Sermon Central
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From Vision To Action
Contributed by Robert Simmons on May 6, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: Now we move from that call to the beginning of the action. Moving from vision and dream to walking in the promise is a faith that works. It is that time when energy, passion, excitement, and vision must roll up its sleeves to begin to carry out the miss
From Vision to Action (Joshua 2 & 3)
Last week we talked about Joshua’s call, his courage and the presence of God with him. We saw how the presence and strength of God called him to lead his generation to their call.
Now we move from that call to the beginning of the action. Moving from vision and dream to walking in the promise is a faith that works. It is that time when energy, passion, excitement, and vision must roll up its sleeves to begin to carry out the mission.
For Joshua to make his life matter for eternity, he had to begin to mobilize the people of God to carry out their conquest. They must, as a people (not just the leader – as had been the case with Moses), follow in obedience to possess what had been promised since the days of Abraham.
Do you understand the importance there? Abraham had seen the vision. Jacob had heard the promise. Yet generations had come and gone and no one had grasped hold of what God had said was for them. But this is the generation that would praise the Lord and possess what others missed.
It is our time. Surely you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this.
1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.
a. He learned from the previous generation
b. Secret mission – stealth attack
i. Unknown force is going to surprise enemy
ii. A battle plan that will shock & awe – a new church that will reach our generation with the gospel
c. Rahab Harvest
i. Unexpected place to find grace
ii. Where sin does abound, there grace does much more abound
iii. God saves the most unusual, unpredictable folks
iv. There is a Rahab in your life God wants to harvest
1. One overlooked, one despised, one rejected
2. Yet one chosen of God, one full of faith, one whose life criss-crossed with destiny
a. Her lineage produced King David and Jesus Christ of Nazareth
3. Who is the Rahab you’ve overlooked ministering to?
a. Is it that lonely neighbor?
b. Is it the friend going through divorce?
c. Is it a family-member suffering sickness?
d. Is it the wealthy man who is empty on the inside?
e. Is it the alcoholic who can’t stop?
f. Don’t overlook the Rahab harvest!
2 And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to night of the children of Israel to search out the country.
a. The enemy feared the people of God
i. What you fear, fears you
ii. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.
3 And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country.
4 And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were:
5 And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them.
6 But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.
7 And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.
8 And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;
9 And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed.
a. Rahab had great faith!
b. She believed in a God she had not been taught about!
c. There is a Rahab harvest that has greater faith than the wilderness-wandering church!
d. There is a Rahab harvest that knows the wonders of God!
11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
