1 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:10,200 We welcome you to the Via Zion Sermon podcast. 2 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:12,920 We are a church based out of Chennai, India. 3 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:16,160 We are thrilled that you're tuned in today and hope that you 4 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:19,680 will be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear. 5 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:23,800 Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of 6 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,240 purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus. 7 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:32,640 The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess 8 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:35,560 our promise. We are believing that God is 9 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:37,680 bringing us into our place of promise. 10 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:41,840 It is now time to take the land and to do so we need to get our 11 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:45,680 spiritual posture and place and stop looking back so that we can 12 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:48,240 face forward with courage and faith. 13 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:51,240 Let's get going and possess our promise. 14 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,720 God bless you. It's so nice that you know we 15 00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:58,440 get to look at the book of Joshua together. 16 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:01,680 Like we've been telling you, this has been our manual when we 17 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:05,080 planted the church 7 years back. And it can't be an accident that 18 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:08,600 as we step into a new season, a new era of seven years, God is 19 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:12,120 preparing us for what is to come through this book. 20 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:17,200 And today we're looking at Taking the Land Part 3 and I've 21 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:21,080 titled today's sermon Demolishing Deception because 22 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:24,920 the two instances we're going to be looking at in this this part 23 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:28,400 of the series are basically 2 mistakes that Joshua made. 24 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,800 Joshua was an exemplary leader. He was an exceptional military 25 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:33,920 leader. He was, he followed in the 26 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:36,600 footsteps of Moses. God lifted him up in the at the 27 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:38,960 Jordan River like he did Moses at the Red Sea. 28 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:41,560 He established his leadership to the people. 29 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,920 He was so in tune with God. He had the commander, the Angel 30 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:48,960 armies would come and met him. He had battle strategies in 31 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:51,640 place. And yet there were times when 32 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:55,960 Joshua, like us, had failures. And we're going to be looking at 33 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:58,200 two of those failures today. And I believe they can be 34 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:03,160 combined and placed under this larger topic of deception, 35 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,760 things that we sometimes overlook thinking, you know 36 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:11,400 what, it's not a big deal, but they actually are tactics from 37 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:16,120 the enemy camp to pull us down, to keep us trapped and shackled. 38 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,280 And I believe God is calling us to demolish these things that 39 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,320 are deceptive in our lives. Anything that is deceptive does 40 00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:24,960 not come from God. It comes from the father of 41 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:27,880 lies, the one who is the ultimate deceiver himself. 42 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:30,360 God, on the other hand, is truth personified. 43 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:32,280 He dwells in unapproachable light. 44 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,680 He is holiness, nothing unholy. I think dark or or deceptive can 45 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:40,200 stand in his presence. And so we need to establish that 46 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:41,680 before we start. So today we're going to be 47 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:44,560 looking at how we can demolish deception. 48 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:46,400 We're looking at Joshua Chapter 6. 49 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:50,840 I just want to read verses 16 to 19 to set a bit of context for 50 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,800 today. Joshua chapter 6, verses 16 to 51 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:56,560 19 says this the seventh time around. 52 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,280 We're talking about the battle of Jericho when the priest 53 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:03,160 sounded the trumpet blast. Joshua commanded the army shout, 54 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:04,840 For the Lord has given you the city. 55 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,440 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. 56 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:12,600 Only Rahab the prostitute, and all who are with her in her 57 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:16,360 house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 58 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,800 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not 59 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,240 bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. 60 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:28,360 Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction, 61 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:31,880 and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the 62 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:36,440 articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go 63 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:39,880 into His treasure. Clear instructions. 64 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:42,160 God has told Joshua, this is what you want to say. 65 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:45,360 And so He passes this instruction on to the people so 66 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:47,880 they know exactly what is expected of them after the 67 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:50,520 battle of Jericho. Now look at Joshua Chapter 7 68 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:54,240 verse one. It says, but the Israelites were 69 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:56,640 unfaithful in regard to the devoted things. 70 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:00,600 Eakins son of Khami, the son of Zimri, the son of Zara of the 71 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:02,960 tribe of Judah, took some of them. 72 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:06,520 So the Lord's anger burned against Israel. 73 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:10,880 There's a command and there's a direct disobedience. 74 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,920 And The thing is, it says the people of Israel, the Israelites 75 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:17,440 were unfaithful. It wasn't the whole camp. 76 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:22,200 It was a, it was a small family. And yet the whole, all of them 77 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,960 collectively, I said it, it riled up God's anger. 78 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:29,120 And I want us to look today at what that means. 79 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,280 The devoted things. It is not stuff that was pure 80 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:35,080 and spotless. It was stuff that was designated 81 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:37,600 for punishment. It was stuff that was designated 82 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:41,000 for annihilation. These were the the flocks of the 83 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,680 enemy people. It was those, it was the people 84 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:45,680 of the land. Nothing was meant to be kept 85 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:48,160 alive. All the stuff that could pass 86 00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:49,600 through fire was to be put through fire. 87 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:53,360 The metals, the gold and the silver was supposed to be put in 88 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:56,720 a treasury. Very clear instructions and yet 89 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,440 this family decided to go against the norm, right? 90 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:03,880 When something is devoted for destruction, it means it's meant 91 00:05:03,880 --> 00:05:07,960 to be destroyed in our lives. This does not apply to us and 92 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:09,920 people. We don't get to annihilate any 93 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:11,720 people group. We don't get to harm a person. 94 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:13,200 Based on this chapter, not at all. 95 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:17,120 What it's talking about is in the New Covenant, So the things 96 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:19,720 we fight are not flesh and blood, but principalities and 97 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:21,120 powers. And there are things in our 98 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:22,800 lives that are devoted to destruction. 99 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:27,280 Certain habits, certain terrible lifestyle choices, certain 100 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:32,240 addictions, certain frames of reference, certain ways of 101 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:34,960 thinking and being. And God is saying those are 102 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:38,600 things that don't please me. I wanted it to be devoted to 103 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:41,040 destruction. We have to be avid about 104 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:43,040 destruction. These are not things we can 105 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:45,520 covet and put into our lives and assimilate. 106 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,120 Instead we need to single it out and destroy it. 107 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:52,600 What were the repercussions? Was God seriously angry with 108 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:53,400 them? Yes. 109 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,480 What happens after this is that they were supposed to go take a 110 00:05:57,480 --> 00:05:59,800 small little city called the City of I. 111 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:02,080 They were supposed to go and capture it. 112 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:04,320 And the people just went. There were two couple of guys 113 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:05,960 who went there, checked the landlord and said, you know 114 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:08,560 what, we just need a very few number of our soldiers. 115 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:10,000 Let's just go. We'll take it down. 116 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:13,360 You know, in in Indian terms, it's Juju P. 117 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:15,200 It's very easy. Let's just do that. 118 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:20,040 They send a small and that The thing is, in this moment, Joshua 119 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,440 didn't check with the Lord. That was Joshua's mistake. 120 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:24,160 Did Joshua sin by taking anything? 121 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:28,560 No, his hands were clean, but he forgot, probably to check with 122 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:31,840 God because it felt like such a small city in comparison to 123 00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:33,160 Jericho. You have to understand, in the 124 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:36,000 ancient times, Jericho was the center of this. 125 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:38,520 The strength of the promised land it was. 126 00:06:38,680 --> 00:06:41,920 It had walls that were almost 20 feet thick in some places. 127 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:46,080 For the walls to fall, it had to have been supernatural. 128 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:48,880 So the fall of Jericho symbolized that God was with 129 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:52,200 them. So obviously they thought, I is 130 00:06:52,200 --> 00:06:54,360 a small city. This is nothing for us. 131 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:57,000 We've got skilled warriors. We'll we'll finish it in half a 132 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,400 day and we'll be back home. They went out there. 133 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,720 They get routed by the land and come get chased back to camp. 134 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:07,040 When they come back devastated, Joshua and his leaders lay 135 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:10,000 before God. They lay before they they told 136 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:13,240 their clothes and they wept and said, God, what just happened? 137 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,520 Why did you bring us here if you were going to be defeated? 138 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:19,560 You've allowed us to look bad before other people. 36 men were 139 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:24,920 killed in this one attack. Joshua 7 verses 11:50. 140 00:07:25,400 --> 00:07:27,640 The Lord said to Joshua, stand up. 141 00:07:27,640 --> 00:07:29,560 What are you doing down on your face? 142 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:33,760 Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant 143 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:36,560 which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the 144 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:38,960 devoted things they have stolen. They have lied. 145 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,240 They have put them up with their own possessions. 146 00:07:41,720 --> 00:07:45,640 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their 147 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:48,080 enemies. They turn their backs and run 148 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:50,960 because they have been made liable to destruction. 149 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:55,240 I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever 150 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:57,880 among you is devoted to destruction. 151 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:02,400 This one line really got to me. It said over there. 152 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:06,880 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their 153 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:09,160 enemies. Have you ever seen in your life 154 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:11,560 that you seem to be under attack constantly? 155 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:14,800 You seem to not be able to kick that habit. 156 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:17,360 You don't seem to be able to establish those good 157 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:19,680 relationships. It's like, you know, you feel 158 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:21,480 like you're up against a wall again and again. 159 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:23,800 You fight down 1 and you feel like another one comes up. 160 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:30,160 And I wonder if it's because in our lives there is an element of 161 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,679 sin that is deeply rooted because of which we are not able 162 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:36,440 to stand up victorious against the enemy. 163 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,559 You have to understand that in Jesus we we fight from a 164 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:41,360 position of victory, not for victory. 165 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:44,280 The victory is 1. We fight from this position. 166 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:48,920 But what happens when we have been made liable to destruction? 167 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:50,960 That means there's an open door in our life. 168 00:08:51,400 --> 00:08:55,320 There is a sin. There is an an ungodliness. 169 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:58,880 There is something that is compromising us and allowing us 170 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:03,800 to be open season for the enemy, and I believe God is asking us 171 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:06,280 to destroy what is destroying us. 172 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:09,200 What is it that is destroying you? 173 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:11,720 What is that one element that destroys your joy? 174 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:14,480 What is that one element that is destroying your peace? 175 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:17,800 What is that one thing that you do which is destroying your 176 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:20,400 marriage? What is that one thing which is 177 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:23,320 destroying your blissful state of singleness? 178 00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:28,680 You need to identify what is destroying that, and you need to 179 00:09:28,680 --> 00:09:31,800 destroy it. When I say destroy, I don't mean 180 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:35,120 destroy a person or a but it might mean stepping out of a 181 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:36,840 relationship that is toxic to you. 182 00:09:37,080 --> 00:09:40,840 It might mean saying no to certain friendships in certain 183 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:45,840 circles and saying yes to God and His Holy Spirit's power in 184 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:49,600 your life. Sin causes us to become 185 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,680 susceptible to the enemy's work in our life. 186 00:09:52,680 --> 00:09:55,760 It's a chink in the armor, it's an Achilles heel. 187 00:09:55,760 --> 00:09:59,480 It's a door left wide open for the enemy to all sin and have 188 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:03,160 his way. Many times we wonder when as we 189 00:10:03,160 --> 00:10:07,200 get older we have children who are growing and we just see one 190 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:09,440 thing after the other coming at them and then you need to go 191 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:12,440 closer to God and say God, is there some chink in my armor? 192 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:14,440 Is there some door I am leaving open? 193 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:18,000 That this is happening to us. Self examining is very important 194 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,560 in the Christian life and it's not looking at us with ourselves 195 00:10:21,560 --> 00:10:25,040 with condemnation and guilt and shame and regret, but it's going 196 00:10:25,040 --> 00:10:28,400 to God and his through his word and saying, Lord, reveal to me 197 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:32,680 the areas in my life which are so destructive that you want me 198 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:36,440 to remove and destroy so that I can live at peace with God and 199 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:39,640 with man. Will you destroy what is 200 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:43,280 destroying you? Interestingly, the man who 201 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:47,480 actually did this akin, he's the man who committed this grave sin 202 00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:50,680 and he didn't come forward. He didn't come clean. 203 00:10:50,680 --> 00:10:52,840 You know, maybe we don't know how the story would have turned 204 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:57,400 as if as soon as they were going to head out to I the city, if 205 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:00,160 Aiken had come in, come clean with Joshua, they could have 206 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:03,160 averted that disaster or maybe even when they came back and 207 00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:05,920 fell before the Lord. If Aiken had a major for 208 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:08,080 conscience, he could have said maybe this is because of me. 209 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:13,680 Somehow Aiken didn't see the ramifications of his sin in such 210 00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:16,480 a broad scale. So let's look at Joshua Chapter 211 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:20,680 7, verses 14 to 21. OK. 212 00:11:20,680 --> 00:11:23,000 And this is what happens in this in the morning. 213 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:26,840 Present yourself try by try. The tribe the Lord chooses shall 214 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:30,200 come forward, clan by clan. Verse 15. 215 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:32,720 Whoever's caught with the devoted things shall be 216 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,760 destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. 217 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:38,720 He is violated the covenant of the Lord and has done an 218 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:42,840 outrageous thing in Israel. Now I just want to pause that. 219 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:45,280 So this happened the previous night, right? 220 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:49,080 God has given this instruction to Joshua. 221 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:52,240 There was still time for an Aiken to have had conviction and 222 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:55,720 come forward, but he didn't. Verse 16 Early the next morning, 223 00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:59,600 Joshua had Israel come forward by tribes and Judah was chosen. 224 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:04,120 The clans of Judah came forward. The tribe of and the Zehrahites 225 00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:06,320 were chosen. The Zehrahites came forward by 226 00:12:06,320 --> 00:12:09,320 families and Zimri was chosen. Joshua had his family come 227 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:13,480 forward man by man, and Akin son of Kami, the son of Zimli, the 228 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:17,120 son of Zera of the tribe of Judah, was chosen. 229 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:22,400 Then Joshua said to Akin, My son, give glory to God, the God 230 00:12:22,400 --> 00:12:25,240 of Israel, and honor him. Tell me what you have done. 231 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:27,520 Do not hide it from me, Akin replied. 232 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:30,280 It is true I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. 233 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:33,240 This is what I have done. When I saw in the plunder a 234 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:37,200 beautiful robe from Babylonia, 200 shekels of silver and a bar 235 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:41,160 of gold weighing 50 shekels. I coveted them and took them. 236 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:45,720 They are hidden in the ground inside my tent with the silver 237 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:50,920 underneath. He's had a direct, direct 238 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:54,520 disobedience to one of the laws in the 10 commandments. 239 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:59,480 Thou shalt not covet. He had broken a very fundamental 240 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:01,120 law. Not just that, he had lied over 241 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:03,560 and above it. He had hidden it. 242 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:08,880 And before we start judging Aiken, I think you and I are so 243 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:13,240 similar to Aiken in so many ways because first of all, synth 244 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:17,080 thrives in hiddenness. Synth thrives in hiddenness. 245 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:20,840 You know, as a biology student, we used to study a lot about, 246 00:13:21,080 --> 00:13:23,480 you know, microbes and fungi and other things. 247 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:28,760 And all of these grow in dank, dark places, right? 248 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:31,600 Of course, bacteria and viruses grow in living organisms and all 249 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:34,120 of that. But when you look at stuff that 250 00:13:34,120 --> 00:13:39,440 is left in dark, dingy places where the air is moist and it's 251 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:42,760 not, it doesn't have sunlight. It doesn't have, you know, good, 252 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:45,680 fresh, clean air, nothing good grows there. 253 00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,840 We have terrible molds, cerebral fungus, funguses that, you know, 254 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:52,440 grow in these places. And so I wonder if sin is any 255 00:13:52,440 --> 00:13:56,160 different. Nothing good comes in darkness, 256 00:13:56,160 --> 00:13:57,520 nothing good comes in hiddenness. 257 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:00,920 And obviously Aiken thought it was hidden, it was done, it was 258 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:02,680 dusted, He and his family covered it up. 259 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:04,880 They thought they could move on with their lives. 260 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:12,120 But private sins, hidden sins always have public consequences. 261 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:15,040 When you look at this thing, it says over there came back man by 262 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:18,520 man, Aiken, son of Kami, son of Zimri, son of Zerah, tribe of 263 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:21,640 Judah. Meaning that he was not just one 264 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:25,200 individual, he was part of a larger 'cause he was part of a 265 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:27,800 larger tribe, an important tribe at that. 266 00:14:29,320 --> 00:14:32,960 And in spite of that, he could have thought it was hidden, he 267 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:35,080 could have thought it was just confined to his family. 268 00:14:35,640 --> 00:14:39,400 But the whole of the Israelite camp went through judgment 269 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:42,880 because of their actions. Your hidden sins have public 270 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:44,760 consequences. Let's not kid ourselves. 271 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,080 You know, the beautiful thing about the way the enemy works, 272 00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:49,920 when I say beautiful life, I mean it sarcastically, is that 273 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:53,680 he'll convince you that what is hidden cannot harm anyone. 274 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:56,120 He'll say, who's going to know? Your wife's not going to know, 275 00:14:56,120 --> 00:14:57,120 your husband's not going to know. 276 00:14:57,120 --> 00:15:00,120 You're doing this in private. You can deal with it in private. 277 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:01,560 You can get rid of it in private. 278 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,320 But the thing about living in the in the Kingdom of God is 279 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:08,120 it's a Kingdom of light and the king is his is the light 280 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:10,640 himself. And when he's in our life, his 281 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:12,560 light shines on every part of us. 282 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:16,000 Even the dark hidden things will come into the light. 283 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:21,480 Nothing stays hidden forever. What you think is is hidden and 284 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:23,520 and kept, you know, really stuffed down. 285 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:28,240 We'll find the light of day when we walk in the Kingdom of light, 286 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:32,400 things come into the light. Ephesians 5 verses 8 to 13 says 287 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:33,960 this. For you were once darkness, but 288 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:36,960 now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. 289 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:40,240 For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, 290 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:43,200 righteousness, and truth. And find out what pleases the 291 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:45,320 Lord. Have nothing to do with the 292 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:48,160 fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 293 00:15:49,320 --> 00:15:51,600 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in 294 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:53,680 secret. But everything exposed by the 295 00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:56,320 light becomes visible, and everything that is illuminated 296 00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:00,200 becomes a light. You'll be surprised at what 297 00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:03,480 happens when you expose your hidden sins to God. 298 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:07,800 It's amazing when you come clean before Him and say, Lord, you 299 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:09,560 saw what I was watching last night. 300 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:13,560 You saw who I was texting. You know what I have been up to? 301 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:17,880 Help me, help me. When we bring it into the light 302 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:19,960 of God, we can truly walk as children of light. 303 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:24,360 We can put on the armor of light, stand against the enemy 304 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:28,560 and be stand victorious. The reason many of us are unable 305 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,840 to climb out of those pits of despair and out of those those 306 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:34,920 shackles of addiction is because we haven't brought the hidden 307 00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:38,280 things to the light. We are assuming that it will 308 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:40,760 just die with us. But I have to tell you this, we 309 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:44,440 have a God who sees everything. We have a God who sees 310 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,280 everything. He knows what you and I do. 311 00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:50,800 He knows what we are thinking and the Christian life must be 312 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:56,200 marked by 1 of repentance, periodic regular repentance 313 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:58,640 where we keep bringing things to the surface and saying Lord, you 314 00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:00,480 saw how I reacted today. That was terrible. 315 00:17:01,160 --> 00:17:03,880 I'm sorry, Lord, that I just cussed on the road when I was 316 00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:08,440 crossing Lord, and forgive me for those words which which trip 317 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,160 out of my mouth. Forgive me for the way that I 318 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:14,839 react to my child, to my spouse. You see the anger, you see the 319 00:17:14,839 --> 00:17:18,000 lust, you see the grid. Bringing it to him, bring it 320 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:22,160 into the light changes it. It could have changed for Akin 321 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:25,319 had he brought the hidden things to the surface, but he didn't. 322 00:17:25,319 --> 00:17:27,720 The second thing about sin, which we look from the story is 323 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:31,520 that sin thrives where compromise exists. 324 00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:37,080 We live in times of compromise. Even people who know the Lord 325 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:40,320 live in compromise. Bribes are common. 326 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:46,480 Infidelity is very common. Sexual immorality has become 327 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:50,440 rampant. Gender identification has become 328 00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:53,760 complicated. Pronouns which were just he, 329 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,440 she, or they used in the in in the connotation of literature 330 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:01,800 has spread into all of culture. In the name of inclusivity, 331 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:04,320 people have decided to let go of convictions. 332 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:09,000 Compromise has come in. You know, it's, it's so 333 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,400 interesting here. Akin had must have heard the 334 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:14,400 instruction that Joshua got from God. 335 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:17,320 Everything is devoted to that destruction. 336 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:21,760 Don't take anything. This whole of Jericho has to be 337 00:18:21,760 --> 00:18:23,600 destroyed. The reason being Jericho was 338 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:27,400 steeped in idolatry and God didn't want any of the artifacts 339 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:31,040 from there to come into the Israelite camp and corrupt them. 340 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:34,240 God has an intention behind every law. 341 00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:37,720 God has a the most loving of intentions in giving us rules 342 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,640 and boundaries when we compromise. 343 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:43,480 God, when we say, you know what, I don't think I can accept the 344 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:45,880 scripture for what it is. I will do as I like. 345 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:47,560 I have to remember what Paul says. 346 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,560 Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. 347 00:18:51,080 --> 00:18:54,960 Compromise comes in when it realizes, when it decides that 348 00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:58,920 you know what, This is beneficial to me, so I will make 349 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,720 it work. We live in such a relative 350 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:04,200 culture. People have this hashtag of 351 00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:08,400 living my truth. I want to live this kind of 352 00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:09,960 lifestyle. It could be a homosexual 353 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:12,680 lifestyle, it could be a lifestyle of an open marriage. 354 00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:15,360 This is what I will choose to live because it works for me, it 355 00:19:15,360 --> 00:19:18,160 works for my spouse, it works for my boyfriend, it works for 356 00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,200 me and my kids. Whatever it is, what works for 357 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:25,120 you is not the truth. The truth is a person and to 358 00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:28,960 discover the person you need to get into his word because why do 359 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:30,680 you need his word? We've been, we're going to be 360 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:33,600 talking about the word a lot over the next two months because 361 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:37,680 without this, you don't have a blueprint for God's plan for 362 00:19:37,680 --> 00:19:39,760 your life. It is not enough to say, I just 363 00:19:39,760 --> 00:19:42,120 heard God say something. If it doesn't line up with this 364 00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:46,200 word, you got it wrong. You could say I feel like I 365 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,640 should do this, but if the word doesn't back it up, it's just a 366 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,400 feeling. And the problem is compromise 367 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:54,800 has come in because we're going more with our feelings than what 368 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:58,080 the Word of God says. Compromise is coming because, 369 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,960 well, I need to fit in and I'm sure Jesus wanted us to love 370 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:02,640 everyone and just be one with the crowd. 371 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:05,080 So let me just do what works for everybody else. 372 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:07,320 But that is not the Jesus that I know. 373 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:10,120 Jesus lived an uncompromised life. 374 00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:13,320 He sat at tables we may never be able to sit at, but he lived 375 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:15,200 uncompromised in every situation. 376 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:19,840 The way you count a compromise is by having conviction. 377 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:22,480 And not just any conviction, not just beliefs in the things you 378 00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:25,200 believe. But godly convictions, 379 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,120 convictions that are based on the word of God, convictions 380 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:31,360 that are based on what Jesus has said, Jesus has instructed that 381 00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:33,880 what the Holy Spirit has breathed through the Word of 382 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:37,120 God. I love this verse from One 383 00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:39,560 Thessalonians chapter 1, two to five. 384 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:41,040 I'm reading from the message translation. 385 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,200 It says every time we think of you, we thank God for you. 386 00:20:44,200 --> 00:20:47,160 Day and night you're in our prayers as we call to mind your 387 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:51,360 work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope 388 00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:55,240 in following our Master Jesus Christ before God our Father. 389 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:59,160 It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very 390 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:02,960 much, but also has put His hand on you for something special. 391 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:06,560 When the message we preached came to you, it wasn't just 392 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:08,480 words. Something happened in you. 393 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:12,280 The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions. 394 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:15,880 You paid careful attention to the way we lived among you and 395 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:17,800 determined to live that way yourselves. 396 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:20,400 In imitating us, you imitated the Master. 397 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:23,120 Although great trouble accompanied the Word, you were 398 00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:25,800 able to take great joy from the Holy Spirit. 399 00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:29,320 Taking the trouble with the joy. The joy with the trouble 400 00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:33,280 compromises very dangerous territory. 401 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:36,520 You you see a cat on the wall. You're in the grey. 402 00:21:37,400 --> 00:21:40,160 But you know what? Eventually, you'll have to pick 403 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,760 a side. We can't live compromised in 404 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,040 comprom in a compromised world. We need to live with 405 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:47,480 convictions. You need to know what you 406 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:48,680 believe. You need to know who you 407 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:50,440 believe. You need to know what you 408 00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:54,640 believe because it will change your life in the best way 409 00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:59,600 possible. Compromise can only be countered 410 00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:02,880 by godly conviction. It talks here about the Holy 411 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:06,160 Spirit. The Holy Spirit putting steel in 412 00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:08,560 your convictions, what does that look like? 413 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,720 You know, up until now, your convictions may have been 414 00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:13,960 flopping around you. You give in to the whims of your 415 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:16,840 friend circle at church, and then you give in to the whims of 416 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:20,680 your friend circle at office. You're playing both sides, but 417 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:22,920 God's going to put steel in your back and say you need to pick a 418 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,320 side, sweetheart, you need to stand for me. 419 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:28,640 You need to live for me. What you put into your body, 420 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:34,440 what you allow to be fed, fed upon, all of that matters to me 421 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:40,600 steal in your convictions. And it's interesting that once 422 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:46,320 the entire, you know, land of Israel, the people of Israel are 423 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,520 exposed to what has happened. God gives the judgment. 424 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:52,760 He says stone them and then cover them up and burn them, 425 00:22:53,360 --> 00:22:56,920 them and their property. It feels very excessive, but it 426 00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,960 it's an inkling of how God wants us to deal with sin in our 427 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,120 lives. Be ruthless about the sin in 428 00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:05,320 your life. If it is your gadget that is 429 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:09,760 create causing you to sin, that is causing you to wander, get 430 00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:13,120 rid of it. If it is a friendship that has 431 00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:16,200 taken you off track, put you in a ditch, left you alone there, 432 00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,520 you need to dust yourself off, get up and get better friends. 433 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,040 You need to find a godly community. 434 00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,080 You need to find people who will mentor you and shape you in the 435 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:27,280 ways of God, who will speak the truth and love to you. 436 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:29,480 You don't need friends who only speak what you want to hear. 437 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:31,760 You need people who will call you out. 438 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:34,760 What are the changes you need to make? 439 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:38,800 We need to be ruthless about the sin in our lives. 440 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:43,560 What happens after that is they settle down for a bit. 441 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:45,680 Joshua reads the word of God to them. 442 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:47,520 It's probably the 10 commandments. 443 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,880 He reads it. He engraves it on stones, right? 444 00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:53,960 And after that they as a community read the blessings and 445 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,800 the curses. It's almost like that event of 446 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,720 dealing with the sins so violently and so physically must 447 00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:03,160 have been a strain on the people. 448 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:07,800 This was one of them after all, and God was now restoring them 449 00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:11,880 to a place of joy, restoring them to a place of contentment 450 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:14,640 through the reading of the Word. And He also reminds them of the 451 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:16,880 blessings and curses. If you choose life, you choose 452 00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:18,920 these things, you choose death, you choose this. 453 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:20,280 He was giving them their options. 454 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:23,760 Again, I love that we serve a God who gives us options. 455 00:24:24,360 --> 00:24:26,520 He says choose life or choose death. 456 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,440 It's up to you. I want to remind you today, it's 457 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,960 up to you whether you will destroy that which is destroying 458 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,400 you or whether you choose to cohabit with it. 459 00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:39,600 That's on you coming down to the second kind of deception. 460 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:43,960 Like I said, I titled this as demolishing deception, right, 461 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:48,320 demolishing deception. And I love the the movie that 462 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:50,720 Transformer movies and I don't watch all of them, but I watch 463 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,240 some of the old ones. And I remember I was asking my 464 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,120 son to find the clip of this. We couldn't find it, but the 465 00:24:56,120 --> 00:24:58,640 pictures probably going to come up on the screen of this cute 466 00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:05,280 little enemy bot, right? And his name was Frenzy. 467 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:10,800 And Frenzy has this remarkable way of being hidden and suddenly 468 00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:15,520 transforming into this terrible, terrible villain like Bot, 469 00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,640 right? And as his name indicates, he 470 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:22,600 causes chaos, right? This tiny little thing, much 471 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,840 like the hidden sin in our lives, camouflage into the neat 472 00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,960 spaces of our life, tends to take over our lives and 473 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:34,560 completely destroy us. And like I was saying, hidden 474 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:40,640 sins have public consequences. Compromise is a problem because 475 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:43,800 we need to have convictions. And when I look at this, when I 476 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:47,320 was watching a few clips of this particular bot frenzy, I 477 00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:48,880 realized that that's what hidden sense do. 478 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:51,640 And it actually fights with this the, you know, the lead actor, 479 00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:56,000 the guy called Sam, they had this huge fight with him and 480 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:58,080 this little robot. And he's a tiny guy. 481 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:01,280 The robot is really small, but he's, he's powerful and he's, 482 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:03,840 he's creepy. So when he's fighting with him, 483 00:26:03,840 --> 00:26:07,920 he actually drags this guy on the ground and removes his 484 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:10,480 clothing, his pants, you know, and he's running with his 485 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:12,240 boxers. And I was thinking when I was 486 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:15,560 watching it, this is what the enemy does through deception. 487 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,760 When there is hidden sins in our life, when there is compromise, 488 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:23,240 when we're least expecting it, he will RIP us off our dignity. 489 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:27,000 He will publicly humiliate us, point at us and laugh. 490 00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:29,440 And that's what hidden sins do to us. 491 00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:34,000 They leave us completely susceptible to the world with 492 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,600 judgement who hatred to slander. And I want to ask you today, 493 00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:41,800 would you come clean with a hidden sense, expose it to the 494 00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,760 light so that the enemy has no foothold, so that he has no 495 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:50,240 point of entry, so that he cannot do to you what is not 496 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:54,200 what God does not allow. The second kind of deception 497 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:56,200 here we're going to be looking at the Gibeonite deception. 498 00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:59,920 It was another mistake that Joshua made and it's interesting 499 00:26:59,920 --> 00:27:02,520 because you think Joshua would have been smarter than that, 500 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:04,320 right? You would think, well, OK, 501 00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:07,080 Joshua knew better. Joshua consulted the Lord. 502 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,000 He had the, you know, angelic commander on his side. 503 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:11,480 He knew he probably knew everything. 504 00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,800 Well, he didn't because God had called him in the promised land 505 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:17,680 on for a day by day by day dependence. 506 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,480 It was not once a month. I need to the commander. 507 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:22,640 I get the, you know, plans for the month and then I move on 508 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:24,800 with my life. No, it was an everyday thing, 509 00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:28,560 which is why in Joshua chapter 1 he says meditate on the Word of 510 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,720 the Lord constantly by night and day. 511 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:35,400 Let it not leave you. Which meant in today's context 512 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:38,840 for us in the times of the new Covenant, the Word became flesh 513 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,680 and made His dwelling among us. We have seen the glory, the 514 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,520 glory of the Father through the Son. 515 00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:49,200 So I have Jesus with me, and I can constantly be in meditation 516 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:53,120 and connection with this Savior who's my friend, who's my 517 00:27:53,520 --> 00:27:59,360 counselor as I commune with him. I had this constant dependency 518 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:04,040 on Him. Joshua had the word deeply 519 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:07,960 hidden. He knew God, and yet this 520 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,400 deception touched him. Let's look at Joshua Chapter 9, 521 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:14,680 verses 1 to 14. Now when all the kings West of 522 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,000 the Jordan heard about these things, the kings in the Hill 523 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:20,120 Country, in the western foothills and along the entire 524 00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:23,400 coast of the Mediterranean Sea as far as Lebanon, the kings of 525 00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:25,960 the Hittites, Hammerites, Canaanites, Perisites, Hivites 526 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:29,120 and Jebusites, they came together to wage war against 527 00:28:29,120 --> 00:28:32,200 Joshua and Israel. However, when the people of 528 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,240 Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and I, they 529 00:28:35,240 --> 00:28:39,760 resorted to a reuse. They went as a delegation whose 530 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:43,520 donkeys were loaded with walnut sacks and old wineskins cracked 531 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:45,560 and mended. They put worn and patched 532 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:47,760 sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. 533 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:50,880 All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. 534 00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,240 Then they went to Joshua and the camp at Gilgal and said to him 535 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,840 and the Israelites, We have come from a distant country, Make a 536 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,680 treaty with us. The Israelites said to the 537 00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:04,320 Hibais, but perhaps you live near us, so how can we make a 538 00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:07,200 treaty with you? Let's just pause that. 539 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,720 This was a very momentous situation because the Israelites 540 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,120 are suspicious, rightly so, because these guys did come from 541 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:18,280 close by. What was the follow up to that? 542 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:26,000 If you have a gut feeling you have a suspicion, the next step 543 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:29,040 is not to proceed rushing into getting to know the situation 544 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,400 better. This the the best situation. 545 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:36,160 The the best solution would be to step back and say, Lord, can 546 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,040 you please display to me or explain to me what's going on? 547 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,960 I feel like I'm getting conned. Most of us do exactly what 548 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:44,880 Joshua and his team did. Let's go back to that. 549 00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:48,080 It says we are your servants. They said to Joshua. 550 00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,360 But Joshua asked who are you and where do you come from? 551 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,440 They answered, Your servants have come from a very distant 552 00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,560 country because of the fame of the Lord your God. 553 00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:59,640 So we have heard reports of him, all that he did in Egypt and all 554 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:02,640 that he did to the 2 kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, 555 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:06,480 Sihon king of Heshbourne and all king of Bashan who reigned in 556 00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:08,800 Ashtaroth. And our elders and all those 557 00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:11,120 living in our country said, take these provisions for your 558 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,240 journey. Go and meet them and say to 559 00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:16,600 them, we are your servants. Make a treaty with us. 560 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:21,240 Again I want to pause that many times we get conned because of 561 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,480 the senses being so triggered and the spirit being dead. 562 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,800 Here they were showing them evidence of a long journey. 563 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:34,280 Verse 12 says this bread of ours was warm when we packed it at 564 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:35,960 home on the day we left to come to you. 565 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,520 But now see how dry and moldy it is. 566 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,520 And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how 567 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:45,680 cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are 568 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,280 worn out by the very long journey. 569 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,120 The Israelites. Israelites sampled their 570 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:52,440 provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. 571 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:56,280 Then Joshua made a Treaty of peace with them to let them 572 00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:00,840 live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath. 573 00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:06,360 You know, when I, when I read this, I feel comforted that even 574 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,760 Joshua made such a mistake. It makes you feel really like 575 00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:12,960 you know you're in good company. The family of God is good 576 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:17,160 company because we have such monumental mess ups when it 577 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:19,960 comes to relationships, networking. 578 00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,360 We make so many, you know, bad decisions based on just our 579 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:26,680 senses. Oh, I felt connected to them. 580 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:30,400 Oh, I, I just kind of connected. I felt, you know, emotionally 581 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,760 charged when they were talking. The vibe was right. 582 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,480 But hey, did you inquire of the Lord? 583 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,760 What was God's response to you? Can we take a day or two to Mull 584 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,920 this over and pray about it? That should be our usual 585 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:46,640 response. Instead, usually we just jump in 586 00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:48,480 and say, let's make peace. Let's shake hands. 587 00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:53,720 And the worst is in Deuteronomy 7 verses 1:00 to 2:00 to give 588 00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:55,520 you background to why this was wrong. 589 00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:58,200 It says when the Lord your God brings you into the land you are 590 00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:01,680 entering to possess and drives out before you many nations, 591 00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:03,880 those seven nations larger and stronger than you. 592 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,920 And when the Lord has delivered them over to you and you have 593 00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:10,880 defeated them, then you must destroy them totally, make no 594 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:15,440 treaty with them and show them no mercy. 595 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:21,720 This was the basis in which God was giving them territory. 596 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:24,160 He's saying you will enter this place, people will try to make 597 00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:27,640 treaties with you, people try to intermarry with you, people will 598 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:32,560 try to befriend you. Basically what all of that will 599 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:36,520 do is lower your defenses, make you susceptible to idolatry, 600 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:39,920 make you susceptible to immorality, lead you astray. 601 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:42,560 But no, you do not make treaties. 602 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,840 You are a people set apart. This was God's instruction and 603 00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:50,480 Joshua unknowingly, unknowingly because he did not seek God, 604 00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:52,440 made a Treaty of peace with them. 605 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:55,600 First thing is deception will bring you into the wrong 606 00:32:55,600 --> 00:33:00,000 alliances and relationships. Simple things as we were 607 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,760 watching this show recently about a a guy who dates a girl, 608 00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,120 she becomes his girlfriend. His mother keeps warning him 609 00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:09,920 that she's not the one and eventually his mom's right 610 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,200 because the girl is really not all right. 611 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,240 She's a bit crazy, but it's too late. 612 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,560 And I wonder how many of you have gotten into relationships 613 00:33:19,200 --> 00:33:21,240 which were completely driven by deception. 614 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,600 The person presented themselves to you as something else, That 615 00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:28,240 friendship that you developed which suddenly turned toxic. 616 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:30,240 You don't know when it turned toxic, but it turned out it 617 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:33,640 started out OK. Maybe there's a business partner 618 00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:36,440 who got into business with you, but now you just you're going 619 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,480 through hell. Deception will bring you into 620 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:43,880 the wrong alliances. When God says in his Word, I 621 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,440 think it's in the New Testament, one of the episodes he says do 622 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,760 not be yoked with an unbeliever, which means that these are not 623 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:54,000 negotiables. Once you do get yoked, you have 624 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:55,920 a different kind of consequence to deal with. 625 00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:02,320 Be it business, be it marriage. Who are you yoked to? 626 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,160 You need to examine that in friendships. 627 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:09,120 Yes, we are called to be friends with with whoever God brings in 628 00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:11,600 our life. But these alliances, which will 629 00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:15,280 extend into godly connections and Kingdom influence are 630 00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:17,920 important. Who are you connected to? 631 00:34:19,199 --> 00:34:21,560 The Gibeonite connection. They were enemies. 632 00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:24,360 They were part of the seven nations that had to be pulled 633 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,560 down and destroyed by the people of God to take up territory. 634 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:30,760 Instead they had come into a peace treaty, so now they would 635 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:33,520 live in their midst. What a tragedy. 636 00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,679 Of course it turned out well. Joshua said. 637 00:34:35,679 --> 00:34:37,480 You know what, we found out you cheated us. 638 00:34:37,639 --> 00:34:40,280 You guys are only going to be woodcutters and and water 639 00:34:40,280 --> 00:34:43,159 carriers because eventually they set up a high place in Gibeon, 640 00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:46,239 which was like a temple and they would have needed water for 641 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:47,800 sacrifices. They would have needed wood for 642 00:34:47,800 --> 00:34:49,719 the altars. They relegated them to 643 00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:52,080 servitude. But the point is this, they were 644 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,920 supposed to have been cleared out so that the land would be 645 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:58,120 given to the people of God. Unfortunately, they were now in 646 00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:05,240 alliance with them. Deception will bring you the 647 00:35:05,240 --> 00:35:07,160 wrong alliances. The second thing about 648 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:10,000 deception, it will lead you into unnecessary battles, battles 649 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:16,120 that are not even yours. If you look in further chapters, 650 00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:21,680 the other kings of of Canaan get so angry with Gibeon for siding 651 00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:23,600 with Israel, for getting covered by Israel. 652 00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,720 So they come to attack Gibeon and Joshua, because he and his 653 00:35:27,720 --> 00:35:30,600 people have signed a peace treaty with Gibeon, are forced 654 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:32,560 to go and fight the battle to protect Gibeon. 655 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,840 Now while that turned out for good, 5 Amorite kings were 656 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:39,400 completely annihilated because of that one attack. 657 00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:43,640 Joshua was able to hit literally 5 five birds with one stone. 658 00:35:43,640 --> 00:35:45,960 That was how it turned out. God turns these things around to 659 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:49,680 good, but many times because of the wrong alliances that have 660 00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:54,080 come in by deception, because the enemy has whispered things, 661 00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:56,560 lies in our ears and connected us to the wrong people, 662 00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:00,400 connected us to the wrong wrong places, wrong situations. 663 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,680 We are fighting battles that were never meant for us. 664 00:36:05,240 --> 00:36:09,400 And I wonder if we need to come clean about the deception, the 665 00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:12,360 deceptive people in our lives, the deceptive connections in our 666 00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:17,880 life, and we have to counter it by divine discernment and a soul 667 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:21,680 dependency on God. Why do I say divine discernment? 668 00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:24,360 You know, a lot of times we think my gut is telling me 669 00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:27,000 something is off. That's not divine discernment. 670 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,680 That is just maybe you know, like it's this street smarts, 671 00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,080 but you need God smarts. You need the wisdom of God to 672 00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:37,080 lead you in a situation, to lead you out of a situation, lead you 673 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,200 out of a relationship, lead you into the right relationships. 674 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:42,840 And that comes when God gives you discernment. 675 00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:45,680 When the Holy Spirit gives you discernment, he will show you. 676 00:36:45,680 --> 00:36:49,120 He will help you listen to certain conversations which give 677 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:52,320 you greater clarity. He will enable you to have a 678 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,600 dream about it. He could open any Ave. or 679 00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:58,080 connect you with someone from that person's past for you to 680 00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:01,200 have an idea of who they really are before you step into 681 00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:03,360 something. But you need to be completely 682 00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:07,280 dependent on him. The problem here was these guys 683 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:09,720 were on a high after the battle of AI. 684 00:37:11,240 --> 00:37:15,080 They were they were resting easy when these guys came in and made 685 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:17,920 peace and they convinced them with their language. 686 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:19,480 They said we want to be your servants. 687 00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:24,400 They feigned humility, they feigned subservience. 688 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:27,960 They feigned a love for their God. 689 00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:30,600 He says your, your God. We we heard about your God. 690 00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:34,200 They were taking the easy way out. 691 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:38,720 They were latching on to the mighty land of Israel, whose God 692 00:37:38,720 --> 00:37:40,320 was a living God. They were latching on. 693 00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:42,280 But these guys didn't read read into it. 694 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,640 And I want to ask you, would you be dependent on God for 695 00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:48,880 everything, big or small? I have found that I've needed to 696 00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:52,440 be dependent on God about everything, like even who to 697 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:57,240 hire as a cook, who to get as a driver, who to help me in 698 00:37:57,240 --> 00:38:01,160 certain decisions, who to help me in certain projects or 699 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:05,480 events, who to get as a partner in marriage, who to get in 700 00:38:05,480 --> 00:38:09,800 business. Everything needs dependency on 701 00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:12,080 God, even if it means your your finances. 702 00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:14,040 You need help with finances. You want to grow your money, you 703 00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:17,040 don't know where to put it. Lord, connect me to the right 704 00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:19,160 people. Lord, I want my money to grow, 705 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:22,000 but I don't know what to do. Lord, when do I withdraw money 706 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:24,880 that I have invested? Is it a good time or other 707 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:26,560 markets going to crash or are they going to go up? 708 00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:27,840 I don't know a lot. Can you help me? 709 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:30,480 Can you leave me? Too many times we trust 710 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,520 ourselves more than we trust God, and our dependency becomes 711 00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:37,680 on ourselves, our advisors, our friends, and not on the one who 712 00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:40,720 holds everything together. The one who gives us power to 713 00:38:40,720 --> 00:38:45,920 get wealth, the one who helps us to succeed, the one who puts us 714 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:49,400 in families, the ones one who cares so deeply about us. 715 00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:55,200 The problem is that we have relegated God to either the very 716 00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:58,840 huge things or only the small things. 717 00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:01,960 I'll ask you for new shoes. Log that phone. 718 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:05,480 God has to be the God of even the in between. 719 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:10,480 He's not just mega, he's not just micro, He's everything in 720 00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:12,120 between. He cares about everything. 721 00:39:12,720 --> 00:39:15,680 That's what I'm discovering. He cares about the the stuff in 722 00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:19,840 between the mundane stuff, where to invest, what to do, who to 723 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,240 speak to, who to text, who not to. 724 00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:28,360 Will you come to a place of deeper dependence and divine 725 00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:31,920 discernment? But you know, probably you're 726 00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:34,000 listening to this whole thing and saying what a depressing 727 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:35,600 sermon. I get it. 728 00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:40,480 I'm probably having a couple of deceptive engagements in terms 729 00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:43,280 of my business or my job or a relationship. 730 00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:45,400 You're making me feel bad. You make me feel bad about my 731 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:49,440 hidden sins, but I want to bring us back to this that our God is 732 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:52,600 a Redeemer and there's redemption in this entire story. 733 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,600 There's redemption through and through, right? 734 00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:59,240 He redeems us from every deceptive relationship. 735 00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:01,360 He redeems us from every wrong alliances. 736 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:04,480 He redeems us from even the hidden sinfulness that we bring 737 00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,000 to the light. Redemption is his MO. 738 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:13,040 And you know, if you if you look at the book of Joshua and Joshua 739 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:18,320 Chapter 7 and 8. It talks about how Aiken and his 740 00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:22,400 family are stoned and burnt in this valley called the Valley of 741 00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:26,720 Akor, meaning the Valley of trouble, and it is remembered 742 00:40:26,720 --> 00:40:30,840 for generations as the place where Israel's sin was publicly 743 00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:34,960 dealt with, right? But so beautifully, God brings 744 00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:39,640 redemption to this very place in Hosea chapter 2, verses 14 to 745 00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:40,880 16. I want to read it for you, 746 00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:44,680 Mosia, chapter 2, verses 14 to 16. 747 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:48,000 Therefore I'm now going to allure her. 748 00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:50,880 I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to 749 00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,160 her there. I will give her back her 750 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:57,760 vineyards and will make the valley of Achor a door of hope. 751 00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:01,800 There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day 752 00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:05,080 she came up out of Egypt. In that day, declares the Lord, 753 00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:09,760 you will call me my husband. You will no longer call me my 754 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:11,680 master. And it goes on. 755 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,000 When you read that whole chapter, it's beautiful because 756 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,640 it's talking about a coming Redeemer, a coming God who is 757 00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:22,040 going to change this valley of trouble to a door of hope, that 758 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:26,560 who walks through him. Jesus is the door right when you 759 00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:29,240 walk through. When you enter through him, you 760 00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:31,960 no longer call him your master. You call him your husband. 761 00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,760 That is the level of intimacy God was promising in Jesus. 762 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:39,720 This redemption, even in the story of Akin that you know, 763 00:41:39,720 --> 00:41:42,440 even no matter what hidden sin is there in your life, when you 764 00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:46,920 bring it to the light, you enter the door of hope and there is so 765 00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:50,320 much ahead for you. It's no longer valley of 766 00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:53,560 trouble. It is the valley of hope, right? 767 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:58,600 Jesus also redeems the situations we put ourselves in 768 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:01,160 because of deception. You know, so many of us have 769 00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:03,480 been cheated of things. So many of us have experienced 770 00:42:03,720 --> 00:42:07,080 deceptive people, people who have stolen money from us, 771 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,400 people who have stolen joy out of us, people who have used us 772 00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:12,880 and thrown us. People who have completely 773 00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:15,600 entered your inner circle, devastated you, and left. 774 00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:16,720 I'm sure you've been through that. 775 00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:24,400 But my Redeemer Jesus turns even that for good. 776 00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:31,360 Think about it. Gibeon is now being attacked. 5 777 00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:34,720 kings of Canaan, the major cities, you know, the kings of 778 00:42:34,720 --> 00:42:36,760 those major cities have come against Gibeon. 779 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:39,200 Joshua and his people go there to defend Gibeon. 780 00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:42,600 They get to finish off 5 enemy kings at once. 781 00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:47,080 More territory is reclaimed. More territory is taken back for 782 00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:51,400 God, right? God can do that in your life 783 00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:56,760 even in the worst of your situations when you turn to him 784 00:42:56,760 --> 00:42:58,480 and say, Lord, give me discernment at this point. 785 00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:01,480 I lacked it when I made this decision, but now I need you, 786 00:43:01,480 --> 00:43:03,360 God. I want to be dependent on you 787 00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:09,600 deeply, completely. He is capable of bringing a 788 00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:14,200 mighty restoration. The beautiful thing is, the 789 00:43:14,200 --> 00:43:16,480 restoration doesn't end there for the people of Gibeon. 790 00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,120 When we look at Nehemiah, the book of Nehemiahs, many years 791 00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,000 later, they've gone into exile, but a group has returned. 792 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,360 A remnant has returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls, 793 00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:28,160 right? And in Nehemiah chapter 3, verse 794 00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:31,720 7, it talks about a group of people who helped Nehemiah 795 00:43:31,720 --> 00:43:34,760 rebuild the wall. Let's see that verse 7 next to 796 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:37,880 them, repairs were made by men from Gabion and Mizpah. 797 00:43:38,240 --> 00:43:42,080 Melatia of Gabion and Jayden of Maranath places under the 798 00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:45,480 authority of the governor of Trans Euphrates. 799 00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:50,440 Look at the power of redemption. Men who were just relegated to 800 00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:54,760 water carrier stone cutters, their descendants are now coming 801 00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:59,640 here and helping Nehemiah rebuild the wall, making it 802 00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:02,600 habitable for the people of Israel again. 803 00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:06,320 This is our God. Even the worst situations of our 804 00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:10,280 life, even the worst connections, the most desperate 805 00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:14,760 times when we have been left in the lurch by people, by by 806 00:44:14,760 --> 00:44:17,240 relationships, God meets us there. 807 00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:21,600 He redeems even those things that we thought were beyond 808 00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:25,080 redemption. So you and I, with all of our 809 00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:28,240 baggage hidden or exposed, we have open Jesus. 810 00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:31,880 God can turn everything to good. When we talk about a Redeemer, 811 00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:35,280 we're talking about someone who can take the broken pieces of 812 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,120 our life. Maybe your life is like ash. 813 00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:42,800 He brings beauty out of that. He brings such wholeness from 814 00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:47,760 the battered pieces of our hearts, but it requires that you 815 00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,480 and I live in deep dependence on God, that we will live in this 816 00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:54,040 place where we keep saying, Lord, I'm exposing my life to 817 00:44:54,040 --> 00:44:55,880 you. Will you shine your light on me, 818 00:44:57,280 --> 00:45:00,640 on the hidden paths so that I can live as a child of light? 819 00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:06,280 This week, as I was preparing this the whole time I was my 820 00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:09,960 prayer had been this, Lord, that I would live from the inside out 821 00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:13,960 before you, not before people because that's scary, or before 822 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:17,960 God, that I would live inside out, that what is inside would 823 00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,240 be bad to you. God, you would know what's on my 824 00:45:20,240 --> 00:45:22,160 heart. You would know my prejudices. 825 00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:26,560 You would know my brokenness. You will know my my motives and 826 00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:29,640 that you would keep cleansing it because it's an ongoing journey. 827 00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:35,680 I've also been asking God, give me more discernment God, because 828 00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:40,200 the problem is that discernment dips when my dependency is on 829 00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:43,640 myself, but when I'm wholly dependent on God, He just 830 00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:46,600 blesses me with the discernment I need in certain situations. 831 00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:51,320 We need to stop living by our gut and start living by the 832 00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:53,840 Spirit. So even as I close, I want to 833 00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:56,680 just play with you. I don't know what sin you have 834 00:45:56,680 --> 00:45:57,960 that is hidden deep in your life. 835 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:02,640 It's kept in that black box hidden in the back of your 836 00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:05,560 closet. It could be something that you 837 00:46:05,560 --> 00:46:08,880 have not talked about for years, but it still plagues you. 838 00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:12,400 Maybe you're living in compromise. 839 00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:15,880 Your marriage is compromised. Your sexuality has been 840 00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:20,120 compromised. God is bringing you back to a 841 00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:22,840 place of putting steel in your convictions if you would let 842 00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:24,520 him, because that's the Holy Spirit's job. 843 00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:28,160 It's not a person's job. And so, Holy Spirit, we just 844 00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:29,640 welcome you. Would you come? 845 00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:35,640 Holy Spirit, I pray that you would bring us into the light. 846 00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:40,920 Every part of our lives will be brought into the light so that 847 00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:44,080 Lord, your light would cleanse us and your light brings life, 848 00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:46,520 it says. So we pray that the dead things 849 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:49,400 of our life, the things that have been growing in darkness, 850 00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:53,240 will come into the light and thrive now, Lord, they will be 851 00:46:53,240 --> 00:46:57,720 transformed into things that are good and pleasing and perfect. 852 00:46:57,720 --> 00:47:00,840 Or Father in your sight. Father, I pray for the areas of 853 00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,440 compromise in our life, that Lord you will make us people 854 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:06,680 with steely Holy Spirit LED convictions. 855 00:47:08,040 --> 00:47:10,720 Mother, I pray right now for anyone who has been deceived, 856 00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:15,040 anyone who Lord has gotten into the wrong alliance, was fighting 857 00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:16,640 battles that has not even meant for them. 858 00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:19,800 God, I pray in the name of Jesus that you will give them victory 859 00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:24,200 over the deceiver. We bind every power of darkness. 860 00:47:24,200 --> 00:47:26,440 We release the Holy Spirit of truth upon them. 861 00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:29,920 We pray that the Spirit of truth would lead them into all truth. 862 00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:33,720 I pray for deep dependency on you God. 863 00:47:33,720 --> 00:47:36,400 I pray for Lord, a true discernment that comes from the 864 00:47:36,400 --> 00:47:40,040 Holy Spirit to lead them, guide them and go before them. 865 00:47:41,240 --> 00:47:43,320 We just commit all of this into your mighty hands. 866 00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:46,720 Help us God, thank you, Jesus, our Redeemer. 867 00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:50,440 Thank you. Father, we love you and we thank 868 00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:52,680 you. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. 869 00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:54,080 Amen. God bless you. 870 00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:57,600 Even as you get into this week, I pray that you will continually 871 00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:00,760 be positioned to take the land God has marked for you. 872 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:03,520 It is your time to possess that you will deal with the 873 00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:07,160 deceptions in your life. You would move forward in faith, 874 00:48:07,160 --> 00:48:10,680 in hope and love. Remember this that whoever finds 875 00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:12,760 Jesus finds life. God bless you. 876 00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:16,080 Thanks for listening to this message. 877 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:19,920 We hope you were blessed to hear more messages like this. 878 00:48:20,200 --> 00:48:24,240 Make sure to subscribe and check out our podcast channel for past 879 00:48:24,240 --> 00:48:26,560 episodes. If you like what you are 880 00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:31,120 hearing, consider rating us subscribing and even sharing it 881 00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:33,680 with friends. That could really help us. 882 00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:39,000 For more content from Via Zion and to connect with us, go to 883 00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:44,160 Via Zion dot in. Remember, whoever finds Jesus 884 00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:45,200 finds life.