Insight | Student Pastor Bro. Zach Hammond
by Zach Hammond
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Ephesians 1:15-19, Isaiah 6:9, John 9:39-41

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

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Ephesians chapter 1 and verse number 15. Uh, I want to just read a passage and do my best to communicate to you. I realize that it is 8:14 and I will navigate this very quickly to get my point across. But Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, "Wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in L in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." So Paul is praying for the saints, the church at Ephesus and he said that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of him. the eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance and all the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power. I want to preach to you for just a few moments tonight more or less teach to you on this topic just one word insight. insight. I do believe that the Lord has something for us tonight. It it it is something that has um it's been um it's been on me for for a couple days now. And and when pastor reached out, I felt led of the Lord to communicate. And I pray this helps you tonight. But I know the word is only as good, the seed is only as good as the ground that it falls upon. So, could we lay our Bibles down and lift our hands to heaven tonight and ask God, Lord, I pray that you would create in me a clean heart, oh God. Lord, I pray that you would renew a right spirit within me. Lord, I pray that you would let this word fall upon my heart and my mind. That I would not just be a hearer of the word, Lord, but I would put it into practice, Lord. I pray, God, that I would communicate your word to your wonderful people tonight, to some of the greatest people in all the world, Lord. I pray that you would help me, God. Lord, I'm nothing without you, God. I'm lost without you. I'm broken without you, God. I'm in need of you, God, at all times. God, anoint your word tonight. In Jesus name we pray. Everybody said, "Amen." >> Amen. You may be seated tonight. Paul Paul had been working on Ephesus for a long time. And as I lay a foundation, if you would just go with me quickly, I I'll try to give you this as quick as I can. He he nurtured it. He he kind of babyed the church at Ephesus because he had worked on it for a long time. So, three and a half years. And Paul had worked on this work at Ephesus. He had dug it out on his own. And this city was not just a place that he had dug this out. It wasn't just any place. It was a city that was uh it was full of of all kinds of wickedness and perversion. But Paul had been effective in planting a seed in Ephesus that he had raised up to power. After three and a half years of weeping and prevailing and crying and prophesying over a group of people, he tells them, "After my departure, there's going to be grievous wolves that come in and they're going to look to devour the sheep of God. They're going to look to tear this church apart. They're going to look look to get you with false doctrine." And he he he he tells them he says, "You've got to I commend you to God and you to the word of his grace." And he says, "Which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified." And he says he says to a preacher, he says, "Feed the flock of God." And he's encouraging this church because he wants them to continue. The Holy Ghost is going to be this overseer over you. And he's setting up this process that it will continue. The work would continue. And that's that's the goal, right? What good would it be to build something if it can't continue? If it can't continue steadfastly, what point would it be to begin it? And so Paul is trying to make sure that this thing that he's put a lot of his time and effort into and God has blessed that the Holy Spirit would sustain it, but the people of God would continue in what he had dug out. And so we're reading this very powerful moment in the book of Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15. He says, "Wherefore also I also after heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," he says, "I cease cease not to give thanks." But he said, "I've got a prayer I've been praying over you. I got a prayer that I've been praying over you." And this is what Paul to a church that he feels so adamant about. This is what Paul has to say to them. He says, "I'm going to ask that that may may God he give unto you." He I want him to give you something. He says, "I'm praying for you that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father of glory that he may give unto you." And and and he could have said anything. He could have said, "I want him to give you blessings. I want him to give you a a a temple, a a place, a property, a something of fortune, an opportunity." He says, "But I'm I'm praying that God would give you the spirit of wisdom." He says, "I I want I want you to to receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. This is what we ought to be asking for. This is what Paul thought the church that he had dug out." And so when you're asking for all kinds of stuff and our prayers are filled with all kinds of desires, let this be a note to the writer of over half the New Testament. When he wrote back to the church that I'm praying for one thing that you would have, it would be that you have the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. This is what Paul values. what you value has a lot to do with with with your outcome. What you value has a lot to do with what you're going to see. And and I believe prayers are powerful. And I'm I I I'm hoping that after tonight that this would become a natural prayer for each and every one of us that God would give us insight. >> That God would give us the ability to see within ourselves. give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. And he says, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Now, this gets interesting because this is not necessarily how we depict things. You're you're telling me that my understanding has eyes. My understanding has a vision. My understanding has eyes. And he he he he writes this for a reason. He says he says, "I I want you to discover the eyes of understanding. I want you to have insight." >> Your understanding has a vision. That means that if your understanding is blind, your perspective is off. >> If your understanding is blind, your perspective of the situation >> is probably wrong. Your perspective of yourself is probably wrong. Your perspective of your self-worth is probably wrong. And what you can do and who you can be and all the things that God wants to do is very very highly dependent upon your insight. So he says, "In the middle of a wicked and perverse world, in a middle of a world that I am in but I am not of, you need insight so that you can look within when you're so concerned, as they were throughout the entire Bible, with what was around them." >> Too many times we see God gives the people, the children of Israel in the Old Testament, over to the the culture that was around them. They become conquered by a culture that they had victory over because of the God that they were serving. But they looked around and they wanted a king like the culture. They wanted this like the culture. And they allowed their their physical eyesight to blind them of an invisible God. And so in the New Testament, it's no coincidence that Paul, his greatest emphasis becomes eyes of the inner man, eyes of the inner woman. Because if you don't have insight, you're going to miss everything else. When you don't have insight, you depend on other people to make you feel valuable. So, let me build a little bit of a foundation of the emphasis here. When you look at the spirit of wisdom, the eyes of understanding, you can be open. He said, I I'm praying that your eyes of understanding be enlightened. We could stay right here in this concept and build upon it scripturally all night long because until I see myself the way God sees me, I'm going to struggle with everything else that the world is struggling with. >> Everything that statistically we're struggling with all across our nation. I'm going to be a part of those numbers until I see myself the way God sees me. >> That's insight. I look and I can say that it is not and and and over again I'm gonna have to move past this. I know I don't have time but it is not what happens to you that matters. It's what you understand about it. >> It's insight. If you don't understand it, you perceive it incorrectly. And and so if if you're you're destined not only to misunderstand it, but then you're destined to repeat it. And therefore, we see the cycle of mankind that over and over and over and over and over again, they just fall into the same hole. And sadly, we see a a father and then a son and then a grandson. They all fall in the same hole because they have no insight. You say, "How do why do they keep messing up in the same areas? Why did this one do that and then this one did that? Why?" Because they they can't see the hole. No, they don't have insight. They don't have understanding. And if you don't have these things, you we need to check our eyes tonight of understanding. I ask my kids many times when I'm done disciplining them or I'm about to discipline them, do you understand what I'm saying? Do you? cuz I realize that we're going to be right back here about 15 minutes later if we don't have some comprehension, if we don't have some insight, if we don't have some understanding to look within oursel and and ultimately this is this is I I'm doing my best to tonight as every preacher that stands behind this pull pit does to allow the spirit of God, this is scripture, this is the biblical model, this is the system and structure for us to continue steadfastly that we would go through the spirit and speak from the word of God. That the eyes of our understanding be open each time somebody stands behind the pull pit. >> Our eyes of understanding tonight be open. That's what church is all about. Spirit and truth. The spirit of wisdom can open up your understanding or open up the truth. And what what I'm I'm I'm asking us to do tonight is to to check our spiritual eyesight. Everybody who's in the same place don't always see the same thing. In fact, I read I read an article just this past week and I don't have time to get in depth to it, but it says that every child within a family has a different parent. You say that doesn't make sense. It does make sense because my firstborn was born into my life at a totally different season than my second born. It's perception. It's like right now I'm trying to make sure that my firstborn and my second born, my second born, there's certain things that he's still not mature enough with me to go do. And I have to watch and make sure that when I leave the house with the firstborn, that the second born don't have the perception that I don't care about him. He's just not quite mature enough. But he can have a perception that dad don't love me like he loves the firstborn. and he can begin to live in a reality that's not real because he's looking at it with his eyes and he don't have real insight. You It's amazing to see the older you get, the smarter your parents seem to be. >> They didn't get dumber or smarter. You just have more >> insight. >> Are you with me? So, it's a thing where we have to understand we have we could tonight as we pull out that the light could go crazy and we could have a wreck that involved two cars, but we have six onlookers and have seven different stories. Right? Why perception? I saw it this way. I've sat in a room with two people trying to mediate a situation before and at the end of it call and say, "Hey, how did you think that went?" To complete surprise, they said this and they heard that. >> What's that perception? It's a thing that we all have to acknowledge that throughout our lives, we all have this thing that we want to see and experience and use our senses in the physical >> when God and the the the this wonderful man with a wonderful story begins to tell us. I'm praying that you get some spiritual eyes >> because when you begin to look this way, you you know how it goes. Lord, there's a list of things. I I've met people, they think everybody's lying. You know what that means? They're probably one that doesn't tell the truth very much. Cuz when you have insecurities, you think everybody else is. When you're a liar, you think everybody else is lying to you. When you're a cheater, you don't trust nobody. >> When all you do is gossip, you can't hardly walk in a room without thinking the people over there are talking about you. Why? Perception. >> Because when you don't like yourself, you'll think everybody's against you. How you see insight determines whether you can be what God's called you to be or not. Understanding. Understanding and understanding in all things in all thy getting understanding. Understanding. Watch this. Is the truth that you stand under. Brother Ericen, could you hand me that uh that little prop there underneath your feet there? I snuck in here. Let me see if I could just give you a visual. I know we got our students in here tonight. Forgive me for all of you that are very mature, but believe it or not, you will not remember anything else that I said tonight, but you may remember this. Understanding is like an umbrella. I stand underneath a truth. >> That's it. Some of you stand underneath a truth. All of you tonight, as pastors already emphasize, believe and forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as a manner. Why you believe it's a truth? because you stand in this place tonight underneath it. >> But there's other people who don't see that quite the emphasis of that. Therefore, they're absent. >> But it's not. Here's the here's the caveat. Here's the other side of the coin. Here's the thing that you and I just it's hard for us to understand, but you can't choose to not stand under something >> because there's something called underlying. And it's how we describe many people that have underlying issues. Why? Because they're under a lie. >> They lack insight. They lack self-evaluation in a biblical term for those of you that are spirit. They lack humility and repentance. They lack an altar. They lack places. And so what happens is is they find themselves up under something and they see everything in life from this covering. They see everything in life from this understanding. It's it's it's it's a poison. It's a thing that you you just you get so frustrated and you you you're standing under a lie about yourself. You're standing up under a misunderstanding. You're standing up under something that is not true. Trauma is proven that when trauma happens, your brain shuts down. So therefore, things that have happened to you in your past, some of the worst moments in your life, they have missing snapshots in them because your brain can't comprehend them. And so you have you have truths that you're living under. Your understanding could be skewed and it could be that way for 10, 20, 30, 40 years. and you've lived under this understanding, under this false truth because you've created a narrative in your mind that's not real. You you you've experienced thing and there's no doubt there's no doubt that there's many of us that have been challenged. There's many of us that's been through issues and we fought things. But God help us that we don't find ourselves nestled in a place of safety. But we have these underlying issues. I'm challenging you tonight as God has challenged me to let the spirit of God help us examine the things that we've understood wrong that have affected the outcomes of our life because the eyes of your understanding were not enlightened. And now you take a bad understanding and you lock it up in the vault of your inability and you let only certain things in and only certain things out. And you've been in perhaps years of pain and everybody can see it but you because you lack insight. You become blinded by the beam in your own eye while pointing out the specks of the saints. God, help us. >> Because those that lack understanding seem that lack insight, they seem to be the ones that grade everybody by a test that they can't pass themselves. >> Everybody's wrong. I'm just got my own perception. >> I'm asking you tonight. He says,"I pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened." Now watch how he follows that up because once the eyes of your understanding are open and the light has come in, the enlightenment has happened, he says that ye may know what is the hope >> of his calling. Because when you get insight, it propels the mission forward. When you see yourself right, you see your calling and your your your election. Sure. So there's three vital questions for the enlightenment that he says here. This is what I'm praying for you. That the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened in three different ways. That you know what is the hope of your calling. Number two, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance is for the saints. I don't know about you, maybe nobody else gets excited about that, but I'm thankful to be a part of a kingdom that has blessings and I inherit who I am adopted by. And he says then what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty glory. So those three things are what we want to we want and then we can we can get those when we get insight. >> So the question becomes number one the question becomes what does God want from me? If you're making notes tonight or you want to leave with just a few things and just try to just just take these three things in. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus. He says, "What does God want from me? It's the hope of his calling. To please God, I must know what God wants from me. I can't please him if I don't know what he wants from." It's the hope of his calling. Number two, what does God have in me? That is the riches of his inheritance of the saints. And number three, what will God spend on me? That's the exceeding of riches of his powers usward. Who believes in what God will spend on me? These three things are what Paul wanted Ephesus to know. And you get these three things. It is a process of insight once you see yourself the way God sees you. But we see that this this powerful powerful passage didn't begin with a man named Paul. It began with a man named Saul. Saul when he starts out he is going with some papers down to a road down a road called Damascus to gather up women and men who were calling on the name of the Lord to bring them back to Jerusalem and put them in change and to be killed. and he was the that he's he's he's he's leading this group of men to persecute Christians. He's leading them and he's got men following him that that and he he's not blind on the outside, but he is blind on the inside. He's so blind on the inside that he thought he did God's service by killing God's children. You talking about living underneath a misunderstanding? Paul's walking like many of the people that we're trying to witness to. Brother Perry, saw you here the other night teaching a Bible study. Man, you're trying to get them out from under their own understanding. >> That's right. >> And underneath the truth of God's word, right? That's what we're trying to do. But Paul or Saul at the moment is walking thinking he's fulfilling God's plan by killing God's people. >> Misunderstanding. We see what happens. What what happens here is that that he is so blind on the inside that he is doing the a the oppos the absolute opposite. But see when you're blind on the inside you have no insight. You'll call right wrong and you'll call wrong right. Insight will me a lack of insight will mess with your morals. Though you can see on the outside, he couldn't see on the inside. And he had men following him to carry this out. He was leading them. He was influencing them. And while he's walking in this one-dimensional sight realm, the the blind in and the and we see the light out, he saw this greater light in the story. The light he saw at this moment was the greater light. It was the light of God. I believe it was the same light that came out of the mouth of God, the creator that said, "Let there be light." It it it was a gift from God on Paul on Saul's road to Damascus of his great conversion. And this is how we have to see it. And many times it's hard to get people out from up under their own understanding. But guess what? God confronts. >> And we have to see when God confronts us, that's a gift. >> Gift. It's a gift of confrontation. It is a gift. When God time sabotages my mission and aborts my plan and interrupts my feelings, it's God doing me a favor because I thought I had this figured out, but no, he said, "Here's some insight into what I have for you." That's what he did to Saul. He said, "I sometimes God God has to knock us off our beast as he does as he does Saul to put us back up on our feet." And so there's a few people that that that perhaps in this place you you've been through some things. You could attest and say, "Hey, I've had those moments where God had to rock my world before he could put me back to work in his kingdom." >> So here is Saul laying on the ground and who he says, "Who is this? Who is it?" He questions and the voice spoke out of the light said it is Jesus whom thou persecuted. Many theologians would argue that this is a very important for several reasons. First of all, Paul could not legitimately become an apostle without being an eyewitness of the resurrected Lord. And it is at this moment that he becomes eligible considered that the replacement for Judas because Judas had not seen him in his resurrection state. So this that's just some food for thought. There's a lot of things that are happening here, but this greater light is something that we need to take note of. The light that you were walking in seems like uh just just just a seemingly dim thing until this great light comes. when the greater light comes. >> The eyeopening moment when you're teaching a Bible study, the eyeopening moment when pastor gets up and ministers something and it hits you right where you know you need to be hit at and it steps on your toes. Those are those are greater light moments. I'm praying that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened. That's what's happening to Paul. That's why he writes what he writes to the church at Ephesus is because he's had this experience himself. He said, "I want the same light to hit you that hit me. I want you to have the insight that God knocked me off a beast with on a road to do what I thought was his will." Saul, you know, we can we can we can hate him, but he thought he was doing the will of God. I'm praying that this greater light comes and shows you that the light that you were in is really shadows. It gives a whole new perspective. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Because in order for there to be a shadow, a greater light has to overwhelm the light that you were once walking in. That's the hope. That's the goal. That there's a greater experience. There's a greater light. You say, "I've been in this thing 30 years." There's a greater insight. The mission that God, the calling, the inheritance, the purpose, everything that come is all based upon the insight that we have, how we see ourselves, the spirit within us, the truth within us. So Saul, soon to be Paul, is down. And this greater light comes and says, "It's Jesus who thou persecutest." And now he's been exposed. You see that he responds as we all must respond. I believe that these few words are the reason that Paul writes as much as he writes. I believe that these few words are the reason that Paul is who he is in the New Testament. What must I do? >> What must I do? That is a visual of I'm I'm getting out from up under anything that's ever happened to me. Any of my misunderstanding. I'm laying it. He said, "What must I do?" Because humility, hear me tonight. Humility is a sign of conversion. What must I do? What What must I do? When you see somebody that's not willing to ask that question, it's not willing to humble themselves. They've not truly been converted. Humility is a sign of conversion, it's it's coming to an altar of repentance. It's putting down our understanding. Insight. Now he walks away and the men that were leading him that he was leading is now leading him because he's lost his sight of the world. But man, does he have insight. You'll notice I don't have time tonight to get I don't have time to take you through the whole story. I'm sorry, but he don't get his eyesight back until he gets the Holy Ghost >> because his insight had to be right and he had to have the Holy Ghost which he writes to the church at Ephesus that is going to enable him to keep his understanding in order to have his. So therefore, there's no it's no coincidence. So he starts writing the church of Corinth. He says you walk by faith and not by the only only essence of faith. The only way we will really get into faith is to have insight. I got to see what God is trying to do in my life. I the only way I can walk through this this valley of the shadow desert know that there's a greater light. There's something that's trying to expose. There's something that's trying to get something out of me. So the primary writer and the contributor of all the the these great words and all these things that we sing about and we talk about has an experience. So he comes back to this church that he's three and a half years done everything he can do to get it off the ground and he said, "I'm just praying that you would have an understanding he would enlighten the eyes of understanding would be open." Look at a few more passages of scripture before we close this evening. Isaiah 6 and9 says that he said go and tell his people hear ye indeed but understand not and ye see ye indeed but perceive not. God help us to not be a people who don't have insight. The entire chapter of John nine is about a a man that was born blind being healed by Jesus. And Jesus said, "For judgment I come into this," verse 39, "this world, that you you may see not." He said, "Which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind." And he's speaking to these religious people. And he said, "Some some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, are we blind also?" Jesus said unto them, "If you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore your sin remainth. I love this response from Jesus. It's a little bit maybe confusing when you read it. It's a lot of kind of a tongue twister in there, but if you were blind, pretty much he's saying if you were blind, you'd be better off because right now you claim to have understanding. And the worst situation to be in is think that you're living under a truth and you've got this thing figured out. Because Saul never becomes Paul without insight. Saul never becomes Paul with what must I do? The Pharisees and the Sadducees will never become followers or apostles. Even though they've seen him, they've heard him. They've exposed to a greater light, but they're willing to shield it off with their understanding. They've got it all figured out. It's the scariest situation of a human being is that they've got their mind fixed. The worst blindness is willful blindness. Claiming to see, having all the answers, and rejecting truth that stands right in front of you. Make a note to read it. I don't have time to go through it. Ephesians 4:17. Paul continues as he writes about he he says, "You give yourself over to uncleanness and lasciviousness." And he he gives a long list all the way 19 verse 19 all the way through 32 of Ephesians 4 is a list of things that just would blow your mind. You give yourself over to this. You give yourself over to this. Give yourself over to that and this is happening. You you you've you you've you've went after these things and you've spoke lies about your neighbor and you've done this and you've you've put this upon people and you you're working and and in vain and all these things are happening in these few verses. But it all goes back to verse 18 that the last few words says because of the blindness of your heart because you have no insight. It becomes a domino effect. In closing tonight, this story was a part of a class that I'm currently taking and it impacted me in quite some way. as Bishop Nathaniel Wilson in Sacramento, California. He writes in an article that we were required for reading that I'm not sure that I'll ever forget it. This is his and I'll read it exactly the way he wrote it in somewhat of a summary form here to try to try to make sure I get you out of here in a minute. Long ago, a remote mountain valley high the Andes Mountains became permanently isolated from the rest of the world by a catastrophic landslide. Over many generations, a mysterious disease struck the m the small community, gradually blinding every inhabitant of the community. The people fully adapted to total blindness. They developed extraordinary keen senses of hearing, touch, and smell. Redesigned the entire society without windows or visual cues, smooth paved paths of stone, houses in neat rows, irrigation systems that navigate perfectly. and eventually lost all memory or concept of what sight was, what it was like to once have seen. They created a stable, orderly, self-sufficient civilization perfectly suited for their condition. Centuries later, a sighted mountaineer named Nunees survi survives a climbing accident and falls into the hidden valley. Remembering the old proverb, "In the country of the blind, the oneeyed man is king." Dr. Wilson writes, "He expects to be superior, perhaps even the ruler over these people without sight. Instead, the blind villagers find him strange and defective. They have no word or understanding for sight. They examine him by touch, call his eyes a disease, and treat his talk of mountains and stars and clouds and colors as of confused ramblings of this newly formed idea or truth. This mentally impaired person they would refer to him as. They gave him a new name that would force him to learn their ways. Nunees struggles in his attempt to adapt. Having vision where no one else sees, his eyesight gives him almost no practical advantage in their dark, perfectly ordered world, where the blind move with total confidence and precision while he stumbles with sight. He eventually becomes a citizen of the valley and works among them and falls deeply in love with a woman. However, the villagers elders strongly oppose this marriage. They view Nunes's sight as a dangerous affliction that affects his the the culture and the community. They offer him a cure of surgery to remove his eyes to become normal equal as a member of society. Nunees in horror refuses. The story builds to a powerful climax as he faces an impossible choice between love, conformity, and his gift of sight, eventually causing him to flee the valley of the blind. Now obviously within our class this is written from so many different angles that we have to pull from but its main narrative as one to make points towards those perhaps that aren't open to change. A community that's not open to adapting or changing or moving. But the question that came to my mind as I read the story is who here is actually blind? Who is it? Wh which which group is wrong? Perhaps neither one's wrong. But as I think through the story, I believe that's a question that many of us could ask ourselves tonight. Is it the person that you seem to always have issues with or is it perhaps that we need to have a little more insight in that situation? Is it the Is it the addiction? Is it the hidden sin? Is it the conflict? Is it the relationship? because we are so quick and we are >> as humans >> always going to want to point with what we see with our natural eyes. So I challenge you this evening as you stand to your feet to walk in faith, to walk in insight, >> not by what you see. Because I I guarantee you this, any of us are going to have seasons that have a greater struggle than simply the struggle that we were meant to go through if we just spend all of our time looking at what's around us. But oh, David powerfully displays as a man after God's own heart >> that scripture after scripture after scripture time would not I I would be here till Sunday reading the scriptures in the Psalms that he says search me >> know my heart know my ways purge me now God, >> if there's anything in me, I I want you to take care of it now, not not on judgment day. >> I want you to take care of my issues now. I want insight into my inabilities. I want insight into my sin. I want insight into my insecurities. I want insight into what I'm causing in my family. I want insight into what I'm bringing into the room. Why is there always issues? Why is there always problems? >> And I get it. There's people that always want to come in and it seems maybe disrupting to the room, disrupting to the valley of the people. But no matter how disruptive the moment is, I have prayed and I have prayed and I have prayed that no matter if everybody looks wrong, my first thing Paul says is not to look at that person that's wrong. It's to look at myself before I ever evaluate anybody else. Before I ever carry anybody else's burdens, before I ever go and start trying to help somebody else, I got to look at this life through the right lens that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you and I the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding be enlightened. Let me just leave you with this and I'll pray if pastor wants to close. This is what stirs me so strongly is that no one will ever see Jesus in us until we see ourselves the way Jesus sees us. Until insight happens, until the Holy Ghost puts us under the right mindset, till the Holy Ghost puts us in the right understanding, till the Holy Ghost gets us seeing people through mercy and not through judgment, till the Holy Ghost gets us seeing people that the way God loves them, the way God care, it don't matter what you, it doesn't matter how bad, if the Holy Ghost can give us insight, we'll start fulfilling the mission. >> But without insight, We walk around spiritually just as Paul had to go through with scales on his eyes. So I'd ask you to lift your hands in this room tonight and as Saul said laying on his back speaking to that light, what must I do? Spirit of God, I pray that you would shine upon each of us tonight. Holy Ghost move upon us tonight. Lord, let us see it the way you see it. Oh God. Lord, let me hear with your ears, Lord. Lord, give me your words, God, to my family, God. I want to have insight that I could have impact. God, I realize that without insight, there is no impact in the mission. God, I pray over every father that you would give him wisdom. Lord, I pray as Paul into that church at Ephesus that you would give every mother, God, every young person, every college student, Lord, every one of our graduating seniors, God, give them wisdom, Lord. Open up their eyes, Lord, to understand. Come on, would you lift up your hands one more time and lift up your voice and cry out unto God? Come on, church. Can we pray for a moment? Come on. Could we pray for a moment? God, God, open up our eyes to the things, Lord, that you would have us see it. Open up our eyes to see it the way you see it. God, I don't want to be deceived, God. I don't want to walk blindly, God, through life. I don't want to make decisions without you, God. I don't want to judge others the way, God, my flesh. God, I don't want my fleshly eyes to God, be my future, Lord. I pray that you would help me, God. Search me, oh God. Search my heart, oh God. Lord, let me see, God, the valleys of my heart, Lord. Lord, let me see the issues in my life, oh God. Come on, Dad. There's so much potential inside of you if you just let there be some insight. Let there be some self evaluation. God, I want to be the best father. I want to be the best husband I can be, God. But look at my heart. God, show me if there be anything in me.