have to do at work this week or what we have to get done after church –
We are so time oriented that we oftentimes forget to be God oriented and God centred. – And unfortunately that takes time.
NO DRIVE THRU TO GOD
It takes time to speak, but it takes more time to hear, it takes more time to listen. Drive through mentality can not be applied to truly building a sound Joshua like relationship with God.
Easier said than done. Life is hectic. When asked about life in the fast lane, one said successful business man asked what other lane was there.
Some people have got it right.
EG AFRICAN TIME
A New Zealand native of the Maori tribe once served as a speaker to the Zulu people of South Africa. Through a series of problems, he showed up an hour late for a scheduled meeting, and when they arrived all the people were waiting as though nothing was wrong. The Maori missionary was told "Don’t worry about it. The White people have the clocks and the watches, but our people have the time."
STOP WORRYING
Do you have the time to meet with God regularly or have you scheduled and limited His activity in your life?
It is his time anyway and this morning I want to ask if you are being a fine steward of it, or are you rushing to use it up?
Matthew 6:34, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things."
GOD HAS ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD
In 2 Peter 3:8 the apostle tells us that God views time much differently then we do, and the way he views time shows us that God, unlike us, is definitely not in a hurry. Peter says, "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
HUMOUR STORY – ECONOMIST
There was an economist who read this passage and was quite amazed and talked to God about it. "Lord, is it true that a thousand years for us is like one minute to you?" The Lord said yes. The economist said, "Then a million dollars to us must be like one penny to you." The Lord said, "Well, yes." The economist then said, "Will you give me one of those pennies?" The Lord said, "All right, I will. Wait here a minute."
KEEP SPARE TIME TO OURSELVES
I know we are all longing for extra time in this busy world - just a moment to slow down and take it easy.
When we have any spare time we usually keep it all to ourselves, but God is looking down at us and he’s saying, "I gave my only Son for you, so why can’t you give a few moments of each day to me?"
SPEND TIME – WE MUST DEVOTE OURSELVES
If we truly wish to walk in God’s power then we need to learn to spend some time with the Lord in prayer and devotion and we need to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to determine how long we are to spend with God, whether it be in our devotional time or in our church services - after all time really belongs to God for he created it.
This morning we are going to take a look at Joshua 10:12-13 and see that in order to be mighty in God and walk in victory we must devote ourselves and our time to seeking God and his provision in our lives.
JOSHUA STORY - HISTORY
What exactly was going on here? Well, king Adoni-Zedek of Jerusalem became upset when he heard how Joshua and the Israelites had destroyed the city of Ai and of how the city of Gibeon had joined Joshua and his band, so he had nine kings from other countries, five of them being Amorites, to join him in order to stage an attack on the Israelites and Gibeon.
In Joshua 10:8 God promised Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you."
After reading verses 12-13 we see that Joshua asked God to make time stand still until the enemies of the Israelites were defeated.
God promised to show Joshua his glory through a great victory, but Joshua realized that you can’t rush God. Time is God’s. Promised victories will come only in His time.
VICTORIES LONG IN COMING
So you may not be neglecting time with God simply because you diary is to full, you may be neglecting spending time with God, because the victories you pray for are a bit long in coming.
SOME OF THE PROMISES
Just as the Lord promised to help Joshua defeat the Amorites in great victory he has made many promises of victory to us.
In John 3:16 God promised to give his only Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice to take our place in the punishment for our sins that we might have eternal life - therefore we have victory over sin!
In Jeremiah 29:11 God promised to give us a future and a hope - therefore we have victory over the future!
In John 15:26 Jesus promised that God would provide us with a Comforter or Helper, who is the Holy Spirit - therefore we have victory over both sorrow and life!
The Bible is loaded with promises that God desires to fulfill in each of our lives, but like Joshua we need to give God the time to come through for us.
A friend of mine calls God Dion – because a promise he makes is a promise he keeps.
SOCIETY – INSTANT GRATIFICATION
We live in a society where we can get everything we want right now. Instant gratification is one of the traits of Generation X.
When we are hungry and we don’t have time to fix a meal we can go through the drive-through and grab a bite to eat. You can get anything you want these days quickly. Not even school projects these days need the time in the library. The web is changing the time taken to absorb information. . You can pick up prescriptions draw money; take out movies and much more just through drive-throughs.
MORE FAST THINGS VS TIME AND GOD
If you want to buy something now and you know that you won’t have the money until your pay check comes through, then why wait! You can pay with a credit card or get a check advance.
We have become so accustomed to getting the things we want when we want them that we think God’s promises should be given to us in the same way - that is immediate, upon demand! www.divinepromises.com –
SOME ARE INSTANT – SOME NOT
Yes - some of God’s promises are immediate, such as salvation in Jesus, but others, such as having a better future, we may have to wait on until God sees fit to fulfil the promise.
Joshua realized that time was needed for God’s promise to be fulfilled.
WHY RUSH IT?
If God were going to do a mighty work in our lives, why would we want to rush it?
So many of us live for those climactic moments where we experience God’s glory in an awesome way in our lives.
We call these times mountain top experiences and we long for these momentous and glorious occasions, but once we reach that place and find that it’s all over the very next day then we tend to become very down and we ask, "Why did God abandon me?" Does God abandon us? No, for the Lord tells us in Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
MOUNTAIN TOP EXPERIENCES
These mountain top experiences are the victories that come through our busy lives. You may be on one right now – you may be eagerly praying for the next.
In our hectic and fast paced world we tend to fail to stop and look for God along the way, but he’s right there with us the whole time. In our get-what-you-want-when-you-want-it society we want the mountain top experiences right. God is there in the heat of our spiritual battles helping us fight the devil all along the way and we need to slow down and bask in God’s glory every minute of every day as he fights for us like a knight in shining armor.
PRAYER AND TIME
We need to take the time to spend with God. Prayer does not mean rattling off a prayer, or spitting out the disciples prayer, it does not mean simply saying Psalms 23 when things get tough. It means a special time with God every day.
It means taking time to listen. It means pacing ourselves with Him. We often go to people in professional organizations and say that this person or that person is in for the long haul – our God is in for the longest Haul. He is in for the haul of eternity. So why rush past him every day and not take the time.
IN LOVE = TIME
If we would truly fall head-over-heals in love with God and with his Son, Jesus Christ, then we wouldn’t have a problem sparing some time for God.
A KNIGHTS TALE
I remember a particular scene in the movie called A Knight’s Tale when the main character named Will said some very romantic words to his beloved Jocelyn. Will said, "Jocelyn, you remind me of the Bible." And after a very embarrassing pause which caused you to wince at such unromantic words, he continued "You remind me of when God stopped the sun in the sky at Gibeon to give Joshua more time to defeat the Amorites."
Jocelyn, looking very perplexed replied, "I don’t understand." To which Will romantically said, "If I could ask God but one thing, it would be to stop the moon and make this night and your beauty last forever."
FIRST ROMANCE - TIME
You can identify with the intense fascination we incurred toward our wives when we first fell in love. Think back to the time before you were married - and for some of you before the honey moon ended - of how much you wanted to be with your fiancée. You didn’t want those nights with her to ever end. Ladies, you can identify with how you felt toward your husband at that time as well.
ROMANCE FOR GOD = TIME WITH GOD
If only we could possess that kind of passion for God! If only we could have that same fire for Jesus Christ! As God’s church we are the bride of Christ, and we are expected to fall passionately in love with Jesus who is the bridegroom. God wants us to desire to spend our time with him and with his only Son, Jesus. If we were truly and passionately in love with God we wouldn’t have a problem giving our time to him -whether it be in church or in our daily devotional time.
CONCLUSION
I want to urge you this morning to not fail at giving God his due time. We need to come to the realization that our time is not really ours, but it belongs to God for he created time. If we desire to see God move in our lives or in our church in a mighty way then we need to give God our time. We need to be diligent and faithful in our worship of God and we need to fall so in love with Jesus Christ that we long to spend every single minute of every single day with him.
You can pass by the time that God so desires to have with you. You can miss out on divine moments. You can go off and schedule God out of your day. You can become quite wealthy and quite popular by insisting on being in the fast lane.
Just remember that Jesus asks us, "For what will it profit a man if the gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).
You are an eternal being – you have all the time in the world at your disposal. To gain it all you have to do is to give it to the One to whom it belongs. Soon that investment of time will ensure that victory promised to you will be yours and you will look towards the sun and be able to say because of my eternity the Sun now stands still.
Joshua 10:12-13
Psalm 46:10
Matthew 6:34
2 Peter 3:8
Joshua 10:8
John 3:16
Jeremiah 29:11
John 15:26
Hebrews 13:5
Mark 8:36-37
