We'll never comprehend that until about 10 seconds after the rapture. Then we'll say, okay, I get it now, I get it. Joshua chapter 10, Joshua chapter 10. Joshua chapter 10. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. Trying to keep it easy for you. Don't want to get too far into it, you know. Joshua chapter 10. We all there? All right, let's pray. Father, we come to this afternoon, this morning, Lord, we come to this morning, Lord, we are very grateful to be in here. And Lord, we thank you so much for what you did at Calvary 2,000 years ago. Changed everything. And Lord, so looking forward to the day when we can stand on that street of gold and look into your face. And Lord, just for the first times in our lives, just understand completely what you did. Lord, we're thankful. Lives have been changed. Thank you for forgiving sin. Thank you for the strength that we need to live in this mess down here. Father, I pray this morning that you would minister to us. Pray you'd draw us close to you. Lord, give us something from thy word. We'll be disappointed if you don't. But I do pray, Lord, you'd bless. Take this piece of dirt up here. It'd mean my flesh was no good thing. You and I both know that. Take this vessel and fill it with your spirit and your power and your passion in your words and your wisdom that I might be able to communicate what you're trying to tell us this morning. Spirit of God, please stand behind this pulpit. Please sit next to us in our seats. We're grateful you're here this morning. Thank you again for your goodness and grace. Minister to us, please, in Christ's name, amen. Joshua chapter 10, I'm going to do a little bit of reading in Joshua, starting at verse 1. It says, Now it came to pass, when Adonai Zedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king. And now the inhabitants of Gibeon had made a peace with Israel, and were among them. But they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. Whereof Adonai Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, and to Piram king of Jarmath, and to Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Deber king of Eglon, saying, Come up unto me, help me, that we may smite Gibeon, for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel. Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmath, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it. And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants. Come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us. For all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand. There shall not a man of them stand before thee. Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night, and the LORD discomfited them from Israel. before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhorn, and smote them of Ezekiah, and unto Makeda. It came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhorn, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Ezekiah, and they died. And there were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said, In the sight of Israel's sun stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Jalon. And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of man, for the Lord fought for Israel. Let me give you a little background of this text. Adonai Zedek was scared to death when he heard that the Gibeonites had joined up with the children of Israel. Which, whether that was the will of God or not, we really don't know. I don't think it was. Joshua made a decision without praying. How many have ever done that one? And probably shouldn't have been. But they made a treaty with Israel. So he went about and established a coalition of five kings. Hebron, Jarmath, Lachish, Eglon, and himself. And notice in the text, they referred to as the kings of the Amorites. Something you need to understand about the situation with the Canaanites. The Canaanites were very wicked people. If you don't understand how wicked they were, read Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20. It describes some of the wickedness that they did. They were involved in everything, including the witchcraft and all that stuff. So they were very wicked people. At some point, the Amorites migrated from the east and joined up with them. The ones that lived in Canaan were very wicked. When the Amorites showed up, they said to them, let us show you what wickedness really is. because they were very, very wicked people. And even though they were one people group, their influence influenced the entire area. And so these kings could be called Amorites because they were under the influence of the Amorite lifestyle, much like Greece was just a country in the Mediterranean area, and yet we still see Greek influence around us today. These Amorites were very influential, very influential for evil, and they were very evil. to the point where it's irremedial. It couldn't be fixed. You say, well, why did God send Joshua in there and commit genocide? That wasn't genocide. It was more of an extermination. There was a group of people there that were beyond fixing. You know, you read the list of sins that they were involved in on, there were diseases that went along with those sins. The scripture doesn't give us those, but common sense says there are a list of sins that go along, diseases that go along with those sins. And when it affects the children, That's when it becomes irremedial. And they had plenty of time. They had 600 years to get themselves right. They had great preachers like Melchizedek and Abraham and what have you, and continued to get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And so God is gonna bring judgment upon the Amorites. That's why they're called that. So the Gibeons, in fear of the coalition, so they called upon Joshua for help, and Joshua goes to Gibeon, He's traveling all night from Gilgal with the promise of God. He had the marching orders, which was in verse 8, the Lord said unto Joshua, fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand, for there shall not a man of them stand before thee. So he's got his marching orders. Those are pretty good marching orders, aren't they? Boy, Patton would have loved something like that. I mean, you give something like that to Patton, he would have never stopped at Berlin. The Russians would be speaking English and there'd be a Walmart in Moscow. Well, there maybe is anyway, I don't know. So Joshua, it said, discomfits or discomfits, depending, I don't know the exact pronunciation. I think Alexander Scorby says discomfits. Let me ask you this. Is anybody here gonna be just a teeny, tiny, tiny bit disappointed if when you get to heaven, Jesus doesn't sound like Alexander Scorby? I don't know. So it's discomfit or discomfits, whatever you wanna say, which means routed, overthrew, defeated them. Verse 11 says, it came to pass as they fled from before Israel and were going down to Beth Horn that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Ezekiel and they died. There were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. Imagine that. God sends a storm of hailstones upon these people and he hits them and he kills them. So these things must have been the size of bowling balls. And you say, well, God would do that? God still judges sin, okay? And if He gives you opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, and you shake your puny little fist in His face, look out for the hailstones, okay? Job chapter 38, verse 20, don't turn there, but Job 38, 22 talks about the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war. Exodus 9, 23 and 24, Moses stretched out his rod, one of the plagues toward heaven, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground. So what was the fire? From the lightning, so it doesn't say lightning, but let's see, if you have thunder, And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt, so there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as was not like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 1 Samuel 7, verse 10, the Lord is upset with the children of Israel again, and it says, As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. And the Lord thundered a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and disconfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. So the Lord was very merciful to Israel, and they had a problem with the Philistines, and he used the hail and the thunder again to defeat the Philistines. And so when God wants to get somebody, he's gonna get them. And I know we live in a society where God is love, God is love, God is love. The fact of the matter is, I've told you, God is a balanced being. He has grace, He has mercy, but He has holiness and He has justice. And you can't lift this one up and put these down. God is balanced. And if you do lift one up over the other, that's when you have a real poor misconception of God. God is balanced, and that balance is met at the cross. The only way that you can fix the problem with sin, with grace and mercy, when there's holiness and justice, is when it meets at the cross, and that's what fixes it. Now, Joshua chapter 10. So the battle's going pretty good. They're beating these people, they're chasing them. God gets in on the action and he's knocking them out with hailstones. He's killing more with hailstones than they're killing with the sword. Joshua 10, look at verse 12. Then Joshua spake to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ahilon. See, I've been living here too long. I make my J's H's. Ajalon. "'And the sun stood still and the moon stayed "'until the people had avenged themselves "'upon their enemies. "'Is not this written in the book of Jasher?' "'So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven "'and hasted not to go down about a whole day. "'And there was no day like that before it or after it, "'that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, "'for the Lord fought for Israel. "'And Joshua returned in all Israel with him "'unto the camp of Gilgal.'" I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but the last three or four weeks, I've been kind of preaching about prayer. And last week we talked about Hezekiah's big mess with Rabshakeh and Rabshakeh coming and shooting his big mouth off and trying to scare him and then sending him a certified letter trying to scare him. But remember what Hezekiah did. He went to church and he took the letter one time when he went to church and he called the preacher who was Isaiah and Isaiah gave him the word of God and he prayed. Boy, isn't Christianity a complicated thing? How do you live this Christian life? Let me give you a hint. Go to church, read your Bible, listen to the preacher, and pray. And 195,000 trained Assyrian troops were put to death because he went to church, listened to the word of God from the preacher, and prayed. Complicated, isn't it? Preacher, how am I gonna get past my troubles? I'm not even gonna go, it's too simple to even repeat it again. I will though, read your Bible, go to church, listen to the guy up here preaching when he's preaching the word of God, and spend some time in prayer. I mean, we're gonna have prayer meeting Friday night. Boy, I hope everybody shows up for that. I mean, it's not just an exercise. If prayer were an exercise, I'd never do it, because I hate exercise. I've told you before, we accomplish more on our Friday night prayer meeting once a month and our Saturday night prayer meetings once a week and our Sunday morning prayer meetings once a week than Sean Hannity could ever do as he shoots his mouth off every day over the radio, good stuff, but all he can do is talk and nothing ever happens. We can get together for a few minutes and we can talk to somebody that can fix the problem. That's why we gather together in prayer. So this is another one where there's just an amazing answer to prayer. And I want you to look at some things. Think about this. Did he need to ask God what he was about to ask him? Remember what he asked him? Son, stand thou still. Moon, don't move. Did he need to do that? I mean, they had the victory, right? They already had the victory. Joshua had the general military promise of Deuteronomy 28, 7 that they'll come out against thee one way and they'll flee before thee seven ways. In Joshua 1, 5, there shall not a man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. I mean, they got the victory. They already won the battle. Joshua had the specific promise. He said, I've delivered them into thy hand. There shall not a man of them stand before thee. And that's exactly what was done. But Joshua wasn't satisfied. with what we would call a partial victory. He is in the Southern Campaign. And there are some battles that'll have to be fought in the Southern Campaign unless he can finish up what they did here. Great victory here. There's still some people that are getting away. And he says, Lord, if I can get to them that can really put an end to this Southern Campaign, or close to it. You know, the Battle of Britain lasted a few months. The Germans incessantly bombing England, bombing London, trying to bomb the airfields, trying to bomb the factories, all that stuff went on and on and on and on. Churchill gave that great, great speech. I read part of it to you a few weeks ago to inspire the people. They were inspired. Historians tell us that if Germany would have continued its attack on England for another couple of weeks, England would probably have lost their spirit to fight, and they could have easily invaded England, and the English could be eating sauerkraut today instead of the baked beans they put on their breakfast, which would probably be a better thing for them, but anyway. But Hitler stopped within two weeks of winning, because he thought he was gonna go dance with the Russians for a while. And the amazing thing is, he didn't complete the job. It was a partial victory. He'd done terrible things. They were shooting those buzz bombs and what have you, which were primitive missiles into England, and just terrible stuff. But it was only a partial victory, and a partial victory really is no victory. And the ironic thing is, a lot of those Brits that had to sit through that bombing ended up being part of the invading forces that took Berlin. So if you don't finish the battle, it's going to come back and bite you. I think Joshua had this idea in mind, I've got to finish this thing. We've got them on the run, we've already defeated them, it's just a matter of fixing, it's just a matter of finishing it. And he had one problem. It was getting late. It was getting late. We'll talk more about that, but he needed to complete the crucial Southern conquest. So number one, did he really need to do it? Well, he didn't need to, but he needed to. Number two, he'll ask for supernatural help from God, okay? Now let me ask you this, isn't all answered prayer supernatural? If God is involved on it, it's supernatural. Little things, big things, if it's an answered prayer, it's supernatural. But this is a little more supernatural than normal. if you can believe that. You have supernatural, then you really have supernatural. Joshua had lived in the realm of seeing the supernatural. I mean, you think about it. Joshua had been in Egypt. He had seen the plagues come down. He had been in the wilderness. He saw everything God can do. He had an experiential history of divine intervention. He saw God bring the plagues one after another. He saw the Red Sea parted. Boy, can you imagine that? Can you imagine living at that time? Can you imagine being on the shore that night as the wind starts to blow? What would you have been doing? What do you think some of the children of Israel? I think some of the children of Israel probably went to their tent and laid down in the fetal position, were weeping and thinking, we're all gonna die. There were probably those. But there are probably some other ones out there saying, I gotta see this. I gotta see that. And they're watching. And lo and behold, as that wind is blowing, they notice there's a cut going into the Red Sea. And it's getting lower and lower. And they're probably saying, hey man, come on over here and look at this. You gotta see this. And it's going down and going up. By the morning, the thing was dry. Wow. Joshua got to see all that stuff. Joshua saw manna come down from God out of heaven, picked it up every morning. Joshua saw water from a rock. Remember we talked about that? Listen, this wasn't a drinking fountain like you see in the park where it kind of dribbles down like that. This was a gusher. You think of all the millions of people that were out there in the wilderness and their cattle, what have you, that needed water? This was like when they open up the, what do they call them, the overflow tubes in the dams and that water just Floodgates, thank you. Like the floodgates and water came out and that thing made a river and Joshua saw all that stuff. He said, man, this is something. He saw the earth swallow up Korah. I mean, that morning they went out there and there's Korah and his family and what have you standing out there. And the Lord says, takes the earth and just opens up that section where they're standing and boom, they go down in and then the Lord closes it back up. It's like, wow, did you guys see that? He saw that. He saw the walls of Jericho come down. And they didn't go bloop, they went pew. That's Hebrew, bloop. They fell out. So he had ramps to climb up in to go into Jericho. Miraculously, marching around the city blowing trumpets. That's as crazy as some of Biden's ideas on how we should defend America. Joshua had met the captain. Remember that night he met the captain? I mean, he's out recon for Jericho, and there's a guy standing with a sword out, and he said, who's side are you on, buddy? And he said, I'm the captain of the Lord's host, son, get on your face. Joshua met Jesus Christ manifest. He met God manifest in the flesh. So he's used to the supernatural, if you could ever get used to the supernatural. He's seen some things. He'd say, Preacher, if I could see things like that, I could probably have the faith that Joshua had. What do you mean you can't see it? You have a Bible? Do you have an imagination? I know some of you were raised on TV and you don't know how to think anymore and you don't have an imagination. But you need to work on that. Read your Bible, read these stories, and then sit back some time and imagine What took place? And you'll see it just as clearly as Joshua ever saw it. Supernatural. Some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature. Imagine that, something can be smarter than science and greater than science. Yeah, we follow the science. Put your mask on, put your mask off. Get your vaccine, don't get your vaccine. Get the second, get the booster, don't get the booster. Yeah, we follow science. And when we pray to our God, we should understand some things. He said in Jeremiah, call unto me and I will answer thee. But he didn't stop there. And I will show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. You think you got God figured out? Do you think you have, you know, we pray and say, Lord, now if you do this and if you do this, and a lot of times we gotta say, Lord, do whatever you wanna do because it's gonna be greater than I can imagine. Great and mighty things I know not. I couldn't even think of what God, some of the great things God can do. Ephesians 3 and verse 20, I want a hymn that's able to exceeding, abundantly, above all that we ask or even think. Again, we cannot imagine what God can do. Mark 10 verse 27, Jesus said unto them, he said with men it's impossible but not with God but with God all things are possible so that's the God we're praying to okay this is the God that can do basically anything okay which leads us to number three Josh was going to ask what he asked the Lord to do because he does not want to be guilty of limiting God I've told folks it never hurts to ask I've asked churches all across the country, so how many of you ever prayed for a million bucks? And the holy people said to go, oh, no. And then the second question is why? Why? Well, money's the root of, no, the love of money's the root of all evil. Why don't you ever ask the Lord for a million bucks? See those pictures on the wall over there? We would like those pictures to run all the way back there and all the way back there and around here and around here and around there. Wouldn't that be great? Why don't we do that? We don't have enough money. Have you ever asked for a million bucks? You see the idea? So God doesn't do that. He does do that. Greg Island, Peoria, had a guy walk in his office and gave him a check for a million bucks. I think this pulpit came from his old church. It has a Glenwood, Glendale, some kind of Baptist church, whatever. Yeah, he's sitting in an old storefront church in Glendale, and a guy walks in and he gives him a million bucks. Check for a million bucks. He said, two conditions. You use all of it for building and none of it personal. He said, I'm in. Yeah. God can do stuff like that. And maybe he wants to do it for you, but you've never asked. Boy, won't that be great when you get to heaven. Before the judgment seat of Christ, and the Lord said, you know, I got a check here written for you for a million bucks. And all you had to do is ask, and you never ask. Never hurts to ask. Oh, what preacher. Yeah, listen, okay, the answers are very simple. Either he's gonna say no, which he's probably gonna say, because we would blow our brains out with a million bucks. Or he may say yes, because some of you might know what to do with money. Or you might say, not today, like you tell your kids, not this time, maybe later. That's the only three answers, yes nor maybe. What does it hurt? Would God be offended if we ever ask him for a million bucks? I mean, if he's offended, real simple, Lord, I don't wanna limit you like your children did in the wilderness. I don't wanna limit you. Psalm 78, 41, they turned their back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. And then in verses 42 through 55, God reiterates the 10 judgments He did in Egypt. And then in verse 56, it says, yet they tempted and provoked the Most High God and kept not His testimonies. And boy, did they. And they limited God. They had sent 12 spies in the Promised Land. Two of them said, I'm not going to limit God. One is Joshua. The other 10 said, God can't do that because they're too big. I mean, they're too big. So we need to stop limiting God in our prayers. John Newton, you may know the name. So yeah, he wrote Amazing Grace. Well, he wrote about 280 other hymns, too. And one of them was called Before the Throne of Grace, and verse three says this. My soul, ask what thou will. Thou canst not be too bold. Since his own blood for thee was spilt, what else can he withhold? He got that from Romans 8, 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? But we have not because we ask not. Listen, I know there's limitations. There's some things that cannot be done. Some things God cannot do. He can't lie. He can't sin. But there are things just by the nature of it cannot be done. You cannot make a square circle. By definition, how do you define square? Four 90 degree right angles with equal length lines, okay? What's a circle? A line with no angles. You cannot make a square circle. Who wants to? But you can't make a square circle. And furthermore, I've heard people pray, and it's a heartfelt prayer, you know, oh God, save the whole world. He can't do that, because he would violate their free will. He can't force himself on you, he's not gonna force himself on you. Each individual needs to make the choice, unless you're a dumb Calvinist, and then it's a whole different story. But normal people understand people have a free will, and it's their choice. God can make somebody willing, Very willing, but he can't force his will. So there's some things God cannot do. But there's a lot of things he can do. And so, fourthly, Joshua's gonna pray. Joshua is gonna pray. And it says in verse 12, then spake Joshua to the Lord, and the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, he's gonna pray. They already had the victory. The word then there, it's already, the hailstones from God have already fallen. And you know what the miracle of that is? He hit the enemy and didn't hit the Jews. So he's a great shot. So if in the millennium he wants to go bowling with you or play golf with you or basketball, I would just kind of turn it down. Because he's not going to miss. He'll be in the pocket every time. His drives are straight down the fairway and his pitch shots are in the cup. And his three-point shot is 100%. So, you know, I probably wouldn't take him up on that. He never misses. And here's an interesting thing. Before Joshua prayed what he prayed, his heart was stirred because he already saw some supernatural stuff going on. He saw those hailstones coming down. Boom, wow. Boom, wow. And he saw and he said, man, this is God. God is doing this. God's working on this. And so he can pray with confidence. Isaiah 45 verse 11 has a very interesting verse. It says, thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, his maker, ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. Now the Pentecostals take that way too far and out of context, but you know, there's a time God says, you know, just ask me. In fact, Joshua kind of commanded him, and he did it. 1 John 5, 14 asks, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. Joshua believed in all his heart that the will of God was to finish that battle. That's why he could confidently say, Son, stand thou still. Moon, don't move. And he's gonna do this in all the sight of Israel. That's how confident he is in God. He's gonna do it in all the sight of Israel. Would we have done it that way? We would have probably went over to some bushes and got by ourselves and said, now Lord, I wanna ask you to stop the sun. I don't want these guys to hear it. I'm gonna ask you to stop the sun and the moon and all that. No, he was confident. He could say it in front of all the children of Israel on the battlefield. He could look up and say, sun, be thou still, and moon, don't you move. and he didn't have anybody to pray with him. It's good to have somebody to pray with you, isn't it? It's good to have a prayer partner. He didn't have that. He didn't have the prayer hotline or the prayer chain. We have that here. And by the way, if you are in an emergency situation, call my wife's number or call me and she'll put it right on the prayer chain and get people praying for you. You know, we do that. If you stub your toe, don't call, okay? But if you've got a serious issue, you know, my so-and-so was just taken to the emergency room, or somebody like that, so-and-so's just been in an accident, get the call to us. I know how well prayer chains work, I really do. When, I've told you the story about Lydia falling out of the bus when she was six months old, down in Jonesboro, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta, and terrible, terrible situation. And after 9-1-1 got there, they had the life flight and all that, so one of the first things we did was we called a friend of ours. Her name was Stella Klein. She used to travel with the older Marshall family. And you call Stella Klein, then her next call is to Lee Marshall. which is Brother John's wife. Lee Marshall had her own little prayer chain thing going. And you call Lee Marshall about a prayer request, everybody on the planet that needs to know it is gonna know it. In fact, we had a couple people from Mars call us up and say, we're praying for you. I believe in the prayer chains. I believe in getting God's people praying for you. And I think it was miraculous the way she went through that. And I attribute that only to the answered prayer, the prayers of God's people. That's what I attribute that to. I believe in the prayer chain. Joshua didn't have a prayer chain. He didn't have a church prayer meeting. He didn't say, hey, let's get everybody together here in about 20 minutes and let's meet right over here. We need to pray about something. Didn't have that, didn't do it. Didn't have time to do it. He didn't have two or three. You know, our two or three are gathered together in my name. He didn't have two or three. He had him on the battlefield. And again, nothing wrong with two or three folks praying. I think the Lord has a special place in his heart for the two or three man prayer meetings. I think he did in Gethsemane, although they blew that one. I think the Lord gets a kick out of two or three people getting together and praying. He's by himself on the battlefield, he's sincere, he's burdened about the Lord's work, and he's gonna pray one prayer. And it has 14 words. One prayer, 14 words, which you and I could pray in less than 10 seconds. One prayer. I mean, he didn't start out with our Heavenly Father, blah, blah, blah. Not wrong with that, but he didn't do any of that. One prayer, 14 words, prayed in less than 10 seconds, and God stopped the world. Fathom that. God stopped the world for one guy praying 14 words in less than 10 seconds. Boy, if that doesn't hit you right in the head, that ought to. Because the same God, he's not gonna stop the world again for you, because he said he's not. But boy, there's some amazing things God can do. If one man, with one prayer, with 14 words, prayed in less than 10 seconds, can stop the world, what can God do for you? I'm trying to get you to fathom this morning the concept that we have a supernatural God that does supernatural stuff. That's what I'm trying to get across. And we've always said that when you are sick or you have a problem or what have you, and I know the prayer, God guide the hands of the doctors, give the doctors wisdom, what have you, that always should be number two. Because number one is, God you can heal. And I believe you can heal. And I'm not gonna limit you to the doctors. I'm going to call upon you and I'm going to ask you to fix this. I'm going to ask you to heal that. I'm going to ask you to heal that person. I want a miracle. Number one. Number two, and if you're not going to do that, you've got doctors to work through. And I have no, listen, I don't have anything against, I'm told you, I don't have anything against medical science. You know, when I had my little issue with cancer, I was at MD Anderson, and I appreciated everybody that was involved in that. They did all kinds of stuff. The radiation guy had a great sense of humor. We would laugh a little bit while we went in there and what have you. I have no qualms about that. I really appreciate the fact that, you know, God has given wisdom to people to make these machines to help fix people. I have no problem with that. But that's number two. Number one is always Lord. you could reach down right now from heaven, and you could touch the tumor, or you could touch the blood problem, or you could touch this, or you could touch that, and heal it just like that. Say it doesn't happen. Tell Pastor Greg Isle that, who his wife, twice, has been diagnosed with cancer, and one case was get your house in order, and all of a sudden it's gone. Because he's got a lot of people, you know, a lot of people praying, got a lot of people praying for her, gone. How do you explain that? How do you explain that? They have a supernatural God. Verse 12, Joshua says, Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon. Amazing answer to prayer. I know what you're thinking. Preacher, you're honestly going to stand up there and try to tell us that the world stopped for 24 hours? You honestly expect us to believe? Preacher, this has got to be poetic. Well, there's not too many poetic things going on on the battlefield. This has got to be poetic, Preacher. This has got... Okay. All right. I don't think so. And understand this, I'm not advocating geocentrism, you know, the sun stopped, what have you. This is language of convenience, okay? I don't believe the sun revolves around the earth. If you do, more power to you. Nor do I believe it was a flat earth. Because if the sun would have stopped on a flat earth, the moon is still under the earth. I've seen the pictures. These guys that believe in a flat earth, it's like a table. And you got the sun up here and the moon's down here. Well, the moon wouldn't have had to stand still because the sun would be up here now. I'm not advocating a platter. I'm not even advocating the axial wobble. Sometimes the earth does this and it's, I'm not advocating that. So what do you think? I think the Lord stopped the world for about 24 hours. Dr. Harry Rimmer, years ago, 1930s, 1940s, he was the Henry Morris of his day. And Rimmer, they say Henry Morris was the father of the modern creationist movement. Rimmer was probably the beginning of the creationist movement. And he studied this greatly. It was one of the things he liked to study was Joshua's longest day. And he searched out, he found records from Babylon, from Persia, of an extended day. Herodotus was an ancient historian who recounted that while he was in Egypt, a priest showed him in the temple records that he read of a day which was twice the natural length of any day that had been recorded. That's in Boyd's Bible Handbook. There's historical records for a long day. In fact, if you read the text, when that was said, there was a statement, and you know, that's recorded in the book of Jasher. Have you not read in the book of Jasher? So whoever Jasher was, the historian of the day, he recorded it. There were people that recorded that. But here's an interesting thing. Again, M. Velikovsky said, okay, if there's a long extended day, there would have to be a long extended night. So he began to research in that light, or lack of light. What he found out was in Mexico, in the Mexican Annals of Huatitlán, the History of the Empire of the Cuyahuacan and Mexico, written in Nahu Indian in the 16th century, Related that during a cosmic catastrophe that occurred in the remote past, the night did not end for a long extended time. Sahagin, a Spanish intellectual who came to America, generation after Columbus, he gathered a bunch of traditions from the original inhabitants, and he wrote that at the time of one cosmic catastrophe, the sun rose only a little way over the horizon, remained there without moving, and the moon also stood still. There's records in China, the history of Yao, their king, declaring that in his reign, the sun stood still long above the horizon, or excuse me, the sun stood so long above the horizon that it was feared that the world would have been set on fire. So they're looking at the sun, it's getting no higher than the horizon, and in their mind, it's touching the edge of the earth, we're gonna have a fire here. Flat earthers. And it fixes the reign of Yahweh at a given day which corresponds with the age of Joshua, the son of Nun. The Incas of Peru, the Aztecs of Mexico have a like record. The Ojibwes or Chippewas, which is central Michigan, Mount Pleasant if you're interested, tell the long night without any light. The Wayandot, which my wife has some of that in her system, told missionary Paul the Lejeune of a long night. And then you've got the weirder stories. The Dog Rib Indians of the Northwest, Northwest Territories of Canada, tell of a day when the sun was caught at noon and instantly became dark. Or the Omaha's say that once the sun was caught in a trap by a rabbit who checked his traps at the break of dawn, presumably for sunrise. Beware of them rabbits. And finally, the Bungee or Bungee Indians from the Lake Winnipeg area of Canada also tell of a long night. There's historical proof. There's enough historical proof for you to look at your Bible and say, you know what, that really happened. That really happened. And if you didn't have the proof, what would you say? It's part of the scripture, it really happened. The moral of the story is it really happened. We had a God that listened to one man pray 14 words for less than 10 seconds and said, stop the world. He's not gonna do that again. Don't try that on the last day of your vacation. Oh God, stop the world. But he sure can do some stuff. What is it that's bothering you the most today? What troubles do you have today that maybe God can fix supernaturally? Some of you know we've got a big problem with our house in Toledo. It's on a septic system, and the city of Toledo said, you know what, we don't allow that anymore. You're gonna have to cook up to the city sewer. That's 10 or 12,000 bucks. I looked up to heaven and said, how are we gonna do that? And so we're praying, we're praying that God fixes that problem. So what's the answer? I don't know the answer, other than paying 10 or 12,000 bucks. What's the answer? I don't know, but he does. And you know what? He can fix it. Because if he can take one man's prayer with 14 words in less than 10 seconds and stop the world, he can certainly hear my prayer and your prayers about some stupid sewer system and fix it for us. Do you get the point of what I'm trying to make here this morning? I think the Earth's rotation slowed down, that's what I think. Percher, if the Earth stopped, everything would go flying. If you stop here, if you're driving 80 miles an hour down the road and you hit the brakes, everything goes flying forward. Who said he hit the brakes? I can stop a car at 80 miles an hour and never make the front end dip. Takes a little longer, but I can do that, you can do that. If he did that to the world, everybody would fly off. No, it's just the opposite. Centrifugal force increases as the thing speeds up, not as it slows down. People would have had more of an effect of gravity on them than not. If you don't believe. I gotta tell you a story about centrifugal force. When I was younger, we had our three oldest, we had our three oldest who were probably six, five, and four, or something like that. And I would come home from work, I worked all day on the roofing crew, and my wife was stuck at home. She had three kids, plus she's babysitting the two from across the street. And there were times she said, I just gotta get out of here. So we'd take a little 30-minute drive from Toledo, following along the Maumee River, and come to a city called Grand Rapids. And Grand Rapids was a quintessential little city. It had all the little knick-knack stores, what have you. It had the ice cream shop. They sold fudge. You have to sell fudge in a little town like that. And just all kinds of cool stuff to look at. And it had a park when you went through the city, a little park at the end. And so we would spend some time in the park. And they had one of these things that's really cool. You hang from it. and you can start spinning that thing around. And so I would spin it around, I had three of them hanging on this thing, you know, and I'm spinning it, and they're just laughing and having a good time, and then I'm spinning it faster and faster, and then I noticed the look on their faces went from joy to absolute terror, and as it's getting faster and faster, they start to peel off. Dad, stop! And this one would fall off, and Dad, and that one would fall off, and my wife's looking at me like, you idiot. These are little girls, you know. But the point is, the faster it went, the stronger the centrifugal force was, not the less. So if God slows the world down, people aren't gonna fly off of it, they're gonna stay on it, okay? That's what I think happened. The point is, God'll do anything for his children. God will do anything for his children. And he doesn't love any of his children more than he loves others. He loves you like you're the only one of His kids. You know the amazing thing about being in God's family? We're all only children, but we're part of a huge family. And we have a God with a history, who can give manna out of nowhere, part a Red Sea, bring water from a rock, knock down walls in Jericho. We've got a God that's got a record of doing the supernatural. And He knows your needs. He knows your needs. And my God is able to supply all of your need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus. That's the promise. So all my needs are beyond that. Nobody's needs are beyond anything. How can your needs be beyond the person who's able to exceedingly abundantly involve all that we ask or think? And He knows your tears. Psalm 56 and verse eight says, thou tellest my wanderings, put thou my tears into thy bottle, are they not in thy book? He knows every tear you've ever shed in your life. Some of you got a big book, but he knows every tear you've ever shed in your life. And he wants to hear your prayers. He wants to hear your prayers. Jesus taught a lot about prayer. And let me help you with that. You might be a little confused about praying. Don't there have to be two or three agreed as touching any one thing? Aren't we supposed to be lifting up holy hands? Do we have to speak the words verbally? Because God can't read your mind, right? But if we have to lift up holy hands, we're supposed to fold our hands, aren't we? Nowhere in the Bible is that told. Twice the word folded hands shows up and it's about the sluggard. He slumbers and folding of hands and so shall his poverty come. So where did that come from? Where did this folding of hands come from? Probably about two or three centuries ago where you had a mom and about eight or 10 little kids sitting around a dinner table. And she's certainly not gonna tell them watch and pray. She's gonna say fold your hands because little Johnny has his eye on little Janie's pigtail and if his hands aren't folded he's grabbing that when everybody closes their eyes and she says close your eyes. We're supposed to watch and pray but close your eyes because we don't want you looking at each other and all that. I think that's where that came from. I could be wrong but I think that's where that came from. Well preacher sometimes you know it talks about you have to kneel. No you don't. I remember listening to a missionary one time talking about how great it was. His prayer thing was he'd get out in the morning, he would walk. He would walk and pray. And he said, boy, I got so close to God walking and praying. Well, preacher, don't you have to be prostrate? Some of these guys say you gotta be prostrate, flat, face down on the ground. Well, if you wanna pray that way, go ahead. If I prayed that way, we'd have to have a forklift come in here. Should your eyes be closed or should you be watching? Each method of prayer is an option. The point is pray. That's the point. Pray. So did Joshua need to ask God what he was about to ask? No, not really. Or yeah, he probably did. He wanted to finish the thing. Two, he'll ask for supernatural help from God. Why not? He's supernatural. He didn't want to be guilty of limiting God. So Joshua will pray an amazing prayer and God will stop the world and answer to that prayer. So pray. When we get together in prayer meetings, pray like we have a God that'll stop the world to answer our prayers. Pray like we have the same God that parted the Red Sea. Pray like we have the same God that walked on water. Pray like we really do believe we have a supernatural God who can fix anything. And whether he does or whether he doesn't, you'll never be guilty of limiting God. And you don't want to get to the judgment seat of Christ and find out and have him say, you know, if you were to just ask. We're going to be the church that gets up there and says, we asked. We always ask for the supernatural. And let me add this one more point and we'll be done. One more thought. The more we ask for supernatural, the odds are the more we're likely to get it. If you ask any farmer, the more seeds you plant, the more crop is gonna grow. So pray like God could stop the world for you and never limit Him in your prayer life. Father, we thank you again for your word. We thank you for this wonderful story. Lord, you stopped the world for one man. 14 words in less than 10 seconds, you stopped the world. Lord, we all have prayer requests. And Lord, I pray that every one of our people in here will learn to seek the supernatural first and the miracle first. Not that we'll be disappointed if you choose to go another way, but we are not going to be guilty of limiting you in our prayer life. Help us, Lord, to be the prayers that we should be. With heads bowed and eyes closed, the altar is open this morning.