The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Deuteronomy 7:1-5Moses commands Israel to devote the seven nations to complete destruction and make no covenant with them
1 When Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you;
2 and when Yahweh your God delivers them up before you, and you strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them.
3 You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son.
4 For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So Yahweh’s anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
5 But you shall deal with them like this. You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their engraved images with fire.
Moses tells Israel not to fear the nations but to remember what God did to Pharaoh
17 If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”
18 you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt:
19 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
God will give their kings into Israel's hand; do not covet or bring abominable things into your house
24 He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.
25 You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God.
26 You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
Manasseh and other tribes failed to drive out the Canaanites completely, putting them to forced labor instead
27 Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its towns, nor Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.
28 When Israel had grown strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out.
The angel of the Lord rebukes Israel for breaking covenant, promising the nations will be thorns in their sides
1 Yahweh’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you.
2 You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars.’ But you have not listened to my voice. Why have you done this?
3 Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’”
Read aloud by a congregation member describing humanity as dead in sin but made alive by God's grace
1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;
3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Those who set their minds on the flesh are hostile to God; those on the Spirit have life and peace
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;
7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.
Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.
David confronts Goliath in the name of the Lord, declaring God will deliver him into his hand
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46 Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
Read by a congregation member about cutting off hand or foot or eye if it causes you to sin
7 “Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes!
8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire.
9 If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire.
God is light; walking in the light brings fellowship and cleansing; confess sins and he is faithful to forgive
5 This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Brian and Lissa were out celebrating a birthday, so Justin Waters brought the message on a Sunday morning in April. He drew a line from Moses' command to Israel in Deuteronomy 7, through the repeated failures of the judges, and into the practical reality of what it means to kill sin in a believer's life. The title he gave it was "Devoted to Destruction."
What was said
Moses addressed a new generation of Israelites on the edge of the promised land and gave them clear instructions: drive out the seven nations completely, destroy their altars, make no deals, show no mercy. Justin read through that passage in Deuteronomy 7 and then moved quickly to Judges 1 and 2 to show what actually happened. Tribe after tribe left the job unfinished. They put the Canaanites to forced labor instead of driving them out, and the angel of the Lord told them plainly what that would cost: those nations would become thorns in their sides and their gods a snare.
That pattern of compromise set up the main question Justin wanted to sit with. Easter had just passed, and there is that familiar feeling of walking out of a service full of hope and then finding ordinary life waiting. If the victory is already won, why does it still feel like such a fight? He named that tension as the already-but-not-yet, the space between what Christ has accomplished and what has not yet been fully realized on earth.
Justin read Ephesians 2 and asked the room to identify the three things that pull a person toward walking in sin and trespass. The congregation picked them out: the devil, the world, and the flesh. He said that last one, the flesh, was where he wanted to spend most of the morning. He read through Galatians 5, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, and noted that the works of the flesh are described as evident while the fruit of the spirit sometimes has to be searched for.
He read Romans 8 and said plainly that those verses had described him far too recently. He had believed the lie that whatever his flesh wanted, it deserved. He showed up, served faithfully, said the right things, and still felt like he was living a double life because he was not submitted to God's law. He compared himself directly to Israel: given the chance to repent and cut sin out, he had chosen instead to isolate and hide his heart from people who loved him.
The congregation joined in here and the conversation opened up. People connected the teaching to HGTV and comparison, to social media, to time spent alone, to the subtler habits that slowly pull a person's eyes off the Lord. Justin kept returning to the point that these things are not always obvious sins, but the Holy Spirit, if a person stays in step with him, will identify what needs to go in a given season. He quoted C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity on the danger of setting any one impulse up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs.
Justin pulled Romans 13 and Galatians 5 together to describe what the response looks like in practice. He called it two-sided: put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop making plans to gratify the desires of the flesh. He used the phrase PB apparently uses at Tribe, boss yourself around, and he gave practical examples, deleting apps, getting curbside pickup instead of walking past the temptation, auditing the weekly schedule. He told a picture that had come to him of standing under a waterfall in a cave with an umbrella open, wondering why he was not getting clean. Making provision for the flesh, he said, looks exactly like that.
He closed with David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, reading the verse where David tells Goliath that the Lord will deliver him into his hand, and then describing David going in afterward to cut off the head with Goliath's own sword. The Lord delivers the enemy into our hands, Justin said, but we still have to do the killing. Jay's phrase from a guys' group, no mercy on sin, had hit him hard when he heard it, and he used it to close the main argument. God is faithful to forgive when we confess, but we do not get to harbor the thing we are being forgiven for. We confess it, we crucify it, and we bring others into that process, because sin thrives in isolation and nobody can do this alone.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
Do an audit of your weekly schedule and identify one specific habit, app, or activity that keeps pulling you away from God, then take a concrete step to cut it out or limit your access to it.
Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and show you something he has pointed out before that you have not fully dealt with, then bring it to him in honest prayer.
Find another person in the Tribe community and confess a struggle or blind spot to them, because Justin was clear that sin thrives in isolation and this walk is not meant to be done alone.
When you wake up each morning this week, pause and ask God to satisfy you with his steadfast love before you reach for your phone or fill your mind with anything else.
If something came up during the message that you need to pray through, take Justin up on his invitation and go talk to one of the folks who offered to pray with people after the service.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Moses told Israel to completely destroy the nations in the land, but they kept some around for forced labor instead. Where in your own life have you held onto something God has asked you to let go of, telling yourself it was still useful?
Justin read from Ephesians 2 and named three things pulling us toward walking in sin: the devil, the world, and the flesh. Which of those three do you find yourself most vulnerable to, and why?
Brian y Lissa Hunter estaban de viaje, así que Justin Waters trajo el mensaje ese domingo. El título fue "Devoted to Destruction" (Consagrado a la destrucción), y partió de Deuteronomio 7, donde Dios le ordena a Israel eliminar completamente a las naciones cananeas para que no se conviertan en una trampa espiritual. Justin mostró cómo Israel no obedeció esa orden, dejó vivir a esos pueblos entre ellos, y terminó siendo seducido exactamente por los dioses y costumbres que debía haber destruido. Esa desobediencia les costó mucho más de lo que creyeron ahorrar.
Justin conectó ese patrón con nuestra propia vida. Citando pasajes de Efesios, Gálatas y Romanos, explicó que vivimos bajo tres fuerzas que nos jalan hacia el pecado: el mundo, el diablo y nuestra propia carne. La carne no es solo los pecados "grandes" sino también los hábitos pequeños que gradualmente nos alejan de Dios, como las redes sociales, el consumo de entretenimiento, o incluso el tiempo a solas si reemplaza la comunidad. Ser serio con el pecado significa identificar esos patrones y eliminarlos de raíz, no darles refugio ni excusas.
La congregación participó activamente en la conversación, compartiendo ejemplos concretos de cómo ciertos hábitos, aparentemente inocentes, habían producido envidia, descontento o distancia de Dios en sus propias vidas. Justin cerró con la imagen de David cortándole la cabeza a Goliat: Dios entrega la victoria, pero nosotros tenemos que hacer el corte. Confesar el pecado a otros, caminar de cerca con el Espíritu Santo y vestirse de Cristo cada día son las acciones concretas que propuso para vivir en la libertad que Jesús ya compró.
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Pasajes bíblicos usados:
Deuteronomio 7:1-8, 17-18, 24-26
Jueces 1:27-28
Jueces 2:1-3
Efesios 2:1-5
Gálatas 5:16-17, 19-23, 24-25
Romanos 8:5-8, 12-13
Romanos 13:12-14
1 Samuel 17 (David y Goliat, con énfasis en el versículo 46)
Mateo 18:7-9
Juan 14:15
1 Juan 1:5-9
Read the full transcript10,006 words
Good morning, everybody. Come on in and have a seat. Happy Sunday. Welcome to Tribe. Come on in.
We're going to get started here with worship. And I want to encourage you if you've had a terrible week or a wonderful week, it does not matter because because our heavenly father is still on the throne. Hallelujah? Amen. Let's stand to our feet and worship.
You'll notice Brian and Lisa are not here today. They are on a much needed and deserved fiftieth birthday celebration camping trip. So, we have a wonderful lineup for you today. Guess what? No matter who is here, Jesus, the guest of honor, is always here and so we're gonna worship him today.
A peace from the hurt I had buried deep inside. Oh, knees on the floor, I finally found everything I needed. Excited. You lifted my soul and opened up my eyes. Oh, I never knew anything last forever till I found you till I found you.
I never dreamed anything could be better till I found you till I found you. You're rewriting my story and I'm brand new like I'm done with building these castles that combo like sand. Knees on the floor, oh, knees on the floor. I finally
Well, good morning, everybody. Happy Sunday. God is good. Amen? All the time.
Let's worship together. Let's sing that chorus one more time because he is so so good doing this. There's something that gets me so fired up about talking about his goodness because I feel like oftentimes we think about good being gentle, good being easy, good being nice, but God's goodness is not those things. God's goodness is a goodness that has gone before us and won battles. God's goodness is one that could tear down walls, break chains.
His goodness is so so just it's a fire that can't be contained. And so as we sing this next bit just yeah, let it get you fired up. This gets me going. This gets me so going about how good he is. That nothing can contain him.
That he is a powerful, powerful God. Just reminded in that power that it is the power that shaped the mountains. It's the power that has created such a beautiful beautiful place that we get to live in. So let's sing that beautiful beautiful name.
What a beautiful name it is. What a beautiful name it is.
Father god, we thank you for your beauty. We thank you that we have no doubt about who you are and about how great you are just simply by walking outside in this beautiful place, God. From the top of the highest mountains, God, to the grass that's starting to poke out as the snow is melting away, You are so beautiful. You have blessed us so much with this place to be able to share in your glory, father. So fill this place with that same glory, God.
Fill this place as we as we worship you in so many different ways today, God. We thank you, father. And all God's people said, amen. Thanks for worshiping with us, guys. Grab some coffee, shake your hand to somebody that you don't know, and let's get settled.
Does it have to be that close?
Move it back.
Move it back just a touch.
Just seeing, like, where everybody's at. Alright, we can start making our way back to our seats. Love that our Tribe fam is so talkative. Sorry if you're new and an introvert. We are family here, and you cannot sneak around without being known.
Yeah. And being hugged. And that's that's just how we are as a church, and that's something I love about us. This tribe family means you are deeply missed when you're gone, because we can tell. We know when you're gone.
My name's Jay. For those of you that don't know me, I help lead the young adults here at Tribe. And this week, for those of you that noticed, Brian and Lissa are not here. They are in The Bahamas taking a much needed rest and allowing their bench to step up to the plate and fill in. So, saw Connor leading worship, did an incredible job.
Give it up for Connor. Well done, sir And Justin over here is going to be bringing the message in just a little bit. Very, very excited for that. And as you can tell, we're mixing up the order of things. So I'm actually going to do offering and announcements right here.
So Tribe, for for those of you that don't know, does things a little bit differently. We meet in a bar. We Right? Pretty sweet. Definitely the Jackson vibes.
But we don't pass offering buckets here for the tithe or for the offering. And a couple ways to give are through the website. There's a tab. You can there's a little offering box next to the saloon doors over there. You can put cash or check-in there.
And you can also text to 84321. It's as easy as texting a friend. So, if you guys don't mind taking a moment, bowing your heads with me, I'm going to pray over the tithe and the offering. Father, we thank you for this opportunity just to gather here this morning to come together as a body, to lift up a joyful noise, and to praise you and your name, Lord. We just acknowledge and humble ourselves before you that everything that we have is yours, lord.
We lay it all at your feet. It's in your son's precious name that we pray. Everyone said, amen. Couple quick announcements are we have connect cards on your seats. Colson, can you hold up a connect card for me?
And they're not just yes, well done. They're not just connect cards, okay? They are also prayer cards. So if you turn around the back, a lot of you that come every week are like, I don't I've already filled one of those out forever ago. There's also prayer on there and we have an empty booth back there and the reason that booth is empty is for prayer after service.
Lanisha leads prayer and whoever she deputizes to help join alongside her would love to pray for you guys after service. So, really encourage you to kind of make your way back there as well and without further ado, Justin Waters is going to come preach the word.
Well, morning, guys. Good morning. Happy April. Wow. We're we're halfway through April, which is amazing.
Actually, hold on one second. I was gonna avert disaster by not putting this on that. There. Okay. Well, good morning, guys.
Welcome to Tribe. If you are joining us on the livestream, welcome to you as well and anybody that might be new. I'm not the usual face that is up here. Got a call from Brian not so long ago and he said, hey, you know, I'm not gonna be there to preach. Would you be willing?
And I was like, oh, man. I don't know. I felt a little bit like Moses in the beginning of Exodus when the Lord speaks to him and is like, hey, I got this job for you. And he's like, really me? Like, I'm not a good speaker.
Like, what about my brother Aaron? And God's like, no. Like, this is this is for you. And, not that I'm I'm Moses. You know, we're not gonna be leading any sort of ex this year, but that's just kinda that's where I was at.
Please, if you think of it while we're while we're here, be praying for me. And, yeah, just know that I I feel really honored and privileged to be able to share the word with you guys and to, yeah, just share what the Lord has been putting on my heart. We're so excited that Brian and Melissa get to be on vacation and take a much needed rest. And I'm just so proud of everybody who showed up early here this morning to serve. Would you guys stand up if you came early or you were involved in some way this morning making this happen?
I just would love to give you guys a round of applause. Yeah. This is a it's just a super cool picture of the body of Christ. Members coming together towards a common goal. And that, common goal is not just for us to be able to show up here and say that we held a church service.
We're here to worship Jesus and to hear what he's got for our community. His word is applicable and it's alive and yeah, it's available for us to dig into. As we start, I'm just gonna open this up in prayer. Jesus, thank you so much for this morning. Thank you for this place that we get to gather, the freedom we have to talk about our faith in you, to learn more about you, to dig into some of the harder things that we have to live with and live by, or the high calling that you've put on our lives.
Lord, I just come humbly before you. I acknowledge, Lord, you are the senior pastor of Tribe. Lord, I don't wanna say anything that I haven't heard from you or that you have not said. Lord, would you open up your scriptures to us? Would your holy spirit just breathe new life into it?
Lord, we love you. Amen. Amen. So if you're taking notes, you can write down the title of this morning's conversation. And the title is devoted to destruction.
Before before we get too far into the destruction though, I just wanted to invite you guys to contribute this morning. One of the things I love about what we hear we do here at Tribe is the opportunity for people to interact and to comment, ask questions, make some connections. Kat's gonna be running around with the handheld mic that lets the people on the livestream, shout out to my fam in North Carolina, and also everybody here be able to hear you. So speak right into it, put it right in front of your face and speak into it. And, yeah, I'm I'm happy to have you guys speak.
It gives me a chance to catch my breath and take a sip of water, clear my my dry throat. On to the destruction. So let's turn together to Deuteronomy seven. Deuteronomy comes after yep. Numbers.
Yep. Correct. Correct. So the the events of Exodus have have happened. And Deuteronomy, at this point, Moses is addressing the people of Israel as they are forty years into this wandering in the desert.
And he's addressing a new generation, a different generation than had been freed from slavery in Egypt, and he's starting to remind them of everything that the Lord has done. And they've been whining and wandering in the last forty years waiting to enter this land that God had promised them. And in the midst of the and of that anticipation, Moses wants to get some things straight. So starting right in verse one, I'm just gonna read this because it's it's kinda long. But he says, when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mighty than you.
And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and when you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy on them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons. For they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
But thus shall you deal with them. You shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their ashram and burn their carved images with fire. Jumping down to verse 17. If you say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? You shall not be afraid of them.
But you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. The great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So will the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Jumping a little bit further to verse 24. And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven.
No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. The carved images of their gods, you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet their silver or their gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it. For it is an abomination to the Lord your God, and you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.
So this idea of devoting something to destruction, the connotation here is that of an offering or a religious right. God's preference of Israel over these foreign nations is a subject for another day. Let Brian handle that. But Moses is reminded is reminding the people that God has commanded that all trace of these nations be wiped out as a way to honor God. It might seem harsh or like a power trip, but listen to some of the reasoning he has behind it.
To protect Israel from idolatry, from being ensnared by riches, by coveting. God is trying to keep his people solely reliant and fixated on him. He's been with them through the wilderness. They've learned how to follow and worship him, and he doesn't want their eyes to wander from their covenant. How do you guys think they did?
Terrible. Right? We know. We we see it over and over again. Fast forward to the beginning of Judges, in the first chapter of Judges verse 27 says, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethsheen and its villages or Tanakh and its villages or the inhabitants of Dor in its villages or the inhabitants of Ybelim in its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo in its villages.
For the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely. And it keeps going on. And over and over, all of these tribes that were given these territories to inhabit, they don't do their complete job. They don't drive out these other nations.
And they they subject them to forced labor. They they say, like, oh, well, we'll get some, you know, we've conquered these people, we'll get some work out of them. And it just creates this this reliance on these other nations and allows them to persist. In the next half chapter of Judges, chapter two verse one, now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bohem, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land.
You shall break down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this that you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you. You don't have to read very far into the Old Testament to see how much these nations were a thorn and their gods a snare for Israel.
And it's just this continuous pattern through the through the judges, through the kingdom of Israel, once they get a king over and over again, they're given opportunity to to eliminate all of this sin, all of this, you know, striving after these foreign gods from their midst and they don't do it. We can see this idea of Israel turning away from God, losing out on his promise to fight for them. How foolish. Right? When the victory is certain, why would you then compromise?
Few weeks ago, we celebrated Easter. It's an amazing opportunity to remember the pain and humiliation that Jesus went through on our behalf. Came to live a life just like us in so many ways, yet he lived it so differently than we typically do. I feel like we all walk outside on Easter Sunday feeling full of victory and joy with our hope and faith renewed. But now what?
If Jesus' death paid the price for our sin and through his resurrection, we have new life, why do we still feel like this? And you can kinda fill in the blank of whatever kinda comes to mind. Stress, loss, guilt, hurt, worry, sin. Our world is still broken. And until Christ comes again, we will feel the effects of that.
Call that the already, but not yet. Jesus has already come, and he's paid the price, and he's been victorious. But we're we've not yet seen the full fulfillment of that kingdom here on earth. We get to live in the truth that God is making all things new. He is making all things work out for the good of those who love him.
But why is it so hard to see that in our day to day life? Let's turn to Ephesians two. Can I get somebody to read verses one through five for me? Who's got it? Janine, go ahead.
Your first is again? One through five, please. Ephesians two one through five.
I'm reading from the New Living Translation. Wonderful. Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin just like the rest of the world obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God's grace that you have been saved.
Praise the Lord for that grace. It's amazing. So what is this passage passage saying is pulling us toward walking in sin and trespass? Give you a hint. There's three things that are listed in here.
Who's got one? You can just shout it out. What are what are what are the three things that this passage is saying are pulling us toward walking in sin and trespass against god? Shout it out if you've got an idea. Yeah.
Right. The devil. The prince of the power of the air. That's right. Got these spiritual forces working against us.
What else? Yeah. Gratifying the cravings of our flesh. My translation says, the passions of our flesh. So we got the devil.
We got flesh. What else? The world. It says, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, and living according to the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. Yeah.
This is our natural state without Jesus. Dead, stinking, rotting, decaying things that are captive to the culture around us. We're being stalked like prey by an enemy that as first Peter five says, prowls around like a lion seeking to devour us. And we're slaves to the passions of our flesh, our unhealthy desires. I wanna focus on that last one, our flesh.
Let's read what Galatians five says about it. Go ahead and turn there. Can somebody read verses 19 through 23 for me? Shout it out when you got it. Go ahead.
Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sexuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivals, rivalries, dissension, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you as I warned you before that, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of god but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control against such things there is no law. Yeah. Man.
I love how that passage says the works of the flesh are evident. And then it goes on to describe the fruits of the spirit, and it doesn't necessarily say that they're evident. Sometimes we have to really search for them and seek them out. Where do we see these works of the flesh evident in the world around us? Go ahead and yeah.
Every day. Every single day. Pretty easy. Yeah. Pretty easy.
You see it in the people that we work with. We see it in our own hearts. And I I think a lot of these things are praised by the world we live in. And in a culture like Jackson, you know, that rivalry, dissension, a lot of division, jealousy, envy, all of the drunkenness and debauchery. These are things that the world puts high on a pedestal and says like, yeah, this is the way to like get ahead and to make your life worthwhile, and it's it's lies.
None of us are immune from the temptation toward these fleshly desires. And we've all experienced the pain of these things at work in other people, not to mention in ourselves. Let's go to Romans eight, and I'll just read this for the sake of time. Romans eight verse five. Give you a second to flip there.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. That is heavy. That is really heavy. I I'll admit, this verse has described me far too recently. I had my mind set on my flesh, on my own desires and impulses.
CS Lewis says in Mere Christianity, the most dangerous thing one can do is to take any one impulse of our own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. I believed a lie that the world had fed me, that whatever my flesh wanted, it deserved, and I needed to work to give it. If I wanted new skis, I should work hard to buy new skis. If I wanted to seem more important than someone, I was gonna feed into that. I would show up here at tribe, say the right things, serve faithfully, and God certainly used that for his good.
But I was not submitted to God's law, and I was not feeling that life and peace that Romans is talking about. I felt so lost. I couldn't understand how I could be living what felt like a double life. I was just like Israel. I'd used my freedom to serve myself and my own desires.
Given the chance to repent, cut that sin out, be accountable, I chose to isolate, hide my heart from people who loved me, and keep walking away from God's invitation. If you'd only let me fight for you, if you could only understand that these things need to be destroyed in your life out of reverence for me, I've already paid the price. Picking up in verse 12. So then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
But if by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Paul begins to show us how to turn this situation back around. We need to take responsibility. Let's turn back to Galatians five. So verse sixteen and seventeen, it says, but I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Walk by the spirit. Learn
what
it means to abide in Christ. Lean into listening to what he's saying. Not just conviction, but also how much God loves you, cares for you, wants the best for you. If we can't learn to trust these things, it will be very difficult to walk out the rest. Jumping down to verse 24.
Those who have those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep step keep in step with the spirit. Again, that idea of walking with the spirit. Walking with the spirit and then crucifying the flesh. I love that this is in past tense.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh. It's already been done. He's already paved the way. He's he's he's won the victory, and we just need to step into that, step in the spirit and identify patterns of behaviors in our life, lives where we are letting a desire, a want, a need, a sin control us. We need to bring that before Jesus and kill it.
We stand on the truth that he bore that very thing on the cross. We remind ourselves and any powers of the air that might be circling around us trying to get at us, that that thing is powerless now. It is dead. Hit it with the roundup, pull the roots out, throw it in the bonfire, pave over it. We have to.
Think practically what about what killing a desire might look like. It could be deleting social media to eliminate that avenue for comparison, Selling a prized possession that's become an idol in your life. Giving up a hobby that's just like taking all of your time and leading you away from Christ. Just stopping watching a genre of TV or movies because it's always just giving you dark thoughts. Or it could be bringing your phone into the bedroom.
You gotta boss yourself around. PB is always saying that. He always does this. He's like, boss yourself around. Like, kinda like Dwight Schrute when he's fighting himself in the office.
You gotta put some teeth to your conviction to not let that thing boss you around anymore. We're gonna go back to Romans 13. Romans thirteen twelve through 14 says, the night is nearly over. The day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not think about how to how to gratify the desires of the flesh. The ESV says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's two types of preparation happening here.
One is something that's get that gets done. The other is something that is avoided. Do clothe yourself in Christ. Picture yourself getting up in the morning and putting on the robe of righteousness he bought with his blood for you. Let that sink in.
When you leave your house in that white robe, you walk differently, knowing that he sees you as righteous and blameless. You're not gonna walk down the street and immediately jump into the biggest mud puddle you see because you don't wanna you don't wanna mess that up. You do or do not, sorry, do not and avoid thinking about how to gratify your desires. Or to take a step further, think about not how to not gratify your desires. If you can't walk past the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies at Smith's self checkout without buying a box and eating it in your car, then maybe you need to get curbside pickup.
Maybe you need to not go inside. Think about your weekly schedule and kinda do an audit of what are things that are pulling you away from the Lord. What are things that are are just gradually making you sink lower and lower? Make steps to avoid those things at all costs. Israel wasn't willing to destroy what God asked them to.
These people work for us, they thought. The free labor that they thought they were getting ended up costing them a lot. It's cost me way more to coddle and pamper my flesh than it has to crucify it. I got this picture recently of a waterfall in the middle of a big cave. And I was absolutely filthy from having cave been caving.
I was drawing close to this waterfall to get clean, get the grit out of my eyes and my ears. And just before I got under the flow, I popped out this umbrella and stood under it as the water was beating down. And I was like, well, good. Like, I'm under the flow. Right?
I'm all good? That's silly. Right? This is what it looks like to make a provision for your flesh. To try to protect and and, like, harbor this thing.
Let yourself be washed clean. Don't hide a single nook or cranny from the cleansing flow of Jesus' love and forgiveness. Is anybody making any connections or have any thoughts as we've been talking? I wanna give you guys space. Yeah.
Janine. Oh, go ahead.
This is this is gonna be hard to say if I'm gonna play the devil's advocate here, but I kept picturing, Animal House when you were talking. And I think we've all been there. We've all, at some point in our lives, had an Animal House type of experience, and it felt good. Did. And I don't know why I don't care for it anymore, but I mean, I know why I don't care for it anymore, but I don't know why then I didn't see it more clearly.
You just have to have that veil removed.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
One of the things I love about what you're sharing, and I'm only gonna say one because there are many things that I love about what you're sharing, but one of the things I love is that a lot of times when we think about crucifying the flesh or not attending to our sinful patterns and behaviors, we think of the big things. You know? But what I've heard you talk about are the finer things. The things that we think are not necessarily as big of a deal as a quote unquote big sins. And I was thinking about how, like, my husband and I love architecture and design.
One of the our favorite things to do when we're in England is go and see the old homes. We love grand designs. But there was a and and I can do that, and I love it. But there was a time in my life when watching HGTV became a problem. And it was a while ago, thank God, but when I would watch it, it was like I would all of a sudden realize that I was not satisfied with the life that I had because I was pining after what I saw, and God had not put me in a position to be able to enjoy the things that I saw.
And I had to give it up for a while because it I I just it produced jealousy in me. It produced, lack of faith. It produced even hopelessness that I would ever be able to have anything nice. You know? And so I just I really appreciate your approach to this because I I believe that walking with the Holy Spirit helps us to identify these things, and it leads us to peace and joy when we follow those those earth those, you know, inklings and those nudges that we get from him.
Yeah. That's really good. That, thanks for thanks for sharing. Something that came to mind is you were saying that was part of walking in the spirit is just being attentive to what he's saying in a given season. Like you said, like, is is watching HGTV a sin?
No. But in that period of time for you, you know, it was it was draw drawing your eyes away from what really mattered, and I think that's the importance of of keeping in step with the spirit, walking closely to the Lord, abiding in Jesus. As he starts to reveal these things, maybe, like, one at a time. Sometimes I feel that way. I feel like he's just like, this is all you can handle right now.
Just just deal with this. And when I've been obedient to take those little things, it's like all of a sudden, the big things, like, I don't even have to think about them because he's shown me these small steps that I can take. Yeah. Go ahead, Clay.
So the grocery store analogy was perfect. That I just wrapped my arms around that because I could relate. But wasn't until I got cancer and went for treatment and had so much time on my hands. I would say that of all the people in this room that are much younger than me, it's so easy to dabble in god's word and not spend quality time and what I learned when I was having treatment is when you feed your mind, the things of god, your life changes. And it's it's so easy to say, oh yeah, I'm gonna do that tomorrow or the next week or whatever but the the world comes at us so fast and it's so tempting.
You know, we need to really be careful that, you know, god says, do not love the world. Period. Do not love the world or the things in the world. Yeah. And we need to be very conscious about how much of the world we are feeding our brains and not how much we're feeding god's word into our lives.
Yeah. Because it is life changing when we spend the time.
And let me give my 2¢. Social media is such a tool of the devil. As much as we all and I'm speaking to myself, love to, you know, Instagram, Facebook, or what. It steals so much time and you don't realize it until you've sat there for two hours and think, oh my gosh, what have I been doing? And what we see is just stealing and planting these seeds of saying what we want, whether it's HGTV or anything else, you know, Beverly Hills Housewives.
I'm just saying. But and one more thing I wanna say is, I don't know what is your generation. A b c d. What are you?
I don't know. We're we're I think I'm in between millennial
and generation. To see you set up there and speak the word of god like this because in this world that we're living in and everybody's saying this next generation is just gone. No, it's not. You you bring so much hope. Just seeing in these young people in this church.
So, kudos to you and your wife and all that you do in this church because you're gonna take care of me someday. Okay? And I need you to be at your best.
Thanks. Thanks for saying that. Praise the lord. Lord, only by his grace.
There is. Sorry. I have it, Lee. It's really fitting that multiple people have said time, how they were doing things and was taking up all their time. God, this is really fitting.
Passage for me because yesterday, the lord spoke to me again about how I have not been utilizing my time well but I'm flip flop. I don't just like scroll through TikTok or whatever. I just love being spending time alone. I love like going out to eat alone, the movies alone, hammocking alone, hiking alone, all that jazz. And god really spoke to me in college about how I would always try to use it as, oh, I'm going to go be alone with the lord, but I would, like Mhmm.
Spend a strong two minutes with him, and I'm like,
yeah. Yeah.
Now I'm alone for two hours, just me. I can think for myself, be alone. I'm truly an introvert, which is hilarious because I do love people, but and yesterday, he was like, you have been spending a majority of your time alone again. And he really spoke to me in college about how we're not one meant to be alone and two, I should truly bring someone into my activity, spread the gospel, spread the light, and spread the love. So, this is very fitting.
I just got so loud from this mic. But no, very fitting because I think it's very easy for us. Well, I say for us. For me and people like me to take their time so preciously but the lord may be calling you and be like, hey, like before you go on that hike alone, reach out to a friend that you could take the hike with to spread love with them, spread the gospel too. Before you go eat at the bird alone again, invite someone with you to come sit down and, like, talk with you and just all of little examples because it's easy for us to get in the rut of just doing everything by yourself.
Yeah.
That's that's cool that you're sensitive to what the Lord was yeah. Speaking to you because that's that's specific to your life and time time alone is not bad. But, yeah, when it's replacing time and community, it it can be detrimental for sure.
So, Justin, I wanted to kinda trace back the lines that you were drawing Yeah. Saw him in the air. And and just the like what Jay said in guys' group one time, no mercy on sin and how the Israelites were called to totally destroy. And that's wow. See the word.
Jumping ahead.
Let's go, five. And as Brian's preached before, the the easy mindset we have as a Greek Western society about all this ethereal stuff and and mind based stuff, but the reality of the the Jewish soldiers having to go in and they're called to completely decimate these towns and how hard that was for them. And I mean, we're talking about deleting apps on our iPhones.
Yeah. Our
supercomputers that sit in our pockets. So just the the mercy that they were I mean, I don't I don't know if deceived is the right word into having on these people that God was calling them to slay entire towns and cities was a very difficult thing in how we're called to be, like you're saying, completely and utterly destructive of you know, destroy our our sinner or the the verses that call us to, you know, cut your eye out if it's causing you to lust or cutting your hand off if it's causing you to sin. So I wanted to recognize the that parallel you were drawing between the old and the new testament. Thank you. And I think you'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention the the challenge that not only our Jewish ancestors but now our Jewish brothers and sisters that are now facing rocket launches and and Iran shooting missiles at Jerusalem and across the nation of Israel.
And I know Brian's gonna have some stuff to say about it, but that we do stand with God's people and his covenant and his promise Yeah. To our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yep. I think we're still seeing a lot of the effects of Israel's disobedience, and the Lord is still just like he said in in Judges.
He is not gonna walk away from that covenant. And, yeah, we're you know, could be our lifetime, could be next lifetime, who knows? But he's coming back for his for his nation, for his people. And, yeah, maybe we'll get to be witness to that. I don't know.
The trade we're being offered is more than reasonable isn't it? You know the price is paid for sickness, for poverty, you know for depravity. The price is paid. So the trade we're being offered. And I agree what Chris said about how dramatic it was back in the Old Testament.
But in a way we've got to be as dramatic to destroy those things. And it might not in a way sometimes it would be simply just go wipe that town out. A lot of us guys here would probably got that aggression in that. We were quite happy to pick up arms and do that sort of crazy stuff. But the subtle things to totally destroy them.
But again I go back that trade is more than fair isn't it just to turn stuff that just can't last, can't endure, it's just going to destroy it for to enter into that shalom. And I always remember Janine teaching, she spoke about shalom as nothing missing, nothing broken. Yeah. So to enter into nothing missing broken, doesn't matter if everything is missing and broken. It's not, you know, that So yeah I'll stop there because I'm finding it hard to express but if anybody is hesitating to take that trade take it.
There isn't anything better. It's a really good deal.
It's a really good deal. Lee, Yeah. Did you have something? Yeah. No.
Make something
There's a simple phrase that I kind of guides my life and that is I may not be satisfied but I can be content. I can be content with what where Jesus has me, with what he's given me, for the plans that He has for me, even though there's something out there that's attractive to me, it's a good thing. Like I'd like to go scuba diving in The Caribbean. There's nothing wrong with that. But no, I'm content with what have now.
I'm not completely satisfied. But there's a fine balance there. But I go back and forth. And when I admit and picture and think about, Okay, what is it that I'm kind of hoping for that I would like? But anyway, I bounced back and forth, but I remain content with who I am, where I am, and what Jesus has for me.
Yeah. Yeah.
David says in the Psalms, satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love, oh lord. And, yeah, man, if we could wake up every morning and and just meditate on that, I think we would we'd see a lot of lot of things just drop by the wayside in our life. Colin?
Yeah. Just one one of the things I love about Tribe is how we give equal value to the holy spirit. Not all churches do that. And, I mean, all these verses are talking about, you know, how to avoid these temptations and and live your life through the spirit. And it's it's only by the holy spirit that we can actually live out these things.
Yeah, I just wanted to bring that up too.
Yeah. Go ahead, Phil. Yeah. So when you bring up verses like that about all these things that are acts of the flesh, right, things as desires of our hearts that are sinful and that we need to stay away from, I think I'm personally guilty of this and many of us have this mentality in the church. It's like as long as we're staying away from those things, we're good.
Like we can skirt the line. We can give provisions to the flesh but it's like hey I'm not going out to the bar and getting wasted every night like I'm a And good Christian like that's not what God is calling us to. Like he says that we need to live in the spirit. And when we live in the spirit, it's it's not just about avoiding these things and being good. It's that we're pursuing God and the spirit is living through us.
And then the gifts of the spirit are love and joy and peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. And we have no desire to even skirt the line or give provisions to the flesh. This verse was brought up to me earlier this week when Jesus is talking to his disciples in John chapter 14 verse 15 where he says, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. And initially, was thinking that's kind of like, you know, if you really love me, you would do this, you know, like I'm holding this over you, like to prove that you love me, like you're gonna obey my commandments. But actually I realized it's it's more than that, that as we love God, as we pursue him and run after him and live in the spirit, then everything else will follow.
We will obey his commandments. Not that we're half that we have to but that we want to. And jumping right beyond into that verse is if you love me, you will obey my commandments. I will ask the father, and he will give you a helper who will stay with you forever. He is the spirit who reveals the truth about God, and that is a spirit that that allows us to live in accordance with what God is calling us to.
Yeah. Great. Good good tag team, you two. Yeah. It's just it is so important to walk in step with the spirit and understand the power that we have through the holy spirit.
And, yeah, Jesus said, I I've come that you would have life and have it abundantly. Abundant life is what he's not just, like, abstaining from certain things, but, like, full, fruitful life. I'm I'm, like, stoked if by the spirit, I grow, like, one little fruit of, like, one of the fruits of the spirit. But, like, if I had all of them continually, bountifully producing fruit, I yeah. You guys would be like, woah.
That's crazy. I wanted to just draw attention to something. This isn't in the notes, but a well known story of David and Goliath in first Samuel 17. I'll just read it out to you. But so many times in the Old Testament, we see Israel not getting it right.
And so many times in our lives, we see illustrations of us not getting it quite right. We're not reliant on the Lord. We don't totally crucify the flesh. We don't totally devote these things to destruction. David comes out to meet Goliath with this courage that comes from walking with God, from knowing the spirit.
David said to the Philistine, you come at me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. He goes on, but look closely at verse 46. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. David knows who is gonna deliver Goliath into his hand, and he knows who's gonna have to do the killing.
You know? He he tosses that stone, hits Goliath, knocks him out. But then he goes, and he takes Goliath's sword, and he cuts off his head. And I think that's just a really good illustration. Like, God is gonna fight for us.
He's going to do that work. He came. He died on the cross and rose again so that we could have freedom, so that we could walk with the spirit. We have to be really serious about cutting out these things that draw us away from him. But
David had to believe in his heart that he could do those things. You know, we hear it, but if we don't believe it, it's not gonna happen. Yeah. So there's some action on our part other than just the physical part of it.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Yeah. Just stressing that partnership, like, how the Lord delivered it into our hands. I feel like oftentimes the Lord delivers us from sin all the time and gives us so many different ways out. We just refuse to kill it. Just like the Israelites where the Lord gave them the land and they're like, he asked them to destroy the people.
And they're like, well, like, I mean, yeah, like, they're kinda valuable. Like, we can have them be slave labor for us, like, and they refused to kill it. The Lord delivered them, but we have to do our part. Are you gonna speak on Matthew 18, like, gouging out? No.
Go for it. But sorry. Just one more verse.
I love all of the connections you guys are making. It's great. Thank you.
And that's just, like, a testament to, like, how you're speaking today, Justin. Like, the fact that you're stirring up the heart to so many people, like, obviously, the spirit's moving. So cool. But in Matthew chapter 18 verses nine or I'll just start seven through nine. Woe to the world for temptations to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come.
But woe to the one by whom the temptation comes. And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off just like David cut off Goliath's head and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled and lame with two hands or two feet than to be thrown into the fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than two eyes and be thrown into the hell of fire.
Like, we need to be willing to cut it out. Like, the the lord will deliver us from temptation, but we need to be willing to cut it out. And I think it's so easy for us to justify the sin or the temptation we face because like what Phil said like, Oh yeah, like I'm not getting choisted with everybody else but having everybody over to my house watch the Super Bowl and just letting everybody else get choice in, what's what's our role to play in that? Or, like like, it's so gray. Like, I'm not just saying it's so black and white.
Like, oh, man. Like, building community over watching something that is not of the Lord, that's causing us to stumble into sin. Like, it's it's not always as black and white as we think, but still listening and walking in the spirit to be able to feel that conviction and be obedient to that is huge. Yeah.
Thanks, Jay.
To me the practicality of how you walk in that is if something is before you that you don't know, you're not sure of, is Jesus Holy Spirit come and speak to me right now. Help and empower me to be obedient to you and that Holy Spirit arrives instantly. You don't have to wait because he dwells within. God. And he's answered so many prayers for me.
I and it's not necessarily that they were sinful but it was a direction. It was a guidance. He is faithful. We need to draw on that source.
Janine?
I just wanna dovetail with what Colleen just said because, you know, Jesus, he struggled with all the temptations that we did. We do. He's fully god. He was fully man. And the reason why his death counted is because he overcame all the temptations in life.
And the way that he did it was by spending time with the father. I mean, the number of times it says in the scriptures when he drew away to be with him. And so I just wanna dovetail with that. It's like, yes, we want to say no to the sin, but the way that we do that is by spending time with the father and allowing the holy spirit to come and touch those places. And I can't remember who it was that said it.
I think it was Phil maybe. But as we spend time with him, it becomes a natural fruit of our lives to say no instead of struggling and try to bat it down in our own strength, which won't last. It's being filled with the spirit, spending time with the father, you know, and allowing Jesus' empowering presence to help us overcome.
Yeah. The things we we feed, we're just gonna have more of an appetite for. And like Clay was saying, when when we feed on scripture, when we feed on that walking with the spirit, we're just gonna want more of it. It's gonna start to push out the other appetites in their lives. One last passage here.
First John one five through nine. I'll just read it for you guys. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We walk in the spirit. We crucify and kill the flesh. We put on Christ.
Put on the righteousness that he has brought for us, and we confess our sins to one another. There's great power in confession, and letting the light of Christ into those dark places of your heart. God is faithful to take the little entrance you give to him into those dark places and reveal much more than you could have thought possible on your own. It's like we're saying the spirit reveals things to us if we just ask. We can't continue to harbor and give mercy to our sin.
In a in the midst of a recent conversation with some guys in this community, Jay just, like, spouted out, no mercy on sin. And it just, like, rocked me. I was like, what? It's like, no mercy on sin. We kill it.
We crucify it. And I was kinda, like, taking stock of my life. And I was like, man. Yeah. There are times that I I do that.
I just have mercy on my sin. We wanna accept God's grace for the ways that we fall short from him, but we don't wanna protect those things inside of us that we harbor and and kind of keep God at a distance from working on those things. We want to crucify them. We want to cut them out. As we close, take a moment alone with the Lord and ask him to search your heart just just like calling the same.
Ask him to show you where you may have not have thoroughly eliminated something that he has pointed out to you in the past. Maybe there's something coming to mind you've never thought of as a problem before. I invite you to bring it all to him. Maybe this is all new to you. You might not know this personal relationship with Jesus or the power of his spirit.
Simply ask Jesus to make himself known to you. This Christian walk is not meant to be done in isolation. Sin thrives in isolation, But we have the opportunity to let other people who love Christ, who love Jesus, have the opportunity to let them speak into our lives, speak things that we might not see in ourselves, both positive things and also negative things, blind, you know, blind spots we might have. We have some folks in the back who would love to pray with you. If something came up as you were reflecting, something that the Lord might want you to work through and pray through, We would love to just partner with you and come alongside you in that.
Nobody can do this alone. And yeah. If you guys would go ahead and stand up. It'd be alright if I prayed for you. Heavenly father, we love you.
We are so thankful for you. Lord, thank you for the example that we have in the Old Testament of how you delivered your nation with your strong-arm or with your outstretched hand, how you lived among them, went before them, fought for them. Lord, I thank you for sending your son to live as one of us, to experience these temptations that we experience, to live in this broken world. Thank you that he paid the price for us and rose again, giving us new life, giving us access to you, access to your holy spirit. Thank you for speaking to our hearts.
Lord, may you empower us to walk by your spirit. Would you give us the courage and the insight to crucify our flesh? Lord, would you just remind us of the work that you've already done, of the righteousness you've already bestowed on us. May we walk in that. Lord, as we confess our sins to one another, Lord, your word says that you are faithful righteous.
Lord, you are faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from unrighteousness. Lord, we wanna know you more. We wanna know what you say about us. Speak to us. Lord, as we go out from this place, Lord, would you walk with us?
We pray for new life in dark places and, Lord, for a renewal of your calling on our lives, your mission to spread your gospel, to spread your love. We love you, father. In your name, we pray. Amen. There's people in the back that would love to pray with you and just partner with you, so feel free.
And we're just gonna take the yoke that Brian has given me and tell you guys that you got this.
