Consecrate Your Heart: Repent to Take New Ground

And the miracle happens. They they walk over. The river is spread apart. They enter into the promised land. As the book of Joshua continues on, we see miracle after miracle happening. The rivers part. Cities begin to be conquered. Things are unbelievable in the land. It says that literally just the reputation of the nation, armies are running in the other direction. And yet, when we come into Joshua chapter seven, we find out a truth that is true for all of our lives, which is that consecration on the outside is always easier than real work on the inside. [00:02:21] (41 seconds)  #InternalFaithMatters

Sin will make you settle for a life that is not God's best. Joshua on his face, at the face of opposition says, oh, God, I wish we just had never tried to take new land. Said, oh, God, I I wish that we could have just stayed comfortable, comfortable, safe, but not blessed, and not God's best, and not God's promise. And I felt as I was praying for our church this week in our midday pursuits and our united pursuit that God would speak to us in 2026. Do not get comfortable. Do not stay where it's comfortable. There is land to be taken. But sin will make you weary. [00:06:31] (44 seconds)  #Don'tGetComfortable

hear the word of the Lord for our church. Get up. It's time. It's time to fight again. See, sin will make us settle for a life that is not God's best, and I hate sin. Let me be clear when I say this. I don't hate people that sin, or I would hate myself when I would hate our entire community. But after fifteen years of pastoring people, I hate what sin does to people's lives. I hate watching it destroy people's marriages. I hate seeing it alienate children from parents. I hate seeing men and women's life's work go up in flames because of sin. [00:07:55] (41 seconds)  #HateSinLovePeople

``I wanna give you my main idea before we go anywhere today, and it's a simple one. Repentance and holiness will allow me to live in the power and the promise of Jesus. And I believe this today with all of my heart that a church without repentance and a church without holiness is a church without power. And my heart for us today as a community is that we would be a people of power, that we'd be able to walk into God's promises. [00:09:07] (30 seconds)  #LiveInThePromise

Now this is true about things like cars and machines and all really things in life, but it may even be more so true about our faith. If there is an internal problem, what happens externally in the long run really does not matter that much. In the end, an internal breakage, some internal damage, some internal problems will lead to a breakdown in your life. [00:12:32] (29 seconds)  #FixTheInside

But God would speak to our church that the beginning of this fight is by saying, get up. Listen. The reason why you can get up is because his blood is sufficient. It's because his cross is enough. It's because no matter how long you have fought against this fight of sin, his blood speaks a better word. He speaks new destiny, new favor, new life over you in 2026. [00:14:34] (29 seconds)  #RiseIntoNewDestiny

The important thing for us to understand, our takeaway for us is this, is that sin when it is fully grown will lead to destruction and deserves a harsh response from your life. The beautiful thing about being New Testament, new covenant believers is that Jesus already made that kind of sacrifice for your sin. You don't need to beat your sin out of you. You don't need to punish yourself for your sin, but you do need to come under his sacrifice. And our takeaway is this, the sin that is in your and my life that could harm our future and stop us from entering our promised land, it deserves a harsh response. [00:23:50] (39 seconds)  #TakeSinSeriously

at what Joshua says to him. He does not tell them, guys, gold and silver and these priceless garments, they're not that great. He doesn't say, oh, yeah. No. I know you guys wanna be rich, but you actually don't wanna be rich. What does he say to them? No. He speaks to the promise. He says, we can't enter the land with these things in our heart. My friend, the only way you will make strides in your war against this sin this year is if you fall more in love with living in God's promises than you fall in love with the sin you are caught up in. [00:26:56] (38 seconds)  #LovePromisesNotSin