Moses: Learning To Trust The God Who Leads - Part 8
Numbers 14:1-45; Exodus 32:7-35
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Well, they knew their target. They knew their mission. Twelve elite operators were sent to infiltrate, assess, and report. Their mission, 40 days behind enemy lines. But the intel was clear The resources in this zone were at peak maximum high value. The territory was pure gold. But then they hit the perimeter. Walls as high as they could see, other soldiers and men larger than them, stronger than them, towering over them And in that moment, they stopped seeing their true objective on which they had been set into, and all they saw was a massacre. The team returned to headquarters, and the brass was all excited to hear about what they had seen.
Ten of them stepped forward first and said, in their report, negative. The odds are impossible, enemies too strong, the mission is a total suicide run. Their recommendation: abort the mission, red light Then two remaining men stepped forward and gave their report. Positive They didn't deny the threat, but they trusted the strategy that had been given to them, and they saw an achievable mission. Their recommendation? Full scale advance, green light, mission go. But what was the result? Systematic collapse. The troops didn't see a victory. All they saw was a graveyard and their name on it. Fear completely overtook them. The mission was completely compromised This wasn't a recent military operation.
This was actually a recount of the recon reconnaissance of the Promised Land. And as we open our Bibles to Numbers 14 this morning, we find a people who haven't just aborted their mission, but they've completely stopped trusting the ultimate strategist and Yahweh, God Almighty. They've started fearing the enemy over everything else. We're talking full freeze and flight over fight. The Israelites were ready to bug out immediately. But see, Moses He's been there before. He had spent years learning how to trust God from the Nile to the burning bush to the crossing of the Red Seas, to all of the other miracles that he had seen. happened before his very own eyes. The problem was now he was leading a people who were failing the exact same test that he had gone through. And the tension in all of this was that they were on the threshold of the promise. The promise that had been passed down from generation to generation to generation to generation. The way back to Abraham. And the destination was in their sights, but the people had hit a wall of fear. This was a crisis of trust. And the big truth for us in this and for the Israelites is that when we stop trusting the guide, the guide being God. We start romanticizing our chains of bondage. And even when we are at our most rebellious We have the gift of an advocate who knows and trusts and hears the heart of God.
With me. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. God, we continue to come before you, Lord, as we open up your word for you to teach us and for us to be transformed today, even if it's just a little little bit to be transformed more into who you desire us to be. And so God, I pray our hearts would be open. Our ears would be open. We would hear the wooing and the drawing of you towards us deeper and deeper. God, we thank you for this day. We lift this up to you. Everybody said. Amen.
Numbers chapter 14, starting in verse 1, it says, That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept out loud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, If only we had died in Egypt Or in the wilderness, why is the Lord bringing us to this land to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt? They said to one another, We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt. The Israelite people are in full meltdown mode. It says there, the people raised their voices, wept aloud, grumbled against Moses and Aaron. This wasn't just a, oh, I'm kind of sad, boo hoo, kind of a I'm having a tough day. This was catastrophic just Ugh. Kent is not even a word. They were making moaning and sadness look like a cakewalk. And this anatomy of a meltdown was beginning to infect the rest of the people.
Fears contagious. And as one person began to fear, the person next to them began to fear, and the person next to them, and all of a sudden, like a wildfire, the whole community is just so gripped with fear. That the whole community begins to spiral. And they're caught in what I would call today, for us, if you're taking notes, the Egypt trap. Which is a psychology of unbelief. Because it says this in verse 3 and 4: Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt? Are you kidding me? How could you even have that mindset to be even able to think that Egypt was better than where you were right there? This filter of fear had begun to develop of what the Israelites had as some spiritual amnesia. Had they forgotten about the whole whippings, forced labor, slavery, oh infant killings? They only remember the delusions of slavery provision, which is an oxymoron to put those two words together. This was the Egypt trap. This belief that a familiar bondage is actually safer and better than an uncertain promise in the wilderness. And for us today, the truth is, we all are going to face giants in our lives. The Israelites were on the edge of the promised land, but to go into the promised land was going to take a huge step of faith to face the giants. That were there. And when we face these giants in our life, the enemy will try to convince us that our old sin, our own thoughts. Our old priorities, our old lifestyle, our old fill-in-the-blank is actually better Then a walking in trust and obedience with God, the oldest lie in the book. It started in the garden. And Satan uses it today.
Continue on verse 5. Then Moses Aaron fell face down in front of the whole Israelite assembly, gathered There. Joshua, son of Nun, Caleb, son of Japaneth, and among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, The land we pass through and explore is a Exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into the land. Not man, God. God will lead us into the land. A land flowing with milk and honey, and give it to us Us. Only do not rebel against God. Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone. I love that line. But the Lord is with us. I'm just gonna pray and just end our sermon right there. Do we need more? Are we okay? Do not be afraid of them. But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. They've lost their mind. Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will these people, or yes, then the Lord said to Moses, how long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.
I'm gonna call these four guys the faithful four. Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua. The faithful four. And they hear what the people do and they respond in in just. Just grief. They are mourning for the behavior and the attitude of the Israelite people. It said Moses and Aaron fell face down. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes. They are just grieving in the face of God for what the people are doing. There's this level of extreme humility from the leadership of these men. And Moses doesn't respond with anger or a power trip. He responds with submission to God. He has a different spirit in him. And Joshua and Caleb offer this report from the promised land saying, hey, we can do it. Yeah, they be giants in that land. Okay? But I know a bigger God than those giants. And they call the land exceedingly good because they are looking through the lens of God. Promise not through human fallibility. There's this clash here of faith versus fear And for the Israelites, they're choosing fear. But the four men are choosing faith.
And the Israelites get so built up about what's going on, they actually turn to violence in their distrust. It says the whole assembly talked about stoning them. Whoa. You don't get to that place with just a little bit of, oh hmm, I wonder I wonder what God's gonna do. It takes a little bit to get to that place. But that's the danger of unbelief. It starts with just a little bit And it grows and it grows and it grows and it grows. And see, for the Israelites, their unbelief didn't just stay internal, it became extremely aggressive. And for them, those who were trusting in God actually became viewed as their direct enemy right in front of their face. They were terrified of God. The Israelite people got to a point where they couldn't even think straight. They were so scared. And it gets to this divine breaking point for God, right? It says in verses 11 and 12, then the Lord said to Moses , How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me? In spite of all the signs I have performed among them, I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them. But I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.
God was ready to hit the reset button right then and there. Alright, I've had enough. This is it. Moses, Aaron, Caleb, Joshua. Thanks, guys. You guys are the bomb. You guys got this thing figured out. You got it in you got it locked down. Thank you. The rest of you, Jabronis. Yeah Just And God could have done that right there in that moment. He could have been like over But here we see this justice of God, and he cuts right through all the chaos and calamity, and God's frustration is a direct response to their contempt. God's responding to the people. God isn't attacking the people for no reason. God is just responding To what he has seen in their hearts and lives. And for God, the problem was that trust is the currency of his kingdom. Trust is a currency of God's kingdom, and without it, the relationship was broken and cannot even exist.
But then Moses steps in. Verse thirteen Then Moses said to the Lord, Then the Egyptians will hear about it. By your power you brought these people up from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of the land of They have already heard that you, Lord, are with these people and that you Lord have been face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that your cloud You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. If you put these people to death, leaving none alive, the nations who have heard this report will say Will say report about you will say The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath, so he slaughtered them in the wilderness. Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared, the Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love, and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished He punished the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation, in accordance with your great love. Forgive the sin of these people, just if you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until Till now.
So Moses steps in at this point. He hears what God's gonna do And Moses is like time out. God can we can we have a quick chit chat? And Moses is being this bridge builder between the Israelite people and Yahweh, God Almighty. And Moses says: when the Egyptians hear about it, they will say the Lord was not able. You're talking to Yahweh right now, man. But he's appealing to God's glory. Moses doesn't argue that the people haven't done anything bad and that the people are good. No, no, no. Moses is like. Yeah, they all done messed up. I realize that. You realize that? The whole world realizes that, except for these Israelite people right now. But he argues that God's reputation is too great to let this end. In a massacre. This is amazing. And there's this point of the advocacy that Moses is trusting the heart of the guy The guide being God.
See, Moses is leading these people by standing in the middle Middle between them and God. And this is some of the hard part of leadership. I don't know if you've ever been in leadership in a position maybe at work and you have your your direct report, right? And then you have maybe some people that you're leading or or however that's set up. And you're like, man, I I got to report to these guys, but I I know the heart of my people. And and you kind of got to play that middleman role. To be able to help the people upstairs, the bigwigs, understand what's happening down here with your team. And this is a hard part of leadership, and yet Moses is putting in the work. He's putting in the work. He's going to bat for the Israelites and saying, God, please don't do this. Please. Please don't do this. I could think that there was people in that crowd shouting and yelling at Moses that Moses loved. That Moses had done life with. And he's looking at them going, how can you even think that way right now? Do you not remember the manna and the quail or the Red Sea when we thought we were done right there at that point? And yet, what did God do? God made a miracle happen right there. He split the waters and then he smashed Pharaoh's army. Like, do you not remember this? And he and he's going to God saying, God, please, these are I love these people. They're just a little twisted up right now. They're scared.
And so Moses pulls out his secret weapon. Moses knows God 's character Moses knows the heart of God. And says, because he quotes it, he says, the Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love, forgiving sin, and rebellion. Where did Moses hear that before? Exodus chapter 34, if you were wondering, when God tells Moses , This is who I am, he says this, Exodus 34, he being God passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, The Lord, the Lord is compassionate and gracious God. Slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness and rebellion and sin, yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. Side note, parents out there. I don't I don't Think God still does this? Because of the whole Jesus thing on the cross? Maybe we gotta be watching what we're doing for the third and fourth generation, the generation that we will never probably see or get to meet. But what a what a gift of a legacy to leave that for your kids. To say yes to Jesus for them so that four generations from now there's people who know Jesus that are your great-great-grandkids. Just a random, just a bonus. That was a free Moses is quoting God's own self-revelation back to God. How cool is that?
Moses has spent so much time in God's presence that he knows the heart of the guide. He knows who God is, and he is saying, hey, God. Yes, I know the people do not trust you, but I trust you. Let me be the ultimate act of trust for them. And Moses is even trusting God so much to even have the cojones to say this back to God's faith. That he is trusting God, knowing that what he is doing, God will see Moses ' heart in arguing for the heart of the people and arguing for mercy. Guys, this is a beautiful moment in scripture right here. To see Moses bringing intercession In kind of a unique way. Intercession is this big fancy church word that may basically mean you praying on behalf of somebody else. And it's usually in a situation where you're praying for God to do something good in somebody's life. But Moses here in a twist is actually praying for God to withhold what he wants to do. some than the Israelites life. What an incredible picture of this moment of interception Session.
I love the story Pastor Lauren talked about it. I think it was last week, talking about they put somebody into an MRI machine scanning their brain, and they had people in another room separate from the MRI space. And this group of people was on and off praying for the person in the MRI machine. And when they would match up the timing that when the people were praying for this person, their brain was lighting up. There was neurons firing. There was nerve endings actually regrowing and and conforming and transforming that person's brain who was in the MRI machine. And when the people stopped, their brain activity stopped. And then the people would start praying again, the brain activity would fire up again. Guys, prayer is the spiritual superpower that we have. And we are not using it. I'm gonna raise my hand here and say, I don't use it enough myself. And I think in our Western world, in our good, easy, comfortable society, we're not praying like our brothers and sisters around the globe. We're not praying in a way that they don't know where their next meal is coming from, and they're just going, God, I know you. You're the God of the Israelite people who made me Manna and quail happen in the desert. God, I'm praying for something today in my life. And there's nothing they could do outside of that. They can't find the food. They can't pay for the food. food they can't do it but but God sustains God is healing people around the globe in miraculous ways and I see I think God does it here too but sometimes it's easy to go like oh that was just the doctor Did that, or oh, that was that was just the medicine, or that was all the and you know we I I hear about miraculous healings all the time where there was no doctor, there was no medicine. And it's amazing. But I think too, God uses doctors and medicine and food pantries and generosity from people and powerful ways. And sometimes we it doesn't seem like a miracle because we can see it happening through a person. But there there at the core of that is just this heart. of prayer. This power of prayer. And I I in this last couple years I felt like I just want to be known in life as just a prayer warrior. If there's one thing that I could be remembered for. I don't want my grandkids and great grandkids know. Yeah, he was a pastor and yeah, he could play guitar and he could do graphics. and different media stuff. But you know what my great-grandpa, great-great-grandpa was amazing at prayer. He had a heart of prayer, and because of his heart of his prayer, his community and this world around him changed. That's what I want to be known as.
Moses, we continue here in Numbers 14. 14 20 to 35, so a bit chunkier, but hang on there with me. It says the Lord replied, I have forgiven them as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory The glory of the Lord fills the whole earth. Not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times, not one of them will ever see the land I promised. Oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it, but because my servant Caleb has a different spirit. I like that. And follows me wholeheartedly. I will bring him into the land. And and he went to and his descendants will inherit it. Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out towards the desert along the route to the Red Sea. Continuing on. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites, so tell them, as surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say. In the wilderness your bodies will fall. Every one of you, twenty years old or more, who has counted the sentence and who has grumbled against me, not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hands. hands to make your home, except Joshua son of Jeffanith and Jo or Caleb, son of Jepanoth, and Joshua son of Nun. As your children have said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them into enjoy the land you have rejected. But as for you, your bodies will fall in the wilderness, your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness. Until the last of your bodies lie in the wilderness. For forty years, one year for each of the forty days you explored the land, you will suffer for your sins, and know what it is like to have me against you. I the Lord have spoken, and I will surely do these things to the whole wicked community which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in the wilderness, there they will die.
Some light reading here on November first. The good news in all of this God forgives them. I don't want us to forget that, okay? God forgives them, but there are consequences. Because of it, they will be restricted from being able to enter the land. Scripture says, I have forgiven them, God says, and as you ask, nevertheless, not one of them will ever see the land. This is hard for us. Maybe it's just me. We sing about this amazing grace of God. But sometimes there's a paradox of grace That we have to wrestle with. And this is a critical theological point for us in this, that God forgives the sin. He removes this eternal penalty from them, but he does not remove the consequence, the earthly penalty. We don't like that, right? We like amazing grace because it makes us Feel so good and fuzzy inside. But grace is painful. We can sing about amazing grace because Jesus Took the pain on the cross for us. That's how we can sing of the amazing grace. But in that, we have to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us. And in this situation, there are consequences. This is a very common topic in our home as of late. We've talked about consequences often, and I tell my kids. Do we all know the definition of consequence? The definition of consequence is the result or effect of an action. Which means. We can have good consequences and we can have bad consequences. I think sometimes we hear the word consequence, we just think bad, right? We just think like, oh, I did something bad. Here's my consequence. Here's my punishment. But there's consequences of things good. And we we we talk about this with our kids and and try to remind them of what is the consequence. We have an opportunity every single Day to say yes to Jesus or say yes to ourselves. And in this situation, the Israelites have chosen a path of yes to themselves. Strong But there was four who said yes to God. And because of their consequence, as they will get to enter into the promise. land. At least three of them. Moses gets squirrely a little bit later, but we'll talk about that another Sunday. He had consequences. But those who were faithful get the blessing of the promised land.
And see, this is the resolution that there is grace and there is consequences. And I think sometimes we only like to see them for half of what they wholly are. Right? We only like the grace that forgives us for doing wrong, not the grace with the punishment. And we like the consequence that of good, but we don't want to think about the consequence of a punishment. And see here, God is using the wilderness as a classroom, learning opportunity. God is going to use the wilderness to teach them It says, for forty years, one of each of the forty days that you explored the land. This is called telonic justice. I found this word out. week. Talonic justice. And it's a legal principle of reciprocal justice. You may have heard this before. The laws of Hammurabi. Eye for eye, tooth for a tooth, right? Equal punishment for equal consequence, right? And so here God is not overpowering them with something that is too much of a consequence. He is fitting the punishment for the crime. 40 years of unbelief, or 40 days of unbelief in the land, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. And for us, sometimes we find ourselves in seasons of wilderness and we think God doesn't love us. God's not there for us. God's abandoned us. But actually what's happening is God is using the wilderness. To draw you to him. He's using the wilderness to refine you. How do we know that? Well, it says here that the old generation had to die off. To raise up a new generation, one that knew how to trust God. The Israelite people, when they get in the promised land, they just don't step over the Jordan and everybody just oh falls away. Like the giants that they thought they were gonna face, they were even bigger giants and bigger giants and stronger armies. Joshua fought the battle of Jericho. Yeah? Guys remember some of that? I won't sing the rest of it for you. But God had to craze up or correct and raise up a new generation to inherit the promised of the land, the land flowing. with milk and honey.
So as we wrap up this morning, I want to ask you a question. Which spirit do you You have? We talked about Caleb and Joshua and Moses and Aaron having a different spirit. Do we have a spirit of faith? Or do we have a spirit of fear in our life? What do we identify as our Egypt? And what do I mean that? I mean I mean that by what is a piece of familiar bondage? That you are tempted to continue to return to because the path forward without that seems too scary. For the Israelites for whatever reason they got in their head that Egypt was better? Than being in the presence of God. I mean, guys, like they had the cloud , pillar of cloud In their presence that they could look to and go, that's God. And then that night, I don't know how they slept because of all the light fire column that was in the midst of them. But that was God before them. And time and time and time again, God performed miracles before their eyes. And yet they still didn't believe. So easy for us to judge, right? How could you even think? What about our lives? What a miracle. that each of us have experienced. I look around this room and I see miracles. I've heard your stories. God's Taking you through some stuff. Right? And you're here. That's a miracle. At least in my book. But we so quickly forget like the Israelites. When you're looking at your giants in your life, are you looking through the lens of human frailty or through the lens of God's faithfulness? Do we see those giants and think, there ain't no way? Or do we look at the giant and say, there ain't no way that's standing? That thing's coming down. Because I got God. And I know what he's doing in my life.
Do we lean on our advocate I love how the Holy Spirit or uh the Moses steps in as this like almost like what's what's that term where you foreshadowing of the story? Of like there's a character, and you know like that character means something more later on. Moses here is basically the Holy Spirit for the Israelite people. And we have this blessing of being on the other side of the cross that all who believe in Christ and call upon his name are given the advocate, the helpful, the comforter. And that's the Holy Spirit. Guys, you and I have the living, breathing, Holy God Almighty inside of us for those of us who have said yes to Jesus. But we forget about that. We see a giant and go, oh no. When we should say, What are you doing here, giant? You don't belong here. You need to go. Get out of here in the name of Jesus. That's what we need to be saying. That's how we need to live our lives. It's because the Christ who died on the cross for us actually also says in scripture that he now sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us, the same thing that Moses did for the Israelite people. Jesus is doing in heaven right now next to God for our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. Guys, if there's one thing I want you to walk out of this room today with, is that I have the Holy Spirit inside of me ain't nothing gonna take me out. Try putting that on and walking around with that for a few days. Life's gonna look a little bit different. It should look a whole lot different.
Pastor Andre and I this week we're um we were down in San Diego getting to interview upcoming pastors for their ordination. And so what that means, Pastor Lauren went through this a few years ago is that you go through a process of classes and And um education and you go through a checks system and then you get to a point where we have we call it the theological exam. So they have these people come in and sit down and they're given a Bible that's not marked up. And they need to walk through and defend all the the pieces of faith, starting with the Trinity, all the way through Jesus, all the way through the Holy Spirit, what the church is, and then even into moral issues of our core. culture today and what the Bible has to say about those. And we had this one guy we interviewed and um he reminded me of this really cool word, this word called propitiation. Propitiation. It's just a fun word to say Say. But propitiation means that is this act of gaining andor regaining favor, goodwill, approval. Against someone who has something against us and is an act of appeasement and cancellation of debt owed. And he busted that word out in this interview, and I was reminded of this amazing picture of who Jesus is for us. Just like Moses was for the Israelite people, Jesus is the propitiation for what we have done wrong in our lives. Because we've always we all have had fear over faith at some time in another. our life. We all have. You can't I don't don't even try to raise your hand and say, oh Pastor, well, excuse me. No, no, no, no. And because of that, we sin in that. And it says in the Bible that the wages of sin is death. And so, because of our sin and our lack of faith and the fear that we see come to, we are due the penalty of death. But then Jesus shows up. And he is our propitiation. He is our justification. Justify I had never sinned. He is our regeneration. He is our new life. He is our transformation. He is our sanctification. He is our new life. He is our everything on the cross in that moment. And the Israelite people needed somebody like that. Moses was that person for them, foreshadowing what God was going to do when he was going to completely redeem all of humanity through Jesus Christ thousands of years ago. later.
And so I will I'll be honest, I will be remiss this morning. And I get I get asked from time to time, Pastor, why do you present the gospel when I could look out? And I I think Everybody has a relationship with Jesus. I don't know. But I would be remiss this morning if I did not be the bridge builder for you today. To stand in the gap of where you might be in your sin separation. From God and Lord Almighty up here to point you to that. I'm not Christ, I'm not doing the saving, I'm not doing the redemption. I just want to point you to Jesus. I want Him to be your propitiation to And maybe you've made that decision, maybe you haven't. But if you haven't made that decision, we're going to pray here in a moment. I want to walk you through some of those words to say to Jesus today. There's nothing magical about the words, it's just admitting who Jesus is. Jesus is and that you have sinned and that you need him, you need his propitiation in your life. How many more times can I say that right now?
But I want us to pray. Jesus, thank you, Lord. Thank you for who you are and how you stand in the gap for us. God, I pray that we would have faith over fear no matter what the giants come to face us. Each day. Lord, thank you for your servant Moses, who led with boldness, who led with humility, who stood in the gap and And had the strength to say to you, Almighty, hey God, I know who you are. I know they deserve death. But what if you didn't do that? What if you saved them one more time? And you said, okay, because of your faithfulness, you said to Moses, because of your trust, you said to Aaron, because of your hope, you said to Caleb, and because of your faith, You said to Joshua, I will pr heal them and forgive their sins, but there still is consequence. And so God, this morning I want us together to talk about what it means to submit our lives to Jesus. And maybe for some of us we need to be reminded of that decision and reminded of the advocate that we we have in our lives. But maybe, Chris, you would say to me this morning, you would say, hey, I have never said yes to Jesus before in my life. And this is the first time. And today, I want God's and Christ's propitiation in my life. If that is you, just look up at me right now, please. Thank you, God. Lord, I thank you For so many of those in this room have already previously said yes to Jesus. God, we celebrate that. God, let us not forget that. Sometimes we get caught up in that first moment of when they accept you for the first time. first time but then we forget about the daily submitting and walking in relationship and obedience to you. And so Jesus this morning if there is anybody who would want to commit to you to have that propitiation for the very first first time. I want to lead him through this prayer. I'm going to put it on screen. And I want you to read through this in your heart right now as I read it out loud. If this is you, I want you to commit to this. Pray this right now to your heavenly father who loves you. It says Father in heaven. I know that I live for myself instead of you. I have sinned against you, but I believe that Jesus died for my sins. So I confess my sin and ask you to forgive me. Me. I bow to you as Lord of my life. Help me to live for you from this day forward in Jesus' name.
If you are one, as we continue to pray, if you're one that prayed that prayer today and surrender your life, please come talk to me after church. Or better yet, you can just text the church. You can text the church hope. And it's going to send you a couple links that would help. You in these next few days as you begin to walk in this new relationship with Jesus. And so, Lord, I pray for all of us here in this moment. God, I pray for that faith over fear. I pray we have the boldness of the faithful for. No matter what we face, no matter what we see, no matter what's coming at us, God, we wouldn't we wouldn't back out. We wouldn't cower, but we would stand up through the power of the Holy Spirit that is alive and breathing and living inside each of us who have called On Jesus' name, we would step forward with boldness into this world that needs you. We would be bridge builders for those in our family and our in our neighbors and our community. That we begin to connect people to you for their salvation because without it, they're going to hell, and that's just the reality, and it sucks. And we don't like it, but that's how it is. And so, God, we want everybody to have the eternal address of heaven, not the eternal address of heaven. And so, Jesus, we pray for our communities, we pray for those. We go with boldness, we go with strength, we go in the power of the Holy Spirit today. Everybody said Amen.