Real Characters - Job

I'm going to start with some easy questions first. Is God loving? Is He faithful? Has He proven Himself to be full of grace? Yes. Absolutely. Is He to be feared? Is he to be obeyed? Is he to be worshiped? Of course. Is God just? Is He merciful? Now...is God fair?

That can be a hard question for some people to answer. We want the answer to be "yes". As believers, we want to be able to say that God will always be fair, He has always been fair and He never changes. Some people would say that it may not be fair now but in the end it will all be made fair. Honestly, I don't know where that passage is found.

We see lots of places where God says He will reward us for what we do and how we react and for our obedience; some of that reward will come in this life and some of it in Heaven, but nowhere, that I know of, does God ever say He will be fair to us. He has proven Himself just. He has proven Himself trustworthy. He has proven Himself loving, merciful and gracious.

But how do you respond when faced with a situation where you go to visit some family in another city and when you arrive your family tells you the bad news that soon after you left home your house caught on fire and everything you own is now in ashes?

What would be your response if you took your 5 year old son to the doctor and the doctor diagnosed him as having leukemia and gave him 1 year to live?

How do you react when your wife of however many years comes in one day and says, "I don't want to be married anymore."?

When the doctor says you have breast cancer, what is your first reaction?

When the doctor says, "I'm sorry. She's gone." What is the first thing you say to God?

Unless you have been in that kind of situation, you don't really know how you would react but we have a great model in the book of Job. Job is the book just before Psalms and it is an absolutely fascinating story about a real character, a real person who lived nearly 2000 years before Jesus. Scholars think it is probably the very first book of the Bible written but the story is as applicable today as ever.

Now a good preacher would probably turn the book of Job into at least a 3 or 4 sermon series and you could do many more than that if you wanted. But since you have me and we only have one sermon to sum this book up, we are not going to do justice to the study of Job but that’s ok. Turn to the book of Job and let’s see what God would want us to learn from it today.

Brian Amerman spent 40 years with the railroad and just recently retired but it is my understanding that he had not been there long when he applied to be a signalman. For his interview, he was told to meet the inspector at the signal box. The inspector asked him, “What would you do if you realized that two trains were heading toward each other on the same track?” Brian said, “That’s easy. I would switch the points for one of the trains.”
The inspector then asked, “What if the lever broke?” Brian said, “Then I’d jump down out of the signal box and I’d use the manual lever over there.” Next, the inspector said, “What if the lever had been struck by lightning?” Young Brian said, “Then, I would run to the signal box and phone the next signal box to let them know what was happening.”
The inspector continued on, “What if the phone was busy?” Brian said, “Well, in that case, I would rush down out of the signal box and use the public emergency phone at the crossing up there.” Then, the inspector said, “What would you do if the public emergency phone had been vandalized?” Brian said, “Oh, well, then I would run into town and get my uncle.” That answer puzzled the inspector. So, he asked, “Why would you go get your uncle?” Brian answered, “That’s simple. Because he’s never seen a train wreck before.” Contributed by: Lyndon Marcotte to sermoncentral.com

If you are like Brian’s uncle and you have never seen a train wreck before then hold on because you are about to see one. You are going to see one in the life of Job here this morning but more than likely you will see one in your own life one of these days if you haven’t already. The truth of the matter is that none of us are immune to tragedy and some of you may think you are attracted to it like 2 magnets.

The question is not if it is going to happen. The question is how are you going to respond when it does happen. The first chapter of Job could be a semester’s worth of study at the seminary but for today I just want to read verses 1-3 and 6-22.

In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters, ³ and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

Stop right there for a second. I wish we had time to develop all of the significant points that are just in the first 3 verses but for now I just want you to notice where it says that Job was blameless and upright. This, of course, doesn’t mean he was perfect even though that is how the KJV translates it. The definition of that is to be complete or well-rounded. Think of him as a mixture of Donald Trump and Billy Graham with a little Mr. Rogers thrown in.

Of all the people in the Bible, Job is probably not the one we think of to be like. We might want to be like David or Paul or Stephen, but Job is pretty low on the list of guys we want to emulate and that is a shame. By the time this is over, I hope you will see that becoming more like Job is a good thing. Maybe not exactly like Job in every way but we can learn 3 things in our effort to become like him. To become more like Job it will take:

· Faith

· Integrity

· Discernment

The first is faith and we will see that in verses 6-22.

Now read 6-22. ⁶ One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. ⁷ The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”⁸Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”⁹ “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. ¹⁰ “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. ¹¹But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”¹² The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.¹³ One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, ¹⁴a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, ¹⁵ and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”¹⁶ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”¹⁷ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”¹⁸ While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, ¹⁹ when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”²⁰ At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship ²¹ and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.”²² In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

I don’t care how this story ends, I find it hard to believe that anybody could read this part and say God is fair. In fact, somebody who didn’t know God, someone who had no relationship with Him might read this and have a good argument that God is a big old meanie-head. Satan practically dares God to do something and God falls for it? Is God mean or just stupid?

Those are understandable points and questions for people to have that do not have a relationship with God but we, as believers, know a different side of God, don’t we? Job had a relationship with God based completely on faith. Faith is the only way to have a relationship with God. It is the only way we can do it and it is the only way God will allow it. And faith is the only way that Job was able to say what he did in verse 21. It is only by faith that Job was able to lose everything he had in this world and still praise God.

The thing about trials and difficulties in this life is that it not only requires faith to get through them but it also strengthens your faith on the other side. If you just have enough faith to believe that God will get you through a small trial then you will, after the small trial, have faith that God will get you through the big stuff.

George Muller knew about big trials. He was known for starting orphanages in the mid-1800s with little or no money and yet saw the Lord do awesome things in his life. He said, “God delights to increase the faith of his children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say – and say it deliberately – trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith.”

I Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

That should be very comforting to all of us but it also tells us something about God. Job didn’t fail this test of trial and difficulty because of his faith in God but also God knew Job could withstand it or he wouldn’t have put him through it. God had faith in Job! Do you understand that? When we are tempted to sin in any way, God is right there to say, “You can do this. You can overcome. I know you can. I have faith in you. I am not putting too much on you.”

Wow! That is incredible to think that the One in whom we have faith has faith in us and if we are just obedient then we can become more like Job. Let’s look at the next thing that is required of us if we are to have the character of Job. Let’s look at Job’s integrity. Look at chapter 2, verses 7-10.

⁷ So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. ⁸Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.⁹ His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”¹⁰ He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

We don’t know exactly what Satan struck him with but Job’s symptoms, as we see throughout the book included painful sores over his whole body, nightmares, bad breath, fever and pain. And yet through all of this he maintained his integrity.

The dictionary defines integrity as having high morals or firm principals but it also says it is the state of being complete, undivided or whole. Job knew what integrity was and he placed a high price on it. In fact, as you keep in mind how the dictionary says it is being complete, undivided or whole, look at how Job himself describes it in chapter 29 verse 14:

“I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.”

From head to toe Job was covered, complete, undivided and whole.

He wore his integrity as his garment and nobody wants to be seen partially clothed. Nobody wants to be seen in rags or patchwork. And you will be seen. The question is how much is your integrity worth? When God looks at you, not to mention your friends, family and even non-believers, but mainly when God looks at you, how much is your integrity worth?

What is your tipping point? By “tipping point”, I mean, how much does it take before the negativity, trials and hardships of this life, trials that we all go through, how much of that can you take before your integrity starts to fray and tear and you start blaming God and cursing God?

For most of us it would take quite a bit, right? We have all been through some difficult times and I will tell you that I have yet to blame or curse God but what I am tempted to do at times like that is just ignore Him. When God doesn’t do things like I, in my great wisdom, think it ought to be done, then I sometimes am tempted to just say, “Ok God, why don’t you just go your way and I’ll go mine. Until I get this figured out, just leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone.”

And when that happens, do you know what happens next? Satan does a little happy-dance because he knows he has found the chink in my armor. Do you remember that passage in Ephesians 6 that talks about taking up the full armor of God? Satan looks at that armor and sees that it is lacking in integrity, that there is a tear in it, a spot that is unprotected and he takes careful aim and takes me out. Another win for the evil one. Another loss of blessing for me and another example for the world to see that there is no difference in Christians and non-Christians and that one god is as good as the next.

How much is your integrity worth? For some it may be pretty cheap and will become obvious when you have a bad hair day or broken finger nail. For others it may take more. For Job, NOTHING was as precious as his integrity and as he proclaimed in chapter 13, verse 15, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him!” Oh, God I pray that is our response as well!

Job had faith and integrity. Let’s look at Job’s discernment. At the end of chapter 2, Job’s 3 buddies show up. They had heard about his troubles and it says that they came from far off just to be with him and comfort him. And it says in verse 13 that they sat on the ground with him for a week without saying a word. Those are good friends. They really are. But as we all know the problem came at the end of that week when the silence ceased and the talking began. And from chapter 4- chapter 37 it is nothing but talk and as so often happens that talk was worthless.

For 34 chapters his friends try to convince Job that he has sinned and that is what is causing his problems. In chapter 4 verse 7 Eliphaz says, ““Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?
Where were the upright ever destroyed?” In chapter 11, verse 6 Zophar says that God has even forgotten some of your sin. In chapter 25 Bildad even questions whether a man can be righteous in God’s eyes.

But Job, as I said before, has a relationship with God. He knows Him. He has spent time with Him. He has worshiped. He has sacrificed. He has prayed and meditated and he knows the character of God as well as any man can and in chapter 26, verses 1-3, he sarcastically says to his friends, “How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble!³ What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!
And what great insight you have displayed!”

In times of trouble, most of you know you will get lots of advice. Some of it may be good advice. Some of it…not so much. The question is, how do you know what to do? Well, the answer is and always has been, what does God say? What does the Word say? What is God telling you in your quiet time? The answer is not, what do your friends think? The answer is not even, what do you think? The answer is, what is God telling you?

Does the Word say that joy comes in the morning? Then joy comes in the morning. Does God say He will never leave you nor forsake you? Then hang your hat on that. Does God promise blessings for obedience? Celebrate that! Count on that! Claim that promise! Does God promise this life will be fair? No. Have the discernment to know the difference between what God says and what you wish he would say. Know what His word says and you get that discernment by prayer, Bible study and worship.

Turn to the last chapter of Job, chapter 42. And as you do I will just say that while I want to be like Job in a lot of ways, I ultimately want to be like Jesus. That’s my goal. Job wasn’t perfect but Jesus was and that is my goal. But I love the last chapter of Job. Read 7-9.

^{7 “}After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. ⁸ So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” ⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the Lord told them; and the Lordaccepted Job’s prayer.”

I know this life isn’t fair. I know it is extremely difficult sometimes. But in the end, I want to be known as Job was known. I want God to call me His servant. You can’t be God’s servant and be a servant to your work. You can’t be God’s servant and be a servant to your spouse, your hobbies, your kids or anything else. It is time to decide, right here and right now. Whose servant are you? To be God’s servant is going to require faith, integrity and discernment. It may not be fair, but it will be worth it!

"Real Characters - Saul" I Samuel 13, 15, 18

Potential.  Potential is a word that can bring great hope or bring great disappointment, all in how it is used.  "She has potential."  That brings great hope.  "She had potential."  What a disappointment.  If your time has not yet come and you have potential, that's exciting.  If your time has come and gone and you still just have potential then that's just sad.

This little rubber band has potential.  It really does.  In fact, when I stretch it, it is the very definition of "potential energy".  When I stretch this rubber band it has the potential to do all kinds of things.  It has the potential to fly across the room.  It has the potential to go really fast and to cause you pain, especially if you are on the front row.  When I pull it back, you respect it because you know what it can do.  But now, when I stop stretching it, it has no potential.  It is worthless.  It's just taking up space with no redeeming qualities.

All it can do now is go back to my desk drawer and tell all the other rubber bands about the good old days when it almost flew across the room.  It almost did this and did that.  It had great potential there for a while.  But now it's just pretty pathetic.

Does that sound like anybody you know?  We probably have all known someone who failed to live up to their potential; someone who had everything going for them but squandered an opportunity to use it.  "Potential" is a word you will hear often on Sunday afternoon during the early part of football season.  All the young guys are described as having potential and when somebody has potential on the football field, it is obvious to anyone with an experienced eye.

The coaches see it.  The other players see it and even the opposing scouts see it and do their best to plan to do whatever they can to minimize that potential.  It's the same way in our spiritual lives.  We have often talked about this life being a battle.  There are dozens of passages in the Bible that refer to this life as a battle or a war and we are given everything we need to survive and thrive in this battle if we just use what is given to us and live our lives to our full potential.

And we all have great potential to do great things to further the Kingdom of God.  We are all given gifts and talents by God that will allow us to do great things that will make the name of Jesus famous.  And when we have those gifts we are commanded to use them.  If you can sing, sing.  If you can teach, teach.  If you can clean, organize, prepare, witness, pray, give wise council, whatever you can do, we are told to use that gift to the glory of God.

But I have to warn you:  The potential in that gift is seen by all who have an experienced eye, including Satan, and like an opposing scout, he is doing his best to minimize your potential.  We are told in I Peter 5:8 that he is a roaring lion looking to devour us and if he can't kill us, he at least wants to keep us from living up to our potential.  If at the end of your life all that can be said is, "He had potential", then Satan says that's one for the win column, baby!

There was a young man in the Old Testament who had great potential.  He had it all, in fact.  He was tall, good-looking, smart, and strong with an humble personality and a noble character; a lot like me in so many ways.  But unlike me, he was chosen to be the first king of Israel.  And when God told Samuel to anoint Saul, Samuel said that there was no one like him among all the people.  Later it says that the Spirit of God dwelled inside Saul.

Now that's potential!  This was before Pentacost in the New Testament where the Holy Spirit came on everyone who believed and remained there.  In the Old Testament the Spirit would come into some people and not into others and could leave at any time.  But Saul had the Spirit of the Living God living inside of him and so his potential just skyrocketed.

Can you imagine what Satan felt as he looked at Saul?  Satan is a good judge of potential.  He is a great scout for the opposite team.  He knows what to look for and I think when he saw Saul he must have been a little nervous.  He wasn’t nervous when he saw that Saul was head and shoulders taller than everybody else.  He wasn’t intimidated by Saul’s good looks.  Satan didn’t much care about Saul’s bloodline or ancestry or what he had done in the past.  Satan saw that Saul had the Holy Spirit living inside of him and was very concerned about what Saul might do in the future to further the Kingdom of God.

Unfortunately Satan is a good judge of character and when he sees somebody with that kind of potential he goes to his tried and true playbook and pulls out some trick plays that work all too often.  I want to look at 3 things that Satan does to minimize Saul’s potential and I hope we will be able to recognize these plays in our own life so we don’t wind up like Saul, with an empty life that once had so much potential.

Judy kids with me that I always have 3 points in my sermons so that everyone will know it’s a good sermon because everybody knows you need 3 points to have a good sermon.  Well I tried this week to find either 2 or 4 things about Saul just to be different but God showed me 3 so I’m going with that.

We will look at 3 different passages in 3 different chapters of the book of I Samuel.  I changed it after the bulletins were printed so don’t try to follow that necessarily.  First let me tell you what Satan wants us to do or to be and then we will see what the Bible says about these things in the life of Saul.

When these 3 qualities manifest themselves in our lives you can bet that Satan is at work trying to minimize the potential we have to further the Kingdom of God.  It worked in the life of Saul and it will work in our lives as well if you allow them to remain.  The first thing Satan likes to see in our lives is for us to be worried.  The next thing he likes is when we are selfish and the last thing Satan enjoys is when we are jealous.  He knows that with those 3 attributes that our potential, as it was for Saul, will be reduced down to nothing and that at the end of our life, people will think of us and say sadly, “They had such potential.”

Turn to I Samuel 13 and let’s read verses 5-15.

Looking at the mismatched numbers, one can understand why Saul would be worried, right?  The Philistines had thousands more troops, many with chariots and all of them well-armed and we find out in the passage after this that the Israelites didn’t even have any real weapons!  Who wouldn’t be afraid?  That’s like bringing a knife to a gunfight with thousands of gunfighters. 

And then is one of those times when it didn’t matter how much taller and good-looking Saul was.  When all your army has to defend themselves with are sharp sticks and harsh words, it’s going to be a bad day.  The good news is that the cavalry is coming.  Samuel was the prophet who anointed Saul to be king according to what God told him and it was Samuel that told Saul to wait there at Micmash and don’t do anything and don’t worry about the battle because he would be there in 7 days and he would sacrifice to God and ask for his wisdom and blessing for the battle.

Have you ever been almost patient?  Have you ever almost done what you were supposed to do?  Have you ever been almost obedient?  Do you know what almost-obedience is called?  Disobedient.  And the reason he was disobedient is because Saul got worried.  And he had good reason to be worried as we saw with all those troops coming against him but he also had an even better reason to not be worried.

His troops were scattering like rats from a sinking ship.  They had no real weapons.  He had to do something.  He told Samuel in verse 12 that he felt compelled.  “You weren’t here, Samuel.  God wasn’t here.  And so I had to do something to save the day.  I had to do something.”

And so Saul went through the motions of making a sacrifice because he figured that was what needed to be done before God would bless the battle but God wasn’t interested in a cow or a sheep being burned up on an altar.  That wasn’t the point.  God wanted Saul to wait on God; to have faith that God would prove Himself faithful to do what He said He would do.  But Saul got worried and disobeyed God by “acting foolishly” as Samuel said.

Do you think worry is a sin?  Does it displease God when we sin?  Yes, for one thing His word tells us not to do it.  In Philippians 4:6, we are commanded, “Do not be anxious [do not worry] about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  1 Peter 5:7 says to cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

And that is an incredible promise to us as believers; to have the peace of God and we get that peace when we refuse to worry.  But as we see in the life of Saul, the reason that worry is a sin is not just because it robs you of your peace.  It’s not because you won’t get a good night’s sleep.  The main reason that worry is a sin is not because it affects you but also because it affects the Kingdom of God.  Worry leads to trying to do it on your own and that is never the best plan.  Worry leads you to do things that will bring dishonor to God, His name and His throne and this family.

Mickey Rivers was an outfielder for the Texas Rangers years ago.  His philosophy was this:  “Ain’t no sense worrying about things you got control over, because if you got control over them, ain’t no sense worrying about them.  And there ain’t no sense worrying about things you ain’t got control over because if you ain’t got control over it there ain’t no sense worrying about them.”

Not exactly Shakespeare and not exactly biblical but pretty good advice.  God doesn’t want you to worry but Satan does.

The next thing Satan likes to see in your life is when you are selfish.  Turn to chapter 15 and let’s read verse 1-14.

 

Some time has passed from chapter 13 and we see that Saul is militarily in much better shape.  He has gone from 600 men to nearly a quarter of a million.  But unfortunately his character is still lacking.  God makes it plain what is supposed to happen.  Samuel makes it clear that they are to kill every man, woman and child and to destroy everything that had anything to do with the Amalekites.

We saw something very similar in our study of Joshua just last week when God told Joshua to take Jericho and kill and destroy everything in it.  And you remember that Achan took some of the bounty for himself and hid it in his tent.  Well, Saul took so much stuff he couldn’t hide it in his tent but he did try to cover it up.

But before we go any further with Saul’s selfishness I need to take a time out and I would like to discuss something else we see here because it is also important to us in the times that we live.  In a recent Wednesday night study of “What does the Bible say about_______?” we looked at what the Bible says about Israel.  It seems very harsh for God to command Joshua and Saul to kill every man, woman and child and all the animals and destroy all the stuff.  Without going into a lot of detail, I want you to see why this happened.

Way back in Genesis, God told Abraham, the father of the Jews, that God would bless those who blessed him and curse those who cursed him.  And the thing you need to realize, real quickly, is that you don’t know of anyone who is an Amalekite.  You don’t know any Philistines.  None of you are related to any Moabites.  There is no such thing as a Hitite anymore because of that promise.  And for future reference, if you are here this morning and you are from Russia or China or Iraq, just know that God has not changed.  It would be very wise to know if you are an American president that God has not changed His mind about Israel.

All of that is for free.  It doesn’t have anything to do with being selfish but it is a biblical truth and I just had to touch on it.  We will talk more about that later.

So we see that in spite of the clear directive from the Lord Saul keeps for himself all the good stuff from the Amalekites.  He keeps the best of sheep and cattle and he also spares the life of the Amalekite king.  This was not done from a merciful heart.  This was done so he could tie the conquered king to his chariot and lead him around town as a showpiece, to show that Saul was the conqueror and the other king was conquered. 

Obviously Saul is pretty pleased with himself.  It says in verse 12 that Saul had set up a monument in his own honor.  At least Achan had tried to cover it up.  He at least had some shame.  Saul had none.  He had nothing but selfishness.  I think it is interesting what Samuel says to Saul when he finally catches up to him on his country-wide “see how great I am” tour.

Saul greets the old prophet with “Hey, Lord bless you.  Mission accomplished.  I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do.  Ain’t I somthin’?”

Samuel says to his selfish king, “Then why do I hear sheep and cattle?”  If you had done what you are supposed to do then it would be silent around here.  I guess Samuel hadn’t seen the king tied to the chariot yet.  The biggest problem here is not that Saul took all the good things for himself.  It wasn’t so much that God didn’t want Saul to have nice stuff.  He didn’t want him to have that stuff.  He didn’t want Saul to have anything to do with the Amalekites and that included their stuff.

Let’s look at this from Saul’s point of view.  He had worked hard to beat the Amalekites.  He conquered the place.  He deserved to have some of the spoils of war.  And maybe that was true but that’s not the point.  At other times God allows them, even commands them to take everything home with them.  But the point is that God had a reason for making that demand and when we think even today that God is going to overlook some disobedience; that it’s not that big of a deal, then we are falling into that lie of Satan; that lie that keeps us from reaching our full potential.

Of the 3 character flaws that we are looking at today, I believe this one is the hardest to see in the mirror.  None of us think of ourselves as selfish, do we?  A little boy and his sister were riding a stick horse together.  They galloped around a little while and the little boy stopped and said to his sister, “If one of us would just get off this stick horse it would make more room for me.”  But he didn’t think of himself as selfish.  It made perfect sense to him and that’s when Satan gets the victory.

 

Satan loves it when we are worried.  He thinks it’s funny when we are selfish and he enjoys watching how things work out for us when we are jealous.  Turn to chapter 18.  Nobody thinks of themselves as being jealous either.  We just think of it as being wise or being careful or being just or even having the spirit of discernment.  The Bible calls it sin.  Galatians 5:26 says, ““Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”  That sure sounds like Saul; conceited, provoking, envying.  Look at chapter 18 verses 5-9.

Can’t you just see the scene here?  Saul is leading the triumphal parade and David is a few feet behind him.  The people are singing and dancing in celebration.  Mr. Selfish Saul is full of himself, doing the queen wave as he rides in his big gold chariot.  And then he hears this homemade song sung by some ladies as he passes.  “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”

Not exactly Top 40 material but it is enough to make Saul jealous. I Corinthians 13 says that if we have love then we won’t be envious.  The thing about jealousy and envy is that it, like selfishness is so subtle.  We don’t often recognize it in ourselves and it is often one of the last things Satan has up his sleeve.

The Screwtape Letters is a fascinating book of satire written by C.S. Lewis.  In it he humorously describes Satan giving advice to one of his demon nephews on how to secure the damnation of a British man known only as “the patient.”  The nephew has a difficult time getting the patient to sin.  When Satan asks what the problem is the nephew says that the man is completely honorable and humble, not at all proud.  Satan then replies that the nephew’s job is to then make the patient proud of being so humble.

"Real Characters" Rahab - Joshua 2

FBCRB 9/2/12

"Real Characters" –Rahab – Joshua 2

I’ve mentioned before that I am a sucker for a sunset. I love to see God show off like He does so often at the end of the day. After a busy day sitting at a desk looking at a computer or after dealing with people all day, don’t you love to see the sun go down surrounded by pink, orange and blue colored clouds? It’s so peaceful and yet so powerful. I always think of Romans 1:20 that says, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." How can you look at a sunset and see all the colors and realize that every one is different and they are all so incredible and not know for certain that there is a God? I can’t comprehend how someone who can see can be an atheist.

Several years ago I rode my motorcycle up to Montana and I stopped for the night somewhere north of New Mexico just over the Colorado border. Nothing but scrub brush about 3 feet high as far as you could see and no people for who knows how far. I just pulled off the highway onto a gravel road and drove for a while until I found just the right spot and just pulled out my sleeping bag and watched the sun go down. I’ll never forget that one sunset. There was no sound, just colors. There were no other people around for miles but then the moon came up (huge!) and it was as if God said, "Here ya go. This is just for you."

When God displays His power, people notice. When God’s power is on display, more often than not, lives are changed. If you are paying attention, you will realize that it has nothing to do with who you are and everything to do with who He is. When God wants to reveal something about Himself He can make everyone in the world know about it like is going to happen in the last days or He can allow only one person see like it felt for me in the scrub brush. I don’t know why some people get it and some people don’t. I can’t explain why God reveals Himself to some and not to others. It doesn’t always make sense to us but I guess that is one more reason why He is God and we are not.

I can’t understand why God would choose to use some of the people He does. Who would ever think to use Moses, an old shepherd, to lead the Israelites out of slavery? Why did the youngest son of Jesse get picked to be the anointed king of all of Israel? What was God thinking when He chose Saul in the New Testament to impact the world? And what did God see in Mary that made Him choose her to care for the most precious gift in all of humanity? I don’t know. But God seems to specialize in that kind of situation, you know? He loves to include in His perfect plan people who have huge flaws or several strikes against them and the reason, or at least one of the reasons He does this, is to make sure that everyone knows it was He who did it; that He gets the glory and the honor and not the person.

And you will never become a mature Christian until you realize that if anything good comes out of your life that it is God working in you and through you and you should just thank Him for using you. Just be grateful to be a part. The Bible is just full of illustrations of this. This week we are going to look at another real character out of the Bible. I have enjoyed doing this. I love to look at the story of some character’s life and see why God put that person in the Bible. For what reason are they included in the scripture? This week I had someone else in mind but I felt like God was leading me to include a woman in the "Real Characters" series (and I might add another after this later on) so I sat down and really prayed that God would show me exactly which woman

He wanted me to talk about.

I honestly had barely gotten the question out of my mouth and God said, "Rahab." I was instantly a little uncomfortable especially since I now had the responsibility of reminding God who and what Rahab was. So I very nicely just whispered to God a reminder that Rahab was a prostitute. We probably don’t want to spend a whole sermon on that kind of a woman, right? Wrong. I didn’t have peace about any other person and I felt like God was making it clear that was who we are supposed to talk about today even though she was a woman of ill repute. Although I will say that one of the commentaries refers to her as an "inn-keeper". Yea, that’s what she was. Inn-keeper.

So, let’s look at the story of Rahab the "inn-keeper"in Joshua chapter 2. Last week we looked at Joshua and how they had walked around Jericho and the walls fell and then moved on to the little town of Ai and the army got routed. In both instances they sent spies to spy out the land to see what they were up against. Some people say they should not have done that but I happen to think it was just good planning even though we saw last week that even though they sent spies to Ai, they still lost the battle. Unfortunately we don’t know anything about these spies. We don’t even know their names but I’m sure they must have been some of the best of the best troops they had.

These guys must have been the special-ops, Navy SEAL Team 6 kinda dudes. I can just see them in their camouflage togas with black and green face paint and night vision goggles crawling by the cover of darkness into the edge of town. But I may be reading more into this than is there. Let’s read Joshua chapter 2, verse 1-15. Read verse 1 and stop. "Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there." Stop right there. I have a question. What in the world are they doing there? Joshua told them to spy out the land, not the ladies. So how did they end up in the house of a harlot?

Well, again, we don’t know for sure how that happened but I have some ideas and I don’t believe it was for the wrong reasons. I believe this was a smart move. Where else could 2 strangers go and not draw a lot of suspicion? Her house was on the wall of the city so it would be easy in, easy out.  Also, I’m sure Rahab knew a lot of people and she would know what was going on behind the scenes and how the people felt about life in Jericho so, we will give them credit for making a smart move and obviously one that God had led them to as we will see by how it works out. Let’s continue reading in verse 2.

The king of Jericho was told, "Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land." ^{3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land."4But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.8 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 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.10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea[}

^{a] for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.[b] 11 When we heard of it, 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.12"Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 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."14 "Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land."15 So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.}

^{There are, of course, 3 things I want us to see in this passage but before we look at Rahab in depth, I want to take an over-all look at her and her life as we see it here. Where does it say that Rahab had seen the Red Sea parted? Does it say that she saw with her own eyes the Amorites being destroyed? No. It says that she only heard about it. She did not actually see it. Do you know what that is called? That’s called faith and I’m not the only one to notice it and call it what it is. Turn over to Hebrews 11 in your Bible. Do you know what Hebrews 11 is called? The "Faith" Chapter. Turn to verse 31. "By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient." By faith! And what is the best definition of faith? The first verse of Hebrews 11 tells us, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." It may as well have a picture of Rahab next to that definition.}

^{And that is why God put the story of Rahab in the Bible; so we could learn from her faith. As I said there are 3 things in particular I want to learn from her faith and #1 is that her faith came from hearing. #2 is that her faith became her identity. And #3 is that her faith led to action.}

^{Now I have a question. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes from hearing. If Rahab's faith came from hearing about God and His power, then why didn't all the other people of Jericho have faith}

^{? Think about it. I think you would agree that her faith came from hearing but I'm quite sure that everybody was talking about it. When word came to Jericho that the Red Sea had parted, Rahab was not the only one to hear so what was it about Rahab's hearing of this that gave her faith and yet nobody else that had heard about it was considered to have faith?}

^{It's the same reason that people can look at a sunset and see all the colors and the clouds and the way that it is beautiful and yet different every evening and yet they still think that it happened all by chance or that there was a big bang or Mother Nature did it. It is because they choose not to believe. They choose not to believe that there is a God because if there is a God then they would certainly have to change their lifestyle because deep down in their hearts they know that if there is a God that He would control the sunsets and if He had the power to control the sunsets He must have all power and therefore should be worshiped and that is going to interfere with their golf game.}

^{Believing in God would change what they do for fun. It would change the way people feel towards each other. It would change the way they would feel about themselves. It would change everything...and they are exactly right. Seeing God's power for what it is changes people. It has to. and so instead of changing they remain what the Bible calls "stiff-necked". God uses the term to describe Israel and it comes from the situation where a horse doesn't want to be turned by the halter and keeps his neck stiff so he doesn't have to change.}

^{There was a time in my life when I was stiff-necked. I had seen and I had heard but I didn't want to change. I wanted to live my life like I wanted. I remember during this time that I heard my Uncle Bill preach a sermon on being stiff-necked. He described what it was and he described me. He told what would happen if you were stiff-necked and I could see it already in my life. There were consequences that he described and I couldn't pretend that was not going on in my own life as he spoke but I didn't know what to do. Or so I thought. I did know what to do. I just didn't want to. But he gave some wise advice that day that I will never forget.}

^{Uncle Bill didn't know what was going on in my life at the time but the Holy Spirit gave him just the right words and I felt like he was staring right at me when he said, "STOP IT!" Just stop. Stop fighting it and give in. You know it's the truth. You know God is right. You know how you should live but you resist. Instead of having faith in God to protect and provide for you, you say you can do it. Just like when Jesus asked Saul on the road to Damascus, "Saul, why do you kick against the goads?"}

^{You have heard the truth and seen God's power at work and instead of trusting in the One who places each sunset, you try to do it on your own. That was the difference between Rahab and all the other citizens of Jericho. Her faith came from hearing but resulted in her being honest with herself and acknowledging, as she did in verse 11 that "the Lord your God is the God of Heaven and earth."}



^{So, not only did her faith come from hearing but it is fascinating to see that it was her faith that became her identity. Webster defines reputation as "overall quality or character as seen or judged by people in general}

^{." You might say that Rahab had a pretty bad reputation. As a prostitute, she was judged by a lot of people pretty harshly as you can imagine. Now, it is at this point in a typical message that I might illustrate this point with a joke of some kind. I know they aren't always hilarious but sometimes it helps to make the point. So as I was preparing this I thought I would just check on the internet for an appropriate joke about prostitutes. I'm not kidding. I don't know what I thought I might find but I promise you my search was short-lived. I quickly concluded that you would not get an illustration of this point today so let's move right along.}

^{Which, in itself, actually illustrates my point that she had a bad reputation. If there is no redeeming quality about your line of work then don't be surprised}

^{when people judge you harshly. But this is how Rahab had survived in a difficult land in a difficult time. Can you imagine going through life with everybody in town looking down their noses at you? What's worse was that during the day people would cross to the other side of the street when they saw you approaching but at night the same person would come for a visit.}

^{But I have good news. If you like a story to end well, this is for you and as I said earlier, I think it's fascinating. I know you love to read and are so blessed by reading geneologies, right? Well, this one is pretty good. Turn to Matthew chapter 1. It starts with Abraham and goes all the way to Jesus. don't worry. We won't read all those names. I really just want to look at verses 5 and 6.}

^{5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,6 and Jesse the father of King David.}

^{Can you appreciate a geneology just a little bit more now? Especially after just going through the book of Ruth and seeing how God turned her life around. It says that Rahab was the mother of Boaz and so that's pretty cool to see that connection with Ruth and then we see that Rahab was also the great-grandmother of King David; pretty cool to have on the old resume, there.}

^{But then continue on down that long list of names and look at the very last one. Rahab the prostitute is now Rahab the great, great, great, etc. grandmother of Jesus Himself. Rahab the prostitute is no longer Rahab the prostitute. All that has changed. God doesn't see her as Rahab the prostitute anymore. He sees her as Rahab, my good and faithful servant. He sees her as Rahab, the one with whom I share Heaven and everything I have, joint heirs with her grandson Jesus, who is called Christ.}

^{She doesn't walk around Heaven with a scarlet letter, confined to the wrong side of the heavenly tracks. She has no more shame, no more guilt, no more regrets. And she lost all that baggage when she heard about and accepted God's power in her life. She no longer tried to do it on her own in a way that brought her and her family shame. She heard, believed and had faith that God was who He said He was and now her faith is her identity.}

^{Now since I am the only one here who has some regrets in his life, I wish you knew how that encourages me. To know that I don't have to go through life being known as that man who did all that stuff but instead, as my favorite verse says in Isaiah 43, I can forget the former things because God is doing a new thing in me! That old stuff is no longer my identity. I have a new identity through my faith in God through His Son Jesus.}

^{And when we have that new identity it will show. People will see a difference in us as believers. And that leads me to my last point. It was through her faith that she had a new identity and it was obvious to others because it led to action. Read verse 15 of Joshua 2 again.}

^"

^{So she let them down by a rope through the window."}

^{As you read that I want you to think about something. I want you to think about everything the Israelites have been through. Hundreds of years of slavery, 40 years walking around out in the desert and now God has allowed them to go into the Promised Land. The only thing, at this point, that is holding them back is the city of Jericho and that city hinges on the actions of one person.}

^{Everything that they have been through is hanging by a rope tied to the window of the house of Rahab. Rahab is not just letting down a rope. Do you know what she is doing? She is furthering the kingdom of the Israelites. She is doing her part to see that the people of Israel and, more importantly, their God are made famous. And she is doing that because she has seen and heard of the power of God and has embraced that and it has changed her life and her identity and so she now puts that faith into action.}

^{What do you think we would be saying about Rahab right now if she had not done her part in furthering the kingdom of Israel? We wouldn't! Her name and her family would have died in the battle of Jericho because even if she didn't do her part, it was God's will that Israel take back that land and I am convinced that He would have provided another way out for those spies and His will would be done.}

^{God's will is going to be done even today. And you can choose to be a part of it. You can make the decision to do what God asks you to do to further}

^{Kingdom or you can choose not to. He doesn't force you to do anything but when you choose to not prove your faith with actions then it means that your faith is dead. James chapter 2 says so. It also says that a faith without deeds cannot save a man. In other words, if your life is not reflective of God's will in obvious ways then you have a salvation problem.}

^{I want to close now by asking you to think about these 3 points we have gone over. Believe it or not, I don't break these down into points just because that's what preachers are supposed to do. I want you to right now think about what God is telling you today.}

^{Have you heard, seen, accepted and believed in God's power and embraced it in your life? If not I need to talk with you further and would love to do that right now.}

^{Has accepting God's power into your life changed your life and given you a new identity? If not i need to talk with you right now.}

^{Has your faith been turned into action by your intent to further the Kingdom of God? I'll be glad to talk to you about that but I want you to hear from God first. What is He asking you to do? You say you have no skills and you are scared to witness; that you can't be a missionary or a teacher? Tell God you are willing to do your part if He will just reveal His perfect will to you. Tell Him that because of Who He is and because you know He has the power to create a new and different beautiful sunset each evening that you have faith that He will protect and provide for you no matter what He asks you to do.}