The Christians Hour

Aaron Brockett: Welcome to The Christians Hour. Thank you for joining us today. It’s a pleasure to have you with us. The Christians Hour is a ministry of Gospel Broadcasting Mission where we share the good news of Jesus Christ through radio and media all around the world.

Have you ever known something to be true but when it came time to acknowledge it or act on it, fear got in the way? There was a time in my own life when I knew God was calling me to be a missionary. I didn’t know everything, but I knew that much.

The problem was knowing God was calling me didn't answer all of my questions. I didn't know exactly where I would go. I didn't know what the ministry would look like. I didn't know what it meant for my family or what I would have to leave behind. I didn't know how God would provide or what the future would hold.

Honestly, there was fear in that because sometimes we want God to give us the entire plan before we are willing to take the first step. But faith doesn't always mean knowing everything. Sometimes, courage is simply knowing enough about God to take the next step.

Today, we're going to be in the book of Joshua, chapter two, and looking at the remarkable story of Rahab. Rahab had heard about the God of Israel. She had heard what He had done, how He had brought His people out of Egypt and gave them victory over powerful kings. Acting on what she knew required courage. She was willing to risk everything by standing on that truth.

Today, we're going to hear a powerful message about courage to know, the courage that comes when we know who God is, trust what He has said, and choose to act on that truth even when we don't know the outcome. Join us now as Pastor Rick Atchley of The Hills Church in Fort Worth, Texas, continues our series on courage from the book of Joshua, and he unpacks the remarkable faith and courage of Rahab. Here's Rick to share more.

Rick Atchley: Have you ever wondered when you have witnessed a truly courageous act or been in the presence of a truly courageous person? What inspired you? What pushes people to take great risk and make great sacrifices, to not just settle for what they are, but to cross the river to become what they could be and claim all of the inheritance that God has prepared for them?

Here's what I know: courageous people are courageous because of what they know. Remember Joshua and the children of Israel have come to the river. They were there 40 years earlier. They had the opportunity 40 years earlier to cross that river and inherit the promise God wanted them to receive, but they were too afraid.

Now they've got the same test. It's a time for courage. Let's go now to Joshua, chapter two. Verse one says Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

This is not an information gathering mission. Joshua had already crossed the river 40 years ago and spied out the land. He knew it was a good land. This is a military mission. He sends these two spies especially to Jericho to see if they can learn anything that would be insightful and helpful as they begin to occupy the land, anything that would give the army of the Israelites courage.

The most helpful thing they learned is that the Canaanites were losing courage. In fact, the very last verse of chapter two says they said to Joshua, "The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us." Why? Their courage was failing because of the failure of their gods to stand up against the God of Israel.

They'd heard about Egypt. They'd heard about the kings of the Amorites, and they were afraid their gods were no match for this God. Here's a very helpful insight: you lose courage when your god keeps losing battles. Your god is whatever you think about the most, whatever makes you happy, whatever gives you identity, whatever gives you security.

Whoever or whatever that is, is your real god. If you're losing courage, it's because your god keeps losing battles. That was a good thing for Israel to know. But I don't think that's the only reason God prompted Joshua to send those spies. It wasn't just to get information, but it was to give the opportunity for salvation.

They wound up at the house of a woman named Rahab. Her house was a brothel and an inn because in those days, inns were brothels and brothels were inns. It's the kind of place that traveling guys stopped at when they didn't want to be noticed, so the spies figured that would be a good place for cover.

I don't think it was just a coincidence they stopped there. I think it was providence because this woman turns out to be one of the most courageous women in the Bible. Here's the thing about God you need to know: He looks for courage. God absolutely delights in courage and in boldness.

Perhaps the strongest evidence of faith is the refusal to live an intimidated life. Your boldness is the surest indicator of how much you really believe what you say you believe because the new birth always gives birth to courage. Let me give you an example. After Jesus ascends into heaven, the apostles start to preach.

Peter and John get arrested and they are told, "You had better stop this Jesus talk or we're going to make it very hard on you." Peter rises up and says that great verse, "We won't stop because there's no other name under heaven given by which men can be saved." The very next verse in the book of Acts says that when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

You can't spend time with Jesus and be a coward. The new birth gives birth to courage. Do you know that's what Jesus is calling you to? Jesus met you where you are, but He didn't save you to keep you there. He called you into being the best possible you, the person God created you to be.

He called you to a life of courage. Satan doesn't want that to happen. He wants to stunt your life in Christ. He wants to intimidate churches, and the primary way he does this is fear. Satan wants to scare the heaven out of you. Yes, I said it. You can tweet that if you want. He wants to scare the heaven out of us.

But we know that what we know can make us strong and courageous, like Rahab. I've never met a woman named Rahab. Nobody ever names their daughter Rahab. But did you know that the only women in the Bible mentioned more than Rahab are Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Sarah, the wife of Abraham?

The Bible considers Rahab one of the bravest heroes in God's history. We remember what she was; God remembers what she did. What she does is amazing. These two spies thought they would just slip into Rahab's place and no one would notice them. Well, Jericho's on high alert.

Everybody's freaking out about the army on the other side of the river and they did notice. They told the king. The king said, "Rahab, these two men came to your house, send them out." She just lied. She says, "King, they've already left. Go chase them, maybe you can catch them," when the truth was, they were hiding up on the top of her house.

She goes up to the roof before they lay down for the night and she said to them, "I know." That's the most powerful verb in the whole chapter. Everything she's going to do, every risk she's going to take, every bold step she's going to make is because of that verb. I know that the Lord has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.

We've 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 Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

This is an amazing and bold thing she has just said because courage knows that the God of Israel is the God that has a winning record. I know God has given you this land. We have heard the report. Courageous faith is built on a foundation of outrageous truth. She had heard some outrageous reports.

There is a God that can turn the Nile River into blood, that can slay the firstborn of Egypt, that can part a sea so His people can walk through it, that can completely destroy the Amorites. She had heard about this God and she says, "I've concluded He's the Lord of heaven and of the earth below."

That's huge because in their day, every god of every nation had their domain. My god might lose to your god in your domain, but you come over into my domain and my god is boss. The thing is, the God of Israel whipped the gods of Egypt in Egypt. He whipped the gods of the Amorites in their domain.

She starts to conclude the God of Israel doesn't have domain; He's got dominion. He is the God of the whole earth. She had more faith in God than some of the Israelites who saw Him do all these things. Her boldness was grounded in the track record of a God that had intervened in real history to save His people, and He had never failed, a total winning record.

It gave her boldness and should give you boldness, too. That should help you conquer any fear you have about wearing His jersey. Look at what she said to the spies. "Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because I've shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death."

Courage knows that you have to pick a team. Rahab understood you can't remain neutral when it comes to the future that the God of heaven and earth has planned. You've got to choose sides. Declaring her decision to do so was stunning. She crossed over to God's team even before God's team had crossed over the Jordan River.

She did so at great risk because when she changed teams, she was committing an act of treason against her culture. She knew it was risky to transfer allegiance, but she thought it was more risky not to. For a while, she is going to have to live in Jericho. But she doesn't feel like she's a member of that team anymore.

For a while, we must live in the world, but we must wear a different jersey. Integrity eliminates neutrality. You have to pick a team. That's getting harder and harder because we're increasingly living in a culture that says you can wear your jersey at home all you want, but don't bring faith out into the public.

So I'm going to tell you a story, but I've got to tell you some background because when I first heard this story, I thought, that sounds like a preacher story; that doesn't sound like that really happened. So I called the guy. I talked to the guy on the phone that I'm about to tell you about.

What I'm about to tell you is exactly how he told me it happened. It was on the campus of the University of Texas some years ago in a class called Organic Chemistry. Huge class of a thousand people that had one goal: to eliminate all the premed students who had no business trying to become doctors.

A thousand would start the class; only 300 would finish. Organic chemistry talks about life and its origins, and it was taught by an evangelistic atheist. Every first day of class, the professor would begin, "Now we're going to be talking about life and its origins. And what we're not going to do is put on the table the possibility that life has a creator and a supernatural beginning.

I know some of you were brainwashed to believe that. So here's what we're going to do. If you're foolish enough to believe in a God who created things, then you right now stand up and you pray that if I drop this glass beaker on the floor, it will not break." He's just intimidating the class, and for years nobody had the courage to stand up to him until this man I talked to did.

He stood up in front of this huge class and said, "I'll pray." Everyone gasped and he prayed, "Lord, now You're God whether that beaker breaks or not, but to rebuke this arrogant man and to inspire this class, my prayer is that that beaker would not break if he drops it. Amen."

The professor smirked and dropped the glass beaker. It fell right on his shoe and rolled unbroken across the floor. We live in a culture that says faith is private. No, faith is personal. I can't believe for you and you can't believe for me, but faith is not private. You must wear the jersey. It's not easy.

In a world where fear wants to have the last word, scripture says this to us in First Corinthians: "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong." Not just for our own sake, because our mission is not to survive the world. Our mission is to try to save it because courage knows that others need to know the score.

Perhaps you saw the disturbing report of a mentally disabled man in Florida named Jamelle Dunn who drowned in a retention pond. What made the story especially disturbing is that five teenage boys watched him, laughed at him, and actually cheered him on to drown.

People thought the boys would be prosecuted, but the prosecutor had to tell the community there is no law that says you have to try to save people. There was a court case that went to the Supreme Court and Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion that says while we may have a moral problem with it, there is no legal duty for you to try to save anybody that's in danger.

But we wear a different jersey. The people that follow Jesus know that you have to either be calloused or cowardly to see someone that you know needs to be saved and you don't do anything. That's not Rahab. Notice verse 17. The spies said to her, "This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless when we enter the land, you've tied the scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you've brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house."

What they're asking her to say and to do is a huge risk. Don't you think her neighbors are going to notice that cord from her window and say, "Hey girl, what's up with that?" Do you think her extended family might have at least one person loyal to the king? All it takes is one curious neighbor or one furious relative and the king executes Rahab.

But courage can't keep the hope of salvation a secret because unfailing courage always walks beside unfailing love. If you know someone in need of salvation and you say or do nothing, you don't just have a courage problem; you have a love problem.

What nonsense to say that you have heard the reports of what God has done in Jesus, and you can live every day like someone else doesn't need to know that. The next Joshua is coming. God's world is going to be reclaimed and His children are going to receive their full inheritance.

Now is the time to tell others the score. As Paul said to young Timothy, "I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when He comes to set up His kingdom, preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching."

Everybody in Jericho heard the same report Rahab heard. God would have saved that entire city if they had responded with the courage she responded with. It's not your job to judge the world; it's your job to share the good news with the world. God will judge the world.

He won't judge the world on the basis of what they haven't heard. He will judge the world on the basis of the revelation they did get. I believe in ways we don't always fathom, God has sent reports of Himself to the world because God is so desperate to bring people far from Him close.

I don't want you to ever forget how much God is looking for those who know just a little about Him. God looks for Rahab. Maybe that shocks you. Maybe it shocks you that a woman like Rahab would have any interest in a God. She does. Maybe it would shock you that God would be interested in a woman like Rahab. He is because God never lets anybody's past exclude them from the invitation to join His future.

Acappella: (Singing)

There's a reason I can sing.

There's a reason for this life inside me.

One name above all names.

Jesus, yes it's Jesus.

There's a reason for this hope.

There's a reason for this peace that I know.

One worthy of all praise.

Jesus, yes it's Jesus.

I will lift my hands up.

I will raise my voice high.

I will shout out Your love.

Till the day that I die.

Everything that I have.

All my worship I bring.

You're the reason I live.

You're the reason I sing.

You're the reason I live.

You're the reason I sing.

For the victory over sin.

For the goodness of Your grace each day.

I will bow and bless Your name.

Jesus, I thank You, Jesus.

I will lift my hands up.

I will raise my voice high.

I will shout out Your love.

Till the day that I die.

Everything that I have.

All my worship I bring.

You're the reason I live.

You're the reason I sing.

You're the reason I live.

You're the reason I sing.

When my time on earth is through.

When my final breath has left these lungs.

I'll forever be with You.

Where the song goes on and on.

I will lift my hands up.

I will raise my voice high.

I will shout out Your love.

Till the day that I die.

Everything that I have.

All my worship I bring.

You're the reason I live.

You're the reason I sing.

You're the reason I live.

You're the reason I sing.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

You're the reason I live.

You're the reason I sing.

You're the reason I live.

You're the reason I sing.

Aaron Brockett: Well, how about you? Have you heard that truth about Jesus Christ and all He has done for you? More importantly, have you responded to that truth? Rahab knew enough about God to act with courage even though she didn't know how everything would unfold, and the same is true for us.

We may not know what tomorrow holds. We may not know how God will answer every prayer or where the road ahead will lead, but we can know who God is and what He has done for us through Jesus Christ. When we know that truth, we have a choice. Will we live it out? Will we share it with others?

Jesus calls us to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Don't let fear keep you from responding to the truth you know and have courage to tell others. Aren't you so glad that somebody told you?

Our thanks to Rick Atchley for sharing that powerful message with us today. Our thanks as well to Acappella Ministries for providing today's music of worship. If this message has encouraged you in any way, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email and let us know at thechristianshour@gmail.com.

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