6 March 2010 Meeting

This Saturday was a normal hot Summer's day for the highveld in South Africa. There were only a few kids around when I arrived, but soon there were perhaps 15 waiting for the meeting to start. There was the familiar loud music coming from a little house shop to the one side of the meeting area. Each time that they have their music loud when I arrive, they turn it down in curtasy of the meeting.

This meeting was very difficult with children coming and going throughout the meeting. Children fighting and even some of the kids giving silly answers to questions that I asked. I pressed on through the meeting focusing mostly on the few that were listening. Towards the end of the meeting I notices a few adults sitting just inside the enterance of the flats behind the meeting. One of them a man was leaning forward and seemed to be listerning to the meeting. So I raised my voice a bit to allow my voice to reach him better. At the end I wasn't sure what good came of this particular meeting, but I will leave that in the Lord's hands.

 

'Choose God!' Message

Choose God!

Date: 6/3/2010

Text: Joshua 2 – 6

Introduction

The title of our lesson today is “Choose God!”  Choose God because even though lots of you have probably said to the Lord, at some time, that you want Jesus to save you from your sins, or to come into your heart. When you did, it did not make any change to you. Meaning that you were not serious about asking Jesus to save you from your sins, or that you did not really understand properly. I want to tell you a true story about someone you did understand when she choose God. And how choosing God changed her life forever!

DANGER!

Long ago God’s people Israel went to Canaan and take the land away from the wicked people that lived there, and to make their homes there. The first city that they came to was Jericho. Jericho was a strong city because it had a high, thick wall around it. Which made the people that lived in it feel very safe.

Before Israel did go fight against the people of Jericho they sent two spies to go and learn about the people and the city. The two spies went into Jericho and went into the house of a prostitute named Rahab. When the king of Jericho heard that there were two spies from Israel in Jericho. He sent men to Rahab’s house to bring the spies to him. Rahab had a plan, and that plan did not involve giving the two spies to the kings men. Instead Rahab, whose house was on the big city wall, hid the two spies on the roof of her house. And then told the kings men that the men had left her house when it got dark. And if they hurried they would be able to still catch them on the road back to their people. When the kings men had gone, she told her plan to the spies.

Rahab said, “I know that the LORD has given the land of Canaan to you, and everyone in Canaan is filled with fear of you. Because we heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. And how you destroyed the two Amorite kings on the other side of the Jordan. As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted in fear. And none of our men had any courage left! Because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath.” “Now therefore, promise me that because I have showed you kindness, that you will show my family kindness. That you will save me and my family when you come and destroy Jericho.” The two spies promised Rahab that her family would be safe in her house when they attack Jericho. But to be safe they must be in her house, and not tell the people of Jericho their plans!

What was Rahab doing? Wasn’t she being a traitor to her people in Jericho and the land of Canaan? Yes she was, but her people in Jericho, and in all of Canaan, were living wicked lives according to the Lord. And He was going to use the Israelites to destroy them for their great wickedness. Rahab knew that the God of Israel is the true God and she decide to join God and His people.

When it was time for the spies to leave, she let a red rope down from her window down the outside wall of the city. So that the Israelites could leave the city that way. They told her to hang the red rope out of her window when they came to destroy the city. That way all the Israelite soldiers would know not to touch all that were in the house with the red rope hanging out of the window.

CHOICES MADE!

It wasn’t only Rahab that knew how the Lord had dried a path through the Red sea for the Israelites. And how they had destroyed the two Amorite kings and their people. It was all of the people of Canaan that had heard of this nation whose God was so powerful. They had even become to believe that the God of Israel was the God of heaven and earth. That their armies, and walls, and gods would not save them. In Jericho only Rahab, as far as we can tell, believed and did something about her belief. She decided to choose Israel’s God for her God. Where the people of Jericho, while they believed that Israel could not be beaten or kept out by their high, strong wall, did nothing but be scared! How silly! This is why the Lord gave Israel their land and commanded them to destroy the people. Even when they knew that there was a way to have the true God of heaven and earth as your God. They did nothing about it! They would not turn from their wicked ways to God!

So when the Israelites crossed the river Jordan, on DRY LAND, and came to fight them. Rahab put the red rope hanging out of her house’s window. And then went to fetch her parents and brothers and sisters and their families to come into her house. She made sure that they did as the spies told them! They were not taking any chances!

What did the people of Jericho do? They did nothing but be scared out of their minds! They did not know what to do. It seems that none of them wanted to try join God and His people. How foolish they were!

So Israel, after marching around the city for seven days as God commanded them. Once around on each day, and then seven times on the seventh day. Then when the priests blew their trumpets, the Israeli soldiers shouted very load. And the Lord caused the high, thick wall to fall down to the ground. And the Israeli soldiers went up into the city and destroyed the people. Everyone of them except Rahab and her family that were in her house marked with the red rope.

LIVES CHANGED

After the city of Jericho was destroyed, Rahab and her family went to live with the Israelites. They became her people and their God became her God. Rahab wasn’t a good person, she had lived in wickedness for many years. But when she learned about the true God of heaven and earth, she made the right choice. She chose the Lord for her God, and the Lord accepted her. We know she was serious because choosing God put her life in danger at first. She had to become a traitor to her people who refuse to choose God.

We know from the bible record that Rahab’s life completely changed when she chose God. She turned completely to the Lord. She therefore turned from her old wicked ways and stopped being a prostitute. In fact the bible records that Rahab married an Israelite prince named Salmon. Rahab’s son was Boas, and Boas’s son was Obed, and Obed’s son was Jesse, and Jesse’s son was King David! The Lord Jesus was a son in King David’s future family! So the Lord Jesus came into the world through Rahab’s future family! What a change in life! From a prostitute about to be destroyed with her wicked people, to a princess in Israel and in the Lord Jesus’ family! What a wonderful change happened to her when she chose God, and meant it!

Now what lesson is there for us about choosing God and being serious about it? Can you see the lesson for us?

DANGER – LESSON

Well, we like the people of Jericho, are also in real danger! Did you know that all of the people of the world are in danger? The people of Jericho were in danger of being judged by the Lord for their sinful ways. And the judgment was coming and they knew it! The bible says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We’re in danger of God’s judgement too! There is coming a time that God will judge our sin. The bible says, “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement.” God’s judgement it coming! The bible says it so we know it’s true. He cannot accept our sin. He must punish it. And we all know how the Lord will punish it. In the a horrible place named hell.

CHOICE’S MADE – LESSON

But, like Rahab we can do something about it. The Bible tells us what to do. We are told that God’s Son, the Lord Jesus, took our sin on Him and God punished Him in our place. Then on the third day after Jesus died, the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. And if we will receive Jesus, the bible tells us, we will become sons and daughters of God! Because receiving Jesus will mean that Jesus died for our sins, and we are now as clean of sin as Jesus is clean of sin now in Heaven. Whatever we do we must not be like the people of Jericho, that knew that God’s people were coming to destroy their city and them. And that God was going to make sure that even their high, thick wall couldn’t stop them. But still the people of Jericho would not turn to God! They just waited and worried. We must not be foolish like them, rather be like Rahab and choose God and let Him change our lives for the better as well.

LIVES CHANGED – LESSON

As we saw Rahab’s life changed completely! In Jericho she lived in the sins of ignoring God, and living in the wickedness of being a prostitute. When she chose God she lived her belief. She was with God’s people and let God change her life. We saw how she married a prince in Israel and how that King David and after him the Lord Jesus was born into her future family. When a sinner today receives Jesus they become a son or daughter of God! And God will change a son or daughter to live and behave like a son or daughter. He will cause them to love Him and want to obey Him. To want to tell others about Him. And how to receive Jesus as their Saviour and be saved from their sin. They will not be like so many who go to church and Sunday School but never really choose God. And because these are not really serious about choosing God. They don’t get made sons or daughters of God whose sins have been taken away, and a place made for them in heaven. They don’t get to have God look after them here now until they one day go to heaven.

Conclusion

What will you do? Will you take God seriously and mean it when you receive Jesus to take away you sins? Will you let Him tell you what to do and how to live?

It all starts with seeing your sin as a problem between you and God. A problem that can only be taken away by receiving Jesus to save you from your sin. Understanding that after you have received the Lord Jesus you will let Him change you life any way He wants to.