Beware of Cunning Covenants | Joshua 9 | Pastor Aaron Levy

Hey, there he is.

Let's give it up our founding pastor for that generosity moment.

Heck yeah, heck yeah, Hey, who's ready to squeeze the

scripture tonight? We've been in the Book of Joshua all year.

We took a break last week for Beyond ay Do.

Shout out to those that were on the panel of

Beyond I Do.

Wasn't that amazing before we get started?

Though? If you were if you were here tonight and

you got baptized on Sunday, can you raise your hand?

Oh my god, salute. We love you guys man. What

wasn't Sunday epic? Now one more announcement because I was

praying for this this morning. Raise your hand if you

got baptized Sunday and this is your first Wednesday, Yes, yes, yes,

thank you so much. We took a break last week

for our Beyond I Do night. If you don't know

what Beyond I Do is, our lead our co lead

pastor and our lead pastor have a podcast called Beyond

I Do and they just talk about family and relationships

and so forth, and quarterly we bring it on stage

and it was phenomenal.

So what I'm gonna do is if.

It's like a little recap so we can level set

because we're going to be in all of Joshua Chapter

nine tonight, twenty seven verses. Put on your seat belt.

I believe we can do it. Can we do it online?

Can we do it twenty.

Seven verses in thirty four minutes or less? Okay?

Now, one of the things that I think is encouraging us,

encouraging for us to know is when.

We go through Joshua, not only are we.

Learning together as a community, we're also learning how to

study the Bible for ourselves. And then when we're looking

at this book of Joshua, it's very beneficial because when

you look at this story, you have this man of God, Joshua,

who's a leader, and he's told, Hey, everywhere you place

your feet that is yours, that is your kingdom, territory,

be on the offense. But then as he gets there,

he has to fight to obtain what's his. And that's

the faith journey that we give our life to Christ.

And as we're on our faith journey, we have territory,

we have dominion, but we also have enemies. Right, So

tonight we're gonna kind of be talking about spiritual warfare,

but I'm gonna try to do it in the most

practical sense. You guys ready, So there's typically three enemies

that are against us as we're on our faith journey,

and many theologians say that Joshua chapter six through nine

show a parallel of those three enemies, and it should

be on the screen right here. Now we have the

three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And

this is how theologians are saying that this is a

parallel because remember when we were in Joshua chapter six

and they were trying to overcome Jericho, but they had

this huge system and it was large, and they had

all the money and the resources, and they were thinking,

how could we overcome this? But their act of obedience

that didn't make sense. But they operated in faith and

God was able to get the victory through their obedience.

And that's how we overcome the world system, by the

acts of obedience that we have today. Right, So then

they won that battle, and what you know, what happens

when you win a battle, congratulations, you get your next one.

So the next one is Joshua chapter seven.

And once you start winning, then it's like, you know,

what do we have to take all the army. I

don't think Ai is that much. And sometimes that's what

our flesh does. We were seeking comfort, and that's when

they lost the battle because they didn't seek counsel from

the Lord. And a lot of times our flesh tries

to counsel us on what's best, and a lot of

times that's opposing what God' says.

Just catching us up, just catching us up.

They finally win that battle in Joshua chapter eight. Remember

when Gabe gave that fire sermon and he talked about

the ambush. But they finally listened to God. But they

didn't counsel their flesh. They killed their flesh.

If we want to overcome our flesh, we got to

kill it. So that was aching.

He stole the stuff and then he got caught and

his whole family died, etc.

Etc.

They overcame the flesh. And now we're in Joshua chapter nine.

We're all set up.

And this tactic right here that the Devil.

Uses is called deception, and that's what we're gonna be

looking at tonight in Joshua nine.

So I just wanted to.

Level set us to where we're parked at tonight, and

I want to say this, being that Joshua, in the Israelites,

they're winning battles, it's easiest to be deceived in seasons

that you're winning. That's good because you start relying on

your results, your experience. Now you're in a situation where

people are asking you to be on the podcast, and

people are asking you questions, and now when things come up,

you think you're the expert. And what happens is sometimes

when you're winning in seasons, there are people that act

like they're for you, but they're not. So we've got

to be mindful of deception. With that being said, let's

all stand to our feet Joshua, Chapter nine. We're not

gonna look at all twenty seven verses because my knees

would start hurting if we did that. But we're gonna

look at the first thirteen to kind of set up

the picture.

How about that we do thirteen verses. I'll be reading

from ESV. But I think a lot of you have

your journals.

Right, Let's go as soon as all the kings who

were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country.

And in the lowland, all along.

The coast of the Great Sea towards Lebanon, the hit Tites,

the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizites, the Cellulites, the hig Bites.

Just seen you throw paying attention, say sell, you like

to be an enemy? Right.

The hig Bites and the Jebusites heard of this, they

gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had

done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part

acted with cunning, say cunning, and went and made provisions,

and took worn out sacks for their donkeys, and wine skins,

and worn out and torn and mended, with worn out

patch sandals on their feet, and worn out closed pay

attention when the Bible repeats a word, And all their

provisions were dry and crumbly. They went to Joshua in

the camp of Gil Gilgal and said to the men

of Israel, we have come from a far distant country,

so now make a covenant with us. But the men

of Israel said to the Hivice, perhaps you live among us,

then how can we.

Make a covenant with you? They said to Joshua, man,

we your servants. And Joshua said to them, who are you?

Where do you come from, They said to him, from

a very distant country.

Your servants had come. I could do an audio Bible hunt.

Their servants had come because of the name of the Lord,

your God. For we have heard a report of him

and all that he did in Egypt and the Namorites

and Heshbah and Basin and Ashtaroth.

So our elders and the inhabitants of the country.

Said to us, take provisions in your hand for the journey,

and go to meet them, and say to them, we

are your servants. So now make a covenant with us.

Here's our bread. It was still warm when we took

it from our house as our food for the journey

on the day we set out to come to you.

But now it's dry and crumbly.

These wine skins, they were new when we filled them,

and behold they burst. And these garments and sandals of

ours are worn out from our very long journey. Let's

pray God, as you use your word tonight, expose to

us your truth. Reveal to us individually what you want

us to catch tonight. Convict, inspire, encourage, transform, open our

eyes so we can see what you have to say.

And Jesus name we pray. Amen, Amen, you may be seated.

I'm gonna break this down, this whole chapter down in

three points, and my first point is, be careful of

a cunning covenant. Be careful of a cunning covenant. Let's

break down what happened. Let me just kind of recap

what happened. Typically, you have two types of enemies, and

if we look at the very beginning of the chapter,

what happened was they're on their military conquest.

They just beat a I in.

Those those five territories, were like, hey, they're coming towards us,

so why don't we unite and go against the Israelites.

So we have to know once you start winning, there

will be people that unite to be against you. That's

what we're seeing, right. But there's something else that happened.

There's these people that are the Gibbean Nights. Now they

are the Hipites, but they're known as the Gibbean Kites

hip Wtes, meaning that that's where their nationality from, the

Gibbean Kights.

That's their city.

Like, I'm a black man from Ontario, right, hip Bites Gibeon.

So the Gibbean Knights were like, you know what, they'll

probably kill us though, So let's act like we came

from a far journey, and let's act like where they're friends.

And what the enemy does sometimes is while there are

clear enemies in front of you, there are people next

to you trying to be your friend, but are low

key your enemy as well. So you want to discern

in seasons when you're in warfare, who's really for you?

Because I know these people are against me, But why

I am I getting all.

These attentions and text messages from these people out of nowhere?

What's going on here?

And there's a couple of things that you want to

be mindful for in the covenant. We'll talk more about

the details of a covenant in point two, but let's

look at verse six and verse eleven.

It says, now, make a covenant with us.

Be mindful of people that want to rush relationship with you.

They get there, now, come on, just make a covenant.

Now, let's go. Now. It's like the advertisement. You gotta

act now. If you leave the store, it's not gonna

be you gotta do it now now. Now God's not

in that if it's rushing.

Yeah, so they say two times, come on, come on,

so be mindful of all these opportunities, but it's about

to sell out.

It's about to do it.

Wait, be mindful of people that don't answer your questions.

Remember, Joshua, hey, who are you? Where are you from?

We come from a very far distance. Then answer the questions.

Now they were only fifteen miles away. It's like Rancho

to Pomona. But they're acting like, oh, we came from Yuganda.

We just oh God, I don't even know how we

got here.

Oh my God.

And they're setting these things up, trying to deceive what

Joshua and his leaders can see with their eyes.

So be mindful of people that do that. Now, here's

the kicker. This is where I leaned in. I was like,

oh God.

If you look at verse nine, they show their hand.

In verse nine, they say, we came from.

A very distant country, right, lion.

But here here's your servants have come because of the

name of the Lord, your God. Be mindful of people

that talk about God but don't treat him as Lord,

that want to be in a relationship with you, because

tonight we're talking about unequally yoked relationships the.

Israelites and the Gibbean Nights.

So if you have a DM that you're on the

fence about should I answer or not?

You want to lean in tonight.

If you're on the fence on should I invest in

that company, you want to lean in tonight.

If you want to.

Talk about how to navigate covenant when you're engagement, you

want to lean in tonight. Because if we look at

this word cunning, remember we said this word cunning, it

should be on the screen over here. In Hebrew, the

meaning is orman is to be shrewd, crafty.

Subtle prudence, trickery.

Now what's so crazy about this is when Satan gets

introduced in Genesis chapter three, the same word is used.

Let's look at Genesis chapter three for a moment. It

says here, now the serpent was more crafty, the same,

more than any other beast in the field that the

Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did

God actually say you should not eat of the tree

of the garden? Did you catch what happened? Here?

He's deceiving Eve because he's asking a question about God's word.

But it's even deeper. He's described where he's described.

Here as the Lord God because in Genesis one, it's

the narrative of how God created they have is in

the earth.

If you look at Genesis two.

Now he's called Lord God because he's Lord over his creation.

He says Lord God like eleven times. So when we

go into Genesis three to feel that the Lord God

had made look, he said to the woman, did God, wait,

where's Lord? Right?

The subtle we could talk about God. The just don't

treat him as Lord.

Sometimes we just want a savior, but we don't want

a lord. See, a savior saves you from your past

and your shame and your guilty. We want that, Jesus.

A lord directs your decision making. And sometimes we go

into these covenants that we don't understand because I'm free

from my past, but I keep going in this cycle

because the same decision making state, the same transitioning from

savior to Lord. But it's something that the Israelite should

have known because they use this strategy too. There's a

quote here it says in war, truth is the first casualty.

We're in warfare, so we're gonna use strategy, We're gonna

use trickery. If you go all the way back to

Joshua chapter two, they acted like spies. You look at Rahab,

she was like, hey, if you hurry quickly, they that way.

If you look at Joshua chapter eight is verse fifteen.

If you're taking notes, Gabe talked about it beautifully.

If you want to look at it on you too.

They ambushed by acting like they were losing. They ran,

and when they ran, everybody from Ai fled the city.

So then people came in and burned the city to

the ground and then turned around and killed.

Trickery.

They used cunning, and now that they got these wins,

they don't see that they being tricked. And see, I

think about how that works out in our life, because

when you look at the scripture, it talked about worn out,

dry and crusty two times. Could you imagine trying to

go on a date with somebody and then they.

Want to give you this bread in this wine.

See, be mindful for people that make excuses for their situation.

See this has the appearance of communion. This ain't no communion,

This is religious.

This is religon just intent. This is not relational action.

Communion is relational action. Me and me and my girls

were making a grill cheese sandwiches the other night, and

my wife was like, is there enough for me? I

was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, and she goes and she

was like, there wasn't enough for me. I said, well

you can get the end. See, I ain't doing no

booty sandwich. She threw the ends away, And when she

said that, I was like, mat, I think I'm gonna

use this because in Joshua, they come and I'm like, oh, you.

Know, this is my situation. You know what I'm saying.

I'm gonna get it together. I'm praying I'm in here.

But if we can work together now.

And sometimes we meet people worn out and then once

we start Covenant, we expect them to be brand new.

I can change them. Wait, wait, wait a minute.

If they really wanted Covenant, why couldn't that stop at

the store and get new bread.

They had money for the provision. And sometimes our compassion

is what Pastor Kenny taught me.

Sometimes our compassion outweighs our wisdom. And we see people

in this situation, now we minister to them. But ministering

to somebody is different than coven it with them. So

when you have people that are coming up in situation,

can you imagine being in a new relationship.

You're like, hey, yeah, you dating somebody?

Tell me about her man, she worn out, dry and crusty,

because that's what they did. Ladies, can you imagine getting

a DM from a guy and before you respond, you

should start looking at his page. And as you look

at his page, should I respond, you send screenshots to

your homegirls and they say, girl, he wore out, dry

and crusty.

Now with on you if you respond.

But there's times in our life were in seasons that

were winning, and we get tricked by these appearance appearances.

And it's like, you know what, they don't mean harm

I care about their story. They can come in and see.

The thing about it is the force part was beware

of a cunning covenant.

So how do you beware of that? You seek counsel

before covenant. That's point number two.

Point number two is seek counsel before covenant. Look what

happens here in Joshua chapter nine, verse fourteen. So the

men took some of their provisions but did not ask

counsel from the Lord, and Joshua made peace with them

and made a covenant with them to let them live.

And the leaders of the congregation swarts at them. And

the end of three days after they had made that covenant,

with them.

They heard that they were their neighbors.

All they took was three days, and that they lived

among them.

And the people of Israel set out and reached their

cities on the third day.

Now their cities were giving cheparra bear beryof curious jerem.

But the people of Israel did not attack them, because

the leaders of the congregation has swore to them by

the Lord that's important, the God of Israel. Then all

the congregation murmured against the leaders. But all the leaders

said to the congregation, we have sworn to them by

the Lord. Be mindful of the repetition in scripture, the

God of Israel.

And now we may not touch them. This we will

do to them. Let them live.

Let's rip be upon us because of an oath that

we swore to them.

And the leader said to them, let them live.

So they become cutters of wood and the jars of

water for all the congregation, just as the leaders had

said of them. Let's talk about what a covenant is.

A covenant is not a contract. A covenant is I'm

going to uphold what I commit to irrespective of what

you do. So notice in this phrase it says learned

to them by the Lord. So I'm gonna treat you

how Jesus treats me. Contract is, Hey, you do this,

I do that.

If you don't uphold this, I can get out of

that contract. Covenant is even if it was wrong.

I've committed to this, then I'm gonna keep my word

in this contract covenant. And what happens with Israel and

Joshua in this time they don't take the time to

consult the Lord.

Why they're only consulting their results. We're winning.

They probably just want to be on the squad and

this will make our team grow.

So this is good. So we're gonna forego the interview process. No,

I just want that one person on my team right now.

The processes are in place for a reason.

Amen.

See counsel before covenant.

Proverbs eleven fourteen says where there is no guidance, a

people falls, but in the abundance of counselors their safety.

So I want to do something. I need your counsel.

Can you guys give me counsel? I guess not online.

Can you guys give me counsel online? Because the rancho

I don't know, Grand show you down to give me

counsel Okay, here's something very important to me.

There's been these debates for years.

Coke er pepsi, col kerpepsi, coke kerpepsi, cold kerpepsi.

That's what I'm saying.

I know she said neither. So when I was like,

you know what, I feel like, we're disrespecting Dr Pepper.

That's what I feel like.

But I'm torn because I hear coke, I hear pepsi

in my heart.

I want Dr Pepper so in a.

Multitude of counsel their safety. So y'all gonna keep me safe?

Okay?

When we do this online, I just want you to

type which beverage? Okay, Now here's what we gotta do.

When I name the soda. Now, don't be so spiritual.

I don't drink soda. Now when you drunk soda.

Hold your cheer for the one beverage you're going for.

You guys, good guys.

Ready, Okay, who's down for Coca Cola?

Who's down for PEPSI? Was that the same people?

Okay?

All right? Who's down for Doctor Pepper? I do it? Hey?

Are you y'all agree? The community said Dr Pepper? So

do it again? Why I gotta do it again. I

got my multitude of council. I'm safe online. Did did

y'all choose Doctor Pepper? You hear them in the spirit

and see the Bible says in a multitude of council

their safety. So I went to the multitude of council.

And I feel like it's safe because.

The community told me to drink this.

Now I have this at home, and three days later,

when I decide to drink this or recognize, oh my god,

this ain't what it appears to be. Oh my god,

I gotta talk to the production team.

I did not do this. This is I don't know

what it is. I have no idea. I don't I

don't modello, I don't know what this is.

And when I zoom in, if you zoom into this,

they ain't even take their time on this, this says

Doctor Peeper.

They misfilled it. But sometimes we be in a rush.

I talk to the community, the community, said Dr Pepper,

And now I find myself in a situation I can't.

Get out of.

See, that's why our values are christ community character, commitment.

We see Christ first, then the community of firms what

the answer is.

So that builds our character. So we know to what

we commit to.

But if we skip Christ, many times all we do

is ask the community. In the community, said Dr Pepper,

And this was not doctor now doctor Pepper's fire. But

let's get But sometimes we get tricked going into a

situation innocently because I'm asking people but.

Not asking God.

Psalm sixteen says this. It says, I bless the Lord,

who gives me counsel in the night. Also my heart

instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me,

because he is at my right hand, I shall not

be shaken. I love this verse because it says he

gives me counsel. So if you start your mourning with

a devotional getting counsel from the Lord, then when it's nighttime,

your heart will instruct you. But when it's nighttime, a

lot of times what's in our right hand is not

the word of God. Is this, And we're tired and

we're decompressing, and we don't even recognize this is how

we're being discipled, And the algorithm is telling us what's best.

This is the multitude of counsel, and God is saying,

if you start with Christ, then you might recognize at

nighttime you'll hear put that phone away, go to bed.

So they didn't seek counsel.

Say they found out three days later it wasn't what

they thought it was. There's two principles, and then we'll

move down to our last point. Notice how they make

a poor decision and the people started murmuring.

And what happens is.

The right people suffer when we choose the wrong alliances. Yeah,

because Israel and the leaders they chose the wrong people.

And now the people are like, what are we doing? Bro?

And sometimes we lose trust with the right people because

we found something in somebody else.

But the second thing is, even though they made a mistake,

they honored their commitment. They could have said, oh, y'all,

the Heavites get the special knife, but they didn't do

that because they swore to them by the Lord.

So when we fear God and we make a covenant

our word, we keep that covenant.

But what do we do when you're a giving a

knight and you're in covenant and you broke that covenant?

What point number three will help us? All confession honors covenant.

Confession honors covenant because now they're found out, they got caught,

and their worst fear is about to happen. They about

to die, But let's see what happens Verse twenty two.

Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, why did

you deceive us, saying we are very far from you

when you dwell among us. Now therefore you are cursed,

and some of you shall never be anything but servants

cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house

of my God. They answer, Joshua, very important right here,

because it was told to your servants for certainty that

the Lord your God had commanded his servants Moses, to

give you all the land and to destroy all the

inhabitants of the land from before you. So we feared

greatly for our lives because you did this thing. And

now behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good

and right your sight to us to.

Do do it verse twenty six.

So he did this to them and delivered them out

of the hand of the people of Israel. And they

did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day

cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation

and for the altar of the Lord to this day

in the place.

That he should choose. This is powerful. Let's close. Let

squeeze this out and close it.

They got caught, they were held accountable through those questions

from Joshua, and they just confessed, we were afraid and

this was the only way we thought we can live.

And Joshua shows mercy and doesn't kill them. But here's

a principle. Whenever you make a mistake, and make that mistake.

Work for you fell forward.

So I made a mistake by having them in my life.

But I'm gonna have them work for the temple and

for the congregation. So every time they work, they have

to hear worshiping of God. They're building the temple, they're

next to the church work, they're listening to God all

the time. So in conclusion, when you think about situations

in your life that is like, man, I can't confess that.

You're not only confessing for you, you're confessing for the

next generation. Because let me tell you what ends up

happening in this story from verse twenty five and twenty six.

Those people that confess I feared greatly due to me what.

You think is right.

They stayed working in the temple to generation after generation

after generation. Now listen, look what happens in first chronicles twelve,

verse four. It's very beautiful here Ishmayah, a Gibbeon, a

mighty man of the thirty and a leader over the city.

King David, he chose a gibbea knight to be his

mighty man and a leader. Why because this guy, Ishmayah's

great great great great great grandfather had the courage to say,

you know what, confession honors covenant, and I'm gonna do

this for my family and my generation. So then the

next generations David can trust an Ismaya.

Do you know what Ishmayah means in Hebrew? Yahweh hears.

You keep fast forwarding, And there's a leader named Namayah.

He's building the temple. Guess who has building experience. If

you look at Neamiah chapter three, is very beautiful because

if this person was next to this person, and this

person was next to this person, it's.

A picture of unity.

But look at Neemaiyah three seven and next to them

work Melitiah.

There can't be a knight. It's not over for you.

It's not over for your kid. It's not over for

your grandson.

And Jaden the whatever his name is, and the men

of Gibbeon and of Mizpah and the city of the

governor of the province beyond the river. The Gibean Knights

started with deception and ended out with deliverance. It's not

how you start, is how you finish.

Do you know what Melitaya means in Hebrew? That's why

I love the Bible.

Melataia the Gibbean knight. It means Yahweh is deliverance. And

what these two names teach us is when we confess,

Yahweh hears and Yahweh delivers. You and I have an

opportunity tonight for deliverance as well. And it's not you improving,

it's you surrender. There's a difference between getting caught and

confessing what ends up happening in this story, it started

off terrible, but they got to the point where I

have nowhere to turn but surrender. And that's what God

offers all of us tonight. See if you're in here

tonight and you're thinking, you know what, Yeah, people do lie,

people are shady, no new friends. You missed the whole

point of tonight right right. Because when we look at Joshua,

his name is Yeshua. He's a picture of Jesus. So

when we look at the Bible every single page. If

we have the mindset is about Jesus. There can only

be one hero, So what does that make us?

We are the Gibbia Knights. I'm a Gibbey, a knight.

And what happens is in church we try to be cunning.

And the way that we're cunning is through religion. We

give God things that are worn out, dry and crusty,

trying to have him excuse our situation.

We're the Gibean Knights. We start out cunning, or we

can confess. Confession is all about relationship. Relationship is this

is where I really am.

That's why all the way back in Genesis, when the

enemy deceived Eve, he said.

Adam, where are you? What is he looking for? Confession?

One of my favorite verses in all the Bible is

Proverbs chapter twenty eight, Verse thirteen says, whoever conceals his

transgressions will not prosper.

But he who first.

Confesses them and forsakes them receives mercy that ministered to

me earlier when we were singing, Mercy spoke for me.

We sing it. Are you ready to receive it?

I want to put a picture up before we close

in prayer. When I saw that word conceal, I called

my wife while I was running, and I said, Babe,

what is concealer? And she said, you put it in

different spots on your face so the dark spots don't

look as dark. I said, oh, oh, we be doing

that all the time spiritually. And we have an opportunity

to conceal or confess.

The Bible's a.

Mirror, yes, and the Bible's gonna show us us.

It's gonna show all our dark spots.

And when we see all of our blimishes and our failures,

and our shames and our betrayals and all the lies

and all.

The stuff, we have one or two options. We can

conceal it or we could confess it. Here's the great news.

Jesus already knows every single thing about you, yet he still.

Chooses you like this.

He knows every dark spot, and he loves you as is.

He doesn't need you to change anything about you yet,

He just needs you to confess.

Yeah, I got some dark spots.

Are you working hard to cover up what you did wrong?

You ready to confess tonight?

Not to me, to Jesus.

He's the one that died for you. He's the one

that loves you unconditionally. Romans five eight said, God demonstrates

his love towards us that while we were sinners, he

died for us. So I invite all of us to

close our eyes in online and I want you to

lock in with me. Please.

For some of.

You, you feel a little nervous, and that's great because

you're recognizing that you're weak without God.

God loves you, he misses you, he wants relationship. And

here's what's so powerful about God's love. Once you start

spending time with him, he's the one that's going to

influence your decision making to change. It's not forcing your behavior.

Modification is just being accepted as is. I'm not talking

about Patrio. I'm talking about your soul. Do you have

a relationship with Jesus or do you have religion in

your mindset? I'm going to invite our entire community to

prayer prayer together. There's two groups that I'm asking that

we pray. The first group you may know church, but

you don't know Jesus yet.

And that's okay.

That was my life for years, and I recognize that

all that faking I was doing, all that Jesus still

loves me, and that same love is for you as well.

And I'm gonna ask you to repeat this prayer after

me as a declaration that Jesus is your savior and

your Lord. He died on the cross for all of

your sin, your consequences, and that sin is paid for it.

It's time to move forward.

It's a second group of you. You know this. You

can do an altar call. You read the Bible that

there is some shame in your life because there are

some dark spots. There's freedom available. Don't stray from Jesus.

Reconnect with him right now.

I'm gonna ask you to pray this prayer with the

group as well, because what we're saying is we're going

to continue in our faith journey. We stop for a little,

we're gonna get up and we're gonna keep walking. And

I'm gonna ask our entire community to pray this prayer

together to encourage those that are starting their faith journey

or that are praying this prayer to continue their faith journey.

Say this with me, Please say, Dear Lord Jesus, I

confess that I'm a sinner, but I thank you that

your love forgives me for all of my sin. There

is not one sin that you're hanging over my head.

Thank you for freedom. From this moment forward, You're my savior.

And my Lord. Teach me to trust you, surround.

Me with community that points me back to you.

In Jesus name, we pray.

Let's open our eyes for a moment before we celebrate.

We just want to make this moment special for you.

Some I believe some of you prayed that prayer for

the first time to give your life to Christ. Some

of you saying, you know what, I'm continuing my faith

journey on the count of three. We just want to

celebrate that you made that decision and patriots here for you.

We're with you, we love you.

So if you prayed that prayer for the first time

to give your life to Jesus, you pray that prayer

to reconnect and continue on your faith journey.

Let's raise our hand bold one.

Two, one two three, Go ahead and raise your hand high,

Raise your hand high. Come on church, every single section

we have hands. Raise your hand high, keep them high,

keep them high. While we're cheering. We're cheering. We love

you today. The angels are rejoicing today. You're making the

best decision.

That you've ever made. Hallelujah.

Man, it's so refreshing to know with all that's good

going on in the world, Jesus is still on the throne,

He's still saving souls, and Heaven is a part of

our future. Amen, you guys blessed by the sermon tonight. Well,

if you just gave your life to Christ for the

first time, Patriot wants to be a church that compliments

you on your faith journey.

So there's a research resource for you.

You pull out your smartphone and you visit www dot

grow dot Faith.

We want to give you a.

Book from our founding pastor that just talks about next steps.

And speaking of next step, maybe your next step is

going to Growth Track.

Growth Track is.

A class that we have at nine am every Sunday.

It just teaches you about our vision and our values.

But most importantly, you're gifting your calling, your purpose and

why God has created you to make a difference, and

we help curate that for you. So we invite you

to be a part of that. And maybe your next

step is you know what, I'm going to commit to

come into church every Sunday, every Wednesday for the next year.

And I'm gonna see what God does in my life. Amen,

listen to our feet. Hey, if you need specific prayer,

we'll have a prayer team that'll pray for you.

I'll pray generally and you'll be dismissed.

And before I dismiss I'm surprised you guys weren't complimenting

my shirt.

This is like this, this is so fire. I'm just

wearing this new lamb of God.

So yeah, I was like, I was just crazy, Curtis.

I came out here and there was like, man, that's

a new drip. But it's fine. But if you guys

want some of this new drip, our season three is back.

It's sold out.

It's in our containers right there, so you want to

avail yourself to it. We have some phenomenal pieces that

you could check out in the car yard.

Amen.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for what you've accomplished

through your word. Help us to continue believing it, and

help us to use your word for freedom, for clarity,

clean our minds in Jesus.

Then we pray. Hey, man, God bless you. You dismissed.

Thank you