Sermon Central
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Just One Scarlet Cord
Contributed by Derrick Strickland on Mar 19, 2016 (message contributor)
Summary: Rahab's simple faith and obedience demonstrates the power of just one scarlet cord - the blood of Jesus Christ - over our lives.
Joshua 2:1-7, 17-21
INTRO: NOTE: Before Message give background of what is taking place.
1. ILL. A USA Today article spotlights multi-billionaire Ted Turner. Turner is the Time Warner Vice Chairman who also happens to be the country's largest landowner with more than 1.6 million acres, on which he runs his herd of 17,000 buffalo. His successes include ownership of television channels CNN and the Superstation TBS. He won the America's Cup in 1977, and his Atlanta Braves won the 1995 World Series. According to the USA Today article, "behind his entrepreneurial spirit lies a much higher, and deeper, social agenda…. To his core, Turner believes in anything that promotes peace, harmony, understanding, and brotherhood."Toward the end of the article, Turner explains his motives: You know, I'm not looking for any big rewards. I'm not a religious person. I believe this life is all we have. I'm not doing what I'm doing to be rewarded in heaven or punished in hell. I'm doing it because I feel it's the right thing to do. Almost every religion talks about a savior coming. When you look in the mirror in the morning, when you're putting on your lipstick or shaving, you're looking at the savior. Nobody else is going to save you but yourself.
2. If your Savior is who you see in the mirror each morning then you have a poor Savior.
a. It’s time for a reality check!
b. I don’t have the power to save myself, to change my condition, transform my life.
c. But there is a Savior that does – I know I’ve experienced the power of a Salvation greater than myself, greater than my sin, greater than my circumstances.
3. In our text we meet a woman by the name of Rahab who had little chance to be anything more than what she was – a Prostitute. The odds where stacked against her.
a. Her birth was against her. (Not born a Jew, but a Gentile)
b. Her history was against her. (Probably never been anything more)
c. Her reputation was against her.
d. Her poverty was against her.
e. Her condition was against her.
f. Her location was against her.
4. But God chose to lead Joshua’s spies to her house.
a. They knew that in such a place they’d be a policy of “no questions asked.”
b. They knew that in such a place strangers were common.
c. They knew that in such a place their identitiy would be kept secret for the right price.
d. They also knew that Rahab’s house sat on the wall of Jericho and would make for a quick escape.
e. But, little would they realize that God would use this encounter to change Rahab.
5. They found someone bound by a cycle of sin and shame, but they offered her the most simple solution – Just One Scarlet Cord.
a. Her future would be changed by Just One Scarlet Cord.
b. The cycle of sin, poverty, reputation would be broken with Just One Scarlet Cord.
6. When the spies handed her that scarlet cord, I believe they remembered Passover night in Egypt when they where also marked their homes with scarlet – the blood of the Lamb.
a. His blood bond to our lives is the simple solution of Salvation — Our Scarlet Cord
b. All you need is Just One Drop of His Scarlet Blood!
I. ONE SCARLET CORD WAS ALL HER FAITH NEEDED.
a. The spies didn’t know the magnitude of what they had promised Rahab, since they didn’t know what God had planned. If they did they may have never promised this.
b. They thought they where offering her Salvation of Joshua as he stormed the city, but they where in reality offering her the Salvation of God from Judgement.
c. Quite a promise since Rahab’s house sat on the walls that God intended to fall flat.
d. But, God honored their promise, because God honored Rahab’s faith.
e. That scarlet cord tied to her window expressed both her confidence that Jericho would be destroyed and that she would be saved.
f. You don’t need great faith to see great things happen, just simple faith in the blood of the Lamb.
A. HER FAITH WAS A SIMPLE FAITH
1. Needed no explaination how it worked, she simply beleived.
2. I don’t know How he did for me what he did, but I know it works!
3. She wasn’t bothered by it’s simplicity–she simply beleived.
4. What a world we live in. They deny that such a simply solution can do so much.
5. But when every section of that wall fell flat, Rahabs section of the wall stood like a tower above it all – a tower of the simple faith in a simple red cord.
