The Slavery of Secrets

All right.

Let's see what the Lord wants to do this morning.

Amen.

We just sang about the Holy Spirit to come and resting on us.

And my prayer is that He will do a work.

My warning is that I haven't preached in two weeks.

And so I typically our staff braces for the just how much thing that I want to come out, but I'm going to try to pace it over the next few weeks if I can do that.

But we're going to move forward in our series on Joseph.

God has good plans.

My name is Russ.

If I haven't met you, you might be here for the first time.

We're so glad to have you.

I want to say welcome to Church at the Grove.

We'd love to have a record of your time with us.

If you are part of our family, it's so good to be with our family.

Let's keep our kids in prayer.

Katie and our children's ministry are at um are at camp over in Chuckko Springs, Alabama.

And so they will return, I believe, tomorrow.

So this is this is it's like it's like our students, and I said, I said, you know, sometimes those that final day is so critical for the Holy Spirit to move in the heart of a child.

And so let's pray for our children.

How many of you got anybody this morning had do y'all have children that are at camp, at the camp?

Anybody raise your hand if you got any kids?

Um a few of you got children.

Yeah, a few got children at camp.

So we're praying, praying big time.

Um and uh we have adults over there with them.

So uh God can work in their life just as well.

Um we're in Genesis chapter 42, the story of Joseph, but I want to kind of lay the groundwork.

Genesis 42 · chapter mention

Um uh just uh just a few weeks ago on June 6, our our our nation and and and other nations in Europe celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

And this the D-Day was was so significant, it was it was an invasion um of Allied forces um on the beaches in France, um, multiple beach heads, um, the the troops that came um uh from from the ocean, the the English Channel, and and stormed the beaches at the same time.

Paratroopers and and um uh forces were were parachuting in behind enemy forces, and the enemy forces had a stronghold there.

They had a foothold.

They had a foothold on the beaches there at Normandy and on the beaches of France.

They had a military foothold.

They were able to do their, they wanted to do their best to fend off an assault and to maintain control of the ground and the foothold that they had gained as Hitler's troops had invaded Europe and taken control over much of Europe.

The Allied forces were trying to break that foothold.

Break that foothold, storming from the waters and from the channel, and also storming through dropping these paratroopers behind the foothold, the enemy's foothold.

And so a foothold is this it is a secure position from which further progress may be made.

That is the definition of a foothold.

And we we all probably know what a we've experienced a foothold.

Um if you've ever hiked, sometimes it's critical for you to have a foothold in a in a place that it's critical for for you to have a solid footing so you can continue your hike.

I don't know if you have any if we have any rock climbers in here.

Um rock climbing is key to have a solid foothold.

We talk about footholds sometimes when we talk about economics.

Companies desire to secure a foothold in a market.

And so a foothold can be used in a positive sense, and it is about gaining traction.

Um, but depending on what or who is gaining a foothold, it can also be negative.

And I want you to, I want you to, we're gonna read through this chapter 42, and I want you to see where where there is there is this spiritual warfare that is taking place, and and and as we read through it, you won't see a lot of explicit language about footholds and warfare and and and and how God is working or how demons are working.

What you see is you see personalities interacting with one another, and they are looking back at their past, and they're also dealing with challenges in the present.

And you and so I want you to imagine while we're reading this story, there's a spiritual warfare taking place in the hearts and the lives of these individuals and this family, Joseph and his brothers, as they deal with the famine.

And and it makes me think of uh of the more explicit language that the apostle Paul uses.

And we see in the New Testament, um, Ephesians 4, 26 and 27, he says, and don't sin by letting anger control you.

Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

So you see this?

This warfare over our heart, over our minds, over our thoughts, and in all areas of our life.

Listen, Paul says, he goes on in chapter six, and he says, we war not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and the principalities in the air.

There is a war.

There is a battle that is taking place.

We see it in our culture.

There is a culture war taking place in our American culture.

It's happening all over the world.

But I want you to particularly think about the battle we see in our country right now.

Scripture is very clear that if we give the enemy a foothold in our lives, um bad things happen.

Um while this passage is talking about anger, it's not only about anger, it's about all the areas in our life where the enemy is trying to gain traction, and the Holy Spirit is warring against the enemy in our hearts.

The Holy Spirit is trying to gain traction and gain a foothold in our heart.

And so here's what I'm asking for you is for you to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit.

And allow the Holy Spirit to mine, to mine.

When I talk about mining, I'm talking about digging down into your hearts to find the nuggets and the footholes that maybe sin have gotten a hold of.

Things that you may have even forgotten about in your life.

And because they've gone undealt, you are at a place where you are struggling.

You're struggling in your thought life, you're struggling with the confidence to approach the Lord, you're struggling with wondering, am I right with God?

Am I on a pathway where I'm going to spend eternity?

I had a conversation with a with a with a woman that was that is 88 years old.

And she said, Russ, I'm struggling.

As I come to the end of my life, am I going to spend eternity with the Lord?

That's what she asked me.

And I know she knows the Lord.

I know she she's exhibited the fruit.

But there's this war.

And she she said, there's some things way back, way back that I believe that I've never dealt with.

88 years old.

And so scripture is clear.

We've got to be willing to mine deep down and to take away the enemy's foothold.

How do we do that?

It's that we make conscious decisions.

And the decisions you make today impact your life tomorrow.

The decisions you make today impact your life tomorrow.

This sounds like a popular statement, maybe from a motivational speaker, and that's not what I'm talking about.

That's not what I want it to sound like.

But but it's true in a spiritual realm.

The decisions we make, the actions that we take, and the lies that you believe and you walk in determine what your future looks like.

And that's why we say, Come, Holy Spirit, rest upon us.

Deep, dig down deep in our heart.

May we open up our hearts to the Lord for Him to work.

And so this summer, where do we find ourselves in the story?

I mean, just quick recap.

In the story of Joseph, beginning back in Genesis 37, we see that Joseph is a favorite son of his father.

There's dysfunction in the family.

His brothers hated him, and they sold him into slavery.

And there is jealousy.

Jealousy was a foothold, a negative foothold that caused them to act in a sinful way, sinful matter.

Later, he is falsely, Joseph is falsely accused by his master's wife and thrown into prison.

He spends two years in prison before interpreting Pharaoh's dream.

And as a result, he is placed as second in command.

He has this roller coaster ride.

He's sold into slavery.

He's in jail.

He works his way up to where he is Potiphar's second in command.

And then he is he is um he is he's accused falsely by Potiphar's wife that throws him back down into the prison.

He again rises uh to a role in prison and he interprets dreams for the cupbearer, he interprets dreams for um uh the the uh you had the cupbearer and the baker, and then he has an opportunity later on to interpret a dream from Pharaoh, and so he rises to second in command in all of Egypt.

What a powerful story.

And so God puts him in second in command, and his job was to manage the nation's food supply and ensure they had enough, and especially as they endured a seven-year drought.

Joseph has the foresight to plan ahead and prepare, and he does such a great job, and not only does the Lord use him to provide enough food for the nation of Egypt where he lives and where he has responsibility, but he also makes Egypt a beacon of hope for the rest of the world.

Soon foreign nations flock to Egypt in search of food, and this includes Joseph's long lost family.

Twenty years earlier or so, had sold his brothers, had sold him into slavery.

He's not seen his family, and here's where we pick up the story.

Verse 1, Jacob 42, Genesis 42, when Jacob heard that grain, that grain was available in Egypt, he said to his sons, why are you standing around looking at one another?

I have heard there is grain in Egypt.

Go down there and buy enough grain to keep us alive, otherwise we will die.

So Joseph's ten older brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain, but Jacob couldn't let Joseph's younger brother Benjamin.

There's still, you know, you still have this whole little family dilemma going on where Joseph, who had married Rachel, had two sons, Benjamin and Joseph, by his wife Rachel, and and and that was his, she was the love of his life.

And so these these two boys were special even in an unhealthy way, but nonetheless, so he says he wouldn't let Benjamin go with them for fear some harm might come to him.

So Jacob's sons arrived in Egypt along with others to buy food, for the famine was in Canaan as well.

Since Joseph was the governor of all Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came.

Now I want you to, this is this is this this is this is drama.

I mean, if you had background music, it would be it would it would be dramatic.

I mean, this this stuff is stuff made for movies.

And so these brothers are coming in uh not knowing who they're going to approach.

Joseph is carrying out his responsibilities, having no idea who is going to come in and request grain.

And it was to him that his brothers came.

When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground.

Joseph recognized his brothers instantly, but he pretended to be a stranger, and he spoke harshly to them.

Where are you from?

He demanded.

From the land of Canaan.

They replied, We've come to buy food.

Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn't recognize him.

Now, why is that?

Well, it's been a couple of decades, and he has been immersed in this Egyptian culture.

So, I mean, I want you to imagine, you know, probably his dress and and wearing one of those Pharaoh-type hats.

That's just my imagination.

I don't know for sure.

And what you see, what culture, you know, tells us that he probably had some type of eyeliner or makeup or whatever, but he was had been immersed in culture, speaking a different language.

They didn't recognize him in their wildest imaginations.

He had he had been sold.

He was a slave.

He would have never been thought of being the one that they would approach, being second in charge, asking and begging him for provisions and food.

And so he is a he is an Egyptian in their eyes.

He's speaking the Egyptian language.

He is, and so verse 9, and he remembered the dreams that he had had about them many years before.

You remember the dreams?

You remember the dreams where he talked about the stalks of wheat, where all the stalks would bow down to him, where he was the center of all of the stars and the planets, and they would revolve around him.

And so these dreams have come true.

And so he remembered the dreams, and here's what he said to them You are spies.

You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.

And so these dreams, you've got to remember these dreams.

And here's a quick note all of God's promises are guarantees, but they don't necessarily come true on our timetable.

They don't come to fruition according to what we desire.

Joseph had had these dreams decades before.

Now some of this is coming to pass.

This is, listen, this is why the story about Joseph is so powerful because we have a vantage point of seeing these events from our perspective, and it shows us the character of a God that cares and loves and is in control and is sovereign, and he has good plans for us.

And so don't lose heart.

You keep the faith, you keep moving forward.

We have to stand on the promises of God.

We've got to have a foothold that is rooted and found and standing in the promises of Scripture.

Verse 10, no, my Lord, they exclaim, your servants have simply come to buy food.

We are all brothers, members of the same family.

We are honest men, sir.

We are not spies.

Yes, you are, Joseph insisted.

And I want you, listen, I want you to see, there's not a bunch of explicit God language, but there is warfare.

There is a battle in the minds and the hearts between the brothers and Joseph himself.

I want you to, see, see, none of none of none of us are perfect.

None of us are can handle things perfectly.

We shouldn't expect.

We see Joseph, even though God has blessed him immensely, he is struggling, I believe, at this point with how to respond, how to deal with the potential anger, how to deal with the hurt, how to deal with this long held pain of being sold into slavery, being being being left out, being pushed out.

He says, Yes, you are.

You've come to see how vulnerable our land has become.

Sir, they said, There's actually 12 of us.

We, your servants, are all brothers, sons of a man living in the land of Canaan.

Our youngest brother is back there with our father right now, and one of our brothers is no longer with us.

And Joseph insisted, as I said, you are spies.

This is how I will test your story.

I swear by the life of Pharaoh that you will never leave Egypt unless your youngest brother comes here.

So in the midst of all this, Joseph begins, I believe, to put in motion a plan that quite possibly, whether he intended, intended it to be this way or not, it is sovereignly the work of God through the Holy Spirit.

And so he says to them Bring your young.

Brother.

One of you must go and get your brother.

I'll keep the rest of you here in prison, and we'll find out whether or not your story is true.

By the life of Pharaoh, if it turns out that you don't have a younger brother, then I know that you're spies.

All the brothers that stood before him, they're half-brothers of Joseph.

They all had the same dad, Jacob, but different moms.

Benjamin was the only sibling Joseph had, as I said earlier.

Joseph had to wonder if his brothers might have done the same thing to his brother Benjamin as they had done to him.

And so therefore he is sending them back to bring Benjamin back to prove or to see.

Had their jealousy fueled them to do something evil toward his other brother Benjamin.

All of this would explain and bring the whole story back around.

Verse 17, so Joseph put them all in prison for three days.

And on the third day, Joseph said to them, I am a God-fearing man.

I'm going to tell you, sometimes we all need a few days, don't we?

We all need a few days.

Jesus just needed a few days.

And then he was bodily resurrected.

We all need a few days sometimes for the Lord to work, for the Lord to speak, for the Holy Spirit.

Some of you are going to think of something said today a few days from now.

It might take you three days, but hopefully you will respond in obedience and follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

For Joseph put them in prison for three days, and on the third day, Joseph said to them, I am a God-fearing man.

If you do as I say, you will live.

If you really are honest men, choose one of your brothers to remain in prison.

The rest of you may go home with grain for your starving families.

So he finally agrees.

He's giving them grain to take home so the starving members of their family can have food.

But you must bring your youngest brother back to me.

Talk about Benjamin.

This will prove that you are telling the truth and you will not die to this, they agreed.

And so you can imagine Joseph wanted to see his long-lost brother.

But I want to spend the rest of our time drilling down really to what God wants to speak to our hearts.

Verse 21, speaking among themselves, they said this.

Listen, I want you to, remember, I said, I want you to see, there is not explicit language about spiritual warfare, but I want you to listen to the conversation that these brothers have amongst themselves, speaking amongst themselves.

They said, clearly we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago.

We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn't listen.

That's why we're in trouble.

And so they're probably going back and forth, arguing with one another, possibly blaming one another, but they're all guilty.

Let me tell you what's happening.

The Holy Spirit always works through conviction.

The enemy, the devil, and demonic forces always work through condemnation.

But sometimes when we're struggling with sin, whether it's past or present, we sometimes can't differentiate between condemnation and conviction.

And we've got to ask the Lord.

I'm telling you, it's all conviction is always from the Holy Spirit.

Condemnation is always from the enemy.

Condemnation always drives you farther away from God.

Conviction always draws you toward God.

Do you see it?

And so, verse 22, didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy?

Reuben asked.

Reuben had been the one that saved Joseph's wife from being killed.

He says, let's not kill him, let's sell him.

And so Reuben says, Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy?

Reuben asked, but you wouldn't listen.

And now we have to answer for his blood.

And so we see these events unfold.

We see the brothers dealing with guilt, condemnation for sins committed two decades before.

Have you, have you, let me ask, have you dealt with all of the issues from your past?

Have you brought them and laid them at the foot of the cross?

Do you ever hear the enemy whispering in your ear, reminding you to pick those issues back up?

Have you confessed your sin?

Imagine carrying the guilt and the condemnation, these boys, these men, these men who had been boys when they sold their younger brother into slavery.

They assumed him probably to be dead, maybe sentenced as a slave for twenty plus years.

The brothers had allowed the enemy to get a foothold in their lives.

The enemy had a foothold.

Anger, jealousy, condemnation, unrighteous pain.

And so it had stuck with them for years.

They had refused to acknowledge their wrongdoing.

They had to look over their shoulder constantly.

They worried that someone would discover what had happened and what sin they had committed.

And listen to this.

Listen to me.

Secrets lead to slavery.

Secrets lead to slavery.

There's two, two, two, two pastors this past week or past two weeks.

Two pastors that I have looked up to.

I've read their books, listened to their sermons.

They have ministered to my life.

They've encouraged me.

And I am not I'm not here to condemn them.

I can't tell you what's going on inside of their hearts.

But all I know is I can tell you that one confessed and I don't know what the sin is, but he just said, Hey, I've done something wrong.

And he said, I need to step down.

The other, the other, something came to light that was that was awful, a terrible secret from his past.

And both of these pastors, megachurch personalities, I can't imagine what it was like to do ministry, wondering, looking over their shoulder every day, every week, is somebody ever gonna bring up this past sin?

And I'm telling you, I I my wife and I, Jill and I were talking, and I and I mean the Holy Spirit working in my heart, and I'm I am digging, I am mining, and I am thinking, is there anything unconfessed?

Is there anything?

And I'll tell you this, is when I got saved at 18 years old, and I began to walk with Jesus, I had a disciple named Matt.

He poured into my life, but it was a few years later that I came under conviction of the Holy Spirit to go back to some specific people that I had sinned against in high school.

And I just I made a list.

I mean, literally took out a legal pad.

The Holy Spirit, through a sermon, through a message, and through my disciple, said, Hey, take out a legal pad, Russ, and if you've got any unconfessed or relationships that have been damaged by your behavior, you need to go make those right.

And I begin to make phone calls and I begin to have conversations and I begin to tell people that I had been wrong and I had sinned and I asked them to forgive me, and I told them that I had asked God to forgive me.

Does that mean that I'm perfect?

Does that mean that I that I've covered every base?

I don't know, but I but I certainly have done the work, especially in the last couple of weeks, reading this, being aware of these other men that I respect that many of us probably would know.

And it brings us back.

The decisions you make today will impact your life tomorrow.

Listen, I tell, I've told my kids, and when I was a youth pastor, I used to tell them listen, the people you hang out with, the things you read or exposed to, they will make or break the future of your life.

And this is how the enemy works.

He wants you to live in shame and guilt, and he wants you to be in bondage.

Here's what the psalmist says, Psalm 32, 1 through 3.

Oh, what a joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight.

Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty.

When I refuse to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.

Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me.

My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

That's the psalmist.

I mean, he's speaking of mental anguish and literally how it has affected his physical body.

Lost sleep, worrying, anxiety.

And I'm not, listen, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not saying that if you deal or struggle with depression or anxiety, it comes from sin.

That's not what I'm saying.

I think that that some of that is is physical things, maybe things that are related to our culture, things that are related to circumstances out of our control.

I'm not so understand what I'm not saying, but sometimes when we have unconfessed, undealt with issues or sin, they can come and haunt us and certainly gain a foothold in our ability to move forward in our spiritual life, our marriages, our parenting, our work, our calling, whatever it is.

Charles Swindah has written a series of biographies that are just absolutely amazing, and and and his biography on the life of Joseph has been a huge tool of study for us as we've been preparing.

But he he he alludes to this short story from Edgar Allen Allan Poe, and it and it's called the Telltale Heart.

And Edgar Allan Poe tells the story of a man who murders an older man and then tries to cover up the murder.

He buries the body in the basement of the house, but yet he can still hear the dead man's heart beating in his mind.

And as he's being questioned by the police, he says this, and this is quoting from this is what Edgar Allan Poe writes.

He says, as he says, suddenly I knew that the sound was not in my ears.

It was not just inside my head.

At that moment, I must have become quite white as the police were talking to him.

He said, I talked still faster and louder, and the sound too became louder.

It was quick, low, soft sound, like the sound of a clock heard through a wall, a sound I knew well.

Louder it became and louder.

Why did the men not go?

Louder, louder, I stood up and walked quickly around the room.

I pushed my chair across the floor to make more noise to cover up the terrible sound.

I talked even louder, and still the men sat and talked and smiled.

Was it possible they could not hear?

It sounds like he's crazy.

And that's the point of the short story is that when we hide sin, when we bury sin, he's tried to bury this murder, and it's eating him alive.

And it says, No, they heard.

I was certain of it.

They knew.

Now it was they who were playing a game with me.

I was suffering more than I could bear from their smiles and from that sound.

Louder, louder, louder, suddenly I could bear it no longer.

I pointed at the boards and the floor and I cried, Yes, yes, I killed him.

Pull up the boards and you shall see I killed him.

But why does his heart not stop beating?

Why does it not stop?

That sounds crazy, doesn't it?

No confession equals no freedom.

No confession equals no freedom.

Dane Ortland says this.

He said, it feels like a death to open up in honesty about our failings, but it is actually the pathway to life and sanity.

So the enemy wants nothing more than to get a foothold in your life.

There's this spiritual battle, and the enemy is throwing darts of guilt and shame at us, and the Holy Spirit is working to convict us of our sin.

But conviction through the Holy Spirit draws us to the Lord.

It draws us to the cross.

It draws us to Jesus.

You know, I said this chapter, and some of this story is not explicit in God's language, in the language that we see sometimes in the New Testament that Paul writes about.

But we see nonetheless that God is working.

He's working through bondage and sin.

Now look at verses 26, 27, and 28.

It says, so the brothers loaded their donkeys with grain and headed for home.

But when they stopped for the night, one of them opened up his sack.

So they stop to rest, to feed their animals.

He opens up his sack to get grain for his donkey, and he found his money in the top of the sack.

Look, he exclaimed to his brothers, My money has been returned.

It's here in my sack.

Then their hearts sank, trembling.

They said to each other, I love this, I love this.

What has God done to us?

What has God done to us?

Now, I'm telling so this word trembling in the Hebrew, it is it is used to describe a massive earthquake.

So they are trembling, massive earthquake, the heart and their minds.

Now I want you to see this.

What has God done to us?

Because on one side of this, there's condemnation.

What has God done to us?

We're gonna pay for our sin.

You know what?

We're gonna face judgment.

We're gonna face eternal separation.

We have sold our brother into slavery.

We're facing the consequences.

We are being judged by God.

But here here's but but could it be?

They open up their sacks and they find the money that they had used to buy the grain, the money is put in their sack.

What is that?

Is that potentially a sign that Joseph has had a heart change and there is a seed of grace about to be unfolded?

You look at it.

Condemnation, judgment, conviction, restoration, grace.

Hey, if I if I bought something, I went to the store and I bought something, and I come home and I open up to pull out something, something I really wanted, something I needed, something I something I really desired.

You know, like a new pair of shoes, you know, a hunting rifle.

You know, I mean uh I you know just uh you pull it out and and and and I I've I've spent some money on this, and every penny I spent is in the sack.

I mean, I'm I'm thinking, jackpot.

Now there's probably a mistake that's been made.

And our club, if that happened to me or you here, we we, you know, we we would you you would either just kind of sin and you wouldn't say anything.

Or if you wanted to do the right thing, you go back to the store, but but the store owner says, No, I I did that on purpose.

Because I wanted to bestow.

I wanted to bestow some generosity and grace.

See, listen, we're all guilty.

We're all guilty.

The apostle Paul says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Isaiah says we're we're we're we're like we're like sheep, all we've all we've all gone astray.

There is not one among us that is righteous.

No, not one.

We are all under the condemnation.

But that's not where the story ends, does it?

The story doesn't end there.

There is an opportunity.

God has put some money back in our grain sack.

It's the grace of God.

It may be the reason you're sitting in the seat.

Somebody somewhere invited you to church.

Somebody told you about Jesus.

Somebody said you can have forgiveness.

Somebody said you can have salvation, you can have a relationship with God.

You can be forgiven.

You can be restored, you can be redeemed, you have hope.

And so the psalmist back in 32.5, he says, Finally, I confessed all my sins to you, and I stopped trying to hide my guilt.

I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord, and you forgave me.

All my guilt is gone.

Augustine said this, repentant tears wash out the stain of guilt.

And so this morning the Lord invites us to come.

He is, listen, he wants you to know that he comes to you with a heart of grace.

He has put some money back in your sack, and he is drawing you simply through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Come and walk in freedom.

Come and have your sins removed.

Come and he will remove the stains, your sin scarred, stains, and he will set you free.

All you've got to do is confess your sins to him, and he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Amen.

And amen.

And so that's it.

That's where we find ourselves this morning.

Is are we gonna are we gonna sit in condemnation and judgment?

Are we gonna confess and give in to the conviction and the sweet drawing of the Holy Spirit?

And so I'm gonna give you an opportunity to respond this morning.

And it and it may not be just, it may not, listen, it may not be just this morning, it might be over the next three days.

And then it might be the next three days.

And and however the Holy Spirit works, Tyler Staden says this, he's a pastor out in Portland, Oregon, young guy.

He says, a maturing community is a confessing community.

Not a church without sin, but a church without secrets.

And so we might need to confess our sin.

Confess it to the Lord.

Confess it one to another.

James, James, James says this.

He says, He says, you want to experience healing.

There is something about confessing your sin to someone else that is directly related to healing that you might need.

Father, we come.

We ask for you to wash us clean.

God, we ask for the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

We want to experience a bit of that wealth, a bit of that grace in our grain sack.

Lord, we want we want to we want to walk in into the presence of our Savior, knowing that that conviction comes from the Holy Spirit.

And when we respond to conviction, we have forgiveness.

We have redemption.

We don't have to have condemnation.

The apostle Paul he talks about in chapter 7 of Romans how we we struggle with our flesh.

Why do I do the things that I don't want to do?

I don't want to do them, but I end up doing them.

But then he says in the very first verse in Romans chapter 8, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

So if you need to come to the altar, if you need to have a conversation, if you need to walk outside and make a phone call, or you need to get it right with God and you need to get it right with somebody else.

And we are a church that there is no telling what the Lord might do in and through us in this community if we are a church without secrets.

A confessing church.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen and amen.