Rahab | Against All Odds | Pastor Rob Koke | Shoreline Church | Message

[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Good morning, everybody. You guys doing good? What an awesome, awesome day to be together, and we're so delighted to have you. Let's all of us stand to our feet. While you're standing, I want to give a very warm welcome to all of you guys that are watching online from around the city, the state, the nation. Even in some cases around the world, we welcome you to our campuses here in Austin, Texas. Come on, let's give them a great big hand clap, everyone who's watching online today. [APPLAUSE] We're so delighted. Shine is going to be amazing. Ladies, you don't want to miss it. It's going to be absolutely fantastic this Friday night. We do something at the beginning of every single message.

We recite a collection of phrases that we call our shoreline creed. It just helps to remind us that Christianity is all about God's amazing love and grace and his incredible plan for our lives. And so we just remind ourselves with the creed that this is truly the foundation of all that inspires our worship. If you're new to shoreline, you can read along. The rest of us, we're going to say this with some enthusiasm and passion. You guys ready? Here we go. Come on. The Longhorns won. I know they didn't look like really great winning last night, but they won. And a win is a win, right? Aggies, we do have counseling for you after the service. So just-- OK, you ready? Here we go. I am loved by God. I cannot earn it. I cannot lose it. I am forgiven and made brand new. In Christ, I live with passion and purpose. I am empowered by the spirit to be the church in the world and to live this love revolution. Come on, let's give God praise for that. You guys may be seated.

Have you ever heard of Arnelle Panetta? Have you ever heard that name? OK, so he's a very, very popular person. I don't want you to Google it. I'll tell you his story. He was born in 1967 in Manila of all places in the Philippines, grew up in poverty. His mom died when he was 13 years old. His dad kind of spun out. And he found himself surviving on the streets of Manila, collecting bottles and trash to recycle. But he had a gift. He could sing. And so he formed a little makeshift band. And they would sing in pizza places of all things. And then, you know, in bars and nightclubs and so on. Somebody took a video of him while he was singing. Wasn't very good quality, but it hit the internet right about the time that Steve Perry, who is the lead singer of the band called Journey, retired because of health challenges. And this young Arnelle sounded a lot like Steve Perry. And so in 2007, they hired him to be the lead singer of Journey. And he still is to this day. And it's one of the most unlikely stories that you could ever imagine. Here's a young boy who could barely speak English who grew up on the streets of Manila. He's of Asian descent. And now he is the lead singer of one

of the most iconic American bands of all time. Sometimes, unlikely stories happen. The 16th president of the United States of America, a man you might have heard of, Abraham Lincoln, grew up in the backwoods of Kentucky to become what some people think is the best president in our entire history. Sometimes, unlikely things happen. Have you ever heard of Laura Koch? She was homecoming queen. She was valedictorian of her class. And she was voted most likely to succeed in one of the most unlikely stories of all-- (congregation laughing) Sometimes unlikely things happen, and that's kind of the basis for our journey in the word today. I wanna read a passage of scripture to you that comes actually from Hebrews chapter 11, which some of you might realize is what Bible scholars and maybe you've heard it is the Hall of Fame of Faith. These are the hand-picked men and women from the Bible who truly exhibited a life of faith. And we're going to read here in this moment one of the most unlikely candidates to ever be included in the Hall of Fame of Faith. It's found in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 31. By faith, the prostitute Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she received the spies with peace.

Rahab is in the Hall of Fame of Faith. And the reason why it's so unlikely is because she is a Gentile. She's not a Hebrew, she is a Gentile. The only one included in the whole chapter. There's a whole bunch of folks included in there, but she's the only one that's a Gentile. She grew up in a city called Jericho, which just so happens to be the first city that the children of Israel are going to confront on their way into the promised land. She grew up worshiping idols. She never really heard growing up about the Lord. And yet she is included in the Hall of Fame of Faith. On top of all of the things that I've just mentioned, she's also a prostitute. How unlikely is her story? In fact, one biblical scholar said that the story of Rahab is actually the pinnacle of the whole chapter of Hebrews chapter 11. It's like every single story is leading up to her story. It starts out with Abraham by faith, journey to the promised land. And then Moses by faith didn't wanna be counted with the Egyptians. He wanted to be a part of the suffering class of the children of Israel. By faith, Joseph didn't want his bones to be left in Egypt. He wanted to be buried in the promised land. All of these commentaries about these incredible

patriarchs of the faith. And then you get Rahab's story. That is the last story that's even spoken of in Hebrews chapter 11 with commentary. And then after her, it's just a list of names of people who had lived by faith. But her story is so precious and so beautiful. It's filled with courage. And it certainly is one of the prime examples of the kind of faith that pleases God. And so we're gonna kinda take her story and learn each and every one of us how we could live with a greater sense of faith in our own lives. Here's the context of her story, okay? We're a few weeks away to the children of Israel, fighting the battle of Jericho to begin the process of their journey to the promised land. Joshua is trying to get a sense for what he's up against. So he sends out two spies into the city. At this point in time, he doesn't know the battle plan. He doesn't know that God is actually going to cause the walls to tumble down on their own by his hand. He doesn't know that. So he's doing a little bit of recon and he sends these two spies into the city. And now we'll pick up the story in verse one of Joshua chapter two. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

Can you imagine how awkward their cover story is? They go into the town of Jericho and the first place they stop is the local red light district. That's not something that you would think is pretty common. If I was one of those spies, I can't imagine having to try to explain that to Laura. Laura, Um The Lord actually sent us to this specific house. I tell you, I could not even imagine trying to have that conversation with Laura. I wouldn't have to worry about, you know, being killed in the battle for the Promised Land because I'd already be dead. But I'm not so sure that I'm the person in this relationship that we should be worried about. Because three days ago, Laura was flying back to Austin and in the city that she was flying from, she was sitting in a chair right there at the Southwest Airlines lobby area where she was going to board her flight to Austin. She's sitting in that chair, she looks up, and this, you know, military person who's wearing, you know, military uniform, walks by, and Laura looks up at him and does what perhaps many of you do from time to time, just thanked him for his service. And he looks down at Laura sitting in the chair and stops and says, "Wow, you're beautiful." And then he says, "Do you need a boyfriend?" So Laura is telling me this story and I said, "Well, what did you tell him?" She said, "I didn't know what, I was a little bit flustered, I just looked up and I said, "You're too young for me." "You're too young for me? How about you have a husband?" That sounds like a much more reasonable response. But the Lord did send as unlikely as it might appear. The Lord did send these two spies into the house of a prostitute named Rahab, and we learned some things about faith. The first thing we learned is that faith begins right where you are. Faith doesn't start where you wish to be or where you think God wants you to be. Faith actually starts right where you are. Rahab was a prostitute. Think for a moment about how tags can stick. Imagine with me this morning the deepest, darkest secret that's in your own heart, your own life, maybe the thing that you're most ashamed of.

Maybe the thing that you would be the most embarrassed about if anyone else knew about it. And then imagine with me for a moment that that follows the introduction of your name for all of eternity. That's what happens here. Rahab, and you never hear her name without the tag, the prostitute. Sometimes society does that, doesn't it? Maybe you have a tag. Maybe your tag is criminal or felon. One of the things that we are so humbled by here at Shoreline is that every single week the service that you guys are attending, you guys that are watching online, also gets broadcast into different prisons all around the state of Texas. We have an agreement with the Department of Corrections in Texas and our service is shown in all of these places where people are incarcerated. And to our honest surprise, about 20 to 25,000 inmates watch our service every single week. It's a beautiful thing. In fact, your giving helps to support and make that possible. And I wonder if that tag is something that people who are incarcerated will have to wrestle with. Maybe the tag is alcoholic, or maybe liar, or cheater, or adulterer, or maybe loser, maybe somebody tagged you with that on your journey through life and now that's how you see yourself. Or maybe nobody else knows your secret shame. So you put a tag on yourself. The story that you tell yourself is often the story that you live out. Maybe you've heard that phrase, you know, "Oh, they're getting away with it. They're getting away with it." Even the most extreme thing, "Oh, they're getting away with murder." And I'm here to tell you, nobody really gets away with anything ever. but every single one of us, we know what we do, and we know the true condition of our own journey, and maybe that's the most influential reality of all. Rahab was in a place of brokenness. She wasn't proud of what she did. She wasn't proud of what her life became. But on that night, God sends two spies. They were on a secret mission to spy out the land, but it was more than that. They were also ambassadors of a kingdom. They were missionaries with a message, and they were sent into brokenness. God sends ambassadors into our brokenness.

God loves you more than I could ever explain or put into words. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. And it's just like God to send messengers, to send people into your story, into your brokenness. God cares about every scar, every bruise, and every heartache. And maybe God sends somebody into your world to invite you to come to church, or maybe God will use you and send you into someone else's world to invite them to church. Or maybe somebody has invited you into one of the life groups that meets here at Shoreline, because God cares about bringing life into the hurts of your world. God did not send the spies to the palace. He did not send the spies to the religious leaders. He did not send the spies to the military elite. He sent the spies to a broken-hearted woman named Rahab. He went to a place of brokenness to make it a sanctuary. Many of us spend our entire lives trying to get our act together, to edit our resume, so to speak, to try to hide our flaws. But God doesn't meet us in our fakeness. He meets us in our realness. He doesn't look for the pristine. He looks for the humble. And notice that God didn't wait for Rahab to get all of her issues together. He doesn't wait for us to clean up our act, to climb out of our messes, or to achieve a certain amount of social status. Here's the good news that I have for every single one of us here today. And those of you watching online, God meets us exactly where we are. Yeah, come on, let's give God praise for that. So when somebody in Jericho figures out that there are two foreigners in the city, and that they saw them going into Rahab the prostitute's house, the king sends some soldiers to figure out what's going on. We pick up the story in verse four.

But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said to the soldiers, "Yes, the men came to me, but I do not know where they had come from at dusk when it was time to close the city gate. They left, and I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly, you will catch them for sure." But she had actually taken them to the roof of her house and hid them among the stalks of flax. She was flat out lying. Which kind of brings up a little bit of an ethical dilemma, doesn't it? Is it okay to lie? I mean, commandment number nine says, "Thou shall not bear false witness." I mean, it's pretty clear, you shouldn't lie, over and over in the Bible. It says you shouldn't lie. But here Rahab says to the soldiers, "Yeah, those two guys, I saw them," and she points to the horizon and says, "If you run fast, you might catch them." And the whole time they're hanging out upstairs. Was her lie sinful? Some Christians might suggest that it was, but they give her a pass because she's a new believer. But I have a different perspective. Yes, absolutely. We are commanded in the Bible not to lie. But in extreme situations, when the truth will cause physical harm to someone else, we don't owe evil the truth. They lied to protect the lives of innocent babies. In first Samuel chapter 18, Jonathan lied to protect his best friend, David. And during the Holocaust, Cory Timboum famously hid Jews and lied to the officials. She lied to the Nazis.

And in my book, that was a righteous act. Now I just want to clarify that these are extreme situations. So I don't want any of you teenagers asking me to side with you if you're lying to your parents about your homework. Rahabs hiding the spies from execution squads is not a theological defense to telling your parents that you did your algebra when you really didn't. Now I've given you a little topic that you can debate in your small groups this week. But the truth is, faith begins right where you are. It begins right where you are. In Joshua chapter 2, the story goes on. Thank you for allowing me that little side journey. Some of you are saying, what's the point? Well, understanding and rightly dividing God's word. If you don't think I'm right, figure it out yourself. Joshua chapter 2, before the spies laid down for the night-- and this is really important because this leads us to the next idea of how faith can grow in our lives and what the true expression of faith is-- before the spies laid down for the night, she went up to the roof and said to them, 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 have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea. We have heard it and 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. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family because I have shown kindness to you. And there's another beautiful lesson about faith that we can glean from this. Faith is not complicated. If you were to sum up this passage that I just read, you would realize that Rahab is actually saying in essence, if you want to summarize her faith journey, it's actually the faith journey that every single person embraces, and it's not complicated. It's really made up of three revelations. Number one, number one, God is real. God is real. Number two, I can't save myself. And number three, I need God's help. That sums up what real faith is. It's not complicated. It's childlike. It's simple to understand perhaps a little bit more difficult to live out. But if you want to know what faith is, it's the summation of these three ideas, these three thoughts, these three truths. God is real. I can't save myself. God, I need your help.

God, you are real. I'm a sinner. I can't save myself. But your grace and your love is sufficient for me. The thief that was on the cross, he expressed the same thing. You are righteous. I can't save myself. Remember me when I come into your kingdom. It's simple. It's childlike. God is real. I can't. You can. And if you really want to know what maturity is, maturity is the deeper application of those simple truths infiltrating and saturating every aspect of your life. Maybe you came to church today and you're facing a financial challenge. You know what faith says in that moment? God, you are real. I can't make this situation disappear. I can't save myself. But you can provide. If you came to church today, and you're-- I can't heal myself, but you are the great physician. If you came to church as a parent, I don't know of any more challenging task in life than being a mom or a dad, not just to infant kids but teenage kids and even adult kids. I mean, being a parent is a difficult challenge

and maybe you're going through that challenge here today. God is real. I can't be the parent that I need to be, but God, you can give me the strength to make it happen. (congregation applauding) That whole idea is how I strive to live my life. I know that God is real. On my own, I can't live a God-glorifying life, but thanks be to God, He empowers me to do what I can't. Even this morning when I got up to pray and I normally take a little prayer walk in my neighborhood early on Sunday morning and I was praying and I knew that I couldn't deliver this message the way it needed to be delivered without God's help. And so I just went through these three simple thoughts. I said, "God, you are real and I can't do what I need to do this morning, but you can through me." And every single experience in your life that's a challenge right now, you can learn from Rahab, God is real. You can't, but God can. And that, my friends, is the essence of faith. That's what faith is all about. That simple, childlike trust. Jesus was talking about it with His disciples and He said, "Become as little children." That simple idea of trust. Nala, my granddaughter, she's learning about trust.

And when we go to the pool, she steps up to the edge of the pool and she'll just leap into my arms and I've caught her every time and now she's getting a little bit more enthusiastic about it. And the other day she was at the edge of the pool and she jumped and I wasn't ready for her. I was looking in the other direction and I caught her out of the peripheral of my eye and I had to turn around and I caught her and she's laughing and I'm thinking to myself, "Don't do that." But it's that simple, childlike trust. Faith at the end of the day is not very complicated. God is real. I can't, He can. And so in verse 12 of Joshua chapter two, she says, "Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to me and my family because I have shown kindness to you." And they reply, "We will spare your family. We will spare you, but there's one condition. You got to tie a scarlet thread. The oath that you have made us swear will not be binding on us." They said, "When we enter the land, unless you have tied the scarlet cord in the window, the very same window that you let us to escape. Tie that scarlet cord in that window and you will be saved." All she had to do was believe in God's grace

by hanging a scarlet thread in the window. She didn't have to reinforce the walls of her home. She didn't have to put extra support beams in the roof. She didn't have to go and store up extra food for a long siege. All she had to do was put herself safely behind the window that had the scarlet thread and she could rest. And listen, her faith didn't need to even be all that strong. I'm sure that she had all kinds of unanswered questions. Wouldn't you? She didn't know anything about the God who created the world or the covenant that God made with Abraham. She didn't know about the 12 sons of Israel. She didn't know about the ark of the covenant. All she knew is that God is real, I can't, but he can. And that's the essence of faith. And it leads us to another lesson. Faith is more about where you sit than how strong you are. the one your faith is in. Faith is less about having an undaunted, unshakeable confidence in yourself. It's more about where you choose to put your hope. It's not on the steadfastness of your ability to stand. It's where you choose to sit and rest. That's what real faith is. You know, think about the folks that were in the, in the arc, Noah's arc. I'm sure some of them had some doubts. I'm sure some of them had some concerns. Not everybody was in that, you know, conversation that Noah had with God. You know, there were other family members and maybe that little bit of extra space in that, you know, created some doubts and concerns. But the issue wasn't how strong their faith was. The issue was, were they on the arc or not? The same thing happened when the children of Israel were told, you know, to put the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their homes. I'm sure that some of the people who put the blood on the doorposts of their homes in order that they would be

prepared. I'm sure some of them were Sunday school teachers. Some of them were choir leaders. Some of them, you know, were small group leaders and their faith was strong and they had lots of peace. But I'm sure there were also other family members that were in there that were not too sure. And when that, you know, death cloud came, you know, into Egypt and everybody was dying. They were in those homes and maybe they had a lot of concerns and maybe a lot of fears. But it didn't matter. It wasn't the strength of their faith that mattered. It was the fact that they were, were resting in the home that was covered by the blood of the lamb. You know, the other day I was flying and sometimes, you know, I look around. It's a case study in human behavior, to be honest. You can see the people that are used to flying. You know, it's just a part of their, you know, routine. Maybe they do it once a month or twice a month. They're just very confident they get on the plane and they know the drill. And there's not even a moment's hesitation. The only thing that they're trying to do is figure out whether or not they can hide their computer from the flight attendant while they're walking by. But they're just got peace, man. There's no stress at all. And then you got other people on the plane. And man, you would think they are freaking out. They're holding on to the armchair as tightly. You think it's actually going to, you know, literally bend in their grasp. There's, you know, perspiring, you know, through their world peace sweatshirt. They're, you know, they got their prayer beads out, you know, they're all concerns. And listen, they're on the same plane that I am. Some people are relaxed. Some people are at peace and some people are as nervous as heck. But every single one of us landed in Austin, Texas. Why? Because we chose to put our butt in a seat. And at the end of the day, I'm sorry if that language offends you. But grace and faith is about putting your butt in the seat of God's amazing love for you. That's what it's all about. And one last lesson about faith from the story of Rahab. Faith writes a much bigger story than we could ever imagine. In the beginning of Matthew, Rahab's name makes another appearance. Her story is recorded in the first couple of chapters of Joshua. She makes it into Hebrews chapter 11, the Hall of Fame of Faith. But then she also gets a little bit of a casual message mentioned here in Matthew chapter 1 in verse 5. Solomon, the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Many Bible scholars actually believe that Solomon was one of the spies. Now there's no scriptural evidence for it, so we don't know for sure. But a lot of people

think that it might be true. I kind of do because I'm a sucker for a good love story. So here are the spies. They enter into Jericho. They go to Rahab's house. And then they come back and can you imagine the debrief that Joshua has? he said. So Joshua says, "I want to know about the fortified city. I want to know all the details." And Solomon responds, "The walls are thick, the guards are fierce, and I met a girl, and we're registered at Target." We don't know for sure if Solomon was one of the spies, but we do know for sure that Solomon married Rahab. That's the truth you can bank on. And you might say, "Well, what's the big deal about that?" Here is this Gentile prostitute who grew up in Jericho, worshipping idols, never really knowing about God, who gets injected into the story that has impacted every single one of us here today, because Solomon and Rahab have a son whose name is Boas, who has a son whose name is Obed, who has a son whose name is Jesse, who has a son whose name is David, and out of David comes our Lord and Savior. Every single one of us here today have been impacted by her simple childlike faith. And I'm here to tell you, when you put your faith, when you make that connection that God is real, you can't, but He can. The legacy of that goes far beyond anything you could have ever imagined. You have no idea the ripple effect of your simple faith and how many people get impacted by that. You're going to get to heaven and be amazed at the legacy of your story, because your simple faith writes a much bigger story than you would ever write for yourself. Could I hear a good amen? The beautiful lessons of faith we learned from Rahab. Faith. Faith begins right where you are. Faith isn't complicated. Faith is more about where you sit than your ability to stand. And faith writes a much bigger story than you could ever imagine. Could I hear a good amen? All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for our time together here this morning. And Lord, I pray that Rahab's faith would inspire all of us, that our faith would begin, not where we think we should be, but right where we are. Father, that we would embrace the simple, uncomplicated nature of faith that you are real, we can't, but you can. Father, that we would embrace a faith that rests in the beauty of your grace and trust you to write a much bigger story than we could ever write for ourselves. We just pray all of that in Jesus name. As you remain in an attitude of prayer, if you came to church here today and you'd say, "Pastor, you know what? I'm not where I need to be with God."

Maybe an ambassador came into your world, a missionary with a message, and invited you to come to church and you're here today on that invitation. It's not an accident that you're here today. God wants to do something beautiful and life-changing for you. And so if you came to church and you're not right with God and you say, "Pastor, I want to get right with God." Maybe you came and you made a decision at one point in time, but you slipped away and today you need to rededicate your life to serving Him. If you want to meet Him for the first time or rededicate your life to Him, would you please raise your hand quickly and boldly wherever you are here today. Wonderful. God bless you. God bless you. Hands are going up all over. All of you with your hands raised, I want to lead you in a very simple prayer and I want you to pray this prayer out loud. Would you do that sincerely from your heart? And everyone else is a reaffirmation of your faith. Let's all of us pray. Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending Jesus. Jesus asked You to come into my heart. Forgive me of my sins. I put my trust in You and I will live for You from them all a great big hand clap? Okay, so I'm going to ask all of you to stand, but I don't want anybody leaving early. Okay, I just stand to your feet. The only people I want to get permission to leave is those of you who made a decision today, whether to get right with the Lord for the first time or rededicate your life to serving Him, just go either to the east or to the west entrance. And there's some signs there made brand new. We want to give you a Bible, some information that will really help you to live this Christian life that you prayed to receive. And then the second group of people that I'm going to ask permission to go ahead and be dismissed would be those who are going to come up here as prayer partners. Maybe you came to church today and you're facing a challenge in your circumstance and it's overwhelming and it really resonated with you today. God is real. I can't, but God can, and you want to join hands with a prayer partner and just believe God to do miracles in your set of circumstances. These prayer partners are going to be here for you after we dismiss. Ladies, don't forget to sign up for sign. It's going to be a great, great night. Wednesday night, we have small groups. Let me close with this blessing from Numbers chapter 6. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face to you and give you peace. God bless you. Have a fantastic rest of your Sunday and we look forward to seeing you this week. God bless.