Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our
Speaker 2: podcast and I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
Speaker 2: it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1: In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: Are you excited for the Word of God today? I
Speaker 2: sure am grateful to preach and share this with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you worship team. If you want to look at
Speaker 2: Joshua chapter two today with me for a moment, very
Speaker 2: interesting story in scripture. Those of you at our Uptown
Speaker 2: location and our Melbourne campus, you heard me share from
Speaker 2: this scripture.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: You heard me share from the scripture at our Vision
Speaker 2: nights over the last few weeks. And I want to
Speaker 2: share this with the church today and it's a subject
Speaker 2: that I think will be relevant for each of us.
Speaker 2: And I pray that you'll hear this personally for yourself.
Speaker 2: By the way, what an awesome advantage it is when
Speaker 2: everyone in the church is leaned in to hear the
Speaker 2: word of God. I was telling one of the people
Speaker 2: who helps me on the weekend how exhausting it is
Speaker 2: when preaching feels like mixed martial arts, you know, And
Speaker 2: I don't want to be like Connor McGregor up here.
Speaker 2: And it's not like that, you know, it's not.
Speaker 1: Even a performance. When we do this, God speaks.
Speaker 2: And when everybody comes with that attitude and that perspective,
Speaker 2: we realize that it is our responsibility to receive the
Speaker 2: word of God. And we don't put all this pressure
Speaker 2: on some guy with a microphone as if somehow I
Speaker 2: could fix your life.
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 2: My opinion is empty. But God's word is powerful. And
Speaker 2: so when you bring that expectation to the Word of God,
Speaker 2: it really makes it dynamic and explosive. So all that
Speaker 2: just to say, look at your name and say wake up,
Speaker 2: pay attention. I know you're ready. Joshua Chapter two, verse one,
Speaker 2: then Joshua's Son of None secretly sh secretly. You don't
Speaker 2: have to tell everybody everything you're doing secretly. You don't
Speaker 2: have to post every time you pray on Instagram. You
Speaker 2: don't have to put a coffee mug post for every devotion.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm talking about the coffee mug and the
Speaker 2: Bible and spread open and then you highlight a few
Speaker 2: extra verses before you take the picture make it look
Speaker 2: like then Joshua's son of none, sh don't tell everybody,
Speaker 2: but just secretly sent two spies from Shiitem. And that's
Speaker 2: a long eye when you pronounce shi them. You want
Speaker 2: to be careful when you pronounce shyt them if you
Speaker 2: ever preach from Joshua, chapter two, verse one, Go look
Speaker 2: over the land, he said, especially Jericho. Notice he didn't
Speaker 2: tell them to look at every city, because you can
Speaker 2: get overwhelmed if you think about all the battles you
Speaker 2: have to fight.
Speaker 1: This is just the first one, the next one.
Speaker 2: And when we get so focused on everything that we
Speaker 2: have to overcome, it SAPs our strength and we can't
Speaker 2: take our next step because we're thinking fourteen steps ahead.
Speaker 2: And you can wreck looking at your GPS instead of
Speaker 2: keeping your eyes on the next turn. Okay, So they
Speaker 2: went and entered the house of a prostitute ooh named
Speaker 2: Rahab and stayed there. Why there there was nothing else
Speaker 2: available on Airbnb, so they.
Speaker 1: Stayed in the house of a prostitute named Rahab.
Speaker 2: King of Jericho was told, look, some of these relights
Speaker 2: have come here tonight to spy out the land. So
Speaker 2: the King of Jericho sent this message to Rehab bring
Speaker 2: out the men who came to you and entered your house,
Speaker 2: as they have come to spy out the whole land.
Speaker 2: But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. Now,
Speaker 2: if there's one thing that Rahab's profession has taught.
Speaker 1: Her, it is discretion.
Speaker 2: I'm saying she might not have lived the most holy life.
Speaker 2: The Bible says she was a prostitute, but she knew
Speaker 2: how to hide men.
Speaker 1: And so I point that out to let you know.
Speaker 2: God is going to use everything, even the stuff that
Speaker 2: you're not proud of, if you offer it to him.
Speaker 2: He'll use even the things that you want to hide.
Speaker 2: And Rahab hid the men because that's something she knew
Speaker 2: how to do. I won't say any more about that,
Speaker 2: because y'all are looking at me so angelic. She said, Yeah,
Speaker 2: the men came to me, but I did not know
Speaker 2: where they had come from.
Speaker 1: At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate,
Speaker 1: they left.
Speaker 2: I don't know which way they went by the way.
Speaker 2: All of this is a lie. This is a lie.
Speaker 2: So we got a lying prostitute that God uses to
Speaker 2: fulfill his purpose and demonstrate his glory in the earth.
Speaker 1: Put that in your theological pipe. And to that vape.
Speaker 2: That so she's lying and she's hiding the men, and
Speaker 2: then she uses misdirection. TuS can go after them quickly.
Speaker 2: You may catch up with them parentheses. But she had
Speaker 2: taken them up to the roof and hidden them under
Speaker 2: the stalks of flax she'd laid out on the roof.
Speaker 2: This was not her first time hiding a man in
Speaker 2: her house. So the men set out in pursuit of
Speaker 2: the spies on the road that leads to the fords
Speaker 2: of the Jordan, And as soon as the pursuers had
Speaker 2: gone out.
Speaker 1: The gate was shut.
Speaker 2: Before the spies laid down for the night, she went
Speaker 2: up on the roof and said to them, I know
Speaker 2: that the.
Speaker 1: Lord has given you this land, and that.
Speaker 2: A great fear of you has fallen on us, so
Speaker 2: that all who live in this kind of tree are
Speaker 2: melting in fear because of you. These are the same
Speaker 2: enemies that the Israelites were so afraid of forty years
Speaker 2: earlier that they wouldn't go in. But what they were
Speaker 2: running from was actually afraid of them. You realize sometimes
Speaker 2: you're running from a defeated foe. You realize sometimes you're
Speaker 2: running from stuff God has already dealt with if you
Speaker 2: would move forward. And so she says, we've heard about
Speaker 2: you firstin we've heard how the Lord dried up the
Speaker 2: water of the Red Sea.
Speaker 1: That was four decades ago, they're still talking about it.
Speaker 2: We heard how the Lord dried up the water the
Speaker 2: Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt,
Speaker 2: and what you did to Sion in Augu, the two
Speaker 2: kings of the Emirites east of the Jordan, whom you
Speaker 2: completely destroyed. And when we heard of it, our hearts
Speaker 2: melted in fear, and everyone's courage failed because of you.
Speaker 1: For the Lord, your.
Speaker 2: God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Speaker 2: So turn to the person next to you and tell
Speaker 2: them what Rehab told. The spies say, you got a reputation.
Speaker 2: The title of this message is reputation Rehab. You didn't
Speaker 2: just come to church today, You came.
Speaker 1: To reputation Rehab.
Speaker 2: How many realized that everything people called you is not
Speaker 2: something you should respond to at this stage in your life.
Speaker 2: You got to move past some things and see yourself
Speaker 2: in a new light. At least that's what God told
Speaker 2: Joshua when he stated him as the new leader of
Speaker 2: Israel after Moses left. He said, it's a new day,
Speaker 2: and you are the leader I have chosen and appointed
Speaker 2: to lead these people into the land that I promised
Speaker 2: their ancestors. And God in Joshua Chapter one reminds Joshua
Speaker 2: of his reputation, not the reputation of Joshua, the reputation
Speaker 2: of Jehovah.
Speaker 1: He said, I am the God.
Speaker 2: Who spoke to the forefathers of this faith tradition, which
Speaker 2: you are a continuation of. But it didn't start with you.
Speaker 2: God says, I have a reputation. And when you face
Speaker 2: the resistance, when you go into this new land that
Speaker 2: I've called you to conquer, I want you to remember
Speaker 2: my reputation.
Speaker 1: God said, I have a.
Speaker 2: Reputation of picking people out that are obscure and unknown
Speaker 2: and using them to accomplish my purpose in the earth.
Speaker 1: I have a reputation.
Speaker 2: I have a reputation for calling men like Abraham and
Speaker 2: taking him from her of the Chaldeans. And even though
Speaker 2: he's too old to have babies and there's no prescriptions
Speaker 2: available to help him pro create, I have a reputation
Speaker 2: for doing what cannot be done in the flesh. For
Speaker 2: it's not by might nor by power. But by my spirit,
Speaker 2: says the Lord.
Speaker 1: I have a.
Speaker 2: Reputation, and sometimes we need to be reminded of God's reputation.
Speaker 2: You know, we need to be reminded every once in
Speaker 2: a while that the wind and.
Speaker 1: The waves know who he is. They know that voice.
Speaker 2: To you, my sheep, know my voice. I'm the one
Speaker 2: who dried up the red Sea. I just want you
Speaker 2: to remember my reputation. That's why I mentioned Bible stories
Speaker 2: in church, like Daniel and the Lions den because the
Speaker 2: lions knew that when God speaks, their mouths had to
Speaker 2: stay shut. They knew that voice, they knew that voice.
Speaker 2: I'm encouraged to know that God's reputation is the basis
Speaker 2: of my faith, not mine, not mine. I think it's
Speaker 2: really funny sometimes how much time we spend trying to
Speaker 2: build our reputation with people whose opinions don't ultimately matter.
Speaker 2: You know, when I first started the church, a well
Speaker 2: meaning minister gave me a piece of advice. He said,
Speaker 2: protect your reputation. You only get one. I wish that
Speaker 2: were that's true, you know, I wish you could protect
Speaker 2: your reputation and that if you always did the right thing,
Speaker 2: people would always say the right things about you. The
Speaker 2: fact is we live in a world that doesn't know
Speaker 2: the difference between a rumor and a reputation anymore, and
Speaker 2: to spend all of your energy trying to protect your reputation.
Speaker 2: The Lord really spoke to me and dealt with me
Speaker 2: the first time that I would defend myself against people
Speaker 2: who were critical of my ministry. And you know, you
Speaker 2: can spend so much time trying to protect your reputation,
Speaker 2: which is really ego wanting people to have a certain
Speaker 2: image of you, that you start preaching to the people
Speaker 2: who don't like you, and you're angry at people who
Speaker 2: are smiling at you because you're not really talking to them.
Speaker 2: It happened to me early in ministry, and the Lord
Speaker 2: spoke to me.
Speaker 1: He spoke to me very specifically.
Speaker 2: He said, why don't you worry about protecting your integrity
Speaker 2: and let me protect your reputation. When you stop to
Speaker 2: think about it, even the premise that you only have
Speaker 2: one reputation is faulty. I mean, really, you have as
Speaker 2: many reputations as you have relationships in that room.
Speaker 1: What I mean is some people at work think.
Speaker 2: You're quiet because you are around them, because you don't
Speaker 2: trust them or like them, or have anything to say
Speaker 2: to them. But if we ask your family like I
Speaker 2: will never forget when our middle child, Graham, first went
Speaker 2: to school and the teacher emailed us how he talked
Speaker 2: too much in class, and it was so funny because
Speaker 2: we could not get him to talk at home.
Speaker 1: He was so quiet at home.
Speaker 2: And the teacher said, he will not shut up in class.
Speaker 2: He's a wonderful child, but could you just talk to
Speaker 2: him about talking out of.
Speaker 1: Turn in class? I said, well, could you talk to
Speaker 1: him about talking intern at home? Because we can't get
Speaker 1: him to say anything. And now he's.
Speaker 2: Eleven and he talks all the time. But I remember
Speaker 2: thinking how strange it was that he could be known
Speaker 2: as the talkative kid in class. But maybe the birth
Speaker 2: order or something at home. Maybe we won't shut up
Speaker 2: long enough to give him a chance at home. And
Speaker 2: you know, it's really true, because sometimes we only get
Speaker 2: to know church you.
Speaker 1: I wonder how big is the gap.
Speaker 2: Between your reality and your reputation, because it's never been
Speaker 2: easier to develop a virtual reputation. You know, where I
Speaker 2: see people online and in their profile it says life coach,
Speaker 2: and they're thirteen I don't understand.
Speaker 1: How you're going to coach me, and you've never been
Speaker 1: on the field.
Speaker 2: It says public figure, and you got a private account
Speaker 2: with twelve followers.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't understand it, but I do because we are
Speaker 2: living in a world that wants to watch this. Reputation
Speaker 2: without repetition, and a true reputation is not built by
Speaker 2: what you occasionally do or wish that you were, or
Speaker 2: want people to see you as.
Speaker 1: It's not something that you project or perfect.
Speaker 2: Your real reputation comes from relationship and repetition, and relationship
Speaker 2: and repetition. And I had to come to the point
Speaker 2: where I realized it is not what people who don't
Speaker 2: know me think about me, or what I can convince
Speaker 2: them of that brings me peace in my heart and.
Speaker 1: Fulfills my calling.
Speaker 2: I want to focus my life on developing a reputation
Speaker 2: that is based on repetition and relationship, that I would
Speaker 2: do the right thing over and over and over and
Speaker 2: over and over again, and when I don't, I'll apologize
Speaker 2: and I'll get back on and do it over and
Speaker 2: over and over. Isn't that how God built his reputation
Speaker 2: in your life?
Speaker 1: Because he helped.
Speaker 2: You over and over and over and over again, and
Speaker 2: he gave you mercy over and over and over and
Speaker 2: over again. And he made ways over and over and
Speaker 2: over and over again. And he heard your cry over
Speaker 2: and over and over again. And he forgave you for
Speaker 2: that same sin that you committed over and over and
Speaker 2: over again. But when you needed grace, you found it
Speaker 2: over and over and over again. And he woke you
Speaker 2: up over and over and over again. And he lets
Speaker 2: you see another day over and over and over again.
Speaker 2: So I will praise Him over and over and over again.
Speaker 2: Because God has a reputation with me. I know him
Speaker 2: as faithful. And watch this. I don't let anybody else
Speaker 2: build my belief about who God is. I don't need
Speaker 2: to believe somebody else's report about God.
Speaker 1: I have a.
Speaker 2: Personal relationship with Him, and God's reputation with me is
Speaker 2: based on his faithfulness in my life.
Speaker 1: I don't go off of what I heard about. I
Speaker 1: go off what I know.
Speaker 2: Don't ever let somebody else misrepresent God and run you
Speaker 2: away from church.
Speaker 1: You ought to know God for yourself. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a relational thing.
Speaker 2: So we're losing that, and we're so quick to tear
Speaker 2: people down, and God forgive us for all the times
Speaker 2: where we've believed a report about someone that we didn't
Speaker 2: even know. In a day where it is so easy
Speaker 2: to project a false reputation and so easy to destroy
Speaker 2: a reputation, you can destroy your own reputation with two
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty characters.
Speaker 1: Am I right?
Speaker 2: I don't call names from this pulpit, but you know
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about. And yet we stand between the
Speaker 2: reality of who we are and kind of who we
Speaker 2: think we need to be.
Speaker 1: And into that gap.
Speaker 2: God speaks and it's the most amazing thing. I can't
Speaker 2: get over this, and it doesn't seem like a smart strategy,
Speaker 2: but God chooses over and over again. The faithful God
Speaker 2: entrusts his reputation.
Speaker 1: To faithless people.
Speaker 2: And so for forty years the Israelites will wander in
Speaker 2: the wilderness because they believed a bad report, even though
Speaker 2: they had a history with God.
Speaker 1: Now Joshua does something interesting.
Speaker 2: After he calls the people together and tells them prepare
Speaker 2: and consecrate yourselves for what God is going to do,
Speaker 2: and reminds them of what God has already done. He
Speaker 2: sends back to verse one, two spies, two Spies, instead
Speaker 2: of twelve. When Moses got ready to check out Canaan
Speaker 2: four decades ago, he sent twelve spies and ten came
Speaker 2: back with a fear report. So it's almost as if
Speaker 2: Joshua has learned from that exploit, being one of the
Speaker 2: two spies who said, if God is with us, we
Speaker 2: can't fail, and he made up his mind this time.
Speaker 2: I only need to, somebody shout, I only need to
Speaker 2: look at the person on either side of you and
Speaker 2: tell both of them I.
Speaker 1: Only need to. I don't need too many opinions in
Speaker 1: this stage of my life.
Speaker 2: I'm out of middle school now, and I can't live
Speaker 2: by what everybody else thinks or does not anymore. I
Speaker 2: only need too, somebody say, I only need to. And
Speaker 2: I read in my Bible that surely goodness and mercy
Speaker 2: will follow.
Speaker 1: Me all the days of my life.
Speaker 2: So I got goodness and I got mercy.
Speaker 1: I only need to say it again.
Speaker 2: I only need to, and I can't afford to consult
Speaker 2: everybody's opinion and every cable news channel. I got goodness
Speaker 2: and I got mercy. I don't need Fox, I don't
Speaker 2: need CNN, I don't need Twitter, I don't need Facebook.
Speaker 2: I don't need Instagram. I don't need my past to consult.
Speaker 2: I don't need to consult too many people. You know,
Speaker 2: we start calling people and asking them for advice. You
Speaker 2: really don't want advice anymore after you've called the third person.
Speaker 2: You want affirmation and attention. I have a shortcut now
Speaker 2: as a pastor. When people say I'd like your advice
Speaker 2: on whatever they say next, I don't respond to I
Speaker 2: say what do you want, because I'll just say what
Speaker 2: you want to hear and save you the time from
Speaker 2: calling the next person and the next person until somebody
Speaker 2: will finally tell you what you want to hear. Because
Speaker 2: a lot of us, maybe not you, maybe somebody. You know,
Speaker 2: a lot of us live our whole life consulting opinions.
Speaker 2: And when you get too many opinions, it really crowds
Speaker 2: out the voice of God. And you know what's funny
Speaker 2: about people. You got to be so careful because people
Speaker 2: will a lot of times and situations will a lot
Speaker 2: of times feel they will categorize stuff. Look, the Bible
Speaker 2: says they went into Jericho and entered the house of
Speaker 2: a prostitute named Rahab. Why would you go into the
Speaker 2: house of a prostitute in order to discern the promise
Speaker 2: of God. Let me tell you a little secret. God
Speaker 2: uses who he wants to use. I'm losing amens by
Speaker 2: the minute. You must be from out of town. God
Speaker 2: uses who he wants to use.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 2: Isn't it fascinating that the God, who has a spotless reputation,
Speaker 2: when he gets ready to bring his people into the promise,
Speaker 2: uses a woman with a reputation, not a reputation like
Speaker 2: we think God can use, not a reputation of perfection.
Speaker 2: But God uses someone with a reputation. And furthermore, someone
Speaker 2: who the spies would consider an enemy. Technically, Rehab was
Speaker 2: an enemy of Israel, and yet God used their.
Speaker 1: Enemy to show them who they were. She said, I
Speaker 1: know who.
Speaker 2: You are, and I know that God has given you
Speaker 2: the victory. Is it possible that your enemy knows more.
Speaker 1: About who you are than you do?
Speaker 2: And is that why he's been fighting you like he's
Speaker 2: been fighting you.
Speaker 1: It's just a question, saints.
Speaker 2: Is it possible, just a little bit possible, that the
Speaker 2: trial that you're going through is actually a testament to
Speaker 2: the power that lives within you.
Speaker 1: The devil doesn't waste bullets if he's leaving you alone.
Speaker 1: He knows you aren't anything worth fighting against. God used
Speaker 1: their enemy to show them who they were God.
Speaker 2: God used their struggle to confirm his word.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, how I said, Now let me teach you.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how we have set.
Speaker 2: Up a false expectation that the proof of God's favor
Speaker 2: in our life will always be that our fights will
Speaker 2: decrease and our comfort will increase. But when God was
Speaker 2: revealing himself in the Book of Job, the devil was
Speaker 2: going all through the earth trying to look for somebody
Speaker 2: he could tamper with. And when the devil presented himself
Speaker 2: before the throne with the angels, because the enemy can't
Speaker 2: do anything without God's permission, I'm afraid in a lot
Speaker 2: of our churches we've given the devil a reputation that
Speaker 2: he is an equal power with God.
Speaker 1: He's not. He's not.
Speaker 2: And God asked a quest question to Satan. He said,
Speaker 2: have you considered my servant job? Have you thought about
Speaker 2: picking on him? Because he's my guy? Now, whatever you
Speaker 2: have to do to get on that list where God
Speaker 2: tells the devil he can mess with you, I don't
Speaker 2: want to be that holy. I want to find that
Speaker 2: mark a.
Speaker 1: Slipping of men. But God said, have at his stuff.
Speaker 2: You can touch him, his family, you can't touch him.
Speaker 1: And when the devil came back and said, I.
Speaker 2: Tried it and you were right, he didn't curse you.
Speaker 2: But if you let me hurt him, it's one thing
Speaker 2: for everything around him.
Speaker 1: To be affected.
Speaker 2: But if you let me hurt his body, he'll curse you.
Speaker 2: And God said, you can do it, but you can't
Speaker 2: kill him. And after that period of testing had been completed,
Speaker 2: after Job survived all.
Speaker 1: Of the rounds.
Speaker 2: Now, this means he lost not only his income, not
Speaker 2: only his business, not only his belongings, but his children.
Speaker 2: And the only person who stayed alive with Job was
Speaker 2: his wife.
Speaker 1: And if you read about her.
Speaker 2: He'd probably praying God would go ahead and wipe her
Speaker 2: out too, because she wasn't a very good wife. She said,
Speaker 2: go ahead and curse God and die. Let's get it
Speaker 2: over with. You're really gonna put up with this and
Speaker 2: still serve God. But Job would not charge God with wrongdoing.
Speaker 2: And yes, at the end of God's at the end
Speaker 2: of Job's life, he was doubly blessed. But I don't
Speaker 2: think the point of the book of Job is that Job.
Speaker 1: Got double for his trouble.
Speaker 2: That's nice for a bumper sticker, but he still lost
Speaker 2: his children.
Speaker 1: What's the point.
Speaker 2: The point is that the devil didn't mention Job's name.
Speaker 1: God did.
Speaker 2: Job had a reputation with Heaven, and Heaven knew about Job.
Speaker 2: He can be trusted with trouble. He won't break beneath
Speaker 2: the weight of a burden.
Speaker 1: Heaven knows about you.
Speaker 2: You can raise those ADHD kids, those abcd fghijk.
Speaker 1: Elemento pea kids.
Speaker 2: God knew he could give you the whole alphabet and
Speaker 2: you wouldn't kill him. God knew he could trust you
Speaker 2: with sorrow. God knew he could trust you with trial
Speaker 2: and with tribulation.
Speaker 1: He knew that about you. And if the devil isn't
Speaker 1: messing with you, maybe he doesn't even know you're here.
Speaker 2: Like one time in the Book of Acts, these seven
Speaker 2: sons of a Jewish priest, they saw Paul laying hands.
Speaker 1: On people and they were like, oh, that's cool. Huh.
Speaker 1: Maybe we say what he says, we can do what
Speaker 1: he does, and maybe we can make money off of it.
Speaker 1: All right, in the name of Jesus, come out. And
Speaker 1: when they said it.
Speaker 2: The demons for and said, I heard you say Jesus,
Speaker 2: and we know him. I heard you say Paul, and
Speaker 2: we know him. We hate him. We're an assignment against him.
Speaker 2: We send snakes to bite him. We put Paul through shipwrecks.
Speaker 2: We stir up people and create contentions so that stones
Speaker 2: are thrown at Paul.
Speaker 1: We've heard of Jesus, We've heard of Paul. But who
Speaker 1: are you?
Speaker 2: Look at somebody next to you and say it in
Speaker 2: that falsetto voice like I said it, like prince, say
Speaker 2: who are you? Who are you? Who are you?
Speaker 1: I'm concerned.
Speaker 2: I'm concerned that a lot of times we are convinced
Speaker 2: that our trouble is an indication of the absence of
Speaker 2: God's resence, when more times than not, in the scripture
Speaker 2: you can find that trouble accompanies God's presence. He is
Speaker 2: an ever present help in the time of trouble.
Speaker 1: So if you're in trouble, you're in God. Who are you?
Speaker 1: Who are you? The Devil's looking at some of y'all,
Speaker 1: Who are you? I don't even have to I don't
Speaker 1: even have to mess with your life. You're doing a
Speaker 1: good job by yourself. Who are you? Who are you?
Speaker 1: I'll get paid to argue, would you no, So they.
Speaker 2: Go to the house of Rehab the prostitute, and y'all
Speaker 2: probably would not preach about a prostitute if she were
Speaker 2: only mentioned in Joshua chapter two, because I would figure
Speaker 2: that's the Old Testament. But a funny thing happened in
Speaker 2: the Book.
Speaker 1: Of Matthew.
Speaker 2: When the writer started listening the genealogy of Jesus and
Speaker 2: all of the generations that he came through. It's like
Speaker 2: fourteen generations and then fourteen more, and then fourteen more.
Speaker 2: And this is the stuff that we skip over sometimes
Speaker 2: when we're reading the Christmas story because it's all these
Speaker 2: names that we don't recognize, and so and so begot so,
Speaker 2: and so begot so, and so begot so and so.
Speaker 1: And really, all I want to do is get to
Speaker 1: verse eighteen. Then came Jesus.
Speaker 2: But some of the stuff you skip is some of
Speaker 2: the places where God speaks. I said, some of the
Speaker 2: stuff you skip is some of the stuff God speaks through.
Speaker 2: And Matthew said in Matthew one, verse five, I feel
Speaker 2: like preach him Salmon the father of Boas, whose mother
Speaker 2: was Rayhab, whose mother was Rehab. Now to get to
Speaker 2: Jesus in the genealogy, you got to go through Rehab,
Speaker 2: the prostitute. God works through who he wants to work through,
Speaker 2: and all things work together for the good of Him
Speaker 2: that loved the Lord whose mother was Rayhab. Stop being
Speaker 2: so stuck up. Stop categorizing people and casting them out
Speaker 2: like you don't have issues.
Speaker 1: You ought to be glad to see Rahab's name in there.
Speaker 1: Hope for me too.
Speaker 2: If Rahab made it, maybe I can by faith shout
Speaker 2: it out by faith by faith. So then you get
Speaker 2: to Hebrews eleven, and not just once, but for the
Speaker 2: second time. In the New Testament, Rehab gets an honorable
Speaker 2: mention in the Hall of Faith where they're inducting all
Speaker 2: of the Sunday School heroes. All of the classic events
Speaker 2: on which redemptive history hinged are mentioned in.
Speaker 1: Hebrews chapter eleven. By Faith twenty nine.
Speaker 2: The people passed through the Red Sea on dry land,
Speaker 2: but when the Egyptians tried to.
Speaker 1: Do so, they were drowned. Side note.
Speaker 2: God doesn't bring you into deep waters to kill you.
Speaker 2: He brings you into deep water to drown your enemies.
Speaker 2: He knows they can't swim, and in deep waters that's
Speaker 2: where you deal with your doubts, and in deep waters,
Speaker 2: that's where you come face to face with your dysfunction
Speaker 2: and have to lean and rely on the grace of God.
Speaker 2: So the Egyptians drowned by faith. The walls of Jericho
Speaker 2: fell not because they fought so well, but because the
Speaker 2: faith that they had enabled them to do what made
Speaker 2: no sense naturally. And by faith, the walls of Jericho
Speaker 2: fell after the army had marched around them for seven days.
Speaker 2: And here comes Reyhab, by faith, the prostitute Rayhab, because
Speaker 2: she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who
Speaker 2: are disobedient. And what more shall I say? I don't
Speaker 2: have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jefta, David, Samuel,
Speaker 2: the prophets.
Speaker 1: You mean you don't have time to talk about David.
Speaker 2: The greatest king that Israel ever knew, a man after
Speaker 2: God's own heart, But you had time.
Speaker 1: To mention Rayhab.
Speaker 2: God says, I don't look at people based on your
Speaker 2: standard of importance. I don't look at people based on
Speaker 2: your standard of significance. God doesn't check your followers to
Speaker 2: see how much favor he gives you.
Speaker 1: God is looking at your faith.
Speaker 2: And then James jumps in and for a third time,
Speaker 2: this Harlot is mentioned alongside the heroes of scripture.
Speaker 1: Hero Harlot, Harlot hero.
Speaker 2: And now I can't tell the difference because God calls
Speaker 2: someone that I call a Harlot a hero, and.
Speaker 1: I know you don't like it, and.
Speaker 2: I know it doesn't go down easy, and I know
Speaker 2: we can't eat it with vanilla wafers and put it
Speaker 2: on a flannel graph because.
Speaker 1: The story of Rahab is r.
Speaker 2: Rated and it doesn't teach very well.
Speaker 1: In the kids.
Speaker 2: But James said, in the same way till twenty five,
Speaker 2: in the same way, was not even Rayhab the prostitute
Speaker 2: considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging
Speaker 2: to the spies and sent them off in a different direction.
Speaker 2: And keep calling her that Rahab the prostitute, keep labeling her.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 2: God didn't change her before he used her. You know
Speaker 2: how we think God can't use me because I currently
Speaker 2: struggle with It's not like she was a prostitute and
Speaker 2: then she became a prophet.
Speaker 1: She was still a prostitute.
Speaker 2: This doesn't excuse bad behavior, but it helps me to
Speaker 2: see that the love of God is not the reward
Speaker 2: for change. It is the resource by which I am changed.
Speaker 2: That revelation of the love of God is so powerful.
Speaker 2: And you know, I was telling you my son Graham,
Speaker 2: he talks a lot more now and he actually says
Speaker 2: some really funny stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm praying that he will not become a stand up comic.
Speaker 2: I'm praying that you know, he'll well, I'm not praying
Speaker 2: that he'll.
Speaker 1: Be a preacher either. I really don't.
Speaker 2: I really don't care if my kids take on this
Speaker 2: profession or not like that. I might even tell him,
Speaker 2: you know, do something else if you can, because you
Speaker 2: got to be called to do this. But all my
Speaker 2: kids have heard so many sermons. They come up with
Speaker 2: funny little questions about the Bible that I never thought
Speaker 2: of before, but just from a child's mind is so funny.
Speaker 1: And Graham asked me the.
Speaker 2: Other day, he said, I hear people say all the
Speaker 2: time when I get to Heaven, I want to see Jesus.
Speaker 2: And he said, but have you ever thought about how
Speaker 2: long the line is going to be? And we had
Speaker 2: just been to Disneyland, so he had that in his mind,
Speaker 2: like the you know, and he said, it's going to
Speaker 2: be a long line to see Jesus. I wonder if
Speaker 2: you could get somebody to hold your place in line
Speaker 2: to see Jesus and then go see some of the
Speaker 2: other characters in the Bible. So I kind of played
Speaker 2: it out, and I was thinking, you know, you probably could.
Speaker 2: There are probably some characters in the Bible that no
Speaker 2: one will want a selfie with, and you could probably
Speaker 2: just walk right up to him, like Jonah, who wants
Speaker 2: to meet Jonah. He's the most dysfunctional, discouraging prophet in
Speaker 2: the Bible. He preached and God sent a revival, and
Speaker 2: he went outside and wanted to die.
Speaker 1: So Jonah's available.
Speaker 2: You could go see Jonah for a few minutes, a
Speaker 2: few hundred years while you wait to see Jesus, you know,
Speaker 2: eternities long, and then you could probably go see You
Speaker 2: could probably go see Bartholomew. Apostle Paul might be unavailable,
Speaker 2: and John the disciple who Jesus loved. He might he
Speaker 2: might have a little wait list, but you can probably
Speaker 2: see Bartholomew. Jewish legend says that Rahab was one of
Speaker 2: the most four beautiful women.
Speaker 1: Who ever lived. I don't know if that's true, but maybe.
Speaker 2: You want to see for yourself, you know, get to heaven.
Speaker 2: There's Samson. Walk over to the front desk. There's Peter,
Speaker 2: got his iPad and uh, you say, hey, I'm in
Speaker 2: line to see Jesus. I'm number fifteen million, nine hundred
Speaker 2: and seventy three, two hundred and twenty three.
Speaker 1: While I'm waiting. That was kind of stranger class. Could
Speaker 1: I see ah? I see Rahab the prostitute.
Speaker 2: You know feeders loud, Rayab the prostitute.
Speaker 1: Let me check sounds bad man, Keep it down. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: We do have a rehab up here, But you said
Speaker 2: Rehab the prostitute.
Speaker 1: There's nobody here by that name because up here we
Speaker 1: don't call people what they want her.
Speaker 2: We don't call people what they did. We don't call
Speaker 2: people what they were labeled. Up here, she doesn't go
Speaker 2: by that name. So you can see ray Have, but
Speaker 2: make sure you call her by her new name. Up here,
Speaker 2: we call her Rayhaf the righteous. There is a righteousness
Speaker 2: that comes from God by faith. I said, there is
Speaker 2: a righteousness that it's not of worse, so.
Speaker 1: That no one can boast.
Speaker 2: And I don't know about Sue, but I'm grateful for
Speaker 2: the blood of Jesus that covered my pan.
Speaker 3: I'm not what I did, and I'm not what I was,
Speaker 3: and I'm not what I think, and I'm not where I'm.
Speaker 1: Broken, and I'm not what they said.
Speaker 3: I got a new name, I got a new name,
Speaker 3: I got a new reputation.
Speaker 1: I am a child of God.
Speaker 2: I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, look
Speaker 2: at somebody, say, don't call me that.
Speaker 1: You don't know me like that.
Speaker 2: Don't call me according to how you memorized me in
Speaker 2: my past. God is doing a new thing in my life.
Speaker 2: And when condemnation comes in, you know, to remind you
Speaker 2: of all of those reasons that God can't use you.
Speaker 1: Remember Rehab.
Speaker 2: Remember Rehab who had nothing to offer except faith.
Speaker 1: And God said even.
Speaker 2: She was considered righteous. Because that's what church is. It's
Speaker 2: a place for you to come and leave all of
Speaker 2: the labels that you've accumulated in your life because of
Speaker 2: your behaviors.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, some.
Speaker 2: Of the stuff people said about you is facts.
Speaker 1: It's not always that they were lying.
Speaker 2: It's just that there is a greater truth that supersedes
Speaker 2: whatever they can say about you.
Speaker 1: And every weakness is potential strength.
Speaker 2: But when I was writing this message, I made a
Speaker 2: critical mistake. I was typing so fast in my phone,
Speaker 2: I kept misspelling Rehab's name, and I kept spelling it
Speaker 2: our eh Ab because I was writing fast, not because
Speaker 2: my IQ is love. And after writing it down ten times,
Speaker 2: I noticed I keep spelling it Rehab.
Speaker 1: And God said, you got it right.
Speaker 2: Because what I want you to tell the people when
Speaker 2: you preach it is that I am in the business
Speaker 2: of rehabilitating. In my title again on the screen, you
Speaker 2: did not come to a religious service today. You came
Speaker 2: to rehab. And the place it starts is not with
Speaker 2: what others think of you. We spend so much time
Speaker 2: on that, and we fail to realize that really the
Speaker 2: issue is how you see you. The greatest place my
Speaker 2: reputation needs repair is within myself, because I've let myself
Speaker 2: down so many times, and I've made promises to myself
Speaker 2: and others over.
Speaker 1: And over again.
Speaker 2: And I'm really going to have a better attitude this time,
Speaker 2: and I'm really good at this time, and I'm really
Speaker 2: going at this time. And some of you have developed
Speaker 2: a reputation with yourself that does not reflect your reputation
Speaker 2: with Heaven. God doesn't see you like that, and see
Speaker 2: you like that and the gap between your reality and
Speaker 2: your reputation with yourself could cost you the opportunity to
Speaker 2: see God use you in the future. If if you
Speaker 2: don't deal with that, it costs the spies. Ten of
Speaker 2: the twelve said we can't go in. That's eighty three
Speaker 2: points sixty sixty six sixty six percent of the people
Speaker 2: that went into the land came back with the wrong report.
Speaker 2: And I think eighty three point sixty sixty sixty sixty
Speaker 2: six percent of stuff I tell myself is probably wrong
Speaker 2: at least at least And if I don't deal with that,
Speaker 2: I can have a new reality, a new nature. I
Speaker 2: could be chosen by God, loved by God, accepted by God,
Speaker 2: and He can even have an assignment for me. He
Speaker 2: can even want to use my house to bring forth
Speaker 2: the promise. If I don't see myself that way, I'll.
Speaker 1: Be like those spies.
Speaker 2: The reason they didn't go into the land wasn't how
Speaker 2: they saw God, with how they saw themselves. And the
Speaker 2: reason they saw themselves as small is because they had
Speaker 2: spent four hundred and thirty years enslaved, and sometimes you.
Speaker 1: Carry that with you.
Speaker 2: The Bible actually says that before they could go into
Speaker 2: the land God had to roll away the reproach of Egypt.
Speaker 1: Their past, their shackles, their former condition.
Speaker 2: And when you carry forward with you the reproach of
Speaker 2: different things that you struggled with or currently struggle with,
Speaker 2: it will always keep you from realizing your righteousness in Christ,
Speaker 2: always always, and you.
Speaker 1: See your life through the lens of self. It's very small.
Speaker 2: That's what the spies came back and said they had
Speaker 2: totally lost sight of God's reputation because they were so
Speaker 2: concerned about their own.
Speaker 1: Numbers.
Speaker 2: Thirteen thirty three says that they gave the men of
Speaker 2: God Moses this report. They said, we saw the Nephilim there.
Speaker 1: The Nephelom were giants.
Speaker 2: It might represent anything in your life that's too powerful
Speaker 2: for you and your own strength. It might represent your fear,
Speaker 2: your insecurity, that chronic thing keeps creeping into your life,
Speaker 2: taking you down.
Speaker 1: Thought.
Speaker 2: Pattern doesn't have to be a physical giant or a
Speaker 2: physical enemy. In fact, the Bible says, we wrestle not
Speaker 2: against flesh and blood. There's a good chance that your
Speaker 2: Nephilim has a different name.
Speaker 1: And we saw the.
Speaker 2: Giants, and we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes.
Speaker 1: Why were you comparing yourself to the giants?
Speaker 2: You were supposed to be comparing your giants to your God.
Speaker 1: But you lost sight of that, didn't you. And you
Speaker 1: start thinking, what's.
Speaker 2: Wrong with me is more powerful than what's right with God.
Speaker 2: We look like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we
Speaker 2: look the same to them. Because when you don't know
Speaker 2: who you are, you depend on the rest of the
Speaker 2: world to tell you. And now you're empty, and now
Speaker 2: you're projecting, and now you're trying to perfect this reputation.
Speaker 1: But God brought you here for rehabit. God brought you
Speaker 1: here for a reminder of who he is.
Speaker 2: The Lord, the Lord, slow to anger, abounding in love,
Speaker 2: maintaining faithfulness to a thousand generations.
Speaker 1: That's who he is. He has a reputation.
Speaker 2: He's picked up people like you and like me at
Speaker 2: our lowest point. He's picked up people like you and
Speaker 2: me on our highest mountaintop. He specializes in imperfection. Would
Speaker 2: you stand to your feet, no one leaving, no one moving.
Speaker 2: I'd like to pray for you, please, If this word
Speaker 2: has ministered to you today and there is a reproach
Speaker 2: that you have been carrying forward into your future, that
Speaker 2: needs to be rolled into your past. I would like
Speaker 2: to pray for you today that God would remind you
Speaker 2: of his reputation. He's never lost a battle, He's never
Speaker 2: met a need that he couldn't meet. He never created
Speaker 2: a life he did not intend to use. And so
Speaker 2: we find hope today in this story of Rahab, that
Speaker 2: God is rehabilitating our eyes, that we could see him
Speaker 2: as he really is.
Speaker 1: Father.
Speaker 2: I pray that not one of your children but brush
Speaker 2: this message off. I pray that it would not fall
Speaker 2: on death fears, and I pray that our pride would
Speaker 2: not keep us from receiving it, because probably we could think, well,
Speaker 2: I'm not that bad, I'm not some prostitute. We all
Speaker 2: have broken places, we all have many reasons why we
Speaker 2: feel useless and unworthy, and yet you call us righteous
Speaker 2: by faith.
Speaker 1: Speak over your.
Speaker 2: People today, Lord, in direct contradiction to every lie that
Speaker 2: the enemy has planted in their mind, it is not so,
Speaker 2: and it will not prevail. Whatever has been spoken over
Speaker 2: their life by others or by themselves that does not
Speaker 2: align with your word. We come against it now. In
Speaker 2: the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus,
Speaker 2: the name that is able to heal, saved, deliver, and
Speaker 2: set free in the name of Jesus, the name that
Speaker 2: is above every name, the name that is above every nephilum,
Speaker 2: the name that is above every dysfunction, the name that
Speaker 2: is above all shame and sin.
Speaker 1: And we ask you that.
Speaker 2: In this moment of worship, we would remember who you say.
Speaker 1: We already are chosen, not forsaken.
Speaker 4: I am who you say I am.
Speaker 1: You are for me, not against me. I am who you.
Speaker 4: Say I am, saying I am who you say I am.
Speaker 4: Lift your hands to your father, say I am who
Speaker 4: you say I am.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you