I'm starting a series today called hanging by a thread, and I like to say it like this, if you're hanging by a thread, it had better be the right thread. When I was in high school, well, I really all growing up, I didn't have a son in high school, thank God, I have a son now. And if I had tried to get God to make my son, and I had to decide everything that he would be like or not like, I would have missed some stuff, same with my daughters. If God had only given me everything I asked for, then I would have missed so many of the amazing, wonderful things that he did for me, and he did for my children, because he made them so much better than I could have even thought.
I loved each one of them unfettered and equally all at the same time, but my son, he likes to fish. As a matter of fact, almost every single day of the world, he asks me, Daddy, can we go fishing today? Or when we go to bed, we're going there and we're saying our prayers, we're singing it, and he says, Daddy, I want to go fishing, and I understand, he said, How much older will I be? How much older do I have to be to where I can go fishing at the pond by myself, and I always tell him the same thing, 12.
And I don't know if 12 is really going to be the age, but for now that's the age. So maybe when he's 11, he'll be able to do it, but for now I just got to push the, you know, I got to kick the can down the road a little further, because I can't have him down there at the pond by himself yet, it's just too hairy of a situation, it's too much. But when I was in high school, I was just like that, and even younger, but when I was in high school, we lived way out in the middle of nowhere, and there was this beautiful 25 acre lake that our neighbor had, and I was allowed to fish there, and over the years I had developed a bit of, I mean, I just knew where every fish in the lake was, and I catch and release almost all the time, so I would catch these fish that would have like three or four holes in their lip already from the times that I would catch them, I could almost name the fish, I knew where they were, and I loved to go fishing there, and I just had a great time doing it, and at school the last period of the day was study hall, or if you were like me, it was talk to your neighbor for an hour until we get to go play baseball, that's all it was, but it was study hall, and occasionally, and I would say, occasionally, the only reason I say occasionally is because this might be the first time my parents hear this this morning, so I'm saying occasionally, I would bypass study hall, come on somebody, and I would drive down to that pond, and I would fish for an hour before baseball practice would start, and then I would go play baseball until darker, until I had to go to work or whatever, but on a very significantly regular basis, I found myself fishing instead of studying because God is so good, you know, and I mean, if you're a fisherman or an outdoorsman or anything, one of the things that I can already tell you that you like, you like gear, like all these guys up here on this platform, if you start talking to them, like Jamie over here that just pour that guitar piece a second ago, if you ask him about playing Monopoly, maybe he get excited, or maybe he wouldn't, but if you just say, man, I got some new guitar strings all of a sudden something on the other side of him will just light up and he wants to talk to you, so when I was a kid, and even now today, if you start talking to me about fishing gear, you know, I can get excited, I'm just, I like fishing and hunting and all those things, and I remember, when I was in high school, I was fishing and I would save my money, I would go by the right kind of pole, or the right kind of reel, or the right kind of line, and one time I was watching TV, the fishing shows on TV, and the bunker neighbor says, he's gonna talk about fishing all day, yes, I'm glad you asked, so I sat there, and I was watching TV, and a commercial came on TV, and it showed this guy fishing, and he throws the lure, and the lure goes into the top of a tree, and he's sitting in his boat, and he's like, oh, I got my lure caught in the tree, and he goes to pull his lure out, and the tree just goes crashing down, like he pulled the tree down, and I thought, well, that's cool, of course it was just a commercial or whatever, but it was a new fishing line called Spider Wire, oh, y'all fish, I ain't mad at you, so this new wire came out, and before I had all this other kind of fishing line, and I'd be out fishing, and it was no problem for me if I forgot my knife or my clippers, because you could just bite the line with your teeth, I don't recommend it at all, as a matter of fact, I don't allow my children to do it, because, uh, uh, bless God, I got to meet the dentist several times because of it, but I would bite the line and then go on about my business, or if you're fishing, and you would hang up on a stump or something, you could pull, and it would break the line, and you could, you could be good to go, but this Spider Wire stuff, it was like ten times stronger than steel or something, I can't remember what their promotion was, so I went and bought some, and I was like, man, I got Spider Wire, man, I'm gonna catch some, some, some spiders or something, I don't know why, I was so excited about it, and I got out there fishing, and I tied my, my hook on, and I'm out there fishing, and all of a sudden I hang my, my, my hook on a stump, and I start, I start going, oh man, I can't get it out, and I'm doing that fisherman thing, I'm going like this, and then if you're a fisherman and you've ever fished on the side, what you do is you point the rod straight and you just start backing up, like this, and I'm trying to break that line, and man, the line is just not breaking, I'm like, wow, I think I'm about to pull the reel off of my rod, I think I'm about to break all my fishing gear, so I'm like, man, I'm just going to cut it, and I stick my hand in my pocket, no knife, I'm like, oh man, I just bite it, and I went to bite, on that spider wire, it bit me back, I was chewing on, I was like, oh, I'm, I'm like chewing on it, grinding my teeth on it, and nothing, I was like, oh my goodness gracious, and finally I had to set my rod down, walk back to my truck where my tackle box was and get some clippers and come cut to stuff, because listen to me, all lines or all threads are not equal, when the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Bible says they were in the wilderness for about 40 years following Moses, Moses died and the man takes over, named Joshua, and Joshua says, here's what we're about to do, guys, we're about to cross this river called the River Jordan, and we are going to go to war with the first city we see, and the first city happened to be a place called Jericho, the Bible says that it had walls all around it that were impenetrable and all the people that were following Joshua were wishing Moses was back, because Moses never said, let's go tear down walls that are indestructible, sometimes it takes a new thing to get you from where you were to where God really wants you to be, and Joshua said, all we're going to do it, but I tell you what we'll do, we'll send a couple of spies over, and we'll let the spies go and look and maybe find a weakness, maybe find a spot that we can get in, and the Bible says the two spies, they went across the Jordan river and they snuck their way into Jericho, and when they got into Jericho, the Bible said, while they were looking around, they needed a place to stay, and they went to a lady's house named Rahab, and Rahab was very interesting, she had a bit of a peculiar profession, if it were, she was in the world's oldest profession, I believe they call it, our Bible literally says she was a harlot, or she was a prostitute, so my first question would be, what are you guys doing there, even if you find yourself in a place that you shouldn't be, even when you find yourself making a mistake, don't let the devil convince you that God won't use you, you just do your best to turn to the best of your ability, and then continue to press towards the mark for the prize, but they found themselves, they said, well just Rahab's house, nobody's going to ask any questions about why somebody would come in here, and the Bible says that the king heard that there were spies in the city, and somebody saw the Israelites go into her house, so they sent guards to Rahab's house to try to find the men that were spies for the Israelites who were camped out on the other side of the river, and the Bible says that when they came to her house that Rahab, who could have given them up, who could have blown the whole thing, if it will, she says to them, she says to the guard, she says they were here, but they left, which means not only does Rahab a harlot now we know that she's a liar, Rahab was proven to be by definition and by her actions, somebody that most people would look down their nose at and not give the time of day, but the men came and says, where's the spies, this is where they were here, but they're gone, this is where we pick up the story, Joshua chapter number two, Joshua chapter number two in verse eight, and before they were laid down, which means before they went to sleep, she came to where the two spies were, and she said to him, I know that the Lord has given you this land, and that your terror is fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you, number one, your adversary is terrified of you because of who you belong to, you know, my children can walk boldly into almost any situation, not because of their own capacity, but because of their daddy is always closed, it's the same type thing with you and me and the Lord, this lady recognized that these were Israelites, this lady recognized that these guys were from God's people, and the Bible says very clearly that everybody in Jericho was terrified of what was on the other side of the river. Isn't it interesting, the reason the spies were there is because the Israelites were scared of Jericho.
Can I just say your enemy is much more afraid of you than you are of him? Your enemy is much more concerned about what's going to come out of your mouth than you are about what's going to come out of his mouth. You say, I don't feel like that. Well, listen to me.
Thank God, we don't live by our feelings, but we live by faith. You just speak God's word. You just live God's word. You just act on God's word.
You just follow after God's word because in the midnight hour, in the moment when you need God's word, most, he's one to show up and do his part, but you've got to recognize that your adversary cancer, your adversary glaucoma, your adversary asthma, your adversary is petrified of who you are. The Bible says that Rahab says everybody's terrified of you guys and everybody in the city begins to faint when we say Israel. Everybody just shimmers like somebody said, mufasa has fallen on these people. When you think about your adversary, I don't want you picturing some kind of a Paul Bunyan too big to handle, too big to mess with.
When you think about your adversary, I want you to picture something that has been stomped on, that has been beat on, that has been kicked around. And then when you see where he is, I want you to think of him underneath the soul of your feet because that is where he is. The Bible says that terror fell on the people of Jericho, verse 10, for we have heard, everybody say heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you. When you came out of Egypt, what do you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were destroyed on the other side of the Jordan, sing on and all whom you utterly destroyed.
And as soon, verse 11, as we heard, somebody say heard, these things, our heart did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and earth beneath. She said, here's the situation. Everybody here is petrified because we've heard what God did around Egypt.
Everybody here is terrified because we've heard that a bunch of slaves killed some kings and kingdoms that were standing against them. Everybody here is petrified because we have heard that your God is the God of heaven and the God of earth. Everybody here is terrified because we have heard. The Bible says we overcome with the two part recipe, the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
The scripture says it Romans 10. How shall they call upon him when they believe, how will they believe on him if they have not heard and how will they hear if there is no preacher? How will they believe if they don't hear and how will they hear if somebody is not preaching and preaching just means proclaiming, it doesn't mean a man in a suit behind a pulpit. How will they hear if we're not proclaiming because if we want them to hear, somebody's got to proclaim what God has done in your life, which means if God has split the red sea for you, you've got to tell somebody.
If God has moved the mountain for you, you've got to tell somebody. If God has destroyed some kingdoms in front of your face, you've got to tell somebody because when you tell somebody, you're sending terror into the enemy's camp. I remember in high school when I was fishing, I was playing baseball and we had a, we were pretty good. And there was a guy, I was a sophomore, junior, I don't quite remember, but there was a young man.
He was done. D-U-N-N. He plays in the major leagues right now. In high school, he was six foot seven, 250 pounds, threw the ball 95 miles an hour.
And then when he came up to bat, he would hit a home run and if he didn't hit a home run, he'd steal everybody's. And when he wasn't pitching, he was playing first base and it was like, it was like playing around King Kong or something. And we had that study all time and when it got time to play, the team that this man was on this, I said, man, he was a man at that time. When this young man, when it got time to get close to that, we all start talking about him.
We said, man, yeah, I heard he's six foot seven and growing. 250 pounds. Swings of bat twice as long as everybody else's. His baseball glove had to be custom made because his hand was so big.
Not really. But we said that. He doesn't even fit in a normal car. He said, they said he had to have two pair of pants together just to make them long enough.
He wears a size 42 shoe, him and Shaquille O'Neal are the same size. We had all these stories and listen, by the time we got to the field to play him, we're all staring out the window like we're trying to see the kangaroo at the zoo, you know. We had talked ourselves in to being intimidated because of what we heard about our adversary. Can I just say this?
When you magnify God, when you talk about what God has done in your life, you take the enemy out of the fight before you even get there. The Bible says that Jericho had completely frozen in their tracks because of what they heard about the goodness of God. Number two, your testimony will take your adversary out of the fight before the fight even starts. Now, it's one thing for God to give you a victory.
It's a whole other thing for you to not have to fight. And the more you magnify God, the more you celebrate what God has done in your life. I had a miracle happen yesterday. I had a tire situation and somehow or another.
The place took my tire and they took the tire off and they put my spare on, but they didn't have what we needed. So we had to go to another tire place. They were very respectful. I said, OK, we're going to go to the other tire place.
I get to the other tire place, leave the car two and a half hours later, I stop either. I say, is the car ready? They said, sir, no, it's not because we don't have your other tire. We don't have your other wheel.
The tire place had taken my wheel and tire off, but they didn't put my spare on, but they didn't put my original tire wheel thing back in the truck. So when I went to the new place, they didn't have the wheel to put it on there. You guys follow me? I'm kind of talking funny now.
And I got there. I said, are you telling me that the wheel is not there? They said, correct. So I looked on the phone and I called the people that didn't know answer.
And I looked. It's 545. They close at 5. I'm like, oh.
They're not open Sunday. They're not open Monday because of Memorial Day. I am rebuking every blade of grass, every stop sign, glory to God. If you were in front of me on Highway 6 at 545 PM headed south, I was rebuking you.
You're trying to stop the work of God. Move that. Can't be over. I'm going to go to church in the morning.
Move the car. Try to walk. I get to the place. It's closed.
The doors are down. Everything's locked up. Only a couple of cars in the parking lot. I'm like, oh my gosh.
Lord, I need some favor. And I go walking around the building and I'm like, man, if they just have a window crack, I'm going to get in there. It's my time. Glory to God.
I'm looking around. I'm looking at me. There's a manager's number. If I could call him.
I'd say, oh man. I'm just about to head back to the truck or to the car where Crystal and the kids are. And I grabbed the door handle of the door and it opened. And I was like, God will open doors and no man can close.
Glory to God. And I walk in the door. I walk in the door. And I'm like, hello.
Nobody's answering. And now I got a decision to make. Because I'm like, I'll bet you. Hey, I'm thinking.
They accidentally left this door open. That's what I'm thinking. But then I think, it's my tire though. So I start walking through the shop.
If I said the name of it, I would know the name of it. I start walking through the shop. I'm like, hello. And I'm like, okay.
I'm going to find my tire. So I go back into the back. And all of a sudden I hear somebody say, excuse me, sir. And I'm like, look.
He said, I said, you guys have my tire. He said, we have a lot of tires, sir. I said, well, you know, I came here. I told him the whole story.
He's like, you're telling me we didn't give you your tire bag? I said, that's what I'm telling. He goes, that's hard for me to believe, sir. I said, well, it's the one right there that says hollum on it.
They wrote on there with a white. He goes, oh my goodness. I'm so sorry. It's no problem.
I'm just glad you were still here. Glory to God. Put it in the bag. Put it in the car.
Everything gets fixed. But we celebrated that victory as if God had just knocked down the walls of Jericho because I want to magnify God when he does something in my life. Everybody doesn't have favor. Everybody doesn't see the end of God moving their life all the time.
And I don't want it to be commonplace. But I don't want my praise to look common when God does something uncommon in my life. So I said, Lord, I'm so thankful that you made that door stay open. And I was able to put this tire on there.
And then I get to the other tire place. And the guy's in there. And he's changing tires. And I got my little buddy with me.
And he's watching everything. He goes, you guys want to come to the back? Your son looks interested. I said, yeah.
I jagged the car. And I was like, oh, wow, look at this. And this guy's been like 20 minutes explaining every nut and bolt. Let me just tell you something.
My little boy can ask some questions, OK? So he's asking question after question after question. Am I right, Hailey? He's asking question after question.
Just, oh, this is so amazing. And we get done. And finally, I get to the last situation. And I go to pay the bill.
And they said, OK, sir, here's how much it is. And I thought, well, that must be wrong because that's like way more than I wanted to pay. But I give them the money. And I'm like, OK, thank you guys.
And I'm leaving out. And I drop back over to the other end of the shop. And I see that young man. I say, look, I said, take this car right here.
Everybody take cards when you leave. We have these first touch cards. I say, here, take this. We go to a really good church in town.
And you're going to love it. He goes, man, I need a church. I said, I know you need a church. I said, you come to this church.
I said, you're going to be loved on. Come on. You're going to sense the presence of God. God's going to do something on the inside of you.
And here's the deal. I'm not glad. They forgot my tire. But I'm so glad that God calls us all things to work together for good.
But then they love him. And it called according to his purpose. They were terrified. Your testimony will take your enemy out of the fight.
Before you even get there. Now, therefore I pray, swear unto me by the Lord since I've showed you kindness. You will also show kindness under my father's house to my family and give me a true token. Every case requires evidence to have a good verdict.
The lady said, give me some evidence that what I have done for you was not in vain. And I want to know that my father will be alive, verse 13, and my mom and my brethren and my sisters and all that I have and deliver our lives from death. She didn't know she was talking to spies who represented a man named Joshua who would say something so bold like this. As for me.
And my house. We. Was her. She said, give me evidence that I'll be protected, but not just me.
My mom, my dad, my brothers, my sisters. I don't even know if they talk to her anymore. Do you have any black sheep in your family that nobody wants to talk to and nobody wants to claim? Do you have anybody like that?
Or maybe because you're saved because you're born again. Maybe you're the black sheep in your family and you're ostracized and you take it too far and you're too radical. And why they got to go so far with that? Jesus stuff.
And how come they got to pray all the time? Oh my gosh. They don't watch any movies. I mean goodness gracious.
What's wrong with Cinderella? Glory to God. You know, I don't mind Cinderella. Why they got to take it so far.
They don't even say happy Halloween. I don't. I can't wait for this fall. I am going to teach.
Come out from among them says the Bible. We're going to have a move of God. She said, I want you to take care of my family. And I need some proof.
I need some evidence verse 14. And the men, the spies answered her. These are the guys that were found at the house of the harlot. Think about that.
Our life for yours. If we live, you'll live. If you utter not this, our business, we know that you have a interesting past. And we've seen you be dishonest for our sake.
But if you'll keep this, it shall be when the Lord has given us the land. If we come and take this place over, we'll deal kindly and truly with you. Then she let them down by a cord through the window. For her house was upon the wall.
And she dwelt upon the wall. She lived on the wall. This wall was humongous. And she said unto them, go to the mountain.
Lest the pursuers meet you and hide yourself there three days. I know somebody else was put in the side of the mountain for three days. Until the pursuers being returned, until they come back to Jericho. And then after they go back to Jericho, you can go your way.
Verse 17. And the men said unto her, get this. We will be blameless of this time. Oh, which you have made us swear.
Now, there's some translations I'm going to read one. The new English translation says, we are not bound by this oath. You've made us swear unless the following conditions are met. The Hebrew doesn't indicate that at all.
The Hebrew just simply says, we are not bound by this oath. The reason they're not bound by this oath is because when you introduce somebody to God, you're not responsible for the results. And sometimes we feel that burden, don't we? Sometimes we feel like, well, what if I introduce them and I tell them about believing God and they stay sick?
It's not your responsibility. Your responsibilities lay hands on the sick and they'll recover. So what if they don't? You lay hands on them again?
What if it doesn't happen that time? You lay hands on them again? You say, well, what happens if they go to heaven? When did heaven become a penalty?
The Bible says, heaven is our reward. Jesus went there to prepare a place for us. Heaven is a prepared reward for the saints of God, those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. But they say, listen, since they're talking like this, you don't really understand our God yet.
And later she would actually be in the lineage of Christ. He says, you don't understand our God yet? We're not the one who has to keep this oath. The Bible says, he watches over his word to perform it.
God himself will honor when we introduce people to him. We'll be blameless at this. I know that you made a swear, verse 18, and behold, when we come into the land, bind this line of scarlet thread in the window, which you did let us down by, and thou shalt bring your father and your mom and your brethren and all your father's household home under the, because of this. He said, here's the deal, I'm not going to be bound by this.
Oh, this is going to be the Lord's doing. But what you need to do is you need to take a scarlet thread, and out of the window that you let us down, I want you to hang that scarlet thread as your token, as your sign. You said you wanted evidence, here's the evidence. When my people see that red, they're not bringing death to your house.
These spies knew this because even if they were born in the wilderness, they certainly knew the story of the Passover when it was the scarlet on the doorpost that caused death to pass over every Israelite home, which is to say this, the blood of Jesus will cover and protect your family, and it's not your oath that you have to keep, it's his word that he is bound to keep. He said, bring your mom, your dad, bring your brothers, bring your whole family in here. He said, listen to me, you and your whole house will be saved. I could just think of her, you're telling me, we've heard the rattling of the swords.
We've heard the clanging of the shields. We've heard you shout for victory on Sunday morning when y'all are having church out in the tabernacle. We've heard what's going on out there in the wilderness, and you're telling me that a scarlet thread, just a thread, just a thread, listen to me. It matters which thread you're hanging on to.
Just like when I was fishing as a young boy, it's a teenager. Some line you could pull and just snap, but then there were others. You could buy it, you could shoot, you could do anything you wanted, it wasn't going to break. The spies said, you don't understand, this is not any ordinary thread.
So what I say to you today, maybe you have family, it's not living right, they're not doing right. You wish they would just turn it all over quickly, hang the thread in the window, and then trust God. Believe God that the blood of Jesus has not lost its power, the marking of Christ on you and me has not lost its hope. The marking of Christ has not lost its protective power, its strength, its overwhelming protection and sanctuary, but it seems so many times as we hear the shouts and the screams.
She lived on the wall, the Bible says, which means she had to trust that thread when everything was crumbling around her. You see, we don't rely on the blood just for the good times. We don't rely on the blood just for the times when everything is wonderful. It's when everything shakes and quakes and there's things falling and noises that we don't look like.
It's then that we trust in the thread that doesn't break, it's then that we trust in the thread that binds, it's then that we trust in the one who changes everything. Number four, God uses everybody. In this story, it's easy to dissect it as a citizen of Jericho and then God's people. I just put them all in the same batch, they were all in the house of the harlot.
You had somebody who didn't know the Lord doing what sinners do. Can I just say this, sinners, sin, it's what they do. We don't go to Italy and then get frustrated that everybody speaks Italian. Italian, speak Italian, sinners, sin.
The minute we begin to look down our nose at what somebody who doesn't know the Lord is doing, I'm not saying we condone it, we certainly don't take part, but the minute we start to judge that person, it's as if we are shoving them away and they sense a chasm that cannot be crossed when in reality we have the antidote for their sickness. Then you have the spies, God's people, I don't know, but it wouldn't be the first time that military men when in the enemy's camp did things that they weren't proud of. Maybe they didn't, I don't know. All I'm saying is if you find yourself or someone who does not know, we can't assume God's not going to use them because it was her that God used to deliver them.
And then when you find somebody that's in the camp and you find out something they did, the spies were at a house of prostitution and you find out something they did, we can't throw them to the lions. Christianity has a tendency not in this place. Christians have a tendency to eat their wounded. We find out about what somebody did and we think, oh, they've been born again so long they should have never done that.
Who are you, Jethro? God wants to use everybody that everybody wants to look down at and God still has a plan when we miss them all. Somebody give God a hand of praise, I'm done teaching.