Ordinary People Ordinary Act

Pastor Alvin

We want to empower people like you and me to do ordinary act of faith to seeing God move in extraordinary ways. The world perception of God :
- God is a God of favouritism
- God is a sexist

Joshua 2:1-24

Joshua first task is to conquer the promised land despite him having just taken over Israel from Moses.

4 Major Questions :
1. Why choose a lying Canaanite prostitute?

# Why a prostitute house?
- because it is not so obvious
- it's easy access to the wall
- it's also easy for the soldiers to search

# Why a prostitute?
- because they are abomination to the Jews
- they are the lowest grade people
- but we have a compassionate and inclusive God who chose to use Rahab

# Why lying?
- did you save a life?
- are you saving somebody else life or your life when you lie?

# Why a Canaanite?
- canaanite are hated by the Jews because they are barbaric and done terrible things to the Jews
- however Israel is just as sinful (Deut 9:6)
- Israel is used in the OT as instrument of blessing and it is not God favouritism (Deut 4:5-7)

# Why female?
- to show us that God favours female and male the same from the beginning

@@ God is a God of compassion. No one is too sinful : you are not forgotten @@


2. What did Rahab do that was commendable?

# Rahab remembered
- what God had done for the children of Israel (JOshua 2:10)
# Rahab confessed
- she is declaring her faith which is the personal name of God, ie Yahweh (Joshua 2:11)
# Rahab acted
- her act of keeping the spies requires taking rish of possible death (James 2:25-26)(Hebrews 11:31)

@@ God is a God of faith. No act is too small : you can make a difference @@


3. What was the outcome of Rahab faith?

# Rahab entire family was saved

# Rahab became the great grandmother of King David (Matthew 1:5)

# Rahab became the ancestor of Jesus

4 women mentioned in Matthew 1 :
Mary
Ruth (Gentile)
Tamar (Gentile)
Rahab (Gentile)

# this shows that our God is a God of Gentile and the Jews!

@@ God is a God of Grace. An extraordinary outcome : Live a grace-filled life @@


What does it mean for us?

# like Rahab...
- we need a saviour (I can't)
- as long as we see that we can save ourselves, we don't need a saviour

# We have a saviour (He did it)

# We are suppose to respond in faith like Rahab (Now I can)
* Remember
* Confess
* Act


How to act in faith?
* Trust : is about trusting God for our future

* Obedience : if there are areas in your life that is against your will, return to fellowship with God

* Take Risk : there's a risk in talking to your colleagues, starting new venture ....