'The Most Unpopular Sermon Ever' by Pastor Bryan on 22nd Oct, 2017

so God we walk in victory and we are not gonna live defeated lives anymore and we just claim victory over our kids we claim it over our finances we claim it over our health we claim it over our marriages we claim it over our mouths we claim it Lord God we walk in it in the name of Jesus so we cast out fear in the name of Jesus we cast out worry and anxiety we speak joy victorious joy in our lives in the name of Jesus we do it now Lord God speak to us may the seed of your word fall on good ground I'm available to you use me father I pray in Jesus name Amen and amen you may be seated in the presence of the Lord if you have your Bibles please meet me in Joshua chapter 7 if you're new with us we are making our way through the book of Joshua we are calling the series fight - occupying God's promises for your life I want you to fasten your seat belts today this is a very peculiar and troubling passage and in my flesh I'd love to skip over it but I I'm committed to giving you all the whole counsel of God and I feel as if if we would let the Spirit of God speak there's some things he really wants to do in our lives today if we will receive it let me read to us the whole story pick me up in verse 1 of Joshua chapter 7 but the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things frakin the son of carmine son of Zab de san Azera of the tribe of judah took some of the devoted things and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel Joshua sent men from Jericho to a I which is near Beth Haven east of beth-el and said to them go up in spy out the land and the men went up and spied out AAI and they returned to Joshua and said to him do not have all the people go up but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack AI don't make the whole people toil up therefore they are few so about three thousand men went up they are from the people and they fled before the men of AI and the men of AI killed about thirty six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as sheba rim and struck them at the descent and the hearts of the people melted and became his water then verse six joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the lord until the evening and he and the elders of israel and they put dust on their heads and joshua said alas o lord god why have you brought this people over the jordan at all to give us into the hands of the amorite s-- to destroy us would that we had been content to dwell beyond the jordan Oh Lord what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies for the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth and what will you do for your great name and the Lord said to Josh would get up why have you fallen on your face Israel has sinned they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them they have taken some of the devoted things they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings there for the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies they turn their backs before their enemies because they have become devoted for destruction I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you verse 16 so Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel tribe near tribe by tribe in the tribe of Judah was taken and he brought near the clans of Judah and the clan of the Zehra Zehra i'ts was taken and he brought near the clan of yzi writes man by man and zabdiel was taken and he brought near his household man by man and akin the son of car my son of Zebedee son of Zahra of the tribe of Judah was taken then Joshua said to Aiken my son give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him and tell me now what you have done do not hide it from me an akin answer Joshua truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and this is what I did when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels then I coveted them and took them and see they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath so Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent behold it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath and they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel and they laid them down before the Lord and Joshua in all Israel with with him took a kin the son of Zahra and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had and they brought them to the valley of Achor and Joshua said why did you bring trouble on us the Lord brings trouble on you today and all Israel stoned him with stones they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day and the Lord turned from his burning anger therefore to this day the name of that place is called the valley of Achor well then fasten your seatbelts a couple months ago my I took my boys I've got three sons quit miles and Jayden and I took my three boys up the road here Mount Hermon have I ever been to Mount I've been up to Mount Hermon took my boys up there didn't take my wife no offense to Mount Hermon my wife is not a very outdoorsy kind of person and so she said may the Lord bless you and keep you I'm going to do a staycation so I took the boys and we went up there if you've ever been to Mount Hermon you know there's a stretch of road going up to Mount Hermon where or there's not any there's not a shoulder there's like two lanes going one way two lanes coming another way and as we are going up to Mount Hermon we noticed that there was a huge traffic jam coming the opposite way and of all the stretches of road to get into an accident on and to encounter traffic that's one of the worst stretches I would think in the bay because again there's no shoulder and I just remember looking at at my odometer and and just seeing from the time we saw the the accident until we got through the end of traffic on the other side there was over five miles of standstill traffic now my boys will tell you they they get a little sick sick of me because I don't need one of these to preach I I find every way to preach to my sons and everything I try to make an illustration I tell them not now boys what you're seeing is a good illustration of sin one person's bad decision has impacted hundreds if not thousands of lives one person's bad decision could have been you know texting or not paying attention or whatever it may have been just think of all the schedules all lives that were impacted by one person's bad decision think of all the dinners that were delayed or cancelled think of all the the rendevouz that were put on hold think of all the plans that were that were severely delayed because of one person's bad decision the point of it is we don't make decisions in a vacuum that in some way shape or form my decisions impact others I'm I'm on record as saying that I love pastor Paul on record but if you've been around abundant life a lot just look around and you can see the truth of what I've just told you our decisions impact others today I want to talk about sin I'm sorry for those of you who is your first time here some of y'all like come on past okay I wish I had a memo I've invited this person first time here in fact in fact my youngest is on the front row he came to me doing the beating grease of dad what do you preach it on today I'm talking about sin he says oh not an exciting topic and if you're not excited multiply that times a thousand and you see how I feel this ain't the kind of message you grow a church off of Eve if you want to create space in a church talk about sin in fact unfortunately we don't swing the pendulum way to that extreme churches hardly talk about sin now it's and I don't know if y'all clapping because they don't talk about sin or what but it's kind of old-fashioned to talk about sin these days fact I I feel like I'm preaching in a members-only jacket if I remember those if you have on one now I'm sorry like I got on some stone wash jeans I lost some of y'all know don't wash jeans Karl Kani shirt all the black people sue FUBU for us by us they got me off track but to talk about so the question on the table is well then why you talk about it well my commitment here at this church as a preacher is to not say what I want to say but it is to give you a steady diet of the Word of God and we do something here called expository preaching which means a lot of times we'll just work through books chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 and and sometimes you know you look at one chapter go oh yeah that's some good stuff man they go on they gonna shout on that one that's some red velvet cake German chocolate cake stuff right there and another chapters of tofu I'm sorry I'm in California y'all actually enjoy that Cale now still in California so sometimes when you preach the word it'll get you in trouble but I got two young preachers you keep preaching that same word it'll get you out of trouble and so the reason why we're talking about sin is we're making our way through the book of Joshua and Joshua chapter 7 is all about sin now when you're hanging there with me because before I get the jobs to chapter 7 just real quick I got to share with you my struggle as I teach this text to you on one hand if I'm not careful I can make too big of a deal out of thin the Bible does not want us to obsess or even focus on our sin the focus is on Jesus Jesus did not say I have come that you might obsess over your sin but Jesus says I've come that you might have life and life more abundantly so the focus is on Jesus and the life that he brings to us tragically in the history of American Christianity there are a lot of churches who obsess over sin these are legalistic self-righteous judgmental churches some of us grew up in those churches where where women couldn't wear pants I don't know where they got the chapter and verse on that one couldn't wear makeup had to dress a certain way to go to church couldn't say certain things and and and those churches make such a big deal out of sin that they are there a a joyless lifeless suspicious legalistic and no wonder those churches tend to lose young adults because when those kids turn 18 they give that church the deuces and they don't come back because the focus was never on Christ it was all what you couldn't couldn't do some on record now Danny how we roll up in here so one tension is to make too big of a deal out of it but on the other hand and this is for us here in the bay I don't think that's our struggle in the bay because we live in what's called a secular culture secularism is this idea explain it to the utility of the way it's the other way it's this worldview in which God is not on the throne the individual is in God at best under secularism is pushed to the outskirts or the suburbs of the person's life so the secular individual at best will sprinkle just enough Jesus on their life to be acceptable but not too much to be fanatical it's the secular person we see secularism at the grammys where some artists will win an award for some outrageous song and the first thing out their mouth first want to give honor and glory to God boy admit didn't the song you want some of the air for was I shot your mama I want to give honor and glory to God that's secularism secularism now here's the problem with the secular worldview the secular person which is the bay has no real concept of personal sin they they'll grieve over mass acts of evil they'll grieve over Las Vegas but they're not driving a home going you know what I'm a greedy person they're not they're not staying up late at night feeling bad about the adulterous relationship that's not what happens it's like in fact if you've ever tried to share your faith in a secular culture you understand that the biggest barrier to people coming to faith in Jesus Christ in a secular culture it's convincing them of sin and it there's a problem in the first place there's an interesting book I haven't read it I've read an article about it it's a new book that's coming out written by Esther Perel called the state of affairs rethinking infidelity and this book captures the secular spirit she's interviewing married women who are having adulterous relationships this is what Esther writes look at it with me what surprised me most about these conversations was not that my friends were cheating but that many of them were so nonchalant in the way they described their extramarital adventures there was deception watch it but little secrecy or shame the fact is one person she interviewed says I'm nicer to my husband when I have something special going on that's just for me it occurred to me Esther continues as I listened that these women were describing infidelity not as a transgression but a creative or even subversive act a protest against an institution they come to experience as suffocating or oppressive so the secular spirit says you do you you you be happy and in this book they nailed it there is no deep personal concept of sin so here's my tension how do we wait into Joshua chapter seven in such a way that we don't go the way of the legalists or the fundamentalist and turn this into a judgmental self-righteous place where we just have a bunch of referees who blow the whistle on other people's shortcomings because if you ever want to see Jesus ticked off that's the crowd he got ticked off at but on the other hand how do we preach this text in such a way that the secularists is jolted out of their sin here we go this text teaches us three quick things about sin and then I'm going to end with three practical applications Joshua chapter six seven and eight should be read as one unit it's really one long narrative Joshua chapter six they they march around the walls of Jericho in fact we we walk through this we just kind of called it a silly faith and what does it look like to believe God to do silly things like the nation of Israel they walk down a walk around the walls of Jericho to jail the walls of Jericho come crashing down now we get to Joshua chapter 7 they are on a high there's so much on a high that that now they're going to take on ai ai is a small town in fact whoever named AI should be shot the name the name AI means ruin or destruction so here's the Israel they've just taken out mighty Jericho Joshua says let's send out a couple spies the AI come back with the report but they said Lilla we don't even need to send our varsity squad over there just just send the JV over there just in a couple thousand men that's that's all we need in college football terms Israel is the University of Alabama's football team Zeke you like that there it is roll tide in a is Howard University sorry for those of y'all who went to Howard University but don't act like y'all got a good football team and lo and behold Universal Alabama goes over there to play Howard University and they get stumped 36 people died now notice what what's missing in chapter 7 chapter 1 they talked to God chapter 2 they talk to God chapter 3 they talked to God chapter 4 they talk to God chapter 5 they talked to God chapter 6 they talked to God they never talked to God for they go to AI we got this you know one of the biggest barrier to your growth in Christ it's past victory and success success is oftentimes a bigger killer than failure Joshua doesn't talk to God now gets the news they've lost the Bible said that their hearts melted like water Joshua now takes himself over to the Ark of the Covenant which represents the presence of God he throws himself it's like he's in sackcloth and ashes and God says we'll unpack it later on Joshua get up off your face here's the problem y'all sinned if you peel it back Joshua chapter 6 God says here's what I want you to do when you go into Jericho do not take the devoted things this is odd because in ancient military warfare whenever you runt one you always took the spoil God says don't take that all that's mine now I think the reason why God says this is because Jericho was the first battle in other words God says I want to first fruits offering I want the whole thing dedicated to me one man one man hears that and decides to go his own way so that we see a nation in Chapter seven that doesn't consult dot decide to do things their own way and one man that doesn't consult God decides to do things their own way here's the first thing we see about sin the very nature of sin is in deep when you boil all sin down it is me choosing to go my way over God's second series every preacher at the church with the series on Book of Jonah and one thing that I told you back then was strike from your vocabulary the phrase fell into sin as if you was walking down the street and sin was a pothole that you didn't see coming and you just slipped off into some gossip don't know how that happen no tell the truth nine point nine times out of ten we walk into sin with our eyes wide open courting I get this question all the time young young pairs well when do I discipline my children the moment you see them little Joker's crawling around headed towards that little outlet and you tell them no and they stop and look at you and they do it anyway see that tells me you understand they didn't go over to a class on that you understood its independence all sin is I hear you most of our sin is not ignorance it's independent and you know what God's so funny sometimes God will do stuff to give you time to think about it like it's 11:30 at night you going over to our house to watch a movie you're getting a car in the car all of a sudden you just bought it yesterday it don't start come on go with me somebody Senna's independence it's knowing what's right and wrong but choosing to do it in my way that is the very nature of sin secondly the nature of sins independent secondly he now gives us the seriousness of sin if our tick if our text was a scratch-and-sniff you don't remember no scratch of sniff if you scratch Joshua seven it would give off the aroma of death watch it one man akin says I'm not gonna obey God I'm gonna do things my way what happens thirty-six Israelites die akin dies his wife and his children die not only that and I know this ain't popular in the bay his Chihuahuas died some of y'all don't think that's funny I know I know I know we get some emails on with that I can talk about sin but the moment I say that Chihuahua died that was a problem all right let me keep it moving I done lost something of his animals died one man's sin brings death imagine I'm in a garden one day and I I see a bed of beautiful red tulips I get an idea that that I'm gonna woo my wife core I'm gonna romancer so I pluck one of those tulips out of the ground I handed to her and Corey is blushing and more I've scored a lot of points with her but little does she realize it the moment I take that tulip out of the ground and isolated it independence I have just handed her death flower looks good looks beautiful looks radiant looks flourishing but the moment I took it out of a sense of connectedness to the life-giving force of soil uprooted it is the moment it died that is sin people may look good they may look like the poster child of six they may look like the person I need to emulate my life off of they may seem to be riding high high on the hog the perfect power perfect family but if their life is not connected to God they are like that tulip looks good death Romans 6 says for the wages of sin is not being in a timeout its death what is our text teach us sin ain't nothing to be played with third thing the nature of sin is independence the seriousness of sin it brings forth death third thing this is the unamerican portion of the sermon sin is profoundly social it impacts relationships look at verse 12 here's Joshua he is at the Ark of the Covenant he's crying out god what in the world happened 36 of our guys died the battle should have been won it should have been easy look at what God says in the middle of verse 12 I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you God says listen you went out onto the battlefield and little did you know it you went by yourself I wasn't with you and why wasn't i with you because of sin so when we talked about seeing the impacting relationships we are now speaking on two levels it impacts first of all my vertical relationship with God first John chapter 1 says it this way John who doesn't pull any punches he says these words God is light and if God is light and I'm walking in the darkness that is walking in sin and I claim to have fellowship with God I am lying so what would God say to that Grammy artist who wants to thank God for blessing him for I shot your mama the same thing he would say to that couple who's shacking up same thing he would say to that woman who's got a lying problem same thing he'd say to that young man who's addicted you cannot play my blessings in favor and negotiate life on your own terms but [Applause] secondly when we say sitting the social we're not just saying it impacts my vertical relationship with God here it is very hard for us to grasp it impacts my relationship with others listen one man sins but listen to what God says verse 10 the Lord said to Joshua get up why have you fallen on your face Israel has sinned even faking a sin Israel has sinned they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded they have taken some of the devoted things they have stolen in lied and put them among their own belongings see this is hard for us as Americans because we love our personal relationship with Jesus I get the concept with that phrase is not found in the Bible God saved us he put us into a community called the body of Christ we are a communal people Martin Luther King jr. said it this way will you look at it with me in real sense all life is interrelated all persons are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be this is the interrelated structure of reality we're connected we get this in sports don't we later on this afternoon you'll turn on the television by the way heck of a victory for the Raiders those people who are clapping haven't gotten saved yet but anyways anyways anyways a couple more L derived for sits something very interesting so we'll watch football this afternoon and it's very interesting and inevitably the ref will throw a flag blow the whistle and here's what I'll say holding number 78 it'll do something interesting he'll take the football and March that whole team back 10 yards even though one person made a bad decision the whole team pays for it you're with me on then that's exactly Joshua 7 God is a referee Aiken is number 78 but who suffers for one person's bad decision the whole team of Israel I hate to say this some way shape or form your emotional facebook affair is impacting abundant life I hate to say it some way shape or form your incessant gossiping and lying is impeding our effectiveness and witness for Christ it's not just about your issues but when you got saved your issues now became our issues so what do we do with this let me give you three things then take you to the cross number one the lesson of Joshua seven is do not mess with God's devoted things what is the sin of Aitkin in 2017 the sin of Aitkin is when we mess with God's devoted thanks what are his devoted things I can give you a long list let me give you two and I need you to hear this first one especially in the spirit realm because it can sound very self-serving God says in Malachi chapter 3 bring all the tithes into the storehouse he begins by saying shall a man Rob God now you know the difference between stealing and robbing stealing is taking something from someone without them noticing when it comes to the all-knowing God you can't steal from him that's why God says shall you rob me God is clear the tithe is mine and some of you all listen I know this highly debated something well then say that the new testament catch the spirit of the new testament the spirit of the new testament is over above and beyond the old that's the spirit and the spirit is not how little can i get away with a new testament redeemed heart is how much can I give so greedy Christian I'm not talking about struggling financially and some of us our pathway to repentance maybe we're struggling financially our pathway to repentance is you know what here's I want to do every year I want to add at least a percentage or two to my giving now let's just walk the way of repentance that way I don't know who gives what by the way and I never will but a greedy Christian who takes that tithe that is devoted to God and uses it on themselves is committing the sin of Aitkin one person right there let me give you another devoted thing you know what God what you know the Bible calls the church the Bride of Christ which means this the church is God's woman I was telling one of my son's in the ministry this week he loves to keep it real okay you keep popping off at the mouth and telling these how you really feel you're gonna be calling me for a job to be a pastor means you can't say what you want to say you're gonna bite your tongue so you can come at me you need to send me emails you know and I'll bite my tongue I'll meet with you but if you mess with my wife now that filly brother our shell that filly might come out of me cuz that's my woman when the Bible calls the church the Bride of Christ it's God's woman and when you mess with God's woman you are messing with a devoted thing of God so when you cause dissension and division and chaos you are messing with God's woman when you stand out on the parking lot and you have chit chat sessions and about folk in the church and you won't have the relational courage to sit down with them you are messing with God's woman [Applause] now let me give a special word to abundant life on this I sit in covenant partner classes and typically over half of them are people who are coming back praise God love to have you back and when a lot of chaos was happening somebody else has it said yeah I can't take this and she'll slip out the back door I get it understand and now you're back love to have you back I'm not talking to you if you raised hell on your way out you can't come back in here and sit down as if nothing's happened and here's what's biblical your confession needs to be as loud as your transgression in other words if you went on Facebook and talked about God's church don't meet with us in my office and say I'm sorry go back on Facebook and say I'm sorry you can't mess with God's woman and think that everything's will be fine you can't do that that doesn't exist people treat their country clubs better than their church these are the devoted things listen we're moving forward we mad at nobody else I asked my grandfather I study no other Church god bless them but all I'm saying is if you left here and Aiken you can't come back here as Aiken make it right secondly first application don't mess with the devoted things some of y'all by the way this last point yellow I have no idea what you talked about praise the Lord praise the Lord 2nd thing real quickly if sin brings death to relationships then the thing that will bring the most life to relationships is holiness in other words the best thing you can do for your marriage more than reading a book or going to a conference is just walking with Christ that's the best thing you can do for your marriage this thing if you graphed out Corinne eyes marriage there is a direct relationship between the high points and our walk with the Lord and our low points and my lack of walking with the Lord it's funny how that works I can't live in the flesh and have a happy wife so the best thing you bring to your friendships to your relationships is just walking in the power of the Holy Spirit going to war with sin abiding with Christ that brings life to relationships there'll in front thirdly and finally on the applications here this is a tough one remember I told you that every Old Testament picture has a New Testament point the New Testament Joshua chapter 7 is 1st Corinthians 5 I want you to turn there real quick I wasn't gonna do this but but this is so important I need you to turn there turn to first Corinthians chapter 5 it's a short chapter I'll just read the 10 verses to you I believe it's 10 verses first Corinthians chapter 5 this is incredibly important to the life of our church now it's a little bit more than 10 verses it's 13 here we go it's a guy who wrote this his name is Paul it is actually reported that there are sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans in other words y'all a while and out for a man watch it now has his father's wife what scholars tell us here is there's a member of a church sleeping with a stepmother and you are arrogant just just give me a minute we got a few more minutes here and you are arrogant ought you not rather to mourn let him who has done this be removed from among you for though absent embody I am present in spirit and as if present I have already pronounced a judgment on the one who did such a thing when you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present and the powerful Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord your boasting is not good do you not know watch it now that a little leaven leavens the whole lump what is he saying here one person sin impacts other people cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven the leaven of malice and evil but the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters since then you would need to go out of the world but now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed or is idolatry reveler drunkard or swindler not even to eat with such a one for what have I to do with judging Outsiders is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge God judges those outside purged evil person from among you it's our point of applications what I want to show you a church that doesn't confront sin welcomes it I need you to hear me a church that doesn't confront sin welcomes it I want you to hear me we ate the spiritual FBI we ain't we so Paul is clear you only do Church discipline on a person who meets these three criteria one they claim to be a follower of Jesus so we don't do Church discipline on non-believers - on a person who claimed via file of Jesus who is a member of this church so will no church discipline on non-members covenant partners forgive me I'll drop a quarter and the thing third we only do church discipline not on people who sin but on people who are living in sin that's the difference the text says this man has his father's wife he is sleeping with his stepmother the whole church knows about it and they just come to church ain't nobody talking about it no one's confronting them Paul says a little leaven leavens the whole lump you know about someone living in sin and you're not dealing with it your witness is being compromised and 13 years of being a senior pastor I've only done this twice twice but this is going to be a church where we encourage one another in holiness you are allowed to struggle but if you are living in sin and you're not convicted and you just keep coming to church we've got to talk about it we got to talk about it I don't know if that's a California thing but it's a biblical thing why do we do this notice what God says we're not going to deal with akin privately we're going to deal with him publicly and I want you to put stones over him now if you study stones and Joshua here's what you understand their memorials when they get through the Jordan River God says set up stones and should remember he does the same thing in Joshua 7 I want you to remember this horrific act of this person send him being remember it why so that it would provoke and instigate holiness in your life there were times when our kids were young Jaden he'll tell you we didn't do this a lot on occasion one of our kids would do something we gather all the kids together and we say your brother has been lying so here's what's going to happen and those Joker's their eyes would get real big and you could see all over their face I ain't gonna do that that's why you do communal discipline at times so that it instigates holiness among the whole body every sermon I know here's the good news Aikens name means trouble what was his mama thinkin one man's sin brings trouble on the whole nation first Corinthians 5 in Romans 5 tells us that Adam is the original Achan that sin entered the world through one man Adam and infected everybody but then the good news Jesus Christ is the second Adam and unlike the first Adam he didn't bring sin he brought righteousness and righteousness now comes through the second Adam Jesus and is of at all so that there's grace for Akins but that only comes to Jesus well pastor I don't I don't know following Jesus means I can't do things my way sort of like the older man who sat down this elderly man with the doctor and the doctor said your cholesterol is high and he says yeah I knew that doctor and the doctors will you got to stop eating cheeseburgers and french fries and this older man says but I love eating cheeseburgers and french fries and the doctor says do you have grandkids says yes do you enjoy playing with your grandkids the man says yes the doctor says well then I need you to give up your lesser freedoms for the greater freedom of a relationship with your grandkids that's what life in Christ is like it is giving up the lesser freedoms of this life to enjoy the greater freedom of a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ I know this is heavy and you may be here today and you don't know Christ as Lord and Savior and you want to be the captain of your own ship God is saying today I believe that when you stand and you face God if you don't give your heart and life to Jesus Christ he's gonna remember this day October 22nd 2017 says I brought you to abundant life you have no excuse so that you would hear the depths of your sin and be astounded at the even greater depths of my grace and mercy for you why would you turn that down so I want to pray I want to pray for two people one for those of you who don't know Christ as Lord and Savior that you would surrender your heart and life to Jesus but two I want to pray for those who would call yourself Christians but you've been acting like akin living independently God says would you repent so you see I believe God goes through this whole process brings up a whole community cast Lots cast Lots cast lots it takes all this time I believe if Aiken would have just stepped forward in the middle of it all before he got to him and says I did it God would have extended grace right there but he kept hiding kept hiding kept hiding kept hiding kept hiding so father in the name of Jesus [Music] got someone needs to be added to your kingdom today someone's been doing life on their own terms they are not a follower of you God would you save today in the name of Jesus God someone's here today and they would call themselves follower of you but they've been living in sin God would you rescue would you capture them by your grace and mercy would you write a new chapter in their life today you call them to repentance do it father we pray in Jesus let us all stand now as we prepare to leave [Music] I want to end a little bit differently today is we're preparing to leave and at the end of service one remind you again those of you first time guess I'm gonna be at the fellowship hall to my left to your right and I'd love to meet with you but in Joshua chapter seven Joshua says something very interesting when he's calling akin to confess he says give glory to God which means one of the ways we glorify God is when we confess our sins and first John 1:9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just not to remind us not to hold a grudge but to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so this week I don't have a statement for us to say together but I want us to leave giving God glory and praise and just standing in a moment of Prayer confessing our sins to God giving him glory and receiving His grace and forgiveness right now all over this place would you just confess your sins to God would you give him glory by confessing your sins to him [Music] [Music] so father in the name of Jesus as we prepare to leave it sounds a little bit like a cliche but it's thoroughly biblical you have more mercy than we have mess you long for us Lord God to come to you and to just say I'm sorry and God you are there to forgive us and to cleanse us God we receive your forgiveness we receive your cleansing in the name of Jesus God help us to go to war with our sin help us to lean on the power of the Holy Spirit and abide in deep community Lord god help us as that iron to sharpen one another in the name of Jesus God we pray for the witness of abundant life that this would be in a church that honors you by honoring your bride so we pray against dissension we pray against division we we pray against the gossiping spirit we we pray against those things in the name of Jesus God would this be a place of holiness and righteousness in Grace and growth in you God do it not that we can parade around in some kind of a self-righteous arrogant way but in a humble way always cognizant that if it was not for your grace where would we be so we leave here who our God renewed in our commitment to you to be the effective witnesses in the bay that you have called us to be standing on the grace of your son Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit God we walk in the victory you have already secured for us on the cross it is in Jesus name we pray these things amen and amen you are sent god bless

Channel: Abundant Life Christian Fellowship

Views: 6,616

Rating: 4.869565 out of 5

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Id: PvLg7Ys3cNQ

Length: 53min 17sec (3197 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 22 2017