Skip to content How Your Sin Impacts Others | Joshua 7:1-15 | Pastor Joel Holm May 8 · 41 min ...more
How Your Sin Impacts Others | Joshua 7:1-15 | Pastor Joel Holm
May 8, 2025 · 41 min
Series Patria Sermons May 8, 2025 · 41 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
492K followers
0:00 Hey, welcome to church tonight and I am really glad you're here. I'm watching you during worship and there was such a spirit of freedom and liberty and joy as0:12 we're worshiping the Lord, wasn't there? And your hands are lifted up And I thought God, this is the perfect setup as we continue our series in Joshua for what you wanna teach us tonight. It's the perfect0:24 setup when there is a liberty and a freedom because tonight through a story in the book of Joshua, God wants to teach each of us about sin. Now I know you're going, Joel, really? Please. No.0:36 No. It's such a buzz kill. Sin, really? Because we have a wrong understanding of what sin is. We either don't talk about it because0:48 it's awkward and it's condemning and nobody wants to talk about it. Or we only talk about it in a religious context which doesn't help anybody walk into liberty because now I just gotta0:59 perform better for God. And this old testament passage illustrates for us some of the myths that are there. But we have to start from a place of1:11 honesty in our lives and with the word of God that says, I got some struggles in my life. There's some anger that is there. And that anger is actually hurting me.1:23 And I know it's not right. I don't seem to be able to get rid of it. And we have to have this kind of honest approach. And I wanna encourage you as we look at the story and discover some of the1:35 biblical truths about sin, I think when pastor Harold was up here, he was actually prophesying over us. When he said the Lord will not fail, the Lord will not fail tonight to lead you1:47 into a freedom, into a liberty, into a deliverance from a struggle or a habit or a difficulty. He will not fail for you to be able to walk out of here going, wow,1:59 I'm free. But we have to be honest with scripture and we have to be honest with ourselves. Because 1 of the things the enemy does to keep us caught is2:11 to use shame as kind of a covering so we don't talk to anybody about it. We don't let anybody know about the struggles we're having in in our heart, in our words, and2:23 in our actions. Now before we look at this story and what God wants to teach us and how he wants to lead many of us into this place of freedom and deliverance. Before we look at it, there's a few foundational2:34 truths you gotta understand around what the bible teaches around sin especially when it comes to this story. First of all, this is a story about a follower of God who disobeys. So this is really a teaching for2:46 those of you who are followers of God. If you're here and you're not a follower of God, I'm so grateful you're here. And tonight, you can make a decision to follow Christ. But the bible really teaches very clearly, when2:57 you have not given your life to Christ, you are not in control of this. You are a slave to sin, the bible says. So it's not a matter of, oh, I gotta do better. I gotta try better. It's impossible to do3:09 that. Until you are born again and made in Christ, then you can begin to walk into that liberty. This is really for the follower of God. And then the bible3:21 also talks that sin is both objective and subjective. Meaning there are certain laws of God for our benefit and for our blessing. That's for everybody. Doesn't matter where you live in the globe.3:32 Doesn't matter what your age is. Some of them are reflected in the 10 commandments. Thou shalt not steal. It's unconditional. But then the bible says there are some conditional acts. So 1 of the example3:44 Paul gives is meat sacrificed idols. In that first century culture in the new testament, they would sacrifice meat to idols. It was not the christian religion. But then the meat would be available from the market at a3:55 discounted price. And Christians would go, are we allowed to buy that and eat that in our living rooms? And Paul said, well, what's your conscience tell you? If you have this freedom and that's okay, then go do4:06 it. But if you come out of 1 of those false religions and you used to have that act and when you see that meet you know it just will interfere with your relationship with Christ, then don't do it. It's subjective. It is4:18 sin for 1, not sin for the other. Today you could use alcohol as an example. For some of us, having a beer, it's gonna really interrupt my relationship with Jesus. Maybe for some others, no, it's okay. I'm4:30 cool. What the bible declares as objectively the law of God for us and then subjectively. And sin in this context for tonight, for4:41 believers who find themselves struggling to find a freedom. Because we have this wrong idea. I get saved by grace, now I better live4:53 by the law. Grace saved me but it's now my perfect obedience that I gotta live by. You were saved by grace. You live by grace. And so there is an obedience5:05 that we're called to, but we only do that when we do it in partnership with the grace of the Lord and what he teaches us about walking into this unbelievable freedom. Because God addresses the5:16 struggle and the sin we have in our life right now. He addresses it not with the law, but he addresses it with grace. So tonight is not a visit to the principal's office,5:28 which some of you are very familiar with from your earlier years. Tonight is a visit to the father's house. And I hope that the enemy will protect5:40 your mind and your heart. So you will listen to God's word through pastor Heron that he will not fail. As I'm speaking, some of you right now are thinking about that struggle.5:54 Jealousy, anger, lust. You don't tell anybody about it. And you keep it hidden.6:06 And God loves you and he's accepted you and you're still his child. But it is hindering that abundant life you get to walk into because the enemy's goal is to remove the glory of6:18 God from us and sin. Not its existence, but how we deal with it is what hinders that. So open your Bibles to Joshua6:30 chapter 7. We're gonna look at the story and we're gonna discover the myths that come behind sin that if we buy into them cause us to make bad choices and how we can walk in a freedom. Verse 1 of chapter 7. But6:42 the Israelites were unfaithful. So Joshua's leading the Israelites as you know through this series, and they're settling to the promised land. And now it talks about the Israelites as they're settling. And it says, they6:51 were unfaithful in regarded to the devoted things. Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri and the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah took some of them. So the angers Lord's anger burned against Israel. Basically, said, do7:03 not. Do not take other stuff and Achan steals. And God gets really angry at the stealing. Look at verse 2. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai7:15 which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethlehem told them, go up and spy out the regions. The men went up and spied out Ai. And when they returned to Joshua, they said not all the army will have to go up against Ai.7:25 Send 2 or 3000 men to take it and do not worry the whole army for only a few people live there. So about 3000 went up and they were routed by the men of Ai who killed about 36 of them. They chased the Israelites from the7:35 city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this, the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water. Do not think your sin does not affect other people. Do not7:47 think your bad choices doesn't have an implication for your family and those around you. Verse 6, then Joshua tore his clothes and fell face down to the ground before the ark of the Lord remaining there till evening. And7:59 the elders of Israel did the same and sprinkled dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, Savon Lord, why did you ever bring us this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?8:09 If only we had been content to stay on the other side of Jordan. Pardon your servant Lord. What can I say now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about8:19 this and they will surround us and they'll wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name? Verse 10, the Lord said to Joshua, stand up. What are you doing down on your face?8:31 Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen. They have lied. They have put them with their own8:42 possessions. That is why Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among8:53 you is devoted to destruction. Go, verse 13, consecrate the people. Make them holy. Set them apart. Let them9:04 experience my glory. Tell them, consecrate yourself in preparation for tomorrow for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. There are devoted things among you Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until9:14 you remove In the morning, present yourself tribe by tribe and tribe the Lord chooses shall come forward clan by clan and the clan the Lord chooses shall come forward family by family and the family the Lord chooses9:25 shall come forward man by man. God will find you out. You cannot hide. He just loves you way too much. Verse 15, whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by9:37 fire along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the Lord and he has done an outrageous thing in Israel. Now listen to me, this was before Christ and the covenant we have. But it's a story that9:48 illustrates what goes on in our lives that causes us to make bad choices. And if you will open your heart and mind, you will discover that maybe you have bought into a myth and tonight tonight, there is9:59 freedom for you. Let me pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, and we stand before you now. We know we are saved by grace. We know we live by grace. I pray, Lord, that you would protect each of10:11 us from the enemy who even now would wanna shoot fiery darts. We open up our lives to you. Holy Spirit, teach us and show us with an expectation that you will10:23 lead us into freedom. I pray this in the name of Christ. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. So here's the deal. Sin myths that come upon10:35 the follower of God as illustrated by this story. Here's the first 1. I began to think to myself, well sin makes my life better even if for a little while.10:47 Even if it's just for a little while there will be some improvement. Aiken stole stuff because the stuff was valuable. Because he saw the stuff as a way of somehow benefiting him. But what10:59 is really going on in our lives when we make choices contrary to God's design, we are trying to address things that are deeper in our soul that our soul needs, but we're addressing them in the wrong11:11 way. There are longings we have. There are needs we have. There are desires we have. And those are good. They're placed there by God. But when we are trying to address those longing those those needs,11:23 I really want my security. I'll steal stuff then I'll have the money to be able to be secure. The longing for security isn't bad. When11:35 you choose to behave in a way or to make life choices that think what you address that inner soul needs, what happens is you actually begin to move backwards. And there is this11:46 myth that says, these sin this sin, these choices, they'll actually, they'll somehow make my life better. Proverbs 13 6 put it this way. Living a life of11:58 integrity protects and benefits individuals while wickedness and sinful behavior lead to destruction.12:10 Let's use Aiken's example of lying. 2 ways in which we are tempted at times to lie. 1 is your taxes. Why your taxes? Because you can kinda get away with it. Because it's not12:22 big line, it's small line. Little numbers here, little deduction here, small line. And if you're honest, when you try to kind of massage your taxes a little bit, in your mind12:34 what you're thinking is how will I benefit financially from this? You are making a choice to make life decisions that come out of12:46 a genuine need of wanting to be secure, but contrary to God's design. Here's the second way that we lie. We lie about our profile. You ever had this happen where you're talking to somebody and you12:58 kind of self promote? You put a little more shine on it that may be accurate? Why do we do that? Why when we're talking about our lives to somebody do we find13:10 ourselves at times wanting to kinda self promote? Because we have this identity, but we don't actually trust our identity in13:21 God. So we begin to self promote. We don't actually trust God as our provider, so we massage the taxes. And 1 of this the implications of this great myth is really when you're13:33 doing that, there is an absence of faith. And when you let God bring you to a place of freedom, what will happen is faith will rise up in you. And13:45 all of a sudden now, I have this trust in God, in who I am. I don't need to promote myself to you. Cause I don't really think I don't care what you think about me. I know who has accepted me. When I have a13:57 faith in God as my provider, I don't need to massage the numbers because I really belong to him. But here's the deal with this myth. If you buy into it, it will get worse. Because14:09 it doesn't actually answer the need of your soul. And if you're here tonight and you go, Joel, there are just times14:21 when I feel like if I can control and manipulate a situation, somehow it's gonna make my life better rather than I'm just trusting the Lord. I'm giving it all to14:33 him. There is a freedom and a faith when you great get to a place where you go, I don't have to manipulate or control. I can trust him. Because if you are manipulating and14:45 control, you are fodder for the enemy. Go, just make this choice here. Just make this choice here. God wants to instill in you a freedom to trust him at14:56 such a level that the enemy can never manipulate you to get you to control or manipulate scenarios in your life in such a great way. But if you don't,15:09 it will get worse. And some of you understand this. But tonight, there's freedom. Here's the second myth that comes out of this story. We think somehow15:21 sin can be hidden. That's why we stay quiet about it. Now here's the deal. We hide sin for a reason mainly because of shame.15:32 Christians, we don't like to make bad choices. We know it doesn't glorify God. And when we make a bad choice, when when we yell at our spouses, when we get really15:44 angry with our children in a way that is not correct, when we make a bad choice in life, when there is an enormous amount of jealousy that might be there, whatever that may be, we are just overwhelmed with this kind15:56 of sense of guilt. We're not like celebrating this. The Bible says the world, they don't have that guilt because they're not born again. But we have the spirit of God in us. So we have this sense of, oh, there's this16:07 guilt. So what we do is we hide. We hide so that we don't deal with the shame of being exposed with some of our choices. And I know this may be hard to hear, but you know exactly16:19 what I'm talking about. But here's what the Bible teaches if you wanna land in the word of truth. As long as you stay hidden, you will never be16:30 delivered. It is when you go from darkness to light that freedom can come to you. When you take things out of the shadows and you bring them into light, then there is a16:42 liberty. Because as a Christian we don't like living in that kind of bondage. Here's what happens. You sin and you know it's wrong and you make this prayer to the Lord and you go, no Lord, I'm gonna do better. And you16:53 try harder to do better. But because you're doing it out of your volition in the darkness, what happens is you just sin harder. You fall more. Then you make another promise to God. No. No. This time I'll17:05 really do better. And then you fall again because you're just doing it out of your own strength, staying in the darkness. Many Christians make promises to God for how they're gonna walk in honor and obedience to him but17:17 they're doing it in the darkness. And it's a cycle that just gets worse and worse because you've bought into this myth, oh, it can be hidden.17:29 And I can get myself out of it so that nobody will have to know about it and then I'll walk in this freedom. But you know after weeks, sometimes after17:40 years, you don't get out of it. And you don't walk in that abundant life. Ecclesiastes 12 14 puts it this way, for God will bring every deed into judgment17:53 including every hidden thing whether it is good or evil. You can't even hide sin from yourself. See Achan, he tried to conceal it. I'm gonna hide this.18:05 Okay. I know I did something wrong but I'm gonna hide it. Somehow I'll work this out but for right now I'm gonna hide it. And there is a myth that the enemy whispers to us, you can just hide it and work it out on your18:15 own but it will not happen. 1 of the most pronounced that way that this happens in many people is through lust. It just drives people in some ways where you go, it's There's so much18:27 shame attached to it in the church and in the Christian religion that you just better stay quiet. But you know what that is? It is an expression that is wrong, but it18:39 comes from a heart that is desiring in intimacy. It comes from a heart that desires love and acceptance. But rather18:51 than working and saying, I gotta find that freedom in Jesus, I'll find other ways to tap into what is a need in my soul. And eventually, it19:02 comes out. And I'm not here to say that as a warning. You better fess up now because it's gonna be worth No. No. I'm here19:14 to say that as a biblical directive. There is this promise, the Lord will not fail to bring you into freedom no matter what the struggle is going on in your19:26 life. But you have to take this step of faith and say, I'm gonna bring it into light. I'm not gonna tell the world about it. But I'm not gonna hide it anymore. I will not believe the myth that it19:38 can be hidden. And all of a sudden I begin to walk in this amazing liberty. And some of you know this liberty. You've experienced it. And you're transformed and you're walking in this abundant life. But19:50 it only happened when you stopped buying into the myth that it can be hidden. Here's the the third myth. Sin doesn't really count if it's20:02 justified. Here's the story of Achan. Achan and Israel have been unbelievably persecuted by evil nations. They've been treated so wrong, so20:14 badly. So finally now when they conquer Achan's going, I could take this. It's the least I could get for everything that's happened to my family, everything that's happened to my nation. And he buys into this myth20:26 that doing things my way is justified because of all of what's happened and everything that's gone wrong. We do not think of our20:38 sin as actually hurting God. That in his role as father, if you're a dad and you have kids and20:50 your kids go against your directive, against your heart, against your will, you know, more than making you mad, it just breaks your heart.21:02 And this is the picture of our heavenly father. Achan's thinking to his mind, listen, after all persecution of these other nations, after everything they did wrong, I deserve at least this. This is justified? Ephesians21:14 4 30 puts it this way. Do not grieve the holy spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let me give you an example of sin that we21:26 think is justified. Unforgiveness. Some of you are here and you have been really hurt by people. And I am genuinely sorry for that.21:39 People who have betrayed you. People who have spoken against you. Maybe it cost you a promotion. Maybe it cost you a role in the family. But you have genuinely been hurt. And when that happens, there is a pain in our21:51 heart. And that pain can turn into this unforgiveness and we harbor that unforgiveness. And that unforgiveness turns into bitterness. And if we don't deal with it,22:04 it begins to decay us from the inside out. And your heart becomes kinda withered up. And it's impossible to love. And even when somebody then tries to love you,22:16 you've had such a bad experience here and you haven't walked in the freedom of what that pain caused that it's hard to even love other people. And you become very shielded, very protected. Nobody is gonna hurt me22:27 again. Nobody is gonna do that to me again. And you put this covering over your heart. And the choice that you have made is, wow, after22:39 what they did to me, it's okay. And God doesn't say forgive. He doesn't say love your enemy simply out of some22:51 random moral law. He has your best interest in mind. He said, if you're gonna walk in abundant life, if you're gonna walk this unbelievable freedom, if you are gonna walk in a23:03 grace where every morning you wake up with this amazing gratitude of the grace you have, you are going to have to forgive people. Because you become this channel of grace. And the more23:15 you forgive people, the more grace comes to you. But when that channel shuts down and you don't have grace coming out of you, it will dry up that well inside of you and you won't have any grace. So he says, listen.23:27 Do not buy into the myth that says because you have been radically hurt, you're okay in doing this.23:40 Because you are not only hurting yourself, you're actually hurting how God can work through you and how his kingdom can come down. And there are some of you who are23:52 here, And I get it. I understand it. But there is a freedom. It's hard for you to even envision. You mean I could love that person that right now I24:04 just despise? Yes. Not because of a religious obedience, but because of a supernatural work of Christ in your life that liberates24:15 you and has grace flow through you. Here's the fourth myth that this story teaches. Sin only affects me. Achan, he knew he was at risk in what24:27 he was doing. But he's thinking to himself, I'm the only 1 really at risk. But when God gives directives to Joshua, he goes, it's the whole nation. And then it's a tribe. And then it's a clan. And then it's a family. And24:39 then it's an individual. And he's showing this picture of you put a pebble in a pond and there's a ripple effect that goes on. And the myth that sin really only affects me, it affects you24:51 and then it affects your family. And then it affects your community and your church and the nation. And ultimately in some ways it even affects the fabric of this world. When we don't25:03 walk. Now we will always at some degrees you know, have a rough moment here or there. I'll give you an honest story. I used to really struggle with anger early on. It was sin.25:16 It was because I just felt like I was always getting robbed of my rightful position. And so I would lash out at times verbally with my wife in the first year of our marriage. And it was wrong and it was horrible and it25:26 was disrespecting and dishonoring. And then I found liberty in God's word and I brought in delight. My wife and I went to a pastor and I said, listen, I need to confess something here. And I need a prayer for this25:38 that God would liberate me because I knew it wasn't just me that was being affected. I wasn't just affecting my wife. If25:50 I didn't deal with it it would've affected our children. It would end up affecting our small group, our church community. First Corinthians 5 6 and 7 puts it this way, don't you know that a little26:02 yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new unleavened batch as you really are. As you really are. So there26:14 may be a moment now, 38 years in a marriage, when my wife and I have an intense discussion. But it's not the anger of26:26 the first year. It's not that sin. It's just an intense discussion. And we may need to apologize to each other after our discuss intense discussion. But that that kept me in bondage.26:38 That kept me from receiving the freedom of the Lord. That restricted me and that was affecting other people. And this is what takes place. Let me give you an example of what can happen because a lot of this is in the26:47 relational breakdown. Somebody hurts you, right? So they hurt you and you're here and you go, oh I've been hurt. So you gotta 1 up them. You gotta 1 up them. So if they say something about you, you're gonna say something26:57 about them that's a little bit more intense. That hurts them. Now they gotta 1 up you. Now you gotta 1 up them. Now you gotta, all of a sudden now neighborhoods are fighting with each other.27:10 All of a sudden now, ethnic groups are battling each other. Nations are at war. And you can trace it back to we gotta 1 up each other. We gotta 1 up each other. And in the kingdom27:22 of God they said, no. There's a different way by which we live contrary to society. Contrary to this world. And we will walk in a peace of27:34 God that will allow me to be an instrument of his grace and his justice in a way that brings redemption. But the idea that where you're at right now and27:45 maybe the bondage you're in or the struggle you're in only affects you so you can deal with it on your own, it's just a lie. And it will continue to have that ripple effect. And27:57 I tell you this not in any way of judgment or condemnation but in a message of hope. You are called to have a ripple effect. But your ripple effect is to be joy and peace and28:08 faith and love and grace and goodness. That's the ripple effect we're called to. In my first year of marriage, that was not me. I was not walking in what Ephesians calls28:20 as you really are. When you are choosing to sin, you just forgot who you are. You've just forgotten your identity. And the answer isn't to grit your teeth and say, wow, Joel's right. I gotta buck28:32 up. I gotta do better. The answer is we're gonna discover in just a minute is to let Jesus do a work supernaturally28:44 in your life that repositions you. Conquering sin is not hard. If you do it according to the Bible,28:55 conquering sin, there's a grace to it. If you do it by your own pattern in that cycle, it seems impossible. And we buy into that myth. No. It's not hard. There is a grace to it. Here's29:07 the fifth the fifth myth. Sin is not that big of a deal to God. In this story, 1 of the things you discover is Joshua who is29:19 tormented. And you're Joshua, really? He stole some idols. Big deal. What's the big deal? He stole some idols. Joshua is actually tormented.29:31 And there's this myth that says, you know, God is this God of love. It's not that big of a deal to him. It is because God is a God of love that it's a really big deal to him.29:44 Because he loves you so much, because he cares about you so much, because he is so interested and so desirous for you to walk in full liberty and full joy and full faith. For you to walk in that kinda29:56 holiness that radiates his glory, because that's his deal for you. He is so so passionate about you. It's a big deal. You know how you measure the impact of30:08 sin on God? Look at the cross. That's how important this is to him. I'm so grateful that God in his character30:20 and his nature didn't say, you know Joel, I'm tired of you. Because sometimes I'm tend to do that with some people in my life. When they sin against me it's like, I'm tired of you. I gave you 430:32 chances. You're out of here. And God says, Joel, I will go to the cross. I will die and resurrect because you are that important to me And that's how I care30:43 about the sin that is there. Isaiah 59 2 says this, your sins have separated you from your God. They have hidden his face from you so that he will not30:55 hear you? There's a sin that's hard at times to measure, but we know it in our heart. And it's the sin of pride. When we find ourselves positioning ourselves for that31:07 status, whatever it may be. And pride is really the absence of glory. The absence of God's power and his praise and his presence because I am choosing to do it another way where I position myself.31:20 And sometimes you know how that manifests itself? We live with 2 identities. In here on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning or in our small group, we live with this wonderful Christian identity. And it's legit.31:32 But out there, tomorrow morning in our workplace, we keep our faith kinda hidden. We don't tell anybody about it Because we don't want it to kinda mess up with our profile. Gets really31:44 awkward, gets really weird. And what happens is you end up having dual identities. Who I am as a Christian inside and who I am a Christian out there. And it will rip your soul in half. And God says, I don't want that for31:56 you. I want you to have this abundant, beautiful life. So know that this really matters to me because of my care for you and I32:08 am here to have you live and walk in a liberty and a freedom that's there. It's like Jesus has given this invitation saying, I want you to be free. You know what the church should be like? The church should be like an32:20 AA meeting. You know AA meetings? My name is Joel Holm. I've been an alcoholic for I'm clean for 7 years. My name is Joel Holm and I'm a liar. My name is Joel Holm and I'm a thief. My name is Joel Holm. It's that we32:29 should be like an AA meeting. We're just confessing ourselves to each other. We're going, oh there's freedom in that. There's liberty in that. Because listen, we are all Amazon Prime specials. We are all blue light32:38 specials from Kmart. It's because of his grace that we have this. And the bible gives us a clear instruction. If you trust God at his word, if you're32:50 here tonight and there is a struggle and you know there's a struggle and on your own you haven't been able to conquer that and you've kinda kept it hidden, the bible gives us really clear instruction. In33:02 first John chapter 1 verse 9, it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and will purify us. That33:14 word literally means he will he will make you in a place of freedom and rightness, and you can walk in her liberty. And sometimes there's this immediate drop off. I don't have those thoughts anymore. I don't have that33:26 action. Wow. That person I hated, now I have a love for them. God did a supernatural work in me, and there's a grace behind finding the liberty in sin. And then you have to kinda walk that out. But it starts here33:38 to go from darkness to light. Now that doesn't mean you tell the world about your struggles. But it do does mean you go, I can't do this on my own out of performance to33:50 God. There's a cruel, a very thin line between what's called sin and temptation. And sometimes we think of temptation as sin. But temptation is when we are being challenged to kind of cross over in34:02 debt. And there are some of you here and you're actually not sinning but you're being tempted. You're being tempted to act in a way towards an individual who is searching. You're being tempted to do something that you34:13 know isn't in line with God's best plan for your life. And the way you deal with temptation and the way you deal with sin is you tell somebody. Jesus did this. He was tempted34:25 all by himself but he let the world know. I'm gonna let the world know. Here's how I'm tempted. If you're the son of God, prove yourself. I am tempted to have to prove my identity. If the son of God was tempted, surely34:36 we are tempted. And then some of us step over into this sin. And this story teaches us. There are these myths that we buy into. And we have this wrong approach towards34:48 sin. Either just don't talk about it because it's awkward or make it a religious thing where you have to perform. And Jesus says, just come to me. I'm gonna ever34:59 ask everybody to stand their feet and I'm gonna ask that there be no moving around for this 1 moment. We come together to learn the word but we come together to have an encounter with the Lord.35:13 We're going to give you a chance as we close the service to respond to God's word. I'm going ask Pastor Kenny and some of the spiritual leaders to come, and they're going to kind of line at this altar here. These are35:25 really, really good people. These are really spiritual people. There's no condemnation up here. You don't have to come up here and tell them everything. But you need to talk to somebody.35:37 If you're facing some temptation or there is a struggle that has really challenged you and it is stopping you from walking in the liberty of Jesus35:48 Christ, I'm going to ask the Lord by the spirit of God to give you the courage to carve out just a few minutes and come to 1 of these36:01 spiritually wonderful people and just say, could you pray for me? Because this is my struggle. We ask people to pray for our healing. We ask people to pray for our needs. The Bible36:13 says, listen, talk to somebody about your struggle. And in bringing it to light, there will be an immediate supernatural work of Christ. And I pray none of us36:26 would leave prematurely tonight staying hidden and battling something and never walking in that abundant life.36:38 But in this moment from an Old Testament story, we go, today's my time. This is my moment. Pastor Aaron said that the Lord will not fail you if you will come forward36:51 and talk to somebody and let them pray with you. So I'm going to pray over us. And I'm gonna ask that God would give you the courage to do this. Lord Jesus, I thank you for each person who is here.37:03 I thank you that grace is here, that liberty is here, that faith is here. I think of that worship time we had, Lord God. That was all you. I think of Pastor Heron's word, you will not fail us. I pray,37:15 Lord, you would pierce our hearts and minds with that. For each person who is here, who is being tempted, they have a struggle of some kind that they have not been able to overcome,37:27 let there be a freedom, an anticipation that you are here to meet them, to deliver them, to purify them, to walk them into righteousness.37:39 I pray this in the name of Jesus. Right now, I'm just gonna ask you, wherever you're standing, would you just come forward? Just have the courage to come forward and say, would you pray for me? Don't37:51 hesitate. Yeah. Just keep coming. Good for you. Just come on up and just grab ahold of somebody and have them pray with you. Have them believe God with you. Don't hesitate. Come38:03 out. Don't be embarrassed by this. This is your moment with Christ. Come forward. Patiently. There is liberty. There is freedom. The38:15 Lord will not fail you. I'm gonna ask pastor Heron to come up. As ministry is happening at the altar, he's gonna allow some of you if you need to get going. But pastor Heron, would you come up and close us?38:37 Praise God. Can we give it up for Joe 1 more time? As they're praying, we don't wanna38:49 leave this space without sharing the greatest news ever told and it's there's a perfect father who loves you, who wants to be in relationship with you. But human but humanity39:00 sinned, fallen short of the glory of God. But God made a way through his son, Jesus Christ. 5 Romans 5 verse 8 said, God demonstrated his love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, he died for39:12 us. So if you wanna receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, it's 1 way. It's through Jesus Christ. He is the way, truth, and life. Romans verse 10 9 and 10 says this, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus isShow more
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