Walls of Jericho

Speaker: 00:00:02

- Well, good morning, Springhouse.

Speaker: 00:00:08

Are you glad to be here this morning?

Speaker: 00:00:10

Has God been good to you this week?

Speaker: 00:00:13

Amen.

Speaker: 00:00:14

Well, be sure to tell somebody about that today.

Speaker: 00:00:17

We always want to be in a position to share

Speaker: 00:00:19

about God's goodness and glory in our lives,

Speaker: 00:00:22

so be sure to share with somebody what God has done.

Speaker: 00:00:25

If you're joining us on live stream,

Speaker: 00:00:26

thank you for joining us this morning.

Speaker: 00:00:29

Just a few things for this morning.

Speaker: 00:00:30

I know you're coming and bringing your dollar

Speaker: 00:00:32

for those who are in need.

Speaker: 00:00:35

I have a couple of announcements for us.

Speaker: 00:00:37

First of all, on Tuesday morning,

Speaker: 00:00:42

we will be doing something called

Speaker: 00:00:44

the Business Collective here at Springhouse.

Speaker: 00:00:47

Josh McLeod and Justin Beshears lead that,

Speaker: 00:00:50

and if you are a business owner, entrepreneur,

Speaker: 00:00:53

aspiring manager, anything of that sort

Speaker: 00:00:56

and in those positions, I encourage you to come

Speaker: 00:01:00

and be a part of this fellowship

Speaker: 00:01:02

and this teaching opportunities, Time of Connection.

Speaker: 00:01:04

Nine o'clock here at Springhouse,

Speaker: 00:01:07

we'll feed you breakfast,

Speaker: 00:01:08

be a great teaching time for connection.

Speaker: 00:01:10

That's on Tuesday morning.

Speaker: 00:01:13

And then Easter Sunday is right there, it's coming,

Speaker: 00:01:17

and we've got a change here at Springhouse,

Speaker: 00:01:21

and it is that our time of service for this gathering

Speaker: 00:01:24

is going to change and it will be starting at 11 a.m.

Speaker: 00:01:28

beginning on Easter Sunday.

Speaker: 00:01:30

And that will carry forward on into the future.

Speaker: 00:01:32

So if you come at 1030 on Easter Sunday or afterward,

Speaker: 00:01:37

you will know what it is to be on time to church.

Speaker: 00:01:41

And so we encourage you to fellowship

Speaker: 00:01:43

and share the blessings of God in that.

Speaker: 00:01:47

And we'll welcome you, but we do have a time change,

Speaker: 00:01:49

so be aware of that.

Speaker: 00:01:51

The service will end at 1230 beginning on Easter Sunday

Speaker: 00:01:55

as well.

Speaker: 00:01:55

And then lastly, we have some newcomers.

Speaker: 00:01:59

And Shari and I were talking, actually last night,

Speaker: 00:02:01

she was saying, somebody in the church was saying,

Speaker: 00:02:04

what is this deal with this app thing

Speaker: 00:02:06

and how do you sign up for it?

Speaker: 00:02:07

And you may have some similar questions

Speaker: 00:02:09

if you're new or new word to the church,

Speaker: 00:02:12

and we just wanna meet you, we wanna love on you,

Speaker: 00:02:14

we wanna invite you to be a part of our family.

Speaker: 00:02:17

And so if you've never attended

Speaker: 00:02:19

one of our newcomer luncheons, I invite you to come.

Speaker: 00:02:23

There's a QR code there,

Speaker: 00:02:24

and the reason we want you to do that,

Speaker: 00:02:25

it's actually gonna show you how to sign up

Speaker: 00:02:27

for the app I was just talking about.

Speaker: 00:02:29

But if you scan that,

Speaker: 00:02:30

we'll be able to get you registered for lunch

Speaker: 00:02:32

so that we have enough food for you.

Speaker: 00:02:33

We wanna make sure we have enough food

Speaker: 00:02:34

for everybody who comes.

Speaker: 00:02:35

And the pastoral team will be there,

Speaker: 00:02:37

some of our ministry leaders will be there.

Speaker: 00:02:39

And we wanna share with you our heart

Speaker: 00:02:41

about the ministry here at Springhouse.

Speaker: 00:02:43

We wanna invite you to be a part of an imperfect family.

Speaker: 00:02:46

Is that true, Springhouse family?

Speaker: 00:02:47

Imperfect family who serves a perfect God,

Speaker: 00:02:50

who serves a perfect sovereign God.

Speaker: 00:02:52

And so we want to invite you to be a part of that.

Speaker: 00:02:54

We'll be on May 4th, okay, so it'll be May 4th.

Speaker: 00:02:57

So anybody you're bringing,

Speaker: 00:02:58

maybe visitors in the next few weeks,

Speaker: 00:03:00

I wanna give them opportunity to come as well.

Speaker: 00:03:03

Are you guys ready to get into the Word today?

Speaker: 00:03:06

I've heard this, and I'm so thrilled

Speaker: 00:03:08

to hear it a second time.

Speaker: 00:03:09

It's a good word.

Speaker: 00:03:10

Would you guys welcome Pastor Ronnie

Speaker: 00:03:11

as he continues the greatest stories ever told?

Speaker: 00:03:14

(congregation applauding)

Speaker: 00:03:17

(gentle music)

Speaker: 00:03:20

- Yeah, May the 4th be with you.

Speaker: 00:03:23

You already knew that, right?

Speaker: 00:03:27

Okay, I just gotta say this

Speaker: 00:03:31

because I just have to say it doesn't mean anything

Speaker: 00:03:33

or have anything to do with anything.

Speaker: 00:03:35

But yeah, I'm aware that my t-shirt's a little long

Speaker: 00:03:39

and all that stuff and it maybe not look cool.

Speaker: 00:03:42

I have given up.

Speaker: 00:03:44

(congregation laughing and applauding)

Speaker: 00:03:49

And some of you need to give up.

Speaker: 00:03:52

Just saying, yeah, you know who you are.

Speaker: 00:03:58

Okay, we're gonna talk about Jericho this morning,

Speaker: 00:04:03

but we're not gonna talk about the battle.

Speaker: 00:04:06

We're not gonna talk about the walls and all that stuff.

Speaker: 00:04:11

You probably already know about the battle.

Speaker: 00:04:14

You know about the walls.

Speaker: 00:04:15

If you don't, I can encapsulate it for you in 15 seconds.

Speaker: 00:04:19

♪ Joshua fed the battle of Jericho ♪

Speaker: 00:04:21

♪ Jericho, Jericho ♪

Speaker: 00:04:23

♪ And the walls coming tumbling down ♪

Speaker: 00:04:26

That's it.

Speaker: 00:04:26

So you know that now, but we're gonna talk about three.

Speaker: 00:04:30

We're gonna talk about three incidents

Speaker: 00:04:34

connected to the battle.

Speaker: 00:04:35

Two of them happened before.

Speaker: 00:04:38

One of them happened after.

Speaker: 00:04:41

And we're gonna start with an encounter between two spies.

Speaker: 00:04:46

Joshua sent two spies into Jericho and a woman.

Speaker: 00:04:51

And we're gonna read a passage of scripture

Speaker: 00:04:53

about what the woman said to the spies.

Speaker: 00:04:55

So would you stand with me?

Speaker: 00:04:56

And don't complain or I'll make you stand more.

Speaker: 00:05:01

Before the spies lay down for the night,

Speaker: 00:05:07

she went up on the roof and said to them,

Speaker: 00:05:10

"I know that the Lord has given you this land

Speaker: 00:05:14

"and that a great fear of you has fallen on us

Speaker: 00:05:18

"so that all who live in this country

Speaker: 00:05:21

"are melting in fear because of you.

Speaker: 00:05:25

"We have heard how the Lord dried up the water

Speaker: 00:05:28

"of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt

Speaker: 00:05:32

"and what you did to Shihon and Og,

Speaker: 00:05:36

"the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan,

Speaker: 00:05:40

"whom you completely destroyed.

Speaker: 00:05:43

"When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear

Speaker: 00:05:47

"and everyone's courage failed because of you.

Speaker: 00:05:51

"For the Lord your God is God in heaven above

Speaker: 00:05:55

"and on the earth below."

Speaker: 00:05:57

Father, I thank you for your word.

Speaker: 00:05:59

I thank you for the life that is in your word.

Speaker: 00:06:02

And I pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit to be here

Speaker: 00:06:07

so that that life may be ministered to us in Jesus' name.

Speaker: 00:06:11

Amen.

Speaker: 00:06:13

You may be seated.

Speaker: 00:06:14

Joshua sent two spies into Jericho,

Speaker: 00:06:19

but their cover was blown.

Speaker: 00:06:20

And the officials of Jericho came to understand,

Speaker: 00:06:26

"Hey, these guys are spies.

Speaker: 00:06:28

"We need to go get them.

Speaker: 00:06:31

"We need to do something about that."

Speaker: 00:06:32

And they knew that they had been staying

Speaker: 00:06:34

with this woman, Rahab.

Speaker: 00:06:38

And so they go to Rahab and they say,

Speaker: 00:06:44

"You know those two guys who have been staying with you?

Speaker: 00:06:47

"They're spies and we need to get them.

Speaker: 00:06:50

"They're from the Israelites."

Speaker: 00:06:52

And Rahab goes, boom.

Speaker: 00:06:54

She didn't have a microphone on.

Speaker: 00:06:57

Rahab goes, "Oh no, I had no idea that they were spies.

Speaker: 00:07:02

"Oh my goodness."

Speaker: 00:07:03

She had hid them up on the roof

Speaker: 00:07:05

and she covered them over with some flax, flax.

Speaker: 00:07:10

And she said, "Now you just missed them.

Speaker: 00:07:13

"They're headed for the Jordan.

Speaker: 00:07:14

"I bet if you leave right now, you can go and get them."

Speaker: 00:07:18

And so they hurried off, they scurried off.

Speaker: 00:07:22

And Rahab protected the spies and she made a deal with them.

Speaker: 00:07:28

She said, "I'm gonna cover for you guys

Speaker: 00:07:32

"and I'm gonna help you get away.

Speaker: 00:07:34

"But when you come and you take this city,

Speaker: 00:07:38

"I want you to save my family.

Speaker: 00:07:39

"I want you to spare my family and me."

Speaker: 00:07:42

So they said, "Deal, we're in on that."

Speaker: 00:07:45

Rahab was a prostitute

Speaker: 00:07:50

and there's just no way of getting around it.

Speaker: 00:07:54

She was, the New Testament tells us that twice.

Speaker: 00:07:57

The Old Testament tells us that.

Speaker: 00:07:58

She was a prostitute.

Speaker: 00:08:01

And what she did was betray her country.

Speaker: 00:08:05

What she did was she committed treason.

Speaker: 00:08:10

We're gonna learn two things from this,

Speaker: 00:08:13

this encounter that she had.

Speaker: 00:08:15

Back in 1976, there was a book came out

Speaker: 00:08:19

called "Daughter of Destiny."

Speaker: 00:08:21

It was about a woman named Catherine Kuhlman.

Speaker: 00:08:23

And Catherine Kuhlman was a faith healer,

Speaker: 00:08:27

a very prominent faith healer in the mid 20th century.

Speaker: 00:08:31

And boy, does it sound weird to say that.

Speaker: 00:08:33

But in the mid 20th century.

Speaker: 00:08:36

And when that book came out,

Speaker: 00:08:38

I had just come back to the Lord the year before

Speaker: 00:08:43

and I was interested in getting a copy of it.

Speaker: 00:08:46

And so I went down to Conneal Bookstore in Nashville

Speaker: 00:08:50

and a guy who was running it was a guy named Bob Huey.

Speaker: 00:08:53

And Huey was a character himself.

Speaker: 00:08:55

But Huey saw that I had that book and he came up to me

Speaker: 00:08:58

and he said, "Do you know what I learned from that book?"

Speaker: 00:09:03

And I said, "No, Bob, what did you learn?"

Speaker: 00:09:06

She said, "I learned that God uses cracked pots."

Speaker: 00:09:10

(congregation laughing)

Speaker: 00:09:14

And that stuck with me.

Speaker: 00:09:15

I mean, it stuck with me.

Speaker: 00:09:18

I thought, that's pretty.

Speaker: 00:09:20

And you know, and I read the book

Speaker: 00:09:21

and Catherine Kuhlman was a cracked pot.

Speaker: 00:09:24

(congregation laughing)

Speaker: 00:09:25

For sure.

Speaker: 00:09:27

But God used her.

Speaker: 00:09:28

I'm a cracked pot.

Speaker: 00:09:31

I come from a long line of cracked pots.

Speaker: 00:09:35

And so do you.

Speaker: 00:09:37

And some of those cracked pots have been very prominent

Speaker: 00:09:41

and very famous.

Speaker: 00:09:43

Simon Peter, Jonah, King David, Moses, Abraham.

Speaker: 00:09:52

In fact, you can't name a person who isn't a cracked pot.

Speaker: 00:09:56

And God uses them.

Speaker: 00:10:00

And Rahab was a prostitute.

Speaker: 00:10:03

Now, I'm not saying it's okay to be a prostitute

Speaker: 00:10:05

and it doesn't matter what you do.

Speaker: 00:10:07

What I am saying is that regardless of your past

Speaker: 00:10:11

and even in spite of your present, God can use you.

Speaker: 00:10:16

He absolutely can.

Speaker: 00:10:20

When I first came to the church back in '88,

Speaker: 00:10:24

there was a, I was gonna say an elderly couple.

Speaker: 00:10:29

They probably were younger than I am now.

Speaker: 00:10:33

But there was an older couple in the church,

Speaker: 00:10:36

real sweet couple, faithful in attendance

Speaker: 00:10:40

and faithful in giving.

Speaker: 00:10:42

His name was Carl.

Speaker: 00:10:44

And we had a situation where we were kind of short on ushers.

Speaker: 00:10:50

We needed some help with that.

Speaker: 00:10:52

We needed some help.

Speaker: 00:10:53

Well, back actually in those days,

Speaker: 00:10:55

all the ushers, they'd just take up the offering.

Speaker: 00:10:57

Nobody needed help finding a seat or anything

Speaker: 00:10:59

'cause there were plenty of them.

Speaker: 00:11:02

But I went to Carl one day and I said,

Speaker: 00:11:06

"Carl, would you be willing to help us

Speaker: 00:11:11

take up the offering?"

Speaker: 00:11:12

Oh no, brother Ronnie, I can't do that.

Speaker: 00:11:16

See, I've been divorced.

Speaker: 00:11:17

(congregation laughing)

Speaker: 00:11:20

And that ticked me off.

Speaker: 00:11:22

But not at Carl, not at Carl at all.

Speaker: 00:11:28

I'm totally good with Carl at the devil.

Speaker: 00:11:32

Because one of the enemy's greatest lies

Speaker: 00:11:37

is that you can't do anything because you're unclean,

Speaker: 00:11:42

you're unworthy.

Speaker: 00:11:43

And you know, the most potent lies are the ones

Speaker: 00:11:47

that are seasoned with a little bit of truth.

Speaker: 00:11:49

And the truth is you are unclean.

Speaker: 00:11:52

You are unworthy.

Speaker: 00:11:54

The lie is God can't use you because of that.

Speaker: 00:11:58

That's the lie.

Speaker: 00:12:01

And so God uses this prostitute to take care

Speaker: 00:12:07

of these Jewish spies who've come to Jericho

Speaker: 00:12:12

before they enter the Promised Land.

Speaker: 00:12:14

Now, why did she do this?

Speaker: 00:12:16

Why did she betray her nation?

Speaker: 00:12:19

Why was she treasonous?

Speaker: 00:12:24

Benedict Arnold, if you will.

Speaker: 00:12:26

Does anybody know who Benedict Arnold is anymore?

Speaker: 00:12:29

You know, actually, well, I'm not gonna get into that.

Speaker: 00:12:34

(congregation laughing)

Speaker: 00:12:37

No, no.

Speaker: 00:12:38

The reason why she did it can be summed up in one word,

Speaker: 00:12:45

faith.

Speaker: 00:12:46

Faith.

Speaker: 00:12:49

Twice in the New Testament, Rahab is noted as an example,

Speaker: 00:12:54

along with Abraham, a pretty heavy hitter there.

Speaker: 00:12:59

Abraham, Rahab, twice they're noted

Speaker: 00:13:02

as being a person of real faith.

Speaker: 00:13:05

One of the places is over in James 2, verse 25.

Speaker: 00:13:11

"In the same way was not even Rahab the prostitute

Speaker: 00:13:15

considered righteous for what she did

Speaker: 00:13:18

when she gave lodging to the spies

Speaker: 00:13:20

and sent them off in a different direction."

Speaker: 00:13:22

Yeah.

Speaker: 00:13:24

Well, let's read the next one first.

Speaker: 00:13:32

Hebrews 11, 31.

Speaker: 00:13:33

"By faith, the prostitute Rahab,

Speaker: 00:13:37

because she welcomed the spies,

Speaker: 00:13:39

was not killed with those who were disobedient."

Speaker: 00:13:42

Now, how do we know it was by faith?

Speaker: 00:13:44

How do we know that's why she did that?

Speaker: 00:13:45

I mean, for most of us,

Speaker: 00:13:48

see if you track with this, see if this makes sense.

Speaker: 00:13:51

For most of us, hey, I know you guys are gonna win.

Speaker: 00:13:55

I know you guys are gonna come

Speaker: 00:13:57

and you're gonna take over the city

Speaker: 00:13:58

and you're gonna destroy everything.

Speaker: 00:14:00

So I wanna be on your side.

Speaker: 00:14:01

That's probably how most of us would think,

Speaker: 00:14:08

but that's not how she thought.

Speaker: 00:14:11

Remember what we read and how she stated

Speaker: 00:14:16

what they all knew, what everybody in the city knew,

Speaker: 00:14:22

but apparently not everyone drew the same conclusion

Speaker: 00:14:25

that she drew.

Speaker: 00:14:26

You see, they say knowledge is power and knowledge is power,

Speaker: 00:14:29

but if you don't have wisdom, knowledge, dynamite's power,

Speaker: 00:14:33

but it can kill you.

Speaker: 00:14:34

It can blow your fingers off.

Speaker: 00:14:40

They all knew something,

Speaker: 00:14:42

but she drew a different conclusion

Speaker: 00:14:44

than everyone else was drawing.

Speaker: 00:14:46

What the conclusion she drew was,

Speaker: 00:14:49

the Lord your God is God in heaven above

Speaker: 00:14:53

and on the earth below.

Speaker: 00:14:55

And so I wanna be with Him.

Speaker: 00:14:58

I believe, and that's why she was doing this.

Speaker: 00:15:03

Everyone in Jericho had the same information

Speaker: 00:15:06

and they were scared.

Speaker: 00:15:09

They were afraid, but when Rahab heard it,

Speaker: 00:15:14

she believed and by believing she knew

Speaker: 00:15:19

the Lord your God is God,

Speaker: 00:15:21

heaven above and on the earth below.

Speaker: 00:15:25

And because of her faith, she didn't just wear the t-shirt,

Speaker: 00:15:29

she didn't just have the bumper sticker,

Speaker: 00:15:31

she didn't just learn the language, talk the lingo.

Speaker: 00:15:37

She put her faith into action.

Speaker: 00:15:41

And James describes it as the kind of action

Speaker: 00:15:46

that proves your faith.

Speaker: 00:15:48

He says, faith without that kind of action is dead.

Speaker: 00:15:53

Faith without that kind of action is just words.

Speaker: 00:15:55

It was about faith then, as it is always about faith now

Speaker: 00:16:02

and always will be about faith until faith becomes sight.

Speaker: 00:16:07

So two things that we learned.

Speaker: 00:16:10

God uses cracked pots and it's about faith.

Speaker: 00:16:15

Next incident that happened and y'all been so good,

Speaker: 00:16:20

I'm not gonna make you stand up,

Speaker: 00:16:21

but I'm thinking about it.

Speaker: 00:16:25

But you can sit there and let's read it anyway.

Speaker: 00:16:30

And then this, while Joshua was there near Jericho,

Speaker: 00:16:35

he looked up and saw right in front of him,

Speaker: 00:16:38

a man standing, holding his drawn sword.

Speaker: 00:16:42

Joshua stepped up to him and said,

Speaker: 00:16:45

"Whose side are you on?

Speaker: 00:16:47

"Ours are our enemies."

Speaker: 00:16:50

He said, "Neither, I'm commander of God's army.

Speaker: 00:16:54

"I've just arrived."

Speaker: 00:16:56

Joshua fell face down to the ground and worshiped.

Speaker: 00:17:01

He asked, "What orders does my master have for his servant?

Speaker: 00:17:06

"God's army commander ordered Joshua,

Speaker: 00:17:10

"take your sandals off your feet.

Speaker: 00:17:12

"The place you are standing is holy."

Speaker: 00:17:15

Joshua did it.

Speaker: 00:17:17

I chose the message intentionally for this

Speaker: 00:17:23

because it's clearer actually, I think,

Speaker: 00:17:26

than the other translations.

Speaker: 00:17:28

Because all the other translations

Speaker: 00:17:30

basically have Joshua coming up and going,

Speaker: 00:17:32

"Are you for us or are you for our enemies?"

Speaker: 00:17:36

Now, if he had just stopped with the first question,

Speaker: 00:17:39

that'd been okay.

Speaker: 00:17:40

But when he added the second question,

Speaker: 00:17:42

what he's really saying is, "Whose side are you on?

Speaker: 00:17:45

"You on our side, you on their side."

Speaker: 00:17:49

"Neither, I've come to take charge."

Speaker: 00:17:58

We have, and I would say especially in this country,

Speaker: 00:18:01

but I think a lot of people have,

Speaker: 00:18:03

maybe in all large countries in particular,

Speaker: 00:18:06

we have a whose side are you on mentality.

Speaker: 00:18:09

And we're especially, at this point in our nation's history,

Speaker: 00:18:14

we're swimming in a whose side are you on culture.

Speaker: 00:18:19

That's what we're doing.

Speaker: 00:18:25

And it is about as far off the mark as you could possibly be.

Speaker: 00:18:30

I know no one remembers this 'cause I didn't remember it

Speaker: 00:18:33

until I looked back at the last time that I taught.

Speaker: 00:18:38

And at that time I said,

Speaker: 00:18:40

"The wrong question can be worse than the wrong answer."

Speaker: 00:18:43

Because the wrong answer could be fixed

Speaker: 00:18:48

with the right answer.

Speaker: 00:18:49

But the wrong question just keeps festering,

Speaker: 00:18:52

just keeps going and going and going.

Speaker: 00:18:54

And let me tell you whose side are you on

Speaker: 00:18:56

is the wrong question.

Speaker: 00:18:58

I'm gonna put something up here.

Speaker: 00:19:03

And some of you are already there and that's great.

Speaker: 00:19:05

And some of you got there before I got there

Speaker: 00:19:07

and that's terrific.

Speaker: 00:19:09

But some of you are hopefully gonna be offended by it

Speaker: 00:19:13

or at least taken aback and if so, good.

Speaker: 00:19:18

God is not on your side.

Speaker: 00:19:24

He's not, no, no, no, he's not.

Speaker: 00:19:28

He's not on your side.

Speaker: 00:19:29

You see, because if he were on your side,

Speaker: 00:19:32

then there'd be times that he could not be on my side

Speaker: 00:19:35

and I wouldn't like that.

Speaker: 00:19:37

And if he's always on my side,

Speaker: 00:19:41

there're gonna be times that he's not gonna be on your side.

Speaker: 00:19:44

And you probably aren't gonna like that either.

Speaker: 00:19:48

Well, why can't he be on everyone's side?

Speaker: 00:19:52

Have you ever seen "Bruce Almighty"?

Speaker: 00:19:54

(congregation laughing)

Speaker: 00:19:57

Well, if you hadn't, you should.

Speaker: 00:20:00

'Cause it's a good movie and I love the scene

Speaker: 00:20:07

where he decides that he's finally just gonna say yes

Speaker: 00:20:11

to everybody.

Speaker: 00:20:12

I'm gonna say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker: 00:20:15

And you're gonna say everybody gets a yes.

Speaker: 00:20:18

And then they have this lottery

Speaker: 00:20:21

and there's over $6 million to be won,

Speaker: 00:20:25

but 400,000 people win it and they get $17 each.

Speaker: 00:20:30

And they don't like the lottery anymore.

Speaker: 00:20:35

I don't know what does a lottery ticket cost.

Speaker: 00:20:37

It's gotta cost more than they're giving away.

Speaker: 00:20:40

But anyway, yeah.

Speaker: 00:20:47

He is not on your side, but he is for you.

Speaker: 00:20:51

And the difference is vast.

Speaker: 00:20:54

They couldn't be, he couldn't be any vaster.

Speaker: 00:20:59

You may go, well, he's gotta be on our side.

Speaker: 00:21:07

Maybe not my side, but he's on our side.

Speaker: 00:21:10

Look at how successful we are.

Speaker: 00:21:12

Look at how powerful.

Speaker: 00:21:13

Look at how wealthy we are.

Speaker: 00:21:18

So we got a lot of stuff, huh?

Speaker: 00:21:20

Have you never read Psalm 73 where the Psalmist says,

Speaker: 00:21:28

"When I saw the prosperity of the wicked,

Speaker: 00:21:32

"I almost stumbled."

Speaker: 00:21:34

We're not wicked.

Speaker: 00:21:35

That's another sermon.

Speaker: 00:21:39

We're not going there today.

Speaker: 00:21:43

But when I saw prosperity on the people

Speaker: 00:21:47

that I didn't think should have it,

Speaker: 00:21:49

I almost stumbled until I went to the house of the Lord.

Speaker: 00:21:55

I got to the house of the Lord

Speaker: 00:21:58

and I considered what their end would be.

Speaker: 00:22:01

Have you never read where Jesus said,

Speaker: 00:22:06

time is coming, a day is coming

Speaker: 00:22:08

when the first shall be last.

Speaker: 00:22:12

The last shall be first.

Speaker: 00:22:14

And he seemed pretty happy about it,

Speaker: 00:22:16

the fact that that time was coming.

Speaker: 00:22:19

So you can't look at the stuff,

Speaker: 00:22:22

you can't look at the influence,

Speaker: 00:22:23

you can't look at the prosperity and go,

Speaker: 00:22:25

well, he's on our side.

Speaker: 00:22:28

Well, he must be on our side because we're for Israel.

Speaker: 00:22:32

Now, some of you are gonna be real upset with me about this,

Speaker: 00:22:34

but I just need to say,

Speaker: 00:22:37

there have been many who were on Israel's side,

Speaker: 00:22:42

but not on God's side and didn't find the favor of God.

Speaker: 00:22:48

So well, for example, well, the kings of Israel.

Speaker: 00:22:54

The Northern Kingdom had 19 kings.

Speaker: 00:23:03

One of them could possibly be have been considered

Speaker: 00:23:07

a godly king.

Speaker: 00:23:08

The Southern Kingdom, Judah, the house of David,

Speaker: 00:23:13

they had 23 kings.

Speaker: 00:23:15

10 of them, you know, would be in the God column.

Speaker: 00:23:21

Now they kind of jumped back and forth,

Speaker: 00:23:22

but they'd be in the God columns.

Speaker: 00:23:30

So that's 42 kings and 11 of them.

Speaker: 00:23:32

I don't know, you do the math.

Speaker: 00:23:35

So just because I'm on Israel's side

Speaker: 00:23:42

doesn't necessarily mean I'm in favor of God.

Speaker: 00:23:45

It's not that simple.

Speaker: 00:23:49

Well, he must be on our side because scripture says,

Speaker: 00:23:53

if God is on our side, then who can be against us?

Speaker: 00:24:00

Y'all gonna let me get away with that.

Speaker: 00:24:02

Come on.

Speaker: 00:24:05

No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker: 00:24:06

It does not say that.

Speaker: 00:24:09

It says, if God is for us, who can be against us?

Speaker: 00:24:14

And I know that he is for us.

Speaker: 00:24:18

I know that he's for you because Romans 8, 28 says,

Speaker: 00:24:21

and we know that in all things, God works for the good

Speaker: 00:24:24

of those who love him, who've been called

Speaker: 00:24:26

according to his purpose.

Speaker: 00:24:28

Oh, pastor, I don't know if I'm called or not.

Speaker: 00:24:30

You know, you're called.

Speaker: 00:24:32

You're staying, I mean, you're retired, but you're up there.

Speaker: 00:24:34

You had a calling.

Speaker: 00:24:36

Pastor Kevin's called.

Speaker: 00:24:40

My kid's Sunday school teacher, they're called.

Speaker: 00:24:41

I don't know if I'm called.

Speaker: 00:24:43

Are you saved?

Speaker: 00:24:44

Because if you belong to Jesus,

Speaker: 00:24:48

if you have become a follower of Christ, you've been called.

Speaker: 00:24:53

You have been called to be conformed

Speaker: 00:24:56

to the image of his son, which is, that's a calling now.

Speaker: 00:25:01

That is a heavy duty calling.

Speaker: 00:25:04

He cannot work for our good and always be on our side.

Speaker: 00:25:11

He just simply can't.

Speaker: 00:25:14

Have you ever wanted something and you got it,

Speaker: 00:25:18

and then you go, uh-oh.

Speaker: 00:25:25

Okay, yeah, I mean, I'm asking,

Speaker: 00:25:27

I'm gonna pretend that y'all are,

Speaker: 00:25:30

that you're sitting there considering every word

Speaker: 00:25:33

that is being said.

Speaker: 00:25:35

Have you ever wanted something and then you got it

Speaker: 00:25:38

and you had to go, uh-oh.

Speaker: 00:25:40

This wasn't what I was bargaining for.

Speaker: 00:25:43

When I was in the fourth grade,

Speaker: 00:25:45

my teacher was this woman.

Speaker: 00:25:49

Her name is Margaret Meek.

Speaker: 00:25:51

She was my mother.

Speaker: 00:25:55

And some of you might think, oh, cool, man.

Speaker: 00:25:58

Yeah, your mom was your teacher.

Speaker: 00:26:00

That ain't cool.

Speaker: 00:26:03

No, not at all.

Speaker: 00:26:09

She was an excellent teacher.

Speaker: 00:26:10

Now don't get me wrong,

Speaker: 00:26:11

and a lot of people who had her in school,

Speaker: 00:26:14

a lot of people who had her in Bible classes

Speaker: 00:26:16

will tell you she was an excellent teacher.

Speaker: 00:26:18

But I wasn't too keen on it because for all the world,

Speaker: 00:26:22

it seemed that she was not on my side.

Speaker: 00:26:25

In fact, she often would bend over backwards

Speaker: 00:26:28

to make it clear that she was not on my side.

Speaker: 00:26:32

And the reason why she would do that was because in fact,

Speaker: 00:26:37

she was not on my side.

Speaker: 00:26:39

But she was for me.

Speaker: 00:26:44

She was for me more than she could possibly

Speaker: 00:26:50

have been for anyone.

Speaker: 00:26:53

'Cause I was her one and only.

Speaker: 00:26:54

I didn't have to compete with, nevermind.

Speaker: 00:26:58

She was totally for me.

Speaker: 00:27:01

And another reason why God can't always be on our side

Speaker: 00:27:06

is because we're ignorant.

Speaker: 00:27:08

We just don't know much.

Speaker: 00:27:12

A lot of people at the end of their emails,

Speaker: 00:27:18

they have a quote, they have a tag there,

Speaker: 00:27:21

mine, 2 Timothy 2 23,

Speaker: 00:27:24

"Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments

Speaker: 00:27:28

"which only produce quarrels."

Speaker: 00:27:29

After close to 40 years in the ministry,

Speaker: 00:27:34

I decided that's what I want people to know.

Speaker: 00:27:39

Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments

Speaker: 00:27:42

'cause they do, they produce quarrels

Speaker: 00:27:46

and just all kinds of mischief.

Speaker: 00:27:50

This last week, I got an email that Michael Fraser sent out

Speaker: 00:27:55

and I saw his quotes on the end of them.

Speaker: 00:27:59

And one of them was a C.S. Lewis quote, it was good.

Speaker: 00:28:01

I don't remember what it was, but it was good.

Speaker: 00:28:03

But one was a Timothy Keller quote.

Speaker: 00:28:07

And he said this,

Speaker: 00:28:08

"God will only give you what you would have asked for,

Speaker: 00:28:13

"what you would have asked for,

Speaker: 00:28:17

"if you knew everything He knows."

Speaker: 00:28:19

I'm gonna pause for consideration there

Speaker: 00:28:26

'cause that's something to consider.

Speaker: 00:28:31

Why did Joshua send the spies into Jericho?

Speaker: 00:28:36

You know, I've known this story

Speaker: 00:28:39

for probably at least 70 years.

Speaker: 00:28:43

I'm sure by the time I was five,

Speaker: 00:28:45

I knew that Joshua sent the spies in

Speaker: 00:28:48

and Rahab took them in and she helped them escape

Speaker: 00:28:53

and put the scarlet cord down out of the window.

Speaker: 00:28:58

And I've known that.

Speaker: 00:29:00

Never occurred to me till this last week

Speaker: 00:29:04

or maybe the week before.

Speaker: 00:29:08

I mean, talk about an old dog and new tricks.

Speaker: 00:29:12

You just keep reading the Bible

Speaker: 00:29:14

and God will mess with you,

Speaker: 00:29:17

no matter how old you are or how many times you've read it.

Speaker: 00:29:19

And I thought,

Speaker: 00:29:22

oh, I know why he sent the spies.

Speaker: 00:29:27

I had always kind of wondered about it a little bit

Speaker: 00:29:32

because I thought, well, Moses sent spies

Speaker: 00:29:34

and that didn't work out very well.

Speaker: 00:29:36

So, why did he send spies?

Speaker: 00:29:38

And in the natural,

Speaker: 00:29:40

I think we could all come up with the same conclusion

Speaker: 00:29:43

or all come up with the same idea.

Speaker: 00:29:45

He sent the spies in so they could scout out the enemy

Speaker: 00:29:49

and scout out the weaknesses

Speaker: 00:29:52

and formulate a plan of attack.

Speaker: 00:29:54

Sounds right.

Speaker: 00:29:55

That wasn't why he sent the spies in.

Speaker: 00:29:59

That's why he thought he sent the spies in.

Speaker: 00:30:02

The plan of attack had already been put together.

Speaker: 00:30:07

The plan of attack, in fact, Joshua,

Speaker: 00:30:09

yeah, I missed this.

Speaker: 00:30:11

I need to go back and pick it up.

Speaker: 00:30:12

When Joshua met that guy with a drawn sword,

Speaker: 00:30:15

the commander of the Lord's army,

Speaker: 00:30:16

and said, "What instructions do you have for me?"

Speaker: 00:30:21

I'm sure that's when he got the instruction.

Speaker: 00:30:24

You're gonna march around the city each day

Speaker: 00:30:28

and you're gonna do it in silence.

Speaker: 00:30:29

And on the seventh day, you'll march around seven times

Speaker: 00:30:31

and then you'll shout and that is your battle plan.

Speaker: 00:30:34

That's what you're gonna do.

Speaker: 00:30:36

But that's not the first thing he told him.

Speaker: 00:30:40

What instructions does my Lord have for me?

Speaker: 00:30:43

Take your shoes off.

Speaker: 00:30:45

This is holy ground.

Speaker: 00:30:47

And when we come to God, because when we come to God,

Speaker: 00:30:54

He hasn't come to be on your side.

Speaker: 00:30:59

He has come to take over and be in charge.

Speaker: 00:31:04

And so the first thing that He wants us to do

Speaker: 00:31:09

is not find out what the battle plan is.

Speaker: 00:31:13

The first thing He wants us to do is get our shoes off

Speaker: 00:31:16

and acknowledge where we are and who we're dealing with,

Speaker: 00:31:21

who we're really talking to.

Speaker: 00:31:24

And so, yeah, He wasn't sent.

Speaker: 00:31:27

Those spies didn't go in

Speaker: 00:31:29

so they could formulate a battle plan.

Speaker: 00:31:31

Battle plan was already done.

Speaker: 00:31:32

The spies went in so they could meet a woman

Speaker: 00:31:39

that Joshua had never, didn't know existed

Speaker: 00:31:42

on the face of the earth, had never thought about.

Speaker: 00:31:46

The spies went in so that they could meet Rahab

Speaker: 00:31:50

so that her family could be saved

Speaker: 00:31:52

and they could become a part of the lineage of the Messiah.

Speaker: 00:31:56

Who knew?

Speaker: 00:31:59

We don't know what's going on, people.

Speaker: 00:32:03

We don't know when we pull this string,

Speaker: 00:32:06

what's gonna happen in eternity.

Speaker: 00:32:08

(congregation murmuring)

Speaker: 00:32:10

If there was ever anyone whose side God was on,

Speaker: 00:32:15

it would have been His Son.

Speaker: 00:32:17

And yet it appeared for all the world that His Son had lost,

Speaker: 00:32:24

had been defeated by those who opposed Him.

Speaker: 00:32:29

But that was only because He was for you.

Speaker: 00:32:34

He's for me.

Speaker: 00:32:37

He's for Rahab.

Speaker: 00:32:39

Oh, and He was for His Son too,

Speaker: 00:32:45

because He's exalted Him to the highest place,

Speaker: 00:32:48

giving Him a name that's above every other name,

Speaker: 00:32:52

that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow

Speaker: 00:32:55

and every tongue will confess all hail King Jesus.

Speaker: 00:32:58

It's the second encounter.

Speaker: 00:33:03

Third encounter, third incident, happened after the battle.

Speaker: 00:33:08

It's a man named Achan.

Speaker: 00:33:15

And I'm just gonna scoot these shoes over here.

Speaker: 00:33:21

I might be tempted to slip back into them.

Speaker: 00:33:23

I'm gonna keep my socks on though, you're welcome.

Speaker: 00:33:26

(congregation laughing)

Speaker: 00:33:29

Sometimes victory is not good for us.

Speaker: 00:33:33

Sometimes it's not good for us.

Speaker: 00:33:36

My two grandsons who go to church here, Jack and Bo,

Speaker: 00:33:42

we're on a basketball team this year.

Speaker: 00:33:44

And City League, nine and 10 year old.

Speaker: 00:33:48

And they won every game they played,

Speaker: 00:33:53

most of them by double digits,

Speaker: 00:33:55

until they came to the championship.

Speaker: 00:34:00

And when they came to the championship,

Speaker: 00:34:02

their grandfather has some issues with the officiating.

Speaker: 00:34:09

(congregation laughing)

Speaker: 00:34:12

But that's not why they lost.

Speaker: 00:34:16

They lost because their shots just weren't falling.

Speaker: 00:34:22

And the other team was hot as a pistol.

Speaker: 00:34:24

I mean, they were really on fire.

Speaker: 00:34:27

It was still pretty close.

Speaker: 00:34:28

It was 26, 22, I think something like that.

Speaker: 00:34:31

I gotta believe they were the better team,

Speaker: 00:34:34

but you know, it just wasn't their night.

Speaker: 00:34:38

After the game, when their daddy Jeremy,

Speaker: 00:34:41

who was also the coach, got the players together,

Speaker: 00:34:44

I thought he said the most wonderful thing,

Speaker: 00:34:48

the most profound thing.

Speaker: 00:34:49

He said, "Guys, you learn a lot more from a loss

Speaker: 00:34:54

"than you'll ever learn from a victory."

Speaker: 00:34:58

Wow, that's, you wanna preach?

Speaker: 00:35:01

Because Israel defeated Jericho,

Speaker: 00:35:07

and God had given them this instruction.

Speaker: 00:35:12

He said, "When you go in, it's gonna be the first battle

Speaker: 00:35:14

"you're gonna face in the promised land,

Speaker: 00:35:17

"and you're gonna do it, you're gonna take it,

Speaker: 00:35:19

"destroy everything.

Speaker: 00:35:21

"Nothing belongs to you.

Speaker: 00:35:23

"It all belongs to me.

Speaker: 00:35:25

"Dedicate it to me."

Speaker: 00:35:26

That was the instruction.

Speaker: 00:35:28

But they won, and they got there,

Speaker: 00:35:31

and this man named Achan was tempted by material gain

Speaker: 00:35:35

to ignore the word of the Lord that he had heard.

Speaker: 00:35:40

And so I don't know if anybody can relate

Speaker: 00:35:44

to being tempted by material gain

Speaker: 00:35:49

to ignore the word of the Lord.

Speaker: 00:35:51

Don't know if anybody can relate to that,

Speaker: 00:35:54

but Achan took some things dedicated to the Lord.

Speaker: 00:35:58

He took a beautiful robe,

Speaker: 00:36:01

and who doesn't need a beautiful robe?

Speaker: 00:36:03

And he took $2,600 of silver in today's value.

Speaker: 00:36:10

That's not a whole lot.

Speaker: 00:36:13

$60,000 worth of gold, though.

Speaker: 00:36:18

You know, so I mean, we're talking what, $62,600

Speaker: 00:36:20

and a beautiful robe?

Speaker: 00:36:24

Was it worth it?

Speaker: 00:36:28

If you don't know the story,

Speaker: 00:36:31

the result was the next battle,

Speaker: 00:36:33

the Israelites were defeated

Speaker: 00:36:34

because they had the things that belonged to the Lord.

Speaker: 00:36:39

Among, they had stolen, had them.

Speaker: 00:36:42

And 36 of his fellow Israelites lost their lives.

Speaker: 00:36:46

That's not a whole lot of people.

Speaker: 00:36:47

36 families were grieving the loss of a loved one

Speaker: 00:36:51

because of what this man did.

Speaker: 00:36:53

And it wasn't just those people.

Speaker: 00:36:56

When things came out and they did come out,

Speaker: 00:37:00

Achan and his family were stoned to death and burned.

Speaker: 00:37:04

His wife, maybe wives, I don't know, children,

Speaker: 00:37:11

all that he had.

Speaker: 00:37:12

What you do does not just impact you.

Speaker: 00:37:22

I've been greatly blessed.

Speaker: 00:37:24

I mean, I've had a life that,

Speaker: 00:37:26

you know, if you knew,

Speaker: 00:37:30

from looking at me now, you might go,

Speaker: 00:37:35

"Yeah, I ain't trading with you."

Speaker: 00:37:37

But if you knew my whole life,

Speaker: 00:37:39

a lot of, almost all of you go, "I'll take that.

Speaker: 00:37:42

I'll take that."

Speaker: 00:37:44

I've had a greatly blessed life.

Speaker: 00:37:46

Never been in the hospital,

Speaker: 00:37:48

never missed a meal.

Speaker: 00:37:52

Obviously.

Speaker: 00:37:53

It's just been,

Speaker: 00:37:58

my first marriage was a wonderful marriage.

Speaker: 00:38:04

My wife passed.

Speaker: 00:38:05

My second marriage, that was a wonderful marriage too.

Speaker: 00:38:08

I'm two for two, people.

Speaker: 00:38:10

You know, it's been good.

Speaker: 00:38:17

I don't deserve it.

Speaker: 00:38:20

But I believe that much of the blessing

Speaker: 00:38:23

has come from a fateful heritage

Speaker: 00:38:26

that was handed down to me.

Speaker: 00:38:27

My parents both just sacrificed

Speaker: 00:38:30

and really served the Lord all of their lives.

Speaker: 00:38:34

On my mother's side, her dad was a Pentecostal preacher

Speaker: 00:38:37

back when that was absolutely not a cool thing to be.

Speaker: 00:38:41

In fact, my understanding is,

Speaker: 00:38:43

I don't know a whole lot about this,

Speaker: 00:38:45

but my understanding is that his family

Speaker: 00:38:47

was kind of like what my dad would call muckety mucks.

Speaker: 00:38:50

They were big deals up in Benton County.

Speaker: 00:38:54

And when my grandfather decided

Speaker: 00:38:56

to become a Pentecostal preacher, answered that call,

Speaker: 00:38:59

they just owned him.

Speaker: 00:39:01

It wouldn't have anything to do with him

Speaker: 00:39:03

anymore after that.

Speaker: 00:39:04

On my dad's side, it's a little bit,

Speaker: 00:39:08

it's a little, yeah.

Speaker: 00:39:10

His dad wasn't a preacher.

Speaker: 00:39:13

He was a sharecropper and he kind of died young.

Speaker: 00:39:16

I know his mom though was a very fateful,

Speaker: 00:39:19

believing woman, raised six kids as a widow

Speaker: 00:39:23

through the depression and everything.

Speaker: 00:39:25

And I had a cousin who did some research on further back

Speaker: 00:39:29

and there are a number of preachers in my line.

Speaker: 00:39:32

Most of them couldn't stay places very long

Speaker: 00:39:36

'cause they got run out of town.

Speaker: 00:39:38

They might've been a little bit troublemakers or something.

Speaker: 00:39:41

I don't know.

Speaker: 00:39:42

But this heritage,

Speaker: 00:39:46

I did nothing to receive it.

Speaker: 00:39:52

I did have to receive it.

Speaker: 00:39:53

And you know, there is that part of the equation.

Speaker: 00:39:58

You do have to receive it, but I did not earn it.

Speaker: 00:40:02

Aiken's lack of faith and actions brought disaster

Speaker: 00:40:09

on his family, on his family line.

Speaker: 00:40:13

Rahab's faith and actions brought salvation for her family.

Speaker: 00:40:19

And not just the saving of their lives when Jericho fell,

Speaker: 00:40:24

but also, like I said, they entered into

Speaker: 00:40:28

the family line of Messiah.

Speaker: 00:40:31

We don't know anything about those who came before them.

Speaker: 00:40:36

We don't know.

Speaker: 00:40:37

But we know what their actions produced

Speaker: 00:40:40

for those who came after them.

Speaker: 00:40:41

All families have skeletons.

Speaker: 00:40:46

My family's got skeletons.

Speaker: 00:40:48

I know of a whole bunch of them

Speaker: 00:40:51

if you include my generation.

Speaker: 00:40:52

But all families have skeletons.

Speaker: 00:40:56

And generational curses can be very real things.

Speaker: 00:40:59

Whether it's addictions or fear or poor health

Speaker: 00:41:05

or poverty or there's all kinds of things

Speaker: 00:41:09

that can be passed down that's bad stuff.

Speaker: 00:41:12

But somewhere along the family line,

Speaker: 00:41:18

someone has to take the faith of Rahab

Speaker: 00:41:22

and stand up and go, "It ends here.

Speaker: 00:41:24

"It stops here.

Speaker: 00:41:28

"I'm gonna be faithful to the Lord.

Speaker: 00:41:30

"I'm gonna pass on a blessing."

Speaker: 00:41:35

Someone has to be the curse breaker.

Speaker: 00:41:37

I asked Wayne Barry to sing a song

Speaker: 00:41:44

that he had written at this point,

Speaker: 00:41:47

but unfortunately, he can't be here this week.

Speaker: 00:41:49

So I'm just gonna tell you about it.

Speaker: 00:41:52

The song was written over 30 years ago,

Speaker: 00:41:56

came from a visit that he had

Speaker: 00:41:58

with a couple of his great aunts.

Speaker: 00:42:01

And they filled him in on some family history

Speaker: 00:42:03

he didn't know about.

Speaker: 00:42:04

And the song says, "My great grandfather was an angry man.

Speaker: 00:42:12

"He abused his family.

Speaker: 00:42:15

"And he passed along that heritage

Speaker: 00:42:19

"through the roots of our family tree.

Speaker: 00:42:21

"But his sons rose up against him,

Speaker: 00:42:26

"drove him from his home,

Speaker: 00:42:28

"never knowing where he ended up

Speaker: 00:42:32

"or if he died alone.

Speaker: 00:42:33

"My grandfather was an honest man.

Speaker: 00:42:40

"He tried to do what's right.

Speaker: 00:42:41

"But somewhere in the darkness,

Speaker: 00:42:46

"he fell without a fight.

Speaker: 00:42:49

"So he took his sons and his dignity,

Speaker: 00:42:54

"climbed up in his truck,

Speaker: 00:42:56

"drove off in the shadows,

Speaker: 00:43:00

"trying to break his string of luck.

Speaker: 00:43:02

"But I will not run.

Speaker: 00:43:07

"I will not run.

Speaker: 00:43:12

"By God's grace, I'll stand and face

Speaker: 00:43:19

"each new day as it comes.

Speaker: 00:43:22

"My father was a godly man.

Speaker: 00:43:28

(gentle music)

Speaker: 00:43:30

"And of that, there is no doubt.

Speaker: 00:43:33

"But he told me once when he was young,

Speaker: 00:43:38

"he tried to find his way out.

Speaker: 00:43:42

"But his love for God and mom and me

Speaker: 00:43:49

"was greater than his fear.

Speaker: 00:43:54

"And Jesus Christ was glorified

Speaker: 00:43:58

"by the life dad lived down here.

Speaker: 00:44:03

"And now I will not run.

Speaker: 00:44:07

"I will not run.

Speaker: 00:44:13

"Family curse has been reversed.

Speaker: 00:44:19

"Now there's a blessing for my son.

Speaker: 00:44:23

"And I will not run."

Speaker: 00:44:28

Jesus was our curse breaker.

Speaker: 00:44:36

And you have been called to be conformed

Speaker: 00:44:42

to the image of Jesus Christ.

Speaker: 00:44:45

Some of you already are curse breakers.

Speaker: 00:44:50

Some of you have already put a stop

Speaker: 00:44:53

to things that were flowing, the bad stuff.

Speaker: 00:45:00

Some of you want to be curse breakers.

Speaker: 00:45:05

Some of you have never thought about it until today.

Speaker: 00:45:12

And it's why you're here.

Speaker: 00:45:14

'Cause the Holy Spirit brought you here.

Speaker: 00:45:18

(gentle music)

Speaker: 00:45:21

God is for you.

Speaker: 00:45:23

And if he is for you, there's nothing

Speaker: 00:45:28

that he can't do through you.

Speaker: 00:45:30

Things that will affect generations to come

Speaker: 00:45:36

and echo into eternity.

Speaker: 00:45:38

And if God could use the prostitute Rahab

Speaker: 00:45:44

to bring blessing to her family,

Speaker: 00:45:49

he can certainly use you regardless of any labels

Speaker: 00:45:54

that have been placed on you by others or by yourself.

Speaker: 00:45:59

Would you stand with me?

Speaker: 00:46:05

I'm gonna ask our elders, those who are gonna pray

Speaker: 00:46:10

with people to come down.

Speaker: 00:46:11

We're gonna be doing a worship song here.

Speaker: 00:46:14

If you came today and you need prayer,

Speaker: 00:46:17

it may be about being a curse breaker or the need for it.

Speaker: 00:46:22

It may be about something else, maybe about anything.

Speaker: 00:46:25

You're welcome to come.

Speaker: 00:46:27

And these brothers and sisters will pray for you.

Speaker: 00:46:30

[ Music ]