Curiosity VS Conviction ( Part III)  |  Student Pastor Zach Hammond
by Zach Hammond
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Romans 8:6-7, Joshua 3:5, Leviticus 8:22, Hebrews 5:11-14, Joshua 7:1-25, Jeremiah 7:30, Exodus 32:17-18

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/zach-hammond--curiosity-vs-conviction-part-iii
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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we're going to the word of the lord this evening in romans chapter 8. if you'll be turning in your bibles i'm so thankful to be in the house of the lord today amen what a great time we've had in service already this morning i know some of you have made the journey down to sevierville or over to sevierville however you want to look at that for service i heard that they had a packed house and better than a packed house they had full altars and we believe that the lord is doing a great thing there in sevierville at our other campus i give honor to pastor sister carpenter and i believe that they are ministering today they stayed over to minister there in matune for pastor sean doughty and i believe that the lord is as always is working and ministering through pastor and sister carpenter congratulations to brother nolan and sister flannery i say to sister flannery because she's a part of that those of you that are on you have a wife or a husband that goes to school you're a part of that you give in that so congratulations to both of them and accomplishing something there with brother nolan graduating with his bachelor's there from ocean uh college and i give honor to brother and sister erickson what a mighty word we heard this morning amen i i yeah give him a big hand what a mighty word we heard this morning a lot of what he spoke on this evening if we were if we were tag team wrestling i'd just be slapping and coming right in and picking up right where he left off is it wrestling or wrestling that's the question huh pretty sure i'm not going to give my opinion me and my father i always hear my dad say it one way and i say it another way so that's really what i think one of the only things that we may disagree upon but uh wrastlin and wrestling but i would take the take the high five and try to come in and and just build on what he built on this morning romans chapter eight verse number six part three and some of you are saying thank god part three and the final part of curiosity versus conviction we've been talking about cell phones how to monitor what the issue is with social media and what it's doing in our society and i pray that this evening i believe that the lord wants to shake this place tonight at the end of the sermon um he says i sometimes i have no clue how a sermon is going to end but anytime i feel like the lord has given me direction i don't i don't build a sermon from the beginning to the end i build it from the end to the beginning so i pray that you would feel what i feel from the lord that he's going to end by shaking this place tonight he's going to shake every single person you say well i don't want to be shook well you might want to leave because at the end of service he's going to shake this place with his power and he's going to challenge you out of your comfort zone because the only way you move out of the enemy's camp into god's camp the only way that you move out of curiosity into the conviction of god is you got to shake your flesh up you've got to get out of your comfort zone you got to get out of what's normal you got to get out of what you always do so i believe the lord's going to do it this evening as we close out our day together on this sunday evening i'm thankful for sunday night service amen i know a lot of churches i'm not against churches that don't have sunday night services culturals are different everywhere but i'm thankful that we have two opportunities to come and worship on sundays romans chapter eight and verse number six for to be carnally minded as death it's pretty straightforward paul to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace again we go back to it you say you're just on and on to be carnally minded is death we have one side but to be spiritually minded is life and peace let me let me give you a little bit of excerpt before i'm just going to read these two two verses of scripture and i'll allow you to be seated but we have to understand first of all that everything is spiritual you can be carnally minded you can be carnal in action but it's affecting you spiritually you don't have a category of things that you can put your life in and just say these are spiritual things and these are physical things i go to work i eat i clothe my children whatever it is that you you feel like i'm just clocking in i'm clocking out i'm doing this i'm do it no everything in your life is spiritual so what paul's saying to the church at rome he said you can be spiritually minded you can acknowledge that everything is spiritual you can acknowledge the little habits that you've derived from just simply getting up and you think that it's just something that you do that's normal that you take time out to do this and you take time out to do that no every single little discipline every single little consecration every single little thing that you do is spiritual that's why he says you can't be lukewarm you can't be one person or the other person you can't live in this camp you live can't live in that camp it's either death or life and peace you either acknowledge your created purpose or you can be carnally minded because the carnal mind is enmity against god right once we understand that we are built for spirituality we're built for a spiritual connection when i have a carnal mind it it fights it's enmity it's it makes god an enemy i'm consistently combating against my purpose for it is not subject to the law of god neither indeed can be because the only way that we can please god you you know this to be spiritually minded you have to be full of his spirit so therefore he says neither indeed can it be if you're carnally minded because you can't be christian and be carnally minded right so we see here that paul in just two verses of scripture pretty much sums up our life as a christian we continue part three curiosity versus conviction i want to build off brother erickson this morning but let's just lift our hands to heaven and believe that god's going to speak to us so we love you god i thank you so much for the opportunity to minister your people god i thank you for the good the great the mighty things that you've already done in this place god god you've been so good to us you've always provided you've never forsaken us you've never left us god come on church could we just praise him for a moment come on lord i thank you that you brought my family here another week god i'm thankful for my health god i'm thankful that you brought me here god in one piece that i'm able to gather in and hear the voice of the lord and i'm able to feel your presence oh god lord we bless your name we magnify your lame go go come on and clap your hands one more time to him before you're seated god we bless your name and we magnify you tonight in this house jesus name we pray everybody shout amen you can be seated we've already seen in quite a few ways as we're looking from uh at all the different angles of technology that we we see that we have experienced already were the moment where technology has taken over has overwhelmed human ability it's overwhelmed human ability it's become smarter faster it's made some of your jobs easier it's made some of your jobs non-existent because a computer can do it it has overwhelmed humanity it is overwhelmed overwhelmed humans ability it's overwhelmed human strength it adds faster it spells better it's now even driving cars and let's be honest that's a good thing for some people right it's overwhelmed the ability of mankind but here's what we must acknowledge and we have been but let's look at it a little bit deeper that what happens when it overwhelms a human weakness because it's overwhelmed the strength but what happens when it overcomes and be begins to overwhelm the human weakness we're excited about it strives to exceed humanity's strength has put us on the moon it's put us in different countries at the same time to be able to communicate and to be able to connect but what happens when it magnifies our weakness this point has crossed a a handful of people's minds as we begin to see that there's study going on um and there's even documentaries that are being uh being filmed and done that are that are by all of these founders and creators of of facebook and google and and instagram and all these social media outlets they are now coming together as a group of 15 or so as it seems that have have partnered with doctors and they begin to study what is happening now that it is exposing our weaknesses we didn't build the like button on facebook to now do what it's doing to young people we didn't we we didn't create it for that but now it seems that that is one of the most driven buttons for teenagers no we we just we just created that so that we would create connectivity and and make people think that hey this is something that we we like and we we approve we thought it was a great thing but all of a sudden it's it's it's flipped on us and the other side of the coin of negativity is showing some really powerful things we see that this point has now come up in the minds of many people and it it's beginning to uh allow us to see the the the back and back end and this algorithmic influence that's something that now they've created but they can't control but because they've created it to keep your attention i listened to the guy talk that created that little three dots that keeps going over and over again in the text messaging feed you know how many millions he got paid for that because what's it do it keeps your attention long enough for another pop-up to come up which leads you to another pop-up will lead you to another page which leads you to another ad and what happens is now at first it was created as facebook and facebook was worth all this money but now these people have come along and these same people are saying this is a problem because they created as a form of connection in a form of of social uh social gatherings on this great thing called the internet but now it's become a thing where everything is monetized which means they are selling ads those of you that are in marketing they've monetized it it's worth money every ad every click if you can prove that you've got this many clicks on a website you can sell that advertisement that opportunity for them to see your ad on the right side of that page and it's called monetize so now it's grown to a thing to where they are selling your clicks but let's really think about it it's not ads that are for sale now it's you that's for sale it's your time it's your emotions we read a little bit about it last week it's it's it's a thing where you even from the cameras even from promiscuity they see that you lacking posting pictures of this and all of a sudden something pops up on an x something pops up of this something pops up of that they're literally controlling your emotions controlling your time found this this week wikipedia this beautiful site that we can use as a source of reference we can look it up google it wikipedia and it'll give us a definition we can all visit and see the same thing when cnn and fox and news outlets and all these things are giving us two different answers when we can't seem to find the truth we can look at the one thing at least we've got wikipedia we've got google that we can type in and it'll tell us exactly what's going on or give us a definition sadly it seems that way but even now wikipedia and google are location-based platforms which means when i go in living in east tennessee a very conservative area very christian area and i type in the definition of certain things it's going to give me a definition based upon my location therefore i'm able to look around in a gathering of probably about 500 people tonight and say man we all believe about the same thing i can even scroll through maryville and see locations most of us most of us are on the same page we all feel like what in the world's going on over there what in the world's going on over in that other city you know what's happening when they type something in it's telling them all the same thing down to what we would find truths as being definitions so they've got this collective conscience of what's right and wrong based upon what they're typing in the computer to find truth influence is most effective the more time it has so it's selling every time every every every moment it's like one big magic trick pick any card any card check it out they're luring you in pick any scroll through this click on that click on that before you know it it's this illusion that's got you bound and got you kind of stirred up it's now true that false news travels six times faster than the truth it gets more traction and gets more influence so we get more money for the fake and i i'm not here with any kind of political agenda but the whole fake news thing is very real because fake is what gets the ads which brings in the money fake fake is what when you throw that thing out there that's not a bit more true than anything i've ever read but what are you going to do you're going to click on it out of interest i remember a few years ago they put a they that somebody photoshopped it but there was this huge slide coming down at one of these mega churches and it was showing this thing when they were baptizing people coming off this big slide in front of the church did i click on it absolutely was it true absolutely not no right but fake news we've seen that that's that's true right a negative travels much faster than the positive right we see that even in the bible you know they they brought jacob that bloody coat they said he cling to it but when they rolled the carts up the joseph had sent years later he said i'm gonna have to see that for myself right it's all through the bible we can go through every single it's easier to believe the bloody coat than it is the cart of blessing right that's that's just life for some reason we've created ourselves to just accept the negative but the good just seems too good to be true so the negative false information so again we go back to the people that are using social media and the internet it's it's the back end of this thing is like this remote control of warfare they literally are starting riots with one post why is all that going on over there why are those people burning up stuff what the way in the world are they thinking they're being controlled by one post one rant false information a modified video they can destroy with one click political moves this that is simply a monstrous just huge ginormous whatever the biggest word i could come up with it's just like a big thumb war on this they click on that i click on this they click on that so again i go back to what's informing you what's bringing the knowledge to you because we're all in the same garden it's just which tree are you eating of we're all here on earth it's just either are you camped out in curiosity or conviction it's a choice who's informing your kids can they hear the voice of conviction many of the creators of social media believe that the threat is not technology it's that technology is bringing out the worst in humanity and we can say amen in a lot of ways to that mass chaos a lack of trust rebellion loneliness will eventually cause what they believe very emphatically social media will cause a civil war some of the smartest people in the world the people that are in a back room on some little thing that's probably smarter than anybody you'll ever see they say what we're doing that we thought was good it was going to bring out the good in humanity has has really turned its back on us and if we're not careful and if we don't begin to monitor it and the guys at the head of this and this is this is not in the church realm these people are just trying to advise those at the head of some of these major companies so if we don't we don't put some some kind of of monitoring on this this thumb war is going to become reality and we're going to have nation rise up against nation of course now we're this evening i i don't want to spend all the time on just filling you with facts and i feel like that i've given you enough facts the past two weeks and i feel like just giving you the nugget at the beginning of the message just to remind you that we must find ways to hear the voice of god we must find new ways in our new culture with new challenges yes same spirit yes same adversary but we must have that much the more of god's voice in our lives joshua said this he said consecrate yourselves today for tomorrow the lord will do wonders among you consecrate yourself today and the lord will do wonders among you tomorrow so many of us i know that there are parents in this room that you have toddlers like i do or or you you have a middle school student you're just so worried about what your students are going to have to face that you never had to face we would keep if we're honest the biggest worry in some of our minds is we're worried about tomorrow what's the world going to look like after the election what's the world going to look like after this happens we're troubled in our mind by all the news that floods and comes in but the bottom line that i can give you tonight from the word of the lord is consecrate yourselves today and let the lord do wonders tomorrow consecrate yourself tonight and let the lord take care of tomorrow consecrate yourself consecration is key to the not only the wonders of god but the voice of god because here if we're honest we could look around in our life and we could probably see wonders but because we can't hear god's voice we don't recognize it god's doing miracles signs and wonders in some of your lives and you don't even see it you don't even know it why because you can't hear god's voice and you can't feel god's presence therefore you cannot acknowledge what he's doing so he says consecrate yourself leviticus chapter 8 and verse number 22 we find here this is the the sacrifice of consecration this is very interesting to me we found that that he he brings out a ram and he calls it the ram of consecration because it's a sacrifice of consecration and aaron and his sons this is leviticus 8 22 laid their hands upon the head of the ram and he slew it and moses took the blood of it and he put it on the tip of aaron's right ear somebody say ear upon the thumb of his right hand somebody say thumb and upon the great toes somebody say the toe that's what you want to hear about tonight right toes the great toe not just any toe but the big toe that big one looks nice on everybody right everybody's got a nice looking big toe he puts it on his right ear right thumb right big toe what in the world are they doing the priest just up there just having fun they're just making up this stuff you know we're going to put it on their ears their hands their toes we we got ram's blood everywhere from their head to their hands to their feet and he brought aaron's sons and moses put the blood up on the tip he says it again they say it a ton of times in the book of leviticus the tip of his right ear upon the thumbs of his right hand of his right hands and upon the great toes of their right feet and moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about and there you have the sacrifice of consecration consecrate yourself today and god will do wonders tomorrow we say how do i consecrate myself you got to get a little blood on your ear your thumb and your toe what in the world does that mean right your ear your thumb and your toe represents your hearing your touch and your experience it's a sacrifice of consecration the fully consecrated must be pure in words action and in life for your words are judged by hearing people who can't hear can't speak very well the ear it's the ear that symbolizes that one must attend to what you've been commanded what you've been taught what you've been instructed to do if you cannot hear hear the word of the lord i've got to hear in order to be convicted i've got to hear the word in order to be convicted of what's right and wrong i've got to tell you that you shouldn't do this you shouldn't say that obey you the word of the lord by how hearing the word of the lord so the ear is important he that has an ear let him hear we can be misinformed right we just establish that we can be misinformed by even what we feel like is the most valuable or most truth-given thing on the internet we can still be misinformed so we need an ear to hear we need to consecrate ourself consecration first requires hearing he didn't start with the toe he didn't start with the thumb he started with the ear why he that has an ear let him hear what the spirit has to say to the church you know how many times he said that to every church as he closed out the letter to him the seven churches in the book of revelation he said what he needed to say and he says i'm going to say it but you've got to have it here to hear what the spirit has to say it's important that we we understand this is where it all starts let him hear he that has an ear let him here let everything that has breath praise you the lord he that has an ear let him hear what the spirit has to say many can't hear so they can't do god's will we see that we can't hear we can't do god's will the last miracle jesus performs is he puts a an ear back on a man's head the last thing he does what's he do peter comes out peter slept through a prayer meeting peter missed out so he didn't want he wanted somebody else to miss out he want to draw attention to somebody else chop some man's ear off his name's malcus cut your mouth as his ear off what's jesus do peter what are you doing with a sword out right he gets on to him go read it i don't know how this transformed because i even have a i have a i have a weird imagination but how do you cut a man's ear off and not hit him anywhere else right cut his ear and he bloodied up his shoulder and cut some of his hair i know he just severed his ear jesus catches it and says hey peter wake up we know you slept through the prayer meeting we know you missed out but calm down i don't need your sword right now right you put some man's ear back on it's the last miracle jesus ever performs ear an ear that's just you know peter tries to say he's trying to jesus i'm trying to defend you jesus says if i needed your i call down angels that's where that scripture's at i can call down angels from heaven i don't need you put some man's ear back on because here's the thing if you don't have an ear he don't have a chance if you want a real good bible study go look up malcus go look up what malchus means what his name means and who he is but we're not going to go into that uh this evening but but jesus he emphasizes he's put your sword up we all need an ear if we're going to have a chance to change a ear to hear a heart to obey the scripture says not just he that have the ear let him hear but he's got to have an ear to hear the scripture says in a heart to obey a heart to obey my ability to obey is built upon my ability to hear hear the word of the lord when you come through uh to you come to the church don't hear google don't hear instagram young person hear the word of the lord don't don't go on anything you hear online go on what you hear from your pastor go on what you hear in the word of god because we understand that you've got to hear the word of the lord and you've got to obey it in your heart if you're going to make it ear to hear heart to obey these ears are really important he gave you two of them he said be quick to listen here to the word of the lord faith how's it come by hearing why do we have to consecrate ourselves first by hearing we've faith come by hearing hearing by the word of god some of you are okay with walking in faith and not by sight but you won't listen i'm walking in faith yeah but you keep running into a wall but if you just listen you know that wall was there some people could open up their eyes if they just listen because god's already told them in the book that they didn't have to deal with that but they're saying that they're walking by faith no you're walking blind because he gave you an ear to hear his word and you could have just dodged that and simply walked on as a normal christian who's got some conviction because god's trying to speak to you he don't expect you to have to walk around foolish and try to figure this thing out i feel listen hey we want we want to take it into our own hands just just walking by faith no it's not just faith it's not just eyesight i know i surrender my eyesight and god can work when i don't see it and i know the power of faith and i know i understand how all that works but that's not because oftentimes it's not because we're walking by faith we're walking in ignorance because he said you've got a ear just here you've got a bible just open it we see many situations that we could dodge simply by hearing so he says you need to listen tonight if we will listen then we will begin to see uh what other generations saw if we'll listen we'll begin to see the things happen i believe that if we consecrate ourselves today we'll see the wonders and signs of god tomorrow but it starts with hearing somebody say hearing that may be as good as it gets tonight so everybody good hearing everybody say thumb thumbs up can everybody do that give me a little thumbs up the thumb is the origin of all activity the hand is a symbol of action the hand is useless without the thumb he said he that hath cleaned hands and a pure heart who had not lifted up his soul unto vanity and sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the lord and righteousness from god of his salvation we are in a thumb war of purity we're in a thumb war for our attention we're in a thumb war you realize that the phone where'd it go from used to be just here right where'd it start the ear because it's trying to destroy your consecration to god now where's it at i don't really like to talk on the phone but you have it like eight hours a day why because it's here it's moved from here to here because the devil he can convince you to to have open ears if he don't have your attention or connected because it's going in one ear and out the other it's not ever getting to the heart because he's got your hands and unpure things he's got your hands being influenced and be being informed by things that are not the truth so we see that the cell phones have traveled this this path we see of consecration it makes it's no coincidence to me that my my thumb also represents opposition think about it any anybody in here wear contacts huh you're ashamed of it that's okay huh think about getting your contacts out without your thumb anybody play baseball huh we got some high schoolers back here think about throwing that that fastball down the middle without your thumb huh think about doing it the next time you just want a challenge for the day just tape that bad boy down or something can't do anything it's it's it creates opposition against your other fingers it's called the opposable thumb huh creates opposition why because they're going to anoint that thumb and that thumb represents your action that thumb represents your pure hands that's now come from your clean heart because you've got ears to hear so you've got a heart to obey so now you've got hearts become action right and we know that he's going to fight that action because he fights you getting up in the morning and reading your bible he fights you getting up in the morning and praying he fights you trying to be pure and holy and walk upright why what's fighting it this thing's fighting that's why it takes consecration to get it out out from in front of your eyes and set it to the side and set some monitoring up and say after two hours that thing's gonna shut off right consecration it represents opposition whatsoever your hands fine to do do it with all your might not half your attention not half your might all your might some of us are god's sharing our efforts he's sharing our time but our thumbs are getting us into a lot of trouble if we're really honest be prepared when the devil can't stop you from hearing god's word he'll slither up in the presence of god's voice in the presence of a garden just like he did with adam and eve and he'll begin to speak against what against your actions what are you doing you can eat i know you heard god i know you had an ear but i i want to keep that heart from obeying and he'll attack it's opposition that's what it represents he will always oppose you there and most of the time that's where he gets us and then he gets to the big toe the foot represents the journey of life order my steps the scripture says in your word notice that all these have to do with what the word of god because you can't have consecration and not have the word of god why because it's informing it's informing my conviction he says order my steps in your word god i've got to walk up rightly my steps are ordered by the lord the scripture says my my big toe is not just representing my steps but it represents balance balance you know it you've heard it it's a it that's it's a continual thing balances i remove my big toe it's going to always be catching me off balance one of the weirdest injuries i've ever had i've broke many bones had many things out of socket been in multiple surgeries had screws in every which way and all these things happen one of the weirdest injuries one of the most frustrating injuries i ever had was i had what was called turf toe and my toe would come out of socket weird nasty hurts yes all it took i could be walking right here and me step one wrong way and all of a sudden i feel myself one of the oddest things and you realize very quickly what that big nasty thing does other than catch lint from your socks right huh it gives you balance so here here again it's not it's not just your ear it's not just your thumb that represents opposition it's not just a toe it represents something it represents balance and if we're honest this is where a lot of us are at we've got past this point but we can't balance it all of a sudden something comes in we get a wave of emotion we get a wave of this we get a wave of that and our consecration's all good with god some of us if we're honest adults we really don't have an issue with social media but we have an issue with a balanced life we've got god's voice down to a t but we can't manage it because we can't do anything with balance all of a sudden we see this opportunity to make some money over here we see an opportunity an avenue of a hobby over here and we get so off balance that we forget about praying we forget about coming to church we've seen it happen i've seen it happen to the best of people there's people that aren't sitting on these pews tonight because they simply just got out of balance they know they had it in their heart they didn't do anything on pure they just got their life out of balance they bought something they did this they got another job and it's quick to get out of balance and though it'd be the last thing it's one of the easiest things for the devil to attack it gets you so out of whack young people be balanced parents be balanced trendsetters remain balanced we need it something's always looking to tip the scale of balance consecration the ear the thumb and the toe hebrews chapter 5 refers to it called of god a high priest after the doer of melchizedek of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered seeing you are dull of hearing it starts it's you go read the letters to the church what happens they get dull of hearing i don't want to hear it some people may feel that way tonight i i don't want to hear it i've heard enough about my phones i've heard enough about this i've heard enough about that for he says for when uh for the time you ought to be teachers you ought to be investing in somebody else you have need that one teach you again let's be honest why are churches not massive your ear has got a little weak and you need to be retaught rather than you being able to teach why is every single person that's ever experienced the baptism of the holy ghost repentance water baptized in jesus name fill with the evidence of the holy ghost by speaking in tongues you tell me why you can't teach a bible study tell me why you can't put somebody on the pew next to you my ear got in my thumbs got in my feet and i'm a little too distracted and too out of balance to think about somebody else my consecration's lacking therefore it calls me off into the voice of culture we ought to be teaching somebody else but we need to be taught again the principles and the oracles of god and you become such that you need milk not for strong meat for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he's a babe in other words you are still in the crawling stage as a christian but strong meat belonging to them that are full of age and who's by reason look at this with me who by reason if you don't have your bible look at the look at the screen for by reason of use have their senses exercise to discern what to discern the good and the evil what is this whole thing been built off of what do we start on knowledge what are you gonna be judged on knowledge what did the tree of knowledge of good and evil start it all curiosity versus conviction all based upon good and evil what do i have to do i have to exercise brother jacob my senses i have to constantly go to consecration in order to be able to live in the camp of conviction it's very straightforward exercise their senses through consecration to discern to determine good and evil ear thumb toe that's the consecration ear to thumb toe we've got to determine what's right if we're going to make it you've got to determine what's right if you're going to make it you've got to make a decision of right and wrong if you're going to make it it's got to get in our here in our ears it's got to get into our action and then it's got to get into our feet i believe that there's a great revival coming but it starts with he that have an ear let him hear what the spirit has to say lot said lift up your eyes he says said he lifted up his eyes towards sodom look at this it happens over and over again in the bible but we'll look at this one specific story it says he looked because he had heard but he looked and we see in the scripture and he reaches and he grabs his tent and what's he do the scripture says you've heard it he sets up that temp towards sodom takes his hands because it's in his mind because he's been informed and he sets up a tent in what direction toward sin ultimately which had separated him from abraham because they took a trip down to egypt because any time you go into the world you're going down he takes a trip down to egypt and he's got if you look at it he's got bethel on his right which means house of god and then he's got a heap of ruin on his left so he literally stands abraham and lot and all of their gang and all their cattle and all their their herdsmen that got offended and ultimately split lot and abraham up they stand in the perfect will of god they stand in the place of the church with the will of god the word of god everything they need to bridge the gap between what was a hebrew ruin and what do they do they went down to egypt and what lot do he got a little taste of egypt he got he got a little sneak peek into carnality he got pulled away with curiosity he comes back and herdsmen are fighting this one's fighting that one's fight when they can't get along even the cows can't sit together it seems like so what they do they split up and lot finds himself over here and he sets up his tent we literally read the next verse and it says he's by the gate got in his ears got in his hands and got in his feet and we see generations of wickedness and perversion that all begin with lot's curiosity of his flesh consecrate yourselves today people of god so that the lord can do wonders not wickedness so that the lord can do wonders among you tomorrow without consecration our senses well we cannot discern good and evil when you cannot discern it means you become deceived why because the truth is not in you you don't you can't acknowledge what is right and wrong you've been deceived and you believe that this is the truth romans 8 and chapter 6 we started here but that carnally mind is death it is death i want my kids to hear conviction i want our youth group to hear conviction i want the church to hear conviction i want god to speak to you on your workplace i want god to speak to you in your home but if we're going to have a home of conscience of conviction we've got to have a home of consecration it's from the very beginning if god's going to bring his people out what's he do huh he put blood on the house if you didn't want blood in the house you had the blood have to have blood on the house he said you put the blood on the doorpost and the death angel ain't coming in i'm here to tell some father and mother tonight the greatest thing you can do you say well i'll put up i'll put a net nanny app and i'll i'll pray and i'll i'm monitoring this but if you'll get into some consecration and you'll begin to spill some blood and an altar and you'll put it on the doorpost of your home and you'll put it on the doorpost of your life i promise you if you'll put some blood on the house if you'll put some consecration on the house it'll limit the number of blood that's shed in the house carnal mind is not a consecrated mind joshua chapter 7 we'll finish here for most of the rest of the evening for the last 15 or 20 minutes here the children of israel committed a trespass verse number one a cursed thing for achan the son of carmi the son of zabday and zerah the tribe of judah took of the accused took of the accursed thing and the anger of the lord was kindled against the children of israel and joshua sent the lord and kindled against the children of israel and joshua sent men from jericho to ai so they just won joshua they just marched around the walls of jericho everybody knows that story right huh marched around the walls of jericho they all come tumbling down they go in they've got all of this camp all of these people that's just been destroyed and they now just that's what they did then they went from their camp they destroyed somebody's camp and they took all that they had and they moved on and they just kept taking over camp and taking over camp and taking over camp so that joshua said they took over jericho so he gets and find himself he said they're going to go take over a high and he returned joshua and said unto him let all let ai was was a small little victory they looked at after jericho would happen he said don't send everybody up he said send off about three thousand men so he sent them up and it says it quickly those thousands of thousands of men fled back down the hill and they lost 36 men and joshua is troubled says joshua rents it rinse it rinse his clothes and he fell down on the earth and his face before the ark of the lord until even tight and he he and the elders of israel put dust upon their heads and joshua said it lasts o god wherefore hast thou at all brought the people over jordan and deliver us into the hand of the amorites to destroy us with to god that he'd been content and dwell on the other side of jordan joshua he's mad frustrated oh lord what shall i say then israel turned at their backs before their enemies for the canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land they're going to hear about it they're going to come around and they're going to devour us he says what will thou do in thou great name you've done all this what are you going to do about it and the lord said to joshua get up huh get up get the dust off your head and he says wherefore liest thou upon the face israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which i commanded you so joshua's pouring out his heart to god frustrated that they just lost the battle and ai that they should have just took him by storm see this he said the people sinned and they've transgressed against my covenant he said they've taken of the accursed thing and they've also stolen and disassembled also and they have put it among their own stuff therefore the children of israel could not stand before their enemies but turn their backs before their enemies because they were accursed neither will i be with any of you any or be with you anymore except you destroy their curse from among you so they win the battle of jericho they lose not just the battle but they lost 36 lives joshua's tore up over this he's fallen down god tells him to get up and he says it's not time to pray it's time to deal with some things you thought you'd never heard hear that from a pulpit right get up it's not time to pray it's time to go get it's time to do something go get the accursed out of your camp because you've tried to put the cursed things among god's things you've tried to put the cursed things among god's people he said get up listen do hear he said you've got to go do what i've told you to do so some situations we we and i've seen this all too too much we've got praying parents but we don't have disciplinary parents we'll pray about it but we won't do anything about it we pray about it at the altar and we go right back to doing it some of you are addicted to pornography and you can come pray about it but until you set some boundaries up to monitor your life until you do something about it he said joshua get up and go get that stuff out of the camp he said you know i'm all about your praying but you got to be willing to make a change when you pray we have students today that that they want to call themselves christians because they know but you have carnal character because you've got things in your tent what's akin say he answered joshua when joshua come looking for the thing in camp and he said verse number 20. indeed i have sinned against the lord god of israel so what's joshua do joshua does what any good leader would do and he goes and gets it verse number 22 so joshua send the messengers and they ran to this tent and behold it was hid in his tent and the silver under it so i'm asking you this evening young person middle-aged person it doesn't matter aids this evening what is it that you've got in your camp simply what is it that's in your camp that you really don't want to deal with it's the reality of a lot of our lives that we've got this aiken mentality that if i could just keep it hid in my tent let's let's be honest a lot of us sit in this room today but when we go back home we've got some things sitting in here that we don't want nobody to know about there's young people that although we've talked about it for three weeks you still are struggling you still are scrolling through here's what we've got to know and this is hey this is an easy way to preach brother erickson this way we ought to do it all the time i can't tell whether you agree with me or not i don't know let's be honest we're scrolling through what the previous generation called pornography we've got things hidden in our camp that previous generation would have called abomination we've got things in here that we're just trying to act like it's okay everybody's doing it that's what the kids are telling every everybody's got that on their phone everybody's got this app everybody's looking at that no we need some mom and dads that are going to go up and they're going to turn a bedroom upside down they're going to get in and they're going to find and they're going to say joshua you can't do anything until you get sin out of the camp you can't have a home you might as well stop praying over that home until you get the sin you can stop crying downstairs you need to go up to the room unlock the door take it off the hinges for god's sake turn the room upside down take their phone whatever the case may be there's some adults that need that kind of accountability we've got to take action against the enemy because they're fighting us every moment of every day with a device that's throwing alert after alert and lie after lie and fake news it's time to get it out of your camp i'm asking you this evening if you if you would if you look at it we've got secrecy these places these tents that that seem what we don't think anybody will know about here's what joshua does he said they took it they took everything they took it out of the city they took it to a valley a place called acor where they they they literally burn it all and put up some stones there hosea refers to it later it's a valley of acorn the door of hope because we can learn we can learn from other people's mistakes you don't have to experience it you don't have to hide things you don't have to live the life maybe your parents lived you don't have to live the life a previous generation live you can be the hosea story and it can be a door of hope rather than a valley of destruction your life can be your life can be one that's representative of redemption and god's hand and god's voice you say how are they doing so well how how does that see it seems like everything just goes right for them yeah because god's telling them what to do they've inclined their ear unto god and they're open with god and when you're open with god and there's no secret tense when you're open with god then he's open with you which means he pours out his blessings he he begins to do things for us but there's a major major point in this story that we have to acknowledge and i believe god's about to do something in this place tonight we lost it ai just send a few guys up the hill let's take them out it's just a small fight we didn't just lose we lost 36 people at a.i just just send a few people up we lose 36 men and retreat because somebody's got sin in their camp i wonder how many churches are suffering today because somebody in the house has got sin in their camp wonder how many people their whole house is being affected because they got sin in their camp i wonder how many people are going to lose out with god because of this right here we lose out our right to fight when we have sin in our own camp people died because you got mess in your own tent you cannot fight and go conquer the enemy's camp when you've got sin in your own camp you can't do things for god with sin in your tent jeremiah 7 and verse number 30. for the children of judah have done evil in my sight saith the lord they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to be to pollute it huh we've got abomination in the house some so we can look at that however you want to look at we can make it personal we can look we can look at your your home as in your family's home or we can look at it as the house of god but we must be careful that we don't come in and plop down and expect god not to acknowledge an abomination some of you sit here with things on your phone and expect god to move it it's it's impossible he says that that you you must get those things out joshua you've got to go take care of it but the great thing here he says the children of judah have done evil in my sight who the children of judah i put my name on it it's abomination of house but but but they're the children of judah they're the children of praise we see that david he encouraged himself in the lord with a little worship because david's the worshiper and he goes into the battle of ziglag and he took back what the enemy had taken from him but i'm here to warn somebody in this house we can't sing that song and we can't get pumped up because we can't go into the enemies camp if we don't have our own camp in order i lose my right to fight i can't have anything in my life i i i can't have anything that's going to keep me from being able to be productive in god's kingdom i've got to hear but then i've got to do i've got to hear the word he had to hear let him let him hear what the spirit has to say so i've got to hear it but then i've got to act upon it and this is what's troubling me this evening i believe not there there might be some parents that are maybe you're acting on monitoring this but you're not acting in a way of consecration in the house of god they're students that are bothering me because you're the you're the tribe of judah you are the people of praise you are the people that's supposed to be giving a shout of victory he said but you've got an abomination that's in the house and you've lost your right to fight because you've got some things hidden and what you were meant to do you cannot accomplish i'm here this evening to challenge a child of praise if they'll come to the music i'm here this evening to challenge the people of praise i'm here this evening to challenge a father and a mother that i wish somebody would rock the devil's world tonight and begin to do something that you've never done before here in a moment because here's the thing if you've got your camp all cleaned out then it's time to go to war for the next generation but i i fear that we have students that can't worship i have fear that we have fathers that expect their child to do something when all that when all they do is is this because here's here's where it gets real little praise little consecration little effort they see they get all of you when it comes to sports they get all of your emotions when things aren't going good oh they see the emotions of dad when i got caught oh they see that mom really can really got a voice in it and she she really on saturdays when the vols play you know what moses said when he come down from the mountain before he broke the ten commandments in exodus chapter number 32 and the tables were the work of god and the writing and the writing of god graven upon the tables and joshua heard a noise to the people as they shouted and he said unto moses there's a noise of war there's a noise of war in the camp moses he said there's no war in the camp it's not the voice of them that shout mastery neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome but the noise of them to sing do i hear and it came to pass as soon as he came unto the camp he saw that there was a calf and they were dancing and moses's anger waxed hot and he cast god's word god's word because he was frustrated because he was hoping to hear the sounds of praise we go back to it this is the greatest way to conquer what we've addressed over the past three weeks is this right here has to be the best that they see in us mom and dad god forbid that they hear more shouts for some ball team or some emotions for something that that really don't mean nothing and they come to the house of god and they just see you just give a little bit of emotion you barely can get out of your seat you're not amen and what he's got to say so why should i obey what he's saying we we understand it well moses and and he says that sounds like the sounds of war no that's not the sounds of war i'm asking that the church would be what the church is supposed to be this evening and i'm asking that you'd clean out your camp i'm asking that you would look at your life and say is there anything in my life because some of us may not have pornography but we've got pride some of us may not have a major issue with a cell phone but we're out of balance some of us have got major issues that we've got hidden in a tent and you can't fight hell for the next generation you can't fight hell for yourself students until you get your camp clean and you begin to worship why because you are of the tribe of judah and when i begin to worship i begin to take back the things that the devil has taken from me the things that he's trying to remove from my life i believe this evening that if we would listen to the word of god he's calling us under worship he's calling us under praise he's calling us to go to war against the things i i don't want there to be any pride i don't want there to be any shame in my life and god has spoken to me as clear as he's ever spoken to me this evening and he said this might be awkward and nobody may respond but he said you do what i told you to do usually we have one of those those altar calls and i've asked the band to come and they're going to sing let's see revival but i i we have those articles where we bow our heads and nobody looking around and if you want to step out of your aisle but this is a sunday night and i pray that there's a guest here that's been ministered to but i'm here to preach to the church i'm here to preach to the people of judah i'm here to preach to the people of god and i'm here to ask somebody this is what we're going to alter call tonight i'm asking somebody that don't normally worship i want to give you an opportunity to shake hell i want to give you an opportunity to say i am not ashamed of the gospel that set me free if i want one the next generation to be free i'm gonna have to go to war i'm gonna have to no i can't surrender my right to fight let there be sounds of war in this place tonight there will be sounds of victory in this place tonight that i i am not drawn away by lust i'm not drawn away because i wish some father would step out of the aisle and begin to worship law you hadn't worshiped in so long get it out get pride out of your camp oh i'm not ashamed i wonder if i've got somebody that'll step out of your seat and do something you haven't done in a while uh i'm asking you for a moment i'm asking your phone but just this wherever you're at just stop where you're at because here's here's i hear you lord god i hear your voice so clearly those of you that are stepping out right now you're the same people you're the same people that always step out and i'm thankful for that but there's another thing that's always in the camp there's a sound if you ever round the camp even with god's people there's a fire there's got to be a fire in you the fire what consecration needs is not just blood it's not just truth it's gotta have a fire it's gotta have a burning like fire that shut up in my bones it's gotta have my emotion it's gotta have my my energy every part of me god forbid we come in and give god half because we've been trained to do that by our phones and give half of our emotion here and half of our emotion here and we're trying to multitask into the presence of god god told me that there's victory in this house god told me that he said i want you to end he said i want you to end with victory he said i want you to end with praise i want you to storm hell's gates i want you to come into the enemy's camp and we're gonna take back what god oh gonna take back what god promised you some of you have callings some of you have anointings but god's saying i need you to step out i need you to do something you haven't done before you're fighting hell at home because you won't give me all you got come on come on right now i'm asking somebody to step out in praise i'm asking somebody to step out in worship come on come on let there be praise happen in this place and to be victory today there's some of you that's never ran in your life there's some of you this never span around and dance for the lord i wish that you'd put away your pride how would you put away your shame come on god's asking you god's asking you you feel him pulling on your heart right now and you're waiting for them to sing some song to connect you to heaven no your praise needs to connect you to heaven my praise is a weapon my voice is a weapon come on connect yourself connect yourself i'm not waiting on brother officer to connect me to god i'm connected come on daddy come on daddy loose yourself in the spirit loot yourself that's it it's about to sweep across this place we're going to storm the gates of hell tonight come on somebody come over young person give it all you got give it up come on young people you've got all the energy in the world let god let god have it oh i want us to get the attention of heaven come on grab the hand of somebody next to you grab that oh welcome oh hit the ground come on if you want victory i challenge you to worship i challenge you to worship i challenge you to do something you've never done before come on there's victory in the house is this is is keep praying if you're praying keep worshiping if you're worshiping every single time we finish the past three weeks we've done something as a church and i don't know if you can remember why but it's because our young people are fighting this more than ever and not everybody has a home so here's what we're gonna do to close this i feel the holy ghost so strong right now i know some of you have prayers that need to be answered i know some of you have regret about decisions you've made i know some of you have lost loved ones i know some of you are waiting on god to answer and i wish chandler come here here's what i want to see i just looked across and saw brother erickson and gaby dancing before the lord you know what they're probably dancing for daddy i wish this evening chandler i know what's in your heart i know what you want to see happen and what i'm going to do is agree with you that if we worship it's going to happen it may not happen how we think it's gonna happen but it'll happen according to the will of god now i want you to find somebody i want you to find somebody it may be somebody that you know really well spouses grab hands families grab hands because we're about to storm the enemy's kill we have a right to fight i've got a right to praise him i've got a right to praise him i've got a right so come on it's happening in this place it's happening in this place it's happening in this place i agree with you tyler i agree with you this evening god's doing it god's moving listen listen that's the sounds of war that's the sounds of war that's the sound of those strongholds that brother action preached about this morning falling that's the sound of change breaking come on come on for just another moment for just another moment that's the sound the sound hey allah brother cheshire i agree with you tonight my god come on could we end this night in total and complete victory i've got a right to praise him i've got a right to fight i've got a reason to dance because i'm dancing i get a double portion i get heaven but i destroy hell god i pray that you move in this place right now it out i gotta place a uh and i gotta this is what we've got to do glory hallelujah is is i got i i got a prize i gotta tonight the lord is is so you