A Faith Which Overcomes: Celebrating the Life of Rahab


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A Faith Which Overcomes: Celebrating the Life of Rahab Rich Nathan December 5, 2010 Advent: The Women In Jesus’ Past Joshua 2:1-13

Today I want to begin a series for our Advent Season. Advent is the time of year in which the church universally anticipates the three comings of Jesus Christ. What are the three comings of Christ? First and most obviously, his arrival in history more than 2000 years ago as a baby born to the Virgin Mary. Second, his return at the end of history as the Savior of his people and the fearsome Judge of the world. And third, his coming right now into our lives by his Holy Spirit. Advent is a season of anticipation of the coming of Christ. And this Advent Season we’re going to look at the lives of four of the women, whom the Gospel writer, Matthew, lists in the genealogy of Jesus. The genealogy of Jesus Here is what we read in Matthew 1:1: Mathew 1:1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Matthew is telling us that his purpose in writing this gospel is to show that Jesus is the true son of David which in Jewish thought meant that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, who has come to save his people. King David is mentioned five times in Matthew’s genealogy here in Chapter 1 and 17 times in the book of Matthew. Matthew is saying that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. And incidentally, none of the Jewish critics of early Christianity ever argued that Jesus wasn’t a descendent of David. Everyone, Jew and Gentile, believed that yes, Jesus was descended from David as he would have to be in order to be the Messiah. One of the ways that Jews knew that somebody would potentially be the Messiah was by checking the genealogical records kept in the Jewish Temple: Does this person’s ancestry go back to King David? Now, some of you know that the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. It is impossible today for any Jewish person to trace their ancestry back to King David. The records don’t exist. One of the reasons why I, as a Jewish person, believe that the Jewish Messiah had to come before 70 AD is because the Hebrew Bible insists that he be a son of David. That was the identity marker. And we don’t have that identity marker available today.

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And Jesus was not only meant to be the son of David, but according to Matthew 1:1, Jesus was a true son of Abraham. Matthew wrote his gospel to prove that Jesus was a true son of Abraham. Some of you know that Abraham in the Hebrew Bible was the one through whom God was going to bring salvation and blessing to the whole world. So to say that Jesus is the true son of Abraham is to say not only is he the son of David, the Messiah of the Jewish people, but he is the Savior of the whole world. Now, Matthew’s genealogy is somewhat unique. As a general rule, ancient Jewish genealogies did not contain the names of women. But Matthew lists in his genealogy five women. In Matthew 1:3 we read about Tamar: Mathew 1:3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, And in Matthew 1:5 we read about Rahab: Matthew 1:5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, And in Matthew 1:5 we also have Ruth: Matthew 1:5 5…Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, And in Matthew 1:6 we have a mention of Bathsheba, although not by name: Matthew 1:6 and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, And finally, in Matthew 1:16 we read about Mary: Matthew 1:16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. Five women. Why are these women mentioned by Matthew? Why does he write such a unique genealogy of Jesus so as to include not just men, but women? Well, three of the women were Gentiles: Tamar, Rahab and Ruth. And the fourth, Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, would have been treated as a Gentile because she was married to a Gentile. Matthew is telling us: Jesus is the Savior of Gentiles and not just Jews

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Jesus is the true son of Abraham. He is the Savior of the whole world, not just people of a certain race, a certain ethnicity, a certain nationality. Jesus is the Savior of the whole world. Four of the women had something scandalous about their sexual relations with men. Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute in order to get pregnant by her father-in-law, Jacob. Rahab was a prostitute. Bathsheba was involved in an adulterous relationship with King David. And Mary found herself pregnant out of wedlock. So Jesus’ genealogy tells us: Jesus is the Savior of the immoral and not just the moral Jesus doesn’t just save good people. He saves people with a past, people who have lived scandalous lives; folks who other people label. And as we are going to see in this series: Jesus is the Savior of powerless women not just powerful men There’s virtually no abuse that hasn’t been heaped on women throughout the history of humankind. Jesus has come to deliver women not only from their own sin, but from all of the abuse and oppression that women have historically lived with since the beginning of creation. Today we’re going to look at the life of Rahab, who is one of only two women mentioned by the author of the book of Hebrews in Hebrews 11, the so-called Hall of Faith. I’ve called my message, “A Faith Which Overcomes: Celebrating the Life of Rahab.” Let’s pray. Now, the author of Hebrews, as I mentioned, invites us to tour his Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. These are various heroes and heroines from the past who through the God-given gift of faith overcame whatever obstacle was thrown in their way. So we read, for example, of Enoch, a very obscure figure from the early chapters of the book of Genesis. We read about him in Hebrews 11:5: Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. By faith, Enoch overcame death. He was taken alive into heaven. One of only two people in the history of the world, who was taken to heaven without dying – Enoch and Elijah. And then we read of Noah and his overcoming faith in Hebrews 11:7:

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Heb 11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. By faith Noah overcame the obstacle of time and waiting. One of the hardest things that any of us could ever overcome by the God-given gift of faith is the challenge of waiting. Waiting as a single person for a spouse. Waiting as a married couple for a child. Waiting for a loved one to come to Christ. Waiting for an answer to prayer. Waiting for a job. Waiting for healing. By faith, Noah waited for the rains to come taking God at his Word even though his neighbors mocked him while he waited. And then we read about Sarah’s overcoming faith in Hebrews 11:11: Heb 11:11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. By faith Sarah overcame age and infirmity and was able to conceive a child. We read of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses – they all had this quality of overcoming faith. And then we read of the faith of Rahab, the prostitute, one of only two women listed in the Hall of Faith, alongside of the matriarch, Sarah. The overcoming faith of Rahab Hebrews 11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. Now what was so special about Rahab and her faith? Turn with me to Joshua 2. Joshua 2:1-13 1 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 © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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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 this land to you 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. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the 12 “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.” We read this is Joshua 2:1: Joshua 2:1 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. Rahab modeled a faith which overcomes our past. Faith that overcomes our past Whenever Rahab is mentioned in the Bible, she is always called “the prostitute.” Imagine having that kind of label as your last name. Cindy the adulteress. DeShawn the alcoholic. Leon the wife abuser. In earlier days people would often be named for their occupations. If you worked with metal you would be named Smith. If you ground grain into flour you were named Miller. If you made carts, you would be named Carter. If you made clothes, you were named Taylor. But imagine if your last name was Prostitute. Rahab the Prostitute. Rahab the Whore. Rahab the Hooker. No matter how Hollywood tries to dress up prostitution by having women like Julia Roberts play this glamorous hooker with a heart of gold, saved by Richard Gere, as some knight in shining armor, the real story of prostitution at every time in every age is way more horrific and degrading. I want to read to you the opening paragraphs of a front page story in the Columbus Dispatch written by one of our church members, Alan Johnson, this past year:

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The rusty black Chevrolet crept slowly down W. Broad Street until a stranger waved it to a stop. The man handed the driver $50 and climbed into the backseat beside a cute young women with brown hair and brown eyes. Before sunrise, about 20 more strangers would do the same. Ashley Berner, barely 18, pleaded to the driver to let her go. Three other women, who had taken her in from the streets, introduced her to the man she didn’t realize was a pimp. Soon, he was beating her and threatening to kill her and harm her family if she didn’t continue prostituting in the backseat of that car. Two weeks earlier, she had been sitting in English and math classes at Hilliard Darby High School. She left home after graduation to get out on her own, and the first people she met lured her astray. And just that fast, Ashley was trapped in an ugly underworld with no clear escape. “I wanted out,” she said. “But he told me they owned me now.” Prostitution is not about a woman choosing to be a hooker from among a range of other educational and vocational options. These women often need money to support children. They have limited or no education. Many women, like Ashley, are lured into prostitution by modern-day slave owners that we write hip hop songs about: the glory of being a pimp. You can even buy pimp jewelry and pimp glasses and you can dress like a pimp. This is what is advertised on Music Television (MTV) and we wonder why the rest of the world hates America. You know, as a society, we don’t allow the sale and purchase of body parts such as kidneys. We don’t allow people to sell one of their lungs or one of their eyes because we know that it would be the poor and the disadvantaged who would make the choice to sell parts of their bodies for cash. Others would love to have the choice of having a new kidney or a new eye and so they would purchase these. But what do you think is going on in prostitution? The so-called “John” is basically renting another person’s organ for ten minutes. When prostituted women are asked, 90% of them say they want to get out immediately. But the decision is out of their hands. It is in the hands of their pimps, their husbands, their landlords, their addictions, their children’s bellies. Rahab the prostitute. Why did she become a prostitute? We don’t know. The Bible doesn’t tell us. But we can assume that it was probably for the same reason that the vast majority of women have become prostitutes throughout history: she had no other options. She lived in an ancient society. If you were a woman and you had no husband and no one providing for you and you had a few kids, you couldn’t just send your resume out and get a job working for the state or the school system. So you sold your body.

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Rahab’s had a faith that enabled her to overcome her past which involved selling her body to any man, who came along with money. Listen, overcoming our past, overcoming the limits that someone or some set of circumstances imposes on our lives is one of the great indicators of your faith in God. To say: with God’s help I can be different than I am, better than I am – that’s faith. It could be something really small. For example, I grew up in a home where my father always said, “None of us in our family are musical.” I think he played the cymbals in his high school band and he played them badly. So because he determined that he wasn’t musical, he said that none of us kids were musical and so we never had music lessons. It took me until age 53, with God’s help, to finally screw up my courage to start taking piano lessons. After a year and a half, I can read a little bit of music and know what a chord is. I’ve discovered my fingers actually work. For someone else here it might be choosing to take swimming lessons when you’ve had a lifelong fear of the water. Or it might be that you aren’t very athletic and you’re out of shape, but this New Year you say, “With God’s help, I’m going to overcome that limit” and you start an exercise program. Or you never thought you could help other people, but you say, “You know, I am going to, by faith, break through that limitation and I’m going to start volunteering at the church’s food pantry.” Pretty soon you discover that you are praying for people and helping others find Christ. It could be way bigger than these things. It could be a choice that you made to go back to college or get your General Equivalency Diploma (GED) when you have two children and you’re a working single parent. It could be even bigger than that. It could be Rahab-sized big. You say, “I grew up in a home where for generations virtually every person was an alcoholic. My father’s an alcoholic; my uncle is an alcoholic, my brother is an alcoholic; my grandmother is an alcoholic, my sisters are alcoholics; I’m an alcoholic. It is the gift of faith that enables any person to overcome their family-imposed limits, the label someone gave you, the choices you’ve made It is God-given faith which enables a person to overcome their past. Listen to the witness of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15: 9 - 10: 1 Corinthians 15: 9-10 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. You see, faith connects us with God. And God has an amazing way of reshaping and redirecting our lives. I heard someone once say that God was like a cosmic © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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Global Positioning System (GPS). Have you ever had the GPS on in your car and decide that you know better than the GPS where something is my GPS, I gave the woman an English accent, – whenever I think I know better than the GPS on how to get somewhere, at every single corner, my GPS says: “Recalculating. Recalculating, Recalculating.” That is the way God works in your life. No matter how many twists and turns you take, no matter how much you think you know better than God, God is constantly redirecting and recalculating, recalculating, recalculating to get you where He wants you to be. And where God wants you and what he wants you to be is somebody who overcomes the labels you and the rest of the world put on you. He can get you there from here, if you trust and obey him. God wants you to be someone who overcomes your past. That was the kind of faith Rahab had. Rahab had a faith that overcomes: Faith which overcomes our aloneness Joshua 2: 2-7 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. Rahab took a tremendous risk in welcoming these Hebrew spies into her home. She put her life at risk because the king sent his troops there to find out where these Israelites were Rahab, by faith, was willing to go lower than simply being a prostitute. Rahab was willing to be a traitor. Joshua 2: 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.” At every time and in every place in history the worst person in society is a traitor: Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus with a kiss; Benedict Arnold, who plotted sell out West Point to the English during the Revolution; Axis Sally, who worked with the Nazis; Tokyo Rose, who worked with the Japanese to broadcast anti-

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American propaganda; the Rosenberg’s, who sold atomic secrets to the Soviets – in every age, being a traitor is just about the worst thing you could do. And Rahab, by her gift of faith, was willing to not only bear the shame of being known as a prostitute in ancient Jericho, but to also be known as a traitor, a woman who supported the other side because she believes in the God of the Hebrew enemy. No one else in the whole city did, just Rahab. Rahab is the Muslim teenager, who alone in his entire village and believing that Jesus is Lord. Rahab is like the Jewish 30 year old, who is entirely alone in her whole family, in believing that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and is accused of being a traitor for believing that. You know, the willingness to stand alone apart from the rest of the whole world is the hallmark of biblical faith. We read about Abraham’s breaking free from his family’s idolatrous past and leaving his home to journey to a strange new land in order to worship the true and living God. We read about Moses leaving behind all of Egypt, the Pharaoh and the palace, in order to follow the calling of God on his life. We read about Daniel standing alone when he refused to bow to the king, standing alone at being thrown into a lion’s den. Virtually every one of the heroes of faith in the Bible had this mark on them: they stood alone in their following of Christ. Let me ask you a question: Have you ever been willing to stand alone because of your faith in Jesus? Was there a time when you said, “You know, everyone else is going in this one direction, but I need to go in this other direction because of Jesus. Because if I don’t go in this other direction, I would be denying Jesus.” It is often said that the only fish that goes along with the current is a dead fish. Dead fish always float downstream. We Christians are called to swim against the stream, to go against the current of our families, the current of our departments, the current of our companies and friends, the current of our classrooms. Again, let me ask you a question: Are you now willing to stand alone and follow Jesus even though everyone in your little world doesn’t? Maybe you are a husband or wife and your spouse does not in any way support your faith. But you are willing to stand alone in your marriage and choose to come out to church and to be involved in a small group despite the fact that you are by yourself. Or you are the only Christian in your company; you are the only Christian in your program, or in your department. Are you willing to not just secretly believe, but like Rahab you go public with your beliefs. You know, one of the places of non-conformity and standing alone this Advent season has to be with the way you choose to approach Christmas this year and your Christmas buying this year. Some of us had at least a glimmer of hope that as a result of this steep recession Americans would wake up to the reality that debt just puts us into bondage. God did not make us to be consumers. The © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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newspapers are celebrating the fact that people are back spending like crazy this Christmas. Isn’t that great for the economy? As your pastor, I would implore you to swim against the current this year. Why should you spend the next three weeks buying what other people don’t want and receiving what you don’t need and running up debt you can’t afford in order to impress people that you don’t care about. As your pastor, I want you to wake up December 26th without having a debt hangover and being in bondage to all of the marketing messages of America. Why not keep it simple this year? If you bake, make some simple cakes for your friends and leave it at that. I will bet that a lot of your friends would rather you gave them a thought-filled card in which you wrote your heart-felt appreciation for them than that you went out and bought another can of popcorn or the other garbage that they sell at Christmas time. Rahab had a faith that enabled her to overcome her aloneness. Rahab had a faith that overcame the odds. Faith which overcomes the odds Joshua 2:9-11 9 and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given this land to you 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. 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. The fact that Rahab believed that the Israelites were going to conquer the city of Jericho was improbable to the point of absurdity. Any reasonable person would have said to Rahab, “Don’t you get it? Are you living in unreality? The nation of Israel is on the other side of the Jordan River. The Jordan River is now at flood stage. There is no bridge over the river. There are no ferries. How are they going to cross over? Even if they chose to come into this land, the certain path that they’ll take is to go way north and cross by the fords. And then once they cross over way north, they’ve got to fight through a whole bunch of cities before getting to Jericho. The Canaanite kings in the north will destroy these Israelite slaves on their way down to Jericho. And even if they somehow made it across the river up north, and made it through all these other Canaanite cities and kings, the walls of Jericho are secure.” Rahab has a faith that doesn’t weigh out the odds. Rahab, by her God-given gift of faith, believes God for the utterly improbable. Her faith can imagine God © 2010 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

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drying up the Jordan River as if it were dry land. Her faith can imagine God knocking the walls down because Rahab believed the reports that she had heard about what God did in drying up the Red Sea. Rahab believed the reports regarding what God did in destroying the Egyptian army. Rahab was like a person today who reads the scripture and believes it even though in the natural eye what God is promising in the Bible seems improbable. Most of the time it seems improbable that you and I would be judged for anything that we do, especially things that we do in private. But the Bible says that there is no such thing as private behavior. We’re always on display before God. It continually seems improbable that people will be held accountable for what they do. Year after year the powerful and wealthy win. They win in Congress. They win in the State House. They win in bailouts. Yet, God promises that people will be held accountable, even the powerful. It seems improbable that the meek will inherit the earth; the strong will get it. The meek? It seems so unlikely that it is more blessed to give than to get; or that prayer would heal a condition. Here’s what Rahab-like faith says: I know what the doctors say and so I’m going to take the medicine that they prescribe for my bipolar condition, for my liver. I’m going to take the medicine that has been prescribed. I’m going to do the therapy for my shoulder, for my alcoholism. But I will keep getting prayer. Because I read in the Bible that God, the true and living God, is always on the side of healing, always. And God can beat the odds in your life and with your health. It is certainly improbable that God would choose to use someone like Rahab, a pagan prostitute, to save not only her people, but to end up as an ancestor of Jesus our Savior. Pretty improbable that someone like Rahab would end up being a hero of faith. But the Bible communicates to us about a God who regularly defies the odds, a God who confounds the wise and gives grace to the humble. Let me ask you a question: do you ever believe God for something that is improbable? Have you ever asked God to stretch your faith so that you could watch God defy the odds – about anything? Finally, Rahab had a faith that overcomes the “God of religion.” Faith that overcomes the “God of Religion” Joshua 2:11 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.

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Rahab says in Joshua 2:11 that the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. This is an astounding statement of faith not only in the ancient world, but today. You see, in the ancient world, the pagans had two sets of gods – there were gods who worked on the earth and gods who worked up in heaven. The gods of the earth were fertility gods who enabled women to get pregnant and animals to bear offspring. The gods of the earth made the ground fertile. And then there were the gods in the heavens – the sun god, the moon god, the gods of the storms and the clouds. Rahab, a pagan, believed in a God who is not only over one sphere, but over all spheres – the heavens and the earth. One single God. And I have to ask myself if I know very many people who even though we have the Bible and we have 2000 years of the church’s history, even though we have had the clearest revelation of God in Jesus Christ, I have to ask myself how many people do I know who don’t just believe in God over a certain sphere of life, or God over everything? How many people are there who believe in a God not just over church, but over your wallet and your credit cards? How many people believe in a God not just over religion, but over their dating and their sex lives? How many people believe in a God not only over Bible reading, but over the amount of sugar you consume in your diet? Years ago I read a little booklet called “My Heart Christ’s Home.” The booklet described the human heart in terms of a house. Its basic point was have you invited Christ into every room of your house? Have you invited Jesus into your kitchen to rule over your appetites? Have you ever invited Jesus into your study to rule over what you do on the computer? Or to rule over your checkbook and online spending? Have you invited Jesus into your family room to rule over what you consume by way of entertainment? Have you invited Jesus into your bedroom? Rahab had an overcoming faith. She didn’t just leave God up in heaven. She received him as Lord of her life. Let’s pray.

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Which Overcomes: Celebrating the Life of Rahab Rich Nathan December 5, 2010 Advent: The Women In Jesus’ Past Joshua 2.1-13 I.

The Genealogy of Jesus A. Jesus is the Savior of Gentiles not just Jews B. Jesus is the Savior of the immoral not just the moral C. Jesus is the Savior of powerless women not just powerful men

II.

The overcoming faith of Rahab A. Faith which overcomes our past B. Faith which overcomes our aloneness C. Faith which overcomes the odds D. Faith which overcomes the “God of Religion”

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