Date of Sermon Delivery: 19. Feb. 2023
Place of sermon Delivery: Delhi, India
Sunday Worship Service
Speaker: Jatin Bisht
Title: Express your faith with your life, not with your words.
Bible: Joshua 2:1–24
Key verse: Joshua 2:8-9
8. ये लेटने न पाए थे कि वह स्त्री छत पर इनके पास जाकर,
9. इन पुरुषों से कहने लगी, “मुझे तो निश्चय है कि यहोवा ने तुम लोगों को यह देश दिया है, और तुम्हारा भय हम लोगों के मन में समाया है, और इसदेश के सब निवासी तुम्हारे कारण घबरा रहे हैं.
Praise the Lord, dear brothers and sisters.
Once again, I welcome you into the house of the Lord.
I hope you are doing better in your life and trying to live a good Christian life.
Last week, I was in the pastor meeting, where there were many pastors from Delhi and Noida, NCR.
There were some American pastors, who came into the meeting and were very inspired by me, and I do not want to demean(degrade) anyone, but I just want to thank my God, to my church, and my leaders who helped me, prayed for me day and night, and taught me that i have to live my life according to the word of the Lord.
I pray to the Lord that we all grow like this day by day, and I thank God for that.
Last week I was checking our January Bible reading, evangelism work, and even our prayer schedule report.
Thank you to those who are still participating in this all, but many of us are struggling.
Please be a lover of the Lord.
In the Bible, there are two people who kissed Jesus, Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdalene.
One kissed Jesus because of money, but Mary Magdalene kissed him because she loved him.
Be a lover of Jesus in every situation of your life.
Many people are happy to take from the Lord and get something
But there are very few who have the joy of being with Jesus.
Today we need more than the joy of getting something—we need the joy of being with Jesus.
When Jesus died, Mary Magdalene went to him and said, "Where have you kept him? Please tell me so I can go and get him.
What would a dead Jesus do for her?
Will he give her delicious food?
Will he give her nice clothes?
Dead body will nothing give to her, but still, she says give me dead Jesus.
I want to tell you; she did not go to meet resurrected Jesus but she went to meet dead Jesus.
Is there anyone among us who should say to that Lord, "Give me something or not, but I want you?"
Ask yourself, "Are you loving that Jesus?"
You ask yourself; "Do you love that Jesus the way you used to?"
In the Bible revelation, there is one church to which it is said, "You have so many good qualities; you do good work; you are patient, and I know it." but still I want to say something, you have left your first love. "You have lost your first love."
We can't improve our spiritual life by just relying on Sunday's message or some other meeting.
But read the Bible every day and pray every day. The closer you are to the light, the further away the darkness will be from you.
Let’s read today's bible, Joshua 2:1-24
Let us pray.
The bible tells us, that God promised to Abraham that I will give you offspring but your offspring will be foreigner in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, but after a time I will release them.
And then the time came when God sent Moses and Moses brought them out of that but after the death of Moses.
God called Joshua to lead the Israelites across the Jordan river and take them inside of the promised land. But before he went to enter into promised land, Joshua selected two people (Caleb and Phinehas) and told them to look over the land and then report back to him.
But during their investigation, the two spies visited a house and entered the room of a prostitute named Rahab.
The king of Jericho knew that some of the Israelites had come here tonight to spy out the land, so he sent a message to Rahab to lead out the two spies who visited her.
Rahab hid the spies on top of the roof of her house, and said the men had left and were probably beyond the city gates by now.
Rahab then went up to the roof to speak with the two spies, she mentioned to them that all the people of Jericho were afraid of the God of Israel.
They heard, how your God crushed the Egyptians in the Red Sea and more.
Now people tremble with fear at the hearing of the name of Jehovah.
Rahab asked the spies to show mercy to her and her family, she asked for kindness, because she had shown kindness to them.
The spies told her to stay in her home and keep her family with her.
They told him that if there was blood in the streets of Jericho and his family was in his house, they would be spared.
Then the spies returned to Joshua and told him, "The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands," because the people feared the Israelites and their God.
Even though we know this all very well, I want to draw your attention to Rahab.
Let us go back and read verses 8 and 9.
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."
When Caleb and Phinehas went to investigate in Jericho, they met a prostitute named Rahab.
This prostitute was thrown out of her house, and she used to stay separately.
She was rejected by people, she was rejected by her house, and no one was there to love her.
But in the New Testament (Hebrew and James), when God needed to teach us faith, did you know from whose life the Lord taught us?
The Bible's Hebrew and James mention Rahab as a faithful woman.
Rahab is mentioned in the Bible in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus; Rebecca and Sarah are not mentioned, but Rahab is.
God is trying to teach us about faith through her.
She said to the spies, "I know God has given you this land."
Although till now they have not even set foot in this land, Rahab says that she knows that God has given this land to you.
Jesus says when you pray, believe that you have received, and it will be for you.
Do you know, who it will be for?
who believed it to have happened (Jiska ye vishwash ki ho chuka hai.)
This is the same faith that Sister Rahab had.
According to James 2:26, just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.
I want to ask you. When this woman believed that God had given this land to Israel.
Do you know how she expresses her belief in her deed?
By giving shelter to them, when she believed that the Lord had given this land to them, she gave shelter to both of them that night and said, "Come stay here."
If I asked you,
Do you believe that Jesus is coming soon to take us?
No-one will be here, who says that I do not believe.
So, if you believe that Jesus is coming to take me, then how will you express it with your life/deeds?
Do you know, how?
1 John 3:3 says all who have this hope that he is coming, purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Those who have faith that Jesus is coming, do you know, how to know that this man believes that he is coming?
He purifies himself, just as Jesus is.
If someone says that he is coming but is still gossiping about each other, then he is lying.
If someone says that he is coming but stays awake all night doing bad things, he is a liar.
Those who say that Jesus is coming, do you know, how it is seen in them?
They separate themselves from the world.
As a Christian, you cannot do everything, such as make sculptures or work in a wine shop—in fact, you cannot do many things.
If any work, money, or relationship is taking us away from God, it is better to earn little but stay close to God, he will fulfil all your resources.
Do you have this kind of faith?
Everyone believes they will be successful.
Sisters, do you believe that in the coming days, God will give so much?
yes Amen.
Brothers, do you believe that this year you will get married or get a new bike/car?
Yes Amen.
That is not wrong, but for some things, our faith is limited to our words only.
How can we express to Jesus that my faith is not only in my words but in my life?
I believe in you, Jesus, and that is why I say no to EVIL.
Do you know, faith will always tell you to part with some things?
In the Old Testament, there is a book called Leviticus (Leviyo ke vavastha)
Levi was the people, who carried the ark of the covenant, the Levites were permitted to go near the sacred furniture, and this special privilege distinguished them from ordinary Israelites.
The Israelites who were not Levites had no right to go into the tabernacles (Numbers 18:22–23).
Do you know why?
When Moses went to God for the ten commandments, God told him, "Go down and see your people."
When he returned, he found that they had begun to worship idols.
There, Moses said to them, "Stop this, all, those who are on the side of God, come here."
The first to come out of it were the Levites.
And Moses commanded them, killing them. and they killed them, and they lost their children, brothers, and sisters.
And God said to them, "You have lost your own people, now you will serve me."
If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.(Luke 14:26)
(Matthew 19:29, if anyone does it for my sake, they will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life)
Faith will always separate you from something.
But it is very discouraging that now days faith is only remained with words.
Martin Luther says, "Live as if Jesus was crucified yesterday, rose from the dead today, and is returning tomorrow." (किऐसे जियो जैसे कि जीसस को कल सूली पर चढ़ाया गया था, आज मृतकों में से जी उठे हैं और कल लौट रहे हैं।)
I do not drink, because I want to go to heaven, but I do not drink because I want to meet my Jesus. Do not prepare yourself to get to heaven; prepare yourself more to see and meet Jesus.
Do not put your faith in only confession, that I get new job, I will get new car, I will new house.
It is not wrong, but do not let your faith limit you.
Because your faith will separate you from some things.
If you look at the very first word of the Lord, there the Lord said separate the darkness from the light.
The Lord must have shown many of us that there is darkness, but have we separated ourselves from that darkness?
When God says in the Old Testament, "Do not take my name in vain," he does not mean that you should say, "Lord, Lord, Lord."
It is mean, you are taking my name, but I am not visible in you.
Do not just follow rituals; live life in reality.
Just come to worship, listen to the sermon, and then leave. This is not the Christian life.
But when we express our faith in life, Christ's life is more than all of this.
Dear brothers and sisters, before Jesus comes in the clouds, he must appear in us.
How many of you are promised to the Lord that the Lord has been telling me for many days to separate from him, and today I separate from it.
Today, many of us do not reject Jesus, and yes, it is true.
But many of us ignore Jesus because, if asked who your God is, I hope you would say Jesus, but when Jesus says, "Spend some time with me," we don't have time.
Do not ignore him, dear brothers and sisters, but spend some time with Jesus.
Bring your faith into action,
Don't do evil because you are a worship leader, or because you are doing something in this church. But don't do evil because you love Jesus, and Jesus loves you.
Do not do evil because you are a messenger or a leader; the Bible does not instruct you to be holy because you are a servant; rather, the Bible instructs you to be holy because your God is holy.
Be holy because God is holy, and express your faith with your life.
And I'd like to conclude today's message by saying that you should demonstrate your faith in your actions rather than your words.
Express your faith through your life.
Perhaps tomorrow someone will tell you, friend, you don't drink alcohol, friend, you don't smoke, nowadays everyone does this.
Friend, you don't abuse, this so-called "bad words" everyone says today.
Friend, you both can stay together, A living relationship is common these days,
friend, you see how bad it is, let's do some gossiping and say something about it.
dear brothers and sisters Tell those people “NO”
whoever they are, tell them that I do not do all this.
Why?
Because my God is coming to get me, this is my faith, and I am ready for it.
And keep this thing in mind: our faith separates us from some things.
May God bless all of us.
Let us pray.
