order to signify to the washing of our spirit, unless the world know that you are God's. Or it is by grace you have been saved, rethink. This is not for yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2, 8, 9.
Good morning church, we got some power of Judaism today. If you'll stand, let's worship together. I saw darkness run through the cover, but the miracle that I was kicked in on, my name's registered in heaven. Leaving signs and wonders, resurrection power and healing heaven.
This is my tested morning, from there to the power of my story. Our Jesus Christ of Rogers, this is my tested morning. And watching them walk, the reason is always being a sudden body started. There is our God, body started.
From there to life, his grace we rose our slowly. There has always been a mystery. If I've been told I belong, at the end of the line, without the other not twice, without the never-gidded rise. But it, looking for all these times, because I'm just nobody.
I'm trying to tell everybody, all about somebody who's saying that's all. Never since you rescued me, you gave my heart a song to see. I'm living for the world to see, nobody but Jesus. I'm living for the world to see, nobody but Jesus.
Both these times stay bright, and even going around to a sword behind. You're big, well, outside is nobody who would have chosen and you change the world. More and another story is, everybody's got a purpose. So when I hear that devil's not talking to me saying do you think you're on?
I'm just a nobody, trying to tell everybody, all about somebody who's saying that's all. Never since you rescued me, you gave my heart a song to see. I'm living for the world to see, nobody but Jesus. I'm living for the world to see, nobody but Jesus.
I'm not somebody, just never since you rescued me, nobody but Jesus. How we doing today? You may be seated for just a moment. So glad to each and every one of you are here.
If you're here for the first time or the first time in a long time, I want to make you feel welcome. You are our VIPs and we are glad that you are here. If you can get a stop on one of our great volunteers on the way in, make sure you grab one of those blue cards in front of you. We've got special gift for you all so Pastor De La B there in the VIP area right at the front door.
As you leave here today, he loved to meet you and just say thank you for worshiping with us today. We've got a lot of things to celebrate today and just a few moments. We're going to baptize. I think six people.
Can we give God a hand clap a praise today? Amen? Amen. Amen.
Amen. A lot of good things happening here at the church. We have new lot outdoors next week. A lot of great things.
I use winter jam, Friday night. I went to winter jam. A couple other people went to winter jam here. Man, we had a great time.
It's just carried on over and I'm just going to tell you. I'm ready to worship some more here just a few minutes. You all believe it? Yeah.
You all believe God's good? Some of you do. Some of you do. I got to tell you a little bit about some other things that's going on.
We were working on our four to three fun, which is our parking lot expansion and our kids' point expansion. The Lord just keeps blessing this church and he's doing it through each and every one of y'all last week. Somebody gave us ten thousand more dollars for the parking lot. Amen.
Now let me put this. Let me tell you that's real good. God's doing real good. I know a lot of you are at a place to give a thousand over the next year.
You're doing that online. You got it set up record and that's good. So far we've raised twenty four thousand dollars for the parking lot and kids' expansion. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Got a hand of praise. That's the good news. You ready for the real news? I'm going to call it bad news.
We found out this week that the rock, just the rock, to have the rock delivered and put here, not even spread out, just delivered is forty five thousand dollars. Okay? So that's just to get everything level. So you all see we got a little ways to go.
Amen. But we're going to trust God is going to be done. The parking lot is going to be expanded. The kids are going to be expanded and God's going to fill this place with people who are far from him.
So they can meet Jesus. That's the purpose behind that, right? Amen. So yeah.
So excited. Thank you so much for giving. You can do that online a lot of ways that you can do that. But I want to just say thank you for being a part of what God is doing here at this church.
And I'm telling you this guy loves a cheerful giver and you know we have a cheerful given church because anytime that we say, hey, there's a knee, you all step up and you all give and you all deliver and God is just blessing. And we're just going to hope that people would come in here and they encounter him. Amen. And more people.
How are you? That's what I'm talking about. Hey, and here's why this is all about today. When we baptize our six people.
That's because every one of you, how a part of that, anybody who ever gave a dollar, anybody who ever invited somebody, you're a part of this mission, that's going to be happening today in this celebration of life that happens today. So I'm excited about it. I can't wait to baptize these people in just a few moments and I'm looking forward to what God's going to do in their lives, what he's doing through each and every one of your lives. And I believe we're just getting started.
You believe that? Hey, man, amen. Well, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go ahead and stand through your feet.
I'm not going to waste too much time up here today. I'm excited about what God is doing. And here's what I want you to know is that if you're never being to one of our baptism services, we do it just a little bit different maybe in what you used to do. Here's what's going to happen in just a few moments.
Our worship team is going to sing a song. And as they're singing, we're going to have the baptism take place during the worship because this is all part of worship. And here's what I want you to do. Anytime you see somebody go down in that water and come back up.
What they're doing is they're telling the world, hey, the old me's dead and the new me is in Christ Jesus. And I want to celebrate it and I want the world to know I'm just a nobody trying to tell somebody about Jesus. Amen. So here's what we're going to do.
We're going to shout. We're going to scream. We're going to praise the Lord with everything that we've got. We're going to be more excited than any ball game we've ever watched because this is the biggest decision that these people are going to make.
And so I just want us to practice celebrating today. Can you give him one shout of praise here today? I can believe God is good. Pastor Nathan, you can come on out and get ready.
And here's what I want you to know. This song, this thing is called Do It Again? Do It Again? We're starting today.
What could be? Probably is the best series that we've ever done at this church. In fact, it's so good. It's the second season of it.
It's being the Bible season. Today, Pastor Daniel's going to dive into the book of Joshua. This book or this song talks about the children of Israel marching around those walls. Waiting for those walls to fall in Jericho.
We're going to read that in the next couple of weeks. And here's what I want you to know is that they marched around those walls for seven days. Some of you are in here and you've been walking around the walls and they're still standing. You're just waiting for them to fall.
Why don't they just don't give up? Because just like these people in this pool today or symbolizes, hey, if they just kept walking, they kept falling after God. They kept choosing God. And eventually those walls fall.
Here's what we know that God's promise, steel stands. If he was good for Israel, if he was good for Moses, when he parted the Red Sea, if he was good for Joshua, when the walls broke down, he'll be good for you. And we're just going to trust in those promises today. So let's worship with our praise team and let's worship these baptisms today and give God the praise.
Give him one more shout of praise today. We thank you for the pastor. We thank you for the word he's about to bring today. We ask that you just give guidance and protection to him.
God is protection to all of these lives that have been changed today, dear Lord. We just ask for your touch on everybody, for peace and comfort, dear Lord, excitement. Fire for the Lord. A blood, dear Lord.
Fire for your power to run through us and share everybody, dear Lord. We thank you for a move. You know what we thank you for Jesus Christ, blood on the cross, dear Lord. Just thank you for this day and everything your name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
God of the waters, God of the sky, God in the morning, God in the night, God of the desert, God of the rain, God of the busy, God in the mundane, God of the mountain, God of the plains, God of the laughter, God in the pain. He's God of the promise, what he says remains true. He does what he's promised. Well, good morning.
Good to see you. What a great day in the house of the Lord. Would you give God a hand clap of praise for the salvation of souls, right? What a good day to be here.
Help me welcome those who are watching on the radio and listening on the internet. Let me know you love them. Welcome them to New Light Church. Would you do that?
I want to remind you on Tuesday night, deeper dive. Can't cover everything I need to cover in this sermon today. We'd be here all day, so we'll jump into it Tuesday night. Seven o'clock, Pastor Cornance and myself and Dale Hester Facebook page.
If you want to be a part of that, be there. You want you to learn some things. Pastor Bobby has a class downtown at the Connect Center. If you want a good Bible study on Wednesday night, be there.
He'll take you right through the Bible. We're going to jump right in this thing. We call it a new series, but it's really the second season. It's really the second season in Ben's the Bible.
And when you look at this, it's a great day. We enjoyed preaching it before and we couldn't wait until we got back to it. And so here's what's going to happen. Over the next few weeks, we're going to do this right here.
We're going to look at the book of Joshua. We're going to take a 40,000 foot view of that. Israel has wondered in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses is dead.
And Joshua is the new leader. That's the whole context of it right there. And when you think about the last thing I said, Moses is dead. And Joshua is the new leader.
I want you to think about this. Joshua has watched Moses for 40 years. He watched him part the Red Sea. Of course, the Lord did that.
But Moses was there doing it. He'd watched all kind of miracles take place under the leadership of Moses. Now let me ask you a question. If you were watching that, then all of a sudden it becomes your turn.
Would you be a little bit disralled about that? You'd be wondering some things like this. You'd be thinking, well, now, is the Lord going to work through me like he did in Moses? Are the people going to accept me like they did Moses?
Is God going to guarantee me victory after victory after victory? Because after all, they were there for 40 years. They were fed. They were watered.
They had the clothes they needed. Their clothes never wore out. Their shoes didn't wear out God. Was in fact with them.
And Moses was the designated leader. So here's Joshua. And he's now in charge. And so he has some concerns.
So that's important to remember. Today I want to talk about something that looks like this. I want to talk about crossing over. Now, when you think about this, they are just to give you some context of this.
They've wondered for 40 years in the wilderness. They're at the Jordan River. We'll talk about all that in a moment. They got to get across that Jordan River to get into the Promised Land.
So we're going to look at the first three chapters of Joshua. We're going to bring some major points out. So when you think about that, look at this way right here. Crossing over is about moving from where you are to where God wants you to be.
Now, how many would agree with me today that you're not exactly where God wants you to be? I didn't say you were not saved. I didn't say you were not doing well in serving the Lord. All of us are in a position where we're never exactly where God wants us to be.
We can be in our calling and we can be in the right place. But God has always moved us from glory to glory doing great things in our lives. There's three things I want to talk about very quickly about crossing over. If you're going to cross over and you're going to end up where God desires for you to be, there's some things you need to know.
So the first thing looks like this right here. New seasons in our lives require new courage. How many of you understand that? Anytime that you come out of one season and step into another season, I want you to understand the courage you had in the last season.
It's not enough to get you through the new season. That's what this story is all about. When you think about that and you think about new courage, we develop some old habits and old patterns in our lives. When we get in one season of life, we'll settle down, we'll get comfortable.
Sometimes we'll even get complacent in any area of our lives, whether it's relationship, marriage, whatever it may be, in anything like that, we'll get a bit complacent, we'll get comfortable. You know what? Our nature is to desire to stay in the comfort zone and stay there. So here's what happens.
When you get new courage, it gives you a little bit of boldness. It helps you break some of the boundaries in your life that need to be broken because those boundaries will absolutely hold you back from God's best in your life. So it helps us to set new boundaries and trust God and follow God and do what God's called us to do. When you think about that, you've got to embrace and courage in your life because you've got to have some change in your life.
And the truth is, when you go into a new season, how many of you know that there's uncertainty in that new season? When God opens a fresh door, when He calls Joshua right here, you can believe that there was some uncertainty in His life. So we have to have what we call fresh courage, new courage to do what God has given us to do. We've got to move out of our comfort zone, if you will.
And that's the whole deal about Joshua right here. He's the new leader. Moses is dead. So let me give you the scripture so we can talk about this a minute.
After the death of Moses, the Lord spoke to Joshua, son of none. Moses assisted, he said, Moses, my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to leave these people that Israelized across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them. I promise you what I promise Moses, wherever you set your foot, you will be on the land I have given you.
Now, this is the short version of the whole story in chapter one. Remember, we're going to deal with chapter one, two and three there. So let me give you the context of what's being said right here in case you missed it. I'll cover it real quickly.
Joshua's been with Moses for 40 years. Now, understand this is important to know when they came out of Egypt, Moses let them out of Egypt. That was the type of salvation. Now they're standing at the Jordan River and that is separating them from the promised land.
The promised land is not heaven. As a lot of people think it is, the promised land is all the promises, the abundant life that God desires you to have in the promised land. There would be fighting and there would be enemies that had to be dealt with there. And the same is true in our life like this.
So when you think about the Jordan River, if salvation is symbolic of coming out of Egypt for the children of Israel, the Jordan River is symbolic of being led by the Holy Spirit. And listen to this, even baptized and powered by the Holy Spirit before they got into the promised land. And so when you think about that as a believer, you can be saved, but there's other work that God needs to do in your life. You have to come to the place where you understand that the Holy Spirit is going to do most of the work.
If not all the work, you just have to have faith in Jesus and what He did and let the Holy Spirit work, right? When you think about how they crossed the river, just keep this in mind. It was nothing that they could do God had to do it all, right? So when you see that, here we have Joshua's been with Moses for 40 years.
Moses represents the law. Every time you think about the law, we say the law of Moses. Joshua represents the new covenant of faith. And in fact, when you look into Greek, the word Joshua is translated as Jesus.
So Joshua is a type of Christ. Get that right there all through the Old Testament. We see types and shadows that help us understand what God is doing and how to live for Him. Now, He watched Moses lead now.
It's His turn to lead. God tells him three times what's his now to be strong and courageous. You know why I told you in the beginning, He'd watch Moses. And now he's the leader.
He doesn't know if God is going to do in his life what he did in Moses' life. God knows that new seasons can be terrifying. How many of you agree with that? If you're healthy, if you go through a season of life where your health is good and then you run into a season where your health is not so good, how many of you know that can be terrifying because you don't know where it's going?
You can enter into a relationship. Maybe you went through a divorce or whatever, or maybe it's a new relationship. If you're in it, it can be terrifying because of what you went through in the previous relationship. So new seasons require new courage.
God knows that new seasons can be terrifying. God never asked us to repeat the past. He asked us to step into something new. And that's what I want to talk to you about today.
So I'll give you these two questions. What season has ended in your life? Is it a job, a relationship, a role or good health? There could be a number of things.
Maybe I didn't say it up here, but it could be a number of things. And then here's the deal. How do we find new courage for the new season? How are you and I going to have this new courage for the new season because we have history and our history reminds us of things that sometimes in our history it's not so good, right?
So we got to have new courage. Well, the book tells us how to do it. The Bible says this study this book. Here's what he said to Joshua.
Study this book of instruction continually, meditate on it day and night. So you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. Now, they had the book of the law.
That's all they had, but the instruction was simply this meditate on this book of the law day and night because if you do that, then you will have good success and you will prosper. Well, here's how that applies to us today. We have the word of the Lord. Somebody help me right there.
We have God's word and you know what our job is to do. Our job is to meditate on this book day and night. If you want to be successful and you need new courage in the new season of life that you're in, you've got to know what's in this book right here because here's what I found now. When I understand what's in this book right here and I understand who God is and what God can do.
And I look over the history of time and I see what God has done in other believers lives. That gives me great courage to know that whatever season I'm in, wherever God has me, no matter how things change around me, I have a God that is faithful. When everybody else is not faithful and he's faithful even when I'm not faithful. He is a good God that never leaves us or forsakes us.
I can trust the book. Somebody say, man, if you can trust the book right there. So when you think about that and you think about needing this new courage, the way you get it, you got to know what's in the book. You can't have it.
So here's what God really said to Joshua. He said, look, you don't need a battle plan. You need to know what's in the book. If you don't want to send the book and you know how I work, I'll get you through this new season.
I'll help you accomplish everything that you need to accomplish. So courage comes from knowing God's word is what I'm trying to tell you this morning. If you really need your courage, you got to get in the book and see what God says. If you need to know how to face this life, get in the book and see what God says.
If you need to know how to defeat a giant in your life, get in the book and God will show you and you'll have you courage because you understand that God can do all things. Joshua 1 and 9 tells us something else right here. This is my command. Be strong and courageous.
Do not be afraid or discouraged. He tells us this by the way, three times in one chapter. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And that's something every one of us needs to know.
It doesn't matter what you're facing. It doesn't matter about this Jordan River that we're going to cross and we'll talk about that in a moment. But we're talking about new seasons right now. It doesn't matter what you're facing.
God said, as a child of God, I'll be with you wherever you go. Now there's some instructions that come with that. You got to stay in the words. You got to know the words.
You got to know how God works. And you got to trust Him with that. But courage comes when we realize that we have God's presence with us wherever we go. No matter what the circumstances again are around us and no matter what I'm facing or going through.
I can have courage because I know that God is right there. I understand that I may not be able to make it through, but I understand in the Bible, sometimes God had to carry Him through until He got them where He could rest them on their feet again. So what I'm going to tell you today, if you need some new courage, get in the Word of the Lord and see what God says. And then understand that the presence of God is always with you.
He never leaves you or never forsakes you. And no matter what you're going through, God is right there with you. In fact, in His Word, He said, how high can you go that I'm not there? And how far in the hell can you go that I'm not there?
I'm telling you right now. He saves people out of bars and He saves people who are hooked on drugs. He turns their life around. He turns people's lives around that are hooked on alcohol.
He pulls people out of the uglyest messes you've ever seen in life, and you can make any kind of mistaken life. But I've come to tell you today that I serve a God that can come where your mistake says and take what the enemy meant for bad and turn it to good and bring glory to His name. That's the God that we serve. You can be assured that if you're a child of God, you have His presence with you.
That means you're never alone in a new season. Isn't that real good? I love it that way. Second thing I want to show you in the second chapter of this same book we learned another Prince was this right here.
Faith is needed before evidence. You better catch this one right here now. Faith is needed before you ever see the evidence of what God is going to do. So no matter what season you're in right now, you got to start believing God.
And you got to start trusting God. Now let me say something about that. Things may not work out exactly as you have planned. Things may not turn out as well as you think they ought to be your own earth.
But you got to trust God and know that God is in this thing. And He's working it for your good and He's doing things that need to be done in your life. You know that every trial we go through is really designed by God to help us be a more mature Christian and more Christlike. That God is using everything that happens in our life to develop us and grow us.
Let's read the Bible and see what it says here. Then Joshua secrets into spies. This is interesting right here from the Israelite camp at Kecia Grove. He instructed them scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho.
So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute. Isn't that interesting right there? Let me just give you something to think about right here. All through the Bible she's called a prostitute.
She saved her family is saved. But God, I say this way. I'm not sure God did in her favor because in the New Testament she still called a prostitute. Now we don't like that, but it's just the way it is.
But I'll tell you why God did that in a second. He instructed them scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho. So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night. But someone told the king of Jericho, so some Israelites have come in here tonight to spy out the land.
So the king of Jericho sent orders to Rahab, bring out the men who have come into your house. For they have come here to spy out the whole land. Rahab had hidden the two men, but she replied, yes, the men were here. Now she's lied.
She's a prostitute as she's lying. Some of you holy, holy people get that in a minute. Rahab had hidden the two men, but she replied, yes, the men were here earlier. But I didn't know where they were going or where they were from.
That was the second lie. They left the town that does the third lie as the gates were about to close. I don't know where they went, another lie. If you hurry, you can probably catch up with them.
Actually, she had taken them up on the roof and hidden them, but these bundles of flax she had laid out. So the kings men went looking for the spies along the road leading to the Shilah crossing of the Jordan River. And as soon as the kings men had left, the gates of Jericho were shut before the spies went to sleep that night, Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them. Now let me tell you something about this.
When you think about this story, this was not a military move that sent these two spies to Rahab's house. Because God was going to do this supernaturally, right? They didn't have to have battle plans. I want to say this too, the two spies didn't realize she was a prostitute.
That's not what the Bible is saying right here. Here's what the Bible is saying. The Bible is simply saying this, the reason these two men went to Rahab the harlot's house, listen carefully, is because God saw some faith in her heart. He was about to take that city, he was about to destroy it, he was about to give the Israelites a promised land, and something about her faith cried out to him.
He said, wait a minute, I can fix this. He says Joshua, I want you to send the two spies over there because there's a little lady there. She's living a bad life, she's a liar, she's a prostitute, she's got some big problems, and here's why I want you to know church. She represents you and I, somebody ought to get happy right there.
You and I are no better than she was. Maybe it wasn't prostitution, and maybe it wasn't lying and all that kind of stuff, but in our life the Bible says we are sinful people. We fall short of the glory of God that we're never going to make the mark of God, but here's what the Bible also says, that when God looks in our heart and he sees just the element of real faith in him, he will send somebody every time to save us and tell us about this great God that he is God never. He leaves us or for sakes us, and what I come to tell you today, you may be here in your life, maybe a chamble, and you may have a reputation from everybody in the town, and you may have walked in here this morning kind of embarrassed about your life, but I want to tell you that God has sent you here today, and there is a message from him for you today, and that message is simply this, I am the God that saves.
I am the redeeming God. I am the God that can take your life and turn it around and give you a new life. I want you to have the abundant life. I died for you.
I'm glad for you. I want to help you right where you are. Your faith is crying out, and God is running to you. That's what that's all about.
Let me give you the context, Nazavian already. Jericho was the first major obstacle other than the Jordan River. We'll talk about that in a moment entering the Promised Land. Joshua sends the two spies to evaluate Jericho.
He really didn't send them to evaluate Jericho. He sent them to the prostitute's house. God had battle plans already. This was not a military mission.
The two spies go to the home of a prostitute named Rahab. Rahab's home was located in the wall around the city and interesting how that works. She was in the wall. These walls were thick.
They could have access to her and get out pretty quickly. Watch this now. The king of Jericho receives word of the two spies and orders their capture. Rahab lies about the spies location.
God uses unexpected people, prostitutes, to accomplish his plan. Rahab is a Canaanite and a prostitute, but had faith in God. She wasn't Israelite. Now can I just bring that where we are today without getting political?
Y'all realize what happened in Iran yesterday? Y'all understand that the whole leadership regime has been taken out? Y'all understand that? In the streets of California and in the streets of Washington and in the streets of Iran, all the people praising and giving honor for what just happened yesterday regime that had been placed 47 years that were really killing us on people.
They killed 50,000 plus people in the last few weeks or months. They were evil people. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. Just like God used a prostitute to take care of his needs and fulfill his plan.
I want you to understand that the Bible and God are on an eternal time clock. God is in charge of that time clock and there is no nation going to speed it up or slow it down. And when God sees a nation that thinks it's easy, Iran what they wanted to do is they wanted to go and kill all of us and they wanted to wipe Israel out and America out because they think their Savior is coming when that happens. But I got to tell you one thing.
There is a Savior coming. His name is Jesus Christ. The timing is totally up to God. The timing is with Him.
No nation is going to speed that up or slow it down. But God will take command and everybody despises in some cases. A person that doesn't speak right every time. A person that seems to have a problem with his language a lot of time.
A person who has a checkered background like Rahab there and God will use that person to do eternally what needs to be done and stop his time clock. If it's not ready to be fulfilled, it will be fulfilled. But it will be fulfilled in God's timing and we ought to give him praise and honor and admit that God is right and we are wrong. God uses people that she might not use to get the job done.
Isn't that real good? So when you think about that, remember Rahab had faith. And her faith was waiting for a miracle. You see when you have faith she had to take a little bit of risk, right?
Because if she would lie to the king, the king could have killed her, right? If she had protected the spies as she did and then the spies didn't do what they promised her would do. That's a little risky right there, right? So if you're going to have faith I want you to understand that faith doesn't set around and wait for a miracle.
Faith gets some action behind it. Somebody ought to be with me right there. You get faith behind that thing. You take some risk.
You step right out and some of you today are in a new season in your life or maybe you're in a old season and you're looking for a new season. Well, if you've got faith in God and you know what the word says right there, there are some things that you ought to be doing. You ought to be stepping out in faith, interesting what God's word says. Here's what that means.
You've got to wake up a little bit spiritually and you've got to stop complaining. You've got to stop crying. You've got to set stop wallowing in the mess you're in right where you are. And you've got to begin to claim what God says you can have and who God says you are.
You've got to claim that. You've got to believe that. You've got to begin to get praise and honor to God and accept what God has said and trust it with all your heart. You've got to take a step and do something about what you know.
We'll talk about that. See faith is believing God's reputation. Now here's the deal. When you go back and read this old story and I would encourage you to do that.
You go back and read it. Here's what happened. You know how she had faith? She had watched what God had done through the Israelites.
She had heard about it. She wasn't there to physically see it, but she had heard about this thing. She heard how he partied the Red Sea and they walked out of Egypt. She heard that when they came out of Egypt, they were really rich.
People more than they were there. She had heard that God had fed them every day, manna from heaven. She had heard that water came out of the rock. She had heard how God destroyed all the kings that came against them and tried to do it.
She believed what she had heard. So what I've come to tell you, no matter what's going on in your life today, you better start believing what you heard. You hear what the preacher says and you believe what it says, you believe what Mom and Dad said about the book right here. You believe what you heard in Sunday school and you trust that.
And when you get in a new season in your life, courage will come in and your Facebook grow because you believe what God has already said. You've got to do that. Romans says this when you think about that, it lines perfectly up. So faith comes from hearing that it's hearing the good news about Christ.
All the people in that city had heard, but there was only one that believed. Now that, by the way, is a type of the Rapture of the Church. The two spies, in fact, when you look at them, they are a type of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God. He'll send that every time.
They went in, they talked to her and she believed and she accepted and they made a deal with her. See, that's how the Holy Spirit does in your life today. He comes in. The Holy Spirit comes in your life and he awakens you up to the Word of the Lord.
And you read the Word of the Lord and you hear the Word of the Lord. And then you make a profession of faith or you become born again. That's the type of salvation. But here's what we also learned from this story right here.
They did come in. They did destroy the city and her family was saved. That is a type and shadow of the coming of the Lord, the Rapture of the Church. But notice this.
When the Rapture happens, when this happened right here, there was only one family saved. The Lord says, the road is the road that leads to destruction and there is the road that leads to eternal life. One family out of this whole city saved. Does that tell us anything about what the Rapture will be like?
There's a lot of people not going to make it in the Rapture. There are religious people not going to make it in the Rapture. They're not ready. They're too much into religion.
Remember, Joshua represented faith and the new covenant. Moses represented the law. You can't get into the promised land living by the law. You got to do it by faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
See, when you think about this faith that clears the victory before the battle. So if you're in a new season in your life right now, you begin to have faith in God. It doesn't matter what it looks like around you. It doesn't matter how bad things are.
Have faith in God. Have faith in His Word. Trust what His Word says in the new season of your life. And when you do that, victory is coming now.
Will it turn out like you always think it will? No, absolutely not. I've told you the story of my sister many, many times. 38, she had cancer.
She was a praise and worship leader. She looked like the picture of help, the beautiful girl. But then one day she started having a problem in her back. Just came out of nowhere.
And four or five months later, she's dead. Now we prayed at that hospital. I mean, I remember being up there as a younger man and the hospital was filled with preachers from everywhere praying. I could hear him praying down the hall.
We believe we trusted God, but it didn't work out the way we thought it would work out. But it worked out just like God needed for it to work out because here's what I know. I understand that when she closed her eyes and drew her last breath. I don't understand why she had to go through it.
I don't understand if she did anything to deserve it. I don't understand all that. But here's what I do know. My body is to be present with the Lord.
I understand that my Bible tells me when I draw my last breath, I'm going to be in the arms of Jesus Christ. I do understand. She don't have to fight the battles that we fight down here on this earth. She don't have to go through the turmoil.
She's not seeing what we see today. She's in the arms of the Lord. She's dancing on streets of gold. She has her life ahead of her and eternal life that lasts forever and ever and ever.
And I would imagine if I could talk to her today, she would say I wouldn't come back to y'all for nothing in the world. Do everything you can do to make it up here where I am. Because this is a good and a great place. We ought to give God praise and glory and honor because all of us have that guarantee.
It may not always turn out the way you think it will turn out. And it may always go like we want it to go. But when God is in charge, it's going to work out just like God said it ought to work out Joshua two nine and ten says this, I know the Lord has given you this land she told them. She had faith based on what she knew.
And you and I got to have that same faith based on what we know because her faith positioned her for a miracle. Your faith can position you for a miracle. In fact, watch the way this ends right here in Joshua. When we come into the land, here's what the two spies who represent the Holy Spirit in the Bible.
Remember that. That's who they represent here. When we come into this land, you must leave this scarlet rope. Scall it rope.
Remember that hanging from the window through which you let us down. That scarlet rope represents the blood of Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus and what he did on the cross of Calorie translates the faith in the Word because the Word of God is a story from Genesis to Revelation about Jesus Christ coming and dying on the cross of Calorie, shitting his blood so you and I could be redeemed and we could be saved and we could have access to God. So her faith in this thing, watch this from the one you let down and all your family members in that good right there.
See when you get saved, you can work it around and your family can get saved. It's not just about her. Her actions affected her family. I just need to stop right there and just preach right here a moment.
Mom and Dad, your actions will affect your family eternally. Are you in the house? God wants you to say yes to him. And I've watched so many families go through this before where the family doesn't serve God and maybe one day the wife got saved or the husband got saved or maybe one of the children got saved and started coming to church and saying yes to God and do that.
And the next thing I know, the whole family has saved. In fact, we watched the whole entire family get baptized right here. The greatest thing you can ever do in your life and say yes to the Lord. The greatest gift you can ever give to your family is giving them the Lord and the greatest thing you can do to your family and set an example before them of how good God is and how committed to God you are and put everything outside that hinders you from serving God and put God as a priority in your life and God will save your family, which is the greatest thing that could ever happen.
Your father, mother, brothers and all your relatives must be here inside this house. If they go out into the street and are killed, it will not be our fault. If your children, listen, if you are serving the Lord as a mom and dad and God is a priority in your life. If your children lose their life, they are not saved, it is not your fault.
However, if you choose not to serve God and I will dig down a little bit right here, if you choose to have hazardous to serve God. If you say you have a little profession of faith and you believe everything in the book and you believe it just like the book says it, but yet your actions don't prove that and your priorities don't prove that and you put everything in this rotten, stinking world. If you put everything in this rotten, stinking world before God and you demonstrate that to your children and if they die and go to a place called hell, who is fault is that? You better think about that.
So you influence your family greatly right there. They must be here inside this house if they go out into the streets and are killed, it will not be our fault. But if anyone lays a hand on people inside this house, we will accept the responsibility for their death. Is that a great promise?
Remember she went up on the roof to have a little conversation with those guys and she said, look here, I'm a prostitute. I have lied but I got faith in the Lord. I know what he did. I know how he works.
I saw him deliver y'all. I know he's going to give this city to you guys. I want that and I want my family to be safe there for I'm placing my faith in your God and I'm trusting that. I want you to be safe with me.
And that's what the Holy Spirit in the Word of God comes to your life. He wants you to make a deal with God. I know you don't like it sounding that way and it sounds a little bit further to say make a deal with God. But I'm telling you one day I made a deal with God.
I said, God, would you forgive me for every sin that I've done? No, and unknown. Would you take my life and turn it around? I would repent before you all mighty God.
I want to serve you. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know how that's going to go. But I know your word tells me if I call on the name of the Lord, I will be saved.
If I serve the Lord with all of my heart and my soul, you will honor that at the end of my life. I go to a place called eternity where I'm with Jesus forever and ever and ever and ever and I give you praise and glory and honor. And I thank you for that today. He told me, she made the deal and I said, look, they got to be in this house.
They got to be in your spiritual house. They got to all be in that. They got to have it together. They're priority.
Listen carefully. I can't say this enough to somebody that's listening to me today. The priority in your house is God. The priority in your house is God's work.
The priority in your house has to be focused on the things of God and not on this world. Somebody say amen about that. The third thing in chapter three, this is another interesting one right here. You got to step in before the waters move.
Step in before the waters move. Only he said it in step in before the waters move. He sent the priest with the Ark of the Covenant, which is the presence of God. It represented the presence of God in that day.
And he told those priests who are types of Christ, all I want you to do is step in the water and stand there. And when you do, I'm going to roll this water back and they're going to walk across and dry ground. Now listen to me. There were three million of them.
There were three million. They had cattle, donkey sheeps, whatever else they would have. You probably took a few miles in that river and then walked across and dried ground. There were a lot of them.
So when you think about that, let's read this story and watch this right here. The priest will carry the Ark of the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of the water will be cut off upstream and the river will stand up like a wall. Is that a miracle?
That's a miracle. Only God could do that. This was humanly possible context right here. This is a pivotal one way and the Israelites, four of the Israelites, the crossing of the Jordan to enter the Promised Land is a big deal that couldn't get Jericho until they got across this river.
The miracle showed God's public endorsement of Joshua. Think about that right there. He was worried, but God said, I'm about to do something and everybody's going to turn their allegiance to you. They're going to know their allegiance will be to God.
Don't misunderstand what I just said, but they're going to follow you. You're the leader and I'm going to do a miracle today that's going to show them you are the leader and I have chosen you. Anybody hearing what I'm saying today? You follow the one that God's hand is on their life, right?
The priest carrying the Ark stood in the water as long as they stood in the water, the river bay had stayed dry as long as they were in the water. The people crossed over on the dry ground, three million of them. Have you got that? An interesting thing here.
Let's go here in Joshua, 315 and 60. It was the harvest season because a lot of people would say this. A lot of people said, well, that river wasn't that deep. It was just a little creek and they got across it.
Well, let's read what the scripture says about that because the truth of the matter is near the flood stage when that river flooded, it was a mile and a half wide and it was 40 foot deep and the Bible says they were at flood stage right here. What's how big this miracle was? It was the harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing its banks a mile and a half wide. Remember that?
But as soon as the feet of the priest who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river's edge, the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam. In other words, this miracle is going to take place. It was impossible if you think about this for a man to do this. In fact, when you look at this river, you'll find out it wasn't a calm, shallow place.
40 foot deep and a mile and a half wide is not an easy place to cross. There was a rushing, gushing river. It was at flood stage and it was coming through there. You've watched some of these storms we had around here.
When these rivers and swamps float around here, you can't even get across the road. It's running at a rate. You can't get around it. It's impossible for you to do that.
Humanly possible or humanly speaking, I'm telling you right now, they could not have got across that river. But I want to tell you something right now that you better hear me and hear me clearly. God did not part that water until they obeyed him and their feet was in the water. He did not push it back until they stepped in that water and stood in that water.
And in fact, if they had not stood in the water, the water would have come right back. Now remember that water, that river is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Listen carefully. You and I only have one thing to do.
And that's believe almighty God. Believe his book, believe his word, believe everything in the word, believe what he did at the cross of Calvary provides us everything we need for life in God. Everybody can do that. That was the only requirement that they were required to do the priest who represented Jesus Christ.
Their job was to stand in the river. I'm glad that I serve a Savior that stood in the river for me. I'm glad he set the Holy Spirit for me so he could get me through and get me across. And he set the Holy Spirit for you to do the same thing but the Holy Spirit cannot work in your life if you don't do it like God said you should do it.
And that's how proper faith in Jesus and what he did on the cross of Calvary. And in fact, when you do that, you got faith in this book right here. But here's what you got to learn today. Faith requires action before you see the results.
Your faith, you know what James said, faith without works is dead. We don't work to get in. But there's something that happens in our life when we say yes to the Lord. That works show up.
It's called fruit in our life. If you and I don't take our faith and there's not any action behind our faith, no miracles are going to happen. Have you got that? So here's how let me show you how to apply this to your life.
Here's for some of you. I may not have your situation on here but you can rehearse it out there. Ask the Holy Spirit to tell you what he's saying to you right now. He'll tell you, you want God to heal your marriage?
If I would ask the question right here, how many of you want God to heal your marriage? Hands that go up everywhere. Maybe not in front of your spouse because you don't want to know you just please with some of the stuff they're doing, right? So just right where you are, you don't want to raise your hands.
How many of you want your marriage healed? Well, let's talk about that a minute because say you have faith, you pray and you have faith that God can't heal that marriage, right? You have faith that you can trust the Word of the Lord and God can do great things in that marriage. You got the faith, you got it there.
The Holy Spirit's got to work it out but what's this? The Holy Spirit can only work when you do it like God says you ought to do it. What's this right here? You got to take the first step.