Defining Moment

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Defining Moments 3

Jonathan A. Buckland

A Defining Transition

Joshua 2:1-11 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

8 Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9 and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. p 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.

Opening-

The Children of Israel have a mandate from God to go and possess the land which God had promised them already. Although God had already given a promise of possession, the promise did not remove the Israelites responsibility to go in and possess the land. Joshua sends to spies into the promise land to check everything out. We are introduced to a woman named Rahab who the Bible mentions is a prostitute. Rahab has heard about the children of Israel. She had heard of the miracles and the stories, maybe she even had

The concept of being responsible was given to us by God all the way back in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2 Adam and Even were asked to tend to the Garden God had given to them, they were asked to name and care for the animals in the Garden, and they were also required to take responsibility for the union they shared together and with God.

• God desires for every believer to transition from being an observer to a possessor! If you want to enjoy the fruit you have to be willing to be counted as part of the responsible!

If a man doesn’t work he doesn’t eat. Only the responsible will enjoy the harvest!

Rahab –

• Heard about what God had done –

• Possibly had eyewitness accounts who had seen what God had done

• She met the spies who were connected to the promise

• She recognized she was outside of the promise looking in

• She developed an urgency of faith that was large enough to compel her into action which transitioned her from being having a “relationship with the promise to being responsible

As the Pastor of The Bridge Church, I do not desire one person to be in relationship with this church, to hear about what God is doing, to see what God is doing, to recognize what God is doing, but they never develop the faith to transition from a relationship with to being responsible for! Only those who are willing to transition from relationship to responsibility will enjoy the fruit in harvest time.

Only those who prepared by -

o Buying seed in the winter

o Sewing the seed in the spring

o Tilling the ground in the summer

o Reaping in the fall experience the abounding of Harvest time!

o Every Season Requires a Responsibility!

o Responsibility becomes a pleasure when it is attached to a destiny!

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

• Are you willing to be responsible for the destiny God has already prepared for you? It is time to start sewing to your destiny

• You can typically tell in a crowd those who believe and those who are there to observe – The difference is, who is responsible and who is just in relationship? Who is investing and who is just along for the ride? Who is asking, “What’s in it for me?” as opposed to, “What can I give?”

Proverbs 12:22 The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy. – Can God Trust you?

Proverbs 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. – Do you talk about what you would like to see God do through you or have you activated your obedience and responsibility towards the vision?

What is the Difference Between a Relationship with and Responsibility for something.

Your in Relationship with when you are:

• Associated with (you know what is going on, but your language says they instead of us)

• Sympathetic towards (you realize the things going on and they stir your emotions, but you don’t do anything with those promptings and feelings)

• Knowledge of (you know about what is going on, but you don’t invest into what is going on)

You Know Your Responsible For when you are:

• It’s on your mind continually (while you may not be presently with them you constantly consider them in your decision making)

• Self sacrificing through the investment of time as well as money (when there is something you greatly care for and are responsible for the question is not whether you will sacrifice, but rather you anxiously desire to sacrifice for it)

• Proactive about ( you do not sit around and wait for everyone else to act, but you decide to become the solution to the problem)

• Willing to take the blame when things do not go well (when the mission fails or you see something falling short of what it could be you step up to the plate to make it better)

• Understanding that others are counting on you (you realize that your decisions and actions impact other people besides yourself)

• Dependable - they recognize the long haul commitment is more important than a short emotionally driven response

1 Corinthians 12:27 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. - We are the body of Christ and each of us are responsible for it!

• Responsibility is understanding that a response is within your abilities to perform.

Closing-

Hebrews 11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

Rahab found herself at a crucial moment which would not only define her, but the lineage she would leave behind her from that moment forward. Rahab transitioned from being a person outside of the promises of God heading for destruction to being spared and becoming a benefactor of the promises of God through a courageous act of responsibility!

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