Hour of Power
by Zach Hammond
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 2:11, Matthew 7:1-6, Matthew 15:14, 1 Corinthians 2:9, Psalm 115:4-8, 2 John 12, Jeremiah 2:5

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

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good evening first apostolic church family i pray that you are well this evening it is always an honor and a privilege to speak to you to minister um i thank pastor for this opportunity uh what a powerful powerful weekend uh two sermons he preached on the love of god i'm just so thankful that we were able to uh to be able to be online even though we weren't able to gather together if you weren't able to hear those please go and listen to those sermons by our pastor i want to take you to second corinthians chapter number two and verse we start at verse number eight and it is paul writing he says i want to confirm he said i would beseech you that you would confirm your love toward god he said i'd write that i would have proof whether you be obedient in all things and he says in verse number 10 he says remember to forgive in the name of jesus because you have to forgive others as christ forgave you so he reminds us of three things love towards god our obedience in all things and our forgiveness of others because we've been forgiven then that verse 11 is where i would like to to take my title and topic for this evening unless satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices i don't know about you but i don't want to be ignorant about anything but i most certainly don't want to be ignorant about what satan is trying to come at me with and come back me with so i want to talk about for just a few minutes satan's devices i preface this that i'm i'm not preaching against the internet i'm not preaching against cell phones or anything like that but i do believe that one of the main main devices the devil is using against us today is a cell phone in fact i'll start with this in matthew chapter 7 and verse number one says judge not that you be not judged for with what judgment you judge you shall be judged and with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again and why beholdest thou the mote that's in thy brother's eye but considereth not the beam that's in thy own eye or how wilt thou say to thy brother let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold there's a beam in your own thou hypocrite first cast out the beam of your own eye then you can clearly see to cast out the moat that's in my brother's eye give not that which is holy unto the dogs and cast not your pearls before the swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you in other words i think that if we're truly honest with ourselves that it's so easy today with the device that's been put in our hands for satan to take it and use it as a beam in our own eye in fact i'm reminded of what we would call now vr maybe it's a little even old uh now it's been around for a little while these headsets that the students put on they're walking around i've even seen some adults with them on they're playing these virtual reality games maybe in their house or in the back seat of the car and they're they're in this really amazing computer generated experience that's stimulated with this all kinds of audio and visual feedback that gives you this environment that you feel like that you're somewhere you're really not and that you're someone you're really not and i think that this environment that we have on social media and the internet that's become now more prominent than ever that he's even pushed us this evening to that platform that we live in a virtual reality and we have vision for everyone but ourselves we see everyone and everything in a fake world you know god heals the blind blinded eyes in the gospel but he tells you here he says i can't remove the mote and i can't remove the beams one of the first signs i believe of deception and delusion we see the adversary use is when we can see seemingly everybody else's issues but our own many people i believe in my whole heart are not going to hear well done just because they decided to focus on the spec in somebody else's eyes instead of that burdensome beam that everybody else could seemingly see except themselves they they just made up in their mind i'd rather see the speck of the saints than deal with my personal plank however jesus does not say go get the plank out of your eye and then you can go help uh you know he says once you do get the plank out of your eye you can go help others so the point's not to see the specs or not see the issues around you the point is to make sure that you are taken care of before you try to minister disciple or to share the truth in love or to even think to go minister i've got to make sure that i've got my life in order you must have vision for yourself before you can have vision or dreams or a word for anybody else when the beam is in the right place it can bear weight you know a cross beam even on the cross was there and what held our savior what held jesus together what held the weight of his body was that beam the beams in your home maybe where you sit this evening or what holds a roof over your head holds a floor beneath your feet it holds things together it can bear weight what can you bear what what you can bear is really based upon the position of your beam if you can get it out of your eye you can get what's what's your issues in the proper order and let god take care of those things and you can help bear the weight of others you can minister to others when you get your problems in order matthew 15 and 14 says let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind and if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch oh how many situations we could look at and describe it as perhaps they're both in the ditch there are families in the ditch their lives been used it's really instead of being on a highway towards god or a highway of holiness and pursuit and righteousness of god they find themselves over here in the ditch because somebody became too concerned with everybody else's problems and then they were blind themselves trying to lead others with specs and issues and all of a sudden we have a whole family by the wayside people can't see what you're seeing when you live in a fake world your virtual world is not going to cut it when it comes to making it to heaven and beyond that taking someone with you can you make disciples yeah you can if you have vision for yourself first social media has created a generation i fear in so many situations so many cases with no vision the bible says where there is no vision people perish because there will be no dreamers there'll be no next generation there'll be just just no foundation to build upon so i ask you this evening and i challenge you as we dive into this subject what's your vision look like what's your number one gut feeling when things go wrong do you want to begin to look around and see the specks of the saints or do we immediately pick up the mirror and look at our own life how do you see others how do you see what god sees his most valuable thing is other people and how do you see those people you know we can read about it we can pray about it all day long but ultimately we got to get ourselves right so we can fulfill that great commission so i want to bring to you five things that i think that we need to be aware of as satan uses this device against us no they're not all bad no they they they're they're not physically destroying but i feel like that some people are spiritually being destroyed by a cell phone i'll give you five reasons this evening why i feel like cell phones are a device of the adversary number one we see how studies have shown that we've seen a generation now that's grown up with a cell phone in their hands you've seen behavior students prefer exchanging a blizzard of text messages and working through apps while sitting maybe at a very present group of people young people families at a dinner table a high schooler scrolls endlessly through the night while we see that relationships now uh are founded on social media if you don't know how to work the the the new hallmark gin of smartphones of knowing how to communicate and navigate through social media who knows you may not ever get married right because we see that this everything is hinged and working off of social media and cell phones you know san diego state university psychology professor jean twinch she wrote a book about the igen label she coined and specializes in the study of generational differences and says that possibly the nexus between the digital media and depression boils down to just the pure amount of time that teenagers and this generation spends online i can't help it but now it just seems like that it's not just the young people that are online all the time so i i communicate this to the whole church no matter what generation you are i fear that we're being pulled in to the effects of prolonged exposure that this scientist she says that she feels that both socially and physically are affecting people they spend less time sleeping less time seeing people face to face doing what you were made to do to interact with people the research in fact is amazing when you look at it that the trend shows that the statistics and and the the stat lines if you watch them follow two things walk hand in hand on the chart that is cell phone usage and the statistics of depression and suicide you say maybe it's not just spiritually destroying us but it simply is physically harming our generation what this study reveals to us is that everything we see in the scripture if perception is reality then our virtual world in some cases i'm not saying that everyone but if we're not careful we fall into the trap that it has truly become the world that we're living in it's much easier now nowadays to be fake to be somebody you're not my iphone now for years has become everything i need it wakes me up i no longer have an alarm clock i just set my alarm it's my calendar it's my music library there's everything i need on here i can i have a complete photo library of my family or anything i wanted to capture everything i need i i can you know get on here and and slingshot little birds in the buildings and play games that consume my time and and take away uh endless amounts of uh of of useless brain waves i guess you could say and there's this ever-present portal into instagram and twitter and facebook and all sorts of apps that maybe we shouldn't be on but another message for another day but my iphone has become a part of my daily life and sadly to say i think we all need to really step back and and think self-evaluate what this thing is for and what it's doing in our lives recently i made it my goal that on sundays in the afternoon somewhere for some reason between 10 and 10 a.m and 6 p.m when we have service i get the alert that tells me hey your cell phone usage or your usage on your battery was up or down and i've i've just made it a goal to try to decrease the usage of my cell phone just as a a personal goal but if we're honest with ourselves we live in somewhat this parallel virtual universe that we can we can you know really take what happens we can take care of anything and i i i whatever emotions it takes and whatever time it takes whatever i need to deal with i can deal with with this phone it's constant motion it's constant simulation it's constant if we're not careful addiction first corinthians chapter 2 and verse number 9 but as it is written eye has not seen nor ear heard neither has it entered in the heart of man the things which god has prepared for them that love him in other words if it doesn't enter the eye and the ear doesn't hear it it can't come into the heart eye doesn't see it ear doesn't hear it it can't get in the heart so we're really only 22 years into what we consider the internet age so one day when we stand back and what i hope is this evening i get you to step back and really precisely look at what our smartphones are doing to our brains our hearts our souls things that we don't have the leisure to postpone and really self-reflect for the future because we're living now in the last days so i bring to you five reasons why i feel like that there's a spiritual attack against our generation being uh being uh combative against us with this device that perhaps we're maybe a little bit ignorant of that satan is using number one you become what you behold in the scripture to worship is to become to behold to worship god to worship christ is to become like christ to worship idols is to become like idols to worship the the culture is to become like the culture so psalms 115 verse number 4 says their idols they were like silver and gold the work of man's hand they have mouths but they don't speak they have eyes but they don't see they have ears but they don't hear they have noses but they don't smell they have hands but they handle not feet but they walk not neither speak they through their throat they they they he says they they that make them are like unto them so is every one of them that trusteth in them that sounds a lot like just something that looks real but it's not they got mouths but they don't really speak they've got eyes but they don't really see it's what you behold you look to become the way we interact online becomes the norm for how we interact offline facebook instagram twitter communications or short clips of rapid responses that we now have taken on that behavior taking on those conversations where there's many times where i realize i myself am in a room but i'm not engaged with what's being said or i find myself talking and realizing that nobody's listening because i've been talking too long hopefully that's not the case this evening but we understand that it's it's it's beginning to uh create a norm of our interactions that are even in person so someone could send you a message and you could ignore it somebody could send you a message you can choose to read it three hours later you can choose to completely take in real time in a real place with real bodies and real voices the very same dynamic that you do online but yet it's very different you shouldn't treat another person the way you want to interact on twitter you don't treat people the way we treat people on instagram because we in essence are becoming what we're holding you know the glow from our iphones if we're not careful becomes this virtual mirror but with hundreds of mirrors and thousands of signals if we're not careful it replaces our identity which is only found in christ in so many ways we can be whoever we want to be it just seems so uh so perfect i can fix and make it this world of whoever and whatever and i can have these friends and uh whatever the world wants me to be or whatever my friend wants me to be i can you know i can really become what i want to be i challenge you this evening to investigate your life and see exactly what you're wanting to become number two i am not the christ i am a finite man i am a human being so this is severely limited in what i know that i can do what i can read what i can engage with perhaps most importantly i'm very limited in what i can truly care about what i can give my emotions and my time to yet my phone offers me new news and new updates and new videos and new music new pictures new uh uh everybody you know this is day two of the kuwait it just gives me play by play minute by minute into everybody's life but perhaps my own one reason we own smartphones is to simply avoid being left behind we don't want to miss anything that's going viral we want to track every hashtag every trend mostly out of fear of being left out because we wouldn't dare want to not know what's going on in our virtual world little by little we ignore the fact that we are human beings we lose sight and sense of our limitations and we begin to lust after the forbidden fruit of limitless knowledge in this subconscious desire to become like god isn't that what got us in trouble as humanity right off the bat in the first place and our smartphone now is absorbing just that and luring us right into the same trap that caused adam and eve to eat of the forbidden fruit it's a device we don't even realize that satan is using to lure us in it can do so many things and it has this sense of us feeling like that we are unlimited and we are powerful and we can only think through truly so many things at once but it thinks that we it makes us think that we can just take all of this in we can you know we can truly only as humans feel properly a certain number of emotions at a time we're getting happiness from this and joy from this and sorrow from this and you're just scroll scroll scroll emotion emotion emotion and you truly go home tired you truly in the day just overwhelmed by this virtual world we need to embrace our purpose as humans created by a creator created in his image for his purpose and if we really own up to our god calling and the fact that we live well a well-lived life as uh as carefully as possible as a human being that god's created us to be will truly say some things need to go some things need to be deleted some things are taking too much of my time sometimes i need to step back and say i just need to maybe not visit facebook for today or maybe i need to just take some time off from socializing to people i really don't even know who they are paul says it's simply he says you've got to say no to some things he says redeeming the time for the days are evil eliminating unnecessary things is a true art of a christian i am not the christ but your phone sure has made you feel like that you're in control number three the multi-tasking myth these two and three kind of go hand in hand we multitask everything trying to think in multiple directions at the same time trying to be in multiple places at the same time i can be with my kids but on a zoom call i can be working but i can also be present doing this or playing a video game trying to live in the physical space and the virtual space simultaneously i think we get very distracted in this multitasking myth and it's very true that we see that this tells us once again why the devil is using this as one of his devices is that a distracted culture is the devil's culture we are trying to multitask things that should never be multitasked the study or understanding of god's word is not uh just a subject that we post about on instagram our word of the day shouldn't be some short clip of some random pastor that we're not even sitting under his covering that's going to give us our word for the day while we're driving down the road eating a cheeseburger i believe more than ever before we've got to put down this thing and read the word of god and let it be a lamp into our feet let it be a light into our path that we in reality scripture calls us to this life of of single-minded and self-reflection that now in our society seems to be impossible if it's important if it's if it's important to us it means that we we give it all of our attention which means that we must prioritize it must trump everything there's times where this thing has to be turned off all push notifications all text messages and understand that it's not enough for me to just turn it on while i'm getting dressed and i'm eating lunch and whatever the case may be i just turn the bible on and that no there needs to be a time where you stop and you just cannot you cannot justify that this is allowing you to do multiple things at one time when it comes to god he needs all our energy he needs all our time he needs all of our our emotions he needs to speak to us he needs to fill us up he needs to give us the correct vision we see here that we're becoming what we behold we see that i am not the christ and we see this multitasking myth number four would be i think that one thing it's trying to dilute and is trying to push to the side is the body of christ oh how powerful the church is though i have much to write unto you john ii john verse chapter 12 says i would rather not use paper and ink which was john's form of technology i would say in the day instead i hope to come to you and talk face to face he says so that our joy may be complete technology can be used as a massive window into our church but it will never replace the doors of the church our personality will come through only to an extent in a post or a tweet or something that we can write even this evening i hope that you can feel my passion i hope that you can feel my heartbeat but ultimately you're not going to feel what you would feel if you were sitting in this room we're human beings we have feelings we have thoughts we have imaginations but most of all we have bodies we look different we express ourselves differently this example of a tone of voice we have many times you've done it i've done it we've miscommunicated something through a text message oh i thought you were serious oh i thought you were kidding oh how many times we've lied maybe even a day texting lol when you sit smug not laughing at all right but it's caused us to get in this area where we we feel like that that you know we there's somebody we're not we're examples of of of being able to justify the fact that we're not in person i think the fullness of joy that we see here in the scripture comes with one's personality interacting with another personality in terms of voice experience feeling emotions timing sometimes it's just a time to be quiet sometimes it's just time to sit still and experience god with somebody to experience things that otherwise we wouldn't god wasn't pleased with the tablets of stone what did he what did he do he come down in flesh so that he didn't just come for three days he could have knocked it out death burial and resurrection done i'm out of here but he came and he experienced he healed he touched he mended he he he did so many powerful things that people had to experience him words were not enough the word became flesh so social media is is fighting against the body it's it's trying to disembody the communication uh system of us being able to look each other eye to eye and sit on the pew and me being encouraged by looking across the aisle and seeing somebody worship god in spirit and in truth and somebody be ministered to by his word do we truly value people the way god values them are we okay with just sitting there with me and my and i and just taking in what i need to because if we're not careful that's what satan's really doing especially during this time even when we come back together i understand we're having to do what we have to do due to coven 19 and the health and and just the just being a part of the community and trying to be a solution to this problem this this pandemic that we've been dealing with now for months but ultimately we came back to church and some people just still sat and watched by the way of the web as as if that is the same thing it's not words are not enough we have an experience there's social media and our phones have have lured us it's a device that satan's using that that we we have this this downward spiral where we have this virtual relationship going on now with not just uh somebody here as a follower or somebody here as some some kind of uh of instagram famous person that we like to follow and now no it's the church that we have the church is all online the church has left the building i understand that the church is not a building but forsake not the assembling of yourselves together there comes a time where uh churches uh we need to see baptisms we need to take the lord's supper together we need to have corporate worship experience we need to see as james tells us the laying hand laying on of hands and seeing the sick recover we need to hear sermons and not just hear some recorded sermon in our earbuds and think that it it replaces the power of powerful expository exaltation of our pastor who's speaking over us what what's what do you say what's the difference in tuning in this evening or tuning in to hear my pastor that is that is speaking on behalf of my life as a part of this church and me listening to somebody who just posted a clip over here on instagram that's three or four minutes got the same message it gives me a little bit of word and i don't have to sit here for 45 minutes and listen to you well the difference is is when you're a part of the church you sit yourself under a pastor it's it's very important that we we don't fall into this cultural uh a myth and this cultural uh lulling of saying that it's okay just as long as you're a part of the body there no you need to be under a pastor that's your shepherd that is your your go-between that is hearing the voice of god for you and for your life and we see so uh now more than ever before that we've got to make sure that we don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together yes for right now it's online but the minute the doors open i pray that you're so hungry and desperate to be back in the presence of god's people because it is not the same as this virtual world that we've been given as we see the day approaching forsake not the assembling of yourselves together don't let the devil deceive you into thinking that it's the same thing sitting on your couch as it is sitting in the house of god seeing the eyes seeing the expression seeing the powerful emotions and move and experience of god number five we're coming to a close and i appreciate you staying with me this evening number five would be a reason that is so powerful and that is careless communication becoming what we behold i am not the christ the myth of multitasking we see that there's so many things here that that are just just so uh interesting that the body of christ is trying to distract us and take us away from and then careless communication why is it that we're so quick to judge the motives of people online why is it we're so bold to criticize we're so bold in general online why do we say things you would never say in person you you this digital communication it just comes so easy all of a sudden people that are introverts are all they're just they're all over the place they're in all the comment sections they're just just seemingly this this social butterfly when it comes to the virtual reality we are speaking to other human beings if we're going to use it for what it's for we got to remember that there's people on the other side of that screen we quickly forget we disengage we get distracted we're trying to do multiple things and before we know it we've said something that's just completely careless a lack of focus whatever the situation may be proverbs tells us let your words be few slow to speak think about it before you type it think about it before you just throw it out there how is this affecting the kingdom of god how is this affecting the body of christ i've heard it so many times oh i would have never said that in person but we were quick to stroke the keys and give somebody our opinion you know it's it's so so true that technology has given mice megaphones people that would have never spoken a word have gone viral in a matter of seconds influence after influence after influence lives derailed lives perhaps maybe in the positive or the negative you have to make that decision your direction of what you will use the internet do you need a cell phone young man dad no matter what season of life you're in you you may need to put this thing to the side it's ultimately going to propel you in whichever direction you're running are you pursuing god are you pursuing your own agenda this thing's going to help you get whichever way very quickly i believe it's an asset to the kingdom of god like i said i believe it's a window into god's kingdom but it will never replace the door it'll never replace coming to the house of god it'll never replace me being able to go into his presence it'll never replace me being able to see people eye to eye and experience god in my covenant with him and my covenant with others some of us know we need to put it down but if i looked at your phone right now if i was you were to hand it to me would i truly be able to look at it and say you're becoming what you behold here's what god spoke to me today in jeremiah chapter two verse number five in closing thus saith the lord what iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and they have become vain we've walked after vanity and we have become all of a sudden we didn't realize it but we become what we've been looking at they followed worthless idols and they became worthless themselves i'm afraid today god looks down at our christian culture in our virtual world there's no need for martyrs there's no need for the devil to attack because we can't really find any christians worth killing because they're not real they're simply living in a virtual reality soothing their conscience by liking or commenting preach it pastor by reading their bible while doing five other things on their phone as it's audibly read to us the world once pictured the church and god's people as modest prayerful believers but instead nowadays we look at christian culture as somewhat silly shallow lustful people who live through their phones which are overstocked with photographs of their own faces more and more modesty is becoming mocked and disciplined is scorned and obedience is rejected just as we were warned in our first passage of scripture we become what we behold and if we're honest with ourselves our phones are trying to destroy the image of which we were created to be and that is in the image of god the devil has no reason to fight something that's fake so you get to determine this evening what's your phone going to be will it be an idol or will it be an instrument is it something god can use to propel the kingdom or do you simply need to put it to the side and really look at am i becoming what i behold am i trying to be god am i trying to do all these things and multitask and i'm losing my family while surfing facebook let's be honest with ourselves am i giving careless communication am i am i am i doing these things that the devil ultimately i didn't even realize it but he is destroying my life with a cell phone i pray this evening that you've heard the voice of the lord and i know the pastor described it as a the hour of power and i know that you may be expected preaching and something uplifting but i've been challenged multiple times in prayer to just maybe give you some knowledge to go against the sa that satan's devices because he says don't you dare be ignorant of the things that are coming against your love for god your obedience to god and your ability to see others the way god sees them and forgive them forgive that speck in their eye forgive those things that they've done against you because god's forgiven you don't let there be a beam in our own eye don't let us be looking at life through a virtual reality and not truly be able to fulfill the great commission and that is to be able to serve others as we serve god i wish you'd buy your heads with me this evening and let god speak to us in prayer i wish you'd buy your heads maybe lift your hands god i pray that you'd touch us this evening god i thank you for your word i thank you for all that you've done for us god i want to show you and give proof in my life that i love you god more than anything else so god god i want my heart to be obedient to you in all things everything god that you command me in your word god i want to be obedient in all things unto you god and i want to thank you god that you died on a cross for my sins god that you have forgiven me long before god that you knew i would ever respond god that you thought i was worth saving god before i ever gave my life to you god i thank you for forgiving me god that i'm able to see others through the cross that i'm able to see others through the blood of calvary god i pray that you would help us lord lord you said if we god needed wisdom to ask of wisdom god i pray that you'd give wisdom to every father that you give wisdom to every mother every strong tower student that sits behind god the screen this evening that you would help us to see that if we're not careful that the world and the culture that we're giving a lens to on social media is trying to destroy us in so many ways oh god god help us to use what we can o god for the furthest of your kingdom god but not surrender the sacrifice and consecration and discipline god that you've called us to god to know you and to make you known god we give you praise and glory and honor this evening god heal every person that's sick due to this virus god i pray that you would touch every family god touch every home god i know that you you feel the heartbeat of the church and that is that we want to gather together we want to assemble together and see your kingdom further god to worship together in spirit and in truth god we bless your name we give you glory and honor and praise in jesus name we pray amen and amen god bless you this evening