My Declaration of Dependence | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter by Kenneth Carpenter First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN) Kind: sermon Scripture: John 8:36, John 8:31-32, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Proverbs 18:21, Exodus 4:11-12, Luke 21:15, Hebrews 13:15, Micah 7:8, Proverbs 24:16, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Deuteronomy 32:30, Matthew 18:20, Exodus 11:4, Judges 16:3, Ruth 3:8, Psalm 119:62, Matthew 25:6, Acts 16:25 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--my-declaration-of-dependence Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ go ahead and just praise him right now hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah we feel a jailbreak a move of your spirit all over this place and before i read my text today i want you to know that scripturally the bible always says that there will be something that goes before the answer and that which goes before the answer is faith the old testament prophet said i hear the sound of the abundance of rain so right now whatever you're believing god for based upon the promises of the word of god i want you to begin right now just to verbally thank god that you already have what god's going to give you right now all over this building come on i hear the sound of the abundance of rain the burden will be lifted the sun will break through the joy will return my peace will be restored oh yes come on right now i hear the sound of the abundance of rain i hear the sound of the abundance of rain oh god the sun will break through the valley will turn into a mountaintop my sorrow will be turned into joy my ashes will turn into dancing my night will turn into day i do believe right now in the name of jesus i do believe right now come on one more time let's let some faith go before i'm not going to believe god after the answer i've got to believe god before the answer oh yes god thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord thank you choir today thank you so much if you have your bibles and would join me in john chapter number eight verse number 36 john chapter 8 verse number 36 and then we'll go back a few verses to john chapter 8 verse 31 and 32 then second corinthians 3 and 17 will be the three or four scriptures we'll read for our text today as i said earlier we are so thankful to have everyone here it's a major holiday we have many of our families that are not here that are on vacation but uh we're so thankful that we live in the foothills of the great smoky mountains and because we are so situated where we're at on major holidays brings many guests our way to come and worship the lord with us and we're honored to have you we have one such special guest that's not a guest today morgan bland from illinois has moved here and she's here with her parents ken and lisa today they're friends of the lays could we give morgan a great big not just a welcome but a permanent welcome today a permanent a permanent welcome today god is so good god is so good amen if i seemed a little adult this morning i'm still trying i'm still trying to figure out um that fourth child no one got talking about today lord god i've missed somebody do we not have a great pastor's wife today i'm sorry amanda if john chapter 8 verse 36 let's go if the son therefore shall make you free i wish somebody would shout free ah no you that's that's what that's your voice you use when somebody gets your parking space i mean your voice you use when you find that rummage cell that nobody else has when you find that deer stand come on who the son has set that's it that's it if the son therefore shall make you you shall be indeed verse 31 then said jesus unto those jews which believed on him if you continue in my word then ye are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free second corinthians chapter 3 verse number 17 now the lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty well i want to preach to us a few moments today father i love you father i thank you today for the praise of the worship thank you for men and women boys and girls that on this fourth of july are in your house today lord i pray that god you will have your way and your will today the lord you have never showed up and received praise what you did not in return give blessings lord i just ask you lord in this sermon today that you would be pleased and that you would work with this and i'll give you the praise and the honor in jesus name amen you may be seated if you would show me the the pic that i sent you of the declaration of independence the declaration of independence if you just leave that for just a few moments the declaration the declaration the declaration of independence she's 245 years old today she's 245 years old today the declaration somebody say declaration oh now now we're back to the parking spot all right declaration can you see declaration the declaration of independence 245 years old today the united states declaration of independence is the pronouncement it is the pronouncement adopted by the second continental congress meeting in philadelphia pennsylvania on july the 4th 1776. the declaration explained why the 13 colonies at war with the kingdom of great britain regarded themselves as 13 independent sovereign states no longer under british rule with the declaration these new states took on a collective first step toward forming the united states of america was their first step it was a document that is a declaration it is a pronouncement declaration of independence from the tyranny rule they were under but today my title is a little different instead of declaration of independence i want to preach for a few moments to you my declaration of dependence my declaration my pronouncement of my dependence my pronouncement of my dependence of him he is the vine we are the branches he is the potter and we are the clay and then jesus just simply said this and without me you can do nothing my declaration of dependence i begin to study just briefly why they gathered there in 1776 and formed this legal this document that was a pronouncement a pronouncement of their independence from great britain and i studied and i found there were three major reasons when they gathered for months before to write this pronouncement this declaration that there were three major reasons that they were giving their declaration of independence the first was they wanted the king to know they were declaring their independence from his rule when they gathered there under the dominant hand of the king of great britain being treated unjustly unfairly they wanted to write a document they wanted to have a a declaration that he would read that he would read and when he would read this declaration it would be just that a declaration to him that your rule has come to an end we want the king to read this as a matter of fact they not only wrote this document and many of us just simply know the first few sentences but if you read the entire document they begin to list why they have been treated and why they are breaking away they begin to charge the king with all of his crimes they begin to make their declaration and they wanted the one that had them in bondage they wanted him to know we declare our independence as a matter of fact if you can watch closely they not only wrote a letter but they signed it they wanted the king to know this is not just a letter th this is a letter of men that are willing to put their name on the line now many of them understood mary and many of them did suffer death they understood that signing this document meant that they would be guilty in britain of treason and they would be hung and shot many of them upon signing this document had to leave their families their farms their homes but many of them were willing to put their name on the line for the sake of their declaration of independence as a matter of fact if you look closely you'll see one name on there that's much larger than the other names it's john hancock and the story says the reason that john hancock's signature is much larger is because the king of britain wore glasses when he would read and it is commonly said that when it came time for john hancock to sign his name that he said i'm going to sign my name so large that the old king won't even have to put his glasses on to see my name that's where we get the phrase put your john hancock here all right so they were willing to sign this now you know i haven't come to give you a history lesson today because i believe there's great spiritual parallels and types and shadows here we need to declare our declaration of independence from satan's rule and we need to declare our declaration of dependence upon our new king king jesus could you help me praise him this morning help me praise him now i want you to know that this declaration although it is in written form was first a pronouncement it was words that flowed from mouths of these patriots because our words are very important our speech is very important no wonder the bible tells us and i i want i want you to know that your declaration of independence from satan's rule and your declaration of dependence to your new king starts in your mouth it starts in your mouth it starts with something called your tongue in the book of proverbs chapter 18 and verse number 21 the wise man wrote these words death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof now would you notice something with me i have for some time read through this and i have i have said a word that was not in there i have said many times death or life is in the power of the tongue but it doesn't say death or life it says death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it will eat the fruit of it it's more than just a pronouncement it will grow the fruit of death it will grow the fruit of life because quite honestly today with us all there are things in our lives that do need to die there are things that have lived long enough robbed us long enough haunted us long enough been a burden to us long enough so the power of death is in our tongue i believe that we need to curse the unfruitful things of our lives the things that take our energy but never bring us any fruit the things that control our mentality but never bring us any fruit nothing of enjoyment we need to be like jesus as he approached the fig tree that bore no fruit it got him off his mission he briefly on his way to jerusalem to shed his blood he briefly turned aside into a field where there was the promise of figs on a tree but you know when he got to the tree the tree only had leaves and no figs jesus cursed something that diverted his attention from the will of god and he cursed it because it offered no fruit i believe brothers and sisters today that our declaration of independence needs to be that i begin to curse that which bears no fruit there are things in our lives that need to die we don't need reruns we don't need to sit down in our minds and have reruns of things that were done to us or maybe things we did to ourselves in the name of jesus today we need to learn how to curse those things the ugly things about our lives the things that make us feel condemnation the things that make us feel ashamed and burdened down by the name of jesus christ today we need to take our tongues and begin to say i curse you in the name of jesus i curse these thoughts i curse this in my mind but not only was the power of death in the tongue but the power of life is also in the tongue i not only need to curse things of my past i also need to speak life into things that are present and things in my future the bible says that we will eat the fruit thereof you know we can offer a lot of excuses we can look at our uh inabilities if i could use the word we can look at our lives today and if we look at our lives minus the word of god we have a very poor self-image of ourselves i don't know about you but when jesus said for without me you can do nothing you talk about well brother carpenter i just feel like nothing i think i know why i think when we just feel like nothing it's because we're not looking at our lives through our new king because he said without me you can do nothing if you're feeling like you're nothing today then it's simply because you're not looking at yourself under the reign of your new king so when we look at our we live our lives all to ourselves we we we see our inabilities they're there we we see that we're not able we're not capable it's not there moses went through the same thing moses went through that he went through the same thing god you're going to be a great leader the burning bush you're going to be a great leader you're going to go down and deliver the children out of bondage you're going to go down you're going to do all of these things moses knew what egypt looked like why he had lived there for 40 years he knew how powerful egypt looked like he knew all about egypt not only that he knew all about moses he knew all about himself and so in exodus chapter 4 he starts telling god how he's not capable there's a word i'm looking for he's not capable of doing this now god i know what you've said but i'm not capable of doing this i'm not able to do what you've said and guess where he went to to explain that he wasn't capable he went to his mouth he said god uh i i'm of slow speech i'm a slow speech now one of two things either one can be just whichever you want to whichever you want to go in either either one will be good you're not going to get to heaven and be kept out of heaven because you believe one over the other all right and that's not going to be the question all right either one either slow speech meant that he had a speech impediment or slow speech might have been that he just didn't think real good on his feet he was slow to articulate his speech he he he he would just slow you know some people's minds work it at warp speed you know they can just think quick on their feet and they can just spit it out they they they can just think quick you can almost you can almost look at the sides of their head and see their minds just going like that right there i'm i'm not thinking about only one person today and that's my wife you know they just think so quick on their feet you know whereas her counterpart her husband i'm a slow speech i i i i don't think as quickly as i have to have just a minute and some of our conversation goes like this she'll ask me a question then she'll say what do you think wait a minute processing you got to understand you can't feed something else to the hey bella right now i kind of i got to process i got to process this you know moses said god i i don't speak i got a slow speech but in exodus 4 and verse number 11 and the lord said unto him who hath made man's mouth you're telling me you're unable you're telling me you're not capable i want to ask you something moses who made your mouth or who maketh the dumb or death or the seeing or the blind have not i the lord now there now therefore go and i will be with them out now this is what i need now i will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say now if i'm going to do everything god's called me to do we got to understand today we got to be we got to begin to ask god to be with our mouth god i i want you to i want you to be with my mouth god in luke 21 verse 15 listen to what jesus says to us for i will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain say or resist now that's the mouth i want i want a mouth that can overcome my adversaries i want a mouth i want a language i'm not doing away i'm not dare belittling any demonstrative hand clap foot stalk dance leap spin or any of that but if i had to choose on an aisle runner a spinner a leaper a dancer a hand clapper i would choose somebody that uses their mouth because he didn't say the power of death and life is in your shout he said the power of death and light is in your mouth so what we need to understand yeah you notice this is a proven test in a pentecostal church if you ask people to praise the lord the first thing they start doing is why because it's a lot easier to do that than to say lord i love you lord i praise you you're the lord of my life you're my everything my all in all because the adversary knows that if you ever start making your declaration of dependence upon god that some fruit is going to grow in your life i know life may be mundane i mean you i know you might not enjoy living but if i can help you today through the power of the name of jesus christ to get your mouth open and begin to curse things that need to be cursed and begin to bless things that need to be blessed come on give him some praise oh give him some praise come on let's pronounce it today come on let's pronounce it today i love you jesus i love you jesus paul says that there's only one sacrifice that survived the old testament only one we don't offer sheep bullocks oil wine bread or meal there's only one sacrifice that they had in the old testament that we need today hebrews chapter 13 and verse number 15. therefore by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to god continually two words i want you to look at in that verse sacrifice and continually sacrifice and continually it calls praise sacrifice but we get in our mind that we can only praise him when something good has happened we can only praise him when our emotions and hormones are lined up just right we can only praise him when i feel like praising him the truth of the matter is i don't always feel like praising him sometimes it is a sacrifice i come to church with a backache i come to church with a headache i come to church with the world upside down in my life a layoff slip a cancer report a child that is missing a marriage that's in turmoil but if i can just somehow come into the house of god and begin to give god praise give me some monitor please give me some monitor please come on if i can give god some praise anybody fit in those categories today anybody here with a physical issue in your life give god praise anybody here you don't know where a child is at give god praise anybody here with an addiction or someone in your family has got an addiction give god praise praise praise praise i want you to know i declare my dependence i declare my declaration of dependence i want the ruler of this world to know that on this sunday morning of july 4th i've come to declare my declaration of dependence somebody shout yes somebody shout yes give me some monitor please somebody shout yes yes yes i shuck my declaration you may be seated of dependence i need my god to know i need my god to know today but i not only need my god to know today i want my former king to know where he stands i want my former king to know you see there's one thing about my former king he is not omniscient he is not omniscient all he can understand is what i say and so when i am saying nothing i'm giving him a 50 50 chance to read my mind he is saying nothing now this is especially important because our enemy does come to church we can say all kinds of things they have no bibles have no bible for it all the devils nowhere around here i beg to differ with you if he's not in the sanctuary he's at least in the lobby sure to god he's in the parking lot all right so i want my enemy when my enemy comes down and says you know what they're singing about an apostolic anointing oh they're singing about they're singing about it's all in him it's all in him boy and that's a doctrine he doesn't want you to know because it's the only doctrine that says that makes him tremble the bible said if you believe in one god you do well for the devil believeth in one god and trembles but if the enemy walked by you today and the enemy saw you with your mouth closed when everybody else was singing it's all in him it's all in him the fullness of the godhead it's all in one it's all in him it's all in him you say well i know that you know one way not one way to always remember it and one way to always know it is to always sing it because what you cease to talk about will be something that you forget about but if you may you'll be it's all in him but if the enemy comes by today and he didn't see me singing and the enemy came by today and he didn't see me praising he stands there for a moment and he says are they contemplating evidently they don't think god is good evidently they're not really soul that's why that's why the enemy needs to hear some things from us today i said that's why the enemy needs to hear some things from us today mainly the church here right that's why the enemy needs to hear some things from us today that's amen right the enemy needs to hear some things from us today that's still the parking lot the enemy needs to hear some from us today now we're getting somewhere the enemy needs to hear it that's why micah wrote micah wrote in micah chapter seven and verse number eight rejoice not against me oh my enemy now our enemy's satan rejoice not against me oh my enemy when i fall not if i fall but when i fall i shall arise when i sit in darkness the lord shall be a light unto me that some things i want our enemy to know on my declaration of dependence don't you get happy because i got knocked down don't you get happy because i got knocked off track i got somebody don't you get happy because i i got i got dislodged for a few services rejoice not against me all my enemy when i fall i shall arise you better look out i'm getting back up i'm getting back in the game i might be knocked down but i'm not knocked out i may be cast down but i'm not broken i may be set back but i'm getting back up rejoice rejoice not against me oh my enemy when i fall i shall arise when i sit in darkness anybody ever sit in darkness no no let's go back for a moment let's see really how transparent we can be any of you ever any of ever any of you ever fallen spiritually come on raise your hand raise your hand well i'm not raising my hand i've always come to church no you can you can keep coming to church and fall that's right you you keep coming to church you keep coming to church and fall come on how many has really fallen just bring them down just a minute just just just a tad please you fallen you know what you need to do you need to start talking to the enemy don't you rejoice because you've got a few services in on me don't you rejoice because you got knocked off you you knocked me listen i i allowed you you were so happy when you saw that i went a week without prayer you were so happy when you saw that i got knocked off my spiritual growth tracker you were so happy when i stayed home from church a few services only to hear what a powerful move of god but i got news for you enemy i am getting back up i'm not saying the church is getting better the church is made up of individuals you're not going to be saved by a church you're going to be saved because you're an individual i am getting back up i've got knocked off my game and got knocked off the track but i am getting back up the second thing the second thing rejoice not against me oh my enemy when i fall i shall arise when i sit in darkness anybody ever sit in darkness what does that mean that means you don't know what's going on around you you can't figure it out you don't know why life has happened to you the way it has you don't know why things have happened to you the way they have anybody ever sit in some darkness that's exactly right but when i set in darkness the lord shall be a light unto me proverbs 24 16 for a just man falleth seven times and rise up again but the wicked shall fall into mischief the seven number is a number of completion you say brother carpenter i didn't just miss a few services brother carpenter i just didn't miss a couple weeks of prayer brother carpenter i got plumb i failed even from living for god i completely 7 is a number of completion i completely fell out of church i had no desire to go to church i couldn't tell you when's the last time i've been to church i couldn't tell you when the last time i was there i couldn't tell you when the last time i prayed i sure couldn't tell you when the last time i spoke in other tongues that's all right because the bible's got a scripture for you it says that a just man falls seven times and rise up again that's the eight time and eight's a number of a new beginning it's not how many times you fall that matters it's that if you have fallen 12 times just make sure you've got the 13th getting up inside of you just make sure you've got one more well i don't think people will take me serious i don't even think god will take me serious i can't answer for people but i can't answer for god he said any man that will come to me i will in no wise cast him away get back up child of god come on let's verbally praise him right now verbally praise him i want the king to know where we stand but there was a threefold purpose for the signing of the declaration of independence it was to inspire here's the second reason they said we want to inspire and comfort the colonists we want to inspire these men and women of the 13 colonies we want to comfort them we're at war and we want to do this together if somebody say together come on somebody say together i think if anything cobit has tried to do to us is to separate us we are easy to be we are we are we are more easy to be defeated separated than we are together the enemy brother nolan fights our togetherness i guess would you give me the picture would you give me the picture of the declaration of independence again on the screen because there was something that i missed look up at the top in congress july 4th 1776 the unanimous declaration of the 13 states the united states of america the unanimous you know what the you know what they wanted the signers of that to know when the old king laid it down the first thing he heard they're united they're united you know what hell threats over fears more than anything is a united church i go to church there my family is a part of that church can i tell you something if there's something you need to lay on the old king's desk this morning is that we speak as one we are united unanimous we all got together this ain't ten of us this ain't nine of us this ain't eight out of thirteen this ain't 12 out of 13. this is all 13 colonists this is all 13 states we are united here you see there's power in unity right or wrong there's power in unity whether it's for a right cause or for a wrong cause there's power in unity you get a people together they can have false doctrine but if they're united around that false doctrine they'll build buildings they will prosper financially and they will have the appearance of god's blessings you say well god must be blessing them no he's not blessing them they've just learned the power of being united the unanimous it's not god's blessing them it's not or how can they build these big bills they don't even know the truth look at what they're doing i'll tell you how they can do it they're united even jesus spoke about the unity that's in hell hell has a unity satan has a unity demons have unity because they came to jesus the the religious rulers came to jesus and they said you cast out devils by the prince of the devils beelzebub you're casting out devils because you have appealed to a higher power a higher rank of the devils and jesus said you're very foolish a house divided against itself cannot stand he said the devil isn't divided do you know why the enemy has such advancements going on they're all united they're all united now there's power in unity over a bad cause look at the tower of babel god's plan was go into all the earth repopulate replenish the earth go in noah your three sons get off the ark spread abroad throughout the earth repopulate it but what did they do they found a lan a a land a a plane in the land of synar they found a level place and then they all turned around and look at the key word let us build us a city and us a tower that we may have a name for ourselves us us we us us we and the bible said god came down and inspected the building he walked around brotherly he walked around the building site he walked and saw those mixing martyr he walked and saw those laying brick he walked and saw those bringing beams in from the forest and he walked and then he turned to the angelic host and he said they have one mind and they have one speech and this they have imagined to do and nothing will be restrained from them they have one mind it's not my will it's not my cause but because they have one mind they'll do it and the only way god stopped them was to get in their mouth and change their language and when he got in their mouth and changed their language the work ceased and they were divided but can i tell you of another group of people that were in the will of god it was the will of god for the hundred and twenty disciples to be in an upper room it was the will of god for them to receive the holy ghost it was the will of god for them to go into all the world and preach the gospel but the will of god did not happen until this happened and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with what accord in one place they all had the same mind they were all there for the same reason oh friend i wonder what kind of church we can have this morning if every person that has the holy ghost would get on their feet and begin to worship jesus begin to magnify jesus i'm here today to worship jesus i'm here today to magnify jesus i'm here today to hear his word i'm here today to see somebody saved i'm here to see somebody delivered i'm here for my family to be touched i worship jesus come on right now if you're standing there with your mouth closed right now you're really telling god i don't believe that you can save my family if you're standing there with your mouth closed you're really telling god i don't believe you believe i'm a healer if you're standing there with your mouth closed i don't believe when you give me your christmas list come on praise it praise him god help us to be the church god help us to be the church god i believe you're bringing that girl back home god i believe you're bringing our backsliders back god i believe you're going to talk to them this morning god i believe you're going to speak to them right now some are watching online god i believe you're going to speak to them right now god there's some men and women that are out of the will of god today and they shouldn't be sitting here on these pews together together the unanimous you may be seated somebody shout unanimous come on shout it today unanimous declaration of the 13 united states of america we are one together we are one together i hope to god i'm gonna do a little pastor here for a moment but i almost think we we getting a little sophisticated when all of a sudden you turn a shade of red when i meet you at the store and say praise the lord sister some of them are getting a little bit weirded out at church but you know why we ought to have a greeting praise the lord sister praise the lord brother because it don't matter if we're at church or where west town mall or foothills mall or wherever it's praise the lord what binds us together is not that we're all blunt countions what binds us together is not that we all live in tennessee but what binds us together we're all baptized in jesus name and filled with the holy ghost are you ready and looking for the soon coming he's our everything he's our all in all it's all about jesus we are one together ecclesiastes 4 9 2 are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor it's called the principle of synergy you can take one horse that can pull 400 pounds on a sled you can take one horse that can pull 400 pounds on a sled you can take two horses and i ask you how much can two horses pull you'd say well then two horses could pull 800 ton pounds you're wrong and i was wrong two horses one horse pull 400 pounds two horses do not pull 400 or 800 pounds but two horses pull 1200 pounds because just something about a multiplication it's almost as if god comes down when he finds two together oh i think i hear a scripture for where two or three are gathered together that's why marriages fall apart is because when marriages are not together god's not in the midst of them but when we're together in our homes and nolan spoke about that fourth child and if he spoke about the fourth child let me talk about the second father because there's not only a fourth child brother nolan but there's a second father between your mother and i between your mother and i as we got married and we were going through all the struggles of young married couples go through all the getting used to each other and understanding how each other were raised and having the friction that we had and all that in the midst of our friction in the midst of our misunderstandings we had the second father there and we would say god just help us god just help us god god would you just help us god and whenever we have that that unity in our family the second father steps in and says we're two oh my god we're two come on rejoice with me a little bit we're two or three are gathered two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor for if they shall fall one will lift up his fellow but woe to him that is alone when he falleth he hath not another to help him up again if two lie together they shall have heat how can one be warm alone and if one prevail against him two shall withstand him and a threefold cord is not quickly broken deuteronomy 32 30 how shall one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight except their rock had sold them and the lord had shut them up matthew 18 20 for where two or three are gathered together in my name there am i in the midst of them i am there where in the midst of them i did a study on the word mist and the word miss is also used for midnight he said where two or three are gathered there i am in the midnight of them now midnight may not be mean much to you unless you run a reference on things that happened at midnight i don't have time but there's a lot of good things happened at midnight the children of israel exodus 11 4 were delivered at midnight judges 13 3 samson pulled the gates up at midnight ruth 3 and eight ruth found a husband at midnight and then praise psalms 119 verse number 62 at midnight will i arise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgment can i tell you something if you are in a mental of a night you need to understand you are on prime real estate for god to move he delivered egypt israel at midnight samson got the bars of the city at midnight ruth got a husband at midnight the psalmist got up at midnight and begin to praise god if you are at your midnight i am not done matthews tells us in matthew 25 and verse number 6 and at midnight there was a cry man behold the bridegroom cometh go get out to meet him you know when he's coming back he's coming back at midnight he's coming back at midnight midnight seems to be a time that the scripture highlights paul and silas were beaten and chained and thrown not just into the common prison but to the inner prison the dungeon but the bible would inform us in acts 16 25 and at midnight paul and silas prayed and sing praises unto god and the prisoners heard them oh the enemy's hoping you're midnight right now you're in your midnight i'm talking to some people today i'm talking to some people today there's a little couple there's a little couple here this morning there's actually two people there's a little couple and then there's a woman that the lord spoke to me yesterday and if they come to the altar today i'm going to minister a word to them but there's a little there's a little couple that that god ministered a word now i may not listen i i may have permission just to go to that couple but god ministered a word to for me to tell you as your pastor and then there's a woman there's a woman that god gave me a word for and god told me to tell this certain woman this so i'm telling you something you're at your midnight right now and the devil's hoping you keep your mouth shut the devil's hoping that your midnight turns into one o'clock and two o'clock and three o'clock and you spend the rest of your life wishing for the morning when all it would have taken at midnight everything had to happen they they weren't asleep at midnight they were doing something at midnight israel was eating the lamb israel had their clothes on and their shoes on their feet and at midnight god came samson rose up and took the bars ruth went down to the vineyard to the to the field and got her husband all at midnight and in that philippian jailhouse at midnight with cuts and lacerations on their backs and their arms with them being unable to move their feet or move their hands there was one thing the enemy that he's he's really not as smart as he thinks he is he's really not as smart as some people give him credit for because if i were the devil the first thing i would have said leave their hands alone and leave their feet alone put something over their mouth gag them just gag them if you want to stop them just gag them but the enemy's not all-knowing and he's certainly not all-powerful because you may have your hands bound today and you may have what you're working with bound today and you may have your feet your direction bound today but god said i'll never let the adversary bind your mouth i'll let you come into the church on a sunday morning your feet are bound your hands are bound but your mouth is wide open and at midnight paul and silas prayed come on praise him right now come on praise him right now come on praise him right now you got the strength you got the strength come on praise him right now don't you let your flesh tell you you're tired don't you let your blessed tell you it's almost 12. you're almost at your victory right now staying with me all over this building oh yeah yeah yes yes yeah yes thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord praise god hallelujah thank you jesus glory to god i'm coming out i'm getting you up thank you jesus glory to god hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah come on you ought to praise him loud enough that you can hear yourself praise let the weak say that i'm strong i am gonna make it i am coming out the sun is gonna shine again ah come on come on if that's the best praise i can get i have fell miserably come on come on come on god brought some of you all the way to tennessee on this morning not just for a visit with your family but god wanted to tell you i want to give you something ah yeah that's it hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah would you listen to me just listen to me for a moment we're going to gather in this altar don't you listen to me there was three reasons brother thorpe i said there were three reasons number one they wrote the declaration of independence so that the king would know they were serious number two they wrote it as an encouragement to the 13 colonies that's why it started off with unanimous declaration pennsylvania didn't have to wonder what georgia was doing see that's cobit for us separate us separate us separate us that's why that's why god ordained for us to be able to webcast services god lets all things happen when they happen i would have hated to have went through covet without the means of online ministry how many of you would like to go on for weeks wondering what's happening at the church how many of you would have liked to win six weeks not knowing what in the world what the world's happening but if covet would have happened 20 years ago but what in the comfort during covet that every night you got online and said there it is there it is there's somebody singing there's somebody the pews are empty but he kept us all it kept us all together the same thing winston churchill did when germany was attacking it night after night winston churchill went and got on the radio and he electrified london and he would say we'll fight them in the beaches we'll fight them in the streets we'll let germany know that this is our finest hour the encouragement is an encouragement but the third reason the 13 united colonies knew that they were strong countries in the world they knew they were strong countries besides great britain number one i want the king to know where i stand number two i want the 13 colonies to know we're together and number three i'm soliciting for any help any help that i can get today i'm soliciting for any help today don't you know that today if you'd walk down to this altar and begin to lift your hands you know what you're really doing somebody's gonna follow you right out of that pew i saw it happen this morning i saw a precious woman while the choir was singing i saw a precious woman get out of her seat and come down here and bury her head in the in the halter but she didn't come alone she didn't come by herself when she got out of the aisle she was saying help help help me and somebody came to them come on right now this morning but you got to keep your praise on i know y'all getting ready to sing listen to me church right now is where you got to use your mouth you got to use your mouth right now right now is where you got to use your mouth come on gather up around the altar you have to run the altar prayer meeting tonight at 5 30. service is six o'clock tonight but for the rest of this service open your mouth and declare your dependence yes crazy walk without you i can't talk without you you're the air that i breathe come on church come on church declare your declaration that dependence let yes god say open your mouth and praise him the lord is my light the lord is my salvation who shall i fear so come on it's in the midst of our praise the bible said god in hell is the praises it's in the midst of your worship god's coming down yes yes he is i feel it i'm feeling like the holy ghost i want the hallelujah i declare my dependence i want the church to know we are united but i need help today somebody help me somebody that's got freedom lay hands on me somebody that's got a healthy government come help us come help us help us somebody help us is is is hey how many how many strong tower students that we're at strong tower camp let me hear you did you give something a strong tower get something strong tower young men i want you to lay your hands on some men pray with them right now strong our young ladies i want you to go lay your hand come on just just go through this crowd right now laying your hands and praying right now come on we got all this victory god didn't just give us victory and strong tower for us to do nothing it's not a memory it's a movement it's not a memory it's a movement