"The Journey of a Faith Walker: God Uses Ordinary People"

(Joshua 2:1-24)

Main Idea: God enjoys using imperfect people perfectly.

Today we are going to talk about how God specializes in using ordinary people in ways that will accomplish his purpose perfectly. This is the second message in our series from the book of Joshua called "The Journey of a Faith Walker." In this series we are learning what it means to be a person of faith and the opportunities that are ours to put that faith into action. Today we will look at one of the most unlikely people that God would ever use as a person of faith—a prostitute named Rahab. What I want us to see is that even through the imperfections of Rahab’s life God still used her for his perfect plan. And if he can use someone like her, then he can surely use someone like you and me!

Amy Rosenthal has written a book called Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. In the book she tells her readers that there is nothing extraordinary in the least about her life. She hasn’t "survived against all odds, recovered from any addictions or been a genius, misunderstood or otherwise." In fact she considers her life very ordinary being preoccupied with entirely boring things like: broken appliances, leaving messages on answering machines, loading dishwashers, and loving Q-tips. If we were honest, most of us would be able to ay the title to our life would be Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. The majority of us is not going to be the feature story in the newspaper or remembered for some extraordinary accomplishments.

There is a difference, though, when you move from the ordinary nature of our life to thinking of ourselves in relationship to God. God is not impressed by the outward things that distinguish us from others in extraordinary ways. The reason he is not impressed is because he knows something very real about all of us and that is we are all imperfect people. We are all persons who at the very core of our nature are broken, sinful, imperfect people. We are persons who have sinned and "fall short of God’s glorious standard" (Rom. 3:23 NLT). We are all persons who, if not for the grace given to us through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, would spend our eternity in hell. Yet somehow we forget, the longer we are believers, just how imperfect our life is when we compare that life to Jesus Christ. We begin to look around at the lives of others, take an inventory of what they do and what we don’t do, then based on our evaluation of the two lifestyles determine who God can use and who he can’t. That would be a fine theory except for two things—the Bible and life.

It’s people like Rahab and its people like David, Peter, Abraham, Paul and Mary Magdalene who sort of throw us off. It’s people like you have known in life who even in their imperfections still show us God and were used by God to teach us truth. Now I want you to understand something very clearly here. When I say that God uses imperfect people it doesn’t mean that he is comfortable or careless about sin in our life or in the Body of Christ. Christian people do shameful things that break the heart of God and bring shame upon the church of Jesus Christ. That is not acceptable to God nor should it be acceptable to you. As we will see this morning, Rahab didn’t stay a prostitute but until her dying day she was still imperfect. In the same way we cannot say about the places of rebellion in our life that it is insignificant. Jesus died so that you and I might repent of our sin and be forgiven but even then until we die we will be imperfect.

The problem is that we get the idea that because I’m imperfect that God can’t use me. Mike Yaconelli writes in his book Messy Spirituality about that struggle. "For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a godly person. Yet when I look at the yesterdays of my life, what I see, mostly, is a broken, irregular path littered with mistakes and failure. I have had temporary successes and isolated moments of closeness to God, but I long for the continuing presence of Jesus. Most of the moments of my life seem hopelessly tangled in a web of obligations and distraction." He continues, " I often dream that I am tagging along behind Jesus, longing for him to choose me as one of his disciples. Without warning, he turns around, looks straight into my eyes, and says, ‘Follow me!’ My heart races, and I begin to run toward him when he interrupts with, ‘Oh, not you, the guy behind you. Sorry.’" (Messy Spirituality, p. 10-11)

If you have ever felt that way, then Rahab the prostitute shows us that God uses imperfect people and he uses them perfectly! So let’s look at Rahab’s imperfect life, imperfect faith and imperfect decisions and discover how God can and wants to use us!

I. Joshua 2 begins with the story of Joshua needing some military intelligence about the city of Jericho. So he sends two young men disguised as foreign travelers to the city. The first place they come to is the home of a prostitute named Rahab. Now, there are several reasons they did this. One was that places like Rahab’s house are where people go to hide. There were two kinds of prostitutes in ancient times: temple prostitutes, who were used for religious purpose, and your run-of-the mill that were the ones avoided in public but enjoyed in private. Rahab falls into the "run of the mill" category. She was basically a street-walking hooker whose home backed up to the city wall. Her house had a window that made it easy for her "clients" to escape should someone come knocking on her door.

Another reason that the spies went to her house was that she would know the activities of the city. Why men go to prostitutes is not as difficult to answer as the reason why men tell secrets to prostitutes. How many political figures have been exposed by conversations they had with their companions? Rahab was no different and that is obvious by the conversation that the king has with her when he sends people looking for the spies. Her loyalty was obviously in question as well, making her a perfect place for the two Hebrew spies to hide.

Rahab would be the last person you would expect to be the link to the success of God’s purpose. Yet God chose to use her. God loves to turn things upside down selecting the most unexpected people to us for his plan. He seems to specialize in using those whom society would reject—the broken and flawed and the down and out. If you think about it, God seldom makes his primary movement through those people whom you and I would be inclined to call the movers and shakers of the world. It is because persons of great ability are often victim of their own success. A person who struggles may be more open to his help. Remember that Abraham was a liar, David an adulterer, Peter a denier and Paul a killer--all people with an imperfect life but God used them perfectly in his plan. Rahab’s imperfect life didn’t stop God from using her. The good news is that your imperfect life doesn’t stop him from using you either.

Bob Pierce was the founder of World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse, two of the most effective and successful Christian relief agencies that we have today. Through their ministries they have reached millions of lives with the mercy and compassion of Jesus Christ. Bob Pierce lived by a simple command, "Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God." He so entered into the suffering of people that one person said he "functioned from a broken heart."

Yet Bob Pierce’s perfect passion for the cause of Christ was met with the imperfection of his own life. He traveled so much his family suffered for it greatly. He had a mental and emotional collapse in 1963. His daughter pled with him to stay home and his abandonment of her needs contributed to her suicide in 1967. He legally separated from his wife Lorraine in 1970. Finally, in 1978 the family gathered for a night of reconciliation and four days later Bob pierce died. ("Imperfect Instrument," Christianity Today, March 2005, p. 56)

Today World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse are bigger and more effective than Bob Pierce ever dreamed. Bob Pierce’s imperfect life was used by God perfectly. So was Rahab’s. So yours can be used as well. An imperfect life doesn’t stop God from using you!

II. Rahab sensed somehow that there was a greater significance to the spies being at her house so she hides them. When she is approached to give them up, she does a great "they went thataway" routine. So with the cops on the run and the spies on the roof, she tells them what she knows about them and about God. In Joshua 2:8-13 Rahab makes a statement about her faith. She has some knowledge that there is another power that is at work in her circumstances and in the city itself. She tells them that everyone knows about the power of God that has been displayed through them for over forty years. She concludes her confession of faith by saying, "For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below" (Josh. 2:11).

Now there is nothing wrong with what she says. It’s what she says next that clues us in to the imperfection of her faith. What she says is very practical: "I helped you, now you help me! When you come to destroy the city, spare me and my family!" What you see is that rather than her faith being driven by loving gratitude, it is, instead, driven out of fear. As great as her confession and profession of faith was, it was still imperfect! Yet in her imperfection and self-serving motives God had connected with her! Rahab was willing to connect what she heard about God with an imperfect commitment to God.

We imagine that if I am going to be a person with whom God connects, then my faith n him must be perfect. There can be no doubt, no fear, no uncertainty, and no impure motives. If God is going to have anything to do with me, then I must have the formula right: I read my Bible, I pray. I go to church—a lot. I go to Bible studies – a lot, and in all those things I do there can be no room for confusion.

We forget, as Mike Yaconelli says, "Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality, not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws, but because we let go of seeking perfection and instead seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives. Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God’s being present in the mess of our unfixedness. (Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality, Zondervan, 2002, p. 13).

My niece Lilly turns seven May 12. My brother told me that since spring break Lilly has found it hard to stay focused in her 1st grade class, so much so that it required two notes sent home from her teacher and a parent-teacher conference. Brian said that he and Lilly had some very intense conferences of their own. Their conferences have been so effective that when he gets home from work Lilly greets him with, "No notes today, Daddy, no notes today!"

Sometimes the best we can say to God about our faith is, "No notes today!" We’ve made it through at least one day being the person that deep down we want to be. That doesn’t say anything about tomorrow and it doesn’t mean that if you and God need to have a conference that he won’t connect with you. Our faith doesn’t have to be flawless for God to relate to us. Just understand that an imperfect faith doesn’t stop God from connecting with you.

III. One of the fascinating things about Rahab’s story is that it really wasn’t necessary for the real flow of the story of Joshua. In fact, if you read chapter one and then skipped to chapter three you wouldn’t really miss anything as far as the plot line goes for the book. So why is Rahab’s story there? I believe it is there for us to see how God uses the imperfections of people’s lives not only for his purposes, but also to show us how our destinies can be directed by him as well.

In Joshua 2:14-24 Rahab is offered a promise of safety by the spies that is based on her own decisions. They tell her to hang a scarlet rope out of her window and to keep her family off the streets when the attack comes. They tell her, though, "If you betray us, however, we are not bound by this oath in any way" (Josh. 2:20). So, basically, it is her call. If she squeals, she dies. If she keeps it a secret, she survives. Without a lot of options, she says, "I accept your terms" (v. 21).

If we are honest, this is a somewhat imperfect decision. Again, she is motivated by self-protection rather than nobility or her standing for the cause of God. Yet what is fascinating is that this imperfect decision on her part will be the tool that God uses to direct her destiny. What was her destiny? Well, after Jericho falls she is rescued by the Hebrews and will later marry a nice Jewish boy named Salmon. They would have a son named Boaz. Boaz’s great grandson would be David. Then twenty-four generations later there would be a young man named Joseph whose wife would be Mary whose son would be Jesus. (Matt. 1:5-6, 16-17).

When the writer of Hebrews was picking his line up of the all-stars of faith he picked Rahab to be included with Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. When James wanted to illustrate how your faith and actions work together, he chose Rahab and said, "She was made right with God by her actions—when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road" (James 2:25). Rahab’s decision to act in behalf of the spies was an imperfect one but God used it to direct her destiny in ways she could never have known then or in her lifetime!

I would like to think that every one of us made our pledge to the "Building Tomorrow…Today!" Campaign from the depths of deepest gratitude to God and to how he has used First Baptist Church in our lives. Yet I doubt that all of our decisions were made perfectly. Yet the imperfection of our decisions does not stop the Lord from using those gifts to shape our destiny or the destiny of people in the years to come. Our decisions we make regarding our commitment and devotion to God are sometimes made imperfectly; yet the imperfection of our decision doesn’t hinder God form shaping our destiny.

Our decisions are our sacrifice to God. Eugene Peterson says, "A sacrifice is an offering placed before the Lord so that he can make something of it. Once offered it is in God’s hand to do with what he will. It is no longer in your hands to improve a little more….His will is to work with offerings, not your perfections or your press clippings. Just leave it. You have lived your day; now leave it on the altar, an offering." ("Answering God." Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 4.) Our imperfect decisions do not stop God from directing our destinies!

In the movie "Saving Private Ryan" a letter from President Lincoln to a woman named Mrs. Bixby was used as a motivation to search for the fictional character of James Ryan. The letter was real and very moving because it was addressed to a woman who Lincoln had been told had lost all five of her sons in battle for the Union. There was only one problem: Lincoln didn’t have the whole truth. Mrs. Bixby did have five sons who fought for the Union but not all of them had died in battle. Two were killed, one at Fredericksburg and one at Petersburg. Another was captured at Gettysburg and was later returned to his mother in good health. One deserted to the Confederacy and the last deserted and fled the country.

Word got out, and the press, as well as the rest of the Union, became divided in its support of the President. Some said he had been innocently duped. Others said his feelings were sincere if the cause was not.

Carl Sandburg, in his exhaustive biography of Lincoln, has the last word: "Whether all five had died on the field of battle, or only two, four of her sons had been poured away into the river of war. The two who had deserted were as lost to her as though dead. The one who had returned had fought at Gettysburg…She deserved some kind of token, some award approaching the language Lincoln had employed. Lincoln was not deceived." (Dean Feldmeyer in Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, Baker, from the editors of Leadership.)

How like the Bixby family is each one of us: a mixture of success and failure, honor and shame. Yet, knowing the whole story of our lives, Christ will honor those who serve him.

That’s what Rahab did—serve God. Was she perfect? No. Her life, faith and decisions were all imperfect. Yet she was still used by God, connected with God and her destiny was directed by God. God enjoys using imperfect people perfectly. That is why he wants to use you and me, if we will let him.

Will you be a faith walker, even if you are not perfect?

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

[email protected]