Skip to content Beware of Cunning Covenants | Joshua 9 | Pastor Aaron Levy Jun 13 · 42 min ...more
Beware of Cunning Covenants | Joshua 9 | Pastor Aaron Levy
June 13, 2025 · 42 min
Series Patria Sermons June 13, 2025 · 42 min · Patria Sermons
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Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
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0:00 Hey, there he is. Let's give it up for our founding pastor for that generosity moment. Heck yeah. Heck yeah. Hey, who's ready to squeeze the scriptures tonight? We've been in the0:12 book of Joshua all year. We took a break last week for Beyond Shout out to those that were on the panel of Beyond I Do. Wasn't that amazing? Before0:25 before we get started though, if you were if you were here tonight and you got baptized on Sunday, can you raise your hand? Oh my God.0:37 Salute. We love you guys. Man, wasn't Sunday epic? Now, 1 more announcement because I was praying for this this morning. Raise your hand if you got baptized Sunday and0:49 this is your first Wednesday. Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you so much. You know, we took a break last1:01 week for our Beyond I Do night. If you don't know what Beyond I Do is, our lead our co lead pastor and our lead pastor have a podcast called Beyond I Do. They just talk about family and relationships and so forth. And1:12 quarterly, we bring it on stage and it was phenomenal. So what I'm gonna do is give us like a little recap so we can level set because we're gonna be in all of Joshua chapter 91:23 tonight. 27 verses. Put on your seat belt. I believe we can do it. Can we do it? Yes. Online. Can we do it? 27 verses and 34 minutes or less. Okay?1:35 Now, 1 of the things that I think is encouraging us encouraging for us to know is when we go through Joshua, not only are we learning together as a1:47 community, we're also learning how to study the Bible for ourselves. And then when we're looking at this book of Joshua, it's very beneficial because when you look at this story,1:59 you have this man of God, Joshua, who's a leader and he's told, hey, everywhere you place your feet, that is yours, that is your kingdom territory. Be on the offense. But2:11 then as he gets there, he has to fight to obtain what's his. And that's the faith journey, that we give our life to Christ. And as we're on our faith journey, we have2:22 territory, we have dominion, but we also have enemies. Right? So tonight, we're gonna kinda be talking about spiritual warfare, but I'm a try to do it in the most practical sense.2:34 You guys ready? So there's typically 3 enemies that are against us as we're on our faith journey, and many theologians say that Joshua chapter 6 through2:46 9 show a parallel of those 3 enemies. And it should be on the screen right here. Now we have the 3 enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And look and this is how2:57 theologians are saying that this is a parallel because remember when we were in Joshua chapter 6, and they were trying to overcome Jericho, but they had this huge system and it was large and they had all the3:09 money and the resources. And they were thinking, how could we overcome this? But their act of obedience that didn't make sense, but they operated in faith and God was able3:21 to get the victory through their obedience. And that's how we overcome the world system by the acts of obedience that we have today. Right? So then they won that battle and what you know what happens when you win a3:33 battle? Congratulations, you get your next 1. So the next 1 is Joshua chapter 7. And once you start winning, then it's like, you know what? Do we have to take all the army? We I don't think AI is that much.3:45 And sometimes that's what our flesh does. We were seeking comfort and that's when they lost the battle because they didn't seek counsel from the Lord. And a lot of times our flesh tries to counsel us on what's3:57 best and a lot of times that's opposing what God says. Just catching us up. Just catching us up. They finally win that battle in Joshua chapter 8. Remember when Gabe gave that fire sermon and he talked about the4:08 ambush? But they finally listened to God, but they didn't counsel their flesh, they killed their flesh. And if we wanna overcome our flesh, we gotta kill it. So4:20 that was Aiken, he stole the stuff and then he got caught and his whole family died, etcetera, etcetera. They overcame the flesh. And now, we're in Joshua chapter 9, we're all set up. And4:32 this tactic right here that the devil uses is called deception. And that's what we're gonna be looking at tonight in Joshua 9. So I just wanted to level set4:44 us to where where we're parked at tonight. And I wanna say this, being that Joshua and the Israelites, they're winning battles. It's easiest to be deceived4:56 in seasons that you're winning. Because you start relying on your results, your experience. Now you're in a situation where people are asking you to be on the podcast and people are asking you questions.5:08 Now when things come up, you think you're the expert. And what happens is sometimes when you're winning in seasons, there are people that act like they're for you, but they're not.5:21 So we gotta be mindful of deception. With that being said, let's all stand to our feet. Joshua chapter 9. We're not gonna look at all 275:33 verses because my knees would start hurting if we did that. But we're gonna look at the first 13 to kinda set up the picture. How about that? We do 13 verses? I'll be reading from ESV, but I think a5:44 lot of you have your journals. Right? Let's go. As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the great sea towards Lebanon,5:56 the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Cellulites, the Hivites. Just seeing if y'all paying attention. Cellulite could be an enemy, right? The Hivites and6:08 the Jebusites heard of this, they gathered together as 1 to fight against Joshua and Israel. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to6:20 Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning. Say cunning. Cunning. And when it made provisions and took worn out sacks for their donkeys and wine skins and worn6:32 out and torn and mended with worn out patch sandals on their feet and worn out clothes. Pay attention when the Bible repeats a word. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly. They6:44 went to Joshua in the camp of Gilgal and said to the men of Israel, we have come from a far distant country, so now make a covenant with us. But the men of6:56 Israel said to the Hivites, perhaps you live among us, then how can we make a covenant with you? They said to Joshua, this man, we are your servants. And Joshua said to them, who7:07 are you? Where do you come from? They said to him, from a very distant country. Your servants had come. I could do an audio Bible. Servants had come because of the name of the7:19 Lord your God. For we have heard a report of him and all that he did in Egypt and in the Amorites and Heshbon and Bashan and Ashtaroth. So our elders and the inhabitants7:31 of the country said to us, take provisions in your hand for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, we are your servants. So now make a covenant with us. Here's our bread.7:43 It was still warm when we took it from our house as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you, but now it's dry and crumbly. These wineskins, they were new when we filled them and7:55 behold, they burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from our very long journey. Let's pray. God, as you use your word tonight,8:07 expose to us your truth. Reveal to us individually what you want us to catch tonight. Convict, inspire, encourage,8:18 transform, open our eyes so we can see what you have to say. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. I'm gonna8:30 break this down, this whole chapter down in 3 points. And my first point is be careful of a cunning covenant. Be careful of a8:42 cunning covenant. Let's break down what happened. Let me just kinda recap what happened. Typically, have 2 types of enemies. And if we look at the very beginning of the chapter, what happened was they're8:53 on their military conquest. They just beat AI in those those 5 territories were like, hey, they're coming towards us. So why don't we unite and go against the9:04 Israelites? So we have to know once you start winning, there will be people that unite to be against you. That's what we're seeing. Right? But there's9:16 something else that happened. There's these people that are the Gibeonites. Now, they are the Hivites, but they're known as the Gibeonites. Hivites meaning that that's where their their nationality9:28 from. The Gibeonites, that's their city. Like, I'm a black man from Ontario. Right? Hivites, Gibeon. So the Gibeonites were like, you know what? They'll probably kill us9:40 though. So let's act like we came from a far journey and let's act like we're their friends. And what the enemy does sometimes is9:52 while there are clear enemies in front of you, there are people next to you trying to be your friend, but are low key your enemy as well. So you10:04 wanna discern in seasons when you're in warfare who's really for you. Because I know these people are against me, but why am I getting all these attentions and text10:15 messages from these people out of nowhere? What's going on here? And there's a couple of things that you wanna be mindful for in a covenant. We'll talk more about the details of a covenant in 0.2, but let's look at verse10:27 6 and verse 11. It says, now make a covenant with us. Be mindful of people that wanna rush relationship with you. They they get there and they're like, come on, just make a covenant now. Let's10:39 let's let's go now. It's like the advertisement. You gotta act now. If you leave the store, it's not gonna be you gotta do it now, now, now. God's not in that if it's rushing. Yeah. So they say 2 times, come on, come on.10:50 So be mindful of all these opportunities, but it's about to sell out, it's about to do wait. Be mindful of people that don't answer your questions. Remember11:01 Joshua? Hey, who are you? Where are you from? We come from a very far distance. They didn't answer their questions. Now, they were only 15 miles11:13 away. It's like Rancho to Pomona. But they're acting like, we came from Uganda. And we just woke up. I don't even know how we got here. Oh my God. And they're setting these things up11:25 trying to deceive what Joshua and his leaders can see with their eyes. So be mindful of people that do that. Now here's the kicker. This is11:37 where I leaned in. I was like, oh God. If you look at verse 9, they show their hand. In verse 9, they say, we came from a very distant country, right?11:49 Lion. But here, here here's a your servants have come because of the name of the Lord, your God. Be mindful of people that talk about God, but don't12:01 treat them as Lord. That want to be in a relationship with you. Because tonight we're talking about unequally yoked relationships. The Israelites and the Gibeonites.12:13 So if you have a DM that you're on the fence about, should I answer or not? You wanna lean in tonight. If if you're on the on the fence on should I invest in that company, you wanna lean in tonight. If you wanna talk12:25 about how to navigate covenant when you're engaged, wanna lean in tonight. Amen. Because if we look at this word cunning, remember we said this word cunning? It should be on the screen over here. In in12:36 Hebrew, the the meaning is orma, is to be shrewd, crafty, subtle, prudence, trickery. Now what's so crazy about this is when12:48 Satan gets introduced in Genesis chapter 3, the same word is used. Yes. Let's look at Genesis chapter 3 for a moment. It says here, now the serpent was more crafty, the12:59 same word, than any other beast in the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say you should not eat of the tree of13:11 the garden? Did you catch what happened here? He's deceiving Eve because he's asking a question about God's word, but it's even deeper.13:24 He's described here as the Lord God. Because in Genesis 1 is the narrative of how God created the heavens and the earth. If you look at Genesis 2, now he's just now he's13:36 called Lord God because he's Lord over his creation. It says, Lord God, like 11 times. So when we go into Genesis 3, the field that the Lord God had made. Now look. He13:48 said to the woman, did God wait. Where's Lord? Right. It's subtle. We can talk about God Real subtle. But just don't treat them as Lord. And13:59 sometimes we just want a savior, but we don't want a Lord. See a savior saves you from your past and your shame and your guilt. We want that Jesus, a Lord directs your decision making.14:12 And sometimes we go into these covenants that we don't understand because I'm free from my past, but I keep going in this cycle because the same decision making stayed the same, transitioning from14:24 savior to Lord. But it's something that the Israelites should have known because they used this strategy too. There's a quote here. It says, in war, truth is the14:36 first casualty. We're in warfare, so we're gonna use strategy. We're gonna use trickery. If you go all the way back to Joshua chapter 2, they acted like spies. You14:47 look at Rahab. She was like, hey, if you hurry quickly, they that way. If you look at Joshua chapter 8, it's verse 15. If you're taking notes, Gabe talked about it beautifully if you wanna look at it on14:59 YouTube. They ambushed by acting like they were losing. They ran and when they ran, everybody from AI fled the city. So then people came in and burned the city to the ground, then15:11 turned around and killed. Trickery. They used cunning. And now that they got these wins, they don't see that they're being tricked. And see, think about how that works15:23 out in our life. Because when you look at the scripture, it talked about worn out, dry, and crusty 2 times. Could you15:34 imagine trying to go on a date with somebody and then they wanna give you this bread and this wine? See, be15:46 mindful for people that make excuses for their situation. See, this has the appearance of communion. This ain't no communion. This15:58 is religious intent. This is not relational action. Communion is relational action. Me and my me and my girls were making grilled cheese sandwiches the16:10 other night. And my wife was like, is there enough for me? I was like, yeah yeah yeah. And she goes, and she was like, there wasn't enough for me. I said, well, can get the ends. See, I ain't doing no booty sandwich. She16:22 threw the ends away. And when she said that, was like, man, I think I'm a use this. Because in Joshua, they come and they're like, oh, you know, this is my situation. You know what saying? I'm a get it together. I'm16:33 praying. I'm, you know, but but if we can work together now, and sometimes, we meet people worn out. And then once we start covenant, we expect them to be brand new.16:44 I can change them. Wait. Wait. Wait a minute. If they really wanted covenant, why couldn't they stop at the store and get new16:56 bread? Uh-oh. They had money for the provision. Okay. And sometimes our compassion this is what pastor Kenny told me. Sometimes our compassion outweighs our wisdom.17:08 And we see people in this situation. Yeah. We minister to them, but ministering to somebody is different than covenant with them. That's right. So when you have17:20 people that are coming up in situation can you imagine being in a new relationship? You're like, hey. Yeah. You're dating somebody. Tell me about her. Man, she worn out dry and crusty.17:34 Because that's what they did. Ladies, can you imagine getting a DM from a guy? And before you respond, you should start looking at his page. And as you look at his page, should I17:46 respond? You send screenshots to your homegirls and they say, girl, he wore out dry and crusty. Now, it's on you if you respond. But there's17:58 times in our life where in seasons that we're winning and we get tricked by these appearance appearances. And it's like, you know what? They don't mean harm. I I I care about their story. They18:10 can come in. And see the thing about it is, the force part was beware of a cunning covenant. So how do you beware of that? You seek counsel before covenant. That's point number18:22 2. Point number 2 is seek counsel before covenant. Look what happens here in Joshua chapter 9 verse 14. So the men took some of their provisions, but did18:33 not ask counsel from the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the leaders of the congregation swore to them. And the end of 318:45 days after they had made that covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors. All it took was 3 days. And that they lived among them. And the people of Israel set out and reached their cities18:57 on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Cheburah, Bereoth, Kiriath Jearim, but the people of Israel did not attack them because the leaders of the congregation as swore to them by the19:09 Lord, that's important, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders. But all the leaders said to the congregation, we have sworn to them by the Lord. Be19:20 mindful of the repetition in scripture. The God of Israel, and now we may not touch them. This we will do to them. Let them live. Lest wrath be upon us, because of an oath that we swore to them. And the leader said to19:32 them, let them live. So they became cutters of wood and the drawers of water for all the congregation just as the leaders had said of them. Let's talk about what a covenant19:44 is. A covenant is not a contract. A covenant is, I'm gonna uphold what I commit to irrespective of what you do.19:57 So notice in this phrase, it says, sworn to them by the Lord. So I'm gonna treat you how Jesus treats me. Contract20:08 is, hey, you do this, I do that. If you don't uphold this, I can get out of that. Contract. Covenant is, even if it was wrong,20:20 I've committed to this, then I'm a keep my word in this. Contract, covenant. And what happens with Israel and Joshua in this time, they don't take20:32 the time to consult the Lord. Why? They're only consulting their results. We're winning. They probably just wanna be on the squad and this will make our team grow, so this is good. So we're gonna20:44 forego the interview process. No, I I just want that 1 person on my team right now. The processes are in place for a reason. See, counsel before covenant. Proverbs 1120:56 14 says, where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in the abundance of counselors, there's safety. So I wanna do something. I I need your counsel. Can you guys give me counsel? I guess not.21:08 Online. Can can you guys give me counsel online? Because Rancho, I don't know. Rancho, you down to give me counsel? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Here's something very important to me. There's been these debates for21:20 years. Coke or Pepsi? Coke or Pepsi? Coke or Pepsi? Coke or Pepsi? That's what I'm saying. I no. She said neither. So when I was like, you know21:31 what? I feel like we're disrespecting doctor Pepper. That's what I feel like. But I'm torn because I hear Coke, I hear21:43 Pepsi. In my heart, I want doctor Pepper. So in a multitude of counsel, there's safety. So you all gonna keep me safe? Okay. When we do this online, I just want you to type21:55 which beverage. Okay. Now here's what we gotta do. When I name the soda now don't be so spiritual. I don't drink soda nor when you drunk soda.22:10 Hold your cheer for the 1 beverage you're going for. You guys good? You guys ready? Okay. Who's down for Coca Cola?22:28 Who's down for Pepsi? Was that the same people? Okay. Alright. Who's down for Doctor Pepper?22:39 I knew it. Hey, are you y'all agree the community said doctor22:50 Pepper? Yes. So do it again? Why I gotta do it again? I got my multitude of counsel. I'm safe. Online, did y'all did y'all choose doctor Pepper?23:03 You hear them in the spirit? You see, the Bible says in a multitude of council, there's safety. So I went to the multitude of council, and I feel like it's safe23:15 because the community told me to drink this. Now, have this at home and 3 days later when I decide to drink this, I recognize, oh my23:26 god, this ain't what it appears to be. Oh my god. I gotta talk to the production team. I I did not do this.23:41 This is I don't know what it I have no idea. Don't I don't. Modelo. I don't know what this is. And when I zoom in, if you zoom into23:53 this, they didn't even take their time on this. This is doctor peeper. They misspelled it. But sometimes, we'd be in a rush. I talked24:05 to the community. The community said doctor pepper, and now I find myself in a situation I can't get out of. See, that's why our values are Christ24:17 community character commitment. We seek Christ first, then the community affirms what the answer is, so that builds our character, so we know to what we24:28 commit to. But if we skip Christ, many times, all we do is ask the community, and the community said, doctor Pepper, and this was not doctor now doctor Pepper's fire,24:41 but let's get lit. But sometimes, we get tricked, going into a situation innocently because I'm asking people but not asking God. Psalm 16 says this.24:53 It says, I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me because He is at my right hand, I shall25:05 not be shaken. I love this verse because it says, he gives me counsel. So if you start your morning with a devotional, getting counsel from the Lord, then when it's nighttime, your heart25:17 will instruct you. But when it's nighttime, a lot of times what's in our right hand is not the word of God, it's this. And we're tired and we're decompressing and we don't even recognize this25:29 is how we're being discipled. And the algorithm is telling us what's best. This is the multitude of counsel. And God is saying, if you start with Christ, then you might recognize at25:41 nighttime, you'll hear, put that phone away. Go to bed. So they didn't seek counsel, so they found out25:53 3 days later is wasn't what they thought it was. There's 2 principles and then we'll move down to our last point. Notice how they make a poor decision and the people started26:05 murmuring. And what happens is the right people suffer when we choose the wrong alliances. Yeah. Because Israel and the leaders, they chose the wrong people and now the people26:17 are like, what are we doing, bro? And sometimes we lose trust with the right people because we found something in somebody else. But the second thing is, even though they26:28 made a mistake, they honored their commitment. They could have said, Oh, y'all the Hivites? Get the special knife.26:40 But they didn't do that because they swore to them by the Lord. So when we fear God and we make a covenant, our word, we keep that covenant. But what do we26:52 do when you're a Gibeonite and you're in covenant and you broke that covenant? Well, point number 3 will help us all. Confession27:04 honors covenant. Confession honors covenant. Because now they're found out. They got caught and their worst27:15 fear is about to happen. They're about to die. But let's see what happens. Verse 22, Joshua summoned them and he said to them, why did you deceive us saying, we are very far from you when27:27 you dwell among us? Now therefore, are cursed and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. They answered Joshua, very important right27:39 here, because it was told to your servants for certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servants. Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from from before you. So we27:51 feared greatly for our lives because you did this thing. And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to us to do, do it. Verse28:03 26, so he did this to them and delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day cutters of28:14 wood and dryers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord to this day in the place that he should choose. This is powerful. Let's close, let's squeeze28:26 this out and close it. They got caught, they were held accountable to those questions from Joshua, and they just confessed. We we were afraid, and this was the only28:38 way we thought we can live. And Joshua shows mercy and doesn't kill them. But here's a principle, whenever you make a mistake, make that mistake work for28:50 you. Fell forward. So I made a mistake by having them in in my life, but I'm a have them work for the temple and for the congregation. So every time they work, they have to hear worshiping of God.29:02 They're building the temple. They're next to the church where they're listening to God all the time. So in conclusion, when you think about29:14 situations in your life that is like, man, I can't confess that. I I can't remember that. You're not only confessing for you, you're confessing for the next generation.29:25 Because let me tell you what ends up happening in this story. From verse 25 and 26, those people that confessed, I feared greatly, do to me what you think is right.29:38 They stayed working in the temple to generation after generation after generation. Now, listen look what happens in first chronicles 12 verse 4. It's very beautiful here.29:50 Ishmael, a Gibeon, a mighty man of the 30 and a leader over the city. King David chose a Gibeonite to be his mighty30:02 man and a leader. Why? Because this guy Ishmaiah's great great great great great great grandfather had the courage to say, you know what? Confession honors covenant and I'm gonna do this for my family,30:14 my generation. So then the next generations, David can trust an Ishmael. Do you know what Ishmael means in Hebrew? Yahweh hears.30:26 You keep fast forwarding and there's a leader named Nehemiah. He's building the temple. Guess who has building experience? If you look at Nehemiah chapter30:38 3, it's very beautiful because if this person was next to this person and this person was next to this person, it was a it's a picture of unity. But look at Nehemiah 3 7, and next to them work Melitaiah, the30:50 Kippianite. It's not over for you. It's not over for your kid. It's not over for your grandson. And Jaden, whatever his name31:01 is, and the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah and the seat of the governor of the province beyond the river. The Gibeonites started with deception and ended out31:13 with deliverance. It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Do you know what31:25 Melitaiah means in Hebrew? That's why I love the Bible. Melitaiah the Gibeonite, it means Yahweh is deliverance. And what these 2 names teach us31:37 is when we confess, Yahweh hears and Yahweh delivers.31:50 You and I have an opportunity tonight for deliverance as well. And it's not you improving, it's you surrendering. There's a32:02 difference between getting caught and confessing. What ends up happening in this story, it started off terrible. But they got to the32:14 point where I have nowhere to turn but surrender. And that's what God offers all of us tonight. See, if you're if you're in here tonight and you're thinking, you know what? Yeah,32:26 people do lie. People are shady. No new friends. Right? You missed the whole point of tonight. Right. Because when we look at Joshua, his name is Joshua. He's32:38 a picture of Jesus. So when we look at the Bible, every single page, if we have the mindset is about Jesus, there can only be 1 hero. So what does that make us?32:49 We are the Gibeonites. I'm a Gibeonite. And what happens is in church, we try to be cunning. And the way that we're33:01 cunning is through religion. We give God things that are worn out, dry, and crusty, trying to have him33:12 excuse our situation. We're the Gibeonites. We start out cunning, or we can confess. Confession is all about33:24 relationship. Relationship is, this is where I really am. That's why all the way back in Genesis, when when when the enemy deceived Eve, he said, Adam, where33:36 are you? What is he looking for? Confession. 1 of my favorite verses in all the Bible is Proverbs chapter 28 verse 13.33:49 Says, whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses them and forsakes them receives mercy. That34:01 ministered to me earlier when we were singing mercy spoke for me. We sang it. Are you ready to receive it? I wanna put a picture up before34:13 we close in prayer. When I saw that word conceal, I called my wife while I was running, and I said, babe, what is concealer? And she said,34:25 you you you put it in different spots on your face so the dark spots don't look as dark. I said, oh. 0, we'd be doing that all the time34:37 spiritually. And we have an opportunity to conceal or confess. The Bible's a mirror. Yes. And the Bible's gonna show us us.34:49 It's gonna show all our dark spots. And when we see all of our blemishes and our failures and our shames and our betrayals and all the lies and all the stuff, we have 1 or 235:01 options. We can conceal it or we could confess it. Here's the great news. Jesus already35:13 knows every single thing about you, yet he still chooses you like this. He knows every dark spot, and he loves you as is. He doesn't need you to35:25 change anything about you yet. He just needs you to confess, yeah, got some dark spots. Are you working hard to cover up what you did wrong?35:37 You ready to confess tonight? Not to me, to Jesus. He's the 1 that died for you. He's the 1 that loves you unconditionally. Romans 5 8 said, God demonstrates35:49 his love towards us, that while we were sinners, he died for us. So I invite all of us to close our eyes. And online, want you to lock in36:01 with me, please. For some of you, you feel a little nervous, and that's great because you're recognizing that36:12 you're weak without God. God loves you. He misses you. He wants relationship. And here's what's so powerful about36:24 God's love. Once you start spending time with him, he's the 1 that's gonna influence your decision making to change. It's not forcing your behavior modification.36:37 It's just being accepted as is. I'm not talking about patria. I'm talking about your soul. Do you have a relationship with Jesus, or do you36:49 have religion in your mindset? I'm gonna invite our entire community to pray a prayer together. There's 2 groups that I'm asking that we pray. The37:01 first group, you may know church, but you don't know Jesus yet. And that's okay. That was my life for years. And I recognize that all that37:13 faking I was doing, all that all that Jesus still loves me, that same love is for you as well. And I'm gonna ask you to repeat this prayer after me as a37:24 declaration that Jesus is your savior and your Lord. He died on the cross for all of your sin. Your consequences and that sin is paid for. It's time to move37:36 forward. There's a second group of you. You know this. You can do an altar call. You read the Bible that there is some shame in your life because there's some dark37:47 spots. There's freedom available. Don't stray from Jesus. Reconnect with him right now. I'm gonna ask you to pray this prayer with the group as well37:59 because what we're saying is we're gonna continue in our faith journey. We stop for a little, we're gonna get up, and we're gonna keep walking. And I'm gonna ask our entire community to pray this prayer together to38:11 encourage those that are starting their faith journey38:29 forgives me for all of my sin. There is not 1 sin that you're hanging over my head. Thank you for freedom. From38:41 this moment forward, you're my savior and my Lord. Teach me to trust you. Surround me with community38:53 that points me back to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Jesus' Let's open our eyes for a moment. Before we before we celebrate,39:05 we just wanna make this moment special for you. Some I believe some of you prayed that prayer for the first time to give your life to Christ. Some of you are saying, you know what? I'm continuing my faith journey. On the39:14 count of 3, we just wanna celebrate that you made that decision, and Patriot's here for you. We're with you. We love you. So if you prayed that prayer for the first time to give your life to Jesus,39:26 you prayed that prayer to reconnect and continue on your faith journey, let's raise our hand bold. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3. Go ahead and raise your hand high. Raise your hand high. Come on,39:38 church. Every single section we have hands, raise your hand high. Keep them high. Keep them high. While we're cheering, we're cheering. We love you today. The angels are rejoicing today. 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