SPEAKER_01: Thank you, guys.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we are very blessed to have a team like this to lead us in worship every Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: They're not here to entertain us, they're here to help us get into God's presence, and it's such a blessing that we have them.
SPEAKER_01: A couple of weeks ago, um, Sean spoke, and uh he said that the testimony of people who've grown up in church is just as important uh as people who've maybe had a more dramatic conversion.
SPEAKER_01: And then last week Scott spoke about generational blessing.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I was one of the ones that stood up to say I've been following the Lord for more than 40 years, and I looked round and I suddenly felt very old because of the people, the people who were still sitting down who I thought were my age.
SPEAKER_01: We're clearly not.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, both of those things apply to me.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you will know that we we're called one church here, but we're part of the Apostolic Church UK, and that was a movement that over a hundred years ago uh came out of the Welsh Revival, and some people from Wales came to Kent to work in the mines, and uh they brought their faith with them.
SPEAKER_01: And I have the great privilege of being part of one of those families.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the church was established in Lydon over a hundred years ago, and my grandparents on both sides followed the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: My mum and dad followed the Lord, my brother, my sister, and I follow the Lord, my five children all serve in church, and my six grandchildren are all being brought up in church.
SPEAKER_01: It is such a privilege.
SPEAKER_01: You know, my prayer is that my grandchildren's children will also know the generational blessing of God in their generation as well.
SPEAKER_01: Now, my Christian background, therefore, seems fairly straightforward, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: But it had to start somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And on my mum's side, uh, my grandmother knew the Lord from a young age, but my grandfather didn't find the Lord until he was late on in years.
SPEAKER_01: And on the other side of the family, on my father's side, there was no Christian background whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01: Um, he met my nan, my grandfather met my nan when she was playing the drums in a dance band in a music hall.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they did on Sundays.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, maybe some of those drumming jeans have passed down.
SPEAKER_01: And my grandfather was a gambler, he loved betting on the horses.
SPEAKER_01: So there was no Christian background at all until they took in a lodger called Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Randall.
SPEAKER_01: And uh Mrs.
SPEAKER_01: Randall said to my grandfather one day, I can see that you're a very studious man, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Abbott, because you read the paper very thoroughly.
SPEAKER_01: He was reading the horse form section for when he wanted to go gambling.
SPEAKER_01: And she said to him, Perhaps if you studied the Bible with as much fervour as you studied the newspaper, it might be good for you.
SPEAKER_01: And subsequently, my my nanny granddad gave their hearts to the Lord, and that's where it started.
SPEAKER_01: And uh there's ended up being so many abbots since I know that some people have called it the Abbot Stoic Church, not the Apostolic Church, because there's so many of us.
SPEAKER_01: But you see, it doesn't matter who your grandparents are, and it doesn't matter who your parents are.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing, it doesn't matter what your background is, the only thing that matters is that you recognize who God is, and that you turn to him and that you give your life to him and you're obedient to what he calls you to do.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray for my grandchildren's legacy, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: But I pray that every one of you here this morning will know something of the generational blessing that my family has known because that's what God's purpose is for your lives.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: Prophetically this morning, I believe there are people who are here where there's maybe been a break in your generation serving the Lord, but God wants you to establish that again with your children.
SPEAKER_01: And there's people here this morning who you're the first person in your family that's known Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And prophetically, I believe God's saying this morning, you're gonna be the first of many generations who are gonna serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: God has an incredible plan for your life, and he created you as you are because only you can do what God wants you to do.
SPEAKER_01: And this morning we're gonna look at a lady called Rahab.
SPEAKER_01: This lady was a Canaanite woman with what we might consider an immoral means of making a living, in what was a depraved society that believed that child uh sacrifice was okay and many other detestable things.
SPEAKER_01: But she recognized who God was, and and and she was desperate in need, and she recognized God was the only one that could help her, and she decided to do something about it.
SPEAKER_01: And that one woman's faith saved her, it saved her family, and it established a legacy for generations to come.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've got your Bibles with you, let's turn to Joshua 2.
SPEAKER_01: Says then Joshua, son of Nun, sent two spies from Shittim.
SPEAKER_01: Go look over the land, he said, especially Jericho.
SPEAKER_01: So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
SPEAKER_01: The king of Jericho was told, Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.
SPEAKER_01: So the king of Jericho sent his message to Rahab, Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they've come to spy out the whole land.
SPEAKER_01: But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they'd come from.
SPEAKER_01: At dusk when it was time to close the city gate, they left.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know which way they went.
SPEAKER_01: Go after them quickly, you may catch up with them.
SPEAKER_01: But she'd taken them up onto the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she'd laid on the roof.
SPEAKER_01: So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone the gate was shut.
SPEAKER_01: Before the spies laid down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you this land, and that a great fear of you has fallen on us.
SPEAKER_01: So all that live in this country are melting in fear because of you.
SPEAKER_01: We've heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sion and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: When we heard of it our hearts melted in fear, and everyone's courage failed because of you.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
SPEAKER_01: Now then please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.
SPEAKER_01: Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death.
SPEAKER_01: Our lives for your lives, the men assured her.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't tell what we're doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.
SPEAKER_01: So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.
SPEAKER_01: She said to them, Go to the hills, so the pursuers will not find you.
SPEAKER_01: Hide yourselves there for three days until they are gone, and then go on your way.
SPEAKER_01: Now the men had said to her, This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless when we enter the land you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down.
SPEAKER_01: And unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers, and all your family into the house.
SPEAKER_01: If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their heads.
SPEAKER_01: We will not be responsible.
SPEAKER_01: As for those who are in the house, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them.
SPEAKER_01: But if you tell what we're doing we will be released from the oath you made us swear.
SPEAKER_01: Agreed, she said, Let it be as you say.
SPEAKER_01: So she sent them away and they departed, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
SPEAKER_01: When they left they went into the hills, and stayed there three days until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them.
SPEAKER_01: Then the two men started back.
SPEAKER_01: They went down out of the hills, forded the river, and came to Joshua, son of Nun, and told him everything that had happened.
SPEAKER_01: They said to Joshua, The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands.
SPEAKER_01: All the people are melting in fear because of us.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua the commander had sent out these two spies.
SPEAKER_01: Just as forty years ago Moses had sent out twelve spies, one of which had been Joshua himself.
SPEAKER_01: And to begin with, it doesn't look like they're very good spies.
SPEAKER_01: They're sort of more Austin Powers than James Bond.
SPEAKER_01: They had a plan, it was, it was quite a good plan to go to this prostitute's house, which would be by the city gates normally.
SPEAKER_01: There'd be lots of strangers coming and going, so maybe they wouldn't be noticed.
SPEAKER_01: And obviously it would be a good escape route if they were by the city gate if they were found out.
SPEAKER_01: So up to that point, not a bad plan.
SPEAKER_01: But within hours they'd been discovered, so they'd obviously were a bit conspicuous somehow.
SPEAKER_01: And Rahab later says she doesn't know where they're from, but I think she knew exactly where they were from.
SPEAKER_01: And uh she recognized that this was an opportunity to save herself and her family.
SPEAKER_01: And uh she realized that Israel's God was the God of heaven and earth, and that nothing was going to stop his plans.
SPEAKER_01: In Bible times, the um the fine strands of flax would have been used for clothing, for making cloth and clothes.
SPEAKER_01: The thicker stuff, the more wiry stuff, was often used to make rope or cords.
SPEAKER_01: And uh some commentators think that Rahab, alongside her other pastime, uh, maybe actually made ropes for a living because she had she had one lying around that was quite long.
SPEAKER_01: Um and when word gets out that the spies are there, she deliberately goes against both her king and her community.
SPEAKER_01: And uh she realizes that nothing, nothing is going to stand in front of the God of Israel, nothing's gonna be able to withstand what he can do.
SPEAKER_01: And so she tricks the king, she tricks the men that the king sends to go off on a wild goose chase.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes I think there's there's something in that that that maybe we can take on board.
SPEAKER_01: I mentioned in deal a couple of weeks ago that we should be the best citizens in our community.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we should be the best neighbours, we should be the best work colleagues, we should be the best employees.
SPEAKER_01: But there comes a time that if someone actually asks you to do something that you know is wrong and you know goes against what God says, sometimes we have to live out our faith and and not do those things.
SPEAKER_01: And she he she he realized that like whatever it was that her king and country were telling her to do, it was never going to stand up against the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And so she makes this decision to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: So she hid the spies and she creates this distraction.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and she makes a deal with them that when they come back and take the city, that she and her family will be safe.
SPEAKER_01: And as we read, the spies tell her to leave this red cord hanging in the window of her house which was on the city wall.
SPEAKER_01: And I guess in some ways it would have been um it'd be a great way to identify the house, wouldn't it, in the battle?
SPEAKER_01: Is the one that's got the red rope hanging down for the wall.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe, we don't know, maybe that was actually the means by which the spies got her and her family out.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they went out the window the same way the spies had done.
SPEAKER_01: But what's interesting, the the uh root word for cord in the original language is actually the same root word as for hope.
SPEAKER_01: And this sign, this this red cord was the sign of a hope, of a trust in the spies and in trust in God.
SPEAKER_01: And obviously, some some people will link this back to what happened in the Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: So God told the Jews to sacrifice a lamb and to paint the blood of the lamb around their doorpost, the red blood of the lamb.
SPEAKER_01: And uh everybody who stayed inside the house was saved when the Egyptians would were killed outside.
SPEAKER_01: Same thing applied here.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who stayed inside the house where this sign was was safe.
SPEAKER_01: And it points on to obviously to Jesus being the ultimate sacrificial lamb whose blood uh wipes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see that eventually this the spies escape and they go to Joshua and they report back to him everything that's happened.
SPEAKER_01: And as you remember, I said they Moses had sent twelve spies before.
SPEAKER_01: When those twelve spies came back, this is what they said.
SPEAKER_01: The people in the land are giants and we are locusts compared to them.
SPEAKER_01: And the fear of that stopped Israel from going in and possessing everything that God had for them.
SPEAKER_01: These spies come back and they say, The Lord has given us the whole land.
SPEAKER_01: They are terrified of us.
SPEAKER_01: What a difference it makes when you see things through God's eyes, not through your own.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll see in chapter six as we go in the next few weeks how that all panned out.
SPEAKER_01: But Rahab is saved and her family's saved, and then moved to a place near the Israelite camp.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_01: We see that Rahab ends up becoming the mother of Boaz, and that he's the great-grandfather of King David.
SPEAKER_01: And ultimately her legacy leads directly to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: A lady of ill repute who found God and then acted in faith is used by God as a key part in the generational blessing that ends up with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look at the rest of the genealogy in Matthew of Jesus, there are some other ladies in there as well.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies from difficult circumstances, ladies who were outsiders.
SPEAKER_01: But God took hold of them and he used them for his purposes.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lady called Tamar.
SPEAKER_01: She was twice widowed, abandoned with no children.
SPEAKER_01: A woman who then tricked her father-in-law into sleeping with her so she could have a child.
SPEAKER_01: But she became the mother of Perez, who was Boaz's great, great, great, great-grandfather.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's Ruth, who ended up marrying Boaz, another foreigner.
SPEAKER_01: She was a Moabite, she was a Canaanite from the from the place God had given to the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: So she was a foreigner in the land now, and a widow, so poor that she had to take the gleanings from the edge of the field that the farmers had left.
SPEAKER_01: It was a bit like a food bank in those days.
SPEAKER_01: The farmers were told they had to leave grain around the edge of the field for those who were too poor.
SPEAKER_01: And she was loyal to her mother-in-law, she was obedient to God, and she ends up becoming Baraz's wife and the mother of Obed, who was King David's grandfather.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's Bathsheba, another lady who was not Israeli, she was a Hittite, another widow, this time as a result of murder because King David had had adultery with her and then decided to kill her husband.
SPEAKER_01: A woman who lost her firstborn child before she could even name him.
SPEAKER_01: And yet she became the mother of Solomon, probably the wisest man that ever lived.
SPEAKER_01: And then there's Mary, a teenage girl who's found to be pregnant and in danger of being killed because of it.
SPEAKER_01: But her obedience led her to becoming the mother of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: All women that society would have overlooked.
SPEAKER_01: But God knew who they were.
SPEAKER_01: He knew their hearts and he had great plans for them.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I don't know whether you felt because of your background or because of things that have happened to you in your life that God can't use you, or whether people have labelled you, or whether you've labelled yourself.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't care about that.
SPEAKER_01: Rahab had a label.
SPEAKER_01: The prostitute, that was her label.
SPEAKER_01: That's some label to carry through life, eh?
SPEAKER_01: You know, even the New Testament writers, when they're writing about her and her faith and what she did, still call her Rahab the prostitute.
SPEAKER_01: What a label to carry.
SPEAKER_01: But what happened because she was faithful.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't care about where she came from, he didn't care about the label she had.
SPEAKER_01: He just looked at her heart and her faith.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, he saved her and blessed her.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't care what other people think about you.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that?
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't care what other people think about you, he just cares about who you are and what you think about him.
SPEAKER_01: Later on in Joshua, in Joshua 24, there's a moment where Joshua stands before the people of Israel and he says, choose today who you will serve.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Rahab made a choice, and God blessed her, and her family, and her descendants.
SPEAKER_01: That's been the choice I've made and my family have made.
SPEAKER_01: Today is that the choice that you're going to make for your family.
SPEAKER_01: In Deuteronomy 7, these words are written: Understand therefore that the Lord your God is God indeed.
SPEAKER_01: He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations.
SPEAKER_01: And he lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.
SPEAKER_01: Church, choose today who you will follow.
SPEAKER_01: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Andrew's gonna come now.
SPEAKER_01: He's uh he's got a word from God for us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's really in line with what I've been talking about, so thank you, Andrew.
SPEAKER_00: I just got a sense this morning that this is a generational moment um for you and your family.
SPEAKER_00: And I had this picture, it's a family, you know, you you might be able to see your own children in this, you you might be able to visualize this, but I want you to imagine stepping stones going across quite a large river.
SPEAKER_00: And and as parents, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: We we hold our little children's hands and we take them across the stepping stones.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're feeling brave, we might let them put their hand in, we might let them dip their foot in there, but we always keep hold of their hand.
SPEAKER_00: And what I like you to think about is that river being God's promise to you and your family, and as you hold your children's hands from step to step, you look up and there's no more steps.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants you to jump right in, God wants you to jump right into where the promise that your family has.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants you to gather your children and gather your family and jump into everything that He's got.
SPEAKER_00: My hope for today is that you gather your children and you bring yourselves as a family and get prayed for.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go get your children from the children's work, I want you to bring them here, and I want leaders to pray over your family.
SPEAKER_00: And I promise, I'm gonna make a bold promise, I promise this service won't stop until every family has been that wants prayer has been prayed for.
SPEAKER_00: This is a generational moment.
SPEAKER_00: Please gather your children, come forward, get prayer as a family, and let God's promise outwork what is to come in generations to come.