This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
PO Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771, or calling
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Father, thank you so much for your presence.
God, I thank you for your Word, which
truly is a lamp for our feet and
a light for our path.
Thank you for the abundance of your mercy.
Lord, I thank you for the quickening power
of the Holy Spirit.
God, you've never called me ever to stand
in my own strength or my own wisdom.
And God, I ask you now for a
quickening and an empowerment from on high, that
I may clearly convey your heart to those
that you've gathered in this house today.
Lord, we ask that your kingdom come, that
your will be done in us and through
us, individually and then collectively as a church.
Lord, it's not coincidence that you've given me
this message today.
I'm asking that you give us ears to
hear.
Give me the heart to preach it.
And Father, I thank you for it.
In Jesus' name.
Joshua, chapter 10, please, in the Old Testament.
The day the sun stood still.
Joshua, chapter 10.
And I'm going to begin reading from verse
12 through to verse 14.
Incredible day.
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,
Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou
moon in the valley of 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.
Now, beloved, the Bible tells us very, very
clearly that when we pray, that we are
to expect mighty things to happen.
Now, if it were not so, then we
would be a very...
It would be a dismal hope for our
future.
Like Paul says, if all we had is
hope just here and now, God says, no,
I want you to ask of me mighty
things.
It's all through the Scripture.
Call unto me, he says, I'll show you
great and mighty things, beyond anything you've ever
seen before.
He said in the book, in the Gospel
of Mark, he said, have faith in God,
for I say to you that whoever shall
say to this mountain, be thou removed and
be thou cast into the sea.
And shall not doubt in his heart, but
shall believe that those things which he saith
shall come to pass.
He shall have whatsoever he saith.
Now, therefore, I say unto you, what things
whoever you desire when you pray, believe that
you receive them and you shall have them.
Now, of course, this, the context of this
particular verse is about fruit.
This is about the fig tree.
This is about Christ commanding a fig tree
that had a pretense of having fruit, but
it had no fruit on it to die.
And he said, no man eat of this
fruit anymore forever.
And right from that particular illustration, he turns
to his disciples and says, have faith in
God.
In other words, we are all on the
journey and we are given the power in
prayer to command any obstruction on the journey
to our inheritance in Christ to be removed.
This is the essence of why we pray.
It's what we pray about.
There are all kinds of people who are
misguided today and are out there casting mountains
and binding and loosing.
But they've not yet embraced the heart of
God.
This is not about self-betterment, self-improvement.
This is about finding the fulfillment that is
truly ours.
Finding the promises that are truly ours in
Christ.
Finding the life that Christ wants for us.
And as such, becoming his ambassadors to a
fallen world, to a very, very darkened generation.
It's about having the power to yield our
lives for the purposes of God.
This is what the inheritance is all about.
The inheritance is not just so that we
can go somewhere in God and become happy.
As wonderful as that may be, quite often
if you look throughout biblical history and just
regular church history, the inheritance is so that
those who knew him the most intimately might
have the power and the desire to lay
their lives down for the purposes of the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
And many have.
Many have gone before us.
They've paid a tremendous price for the knowledge
that God gave them of his son.
James encourages us to pray in chapter 5,
verses 16 to 18.
And he uses Elijah as our model of
prayer.
He calls him a man of like passions
as we are.
And James says, you are to pray remembering
Elijah.
Elijah was a man, obviously, whose prayer opened
and closed the physical as well as the
spiritual heavens of his generation.
And James is telling us, listen, he was
not some superstar in the kingdom of God.
He was a man.
He was an ordinary person like you and
I who suffered from all of the like
struggles that you and I have.
And yet he tapped into something of God.
His heart became so set apart for the
purposes of God.
He so found the inheritance that God had
for him in his generation that he could
pray and God Almighty would literally shut up
the heavens.
And when he prayed, God would open the
heavens.
And James uses this and the Holy Spirit
is inspiring the writer, uses his life as
an illustration of how we should pray and
not ever become discouraged.
Now, Joshua had a purpose on his life
and the purpose of his life was to
inherit the promises of God.
God had a place of promise, a land
that land is a type of Jesus Christ.
It's an Old Testament type of the New
Testament.
We don't inherit a land as the children
of Israel did in the Old Testament.
We inherit the God whose glory made that
land special.
That's our inheritance.
Everything that we long for and everything that
we want is ours and is found in
Jesus Christ.
Now, Joshua had a calling on his life,
just like I have a calling and you
have a calling.
Every person who comes to Christ has a
calling on their life.
The Bible says it very, very clearly.
I don't have to redefine it.
It's very much there.
There are gifts and callings that are placed
upon you.
The day you came to Christ, God called
you for something.
You are called first and foremost to glorify
him.
You are called to go in and to
fight in the power of God with the
only weapon really that we have today is
faith.
And that was the weapon, of course, that
they had in Joshua's day too as well.
And we're to go in and by faith
we're to claim everything that was bought for
us on Calvary.
Everything that is our inheritance in Jesus Christ
is to become ours, but it's ours for
a purpose.
Not just to go in and just eat
of the fat of the land, but that
we may live lives that bring true honor
and glory to God.
And Joshua, his purpose in life was to
inherit this blessing and this particular place that
God had set apart for his people and
to lead others into it.
And this is exactly what your call and
mine is.
It's that I am to seek God and
as he speaks to me through the promises
of his word, I'm to lay hold of
these promises.
I'm to trust God for the power to
vanquish every enemy in my life.
Every enemy that comes against my mind and
my heart.
Every devil of hell that tries to say
you can't.
I am called of God to lay hold
of his promises.
And having found them and having understood that
they are appropriated as it is by faith,
I'm to bring these promises to another generation.
To a generation after me.
Just like you are.
I'm called to bring you into the inheritance
of God as one of your pastors here
at Times Square Church.
But you are also called to bring your
families into the inheritance of God.
If you are mothers and fathers, you are
called to bring that family into that inheritance.
If you are the head of your home,
you're called to bring those under your headship
into that inheritance.
And by virtue of the calling of God
on your life, you're called, for those who
can hear it, to bring every young Christian
that comes across your path into that inheritance.
To bring those that are outside of the
kingdom of God into Christ and subsequently into
that inheritance.
You and I are called to make a
difference in our world and in our generation.
We're not called just to gather and sing
songs as wonderful as that is and be
happy all the days of our lives.
We're called to make a difference.
We're called to tear down strongholds.
We're called to vanquish the plans of the
devil.
We're called to break the strongholds and the
dominions of sin and death and hell and
darkness.
And see God's creation, those that he loves,
set free into the glorious liberty of Jesus
Christ.
This is the call that's on your life.
It's not just for a select few.
It's not just for the preachers or those
that have had theological training or all these
other wonderful things that prepare men and women
for ministry.
It's you and me.
The moment the Holy Ghost came upon you,
you had a calling of God to claim
your inheritance and to see the power of
the devil broken and others brought into the
inheritance of God.
This is the call of God on his
church.
This is the call of God on your
life.
Now, Joshua's life obviously began with a season
of teaching and training under the hand of
Moses.
And this training eventually led him into times
of his own intimacy with God.
It has to.
It's not enough to listen to tapes.
It's not enough even just to read your
Bible as wonderful as that is.
It's not enough just to go to church
once or even two or three times during
the week.
All of the training that we receive, all
of the instruction and counsel is for the
purpose of leading you and me into our
own time of intimacy with Jesus Christ.
It's in that time of intimacy that God
begins to speak to our hearts.
It's in that time that the plan of
God begins to be unfolded.
It's in that time of intimacy that the
word of God takes on a new life
and promises that God wants us to obtain
our softly spoken into our hearts.
Even things that are impossibilities are spoken by
the spirit of God into our hearts.
And God says, this is yours.
I want you to have this.
I want you to go and claim this.
I've given this to you.
It was this intimacy that gave Joshua in
the end his final victory.
And it was this intimacy that gave him
his initial victory.
The Bible says that as Moses prepared the
transition, Moses was left the tabernacle, but Joshua
began to tarry long in the presence of
God.
There's no leader who's worth anything, who doesn't
tarry in the presence of God.
We've got to tarry if we're going to
lead.
We've got to tarry.
We've got to get our instructions from heaven.
We've got to get our promises from God.
We've got to get our courage from the
Holy Spirit.
If you and I are ever going to
make a difference in our generation.
Finally, this intimacy led him to bring the
people of God over the River Jordan.
And when he had passed over the river
and set up and established a monument to
God's faithfulness to bring them through on dry
land.
He eventually had a face-to-face encounter
with Jesus Christ himself.
The Bible calls the messenger the angel of
the Lord, but he did find himself as
God Almighty.
Most agree that this is a pre-New
Testament appearance of Jesus Christ in human form.
Joshua was told to loose his shoe in
this place, just as Moses had been told
to loose his shoe.
In other words, there is no human effort
that's ever going to win this battle.
There's no human plan that will ever chart
the course of this victory.
Joshua, you're going to learn that I'm going
to speak to you.
And when I speak, you're going to obey
me.
You're going to get your instructions from heaven.
And you're going to do what I tell
you to do.
And in that obedience, you're going to know
incredible victory.
No enemy will be able to stand before
you all the days of your life.
God told him, as I was with Moses,
I will be with you too as well.
And that promise, thanks be to God, is
for every Christian who's here today.
No enemy can stand before you all the
days of your life if you are in
Christ and Christ is in you.
If you are intimate with God, if you
are spending time with God, if in your
heart you're not attempting to use Christ for
some self-induced purpose, but you want the
purposes of God to be established in your
life, the promise of God applies to you
today.
There's no enemy can stand before you.
Alcohol can't stand before you.
Depression can't stand before you.
Suicide can't stand before you.
There's no inherited weakness that can stand before
you and stop you from fulfilling the plan
that God has for your life.
The Bible says clearly that God takes the
foolish things of this world.
He takes the weak.
He takes things that are nothing, of no
report, no reputation.
Empowers them with the Holy Ghost.
Gives them a new mind.
Gives them a new heart.
Gives them a new life.
And He brings to shame everything in this
world that stands and glorifies its own strength.
He brings it all to shame by taking
the weak.
And that's your boast of God and that
is mine today.
That's why Paul says, I won't boast in
anything but the cross of Jesus Christ.
Paul knew it was at the cross that
his weakness became the strength of God.
His confusion became God's knowledge.
His aimless misguided direction took on now a
very straight path as he began to acknowledge
God in all of His ways.
No human effort will ever win the battle.
When we meet God, the very first thing
that you and I are told to do
is loose our shoe.
Loose your plans.
In other words, the places that you've carried
yourself, that you want to go, that the
ideas you have, the things you think will
advance your cause in the kingdom of God.
Loose your shoe.
Take it off of your foot.
In other words, there's no human plan that's
ever going to win you the victory.
Just obey me.
And at the right time, the shout of
victory will come into your heart.
I've had seasons in my life where there
has been no outward change.
There's been nothing.
I've been praying about a certain circumstance.
Just being quiet.
Just walking.
Just praying.
Just like God told the children of Israel.
Here is a huge city that is impregnable
as it is.
You cannot get around it.
There's nothing you can do about it.
You cannot destroy this city.
Just walk around it and obey me and
be quiet.
And as they walked around, God, I can
see men's hearts beginning to stir because they
had nothing but the word of God.
And I've had seasons like that in my
own life where I've been standing up against
some very vicious enemies with nothing but God's
promise to me.
And there's a season.
It just comes when you just know you
have the victory.
There's nothing outside that's changed.
You see, the shout quite often comes before
the wall comes down.
That sense, God, you've given it to me.
God, it's mine.
Hallelujah.
I am now the possessor of this.
You promised it to me.
And, yes, there's nothing about me that can
make it happen.
But, God, you've given it to me.
And the shout begins to come into your
soul.
You see that at this altar sometimes people
respond to a message.
And, yes, they're still struggling.
Yes, they're still in a tremendous battle, locked
literally head to head with the devil himself.
But a shout of glory comes into their
soul.
Their circumstance hasn't changed, but in the spirit
it has.
God says, I've given it to you.
If you'll accept it by faith, I've given
it to you.
And the moment you know you have it,
that shout of faith begins to come into
your heart.
And nothing can turn you from the victory
that God has given to you.
We've all had a Jericho.
We didn't decide to be saved, folks.
You didn't decide to be saved.
Let's just forget that issue.
No, we were confronted with the person of
Jesus Christ.
His mercy against our powerlessness.
He came and revealed himself.
When we were still yet sinners.
That's how much God loves us.
When we were still in sin, God gave
his son for us.
We obeyed and a shout of freedom came
into our hearts.
Isn't it amazing?
Here at Times Square Church, and many of
you here can remember that shout of freedom.
I remember the time that it came into
my heart.
It came in with a lot of tears.
A shout of freedom that just says, Abba,
Father.
We don't even know where it comes from.
But we now know we are children of
God.
There's an inner witness of the Holy Ghost.
I've been born again by the Spirit of
God.
I've been bought by the blood of one
precious who shed his blood and his life
on a cross for me.
And I now belong to God.
And that shout of glory comes into your
life.
And you begin to cry, Abba, Father.
You walk into your home.
Your office workers, your neighborhood, and you say,
God is my Father.
They think you've lost your mind.
But you know it in your heart.
You know you're a child of God.
No more works.
No more lighting candles.
No more doing religious things.
No more of anything.
I'm now a child of God.
And you know it in your heart.
And the moment we have that shout, that
wall of sin and death that encompassed us
and boxed us in, falls down.
Falls down flat.
The moment you shouted out to God and
knew that you'd given your life to Christ,
that wall, that city, that strong city that
cannot be defeated by anything but the promises
of God fell down.
And the promised land began to be yours.
And this was the testimony of Joshua and
the children of Israel.
It seemed they could do no wrong.
The waters parted.
They went through the sea.
They set up a memorial.
They went to Gilgal.
And at Gilgal, Joshua had all the children
of Israel who had not been circumcised, who
had been raised in the wilderness, circumcised so
that the reproach of Egypt would be rolled
away from them.
The people knew they were set apart for
God.
They went in and they conquered Jericho.
And it seemed like there was just no
stopping them.
These were a people set apart for God.
Very much like I feel God's hand is
on Times Square Church.
He's found the people in New York City
who are set apart for Him.
A people who want to live for Him.
When we say we need people in a
certain part of the world, it's not just
one or two quite often that volunteer.
Sometimes it's tens, twenties, and oft times in
the hundreds.
When we say that the Holy Spirit is
leading us to do something, to conquer some
place, then there's this desire to serve Him
that's in the hearts of the people.
But again, in Joshua chapter 7, the children
of Israel fell into the sin of presumption.
Now, the sin of presumption is the feeling
now that every victory will be just as
easy as those in the past.
We went into Nigeria last year and saw
thousands of people come to Christ.
God moved in a phenomenal way.
You've heard a testimony about it this morning.
And at last, it's in the ministry.
There were many converted to Jesus Christ.
And for those who were there, we knew
we were fighting hell itself.
It was a demonic battle.
But the Lord came in incredible power and
won a victory, I think, that forever settled
in many hearts.
Any issue that was there about whether or
not Christ sits at the right hand of
all power and all authority.
And you think, you have to think of
the history.
They've come through all of these things.
They've seen this wall come down.
And there's a sense in the hearts of
the children of Israel that there's no stopping
this.
God is with us and God is moving
through us in incredible power.
And then the men, Joshua sent some men
in to spy out this little town called
Ai.
And they came back and they said, no,
it's just a little town.
It's only a little battle.
You don't have to send the whole army.
Just send a few thousand in.
And they'll go up and they'll just quickly
mop this thing up.
And folks, I want to warn you today
against that kind of presumption.
It's an incredible thing.
We've gone into Nigeria and seen wonderful victories.
And Pastor David has traveled and spoken at
conferences around the world and seen incredible victory.
But that's yesterday.
Thank God for yesterday.
We're in a brand new battle today.
There are brand new fields to be won.
There are brand new places that have to
be conquered.
And if we ever sit back and just
begin to presume that tomorrow is going to
be like yesterday, without the same preparation.
Remember, before Jericho was a time of rolling
away the reproach of Egypt, a time of
soul searching, a time of being quiet before
God, a time of intimacy.
If we lose that and just begin to
presume that every battle is going to be
like the last one, we're in for very,
very difficult times.
There are no longer, in the sin of
presumption, begins to get a hold of a
people.
There's no longer these intense searches of heart
as have been previously done before.
The people begin to come into the house
of God very casually.
It's always the mark of a spiritual decline.
You'll see a people are coming in and
they're storming.
I remember when I first came here, that
was nine years ago now, I remember being
so impressed by the people who were at
this altar on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, Sunday
evening, Tuesday night.
Just storming heaven for a word from God.
Storming heaven for the lonely, lost and despairing
that would be coming through the door.
Storming heaven to see the powers of hell
vanquished.
And yes, God has been here.
And yes, God has given us marvelous victories
over the years.
And we've seen perhaps in the thousands of
people who have come to Christ at these
altars.
But it's very dangerous when we begin to
come into the house presumptuous.
That as he was here yesterday, he will
also be here today and tomorrow.
Oh folks, there have been many who have
fallen into that trap and they've let the
presence of God slip through their fingers through
that type of spiritual laziness.
Yes, there are the misguided notion that little
sins will not hurt us in our quest
to obtain the promises of God.
There was a huge army, an absolute enormous
army that God had raised up through Israel.
They went against this little town of Ai
and only one man had disobeyed God.
Now you're talking in the perhaps hundreds of
thousands of soldiers.
And you've got one man who disobeys and
takes some spoil and puts it in his
tent.
And because of it, the armies of Israel
suffer a tremendous defeat.
When we ask ourselves about this man Aikid,
we'd say, what would he be among so
many?
And what harm could he possibly do?
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, all these
things happen to them for examples.
They are written for our admonition upon whom
the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore, let him that thinks he stands take
heed lest he fall.
Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 and verse
9, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
In other words, it only takes a little
bit of poison to poison the whole mixture.
How many I'm thinking throughout history and today
because of little things that have been undealt
with, have missed the pathway of God's promises
in Christ and are leading others astray also.
How many have just allowed a little bit
of pride to get into their hearts, not
realizing how deadly this is in the battle
to lead others into the provision of God.
A little bit of lust, a little bit
of unforgiveness, a little bit of ambition, a
little bit of ambition in the ministry has
turned into a whole lot of ambition today
in many pulpits and churches across the nation.
Because of it, they've lost touch with God.
They have all or sometimes at least some
forms of right theology and the exterior trappings,
but there's no presence of God.
There's no power of God.
There's no purpose of God in it.
There's no sense of mission.
There's no sense of burden.
It's all about me, myself and I.
A little bit of ambition got in somewhere
and it wasn't dealt with.
God dealt severely with this.
He said to Joshua, that little thing that's
gotten into the camp, you've got to take
it out.
You've got to isolate it and you've got
to burn it with fire.
Not just send it out into the wilderness
for the fear in a sense that it
might come back.
No, you've got to burn it with fire.
And the same thing in you and I,
when these little things are trying to get
a hold of our hearts, these little compromises,
these things that when we first came to
God, we said we will have nothing to
do with this.
We're holy unto the Lord.
We're going to live with God.
We're going to live for God.
Then all of a sudden, these little compromises
start coming back into the heart and we
fail to realize what these things can do.
God says, no, I want to put the
fire of my spirit to it one more
time.
I want you just to admit it.
I'm going to put my hand on.
I'm going to touch this area in your
life.
All you have to do is just admit
that this is in you.
And I will touch it once again with
the fire of my presence and I will
burn it out of you.
I'll burn that ambition out of you.
I'll burn that unforgiveness out of you.
I'll burn that lust for whatever it is
out of you.
I'll burn that pride that's getting into your
heart out of you.
I'll take it out if you'll just acknowledge
that it's there.
James says prior to exhorting us to pray
the way Elijah did.
He says, confess your faults one to another
and pray for one another that you might
be healed.
Now, it's interesting because the Greek word for
false means things that we have purposely stepped
over in our journey with God.
Things that we have just we've just we've
seen it, but it seems so insignificant.
We just stepped over it and ignored it
thinking, well, how could this harm me?
How could this hurt my life?
How could this bring any kind of spiritual
ruin to me?
I think of Solomon, for example, with the
abundance of his revelation before he would become
king.
The Bible says he had to take the
law.
He had to take the Old Testament law
and he had to hand write it out
before he could become king.
It was one of his duties.
And Solomon, of course, you know, was given
this incredible wisdom, this incredible revelation of God.
And perhaps the thought got into his heart.
What harm could a few horses do?
What harm could a little bit of silver
do?
After all, doesn't the scripture say the treasure
of the heathen is laid up for the
righteous?
What harm could an allegiance, a political allegiance
with Egypt make, even though I have to
take a wife from Egypt to solidify that
allegiance?
Won't it protect the people of God and
the land of God?
Did Solomon really think, did he know that
these little things that he was allowing into
his life are going to cause him to
build heathen temples in the end, to get
in his chariot on the Sabbath morning and
ride right by the temple of God and
go to the temple of Ashtoreth?
Did he see it coming?
Did he know what it was going to
do in his life?
And folks, I tell you, there are a
lot of people today who are reprobate to
the faith that didn't start out that way.
They started out on fire for God, but
little things began to get in, little compromises.
These little things hidden under the tent.
And you want to know how, if they
are significant, you don't have, if they're insignificant,
you don't have to hide it.
You can declare it openly.
I have this in my life.
I have this in my tent.
It's when you begin to hide, there's an
inner awareness in the conscience that this shouldn't
be in my life.
And many, many people end up in ruin.
Churches end up in ruin because they let
this little insignificant compromise begin to get in.
Why should I go to church Sunday night?
Nobody else does.
Sunday morning should be good enough.
After all, we're not under the law.
These little compromises come in, begin to draw
back.
We begin to draw back.
God dealt with the sin of Achan.
Then in Joshua chapter 9, Joshua made another
terrible mistake.
As he began to conquer the land, there
was a mighty city called Gibeah.
And they knew they were doomed, so they
began to send ambassadors to Joshua.
And the ambassadors disguised themselves.
They brought with them old clothes and moldy
bread.
And they said, we've come from a long
distance.
We're not really your neighbors.
We're not occupying the land that God sent
you to conquer.
And Joshua, the Bible says, took the testimony
of the Gibeonites and didn't inquire at them
at the hand of God.
The problem we face sometimes as Christians is
we can become too smart.
We know all the answers.
We're everybody's counselor.
And then something comes our way and wants
to make an allegiance with us.
And we're so smart now that now we
don't have to go to God anymore.
And we begin to reason things.
And we say, well, and they took the
testimony that was brought to them and didn't
inquire at the mouth of the Lord.
It's amazing when you see the mistakes that
Joshua made.
Now, here's a man who was called of
God to conquer and to bring the people
into God's inheritance.
But I'm looking here and I'm just seeing
one mistake after another.
When Ai fell, Joshua fell on his face
and accused God of the very same thing
that people full of unbelief for generations before
had accused him.
He said, oh, Lord, it would be to
God you had left us in Egypt.
It was the very words that he'd stood
against when the evil spies came back from
the promised land years ago.
Now, Joshua is now speaking, oh, would have
been better that we had died in Egypt.
And unbelief is filling his heart.
The devil is there like a roaring lion
trying to rob him of his faith in
God.
And God responds by just saying, stand up.
Get off your face, there's sin in the
camp.
That's the only thing that God says to
him.
He gets that right and then makes the
mistake of not seeking God and taking another
testimony.
That's why the Bible says lay hands suddenly
on no man.
The context of that, of course, is is
launching somebody into ministry or or blessing them
in the name of the Lord.
Don't don't receive the testimony of man.
It's the testimony of the Holy Spirit that
counts.
Very good Christians quite often do this.
Just we get a lot of Bible knowledge
and we know too much and we become
very, very smart.
And we end up in places where we
shouldn't be doing things we shouldn't do.
Making allegiances God never intended us to make.
Good Christians marry the wrong people, folks.
They do.
But the fact is, if you did, you're
married and there's no way out of it.
Think it through.
Good Christians marry the wrong people.
Good Christians get into bad business partnerships.
Good Christian people commit themselves to the wrong
church, the wrong cause.
They tithe to the wrong ministries.
Good Christians do this because they don't inquire.
They receive the moldy bread testimony that comes
over the television and don't inquire from God.
Don't ask.
They just receive the testimony.
But folks, in spite of this.
God reveals to us that through Joshua, that
our greatest answers to prayer are still ahead
of us.
In spite of our past failures and our
present circumstances.
It's amazing.
When I look at this, I see a
man who's called of God to lead the
people into an inheritance.
I see the mistakes he makes.
Coming after Jericho and then allowing a defeat
in the sense that AI getting on his
face and accusing God of being unfaithful.
Have you ever been there?
Have you ever been confused about your direction?
Now, the devil, the Bible says, is like
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
And in these times of confusion, these times
when you've made mistakes, the devil will be
there.
He will be accusing you.
Accusing you in a sense that your failure
is so great that God cannot use you
anymore, nor can he answer your prayer.
And also to Joshua, the devil would be
right there accusing the very character of God.
Now, God called you into inherent promises and
to become a conqueror of a place occupied
by the enemy.
But he can't do that anymore because you
see, he's displeased with you.
He's displeased with the mistakes that you've made.
I'm just like the psalmist David.
Oh, God, if you marked iniquities, who could
stand?
Folks, I want to tell you something.
I've been in ministry, I guess, about 15
or so years.
And there have been a lot of AIs
and a lot of gibeous in my life,
a lot more than Joshua.
And yet I still stand here.
And God's been faithful to me.
And I can tell you with an authority
in my life that God will be faithful
to you in spite of your mistakes, in
spite of your allegiances.
The Gibeonites became part of Israel from that
day forward.
They made an allegiance.
They couldn't turn around.
It's like a man who marries the wrong
person.
You're married.
There's nothing you can do about it.
And later on, five kings gathered together and
attacked the city of Gibeah.
And they were powerful kings.
It's like the enemy said, we've got them
now.
We've got Joshua down.
He's now convinced that he's blown at one
time too many.
And these Gibeonites think they can make an
allegiance with the children of God.
We're going to go in and destroy them.
And Gibeah, the king of Gibeah, sends to
Joshua and says, come down and help us.
We're surrounded.
We're going to be overpowered.
And the Bible says that Joshua gathered together
the army of Israel and went to fight
against these five kings.
Now, he's into the most fierce battle of
his entire life in ministry.
And, folks, he's made a lot of mistakes.
And I want to tell you something.
The promises of God are yea and amen
in spite of our mistakes.
In spite of what you've done.
Don't ever let the devil tell you it's
too late.
Don't ever let the devil tell you because
of your mistakes that somehow you're not going
to inherit the promises of God.
The devil is a liar.
He is a liar.
We all make mistakes.
And if God marked our mistakes, none of
us would stand.
But there is forgiveness with thee, David said,
that we may learn to fear you.
There's forgiveness with God if we confess our
sin.
He's faithful and just to forgive our sin
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He said, I'm going to take you in.
And nothing is going to stop that.
It's about him.
It's about his purpose for our lives.
It's not about how faithful we have been.
It's not about how flawless our walk has
been.
It's about Jesus.
It's about him.
He is faithful.
The Bible says in the book of Revelation,
when he comes back, he has a word
that is written upon him, faithful and true.
He can't be anything other than what he
is.
He said, I'm going to take you in.
That means I'm going to take you in.
Yes, we may be limping.
Yes, we may be dragging along a few
things we shouldn't have.
Yes, we may have a list of mistakes
we shouldn't have made.
But our God is able to take us
in and possess our inheritance.
The devil would be all around Joshua saying,
Joshua, you're just starting out.
Look at the mess you're making.
Look at the mess your leadership has brought.
Now you're up against the big kings.
Now you're up against the power of hell
itself has now risen against you.
And do you dare to think that God
is going to stand with you?
Do you dare to think that God is
going to fight for you?
You see, this is what the devil does.
He walks around roaring against the elect of
God.
Roaring, accusing the elect of God.
And accusing the very character of our God.
And you can be sure he was there.
Accusing just like he accuses every Christian.
Every person who ever walks into the kingdom
of God.
You cause a tremor in hell.
The moment you gave your life to Christ,
there was an earthquake in hell.
Because you became another possibility of a person
who would rise up in faith.
Looking away from mistakes and looking away from
yourself.
Looking away from anything to do with yourself.
Looking to the faithfulness of God.
You became another possibility to be an abandoned
Christian in the hand of an all powerful
God.
Who can shake heaven and earth.
To bring about his kingdom into the lives
of people who live in darkness.
You became a threat.
You're a threat to the kingdom of darkness.
You're not just a person who sits in
church.
Every Sunday you're a threat to the kingdom
of darkness.
The moment you rise up and say, God,
no sin in my tent.
God, yes, I've made mistakes, but those mistakes
are not going to stop me.
I'm going forward.
This is about your heart.
This is about something you want to do
for fallen humanity.
This is about something that caused you to
come to earth 2,000 years ago and
become a man and die on a cross.
This is not about me, oh Jesus.
This is about you.
Therefore, I accept your mercy and I stand
up.
And in spite of my history, in spite
of all my struggles, oh God.
I'm willing to face the biggest, darkest enemies
that hell can throw at me.
Because I don't stand in my own strength.
I stand in the power of almighty God.
The Lord said to Joshua, don't be afraid.
Fear them not.
I've delivered them into thy hand.
And there shall not a man of them
stand before thee.
God is faithful.
If you get nothing else in your heart
today, get that in your heart.
God is faithful.
It's not about us.
It's about Him.
God is faithful.
He's faithful to do what He said He
would do.
Every promise He's ever spoken to you is
yea and amen.
Every little thing He's whispered in your ear
in the prayer closet.
Every thing that He's just all of a
sudden has broken into your heart.
Even walking down Broadway, on the subway, heading
somewhere.
Everything God has ever spoken, He will make
happen in your life.
You can be sure that Joshua was fighting
hell at this very moment in his life.
You can be sure of it.
He is fighting hell.
He's just seen his army put to flight
at Ai.
He knows he's made an allegiance with the
Gibeonites.
And because of this allegiance, he's now in
a battle.
Folks, he was having to defend Gibeah, a
very city he should have destroyed.
He's now defending it.
You can be sure the devil's on his
doorstep.
Saying, here you are having to defend something
that you were supposed to destroy.
It's now part of you.
And you've got to now stand with this.
And you've got to walk by this allegiance
that you've made.
You think that God is going to stand
with you?
You think that God is going to fight
for you?
Oh, the roaring lion was there.
You can be sure of it.
You can be sure all of hell was
there to defeat this man and this people
that were set apart for the purposes of
God.
Just the way hell is arrayed against every
one of us in this church today.
But hell will never prevail.
Jesus said, you're my church.
And the gates of hell, the plans of
hell will never prevail against you.
They cannot prevail against the church of the
living God.
Then spoke Joshua to the Lord in the
day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites.
Joshua went into battle.
And he saw that God was giving these
five powerful kings and their armies into his
hand.
And the children of Israel rose up with
a faith and a ferocity that was incredible.
They had learned some lessons in their very
short journey from Jordan.
They had learned a lot of lessons.
And folks, I'd rather learn now than have
to go through some of these valleys to
learn them.
I'd rather read it and understand it and
say, God, please just put it in my
heart and don't let me go in that
direction.
Don't let me hide sin in my life.
Don't let me make unholy allegiances and alliances
that are going to cost me effectiveness in
the future.
Joshua began to battle and saw these kings
were put to flight before the army of
Israel.
And he prayed a prayer, an incredible prayer.
I don't know if there's a more powerful
prayer other than the ones of Christ on
Calvary in the entire Bible.
I've never seen a greater answer to prayer
other than when Jesus said, Father, into thy
hands I commit my spirit.
And, of course, humanity was redeemed by his
sacrifice.
But Joshua said to the Lord that day,
he said, Son, stand still upon Gibeon and
thou moon in the valley of Ajalon.
And the sun stood still and the moon
stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon
their enemies.
And so the sun stood still in the
midst of heaven and hasted not to go
down about a whole day.
There was no day like it before or
after it that the Lord hearkened to the
voice of a man, for the Lord fought
for Israel.
Amazing.
Joshua, in the heat of the battle, prays
a prayer that had to come from the
Holy Ghost in him.
He's chasing these enemies and he sees now
he's got these powerful kings that were really
the gatekeepers into the promised land.
He's got them on the run and he's
so into the battle now and so doesn't
want to stop the fight that he says,
son, stop right where you are.
I can see at the end of the
day, the sun is heading down and he
says, son, stop.
Moon, stay where you are.
And for 24 hours, neither the sun nor
the moon moved.
Now, folks, you have to understand something.
I'm not a I'm not very big in
geometry or any of these other geometries.
What do you call astronomy?
I'm really not big in it.
But you just don't stop one part of
a watch.
You have to stop the whole thing.
I feel that God stopped the universe.
For a man's prayer.
Now, all kinds of laws of nature should
have come into effect.
The moment the earth stopped rotating, the people,
for example, should have been flung into space.
Massive tidal waves should have overpowered the continents.
All of these things would have happened, but
it wasn't just the sun and the moon.
God's literally suspended the laws of nature.
For one man's prayer.
Who was fighting.
For truth.
Who is fighting to bring a people.
Yes, he failed.
We all do.
But he's fighting to bring a people into
their inheritance and his heart is right.
And he yes, he's repented.
I'm sure he's repented.
He's gotten right with God and God is
now working with him and moving with him.
And he says, Sutton, stop moving.
Stay where you are.
I got to see this on heaven's video
someday.
That's going to be an incredible.
And to me, it's a type.
It's a type of the Christian.
Who's still in the battle.
Saying, God, I am.
Yes, I've made mistakes and I'm tired of
listening to the voice of the condemner.
I'm not listening to that voice anymore because,
God, you are faithful.
You called me and you will be faithful
to me.
It's the type of person in their prayer
closet that finally stops and begins to realize
who they are in Christ.
It says, God, let not the sun go
down any longer on this fruitless area of
my life.
I don't want it in me for one
more day.
Son, stop.
God, stop the sun.
Don't let it set on this area of
my life for one more day.
I'm tired of this.
I'm tired of this compromise.
I'm tired of this thing in my life
that I've let in there and it's growing
in me.
I'm tired of it.
And I'm asking you, God, to stop it.
Stop the working of it.
Let not the moon rise on another night
of compromise and sin.
That's got to be a prayer for ever
going to know the power of God in
our midst.
If you're ever going to know it individually
as Christians, you've got to say, God, stop
this area of fruitlessness in my life and
don't let the moon rise on one more
night of sin.
God, give me the power to turn.
Let not the sun go down on another
day of strife and discord in my home.
Mothers, you can pray this.
Fathers, you can pray this.
Husbands, wives, you can pray this.
God Almighty, stop it.
Let not the sun go down on it.
Stop the discord.
Stop the strife in my home.
Let not the moon rise on another night
of rebellion and confusion in my children.
Oh, God, move heaven and earth and bring
my sons and daughters into their inheritance that
is theirs in Christ.
Move heaven and earth.
Move it.
Oh, God, we have the power to do
this.
He said, pray and say to the mountain,
be moved and it will move.
Command it to be moved.
Stand believing and you will have whatsoever you
ask.
Let not the sun go down on another
powerless day in my life.
When I'm supposed to be a testimony of
the grace of the living God.
Let not the sun go down on another
day of it.
Let not the moon rise on another night
of depression and regret.
Jesus, Son of God, make a difference in
my life today.
Let not the sun go down on my
drug infested, violent, confused neighborhood.
Without my life having made a difference to
somebody.
God, don't let the sun go down tomorrow.
Before I have touched the soil somewhere.
Before you have reached out through me to
some sick person and brought the loving touch
of almighty God into their life.
Don't let the sun go down on self
-consumption.
Oh, God, don't let the moon rise on
another night of living for myself.
Let not the moon rise without a testimony
of praise to your faithfulness on my lips.
Let not the sun go down without my
heart saying, Jesus, you have been my supply.
You've been my counselor, my friend, my defender,
my tower.
You're my king.
My God.
You see, the whole principle is just this.
Stop it.
God, stop it.
I'm powerless to stop it.
But you've proven through history that you can
stop the universe.
You can stop this thing.
You can stop the advancement of this in
my life.
You can stop the enemies that are trying
to conquer me from knowing the fullness of
what you have for me.
God, you can stop it.
The five kings ran and hid in the
cave.
And when the battle was finally over, Joshua
had them taken out.
And he told his leaders, he said, put
your feet on the necks of these kings.
And Joshua said, don't be afraid or dismayed.
Be strong and of good courage.
For thus shall the Lord do to all
your enemies against whom you fight.
The Lord said, I will give you power.
And you will tread on serpents and scorpions
and over all the power of the enemy.
And nothing shall by any means hurt you.
We're to be pitied if we don't believe
when we pray.
I guess I have a very simple honor
call today.
It's people who can say, Pastor, whether you're
in the annex or in the balcony of
the main sanctuary, I've heard something today.
And I've allowed something into my life.
And I'm going to rise up today and
receive God's testimony of his faithfulness to me.
I'm going to confess my fault.
And I'm going to pray, Lord, don't let
the sun go down today.
Don't let the sun go down with this
still having any rule or reign or sway
in my life.
I'm speaking specifically to every backslider in this
house.
Everyone who's let compromise into their life.
A little thing you think it is, but
it will take your soul eventually if you
don't deal with it.
Everyone who's been stopped from the battle because
you've made some allegiance and you've listened to
the lies of the devil telling you that
you have no more place or position in
the kingdom of God.
That's a lie.
You may even have married an unsaved person
unwittingly, thinking you could change them only to
find out that you were wrong.
The devil tries to tell you you'll never
amount to anything now because of that, but
he's a liar.
He's a liar.
You can still get up.
You can still go in and possess your
inheritance.
You can still bring your family into the
life of God.
You can still make a difference in your
neighborhood, your city, your building, your world.
God will still touch you and use you.
But you have to get up.
You have to get into the battle.
He's not going to come and just do
it for you.
Your part is to believe him and get
up and get into the battle.
Say, God, no more.
I'm not letting the sun go down on
this thing one more day.
Today I'm coming to an altar and I'm
believing God you're going to deal with it.
You're going to strike a death blow to
it.
You're going to burn it in the fire
of your presence.
You're going to lift me out of depression.
You're going to lift me out of despondency.
You're going to lift me out of all
my struggles.
God, you're going to give me hope again.
You're going to give me victory.
Now, if you're here and you don't know
Christ as your Savior, as always, you're invited
to come to this altar and receive him
as your Savior.
Before we pray at this altar, there are
people here that say, Pastor, I'm not saved.
I'm a sinner.
I live in sin.
I've resisted God.
And up to this point, I've not really
understood that it's my sin that put Christ
on the cross.
Today, I want this.
I want eternity to record that this is
the day that I gave my life to
Christ.
This is the day that I brought all
of my failures and all of my weakness
and I laid it at the cross and
I accepted God's forgiveness for my sin.
This is the day I began to pray,
let not the sun go down anymore on
spiritual darkness in my life.
I make the choice today to yield my
life to Jesus Christ and I invite him
into my heart to be my Lord and
Savior.
Never be a greater decision that you'll ever
make in your entire life.
Heaven is real.
Hell is real.
Calvary is real.
The love of God is real.
He died to make a way that you
might be saved.
And today, if you'd like to open your
heart and give your life to Jesus Christ,
would you just unashamedly raise your hand with
me?
Wherever you are.
Just up in the balcony.
Go ahead.
Just raise your hand.
Unashamedly.
All throughout the sanctuary.
God bless you.
You want to give your life to Jesus
Christ.
In the annex, God knows and sees your
hand and your heart.
Those that are yielding their life to him,
thank God for you.
Hallelujah.
Let's pray.
Those that raised their hands, let's pray together.
Lord Jesus Christ, I am a sinner.
Jesus, I thank you that you died because
you love me.
You died to pay the price for all
the wrong things that I have done.
You love me.
Forgive me for not understanding this.
Forgive me for living in rebellion to this
incredible love that you showed me on Calvary.
Today, I open my heart and I open
my life.
I accept your offer of forgiveness of my
sins.
And I ask you, Jesus, to come into
my heart, into my life, and be my
Lord and be my Savior.
I fully yield to you.
I give you the rights to my life.
Take me.
Lead me.
Guide me.
Bring me into everything that is mine in
Jesus Christ.
Use my life for your glory.
Wherever you send me, whatever you call me
to be, I yield my life to it.
And I ask that you be king of
my life.
I am sincere in this prayer.
I mean what I say.
I know you take me at that.
And from this day forward, I am yours.
I believe that in heaven's record, today, I
am saved.
I am saved.
Let me pray for you now.
Father, I pray for those who have received
Christ.
God, that this be the end of a
dark life.
This be the end of a life captivated
by sin and lived for selfishness.
That this be the beginning of a life
yielded to the purposes of God.
I ask, O God, that the devil not
be able to come and steal the seed
of faith that's been sown in these hearts
this day.
And I thank you, God, that you're going
to raise up mighty men and women for
your kingdom and for your glory.
In Jesus' name.
This is the conclusion of the message.