I Can’t Believe | Youth Pastor Zach Hammond
by Zach Hammond

Kind: sermon
Scripture: Jeremiah 17:7-10, Mark 9:23-25, Exodus 4:1-5

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

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Thank you, Lord. The Lord is great, greatly to be praised this morning. If you stand to your feet, we'll go to Jeremiah chapter number 17 verse number 7. As you heard, Pastor Carpenter is ministering today in Cleveland, Ohio. Pastor Erikson was supposed to be in Spain and so uh here I am today. Um so otherwise you would have been blessed by one of them. Jeremiah 17 and 7 today. I do believe the Lord has given me a word for you today and uh he has already ministered to me in private and challenged me and asked me questions. >> >> And so I bring to you today, as Bishop Osborne always said, the container flavors the content. Sadly, I can't bring you any content and pour from anything other than this vessel today. And so, uh, it will be, uh, I will do my best and that's what, uh, many times people get confused. I think you hear great communicators and they can communicate and it resonate in the room. But the anointing of the Holy Ghost is what can take a single word and it mean 500 different things to 500 different people. That's what the anointing is. So you could read a scripture you've never read before or you could read a scripture you've read a hundred times before, but then all of a sudden someone could read that scripture under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Maybe it's in a Bible study. Maybe it's in a conversation. Maybe it's behind a pull pit. And it resonates with relevancy in the moment that you're sitting in. And it pierces our heart. It changes. So I pray that that happens in all of our lives today with just simply a few questions about our relationship with God. Jeremiah 17:7 said, "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord." Would everybody say, "Trust." >> Trusteth in the Lord. whose hope the Lord is. So trust and hope get connected. Belief, faith, trust, hope. Many times they kind of just all become a lot of the same thing when you try to define them. Maybe there's a slight difference, a a different way or emotion that's attached to it, but a lot of them are are really along the same lines. Verse 8 says, "For he shall be like a tree, as a tree p plant planted by the waters, spreadth forth out her roots by the river, and shall not see the heat cometh, for her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yield year yielding fruit." Notice that word careful. You're not you're not worried about anything because you're planted by the right thing. Not worried about a season that's coming because you know who's in control. Not worried about that season. You're not sitting in fear. You're not sitting. He say I'm I'm not. He says so you got to know that seven verse seven is before verse eight. There's a reason there, right? But then look at nine. He says, "The heart is deceit." Now, we quote this, but look at where it's at. He that trusteth in the Lord shall be like a tree that can wither and go through any season. Yet the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things, desperately wicked. Here we go. Here's the question. Who can know it? The Lord searches that heart. I tried the reigns even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. I want to preach to you for just a few moments on this kind of different thought this morning. My title is I can't believe. I can't believe I would most likely I would say statistically you have probably made this statement this week with something or someone on the end of this statement and we want to talk about why that statement so frequently comes out of the mouth of humanity. So I want I want to just kind of bring some light to it this morning. Turn your turn to your neighbor say, "I just can't believe we've got to listen to this guy again. I just can't believe I came thinking pastor was going to preach and we got to hear this guy again." You can be seated this morning. I cannot believe I cannot believe that Georgia lost yesterday. >> >> There's a lot of people happy here this morning. I said too much. If there's one person here, I don't talk I don't really don't I I try to like stay extremely removed from but there's if if I talk trash to anybody, it's Chandler Scarboro. Doesn't matter. No matter why. I think I just feel um like it's just good for him, you know. But uh I said too much to him the other night and they won and we did. So, but but I I you probably said it this week. Maybe you said it in the workplace. Maybe you said it while you were walking away from a conversation. You said, "I cannot believe they just said that. I can't believe what I just experienced. I can't believe those kids in that classroom just did that." Most of the time it's in a negative sense. Uh many many people it's like we we walked out of a service on Friday and and we've been having revival and um been just a wonderful time. Brother Irvin preached and I heard say I just can't believe that kids are worshiping this way in a school service. So it can be in a positive sense. I can't believe what I'm seeing. I know some of you I've talked to few of you about it. Um, you you saw that that Elon Musk revealed his flying car and many of you, you know, you thought the same thing I did. How in the world does that integrate into anything relative in our world today? You know, it's like, um, that's cool, but I don't, you know, most people shouldn't be driving a car, much less flying a car, you know. And there we go again. I can't believe they just cut me off, you know. I've been pulling out in front of Teslas for months. They're the only people not going to hit me, right? >> You know, that car is driving itself. And um I can't believe I can't believe in fact Elon said that he was going to he's he the only way anybody will believe this is actually going to happen is we got to have a live audience. So he does what he does and puts on the charades and then he tells basically from what I can gather, I mean maybe some of you tried to order one. I I did not, but um you can't get the one that actually flies. I think that's kind of like invite only. I think only President Trump gets that. I don't know who gets that for just to play around with or whatever, but u they they wouldn't have believed anything that was put on show had there not been a live audience there to admit it. Belief is a is a struggle already. But now we have artificial intelligence and we have things that um that are happening and there's literally things that are being posted to people that is not really that person. They're not really saying that. It's just completely made up. And so the world that we live live in, belief is something that is becoming more and more difficult. And I don't I don't know what to believe nowadays. You hear it said and I I can't I can't believe they did. I can't believe we're actually, you know, that the Jetsons were right. We're seeing flying cars, you know, and I can't believe this is happening around us in our world. And it's it's interesting because many times the belief is uh and the statement comes from being surprised or shocked by sin by nature by just simply things that we did not expect. And so what happens is is belief and trust and hope and faith and all of these things that become very spiritual terms are actually natural human built-in mechanics of how we all operate every single day. Belief is not just something you you have with with God and creation and how the world operates. You belief is something you and I use every single day. It carries over from day to day to our relationships and ultimately our relationship with God. And so what happens is we struggle to believe is anything tr true. And we struggle to believe that someone would do that to us. And we struggle to believe that we have experienced what we I can't believe this has happened. I can't believe that has happened. And before we know it, our belief in others and the world around us, our trust meter is very very very low. And we think that is just it's just between me and my brothers and my sisters and the workplace and we try to separate life. But I'm here to help us understand today that everything everything is spiritual. We may be oneness in our doctrine but many times we try to divide our life up into multiple categories of this is religious spiritual me on Sunday and then this is just daytoday life. It's all spiritual and it all reflects and it all works hand in hand. How can you say you love God whom you have not seen if you cannot love your brother and sister? So you can't just say I've got a covenant with him because you got to have a covenant with them. And so it's all innerworking. It's all connected. Everything's spiritual. I don't get to have a portion of my life. I don't get to act a certain way at work. I don't get to act I don't get to divide up my life and be this person who loves God and prays to God and talks to God here but don't do it there. And so when we divide up our life, we begin to say, you know, you know, I believe God and I trust in God and I love God, but I don't love them and I don't trust them and I really don't have much confidence in them and I can't believe that they said this and I can't believe that they did that. Ultimately, that mindset begins to filter and trickle into our relationship with God. you you don't you have very little trust for people and then you'll realize that your faith is perhaps faulty as well. I can't believe I can't believe what if I simply challenged our response today and simply said you should start believing. We shouldn't be shocked when people hurt us. We shouldn't be shocked when people say stuff that is painful. We shouldn't stand there in disbelief that someone has just shocked us with their decisions. Many times as I I I say that I've been involved and been around people my entire life. I grew up in a pastor's home. Been around seen some like I kind of at this place where I don't think anything will ever shock me. Kind of seen it all. You know there there's I I I don't know that something could happen at a funeral that I haven't seen. Nothing. No. I don't know that there's a way, brother Clayburn, of seeing someone baptized that I haven't seen. You just kind of been. So you as you grow and you get older and there's things that you are experience. There's many of you that you're probably like a construction worker, you know, or you you're you're a contractor or you're electrician or you you've done it for so long. You've been in the industry long enough that there's probably nothing on that job site. There's nothing in that medical room. There's nothing in that. You've done this for 20 and 30. I I've I've seen this. I've experienced this. have done. And so you get to a place where you have somewhat of a trust of your reaction to what happens in the situation. But what happens when we get into an arena or we get into a situation we've never been in before is things begin to shock us. And so what happens is a new relationship, a friendship that you don't know the character, and you don't know the lifestyle. and you put a little bit of trust, you put a little bit of hope, we become shocked by mankind's behavior. But at some point, whether it's a a parent and a child, whether it's a leader and and a follower, whether it's it's someone that you maybe you own a business or maybe you have a complicated relationship, that we have to learn as Christians that circumstances and complications that we shouldn't be shocked by sin and dysfunction that is caused by people. People are going to be people. And guess what? We are all one of them. >> The same thing that shocked you about them shocked them about you. >> You've hurt them just like they've hurt. >> The only way that you can view them right is if you view yourself right. And so what I'm here to tell you today is a little bit is a little bit different than many of times of how we we bring the angle of the Bible and it's all about our confidence in God and it's all about our hope in God. And I believe that today. But many of us are never going to see God right until we see ourselves right. And many of us are never going to see others right until we see ourselves right. >> Well, you you don't understand. They've done that before. and and and and they they they've hurt me before. Belief and trust share this same root. Faith and hope, they share this same root. Both are acts of the heart and they rest upon the perceived character of their object. They are not identical, but they travel together. And these they ask the same sort of questions. Is this true? Can I rely on this? and and the scripture, we are so tightly linked to the the the way that the word is is oriented and the way that it is written. You can intellectually acknowledge something that is true and still refuse to lean on it. >> You can intellectually acknowledge that it is true, but still choose not to trust it. >> If we had the devil come in today and sit on the pew, we could ask him many truths that he would agree with us on. But he would never lean his life upon the savior. He would never truly bow down to God, but he would agree that he is one. He would agree with many things. He would probably sign the ministry handbook. >> He would probably be willing to get in the choir. He would probably be willing to be an usher or serve some coffee, but he would never truly lean on Jesus. >> He would never truly trust him. He would acknowledge the belief that he exists. And sadly, I believe we have a lot of people that claim to be Christians that fall into the category of just simply I'm I believe that, but I'm a little shocked by that. I'm believed by that, but I can't believe you would ask. Surely God wouldn't ask that of me. I believe in that, but you see, my life is in disarray in this area, and so I can't really trust because of this. So, we get this idea that we can claim to acknowledge our belief, but belief and trust and hope and faith, they're all married. They're all part of the covenant. They're all You You never consider we may or even be at the moment currently letting other people down on their expectations they have of us. And most of all, the expectations that God has of us. Belief and trust and hope and faith all require an object. And it's not just in God. It's one accord. It's three things. Those notes, three notes make up a chord. One accord. It's not just God. It's me and others. And how I view all three is highly dependent upon how I view myself. >> So, I got to see God right. I got to see myself right. And I got to see others right. Otherwise, you get this weird idea where you stop trusting people. And you can't stop trusting people without trusting God. Because God says you got to love and you got to trust and you got to put hope and you got to put you got to people are going to let you down just like you're letting me down. Can you think about a real conversation with God? God says, "What what do you mean you don't trust them? If you don't trust them, I shouldn't trust you." Look at the process. We speak from a area of like we got it together. We speak and look at people as if we should trust ourselves. When all the while when you get all by yourself and you try to lay your head down on the pillow at night, you don't trust yourself. The reason you don't trust other people, you think everybody's lying to you. Hopefully not because you're a You seeing what I'm seeing? Picking up what I'm putting down this morning. >> Let me Let me show you this way. Brother Cam, can you help me real quick? Maybe this will help. I got made fun of all week by brother Irvin. What happened to people? Clean up too much stuff quick. I had a prop outside. Anybody remove it? >> Seriously, it's gone, man. You can't do nothing around here. I had to put a sign up out there. Dedicated prop. Do not touch. >> Can anybody hear me in the hallway? I need the prop. Can anybody hear me in the hallway? Check one, two. Security. I can't believe somebody would. Brother Wesley, can you >> I mean, you think somebody just left a 12-oot ladder in the hallway for the fun of it? I really can't move on. Going to I'm going to need that. If I skip this, this is going to We're going Everybody's thinking, "Go ahead. We'll skip it." It's interesting to see whenever you guys get that, you can just bring it in. It's like 15 people headed after it. Looks like I could have probably got it by now. Um, can't believe it's taken so long. Um, see feet. See a shadow. >> >> Did you put it up? Hey, listen. Listen. Kudos to you. All right. I appreciate you. It's all right. Hey, a man that'll clean up that quick. Give Brother Ramirez a big hand. We love him. So, here's the thing about us as humans and especially here in the United States. One thing that we have to really acknowledge is that we can build things and create things in our world that create a lot of security. They create a lot of security for us. We're we're working right now. We showed a video to our our our students and in uh chapel. We're giving uh Christmas if you send money with your students to chapel to give the offering. We're giving Christmas gifts to uh one of our our tribes and uh over there in Africa that brother Josh and brother um brother Ball and all them are working with and we're so excited to be able to give them Christmas gifts. But you and you watch that you realize we have a lot of things >> that we ought to be thankful that we have. >> We are a blessed people. Amen. But one thing that comes with blessings is that we as we as the United States citizens, we can build let's find us a wall over here. this wall work. We can build a wall of life that is pretty sturdy. And what happens is is we can kind of get everything in order. I got the job that pays the amount that pays the bills. This is going right. This is going well. And we can lean our ladder of belief for a while as Americans and never really feel the shaking or the faultiness of our faith because we're such a blessed people. Could I say here at Apostolic Christian Academy, young people, that we as young people, as parents who get to send our kids to a school that experience what they experienced this week, we are a blessed people. But we can we can just kind of lean so heavily upon apostolic teachers and apostolic people. And this is a community and we spend our nights here and we get to talk. We we get to come and have events here night after night and anything you want to do. We've we've got a culture that we're not careful. We've created something called the church that merely can just become a gathering place. But we become very comfortable. Many many of you if you looked at your life and compared it to many, we can create as a as as Americans, we can we can create this very very sure foundation to lean upon. But as I read the scripture, it tells us, hey, some of those things that we're very confident in right now, they're all going to fade away >> one day. That that that every again he says moth and rust and thieves break, but one day it's all going to go up in smoke. Let's just say it that way. It's all going to be gone. And so if we lean and put all of our belief and our hope in the job and the scholarship and the education and even the relationships and then the then when we lose the job all of a sudden I can't believe >> when the relationship becomes kind of I can't believe he would do that. I can't believe she would do that. I can't I put my hope. I've made a vow. I made a covenant. I signed a contract. And when it all falls apart because we're all human, we're so shocked. But we as Americans have the ability to here in the United States to have something we can lean on that is pretty sure for longer seasons than most. And then, you know, we we have a we have a uh Mason, come help me real quick. Hope you ate your wedies this morning. Then we have another thing that we want to put our hope in. Can you stand right over there? Can you hold this? Can you hold it if I climb it? >> You sure? You sure? >> Okay. Because I'm going to be saying, "I can't believe he dropped me on." All right. But we get to a place where we we find around the church, we find some good folks that we can really lean our lives upon. Huh? You notice I didn't call some of them other jokers up here. You better not drop me. All right. Huh? You okay? >> Sydney, come help him. Hurry. Run. He's He's getting shaky on me here. Hurry. Come on. Let's go. >> Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Give us some hands. Let's Let's see. Uh uh Jay, come here. Hurry, hurry, hurry. There we go. So, what we do is we can find people >> that we can put our trust in. Man, I if anybody's going to hold my ladder. Whoa, easy. Even Jay, you didn't know you're that strong, man. Anybody's going to hold the ladder, it's it's going to Pastor Carpenter, get up here and hold this ladder. I'll put my trust in you. I'll put my trust in my dad. I'll put my trust in my mom. I'll put my trust in the elders. I'll put my trust I Come on. You I trust you. I trust you. And then guess what? No matter how strong they are and how many of them I put down here long enough, you jokers are going to drop me. Right? But around the church, I'm thankful for the church, but around the church, we have a misconception that the people are supposed to hold us up. >> We can put our trust in the people. We can put our trust in friendships. We could put our trust in whoever. But guess what? No matter. Hey, easy now. Whoever it is, no matter. Could I just give you a revelation today? No matter. Guess what? Pastor Carpenter is not perfect. >> And Pastor Carpenter cannot forgive your sins. >> Brother Ericson cannot send you into heaven. >> It doesn't matter how much trust or hope or faith you put into an in. They're going to fail you and they will have you in a place eventually saying, "I can't believe pastor said that to me. >> I can't believe my dad did that to me. I can't believe the hero, my my mom or my dad, I can't believe they did that. Guess what? We are all human. >> We are all going to fail. And until your lens of life becomes that, hey, I'm going to fail you. You're going to fail me. But we've got a God who we can put our hope and trust and belief in. >> Thank you, God. Here he is. Jesus Christ crucified stands all by himself. >> He doesn't lean on anything. You can put all your hope, your trust and everything in him. >> You can climb. You can reach your capacity. He said he's a God of exceeding abundant. You can climb this ladder that's portrayed in the story of Jacob to the heavens. You can climb and climb and climb and climb and you will never reach. You'll never It's a mystery. You'll always be challenged to want to take it down and lean it on something in the world. You'll always be challenged to want to take it down and lean it on another relationship. >> But this right here, he don't need anybody to prop him up. >> He don't need anybody to do right to make him right. >> He don't need another podcast to validate his truth. He is still the forever settled word. And he will always be the forever. It's never going to change. It's never going Everything's going to pass away, but this is still going to be standing. And God, God, help us as a church to be climbing, to be reaching, to be leaning, to be believing that God's still got more for us. We've not arrived. We have not made it. God still has more for you. God still has more for your family. God still wants to do. What's it going to take? It's you believing that he's still got more >> for you. Look at Mark chapter nine. A man brings his son and the disciples are praying over this man's son to get a spirit out of him. And I love this. I pray this sometimes. Jesus said unto him, "If you can't believe," verse 23 of chapter nine of the Gospel of Mark, "All things are possible to him that believeth." And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with his tears, "Lord, I believe, but help, help thou my unbelief." When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, "Say the dumb and deaf spirit, I charged thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him." So Jesus works a miracle with a man who didn't have full confidence. He was open. He was transparent. He said, 'Lord, I I believe, but could you help my unbelief? It's one of the clearest biblical pictures of faith that is real, but it's incomplete. It's a unique statement that boggles the minds of many other studies. The man does not pretend his faith is perfect, and I believe that's why he received a miracle. He brings both his belief and his unbelief to God. He believe I hope you can see this this morning. He brings both his faith and his flesh. He brings both his faith and that fear in the back of his mind. But he acknowledges his unbelief. He acknowledges that he has a struggle. He acknowledges that there's a portion of him that I don't really think that that can happen. I don't really trust. I don't really see the father that he says he says thou he says I believe you can do anything. Have compassion on us and help us. This is useful when people repeatedly say I I I I can't believe that that happened or I can't believe that that will ever change. What is that? It's that you have an acknowledgment that there is a problem. But you also have an acknowledgment that there is a problem with your belief. >> And that you know inside of each and every one of us that if we can truly believe that we serve a God because we have enough truth that something can change. Say what do I do when I can't believe? You got to bring your own belief. It's simple. bring what little bit of belief you've got and couple it with the unbelief and that's where God can be God. But what happens is is we would just say I just don't we just become so negative and we just become questionary and it it's just one of those things where I just don't I don't think it could happen. So you just sit in your unbelief. You just stay in the state and you stay in the season and you remain where you're at. And you simply choose to allow faith and trust and hope to lessen and lessen and get lower and lower. Before you know it, you have no faith in God at all or anyone else or anything. And you just go through the motions. Look at Exodus 4 and verse number one. And Moses answered and said, "But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice." This is Moses talking to a burning bush. They will not believe me. They're never going to believe. They're not even going to believe that the bush. They're not going to believe this, much less that I've come to do something in your name. They're not going to believe any of this. What? What am I What am I supposed to do? They're not going to believe me. The Lord has not appeared unto thee. They're they're going to say, "You've not had an experience." And the Lord said unto him, "What is in thy hand?" Notice he didn't talk about his unbelief. He didn't answer the question. He just says, "What's in your hand?" And and and and you see, he says he says, "A rod." And he said, "Cast it on the ground. Cast it on the he cast it on the ground and became a servant." And mo Moses ran from it. And the Lord said to Moses, "Put forth thy hand. Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail." And he put forth his hand, and he caught it. And it became a rod in his hand, that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, and the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee. He says to Moses, and Moses says, they're not going to believe me. Many people are not sharing who Jesus is with others because they don't believe they're going to believe them. >> He says, "Nor hearken to my voice, for they will say, the Lord has not appeared unto the me." And the Lord says, "What is in your hand?" He says, "A rod." Well, throw it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent. And Moses took off running. Don't worry, you and I would have too, right? threw it down. It became a serpent. He runs from it. Now, this is a picture of our our our same response many times. Many of us need to stop running from what God wants us to face. He wants us to face and deal with whatever we need to deal with in this room this morning. Because if you'll run from Pharaoh, you'll run from the serpent. And if you'll keep running from the serpent when God's trying to speak to you, you'll run from the next relationship. You'll run from the next opportunity. You'll run from the responsibility. And you'll run and you'll run and you'll run and you'll run. And you just never stop running from the thing that you know you ought to confront. Moses, you will never be Moses if you keep running from what scares you. The belief is there. Moses, you'll never be great if you keep running from what scares you. Moses, you're running from something that God placed in your hand. And the Lord said unto Moses, "Put forth thy hand and take it by the tail." So, it was it was obvious. He says, "Now, I want you to go pick up what you're running from." It's it's a it's a pretty big challenge here. We just read through this as if it's no there there's he is a stick. There's no person. It's just a burning bush. There's no reasoning. There's there's there's no process. I wonder if this thing's going to bite me. Is this going to He says, "I want you to pick up what you were just scared of." How many of you would have grabbed that snake's tail? Did I get a show of hands? I I've just I've merely come in the spirit this morning to tell someone, you've got to pick up what you are fearful of. You've got to confront the thing that's been holding you back for perhaps years. You've been standing in this moment of decision for far too long. says, "He took forth his hand, he caught it, and it became it became a rod in his hand." Notice the exchange. Every time he does something with his hand, he has enough belief to put it down, he has enough belief and just kind of courageously picks it up. Anytime it exchanges out of his hand, God does something. See this with me because this is I I hope if you can get this picture, you might actually take something home today. process what we've heard that they may believe the Lord God of their fathers is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God, I would do it, but they they're not going to believe me. I know these people are not going to believe me. So, I ask you, is it really them or is it us? Is it because God doesn't address whether or not they will believe. I believe that a lot of us are saying they when we really mean. Well, you know, I I they they just wouldn't understand that at work. They just wouldn't understand that in my family. They are not going to believe this. They are never going if I start praying and I start worshiping and I start changing my life, they are not going to be okay with this. and they and then and they and they and they and everybody else seems to become the problem when he's saying really what Moses is saying is I I don't believe myself. I have a struggle within me. I believe he's imposing on them something that's really coming from him. They won't accept me. They won't love me. Those people just use me. You'll never get anybody to embrace you until you embrace yourself. You'll never get anybody to believe in you until you believe in yourself. You'll ne never get anybody to love you until you understand that God loves you and you love yourself. You've got to believe. You've got to believe this morning ultimately. And I know this is a little bit different, but in order for you to take a step out of your seat to an altar today, you have to believe first that God loves you. >> You got to believe it for yourself. And and many times I pray with people, I just want to reiterate God loves you. God's got a plan for you. God's hear God hears your voice. What am I trying to do? I'm trying to convince them in this moment that what they're saying that they can believe in themselves so that they can believe in God. That's why it's the gift of the Holy Ghost. >> You don't believe in yourself enough to receive what God's trying to give. >> You've got to acknowledge I'm not worthy. I'm not but I believe that I've cleansed. I've washed. I've repented. So, I want you to give it to You got to believe in yourself. But what we try to do is we try to make they we try to make the situation the atmosphere and really it's just us in disguise. Now God says to him, "I want you to go speak for me." And they he says, "They're not going to believe me. What is in your hand?" He doesn't address the belief. He addresses what is in his hand. So could we do inventory for a moment? Just think through what is it that God has placed in your hand. Everybody in here has a gift. Everybody in here has an ability. Everybody in here has at least been given time. You're here this You're here this morning. you've been given. Something is in your hand. But we get so focused and the world around us gets so focused and the enemy wants to get us so focused on what's not in our hand >> that we begin to ask the question, I just I can't believe that I don't have this. I can't believe that I don't have that. I can't believe I've not been given this opportunity. I can't believe that I'm not. And all the time he's saying, what is in your hand? I've given you the ability to advance the kingdom in a way that nobody else can advance the kingdom. I've given you the ability to be able to raise uh two kids or three kids or you have a wife or you have this or you have a job. I put something in your hand. What are you doing with what's in your hand? >> Because when you acknowledge what's in your hand in private in front of a burning bush who knew that that same experience, he says, "If you'll throw this down, I'll help the belief in the future. If you'll put this down now, if you will believe now, I'll part the seas." with that same rod. If you'll believe now, that same rod will do this same thing in public if you can get your belief right in private. >> And so, it's a negotiation with yourself to have a conversation to say, Lord, help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. Can I can I just be open and honest? The problem is many of us have a limited perspect perspective of what is in our hand. It's not just a rod. It's not just something that that you you know again it's your potential. It's a powerful thing. Lord, I hope that we can see today. I hope that we can see today. And I think in my own life, every time I pick up a mic, scared to death. Many of you are here. I look like Moses trying to grab a snake by the tail. The mic was shaking so bad. Brother Eller told me, he said, "I thought I was having feedback or something." Scared to death. You know what it was? If you'll pick it up, every time I walk up here, there's a sense of fear. God is is telling somebody today, he wants to use your life. He's telling somebody he wants to use your business. He's telling somebody he wants to use your ability. But you've got to be willing to have enough belief that when you reach when you step out when you speak up that God is going to do something through it is Moses challenged the same way we are all challenged today. You've got to make sure that our trust and our hope, our belief, our faith, all of these things that we realize it can't it can't just be in ourselves. It must be in God. But ultimately for it to be in God, we have to see ourselves the right way. Take you to a passage in closing today. There's a woman It's a woman with an issue. In the Bible, it says that she's had an issue for 12 years. This is one of the most powerful stories. She has an issue of blood she's had for 12 years. And this paints the picture of what I'm trying to communicate to you this morning. Probably better than any passage in the Bible. She stands by herself. Maybe she's sitting in the pew this morning. Maybe he's sitting in the pew this morning. The Bible says not that Jesus called out to her, not that four people came and picked her up, not that a friend grabbed her by a hand and took her to an altar, but it says that she had a issue of blood and she said not to a friend. It says that she said to herself, "If I can just touch the hymn of his garment," and if you look at that in the original in the original text, it says, as a musician's come this morning, it says that she said it repeatedly. Repeatedly. I can't help but in my mind it looks like that this lady as she takes a step she's convincing herself. If I can just get to the altar, if I can just touch the hymn of his garment, if I can just There is a sense of her convincing herself before she ever has an experience with God before she ever has a miracle. and we preach it and we she touches the him. He says, "Who touched me?" The disciples like, "Everybody's touching. I don't." He said, "No, someone touched me." Get this this morning. This is it. Someone touched me that believed. >> Someone touched me that believe. Oh, they may have had some doubt, but they brought their doubt with them. They brought their unbelief with them. They brought their unbelief about the people in their family. They brought their unbelief about the people in the church. They brought their unbelief about the people around. And it merely became that. I'm going to convince myself this morning that God loves me. I'm going to convince myself this morning that God wants to forgive me of my sins. I'm going to convince. and every step she took. If I could just get to Jesus. If I could just get to Jesus. If I could get if I could get to one the one that could give me life again. She's dying and everybody around her says she's dying. And she's convinced herself that she's dying. 12 years she's been affected by a diagnosis, but she saw Jesus. Just stand to your feet. And I believe it's a lot like this ladder this morning. Many of you, you've leaned it on any and everything and everybody. And all anybody ever hears around you is negative talk about, "I can't believe they're doing that. I don't think we can trust them to do anything. I don't think they're ever going to make it. >> >> And that lens of conversation is because they really don't trust themselves. They really don't love themselves. They really don't see themselves right. Because if we see ourselves through the eyes of true mercy, you'll give mercy. >> If you see yourselves in the eyes of God loves me, >> then God loves you. if he did it for me. We sing about it and it preaches good. It's good preaching, but it's hard living. >> What What keeps that from coming out of our mouths? What keeps the negativity from just flowing and flowing and flowing and flowing? You just just keep leaning on everything and anything till one day perhaps on a Sunday morning, you make a decision. I'm just going to let God be God. I'm going to let him be my God. I'm going to let him be your God. >> And we're going to do everything we can to keep our belief in him. Because if I am who he says I am, then you are who he says you are. >> Because he can't be who he is and you not be who you are. Hear me that I I hope I can communicate this today. Our identity issues in our world today, all become skewed, all become messed up because we put our trust and our hope in how someone else views us. I just want them to like me. I just want them to laugh at me. I just want them to accept me. I just want to have a conversation. I just want to be friends. I just want to I just want I just want to just And so we get frustrated and rates are skyhigh today. Depression, anxiety, sadly, addiction. What would make someone become addicted to scrolling through and looking at stuff they shouldn't look at? >> They don't see themselves as a child of God. What would cause someone to become addicted to a drug? They didn't intend to become addicted. They just started seeing themselves as someone and it begins to crumble. Life begins to crumble around them. I just want to bring you back to a cross this morning that will change your perspective of everyone. I'm telling you, you got to know, you got to view yourself right today. Well, how do how do you view yourself right? Lord, I believe, but you got to help my unbelief. That is possibly one of the most honest, open prayers that somebody could come to this altar and pray today that could change your life. There's someone that's been seeking deliverance. There's someone that you're just trying to get out of this game in your mind, this stronghold in your mind. I'm just telling you, you got to bring your unbelief. You got to bring your your your worries. You got to bring your fears this morning with every head bowed and every eye closed. I'm speaking to someone who it's been a while since you have truly been able to believe. But I'm here to tell you that God believes in you. God believes in you because he went and died for you before he ever knew that you would take a step toward him. God died for you. God put his trust in humanity that he would send his only begotten son that he would allow his son to bleed and die and be beaten because he trusted you. Not knowing if you would trust him enough to leave your seat this morning and come down to an altar and let him apply that blood to your life. Let him apply that water to your life. Let him give you the gift of the Holy Ghost this morning with every head bowed and every eye closed. If God's pulling on you, I wish you'd step just like that woman with the issue and say, "Oh, if I could just get to an altar this morning. If I could just touch the hymn of his garment, I could learn to trust again. I could learn to believe again. I could learn to put Come on. The Holy Ghost is here this morning. Come on. The Holy Ghost is here this morning. There's somebody he wants to deliver. Come on, deliver. Deliver what's going on in your head, young person. Mom, it's not God's will that you struggle with those thoughts. >> Come on, Dad. It's not God's will that you be addicted to those things. >> Come on. Get that out of your head. Get that out of your mind. >> I am who he says that I am. I am who he says that I am. Heat. Heat. >> >> I in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. >> >> Come on. That's it. I hear prayers going up in this place right now. Come on. I wish for the next few moments before we're dismissed, I wish there'd be nobody praying by themselves. Come on. of you. If your life is all good, if your life is all the blessings and the wonderful things of God, I wish for a few moments that you'd find somebody that you'd find somebody. We begin to pray. If God did it for me, he can do it for your family. If God's done it for me, he can do it for you. I believe for you this morning. I believe for you this morning. I believe for every person in this place that needs a touch from God. I believe God wants it this morning. I've got faith knowing that God is the author. God is the finisher. God is still writing your story this morning. Come on. That's it. Saints of God, minister. Strengthen the body this morning. Come on. Let your belief carry over in the name of Jesus. Come on. From the altar all the way to the back. Find somebody. Find somebody and pray with them. Lord, we need you today. Lord, we need you today. God, encourage the people. Lord, help our unbelief. God, God, help our doubt. God, Lord, we want to have faith. You're able. God, you're able. God, you're able. God, you're able. God, you're able. That's why I trust him. That's why. Come on, let's get what you need from the Lord this morning. Come on. Get what you need from the Lord this morning. >> >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, heat, heat. >> >> Heat up here. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> >> I need you to find just one person standing around you and I want you to put your arm around them. I believe we can minister to one another right here. Come on. Our trust is in him, but we need one another to build that trust up. Come on. We got legitimate needs in this church right here. We got issues going on. We got problems going on. Just like every church has issues, has problems. Come on. We have workplace problems. We have family troubles. We have relationship troubles. Come on, somebody pray for your brother. Pray for your sister and say, "God, in Jesus name, God, help there be enough faith that we believe that you can see us through these issues." And God, having a faith, Lord God, that you're able to see us, Lord, through the situations we find ourselves in and the problems and the all the troubles. Oh my God, you're my brother. You're my sister. We got to have one another. There has to be faith that's built between us. God, help us to oh, increase our faith. Help our unbelief. Oh, God. Let there be a ministering that takes place right here. We don't have enough preachers, enough ministers. We don't have enough elders to pray over the needs in this house. Come on. But you're my brother. You're my sister. You're my fellow believer. There ought to be signs and wonders and miracles that follow after each one of us. Come on. It's the believers that signs are going to follow after. Hey, in Jesus name, I minister to my brother. In Jesus name, I minister to my sister. Come on, minister. Minister. You can do this right here. >> >> Come on. He's holy. He's righteous. He's powerful. What a holy God we serve. What a loving God we serve. He's filled with mercy. He's filled with grace. His name is love. >> >> You are holy, holy, holy, holy. Come on. The Holy Ghost is want to be poured out right here. The Holy Ghost is want to be poured out right here. Receive the Holy Ghost. Receive your helper. Receive your power. >> >> He's ministered all over this place. He's ministered all over this place. Let yourself be used. Let yourself be used as a minister this morning. Be filled with the Holy Ghost. Be filled with the Holy Ghost. Be filled. Be filled. Be filled. Woo. He's ministering all over this place. Come on. You're missing out if you're not getting ministered to. His hand is here. His power is here. His spirit is here. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. >> >> We've got so many that are praying for the Holy Ghost and a praying faith in their life and belief in their life. We're going to let them keep on praying. If you need to leave, we understand. We completely understand. We'll see you tonight. But come on, let's let them just pray. Let's let them pray. Come on, musicians. Let's let them play. Let them play. Oh, thank you Jesus. God bless you in Jesus name