Sun Stand Still - Louie Giglio

Today, if you have your scripture, we're looking at one of the most stunning prayers that anyone has ever prayed. It's not a long prayer, it's not a theologically complicated prayer. In fact, it's a little bit, you know, out of anybody's thinking to pray something like this prayer. But God loved the faith in this prayer. And he moved to answer this man. And I want us to see how that unfolded today. I want to read the text for us. It's Joshua chapter 10. And it's an incredible story. Just a little bit of a backdrop. We're in the promised land. If you haven't been with us, we've crossed over the Jordan from the wilderness journey. We've seen the walls of Jericho come down. Amen. We've seen AI finally defeated after people got right with God. And in the next few chapters, you'll see that the Israelites ended up making an alliance with another group of people. And that's a whole story in and of itself that we might come back to in a later talk. But that's what gets them into this particular situation that they find themselves in in Joshua 10. It says now, Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard that Joshua had taken AI and totally destroyed it. Doing to AI and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king. And that the people of Gibeon, these are the ones who made this alliance with Israel, had made a treaty of peace with Israel and become their allies. He and his people were very much alarmed at this. Who? This guy right here. They were very alarmed that this alliance had formed. Because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than AI, and all of its men were good fighters. So Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, appealed to Hoham, king of Hebron, and Piram, king of Jarmuth, and Japhia, king of Lachish, and Debir, king of Eglon. Now, somebody should have just amened right there that I just read. All of that did a pretty good job of it. Thank you. And when he appealed to these other kings, this is what he said to them. Because it has made peace with Joshua. Oh, help me attack Gibeon. Sorry, I put my box too high. Because Gibeon has made a peace with Joshua and the Israelites. Then the five kings of the Amorites, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it. The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua. Remember, we've got this alliance, right? So they're in the camp of Gilgal. Remember Gilgal, the place where they stacked the rocks? They're still camped out there. And they said, do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us. Help us. Because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us. So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting

men. The Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid of them. I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you. Verse eight. I want to just pause and go back to what we've talked about in these past weeks. Do you have a word from God for your life? Because in this moment, in verse eight, on the way to what, I don't know, could be a pretty intimidating situation. Five kings have joined forces. They've come against the people we've gotten this alliance with. So now we've got to go up and fight. Don't know how it's going to go. Before we even get there, God says, you're going to need a word. Here's your word. Are you ready? Here's your word. Do not be afraid. Words from God typically start with, do not be afraid. And do you know why words from God typically start with do not be afraid? Because there's something there that would make you be afraid. Is anybody facing anything today that is somehow making you feel afraid? Well, you need a word from God. And when you get one, it's going to start with, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of them. For I've given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you. And so after an all night march from Gilgal, and you can look in that on the map, that's a pretty challenging event in and of itself. Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord, now God is getting involved, threw them into confusion before Israel. So Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road. going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Ezekiah and Makeda. As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon and Ezekiah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them. Now, if you just got to church, just hang on just for a second. You're like, man, this all sounds terrible. What have I come to today? People killing each other, armies fighting, people making alliances, now hailstones are coming down. Lots of people dying.

And more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, so in the middle of this thing that just happened right here, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, sun, stand still over Gibeon and you, moon, over the valley of Ajlan. So the sun stood still and the moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as is written in the book of Yashar. The sun stopped, hello, in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. Then Joshua returned with all of Israel to the camp of Gilgal. Can you imagine what it was like around the campfire that night? Guys, you're not gonna believe what got into Joshua. We're in the middle of this fight. We need a little bit more time to do what God said he was gonna do, which is give us victory. Sun's going down, we're kind of figuring out and adding it all up. If the sun goes down and this thing has to end right here, we're not sure that it's gonna get finished the way it needs to be finished.

Maybe they'll reconstitute by tomorrow. They'll figure out a new plan, some of them will get away. So Lord, we need the sun to stand still. And it did. A few things that just lift right out of this for me is that in life, we're gonna face challenges, but here's the first thing I want you to see. We walk into what God has promised. So he already knew in verse eight what God had promised, that I'm gonna give them into your hand. Now, you're still gonna have to go. You're still gonna have to walk into it. You're still gonna have to go forward. You're still gonna have to fight. But I'm telling you, I'm going to do this. And that's what God wants you to see in your life. He's not promising anyone today a pain-free life, a struggle-free life. That is not the gospel, that is not our message today. You just trust in God and everything is gonna be fantastic for you. No, on this broken earth, you are gonna face trials, challenges, enemies, difficulties, circumstances, alliances. And you need a word from God. Because if you don't have a word from God, you're gonna wilt in the moment. You're gonna go to everybody else and say, what do you think, what do you think, what do you think, what do you think? You're gonna get busy coming up with this strategy

or that strategy or this plan of attack or this plan of retreat or this is the way I'm gonna solve it all. Instead of just going, Lord, I need a word from you. And then stepping into the battle with a word of promise from God. This is what the warrior spirit is about we talked about last week. And when I say warrior spirit, we're not talking about being crusaders. We're not running around the city saying, man, we're just looking for somebody to knock out. No, we are moving through the city in meekness, in gentleness, amen? In self-control. We've turned the volume down. We've turned the tone down. We're not the shouters. We're not the jab throwers. We're not the everybody listen to me crowd. We're the followers of Jesus Christ. So we are founded on truth, but we are wrapped in gentleness and humility and kindness and goodness and peacefulness and love. It's like having a quiet nature, but a furnace of faith inside. It's being in a conversation with somebody and being able to have restraint and then walking away and get in your car and knocking down the door of heaven

with prayers of faith in God that he is gonna be involved in the situation and things are going to move and change. And they're like, man, that guy seemed like a good guy. The nicest guy, you should have seen me when I got in my car. I went ballistic when I got in my car. I got praise on, I got faith rising. I've got the name of Jesus in my mouth. I have confidence in my God and things are moving. I don't know where, when, how, what, but things are moving. I have called on heaven, appealed to the God of the universe to do on earth what is done in heaven and so be it God, it is happening right now. And then you get wherever you're going and you get out and you're like, hi, how are you doing today? That's the warrior spirit. It's not walking in with this, you know, hard edge on your life. It's actually the opposite. It's riding in on a donkey to defeat death, hell, sin, and the grave. And that's what Joshua had underneath the hood because he had a word from God. The second thing that I love about this text is that we advance knowing God's already working. Before Joshua, we're not exactly sure of the timeline,

but potentially before he said, son stand still, God's already involved. He threw them into confusion, verse 10. And so it wasn't even Joshua. It wasn't even a battle strategy. It wasn't even a military idea. It was, hey, we're coming. Oh, great, I'm already working. I got hail coming down right now. And before you and I even get to the battle, God is already working. John Piper said, I love this quote. He said, God is always doing 10,000 things in your life. And you may be aware of three of them. Changes the way we walk in, doesn't it? The third thing that I love about this text is God isn't always looking for the longest prayer. I was trying to find that verse where it says, and pray as long a prayer as you can pray, because I am incredibly impressed by long prayers. If thou prayest, King James, the longest of prayers, the prayer in its fullness is 13 words long. The essence of it is three words, sun, stand, still. And so what are we taking from this today? That God isn't impressed by how flowery our language is, how developed our sentence structure is. What he wants to know is what kind of confidence do we have in him? And maybe one of the all-time human prayers, and there are a lot of amazing human prayers in Scripture,

and a lot that we've seen in the lives of people around us, but one of the all-time greatest prayers is this one right here, three words. We're fighting, Lord, to do what you said you wanted us to do. You're the one who led us into this land. You're the one who promises this land. You're the one who said we have to possess the land. You're the one who said be strong and courageous. You're the one who said I will be with you. So here we are today in the fight, and we need more time. Have you ever felt like in your life you needed more time? Son, stand still. Why? Because I wanna put on a show? Why? Because I want somebody to take a selfie and I'm gonna post-look at my great prayer? Why? Because I need security or safety? No. Son, stand still. We're doing the will of God here, and we need to finish the will of God. And God answered and responded to that simple prayer. The fourth thing is right in line with this, and it is this, the prayer that moves God is the prayer that aligns with God's glory. What was Joshua really praying in this prayer? In this prayer, he was praying your will be done,

your purpose be accomplished. God, give us just a little bit more time so that your will can be done and your purpose can be accomplished. Not so that we can get a new strategy or we can get a new plan from you, God, but so that your will can be done. We need more time. When I was working through these notes, every time I would write that somewhere, we need more time, we need more time, we need more time. I heard this guy was speaking at this conference. This only happened one time in my life. I'm almost 68 years old. I was speaking at this leadership event of church planters and they gave everybody like Ted Talk size chunks to talk in, which is not ideal for me, obviously. But I had, I think 20 minutes in this session. And so I barely had introduced myself and my time was up. So I'm giving it all I've got, trying to cram everything I can. And then I get down to the end and I want to respect the people. And I say, hey, my time is up. And so it's about the time I took the breath right there. This gentleman, God bless him. I don't know who he is, where he came from. If you ever hear this, thank you. He just very elegantly and profoundly said, give the man more time.

I looked at the clock, it hit zero. They didn't give me any more time, but I just felt so encouraged. Give the man more time. I can't be hearing that guy all week long. It's been a joy. God, give us more time. Why? Because we want to accomplish your will. We want to accomplish your purpose. That's the prayer that God leans into and that he joins with. And he stopped the sun. And he could do that because he spoke it out of his mouth in the first place. And if he created it, he could certainly pause it for a second. But that's not the hole that God wants you going down in today. The hole he wants you going down in today is to understand that when you pray a bold prayer of faith that aligns with the purposes of God, heaven then somehow unites into that moment. It was a day, this is coming down to the end of our talk, that we've never seen before, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Now, I'm gonna come back and kind of put some clarity around this because there are many places in scripture where God listened to a human being.

What Joshua is recording here is there's never been a day like this day before where a human being stopped the sun. Never before or since has there been a day when a human being called out to God and God listened to that human being and actually stopped the great star of our solar system. The star is 93 million miles away today. It's so big that you could put a million earths inside the sun. And the scripture says, that sun came out of the mouth of God. You can't look at it for two seconds, but God spoke it into existence. And what seems terrifying in some ways to us, even though 93 million miles away, we're lathering up with sunscreen all over the place. We're aware that it's there and we have to deal with it. It's microscopic to God. And this is what he's really wanting us to lean into. The God who spoke that star sees your battle and you can call on him and he will intervene. And in your story, it could be, there's never been a day like this before or since where God listened to a human. And it's not gonna be the sun stopped or the moon stopped or the stars got in a different pattern that we've never seen them in before.

It's gonna be, and this is the result. This is what happened. This is the grace. This is the story. This is the miracle. This is the gift that God is wanting to do in your life. And it all comes from believing in the power of prayer, believing that our prayer matters. Hudson Taylor, a great missionary to China, he said, when we work, we work. But when we pray, God works. And he's inviting us to step into that today. Acts 12 is a good picture of this. This was my last point. I kind of combined them together. Prayer is the mysterious miracle of human faith merging with divine response. And that's what happened in Acts chapter 12. Well, I wasn't gonna read this whole text, but I think I will, see if they'll give me more time. Watch this, this is bringing us out of the Old Testament, out of all the places that we're not sure how to pronounce and all the kings that we're not sure how to pronounce. And this is bringing us right in to the world we live in. It's bringing us into our part of history. And Jesus is alive, the gospel is being proclaimed, the apostles are with threats of death, sharing about Jesus everywhere they go. And it was about that time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them.

He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the festival of unleavened bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. And Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover. So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. And so the church maybe heard about Joshua and they're like, if the son can stand still, let's pray a bold prayer of faith. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping. Remember he had these four times four between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side, tapped him on the side and woke him up. And he said the angel to him, quick, get up. And the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, put on your clothes and sandals and Peter did so, wrap your cloak around you and follow me, the angel told him. And Peter followed him out of the prison,

but he had no idea what the angel was doing was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them by itself and they went through it. Come on, is this not the greatest night of your life? When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen. When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter's voice, she was so overjoyed, left him standing outside, she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, Peter's at the door. You're out of your mind, they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said it must be an angel. But Peter, he just kept on knocking. And when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this, he said, and then he left for another place. In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards in order that they be executed. And then the next section, Herod died. They were praying and chains were breaking. They couldn't see them, they couldn't hear them. And when he came to the door, they were astonished. I just want us to take away today that we in faith and in prayer can see chains break and gates open and people walk free. And I pray to God that when he does it, we won't go, what? We'll go, I knew you could. I knew you could. I knew you could all along. I believed that you could do it all along. And I say that today, understanding that all of us are up against things that you have prayed about, but the chains haven't broken yet. The gate hasn't opened. and yet the person hasn't walked free yet. They haven't come home yet and knocked on the door. They haven't texted you saying, I wanna come and reconnect.

They haven't called you and said, I'm sorry, but I'm free and I'm coming home. That hasn't happened yet, but don't give up on the God who can make the sun stand still. Keep believing in faith that if you're praying according to the will of God, God is moving in ways you can't see. It might be hail taking out enemies who are after the person you're praying for. It may be hail turning around the person that you're praying for. It might be chains breaking between two guards who are a part of a four by four and ushering somebody out and you don't even know it yet, but the knock is coming. And I don't say that lightly or glibly today. I'm not trying to get all hypey. I'm just reminding us as this is our God. And if you can say, you know, Lord, my son, you promised me that what you started in him, you would finish in him. And I wanna hold you to that promise today in Jesus name. That's my prayer. God, you said that it is your will that this relationship not crumble and fragment and be ripped apart. And so I just wanna come to the God who can make the sun stand still today and say somehow, please God, put it back together.

I don't know what five kings you're going up against today, but I know that God loves to hear his people call on him and say just a little more time, please, so that you can accomplish what you said you would do. And he can do it in a minute, he can do it in an hour, he can do it in a day, he can do it in a week. If he has a week, God can always do what he wants to do in the time he has allotted to do it. So I just am encouraging you today, don't stop believing. Heaven moves when people pray. Anybody need something to move today? Anybody know somebody who's in a prison cell today? It's bound up by lies, by anger, by addiction, by pride and rebellion, and they're just chained up. God is saying, that's not my will for them. That's not why I created them. That's not my plan and purpose for them. Join me, call on heaven. You're like, well, why do I need to call on heaven? If God's all about it, why didn't God just get involved? If God's all about it, why didn't he just go and send the angel and say, go get him, send him to the house? They're over here just chilled out or freaking out. Why did God need them to be praying in the house? Why did God need Joshua to stand up in the midst of it all? Because that's the story of God on planet Earth, is letting us be a part of the kingdom come, so that we would have a story to tell of a God who can't be overcome.