The Step of Faith
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
How many of you cannot stand spoilers? Back in the day, before all the streaming services, you had to wait for a certain day of the week at a certain time to catch the next episode of your favorite TV show. Tahsha and I used to like to watch 24 together. The TV show 24 actually first aired in 2001, and quickly became a hit. I watched various episodes, but it wasn’t aired in Mexico, so I only got to see it occasionally when I came to the States.
However, when I moved to Texas, the family that I was staying with when I joined the Army loved the show. So I watched season 4 from January - May of 2005. About 4 years after we got married, Tahsha and I were reminded of the show by a fellow church member who lent us all the DVD’s from season 1 to season 6.
And we binged watched them like our lives depended on it!
We got caught up with it all to start watching season 7 as it aired, and we were religious in our Monday routine. I made sure that in the months of January - May, I was at home at least shortly before 7 so that at 7pm, we could watch our show. Same thing happened for season 8.
Now here’s the thing — if you didn’t catch the episode on Monday night, throughout the week, they would play it again. So if I was not able to be at home at 7pm on Monday, Tahsha was forbidden to watch the show without me. We would have to wait until the weekend to watch it together. And we were not the only ones in our circle of friends that liked this show. There were quite a few of us, so if we didn’t watch it on Monday, we would promptly tell people on Wednesday to BE QUIET if they started talking about it after the service. We didn’t want to hear spoilers.
Now, I love spoilers. I rarely care if I know the end of the story before it actually gets there. It helps me to see and identify patterns and clues and such the first time watching a show or reading a book. I could always watch or read the show/book again after finishing it, but who has time for that?
Well today, I want to warn you that if you are not familiar with the book of Joshua, particularly chapters 2-6, there are going to be some spoilers in this sermon.
Last week we started this new study Defining Steps: Today’s Choices, Tomorrow’s Story, as we study through the book of Joshua. Last week we set up the sermon by going over an abridged history of the nation of Israel from the time they exited Egypt after being there for 430 years. After two years of both traveling through the wilderness and stopping in places like Mount Sinai (where they were for about a year as God gave Moses the Law), they arrived at Kadesh-Barnea. From there, Moses, at God’s command, sent 12 spies into Canaan, the land that God had promised Israel as the land in which they would settle as a nation.
After 40 days of going through the land, the spies came back. Two spies, Caleb and Joshua (who was at this time the leader of the army and Moses’ right hand man) come back excited to enter the land and watch God miraculously give them the land that He had promised. However, the other ten spies returned anxious and worried and doubtful of God’s ability to actually deliver on His promise. They all reported that the land truly was very fertile and rich, but the ten spies also reported that they would be incapable of taking the land. They told the nation that there were many warring nations and tribes in Canaan, that there were giants in the land, and that the cities were well fortified and impossible to penetrate.
The people rose up against Moses, and even began to look for someone else to follow that would take them back to Egypt where they would once again be slaves. But Moses and Aaron (Aaron was Moses’ brother and the high priest) fell on their faces before the congregation, and Joshua and Caleb attempted to persuade the Israelites to trust God and to have faith in His promises. But to no avail; the people refused to cross the Jordan River and to trust God.
This provoked God to anger and He punished the nation by requiring them to wander in the wilderness for the next 38 years until every adult who had refused to enter that day had died, except Joshua and Caleb, because, the Bible says, “In them there was found a different spirit.” They did not have a spirit of doubt and fear, but of absolute faith in God.
Fast forward 38 years — All those people have died. Moses and Aaron have died, and now, leadership of the nation falls on Joshua’s shoulders who is about 60 years old or more.
We saw last week that God encouraged Joshua, telling him to be strong and very courageous. But the courage and strength that Joshua needed was not to defeat the enemies in Canaan, it was to obey. Strength and courage are needed often times when we are being obedient to the Lord.
So Joshua tells the people to get ready because in three days time, they will cross the Jordan. The people’s response to this is overwhelming in support, so much so, that they declare that anybody that does not obey Joshua will be put to death.
We left off last week studying Israel’s vision — to have a land of there own — and their mission — to cross the Jordan, obey God, and conquer the land.
With this mission in mind, they begin to take their first steps toward accomplishing it and begin to pack up. Their parents had taken a defining step 38 years before, a step that would lead to all of their deaths and on missing out on the blessing of dwelling in the promised land. But now, this generation was determined to step in the right direction and obey and trust God.
The Step of Faith
The Step of Faith
The step that we will talk about today is the step of faith. And before we get into our passage in Joshua, we are going to first read a passage out of Hebrews.
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
What is Faith?
What is Faith?
So what is faith? Hebrews 11 does not give us a definition so much as it does a description of faith.
When the Bible speaks of faith, it is not some blind optimism or an artificial “hope-so” feeling. It isn’t merely just intellectual assent of a certain teaching either. However, it isn’t just believing something without evidence either. Believing without evidence is called superstition and Christians are warned against being superstitious.
Warren Wiersbe gives a great definition of faith.
“True Bible faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.” -Warren Wiersbe
Confident obedience. Faith operates quite simply according to the Bible. It starts by hearing God’s word. That may be through a sermon, like today. It may be by attending a Wednesday evening Bible study or a Home Group or Life Group. It might be through your personal reading and meditation on His word. It could be through a song or poem that rightly reflects God’s word. It could be through a prompting of the Holy Spirit in your life.
And when we hear God’s word, we have a step to take. We will either trust God and obey, or we will not. If we choose to trust, we trust despite the consequences. The consequences may be frightening or even unknown, but faith obeys God’s word just the same. Faith believes He will do what is right and what is best.
If we summarize the description of faith from Hebrews 11:1, we get two words:
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The word Substance is a word that means something set under, a concrete essence. In other words, a foundation. Faith is foundational for the Christian. it gives assurance and confidence that Christians will stand.
Next, we have the word evidence. That word means proof or conviction. it is the inner conviction from God that He will do what He has promised.
Faith enables us to understand what God is doing and it allows us to see what others cannot. Because of this, faith allows us to do what others cannot do.
The rest of the chapter goes on to describe the faith of individuals from Abel, the second-born son of Adam and Eve, to King David, specifically, and then talks about the methods used to torture and kill Christians though it doesn’t name any specifically.
Rahab’s Spiritual Journey
Rahab’s Spiritual Journey
So let’s talk about faith today by using the example of a woman named Rahab. We find Rahab in Joshua, but before we turn there, I want us to see that what we will see in Rahab is a reflection of the presence of faith in God her life. How do we know this was not just hopeful and wishful thinking, because this book of Hebrews tells us specifically that what she did was an act of faith. So, here is your spoiler alert. Upon reading these verses, if you are not familiar with the book of Joshua, you will see the end result, not only of Rahab, but of the city of Jericho, the first city which the Israelites must conquer.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.
31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
Let’s go to Joshua 2 now.
1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.
Joshua sends two spies to spy out the land, specifically Jericho. So they go to Jericho and stay at a woman’s house named Rahab. now, Rahab is no ordinary woman, she is what some might refer to as a “woman of ill repute,” or more crassly, “a woman of the night.” The spies end up staying in Rahab’s house. But they aren’t as sneaky as they think.
2 And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country.
3 And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country.
The king demands that Rahab tell them where these two spies are. If you are in Rahab’s shoes, what would you do? Rahab does what a lot of people would do. She lies.
4 And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were:
5 And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them.
6 But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.
7 And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.
“There were two men that came to my house, but I didn’t know where they came from. When it was time t o shut the city gates, the men left in the night. Maybe if you chase after them you can find them.”
Rahab lies, and in so doing, she saves the lives of these two spies.
Rahab is often celebrated for lying to save the spies, however, I would caution against that. I had this argument with a friend of mine who is an evangelist. We were working on something together and the topic of Rahab came up. He promptly celebrated that she had lied to keep the spies safe.
But what Rahab did was wrong. We have learned through the Sermon on the Mount that doing the right thing with wrong intentions is sinful, but I want to be clear that doing the wrong thing with good intentions is equally sinful.
God did not put a caveat on the commandment that says “Thou shalt not lie.” Our God, who is Truth, cannot stand a lie, no matter the reason.
Rahab the Unbeliever
Rahab the Unbeliever
But I do want us to understand something here, Rahab, at this time, is an unbeliever, and we should never expect unbelievers to act like believers. That is also something we talked about at the beginning of our study through the Sermon on the Mount — unbelievers cannot conduct themselves in a way that is only possible to believers through the Holy Spirit because unbelievers do not have the Holy Spirit.
So, Rahab resorts to what she knows — sin, lies, deceit. But I want us to see through this story the example of God’s grace and mercy. Remember that grace is undeserved favour from God, and mercy is undeserved forgiveness or the lessening of a punishment that is deserved.
Rahab the Condemned
Rahab the Condemned
Rahab, along with the others in Jericho, and in fact all of Canaan, was afraid. She understood that Israel was there to wipe them out or push them out. Jericho, along with every other city in Canaan, had been 400 years on the condemned list. God had spoken to Abraham, even before Jericho was a city, that Israel would eventually come to Canaan after spending 400 years of slavery in Egypt, and would God would judge the nations that dwelled there as He gave the land back to Israel.
Look at Genesis 15:13-16
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs [Egypt], and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve [Egypt], will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. [The Exodus]
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. [You’re going to die at a very old age and be buried with your family (as was the custom)]
16 But in the fourth generation [of slavery] they shall come hither again [“They will come back again.” At this time, Abram is in Canaan and God is making the promise once again that the land of Canaan will be theirs one day.]: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Why not give the land to Abraham’s descendants right then and there? Well, one of the reasons is for the Amorites. From that moment, the Amorites had about 500 years to repent. They were a wicked and evil nation, sacrificing children regularly to their false gods. At the time that God is talking to Abraham, the sin of the Amorites is not reached a point where God wants to judge them right then and there. So for nearly 500 years from then, God extends grace to the Amorites by not judging them.
But the Amorite people, along with all the other nations in Canaan, are starting to be aware of the one true God, the God of Israel. And they take note of God’s power.
9 And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts 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 in earth beneath.
Jericho seems to be a city that is inhabited by many different people groups, one of them is the Amorites. And now it is time for their judgment, not just them, but all the nations of Canaan, all of which were involved in worshipping false gods. And yet, they have known now for the last 40 years, at least, that the God of the Israelites is the one true God, God of heaven and earth. They understood that Israel was coming to destroy them. Their reaction was not one of repentance, but one of fortifying their cities and amassing armies.
They had the option to take a step toward repentance, but opted not to. If you remember the book of Jonah, there is a nation that is under similar condemnation. The Assyrian capital of Nineveh is soon going to be destroyed, yet God commands Jonah to preach, and when he finally does, the king and all the Ninevites understand that God is going to judge and destroy them, so they all repent as one.
In that moment, God spares them.
Jericho and all the other cities have this option too, and no doubt, God, who, according to God’s own self-description in Exodus 34 is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness, who keeps mercy for thousands and forgives iniquity and transgression and sin” would no doubt spare Jericho and forgive it.
But there is only one repentant soul in Jericho. There is only one who believes and has faith in God, and that is Rahab.
The Faith of Rahab
The Faith of Rahab
I want us to notice something in those verses we just read in Joshua. Joshua 2:9-11 Notice how she refers to God.
9 And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts 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 in earth beneath.
The Lord. He is God. Not “a lord,” or “he is a god,” or even, “he is a very powerful god,” but “He is God.”
So how did she come to have faith in God? Well, she heard God’s word. The Bible says that
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
For a long time all she heard was a message of personal pursuit of happiness and money through her occupation. Her worth was in how much she could get out of a man and how successful she was. But when she finally heard God’s word, she finally was able to hear something different.
She heard a message of condemnation. Whether it was from the spies themselves or from the knowledge that she and the rest of Jericho had about Israel’s intentions of coming to Canaan, she understood that she stood condemned with everyone else in that city.
And that is where Rahab and the rest of Jericho differed. Jericho feared and fortified itself and made sure to close the gates at night hoping to fend of the coming condemnation, but Rahab believed what she heard. She believed she was truly under condemnation, and she believed that the God of Israel was not just “some” god, but THE God. Joshua 2:9 “9 I know that the Lord hath given you the land...”
Rahab’s Faith Demonstrated
Rahab’s Faith Demonstrated
Rahab heard the word, believed God’s word, and proved her belief by actions. The book of James tells us that faith is demonstrated by actions. Without action, it is not faith but merely intellectual assent.
So how did Rahab demonstrate her faith?
12 Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father’s house, and give me a true token:
13 And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.
14 And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee.
15 Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall.
16 And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may ye go your way.
17 And the men said unto her, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear.
18 Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee.
19 And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him.
20 And if thou utter this our business, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear.
21 And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window.
Rahab demonstrated her faith in the God of Israel and helped the two spies escape and by following their instructions — to leave the scarlet rope tied to the window. In that step of faith, the God of Israel became the God of Rahab. She believed in the coming destruction, but she believed in the salvation that had been promised to her. Her loyalties shifted from Jericho to Israel, but more importantly, from her gods to the Lord God.
What is our definition of faith that we are working with?
“True Bible faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.” -Warren Wiersbe
Rahab risked her life to identify with God’s people instead of with her own city.
Rahab’s Faith Shared
Rahab’s Faith Shared
When it came time for the Israelites to begin their fight against Jericho Rahab did indeed bring her family into her house as instructed by the spies. Joshua 6:25
25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
Her whole family is saved because of Rahab. She gathered everyone in her house, and those that chose to gather with her, were spared.
Rahab Delivered
Rahab Delivered
And let’s talk about this deliverance from destruction that Rahab has.
As we read earlier in Hebrews, and as we will study when we get to chapter 6 of Joshua, the Israelites defeated Jericho by simply walking around the walls for seven days. God did a miracle after that and caused the walls of Jericho to crumble and fall.
But who lived on the wall? Rahab. So how did Rahab survive?
20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
Jericho’s walls fall flat, but as we read earlier, Rahab’s family was able to be rescued from her house on the wall. This would indicate that her portion of the wall stood. The Israelite fighting men go into Jericho, and as God commanded, they kill every person and burn the city, or what is left of it.
The only ones that survive are those that had faith, as Hebrews 11:31 says:
31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
She did not perish with all the others that did not believe. She did believe, and it went further than belief, she acted on her belief (which then makes it faith) and identified herself with God’s people, and she was delivered.
Rahab’s New Family
Rahab’s New Family
This became a big step her. A defining step. Because even though she is known as Rahab the Harlot in Joshua and in Hebrews, that is no longer what defined her. Rahab’s sin was not the defining thing about Rahab anymore. Even in Hebrews, what sets her in the “hall of fame of faith” is her faith.
Her faith in God saved her, it spread to her family and they were also saved, and that is an example of God’s wonderful mercy to those who will come to Him. But this defining step of faith also granted her a blessing that she never even knew that she would be a part of.
The book of Matthew starts with a genealogy of Jesus. He starts it with Abraham and continues down the line, not listing the complete line, but a list of prominent names in the genealogy. And I want to note one of these names.
5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;
The name Rachab is Rahab. And if you are familiar with the book of Ruth, then you may be familiar with the name Boaz, Ruth’s husband. Boaz in the Hebrew is the same as this Booz that comes from the Greek form, but same person.
So Boaz, was a descendant of a man named Salmon. And the Bible specifies that he is not just a descendant of Salmon, but Boaz is a descendant of Salmon and Rahab’s union.
Rahab not only got delivered, not only was her life spared, not only does she live outside the camp of the Israelites (where the foreigners that had joined the Israelites lived); no, she became much more. She married into the country and married an Israelite man, a man from the tribe of Judah named Salmon. But not only that, God took Rahab and Salmon and placed them into the genealogical line of Jesus Christ.
She got a new family, she got a new citizenship, and she got a whole new story. She was integrated into the story of Jesus.
Your Step of Faith
Your Step of Faith
This is a great story but it means nothing if we do not apply it to our lives.
Unsaved
Unsaved
Primarily, this story is about salvation. See, all mankind, just like Rahab and the rest of Jericho, is under condemnation and it is because of sin. Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
But God does not want that death, that separation for us, so He sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay for sins.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
That gift of eternal life comes by no other person than by Jesus. John 14:6
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
and it truly is a gift.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
And that gift is undeserved - grace. We do not deserved to be forgiven, but God loves us so much He made a way for us to be forgiven.
So how do we accept that gift?
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And when we are saved, it does some things to us.
It gives us forgiveness:
Ephesians 1:7
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Those that are saved become a new creation:
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
and we receive a new family:
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
and we get a new citizenship too.
20 For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
And all this is received by taking a step of faith. Not simply believing that these things are true; not simply acknowledging in your head that this is all fact, but in the sincere belief that it is true, then turning to Jesus and asking Him to save you.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Believe on His name and receive Him as savior.
Saved
Saved
But what about those that are here that are saved. This is a reminder that God always keeps His promises. We are faced with steps of faith every day. Many of them small, but some of them are large and defining. The thing about defining steps is that we often do not realize they will be defining until after the step is taken.
We cannot pick and choose when to have faith and when to act on faith or not. We must decide to act by faith, to live by faith. Why? Because God’s righteousness is revealed to us and the world around us, in faith. Romans 1:17
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
We are commanded to live by faith, for we are ”the just,” the justified ones. Hebrews 10:38
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Living by faith is the only way to please God.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
You want to live a life that is pleasing to God? Then live by faith! Trust God and obey Him despite the circumstances or consequences.
Our Step of Faith
Our Step of Faith
We also must live and operate by faith as a church. Things like Good News Clubs and the food pantry and different other ministries have all been started and operated by faith. We trust God will provide the workers, the materials, the finances necessary for all that we do here.
For a while now I have been saying that I believe that God is getting ready to do something big with us, something very significant in the way we impact the kingdom of heaven.
For about 6 weeks or so, the deacons and I have been praying about a situation that will soon put us at a crossroads and we will need to take a step as a church. Let me explain.
Some of you may know that for over a year, Blair Ridge Baptist Church here in Cedar Rapids has been without a pastor. They have, as of a few months ago, officially brought on an interim pastor, Justin Lundberg, from Williamsburg. He and I have been meeting regularly to pray for Blair Ridge Baptist and that God would provide a direction and a clear next step.
Their next step will be defining. After exploring several options, the only ones that seem viable and to which God is leading them are the following two options: Close their doors permanently, or merge with another church of like faith and practice.
Justin has presented these options to the church and they are praying. About 6 weeks ago, Bro Justin reached out to me about my interest in merging with their church. I told him my only interest was to do what God wanted me to do, and I believe that is our interest as a church. So we began to pray for God to guide in that end.
Neither he nor I have a conclusive leading from the Lord as to whether this is what God wants, but we do feel it is now time for our churches to be praying together toward the end that would most honor God.
So church, this morning I am presenting you two things to pray about.
The future of Blair Ridge Baptist Church
The future of Good News Baptist as it relates to Blair Ridge.
We do not know what God wants at this moment. We are not sure.
“True Bible faith is confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.” -Warren Wiersbe
But this we do know — that we will move in faith regardless of the difficulties, regardless of the circumstances, and regardless of the consequences.
Details of what that merge may look like if it were to happen have not been discussed much, though some general thoughts have been shared. First, we want to know if this where God is leading.
We want to be wise in our approach to this matter. One of the things that will allow us to see whether a merge is something that would be good for our church is to start getting to know each other. There will be occasions when I will be preaching there at Blair Ridge on a Sunday morning and when Justin will preach here. You will get to hear from him how things are over there, and they will get to see if they like the way I preach or not!!
No, but we will get to start knowing them and them us. Further down the line, we may combine services whether here or there for a more in depth experience of bringing together two congregations.
We don’t know how things will look, and that is not primarily our concern right now. Our concern now is seeking God’s face in this matter and committing ourselves to following His direction for our next step.
Listen, for us, as a church, to ensure we are taking the correct next steps together, we must make sure that individually we are taking the correct next steps in our lives.
Invitation
Invitation
Are you taking steps, the right ones, in your walk with Christ?
With heads bowed and eyes closed, I’d like to ask just a couple of questions.
First, to those that are saved. Has God brought you to a crossroads?
It may be a crossroad of finances, careers, relationships, or ministry. Is there anyone that would say, “Mike, in one of those areas, or in another not mentioned, I find myself at a fork in the road and need direction from the Lord.”
Maybe, you already know what God is wanting you to do, but the circumstances or the consequences just seem to hard. Is there anyone like that that would say, “Mike, I know what God wants me to do, but I am finding it difficult to trust Him and to obey, would you pray for me?”
Secondly, for the unsaved. Is there anyone here that would say, “Mike, I need to take that step of faith for salvation. I do not have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, but I sure would like to talk to someone about it.” Is there anyone like that?
Pin seekers
Home Groups
Home Groups
1. What stood out to you from the sermon? Any comments or questions or concerns?
2. The sermon defined biblical faith as “confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.” How is that different from optimism, superstition, or simply hoping things work out?
3. Rahab heard what the Lord had done for Israel, believed that He was the true God, and acted on what she believed. What truth from Scripture have you heard clearly and acted on? Are there any truths that are hard to act on?
4. When you face fear or uncertainty, do you tend to build defenses and control outcomes, or turn to God in faith?
5. Rahab had to trust the promise given to her and obey the instruction to place the scarlet cord in her window. What promise of God do you need to trust right now, and what step of obedience follows from it?
6. Rahab gathered her family into the place of safety. Who are the people God has placed near you whom you need to lovingly point toward Christ? (Pray with your group for those people by name when this is over.)
