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