Joshua Chapter 2:20-24

There is coming a time where you will no longer be able to make changes. I don't know what that day, when that day is for you or for anybody in here, but I know that that day is coming. When you go to be with the Lord, it's too late. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Right now, you have the time and opportunity to make changes in your life.

There is coming a time when you will no longer be able to make changes. Stay tuned today as Pastor David encourages us in seizing opportunities as he continues in the book of Joshua chapter 2. But before we join Pastor David, have you ever experienced a time when you felt spiritually drained? Well, the Bible holds the cure that will bring joy and vitality back into your life. That's why we want to send you a copy of Pastor David McGee's video message, A Checkup from the Neck Up. In this inspiring teaching, you'll find biblical truths that can restore your spiritual health. A Checkup from the Neck Up is our way to thank you for your gift this month to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So please visit crossthebridge.com to get your copy of A Checkup from the Neck Up.

Now here's David McGee with his teaching, Now is the Time. Joshua chapter 2 verse 1, Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia grove to spy secretly saying go view the land especially Jericho. So they went and they came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho saying behold men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab saying bring out the men who have come to you who have entered your house for they have come to search out all the country. Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said yes the men came to me but I did not know where they were from. Verse 5, And it happened as the gate was being shut when it was dark that the men went out. Where the men went I do not know.

Pursue them quickly for you may overtake them. But she had brought them up on the roof and hidden them with the stalks of flax and which she had laid in order on the roof. Now when you go to Israel and I think everybody ought to go to Israel but when you go there what you notice is there's a lot of flat roofs. So if you're sitting there thinking my goodness how did they get up on the peak roof.

They weren't peaks they were flat and they used to take stuff up there to dry and this is a case where the flax is drying out there and she hid them beneath the flax. Then the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan to the fords and as soon as those who pursued them had gone out they shut the gate. Now before they laid down she came up to them on the roof and said to the men I know that the Lord has given you the land that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. Verse 10 for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan Sihon and Og whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you for the Lord your God he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

Now therefore I beg you swear to me by the Lord since I've shown you kindness that you will also show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token and spare my father my mother my brothers my sisters and all that they have and deliver our lives from death. So the men answered her our lives for yours if none of you tell this business of ours and it shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Verse 15 then she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall and she dwelt on the wall and she said to them get to the mountain lest the pursuers meet you hide there three days until the pursuers have returned afterward you may go your way. Verse 17 so the men said to her we will be blameless of this oath of yours which you have made us swear unless when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down unless you bring your father your mother your brothers and all your father's household to your own house. Verse 19 so it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street his blood shall be on his own head and we will be guiltless and whoever is with you in the house his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. Verse 20 and if you tell this business of ours then we will be made then will you be free from your oath which you made us swear. Then she said according to your words so be it and she sent them away and they departed and she sent them away and they departed and she bound the scarlet cord in the window and they departed and they went to the mountain they stayed there three days until the pursuers returned the pursuers sought them all along the way but she did not find them but did not find them. Verse 23 so the two men returned descended from the mountain and just crossed over and they came to Joshua the son of Nun and told him all that had befallen them. Verse 24 and they said to Joshua truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands for indeed all the inhabitants of this country are faint-hearted because of us. Now your attention please look at the report of these two spies think of how different it is than the spies who reported before not not not the two spies but the 10 spies remember 12 went out two came back and said yes God's given us the land the other 10 saying we're going grasshoppers and then one and one and one and one and one. Now we don't remember their names we are giving them to we're given the names of those 10 in scripture but we don't remember them I mean do you remember the name of the 10 spies anybody raise your hand no I don't either I mean if you told me I had to stand up name I couldn't name I couldn't name one of them without looking but who are the two spies that came back with a good report Joshua and Caleb right on and guess what Joshua as a leader had shown these guys what it looked like exercise in faith and these two guys came back modeling that exercise in faith you know why next life lesson your faith should be contagious your faith should be contagious the faith of Joshua was contagious if he just stood in front of those bunch of people and he just said well guys we're going in here and I hope we make it I mean do you think they they wouldn't have been like yeah I mean they're you know they've been like oh no maybe maybe Moses isn't dead maybe he's just sleeping and we can get him to come lead us no no well you maybe you say well it's good you know Joshua's so courageous then why did God tell him to be bold and courageous four times in the last chapter do you usually say that to somebody that's already bold and courageous not usually God was encouraging Joshua because Joshua was acting on his faith and not on his fear was he fearful I think part of him was that's why God kept reassuring him now what's interesting where did they get really report where did they get filled with faith from Rahab Rahab's faith was contagious to their faith they went wow these people believe we're taking the land they believe our God is God you know what I I think she's right our God is God I think God has given us the land let's go back and tell them why faith is courageous and when we speak when we and I'm not getting into weird confession stuff but when we speak words of faith man that's contagious that is contagious when you when you when you say oh you know what God's doing this God's doing that man I'm so excited about what God's doing yes there'll be occasionally somebody go but you know what most people go wow you're pretty passionate about this stuff wow and I'm sitting here and I'm cynical and I'm bitter and I'm I'm unforgiving and you know and you're all excited about this thing wow maybe I need to maybe I need to check this out it becomes contagious Hebrews 11 31 says by faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace see now Hebrews 11 is called the hall of faith the hall of fame of faith some people say and and it's interesting there's two women that it talks about in there one of them is Rahab the other is Sarah that's kind of interesting that those two would be discussed in the same conversation here we have the the if you will the mother of the Israelites a very godly woman other than that little slip about you know laughing about having a kid but other than that very godly woman in the same discussion with a prostitute she's mentioned in the hall of faith it gets better James chapter 2 verse 25 says likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way in this she stands with Abraham Abraham the the the father of the nation of Israel it's not that way by design I mean being saved is what God requires okay that second people group being a disciple is what God desires that's what he desires from your life I don't want anybody in here just being in that second group I want you to move from the first group to the second don't get me wrong if you're lost I want you to get saved that's and that's where it starts you asking for the Lord to forgive you of your sins that's where it starts but if you think I'm going to be content with you living there I'm sorry I can't do it I can't do it I don't think I'm supposed to do it as a matter of fact if that's where you want to live let me clue you in I want to make you uncomfortable I love you I want you to be uncomfortable as a matter of fact let me even go you should be as comfortable as a lost person sitting in here on Sunday morning does that kind of put it in perspective I want you to be challenged you know why because here's church as usual what what percentage of groups now this is a this is an evangelical church this is hopefully an evangelical church this is not research studied this is just some guesstimate let's say in the average evangelical church there's say less than 10 lost people this is a really good evangelical church okay there's less than 10 of lost people sitting in the church on Sunday morning that might be low might be high in some churches how many people in there are discipled who are really serving the Lord in most evangelical churches well I'm going to be gracious because most people say from three to five percent of the people that go to a church actually serve in that body three to five percent let's be gracious let's say less than 10 there is a big problem there you know why look who's in the middle greater than 80 percent of the people aren't serving God oh they're born again if they died they'd go to heaven but just barely they kind of shoot in as the door was shut I'm here just barely made it praise the God where do I live that cardboard box right over there it's it's based on our rewards now that should do something to you looking at those percentages where are you in these percentages now granted this is this is normal I don't want normal if this was just going to be normal church why do it there's hundreds of churches in Cartersville there's 2400 plus churches in the tribe why why do another one is if this is what we're doing why do it you shouldn't I don't want to do that I hope you don't want to do that how do you make the transition how do you go from lost to save to disciple now it's real apparent how you go from lost to safe and I think that we we do that well here I think we present the gospel I think you guys do an awesome job of inviting people we can always invite more I think you do an awesome job of greeting people the church is cleaned and and the sound system is nice and this and that and the other and you see every Sunday morning fruit that this is happening but you know what we can't just stop there I'll go okay well that's happening let's let's just hit cruise no no you've got to be moving from saved to disciple that's got to be happening now let's break it down a little bit more what are some of the things that get in the way of you going from being saved to disciple well I mentioned four things that I think everybody in this fellowship needs to be doing I talked about come give serve and pray now I know that you come because you're here you're here on a Thursday night that that to me suggests something strongly because you've taken time out of your weeknight to be here and obviously there's less people here tonight than we'll be here on Sunday morning what about giving oh boy God has been dealing with me about this and I attended a conference I spoke of at Sunday attended a conference down in Fort Lauderdale and I don't know if you've ever had this experience but you ever had the experience where somebody's up teaching the word of God and all of a sudden you feel like there's only two people in the room it's just you and the pastor you know it's like that tunnel vision thing they do and the movies you know and it's just you and him and he's sitting he's talking as a matter of fact he's staring at you he's looking right at you he said he read my mail because he said you know what he said there's probably some pastors in here that stay away from talking about that we should give as disciples simply because you don't want to offend somebody and that's wrong see because people have to know people have to be taught that they're supposed to give and it gets in the way now if you doubt this why did Jesus talk about it in over 2200 verses in the new testament about how we're supposed to handle our finances what was that just like filler material he ran out of stuff to say and all oh do that financial thing again no what was he trying to raise money for the ministry no obviously he didn't need to do that you know i mean one time when he needed money hey go down there get a fish there's a coin in his mouth i mean that wasn't it he was discipling them and i and i think most of us understand that i believe that you should give 10 now if if and this is guys this is not a case of well you know do as i say no don't do as i do so let me i'll be honest i'm not bragging i'll be i i give a minimum of 10 back to the church now if anybody here has an excuse i could probably play a good one i don't the number suggests a third of the church doesn't give at all a third of the church gives nominally and less than a third and less than a third tithe average is like 17 that's reality so you know what that says to me as a teacher i can't avoid this guys i cannot avoid this because what happens what happens when you get to heaven and you get there and you go well you know uh we we never talked about money in our church very much he never told me about that little tide thing i didn't really hear about that much so i gave two percent and felt good about it and and peter's gonna go who was your pastor do you see him well yeah he's uh i think that's him hiding behind jonah over there why didn't you tell us i didn't want to offend you i'm sorry that i can't do that i can't do that what's the other thing that holds you back serving serving i have again i haven't looked at the numbers lately at one time we were running 50 and then 30 some percent of people serving that's much higher than 10 and and i'm grateful but i'm not content because it stops the process you stop it being safe you're not moving into discipleship why because disciples serve that's just simply what you do and you know what the tragic thing is now we have this church as an organism in the united states filled with people who are saved enough and they're not serving and let me go one step further if this means that people who are saved and not serving get uncomfortable and leave there's plenty of places that they can go and feel just comfortable but this is not going to be one of them it's not going to be one i i owe you guys more than that so the natural progression should be okay i'm here and i want to serve praise god let me tell you some of the things i hear maybe you're sitting in here and you've been serving you going we go praise god i'm already on the calendar oh hallelujah now wait a minute you're not getting away unscathed you know why jesus chose 12 i'm going to challenge you if you serve here ask other people are you serving no why not and see what they say well because i don't agree with everything that goes on here well you know if the disagreements are deep enough then why fellowship here i mean if you don't agree with what we're doing find a place where you can say i agree with this and i can serve i know these are bold statements well i do you know i don't you know every classic well god knows my heart and but i don't want to fill out that form what you you fill out a form to get a phone you fill out a form to live somewhere you fill out a form to buy a car you fill out a form to do all these things but the fact that we want your name and address for accountability purposes is going to freak you out come on guys that's that's lame well i don't know i don't want to read them books it's in books why are you having us read them books those books have blessed my life tremendously they are filled with scripture and and amos says that if we how can two walk together unless we agree so wouldn't it make sense to figure out a little about what we believe as we serve together and again these books are are filled with scripture well i don't understand why i have to do any of that in order to serve well if you don't understand it do me this favor understand your pastor's asking that of you and whether you disagree or agree with it it doesn't really matter because the word is very clear that if if i am your pastor and i'm asking you to do something that's within reason that you should do it and if you don't let me kindly well there's no kind way to say this it's rebellion i've prayed over this guys i've sought the counsel of many godly men the leaders have prayed over this this is what we feel like we're supposed to be doing and i've not had one person ever come up to me and go you know what that was the dumbest book i have ever read in my whole life i didn't get a single thing out of any of that but you know what i have had person after person after person after person come up and go you know what that book was such a blessing man that book changed my life it changed my heart i can't you know i i had no idea that book ministered to me so much which to me suggests that we're on the right track because here's the thing you know these things if you've been here for very long you know these things so what do you do is it going to be like second kings 1733 it says they feared the lord yet served their own gods oh yeah i fear the lord i believe it's just not going to change my actions according to the rituals of nations from among whom they were carried away or judges 17 6 and those days there was no king in israel everyone did what was right in his own eyes that does not describe the kingdom of god it does not describe the body of christ it shouldn't and it won't here i understand that some people are going to hear this they're going to be offended they're going to say well that's it final straw well praise god if you feel like that in love man there's plenty of places where you'll be comfortable but here's not one of them there's people getting saved all the time here there's people coming to know the lord i never want them to think that they can stop in that second one and not travel to that third one i don't want this church to be filled with people who are saved but not disciples because then what happens is new believers get the mistaken notion that that is where god desires them to be i don't want people thinking that i don't want new believers thinking that the stakes are too high those verses that we just read they they don't represent a christian or a disciple rehab was mentioned with sarah she was mentioned with abraham well guys are something even deeper the genealogies always have something in them it takes you a while to see them it may be years before you see them but there's always something and all that begotten when you're early christian you're like my gosh there's three pages this i'm just gonna skip it there's always something in there in every genealogy let me assure you there's something in there i'm not saying you stop as a young or new believer and really study it because it might take days it might take years but there's always something in there and there's something in matthew chapter 1 verse 2 says abraham begot isaac isaac begot jacob jacob begot judah and his brothers judah and his brothers judah begot perez and xerod by tamar tamar is the one that played the harlot in the book of genesis perez begot hezron hezron begot ram ram begot amenabab amenadab begot nayshon and nayshon begot simon simon begot boaz by Rahab what simon begot boaz by Rahab boaz is in the book of ruth boaz begot obed by ruth obed begot jesse and jesse begot david the king Rahab ended up to be the great great grandmother of king david oh but it gets even better because what we're reading is the genealogy of jesus christ if that doesn't fire you up about the grace of god that he took not only a pagan gentile but he took a harlot and she became a disciple a follower people who were filled with religious pride were always challenged by jesus but those who needed mercy and forgiveness always found it that's what we need to be here guys i know i know and love you've been challenged tonight everybody in here and and believe me i probably above all people have been challenged as i put this study together because there were things in here that they'd have been easier for me not to say i love you too much i want to see you become a disciple friend do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven you can know right now i want to lead you in a short simple prayer simply telling god you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him now god wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you please pray this prayer with me out loud right now dear jesus i believe you died for me that i could be forgiven and i believe you were raised from the dead that i could have a new life and i've done wrong things i have sinned and i'm sorry please forgive me of all those things please give me the power to live for you all of my days in jesus name amen friend if you prayed that prayer according to the bible you've been forgiven you've been born again so congratulations friend you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make god bless you if you prayed that prayer with david for the first time we'd love to hear from you you can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with christ modern life just keeps getting busier and busier by the day as a result a lot of christians are missing out on the life-giving nourishment of daily time in god's word that's why pastor david mcgee wants to help revitalize your spiritual health by sending you his video message titled a checkup from the neck up this resource shows you how to meditate daily on god's word so that his truth can transform your life a checkup from the neck up is our way to thank you for your gift this month to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life so please visit cross the bridge.com now to get your copy of a check up from the neck up you know each day comes with its share of stresses so what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the lord visit cross the bridge.com and sign up now for david mcgee's email devotionals each devotion includes scripture and a message from the heart of david mcgee it's easy and it's free sign up today at cross the bridge.com and be sure to join us next time on cross the bridge as we continue in the book of joshua we'll see you then