This morning, we're gonna look at Joshua chapter two. Joshua chapter two, where we're gonna see the importance of expecting the unexpected. Expecting the unexpected. What do you expect? I'll be very clear on my purpose in presenting this message. I am expecting God to increase our faith that we would have a higher expectation of what God is doing and will do through us, and that we would have an ability to expect the unexpected blessings and opportunities that God gives to us in our lives. So that's my expectation. And so I trust as we go through this, chapter of Joshua chapter 2, that you would seek the Lord as you're thinking about this. Pray. It's a very important exercise to learn to pray while you're hearing preaching. I think the two together make a very powerful application. Lord, open the eyes of my heart, knowing that this is a spiritual exercise, that the Spirit of God would take the Word of God and grant wisdom. Expect the unexpected. Joshua chapter 2. God said, through his servant Joshua, chapter 2 verse 1, Now Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly saying, go, view the land, especially Jericho. We can see the first step in gathering a plan to take the promised land was that of gathering information. So that's, we go from right from chapter one to the action that Joshua has. I want to take a step back from this and think about why Joshua is having this action. And there we go. We're not going to go too much in the background, as we have already done. But let's jump into chapter 1 a moment and just remember the faith generating revelation that God gave to Joshua. The commission that God gave to Joshua and this second generation, the faithless generation God used, they rejected Him, they lacked faith, they wandered 40 years, They're dead. Joshua and Caleb had faith. They're in the Promised Land. They're in Transjordan. They're ready to go in. And they who have faith are ready now to go and take the land. God gives them the specific instruction on how they're to do this in Joshua chapter 1 verse 3. Every place the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses. God says, I give you this land. They believed it, and that settled it for them. That was their presupposition. Their presupposition going into this is, God's given us the land, it's ours. That's a pretty strong faith in the commission. It's ours. And God's very specific, and he details the geography of that. We're talking about in the real world, in time and space, in history. And this isn't just out there in heaven. I believe in heaven. But the belief in heaven is made manifest where? On earth, as it is in heaven. So how do you know you have heaven that you cannot see? It's when you worship God now where you can see on earth. So the place where faith is made manifest is On earth right here right now how you live your life and the the geography is given This is what I have done to show you that my promise is true verse 4 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. So this promise is, the land is yours in time, in space, in history. No one will be able to stand before you. We have the promise in Romans chapter eight, if God is for us, who can be against us? And the answer is, no one. We have the same promise. No one will be able to stand before you. In what way? In the way that will prohibit God's promise from being accomplished. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Therefore, the conclusion, what would that do? Their attitude was to be that of this, be strong and of good courage, and there is the key to taking the mission. Believe in God, be strong, and have courage. For to this people you should divide as inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous. Do not fear. Do not be afraid. We talked about last week how fear prohibits us from participating in the mission of God. Fear is the number one reason. Fear of man, fear of not being ready, fear of not being prepared, fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of saying the right thing, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of something we're afraid. That's the problem. In other words, we have no excuse. If you find yourself making excuses for why you can't do this, and why you can't do this, and how you can't do this, and how you can't do that, and why you— Be not afraid. Be not afraid. Take the next step. Only be strong and very courageous. Why? that you may observe to do all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or the left, that you may prosper wherever you go." And so it's necessary to have a belief in the sufficiency of Scripture. Don't go to the right. Don't go to the left. Don't go to the right. Don't go to the left. Don't fear, but obey. We talk about faith-based obedience. Obedience to the law order of God, to God's holy word. that produces success. What is success? Obedience to God. That is success. Obedience to God is success. Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night." So what was their method to taking the land? Meditating in the Word day and night. Meditating on the Word. Musing on the Word. Thinking about the Word. Memorizing the Word. Groaning thoughts and struggling through and deeply pondering God's Word all the time. Day and night and night and day. God's plan for education for His people, that they would embrace the truths of Scripture and think about Scripture all the time. That would produce within them the ability to succeed. That you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you to be strong? and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." They believed God. Therefore, they knew why they were here. They knew their mission. They knew God sent them on a mission. They knew God would grant them victory. And so they were focused. They weren't like today's modern man who is ruthless and rudderless and aimless. He doesn't know why he's here, doesn't know where he's supposed to go. He kind of floats through life, not having a vision for himself, his family, his life. Just kind of experiences life as it comes and seeks the path of least resistance. Kind of just floating around, never really rooting in and engaging in the mission. And never really accomplishing much other than to maybe assimilate some things. And he who has the most toys loses. That's today's modern man and woman. This is not the picture of faith. This is not the Joshua generation. They knew God sent them on a mission. They weren't in Egypt. They didn't have all the luxuries of Egypt. They lived in the desert on manna and quail, wandering until all their fathers and mothers died. That's how God prepares a person. God prepares a person through trials, through suffering, and through faith-based victory. You don't need all the luxuries in Egypt. Moses had to choose to go against the luxuries of Egypt to be found faithful. And so this was the preparation, and they believed it. God was with them wherever they would go. So the book of Joshua now records that. So Joshua is ready. and this generation is ready for faith. So through this beginning chapters of Joshua, and again, you can outline the book of Joshua in two big movements that commit the taking of the land, the first 12 chapters, and after that, the final outworking of dividing the land. So as Joshua is ready to go, we see here now in Joshua chapter 2, now Joshua, the son of Nun, first thing he does, he moves himself to action. So we're going to see this morning, how that faith produces action, and what kind of action that generates. And through this book of Joshua, we're going to be encouraged in our faith to take similar steps as we have been given this great commission to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them everything that is written in Scripture, to teach them the Scriptures in its totality, not holding back anything that was helpful, but teaching the whole counsel of God through obedience. And so we're going to see the first thing is that faith is going to gather information. There's nothing inconsistent with this. Joshua, the son of Nun, is wanting this information, so he's going to go out, and Joshua is going to do this through sending spies. But the way Joshua does this is very important. He announces to the world that he is operating from faith. He did this as his mentor did. Now, Moses did it. He did it by faith. He sent out 12 spies. Made sense? One spy for every tribe. Everyone's going to go out, 12 of them. But as it turned out, you know the story. The majority lacked faith. The people didn't have faith. The people did not go out by faith. The people were not viewing their circumstances by faith. They were viewing their circumstances by fear. They were viewing their circumstances by, what can I get out of this? And as they went out, the ten, the majority said, yeah, the land, just as God said, milk and honey, beautiful produce, just like God said, but giants. Giants that will kill us. And all the people said, when they came back, they all went, bah! And they were all cried, and they wept, and they cried, and they wept. And the 10 were faithless. They were worthless to God. They were worse than worthless. They worked against the plan of God. They undermined the people's faith. So Joshua says, we're not sending out 12. Those 10 were not necessary. We're gonna send out the two. We're gonna send out two. It's a strong statement of Joshua's faith. of which Joshua was one of them. We only need two spies. You two, by faith, we go out. They go out to spy out the land and you're going to see how God is going to use them to do some things that are most unusual. In other words, expect the unexpected. And that's what we have here. As Joshua goes, he sends them not away from the battle, he sends them to the battle. He says this, go view the land, and he says this, especially Jericho. In other words, he's saying, we're gonna take Jericho. Jericho stood right across the Jordan from where they were, okay? Jericho was the fortress. It was the iron fortress that was the key to entering Canaan. In order to enter Canaan, they had to take, Jericho. And it was, by human standards, an impenetrable fortress. So he says, we want to have information about Jericho. Proverbs 21, 22 says, a wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold. I believe that's what Joshua was doing. He was scaling the city to find out that Achilles heel. Find out how it would be that this city, this walled city, this walled fortress would just be pummeled, would just be annihilated. So here's the story. So the two went out and they came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. Find it very interesting. No details given, no details needed, just they find themselves in the house of a harlot sleeping in her house. Interesting, isn't it? You're already expecting the unexpected. This is a little bit different. How did they end up there? What are they doing sleeping in a harlot's house? Two young men. Okay, there's things that are going on here that's like, well, this is a very interesting story. This is really, you know, piquing our curiosity here. And so the drama just went up like this. Boom! Whoa! Okay, now it gets even more, and the details aren't given. Just, you know, typical Hebrew storytelling fashion, just boom, boom, boom. Here's what happens next. The king's hot on their trail! And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country. So apparently, the spies enter in, and they were seen, okay? Somehow they end up with a harlot in her house, lodging there. The king knows, and they're hot on their trail. So they come to her door. Rahab! They knew her by name. The king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country. Then the woman took the two men and hid them. Hid them? She hid them! Now the drama's really gone. She hid them. You know, this is Rahab. She's a Jerichoite. Right? This is her city. This is her identity. And when an enemy comes against the city, the city has to stand in solidarity. Okay? So she just hid the enemy. So now we have a very much unexpected twist. She hides them. And furthermore, she's going to cover their tracks. Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. And it happened as the gate was being shut, what was dark. The men went out. You just missed them. When the men, where the men went, I do not know. Pursue them quickly. Maybe you'll overtake them. So obviously, Rahab, as a harlot, makes sense that she was used to covering and lying to protect her clientele. Probably something she did often. Kind of the nature of that business. So she was very quick on her feet and said, oh, maybe you'll go get them. Maybe you'll go find them. Hurry, hurry. So the men dutifully, yes, yes. Then the men pursued them. Oh, here's a little footnote. But she had brought them up to the roof and hidden him with the stalks of flax, which just happened to be there, which she laid in order on the roof. She'd laid them out to dry so she could harvest them. They just happened to be there. She happened to have flax on her roof and the men came in and were looking and hide under here and they never saw the men. Never saw them. So the men pursued them by the road to the Jordan, to the fords. And as soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. So the city is shut down. No one goes in. No one goes out. Everybody's looking. Everyone's suspicious. But God protects his men. even in this plan, even in this plan of protection, God had something even further, even something more unexpected in mind. And this is how following God goes. We must always expect the unexpected. We would expect that the spies would be protected, wouldn't we? I mean, if it wasn't this way, it could be another way, right? I mean, we know that these spies, the promise is given, no one's gonna stand— we expect these spies to be protected, but we don't necessarily expect these spies to go in and do ministry and save a convert, okay? That's not what anybody's expecting, let alone a harlot. Faith ministers to others. Faith opens the door of the hearts. And so we have this discussion that's revealed to us in Scripture of a discussion between a pagan Canaanite woman of the night and these two spies that have just been protected by this immoral woman. Verse 8, she came up to them on the roof. And they have this conversation. And she says to the men, and this is amazing, I know Yahweh! She declares God's covenantal name in your text there, capital L-O-R-D. Right? That's the name Yahweh. I know the Lord has given you the land. She embraces the fundamental promise given. I know the Lord has given you this land. I believe that. That the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. That was some what? 40 years ago? And it's still very fresh in their minds. Why? Because Egypt was the superpower of the world at that time. Egypt was the dominating force. And God used this ragtag motley crew of families, which, in other words, the victory and the power wasn't from them, obviously. That's why she said, I heard that the Lord had destroyed the armies of Egypt by the power of His strength, the God that you serve. We heard of your God, in other words. We heard of your God and what your God has done. He dried up the water for the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sion and Og, who you utterly destroyed. So this ragtag group of people who serve a mighty God, He is fighting for you. He is working on your behalf. I want you to know as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. What a confession of faith! Your God is THE God. There is no other God from Him in heaven above or on the earth beneath. He is the God of all metaphysical reality. All things beyond the realm of earth are under the design and realm of your God. Okay, but she even goes further than that because there are people that believe in a God out there, a God who's out there. She doesn't just put the transcendent reality on God. She puts the imminent, the personal, the providential reality of God in heaven and on earth. He is the God who is ruling and reigning over our country. over our city, over our family, over this situation right now. He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now, therefore, what would you say? If you believe that, your faith is going to move you to what? action. It's going to move you to a reasonableness of that faith, a outworking of faith, which is going to be reflective of the things you believe. And this is where we often, well, we say we believe, but we part ways because we don't really believe it, and we part ways with a logical conclusion of our faith. If you really believe that, what would you do? You'd be begging for your life. Right? Here is, all she had to do is say, guards! And they come and they take the men away. Okay, they're in the endangered place, not Rahab. See, but faith understands that it's really not the way it appears. Right? It's not that way. The way it is in reality, open their eyes that they may see your hand, oh God. See, these were walking by faith and Rahab, could see the reality and believe the truth. So at this point, she's begging for you. I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father's house and give me a true token. Give me a pledge of faith and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that I have and deliver our lives from death. So the man answered, our lives for yours, if none of you tell this business of ours. And it shall be when the Lord has given us the land that we will deal kindly and truly with you. Then she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall. She dwelt on the wall again in God's providence. Rahab, the harlot, was in the perfect location to hide and to release the spies to safety. We see that faith does set conditions. So the men said to her, we will be blameless of this oath of ours, which you have made us swear, unless, and here's the condition, and faith would set conditions. When we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down. And unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers and all your father's household to your own house, so it shall be that whoever goes outside the door of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath, which you made us swear. And she said, according to your words, so be it. So she sent them away and they departed and she bound the scarlet cord in the window. So we see that faith sets the conditions and we see that those who have faith, what do they do? They meet those conditions. Because we live in a faithless day, we have a faithless existence. And a faithless existence doesn't understand that there are certain conditions that need to be met in order to participate in a community of faith, in a family of faith, in a situation of faith. And those conditions are not antithetical to faith. Those situations and those conditions reveal faith. They reveal faith. It was revealed that she had faith because she met those And we know that those conditions were met. We know Rahab the harlot actually did have faith if we can go up to Joshua 6.25. And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot her father's house and all that she had so she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. So she did have the scarlet cord. She put that in her window and when the men came and when they did the battle, the two spies saw the cord, they went in and they rescued her household. Her faith saved her. Expect the unexpected. Faith, those who have faith will see God working in some of the most unusual ways. Now think about this. Rahab, The pagan harlot is a pillar of faith. God chose Rahab, the pagan harlot, to be a pillar of faith. She's in the hall of faith, Hebrews 11, verse 30. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. What follows it? By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. Rahab is held up as an example of faith next to who? Abraham. I mean, Abraham, if anybody, is the cornerstone of faith for the nation of Israel, it's Abraham. And in God's design, in God's providence, he chose that the two that would be having a key role in the exemplary nature of faith would be Ahab and the harlot. Ahab and a harlot. And James puts them right together in James chapter 2 verse 23. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. You see then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. In other words, faith that is true, saving faith must reveal something of that saving nature. It must reveal a action. It must reveal the content of what is believed. Likewise, he goes right to Rahab. Was not Rahab the harlot? And again, she gets her Rahab the harlot. Was she not also justified by work when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead." You cannot separate faith from works. What you believe, if you truly believe, you will do. And so because she truly believed God, she acted consistently with that faith. Faith embraces all who have faith. Faith is the most important thing. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Hebrews 11, 6. So faith is the most important thing. It is the fundamental presupposition. It is the core to our epistemology. It's the core to believing what we believe. What do we believe? What we believe defines who we are. As a man thinks in his heart, so does a man think about but what he truly believes. I can show you what you truly believe when you tell me what you think about. What do you think about? What fills your mind? What fills your thoughts? Is it thoughts of God, His holiness, and advancing His kingdom? If your mind is full of God, His holiness, and advancing His kingdom, you are a person of faith, obedient to the will of God. But if your mind is clouded by other things, personal peace, personal security, personal prosperity, the big Ps of our day, then you are a secular person consumed with this world. And you probably would not have the faith to make it out of there alive. That's the nature of faith. It is always revealed by what it thinks about, and what it thinks about is what it values, and what it values is what it acts upon, and what it acts upon is the ethic and the behavior of your life, all stemming from what you truly believe. Faith, then, embraces all who have faith. This is faith in God. In this way, listen, faith makes an outsider an insider. This is the nature of faith. True, saving faith. It makes someone who's outside and brings them right inside. And those who have faith expect this. Because those who have faith expect the unexpected. We expect that God would work in some of the most unusual ways. to make those who are not a people, a people. Do not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Yes, we do know that. 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Do not be deceived, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. We say right on, we know that. You can't be a sodomite and go to heaven. You can't be a fornicator and go to heaven. You can't be a liar and go to heaven. You can't be a secular humanist and go to heaven. But Paul says this. But don't forget this. Such were some of you. Such were some of you. Such were some of you. And people of faith understand this. We understand. People who trust in God understand that I am that sinner. I am that sinner. horrible, wicked, selfish, lawless, immoral, immodest, unthankful, pig-headed, stubborn, sinner. Such for some of you. So those people of God who have been redeemed and have faith, welcome the outsiders to come in. Because we know Such were some of you, but. See, it doesn't end without the but. But, and if you, it doesn't mean you come in and you stay a whoremonger and a sinner and a sodomite and an immoral pervert, right? But you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. This is what faith does. So the harlot was forgiven as she declared God to be her God. She had a theological change. She had a theological testimony. Romans 15, 6, that you may with one mind and with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, receive one another just as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Receive us, receive one another, accept one another, how? While we were yet sinners. Listen, listen, not talking about compromise. Okay, she was Rahab the harlot. No compromise there. She was properly identified as a sinful person, right? But she had faith, and she was washed, and she was cleansed, and she was born again. Furthermore, she was not only a prominent example of faith, she was also given the highest privilege any woman in that time could be in that she was in the line of the Messiah. I mean, so if you want to make it harder on your mind to embrace how a pagan woman of harlotry, an outsider, could be brought inside, this is it. She was in the line of the Messiah. Matthew chapter 1 verse 5, she married Salmon. She married Salmon who begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. Who is Ruth? A Moabite. What is a Moabite doing in there? Another pagan woman. So we have right here in this one verse, we have Rahab the harlot and Ruth the Moabite, grandmothers of David the king. David the king could say to his mothers, his great-great-grandmothers, my great-grandmother was a pagan Canaanite prostitute. And my other great-grandmother was an idolatrous Moabite woman. How did they get in there? By faith. They got in there by faith. And their confession is recorded in scripture, isn't it? We just read Rahab's confession, and we know Ruth's confession, and your God will be my God. They confessed truth. They confessed what they believed. And by faith, they were brought near. They were brought near into the commonwealth of Christ. Ephesians chapter 2, and I think obviously us as predominantly Gentiles, right? We all fit this category. I mean, we all, most everybody here are Gentiles by our own nature. Gentiles 2, I'm sorry, Gentiles 2. Ephesians 2, 11. That's a funny one. You know, I know I slip all the time and I just don't draw attention. I just keep going because I, you know, the Tower of, I think I said the Tower of Babylon the other day. I said the Tower of Babel. I just laugh at him, but that's a good one. Gentiles 2.11. Sorry, I distracted myself. Ephesians 2.11, Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcised by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That's us. But Rahab, the harlot, had faith. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And so, brothers and sisters, as we go on our mission, don't ever get to the point where you stop expecting God to bring outsiders and make them insiders. Don't ever get to the point in your faith where you think that somehow the harlots and prostitutes and sodomites and whoremongers and immoral and people and drug users and all the stuff that's in our culture and growing is not going to be part of the work that God does. Such were some of you, right? Such were some of you, such were some of me. By faith, you're brought near. Now, we don't remove sanctification from that. There's repentance. You've got to have the true gospel. You know, the worldly church tries to take this and make it happen, and they celebrate their diversity, but they celebrate diversity without the gospel. And they compromise by, you know, come as you were, stay as you are. No, come as you are, but believe the gospel. Repent and believe. See, Rahab left her nation. She left her people. She did not have an allegiance to the sin. She got married, okay? She didn't stay there. She was willing to, in a sense, reject the loyalties of the world for the favor of God and lay her neck on the line to be counted with the people of God. That's what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about a true gospel message that really brings conviction and conversion and repentance of sin. that actually saves sinners from their sin. And those people who have faith in God, this is the mission that we're called to engage in. God redeeming a humanity from their sin. Rahab is an excellent example of this. That just is amazing. It's interesting. Many of the Jews there was a movement within Judaism to try to discredit that Rahab was a harlot. Very uncomfortable to the Jewish sensitivities and the legalism that would have been there, right? that, oh, how could, what would you say, right? Yeah, your nation was founded. One of the most stalwart, you know, prominent examples of faith is this harlot, this right here. Well, she wasn't really a harlot. She was, and they tried to get around that. But, I mean, the words are clear. It's what she was. It's who she was. And so, you know, such were some of you, and we embrace the gospel. We repent of sins, and we believe in Jesus Christ. That's how you expect the unexpected. Let's finish the story here. If you see, the first point in your outline is faith generates action. And we just walked through that story and how the belief that they had from the revelation of God generated an action. And in a sense, I want to put the second point to that. Action generates faith. What kind of action? That kind of action. They two go together. Draw an arrow from point one to point two. You can't take... Action alone does not generate faith. It's the faith. When faith generates action and faith is put into action, then that kind of an action that is motivated by faith, that action will do what? It always does this. It always generates more faith. And when you have faith generating action, and those actions go forth, you always end up generating more faith. And it's this encouraging cycle that is to be within the community of faith. Here's how it happened with this story. Joshua chapter 2 verse 22. They departed and went to the mountains and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned. The pursuers saw them all along the way, but did not find them. God protected them. So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over, and they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen him." And that's amazing. They only waited three days. There's only a few spots you could cross the Jordan at flood stage, okay? But they weren't seen. So they come back in unscathed, and they said everything that happened to them. And they said to Joshua, The Lord has delivered all the land into our hands." Look at their testimony. Look at their faith. This is how the Jew perceived the reality by faith. They could have said, we almost were killed. No! They said, What do you think the people did? What do you think the Israelites did when they heard that? When they heard that message, what do you think it did to their faith? What? Yes! It bolstered it. It encouraged it. Faith begets faith. The faith that begets faith begets faith. And it bolsters it. It encourages it. It empowers it. It puts more strength in it. Now, did they believe that to begin with? Yeah. But did they believe it more now? Yeah. How does that happen? Faith encourages faith, encourages faith, encourages faith. And that's what a community of faith, that's what the church is all about right there. The church of Jesus Christ is all about people who were outsiders at one point. By faith and belief in the gospel, come confessing their sins. Remember, Jesus didn't come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance. They come confessing their sins, believing in the gospel. And that faith in the gospel takes the outsiders and makes them insiders. Insiders that are knit together in a community of faith. And God sends out his communities of faith and says, go and take the land. As you go, Expect the unexpected. Expect God to do things. But you have to have this perspective of faith. You have to engage in this by faith. You'll never get the unexpected blessings, the unexpected opportunities, if you don't have faith. What drives you? What is your mission? Are you advancing the kingdom of God? Are we going to be people that advance the kingdom of God? As I think about my own testimony, and I want to move this to a testimony of faith as we have our men sharing time, I want to hear a testimony of faith. As I think of my testimony of faith when I was about 20, God called me to himself, to ministry. And when God called me, I didn't know up from down, theologically. I didn't know where the Sermon on the Mount was. I just remember that. I didn't know. I knew there was a God. I knew Jesus died on the cross for my sins. That was about it. I was a strong Arminian, immodest, compromised, confused, Rock and roll. Fill in the blanks. Dude, you would not recognize me. Okay? I had none of the convictions, except for my work ethic, I had none of the convictions that I have now. Okay? And God called me right where I was. And I began taking the Bible that I had on my bedside. My mom always told me to read and I never really did. I remember taking that Bible down and reading it to know God. And not only reading it, I began to believe it and obey it. Wow. Wow. And my life began to transform. And I had this call in my life. The Lord called me to go and preach the gospel. My prayer, the burden on my heart was revival. And I thought, wow, that's pretty heavy. God's called me to do this stuff. I'll be a youth pastor. I can never be, in my mind, a lead pastor. I'll be a youth pastor. So, in God's providence, I'm in a Bible college studying youth ministry. Which, by the time I ended that Bible college, I had the conviction that youth ministry was not even biblical. And it was through studying youth ministry that I came to that conviction. Talk about expecting the unexpected. I'm reading my Bible, and I'm getting this multi-generational view, and I'm learning to trust God. I'm learning theology. I'm learning, I mean think about, I'm a bricklayer. I probably had a second grade reading level when I graduated from high school. I read like one book. My grandmother had to read to me The Hiding Place because I couldn't even read the whole thing. I hated to study. I couldn't sit still that long. I still can't sit still, but I do like to study. My wife follows me around the house, you have ADD, you have ADD. Why do you always have to tell me that? Because you do. But I do love to study now. And one by one, I met my wife, and what a blessing she has been. I mean, I had no wife, I had no vision, I had no worldview, other than to work hard. I got that from my parents. And tithe, work hard and tithe. and go to church. I got, I did learn some from my parents. Okay, I could keep adding more. I'm not starting from scratch. Okay, I'm a sixth generation Christian. I have a huge multi-generational heritage behind me. I just saw it all squandered, and so that was a huge part of God's working in my life. What's going on here with the men? Right? That was like, you know, at first I thought it was just me and my own little world. Then as you, you know, I'm in my, as you talk to other people, like everybody, you know, like none of the fathers are like discipling their kids. So at that point, it becomes a conviction to fix in my life. So my ministry today is a direct result of the convictions that I, the breakdown that I saw growing up in my multi-generational farm, you know, a hundred acre farm. I had all that stuff. The reason I left my multi-generational farm in the beautiful forest of Pennsylvania was to follow Christ. Because there's something more than that. So along the way, God adds to these things, the convictions I have now. I remember by faith, I brought my wife home from work. I'm in seminary now, didn't know how I was going to provide. I still don't know how I made it through seminary. I worked 10 different jobs, never went into debt, and always had time for my family. I mean, expect the unexpected. I don't know how it happened. Just kept pursuing it by faith. Brought my wife home. She was a nurse, making good money, right? I'm like, well, Titus 2, by faith, we embraced Titus 2 way back then. It was huge for my life, a huge turning point. When all my friends, they're getting through seminary because their wives are working, we're thinking we're getting convicted the opposite direction. So by faith, we do that. And you know what happened? I had $100 cash in my mailbox the next day. I expect the unexpected. When you walk by faith, your life becomes a testimony of these things. Expect the unexpected. So then, so then a little, you know, then we, the day I left high school, I wanted to homeschool my kids. That was just me. I mean, I was the one singing Pink Floyd, looking at the bricks on the wall, what am I doing here? I mean, so that one came easy for me. Nah, all in all, just another brick on the wall. You know, don't need your sarcasm. You know, this mind control. I kind of got that pretty early on in high school because I was in the working world. I was a working man. I was a bricklayer and I had a responsibility and I did real work and I accomplished real things and I was making real money. And I go into this artificial world. So the inconsistencies got to me there. And I did have a general framework of Christianity, which I knew nobody else did. And so I was troubled by that. I have no idea when I was saved, by the way. I could have been saved wrong, but it just confuses the daylights out of me when I think about all this confusing stuff. But I expected the unexpected, and God worked, and God moved, and so I made this commitment. We're gonna raise our children. We're gonna home educate our children, right? And then, and then the issue of the birth control came up. And oh boy, I fought that. No way! I'm not a Catholic, and I had all these reasons, and my wife didn't want me to believe it anyway. She just said, but you at least have to think about it, and you have to have a biblical reason. I wrestled back and forth, and I got hot with my wife. She just asked the question. Good wife, ask your husband at home, ask the question, right? And then, and the Lord just, you know, like, finally I confessed. This was a huge confession. I believe in birth control because I want to. I just had to look at that and say, how ugly is that? How sinful is that? And so these convictions through seminary, and I'm doing the programs, I'm in youth ministry, and I did fall back into pornography early in seminary. Seminary is a very intense academic situation, and I did. Man, that was a hard year. I had to get counsel, confess to my wife. She had no clue. But by faith. God cleaned me up. Ten years of preparation to do what? Ten years. That's a long time. My dad would say to me, man, Jesus, it takes you a long time to figure out what you're going to do. I knew what I was going to do, I just didn't know where or how. I knew what. God's called me to preach the gospel, pray for revival, and do that, and make disciples. And I was all over the globe. I went to Romania, I was in Russia, Morocco. You know, and I was hoping to go everywhere. I definitely have a heart for Russia to this day. Went all over the country. But I graduated in 2003, and one month after my graduation, I was committed to come out here. And all kinds of opportunities, 10 years of preparation, and God opened the door. And so expect the unexpected. Couple people here, a few families. Expect the unexpected, right? And we're like, well, okay, we'll do this. And again, there was no family-integrated church movement, really. It's like, so it's like me and the Willises and the Dales and a few other families and the Lindleys, and we're like, in my house, and they're like, I didn't know if anybody on the Huber's gang, I didn't know if anybody else would ever come, right? It's like, cool, we're having fellowship and these principles and the Lord, and you expect the unexpected. And by faith, God does above and beyond all that you ask or imagine. And this is the way you have ministry. And God brings unexpected events. Some things I expected never happened. I expected certain things to happen, and they never happened. And other things I didn't expect, and they do happen. And God draws people from all different kind of situations. And this is what ministry is all about. And we have to hold it open with an open hand. And so we've walked through this church, and God's provided for us. You know, I came expecting to be a bricklayer here, and God provided. I had my toolbox. I was ready. I said, I'm going to come sight unseen. No matter what you do, God, I'm going to call. And I believe that you do this in a church planting. I believe you come, you go to plant a church, and you die trying. That's my perspective. Because my convictions were such that I believed these things. And so, you know, and I watched a lot of my other friends, you know, my other peers from seminary, they would try a church plant for a couple months and then give up. Like, you just started a couple months. You just give up? You believe what you believe? And so as you walk by faith, God opens the doors. If you don't walk by faith, I have a lot of friends in ministry that were in ministry, they didn't have the faith to walk through the doors and they just waited and they waited. I know a lot of families that have come and wanted to do ministry here, but they wait and they wait. They don't have the active faith that moves them to narrow their outside focuses to focus in on what God is calling them to do. And when God brings them the unexpected, they don't see it. They make wrong choices and they leave. They fall away. It's not healthy. You know people like that too. This is serious stuff. But by faith, the church must be rooted in faith. And so there is a higher standard to be part of the true church. It's called faith. You have to keep growing in faith or you will fall away. If you don't fall away, you'll probably get kicked out. Right? It's because that's what true community of faith does. Achan is always the danger to the community. The main story in Joshua is Achan. That's one of the main stories. Achan will covet things and prohibit faith. God doesn't need tons of people. He needs a few people who actually have faith. Right? And so we've got to get our minds around these truths to fulfill the great commission by faith. And that includes It includes all of Scripture to all of life. It includes the jurisdictions. It includes walking this out. It includes reviving the role of biblical manhood and getting right the role of biblical motherhood, setting the family on its foundation so the church can fulfill its missions to minister to families and those families go forth then in all the different capacities as God calls them to go into all the world and make disciples. But we got problems at every level there, but this is the great commission. And as we do this, we do this by faith. God's given us an opportunity to go in 2006 to plant a church. He'll give us more. And He would have given us more opportunities had we had more faith. You understand that? God's called us to plant at least 20 churches around here. At least. And that's nothing for God. But we have to have faith to narrow our focus on doing these things. Faith to take dominion. That's the work hard. The work ethic is huge. We are to be hard workers, but we don't work to take dominion because we're scared. We work to take dominion because God's called us to. Do you see the difference? So the dominion work can take us away from the Great Commission work if we don't have the balance of faith. Faith brings it all into perspective. And as we do this, God has brought the Rahabs. God has brought the harlots, the sodomites, the immoral to this church. You don't think so because you look at each other on the outside. Right? It's been this way from the beginning. Okay? When you get a group of people that have faith together, they look really good. But I talk to them other times. Right? So let's not have that pretense and thinking we're all perfect here. It's not about being perfect. It's about having faith. It's about trusting God. And yeah, when you're trusting God, you will get cleaned up. Right? I don't do what I used to do. Right? Nada! I've repented, but I don't have the pride to think it was for me. I didn't pull myself up by my own bootstraps. Okay? God pulled me out of the miry muck, set me on the broad place, and as I learned to trust in him, he exalts me. In other words, if you humble yourself, you will be exalted. God's using me a little bit because I'm learning to not trust myself a little bit. And that's just a little bit. Just think if I really didn't trust myself and trusted in God. Just think if we would do that. And we are, and we're growing, and we're guiding, and God's guiding us. But this is the vision. This is how we take the land. We do it by faith. Expect the unexpected. That's my testimony. I want to hear your testimony. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your grace and mercy. We thank you for the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. We thank you for making all things new to those who will but trust and obey, for there is no other way. We thank you for Joshua, and we thank you for Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.