In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing the impending judgment and reckoning that everyone will face before God. She encourages her audience not to be deceived and to acknowledge the conviction in their hearts. The preacher shares her own experience of going to her family and showing them what she has heard and seen in the Scriptures. She emphasizes the need for Christians to prepare a place in their hearts and communities for the lost by taking up their cross and laying their lives down for others, especially those they love the most.

Praise the Lord. In your Bibles, in the book of Joshua, book of Joshua and the second chapter, there is a story of a woman named Rahab, and she's a very special lady, because the Lord trusted her with his plan. He had made a promise to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, years and years ago, that his people, God's people, would dwell in the midst of a promise. They would live in the midst of a promise, and it was time, after years of oppression, and hardship, and difficulty, and finally slavery, it was time for them to move into that promise. It was time after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, after having been delivered from slavery, for them to move into the promise. And as God was about to move his people into the fullness of his promise, he chose a single person to reveal his plan. And he spoke a word to a woman who had been a prostitute, who at that stage of life had no status in the community, and didn't have much to look forward to as far as her lot in life was concerned. But God chose to reveal his plan to her. The Bible says that Joshua sent two men to spy out the land, and to bring him back word. And so these two men went into Jericho, and they stayed at Rahab's house. She hid them from the leaders in Jericho, because the leaders had heard about Israel, and they had heard what the Lord had done through them as they traveled from Egypt toward the land of Canaan. They had heard about the kings who had been destroyed as God was fulfilling his promise to his community. And so the Bible says that they trembled and they feared, and so when they heard that there were spies in the land, they sent to retrieve them. Rahab hid them. And when they were going back to Joshua to give him word of the community, and to tell Joshua what to expect, the woman who hid them, who protected them, who was privy to God's plan for them, decided that she wanted to be a part of God's plan, and a part of God's promise. And so she asked if they would show her a particular mercy, a particular grace, because she had been there for them when they needed. And they said yes, and then she decided that it was not enough for her that she should be the only recipient of this great grace. She should not be the only person who was on the right side of God's plan, but that her family should also benefit from God's grace. And so she began to plead with them for the sake of her family, and they said to her, here's the deal. We are going to come in the way we said we're going to come in, the way your people know we're going to come in, and we're going to do what God said we would do, and we will begin to fully partake of God's promise. But if you can get your family to come under your roof, then we will protect you and your family. They didn't say to her, because your family is your family, wherever they happen to be, we will protect them. They said to her very specifically, if they are in your house, if they are under your roof, if you can get them to come to you where you are, we will protect them. It said the only thing that you need to do is get them in the house, and then take this scarlet cord, this red cord, and drop it out of the window. We'll see it as it dangles from the window. We will protect you. We will protect your family. And she said, I really need you to bind yourself by an oath, by a covenant that you will do this. And they said, if you do the thing that we're saying, if you put the red cord out, and if you bring your family into your house, then we are bound by a covenant oath to protect you, and to protect your family, and to draw your family into this great plan that God has, and into this great promise that God has. Now this is a picture of someone who is firstly a recipient of a kind of grace that up until that point in their life, they had absolutely no access to. Her life was a life of abuse, a life of being used. Hers was a hopeless situation. She had no future. She was as low as you can get on the totem pole. And for some reason, God chose her to reveal his plan. For some reason, he came to her when he could have come to anybody in that community, and showed her what he was going to do, and gave her an opportunity to become a part of it. Now she acknowledged that she and her entire community understood what God was doing. There was nobody in her community that did not know what God was doing, and she acknowledged that clearly. And as a result, she chose to embrace what God was doing, chose to protect what God was doing, chose to put her life on the line in order to see to it that God's plan would ultimately come to fruition. And as a result, she entered into a covenant with the people of God, and became a part of the community of God. It's actually mentioned in the lineage of Christ. This is someone who God took from the lowest places, drew into covenant relationship with himself, and promised to spare their life just because they entered into covenant with him, and they, as it were, extended this scarlet cord, which is a type of the blood. But this person was not satisfied with that. They were happy that they were saved, happy that they were in covenant relationship, happy that they understood God's plan, and that they had become a part of his promise. But they still had a family that was about to die. They still had a family that was, for all intents and purposes, lost. And so they began to cry out for their family. And they began to cry out for their family based upon the covenant relationship that they had entered into. They began to say, covenant with me, that you will spare my family. It is a picture of someone who recognizes the need in the ones that they love, even though the ones that they love are still far from salvation or far from the promise. And they simply begin to intercede on behalf of that loved one based upon the reality of covenant relationship. What they're saying is, I have already been chosen. I've been blessed beyond measure, taken from the lowest places, from places of hopelessness, where I had no capacity to help myself. I had no hope for the future. I was the lowest on the totem pole, but for some reason, God came to me. And some reason, he made me privy to his plan. Some reason, he drew me into the depths of his promise. And some reason, he chose to allow me to be a part of what he was doing. And for some reason, he caused me to enter into covenant with him. And for some reason, he caused me to begin to believe him for salvation and for hope. And then she said, and as a result, because of these things, it feels right for me to believe him, not only for myself, but also for my family. And she begins to say to these men, swear to me. In other words, they enter into a covenant with me with regard to this family that I love so much. In other words, would you bless my family because of the covenant relation that we have together? So many times we see in the Holy Scriptures, where God would say, for Abraham's sake, or for Isaac's sake, or for Jacob's sake. Sometimes he would say, for David's sake, I will spare this community, or I will have mercy under this particular circumstance. What happens in our case is we realize we were saved when we had no hope. This God who drew us into his promise, and who taught us his plan, and who gave us the capacity to help to see that plan come to pass, has also stirred in our hearts a desire to see men and women saved, and particularly to see our family members saved. And he has given us a desire to pray from the depths of our soul, and to pray based upon the fact that we have already entered a covenant relationship with him. Where we can actually say, Lord, based upon the relationship that we have, based upon the fact that you drew me into a place of trust, and into a place of hope, based upon the fact that you know me by my name, based upon the fact that you have allowed me to be a part of your mission, to be a part of the fulfillment of your promise, based upon the fact that you've allowed me to covenant with you, and to covenant with your community, based upon the fact that you chose me when I had no hope, I am going to believe you for great and for mighty things, to do the things that cannot be done under any other circumstance. I'm going to believe you to save my family. I'm going to believe you to save my family just because I know that you are a covenant God, just because I know that you know me by my name, just because I know that you love me, because you chose me, because you gave me hope. You would not have come to my house the way you came to my house if there was no hope. You would not have drawn me out of a place of hopelessness and out of a place of despair if there was no hope. You would not have allowed me to understand your plan. You would not have allowed me to cling to your promise if there was no hope. There was something in this woman that said, God, you would not have come to me if you did not expect me to intercede in your presence for the sake of my family. Why would you come to me and talk to me about judgment? Why would you come to me and talk to me about the difficulties that lie ahead? Why would you come to me and talk to me about eternal punishment if you did not expect me to intercede on behalf of my family? Why would you make me aware of the reality of impending danger if you did not expect me to intercede on behalf of my family? Why would you cause me to hope in promise? Why would you cause me to believe in a glorious future? Why would you cause me to call your name holy and just and right and good? Why would you make me to understand the nature of that scarlet thread? Why would you make me to understand the efficacy of that cross and the glory of that holy Jesus? Why would you cause my heart to know him and to bless him and to love him if you did not expect me to intercede on behalf with all of my might for my brother and my sister, for my mother and my father, for my son and my daughter? Why would you have talked to me about this glorious kingdom if you did not expect me to intercede? Why would you have entered into covenant relation with me? Why didn't you just let me die with the rest if you did not expect me to intercede? She begins to cry out for her family because hope comes into her home. She begins to believe for her family because the plan of God had been made manifest to her. God didn't have to come to her. God didn't need any spies. God didn't need anybody to hide anybody or anybody to open up any doors for him. If he came to her it was because he expected her to believe him not just for herself but for her family, for her loved ones. God came to us when we had nothing. He came to us when we had no hope, when we were the lowest on the totem pole, where there was absolutely no chance of deliverance. He came to us and he began to speak about promise. He began to reveal his plan. He began to use us to help to glorify his name and he also talked to us about judgment. He talked to us about the eternal realities of heaven and hell and then he began to talk to us about that scarlet cord that goes straight through the holy scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. He gave us a reason to hope and to believe and it was not enough for him and it should not be enough for us that we simply embrace the promise but he causes us to believe for men and women, to believe for our families. So we begin by interceding. We say God based upon the covenant relationship that you have with me, based upon the fact that you know me by my name, based upon the fact that you caused me to rejoice in hope, based upon the fact that you caused me to tremble at your word, based upon the fact that you've caused me to rejoice in the blood of Christ, based upon the fact that you've caused me to recognize the realities of heaven and hell, based upon the fact that you told me that you are on the move and that there is nothing that can stop you in your process, based upon the fact that you made me to understand what's behind the curtain in this society and what's the reality behind all the images and all the glamour, all the glitz, all the illusions, based upon the fact that you made me to understand the real nature of reality, based upon the fact that you caused my heart to concern itself with ultimate reality. I lay my intercession before you. I lay my prayers before you. I lay my family before you. I believe for my mother. I believe for my father. I believe for my sister. I believe for my brother. I believe God this afternoon because I've seen too much to not care. I've seen too much to not intercede. I've seen too much to not believe. God didn't have to come to me when I was the lowest of the low. He didn't have to come to me. God didn't have to come to me when I had absolutely no hope. He didn't have to come to me. God didn't have to come to me because he didn't need any spies. He didn't have to come to me, but he came to me because he chose to draw me into his plan and draw me into his promise and chose to stir up my heart, chose to remind me that there is a covenant relationship between God and me. And I'm going to believe God for great things. I'm going to believe God for wonderful things because I'm in covenant relationship with him. And I'm not going to be ashamed to say, God, if I have found favor in your eyes, if I found grace in your sight, would you save my brother? I'm not going to be afraid to say, I'm not going to be ashamed to say, God, since you love me, would you save my sister? I'm not going to be afraid. I'm not going to be ashamed to say, God, since you've drawn me into a place of hope and you caused me to fear the fires of hell, since you've caused me to expect the glories of heaven, since you've caused me to fear and tremble at your judgment, since you've caused me to see the dawn of the new day, and since you've caused me to shun the midnight of sin, since you've caused me to believe in your holy name and to accept you as my Lord and to recognize the glories of Calvary and the cleansing power of the blood, would you save my brother, my sister, my mother, my father, my son, my daughter, God, would you save this afternoon? Hallelujah. And they said, if you can get them into the house, we'll save them. So she begins by intercession. And then the next thing she does, the Bible doesn't say it, but you have to take it for granted that she goes out and gets them. She first begins to intercede for them, and then she goes out and gets them. Now, the thing that you and I have to grasp is the Bible says that everybody in the city knew what God was doing. Everybody in the city feared and trembled at the reality of what God was doing. Now, if you had walked through the streets, you might not have seen it on the surface. But if you had talked to anyone for any length of time, you would have eventually seen it. There were no atheists in Jericho. I don't care how they would have told you that they were atheists in the first five minutes of your conversation. I don't care how many books they would have written about the fact that there is no God. I don't care how many sitcoms they would have written about how to laugh and mock at the Savior. I wouldn't care how many late night monologues they had about the fact that there is no reason to fear. If you had spoken to them at any serious length, you would have found that there was an internal conviction that they could not shake. And that's why they were writing their books, that's why they were telling their jokes, that's why they were having their marches, because they were trying to shake a conviction that they could not shake. Everybody knows that there is such an one as God. Everybody knows that it is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment. There are no atheists. Everybody knows that there is such an one as God. The Bible says that the devils believe and tremble. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! So she simply went out knowing that the Holy Ghost had gotten there before she did, knowing that fear and trembling was already in place, knowing that they knew what they knew even though they didn't want to know it, even though they didn't want to admit it. Think about some of the atheists that are writing books in our generation and I'm telling you, they write chapter after chapter because they're trying to convince themselves of something. They're trying to expunge something from their heart, trying to erase something, but they can't get rid of it. Not on this side of eternity. There is nobody that you will ever go to to talk to about Jesus that doesn't already know. They are simply trying to avoid it, simply trying to hide it, simply trying to run, but as the old expression says, you can run but you can't hide. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! So she went to her family and they were probably having dinner or something like that. Probably watching their favorite show or their favorite game. And she probably came to them and said, some men came to me and they told me some things and they were like, yeah, I know, I know. But then she talked a little bit longer and there was something that began to resonate in their hearts and then she began to weep in their presence. And there was something that began to resonate even further. She didn't argue back and forth. She simply said what they already knew. You see, for us as Christians, when we do evangelism, we're not trying to convince people of stuff. The Holy Spirit has already convinced them of stuff. The only thing we're trying to do is to avoid unsaying what he's already said. That's why we stick to the book. Our biggest problem is we oftentimes will unsay what the Spirit has already said. And oftentimes you'll see that in certain communities because they're so busy trying to be nice and loving and kind that they forget the reality of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. They're so busy trying to be accepted and cued and so on and so forth that they forget that this person that you're speaking to, if the words just came out the way they're written here, they've already heard it. The Spirit is already convicted. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is in the world to convince the world or to convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. They already know. They just need somebody to reaffirm what's already inside their head. They just need somebody to say to them, what you've been hearing is true. I know they try to unsay it on the television shows, and I know they try to unsay it on the radio, and I know they try to unsay it in the movies, and I know they try to unsay it in the newspapers. I know that they're trying to tell you that everything that you're feeling is just some inner, you know, guilt feelings that you need to be able to overcome. I know that they're trying to unsay it all over the world. All day you listen to them talk, and all they're trying to do is unsay it. So you and I come and say, but I want to tell you that what you've heard is true, that what you're feeling is true, that that conviction in your heart that you can't shake is real, and I just want to show you in the Scriptures what the Lord is saying. I think she just went to her family, realized that they were already under conviction, didn't argue with them, didn't try to beat them down, just said, let me show you what I've heard. Let me show you what I've seen, and they would have seen in her hope when everybody else was trembling. They would have seen in her a future when everybody else was talking death and destitution. They would have seen in her a glow when everybody else was under the spell of dullness, and then she would have simply said what they had already heard in their sleep, what they already hear whenever they finally turn off the CDs and the DVDs and so on and so forth. You know, God is really quick. He can get in there, you know what I mean, between, you know, the three and a half seconds, you know what I mean, between the times it takes to, you know, take one DVD out and put another one in or whatever the case might be. He can get right in there, and so she just goes and tells them what they already know. Of course, she goes into greater detail, and she expounds, but there's something in every heart, brother and sister, don't be deceived. There is something in every heart that knows that there is a reckoning coming, that there is a day of judgment, and everybody has got to ultimately, eventually stop by and say hi to God. I don't care how many books they write. Everybody. Everybody. It's a strange thing sometimes, you know, because I've done some study in the philosophy of religion and this and the other, and sometimes I'll read a few, the name of the Lord, and I'll realize that, you know, based upon, you know, the back flap of the book that this person has already died, and I'm thinking, I wonder if they still believe this. I wonder if that's still the case. Now, that doesn't mean that we glory in people's demise. It means that a thousand writers and more have tried with all their might to discredit this truth. They're gone. The truth remains. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want to encourage you. Your family already knows. All you have to do is continue to shine in front of them. Continue to rejoice in hope in front of them. Continue to be a part of God's plan. Continue to cause them to see that person who was pulled from the dregs and the depths of society and brought to the mountaintop with Christ. The Bible says that the Lord dwells in the high and lofty place with him who is of a broken and a contrite spirit, and then the last thing I want to mention to you. Firstly, we talked about intercession, then we talked about evangelism, and then the last thing I want to suggest, and I believe this is the way that we tend to win people for the most part, is she invited them into her home. It's one thing to do evangelism and to tell people that there's hope and so on. Another thing to bring them in. So we go to God on their behalf, then we go out to them, and then we actually bring them in. Give them a sense that they belong. Give them a sense that there is a home for them. Her home was open to them because she loved them, because there was compassion. For us as Christian people, the main draw, Jesus said, is always going to be love. That there's love in our home. It makes it so people want to come here. It makes it so people want to become a part of this. When the Lord judged Sodom and Gomorrah, ultimately the Bible says that it was because they were inhospitable. In other words, there was no love there. It was cold, and whatever so-called love they had was perverse. We see that a lot in our generation, a perverse expression of love, so that when people see true love, they are drawn in. They are compelled to come in. See, the Lord said to her, or the people who represented the Lord said to her, if they are in your home when we come, they will be spared. We have got to ask ourselves, is our life and is our community the kind of home that people are looking to be a part of? I think it is because the Bible says the love of Christ has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This is not a natural love. It's a supernatural love where we can love people, even people in our families who have hurt us, who have abandoned us, who have rejected us. We can love them still, and we can represent Christ to them, and we can say to them that there is a place in my heart for you. You know, the Bible says that there is, Jesus said, there are many rooms in my Father's house. Then he said, I go to prepare a place for you. Now, there are two ways that we can look at that. We can see him as going to heaven and making room for us, which is an awesome consideration, and we certainly rejoice in the realities of heaven. But there is another way to look at that. Look at the Father's mansion as his heart. And many chambers in his heart. In other words, much space in his heart for us. And Jesus said, what I'm going to do is I'm going to prepare a place in God's heart for you. And so he goes to the cross. And at that cross, he prepared a place for us. So likewise, remember he breaks his body, he pours out his blood as it were, you know, at the communion, he breaks the bread as a representation of his body and his blood. And then he says, what I'm doing, you do. So now we have this statement from the Lord. Prepare a place in your heart. Prepare a place in our community for the lost. How do we do that? Well, we do that by taking up our cross. We do that by a willingness to lay our lives down. To reach out to those who have rejected us. To be there for those who have forgotten us. Sometimes the hardest people in the world to reach are people that you love the most. Because there's so much emotional attachment. You can't hand your brother a tract. They're not going to read it. It's one thing to stand on the street corner and hand a stranger a tract. You can't hand your brother a tract. You can't hand your mother a tract. You've got to lay your life down for them. They've got to see a sacrificial situation. I can't, I don't know about you, I can't do that in my own strength. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can lay my life down for men and women. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I can make sacrifices if it means somebody else is going to be saved. I can subordinate my own ego and my own pride if it means somebody else is going to be won. I can do whatever it is that needs to be done through Christ who strengthens me. I can make a difference in this world. I can see to it by God's grace that somebody goes to heaven. I can offset the balance of eternity by winning one soul. And you can too. It's not enough for me that I'm going to heaven. It's just not enough. I need to know that other people are going too. It's not enough for me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. I say this in close. There are so many people in the face of this planet right now. Some would estimate between 6 and 8 billion people. So many that if you cast your net, you can't help but catch some fish. You just can't help it. Imagine if you went to a pond and there were 8 billion fish in there. You don't have to be a fisherman. You don't have to be that good at anything. All you got to do is cast your net. You're going to win somebody. Somebody's going to be saved. Just speak the word of the Lord two or three times. Somebody's going to be saved. Don't worry about the ones who are laughing. Don't worry about them. They can't laugh forever. Right? And maybe it'll be somebody else who'll win them later on down the line. You listen to the one who's crying right now and who's saying, I can't do this anymore. If you can't save them on Friday night before they go into the discotheque, save them Saturday morning when they're coming out. When they're no longer happy and giddy and expecting some great thing to happen and they're walking out all dejected and sad and realizing that there's no hope in that. Get them then. There are people who will listen. Their heart is already trembling. They're already under conviction. You don't have to bring them under conviction. Give them hope. Give them hope. Give them life. You do that and you will offset the very balance of all eternity. Jesus, we ask you to help us because we don't have any strength in ourselves to do anything. We can't love. We can't lay down our lives. We can't reach the lost. We can't preach your word. We can't express hope. We can't do any of these things. So we are coming to you in the name of your covenant mercy. We're coming to you in the name of that scarlet thread that intertwines us to you, that cord that can't be broken, that binds us to you, and that gives us hope. We come to you in the name of your covenant faithfulness. We come to you in the name of Jesus Christ. We ask you to make us evangelists. We ask you to make us missionaries to our families, families, to those people that only we can reach, the ones who watch our lives and who might outwardly seem callous but who are inwardly trembling. Help us, O God. In the name of Jesus Christ, help us. Help us to stand in the gap, O Jesus. You took us from lowly places. We had no hope. We had no future. We knew no promise, and you made us sons and daughters of promise. You gave us hope. You gave us a future, and I was simply saying, since we found grace in your sight, help us to help someone. Help us to make a difference. Make us missionaries to our friends and to our family. Make us missionaries. Help us to save one soul. Lord, you said through Paul that I am all things to all people that I might by any means save someone. Help us to save someone. Now, we believe you for this, O Jesus. We thank you for this, O Lord. I want to pray with you for a moment or two if God is speaking to your heart. He's laid somebody on your heart as we were speaking. I'm very, very excited about this reality. There are times when I'm preaching a message, and sometimes I'm fighting in the Spirit. And as I'm preaching this message, I'm fighting for my family. I'm believing God for them. If you want to join me, we'll take a moment or two to pray and to see, based upon the fact that we know that we're in covenant relationship with the Lord. God, if I found favor in your sight, save my family. Jesus said, if they're in the house with you, they will be saved. Let's stand together in the house of the Lord and join the ones that are coming to the front of this auditorium. Stand in the gap, my brother and my sister. This afternoon, you might save your brother. You might save your sister. You might save your mother. You might save your family as you lift up your voice in prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. There comes a time, brothers and sisters, to wage a war where we simply say, Lord, it's not enough for me to go through what we ordinarily go through, the preaching and the praying and the this and that. It comes a time where we say, God, you have drawn me into covenant relationship, and you made me hope. You didn't have to come to me, but you did. And you made me hope for my family. You made me expect salvation. You told me to believe for my family. You told me to draw them into my home. You told me to make a place for them. Lord, you gave me that hope. And so I am going to apply everything that you've given me, all that I know to be true, and I'm going to lay it down at your feet. God, in Jesus' name, you drew me into covenant relationship. I didn't have hope before you came to me. I didn't know about this reality before you came to me. I didn't know that there was hope for me until you came. And I didn't know that there was hope for my family until you came. You came to me and caused me to believe, and you drew me into covenant relation, and you told me that I should expect that I should be saved and my household. Lord, I simply ask you help me to help them. I can't do anything in my own strength. I don't have it, Lord. Sometimes I forget to pray. Sometimes I forget to hope. Sometimes I forget to believe. Sometimes I get frustrated. Sometimes I get distracted. Sometimes I feel like I've been doing this so long and nothing's happened, but God, you taught me to hope. And I simply plead the blood of Jesus Christ, and I plead your covenant faithfulness. I lay your covenant faithfulness at your feet and say, God, this is my only hope. I lay your love for men and women at your feet and say, this is my only hope. I lay your desire to save men and women much more than I could ever desire. I lay that at your feet and say, this is my hope. I believe you, God, to save men and women. I believe you to make a difference. I lay your word at your feet. I lay your promise at your feet. I lay your spirit. I lay your son at your feet and say, this is my hope. This is my plea. I have nothing to offer you but you. I pray this prayer based upon your own faithfulness. Upon your own covenant loyalty. Upon your own goodness. Upon your own desire to save and to see men and women delivered. God, help me to be hospitable. Help me to love. Help me to draw men and women under the shelter of my roof. Open, as it were, the canopy of my heart and draw men and women under it. Give them a shelter. Give them a hope. Give them a home and save. We believe you for our mothers, for our fathers, for our sisters, for our brothers, for our husbands, for our wives, for our sons, for our daughters, for our cousins, for our nieces, nephews, for our grandparents, for our grandchildren, we believe you, God. We believe you. We believe you. We believe you. We believe you, God. Hallelujah. We know that we have found favor in your sight and based upon your favor, based upon your grace, based upon your mercy, based upon your compassion, based upon your faithfulness, based upon your covenant loyalty. We say, save. Heal. Deliver. Free. Give hope and liberty. Save our families. Use us to make a difference. We love you, Lord Jesus. We thank you. In Jesus' holy name. Amen. Amen. God bless you so much. Hallelujah.