Snake Bit | Student Pastor Zach Hammond
by Zach Hammond
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Numbers 21:5-9, Genesis 3:1-7, Romans 5:12, Romans 6:23, John 3:14-17, Isaiah 53:3-5, Galatians 3:13, John 12:32

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

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Come on. Bless the name of Jesus this morning. Come on and bless the name of Jesus this morning. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, we bless you today. Lord, we bless you today. He's a powerful God. Amen. He's a powerful God and he is able to do whatever whatever you need today. Absolutely. whatever you need today, he is more than able to do. He is an exceedingly He's an abundantly He's a God who will exceed our expectations. And so that's what faith is, right? Faith is that thing. You come in here expecting God to do something and then he does a little bit more. Amen. And so it's up to us today. You come in expecting something. And if you didn't come in expecting anything, you can't expect God to do much, right? So if you come in expecting something, said he'll do a little bit more um than that. And so we've come today just ready and prepared for God to do something great. Amen. Amen. It's an honor to be able to bring the word of the Lord to you as we believe that the word of God is everything that we need. And uh we we dive into the scripture today with belief knowing that it is the lamp. It's the light. It's the sword. It's all the things that he um brings us the analogies to be able to apply to our life. But today, the most unique thing about the word is however many hundreds of people are here today in hundreds of different seasons of life with hundreds of problems, with hundreds of thoughts, with hundreds of concerns. It's for you. It can be what you need and also be what she needs. It can be what the the the the senior saint who's been here for years, who began this great journey long before some of us were born. It can be something new for them, but it can be that enlighting mo enlightenment moment for somebody who's coming to this place for the first time, never experienced God. And I I hope that you understand the power of the word of God today as we dive into it. I just got back from a uh an event in Ohio. I preached Friday night and yesterday afternoon and drove back and God filled nine souls with the gift of the Holy Ghost. And we baptized two in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. One young man came up to me Friday night said that he had a disease in his blood, in his body. It caused there to be a taste in his mouth that he could not get rid of. At times it would wake him up. At times it would just cause him to not even be able to eat. It would mess up his digestive system. And we we just felt the power of God. We'd been in an altar service for about 20 or 30 minutes. And uh we we just there was two or three ministers that felt the call and uh those that had faith, they came to the front and we begin to plead the the blood and begin to speak the name of Jesus. And he said immediately that taste left his mouth and he's not had it since then. I checked with him yesterday afternoon. Why? Because he's a powerful God. He's a miracle working God. He's still doing above and beyond what we could ask or think or hope for. So I hope you came with some expectation today because we have a God who is here and ready and more than able. Numbers chapter 21 and verse number five. And the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no bread, neither is there any water. And our soul loathth this light bread. Don't like it. Don't taste good. Verse number six. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned." You start getting bit, it'll change your perspective. Tribulation comes, it'll change your perspective. It's sad to say it, but we've all been there, right? We lost our gratitude and thankfulness and all of a sudden a trial hits and it'll turn your face back to the place it should have been. Right? He said, "We've sinned. We've spoken against the Lord and we've spoken against thee. Pray unto the Lord and take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. That's the way it happened in the Old Testament. Now we know that we can approach the throne of God, each and every one of us. Verse number says, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he lookth upon it shall live." And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole. And it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. I want to preach to you for just a few moments on this Sunday morning on this simple title, Snake Bit. Snake Bit. Would you lift your hands? Would you pray with me over the word of the Lord today that it would be all that it can be in this room? Lord, we thank you God for this opportunity to stand in your presence, the opportunity to experience your power, Lord, for it's in this room and it's so prevalent, Lord, today that it be it's without doubt already in our worship to you that your presence is here. That it's without any doubt that you're for us and you're wanting to do something in our midst today. But we, God, are are human and we have that ability to let you or to stop you. And I pray today that you would just move in this way, God. Move in the hearts and the minds of people that it would be good ground. That the seed would fall upon a good place. That we would be open to you working. We would be open to you changing us. That we would be open to your move of the spirit this morning. Lord, help us. We'll be so careful to give you all the praise and all the glory and all the honor. In Jesus name we pray. Everybody say, "Amen." Amen. Amen. You may be seated. God brings his people in the famous story of the Exodus there that we find early in scripture out of bondage. He uses plagues. He uses all sorts of different manners of things that are creative and things that we've never heard before. And he's sending locusts and he's sending all these things in that we've never seen, we've never experienced. And uh we're reading the scripture early on and we've not turned too far in the Bible and we start seeing things. It's like this is crazy. He's turning the whole river into blood and he's changing this and he's changing that and there's pestilence in the land and he's doing all this in the simple cry of let my people go. So he performs all these things and then the mighty powerful type and shadow of the parting of the Red Sea that if it wasn't enough to put the blood on the doorpost, but he parts the sea and he uses water which was supposed to be the thing which destroyed him would now destroy them and he just drowns the entire army of what once held them captive. He drowns them in the Red Sea. As they walk through on dry land, they get to turn and look back and see the waters divide and fall upon Pharaoh and his army. We sing about it. We talk about it. It's the powerful story. It's the great Exodus. That's the type and the shadow of us coming out of sin and us coming out of bondage and us coming out of this mess that we were in and him bringing us into this wonderful relationship with God. And so we see all of these wonderful things, but it doesn't take long for the people to begin complaining. It's in their DNA to be slaves, to be in bondage. They were trying to learn how to be sons and daughters, but of this invisible king that they they just can't seem to figure out that we've been captive for generations and we've been in, you know, in this place of stripes on our back. and although that we we had a certain amount of certainty, we were simply slaves. So they find themselves now out of bondage and they don't really know how to act. They're now um just all these miracles and signs and wonders are taking place and we're following a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire and we're being touched by God's presence and we've got this man who's got this rod and he's able to do powerful things and God will work to deliver us and we're God's people and we're favored and all these things seem to be going your way. But they get in between places. It's called the wilderness, but we all know we've been there before. Not where I was, but not really where I want to be either, right? It's kind of where we live if we're honest. We've all got a promise. We've all got a calling. We've all got a goal. We've got something we want to accomplish. And I'm not where I used to be, but I'm not really where I want to be. And so, we live sometimes, probably predominantly most of our life, in between places. And the children of Israel a lot like your children and my children that they could have everything they need in the car ride, but it seems that you can give them all that they need, all the, you know, the the candy and all the snacks and all the entertainment, but you can be driving 45 minutes to Knoxville and you're going to hear it four times. Are we there yet? Huh? When are we going to get there? This is taking forever. You know, I'm I have drawn this the the card of being the the the lucky one who gets to drive the senior juniors and seniors on the bus down for their junior senior trip for about 12 hours. And I can't wait to hear all the questions of those who are, you know, uh they're geographically challenged that they're going to say, "Are we there yet? Are we ever going to get there? Do we really have to stop again to go to the bathroom? Huh? Are we there yet?" And I just kind of like that that's what I feel like these people are in. It's like I don't and you it's so it's so puzzling to hear them say, "Well, it wasn't like this in Egypt. It wasn't like this." Because when you get in a place where although you've been brought out of something, you've been told about a promised land that flows with milk and honey. You've been told about something that's before you and you're not there yet. and you just get you get just kind of tired and you get kind of over the monotonous of just wandering in a place of in between. And I think many of us can really relate to the wilderness sometimes better than we realize that I I want to get to this place. And so let's not let's not be too uh you know too hard on them. But I mean God is doing a lot of things for them. He's supplying this bread, this mana for them. And they said we don't really like that. It don't taste good. it. You know, I would some of them literally said, "I'd rather go back to Egypt and eat some good food." I'm like, "No, you were slaves, huh? What a weird way of looking at things." But they're like, "Hey, this this is so bad. I'd rather be in bondage with good food than been eating this stuff that they don't we don't even know what it is. It just out there when we wake up, you know." But this man is so powerful that it's provisional. And it's a it's a pretty it's an amazing thing because it's even like it's like I mean it it would sell today like crazy. It's a weight loss program. I mean it's it says that that that when they ate it, it not only was provisional to them, but it said that it kept their clothes and their shoes didn't even wear out. Now I have a weird mind, but if it kept their clothes, that mean they stayed the same size. They wondered for a long time. It's like, man, you've been that size for years now. man is doing good for you. But no, I want to go back and eat and do what I was doing in Egypt. And so there's this weird thing that you just get into this thing. It's like I I I I'm just tired of this. And before you know it, they're sinning against God. They're speaking against God. They're speaking against Moses. And so God does something a little odd, right? When it came to Pharaoh and his people and the Egyptians, we sent locust. We sent pestilence. We, you know, turned water and we we did some things. But when it come to his people, he sent snakes. Send me the grasshoppers. Don't send me the snakes. Got me? These are the people you were against. And they got the frogs. We get the things that eat the frogs, right? What's up with this? Like, what are we doing? I thought we were your people. Pillar of cloud, pillar of fire, man with rod. We we love you. I know we did something wrong, but so did these other people. Why do we get the fiery serpents? So God does something that is very unorthodox and seems weird. And this is not the God we sing about. This is the God this is this is this isn't the God that we just want to serve. This is the God that sends serpents. And not just serpents that just scare you and fear, but serpents that are actually biting people and people are dying. So, not only are you in an in between place of wondering, but you're now in a place where there's serpents all around you and they're biting people and your kin and your kids and your family are dying from the venom of what God sent. Huh? It's very relatable. The world we live in has been snake bit here. Even in the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Come ask you a question. Are we really as free as we think we are here in this wonderful country? Are we really as free as we portray? Because only true freedom is in Christ Jesus. And although the header reads one nation under God, are we still that nation? Know that I am of all of all men. I'm very much for our nation and thankful to live in the United States. But we were at one time built on commandments and had a much more biblical moral compass. And we begin to speak against God and speak against the man of God. And that's more of a spirit today than ever before. We don't really like how some of the things taste when it comes to comparing the world and this thing with God. Let me give you just a few things that we ought to be aware of. Only 70% of the United States claims to believe in God. down from 98% in the 1960s. Snake bit 2023 reported that 20% of US adults attended church each week, a decline from 44% in 2000, three years, and we're down from 44% of people attend church to 20%. snake bit. Only 71% of Americans believe in heaven and intriguing enough, only 61% believe in hell. That's a weird 10%. They believe in the good, but they don't believe in the bad. And I would just have to say that they've been snake bit. 59% of Americans 12 years old, 12 years old and up have used tobacco, vaped nicotine, used alcohol, or used an illicit drug in the year of 2023. 49,000 people committed suicide in 2022. That's one person every 11 minutes. I thought we were a free country. Doesn't sound free. Statistics tell us that 9 930,000 babies were aborted in the United States in 2020. I thought we were a land of the free. Doesn't sound free. It sounds like we've done something against God and it's bit us. Genesis chapter 3 and verse number one says, "Now the serpent was more subtle than the any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yay, hath God said, you shall not eat of the tree of the garden?" Why does it always have to do with something you're eating? And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of that tree which is in the midst of the garden. God has said, you shall not eat it, and neither shall you touch it, lest ye die. For God doth know, he says, and the serpent said to the woman, you're not going to die. He said, for God knows that in the day that you eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods. No, notice that. Always notice that that is a little G and it's plural. Knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. Notice that she had a lot of descriptions about this this fruit that the devil didn't give her. We blame a lot on him. But she just said, "It's going to make me wise and it desires and it looks good and it looks tasteful." And she began to eat. And she gave one to her husband and he did eat. And their eyes were both opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. It tasted good. They had everything they needed. They had everything that that that God was keeping them. I can have all of this but this one thing. And the serpent comes in. And if there's ever a moment that we see that man was bitten by the lies of the enemy. Sin enters the world. Their eyes are open. Sin enters the equation. A curse now is upon mankind. and they are cast out of the garden. We don't have time to go through the whole thing, but curses are placed upon each one of them. And most of all, they're taken out of the place of paradise, the place that was created from for them. And from this moment, we are now all born in sin and shapen in iniquity as the psalmist writes. Romans 5:12, Paul says, "For wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men." Everybody say, "All men." All of us are sinners. For all have sinned. It was passed upon us. And now we all have this problem. We've all been bitten with a curse. that it pulses in your veins. And he says in chapter 6 and verse number 23 of Romans, for the wages of sin is death. We've all been bit. We've all have this natural tendency. We want to taste what's good to our flesh. Amen. We all have a natural desire. We all have this carnal nature that we want to lie and we want to cheat. Why? Because we've been bit by sin. We want to do what's natural to us. We naturally want to look out for ourselves and live amongst our pride and talk against somebody else. Why? Because it makes us look better. And we'll naturally do this and do that because it's in you. It's not necessarily mama's fault or daddy's fault or grandpa's fault or grandma's fault. It's the beginning of it all. It's in you. It didn't start with you. It's in the blood. It's in sin. This story gets so interesting as here we see that the serpents are biting people in the wilderness that the the people we have sinned against God and we've sinned against the man of God. And those two always go together. And Moses goes to God and says, "Can you what what are supposed to do about this?" And he says, "You've got a problem." Obviously, he's go he's going to him for the people. point. It's so it's such a powerful moment here. He's trying to intercede on their behalf and God says, "Make a serpent." Well, say what? Can you just imagine? I'll just try to put myself in, you know, my um very interesting way of thinking, very smallmindedness of like, we've already got some snakes. Why make another snake? Huh? like maybe a lamb, maybe a dove, maybe a lion, maybe a I don't know, send me a snake tamer or charmer out of the bushes or something. Why do we need more snakes? And you're the God, you make things. I don't make things. You said to make a serpent. How am I supposed to make a serpent out here? Moses goes to God and he says, "You got a serpent problem. They're biting people. I want you to make a serpent. I How How does How does this make any sense? So he says, "I want you to go and I want you to make a serpent." So Moses goes down and he has to get some brass out and he makes a serpent out of brass. And God tells him to put it on a pole. and he puts it on a pole and he said, "I want you to lift it up high enough that they have to look up at it." And when they look up at it, anybody that's been bit, when they look up at the serpent, they're going to be healed. So now there's a solution for the snake bite by looking at a snake. Okay? It's it's it's a super odd story. we find in the Bible, you know, I I I had a uh I had a a friend. I wouldn't say he was a close friend, but he was friends enough with him that we were in the woods and he had a gun and I had a gun. So, I guess I trusted him enough to be running around the woods with a gun with him, right? So, and we were hunting. We're not just like, so, so clarify that. But we were probably 200 yards apart. There was a lot of people in between us. There was dogs yelping and there was a lot of things happening and it comes across through uh I'm going show show my Georgia redneck here through the holler. Somebody's yelling and this this 14-year-old boy has been bit by a snake. They grab him up as there's the obvious mark just above his calf where he's been snake bitten. They grab him up and they get him to the truck and one one group stays back and gathers in the dogs and they're trying to get this all under control while we are an hour plus from a hospital. And they get him there and they get him in the door. His legs swollen up. He's he's he's having all the terrible symptoms of there's a venom in his blood, all the things. And I don't know if you've ever been around anybody. I I was not there at the hospital, but I heard the story from a couple friends that were closer to him that he began to pant. He began to lose his breath. He began to turn pale and all the things began to happen. And I'll just just go ahead and give you the the the terrible ending to it. He died. But he died because that snake bit him and nobody knew or thought in panic to go find the snake. So they got him to the hospital and they didn't know what bit him. They said, "We don't know what to give him. We can't just give him any antivenenom. There's 15 different venomous snakes in this part of Georgia. Was he bit by a water moccasin? He was next to a creek. Was he bit by a rattlesnake? Was he bit by a cotton mouth? Was he bit by They didn't know what to give him. And so they begin to try, but it was too late because obviously they never met the venom that was killing him. And so an hour and 40 minutes after being bit by that serpent, he dies as a young man. So it's it's so interesting to me as I begin to look at this story. You you can only cure the bite from the venom of the snake. You take the venom of the snake. This is how you get the antivenenom. And you you take the venom from the snake and an innocent being has to be injected with the venom. Many times in our world today and science today, an animal gets injected with the venom of the snake bite. They'll take a cow and the poor cow gets injected multiple times. is a large animal that can that can withstand the injection of the venom. And they will inject him and allow him to produce in his blood the antibodies that are needed to produce an antivenenom that they can now use to fight it off when a human is bit by a snake. You can only find healing from the bite from someone else's blood who's been bitten and produces a cure. So this becomes a puzzling thing. The cure is from the curse. Buried in the biology of the bite of the serpent is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He became sin. He became the curse. Because the only way to overcome the snake bite is to look at what bit you. to confront in repentance what is wrong. You have to see that the sin is wrong in order to see what is right in seeing your sin and in seeing your savior and savior. If it wasn't for Jesus, we all have to realize we would be dead. If it wasn't for Jesus, we would all be a mess. And so we see that within scripture that you say, why Moses, why do we make a serpent? Because you have to look at what caused the issue before you can get the cure to the issue. And this is the problem in our world today. We don't want to look at the snakes. We don't want to look at what bit us. We don't want to look at our problems. Only more of us are going to believe in heaven than we do a why. Why? Because we don't want to look at the things that just bit us. We don't want to deal with the sin in our life. We don't want to deal with the generational curse. We don't want to deal with the negativity. We don't want to deal with the lies and the characters that we have become and the deception of our bloodline. But the bottom line is the only way to get the blood of the lamb and the power of God in our lives is to look at what bits you. Perhaps Moses lifting up a fiery serpent out of brass on a rod, a pole is the most powerful picture of repentance of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we could see. We must look at this is why we see that he was injected so to say with the snake bite who had never been bitten for God so loved this sinick world that he sent his only son who became sin who knew no sin so that you and I could have life so that you and I could feel his presence today so that you and I could experience so the negative of the negative nullifies the negative to produce a positive. It's crazy to see how this works. The power of sin was nullified because he became sin. So we see that this savior of the world. There's this powerful thing and that's why John records Jesus speaking to Nicodemus John chapter 3 after he's told him that he needs to be born again. How can I be born again? It's that powerful dialogue. If you're a Bible study teacher, you've taught it. But John 3:14 says, Nicodemus, and as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that he gave you all of that is behind him saying just like Moses lifted up a brass serpent. But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that he that the world through him might be saved. So what happened? He took the bite. It was the binding of all bondage. It was the crippling of all crippling. It was the cursing of all curses. It was the defeating of defeat and death of death and the end of all endings that he takes on the curse of sin. He takes it all and the end of it all and this this this powerful he says sin can be can be can be taken care of. There's now a cure for it. What was concealed in the Old Testament is revealed once again in the New Testament. Moses is literally casting a shadow of the cross. Moses is literally lifting up. He had no real clue that when he lifted up that brass serpent in the wilderness that he was literally giving us a shadow of what Jesus Christ would come and do and he would speak to himself when explaining the gospel to Nicodemus. He took on all of the issues when you and I plead the blood. When we mention the name of Jesus, everything's got to bow. Demons tremble. Everything that we do, we do it all in the name of Jesus. Right? Why? How? How does that happen? How does that take place? It all happens because he was lifted up because he took on sin and he knew no sin. He was injected. He was bit with the venom of sin. He took on sin and he didn't have to. He thought you and I were worth saving. So, he comes to a sinick world. He robes himself in flesh and he takes on the curse of sin. Every sin you and I have ever committed, everything you will ever do, ever have done, the things that plague you, the things that frustrate you, he said, "I'm going to send in symbolic form to my people fiery serpents and let them be bitten to remind them of sin." But then I want you to raise up that serpent on a rod and remind them that yes, I sent the serpents, but I'm sending a savior. Make the serpent, beat it out of brass. No coincidence. The prophet Isaiah says it like this. He was despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it as it were our faces from him as he was despised and we esteemed. We don't want to look at it. It's hard to look at. He says he was beaten. Brother sister says he was he was beaten. He was bruised. He was despised. I can't can't imagine there's any other way to depict that that he had to take this brass and he had to beat it into the shape of a serpent. He had to form it. He had to He had to IT'S IT'S THE PERFECT picture of Jesus Christ being beaten and bruised. Formed, shaped to this point. He said, "He carried our sorrows. He bore our griefs. He was stricken and smitten of God. He was afflicted. He was wounded from my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. AND THE CHASTISEMENT OF OUR PEACE WAS upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. That's what I believe. Could I give you just a re revelation to those that are you are seeking healing today? He says by his stripes we were healed. Which means he he he puts that word there for a reason. But the reason that that happens IS YOU DON'T REALIZE if you study out crucifixions and how it took place in the Roman culture. Most people didn't make it to the cross. They died at the whipping post. They died when they were beating him. They died when they were beating that person that had committed a sin. And so Jesus Christ says, "By the stripes on my back at the whipping post is what's going to heal you because it was supposed to kill you. the restraining power of God that says, "No, I'm not going to die here because I've got to go to a cross and I've got to be lifted up so that they can look upon me." So healing today COMES FROM A RESTRAINING POWER of God that says, "I'm not going to die here. I'm not going to stay here. I'm not going to let this cancer defeat me. I'm not going to let this disease take my body. I'm not going to let that that's what happened at the whipping post. It's a restraining of no, I'm not you're not taking my life. I'm going to lay it down. And so he said, that's why when we pray, we understand and we attach ourselves to he says by our stripes by by the pain, by the disease, by the hurt, it's all from sin. So why couldn't he take that and just say by by that crown of thorns or by the cross you are healed? No. Because there's this power that Jesus Christ has to be able to work in and speak to you and minister to you that says you don't have to die here. You don't have to give up here. You don't have to surrender here. You can make it all the way through to your purpose. That's the healing power of God. That's why he uses it there. By his stripes, we are healed. Paul, this powerful depiction the musicians come today and this powerful picture that Paul refers to time and time and time again. He says in Galatians chapter 3 verse number 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. being made a curse for us. Beaten, bruised, he became. Everybody wants to talk about that. He's the lion and he's the lamb. You go look at our Easter graphic. We're going to put those things out in front of you. He was the lamb who paid the price. He's the lion who conquered death, hell, and the grave. But nobody wants to put up a picture of a serpent. But the serpent was the penalty. We'll talk about the price because that makes us feel good. It makes us feel worth. We'll talk about the power because that's what we want. We want to adapt to. But when it comes to the price, nobody really wants to look at that. Nobody really wants to stare at that. What that that that just brings a feeling to your stomach that it's like, "Oh, that that's don't put that up there. There's some kids in here. Don't put that up there. I don't know if I want to look at He says, "I want to I want you to look at what bit you. I want you to confront the problems." I know some of you statistics tell the story that there are those of you that's come into this place today and you've got problems. You've got situations. You've got things you're anxious about. You've got sickness in your body. You've got things you're concerned about. And some of you have hidden sins you think nobody knows about and never will find out about. He says, "You can you can try to live with that venom in your veins and you can stumble through life and you can be frustrated or you can look on him." But when you look on him, you have to look at that. You have to look at that. And I don't know about you, but if you look at that with a open and pure heart, you can't keep on sinning. Why? Because he was beaten. He was bruised. The chastise, everything that happened right there at that moment, it was it was for you. It wasn't for him. It was for you. It was for your kids. It was for your sickness. It was for your problems. It was for your dilemmas. And so he says, when you choose to come and you choose to look at the serpent and just to go on your way with your problems and you choose to keep them hidden and you choose to just to not look on it, he said there's a solution. You can remain snake bit. You can remain in the situation you're in or you can look on him and you can repent and you can be bapted. And it's that simple today. So, why remain in your problems? Why remain where you're at? Why keep going through THE MOTIONS? WHY FEEL LIKE THAT THAT YOU'VE got this hit and you've got this managed and you've got this dealt with? That is a lie from the enemy. He just don't want you to look to him. Some of you are frustrated that God sent the serpent. You're frustrated. You're mad at God because he sent the pain. He sent the tribulation. He sent the bite. But every opposition, every trial, every dilemma is an opportunity for you to see him. Because John 12 says it so clearly. If I be lifted up, if I be lifted up, I will draw. What's it say? Not some, not the more fortunate, not those that's got it all together, not those that's got a good bloodline, not those that feel like No, no, NO. HE SAYS, "ALL MEN." I wish you'd say that with me. All unto me. So, as you stand today, I'm asking you to look to Jesus. They had no clue what my title, what my text, what my scripture was today. And when the choir began to sing, looking up, I'm looking up. I can't help but some of you spiritually today need to do that physically and just lift your eyes to the heels from which cometh your help. Lift your hearts and lift your hands and give that problem to God. I know you're frustrated. I know you feel like you've been bitten. I know you feel like you've been dragging. I know you feel like you've got a curse on you that you can't seem to break. But the curse breaker is here today. The healer is here today. The deliverer is here today. The problem solver is here today. And he just says, "Just look on me. Just look on me. I'm the author. I'm the finisher. I started this. I And I know that you were born again." And but you just feel like you're in between. You're in a place where you don't really know where you're at. And you're just looking to get to where God's promised you. But it today, I just ask you to simply give it all to him. Give it all to him. Give it all to him. I feel the presence of the Lord sweeping into this place today with every head bowed and every eye closed. If the Lord's pulling on you and tugging on your heart today, no matter what you step out of the aisle here in a moment, if you step out in the aisle and come to this front because you are you feel like I I'm just I'm just a mess. I'm a dirty rotten sinner. I got to get my life right. If that's you, then I invite you here in a moment. But if some of you that you you've just been playing tugof-war with your flesh and dealing with your carnality and dealing with some things and you're tired and you're frustrated and you're weary, I invite you as well. But this morning, I want to invite somebody that's sick in their body and just remind you to look on him that by his stripes you are healed. No matter where you find yourself today, in just a moment when we open these altars, I wish you would come and you lift your hands and you lift your head and you would lift your eyes into the heels. You would look upon the cross of Calvary and you would realize that he's come to seek and save all that was lost. Come on. I'm opening these altars to somebody's who hungry for change. Somebody who wants to endure and step beyond the problem. Step beyond the I I've endured it long enough. I've dealt with it long enough and I want to be freed from it. If that's you today, if the Lord's pulling on you, if you feel the the the the moving and the the drawing of the Holy Ghost, I wish you'd step out of your seat and come as far as you can to the front. As far as you can to this front. And I wish you'd do just that. Lift your hands. Lift your voice. Come on and begin to pray. God, I give it to you. God, I give it to you. There's power in this place when you begin to surrender. When you begin to surrender, some of us need to repent. God, forgive me. God, wash me. God, forgive me, God, of everything I've ever done. God, forgive me of anything that I've ever said that's not true, that's not holy, that's not pure. God, forgive me for the actions, the words, the deeds that are not pleasing to you. Oh, there's a healing power flowing through this place right now. There's a spirit of God that's moving in this place right now. If you just lift your hands and surrender to it, Come on. That's it. We're getting there. Come on. That's it. We're getting there. Look to him. Look to him. Come on. That's it. Come on. That's it. It's your own desire. It's your own desire that's going to get you there. Oh, I want more of you, God. God, I need change. God, I need change. He thought you were worth saving. So he came and he gave his life. He gave his life. He took up on the the scars and the He took upon the Oh, God. I thank you. God, I THANK YOU. GOD, I thank you. Come on. We're lifting him up right now. When we lift him up, he will show up. When we lift him up, HE WILL SHOW UP. COME ON. AS YOU BEGIN to lift him UP RIGHT NOW, GOD'S ABOUT TO do something in your life. GOD'S ABOUT TO CHANGE YOUR SITUATION. God's about to heal your circumstance. If I be lifted up, if I be lifted up, come on. Come on. Don't just go through the motions. There's people around you that need a touch. You may have it all together. create an atmosphere where he's being lifted up so that ALL MEN, IT'S GOD'S WILL THAT every person in here leaves with the blood of the lamb flowing through their veins. Lift him up. Come on, lift him up. Lift him up. Lift him up this morning. Come on, church. For the next few moments, I wish you'd find somebody. There's somebody next to you that's going through something. They've been bit by bondage. They've been bit by circumstances beyond their control. They've been bit by frustrations and and just anxiety and depression and grief. And come on, I wish you'd yoke up with somebody right now. And we as a body of Christ, the church of the living God. We are in this world, but we are not of this world. And this world may have its problems, but we have the solution today. WE HAVE THE SOLUTION TODAY. We have THE ANTIDOTE. WE HAVE WHAT WE need today. Come on. The solution's here. The solution's here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. The solution's here today. Yes. Yes. God. I feel the Holy Ghost moving in this place right now. I feel the Holy Ghost moving in this place right now. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, come on. That's it. I hear some of you crying out, "Heal us, oh God. Heal our land, oh God. Touch our situation, God. Come on, ask him. Seek, knock, pursue him. That's it, Dad. That's it, Mom. The solution's in this place. The solution's in this place. The solution is here today. Come on. The Lord's moving. He's asking us to linger in this moment. Linger in this moment. Come on. We're not in a hurry. We're not in a hurry today. Would you linger in this moment? Would you just pursue him a little bit further? Come on, young people. Nobody looking around. Nobody looking around. Look up. Look up. Look up. Look unto him. He's the alpha, the omega. HE'S NOT BROUGHT you this far to leave you. He's never going to forsake you. He's with you in between places. He's with you in the uncertainty. He's with YOU NO MATTER HOW BIG YOUR PROBLEM SEEMS. He's with you RIGHT NOW. NO MATTER WHAT THE DOCTOR SAID, he's with you right now in the midst of your circumstance. Yes, God. Yes, God. Oh, I'm asking YOU, CHURCH, TO FIND SOMEBODY. If it's family, it's family. If it's the family of God, I wish you'd find somebody and pray with them. God wants to do something in this place this morning. God wants to do something beyond oh what we're used to in this place this morning. I feel his presence so strong. There's a healing touch of God. There's a healing touch of God. Healing water, healing, healing water, healing touch. Oh, save us. Save us. Come on. And I hear the cry of some desperate people. Come on, pursue him. Pursue him. Come on, altar workers, help me. There's a breakthrough in this house. There's a breakthrough in this house. Healing virtues flowing in this house. Healing virtues flowing in Lord, let faith happen. Let faith happen. Let faith happen. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus. In the name. I wish everybody in this room for just another moment. If you'd look right here, I want to speak something to you. I feel very strongly in the Holy Ghost. The Lord stopped me Friday afternoon and I really thought that he was ministering me to be able to minister to the event that I was at Friday night and that wasn't the case. I thought, well, the Lord will do something with it Saturday and that wasn't the case. And the Lord just spoke to me just a few moments ago as I called to this altar that this is the moment that it's for. And God spoke so clearly to me that he said this that we have lost our ability to linger in his presence. And then we we as I began to read a little bit more this morning right before I come in, I was reminded that the serpent is coldblooded. That old slooh foot that's depicted as that slithering serpent has cold blood. That's why you'll always find them underneath a rock looking for a crevice behind a trash can somewhere. They're rarely out in the open. They're looking to get and hide. If it's not a large snake that can squeeze the life out of you, it's going to bite you and it's going to run. It's going to retract. It's going to find a hole. Why? because it's coldblooded. It don't have the ability to endure. We as warm-blooded, especially warm-blooded children of God, have the ability to step and keep on stepping. The ability to walk and not grow faint. The the ability to move forward, to be able to linger in his presence. There's no doubt. I've experienced this enough to know that there's that initial altar call and there's initial surge and God does it and some people check out. But the moments I've had with God since a young man come after lingering in his presence. Why? Because the devil's tried to distract you in the first few moments and he's come and tried to strike at you and he's tried to speak a lie in your ear. But guess what? That's all he's got. He don't he won't last very long. But I'm here to speak to somebody that you today you feel like I've been running and I've been wondering and I've been in this wilderness and I've had this problem and I'm here to tell you you've outlasted it. And if you'll just give God one more praise. I feel so strongly in the Holy Ghost today. It's somebody right now in this moment. Say, "God, I'm gonna keep worshiping no matter what happens. I'm gonna keep praising you. I'm gonna keep doing what I know is right. I'm going to keep walking in the spirit. I'm going to keep walking in your word. I wish there would be an ERUPTION OF A CRY that says, "God, I'm not going anywhere." Come on. That's it. Come on. That's it. It's cold bloodooded. Deception. It will not last. Hatred, it will not last. Oppression, it will not last. Evil will not last. Come on. That's it. Come on. That's it. Some of you, you need to just worship him. Say, "I'm going to outlast you, devil. I'm going to keep on keeping on. I'm going to keep worshiping you. I'm going to keep serving him. I'm going to keep having faith no matter what. This I loved it. Come on. That's it. Faith is rising in this place right now. Faith is rising in this place right now. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God. Yes, God.