If you have a Bible, you can open it to the Old Testament
book of Joshua will be in chapter 2 this morning and just
hold it. We're not going to look at it
quite yet. I'll start with a question, a
real time question for me, but I'm thinking this through in my
life. How many of you are done with
your Christmas shopping? Is that probably a 5050 split?
Some of you got done in July and some of you won't get done until
December 24th. No doubt.
And then there is the spectrum that exists in all things.
As I think about that question, I always think of my my
childhood years. And there was one gift my mom
wanted every year, especially as her kids got older.
And it was simply, I want my kids to get along.
It's all I want. It probably would have been
easier had she just asked for something from a store so I
could just buy it, give it to her, and move on with my life.
It was hard. It's still hard to give someone
the gift of peace. That's what she was essentially
asking for. A mother who had children who
were at odds. Like all children are just
wanted a moment of peace for her life.
Some of you mothers can relate to that.
Now I just want my life to be at peace.
And it is one of the aims of this season.
In fact, as a challenge, just listen how often the theme or
even the word peace comes up in the Christmas songs.
It is a desire of all people that someday there would be
World Peace. And yet year after year after
year, it is still on the list of things that would be nice to
have that are so often hard to get.
I bring that up because it is the third week of Advent.
It is the week where we will look at a story of one of God's
people that represents the peace of God.
And Jesus says, I give you peace, not like the world gives.
This is this is different kind of piece than just a momentary
time for kids to get along or a little ease on a vacation.
We're going to look at life transforming peace today and
we're going to do that in one of if not the most surprising
characters, the most surprising name on the list of the
genealogical record of the Messiah.
Remember the the foundational passage of Scripture for our
time in Advent is Matthew chapter 1.
The Gospel of Matthew starts by giving genealogical proof that
Jesus fulfills the requirements of Messiah, Abraham, David on
down the line. And we have been taking some
surprising names from the list. Some people that you wouldn't
necessarily think would be honored as Direct Line of the
descending king. And there is no more surprising
name on the list than Rahab. This is what it says in Matthew
chapter one verse 5 and Solomon begot Boaz by Rahab.
So remember all last week we looked at the surprising person
of Ruth the Moabitus who came from the outside of Israel and
was brought in to become the grandmother of Jesse who became
the father of King David. Well, Ruth married Boaz and Boaz
was the son of a woman named Rahab, and it is Rahab's life
that we will look at as a picture of radical,
transformational and surprising piece.
For those of you who don't know, Rahab is often thought of as
Rahab the harlot. It will come up in today's
reading. She's mentioned in the Hall of
Faith Hebrews Chapter 11 says Rahab the harlot by faith.
So today we are looking at the life of a harlot as Bible speak
for prostitute and I don't know if any of you have a direct
reference point to that life. I met some women during first
service who had this message speak to them in real time.
But I don't think it takes a huge imagination or real life
experience to know that being a prostitute is probably the
farthest away you could get from a lifestyle of peace.
This is a, a tormenting lifestyle just in your physical
life. It's tormenting in the dangers
that you have to deal with and it torments your soul to have to
go through that. And yet we will look at the
person of Rahab as the hope that any one of us can have that God
can take any life. God can work in any
circumstance. God can take any part of your
past, your present, and your future, and He can give you
surpassing peace that will go beyond your understanding.
So I want all of you to listen. Some of you need to listen to be
encouraged for something you're going through right now.
And I just want you to have ears to hear that.
Yes, you can have peace. Joshua chapter 2.
We'll we'll do a fly over much like we did in the story of
Ruth. We're going to look at by the
largest text of scripture, the account given to us in Joshua
chapter 2 of Ruth's life. There are other areas that will
kind of sum up her story, but her story can really be captured
in Joshua chapter 2. The scenes is set up in verse
one. Here is our backdrop now.
Joshua, the son of nuns, sent out two men from Acacia Grove to
spy secretly saying go view the land, especially Jericho.
So they went and came to the House of the harlot named Rahab
and lodged there. So the story is resuming where
Moses left off. Just say a very quick preview of
where we're coming from and the story of God's people.
So far, Moses has set the people free.
They've crossed the Red Sea, they've gone into the
wilderness, going into the promised land.
And because of the lack of faith of the generation that was set
free from slavery, Moses and that generation die in the
wilderness. Moses leadership is inherited by
Joshua son of Nun and he is going to very quickly after
taking over as the leader of the the nation of Israel.
He's going to send spies into the land.
The into the land means the promised land, the land beyond
the Jordan River, the land that Moses was walking towards but
never made it. He's going to send spies in.
And notice it says, especially Jericho, there's something
happening in Jericho that these spies needed to take special
note of. And so they go in.
And a spy, being shrewd, is looking for a good place to take
cover and not make a lot of noise.
So maybe by just mere convenience, maybe by part of
the plan, what better place to find some anonymous lodging than
the House of a harlot? So they find themselves at the
House of a harlot named Rahab taking cover to spy out the
land. The story now picks up and, and,
and starts to take let's say if there a a movie, a reference
point would almost be like a James Bond moment.
This is where the action is going to start.
It didn't take long. It's only going to take one
verse before we find out that their cover wasn't very good.
And the king ruling over Jericho has gotten word that there are
spies from the other side of the Jordan in their land and he
actually knows exactly where they are.
He says in verse 2. And it was told the king of
Jericho saying, behold, men have come here tonight from the
children of Israel to search out the country.
That's Bible speak for to do some military reconnaissance to
to make plans to engage in warfare to spy out our land.
So the king in in the defensive nature that would you would have
if you found out someone was spying your land to make war
says in verse 3. So the king of Jericho sent to
Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you who have
entered your house, for they have come to search out all the
country. So he's got Intel.
He knows where the spies are out.
He gives a word to Rahab. She now under his authority, is
being commanded to turn over the enemy of the state.
And this is where, classically, Rahab has a decision to make.
And we are now going to see what is often considered the moral
dilemma of the Bible. One of the great moments where
the Bible presents us with something you have to do for God
that would seemingly go against God because Rahab is going to
make a decision to side with the spies to go against the order of
her own king. It says in verse 4.
Then the woman took the two men and hid them.
So she said to them, them being those who have requested for her
to turn over the spies to the king.
She says yes, the men came to me, but I didn't know where they
came from. I didn't know they were spies.
I didn't know they were from the children of Israel and it
happened verse 5, as the gate was being shut when it was dark,
that the men went out. Where the men went I do not
know. Pursue them quickly, for you may
overtake them. But the fact is everything you
just heard me read in verse 5 is a lie.
She actually does know who these men are.
She didn't see them leave. She actually, when she said they
went of that way, she was lying, and it says in verse 6 in the
parenthetical, But she had brought them up to the roof and
hidden them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order
on the roof. Then the men pursued them, The
men being the King's men, The men pursued them by the road to
the Jordan and to the Fords. And as soon as those who pursued
them had gone, they shut the gate.
And so they listened to Rahab. They believed her.
She sent them in the wrong direction.
The spies are seemingly safe, and we have no idea why Rahab
was willing to do this. And so the author is now going
to give us some insight into what Rahab was thinking.
It says in verse 8. Now before they lay down, she
came up to them on the roof and said to them, men, I know that
the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has
fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land,
Jericho, are faint hearted because of you.
So here is what's happening. The reason that she lied was
because she is essentially changing allegiance from Jericho
to Israel. So if you've ever been someone
who has been wondering about the moral dilemma, I think it's
fairly simple. She is risking her life.
She is harboring enemies of the state and sending the King's men
in the wrong direction with a lie so that she can change
allegiance from Jericho to Israel.
This isn't necessarily a lie. That would be something that you
would consider. You know, the, the, the 9th
commandment prohibits us from, from telling grievous lies.
This is a lie that I would put in line with spy games.
That's essentially what she's playing.
In fact, if we think about the the, the conversation she's
having, she's talking to two children of Israel who are also
not being exactly forthright. Why?
Because they're spies. And when you're a spy, you have
to, in a sense, walk under the cloak of what may can be
considered, yes, a moral lie. They're secretly entering in.
They're not telling their true intentions.
They're staying at the House of a harlot because they're playing
spy games. And Rahab, in the same sense, is
deciding to change her allegiance at risk of her own
life. That is the message of the story
in this moment. The message of the story is that
when it is time to decide who you're actually going to live
for, Rahab, king of Jericho or king of the Israelites, you may
have to put your life at risk and you may have to do some
things that would change your allegiance in radical ways.
And that is where we are going to see this story speak to us
because Rahab will, in her confession of faith, speak to
every single one of us about how to align yourself with God.
And that's why this particular moment in her conversations with
the spies, it's so worth our reading.
It's so worth our considering because Rahab essentially is
going to make a confession of faith.
So many people get caught up on what she said that wasn't true.
They miss the confession that she said that was so radical in
its truth. And her confession of faith, I
will point out, is some of the most simple theology that you
will ever hear in the Bible. And I'll, my, I'll remind you
again, Rahab is exalted in the Hall of Faith as a woman who had
incredible faith. And it was not because she had
an academic level of doctrine and theology.
Her theology is very simple. She never went to seminary.
She didn't grow up in Sunday school.
She did not have pastors and podcasts and Youtubes and all
the things that we love in our modern, modern version of
spirituality. They're all fine.
But I'll remind you what we studied for a year in the
pastoral epistles. May we not be people who zoom so
far into doctrine that we do more time disputing the
worshipping. Rahab has simple faith that
changed her life. That's what matters.
So let's look at a couple of moments of her confession that
are for all of us to measure a person of faith by first and
verse 10, it says, For we have heard how the Lord dried up the
water of the Red Sea. For when you came out of Egypt
and what you did to the 2 kings of the Amorites who are on the
other side of the Jordan, Sahan and Ogg, whom you utterly
destroyed. Of course you you know the
reference to the Red Sea as Moses was leading the children
out of slavery after the 10th plague.
Pharaoh has a change of heart and Pharaoh's armies are chasing
them. They get to the edge of the Red
Sea and by miracle of God the Red Sea parts they walk through
on Jai land and the enemies are engulfed in the waters.
This is something 40 years later that Rahab is referencing.
So somehow the amazing miracles of the God of Israel, this
testimony of those are spreading far and wide.
They've they've entered into the land of Jericho and they've
heard about what the people of Israel have had happen in the
name of their God. And not only a a miracle from 40
years ago, but also incredible victory recently, he says, Rahab
says, I heard what happened to Sahan and odd.
These are two kings that you'll find recordings of.
As Moses was journeying towards the Promised Land, he often
times had to battle people living in the wilderness, people
living in the land surrounding the Promised land.
And every time the battle happened, the people of Israel
won. And Rahab heard of that.
So here's the incredible theology, simple yet profound,
that Rahab has Rahab believed in the power of God.
It's very difficult to live by faith.
It's very difficult to have peace in the middle of your
storms of life when you lose sight of the God you're actually
believing in. And This is why so much of your
faith can be summarized in what you believe about what God has
already done. If you're looking for a a way to
stir up your faith, maybe a a new place to read in the Bible,
start at the very beginning. Genesis chapter one verse one
says in the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. The heavens declare of his
glory. The the earth did have a
beginning. The universe did not pop out of
thin air. It was spoken into existence by
the God we worshipped today. And This is why it is worth our
time week by week to look back in this ancient text that we
study and remember all of the things that God has done to show
himself miraculous and powerful. She heard of the miracle of the
Red Sea. She heard of the power to defeat
kings, to uproot them. And so when a king comes to her
and says, you better turn over the enemies of the state, she's
like, you are going to die. The people that the God that
these people serve, he defeats kings just like you.
She believed in the power of God.
We would do well to believe in the power of God.
So why every time we gather, we make it a point to remember that
the pinnacle of our faith is a moment in history when Jesus
Christ rose from the grave. You worshipped a God this
morning that has power over sin and death.
And the same spirit that was raising Christ from the grave
now abides in you. And He was in you is greater
than He is in the world. Rahab's theology believed in a
powerful God and for that she had faith that changed the
course of her life. Look what else she had in in
chapter 2 verse 11. Not only did she know the power
of God, she also says this. As soon as we heard these
things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any
more courage in anyone because of you.
For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth
beneath. This is from a Pagan culture.
This is a radical declaration that the God of Israel is the
Supreme God. It was not uncommon to believe
in deities that had domain over certain parts of the world or
certain powers of the world. But what Rahab is saying is
yours is the God of gods, the King of kings, the Lord of
Lords. And because she had a knowledge
of that, because she knew of what God had done, she gives
this incredible report in Jericho.
People are afraid of your God. Their hearts are melted.
We have no strength of courage. Now, I want you to just hold
that report that Rahab is giving on behalf of the entire city of
Jericho. We're afraid of your God.
And contrast that to what happened earlier in the story of
the nation of Israel. Joshua was not the first leader
of Israel to send spies into the land.
You'll remember that Moses also spent sent spies.
He sent 12 spies and 10 out of the 12 came back from a report
after seeing Jericho and they told Moses we're dead.
We're like grasshoppers in their sight.
We have no strength and no courage.
Don't send us in. The people that Moses sent
represented the fear of man. The fear of man is when you give
the inappropriate authority to people in your life.
You declare that people are more powerful and more strong and
more authoritative over your life than they actually are.
That's what causes the fear of man.
But contrast that with Rahab. Do you know what she had?
She had the fear of God. Where the fear of man gives
inappropriate power to people, the fear of God gives
appropriate power and authority to God.
And because she had the fear of God, she was willing to
completely risk her life to align with God, because she
realized that God is powerful and His authority is real.
And her heart was melted before him.
Look what it says in Proverbs chapter 14.
In the fear of the Lord, there's actually strong confidence.
You ever wonder how Rahab had the courage to reject the
command of the king of her land who could have killed her
because she had the fear of the Lord?
She had confidence that was not in the king of Jericho, but in
the in the Lord. It goes on to say his children
will have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a
fountain of life to turn 1 away from the snares of death.
When you truly begin to fear God, the Proverbs say it's the
beginning of wisdom because now you're actually willing to do
whatever He tells you to do. When you have the fear of man,
you live under their authority, doing whatever they tell you to
do. But when you have the fear of
God, you're willing to align your whole life by faith under
His order. And the fear of God, it says, is
a refuge. The fear of God is a strength to
your life. The fear of God is confidence.
The fear of God saves you from your soul being trapped by
death, which means the fear of God is not meant to cripple you.
That's the fear of the world. The fear of man cripples you.
The fear of God blesses your life.
When you align yourself with God as the in the with the proper
authority of your life, your life becomes blessed.
And this is the progression of Rahab's theology.
She had a theology of the power of God that turned into the fear
of God and this turns into Rahab believing in the grace and mercy
of God. She then says to the spies, now
therefore I beg you swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown
you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's
house and give me a true token. Make a deal with me.
I, I've cared for you, you care for me.
Show me kindness. I fear your God.
I know the land already belongs to him.
Please give me mercy, not only mercy for herself, but she also
says, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters
and all that they have and deliver our lives from death.
There is such a such a simple and yet profound moment in your
life and you'd be shocked how many people miss this moment,
which is very simply the realization that you need a
savior. The realization that apart from
God showing you grace and mercy, you and the people you love are
doomed. I love being a preacher.
I get to share the gospel. The gospel makes no sense until
you realize apart from God's grace and mercy in our lives, we
are doomed. There is nothing you can do to
save yourself, to reform your life, to somehow bargain your
way out of the due penalty of the decisions you make in your
life that eventually turn into spiritual death and physical
death. We are doomed apart from the
grace of God. Psalm chapter 33 says, behold,
the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him and on those who
hope in his mercy. And I love that Rahab.
Just what a beautiful picture of a woman who had St. smarts.
She sent the the King's messengers the wrong way.
She's she's understood all these reports of the God of the
children of Israel are true. She's now begging for their
mercy. And then she says, and can I
make a deal for my family as well.
There's something powerful about family evangelism.
Lord, I need your mercy and I need your grace and can I bring
my child? Can I bring my mother, Can I
bring my sister, Can I bring my father?
There are people that God has given you as messengers of his
mercy and messengers of his grace.
I think some of the best evangelism is in the world is a
mother praying for her lost son, for a wife praying for their
hardened husband, for a a person within a household saying Lord,
not just for me, but for the people I love.
And so now the story will turn into a beautiful picture of the
grace of God. The men reply as God replies
when you cry out for mercy, when his power turns into the fear,
turns into the plea for salvation.
The men answer our lives for yours, if none of you tell the
business of ours. And it shall be when the Lord
gives us the land, we will deal kindly and truly with you.
Mercy, grace, kindness. And so there is now an assisted
getaway where Rahab is going to help them escape as part of the
deal. Joshua chapter 2, verse 15, it
says then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her
house was on the city wall. She dwelt on the wall and she
said to them, get to the mountains lest the pursuers meet
you. Hide there for three days until
the pursuers have returned. Afterward you're free.
Go your way. And so the men said to her, We
will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us
swear, unless we come into the land and you bind this line of
scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down.
And unless you bring your father, your mother, your
brothers, and all of your father's households to your own
home. So it shall be that whoever goes
outside the doors of your house into the street, blood on their
own heads, and they'll be and will be guiltless.
That's not our fault. But whosoever is with you in
this house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on
him. Many people rightfully point out
that Joshua, that the book of Joshua, the person of Joshua, is
a type of Christ. That just as Joshua took the
promised land by faith, the walls come down South.
Jesus enters, helps us enter into the promised land, that the
Holy of holies, the heavenly place.
And there is now a type of the salvation that Christ offers
through the story of Joshua in the picture of Rahab.
The only hope that Rahab has is that her house is marked by the
scarlet rope, the red rope that hung down from the window that
they escaped from. They said, leave this rope here
and we will have a marker that your house is marked by the
mercy of God. And they said, here's the deal,
though it's not our fault. Anyone who's not in the house,
we cannot help them. The only hope that you and all
of the household and anyone that you invite in has is to stand in
the household marked by the scarlet thread.
Whosoever comes will be saved. Whosoever doesn't will be
destroyed. This is the gospel of grace and
the banner of God's grace that you sing your songs under this
morning. This is the reminder that Jesus
comes onto the scene to fulfill the picture of God's peace
offering to the world. He says I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father
except by me. There is no Pagan God that would
have saved Rahab. There was no hospital or school
or institute of academia or other religious offering that
Rahab could have done. Her one hope was to come to the
household marked by the grace of God.
And it is our only hope as well, that under the grace of God
revealed through the person of Jesus, the scarlet rope being
the blood of Christ. Anyone who stands under the
blood of Christ, believing that, whoever believes that God sent
His Son into the world, that none would perish, but all would
have life, you will be saved. That is the answer.
And don't you love the picture? Because not only is the scarlet
rope a picture of the cross of Christ, Rahab is the picture of
the sinners that qualify. It says that the rope comes out
of a House of harlotry that was literally built on the wall.
You can't get more fringe than the wall of a city.
You can't get more unrighteous than the House of a harlot.
And it would be that one single household that would be marked
by the grace of God. And for this reason, it becomes
clear that this was in fact the mission of the spies.
If you think about it, the the story will end, the chapter will
conclude, the spies come back and they they tell Joshua the
land is ours. The people are faint hearted.
Joshua already knew the land was theirs.
It was promised by God and God keeps his promises.
It was not a military mission to find cracks in the wall and to
come back with military Intel that would turn into the
strategy of conquest. It was a rescue mission.
Jericho is about to be destroyed, and I know that that
can be a tough read as you go through the Bible to see utter
destruction befall cities. But let me assure you that
Jericho needed to be destroyed, that the promises of God are
going to annihilate all of the things that represent sin in the
land. Jericho was a a known place of
just violence and perversion and sexual idolatry and at its worst
child sacrifice. And if you heard anything in
headline news now that was similar to what was happening in
Jericho, your heart of hearts that God gave you would say, is
there any way, could this just not happen in the world anymore?
As as much as we think that we're more merciful and more
just than God, when we hear the tragedies of sin reigning in the
world, we think, why does God allow this to happen?
And here's the reality. God is going to judge the sin of
the world just like God's judge Jericho.
There's coming a day when the Lord will return and he will set
everything to order and he will punish all injustice.
And our culture looks more like Jericho than it does like the
Garden of Eden. But here's the good news.
God offers peace before he destroys.
God goes in to find whosoever believes that he is merciful and
gracious. And he provides a household
covering that whosoever would like to come under it will not
perish, but have everlasting life.
And we don't know what Rahab did in her rescue mission, but we
know that Rahab had the gospel that anyone in Jericho who
Jericho who ran into Rahab, she said, come under my house.
Trust me, the the God that is coming to this city is gracious
and merciful. And it is the same now before
God puts everything to order and finally punishes sin, He comes
with good tidings, peace on earth.
Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to offer life to
anyone who believes. And this is a story and why
Rahab is exalted in our week of peace, because this is a story
of peace. In fact, look what Hebrews
actually says about the person of Rahab.
Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 31. By faith, the harlot Rahab did
not perish with those who did not believe.
When she had received the spies with peace, she was making a
truce with the God of Israel, and they offered peace to her.
And this is the offering that will transform your life.
If God can make peace with Rahab and a House of hollow tree, He
can make peace with your life and every aspect of it.
And this is how we'll close. We'll just take a moment to
consider the peace that was given to Rahab.
It was not simply a white flag of surrender or a military
conquest. Peace.
When you think about the life of Rahab, she became a person that
was transformed by this moment in her life.
And it affected her in every area of her life, from her past
to her present to her future. And I would venture to guess
that if you came into this sanctuary this morning and you
heard that we were going to have a sermon on peace and you needed
this sermon, it was for one of three areas of your life.
There are some of you who struggle with the tormenting
things of your past. Could be 40 years ago, could be
a year ago. There are some of you who need a
message of peace because what you think about most in your
anxious thoughts and your plague mind and the burden of your life
is all of the mistakes and the what ifs and the things about
your past that seem unresolved. Well, here's the good news.
Rahab represents a piece that transformed her past.
Let me just think about the practical moment of of Rahab's
life that changed from living in Jericho to living with the
children of Israel. She was a harlot.
She was known in a city by people who used her and and her
household for sexual pleasure. And I love that God did not come
in and reform her. So I want you to make amends
with all the the people that know you as this person.
He utterly destroyed her past. All of her clientele seemingly
gone, The house that was on the wall gone, the wall would be
destroyed. And there's not one reminder.
There's not one thing about her past that got to remain.
She is a new creation in this new citizenship.
And that is true of your past. When you give your life to Jesus
and you stand under the banner of his grace and you say my
household is now marked Mike, my confidence in the God of mercy.
He's not just reforming your past, He's not just giving you
some tips to to try to unthink your way through the mistakes of
your life, he says. I separate the past of your
transgressions as far as the East Bank of the Jordan is from
the West Bank of the Jordan. This is a new era of your life.
Your past doesn't define you. And Rahab would be remembered
not as a villain or a scandalous person, but as a hero of faith.
And some of you, no doubt related to the moment when I
said to you. And some of you have a need for
peace in your present. I know there's things happening
in your life right now that make this season not feel that great.
There are everyday reminders in the headline news of your life
that you're not in heaven yet and your hearts are heavy and
your mind hurts. And I just love this picture of
Rahab. It says the deal they offered
her was that she had to leave the scarlet rope outside of her
window, which means from the moments the spies left to the
moment the wall fell down and all the time in between, every
time she worried about this God of Israel and all the reports of
his power. And every time she started to
get faint hearted again and she started to lose hope, she could
look out that window and say I've changed my allegiance.
Every time she looked out her window, she saw the rope and she
said, I am with God now. This God has accepted me into
his people and I'm with him. And she had a constant reminder
of it in her life. I just want to assure you that
for those of you who have the banner of God's grace in your
life, you have a constant reminder every time we gather.
You are here not because of what you've done to earn your stake.
You are here because you believe.
And every time you look upon the cross with the eyes of your
heart, every time you remember the empty tomb, you say, I am
God's people. Constant reminder for today.
May the peace of God, Sir, be given to you, surpassing your
understanding and guard your heart for the present day.
You belong to God now, and that should give you a view of the
future that is hopeful. I'm going to show you the end of
the story for Rahab. It says in Joshua chapter 6, the
wall has come down that the people of God are now in the
promised land. And she kept her part of the
deal with the scarlet rope, and all in her household were saved.
God kept His promise, and it says that Joshua spared Rahab
the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had.
So she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the
messengers. So oftentimes we think of our
future as just heaven. Our future hope is eternal.
But I want you to know that if you have given your allegiance
to the new King, if you are now rejecting the kings of this age
and bending your knee to King Jesus, be confident that you
have a future that is peaceful. Sometimes people are like, I
don't know, I'll give my my plans to God and I just hope it
goes well. I want to do the will of God and
I just, I don't know. I had a pretty good plan outside
of the will of God. Let me give you the confidence
of the day. God has good plans for your
life. God had a plan for Rahab, her
whole house, the wall, the city she once belonged to in the
entire country gone and she's now living as a citizen of
Israel. And you know what?
We'll end where we started. God had a plan to give her a
husband named Salman. God had a plan to give her a
righteous son named Boaz. God had a plan to give her an
incredible grandson named Obed and a great grandson named
Jesse, and a great, great grandson named King David.
He had a wonderful plan for her life.
And God has a good plan for your life.
As as I was waiting in between services, someone came up to me
and said, you know, my, my wife recently died.
But I have so much confidence that life will still be good.
Every time I visit her tombstone, it said, it says
peace means that God is in control.
He's got that on a grave. Peace means that God is in
control of your life. That gives you peace for your
past, peace for today, and peace knowing that whatever God has in
store for you, if you trust Him and live by faith, it will be
good. Thanks for joining us today.
If you would like to watch the full service, check out the link
in the description. For next steps and to learn
more, visit calvaryboise.com.