 Let's open up our Bibles to Book of Judges and if you didn't come with the Bible, you can go ahead and just read on the screen. Actually, I'm sorry, Joshua chapter 9 verse 3 and 4 and verse 15. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and I, they worked craftily and went and pretended to be ambassadors. They took all sacks under donkeys, all wine skins torn and mended. And if we can also go to verse 15, the verse 15, it says the following. So Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the rulers of congregation swore to them. I want to title this brief message, we will call it making a deal with the devil. Making a deal with the devil. If you have been married, you will understand that there is a very powerful secret of a successful happy marriage. And that is to learn to compromise. Now compromise not necessarily that you compromise morally on your spouse, but you compromise within a context of relationship. That means if she wants the cat, really wants the cat. Sometimes you got to let her have the cat. For my wife, she is very graphic and she likes different colors. So when it comes to the house, the things we have in our house from colors to the trim, to the granite, to the size of everything, the stone, every single thing has to do with the colors, the couches. I had no say in it whatsoever. I just went in. I remember a few times that my wife would look at that. She says, I like that. And I was like, I gave that look and she says, you don't understand. You will one day. And we went and bought it. Same thing that happened with most of my clothes. I had very little say. My wife brought it and I said, I will never be allowed to preach again if I wear this piece of clothes. She said, like Jesus said to the disciples, you don't understand now, you will understand later. And after about five, six compliments, I said, you know what? Hey, that was a really good piece of clothing that you bought me. She said, I told you. And then there are things that I do that my wife has no understanding whatsoever, like managing a checkbook or managing a budget or make sure that we have enough to cover the bills. My wife's wonderful, expensive appetite, enough for the future and enough for the present. And it's one of those things that when it comes to my wife, she sometimes asks for things and I have to make decisions on my behalf, on her behalf and all of our behalf. Because if she will run those parts of our life, we will both be standing by Walmart with a poster asking for some money. And of course, if I will run all other things in my life, they will be always mismatched and it will be a disaster. Compromise is very powerful in a relationship when you are married. And if you haven't learned that, it's because you're either dominant or manipulative. But if you are compromising and you meet halfway, your relationship will work. In life, on the other hand, compromise is deadly. In relationship, compromise will give you life. Outside of your relationship with your spouse, compromise will bring you death. It will bring you absolutely death. Imagine, many people choose to live their life for God on 90%. And some people pat themselves on the back and say, I wish that could be me. Some people choose to go 99% and maybe some of you sitting here saying, you know what, I wish that could be me. But imagine for a moment, if 99% is good enough, apply the same mindset to a cell phone. Imagine that 15 minutes every single day, your cell phone doesn't work. That's 99%. How many of you be saying, I'm completely fine with that? No, you would call your company and you would give them a fuss. You would say, what is this? I'm paying for this and I'm not getting a full service. Imagine that if you would get only 99% of mail in the world, 1.7 million pieces of first class mail would be lost each day. 35,000 newborn babies would be dropped by doctors or nurses each year. That's not a big deal, just 99%. 200,000 people would get a wrong drug prescription each year. We would have unsafe drinking water three days a year. And 2 million people would die from food poisoning each year. That's just 99% being good enough. We're not talking about 90%, just 99%. So compromising in the area of life is deadly. In the area of marriage, it's a life source for you. In the area of other things, it's an area of deadliness. The story we read this evening, Israel has come into the promised land, Canaan. This land was promised to them for their ancestors for a very long time. When they've come there, they've encountered city of Jericho. They've encountered the next city which was smaller than city of Jericho. And after that, they encountered a problem for which they I don't think were really prepared for. When a nation came against them not to fight them, not to conquer them, but they came to them and said, hey guys, we are just like you. We've been wandering along the wilderness. We've heard about your God. We just come to you, be friends with you. That time they didn't have Facebook, so they had some other little things that you could become friends with. And they brought them some kind of a paper and said, let's just make a deal with us. And Israel, instead of getting more information, instead of doing a little background check, checking their credit score and checking their history, calling back, finding out what's up with these people, they just went ahead and signed a contract and said, yes, we'll be in contract in the covenant with you. We won't hurt you and you don't hurt us. And next few days they found out the very people they made a contract with were living next door. They were the ones God gave Israel commission and a calling to conquer. But because now they made a covenant with them, they couldn't conquer them. And God couldn't help Israel to conquer the nation they made a covenant with. I want you to live today with one thought. Don't make covenant with that which God called you to conquer. Write that down. It's just going to be one thought. Don't make covenant with that which God called you to conquer. God called you to conquer things. And Satan knows that you will succeed. So what he does is he tries to deceive us, trick us, manipulate us to make us settle with that problem, with that issue, with that sickness, with that limitation, with that stagnation and accept it as a norm. The area where you make a covenant with the problem is the area God can no longer help you conquer. Amen. Now let me mention before I talk about this, let me mention something along those lines. It's very important. I want to speak to the single people for a moment. It's very important for you as a single person not to marry someone Jesus Christ called you to reach. It's along the line of what I'm just saying. God loves everyone and so should you. God wants you to be friends with everyone. Go play football, hockey, golf, watch a movie, invite them to church, be friends with them. But when you are a single person Jesus Christ tells you they are your mission field. They are your field to love but not the field for marriage options. Why? And you're going to hear just in a moment. It's not that God is saying well I'm God and you have to get used to it. Do what I say. It's not that God is saying well I just hate all the people who are not believers in me. I just want to punish them. It's not that God is looking at all the non-believers and saying there's such a horrible people and all the Christians such a good people will know that's not true. It's that God is looking at your life and he's saying it's unfair. If you end up with someone whose belief system is different and not belief system only but whose value system is different than yours. It's not fair for them. It's not fair for you and it's not fair for no one else. So God says they are the people you ought to love. You are to bless. You ought to be patient with. They are the people you should learn from. Invite them to church. They are the people that you should seek to be friends with and be as nice as you can. When it comes to your marriage you can't be fishing in that kind of pool. Why? Because you are not being fair to them and you're not being fair to you. Amen. I know some people will say well this is love. God is love and I love this person so this must be from God. It's true. God is love. Love is not God. Just because it's love it does not mean it's God. And many times what starts love ends up abuse. What started as so lovey-dovey Facebook posts and Snapchats and everything and then you get a restraining order. The Bible says love never ends. How come that ended in two weeks? It wasn't real love honey. It was lust. Sometimes people say well I am not talking about those people right now who are in a relationship and maybe you're following Jesus but the person you are in a relationship with you're married and you're engaged and they're not following Jesus. I'm not talking about those people. I'm not talking to those who've gotten saved given the life to Jesus but your other half is not following the same direction. I'm not referring to that. I'm referring only to those kids who those youth for those young adult college students who have the option and you may come to me and say well I know him her and them. He gave his life to Jesus and then she gave her life to Jesus and look and everything worked out and this is what I'm going to do. I am a home group leader. I'm gonna bring her. I'm gonna follow love. I'm gonna get married and then she will see how righteous, holy, dignified and magnified, annoying to justify regenerated I am. And she will be drawn by the goodness and the love and the mercy of God and all the abuse the fact she had no father is gonna be washed by my love and she will change. You will see she will get saved because this happened to him, her and them. The problem with that my friend is that just because it happened to them that does not means that you should disobey what God tells you to do and rely on someone's testimony instead of God's word. Well my brother 15 years ago fell from a second story building head down into a concrete. Blood came out of everywhere. He survived. Actually his head is so wonderful it produces long hair. That does not mean you all and I should be looking at his testimony and say man how wonderful would that be to get along dreadlocks by going and jumping from a second story building head down into a concrete. Nobody thinks like that yet when it comes to relationships which is more dangerous than even falling from a second story building is people jump from a third story building relationally destroy their whole life not knowing behind all of that is the devil seeking to destroy your life. Ask Samson and Samson will tell you anointing power all of that was great not once the enemy was able to overcome him fist but the enemy overcame him by presenting a woman that Samson should have reached out to not married. Samson should have talked to about Jesus now dated. But see Samson tell well I am anointed she's gonna change and it's interesting none of them change the only thing is they change Samson. Chained Samson blinded Samson and ruin his life. It wasn't them that did the police. It's not an un-Christians that are bad. It's that we when we are disobedient my friends we get ourselves in the trouble and God wants us to be obedient can somebody say amen you know being working with the youth for so many years that I did now I've seen this so many times it grieves my heart when I see a young man a young lady just beginning to walk with Jesus and I look for one thing I don't usually look for drug dealer or a witch that begins to take him out it's usually the opposite sex and you see that one person outside of the church that one young man or young lady and they begin to spend more time and everything and you begin to encourage say hey you need to really devote your time to the Lord and you begin to see slowly they drift away slowly they drift away and next thing you know he uses that to bring them so far from the Lord I remember seeing you know one young lady who just became a home group leader about over 10 years ago she just became a home group leader she already had girls she was doing so well and then during the days that we had Myspace somebody showed me it was Friday somebody showed me her Myspace picture Myspace photo and they said do you know that she's dating this particular guy and she was I think just out of high school so I said oh no I didn't and so we had only very little home group leaders so I knew everything about them I think I even knew the Social Security because they were so close so I was very surprised I go on this boyfriend Social Security I go on this boyfriend's Myspace and I see this Myspace it's almost like this guy run away from a penthouse where they make Playboy magazines pure pornography just pure pornography I was like Lord Jesus have mercy so I called her and I said hey do you know that your boyfriend is like you know porn addict he said he's doing better I was like you mean to tell me he was doing worse I'm like I can only imagine how bad he was before and she gets so defensive I'm like do you know him she said no we met on Myspace he's changing he said we love each other Vlad you don't understand this is real he's gonna change you'll see he's gonna change and I said you listen young lady I'm like maybe he's gonna change but listen I'm like I don't want your relationship to be a rehab you don't deserve a rehab you deserve love I'm like why do you need to have somebody to rehabilitate she said but I love him but he loves me you don't understand this is the always thing you don't understand we really have this thing going and guess what happens without even listening to nobody's advice he just said you know what if this is what it is I'm gonna walk out from the church I'm gonna walk out from leadership before even she was announced to be a home group leader she walks out moves to be with that guy that relationship doesn't last more than a few months until that young man embarrassed her on internet to that degree I do not wish that upon my worst enemies he described what they did in the private he posted things about her that that were so embarrassing and disgusting and that young man was the first out of many who treated this young lady the same this young lady still didn't recover from that one time that one time when I see a young man beginning to grow in the Lord when I see a young lady begin to grow in the Lord my heart grieves because the devil doesn't always hide behind charms and the witchy boards and the horoscopes to get them he hides behind a Gibe and I that looks sexy that looks hot that looks attractive that looks in that and sometimes it's behind that that the enemy looks and says listen I want to jeopardize your destiny by pushing you out from your way like I did with Samson like I did with that young lady I want to do that with you but I want you to be wise today I want you to be smart today God has a plan for your life you won't be single all your life God will bless you in your relationship but you have to do it his way somebody say amen you know what you call love sometimes you know water and alcohol look alike from a distance love and lust so many people may understand what that is until you took a bite of it if it's love why does it hurt if it's love why is it so painful controlling abusive manipulative why does it push you outside of your convictions if it's love why does it drive you away from the family if it's love why can it but not be content until you give your physical if it's love if my friend is not love many times it's nothing but lust if you want to be away from the devil's trap as a young person single person avoid relationships that are not with people who of your your values and of your belief system you know that we have visitors with us tonight and maybe some of you visitors who do not share the same faith as Christians and I respect that but I'm gonna give you a word of advice please do not date real and genuine Christians because they got a secret agenda they're gonna date you and privately pray for you and hope you'll come to their church and the whole thing is gonna be for love for you for them you're just a project you heard how they talk about you get you to here so I'm just gonna blow the whole balloon out of the way they're not really in love they're gonna try to get you saved and until you're safe they're not gonna be safe do yourself a favor stay away from them as far as possible you probably never thought that would come from the preacher's mouth tell me that they're doing that because they're real hypocrites amen but the second area that we have to watch out from not to make covenant with is the area of our issues it's not to allow our issues become our identity not to allow our issues become our identity not to make our issue not to make a contract not to make a covenant with our issues when I say issues I mean anger outbursts I mean the impatience when we get impatient when I say issues I mean when the F comes out when I say issues I mean when we get when we constantly border on laziness when I say issues I also mean when we have unhealthy habits like smoking or drinking or perhaps even or perhaps even abusing drugs when I say unhealthy issues I also mean when we have unhealthy habits like gambling or taking pain medications unhealthy issues it's the things in our life that God calls you to conquer but the enemy comes in and say you've tried already make a covenant with me maybe you know what all the men struggle with pornography that's just the way you are you're a visual guy you can't control it it's everywhere that is the way you are well tell your wife that's just the way I am she will slap that out of you she will say no you're not she said I can't do it she said well I'll do it for you that's not the way you are the enemy will come and he will say your issue is your identity but God has called you to conquer you shouldn't make a covenant with it some people they have anger problems like the smallest thing and they're like the bomb that explodes and they say well I'm Irish well that's my character well that's my nationality well I'm Puerto Rican I'm Russian well you know what I'm just a redneck this is just the way we are we throw axes we just we just shoot listen your issue that is not your identity don't blame your nationality for it because somebody say amen you know other people simply say well I was born with the sexual orientation I tried to switch that and now it's popular in my culture but the issue you have to understand is if the Bible gives you power to conquer something you cannot conquer it as long as you make covenant with it as long as you say well this is who I am the Bible doesn't say that's who you are the Bible says you are in Christ not in crisis the Bible says your identity is in Jesus not in your sin because somebody say amen you know Satan will not negotiate if he has a chance to win you know when Pharaoh started to negotiate with Israel about them leaving Egypt when he realized he's going down and that's when Pharaoh started to tell Israelites I know you guys gonna head out but please leave your kids back please leave the possessions back please only go for three days please leave all the flocks back because see the enemy when he is defeated he begins to negotiate because his strongest weapon after defeat is not his fists it's his deception it's his deception give me a night's new if we fight Israel we'll lose but if we deceive them we have a chance and that's what the enemy knows is that if he fights against you the spirit of God will rise you will rise and you will fight back you will seek prayer you will seek counseling you will seek anointing prayer you will seek help and God will help you but as long as he comes and says you know what you don't have to fight he will come like a trojan horse in a lie and deception and say you know what you tried hard enough you know what everybody in your family has it you know what your life is not that bad why don't you just settle with this issue and you make a covenant with something God gave you power to conquer you know a young man who sits with us who's young and hard not really young in the body now at the age of 17 he started to smoke and he smoked for 34 years while going to church he smoked but while smoking he didn't accept that smoking is going to be his identity he tried to quit but he failed he tried to quit but he failed but he made a decision to himself though I cannot fight and win against now one thing I refuse to do with this issue I refuse to make a covenant with this issue and 10 years ago exactly 10 years ago and a week or two weeks or so at this service during one new year service this young man being already 51 years of age fighting against something for 34 years and 10 years ago on the new year service it was the last time because he rose up and says no longer will I make a covenant with you smoking I'm out to conquer you I'm out to defeat you and you know what today he is 61 years of age and it's been 10 years since he has not smoked it's all because Jesus Christ always will give you power to conquer if you choose not to make a covenant you cannot conquer what you refuse to confront you cannot conquer what you refuse to fight the third thing that we have to not make a covenant with is our problems, our problems it's not to allow our problems to become permanent the enemy wants our problems to become permanent the enemy wants our problems to become permanent when we make a covenant with God we get this resolution we get this fighting spirit within us to fight against our problem when our covenant with God is weak we become passive toward our problem and we quickly accept our problems as permanent and we accept things like sickness as norm of life diabetes well that's just part of you know a person my size has arthritis well that's what everybody had in my family asthma well as long as I remember I was a somatic well you know what when it comes to this particular illness when it comes to shortage or constantly no one in the family had education that's just me you know no one in the family ever lived in a nice neighborhood had a nice car or a nice house gave anything to anyone well that's just me no one in the family ever served Christ in a way that brought hundreds of people to Jesus well that's just me and we allow these problems that are not sins they're just limitations to become a norm in our life it's something God called you to conquer but if you don't rise against it if you make a peace treaty with it if you settle and simply say you know what this is how I'm going to be I've tried my best I've exhausted all of my resources I've come to an end of myself you know what that's just the way I am going to be sadly in that area where you settle you don't see the glory of God the area where you don't settle and say I don't know how to overcome this I don't have the right knowledge and the right techniques but I know someone who can help me and his name is Jesus Christ his name is the Holy Spirit he split the Red Sea he formed the cosmos out of nothing and he can help me with this little problem he raised Jesus from the dead and he comes to live inside of me I'm pretty sure this problem is not as big as that one he can help me when our church was started you know in the beginning we had a vision and the vision is to see our community come to Jesus Christ when we received this building this building was a miracle from God because we we've got it without papers we've got it without without money until this day the mortgage for this building is being paid for our group on our Thursday night services they were on Thursday nights before Wednesday they were just two row two three rows two rows filled and the third row a little bit scattered that's much was our attendance every single week we spread flyers like mad people all around tri cities we posted it tape them but nobody was coming but one thing you knew about us if you would be here at that time is that we wouldn't give up years went a decade went this is a time to get tired this is a time to say we've tried God will understand but for us we knew the goal is not we tried the goal is we are gonna succeed and God when he sees that determination that you're not gonna give up that easy when God sees that you're not gonna settle and say we're gonna be a small church because we try the best in this community we said no we're gonna be a vibrant thriving church that gates of hell will not prevail and people in here will be from every tongue from every language and from every color and when we kept declaring that kept praying for that kept posting posters you know what things shifted today there's more people in our home group leaders meetings than three years ago was on our Wednesday service today there's more people in this service now than was on our largest conference three years ago today everything shifted and you know what this is just the beginning because what we see right now in next few years is gonna be our home group leaders meeting the track in a hundred days the track we're gonna be renting where three thousand people will be there that's gonna be our average normal church service the income you receive today in next few years is gonna be your tithe today our expectations are higher why because the reality we have is this reality is here to be conquered not to be in a relationship with we're not in a covenant with this reality we are here to conquer this reality for the glory of God can somebody say amen I remember young lady you know who we picked up who was homeless me and my wife when we lived in the rental place and we gave her a room to live and one of the things that I am firm and believer is for people to live out of debt be free out of debt and this young lady we started to ask her how much debt that she had and she started to list all of her debt and when she mentioned all of it she was just really really depressed she had no job she had no schooling she wasn't going to school and she had no place to live and her car barely worked and she owed about two thousand dollars on her car for which she was been paying for three years and it still owed the two thousand dollars and we challenged her you're gonna get a job you're gonna begin to pay it off one by one and you're gonna pay all of it off you're gonna get a brand new car everything's gonna be wonderful and I remember we encouraged you will only get out of this mess if you refuse to make a contract with it I remember when she had to pay seven hundred dollars for her first car payment they will pay off her car half of it off and she went in and came back and she said it's such a good feeling but I still have so much to pay off she didn't know that that evening we pulled off the rest of the money and paid her car off only paid off her car she got a job not only she got a job she got opportunity to go to school not only that but her car broke down and one of the people in church gave her a very beautiful German car and I saw her life begin to change dramatically but it was changed only because she made a decision not to settle but to fight when you begin to fight God most heaven and earth in your way when you get discouraged and you say I tried so hard it's been so long you know what I prayed already Vlad for this I already gave up listen you still got a breath in your nostrils why are you on this earth if it's not to fight why are you on this earth if it's not to dream why are you on this earth if it's not to reach new heights for God people died at 40 we buried them at 80 only one life where you just simply from a job home job home the husky that is next neighbor dog lives better than that he doesn't even have to work God gave you potential the Holy Spirit inside that raises things from the dead and here we are settled in front of a mosquito this problem is a mosquito in the eyes of God yes it's too big for you but not too big for the one who lives inside of you don't make a covenant without what God called you to conquer you will conquer your financial business that smoking you will conquer in Jesus name that pornography issue you will conquer in Jesus name that marriage crisis you will conquer in Jesus name that diabetes can be under your feet even the cancer tumors arthritis asthma whatever the sickness is maybe you're single and all you've known is broken relationships will say you came to a place today we don't make deals with the devil or his agents we will conquer not make a covenant somebody say amen you maybe it's a pep talk it's not a pep talk it's a ammunition for your gun I'm giving you bullets for your gun and today you have to load it up and you have to go and fight and win finish the college get the job that you want begin to live a life where you impact other people's lives open up home groups we will reach hundreds and thousands locally and millions globally why because the reality we are in is just a stepping stone it's not our ceiling it's just a stepping stone for the glory of God the reality that you are in maybe you're without license maybe you still got restraining orders and you have to go to court but the reality that you are in do not make a covenant with it because tomorrow that's going to be the scars you're going to show to people and say look what God brought me from tomorrow it's going to be part of your testimony in the name of Jesus somebody say amen somebody say that's me somebody say I will not give up say I will conquer I can hear you I will conquer everything under my feet