Follow the Promises: Are they Really for Everyone?

What if the promised land isn’t a far-off heaven but a courageous way of living right now? We open Joshua 2 and sit with Rahab’s story to explore how real faith takes shape in imperfect lives and why God’s promises are strong enough to carry us through fear, uncertainty, and battle. Joshua prefigures Jesus, who leads us into a life marked by presence, purpose, and victory, not by the absence of struggle but by confidence in God’s character.

Rahab hears what God has done and makes a daring choice. Her evidence-based faith disrupts shame and reshapes her future, turning a house on Jericho’s wall into a beacon of mercy. The scarlet cord she ties becomes a sign of salvation and a powerful picture of redemption through the blood of Jesus. We unpack how Hebrews 11 and James 2 fit together—faith as assurance in what we cannot see, and faith as action that aligns with what we believe—without turning the Christian life into a lifelong performance review. Instead, we focus on concrete responses to God’s promises that bear fruit in love, courage, and peace.

Along the way, we confront fear with promises, remember that every person we meet bears an eternal soul, and rediscover grace big enough for outsiders and skeptics. Rahab’s legacy doesn’t end with rescue; it culminates in honor within the lineage of Jesus, proving that God writes new beginnings where we expect dead ends. If you’re craving peace, longing for purpose, or wrestling with whether grace could include you, this conversation offers clarity, hope, and a path forward. If it resonates, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review telling us which promise you’re choosing to trust this week.

Transcript

Promises And The Big Picture

SPEAKER_00 0:27

All right. Today's study is called Follow the Promises. Are they really for everyone? Are they really for everyone? And as we go through the book of Joshua, we're going to see promise after promise after promise. And if you missed last week, I'm going to give you just a short little recap so that you have the foundation of what we're talking about. In the book of Joshua, Joshua is a picture of Jesus. In fact, their names are exactly the same. Jesus' name in Hebrew is Joshua. Yeah, did you know that? It was crazy. So Moses was right before Joshua. He lived right before Joshua, and God used Moses to bring the people out of Egypt. Okay, but they they were supposed to go into the promised land. This is the life that God intended for them, and they didn't do it because they couldn't believe, they didn't have the faith to trust in the Lord. And so Joshua comes along and he is the leader that is going to bring them into the promised land. And this is representative that Moses, the law, cannot save you and cannot bring you into the promised land. And what is the promised land for Christians? It's not heaven, as you may have heard sung in the old spirituals. Swing low, sweet ch you know. It's not heaven. The promised land is the victorious Christian life that God intends for you to live now. God has a plan for your life. He wants you to be his child and make a difference in this world and be impactful and build his kingdom. He's got a whole plan for you and that victorious life. There will be battles, and that's what we see in the promised land. There's lots of battles, there's lots of bad guys, there's giants, there's there's all kinds of crazy bad stuff. But God promises his presence and that he will lead them through Joshua with Joshua into this promised land. So does this book have to do with your life? Absolutely. It's one of the most applicable books in the entire Old Testament to your life because this journey into the promised land is going to speak directly to you. So that's a recap and a foundation of what the entire big picture is. Now we get to chapter two. What we're going to learn today is that anyone can be included in God's family through faith in Jesus, and that is that will transform their life, and that's how grace works. Grace is available to anybody, and it will transform anybody. What about prostitutes? What about drug dealers? What about Raiders fans? I guess that's repetitive. Um just kidding. What about liars? What about thieves? I mean, uh you can you just picture the worst people in your mind and you're like, well, I don't like them. But we're gonna we're gonna see. God's hand is for them. And how can we think about people? Here's one truth that will transform how you think of this world. If you can think of every single person, including that person that you hate the most, that person who you think is just a piece of trash, that person that you think has hurt you, has done terrible things, you know, the person that you have in your mind right now, one little truth will transform how we think about it. If you can think about that person, that they have an eternal soul, they have an eternal soul.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

It changes everything.

What The Promised Land Really Means

Every Person Has An Eternal Soul

Spies In Jericho And Rahab

Faith, Lies, And God’s Grace

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Because if if someone's eternity is on the line, you can put up with, you can forgive, you can deal with whatever difficulty they may be bringing into your life. Just remember, every single person is an eternal soul. That doesn't mean every single person will be saved or every person will accept God's salvation and spend eternity in heaven, but every single person is an eternal soul. So that makes every interaction you have with every single person in this life that we have, these 70, 80, 90, 100 years that you get to live, every single interaction matters for eternity. It will be remembered, it will be recounted, there will be it will matter. Your lives matter. So remember that as we are going through this. So let's just dive in and we're gonna talk about chapter two of Joshua. It starts this. It says, Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, especially Jericho. So, armed with the promise of God from the last chapter, Joshua begins to get a military reconnaissance expedition going. Do you guys remember the promise? The promise is go in, I'm gonna be with you. No one's gonna be able to stand before you. You're gonna win all these battles. I'm gonna be with you as long as you're brave and courageous. And what did we learn? Courageous is code for, courageous is code for faith in God, not faith in you. So when I think courageous, I'm like, yes, I gotta be stronger, I gotta be better, but that's not the biblical version definition of courageous. The biblical version of courageous is trust in God. It takes faith, it's scary to trust in God, but be courageous. So the first stop on this reconnaissance mission is Jericho. And our first lesson that we're gonna learn is that God is willing to save anybody. His intention is not to just kill and destroy all the people of the land, even though the people who lived in Jericho were generally evil and doing incredible evil, but God is willing to save anybody who's there. So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and they lodged there, as you do. Harlot means prostitute, right? So they go into the city, you know, and just in case you were wondering, harlot literally means prostitute. This is there's no other meaning in the for the word in Hebrew for what's written. Okay, so just we're on the same page. She was a prostitute, and she probably wasn't the only one in Jericho, but somehow God put these uh the these spies in in her path. And, you know, she was lost and and empty. She was sad and probably felt no worth at all in her life, as you can imagine. She would she lived a life that was filled with shame. And in fact, Jews, they they viewed prostitutes as the worst part of society. In fact, not even part of society. They were they were outside of legit people. They were just a terrible part. There was no hope for them, according to the culture that was that was in the day. But somehow these spies end up here because God is up to something. Because God doesn't see how we see, right? Remember when God is talking to Samuel about uh David becoming king, and he says in in 1 Samuel 16, he says, For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So there's something special about Rahab's heart. And I'm gonna give you the answer right now. It's faith. Rahab has something called faith. You can't judge a book by its cover. There's never been a more perfect time to use that phrase than right now. And so it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. And so someone snitched. Snitched on them. Snitches get stitches, as we know. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country. So I just imagine, maybe this is how you imagine it too, that the spies, you know, they put on fake beards, or maybe fake mustaches, and some glasses, because that's all you need to have a good disguise. And they were saying weird things like, so is this the door that protects the city from invaders? Is there a back door? How many guards are there? When do they go on break? Hmm. Oh, I'm just curious, you know, about this guards and doors. Don't mind me. Um, um, um, where's your prostitutes? That's how I picture this going. The other guard's like, who was that, Harvey? Oh, just someone looking at our walls and our doors and our prostitutes. Pretty normal for a Tuesday in Jericho. Okay. So then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she's uh and so she said, Yes, the the men came to me, but I did not know where they're from. And it happened as the gate was being shut, it was dark, and the men went out. So the men went, and I don't know. So pursue them quickly that you may overtake them. So Rahab chooses to protect these Jewish men, these people that were definitely planning on invading their city. Uh why does she do this? Well, because she has faith. Well, how how does that match up? How does that matter? Well, she actually believes God's promises, also. We're gonna see that in just a minute. She makes up this story to lead astray the king and and his soldiers, which means she lies, which brings up a really important question. Can I lie if I have faith? Does this give me permission to just lie whenever I want to make get things done? Nice try, dude. No. First, the Bible tells us the truth. Okay? Even about the Bible heroes, that's how you can know the word of God is true and it's an accurate testimony of what actually happened, and it's not made up because every other religious book eliminates the bad stuff that their heroes do. It they they write a fictional narrative where their heroes don't do anything wrong. The Bible just says, no, this is the stupid stuff that the stupid people did, and God is so good that He used the stupid people to do awesome things, and God is so great. Amen. Amen. So it doesn't sugarcoat the lives of Christians, number or the people, the heroes of the story. Secondly, this story highlights God's grace for messed up people. So Rahab was kind of messed up still. She wasn't perfect, she was literally still a prostitute. And the Bible doesn't say that things changed overnight. Rahab was a messed up person. Third, the point of the story is her faith, not her actions. Even though one of her actions does line up with her faith, and we'll see as she lives her life, more and more actions start to line up with the faith that was like, it's like a seed. So guess what? I bought this avocado tree. I named him Alvarado. And I I love him. I talked to him in the mornings. I'm I'm I've never grown anything, I destroy stuff all the time. His leaves are kind of turning brown right now, but I think it's because he fell over one time. I think he got bruised. But he'll he'll be alright. I'm talking. I I'm I'm treating him well. All right. But then I also ate an avocado and I took the the seed and I put it in a pot and watered it every day for like a month, and I was like, oh, this is never nothing's ever gonna happen. This morning I go outside, and guess what? There's a little sprout! He's like the size of my pinky. So I named him Pedro, and we'll see what happens. He's right next to Alvarado, and my neighbor has like a 25-foot avocado tree that has no fruit on it. And because it's you know you have to have two, and so now I think that's his girlfriend, and so he's they're gonna have fruit. So I'm excited. Why did I bring that up? Because like a seed. Yes, I planted a seed. Sometimes it takes it took a month for this seed to germinate and to and to sprout up. And um sometimes our faith is in there, but it takes a while for it to for it to so be patient with people, you know, be patient with your kids. Just keep building up what is their true identity, just keep talking lovingly to them, and God's seeds do not return void, they they they work, they produce life. Okay, so it says here, but she had brought them up to the roof and hidden them with stalks of flax which she had laid over or laid in order on the roof. Okay, so here's a picture of stocks of flax. I guess that works pretty good, right? You could hide under that. All right. Then the men pursued them by the road to Jordan, to the fords, and as soon as uh those who pursued them had gone out and shut the gate, now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said, Men to the men, I know that God has given the land, you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. For we have 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 the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. So this is a pretty powerful declaration of faith from Rahab the harlot. If you were Rahab, would you want your name to always be referred to as Rahab the harlot? I don't know. I'll start calling her just Rahab now, just to be nice. So what is she what is her faith based on? It's based on evidence evidence. She has seen God's work, she's seen what God has done. Just like we trust in things that Jesus actually did for us. Have you heard the term blind faith? That's you don't need that all the time. It's faith in something you can't necessarily see, but you don't have to have blind faith. There is evidence, and what Jesus did on the cross is evidence. And what happens here is the people, they had no courage. They had no courage. Well, what did chapter one say that we need to have? We need to have courage. You know, they were encouraging Joshua to have courage and be strong. That's the opposite of faith. No courage is the opposite of faith. Courage is kind of equal to faith. So God commanded Joshua, have great courage, but the enemies of God live in fear. They live in fear. And fear is truly the opposite of faith. Doubt is just like another name for fear. And God never asks you to be afraid. Although we think sometimes that's that's what we need to do. But he says the only thing you need to fear is fear the Lord. That's the only time the Bible says we should be afraid. Fear should never really have a place in your life. You can say no to fear and choose faith. You can replace every fearful thought with a promise that you can believe in instead. And that's what Rahab has chosen to do. She, I'm sure she had emotions that were full of fear. I mean, the entire world that she's grown up with, and the world that since she was a little baby, you know, uh, to what she is now, all she's known is this life, and it's about to be ripped up and destroyed. And she can see that coming, and everyone can see it coming. And she can choose either to believe in God's promises or in her fear, and she chooses the promises of God. The way that we can choose to replace fearful thoughts with faith thoughts is just like Rahab. Rahab said, The Lord your God, he is God in heaven and on earth below. What does that mean? It means God is in control. God is in control, I can calm down, I can rest, I can trust, because God is God and He is in control. That's not my job. It's above my pay grade. He is in control of my life. Well, what if I don't understand what's going on? You still don't have to be afraid because God is in control. Says the prostitute whose life is a disaster and a disappointment. She she doesn't have any right to say that God is in control. How can she say that? Well, she can because she's chosen by faith. She's not even looking at what should be the consequences of her of her life and her choices. What do you say when the moment comes? What do you say when the moment comes? That moment where the doctor says, here's the bad news.

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That moment when you're alone and you shouldn't be. What do you say?

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God is in control or I need to freak out and get control of my life. One of those is a fearful life experience. The other one is faith and trust. And God says, if you choose to have faith, I will give you this incredible gift called peace. And that's really what we're longing for. That's really what we need is peace. It's it's available, it's given to every single person in here. You can have peace in your heart, in your life, when you say God is in control. I'm gonna trust him. I know it doesn't make sense, I don't understand how it's gonna happen, but I'm gonna trust in God. Now, therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, Rahab says, that you also show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token. And spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all they have and deliver our lives from death. So what do we see? Rahab actually loves her family. She has something that's really special. She actually loves her family. We don't even know if they talk to her anymore. I don't know if her family maybe thinks she's the worst. Maybe they are disappointed in her life choices. I don't know. But she still loves them and cares for them. Now look what happens. So the man answered her, Our lives for yours. If none of you of uh you tell this business of ours, and it shall be when the Lord has given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall. She dwelt on the wall. So, uh sorry, and said to them, Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days. That's weird. That's like the second time that's come up in this book. I wonder if that's ever gonna be important in the Bible. Until the pursuers have returned, afterward you may go your way. So the men said to her, We will be blameless of this oath of yours, of which you have made us swear, unless when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window. So remember that. Through which you let us down. And unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father's household to your own home, uh, so it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, and if a hand is laid on him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear. Then she said, According to your words, so be it. So she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet cord in the window. They departed and went to the mountain and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them. So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over, and they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen them. And they said to Joshua, Truly, the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us. So that scarlet cord, what is that? Well, if you think about it, it provided salvation for her and her family. This scarlet, it was it was something tangible that provided salvation.

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What do you think that foreshadows? Jesus. Jesus, the blood of Jesus, right?

Rahab’s Declaration Of Faith

The Scarlet Cord And Salvation

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Something red, red, easy. It it foreshadows the redemption of Jesus bought with the very blood that he shed on the cross. That's what this scarlet cord represents. The cord, you know, our cords, you could imagine our cords were loose, the cords that held us to sin and that we were going to be judged for all our sin, that was loosed and broken because the cord that held him to the cross, like a lamb being tied up for the slaughter, there was a cord holding him, and that was the cords of love that he had for us. Why did Jesus stay on the cross when he didn't have to? Because he was bound to the cross by cords of love for you. He willingly let himself be tied to the cross for you. He loves you, and he did the thing that you needed to be done for you to be set free and your cords to be loosened. Is a beautiful, beautiful illustration. So this is an image of grace that was bought for us by the blood of Jesus. And when Rahab took that cord and she tied it up in her window, she was doing an act of faith. Now, is faith what you do? No, it's it's what you believe. But there are things called acts of faith. In other words, your faith can do stuff, or you can do stuff through faith or with faith. Well, how does that work? We know Rahab has faith, but what does that mean? How does she know God's gonna save her from death? How does she choose the right side? How can we have the same kind of faith? And what does that look like? Well, we're gonna fast forward to the cheat sheet at the end of the book, and the book of Hebrews talks about Rahab and this faith. And so let's start in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 and 2. It says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good testimony. I'm gonna read that in the New Living Translation. It says, Faith is the confidence that what we hoped for will actually happen. It gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people of old days of old earned a good reputation. And then Hebrews 11 goes on to list all the people in the Old Testament that had faith and how they are examples for us to live faithful lives in the days that we live in today. And so we see we get down to verse 13, and there's more details on these lives of faith. It says, For all of these, including Rahab, these all died in faith, having not received the promises. Remember, there's that word promises again. But having seen them afar off, they were assured of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Okay, so the whole big picture of faith is that you have a choice. You can go back to the city you were from, the city like Rahab, Jericho, right? The city that hated God and was about to be destroyed. She could she had every opportunity to say, I'm I'm with that. Or she could go with faith because she saw a promise and believed a promise. So that's the essence of what this faith is. The faith is making a choice to choose God. Well, then in verse 31, we get all the way down to Rahab's part, and it says, By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. Now that kind of gives us a spoiler for what's going to happen in chapter six, but you guys will forget by then anyway. So she lives. So faith is the whole point of Rahab's story. She was saved by faith, but how do we know that she had faith? Because of what she did. How do you know there was faith in her heart? Because of what she did. What does that mean? Well, in James chapter 2, it tells us in James 2, 24, you see then that a man is justified by works, not by faith only. Okay, what does that mean? He says, likewise was not Rahab the harlot. Oh, so he uses her as an example, also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Faith without works is dead? Well, what does that mean? So does that mean that I need to have a lifetime of good works to show that my faith is real? Some people teach that. They teach, well, what James is talking about here is that real faith will be you'll be good your whole life. So go to church, read your Bible, and do all the good things, or else you can't know if you have faith or not. But what does that do? It creates Christians that are always freaking out. Am I am I saved? I don't know, because this year has I am on the naughty list. I have not been a good person this year, or I maybe I've been struggling for this decade, or just had a bad day.

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God doesn't want us to freak out like that.

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That's not what it's talking about here. How do you know? Every time James brings up this discussion that faith needs to be real and it needs to do something, all of the examples, including this example with Rahab, are one-time events in the person's life. He doesn't say you gotta freak out about your whole life. He says the real faith is demonstrated by real responses to God. You don't have to count them, you don't have to compare them, they just need to be real. It's not about earning righteousness through a lifelong record of good deeds. It's about faith manifesting through concrete responses to God's message. Have you believed God's promises? Then you have faith. That's what it is. Have you responded? Has it changed your life? Have you chosen, I'm gonna get baptized, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start believing in my new identity, I'm gonna start loving people. I'm gonna if those things are happening in your life, those are concrete responses. It's important to understand, James is not contradicting the concept of justification by faith alone. Instead, he is emphasizing that real living faith naturally expresses itself through decisions and actions. Decisions and actions. So if you have a brother, a sister in your life and you know that they have faith, but you see that they're not making a decision that lines up with their faith, you have every right to say, hey, this isn't you. This isn't your identity, this isn't who you are. Hey, let's look at Jesus and let's make that choice together. Let's go together.

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Isn't that better than you suck, get out of my church? Yeah, it's a lot better that way, right?

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Rahab's example shows us that faith involves on that trust. For believers today, for us today, it means that our faith in Jesus means that we rest in his finished work, which naturally means that we express his life and his love through us. I I don't have to save myself, I don't have to change myself, but I believe that Jesus lives in me, so I'm gonna let him live in me. I'm gonna let him love others. I'm gonna choose to believe that he loves the person with the eternal soul that's standing right in front of me, who I think is a jerk and a half. And I don't like them, but I believe Jesus loves them, and so I'm gonna treat them how he wants me to treat them instead of how I feel like treating them or how they deserve to be treated. As we respond to the Holy Spirit teaching us in our hearts, you'll know what that looks like. The Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of speaking to your heart how you should behave. Every moment of the day, he will tell you and he can tell you by that that that heart and that peace that he's given you. You have been justified by faith, you're right with God, but faith means that you've been made loving in your inner core, you've been made different. Jesus lives inside you, he's put his spirit in you, and he wants to live in you, through you, as you. And that's what's so different and so crazy. And that's a hint of what we're gonna talk about at our Christmas Eve service.

Hebrews And James On Living Faith

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What does the word Emmanuel mean? We'll be talking about that on Christmas. Eve.

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You can walk in faith and love like Jesus. Literally, you can be a slave of doing good to people. Or you can walk according to your flesh and live like a normal human focused on yourself and be a slave of sin. That is the choice that you have. See, unbelievers, they don't have that choice because they don't have a new heart. All they can do is still be a slave of sin. But you can choose to be a slave of righteousness or a slave of sin. Rahab chose faith. She chose to believe in God's promises and God's word. Then she chose to align herself with that promise, which was an act of faith. That's a faith that works. She has a faith that works. And that's where it takes courage because this kind of faith is dangerous. You have to put yourself out there and be like, take dangerous steps of faith that you don't know how the future is gonna hold. Maybe you should get married. That's a step of faith. Maybe you should move, maybe you should not move. I don't know the different steps that are in your life. Maybe you should turn away from something, maybe you should turn towards another thing. I'm not the boss of your life, but Jesus is. And if you look to him and say, Jesus, I belong to you, what should I do in my life? He will tell you, and then he will do it for you through you. All he's asking from you is faith and the courage to believe that he lives in you and that he will do it for you. It it often requires courage, faith does, because it involves trusting in unseen realities and promises that God has made. And so to have faith, you have to know God's promises. And you won't know God's promises if you don't read the Bible, study the word. They're all there, they're all written there, but we literally just don't care sometimes because we think we know how to live our lives, and God says, Look to me. I will speak it to you, I will tell you the promises I want you to trust. Here's a couple reasons for, to be exact, why faith takes courage, because you have to trust in something that's unseen. God's character, you can't see it, but it's true. He loves you, he cares about you, and his promises are real even though you can't see them or fully understand them. So you have to trust that. That's that's trusting the unseen. Number two, faith goes against the grain. Sometimes the society and the world and and your own personal desires, it takes courage to stand firm on God's promises and go against what you what it feels like you should do, right? Especially when it's different from everybody around you, from all your peers that are telling you this is how to live life, this is how to have satisfaction, this is how you know to be. Three, sometimes you're facing uncertainty, and so it's difficult to have courage. Life is full of unknowns, which means you have to trust God in all those unknown parts of life. You have to let go of the idea that you can control everything in your life because you can't. And believing that God is good and has your best intentions at heart is a core part of faith. Faith means you have to endure certain trials. Faith doesn't mean you are exempt from suffering, it actually means God is gonna take you through more suffering. But that's okay because He has a plan for every single bit of it. It's gonna matter and it's gonna mean something for you. God is working all things out for your good, including the trials that we're so afraid of. Lastly, when we are trusting in the Lord, we're free from the idea that we have to earn God's favor. And this means we're trusting in grace. Grace means God freely gives. It's a free gift, all of his favor to you and all of his love, all of his acceptance. It's all a free gift. And when you have faith in that, you are free from thinking, I need to perform to be a good, impressive guy for my father. I have to perform, I have to be no, but you are enough. It's not even really about you. God loves you, and he's promised to give you grace, and we access this grace by faith. So it takes courage to believe in all these things. So last the very last thing we'll say is I want you to realize this one thing Rahab was a dirty harlot who chose to believe in God and put her trust in God. And this harlot, this prostitute, became the direct great, great, say great 31 times grandmother of Jesus. She's his grand grandma, grand-grand-grand-grand-grandma. And that's a place of honor. So the whole story of Rahab's life, she becomes a like she wasn't even Jewish. But she's God snuck her in there and gave her this great place of honor.

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Why would God do this? Does he care about pure genetics?

SPEAKER_00 39:08

No, he cares about people, and what he wants people to know is that his promises are for anyone, even you. His promises are for you. Anyone who will humble themselves and put their faith in Jesus, they will receive all the grace that God can give. God doesn't give some people more grace than he gives other people. He says, All the grace belongs to anybody who will do one thing that is put their hope and trust and faith in my son. They get everything, they get adopted, and they and then all the blessings of heaven are yours. You are my tr my son now, and I give you the most valuable thing in the universe. The very spirit and heart of Jesus is implanted in you, and you can't lose it.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

And it's more valuable than anything.

Courage, Promises, And Daily Choices

SPEAKER_00 40:09

All he asks of us is faith and the humility to say, Give it to me. I I need it. I need you, Jesus. And I'm gonna say this last word to you to test me in this and see if I'm lying.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Let's all stand.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Father, living a a life of faith is scary. We we are intimidated by this constant pressure that we feel like we have to know what the next step is, we have to know what the future holds. God, but you know, you hold the future and you hold us and you promise us you are with us, you're for us, you're never gonna leave us or forsake us because Father, we have put our hope in Jesus. And if there's any wanderer who has come in today or who's listening online who has yet to put their faith in you, I invite you to call upon Jesus, call upon the name of the Lord even now and say, Father, forgive me. God, forgive me because of the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. I believe that you died for me. I believe you were God, and so you rose again from the dead, and you're willing to share this new resurrection life with me. I'm I'm done living in shame, I'm done living in fear. I hate not living with peace in my heart, so I give it all to you. And then there's many of us in here who may have um been backsliding. We've been living according to our flesh, we've been living according to our own desires, and I pray that there that anyone who's in that state today would turn their back, would renounce their self-life, renounce their flesh, and choose instead to believe and live by the promises of God. God, we we hear this one promise this morning that you want to be with us, in us, that you have given that gift to us, the gift of Emmanuel. And so, Lord, we stand upon that and we believe you call us and have made us loving, holy, righteous people, and help us to live according to that identity this week as we celebrate Christmas, as we pour out love onto our family and our friends, as we as we even meet new people, Jesus. Help us to be real love. Help us to be Jesus loving people on the island of South Padre in Brownsville, or as far as this message reaches. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.