God wants to use your insecurities

I always thought that the people God really used didn't

struggle with insecurity. And I couldn't understand why I had

to press through, you know. No matter how many people

I preached to, or no matter how many people we baptized,

there was still something in me that I couldn't completely shake.

And I know God is a God of breakthrough, but

sometimes for me, it's so incremental that I can't feel it.

So now I interpreted it to mean that maybe there

was something broken in me that would keep me from

being greatly used by God. And I just got a

sense tonight as I was prepared for this sermon that

there are some of you who have been giving weight

to that narrative. That God can't use you because. That

God can't use your life because. You know, people God

uses don't have eating disorders. People God uses weren't sexually molested.

People that God uses, they don't deal with what I

deal with, you know, that I'm hiding from everybody but myself.

People that God uses, they don't have dark thoughts like

I have. People that God uses, they're not on their

third marriage. People that God uses, they're smarter with their money.

People that God uses, they're more disciplined. But God picked

a prostitute to bring his people into the promised land.

I think he's sovereign enough to do his job just fine.

And if he chose you, he chose you and there's

nothing you can do to change it. Come on, shout

for the good news. And you know what I love?

God didn't change Rahab before he used her. Y'all sat

down too soon. That was the shouting spot right there.

God didn't change her before he used her. Most of

us are taught that God will love us when we change.

But God's love is not the reward for our change.

God's love is the resource by which we are changed.

If you have the faith to tell the person next

to you, tell them God's going to use you. God's

going to use you this year. God's going to use

you this year. Rahab. Rahab. Look at this. Look at

this odd choice of a sacred space that God used

to bring his people into a promise. The roof of Rahab.

Of course, it's a Very symbolic story how she had

to let a scarlet cord, which represents the blood of

Jesus that was shadowing the covenant that God had made

with his people all along but would be fully revealed

and illuminated through his son. And I don't think I

would preach about her. I really think I would, I

think I'd probably choose not to if she was only

in this, because there's, you know, if she was only

in Joshua 2, I'd be like, yeah, but that's the

Old Testament. Okay, but then, are you ready for this?

You're not ready for this. I promise. I promise you're

not ready for this. In Matthew chapter 1, which is

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

a part of the Bible that you usually skip. I'm

just telling you, you normally skip this, okay? But here's

one lesson I want you to learn from my Bible

study tonight, is that Sometimes God speaks through the stuff

that you skip past. In your Bible reading and in

your life. And I slowed down and I read Matthew

1 because it's the genealogy of Jesus Christ. It's how

he came. It's 14 generations from Abraham to David. 14

from David to the Babylonian exile. And then 14 until

the coming of Jesus Christ. But it tells us how

he got here. And I was surprised to see in

the list. I'm not going to read all of them

to you especially. It's a lot of names. I can't

pronounce them all. But I saw one thing where it

said in verse five, as it's naming, you know, so-and-so

begot so-and-so begot so-and-so begot so-and-so begot so-and-so begot so-and-so.

And it's all important, but I just want to show

you one thing. It said, Salmon, the father of Boaz,

whose mother was Rahab. To get to Jesus... the hero,

you gotta go through Rahab, the harlot, because God is

working through imperfect people in the earth today. God is,

I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. I wish

it was just me and you so I could like

find out what that thing is in your life that's dislocated,

that's never been quite right, that's always bothered you, like

your nose is crooked or your mind's screwed up or

your nose is crooked and your mind's screwed up or

your mind is crooked and your nose is screwed up.

I wish I could find the thing, but you just

gotta trust me. God is working through who he wants

to work through. And then... Are you ready for this?

I promise you're not ready for this. I promise you're not.

When they were writing the author of Hebrews, whoever he is,

he's a coffee lover. He brews. Sorry, I'll take that

back to Charlotte. I'm sorry, I'm almost done. I'm almost done.

But he was... Do you have that scripture, Hebrews 11?

Follow me with this scripture. Do you have it, Hebrews 11?

Do you have Hebrews 11? It says, it's called the

hall of faith, some people call it. The hall of faith.

They start listing all these things that God did, like

some of the historical events on which the redemptive history

of the people of God would hinge. It says they

pass through the people, pass through the people, pass through

as on dry land. But when the Egyptians tried to

do so, they were drowned. He's looking back on all

this stuff. He said, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell,

which was after they stayed in the house of Rahab

the harlot. And after the army had marched around them

for seven days, because God doesn't do everything immediately, there's

always a process involved. Just remember, by faith, the prostitute

Rahab there there goes the harlot again in the list

of the heroes of the faith in the book of

hebrews there goes rahab the prostitute because she welcomed the

spies was not killed with those who were disobedient and

then he runs out of time he goes and and

what more shall i say you know how preachers do

when they're guest speakers in your church it's like a

five can i have five more minutes and you're like

no um He goes, I don't have time to tell

about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, about David. Wait, you don't

have time to talk about David? But you had time

to talk about Rahab? Come on, I need all the

messed up people to shout. I need all the people

who know. I don't belong on this list. But by grace,

through faith... Come on, shout about it if you haven't

been perfect.