Hidden Sin | Pastor Brandon Beals | Venture Church

Hi, and welcome to Venture Church Online. My name is

Kelsey and I'm our online campus pastor. We're so glad

that you're joining us. Drop a comment below of where

you're streaming from. We love to interact with you. We

hope that you enjoy tod.

We are in the middle of twenty one days of

Praying and Fasting and this series that you're joining us

in is called break Free, and what we're focusing on

is different strongholds that people have in their life that

they need to break free of. And our twenty one

days of Praying and Fasting is really praying for you

to have a breakthrough in your life. And it's going

to culminate on October fifth with that Revival worship and

Prayer Night where we will worship. We have a guest speaker,

Pastor Lynn Clayton, is a great friend of mine and

dies and then we are going to pray for you

at the altar that night to see breakthrough happen in

your life. So make sure market on the calendar prioritize

October fifth, Sunday that worship in Prayer Nite is it's

gonna be incredible. If I've never met you before, my

name is Brandon. I am the lead pastor of the church.

If you're new to Venture, thanks for coming today. I

would love the opportunity to meet you. I'll be hanging

out in the lobby after the service. Please come up

introduce yourself to me. I'd love to shake your hand,

fist bump you, and say hi. I want you to

grab your bibles. I need you to turn to Joshua seven.

We're gonna spend most of our time in Joshua chapter seven.

But before I begin today, I have a quick disclaimer.

As I preach today, stuff's gonna stir up. You're gonna

feel uncomfortable. You're gonna feel like people are staring at you.

You're gonna wonder if Pastor Brandon talk to your spouse

and he's preaching specifically at you. My advice for you

this morning is sit in that state of uncomfortableness, make

it to the very end of the message, and I

think if you'll hear what I have to say, I'm

going to help you break free of one of the

biggest strongholds that you have in your life.

Some of you.

Today I'm going to talk about what is the primary

stronghold that has kept you from everything.

God has for you.

In Hebrews chapter four, we learn this says nothing in

all of creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is

uncovered and laid bare before the eye of Him, to

whom we must give an account.

I want to ask everyone to buy.

Your heads, close your eyes, repeat this prayer after me.

Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change my

life in Jesus' name.

Amen. What do we learn from that verse? In Hebrews

we learn a couple hide from God and we also

learn this.

We learn that every single one of us will stand

before God and give.

An account of our lives.

Now I had to turn to Joshua seven, and Joshua

seven tells a unique story, and it's a story. I'm

going to share the story, and then I'm gonna break

the story down. But odds are it's a story that

many of you have never heard before. But I'm going

to share that story and then what it means to

us personally and how it relates to our lives. Now,

you need to know the setting of where Joshua seven

takes off. It takes off after Israel had just had

one of its most improbable victories in its history. Now

you know the story of Joshua six. Joshua six is

when God helped the Israelites destroy the city of Jericho.

And the interesting thing was, Jericho was seen as being impenetrable.

It was seen as if they had an army that

was almost undefeatable.

And Israel conquers Jericho.

Without having one casualty. In the battle against Jericho, God

was obviously on their side. God was obviously with them,

and God was clearly fighting for them. And at the

end of this battle in Joshua six against Jericho, we

read this that Joshua commanded the army shout, for the Lord.

Has given you the city.

The city and all that is in it is to

be vote, to be.

Devoted to the Lord. And then verse eighteen tells us this.

This is God seeking, he says, but keep away from

all of the devoted things in the city, like I'm

gonna give you this victory, I'm gonna give you Jericho.

But if you are not to touch the devoted.

Things, you're probably wondering what are the devoted things? Well,

these are items that are irrevocably given to God. They

are forbidden from human hands touching, yet alone using for

personal gain. These items, these devoted things.

Belong to God.

Oftentimes in battle, the devoted things were to be completely

destroyed as part of God's judgment against Israel's enemies, and

God even warns them.

He says, here's what.

Will happen if you touch the devoted things. He says,

so that you will not bring about your own destruction

by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the

camp of Israel.

Liable to destruction.

So, in other words, if you take these devoted things,

you make the entire camp of Israel libel for destruction,

and you will bring trouble on it.

All the silver and gold.

The articles of bronze iron are sacred to the Lord

and must go into his treasury. In other words, don't

touch the devoted things. If you touch the devoted.

Things, you bring on not only.

Your own destruction, but you make the entire camp of

Israel libel.

If you do it.

If you touch it, I'm holding everyone responsible.

So that leads us to Joshua seven.

So they have this improbable victory that conquered Jericho, Israelites

or self librating. They don't even have one casualty, And

the next city that they are to face is the

city of Ai.

City of Ai not very intimidating.

Like the Huskies have to face Ohio State on Saturday.

That is the Huskies Jericho.

They just faced yesterday their Ai, so they weren't worried

about Wsu.

You knew it was coming.

So Ai was much less of a threat than Jericho's.

So Joshua determines, I really only need two or three

thousand men send into Ai to conquer Ai. He decides

to send in three thousand men to just be safe.

And now we read about what happens, and I've already

asked you to turn there. It's Joshua seven, verse four.

It says, so about three thousand men went up, but

they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed

about thirty six of them. They chase the Israelites from

the city gate as far as the stone quarries and

struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts

of the people melted in fear and became like water.

So they faced Jericho not one casualty. They faced the

city of Ai. Thirty six men are killed, they're chased away,

and the men of Israel are so afraid their fear

is like melting like water around them. Well, Joshua can't

figure this out. He's like, God, why would you give

us victory over Jericho only to have us be defeated

by Ai? Why even bother to have us go there

so we see what Joshua Praise to God. He says,

Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across

the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the

Amorites only to destroy us? And then God responds and

tells him why. He says, israelis sinned. They have violated

my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have

taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen them.

They have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.

That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies.

They turned their back and run, because they've been made

libel to destruction.

I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy.

Whatever among you is devoted to destruct. So I told

you that if even one of you touched the devoted things,

I would hold all of Israel libel for touching what

is mine. So he says, Joshua, you got to figure

out who touched the devoted things in your camp. It's

crazy the links that he went to. Remember there was

a million Israelites. He divides them up into their twelve tribes.

He divides each of the twelve tribes up by their

different clans. Then he breaks down the clans into each

family and he asks each person in every family, one

by one, have you brought trouble on Israel? Have you

brought trouble on Israel? Have you brought trouble on Israel?

He finally gets to the tribe of Judah. We're not

told how long this take.

He gets to the clan of the Zarites within the

tribe of Judah. He eventually gets to the family of

Zimri among the clan of the Zarites in the tribe

of Judah, and he begins to ask one by one

in Zimri's family, have you brought trouble on Israel?

Have you brought trouble on Israel? Well? Eventually he gets

to Zimri's grandson Aichen, and.

He says, Aichen, have you brought trouble on Israel? Well,

Aiken couldn't handle it anymore and he just spills the beans.

Verse twenty.

He says, it's true. I sinned against the Lord, the

God of Israel. This is what I've done. When I

saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, when

I saw two hundred shekels of silver in a bar

of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them. That word

covet means to desire what is unlawful.

And he says, so I took.

Them, and they're hidden in the ground inside my tent,

with the silver underneath. So Joshua and his army goes

into Aiken's tent. They dig underneath the tent and they

find those devoted things that no one was supposed to steal,

no one was supposed to take. It's amazing because of

one man's hidden sin, he brought destruction on all.

The people of Israel.

Because of one man's hidden sin, it hurt and made

everyone else libel. There are many people today. The stronghold

that you find yourself locked in is the stronghold of

hidden sin. Hidden sin is the cause of many of

the strongholds that you and I find ourselves in today.

And I want to share with you really quickly the

truth about hidden sin. Some of you, you are sitting

here and you feel uncomfortable.

But I want to share with you the actual truth about.

This hidden sin, this thing you've done that you thought

no one else needs to know about. I'm not going

to tell anyone. I can lie my way around it.

I can excuse my way through it. I cannot deal

with it. I can avoid it, and I can just

pretend it didn't happen. And I can create world around me.

That keeps this hidden.

Well, that's what the enemy convinces us we can do.

But here's the truth about hidden sin. I want to

share with you four things about it. Number one, hidden

sin rots you from the inside out. Hidden sin pollutes

your soul. David had hidden sin. David cheated on his

family with Bathsheba. He figured, no one, I'm king no

one can find out. I'm gonna do the greatest cover

up I can do. No one's gonna find out about

my sin. David wrote many psalms about his sin with Bathsheba.

Here's how he described it. In Psalm thirty two, he says,

when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my

groaning all day long, he said, for day and night,

your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped

as in the heat of the summer. How does David

describe his sin that he was hiding inside. He said

it was crushing my bones. He says, the weight of

my sin was so heavy, it was like the weight of.

The heat of the summer down upon me.

There's all kinds of studies that have been done on

when you and I hide sin in our heart. What

it does to us emotionally and physically is all kinds

of studies. You see, hidden sin does these things to

you personally. It causes hopelessness, and that is because you

start believing this sin cycle will never end. Hidden sin

leads to depression. You feel overwhelmed because of your lack

of ability. You're unable to cope with the things that

you've done. Hidden sin causes your anxiety to spike. You're

constantly living in fear that you're gonna be discovered.

Hidden sin makes you feel powerless. How do I know?

Because it makes you feel like it controls your life.

Hidden sin leads to despair.

That happens when you realize you can't solve it on

your own.

The enemy is gonna lie to you.

He is gonna say no one needs to know you

can take care of this on your own. But there's

a proverb that says, as a dog returns to his vomit,

so does a fool return to his folly. And over

and over again, we find ourselves going back into the

thing we swore we'd never do again, and it leads

to despair, leads to restlessness that we're so tormented by

this hidden sin that we can't focus on other things.

It leads to intense shame and guilt, and oftentimes the

shame and guilt persists long after we've sort of overcome.

The sin because we kept it quiet and hidden.

Hidden sin leads to inappropriate outbursts of anger, displaced anger

over personal sin that ends up projected on other people.

What does that mean?

It means you're just irrationably lashing out at other people.

Hidden sin leads to isolation. You find yourself isolating from God,

You find yourself isolating from your peers. You schedule meetings

and skip them. You're constantly scheduling times to hang out

with people, and you find yourself canceling because you're struggling

to be around other people. Hidden sin causes sleeplessness, Your

mind starts raging at night. Hidden sin can actually make

you sick. The stress on your body from keeping the

sin a secret can cause.

A myriad of health issues.

Aiken coveted he desired what is unlawful, the devoted things,

so he stole them, and he was so ashamed by

his sin that he hid them. And in the end,

what does hidden sin do? It completely removes.

Peace from your life.

If you wonder why your life feels like it's at war,

why you have no peace in your life or no

peace around you, oftentimes it's because you are bound in

the stronghold of hidden sin.

Did you know that hidden sin ages you? Number two?

Not only does hidden sin rotch you on the inside out,

but hidden sin hurts those around you.

It's not fair.

It's not fair that my hidden sin can affect my family.

It's not fair that my hidden sin can actually hurt

those that work with me. But the reality is, your

hidden sin doesn't just rot your life, it pollutes.

Everyone around you. Some of you.

Your kids are struggling, your marriage is struggling, your job

is struggling, your business is struggling, and.

You can't figure out why.

Because it's that thing that you have hidden that you've

tried to deny that it can affect anyone else. But

the reality is it hurts people around you. Aikin's hidden

sin caused all of Israel to be held libel.

I don't think it's fair, It just is.

Though thirty six men died because of Aikin's sin, fear

consumes the Israelites because of Aikin's hidden sin. But I

think probably the thing that scares me the most about

what happened to Aiken is that God had left them

because of achan sin. God would no longer bless and

be with the Israelites.

Paul said this in Corinthians.

He says, you pass it off as a small thing,

but it's anything but that yeast, too, is a small thing,

but it works its way through the whole batch of

bread dough pretty fast. You see, your hidden sin doesn't

just hurt you. It hurts those around you. It affects

your job, It affects your marriage, it affects your kids,

it affects your church, It affects.

Those around you.

The enemy is gonna lie to you, and he's gonna

say keep this quiet, because actually disposing it is going

to cause more damage than keeping it hidden. Number three

truth about hidden sin. Hidden sin multiplies in the more sin.

It doesn't add more sin, it multiplies. So Aikin's sin

was coveting. Then it led him to stealing. Then it

led him to lying, deceiving, hiding stacks one sin on

top of another.

Trying to cover up sin means you have to commit

a bunch more sins to cover up that sin.

David, when he was reflecting on trying to cover up

his sin with Bathsheba, here's what David said in Psalm forty.

He said, troubles without numbers surround me. My sins have

overtaken me. I can't see.

They are more than the hairs of my head, and

my heart.

Fails within me.

Like David is saying, I started lying, I started manipulating,

I started deceiving, and I couldn't even keep track of

who I lied to, who I told what story to.

I couldn't even keep track of him. It was overwhelming me.

I couldn't see in front of me anymore.

When I deal with people that are confessing hidden sin,

trying to unwrap that sin, and all the different people

that have been involved in it because of all the

lies and all the cover ups, it's crazy. Church hidden

sin multiplies into many sin. I do want to give

you some advice. Allow yourself to be guilty by association

in someone else's hidden sin, because oftentimes what people will

do is to appease their guilt.

They'll tell you what they've done.

They will then follow it up swearing you to absolute secrecy.

They make you guilty by association because you're covering up

their sin. It's forcing you now to start sinning, to

start lying, to start covering up. Don't get stuck in

the middle of someone else's cover up.

Don't let their sin rot you.

Sin multiplies. Finally, truth about sin, hidden sin, It's all

was revealed in the end. He never stays hidden. And

the enemy's so good with this. He lets you think

you've gotten away with it sometimes for years. You know

how many famous ministers have been exposed of sin they

committed fifteen to twenty years ago.

In the last five years, I mean some of them.

They wrote and sold many books, many many, many seminars.

They thought I got away with it. No one will

ever find out. But the devil, he's pretty sly.

He waits for the most optimal moment.

To make you look like a Fool'll do the most

optimal damage. But don't believe the lie that hidden sin

can stay hidden. Jesus said this, and Luke, he said,

there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed. There

is nothing hidden that will not be made known. What

you have said in the dark will be heard in

the daylight.

What you have.

Whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be

proclaimed from the roofs. Imagine Aiken's hidden sin coming out.

I can't even imagine what it must have been like

to ben him.

You find out that.

Your friends and loved ones were dying in battle. You

then find out that the entire nation is like water

melting in fear. And then Joshua divides the entire nation

into their tribes, breaks down their tribes into their clans,

and their clans into their families, and goes one by

one to each person, asking have you brought trouble on Israel.

I don't know how long it took him to get

to the tribe of Judah, But as he got closer,

could you imagine Aikin's heart pounding?

What am I gonna do? He's gonna come to me,

what do I say? And by the time he finally.

Got to aichen Aikin couldn't wait to confess. Hidden sin

eventually always comes out, no matter how hard we try

to cover it up, no matter the lengths we go

to keep it a secret, God always exposes the sin

of those he loves.

Did you know.

That sin exposed allows grace to be revealed? Sin exposed

allows God's grace to be unleashed in your life.

There are some of you.

You need God's grace unleashed in your life. Again, there's

some of you. You need it unleashed on your family.

You need it unleased on your business. You need it

unleashed on your health. You need it unleased on.

Your family and your finances. Sin exposed allows God's grace

to pour forth. PB. That was heavy.

What the heck do I do with this really simple advice.

Here's what you you do with hidden sin. Number one,

you confess it. You got to tell someone about it.

I already warned the pastors they're going to be really

busy this week, all right, but in all serious events,

I did, you need to confess it. You need to

tell someone about it. And then number two, you need

to repent of it. One of the verses that over

the twenty years of leading this church. That I've quoted

is in Jeremiah and it says if you repent, he

will restore you that you may serve him. What an

amazing promise from God that if you and I sincerely repent,

God restores us. And that word restore means that you

are brought back instantaneously to a right relationship. You need

to confess, you need to RepA and finally, you need accountability,

because if you don't confess to a person that will

hold you accountable, we fall into the same temptation over

and over and over and over again. You need somebody

who's gonna ask you hard questions. You need someone that

is gonna be bold enough to tell you to knock

it off. You need someone to hold you accountable. Confess, repent, accountability.

That's how you break the stronghold of hidden sin. You

don't have to live in that anymore. You can confess.

God can break that stronghold over your.

Life, but it's up to you.

I want to ask everyone to buy your heads, close

your eyes. Warned you you're gonna feel uncomfortable, but thank

you for staying here till the end, because there's hope

as always that hope and forgiveness and grace is in Jesus.

And so my question today for you is simple, are

you in a right relationship with Jesus?

Are you right with Jesus?

If your answer is no, don't leave this place without

being right with Jesus. If your answer is I'm not sure,

you should leave this place, sure that you are right

with Jesus. So I'm going to count to three. If

you are here today and you want to leave this

place saying I want to be right with Jesus.

When I say.

Three, I want you to raise your hand. Here I

go one, Two, raise your hand right now. Three, Keep

your hands up. Some of our ushers are gonna run down,

or they're actually gonna play something in your hand.

Just keep it up for a moment. This is gonna

help you know. What do I do next?

Okay, I've prayed this prayer, I've admitted who I am.

What do I do next? I want to invite everybody

to stand up on your feet.

I'm gonna close my time by having us pray a

prayer of repentance.

But for those of you that raise your.

Hand, please talk to someone this week. Meet with someone

this week. If there's something that you have been hiding

in your heart, confess it to someone this week and

get some accountability.

So I'm gonna pray with you. And the cool thing

about this is if you believe this prayer.

When you pray this prayer, your sins are forgiven and

you leave in a right relationship with Jesus. But you

still need accountability, you still need help. So please talk

to somebody this week. But everybody, by your heads, close

your eyes, repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say, Dear Jesus,

I stand before you today and I admit that I'm

a sinner. But today I ask you to forgive me,

and I invite you to come into my life and

to change me. I choose from this day forward to

serve you with my life. Thank you for forgiving me

and for saving me in Jesus' name.

Amen, Amen, is anybody grateful for a God who forgives?

And I want to point your attention to our our

What's next page and well, first and foremost, I want

to make it known our prayer team is going to

be available, Our pastors are going to be available, just

to hang around out front, around really encourage you, like

if you have something that lad on your heart, a

moment of vulnerability.

We want to make ourselves.

We want to pray with you, you want to continue with you,

want to hear where you're at. And secondly, the what's

next page for our prayer and fasting a prompts on

their direction. And just as we're interceding for breakthrough, maybe

we're interceding for breakthrough in our families and for the

people who will be here in these next couple of weeks.

But what an honor it is to be a part

of this house, to be a part of your journey.

We're grateful for you. Have an amazing Sunday.

Thank you, Thank you again for joining us. If you

enjoyed today's service, go ahead and subscribe to our channel

so you can see if you your messages. If you'd

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