Scars

Limitations 5, verse 15, says, "The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning." And then Paul, writing to the church at Corinth in Second Corinthians 11 and 30, says, "If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity."

You know, life is hard. There's good days. We have good days, and we celebrate the good days, and we're thankful for the good days. But it has moments where it's hard, and things don't go the way we want them to, and sometimes the things of life can leave us scarred. Now, scars are interesting things. They happen to us all. It happens to be one of those things that very few people are able to avoid in life. Ordinarily, scars are not something to be happy about. or some occasions where you can reflect on what it was that led there, to that scar, but as a whole, most of the time we don't celebrate those things. They oftentimes are ugly. They oftentimes invoke a sense of shame, or hurt, or bitterness, or perhaps even thoughts of revenge from the ones who have caused the scars to be upon our body. Scars represent pain, whether past or present, and if not physical, then emotional scars. They're real. They're real, and they run deep. It can be very hard for us to get past.

But the scripture text that I read to there, as Paul was talking about his life, it seems to suggest something very different than an ordinary action or response to hurt and pain. Paul had a perspective on his scars that must have been somewhat baffling to those that were around him, especially to his enemies, and probably would have even angered the very devil himself. But I'm here to bring to the church that we should look at what Paul has written and allow it to be an inspiration to us all. When he said, "our glory of the things which concern my infirmities," it seems as though he is tapped into something different there. His outlook, his perspective, his view seems to be somewhat contrary to the normal reaction and the way that you and I often would look at what didn't go right, especially the things that left a scar. He was saying to the world, "You go ahead, you can look at my wounds. You can look at my losses. You can see what appears to be defeats by humanity, and you may think they would cause me to be depressed, angry, or even feeling victimized by those things. You may expect that they're going to cause me to quit, or cause me to simply check out mentally. But you would be mistaken, for I see them as a sense of glory, of honor, of gratitude, that I am counted worthy to suffer for his namesake."

But better than me, I feel like I could let Paul speak directly to us. So I read to you his words on the matter in Galatians 6, verse 14: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to the rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear" — listen to this — "in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit."

Paul had physical evidence of his devotion to God, what it had cost him in his body to maintain his truth in what God had called him to do. We see again, as he writes in Second Corinthians 11 again — Paul talking here — says, "Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, and stripes above measure, and prisons more frequent, and deaths off. Of the Jews five times received 40 stripes save one. Thrice was beaten with rods, once was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep; and Journeys often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, and perils of my own countrymen, and perils by the heathen, and perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, in perils among false brothering and weariness and painfulness, and watchings often, and hunger and thirst, and fasting often, in cold and wickedness besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities."

I don't know about you, but if he's writing a job description out there, that would be a hard sell. I don't know if Indeed could do anything with that. But there was something about Paul's writing here, that if you are truly leaning into the spirit that beckons to you — and I know not that we purposely go out and become mistreated, but staying true to the cause that God has for us, there will come times when life doesn't go according to our plan, and oftentimes we'll walk away with a scar.

I want to pause here in this message with a note of warning to us who are doing our best to live for God in our post-Christian society. Now, we are living in an age with a very meaning of Christianity is under attack, both outside the church and inside the church. We still talk about the cross, but we've lost a lot of the meaning of what it means to bear the cross. We want ease. We want comfort. We want surroundings. We want things to just go the way that we think they ought to go. And I'm as guilty as anybody about to join the the fineries of life and the luxuries. I like to have air-conditioned rooms. I like to have the convenience of a vehicle to get me from A to B. I like the abundance — and I use that word appropriately — the abundance of food that we have in our nation, that's available all the time. I like these things in my life. But I wonder sometimes if they've caused us to be a little desensitized from what it is we're really supposed to do. That I'm comfortable here, but here is not our home. This is not where God wants us to always be. We are here for a moment of time. But I dare say too many are becoming intoxicated with Babylon. We like what we have here, and because of that, I feel like sometimes we sell ourselves short from all that God has for us, especially when sometimes our obedience to his call in our life may lead us into areas that are uncomfortable. We don't like being uncomfortable. We don't like when things don't go how I feel they ought to go. In fact, we become very verbal about it, and very vocal about it, especially in our modern world of social media, where I can sit behind the safe place of the screen in my life, whether it's a phone or a tablet or a computer, and I can become a vigilante there in the dark of my room, and I can proclaim to the world exactly how I feel. I can roar like a lion with my thumbs. But to what cause, and to what end?

Many church goers today want everything to be just perfect. If not, then they treat it like they will treat the drive-through restaurant: openly complain, and dare to seek the manager's approval on why their order wasn't perfectly placed, and their pickle was slid off the bun. When the temperature is not right, or the sound's not right, or the sermon was too long, or they didn't sing my song, and it was too old-fashioned, or it was too contemporary, or the sermon went more than 40 minutes, or the coffee was bad and the donuts were not there. We were led to expect comfort and no pain at all. All joy, no sorrows. Roses without thorns. Blessings without trials. Privileges without responsibilities. And provisions without sacrifice. What I would say to you, and I say it calmly — I don't in this moment elevate my voice — why don't you open up your scripture, and why don't you read what they went through, and then ask yourself what right do you have to complain, as you said in the comfort and convenience of a cushy chair and the ability to steal, at this time — who knows for how long, but we still have the freedoms, as as RJ. said while ago, to choose when we want to worship. Yeah. How arrogant we are. How arrogant we are, when our attitudes — and to think when something doesn't go according to our plan, as if God has turned his back on you when something doesn't go right. And please don't misunderstand my heart today. I know there are some real scars in this room, things that have been done to some individuals here that, if you were given a chance to have the microphone, you could tell us your story, and you would break our heart with the mistreatment and abuse that you faced in your life. But I'm here to say to you, you've got to be very careful how you process those things, because the enemy is always going to encourage you to blame God. And I want you to know an absolute truth: humanity is broken. It has been broken since the garden, and the ugliness of sin runs rampant from day to day. We need to make sure that we're living our life in obedience to God. Yes, I like comfort. I like all the things that go along with it. But I can't promise any of those things. But I can promise you this, that even if things don't go right, even if you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, if you'll stop for a minute and quit complaining, you'll see that the Good Shepherd is beside you. He promised us in his word, "I'll never leave you, and I'll never forsake you." often times where we get in trouble is when I drift off the path and I walk away from where the Shepherd is. very careful about what you follow after, especially under the umbrella of ease, comfort, and convenience. Not always those things lead you down the path where you want to really go.

Paul again, talking, to II Corinthians chapter 12, says, "unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh" — everybody say "thorn" — "the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice" — he went to prayer. So what we do, right? We have a problem, we go to the Lord in prayer, because if I go to the Lord in prayer, God's going to take care of my problems. "I've assault the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." God, I need a prayer answered from you. God, you see what I'm dealing with. You see the struggle I have. You see the thorn that is in my flesh. And I'm doing what I'm instructed to do, which is to go to you. We're to go to God. I'm telling you, that's what you're to do. You're to go to God. But you need to sometimes adjust your expectations. Why do you say that, Pastor Kevin? Well, the next verse says, "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore I rather glory in my infirmities" — I would rather glory in my pain. I would rather glory in my scar. I would rather glory in my inconvenience — "that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take Pleasures what" — what is he talking about? Who takes pleasures in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, and persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake? "For when I am weak, than I am strong."

Paul was trying his best to explain to you and I that there are some things that just don't get removed because we prayed for it. Sometimes God is using circumstances to work some things in and out of us. We're trying to oftentimes pray away the very thing God put in our life for a reason, to try to get us to where we become dependent on him. And we're fighting against that independent nature that's inside of us, that defiant person that's there, that says, "I can do it on my own." But when I do it on my own, I find myself often always walking away from him, and he's constantly trying to draw me back to where he is. See, here's what I know to be a truth, and this is a hard truth to get your mind around: God loves me enough that he will let me suffer, if through my suffering I draw in closer to him. I'm going to say that again. God loves me enough that if I have to suffer in order to get closer to him, he will allow the suffering in my life. Now, some say that that doesn't sound like a God of love. That doesn't sound like a God that I want to have any part of. Then I'll say this to you: how well is it going on your own right now? I don't know how old everyone is in the room, but I just say, how well is it going by yourself? Like, you can choose to reject God. You have that right. You have that choice. And God has afforded you that right in that choice. So choose to go about it without him. Just stop complaining.

I know, because I'm a human too, that there are some things that just do not make sense. They don't. He is a good God. He is a faithful God. And to truly understand his love is to understand there are things sometimes I will not fully have my mind wrapped around, but I must trust in his process and his plan. I've lived long enough at this point, I've seen enough in my life, that when I read the words of Paul, it brings me back to moments when I was going through things that I didn't fully understand, and I had been praying about, that God would deliver me from it and he would allow to be removed from my life. And oftentimes I got nothing back. At least Paul got back, "Hey, my grace is sufficient." There's been times in my life when it seemed like heaven was silent. But he did bring me through on the other side, and I did realize there was stuff in my life that needed to be changed, and I would have never realized or recognized the issue in my life had he not taken me through that valley time. But I will tell you this: even in my lowest moments, when I cried out to my God, when I spoke his name, even when I could just barely whisper because I was being overwhelmed by my circumstances, in those moments there was always a peace that came over me. Not a full understanding of what was going on, but a comfort and a peace that I wasn't by myself. I wasn't alone, that my God was there. And even though he didn't give me every answer I needed, he gave me exactly what I had to have in that moment.

I know some of you here today have been through so much. They've been through things that have left you broken and battered. The circumstances that you've been through have given you scar tissue, little reminders of what you've been through in your life. What about this scar tissue? From a medical perspective, scar tissue is interesting. It replaces normal skin tissue after the skin is damaged. It's made up of the same substance as the undamaged skin, but it looks different because of the way the fibers in the tissue are arranged. Scars, they form every time that there is a damage beyond the first layer, and there's no way to remove the scars entirely. Life hurts. You cannot always avoid the pain. Sometimes it causes permanent scars to come over your wounds, and even after the pain is gone, the scar remains. That is — there wasn't so many months ago that I had skin cancer removed from the side of my face, right here. The plastic surgeon that did the process was a really good guy. He did an amazing job, and most people have no clue that I had it removed. But if you look closely, right around my hairline, which is an ever-moving target, there's a scar right there. In fact, I told the surgeon — he said, "I'm gonna put it right here in your hairline." I said, "You better back it up a few inches." But it's there. His scar tissue — these cells are comprised of these little fibers, and they're tough, and they're very strong. They lack the characteristics of the original skin, as oftentimes there's not feeling that's there in scar tissue. I have a couple of scars, man. I got one right here on my thumb. Where's Wesley at? Maybe he's not here. Wesley doesn't do so good with blood. All right. I was cutting a box when I was in teenager, young teenager, and I, you know, I was doing the wrong thing. I was cutting the box this way, and I stuck the knife in my thumb, right there in the bone. It just — I probably should have got stitches, but I didn't. But I still bear the scar. There's — very much interesting is, the scar has no feeling. So you got to be careful. Sometimes when we get scarred up, we can get to the point to where we don't have feelings there. We can become resistant when God's trying to do something in our life. And we'll tell ourselves — no, that's there; that's that's theirs as a protective mechanism. We'll tell ourselves that, "I don't want to have to go their way again, so it's good that I don't have that feeling right there, that it's not something I have to deal with anymore. I had to go through that once or twice or several times, but I'm scarred now, and I'm numb to that thing, and it doesn't bother me." You got to be very careful about what you numb yourself to, because sometimes the scars can actually cause you to be imprisoned. See, I feel like that's why Paul was getting — he got to this understanding, this realization, that "I'm getting frustrated with this thorn. I don't know why he won't — be well I won't just go away? Why? So I'm just going to learn to live with this. Nothing's going to change. God's not answering my prayer." But thankfully, God spoke to him and said, "My grace is sufficient for you." And all of a sudden, Paul flips the script on what we do when we experience pain and go through frustrations.

Now, please understand me, I'm not saying by any means, if you're in an abusive situation or abusive relationship, that you should stay. You don't have to put up with that. Please, that is not my message today. That is not this sermon. But I'm trying to say to you that you can't allow what has been done to you to prevent you from what God is trying to do with you. I can't — and I know it's easy to do, and again, please know my heart in here. I know there's heartbreaking stories that selling these pews today. I know their situations sitting here today where you've been dealing with, and have had, a long time, hurts and pains. You've kept them in the closet, because as long as they say you're in the closet, they can't hurt you anymore. But I want you to know, they're still hurting you. They are still hurting you. Maybe it's not a physical pain, maybe it's not an emotional pain, but they are preventing you from becoming all that God wants you to be. So they are hurting you. "But it's still in the way, Pastor Kevin." I know that. I can cope. It's the only way that I've been able to manage to get out of the bed, or get out of the house, and have some semblance of life. But I want you to know, he doesn't want you just to have some semblance of life. He wants you to have an overcoming, abundant life. And I'm telling you, if you allow those scars to keep you back, it robs you from what God really desires to do with you.

You are not created to simply breathe, to take up air, to take up space, to just have a job, to just have a degree. You are created with a kingdom purpose in mind. And I promise you, even though you may be scarred, broken, and battered, if you'll bring that life to him and allow him to do a work inside of you, there's a kingdom purpose for you. And once you find that kingdom purpose, it's the greatest feeling in the world, to know I'm doing what my God created me to do. And each of you have a purpose. Each of you have a purpose. Each of you have a purpose. Each of you have a purpose. Your purpose is just as important as my purpose. I'm no better than you. I just happen to figure out what my plan was. But you have a plan. You have a purpose. You're important to the kingdom. Don't let those scars keep you back.

Jesus said in Luke 9 — red-lettered words — "If anyone come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily." Leave that up for just a minute. We make the cross all comfy. We modernize that thing, you know. We put it into 2023. You know, it would be blinged out. It would be, you know, would it have an air-conditioned spot and a heated foot rest and a cup holder on the side? We do that. What are you saying, Pastor Kevin? We don't always appreciate those words. See, it was written, and as Jesus was speaking these things, it was written to a world who — the cross was a real reality. They probably had passed by across that month, they had somebody on it. And we think about it, and it is — it's a symbol of Christianity. We do that. A lot of churches have crosses in it, and we will have shirts and, you know, all the stuff that have the cross. And I'm not saying any of that stuff is bad. But I feel like we've become desensitized. We've cleaned it up. We've taken the harsh edges off of it. Because if we really understood what he was saying here, the cross was rough. The cross was not something that was grandized. It was not something that you would be willingly saying, "Hey, I want to go to the cross today." No, no, you wouldn't do that. You knew it meant death. You were going to die. It was a death sentence. It wasn't just a retreat for a weekend. It wasn't just something that "I'm gonna I'm gonna try to get my life a little bit better. I'm gonna do this and try it out for a little while." No, it was a full-blown commitment. You didn't back out of . There was no option to get out of it. You didn't go the cross and then get back off the cross. When you're on the cross, it was over. That was done. It was said.

But even Jesus, with his infinite wisdom, knew that he wasn't talking about a physical cross. He was talking about a commitment to his kingdom. So he put specific wording in there when he said, you got to do it daily. Why? Because, I mean, every day I'm going to get up and fight me. Every day I'm going to get up and fight me. Every day I'm going to get up and I'm going to be tempted to not go to the cross. Every day I'm going to be tempted to be the one that's in charge of my life, in charge of my kingdom, and what I want to do. And he was saying, if you're going to come after me, if you're going to do something in my kingdom, if you're going to truly follow — "Oh, I'm following. I'm a follower of Christ. I'm a disciple." No, if you're really doing it, then every day — he gave you the mandate — every day you get up and you pick that cross back up again, and you sacrifice your life one more time.

I'm going to tell you, it cost you something to follow him. Don't misunderstand me: salvation is free. It didn't cost you a thing. He paid the price. But if you're going to follow him, it's going to cost you. It's going to cost you. In the world we're living in, it's going to cost you, and it's going to leave you change. You're not going to be the same. You're not going to talk the same. You're not going to think the same. You're not going to act the same. You're not gonna you're not gonna you're gonna you're not gonna divvy up your calendar the same. Now, not if you're following him. No, no, it changed. I'm going to tell you, if you've got religion — which, you know, whatever you want to choose that word — but it didn't affect you in any way, you didn't get much. I'm gonna tell you, when I came to him, it changed me. He changed me. Now, have I been perfect? No, I've been far from perfect. I've been so far from perfect. But he's been patient with me. He's been long suffering to me. And there's been stuff that I've done to myself. Okay, I'm speaking, of course — some of you are suffering with things because they have been self-induced. You did things to yourself. You allowed things into your life. You opened the door, and those things have overrun you. They've hit you like a truck, and they've run you over and over again, and you've got nobody to blame but you. It's okay. For some of you, you got hit by something that somebody else did. Some of it's just life. But it all cost us something. It all leaves us different. I'm telling you, we shouldn't expect that coming to God is going to have any different outcome other than I will be changed. in the good, to what he wants me to be. Trust me, life brings you choices, and every choice comes with consequences, both for the good or the bad. Just like coming to God — it has consequences with it, but they're for the good. And what I love about God is, he doesn't always run everything by me. It'd be nice, but he doesn't. He didn't go to my calendar and says, "Well, you look at a couple days' stretch right here, I think I'm going to strike you down with a little something right here, because it's convenient." No. I just — that when you come to God, he changes you.

You — I love the story of Jacob in the Bible, Genesis 32. He has went away from all he's known. He went off and bargained for a wife, and got more than he bargained for. Those of you who don't know, he was going for one, and his father-in-law kind of pulled the old switcheroo on him, and he got the sister instead of the wife he was going for. And I know you probably like me, like, how'd that happen? How did it happen? I mean, how'd we get there? How did you — how was it all the way to the next morning before you figured out? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, there's some things I can't explain to you. And hey, there he did, and in the morning light, he's like, "Hold up, wait a minute." I mean, he went from, you know, Rachel, who was beautiful, to the words of King James says — Leah was tender-eyed. You interpret that afterwards, though.

He realized that it was time for him to go. It was time to go back to where he knew he needed to be. Sometimes you got to have a wake-up call in your life. In the middle of his wake-up call, as he was making his way back, he has this moment where he's thinking to himself, "Man, my brother — I didn't really do my brother right." And you know, sometimes — you know, what's the old what's the old ad is? Sometimes you got to pay the piper. I think in his mind he's thinking, "If I go back, my brother's gonna kill me." So — and again, I don't understand this logic. I'm not him. We get to heaven — if you think about it there, I doubt it — but if you do go up and ask him: he decides to send his kids first. He decides to send the extra wife. "Yeah, I got one to spare," you know. And after everybody's gone before him, he's there, and then he does what he should have done to get with. He decides to get right with God. And we see this in Genesis 32:27. He's having this conversation — he's wrestling with an angel. Now, it doesn't say angel here, but if you go to Hosea 12, it says that he was wrestling with an angel. It says, "here was a man" — "So what's your name?" It's the angel speaking to Jacob. He says, "Jacob." Verse 28: he said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel. Listen to this: for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed." And Jacob said to him, "Tell me your name, I pray." And he said, "Why is it that you asked me about my name?" And he blessed him there. So Jacob called the name of the placement now: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life was preserved."

Now, the part I left out is, a few verses before this, as he's wrestling with this angel, says that the day was about to come, the sun was about to rise, and the angel says, "You need to let me go. I got to go." He says, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me." And it says, and he touched the socket of his hip, but he still refused to let go. And from that day forward, for the rest of his life, Jacob walked differently. Because when you come to God, and you really come to God, and you hang on to God, and you wrestle, and you keep hanging on until you prevail over your situation, I promise you, on the other side of your perseverance, you will walk different. He says, for the rest of his days he walked with a limp. There's a whole lot more I could go into on that, but my point for today, for this — where we are — and I'm feeling to bring this to a close, because I just feel God's doing some changing. He's still doing some reconciliation and restoration. I just feel it in my spirit. He struggled. He prevailed. He walked with a limp. And I want you to know that if it takes God wrestling it out of you, let him wrestle it out of you. Just persevere.

I'm gonna end with this last part. Jesus is on the cross. He dies. He was scarred through that process, whose back was beaten, just shredded all to pieces. The word says, "By stripes we are healed." It pierced his side. They pierced his hands. They pierced his feet. They pushed the crown of thorns on top of his head. He was scarred in the process of purchasing our redemption.

John chapter 20 says this: "And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas was with him. and he came Jesus, the doors being shut, he stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach into thy hand, and thrusted in my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God." I spoke about this recently, about how he wasn't there when Jesus first appeared to the disciples. He was missing. And he was a little arrogant, in my opinion, when the disciple said, you know, he was there, and he said, "now, unless I see, unless I can touch, unless I can feel the scars."

After his resurrection, Jesus joined two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They started talking about all that was happening. They had no idea who was walking with them, who they're traveling companion was down that road. He began to ask him some questions, and they respond to him, "You must be the only person in the entire vicinity right now that doesn't know about Jesus of Nazareth, how he came and how Romans crucified him." And as they're walking, and keep walking, the day gets a little bit long. They didn't recognize him. Luke 24:18 says, "And one of them, whose name is Cleophus, answer and said unto him, if thou only estranged in Jerusalem, has thou not known the things which come to pass in these days?" And he's telling them, "What things?" And they said, "Concerning Jesus from Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him." And then Jesus begins to talk a little Bible with them, little scriptures. Still, they had no idea.

Verse 28: "as they drew nine to the village whether they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for us toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to Terry with him. And it came to pass, as he said I'd meet with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and he break, and gave to them. And their eyes were open, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight." When did they recognize Jesus? At what moment there was it? The recognition was — well, he takes the bread, and he breaks, and blesses, and he hands it to them. And they see his hands, and they see the scars.

Speaking to somebody today: you've been in this private fight, a private battle, and it's left you scarred, and you've walled yourself up, because it was your way of being protected from what has happened to you. But those scars are holding you captive. By no means trying to glorify what happened to you, just like I'm not going to glorify what happened to him. They beat him, and they whipped him, and they spit on him, and they called him names. They punched him in the mouth and said, "Prophesy," while he was blindfolded, "and tell us who it was to hit you." They beat him down to the point he could barely even walk. And then they threw a cross on his back and told him he had to carry it up to the cross — or, up to the hill. When they got him there, they drove spikes through his hands and his feet. They left him beaten, broken, and scarred. And in the midst of that, he says, "Forgive them. Forgive them." The first words uttered at Calvary from Jesus or forgiveness, because forgiveness has a way of making broken things.

I don't know what you have faced in your life. I don't know what you're going through in this moment. I simply know this: he still bears scars, and we do too. But don't let that be what prevents you from having the relationship with them. Sometimes what you need to do is bring the hurt and the pain and give it to him. As long as you hold on to it — you may have convinced yourself it's the only way you can be protected — but I promise you, as long as you keep it, it still controls you. Whatever was done to you is still controlling you. You may not be thinking about it right this second, but I promise you, it still controlling you. And I know it's controlling you because you are less than what he created you to be.

"Pastor Kevin, you don't know what I've done." I don't need to know what you've done. I don't need to know. He knows what you've done. He knows what has been done to you. But I also know this: he also knows what he created you to be. And as long as you're still breathing, there's hope that you can be that. I say that because if the enemy had his option, you'd be dead right now. You wouldn't be in this room, I promise you. So I know that his divine hand is still upon you, because you're here.

So this altar's open. I'm going to say a prayer. I'm going to say a prayer. This altar is open. I don't know — I don't have need of — if you have need of salvation, then today is the day. If you need a healing in your body, today is today. If you need help getting out of the prison that you're hurting your pain has kept you in, today is your day, for he is here, and he is the master at restoration. Will you close your eyes with me?

Jesus, I love you. I thank you, Lord, for your song presidences in this room right now, in your drawing power. God, I know there's hurt, and there's pain, and there's brokenness in this room. God, I pray you would give us the courage we need to step out and trust you, to trust the process that you have for our life, foreign. God, meet us in our need. Meet us where we are today. Salter's open, church. I'm going to pray with those that have come. I invite you to take a moment and trust him today.