The Outsiders
Memory Verse:
'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” '
Joshua 1:9
Sermon Sentence: God regularly writes incredible stories of salvation that spreads like wildfire with the unlikeliest of characters.
'Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” '
Joshua 1:9
Sermon Sentence: God regularly writes incredible stories of salvation that spreads like wildfire with the unlikeliest of characters.
Day 1
Read Joshua 2
Rahab is a strange character in this story. She is the absolute last person you would expect to be the hero that turns the victory to the Israelites (oops, spoiler alert). She is not in the category of moral characters that we expect to do the right thing. Especially not for the God of Israel. She just doesn’t seem to be the type. Also, it is a pretty weak plan that seems to be gambling a lot on not that much hope. Why does she think the spies will go through with their part of the plan? How does she expect it all to happen in the light of the possible war chaos that will be going on? Jericho’s leaders seem to know a bit of what is going on, so what if it doesn’t even work and she is found out? Her only thought is that of being saved.
You can surely relate to that? A person that doesn’t belong…a person that doesn’t seem to be getting it altogether…a person that just seems to come to faith with a pretty shallow plan of just falling at God’s feet. We are all saved like this. We are the outsiders that are given a place and position in the New Kingdom that we surely don’t deserve. The only way we got here? Was asking that God save us.
How do you see yourself in Rahab’s story?
How is Rahab’s story like the story of salvation offered to everyone?
What can you thank God for in your life today?
How does this become part of your prayer?
Rahab is a strange character in this story. She is the absolute last person you would expect to be the hero that turns the victory to the Israelites (oops, spoiler alert). She is not in the category of moral characters that we expect to do the right thing. Especially not for the God of Israel. She just doesn’t seem to be the type. Also, it is a pretty weak plan that seems to be gambling a lot on not that much hope. Why does she think the spies will go through with their part of the plan? How does she expect it all to happen in the light of the possible war chaos that will be going on? Jericho’s leaders seem to know a bit of what is going on, so what if it doesn’t even work and she is found out? Her only thought is that of being saved.
You can surely relate to that? A person that doesn’t belong…a person that doesn’t seem to be getting it altogether…a person that just seems to come to faith with a pretty shallow plan of just falling at God’s feet. We are all saved like this. We are the outsiders that are given a place and position in the New Kingdom that we surely don’t deserve. The only way we got here? Was asking that God save us.
How do you see yourself in Rahab’s story?
How is Rahab’s story like the story of salvation offered to everyone?
What can you thank God for in your life today?
How does this become part of your prayer?
Day 2
Read John 4:1-30
John can tell a story! This one is so great too. This Samaritan woman decides to start a conversation steeped in theology with the Son of God. That is an argument she is certainly going to lose! Sure, she doesn’t know that it was Him, but still! She doesn’t have a great track record, much like Rahab. She has had five marriages and is living with a man that is not her husband at the time of this encounter. If you were gathering a team together to go and reach Samaria with the good news of Jesus, she is not someone that probably would have made your short list. But notice what happens, she is the one that breaks open the spiritually divided Samaritans and they get to hear the good news of Jesus. Jesus chooses her to start the message and it spreads throughout the region and many people come to hear the message of Jesus.
God has a strange way of doing things. I am certain that not many of us would have done it like this, but John has already stated in chapter 2, that Jesus knew the reality of each person’s heart. He didn’t need to have it all explained to Him. He knew exactly how to reach the Samaritans, and it all started with simply one unassuming woman that was just looking to fill her water pitcher.
What can you learn from Jesus' strategy in reaching this woman?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
John can tell a story! This one is so great too. This Samaritan woman decides to start a conversation steeped in theology with the Son of God. That is an argument she is certainly going to lose! Sure, she doesn’t know that it was Him, but still! She doesn’t have a great track record, much like Rahab. She has had five marriages and is living with a man that is not her husband at the time of this encounter. If you were gathering a team together to go and reach Samaria with the good news of Jesus, she is not someone that probably would have made your short list. But notice what happens, she is the one that breaks open the spiritually divided Samaritans and they get to hear the good news of Jesus. Jesus chooses her to start the message and it spreads throughout the region and many people come to hear the message of Jesus.
God has a strange way of doing things. I am certain that not many of us would have done it like this, but John has already stated in chapter 2, that Jesus knew the reality of each person’s heart. He didn’t need to have it all explained to Him. He knew exactly how to reach the Samaritans, and it all started with simply one unassuming woman that was just looking to fill her water pitcher.
What can you learn from Jesus' strategy in reaching this woman?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read John 4:31-45
Have you ever tried to share what God has laid on your heart with someone and when you finally got up the nerve to do it, you learned from them that God was using more than just you to reach them? God is pretty good at that. He doesn’t make it about one person and it is never the type of thing that we are just the only one carrying the flame all by ourselves. I was reminded of this lesson as I was reading this story the other day. Jesus used the moment with the Samaritan woman to teach the disciples about sowing and reaping. Sowing is the work to plant the seed, while reaping is the joyous celebration of the actual harvest. You need both, but in Jesus’ example, he reminds the disciples that they are not just doing both. In other words, before they got to full of themselves, He reminded them that there are many forces at play that they did not make happen. I imagine a version of this story where this wayward woman maybe had a father that years before she shut him out, tried to keep her from destroying her life and compelling her to follow God’s ways. Now, 5 divorces later and many stories of men that had sent her heart in a different direction, she is compelled to return to that father’s urging and becomes a missionary to her town sharing the good news of the Gospel.
I remember a young man that was in my youth group years ago that we tried to share the gospel with. He never made the decision to follow Jesus and soon found himself in prison. We did not hear from him for a decade, assuming that it was all for nothing, until one day we get a message from this young man telling us how he has turned his life around and is not serving in a church helping youth. We did not get to reap, but we were a part of the process of sowing. Someone else down the road picked up the next pieces and even though we may never meet those people, what an honor that we got to work beside them in the great work God was doing of saving a young man.
When have you been a part of sowing, but did not get to reap in someone’s life?
When have you been a part of reaping that you did not have to sow much in someone’s life?
How did God use sowers and reapers in your life through the process of saving you?
How does this become your prayer today?
Have you ever tried to share what God has laid on your heart with someone and when you finally got up the nerve to do it, you learned from them that God was using more than just you to reach them? God is pretty good at that. He doesn’t make it about one person and it is never the type of thing that we are just the only one carrying the flame all by ourselves. I was reminded of this lesson as I was reading this story the other day. Jesus used the moment with the Samaritan woman to teach the disciples about sowing and reaping. Sowing is the work to plant the seed, while reaping is the joyous celebration of the actual harvest. You need both, but in Jesus’ example, he reminds the disciples that they are not just doing both. In other words, before they got to full of themselves, He reminded them that there are many forces at play that they did not make happen. I imagine a version of this story where this wayward woman maybe had a father that years before she shut him out, tried to keep her from destroying her life and compelling her to follow God’s ways. Now, 5 divorces later and many stories of men that had sent her heart in a different direction, she is compelled to return to that father’s urging and becomes a missionary to her town sharing the good news of the Gospel.
I remember a young man that was in my youth group years ago that we tried to share the gospel with. He never made the decision to follow Jesus and soon found himself in prison. We did not hear from him for a decade, assuming that it was all for nothing, until one day we get a message from this young man telling us how he has turned his life around and is not serving in a church helping youth. We did not get to reap, but we were a part of the process of sowing. Someone else down the road picked up the next pieces and even though we may never meet those people, what an honor that we got to work beside them in the great work God was doing of saving a young man.
When have you been a part of sowing, but did not get to reap in someone’s life?
When have you been a part of reaping that you did not have to sow much in someone’s life?
How did God use sowers and reapers in your life through the process of saving you?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Acts 8:26-40
We have been talking about God’s seemingly strange ways, methods, and people, that He uses to save others this week. We started out talking about Rahab and then about the Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus. Now for the really great story of how the Gospel got to Ethiopia. If you don’t know, Ethiopia is a far ways away from the rest of the events of Acts. God is interested in getting the gospel to the ends of the earth, so you should begin to wonder how He is going to do that. I am certain that if you were writing this story, you would not choose to send the gospel with a eunuch. I will not spend too much time talking about what that meant, but it may be interesting for you to understand what this man was like.
He was human, and God longs to save humans. So God makes the choice that this will be the way that He gets the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Philip is just faithful in the moment that is given to him. He takes the gospel to as many of the places as God compels him to. Philip was an evangelist. It is the same call that we all have as well. We may not be called to do things just as Philip did, but we never know what God is doing when He leads us to share the Gospel with those around us.
What is one thing that you take away from this story?
How do you apply the lessons of this story to your life right now?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
We have been talking about God’s seemingly strange ways, methods, and people, that He uses to save others this week. We started out talking about Rahab and then about the Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus. Now for the really great story of how the Gospel got to Ethiopia. If you don’t know, Ethiopia is a far ways away from the rest of the events of Acts. God is interested in getting the gospel to the ends of the earth, so you should begin to wonder how He is going to do that. I am certain that if you were writing this story, you would not choose to send the gospel with a eunuch. I will not spend too much time talking about what that meant, but it may be interesting for you to understand what this man was like.
He was human, and God longs to save humans. So God makes the choice that this will be the way that He gets the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Philip is just faithful in the moment that is given to him. He takes the gospel to as many of the places as God compels him to. Philip was an evangelist. It is the same call that we all have as well. We may not be called to do things just as Philip did, but we never know what God is doing when He leads us to share the Gospel with those around us.
What is one thing that you take away from this story?
How do you apply the lessons of this story to your life right now?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Jonah 3
This week, we have talked about reaching those on the outside and how God does that. All of the stories that we have looked at this week have been about an unlikely person that God reaches and then uses to reach many, many others. It is the story of a person that faithfully shares the gospel with a person that desperately needs it, then when they are saved, their story is used to reach many more. And even though it is best read in the context of the whole story, Jonah’s is another version of this same thing. The other stories have all shown how God can use and even save the person that is unlikely to be saved, but what about the person that is not very good at being faithful with the message they are supposed to share? Will that throw off this whole thing? Is it up to the one person that is sharing it? Jonah’s story of Nineveh seems to answer that. He is so very reluctant to even go to Nineveh, because he knows God will save those sorry bunch of people if they do respond to his message. And they do. The whole place is turned upside down by God and Jonah is beside himself over the whole mess.
This is all pretty incredible to think about. God is good at saving the unsaveable and He is good at making the unusable usable. We humans have really messed up about every part of this whole process that we possibly could, but God has proven over and over again that He is totally capable of fixing all of the messed up broken parts in each and every area. I am so thankful that God orchestrated my story with that sort of precision and control when he came after me with his heart changing love!
Who are three people that need to give their hearts to Jesus that you could be praying for right now?
How does this become your prayer today?
This week, we have talked about reaching those on the outside and how God does that. All of the stories that we have looked at this week have been about an unlikely person that God reaches and then uses to reach many, many others. It is the story of a person that faithfully shares the gospel with a person that desperately needs it, then when they are saved, their story is used to reach many more. And even though it is best read in the context of the whole story, Jonah’s is another version of this same thing. The other stories have all shown how God can use and even save the person that is unlikely to be saved, but what about the person that is not very good at being faithful with the message they are supposed to share? Will that throw off this whole thing? Is it up to the one person that is sharing it? Jonah’s story of Nineveh seems to answer that. He is so very reluctant to even go to Nineveh, because he knows God will save those sorry bunch of people if they do respond to his message. And they do. The whole place is turned upside down by God and Jonah is beside himself over the whole mess.
This is all pretty incredible to think about. God is good at saving the unsaveable and He is good at making the unusable usable. We humans have really messed up about every part of this whole process that we possibly could, but God has proven over and over again that He is totally capable of fixing all of the messed up broken parts in each and every area. I am so thankful that God orchestrated my story with that sort of precision and control when he came after me with his heart changing love!
Who are three people that need to give their hearts to Jesus that you could be praying for right now?
How does this become your prayer today?
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