Risking It All | Joshua 2

We got some good TV speakers, don't we?

Hey, good morning everybody, welcome to Saint City.

If I don't know you, my name is Brandon.

I'm so glad that you are here today.

We're going to open up the book of Joshua today in God's Word.

So if you got a Bible, turn to Joshua or go to the table

contents and find if you don't have a Bible, we actually have

one in a seat nearby in front of you on the floor there.

And it's on page 179 of that Bible.

When I get up to talk, when anybody gets up here to preach

at Saint City, what we do each and every week is we open up

God's words. Why?

Because our words aren't all that important.

But like the Apostle Peter said, like to whom else would we turn

that has the words of life? And we believe that that book

that is on the floor there in your hands today, guess what?

It has the very words of eternal life itself.

That immortality is found in the belief in Jesus.

And we believe that you can have that and experience that for

yourself. And so we turn to his words for

life in our life with Jesus. And so we open that up and just

a moment, I'll meet you there. What I'm realizing right now in

my life is that sometimes you just have to risk it all, OK?

You just got to you got to send it.

You got to risk it all to have it.

Some of you, like I'm looking at the college students right now.

I'm like, you just got to risk it and go ask that girl for her

number. You know, I'm saying you just

got to risk it, but I was watching Deal or No Deal

recently just as like I was conjuring up this image of

risking it all. I don't know if you remember

this show, but it was hosted by the bald headed beauty known as

Howie. He's our bald king, right?

We love him in the bald world. He pulls it off.

But Howie, what he'll do is he does something dramatic all the

time and Deal or No Deal, Deal or No deal's this game show

where you have a briefcase beside you and there's like 2530

briefcases before you. And you have to decide if the

value of what's in your briefcase and the numbers that

you know that are worth those briefcases.

You're like, hey, is this briefcase going to be worth more

than either the briefcases that are out there or the deal from

the banker? And so you work your way through

and you're like, hey, what is my briefcase going to be worth

taking that offer or grabbing one of those briefcases?

And you do this again and again and again and again.

What will happen is in the show is how he does something super

dramatic. He'll look at you and he's like,

everything in life has a turning point.

Is this yours? Are you going to take the

$500,000 offer or are you going to bet that you have the

$1,000,000 case? And then inevitably they'll

like, open up their case and it's like a $5 case.

And you're like, oh, my gosh, the anxiety of just turning down

a half, $1,000,000 for five. Yeah, sometimes you got to risk

it, right? You got to risk it all to have

it all. And the crowd, as he's chanting

that, he'll be like, hey, crowd, what?

What you guys who've seen the show, you know it.

He'll be like, hey, crowd, should they risk it all?

And the crowd will like chant, and they'll get really into it.

And sometimes the risk is worth the reward.

They're like, hey, that's that deal's only worth $20,000.

There's 17 cases up there worth more than $17,000.

I am not taking that deal. What happened spiritually is

something similar at times, I believe.

And it's the problem that many of us face each and every week

is that many of us are unsure or unclear if going all in, if

risking it all for Jesus is actually worth it.

Is it worth risking it all for Jesus Christ?

Is it worth it? Is it going to be something

we're look back on with regret? Is it going to be something that

we years from now look back on and go, wow, I made a dumb

decision by giving more of my life to Jesus, risking it all on

the reality that he died on a cross, he rose again and he

ascended to heaven never to die again.

Is that worth risking my whole life on?

Is it worth risking my image and my career?

Is it worth risking my finances? Is it worth risking it all on

Jesus Christ? Am I willing to bank my life on

Him and His claims? I think we find ourselves asking

that question. I think we find a character

right here in Joshua chapter 2 that was asking a similar

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

question. The central question for today

that I want us to focus in on together is this, does faith in

Jesus mean I have to risk it all?

It's a question Rahab, our main character, is going to be asking

herself, and it's a question we have to find an answer for, for

ourselves together. In fact, that is my goal this

morning is that you would leave here with clarity and with

confidence and with conviction to an answer to that question.

So let's go to God's Word, Joshua chapter 2.

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

But before we do, actually I just want to pray for us as a

church family as we come before God's Word.

Will I just be able to pray for us as a church family before we

go to God's Word? Would you join me right now?

Lord, here we are as people here in Tempe, AZ asking and

believing God, that you can still speak, you can still move

in hearts. And so, Lord, I pray and I ask

God that you would shake, shake us.

You'd shake us from whatever apprehension, whatever obstacle,

whatever interferes with us living a life of worship unto

you, whatever prevents us from having faith in you.

Oh God, would you give us great faith today for the person who

has unbelief? Lord, would the simple prayer be

I believe, but help my unbelief and God would you make me as a

messenger so small and your message so big that people would

hear and experience the glory of who Jesus Christ is and what

he's done for their life in Jesus name, Amen.

Joshua chapter 2 verse one says this and Joshua, who is the

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

successor to Moses, who is the new leader of the people of

Israel. He, the son of Nun, sent two men

secretly from a city that I would like for you guys to

pronounce. Actually, if you have your

Bible, you're laughing because the city Hashitim, as spies

saying, go view the land, go view the land, especially a city

called Jericho. And they went and came into the

House of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.

And it was told, the king of Jericho, behold, men of Israel

have come here tonight to search the land.

Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying, Bring out the men

who have come to you who entered your house, for they have come

to search out all the land. But the woman had taken the two

spies, the men and he, and she'd hidden them.

She said, true, the men came to me, but I did not know where

they were from. And when the gate was out to be

closed at dark, the men went out.

I do not know where the men went.

Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.

But she had brought them up to the roof and hit them with the

socks of flax, that she had laid an order on the roof.

So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as

the Fords, and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone

out. Let's stop right there and let's

ask ourselves the next question. If we're asking ourselves the

question this morning of is Jesus worth banking my life

around? Then let's ask ourselves this.

Do we realize the risk of staying?

Like what is the risk of staying put where we are?

I think a lot of times when people are considering Jesus,

when they're considering their faith in him, they are realizing

the risk of going all in on being a Christian.

But they are not realizing the risk of actually staying in the

space and in the mentality in the lifestyle that they

currently find themselves in. That there's actually a risk of

staying put, of holding on to your briefcase just as much as

there is grabbing a new one or taking the deal.

I think we see in this first initial section here 3

unavoidable spiritual laws that Rahab discovers for herself and

that is true for us. The first unavoidable spiritual

law is that judgement is coming. Judgement is coming.

Rahab. Before the men lay down, she

came up to mum in verse 8. Now she came up to them on the

roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you the

land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all

the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

Rahab is realizing something that the people of Canaan, her

people, guess what judgment is coming for them.

These people, these Canaanites, they're child sacrificers.

They are evil, wicked people. Herself, her career, not exactly

an honorable one. She's a prostitute, The oldest

profession they call it right? She is deeply aware that

judgement is coming, not just for her, but for all the people

of Jericho, and that she is recognizing that.

Wait a second, this God who is with the Israelites?

Everywhere the Israelites go, guess what?

The people melt before them. The land is theirs.

If their God says they have it, they get it.

And judgement is coming for every single person in Jericho.

Now that is not only true for Rahab, that is a spiritual law

that is true of the world. Romans 3 says that nobody is

righteous, no, not one, because of the reality that each and

every single one of us was born in sin and chooses to sin,

therefore is worthy of God's judgment that we don't just

stand accused, we stand condemned because of our sin and

we are in deep need of salvation.

And Rahab realizes something. She realizes the second

spiritual law that I can't save myself.

Not only is judgement coming, but Rahab realizes something.

She's like, wait, these Israelites are about to come

into our city, they're about to take over.

And sure, I could stand the post of my house with a sword, and

that's not going to go so well. I'm like picturing verbal meme

right now. I'm like picturing Jon Snow and

he's like, got all the army coming at him and he's got the

sword raised. Like, that's Rahab trying to

save herself. It's just not going to work.

It is a suicide mission to try to save yourself.

And she realizes it. Not only is the judgement

coming, Rahab is deeply aware of the reality.

She can't save herself. Once again, that's not just true

for Rahab. That is true for every single

one of us. That staying put is fatal.

That it is a horrifying thing to fall into the hands of a holy

God. Staying put is dangerous.

I've never lived in Florida because I am deathly afraid of

hurricanes. We get all the perks of the

sunshine here in Arizona, none of the natural disaster, thanks

be to God. But if I were to live in

Florida, I could tell you how I'd operate.

I would not be the kind of person who fled hurricanes

because I'm the skeptic by nature.

It'd be like, hey, time to board up your windows.

Time to run. I'd be like, meh, we'll risk it

for the biscuit. We'll stay here.

And I can tell you with certainty, as I look over my

wife Maddie, she's like, we would absolutely not be those

people. We would be going to Georgia,

we'd be going to Mississippi. We'd go somewhere other than

Florida. I know this is true because in

college often times my fire alarm would go off and I lived

on the 15th floor of my dorm and on the 15th floor of my dorm at

3:00 AM when the fire alarm went off, I never went downstairs.

If, if, if this is how it ends, so be it.

I'm I'm called to die right here and now staying put though in

Florida, staying put in my dorm had danger to it.

And I'm concerned for some of you today.

I'm concerned that you're not realizing the risk of staying

put where you are spiritually, that you think that staying

where you are with Jesus is enough, that there is no danger

in just letting him be a part of your life.

If Jesus is not Lord of it all, he is not Lord at all.

Listen to me closely. Staying put has grave

consequences. Judgment is coming.

You can't save yourself. But here's the third spiritual

law. God must be kind to us.

He has to be kind. He has to be gracious.

He has to make a way where there is no way, otherwise we are

stuck in the risk, stuck with the grave consequences.

God has to be kind to us, otherwise the risk of staying

put will leave us without hope. So my second question for you

guys, is this a God worth risking it all on?

If I'm you and I'm in the seat today and I'm like wondering if

where I'm at with Jesus and I'm thinking to myself, hey, what

does faith in him look like in my everyday life?

Will I be asking myself that question?

Is this God worth risking it all on?

Will I regret it? Will I think back and wonder if

it was worth it? Well, I think Rahab thinks he's

worth it. I think He gives us 5

attributes. We learn about God in verses 9

through 11. She said to the men, I know that

the Lord has given you the land. The first thing we learn about

God is He is in charge. Another word for that is He's

sovereign. He is sovereign.

He rules over the land. That land, the promised land is

actually God's. Jericho might inhabit it, but

they do not own it. They are renters from God

Himself and He's decided no longer is it yours.

You are abusing the land that I gave you.

You are not operating in holiness.

You are not reflecting my image, human beings.

So guess what? I'm going to give it to my

people, the Israelites. He is in charge.

It is His land to give. He is sovereign.

He is in charge. The second thing we learned is

that He is powerful. Look back at verse 9.

The Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has

fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land will

melt away before you. Rahab realizes something that

when the Israelites fight, they do not lose.

Their God is the undisputed champ of winning battles, and

their hearts melt because of it. They cower in fear.

They're hoping that that God, the Jericho people are hoping

that God will change his mind because they know if this battle

starts, it's a battle they're going to lose.

I mean, look what he she says next, verse 10 for we have heard

how the Lord, she calls him Yahweh.

By the way, God's personal name, recognizing that she actually

believes in him, doesn't just know about him, but actually

believes these things to be true about him.

He dried up the water of the Red Sea.

Pause. He dried up the water of the Red

Sea. How many seas have you looked

at, spoken to and dried up? None.

I imagine you could even look at a puddle and let that happen.

God looked at the Red Sea in Exodus and he said part.

He's that powerful. If God can do that, what can he

do to the city of Jericho? That's what Rahab's feeling.

If you're that powerful, if your God is that strong, we're in big

trouble. Not only do we learn that about

God, we also learn that he is big.

So the Israelites, what they did to the 2 Kings and the Amorites,

Rayon the Jordan to see Han and AOG, whom you devoted to

destruction. I'm in verse 11 now.

And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and there was no

spirit left in any man because of you.

For the Lord your God, He is God.

Where? In the heavens above and on the

earth below. What is she saying?

She's saying every other God that I've heard of isn't this

God. They're all ants compared to

him. So what happens when you feel

really, really small? Your heart melts.

There is no courage to fight because you're no longer

fighting the people of Israel. You are fighting against God

himself. And he is big.

However big you think God is, he's bigger.

He is infinite, He is self existent, meaning he doesn't

need anyone or anything to exist.

He didn't need anyone to create him.

He's eternal. He is omnipresent, meaning he is

everywhere all at once. He is omnipotent, all powerful.

He is omniscient, knowing things beyond any human comprehension.

This is God, He is that big. And when you come face to face

in a fight with God, guess what? Your heart melts.

And so is Rahab's. He is big, He is powerful, He's

in charge. But look at verse 12.

He's also kind. Now then she says, please swear

to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you will

also deal kindly with my Father's house.

That word there in the original language is the same word that

we get for God's steadfast love, his covenant love.

It's the Hebrew word has said, and what that means is, is what

she's saying is, Hey, I want to enter into eternal relationship

with this God. I want his your God to be my

God. And for that to happen, He needs

to be kind to me. You need to be kind to me.

You need to be loving to me. I know I'm an outsider.

I am not born of the people of Israel.

I did not wander in the desert for 40 years.

But guess what? I believe and know that your God

is the real God. Listen to me.

You might not have grown up in church.

You might not have been around the things of God before.

You might think it's only for the people who are clean and

pure and they grew up in it. But listen to me.

God loves outsiders and He welcomes them in.

He is kind to anyone who would call upon His name to be saved.

That's who He is, and that's what He does.

He is kind because He's also a missionary God.

I don't know if you've ever thought about this as an

attribute of God, that He is a missionary God, but He is

fulfilling a promise here in saving Rahab in Genesis chapter

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

12. You can write down that like

Genesis chapter 12, he promises Abraham.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

At that point in the story, he's known as Abram.

His name changes at one point, but Abraham is promised that

through his lineage, all the nations of the earth will be

blessed. The people of Israel aren't just

to be blessed. There's intended to be a

blessing to the world that anyone who wants to live unto

God in worship can be an Israelite.

And I think that many of us when we're doubting God or wrestling

with God or we have friends that wrestling with God, we think of

God like some cosmic tow truck, truck like driver.

OK, I was talking to Tanisha this week and I'm putting her on

blast. I'm so sorry, T, you're not even

here today. But she was over at the

Chick-fil-A over near campus. And it says very explicitly on

those signs, do not park here unless you're a Chick-fil-A

customer. Now, if you're in downtown Tempe

very often, you know, parking is hard to come by and that parking

lot normally fair game. OK, not this day, not for

Tanisha. Poor tea.

She goes about and she goes, she literally goes across the street

to a different restaurant. First she was going to go to

Chick-fil-A, but she went somewhere else 1st and there was

a tow truck driver waiting there for her.

Being as petty as can get. I'm sorry if you're a tow truck

driver, by the way, I'm not trying to offend.

But this guy, he's sitting there waiting for her car and makes

her pay on the spot before he tows it away.

That that's like so petty and vindictive and there's waiting

for you to do something wrong. I think many people think about

God like that, especially the God of the Old Testament, let's

call it. He is the same yesterday, today,

and forever. I think many people think that

we're in Joshua right now, that we think God is different here

than he is when Jesus arrives in the New Testament.

This is the same God. This is the same God who loves

people regardless of ethnicity, regardless of story, regardless

of background. This is the God who is a

missionary God who is willing to save Rahab the prostitute.

And all it took was an admission that this God is who he said He

is and that she needed His grace and His kindness.

Upon her life. Rahab realized that this God is

a missionary God. So is God worth banking your

life on? I would say yes.

That this God who is in charge, who is powerful, who is big and

kind and seeking after you as a missionary, guess what?

He loves you enough to come save you from your sin.

That it might not be God doing the talking right here through

the spies, but it is nonetheless an opportunity and an invitation

for Rahab to take hold of life eternal, offered to or through

God. This God is worth it.

His judgement on sin is just. You cannot save yourself.

But He is loving and kind and seeking and saving the lost.

Even in Joshua. This is who God is.

So what grants us God's kindness in our life?

What grants us our his kindness in our life?

Well, we're going to keep reading the story.

What's question three, Question 3.

Now as you're taking notes, is this what grants us the kindness

of God? Let me show you in the text,

verse 15. Then she let down the spies by a

rope through the window, for her house was built into the city

wall so that she lived in the wall.

And she said to them, Go into the hills, or the pursuers will

encounter you and hide there three days until the pursuers

have returned. Then afterward you may go your

way. The men, they say to her, We

will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you

have made us swear. Behold, when we the Israelites

come into the land, you shall tie underlying this, this

scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down,

and you shall gather into your house your father and mother,

your brothers, and all your father's household.

Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the

street, his blood shall be on his head and we shall be

guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone

who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head.

But if you tell U.S. business of ours, then we shall be guiltless

with respect to your oath that you made a swear.

And she said, according to your words, so be it.

Then Rahab sends them away. And they departed, and she tied

the scarlet cord in the window, despised the part, and went to

the hills, and remained there three days until the pursuers

returned. And the pursuers searched all

along the way and found nothing. Then the two men returned.

They came down from the hills, passed over, and came to Joshua

their leader, the son of Nun. And they told him all that had

happened to them. And they said to Joshua, Truly

the Lord has given all the land into our hands, and also all the

inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.

So what does Rahab do? What are we supposed to do with

the opportunity for the gospel? Is there A to do list to do?

Is there much to be done? I think it's actually really

simple in the Bible. How do you receive the kindness

and grace of God? It's simply this.

Faith with God means risking it all to have it all.

Faith with God is risking it all to have it all.

Rahab risks everything by turning to God in faith.

Her faith is simply the act of saying I'm going to hang this

scarlet thread, that this God is who he said he is, despise and

do what they said they do, and I and my family will be spared

from the judgement. It's just faith.

In fact, that's all Rahab's ever honored for in the Bible, her

ethics here with lying. That's under debate, much

debate, and Christians land on all sides of it.

Personally, I land on the spot where she shouldn't have lied,

but I understand it and God's grace is real and big.

But I think that God never condones her lying here.

He never says, hey, it's a good thing.

What's commended in Hebrews 11, what's commended in the book of

James, what's commended for her being in the genealogy of Jesus

is her faith, her trust that God is who he said he is.

And I think there's five aspects of her faith that I want to show

you right there in the text. Once again, it's ordinary but

biblical faith. The first thing is, is she

risked her allegiance. She risked her allegiance.

The king of Jericho knows these spies have come.

He knows that they're in, they're in the city of Jericho

and he's got Intel saying that they went to her in her house

and she's willing to risk her allegiance to the people of

Jericho, to the God of Israel. Our decision isn't very

different. Now, we might not be risking

necessarily our allegiance to our country or to our neighbors,

but there are allegiances you have that are on the table when

it comes to risking it all for God.

Maybe it's to your family, to your career, to your image.

Maybe it's to your friends and your relationships.

I don't know what allegiance you hold dearest and deepest, but I

know this. It's in competition with a good

and great and powerful God that there is a line in the sand.

Those who are still in rebellion against God and those who are

waving His flag in His Kingdom. Rahab was willing to risk her

allegiance in faith. She risked it all, risking her

life on the reality that she would have life from God.

She doesn't just risk her allegiance though.

She surrenders whatever is between her and God.

She surrendered whatever was between her and God.

She's going to lay up the spies on the roof with the flat.

She's going to give away whatever she can so that

whatever's between her and God, she's not going to play it safe

anymore. She realizes the judgement is

coming. She can't save herself.

So what's she going to do? Hey, God, I'm banking my whole

life on the reality that you are who I've heard you to be, that

you are who you say you are. We would call this playing it

safe, the idea that we might not actually go all in.

We're going to hedge our bet a bit against God.

We're going to hold a little bit back.

We'll go to church on Sundays, maybe a small group throughout

the week. Maybe we'll listen to Christian

music on the radio or podcast even.

We cannot give God a part of our life and expect Him to give us a

whole eternal life. Jesus Christ is the greatest

treasure this side of heaven and the next.

The pleasure of living with God as a part of your life will not

exceed the treasure of living life with Jesus Christ as Lord.

We hedge our bets and surrender often because we are doubting

the reality that the pleasures of this life, that they're

better than the treasure of knowing Jesus.

I get it. This is me, this is my story.

When I was 18 years old, I was headlong head first, going after

the things that this life offers you, wealth, beauty, success,

power. My heart was drawn to it.

And as an 18 year old raised in the church, I believed that.

Guess what? Like I thought to myself before

I was saved, there is no way that going all in on Jesus is

actually worth it. Those Christians who take him so

seriously, here's what I thought.

They're losers. God doesn't actually want that

much of your life. He just wants to be a part of

it. When Jesus is your greatest

treasure, when you truly believe in Him like that, He becomes the

Lord of your life and you are willing to surrender whatever He

asks you to. Give that going into ministry,

starting a church like we have here.

It was God once again asking me to surrender in faith to risking

it all again. That the faith that saved me,

risking it all, banking my life on the reality of Jesus.

It doesn't just save, it also sustains you.

So listen to me, Christian faith isn't over yet in your life.

You still need to continually risk more and more for Jesus.

That comes through financially with your treasure.

It comes through with your talents.

It comes through with your time. This is what it means to have

live a life of faith. It's saying God, I don't see

what's on the other side of this, but I will continually

risk it all because you are the God who I came to believe in

when I got saved and you are the God who I know to be now and you

are trustworthy of holding my life in your hands.

He's worth surrendering to. She compassionately also Rahab

two more things here on rehab in her risking at all ordinary

faith is just compassionately looking to save others.

Did you notice that she has a whole blurb about her family?

Hey, my father, my brother, my sisters, my mom.

Hey, can you get them saved too? Can you spare them?

That's one of the first questions you should ask as

being a saved person is who in my who is in my life that I

would love to see be spared of the judgement of God.

There's this magician. I think it's it's either tell or

a pen. I don't remember which one of

them. I never I always mix them up,

but they're popular for looking at magicians shows.

And one of them says this in regards to Christians.

He said I don't believe in the whole God thing.

But here's what I do believe that if you believe that my

life, my eternity, is going to be completely and utterly

judged, that there is an eternity apart from goodness and

you don't have the courage to tell me about it, that has to be

one of the most cruel and unloving things I've ever heard.

That there's a train about to hit me and you stay silent.

What are you doing? Oh, would we be a people of

faith St. City, a people that see the

train coming and constantly say, hey, guess what?

Salvation is available to all, Rahab.

That's what ordinary faith looks like, and it looks like obeying.

She does the very thing. She lays the scarlet thread out,

she obeys God, and then she reaps the reward of seeing God

come through on His promises. Faith is simply just that.

Most of the time it's just taking God at His word and

acting upon it, knowing that He promises a good result in your

sexual purity. It takes faith to believe that

He promises a good result for your obedience, in your

financial integrity, in your relationships, and seeking

forgiveness in the way that you're raising your kids is

taking God at His word and trusting that He knows what it's

like to have a good marriage. He knows what it takes to be a

good parent. He knows what it takes to be a

good college student. He knows what it takes to have a

life of flourishing. Would you trust Him and take Him

at His Word? Rahab is proof positive that

it's not where you start, it's how you end.

He started with a horrible career of being used like an

object. But I found something

fascinating this week in studying Rahab.

Rahab is the mother of a guy named Boaz.

Some of you know who Boaz is because you've read a lot of

your Bible, but Boaz is the husband of another major

character named Ruth. Boaz and Ruth are the great

great grandparents of King David, who is the great, great,

great, great, great, great, great granddad of Jesus.

That Rahab, the prostitute that she lives her life.

And as yours goes on and as the book goes on, she's going to be

saved from the battle of Jericho and she's going to marry a man

named Salmon, not a fish, just a tough name.

He's named Salmon. But what I learned this week is

that Salmon, according to Jewish history, is one of these two

spies that the home where she was used and broken, God

redeemed. God's not done with you yet.

However your story started, it doesn't have to be how it ends.

She is in the lineage of Jesus Christ and the reason we have

Joshua 2 in our Bible, It's not every single one of us could

look at it and look at the story of Rahab and go Jesus Christ

loves people from all stories and backgrounds.

He came through all kinds of people, for all kinds of people.

He is Jesus Christ. And that is really the story of

Rahab. There's three main characters in

the story. There's the rescuer, there's

Rahab, and there's us, the reader.

Jesus is not obviously glaring on the text.

He's not like the one talking. But make no mistake, the book of

Joshua is helping us see the reality of a man named Jesus

Christ who would come. It is foreshadowing for us that

the hero of the Bible ultimately is Jesus Christ.

And he's not here for the spiritually clean.

He's not here for the one who think they have it all together,

but rather he's here for the ones who would humble themselves

and look to him and say, save me, for I am a person who needs

saving from my sin, from your judgment.

Rahab was a liar and a harlot, but her hope wasn't in stacking

her good deeds. It was in looking to a person

named Jesus Christ, the hero of every person's heart who is

saved. He is the great rescuer, the

great Redeemer, and that is who she is looking to in this very

moment. I hope you are seeing him

clearly that the story of Rahab is not about the city of

Jericho, it's about the sin inside of its walls.

That this story is not about crossing the Jordan River.

It's about crossing from death to life.

That the story of Israel and Joshua is not ultimately about

the rest and joy of the Promised land.

It is about people receiving the rest and joy of being saved by

Jesus Christ. Christian, do you marvel at the

mystery of the Gospel? Once again, this is your story.

For those still on the outside, do you believe it that Jesus is

worth banking your life on? He is the rescuer who came to

save every single Rahab, even you.

And so I think this leads us to three quick pieces of our

discipleship, how to be learners and followers of Jesus.

This is wrong. close the three areas of our discipleship that

God is speaking to directly. First.

I think it speaks to our walk. So Christians, listen, this is

for you. Are you praying that God would

save more Rahabs in your life? The person far from God, the

person who you think is impossible for God to save.

Are you actually praying for that, or are you just thinking

about it? Are you actually taking time to

beg God to save the Rahabs in your life?

But also, do you actually believe God is trustworthy for

the risk he's asking you to take?

What risk is God asking you to take still, still going to take

faith? It's still going to take risk.

Where in your life is that going to happen?

It's going to happen in your finances.

It's going to happen in your purity.

It's going to happen in your marriage.

It's going to happen in your parenting.

Where in your life is it going to take faith this week?

Because I promise you, faith is on the table once again for you

to believe in God and take Him at His Word to obey Him.

In fact, that's just what faith is.

It's just the next step of obedience and that's how we walk

with Him. 2nd, and I thought it buried just its own point is

just it affects our witness. Are you willing to risk your

reputation, perhaps your job, perhaps that promotion your

image and telling others about Jesus?

I think we get quick to rationalize that.

We're quick to write it off and say God wouldn't really want me

to. Rahab was willing to risk it

all. She committed treason against

Jericho. I just wonder if you're willing

to take risks this week and telling others about Jesus.

And finally, I'll borrow a line from Howie here.

Everything in life has a tipping point.

And so for you who are here today and you realize that Jesus

has just been a part of your life.

That you actually haven't risked anything on His reality of His

resurrection yet. Are you willing to risk it all

to have it all? Are you willing to put your

whole life on the table, your whole eternity on the hope of

Jesus Christ? Are you willing to do it?

There's some of you here today that I believe God is going to

save. That you are realizing that the

judgement is coming and you've been trying to save yourself and

all you can do is cry out to God for salvation in His kindness

and grace to you. You're realizing the Rahab in

you and you've only given a little bit, but I invite you

today to risk it all, to have it all.

I think Jesus is worth it. That you would grab hold of the

scarlet thread that runs all throughout the Bible.

It is the story of Jesus Christ, the scarlet thread that every

person calls upon to be saved. If you believe in your heart and

confess your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, Romans 10 says

you will be saved. So I'm going to pray for us and

then we're going to take communion together and I'll lead

you through that in just a moment.

You pray with me first.