The Rope of Hope - Uncommon Courage

I was uh speaking at a conference in Canada and uh I never met I never heard of a place called Slave Lake, which is an interesting name But there were some native kids that came to this, some First Nations young people, and they were coming out of a horrible wildfire that was consuming the community of Slave Lake, a native community.

They didn't know I was told if they would even have a home when they went back.

Well, when I got to the airport to leave Canada I was uh of course picked up the newspaper because I wanted to read about what was what these kids were coming out of and the slave-like fire was front page on the on the Canadian newspaper.

And I read this incredible story that touched me, continues to touch me, about one lady in that community.

She's a non-native lady, and uh she has a truck.

And they were told that they might have to evacuate, and in fact they did have to evacuate.

They were given a little warning, they might have to evacuate.

And she thought, what are all the things that I'm going to want to take with me?

And then she realized that there were a lot of people there in a pretty poor community who had no transportation out.

And she made a choice that day.

And she told this very tearfully at a church where evacuees were gathered.

And this is what the story on the front page of the paper was She said, I decided that instead of bringing out my stuff, I wanted to bring out lives.

And I thought, that's a pretty great value system.

Then when I leave here, what do I want to take out?

Do I want to take out stuff?

We can't.

Or do I want to take out lives with me?

There is an amazing, and I never really saw it this way before.

By the way, tonight is PG-13.

So if you need to I should warn you this is about a prostitute.

Okay, so if you need to leave and this is a problem and you need to give somebody parental guidance here tonight they need to leave but you're gonna like the story and I think you know the story you know who I'm gonna talk about But there is an amazing realization I had as I made my my my Joshua journey.

God is preparing for this major crossroads event in Middle East history essentially to take down the major fortress of the Canaanites to open the way for an entire turnover of a nation To another people who had been promised to by God hundreds of years before.

We are in the midst of this momentous military operation, this movement of a million people And in the middle of all that, in chapter 2 of Joshua, God's video cam, his Google Cam, zooms in on one lady.

Now, we're, you know, the the Israelites who just say Jericho.

They don't know anybody there.

But he zooms in on one lady, and of all things, it's a prostitute named Rahab.

And this is what amazes me, that in the midst of all of this big stuff, historic destiny change going on, God has his eye. on one lost soul, in the midst of it all.

And so we talked tonight about the rope of hope.

And there's a reason I'm calling it that and we'll get to that in a couple minutes.

I call this the Jericho surprise.

The scouts go in ahead of time to scout out the city.

By the way, there's a little sidebar here.

I won't, this has nothing, I'm not talking about this, but I'm going to talk about it She says, you know we're scared to death of you people.

We've heard about your God.

What's really amazing is that our enemy knows where the greater power is.

Says in Deuteronomy, they have no rock like our rock.

There is no rock.

Even our enemies know that, Deuteronomy says So the devil is terribly afraid.

He knows the power of Jesus.

The medicine on the reservations.

They know the greater power.

They don't think they've got greater power.

They know Jesus is the greater power.

The gates of Jericho are locked.

They're scared to death.

They've heard of what this God can do.

So these these scouts come in and they're looking for someplace that they're not going to get caught.

They're dead meat if they get caught.

And now, because of what archaeology has discovered, I'll tell you more about Jericho in another session, but essentially there was like an inner wall and an outer wall.

And in the outer wall, it's kind of, that was a low-rent district.

Probably the red light district, if they had red lights.

And what's very interesting is that the archaeologists have learned this: that even though Jericho was eradicated And they see the ruins of it.

The outer wall, kind of a retaining wall, still had a couple of houses that were in the wall that survived the collapse.

Probably Rahab's house.

Archaeology simply has said, yep, they don't say who lived there.

They don't say why there was Somebody who survived, why somebody's house in the lower wall survived, and that's probably where the poor people and where the people of her profession hung out Now we're going to delve into this fascinating story, and boy are we going to see ourselves because there are two defining passions.

We're in a fight here of what I call a legacy life, and I don't think there's anybody in this room who doesn't feel like you want to make a greater difference with the rest of your life than whatever you've made up until now.

That's called a legacy life.

And there are two passions that drive a legacy life as revealed in the story of Rahab.

Let's go to Joshua chapter 2 and let's pick it up and let God tell the story.

Then Joshua, son of Nun, by the way, this is so confusing because I Didn't know nuns had never mind.

Anyway, then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent two spies from Shitam.

Go look over the land, he said, especially Jericho.

By the way, this indicates If you remember, remember Joshua scarred out the land 40 years before.

He still remembered Jericho.

He is concerned about Jericho.

He's like, we need to go in there.

This is my big concern, is this city.

So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there, probably thinking, number one, that was out of the way, and number two, there's nothing unusual about strange men going into that kind of a place.

It's probably not going to arouse suspicion.

You'll be glad to know that the Bible says they slept on the roof.

I think that's cool.

They were above reproach.

She had to go up on the roof to get a message to them.

So, let's keep going.

The king of Jericho was told, look, some of the Israelites, and they probably look different, they probably dress different.

They didn't wear Canaan cloth.

Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight To spy out the land.

Okay, they're on to us.

So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab.

Obviously he knew her.

Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.

Now uh thus our our story begins as we get to that first passion, rescuing one lost soul.

It's in your notes, rescuing one lost soul.

By the way, when I say one lost soul, anybody come to mind?

If you were to put a face To the words lost soul.

You got one, you know?

I hope you do.

Somebody in your family.

Somebody you work with.

A neighbor?

Can you think of a can you put a name on us all?

Okay, I want you to for the rest of what we talk about tonight?

Make it about George.

Make it about Emily Think of that lost soul.

This is about him.

This is about her.

Rescuing one lost soul with that face in mind.

I wrote in your notes, in the midst of a historic military campaign, God is focused on the saving of one lost soul.

What about us?

In the midst of our busy campaign How important it is you to get that one lost soul to heaven with you someday.

Now, let's talk about rescuing one lost soul.

Because in the story you will find there are four factors in the saving of one lost soul.

If you care about having that person in heaven with you and you get to heaven and you're going to say, Jesus, are they here?

Are they here?

And he may say to you, did you bring him?

Did you bring her?

Here's the four factors in the saving of one lost soul.

Number one is a prepared heart.

Look at Joshua chapter 2, verses 8 to 13.

This is pretty extraordinary.

Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof.

And said to them, I know that the Lord has given you this land.

This is pretty incredible.

She said, I know this outcome We're cooked.

We're toast.

Toast is actually the Hebrew word.

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, we are scared to death of you guys because of you.

We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea.

That was 40 years before But boy, they heard about it in Jericho.

Middle East news travels fast.

Well, slow in this case, 40 years, but we heard about it.

And when you came out of it, and what you did to Sihon and Ad, those were the guys on the on the west side of the Jordan River, the West now called the West Bank.

The two kings of the Amorites, excuse me, east of the Jordan, east side, whom you completely destroyed When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear.

Everyone's courage failed because of you.

Four.

Now notice what she says about God.

For the Lord your God is God in heaven above.

These are the Canaanites.

Remember what I told you?

Known for their orgies, known for their ritual prostitution, known for infant sacrifice.

Known for other human sacrifices.

She says, I know the Lord, your God, is God in heaven above. and on the earth below.

This is extraordinary.

Do you know what this tells us?

Well, we have to read more verses first.

Now then, please swear to me by the Lord.

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.

Can't wait to see how far we are.

Okay, that's as far as we're gonna go right here.

You know what we're talking about?

A prepared heart.

Before the spies ever get to her house, her heart has been prepared This is what you need to know about somebody you want to have in heaven with you.

God gets there before you do.

God gets there before you do.

And he gets them ready.

If he's telling you to share Christ with them, he's getting them ready.

They don't know they're ready for Jesus, but they're ready for something only Jesus can do.

And he is having things in their life happen that get them ready.

Unbelievably, Rahab from an incredibly pagan culture is ready for God.

She's ready to hear about the God that these two guys know.

They didn't know this was going to happen.

They're there as scouts.

This is not in their playbook.

It's not on their schedule for the day.

And you know, this tells me something.

God will find a way to reach a seeking heart He will find a way to reach a seeking heart.

Now here's one of the big questions that lost people try to throw at believers.

Wait a minute.

What about the people who have never heard?

Yeah, what about them?

Which by the way, the real question is, what about you you have?

Okay, so if you want to talk about the ones who haven't, we could talk about you because you have hurt Now I don't have all the I don't there's no air clad uh air clad not clad answer to this but I can tell you this There are three things the Bible says.

This is just a little sideline here, because what happens to the people who never heard?

Like a rahab.

She's an example.

Number one.

Here's the number one thing the Bible says Everyone in Romans 1, everybody has enough evidence from what they've seen around them to seek God.

Everybody knows enough to seek God.

They have the Bible's words, they're without excuse.

In fact, the Bible says in John chapter 1 verse 5 that Jesus is the light that lights every man that comes in the world.

There's a light on inside of them.

They know to look.

They look around.

How can you look at creation and not know there's someone to look for?

Here's the second thing it says.

Acts 4. 12 says, there is no other name under heaven whereby you must be saved.

There is no other name.

Don't you can't come up with an answer that goes around Jesus.

He's the only way.

There is no other name by which we must be saved.

So we have somebody who knows enough to seek God, but they're not hearing about him.

And over here Is this statement, it's got to be through Jesus, and one other thing the Bible says.

And in Jeremiah 29, 13, it says, whoever seeks me with all their heart will find me.

Now how does that happen?

How does somebody who's in no place to hear the gospel , how does that work?

God knows who's seeking him.

They're responsible for the evidence he's given them.

He can't do it other than through Jesus.

He won't do it other than through Jesus.

But he's promised whoever seeks for him with all his heart will find him.

I don't know.

That's God's problem, but he said it would happen.

And he got Rahab in the midst of a sea of paganism.

Her heart was ready.

That, I think, is an evidence of that.

Moslims wake up in the middle of the night.

Never heard about Jesus.

They wake up with visions.

Jesus is in their room, in a white robe, glowing, invites them to come to him.

God saw a Muslim with a seeking heart.

There didn't have to be a missionary available.

Or any of the could get there.

But Jesus got there Who knows?

That to me is all the answer I need.

What happens?

I'm just telling you this.

God will find a way to reach a seeking heart.

By the way.

You might be the way.

In this particular case.

I'll review the three open prayer for many of you.

I've heard it many times.

I have found that God loves this prayer.

It's from Colossians 4, verses 3 and 4, where Paul says, pray for us that God will open the door for us that we may proclaim the history of Christ and proclaim it clearly as we should.

Here's a three-open prayer.

If you know it, say it with me, Lud.

The first one says, Lord, open a Yeah, Lord, open a door.

A door is a natural opportunity to bring up Jesus.

That's not some contrived speaking of Jesus, which they weren't It's a, Lord, open a door, natural opportunity, something in their life, your life, or what's going on in the world.

One of those three things will open a door.

Number two, Lord, open their Open their heart.

Got it.

Right.

Number three.

Lord, open my mouth.

That's the hard one right there.

You got it.

Lord, open a door.

Lord, open their heart.

Lord, open my mouth I will tell you this, you don't have to say, Lord, if it be your will.

It is.

So this this is that three-open prayer creates opportunities or helps you recognize opportunities that were already there.

Amen.

They were already there.

Thank you.

This is how Cynthia says Amen.

By the way, some of you know that prayer, obviously.

I've had more people tell me what happened when they prayed the three-open prayer.

I remember a businessman in Manhattan Who told me?

He said, Ron, we've been taking your your course on a life that matters.

And he said, he said, we got to the three open prayers thing.

He said, I've been praying it all week long.

He said, it's amazing what happened.

He said, I've had two spiritual conversations in my office.

I've given away five Bibles, and I almost can't wait to see who's going to come in next.

Now, was God suddenly giving him opportunities or had there been all along he was suddenly seeing?

I have no idea All I know is that God will answer that prayer to prepare that heart.

I have a song, I will not sing.

Blessed are the merciful, but I I I love the song you maybe never I I meet more people who have never heard it than it bothers me they haven't heard it Of course it was written a long time ago when I was a boy by Dio Moody's musician.

That's before I was a boy.

Dio Moody's George Beverly Shea was Iris Sankey.

And they traveled the world and he wrote this song called The Ninety and Nine.

I love it.

Can they give you some of the words?

I'm going to anyway.

There were 90 and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold, but one was out on the hills away Far off from the gates of gold.

Away on the mountains, wild and bare, away from the tender shepherd's care.

Lord, thou hast here thine 90 and nine, are they not enough for thee?

But the master made answer, this of mine has wandered away from me.

And although the road may be rough and steep, I go to the desert to find my sheep.

But none of the ransomed ever knew.

How deep were the waters crossed, or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through to find his sheep that was lost?

Out in the desert he heard the cry, sick and helpless and ready to die.

But all through the mountains thunder ribbon, and up from the rocky steep, there arose a glad cry to the gates of heaven, Rejoice!

I have found my sheep And the angels echoed around the throne, rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own.

He said, I've come to seek and to save the lost.

That's what you're here for.

You don't seek them, you don't save them.

They're not coming to us.

And God has planted you in the lives of people who have an unthinkable eternity.

They are hurtling toward.

And he's planted you in their lives.

As he planted these unsuspecting scouts on a mission to do something else, and on their by the doing their job, they ended up.

With a prepared heart.

Here's the second factor in the uh in uh saving a one-lost soul is providential placement.

You see that with these guys?

Providential placement Hey, they just it's like where should we go where we probably won't be found where it won't look weird that strange men are going in there.

I know we'll go to this red light district, we'll go in this prostitute's house.

Okay, that works What do they don't know is this is not random.

Random is not in heaven's dictionary.

There's a few words that are not in heaven's dictionary that are in years.

Random is not in God's dictionary.

Hopeless.

These are certain there's some words that aren't in God's dictionary Accident?

Accident's not in his dictionary, but that's another story.

When God is your director, this I love, there's always something bigger going on than the thing you can see.

There is always something bigger going on.

You're at this retreat, who knows?

You don't know.

There is something bigger than what we can see going on right now.

God is weaving a tapestry.

And the thing you see is part of that tapestry.

I watched as as Anna, our precious daughter-in-law, her Navajo mother would sit and the only way they could survive with an alcoholic dad was with the rugs that she would make, Navajo rugs. in their little little very little poor house there in at Low Mountain, Arizona.

And I've been in that house and I've watched her work on the loom.

She didn't speak English And my Navajo is, I know two words, and one of them is fry bread, which is English.

But she would she would she would just weave those threads back and forth.

And I looked at it and I didn't see anything.

It just looked like Sort of a artistic mess to me.

Not no, not to Maggie.

But she loved Karen.

Somehow over the language barrier, she loved Karen.

Even though she was a traditional Navajo lady, she loved this Christian mom Well, you know what happened?

She could so she sold those roughts for thousands of dollars.

The store sold them for she got a couple hundred The nearby store sells them to tourists for a lot of money.

When it was done, it was a masterpiece.

All I saw was threads.

But the whole time she's got the whole thing in her mind.

She doesn't have any paper there, nothing.

She's just got she knows what it's gonna look like when it's done.

That's what God's doing.

This is a thread and a tapestry right here There's a thread in the tapestry right here tonight.

He is weaving an incredible tapestry.

Can't you look back?

You've been alive long enough to look back and see some of it, can't you?

You see how threads like you were like 14 years old and you know there's something going on now that ties to that thread?

Isn't that exciting?

That's why you get up every day and say, this is the day the Lord has made.

We're we he's making something here He sends these guys in there, and look at this, write this down, it's in your notes.

God uses your situation to put you with someone who needs him.

God uses your just what you're in the middle of doing in your everyday life.

He uses your situation to put you as someone who needs him.

That's what he did with these guys.

It's amazing.

Karen and I had uh bit we just finished up with the On Eagles Wings team a few summers ago.

We were up in Canada where we had our our uh re-entry retreat to prepare them to go back home.

And we had, uh, I was to speak out in Alberta, we were over in Ontario, so we've never driven along the bottom of Canada there on on Highway 1.

Boy, they have slow speed limits in Canada.

It's so frustrating.

Anyway, and besides it's got kilometers and I never know how fast I'm going.

That's my excuse.

So we're driving along the bottom of Canada.

It was a wonderful time.

I almost enlisted in the Mounties.

It was a fantastic We had a wonderful time driving along Canada.

Well, we get to the place over in Alberta where I'm going to speak, and nearby is a town called Pinchrew Creek.

Pincher Creek has uh an annual uh there was some kind of parade, I don't know what the parade was, and uh so we decided we're gonna go to the parade.

Just a random thing.

And we decided we're trying to look for a place in the out of the sun.

My doctor likes it when I'm not in the sun, so we're like we need to find a place.

There wasn't very much shade.

We had a couple folding chairs like old people do.

And so we we we sat there along the curb.

And um there's a native lady sitting next to Kieran.

So Kieran, uh being the shrinking violet introvert that she was, immediately strikes up a conversation uh with this lady, especially because she's native And she's a Blackfoot actually, and from a nearby native community.

And the lady starts to talk, and I don't know how Karen gets this deep this fast, but the lady started to tell her about her life.

I'm over here hardly paying any attention.

I'm watching the clowns or something.

I don't know what.

And and uh they've got this active conversation going on, and the lady says, and you know, and then my son committed suicide.

Well We hear that so often in Native America.

And I thought, you know, another tragedy like that.

I did hear that part.

And she said, but you know She said, I was looking desperately for some hope when I lost my son to suicide.

And she said I started to just surf the internet and I found something called on eagle's wings.

And Karen's like, so she's not saying anything.

No, no, she's not blowing her cover.

And the lady goes, and I went to this website and she said I actually found hope there and she said, then I found out more and I found out they had transcripts of this guy's radio program.

His name's Ron, something funny last name uh Hutchcraft I think.

She said, I don't know if you've ever heard of him.

Sharon's dying.

She's having a lot of fun over this.

And I'm over and I'm not even aware this is going on.

And she's like And I don't know this is going on at all.

She so she introduces me and there's we freak out and all so here's what happened First of all, the lady comes to Christ.

And then, because we had a few team members that were going to go to this conference with me, we had just enough, and I called some of our Nez Perce team members from northern Idaho to come up across the border.

And we ended up having an ad hoc event.

Our summer was over, our summer of hope, but it wasn't, among on this Blackfoot community.

And there were about 35, 40 Blackfoot kids who came to Christ through the team there.

Including this lady's one surviving son.

Providential policement.

A parade!

Time to find some shade.

This is why when you get in the rescue business of Jesus, baby, your life is exciting.

Because you never know where God's gonna place you.

Karen was with her dad when he died.

His death was a surprise.

He was in the hospital.

Just an hour before, they had asked him the question, as they asked you routinely at the hospital, said, would you be interested in donating your organs?

And he said, it depends on how soon you want them.

That would be an issue I'd be concerned about.

So and an hour later, an hour later, with only Karen in the room, he was gone.

She was the only one in the room.

Like eight nurses flocked into the room.

I hit the panic button.

They're like frantic.

There's one cool head in the room.

And Karen says, can I pray for you guys?

Her dad's just left.

And she prays the gospel.

And there were tears all around the room with those old hardened nurses there.

On May 16th of this year.

When Karen went to heaven suddenly, you know I was gone.

The kids were here.

And they did take her to ER and tried to see if they could get her back.

That wasn't going to happen.

But as soon as the final verdict was there Karen's daughter shared the gospel of Jesus Christ in the R with six or eight hospital personnel.

She was later told by the lady from AirVac.

She said, nobody's ever told me it was a relationship and not a religion until today.

Even at a moment like that, if you understand who you are and why you're here, you realize that your situation is your assignment.

Your situation is your assignment.

You have been placed in a position to bring hope to one lost soul.

And God's method of spreading his message has not changed from the days of Joshua.

Watch this.

This applies to everybody in this room.

Notice how he spreads a message.

Choose 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.

God again said, I want you to get 12 men. one from each tribe and I want them to bring stones out of the river and make a stone monument that will be here for generations to come.

So when your chids children don't they didn't see this, you say, you know where those stones came from guys?

They came from the bottom of the river.

How do you get them from the bottom of the river?

Well I'm glad you asked.

He said, I want one from each tribe, and I want them to tell their people what to do about that.

Notice this strategy God has.

Each tribe has a voice for him in it.

Each tribe has a voice Each tribe has a witness from that tribe.

Why is that?

Well, these tribes, we think of the Jews, excuse me, these tribes were tribes.

And they were tribal.

And so Dan and Nephthi and Simeon and Reuben, they didn't get along when they were Joseph's, Jacob's sons, and they don't get along as tribes.

But God says I need to plant a messenger in each tribe.

Let me tell you what He's doing with you.

You are His messenger to your tribe.

You got that?

You 're in a tribe.

Everybody's in several tribes.

You have an occupational tribe by virtue of what you do.

You have a recreational tribe.

You have an associational tribe, PTA, Rotary, whatever it is.

You have a generational tribe.

There's all kinds of tribes that you are in.

You are his appointed messenger to your kind of people because your kind of people listen to their kind of people They won't listen to me.

Just like the down the reservation.

That's why I'm the little white guy praying on the bus Because we know that 's got to be, they listen to Native kids because they're native young people.

They say, get me, you're with me, you understand me.

You are the assigned messenger to your tribe.

How are you doing?

If they're going to know about Jesus, they're going to hear about it from somebody from their tribe.

Do you realize today lost people have more sales resistance to the gospel than they've ever had in my lifetime?

They don't want to hear it from a professional God salesman.

That's what they perceive pastors, ministers, evangelists.

We're all professional God salesmen.

You believe it because you got it.

You probably make a lot of money doing it.

You know who they listen to?

Ordinary guy like you.

Ordinary person like you.

Guess what?

Your ordinariness is your greatest qualification to be the most effective representative of Christ to your people.

How are you doing in your tribe?

It's up to you.

God is still in the business of picking messengers out of tribes and having them deliver his messages.

Isn't that an interesting strategy?

And doesn't that have implications for you?

By the way, you know what your most powerful way to present the gospel is?

Sure you do.

It's your hope story That's what happens on the reservations.

How is it that after 400 years of native people saying it's a white man's God, they're suddenly coming to Christ by hundreds and thousands?

Why is this?

What is opening those hard hearts It's somebody like them is telling their hope story.

The best package for the gospel is your hope story.

Do you know why Because they can't argue with that.

They can argue with your beliefs, but they can't argue with how your life has been changed.

When a guy says, once I was blind, but now I can see, they don't go, you weren't blind.

Yes, I was.

I can see you can't you can see I can see you know I was blind you know what the difference is J-E-S-U-S The only explanation, I was blind till Jesus, now I see, because of Jesus.

BCAD not only divides human history, it divides our personal lives.

That's the story of my life.

BCAD, right?

And if you tell your hope story, that's what people are desperate to hear anyway.

Took some time on that, but I want to go quickly to these other three factors.

Other two factors.

Amazing grace.

Amazing grace.

I love this.

It's so obvious in the story.

There's a prepared heart, there's providential placement, and there's amazing grace.

Excuse me, but um I wouldn't think Rahab is God's type with you Um I you know what I love one of the names they called Jesus when they didn't like him?

They were trying to they said, you know what you are, Jesus, you are a You are a friend of sinners I don't think it's that must be in the Greek somewhere in an ancient manuscript.

I think Jesus said, thank you.

That's right.

That's who I am.

Aren't you?

Aren't you?

I hope you're a friend of sinners.

He is.

There is no one who's not his type.

The story of Rahab tells us that.

There's no one who's not his type, not his type.

There's no one beyond his reach.

And only God can make a harlot into a hero.

You say she became a hero?

She is in two very unlikely lists in the Bible First, she's in Hebrews.

Fast forward hundreds of years to the book of Hebrews.

Rahab pops up in the what?

The book of Hebrews?

What?

By faith the prostitute Rahab.

No hiding what she was, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

She's in the hall of heroes, of faith heroes.

Oh, but wait, but wait, there's more.

Salmon, or salmon or however you say it, was who Rahab married.

She married one of those Israeli guys.

And um she is mother-in-law to a lady you may have heard of.

Her name is Ruth.

Yeah, Ruth's mother-in-law of the fame the famed book name.

Yeah, the uh Rahab ends up being Ruth's mother-in-law.

And as you continue to read the genealogy of the royal line of the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, you will find that she is great-great-grandmother to a man named King David.

And of course Jesus is of the house and lineage of David.

You know what's fascinating about this?

Someone we probably wouldn't want in our family.

God wanted in his.

Isn't that awesome?

Somebody we wouldn't want in our family.

God said, I want them in my family tree.

I've done some genealogy stuff.

This is the stuff you hope you don't find.

You want to find kings and queens and generals and military heroes and who is this?

Jesus said, she's going to be in my family.

There's no amazing grace.

Now let's get to the rope of hope.

This is so cool.

Joshua chapter 2, verses 17 to 21.

Now the men said to her, This oath we may you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied the scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down.

And unless you brought your father and mother, your brothers and sisters and all your family into your house.

If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads.

This is going to be the safe place right here.

We will not be responsible.

As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them You will be rescued.

But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath.

You made us swear.

Agreed, she replied, let it be as you say.

So she sent them away, and they departed And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

And as the troops are storming the crushed walls of Jericho, They do see a surviving house.

And two guys out of that vast Israeli multitude are looking for one thing.

One scarlet cord hanging out of a window.

And indeed Rahab has collected her whole family there.

And they are rescued, and it would appear, at least from Rahab, become followers of the God of Israel.

What's interesting is that word rope.

There's a Hebrew word for that, of course.

It's tikwa.

It's T-I-Q -W-A -H.

You have it in your notes.

But listen to this.

That's so when it says the scarlet cord or the rope, it's talking about scarlet tikquat.

But you know what else it means?

Same word.

Means hope.

The rope was hope.

The color red is reminiscent, I think, of something she knew about.

Because she heard the story of the Jews.

Remember Blood on the Doorpost?

was a symbol of their trust in the God who would spare them, as a scarlet rope was, of Rahab's faith.

We were in Canada doing some on Eagles Wings and a um we were in Winnipeg and We didn't want just kill time in Winnipeg.

There are urban communities that are tougher to get around because it's harder to get to the native people in those neighborhoods.

But But we decided we tried we set up a we got a school and a school a lot, you know, and we decided we tried to see what we could do.

But we were in the middle of two gangs, the bloods in the crypts And the color of the prominent gang in that area was red.

And so they all came.

You knew who the gang guys were.

They all came in there red.

And it was rugged and it was tough.

Right here in the heart, a part of the city of Winnipeg where most people would never go.

We do.

And a hopey young lady gave our wrap-up that night.

I'll never forget what she said.

Had to be from God.

She's here's a girl standing there talking about Jesus and she said, I want you all to know one thing about my Jesus I see a lot of red out there.

He bled red for you.

You could have heard a pin drop.

And that red cord was the rope that represented hope.

You know what I think of?

I think of the people in Hurricane Katrina on the roofs.

Remember the pictures?

There were signs.

All that's left is the top of their house outside of the water.

And there's signs that say, no food, no water, no hope.

They got signs up like this.

And the choppers come along and the Coast Guard rescue swimmers start to come down those ropes.

And they get down there, you see what those people do?

Man, they grab, I mean, every muscle they can muster.

They wrap around that guy And he takes them up because their only hope was a rescuer from above.

It's the only hope of that lost soul face you saw when I said that to you. is a rescuer from above.

And you know him and they don't and you're the one they're going to learn it from.

He is the rope coming down to rescue them.

And I think this is a reminder that our message needs to stay laser focused on where our hope is.

By the way.

Hope we you are living in a hope-starved culture and a hope-starved world.

You know what hope is?

Hope is the belief that things can change that never have changed.

You want to win an election in this country?

What do you promise?

Change.

You promise change.

Because that's what hope is.

Change.

I'll I'll change every and that's why the pendulum swings back and forth every election.

Because whoever's in, we want them out.

It's happening all over the world now.

We want change.

No matter who you elect The things that are hurting you don't change.

The deep hunger in the human soul doesn't change, no matter who you elect.

So hope is so hard to find.

And isn't it interesting that Peter says, what's going to be the magnet to get people interested in your Jesus?

They will ask you a reason for the beliefs you believe in.

No, they could care less.

They will ask you a reason for the hope.

Tell me about there's something you've got, I don't know what to call it, maybe it's hope.

Do you know why?

You are living proof That things that could never change can be changed by Jesus.

Someone in this room is living proof a husband can change.

Someone in this room is living proof a wife can change.

Someone in this room is living proof a mom can change.

Someone here is living proof a father can change.

Someone here is living proof an addict can change.

Someone here is living proof that an angry person can change.

Someone in this room is living proof that depression doesn't, you don't have to be a slave to depression.

It can change Someone in this room is living proof that a selfish all-about-me person can become an all-about-you person.

Someone in this room is living proof that deeply wounded and victimized by your past, you can be healed.

That can change.

Someone in this room is living proof.

That the lowest person and the way they have lived can be forgiven.

Someone in this room is living proof that you can face cancer, a deadly diagnosis Or the loss of the most beloved person in your life.

With peace in your soul, you are hope with a face That's why it's up to you.

They know you, they see you.

You don't have to build any bridges.

You're the rescuer.

Don't look for somebody else to do it.

The rope of hope.

And hope has a name, and his name is Jesus.

And there's one thing you've got to talk about.

You don't have to talk about politics.

You don't have to talk about family values.

You don't talk about church.

I know a lot of people say, oh, I I wish they I I talked to them about church.

What are you talking about church for?

Paul said there's one thing.

He said I knew one thing when I came to among you.

Jesus Christ and him crucified.

If they want to talk about religion, you say, I don't want to change the subject.

If you want to talk about your religion, we can do that, but I really have no religion to offer you.

I want to Jesus.

And you get them to that cross as fast as you can.

That's what will steal their heart away.

Is the cross.

Keep extending the rope of hope.

Woo!

Okay.

Now I have to talk even faster than I uh ever thought I could.

I just want to give you all that was The first point, and now we do two minutes on the second point.

Pursuing our captain's mission.

The first was rescuing one lost soul, but you've got to see this last picture.

This is this is I love this This is Joshua.

Here's leadership for you.

We're going to talk about the train wreck at AI tomorrow.

But after Jericho 's great victory came this humiliating defeat at AI because of sin in the camp.

We'll get to that.

But now that that's been taken care of, God wants him to go into Ai and He wants them to take that next city.

Then the Lord said to Joshua, hold out.

Oh, I wish I had some a long stick here.

Whatever.

I don't Hold out toward AI.

There we go.

A second.

I can do this.

Ha!

My friend Mike Stand.

There we go.

Okay I didn't plan this.

Hold out toward AI.

The javelin that is in your hand.

Is anybody a little uneasy right now?

I I am For into your hand I will deliver the city.

So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward.

They entered the city, captured it, quickly set it on fire.

Later it says, for Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin. until they destroyed all who lived in AI, until the mission was completed.

Notice this.

Their captain, their general, his mission, he is pointing Relentlessly, his arm must have gotten extremely tired.

He is pointing his javelin, and he will not take his eyes off the prize.

We have an assigned mission.

That is our mission.

Stick to it.

Don't look to the left or right.

Do that.

And I will lower this.

I'll stop pointing when we have made the conquest.

Today, Yeshua.

New Testament namesake of Joshua, Yeshua is pointing as well, but not to a city.

He is pointing to a world that is lost with good news to deliver, and he is not lowering his javelin.

He is pointing saying That's what you live for for the rest of your days.

This is what I died for.

This is what you live for.

And he is pointing and he's not going to lower that spear.

Till the job is done.

That's our captain's mission.

Mark 16, verse 15. the final orders of Jesus.

Go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone.

I'm going to suggest to you that someone in this room, God's about to change your plans if you'll obey him, if you'll listen Because he has something for you to do in the rescue business for him that will change the trajectory of the rest of your life Certainly person to person you have that mission.

For somebody here.

Might literally make the rest of your years like the rest of Caleb's and Joshua's as they as they went into the fourth quarter of their life.

They had the biggest exploits of their life.

Because this is the only cause that really matters, isn't it?

Jesus says, I want you to bleed for what I bled for.

I want you to pour what you've got into, what I poured everything into.

So I've just taken all this time to get to the third bold choice as part of uncommon courage, and that is I will live to rescue.

I will live to rescue.

I see where my captain is pointing, and he's pointing me to some lost people that are in my circle of influence I will not let him down.

I will not let them down.

It's why I am, where I am.

I get that now.

The passion to rescue the dying drove our savior's life, and we need to be careful.

We tend to wander off into lesser passions.

We're pointing somewhere else.

But for us to possess the land, I believe, means to be intentional about living to reclaim souls Jesus died for.

Look!

What was this all about?

It was about taking what ultimately belonged to God, that land, and putting it under his control.

What is his mission today about?

It's taking lives that an enemy has captured.

Giving them to the one they belong to by right of creation and by right of purchase.

I was in a Denver hotel room speaking out there one time and I saw this, happened to see this crazy story about an armed robber.

In fact, I think he had Maybe shot a police officer.

And he was fleeing on the on the uh freeway and and the uh traffic uh copter guy was trying to keep an eye on him for the police.

And this is all going on live on TV And the traffic copter guy is there and the reporter is there.

And the reporter is going, man, this is, you know what he's giving a blow by blow of what's happening.

Finally, this guy's pulling into some parking lot, a mall or something, and they're they're coming this is all uh real time.

And so the pilot, much to the consternation of the reporter, starts to go down to land and help block this guy.

He's like, we don't have a gun, but this guy's going in, man.

And he lands and actually helps With the police apprehend this guy by landing strategically.

Later there's a little conversation between this reporter and the pilot.

He's going , what were you what did you think you were doing?

That guy's got a gun.

We got nothing.

And the guy said, I can't help it.

He said I was a combat pilot.

He said, and combat pilots have something we call target fixation.

All of a sudden, all that matters is the target.

We can't think of anything else.

We can't think of our own welfare.

Just target fixation.

Oh, I will tell you, Jesus is target fixated on the people he bled for who don't know it yet.

He'd like you to have that same target fixation.

I will live to rescue.

So in the midst of the epic story of Canaan conquest , I think there's a convicting picture of what Jesus expects of us comfortable Christians And I just quickly give you this little peek at what he's expecting of us.

This was a little group that uh already had their land.

They were on the east side.

Before they crossed the Jordan River, this two and a half tribes happened to get their inheritance.

They already had their stuff.

They were settling.

They were starting their farms.

Everybody else is going in to fight See?

And and so Joshua said to them, they're like, hey, you guys have listen, we'll be praying for you.

Remember the command that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you after he said, the Lord your God will give you rest by giving you this land?

Remember you had a conversation.

Moses said, your wives, your children, your livestock can stay in the land, but all your fighting men ready for battle, they've going to cross over ahead of your fellow Israelites.

You are to help them.

You're going in too, until the Lord gives them rest, and he has done for you, and then until and until they too have taken possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them.

After that you can go back and occupy your own land, which Moses said you could do.

And by the way, they ended up leading the way.

Armed for battle.

But back, if you go back to the book of Numbers, have you ever heard the statement, be sure you're Sin will find you out.

Do you know what sin it was?

Well you have to read the chapter.

It's numbers 32.

He's talking to these guys.

The guys who were already settled into their comfort zone.

He said, listen to this question.

Shall you sit here while your brothers go to war Man, is that a question?

And across this planet, there's some of our brothers and sisters in Christ Who are fully engaged in a war?

Shall we sit here Well our brothers go to war.

He said, be sure your sin will find you out.

It is a sin of complacency in the middle of a war.

That's the sin that will find you out.

And so, here in this story, the costly sin of complacency, God never meant for your comfortable place that you may have To be a launching a lounging base.

He meant for it to be a launching pad.

It's not a beach where you lounge.

It's a launch pad where you launch.

And I believe today God is summoning his people to a full mobilization to fight for a lost world.

You know what I love?

There are no deferments and there are no exemptions.

You can't get out of this There are no deferments.

There are no exemptions.

Or as they say in Arkansas, it's all y'all.

It's all y'all.

Let me just show you the response to the call.

Here it is.

Look what it says in chapter 1.

This is how they responded.

Whatever you've commanded us, we will do.

And wherever you send us, we will go.

I challenge you to consider making that statement to your Jesus.

Whatever you command, I will do.

In this mission, I will not sit here when there's a war going on for souls.

Whatever, wherever, I'm yours.

Whatever, wherever, I'm yours.

Back in the 1800s, everything was done by ships.

Many ships went down off the east coast of the United States.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people died in shipwrecks.

Happened all the time.

Very The shoals, the tides, everything changed.

Shipwrecks, people just died hopelessly.

William Newell was at Barnegut in New Jersey.

William Newell's the doctor And William Newell saw there was a tremendous storm one night and the next morning went out to the beach.

Thirteen bodies were washed ashore from a Portuguese sailing vessel.

This is a man who dedicated his life to saving life.

It broke William Newell 's heart.

He said, this is terrible.

That these ships go down, these people died, they have no chance to live.

Two years later, he was Congressman William Newell, who opened, sponsored legislation in the U.

S.

Congress to start the United States lifesaving service.

All along the East Coast there became life-saving stations.

I've been to one that's still standing.

Seven men crews who went out with the motto, you have to go out, you don't have to come back.

Now the motto of the U.

S.

Coast Guard, which descended from the life-saving service.

Hundreds of lives were saved because one man.

So people who died without hope.

And he said, I will not let them die without a chance to be rescued.

Police.

Be the life-saving station where you are.

You have to go out, you don't have to come back.

You cannot let them die without a chance to live.

Let's pray Did you have that lost soul?

You had you can see their face, maybe you thought about it at the beginning.

Now would be a really good time to pray for them.

How about you pray the three open prayer with their name in it?

Lord, open the door For me to tell you fill in the blank about you.

Lord Open their heart before I ever talk to them.

Lord, open my mouth And give me uncommon courage to be more afraid of what will happen to them if I don't than what might happen to me if I do.

Lord, open my mouth with the right words, the right approach, the right tone, at the right time.

But open my mouth.

And Jesus, whatever you ask me to do and wherever you ask me to go, I can do no less with the rest of my life than to live for what you died for.

I will live to rescue.

How can I do less?

Lord Jesus, thank you for this moving portrait Of the least likely person you would expect to be ready for the good news about the God of Israel.

Out of all that you were doing in that that incredible maneuver of a million people.

One lost soul.

Thank you that one day that one lost soul is us.

But we didn't just get rescued to be rescued.

We got rescued to be a rescuer.

And I want to ask you for every believer in this room.

That they will represent at least one more person who will be in heaven with us, who is not now headed that way.

You have heard their name.

You already knew their name.

May the name that was just spoken to you in a prayer be one day entered in your book of life.

Because somebody here Said, I'll go.

I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.