We Are All Included

Well, last week was great. Having Jim here was really encouraging for me and Kelley. Having friends like Jim is really important. Not just because he is a great person, but because he’s doing the same thing as us. Except he’s been doing it for a really long time and he’s got a lot of wisdom to lean on. Here’s the honest truth. Leading a church is not easy. Being a Pastor is not easy. Dealing and navigating the business world of a non-profit is not easy. And sometimes it can really feel like you’re out here on your own trying to manage everything.

So, it’s really helpful when you have someone like Jim in your corner who can say, “Yup, been there, don’t worry. Keep the faith.”

We talked a lot last weekend. He flew into Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, so we had lots of time to talk driving back, plus we had dinner with Kelley and he stayed with us as well. Lots of time to connect and talk. To relate and share together. And here’s the greatest thing he said to us over the whole weekend. Obviously more than this, but this is what stuck out to me the most. He said, “You’re doing good. You’re doing everything you’re supposed to be doing. Just keep doing it.”

I am also happy when someone says, “Hey, you’re doing great, but let’s look at this area over here and see if we can’t fix it. You need to change a few things.” Ok, I get that. I would like to think I’m open to change.

But sometimes, and I think we all know this, sometimes it’s good to hear, “You’re doing fine, just keep going.”

And I think in some ways that’s exactly what this series has been, hasn’t it? Looking at the stories of Ancient Faith to give us encouragement in our Modern World. Keep going. This is the way of faith. Keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t give up. Have faith. Be faithful. No matter what the situation is like. Keep the faith. Keep going.

Look at these stories and lives of the faithful in the bible and be encouraged by them. These stories we’ve been reading through aren’t just good stories, they are meant to be an encouragement to us in what faith looks like. Learning to be faithful in our lives because of the faith we have in God. When we have faith in God it should compel us to be faithful, right? That’s what all the stories of the Old Testament we’ve read are saying, Someone believed something, and as a result they did something, proving they were faithful because of the faith they had, and they experienced the promises God had made.

/ / By faith Noah built a large boat....preserving his family and saving humanity.

/ / By faith Abraham obeyed and left his home and went out not knowing where he was going and God revealed to him the promised land of Israel.

/ / By faith Abraham and Sarah walked through all the tests of their relationship to the end where they experienced the blessing of God through the gift of their son, Isaac, who would have Jacob, and through that family line all of humanity would receive the promised gift of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

By faith Joseph, by faith Moses, each of these stories is the story of a faith in God that compels people to live a life of faithfulness toward God. Do you believe? If you do, I should see that through your life.

And of course this is not just an Old Testament thing. This the very challenge and encouragement James the brother of Jesus, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, brings in James 2:17-22, Reading from the ESV, / / So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe - and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.

Now, this can be a challenging scripture, but that’s a really good thing. A lot of people don’t mind reading the bible, as long as it’s just a good story. But scripture should challenge us, it should cause us to evaluate what we are doing and how we are doing it in light of what scripture says.

So, when you read this, what do you see?

Because in one sense you could read this and say, “Ya, but we aren’t justified by our works, we are saved by our faith in Jesus, so works is a bad way to look at it.”

And you would be absolutely right, our salvation is only by grace through faith.

But reading this passage of scripture this week, there was a new light on it. You know how you can read something a hundred times and then suddenly see something completely different. I like to think those are the Luke 24, moments where Jesus opens up scripture to us. And if you don’t understand what I mean, read Luke 24 this week. So I’m reading this passage from James this week and suddenly see it in a different light.

/ / But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.”

James is not saying that there are people who think they have faith and don’t need works, he’s saying there are people who think they have works and therefore don’t need faith!

Have you ever met someone that says, “I’m a good person.”? That’s wonderful. But what makes you a good person? Because you do good things? Again, that’s wonderful, but it’s not enough. So James says to the person who claims works will save them, Show me your faith apart from your works, or read it this way - do you have faith apart from your works? Is there faith behind what you are doing, or are you just doing?

The Message translation says it this way, I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, / / “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. And then he says, “I’ll show you my faith BY my works.” meaning, it is my faith that compels me to act, and those actions show my faith, but without faith all of my works mean nothing.

THEN he goes on to challenge the other side of things. Equally as important. You can’t just have faith. It’s not enough to just say you believe. He tackles the other side:

/ / You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe - and shudder!

Listen to the Message again.

/ / Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

When we read it on this side of the cross with grace in mind some people have a hard time with separating a feeling like we have to work or do all the right things to earn salvation, and then the simple truth that when we have faith that faith should compel us to faithfulness. They are two very different things.

In Romans 5 Paul is explaining that when Adam and Eve sinned we have this grand introduction of sin into the world and that from that point on humanity is being born into this sinful state. But then God in his great love has given the life of Jesus Christ to redeem us, and grace covers all of that. Sin has no more power, and through Christ not only are we free, but we receive righteousness, which is right standing with God. All because of God’s wonderful grace, which is undeserved, unmerited, we couldn’t do anything right to earn it.

But he’s also writing to a group of people that are taking that grace and turning it into some sort of freedom to do whatever they want, so he says in Romans 6:1, / / Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not!

See, / / the point of faith is salvation, but the byproduct of faith should be faithfulness.

Imagine if Noah said, “I believe.” And someone says to him, “So, you gonna build that boat?” “Nope, I’m good. God’s grace is sufficient, nothing I need to do. I believe in God.”

Sure, he has faith, he ends up in heaven, but we don’t exist.

Every story we are reading is explaining this crucial fact. Your faith should lead to faithfulness.

So, we’re wrapping this series up this week so lets go over to Hebrews 11 and see what it says:

We’ve gone through all of it up to vs 30 where Israel walked through the Red Sea, and Marched around the walls of Jericho and saw them fall down. Let’s read the end of the chapter and then we’ll look at the lives of two more heroes of faith. Starting in vs 31:

/ / It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from death.

But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.

Ok, that brings us to the end of Chapter 11 and I want to point out a couple things before we look at our last two heroes.

First, and this is making the same point we’ve been making, look at the / / correlation between faith and works in the first part of this. The writer names 6 people and adds, “and all the prophets”, and then names 6 different scenarios where extreme action takes place. Overthrowing kingdoms and escaping death by the edge of the sword. These aren’t small things. These are big stories.

Second, let’s set the record straight, the writer of Hebrews lists Barak, but it should have listed / / Deborah. Judges 4 tells that story, and Deborah was a prophetess who was also the judge of Israel at the time. Barak was a soldier, or a general, and Deborah says to him, take 10,000 men and go into battle. He responds, “I’ll do this, but only if you come with me.” And her response, which should have landed her name in Hebrews, not Barak’s, is, / / “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” (Judges 4:9) Alright, so that’s just a matter of record.

Third, we can’t disregard / / the road that faith draws us to walk that sometimes leads to hardship. I would love if everything was sunshine and roses, but of course, we know it’s not. This road of faith led some to a point where they were told they had to turn away from their faith, and because they didn’t they were tortured, jeered at, whipped, put in prison, stoned, sawed in half, killed with a sword. Jeered at is maybe the only one I think I could handle. It’s also probably the one that is most relevant to our lives here in America. No one is threatening our lives over our faith, but our faith can get us treated quite differently.

And of course we don't expect these things, right, but it calls to question our level of commitment. Is faith something we can just turn off when things get hard and turn it back on again when it’s easy? Not if it’s real faith. Right? And the key is right there in scripture. / / They placed their hope in a better life AFTER the resurrection. Our faith is not in things of this world. This is something we’ve seen throughout the stories we’ve read as well.

Hebrews 11:10, / / Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

Hebrews 11:26, / / [Moses] thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.

Hebrews 11:16, / / …they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland.

What is our faith truly in? It’s in the eternal reward of life in Christ. Not anything we may gain here in this earth. Which means when the going gets tough, when we experience setback or trouble, our faith can remain.

Alright, let’s look at the last two heroes for this series. One of them is listed in Hebrews 11, and the other is not. But you’ll see why we’re including her in time. We are going to look at two women this morning / / Rahab and Ruth: the unlikely inclusions of the heroes of faith.

If you didn’t know, these stories are actually connected, although, if you’re just reading through the Old Testament you might not even notice.

We’ll start with the story of Rahab. It’s in Joshua 2. Israel has spent 40 years wandering around the wilderness. Moses has recently passed on leadership to Joshua, who will be leading the people of Israel into the promised land. Moses isn’t going with them, in fact, the last chapter of Deuteronomy tells us of Moses’ death.

This is the beginning of the conquest of the promised land. This is the promise going all the way back to Abraham. We’ve looked at that extensively in this series. Thing is, they’ve been here before. 40 years ago. In fact. Joshua was 1 of 12 spies that were sent into the land to spy it out. Him and Caleb came back telling everyone that God would keep his promise and they would be able to win the battle. But the 10 other spies didn’t think so, and they convinced the people that they would NOT be able to take the land, and as a result they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. So, now they are back. I think Joshua learned from their last mistake, and instead of sending 12 people in, he hand picks two. Joshua 2:1 says that he secretly sent two spies in to scope out the land. But if you know the story, someone tells the king of Jericho that there are spies in his land, and so they all start looking for them.

It makes sense why Jericho is a bit on edge, there’s a group of more than a million people on the other side of the Jordan river looking like they might be wanting to take your country. You’re going to be a bit nervous, I would think.

This is where we pick up the story of Rahab.

Hebrews tells us this of Rahab. / / It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. (Hebrews 11:31)

Now, I’ve always wondered this. Why pin her sin against her? Why point out that she’s a prostitute here? Is that relevant? Well, I think it is. And we’re going to see why. And it has really amazing implications for you and me.

Now, we don’t know why these two spies are at Rahab’s place, it just says that they got there and stayed the night. I suppose maybe it’s less obvious than a hotel, or going around knocking on doors asking if you can stay the night. You’re a spy, and you hear that there’s a prostitute, for the right price she’ll let you stay the night. I can only assume this is what’s happening here.

The king’s men come around, searching everywhere for these spies, and they get to her house. She says to them, “Oh ya, they were here earlier, but they’ve left town before the gates closed for the night.” Well, truth be told, she’s hidden them up on her roof under a bunch of bundles of harvested flax. The soldiers leave and she goes up to the roof and has a conversation with the men. She says that the people of the city have heard about all the amazing stories that took place in the wilderness, how the Red Sea was parted when they left Egypt, how there were battles against other nations and they won when they probably shouldn’t have. She says, “I know your God has already given you this city, even before it’s happened. So, because I’ve helped you, promise me you’ll save me and my family.”

Her house was part of the wall that went all the way around the city, and it’s got a window facing out. So, they tell her, take this scarlet rope you have here, that we’re going to now use to climb out your window, and leave it hanging it so we can see it. That way we will know which house is yours. And make sure all of your family is inside of the house with you.

They leave, head into the hillside for 3 days until all the searching for spies is done, and then head back to their people across the Jordan River. That’s the end of Chapter 2. It’s not until the end of Chapter 6 that we see Rahab again and it simply says this, / / So Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute and her relatives who were with her in the house, because she had hidden the spies Joshua sent to Jericho. And she lives among the Israelites to this day.

Very interesting little story. You almost think, couldn’t we have just heard about the two spies going to someone’s house, no need to involve all her business and why make mention of her in the book of Hebrews? And every time she’s mentioned her chosen line of work is mentioned. She’s always Rahab the prostitute. Why?

Well, we’ll see that in a bit, but first, let’s look at our next heroine.

Ruth isn’t mentioned in Hebrews 11, but for reasons we’ll see in a bit, she’s part of this overall story of faith.

If you’ve read the book of Ruth you know it’s a short little story. It’s between the book of Judges and 1 Samuel. Of course Judges is the time period where Israel has left the wilderness, is conquering the promised land and does not have a king. They are ruled by these judges whom God would raise up in times of need. Someone would come in and threaten to take the land back and God would bring someone up to lead the people and fight off the threat. But, in God’s own words, He was their king and it’s how He wanted it. Then 1 Samuel is the story of Israel’s desire to have a king like the other nations. Samuel is the judge and prophet who God uses to bring in the monarchy, the kings of Israel.

But in between those two time periods we have this little book of Ruth.

Ruth 1:1 says, / / In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land.

And it tells a story of a man named Elimelech, who left Israel because of the famine and went to the land of Moab with his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Kilion. If you don’t know the ancient near east, you’ve got the Mediterranean Sea, then Israel and Judah, where Jerusalem is. Then you have the dead sea, it’s quite large, and on the other side of that you have Moab. So they’ve left somewhere in here and moved over to the other side of this large lake to find somewhere that isn’t experiencing famine.

Unfortunately, the story is a pretty rough one for everyone involved. They get there, but Elimelech dies. Leaving Naomi a single mom with her two sons. Well, they get married, but about 10 years later both of her sons die. We don’t know how, and we don’t know how long in all they were over there, but now Naomi is left alone with the now widows of her two sons and there is no mention of children. Now, at this time period, if you don’t have a husband, or sons, your survival rate plummets. And her daughter-in-laws are really free and clear and can go get married again to someone else if they wanted. They have no children that tie them to Naomi’s family.

Naomi hears that the famine is over, crops are growing in Judah again, so she decides she’s got a better chance of surviving if she’s at least in her own country. She packs up and gets ready to head out and tells her daughter-in-laws to head home to their families. One decides to do exactly that, the other, Ruth, decides she’s going to go with her. She’s dedicated to Naomi. And in the midst of their back and forth about whether she stays or not, Ruth says to Naomi, / / “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”

Naomi and Ruth come back to the land Naomi and her husband had left, and they have nothing. So Ruth goes out to the fields where they were harvesting grain. One of the laws that God had given Israel to look after those less fortunate was that people wouldn’t harvest everything. They would leave the bits that fell on the ground, and some on the edges of the property, and those who were in need could come behind the paid harvesters and collect food for themselves of what had fallen behind.

Ruth goes to the field of a man named Boaz, and it just so happens that Boaz is there one day, and he takes notice of this young lady. He starts showing her preferential treatment, telling his harvesters to be kind to her. And he says this in Ruth 2:11, / / “I also know everything you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers. May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.”

Now, this isn’t unusual. The law definitely says to look after those who are less fortunate, even aliens living in the land. But Boaz is being a little extra here. He even says at one point to the workers in the field, “Ya know what, just let her pick with you guys and don’t say anything.”

I guess he had a crush, but this is leading up to something really important.

There was this thing in Jewish culture called the Kinsman Redeemer.

The people of Israel saw their land as an inheritance from God; and that they were simply tenants of that land. Which meant they could never permanently sell their land to someone because they didn’t fully own it. And every 50 years, if you had sold your land because you had debt, the land would be given back to you in what was known as the Year of Jubilee. It didn’t matter if you had sold it in year 1 or year 49, in that 50th year it was to be returned to you as the owner.

Now, in the case of Naomi, her husband, who would have owned land in that area, had died. But the land can’t be given or sold to someone outside of the family. That meant that someone within the family, a relative, should redeem that land to keep it in the family. The closer the relative, the more obligated they were to redeem the property.

In a bizarre turn of events, Naomi says to Ruth one night. “Listen, this man, Boaz, is one of our kinsmen. And he’s been very kind to you. It is within his rights and obligations to redeem the property of my dead husband and sons by taking the property we once owned, and you along with it. So, listen to me and do exactly what I say.”

Ruth 3:7-9 says, / / After Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he lay down at the far end of the pile of grain and went to sleep. Then Rut came quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. Around midnight Boaz suddenly woke up and turned over. He was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet! “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am your servant Ruth,” she replied. “Spread the corner of your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.”

See what she’s doing, she’s invoking that kinsmen redeemer rule.

He looks at her and says, “You could have picked anyone, yet, you’ve picked me.” Interesting. He’s the one who is supposed to pick her, but he says she’s picked him. It’s the middle of the night, and he doesn’t want anyone to think negatively of him or Ruth, so he let’s her stay the night but sends her off early so no one sees her. But there’s a problem. There’s a relative that would be closer related to Naomi’s husband than he is. So he has to sort this out.

Now, there was a way they handled situations like this. Business was done at the front gate of the towns and cities. So Boaz goes the next morning to the town gate and takes a seat where the other men and leaders of the town are. The family member who is closer in relation to Naomi comes by and Boaz says to him. “Hey, you remember Elimelech? Well, his widow Naomi has come back and can’t look after the land herself, so it’s up to you to redeem it if you want.”

The guy is like, “Extra land, cool. I’m in.”

And this is where it gets interesting. Ruth 4:5-6 says, / / Then Boaz told him, “Of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth, the Moabite widow. That way she can have children who will carry on her husband’s name and keep the land in the family.”

“Then I can’t redeem it,” the family redeemer replied, “because that might endanger my own estate. You redeem the land; I cannot do it.”

They finish the deal and he says to all of them sitting there, “You are all witnesses that I have now purchased the land of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon, and in so doing take Ruth to be my wife.”

But listen to the response from the towns men and the rest of the story and then we’re going to tie all of this together.

The men of the city say this to Boaz. Ruth 4:11, / / “We are witnesses! May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! May you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. And may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor, Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.”

Sure enough Ruth becomes pregnant and bears a son. Naomi holds this child just like it was her own son. Proud grandma moment I suppose. And the towns women say this, / / “Now at last Naomi has a son again!” And they named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David.

Alright, so, we’ve been a bit all over the place this morning. Hebrews, Joshua, Ruth. Let’s put it all together.

We’ve been talking about Faith now for quite a few weeks. And then last week Jim brings in the baptism of Jesus, but not just that, but how we are invited into the same experience that Jesus had in his experience of baptism.

The Love of the Father.

The Intimacy and Relationship we can have with God.

The Restoration of our hearts.

The Empowerment or equipping of the Holy Spirit.

And I think the stories we’ve been reading through in this series on faith, and the story of Jesus’ baptism raise the same exact question… Is this really for me?

Can I really experience a God like this?

The God of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses… does he truly desire to be my God?

Can I have a life of faith like they had a life of faith? And I don’t mean the story is the same, but the story is the same, if you get what I mean. You might not be building a boat, or the father of nations, but does God care any less for you than he does for any of these people we read about?

The reason I am finishing this series with the stories of Rahab and Ruth is because their story is our story. The most unlikely of included people. In fact, they should not have been included. They aren’t supposed to fit into this story at all. Not in Israel and certainly not as much as they are.

Rahab is a prostitute from Jericho. Ruth is a widow from Moab. They’re not Jewish. And I don’t mean this as people, but their stories make them undesirable. Yet, they’re included to a higher degree than seems possible.

What do I mean by that?

Well, let’s go over to the book of Matthew and read from Matthew 1:5. In the first chapter of the book of Matthew, he decides to write out the Genealogy of Jesus, all the way back to Abraham. Now, we all know how exciting reading through genealogies can be, so I won’t read through the whole thing, and I bet most of the time people either skip it or gloss over the text quickly, but let’s just read verse 5...

/ / (5) Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab). Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth). Obed was the father of Jesse. (6) Jesse was the father of King David....... (16) Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

Now, there are some really amazing things to point out in here.

A man named Salmon from the house of Judah married a prostitute named Rahab who should have never been allowed to be a part of the nation of Israel.

That woman, Rahab, gave birth to a son named Boaz. Boaz, the son of a prostitute.

Gosh, there is just so much we can learn from this. In how we look at people, how we treat people, how we rule people in or out based on their past or their history. What we think of people based on who they are, where they come from.

It would seem here that God sees none of that.

And that causes two major issues for the people of Israel. Location and Lifestyle. First, Israel is not supposed to leave a single person from the promised land living there. Get them all out. Yet, Rahab is allowed to stay, and not only is she allowed to stay, but she marries a man named Salmon and becomes a part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Second lifestyle. Jesus has every possible sin represented in his family line. There are some real winners.

When you read the genealogy in Matthew 1:3 says, Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar).

Do you know who Tamar was? She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, whose husband had died, and Judah sent her back home to her family until his younger son would be old enough to marry her. But he never tells her when he’s old enough. He goes to visit that town and she pretends to be a prostitute, he sleeps with her they have twins, that’s Perez and Zerah. The twins of the daughter-in-law pretending to be a prostitute with a man showing no honor and did all of that.

This is Judah, of the House of Judah, whom we call Jesus the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

It’s incredible.

Back to Rahab. Rahab has a son named Boaz. But remember what we read, Boaz goes to the city gates and asks the kinsmen closest to Naomi to redeem both land and marry Ruth. It is intentional, I think, that he says it this way, / / “Of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth, the Moabite widow...”

I think Boaz is pointing out an issue. You’ll have to marry a foreigner, which is looked down upon. In fact, the law actually forbids it. And this other man, knowing this, and maybe he’s already married and this would be awkward, he says, “Oh, ya, well, no, can’t do it. Uhh…why don’t you take it instead.”

And it kind of begs the question, Why is Boaz so ok with this?

Boaz gets something me and you really need to understand.

/ / God’s invitation is for us all. It’s been proved through his own family by the inclusion of his mother. Boaz is ok with marrying a Moabite foreigner who doesn’t belong because his mom is a prostitute from Jericho.

I wanted to bring these last two heroes in, who aren’t even Jewish, who don’t deserve what they receive, who get labeled by their sin or the reason they are outcasts. I wanted us to realize that we have to be able to see both sides. There is a potential downfall when we read the bible that when we read these stories we relate to the people who are good, holy, righteous, redeemed etc.. We want to relate with Joseph as a dreamer. We want to relate with Abraham as one with faith. We want to relate with Noah being asked to do something out of the ordinary but great for God. And I wouldn’t say there’s anything wrong with that.

But how often do we relate with the sinner? The outcast. The fornicator named Judah. The prostitute. The foreigner that doesn’t belong. The down and out. Those who are looked down on?

Read the Genealogy of Jesus. They are all included.

/ / You have as much a place in the story of Jesus as the person who’s done it all right!

You have as much a place in the story of faith as the great and terrible stories found in the bible.

God includes the sinner.

God includes those who don’t belong.

God includes those we would think the promise wasn’t intended for.

And I’m grateful, because actually… that’s me.

And regardless of the story or the person, the same thing is true each time. The invitation is to come to a place of faith, and that place of faith brings an opportunity to live faithfully.

Look at Ruth’s response to Naomi when she tries to turn her away. “I go where you go, your land will be my land, your God my God, i’ll die where you die and be buried with you. You have brought me into a life of faith, I will be faithful.”

I want to close out this series with an invitation to the deep things of God.

God is so loving and kind. And there is no one, no situation, no terrible or dark secret that disqualifies you from a life of faith.

I also want to make an invitation to anyone who has never been baptized. Whether you are here with us, or if you are online with us. Water baptism is a very personal and powerful expression of our faith. If you’re not here or not ready, we will do it again don’t worry. And if you aren’t ready but find next week you are, or sometime, just let us know and we’ll schedule another one. We don’t ever want anyone to have to wait to be baptized. And if you grew up in a tradition that had child baptism, maybe you were blessed by a priest, but now you feel you want to go through that as an adult that has made a personal decision, please let us know.

I said this last week, we don’t get baptized for the forgiveness of sins. We don’t get baptized for the filling of the Holy Spirit. We get baptized to put a stamp on our lives as followers of Jesus. An outward expression of an inward commitment, that is meant to be an outward commitment as well. Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20 that his disciples were to go out into all the world, make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, the name of the Son & the name of the Holy Spirit. And the word baptize means to be fully immersed. I believe when we get baptized it is an opportunity for us to say to God, “I want to be fully immersed in all that you are.” In the Old Testament when we read about the Name of God it speaks more about his character and who He is than just his name. So when we read, baptized in the name of, we are really saying, “I want to be fully immersed in the character of God, who He is, Father, Son & Holy Spirit.” Because that’s what this whole thing is all about, falling more in Love with Him, learning more of who He is and what He’s called us to, and living that out. Faith that leads to faithfulness.

I hope that’s what this series has been about for you. I hope if you’ve missed weeks you go back and catch up on them - I believe this has been a journey of looking at what it means to have faith, and be faithful.

And as I said, I do believe there is an invitation for exactly that. To step deeper into faith, so that we can step further into faithfulness. The more we lean into God. The more we learn and dig into the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, the more we have the opportunity to be faithful.

And the starting point for all of us is the same. Wherever you are at. Maybe you relate more to Abraham, or Moses. Or maybe you relate more to Rahab or Ruth. It doesn’t matter. The invitation to live a life of faith is there for each and every one of us. Let this be an opportunity for you to grow in your faith that leads you to greater faithfulness.