Of Whom The World Is Not Worthy

An interesting thing about this, you know, kind of taking these stepping stones as a grad, is that sometimes you'll be, you know, you'll do things, you'll pursue things, you'll be involved in things, and sometimes you don't even get credit for those things, right? Like people, like some of us, when we leave this life, we will not be remembered for the things that we've done for Jesus Christ. Let's just be honest, okay? A lot of you aren't going to have plaques. A lot of you aren't going to have a building named after you.

I would love to name a building after you if you want to, you know, fund a church building. I'll be glad to put a memorial up for you. But for many of us, you know, what we do for Jesus, what we do in this life, may not be necessarily recognized. And I think about those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom here in our nation. That many of them, we don't even know their names.

We don't know their names. We will never know their names. All the way back to the Revolutionary War up until now, there are people that were just as important as the generals and all the commands down that we will never know. But guess who does know? God knows who they are.

And we've got a message today called, of whom the world was not worthy. Of whom the world was not worthy is not worthy. And if you're familiar, if you've gone to D.C., you've probably had an opportunity to see the tomb of the unknown soldier.

If you put that up. And just a very moving thing to come encounter with this. In fact, the first time I saw it, I was young and we had been to D.C. for the first time.

And it was a lot like today. It was a nice fall day like today. You know, it was like raining and the wind was going. And I watched this soldier, you know, go back and forth and just... And look at the engraved sentence on this stone.

It just moved me even as a young boy. It says, here rest in honor, glory, an American soldier known but to God. Known but to God. God knew him. God knew her.

And many people, they're just normal people. They're regular people that were at fault, that gave their time, that gave their life for the purpose of freedom. And they believed in their country. Many of them, they were plumbers, they were bankers, they were mechanics, they were nurses, they were housewives, sons, daughters, mothers, just on and on and on. And they gave their lives for freedom.

And they were people just like us. Similarly, we see in Scripture, one of my favorites... One of my favorite scriptures found in Hebrews 11, if you're turning your Bibles to Hebrews 11, or you can go online to the Bible app and pull up those notes. We're going to look at that. I love this scripture, and I've taught on it a lot in many different ways, but I'm going to teach on it in a little different direction today.

And we find here the Heroes of Faith. We like to call them the Heroes of Faith, the Heroes Hall of Fame, the Faith Hall of Fame. You've heard a lot of different ways that this has been taught, and how it starts off with this thing about faith. Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance of what we don't see. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, the assurance of things hoped for.

Meaning that we don't see everything in front of us. Sometimes we can't touch what we're seeing, but we believe we have faith. They saw things. These people in the Bible, we go through this lineage of the Bible. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Sarah, all of them.

We see them, recognize them as people of Heroes of Faith. But what's interesting is they did not see what was in front of them at the time. They lived and they died and they did all that they did for the glory of God, but they were promised something. But the promise wasn't a physical land. When we think of Israel and the promise that was given them, it was bigger than just a piece of land.

It was a shadow to what was to come. It was an eternal place, an eternal destination, a world that was completely redeemed one day. They had a vision of something that they were not even able to see in their lifetime. They had a hope for something they were not able to see in their lifetime. And that's why it says they did not receive the things promised.

They only saw them from a distance. They saw them from this, but they welcomed them because they had strong faith. Instead, they were longing for a better country. They weren't longing for just the country that God was taking them to, the promised land. When Abraham was met by God and said, get up and go, and he went and did what he did, it was bigger than that.

It wasn't just a piece of land. There was something greater that was in store for him, and he knew that. And that's why God was not ashamed to call them, his children, and him to be their God. So we get to this scripture here in Hebrews 11, verse 32. And this is where we're getting to here.

And it says, What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak. Who is Barak? Not the president of the United States, the former president of the United States. There was a Barak in the Bible.

I've never heard of Barak. Have you heard of Barak? Do you know the story of Barak? This is the only place I actually see him. And we wonder who he is, right?

Or Samson. We know who Samson is, but how about Jethat? I mean... Jephthat, am I even pronouncing Jephthat right? I mean, I don't even know how to pronounce his name, much less know what he did.

And it's right there in the middle of Gideon. We know who Gideon is, and then we know who David is, and we know who Samuel and the prophets are. But there's these people right there, and there's some purpose behind this. And it says, "...who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions."

And he goes on and on and on. "...quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, but put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead." And these people, we don't know, right?

We don't know. There's a blank here as to specific names. This is even bigger than Barak and Jephthat. "...some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so they might rise again to a better lives.

Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed by the sword." Wow!

Some of us don't even want to, you know, get a little cut on our finger if a paper cut kills us, right? And these people were willing to give their lives. And they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated. And here's the key to what I want to talk about, of whom the world was not worthy. Because in the world's eyes, they weren't worthy.

But in God's eyes, they were worthy. They were found worthy in God's eyes. They were honored in God's eyes. They weren't honored. When the world looked at them, I know, hmm.

That person's a little weird. That person's this. That person didn't really make much in the world's eyes. But these people had faith. And they honored God.

And they weren't worthy in the world's eyes. And they wondered about deserts and mountains and dens and caves of earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised." Talking about in that life. Since God had provided something way, way, way, way better.

Better for us. That apart from us, they should not be made perfect. Those whom the world is not worthy. And I just find it interesting that we have these powerhouses. We love to talk about these powerhouses of faith.

And we should. We should talk about Abraham. We should do entire teachings on Abraham and his faith because it was powerful. But we have people with just as much faith as Abraham that we don't even know the names of. And that could be you as well.

People who we miss out on. Because God does this on purpose. He does this on purpose to communicate something that everybody has value. Everybody is equal. Everybody has something to offer in God's kingdom.

And nobody is more important than the other. Yes, there are people called to different places. Gosh, see you? Which we have. Different positions, and there is some type of authority structure, we know that, because humans are human, right?

We've got to have some kind of structure to us, or we'll just go chaotic, right? But, in Hebrews 11.30, we see this story, and I want to point out somebody who is mentioned in the Bible. She's mentioned in the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, and she's considered in the Faith Hall of Fame, and her name was Rahab. And I want to talk about Rahab a little bit today, because some of you may feel like a Rahab.

When I get through talking about Rahab, you may feel like Rahab. In Hebrews 11.30, it says, By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had encircled for seven days. And by faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. So, I'm going to share a little background, because some of you may not be familiar with the story of Joshua and Jericho and Rahab and things like that.

But, this is a spiritual giant that perhaps would not be considered a spiritual giant in the world's eyes. This was a person who the world would condemn. But God found honor. Because the world doesn't have the inability to know the power of God to use somebody insignificant to make them significant. To use somebody with a lot of past and a lot of sin, and use them for powerful stuff.

The world doesn't see that ability, and he can use the most common people to accomplish the greatest things. The world doesn't see them worthy, but God sees them worthy. He sees something, and he sees something in every one of you today. And my hope is that this will get across to you today. 1 Corinthians says it like this, But God chose the foolish in the world to shame the wise.

He could use foolish people to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. And Rahab would be considered somebody that was foolish. In the world's eyes, she was foolish. The Greek, porne, Hebrew, zonah means harlot.

She was a harlot. She was a prostitute. She had a lot of sin in her life. She was not a pleasant person. She wasn't a good person.

In fact, she would be considered unredeemable even by her very own people, who were an idolatrous nation. They were far from God. They made sacrifice. They sacrificed their children. They sacrificed each other.

Yet, they looked at this woman and saw something insignificant. They saw something that they would have shunned. Their own nation would have abhorred her because of her occupation, because of what she did. But Christ saw something different. God saw something different.

As Christ saw the woman who committed the act of adultery in the gospels, so God saw... So God saw... ... Rahab. He saw her differently.

And if you're familiar with the story of the Battle of Jericho, I grew up in church and we had like Sunday school and all that, and in between Sunday school you would come out and all the kids would come out together, you know, and we would sing, Joshua in the Battle of Jericho, and we'd hop and do all these motions and the walls came tumbling down. So let me just tell you about Joshua. So Joshua took Moses' place. Moses passed away. And Joshua was the man.

He was to take Moses' place. Moses knew it was coming. Moses had disobeyed God, so God was not going to allow Moses to enter into the promised land, to see the promised land. He was just going to take him to heaven. And much like David in the tabernacle, David wanted to build the tabernacle.

God said, uh-uh, because you've done this act or you've done this act, I'm going to allow your son Solomon to do it. So Joshua, so you see how that kind of happens in scripture a whole lot. So Joshua takes Moses' place, and he's the one to be able to lead him into the promised land. And you have to remember this is a new generation because we had the wilderness that took place before that, and the people disobeyed God, and they circled the wilderness for so many years, and all the old generation have basically passed away. So these are new people coming in.

Joshua, here's your plan. You're going to go and take this land back. But your first assignment is this great city called Jericho. And Jericho was a tremendous city, but a very dark city. They were very evil people, actually.

Very evil people. Again, they were idolatrous. They had many, many gods. They sacrificed their own children, and God's like, we've got to go in, and we've got to take this land back. This is the land I've promised you.

So they're going through, and that's their first assignment, and they'll go to other cities as well and conquer those cities, and then they'll have, you know, they'll rebuild, they'll have the promised land, and good things will come from that. But he asked Joshua to do this very, very interesting thing. So Joshua has to go out and take his army. They're all going to line up, and they're going to march around these great walls. They've got to do it six times, and then on the seventh day, they do something a little different.

So every day, they come out, and they march around the wall, go back to their camp, come back out, march around the wall. And this isn't just a mile walk. This is a really long walk. This is a day walk, okay? They walk around the wall.

They go back to their camp. For six days, they do that. And here's a little sermon in any of itself. Sometimes it feels like life's mundane, right? When we're doing the Lord's work, sometimes it's just like, okay, God, when is this going to happen?

When is this going to happen? When is this going to happen? When are we going to be able to... When am I going to see you work? When am I going to see you move?

But sometimes he's just asking us to do the simple things like walk around the wall day in and day out. And I'm sure the people are like, is Joshua crazy? Has he lost his mind? Has he really listened to God? This is unbelievable.

So they put seven priests out with trumpets, and they marched around the wall in six days. And then on the seventh day, God says, I want you to march around the wall seven times, and when you stop, I want you to shout. And I'm going to do something. So they did. They marched around the wall seven times.

They stopped, blew the trumpet, shouted, and the walls came down. The walls all around came down into the city. They went in, took the city, took everything, and took that land back for God. And it was just a magnificent work in seeing God move. But shooting back, how was Rahab involved with this?

Well, Joshua decided to send two spies in, and somehow they ended up at Rahab's house. And I'm not sure for what reason. They don't give you details of that, but they're trying to find out some intel about the city. Maybe she was the best person to talk to to get the kind of low down. And then the king hears about it.

The king of Jericho hears about it. He sends some pursuers to go after the spies, and Rahab sends them up to the roof, put them under some flax and some stuff that she had up there, just hid them away. And the pursuers come in, and they're like, Hey, hey, I heard you had this. The king heard this. You had some people here.

They were, but they've gone. They've fleed the city, this and that. They're going that way. So she sent them on this wild goose chase, went up and got them in, and brought them back down after the pursuers had left the city. And then she had a conversation with them.

She said, Listen, we're fearful of you people. And I realize that your God is the only God. I realize that you have a God that we've heard about the Red Sea. We've heard about all these things. We've heard about the other cities and the other kings that you guys have conquered.

And you know what? I want your God. I want to follow your God. And it says, If you can promise me this, if you can promise me this, that you will spare my family, my father's family. So they ask, they say, Okay, here's what we'll do.

If we honor this, you don't tell your people about us. We'll honor this. If you put a scarlet cord outside your door, outside your window, we will spare your life. So when we come in and we defeat the city, we'll spare your life. And sure enough, the deal was made.

She brought all of her family in. And when the walls came down and they came into the city, her life was spared. And the beautiful thing about the scarlet cord, it is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ himself. Remember the Passover and the blood of the lamb on the post that happened before this event? Like probably about 60, 70 years before this event.

And remember the Passover, a foreshadowing of Christ. We see it once again that Jesus Christ, emblematic of this scarlet cord, saved. Her entire family was saved. And it wasn't Israel that saved her. It was God that saved her because she placed her faith in God, not Israel.

He used Israel's people to save her. And it's much like the church. God uses the church to help people find Christ, to save people, to bring people into the hope of Jesus Christ. But it's really God that does the saving. God's the one that does the rescuing and He uses people like us.

So the interesting thing, her profession of faith was not her profession of occupation. That's what I want to get back. The most important thing about this story is not the fact that Jericho, I would say this is probably more significant to anything, and this is the reason that Hebrews puts it in Scripture and other parts of the New Testament even talk about her. Why does this happen? Because her profession of faith was the thing that changed everything.

It wasn't her profession in general, her past, her sinful past. Look at Joshua 2.9, it says, I know that the Lord has given you this land. And then she goes on to say a few verses later, for the Lord your God. He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

She made a confession of her faith. She believed that God was the God. This is a clear presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus does. He comes in and He saves us.

He rescues us. When the enemy is coming in all around us, we can call on the name of Jesus. He is the hope of the world. He is there to save us. He is there to rescue us.

He is there to bring... He is our Redeemer. He brings things back to life. And He saves you from the... She didn't trust in Israel.

She trusted in God. She didn't trust in the people. See, people will fail you. Okay, guys? Let me give...

News flash! People are messed up, even with Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ, He's the hope of the world. You can always put your faith, you can always put your trust, and you can always put your hope in Jesus. He will never...

He says He'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you. He'll always be there for you. He will never... Sometimes He'll inconvenience you.

Yeah, yeah. Sometimes He'll stretch you a little bit. Sometimes He'll ask you to do some things that you probably don't want to do. But He'll never leave you or forsake you. And she entered into that covenant with God.

And that's why Ephesians 2 says, For by grace... That's what saves us. The grace of Jesus Christ. The grace of thy Father through Jesus Christ's blood. You have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It's a gift from God. Again, this is a gift from God. It's not works. It's not based on what you do to get to heaven.

Because how many of you are successful at that? Oh, I've been doing really, really, really good. Really good. No, I think you'll look back in your past and realize, Man, there's some things that I've done pretty wrong. I've made some bad mistakes.

And I don't know if I'll even be perfect in the future. But that's the point of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't come to make you a good person. Jesus came to save your soul. Now we can't deal with the pain-dead Porque.

I'm very Utah. I can't access it. He makes that available to you. You're made good through Jesus Christ's blood. That's the whole point.

If you don't understand Christianity 101, we're not a religion. You know what a religion says? There's a set of rules, there's a set of systems to get to heaven. It tells you you need to do this, and this, and this, and this. And if you do this, maybe you'll get to heaven.

But you've got to be really good in this life. Buddhism, Muslims, all of them religions. But here's what distinguishes Christianity. This is why we preach. He is the only true God because He offers grace to everyone who believes in Him, regardless of their works, regardless of anything that they're going through, regardless of their past, regardless of the sin that you had.

There is grace available to you through faith, by believing in Him. Faith is putting your hope in Jesus Christ, regardless of what you see. But believing. Believing in Jesus Christ. And what He does is He turns your old self into a new self.

That's what He does. When you place your hope in Jesus Christ, trusting Him to cover your sins, trusting in Him to cover your past and secure you for future and hope and things like that. That's what Jesus came to do. Romans 4 says, we are made children of Abraham. Because in the Old Testament, you talk about, you know, Abraham and Israel and all the children.

And God chose Israel to show Himself, to reveal Himself to the world. And thank goodness for the Jews to be the chosen people, for Israel to be the chosen people, for God to reveal Himself. But God wasn't after Israel. He was after everybody. He was after the world.

He used Israel as an opportunity. He loved Israel and He came through Israel to reveal Himself to everyone. We are called Gentiles in the Old Testament because anybody who isn't a Jew or isn't of Israel is considered a Gentile. But the fact is, when Jesus came and everything He's done through His blood, we are all made seeds of it. We are, it seems, Abraham.

In fact, the promise of Abraham was the stars in the sky and the sands. You'll have as many children as the stars in the sky, Israel, and the sands of the sea, short of Gentiles. See that? See that? We were all children of Abraham.

It says it right here. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, believing in Jesus, right? So that it may be by grace. It's grace. It's not works.

It's grace, guys. Can I get that cross anymore? Okay? And it may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of the law, meaning those of Israel, but also to those who are of faith, of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

Don't believe me there? Go to Romans 9-8. We find out. We find out. Now.

Not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. Galatians 3.29, If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, the heirs according to his promise. You are accepted into the kingdom of God. You are a child of God.

We are children of God through Abraham. He was a person chosen to be used by God. He operated in faith, and we have got these people throughout the Hall of Fame. They all operated in faith, believing, not seeing everything that was to take place, but knowing that it was going to happen. And through them all, we are living in the reality, on the other side, the reality of Jesus Christ.

The fact that he is rescuing us, saving us, and we are waiting for his soon return. His return when he will bring everything. Because he is in the redeeming business. He redeems things. He brings things back to life.

And you know what is really cool? Is that when she submitted to God, Yahweh, not only was she made right, and not only does the New Testament talk about her and commend her for who she was, she was actually included. And this is the most, man, this is just powerful. A prostitute was in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Did you know that?

Because if you go to the book of Matthew, it says, it mentions the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth, and the grandfather of King David, who was in direct lineage to Jesus Christ. And it started with Rahab. Rahab was included in the lineage of Jesus Christ. So, Jesus' human side, there was a prostitute in his bloodline. Can you believe that?

Wow. Oh, my goodness. And we're afraid for people to come into church that look a little different, you know. Jesus' family was what came from, Jesus came from a family that was quite unusual and different. So, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, let me just give you four things real quick here.

And then we'll close. First of all, every life is valued. Every life is valued, guys. In the kingdom of God, every life is valued. And it's important that I say that because I want to be known as a church that accepts everyone.

Even if I'm picked on, if our church is, oh, man, you know the type of people that they have in that church. I'm just going to pick on some of the churches I've been a part of in the past, you know. Everybody was straight-laced, and they wore, you know, ties, and they cleaned up and everything. They look clean on the outside, but I tell you what, there's some mean snakes in those churches, man. And, yeah, my dad was a pastor, and we experienced a lot of different types of people.

A lot of them were really good people. They loved the Lord, and I thank God for them because they poured into my life. But some of them, they needed Jesus themselves. But they were quick to condemn other churches that were doing things a little different because we're all a part of the kingdom of God. We're all doing different.

We're all doing different. But really, I want to be known as the church that invites sinners in. Now, obviously, we bring correction, we bring discipleship and all that within the church. But as long as people are pursuing Christ, want to be more like Christ, because we're bringing people in, they're getting saved, they don't know what to do next. They're still living the way they were.

We're not going to condemn them. We're going to help them. We're going to build them up. We're going to encourage them. We're going to bring them in.

We're going to help them become more like Jesus. We're going to show them how to live like Jesus, and watch God do things in their lives that are extraordinary. I've heard it. There's an old song in the 90s. I can't believe I'm saying the 90s is an old song, but it's getting to that point now.

I used to listen to a band called Blind Melon. I don't know how many of you know that band, Blind Melon. And there was a song that said, holy man, you don't understand. The scars on me, they run much deeper. Oh man, God, like so many people are walking around, holy man, holy church, whatever.

Y'all don't understand. My scars are so deep. I'll never be fixed. I'll never be. I'm irreparable.

But if I were to stand before Shannon Hoon right now, who passed away of a drug overdose, if I could stand before him right now, I'd tell him, oh, but God knows. God can fix your wounds. It's not too far. You're not too far gone. Nobody's too far gone.

Every life is valued. Every life is there. And Paul's speaking to the Corinthians church. And they're all kind of like that church that's bickering and complaining. Who should we let in?

Who should we do this and do that? It's no different, guys. It's just New Day, same old church. They just fuss and bicker and complain once they get too institutionalized. And Paul's trying to teach them.

And he says, as such were some of you. As he laid out a list of sins, he said he was talking about idolaters and adulterers and homosexuals and thieves and greedy and drunkards, slanderers, swindlers, that none of those will inherit the kingdom of God. And guess what? All of you are those things, but you're not anymore because of this. But you were washed and you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Nobody is too far gone. Everybody is valued in the kingdom of God. And we have doors wide open for everybody, no matter where they are, no matter how far gone they are, how sinful they are. Rahabs, welcome. Welcome.

And then the second thing is human suffering has substance. So, some of you have some pretty painful stories. And I'm sure Rahab had a really painful story. I mean, she was a prostitute. She lived in a city that was pretty hardcore, you know.

People were pretty evil there. So, I'm sure... Sure, she had some pain, she had some hurt, she had some broken past, but those things can become a testimony of grace. When God rescues you and saves you, I want to tell you, if you're here today and you're like, wow, my past is so messed up, God can turn that around to a story of grace. He does it all the time.

Just a powerful story of grace. The things that seem to destroy us, they can actually be instruments that God uses to transform us and transform others. In my weakness, I am made strong, is what 2 Corinthians, and when I am weak, I am strong. I'm not strong in my own strength. In my hurt, in my pain, in my suffering, there is a purpose for it.

There's a purpose for the things, the past that I went through, the things even I'm going through now, maybe the things I'll go through in the future. I just understand it from a different perspective because I'm a child of God. I understand it. Human suffering has substance. Because without Jesus, it doesn't.

It's meaningless. That's why we're questioning life and everything. Why is this happening? Why are kids dying? Why is there cancer?

Why am I losing best friends to cancer? Why am I losing my best friend in a car accident or whatever it might be? Why is there earthquakes and floods and all this? None of that makes sense without understanding who God is. Because he brings substance to, he brings meaning to our suffering which we look at the hall of faith and we see that some people were sown in two, some people were martyred for their faith.

But there was something inside of them that was joyful. Because they saw something that was greater than what was currently going on in this world. News flash, another news flash, there's a lot of news flashes here. News flash update, this world is not a good place, okay? It's not a good place.

We can say all we want to, it's a good place, but it really isn't. And the Bible is very clear that we have, you know, that's why Jesus, that's why we need Jesus. And Jesus is going to redeem this world and make it perfect. That's the reason he came. Without him, then we can just continue to go to direction.

It just keeps getting worse. People just keep getting worse. I mean, just, the evidence is there, right? But the church is the hope of the world because Jesus works through the church. The church has brought better good, better life to the world than anything else could.

And one day, we believe, in our Christian theology, if you're new to Christianity or whatever, we believe that Jesus will return and he will restore everything back to what it was originally intended to be. We believe that for thousands of years since Jesus left this world. He said, I'll return the same way. And there will be a new heaven, a new earth, and we'll be living. Everything that was meant to be from the very beginning will be beautiful.

So there's hope. There's real hope, guys. There's real hope. I know it's tragic. That's why I don't sit around listening to news all day and getting doom and gloom and being sad because I have a joy in my heart to know that there's something greater ahead of me.

And I just live for God. I live for Jesus. I share the gospel of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of the good of The news that Jesus is there for them. I see the gospel in this world. I want to be a change agent in the world.

I don't want to be divisive. I don't want to be angry. I don't want to be frustrated. We get angry and frustrated and everybody's like, grumpy, angry, frustrated Christians. In politics, you know, they're like, those are evangelical, conservative Christians, you know.

All angry about everything. No, most of them aren't Christians, number one. They're living for themselves and they just care about themselves. But why not be hopeful and why not be, you know, yeah, let's participate. I'm not saying leave politics.

Let's be involved in politics. We need to, right? Be involved in our nation. Be involved in things. You know, vote for the right people.

Vote on our values. It's important that we do that. We're not passive and we just sit over here on an island somewhere. I'm not saying that. Let's not be passive.

Let's be active Christians in our society. It's important. Jesus was active. Jesus was authoritative on some things and it's important to do that. But what I'm saying is don't get so bitter about the world and so grumpy about the world that you end up being like the world.

Okay? And being like everybody else. Whatever side of the political spectrum you are. Stop getting angry at conservatives. Conservatives start getting angry at liberals.

Stop it. Okay? We're Christians first. We're followers of Christ first. Then we decide our value systems and we work through those.

Because we've got to be change agents in our society. Yes, I'm going to stand up for what God stands up for. I'm going to stand up for children that aren't born. Because God values that. I'm going to hold on to that.

But I also value women as well. Because God values women. We have Rahab here. Amen? Amen.

So both and. And I'm going to value... And I could go on and on and on. I'm going on a little bit of rabbit trail there. But the third point is the worst sinner can become the greatest saint.

Okay? The worst sinner can become the greatest saint. Nobody's too far gone. Rahab was pretty bad. Her sin was great.

Her sin was huge, guys. If we look at it from the perspective of how we view things, right? As Christians. But we... Her sin was great, but we have a really great savior.

We have a savior that's so much greater than the sin that she's facing. Right? And that's why Matthew 20, 16 says, The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. That the reason we even do church like this, guys, is, you know, the people that come into that door, if you're new here today, you are first. We are last.

We're here to serve you. If you're trying to figure out this Jesus thing, we're here to serve you. If you're... We're here to... We get benefits out of it too.

Guess what? When we serve, we're blessed. I mean, God just blesses us, and it's an amazing thing to walk out with the family of God doing the ministry together. God does a lot of really, really wonderful things. things in our lives, but I'm a servant first.

It's not about me. And sometimes I get grumpy as a pastor. I work so hard, Lord, and you and Jim, and God reminds me, God reminds me, that you're last. Remember that. I called you to this so that you would serve me.

You're not serving anybody else but me. You're not serving yourself. And those are people that I love. That's a city I love. And you're going to suck it up and get out there, and you're going to serve me.

And I have to hear that from God sometimes. He speaks to me often about that. There's a lot of Rahabs out there that need to hear the Word of God, that need to hear the message, the goodness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. And number four, a sinful past is not a sentence to a painful future.

Okay? Just because you've had a bad past, some people are enslaved. Even Christians are enslaved to the past. I've lived such a bad past. I've lived this and that.

I'll never be able to break that. I don't know. Maybe I should... Come on, guys. Like, you're not...

You can be completely... Jesus came not just to save you. He came to free you. The free you of all that stuff that you've had in your past. Joel says it like this, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts have eaten.

He wants to restore because he's in the redeeming business. God's very nature is to restore. It's kind of like the famous artist that goes dumpster diving to pull things out of the dumpster, to put them together to make a beautiful work of art, and those works of art end up selling for millions of dollars. God's a dumpster diver. Did you know that?

He's dumpster diving trying to find you, right? That trash. He wants to pull that trash out and make it into something beautiful. God is searching for the broken spirits, the abandoned people, the lost dreams, the people who've lost hope, the poorest of the poor. He's looking for those people.

Let's not forget that Jesus was rejected and abandoned, and He was in poor places. So He understands. Jesus understands it all. He went through it all. In fact, Scripture says, consider Him who went through it all.

He went through all the suffering, went through all the pain. He was rejected by His best friends. He was put on the cross by His very people, the people that God chose to reveal Himself to the world, put His only Son on the cross, so He's there, and forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. He's been through it all. And maybe for some of you, you feel irreparable.

Some of you here, just frankly, you feel irreparable. Maybe you were raised in a broken family. Maybe you had just a tremendous past, and you feel like, I just don't deserve redemption. I just don't deserve redemption. I don't, I don't, why would God want to redeem me?

I love how C.S. Lewis says it, no creature that deserved redemption would need to be redeemed. Nobody that deserves redemption. None of us deserve redemption.

None of us deserve it. That's the beauty of Jesus Christ. He loved us. It says when yet we were sinners, when we were sinners before we became Christians, He still loved us. Did you know that?

He loved you in your sin. He loves you in your sin. If you're in sin right now, He loves you in your sin. And He's willing to redeem you. He's calling out to you, prostitutes and all.

We've all sinned by nature. The Bible is very, very, very clear. This is the simple presentation of the Gospel. It is clear that everyone was born into sin. If you believe the Bible, everyone was born into sin.

Adam's sin brought sin into the world. One man brought sin into the world, but guess what? One man fixed it. Jesus Christ fixed it. Romans says, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man to death through sin, and so death spread to all of man because of sin.

And then later on it says, But one man, the second Adam, came to this world so that we could be redeemed, so that we could be made right in Jesus Christ. And though God's judgment will come to the world, you were made right in Jesus Christ. You have an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ. The scarlet cord is dangling out the window for you. Amen?

It's available for you. The blood of Jesus Christ is available for you. And you can be called sons and daughters of the Most High. You can be a child of God. And so we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ.

Amen? That's why I love how Hebrews 12.1 says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was sat before him endured the cross, despising shame as he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So, I know we're going to go through things in life. I know that there's going to be some heavy, heavy storms in life.

But man, I tell you what, it's much better to go through it with Jesus Christ. Got it? Yeah. All right. All right.

Let me finish this message. That, look, when a storm's coming and you're out on a boat, you're not going to turn around and look at that storm and say, let me just go right back into that storm to avoid the storm. Right? You're not going to do that. You're going to look at the shore.

You're going to go to the shore. You're going to be heading towards the shore. You're going to try to find some place of refuge. Right? Amen?

You're going to be looking for that refuge, that place of hope, that place that keeps you from the storm. In the same way, we don't look at our past, guys. We look to the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ. He's- He's the one that leads us. He's the one we pursue.

And there is hope over there on that land, even in the midst of the storm. I'd much rather go through life with Jesus Christ than not go without Him. And that's the simple truth of the Gospel. We have all fallen short of Jesus Christ's perfect, perfect nature. And God sent His Son.

This is just the love of God. He sent His Son so that He could die on the cross so that you could have life. And life to the full. Life to the full. Not just life.

Life to the full. To the fullest extent. And He's available for you. Let's pray. Father, God, thank You for Your Word.

Thank You, God. Thank You, Jesus, that You offer hope. No greater love there is than for one to give his own life. And Jesus, You gave Your own life. And as we think about Memorial Day today and the people who have given their life for us and our freedom and our country and all of that, Lord, we can, as believers, look to You as well.

The one who gave his life so that we could have hope and freedom and have purpose, have identity. We can be completely secure in You, Lord. So today, Lord, speak to our hearts, speak to our lives, wherever we are on the spectrum of our spiritual walk, Lord, that You would begin to reveal Yourself to us. For those of us who are seasoned in the faith, maybe we have a deeper understanding of what it really means to accept and love and see and pursue grace in You and extend the grace to others that You have to offer them, Lord, that we would be gospel seeds to be able to further Your kingdom and to take the promised land that You have given Your kingdom, Lord, and Your church, Lord. A kingdom of hope, not a kingdom of dominance, a kingdom of freedom and hope and love.

So we ask that today, Lord. With all heads bowed and eyes closed, maybe there's some of you here today that have never given your life to Jesus Christ. And this is what faith is all about. This is what Hebrews 11 is all about. Now, that they saw something, they saw a God, and they believed, and that's what faith is.

It says, by grace you were saved through faith, by just simply believing in Him. And if you're that person today that you're like, I'm ready, I'm ready, Leon. I'm ready to make a decision for Jesus. I've been putting it off, or maybe you've never heard of Jesus before, but you're like, you know what, I'm going to give Jesus a chance. Maybe you can make that confession of faith today with me, and there's nothing magic in the prayer.

You just say it and believe it in your heart, and that's what faith is all about. Just trust in the grace of Jesus Christ. So pray this with me. Father, I believe that You are the Son of God, Jesus, and that You died on the cross for my sin. I receive Your blood over my life.

Cover my sins. Amen. Make me a new creation. Give me hope today, Lord. I walk with you from this day forward, and we ask this in your name.

Amen.