Faith To Stop The Sun

We’ll start in verses 1-5 where we see gathering against Gibeon, here. You and I were together just a few weeks ago on a Wednesday night. We went through Joshua 8, and obviously we’re in Joshua 10 now. What I’m doing is going through as the high school ministry goes through Joshua and then when I’m asked to teach in here, I pull out some of my favorite passages, so you’re getting the choice meat—you’re getting like the choice cut of the chapter. This is really near and dear to my heart. I love this section, and it is somewhat well known. Many of you will have heard this before. Let’s get into it here.

Let’s begin at verse 1 where we see gathering against Gibeon, “Now it came to pass when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem”—this is not Jerusalem as you and I know it, at this point that we are reading, it’s called the Promised Land. Jerusalem is one of the city states in it and the children of Israel are, for the first time, going into that land and taking over the land because that is where God was leading them. Jerusalem preexisted, so Jerusalem was already there, and this king, Adoni-Zedek, “ . . . king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai”—I know it says A-i, and we’re familiar with that term. It’s pronounced “I” or “A.” So, this king hears about “ . . . how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it—as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he had done to Ai and its king—and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them.” This king had heard about this, okay?

Now, beginning in verse 2, down to verse 4, we see that this king was motivated by fear. We’ll talk about that a little bit, but let's read these verses first. Verse 2, “that they feared greatly,”—okay, when Adoni-Zedek heard what had happened to these other cities, and when he heard that Gibeon had made an agreement with Israel, it says, “that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city”—meaning it was a large city—“like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.” Jericho and Ai had fallen to Joshua and the Israelites and essentially had fallen to the Lord, but Gibeon never even fought. There was this elaborate story that they came up with and, actually, to tell you the truth, they were very, very smart and keen about it, but they showed up and were wearing old raggedy clothes and made it look like they had come from a far country. They tricked Joshua and the children of Israel into making an agreement with them, a covenant with them. It was bad on Joshua and the leadership, really. He should’ve sought the Lord but didn’t; nevertheless, Gibeon is in league with Israel now.

This king, Adoni-Zedek, hears about it and here’s what he does in verse 2. Again, he knows that Gibeon just gave in, verse 2. It says at the end of verse 2, “ . . . and all its men were mighty.” These were mighty men, and they had simply given up. They had just bowed down to Joshua and the children of Israel, so it says in verse 3, “Therefore Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon, saying, 4 ‘Come up to me and help me, that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.”

This in human terms would’ve been a great idea. We, generally speaking, when we see something bad on the horizon (and these days we’ve got smoke and fire and flames on the horizon), generally what we do is we see it and say, “Oh, man, I feel really bad for those people. Lord, please bless them, and bless the firefighters,” and we go on about our business. We might go to sleep and wake up the next day and think, Ah, the smoke looks a little bit closer, but it’s still far enough away, so ‘Lord, bless those, whatever’s going on over there, and I’m busy. I gotta go.’ We generally wait until things are at our doorstep before we do something about it, and then, generally speaking, by then it’s too late. There’s nothing you can do about it.

Well, this king and these other kings had a great idea. They said, “Well, instead of waiting for the Israelites to come to us, let’s go and attack Gibeon and then we can use their city,” that would be the idea, “we can use their city and we can fight against Israel—all five of our city states and our militaries all gathered together.” Again, it seems like it would be a good idea, and in human terms it would be, except we’re not dealing with just human terms and human theories on war, you’ve got God in the mix, so everything changes.

Being motivated by fear, here’s what happens in verse 5, “Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered together and went up, they and all their armies, and camped before Gibeon and made war against it.” Fearful decisions become foolish decisions. I’ll say it one more time: Fearful decisions become foolish decisions. These individuals, Adoni-Zedek, and the rest of his cronies, being motivated by fear in verse 2, “that they feared greatly,” when they made their decision based on fear, that decision then became a foolish decision. They were not thinking correctly, they were not thinking wisely.

The same thing is true for you and me. When we are being forced or pressed into making a decision that is based on fear, it most often becomes a foolish decision; so you and I must keep a watchful eye, paying attention, always seeking the Lord so that in the moment when a decision is required of us, we are not fumbling and trying to find out what the Lord wants. If we find ourselves rather in step with God, walking with Him by faith on a regular basis, on a daily basis, then that wisdom is going to be able to flow freely to us, and it will be much easier to make a decision not based on fear but rather based on faith.

These people made a deadly mistake, that was, making a decision based on fear, so we see in verses 2-4 that they were motivated by fear, and in verse 5 they moved against Gibeon, if you’re taking notes. At this point, we move on into verse 6, which is our second main division titled, “Going to Gibeon’s Rescue.” In verse 6, we see, if you’re taking notes, again, a subpoint here, “Asking For Help.” Verse 6, “And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, saying, ‘Do not forsake your servants; come up to us quickly, save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered together against us.’”

Now, Gibeon does something very, very smart, very wise here. In the event that you are not sure, like Gibeon and the Israelites and Joshua, what’s going on, Gibeon, again, had tricked the Israelites into making an agreement with them, a covenant with them. They were going to be destroyed. They knew that so they outsmarted the Israelites. Because of that agreement, and even though it was made by the Gibeonites, it was deception, still Joshua and the Israelites are honoring the agreement because they based that agreement, they called in the name of the Lord. They were honoring that agreement because they were honoring the Lord, and to break that agreement would’ve been to dishonor the Lord. Gibeon is smart. When they are about to be attacked by Adoni-Zedek and the rest of these kings, they call out to Joshua. We’re told here that Joshua is going to answer the call here in verse 7, in fact, verses 7-9. In verse 6 we have, “Asking For Help,” and in verses 7-9 we have, “Answering The Call.”

In verse 7 it says, “So Joshua ascended from Gilgal.” Joshua and the Israelites are camped out at Gilgal, and we’re told here that they “ascended.” If you’re taking notes or if you have the freedom to write in your Bible, I would want to underline or circle or make note of the word “ascended.” We read these things as we read the Bible oftentimes, and we miss all these wonderful little clues, all these wonderful little words that indicate so much to us. It says, “So Joshua ascended from Gilgal,” so he’s in Gilgal making his way toward Gibeon, and in order to do that he has to ascend. He has to make an ascent. In other words, he has to walk uphill. I say, “Walk uphill,” and some of us in here tonight, we’re done already. Like, “Naaah!” Some of you ladies just got back from the women’s retreat, huh, and you’re like, “Wait, the sanctuary’s where? My cabin’s where? Can I get one of those downhill ones?” We can’t just go downhill in every direction, right? We’ll talk some more about this in a moment.

“So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor.” He takes his military and they ascend from Gilgal toward Gibeon. In verse 8, “And the LORD said to Joshua”—you and I have seen this phrase before, we’ve seen these circumstances before—“And the LORD said to Joshua.” When did the Lord speak to Joshua? He spoke to Joshua in the midst of his obedience, in the midst of his obedience. He knew that he needed to honor that agreement, so that he knows he’s gotta do. There are things that you and I know that we just have to honor that agreement, and we can begin to move in obedience toward that. But as he’s making his move by faith, in obedience to the Lord, then the Lord speaks to him again. The Lord has spoken to him before at Ai, He speaks to him again.

This is, as I mentioned the last time that you and I were together a few weeks ago, this is a wonderful picture, a perfect picture of the life of faith. God tells you, “Move,” you move. Once you move, then He’ll tell you where to move the next time, and then you move there. That’s the life of faith. There’s no ten-step plan. I told you last time, if He gave us the ten-step plan or the ten-year plan for our lives, we would do one of two things: either we would see all that we were going to go through and we would say, “I don’t really want to go through the valley of the shadow of death, Lord, so I’m just going to skip that and I’ll just go with my plan.” Or, we would say, “Oh, that looks wonderful! I love it! Thanks, God, here I go. I’ll tell You how it is when I get there,” and we would want to push the Lord aside. It’s step by step.

What did Jesus teach us to do when we pray? “Give us this day our daily bread.” Depend on the Lord daily. Joshua here is walking in step with the Lord, so the Lord speaks to him. Are you hungry for the Lord to speak to you? Then be obedient to whatever it is that He has called you to do already. Don’t sit in disobedience and then expect Him to speak to you again. Whatever He said to you the first time, He’s still waiting on you to fulfill that. You do that and then He’ll speak to you.

Verse 8, “And the LORD said to Joshua, ‘Do not fear them.’” Let me share my opinion with you. I know that this is not something that this pulpit is known for doing, sharing opinions, but let me share an opinion with you. I think, I suspect, that Joshua was afraid. The reason I suspect that is because the first thing God says to him is, “Do not fear them.” But it’s possible that he wasn’t afraid, and God’s just telling him that for no reason, I suppose; but, “Do not fear them,” and then I love what God does. God gives him a reason not to fear. Do you have one of those friends in your life that whenever you’re facing some challenge they tell you, “Hey! Don’t worry about it.” “Why not? This is something to worry about, this challenge that I’m facing,” and they tell you, “Don’t worry about it,” but then they don’t have a reason why you shouldn’t worry about it. That’s not helping me.

Now, your Christian friend might tell you, “Hey, don’t worry about it.” “Why?” “I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but I know that the Lord is going to be with you.” That’s okay. I like that, and that’s really what God is telling him here. He says, “Do not fear them”—and then He tells him why—“for”—that’s the word “because” or here’s why—“I have delivered”—it’s past tense. In God’s mind, in the heart of God, in God’s plan it’s already a done deal. It’s already over. It’s already finished. He says, “I have delivered them into your hand.”

Did you know that God is outside of time and space? I love parades, love parades, and for me, the louder, the noisier, the more marching bands, the better—horns and especially drums, I love all of that. When I go to a parade, sit and watch the parade and here comes maybe the float or the group or the marching band is coming by, and I might be able to look and say, “Okay, well there they go,” I can’t see how far, and then I look back. That’s when I say, “Okay, here comes…okay, I can see a few groups back, and here comes some others.” God is outside of time and space, so in a sense—listen to my illustration—He doesn’t see the parade just one float at a time, He sees it from beginning to end. He knows what’s going to happen. He’s already got it all planned out. Here He says, “‘Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you.’ 9 Joshua therefore”—based on that—“came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal.” Joshua in verse 9 has, based upon what God told him, he comes upon them suddenly and attacks as soon as he gets there.

Now, I told you to make a note of, keep in mind, the word “ascended” in verse 7, “So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor.” Keep in mind this is ancient. They’re not moving about in vehicles. The people are marching on foot, and they had to ascend from Gilgal up to Gibeon to go and help them. Did you notice what happened in verse 9? “Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly, having marched all night,” so not only did Joshua and the men that were with him, not only did they ascend from Gilgal and go up to Gibeon, but they did that in the middle of the night.

I was not there. I do not know, so I’m making an assumption. My assumption is that they had spent the previous day just going about their business, whatever they were doing in camp, but they spent the day just doing their normal tasks. Then at some point during the day they get a message from Gibeon saying, “Please help us,” so though they’ve spent all day doing their normal tasks, now they gear up and they march through the night. Now, they’ve been awake all day and all night. They arrive at Gibeon, and they don’t say, “Let’s set up camp. Let’s get some rest. Do you guys got any food around here?” They get there, and they immediately attack Adoni-Zedek and the other kings and the other militaries, the other army. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you here? This is not abnormal for the child of God—hard days, sleepless nights. Our brothers and sisters throughout the ages have laid down their lives—blood, sweat, and tears—for the cause of Christ, yet you and I, we can so often find ourselves wimping out.

I was sharing with the homeschool high school group yesterday morning. We were talking about endurance, and I mentioned one of the times I got food poisoning. Some of you have had food poisoning. I remember having food poisoning one time sitting on the bathroom floor literally praying for God to take my life, “God, I love my family, but right now I just want You to kill me,” because it was so horrible. That’s not endurance. That’s what I told the high school students yesterday morning. It’s like, that’s not endurance. This is endurance. Joshua and the men awake all day long, marching through the night uphill, getting there, and attacking. Then, you think it’s over, it’s going to get worse but hard things, difficulties.

There are those days for you and I that we wake up and unbeknownst to us, the odds are against us, the cards are stacked against us, or whatever the sayings are. Everything is going wrong and immediately, in the morning, BAM! here comes the first thing. Maybe it’s a phone call or it’s a text message, an e-mail; maybe it’s a spouse, maybe it’s a family member, something’s going on, something’s happening. You try to move through your day and something else hits you. You try to deal with that challenge, you attempt to move on to get through your day BOOM! here comes something else.

Joshua had…this man had, I’m assuming, spent the day doing their normal tasks and then out of the blue they get a message, “We need help! We are under siege—not just one king, not two, not three, not four, five.” The odds were stacked against them, and what does Joshua do? He marches through the night, uphill.

Uphill battles, uphill battles, we all have them. Some of you are experiencing them right now and that’s why you’re here tonight because you’re experiencing an uphill battle right now and you just feel like your life right now, man, you’re just walking in darkness and you’re not really sure, “Where is the Lord?” and “Where is He leading me?” and “Is He even leading me?” And there are times and moments in your heart and in your mind where you say, “Wait, you know what? Is there really even a God because I’m praying and I’m asking and I’m seeking and I’m not really seeing the Lord. All I see is darkness and everything is uphill and everything is stacked against me.” Yet, we will find that God was in the battle. We’re going to find that He was right in the middle of all of this. In fact, God’s going to tell Joshua, “Hey, let Me go first.” We’ll get to that in just a moment.

But in God’s plan in verse 8, “Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand,”—it’s already a done deal, all you gotta do is show up—“not a man of them shall stand before you.” God had a plan, and God’s plan as we know is always the best, right? We try to counsel Him and change the plan, it never works out well.

We move on to our third main division, which is verses 10-15, where we find that God fights for Israel. In verses 10 and 11, if you’re taking notes, subpoint there in verses 10-11, “Preyed Upon By The Lord.” (It is on the screen for you.) It says in verse 10, “So the LORD routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.” Who did that? The Lord. It’s very clear there in verse 10. So the Lord did four things: He routed, He killed, He chased, and He struck. This was God. Joshua and the children of Israel marched through the night uphill, get to Gilgal, they’re ready to start fighting, and then they find out God’s already been there. He’s already busy, He’s already fighting.

I’ve taken some of the high school students on mission trips with me. It’s always amazing. You get on flight (what are those flights that are through the night? Red eye, thank you very much). You take a red-eye flight, travel hours going through the airports or whatever, make your stops, and finally get there. Maybe you arrive late or whatever. We get there late to Nicaragua. We show up there, and you’re feeling like, “Awww man, we traveled. We’re so godly. Here we are. We’re going to bring Jesus to the natives here,” and then you show up the next morning, and there’s already a thriving church there. You say, “Wait a minute, God’s already here.” Did you know that God was in Nicaragua? Did you know that God spoke Spanish? Man, I knew that. His Son’s name is Jesus (heh-soos), so I knew that.

Joshua gets there, and God’s already busy. He’s preying upon these armies. It says in verse 11, “And it happened, as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon, that the LORD cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died.” God did that. “There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.”

Moses and the Israelites were leaving Egypt, and they had crossed the Red Sea. The Egyptians came chasing after them, and God got the Israelites out of there and He closed the river back up. He closed the sea up, the Red Sea, and killed all of the Egyptians. Moses gets all Pentecostal after, starts singing a song. His sister shows up with tambourines, and Moses sings a song about God killing the Egyptians. It’s pretty incredible. Imagine if you came and brought your kids to Sunday school here, and after church you go to eat or whatever, “Hey, Johnny,” (or whatever your kid’s name is) “what’d you learn about?” “Oh, we learned a song about God killing people.” “Whaaaat? What’re you talking about?” Moses sings a song about God killing people, and he uses a phrase in there and says this, he says, “The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name.”

Why do I remember that? Because, man, I have prayed, called upon the Lord who is a Man of war so many times in my life, “Lord, I know that You’re a Man of war. I need You to come and fight for me, Lord. I need You to come and fight for me. I need You to come and fight for me.” Moses understood who He was. Joshua is figuring out—this is who He is. Joshua was there back then, too, but here he is again seeing it firsthand. “There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.”

In verses 12-15 where we finish, but of course I’m a preacher so you know what that means, right? We could be in here another 45 minutes. Verses 12-15, another subpoint, “Prayed Unto The Lord,” like what we’re going to do on Sunday at 1 o’clock. Oh, I mentioned that already. “Prayed Unto The Lord.” It says, “Then Joshua spoke 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,” now we’ll get to that in just a moment. Let me mention this in verse 12. I’ve got to make note of it. God and Joshua are having a conversation. It does not appear to us that it’s constant communication. It doesn’t seem to us to be moment by moment, or at least that’s not recorded for us.

We saw earlier that Joshua was in the process of being obedient when God spoke to him. And now, both God and Joshua are on the battlefield together, and Joshua talks to God. In verse 12, that’s plain to see, “Then Joshua spoke to the LORD,” and here’s what he says. He says, “Sun,” now that’s funny because I thought he was speaking to the Lord. Well, he is. This is his prayer to the Lord, but in doing so he commands the sun, he commands the elements to do something. He says, “Sun, stand still over Gibeon; And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” I titled my study tonight, “Faith To…” something about the sun standing still. I don’t remember. Who cares. But he’s asking, he’s commanding, he’s telling the sun to stand still, but what he’s doing is he’s asking the Lord, “Make the sun stand still.”

Now, that’s a funny thought because all of us know the sun didn’t really need to stand still because the sun doesn’t really go anywhere, yet…isn’t that funny? And critics have read this and for years gone, “Oh, look. There it is, this discrepancy. The Bible is not consistent, and Joshua thinks that the sun moves.” But if you ask anyone, “Hey, what time is sunset?” They’ll say, “Seven-oh-six,” or whatever the time is. We use that phrase all the time—the sunset. The sun doesn’t set. The sun doesn’t set. The sun’s not moving. We’re orbiting, we’re rotating, but we use that phrase, “sunset” as if the sun stands still at a certain point of the day, but that’s not what happens. It’s a figure of speech. We’ll find out what he means here in just a moment.

He says, “Sun, stand still over Gibeon;” I mean the audacity. Like he’s just going to speak to the sun and just tell it to stand still. “Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” 13 So the sun stood still, And the moon stopped, Till the people had revenge Upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher?” You know what the “Book of Jasher” is, right? That’s a secret book that only pastor’s get to read. Just kidding. I don’t know what that is. It’s some kind of old history book. Obviously, we don’t have that anymore. “Is this not written in the Book of Jasher?” He’s saying, “Look, this is recorded in other places.” “So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. 14 And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the LORD heeded the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel”—and still is—“Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.” Not a life was lost.

What just happened? What just happened was that Joshua asked God to lengthen the day. How did God do that? I barely graduated from high school. Isn’t that comforting to know, you’re sitting here listening to me. I have no idea…scientists and critics, Bible teachers argue about this ad nauseam. I have no idea. I’m a simple person. I’m a simple-minded individual. My Bible says that he asked God to lengthen the day. That’s what he was asking, “Lengthen the day,” and God did it. We say, “God doesn’t answer prayers like that.” Maybe you never asked, or maybe like James says, “Maybe we ask but we ask amiss,” or are asking for our own selfish desires.

My mother-in-law is in a care facility right now. Two weeks ago she had to be rushed to the hospital. She had fallen, and she got there, everything went from bad to worse. We found out several days later she had had several strokes, had an aneurysm. They had her on oxygen. They were talking about…looking at my wife, her daughter, like, “Hey, do you want to sign a DNR?” Like, “Hey, this doesn’t look good.” So we prayed. I said, “Lord, give her more life. She needs You. She needs to surrender her life to you, Lord, before she goes.” I got a video from my daughter this afternoon—I got a video! My mother-in-law was at the care facility on an exercise bike, pedaling. Who does that? Maybe God wants to do that for you but you just don’t ever ask Him. Or, maybe you’re asking with the wrong motives, the wrong reasons.

Joshua is asking. Now, listen, listen, listen. Joshua is in the midst of a battle, and he literally just prayed that God would allow him to stay in the midst of that battle longer. Now, listen, family. When you and I are in the middle of some challenge, some dark valley marching through the night and we’re not really sure where we’re going, I would be willing to bet—I don’t have any money to gamble with but I’d be willing to bet—that our first prayer is, “God, get me outta this as fast as You can.” Joshua is praying that God will leave him there, longer. Who prays that? I’m going to tell you who prays that—people who are jealous for God, people who want to see the purpose of God accomplished. When you and I are in the midst of a trial, a challenge, some battle, and we’re praying for God to get us out of it; family, I’m telling you that you are wasting your time. What we need to be doing instead is praying that God will leave us there—long enough to learn the lessons and to accomplish His purpose.

At some point in your life, Christian, you gave your life to Jesus. Do you understand what you did? You gave your life away. You do not have a life anymore, thus when you are in the midst of a challenging time in your life and you’re praying, “Oh, God, I don’t care, just get me out of it,” it’s the wrong kind of prayer. You’re praying as if your life was your own. It is not. It’s God’s. What we need to do is to be like Joshua and say, “God, I don’t like this…” who likes to be in the midst of a battle? Nobody likes to be in the midst of a battle, but Joshua in praying says, “God, please lengthen the day.” Now, listen. The fact that the day was lengthened, that’s no surprise to me, that sounds exactly like something that God would do. What blows my mind in this story is that Joshua would pray that he could stay there longer in the midst of the battle. Who does that? People who are jealous for the glory of God who want to see God’s purpose accomplished, who want to learn all that God has to show them and reveal to them.

Do you understand that this never would’ve happened unless he had found himself in the midst of a battle? Life-threatening battles are opportunities for life-changing blessings. I’ll say it one more time: Life-threatening battles are opportunities for life-changing blessings, and until you and I have the mind of Christ, a mind like Joshua, where we say, “You know what, it’s the glory of God, that is my chief concern.” Until then, we will find ourselves missing out on watching God work in some miraculous way because we’re so busy looking for an out. We want to be like Joshua and say, “Lord, I don’t like it, but leave me here as long as I need to stay, God, as long as You want me here, until Your purpose is accomplished for Your Glory, Lord. Until You’re glorified, leave me here.”

Now, there’s one thing that I want to finish with, and it is this at verse 6. I know we’re down at verse 15, but let’s close with verse 6. We need to see this. It says, and we’ve read through it already, “And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, saying, ‘Do not forsake your servants; come up to us quickly, save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered together against us.” Come and help us, Joshua, because we’re surrounded. Our lives are being threatened, we’ve got no hope. Our only hope is you, Joshua, and the children of Israel.

You probably know this already, but the name Joshua is the Old Testament equivalent of what name in the New Testament? Anybody know? Yeshua, Jesus. I want you to see what’s happening here. It’s a wonderful picture as we close. The men of Gibeon finding themselves in trouble call out to Joshua. When all hope is lost, they call out to Joshua. It’s the same thing that many of us in here have done tonight, and probably maybe all of us but certainly the majority of us at some point in our lives we found ourselves in trouble in our lives in some dark place, in some hopeless position, and we called out to Jesus.

Did you know that Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It may be that you are in this room tonight, maybe you’re listening online, watching online, and you are in a hopeless place—the enemy has surrounded you, everything is stacked against you, it’s an uphill battle through the night, and you are just all alone and you don’t have a Jesus to call upon. Well, I’m telling you here tonight I’ve got some good news. It’s probably why you’re here tonight, if that’s you in that position, it’s because you know that you can call on Jesus, right? The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever,” would call upon Him would not perish, “but have everlasting life.” It goes on in verse 17, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

If you are here tonight and you do not know Jesus, you already know that you need help because you already know that you’re a sinner. The Bible tells us. It teaches us that you’ve got to acknowledge your sin, you call on Jesus, and you will be saved. You need Jesus tonight.

Now, all of us need Jesus, even the Christians that are in here tonight. But the Christians have surrendered their lives to the Lord. We’re learning to walk, and we’re stumbling as we follow the Lord. But if you don’t know Jesus, you need to surrender your life to Him tonight. He is the only One who can come to your rescue. Jesus is the only One that already proved His love for you. If you’re looking for love in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces, tonight you can find that in Jesus. Acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of salvation, you need Jesus, and say, “Yes, Lord, I’m tired. I’m weary. Give me rest.” He already promised that He would. Surrender your life to Jesus tonight and receive that rescue just like the Gibeonites did who called upon Joshua and found salvation through him.