Convicted of Christianity | Student Pastor Zach Hammond

i'm going to uh just read one little short verse tonight if you want to stand in honor to the word of the lord and we will dive deep into uh a topic here for just a few minutes i want to say what an amazing message this morning to finish up from the upper room to the living room by pastor erickson what a word from the lord this morning i give him and sister erickson honor pastor and sister carpenter owner pastor was ministering over in crossfield tennessee this morning we're just believing that god did great things over there i give high high high high high honor to my mother-in-law tonight for doing what she's doing and allowing my wife and i to be here and i appreciate and love her thankful for her tonight i want to say thank you to all the parents who gathered here at 4 30. you've been here already now i don't know three hours almost you got here at 4 15. you're here just to listen to um us work together on partnering about social media and cell phone awareness detective farmer did an excellent job and we're just so thankful that you are willing to come out early and commit uh to training up a child as pastor erickson talked about today training up a child and the way you should go amen uh give your hand give yourself a hand give all of our parents a hand that's commendable thank you so much for coming out proverbs chapter 23 and verse number seven for as he thinketh in his heart so is he for as he thinketh in his heart so is he that's what we're gonna kind of pull from tonight we will get there it will take us a few minutes but if you will bear with me this evening and i will try i'm not so sure that beckham has experienced much of my father's preaching he might be watching tonight so um they used to call him when i was growing up to tape tim because they couldn't fit they couldn't fit all of his sermon on one tape but no i am so honored and thankful for um the ministry of my father-in-law and my father that i will try to be short tonight and to get to the point but would you lay your bibles down let's lift our hands to heaven and just ask that the seed would fall on good ground tonight amen lord i thank you for your word i thank you for what it does i thank you that it's forever settled i thank you that we have a truth god that we can pull from tonight that is absolute that's infallible god i pray that it would be a lamp unto our feet a light and to our path god it would be a seed god that would spring forth something in this place tonight god i pray that you would be a reminder to some god and a refreshing to some god that you would bring revelation to some tonight god and i pray that some of us god that we needed that you would shake us up tonight god we need you more than ever before god and we need you in this season of our life to do great and mighty things through this church in jesus name we pray and everyone said amen amen you can be seated tonight it was the year of 1972 when an amish farmer refused to send his children to public school because he said it was against his religious convictions everybody say convictions my title for this evening is convicted of christianity he said i'm not going to send my kids to the school because it's against my religious convictions the state of wisconsin sued him twice where he faced not only jail time but the possibility of losing his children into a foster situation and both times he lost to the state of wisconsin as he sit waiting trying his best to figure out how to maneuver the situation as his last resort he told he was told his first amendment was protected his protected his religious convictions and he appealed to what you and i know as the u.s supreme court in this landmark case in 1972 the u.s supreme court ruled that a person's religious convictions are protected by the first amendment of the u.s constitution but one's religious preferences are not in the setting of this precedent the court established the guidelines against which similar and subsequent cases would be judged in doing so the court decided our u.s court decided to lay down some principles regarding a persons who claim to hold religious beliefs they determine whether one is really convicted or not i posed to you the question tonight do you have preferences or do you have convictions the u.s supreme court decided that they were going to make five rulings on which i'd like to just run through real quick to get us to our point tonight of are you convicted of being a christian you say i've got christian convictions i'm not going to send my kids here i'm not going to send my kids there but they they pose five questions number one if we call to order tonight i wish i had a little gavel he said this he said one cannot hold a belief unless one can somehow describe that belief so if i put you in the court tonight you said i'm a christian huh and i'd like to go ahead and just fix the terminology tonight you don't get to call yourself christians until you've been through the book of acts huh so you can say i'm apostolic i'm pentecostal in experience and in doctrine but you can't be christian unless you first go through acts 2. they were called christians first in antioch so tonight i know you're apostolic i know we're pentecostal but could you be convicted of that if you were asked to explain who you are first peter 3 15 says but sanctify the lord god in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear can you tell me tonight why you do what you do because according to the u.s supreme court you couldn't call yourself a christian if you can't explain why you do what you do number two the court required that beliefs must be individually and personally held it can't be mama's religion daddy's religion can't be your pastor's truth it can't be because you go with your friends in fact john 8 39 came to mind says they answered and said unto him abraham is our father jesus said unto them if you were abraham's children you would do the works of abraham but now you seek to kill me a man that had told you the truth which i have heard of god this did not abraham in other words you can't claim abraham's christianity if you don't act like abraham you can't claim to be christian or be convicted of christianity on what daddy did or what mama planted or what pastor's preaching it's got to be your own conviction the court views this as hiding behind the title they said christ's enemy said i am the son of abraham today one would say i'm a christian my church teaches this this is what my pastor teaches the court says fine but you tell us what it means to you that's the only way that you can say that i'm going to do this based upon my convictions second corinthians 5 and 10 for we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ for every one may receive the things done in his body according to that which he hath done whether it be good or bad you're not going to be able to and i love the idea of walking my family up to the throne but the bottom line is is beckham gets to walk up for beckham zach gets to walk up for zach everyone's gonna give an account for their own convictions and their own relationship with god and where they pursued him and perhaps where they didn't number three the court established this beliefs fall into one of two categories conviction or preference right and this is where it gets a little bit fun sometimes in the u.s courts only convictions are protected by the constitution not preferences it may be surprising how the court defines the pr preference a preference is a very strong belief we can hold a preference with great intensity and strength but how strong in the court's opinion strong enough that one will give all of their wealth to support it interesting strong enough that a person will energetically uh pro energetically put all their time into their faith strong enough that one will go into full-time service to propagate their belief and yet in the eyes of the court such a person may still be operating on a preference not a conviction though a preference may be very strongly held hell belief according to the supreme court a preference is a belief that one will change under certain circumstances through long experience judging cases the court has learned that certain pressures if brought to bear will motivate people to change their beliefs these people do not have a conviction but they have a preference and thus they are not protected by the constitution of the united states they said evaluate your preferences evaluate your convictions against these pressures peer pressure family pressure threat of a lawsuit threat of jail threat of death if any of those pressures will cause you to change what you've got to say or what you believe about something you have a preference not a conviction interesting do do you see the common factor here that i think is really powerful what does your belief mean to you what are you willing to sacrifice to exercise your belief if you feel you should do something but have the right under certain circumstances to not do it it's merely a preference according to the supreme court the court says that a conviction is a belief that you will not change why what creates a conviction the court's answer is a man must believe that his god requires it of him that's the only way it can be a conviction it can't if it's a requirement of a man it cannot be a preference a belief that is god ordained as a conviction it is not merely a matter of resolve or dedication but a matter of believing with our all of our heart that god requires it of us now those of you that are beginning to think and some of you may be looking for a loophole or maybe the devil just whispered in your ear well that means that it can't necessarily come through a pastor that if a pastor's god no that's biblical because it says that a pastor's the one that stands in the gap the pastor's the one that stands on the wall the pastor's one that makes up the hedge you don't get the church without the man of god so don't let the devil slip in and say because i'm listening to the man of god that's the word of god amen i didn't feel that quite as strong as i felt like we should huh do we have a conviction or do we have a preference you say well i we've got so many people they're trying and i don't want to get away from my notes here and i told lauren before i started and i said this is a tough one to preach without running off on a rabbit trail or getting on a soapbox but i'm going to attempt tonight to stay with but we can't allow ourselves to to get into this this ideology of the culture that we don't have to submit to a man of god submitting to a pastor or a man of god is probably one of the most biblical things in here he chose to work through a man of god from the very onset from the old testament to the number four the court ruled that if you require other people to stand with you before you stand your beliefs are preferences number five the court states you have no right to say you have a conviction unless you live that conviction with consistency yes the supreme court has got five pretty good points here everyone that takes the stand must answer must swear to tell the whole truth so the supreme court is left with quite the task of seeing if someone is telling the truth about their convictions here's the bottom line with this case and every other case the truth can always be found in a person's lifestyle he said it's awful it's very simple it is but it's so true and so often hard to find sometimes a man's heart will show you what he believes luke 6 and 45 says a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks all right we need more than ever before some convictions in our heart if you and you alone stood before god today would you be convicted of christianity simple easy to think about but quite the pill to swallow let's look at a passage of scripture here the only time the word conviction conviction's mentioned in your bible now translated we could pull it in by the original text and by the original word we could pull it a few places but john chapter 8 and verse number one we see the only time the word conviction is mentioned very familiar story in the gospel it says jesus went to the mount of olives in verse number one and early in the morning he came into the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down and he taught them and the scribes and the pharisees brought into him a woman taken in the act of adultery and when they had set her in his midst they said unto him master this woman was taken in adultery in the very act now moses in the law they said commands us that such should be stoned but what are you saying jesus this saith that this uh this they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him but jesus says nothing jesus stoops down and with his finger he wrote on the ground as though he heard them not so when they continued asking him he lifted up himself and said unto them he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her and again he stooped down and wrote on the ground here we are verse 9 and they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one notice this beginning at the eldest even unto the last and jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst conviction mentioned here the one and only time in john 8 we ponder the idea in this story of maybe what jesus wrote on the ground we can be intrigued with many other areas in this story but let's look at this one idea particularly this evening the men who just earlier felt strong enough to hold a stone would now drop them the men who earlier felt strong enough to come with accusations against someone else walk away convicted by their own conscience they come with accusations at someone else but they are now convicted by their own conscience we cannot have convictions without the holy ghost i want to go ahead and establish that brother erickson mentioned at the end of his sermon today the need for convictions and really set us up here tonight but conviction comes from the heart conviction is a a place that that we well i hope i can kind of paint a picture for you tonight brother nolan can you throw me those uh two interesting pieces of now this is not a real heart obviously but for the sake of explanation tonight those of you that are in the medical world i'd say this is probably not what it looks like but we'll just go with it for tonight we cannot have convict says they were convicted by their own conscience conviction comes from the heart but i want to explain to you what conviction is because biblically and what we can see even in our physical body conviction goes to the heart but the heart is pricked by the brain all right well i'll just help you help you kind of see this for a moment when we we say i need some conviction or we have a lack thereof of a collective conscience or convictions in our world today we we we have this this idea of conviction that we we we know we need it and we perhaps can see the definition of it but how do we get it because our heart is deceitfully wicked the scripture says you say well they've got a good heart no that's a lie nobody has a good heart our heart is deceitfully wicked whether uh whether or not you sin is based upon the strength of your convictions it's based upon the strength of your brain i have this is not really proportionate to size but your brain pricking your heart your brain talking to your heart to tell it and i know we've been talking about and you establish right from wrong and and feel right from wrong sometimes we know right from wrong but we don't feel right from wrong so there's got to be a pricking and i know we've been talking about for the past few weeks on the upper room to the living room and maybe we could paint that in a little different picture tonight that if we can get something in the upper room we could get something in the living room because proverbs the wise men solomon said if he thinketh in his heart so he is my heart don't think that i know of at least i have never heard of that but if i can think then in my heart so if i can get it here then i can get it here there's a pricking that has to happen in order for the conviction to take place you say well things are happening good for them that's not happening for me and things are beginning to flourish in their life that's not flourishing in my life but they seem to be able to say no when i can't they seem to be able to have have that convicting conscience that i don't for some reason their brains telling their heart something that some reason i can't get those things to communicate here's the question for you do you have enough in the upper room to have the spirit of god in the living room things get in your heart because they lived in the upper room for quite some time they've taken up residue residents up here long before they begin to live down here you thought about it long before you actually did it you dreamed about it before you built it you had contemplated it before you did it because everything seems to go from here to here you know there's a reason that god ordered the things he did and i promise you we're going somewhere tonight repentance baptism in jesus name and the infilling of the holy ghost because repentance is a matter of the mind huh the cross the death bell and resurrection of jesus christ that's the reason that when they crucified him they put his cross on a place called galgotha a place of the skull because it represents the battle of the mind i crucify the flesh what's the one thing that when you come up to this altar maybe the easiest step you swallow a little bit of pride come up around the altar and ask god to forgive you of your sins you get up and you think whoa did that really just happen huh the devil can easily plant some doubt in your mind to say hi no i just said that but did that really just happen did he really forgive me because it's a battle of the mind can i can i really comprehend forgiveness can i really comprehend what just happened in my life and so there's this battle that's going on but all of a sudden then we get to baptism where he says i'm going to take this old man out i'm going to take that stony heart out and i'm going to put a new heart in and that's where his blood begins to pump in your veins instead of other things and what used to pump carnality and bitterness and hatred and strife all of a sudden the holy ghost he said i'm gonna put something new in it but still even still evening we've got this battle between the brain and the heart some of you your hair is not even dry yet and the devil's talking to you telling you dude now and i just really just get wet he really i don't even comprehend east to west can he really remove my sin as far as the east is from the west is that really even possible how did i go down a new creature i mean i've jumped in a pool a million times how does the water really do is it really you have these questions in your mind but i was praying this week i know this is odd and i think in terms of pictures but you know what is perfectly and i i studied it and it's pretty interesting but what's right between your head and your heart perfectly they say in every human being i thought man i know some people with some long necks you know big foreheads i don't know but they say perfectly resting right between your head and your heart is your mouth and i came and i repented and there was some doubt in my mind and i came and i know the scripture says that when he said i forgive you and you you're gonna go down a new man and that man put me down the water and he said in the name of jesus and i come up and i felt something but there was a doubt that he really put a new heart in me all of a sudden i began to praise him one night and there came a sound well there wasn't a really you know i repented and i talked but all of a sudden there's a he said there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and clothing tongues like a fire sat upon each of them and all of a sudden you maybe have experienced in this room before there all of a sudden comes something out of your mouth that's just that's abundance of that heart we just read and there's something in between that head and that heart that begins to give me some evidence of an inward feeling that though i had some doubt about repentance and i had some doubt about there's nothing that can argue with that overflowing speaking in another tongue the devil tried to get you when you bowed your knee at an altar the devil tried to get you as you stepped out of the watery grave but all of a sudden he said hey i'm going to remove every doubt in your mind and i'm going to give you some evidence that you can be convicted of i'll tell you this tonight you say well i've never spoken in other tongues you can't be convicted of christianity it's the evidence you've got to speak in another tongue to be convicted of christianity it's the proof it's what we need i i he said i'm going to give them some evidence but not just any evidence i'm going to give them the tongue their mouth it's halfway there it's the connection point james says it's like a bridle in a horse's mouth he said it's like the rudders of a boat he said it's little but it tells you what the whole boat's doing it tells you what the whole life is doing you know when you get in a court of law there's two types of evidence people may attempt to live for god with inadmissible evidence in their case of christianity which is defined as misleading hearsay someone who's an expert in giving a testimony irrelevant information but what every lawyer is looking for in the case is they want admissible evidence you know what the two things that there's only two things that can be considered admissible evidence reliability of a testimony anybody got a testimony in the house tonight huh reliability of a testimony and revelatory relevance something that has shed some light on the case huh i don't know about you but when i begin to speak in another tongue and the spirit of god gives the utterance and i become overwhelmed by his presence it confirms everything that i did to get to that promise it confirms every step that i take i don't know about you maybe it's just me maybe i i need a little bit more than everybody else but the holy ghost is my evidence the holy ghost is what i need at times to confirm any doubt any fear anything that comes upon me how do you how do you know you're going to make it brother i go and i pray until i pray in the holy ghost how do you know you got it how do you know you're going to make it to how do you know that you're going to get through because i know his presence is with me why do you do what you do because i've got evidence that convicts me as a christian what do you do why do you go to church three times a week because i've got evidence how do you how do you keep it you've got evidence i need evidence if i can know this truth and this truth can make me free then i can hide his word in my heart and and i can i could write it on the tables of my heart there's so many scriptures that correlate our process of what conviction means that the holy ghost cannot convict you if you do not have a desire to know truth people will never understand your walk of sanctification or holiness if they don't have the holy ghost if there's not that pricking of truth that's why we talk about home bible studies why because we start talking about that word and that word starts getting in their head and then it starts pricking that heart and all of a sudden they say i think pastor i need to go and i need to pray a prayer of repentance i think i need to be baptized in jesus name i think there's some things that i've been doing that i need to stop doing because we're putting knowledge in this brain that all of a sudden tells this heart i need to change i know it's simple but it's a reminder tonight that we need convictions i'll just be very straightforward and honest with you for a few minutes the reason that we are facing a lot of tired anxious christians is because we're trying to live with these two things separate we try to act like a christian not be a christian some people god's not really in your heart you just know how to act at church your brain's here but your heart's off watching the nba finals somewhere your brain's here but your heart's on the boat your heart's down on the lake huh your brains at church because that's what i know i'm supposed to do and it makes my wife feel better and it makes my kids feel better and my parents are making me come but my heart's really over there trying to figure out how i'm going to make a little bit more money my heart's out there trying to figure out how i'm going to do some things but your brain knows you're supposed to be here but your heart's not really sold out to it matthew 15 and 7 says you hypocrites well did a zious the prophet of you saying these people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips but their hearts over there they know what to come they know what to do they know when to lift their hand they know when to be at church they know what to do they know how to talk the talk they know who's dating who they know all the things of the church but but in vain they do worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men you say how do people get so far-fetched in doctrine where did the trinity come from they had their brains in a council meeting and their heart was over there their heart was deceitfully wicked their brains were doing one thing trying to accomplish them if we're not careful we have trained hypocrisy because for generations now we've been rewarding good behavior with good things you do what you're supposed to do we're going to give you a sucker you do what you're supposed to do it's like the dog brother was talking to this boy before you know it you just come you're just doing you're just going through the motions we must beware tonight i pray that the spirit would stir us up a little bit that our brain has learned to filter filter the conditions of our heart that we can talk the way based upon whoever we're around because you've learned to filter that thing it's got some messed up feelings and some bitterness and hatred and carnality in it but you know not to say certain things around certain people and you can let parts of that out at work because nobody that goes to church works with you and when you get in the car all by yourself young person you can turn on things when you get in a room all by yourself you can scroll through things that you would never do in the sanctuary you would never do and are we professing a forming or at forming to whatever arena we're in our words will always tell us what's in our heart there's always some evidence there's always something that's seeping out often times we call them exceptions but really they're reflections we don't want to hear it and we don't want to talk about it but how many times though that slipped out i don't know where that came from i can't believe i just said that huh i didn't mean that i'm sorry how many times you catch yourself sometimes doing something i know nobody wants to talk about this tonight but the bottom line is our brain has filtered the true condition of our heart and they're working separate so proverbs 23 and 7 says for as he thinketh in his heart so he is we have to take these two factors and put them together yes sir because as dangerous as it is to live without your heart the word thinketh comes from a hebrew word shar which means to spill out or to open to act as a gatekeeper in other words our we we are who we are because what we allow into our minds whatever you allow into this soul is what you will be hear me tonight human beings are not controlled by that which is necessarily true they are controlled by what they believe to be true deceptions lies and distorted perceptions can control us even if they are untrue this is the biblical concept of a stronghold when you hear the word stronghold mention that's what he's talking about it really has nothing to do with this except this is getting the short end of what you're bound by up here he's got a stronghold about your mind he says whatever you let into your soul that's what it's going to be deceptions lies whatever may a prison in the mind built by deceptions of the enemy so paul writes in second corinthians 10 and verse number four for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds how do you pull down strongholds word of god you say that's so simple it is but how many of us are dealing with anxiety and fear and bitterness talking about others can't walk in a room without thinking about somebody else and what they've got to think about when all we got to do is pick this word up all we've got to do is put this in our mind and it will deal with all those strongholds it is a spiritual battle you know with people people who fear things people who fear snakes my dad hates snakes i've seen my dad run over a snake or drive over the top of the snake and he just start kicking the floorboard he hates snakes big old dude he hates snakes hates them they said that when people who fear snakes you can show them a picture of snakes and those sensors in their skin will all of a sudden start to sweat a little bit a little sign of anxiety even though the people they they they they say they don't feel fear the picture this the the sweat shows up even to show that the picture presented so rapidly represents that subject that without conscious awareness all of a sudden just seeing it because the concept the fear or philosophy has been embedded into the brain and the reactors begin to go off in the belief center and the mind considers it to be true and it begins to function that way therefore some things begin to pump out of the heart because of something that may not even be true so what is believed to be true will control the person whether it is true or not is your brain telling your heart bitterness is your brain telling your heart to give up and throw in the towel it's not worth it is your brain telling your heart not to trust i'm all about hype i'm all about emotional services i'm all about running the aisles but the relationship with god that lasts are built on knowing him they're built and centered around knowing him we we on the other hand many times have people that are just as bad as the people who become too intellectual we have people that decide to live heart first instead of head first there are people that are just all about loving jesus huh just all about loving everybody you're dating and you got into the relationship without really thinking you're all of a sudden now married and you didn't really think things through and you didn't really realize things were going to be because you ignored what you've been taught your whole life you ignored what somebody was trying to tell you but you want emotion but you don't want the pricking huh you want conviction but you really don't want to be told what to do huh you don't want to mess up but young people you want to do things your own way it's just as bad to take and toss this over there because your thoughts wander off and you're just relying on the pulse all truths are good uh uh that you you believe that we we can just believe anything and we want pentecostal demonstration we love to run and shout but we don't like the pricking doctrine we must have all of our head and all of our heart in if we're going to serve god these two things are a working factor if we can get this book in our brain then we can get his spirit in our hearts he said they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth is there conviction in your life that moves you that whatever you face that you can be convicted that you can be pranked i want to address something just briefly and i'm not shooting shots or throwing shade at anybody the psalmist said that i'll prepare a table before you in the presence of fine enemies we need to stop as the church trying to remove the adversary's seat at the table we're thinking we can just remove him and everything will be okay we think that we can just get no here we we've got to be able to know why we eat what we eat we've got to be able to know why we're at the table we're at love what we eat love what we do i know why i worship i know why i dress the way i know why i speak in tongues i know why you have to be baptized it doesn't matter what he brings to the table it doesn't matter if he packs the launch of false doctrine if he packs a lunch of lust if he packs a lunch of pride and bitterness and gossip i've got to know what's right we live in somewhat of a weak-minded society that has extreme solutions for issues because they feel surrounded or overwhelmed by an adversary they would just rather remove it than discipline themselves to convict themselves of the issue we jump to extreme conclusions we want to take all the tvs off the wall whether they're good or whether they're bad throw all the cell phones away homeschool your kids live as a hobbit i don't know become a hermit i understand to each his own standard according to his house and i love people have greater standards or convictions than me and i i'm always inspired by people that are willing to sacrifice for something to get more of god but just as everyone has individual giftings everyone has individual struggles and it must be noted tonight that if we put up guard rails i understand that however james chapter 1 and verse number 12 says blessed somebody say bless blessed is the man that endureth temptations well we don't we don't want him to sit at the table we don't want any temptations we don't want let's just remove them all and let's stand outside i don't want to be tempted blessed is the man that endureth temptation blessed is the young person that's got enough convictions to walk away blessed is the man that's got enough convictions to not have that conversation on your job site blessed is the man blessed is the woman that can put their head and heart all in with god he said blessed is the man that endured temptation for when he has tried he shall receive a crown of life which the lord has promised to them that love him let no man say when he's tempted it's not of god god cannot tempt with evil neither can he tempt any man but every every every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his long lust and enticed you can be tempted and not drawn away you can be tempted and then all of a sudden say hey that's not right but when lust has conceived of bringing forth sin sin when it's finished bringeth forth death do not air my beloved brother at what point can we look away walk away turn it off speak up or stand up because of conviction as a christian because i don't desire that i've stirred in my spirit to put swords in the hand of this generation instead of straitjackets i'm all about guarding ourselves and putting up defense but at some points i'm ready to kill goliath at some point i'm ready to stand with the three hebrew boys and once some point we've got to be willing to say i'm going to do something for god and not just stand idly by hoping that nothing comes my way that's going to shake my apple cart the bottom line is god's trying to shake some things and we're trying to stabilize it no god wants to shake you and if you can endure that shaking you'll be stronger you'll be better if user would have let god just shake the ark off he'd still be alive it wasn't supposed to be on a cart there's things in your life that are not supposed to be easy stop stabilizing what god's trying to shake bless it you're saying i've not been blessed in a while maybe because you're dodging temptation you're dodging difficult things you're dodging the things that god's trying to prick you and push you with we can't put ourselves in a padded rooms mentally i don't want to get hurt i don't want anything to threaten us we need pastor to fight for us we need pastor to deal with this if i got something going on i need pastor to pray for it what how are you going to be convicted of christianity if you've got to rely on somebody else's prayer life we run from revival run from difficult questions i know i'm they're going to ask me something about how uh why i go to church or how i dress or why i do they're going to ask me something about doctrine so i'm going to i'm going to go to the bathroom while they're in the lunchroom so i don't have to talk to them about that because we don't want to deal with anything difficult when it comes to be convicted as a christian it's called the fight of faith it's not supposed to be easy i'm all about removing things if convicted but but but not attempting to remove problems because we don't want to pray we can't try to kick the devil out because we don't want to be disciplined he'll show up somewhere else if he's seeking you more than you're seeking god he's going to win it's just a matter of which facet of his of your life he's going to get in he can get you to remove spirit or truth it don't matter if he can get you out of balance he can deceive you with your heart or he can get you delirious in your mind he'll take either avenue it's a fight of faith it's time for us to pull down some strongholds in our mind and equip ourselves with the word of god that can stand against anything that we come against because i still believe that the name of jesus is stronger than anything you're going to face that i am more than a conqueror oh we come and we sing about it i'm more than a conqueror but our heart truly don't believe that because some of us just sit idly by we sing about being a conqueror but we live like being defeated pressed down i'm here to tell somebody tonight that you might have lost a round but that don't give you any reason not to get back up because if he's in your heart you're not going to lose the fight you've got to be willing to get after it you've got to be willing to get up and do something for the cause of christ i have a great god inside of me we we we will never win trying to make common ground with sin there's some conviction that has to take place lord help me for a few minutes here i don't know what's drawing me here but there the common ground with the center is mercy and the blood of jesus christ not necessarily my sin i've got to stand strong against things that are sin i've got to call it sin fornication sin these two have to talk that way adultery sin lying sin we've got to call it that and guess what we don't just call it there's consequences for lying cheating backbiting you have to live out and change who that person is if you keep lying guess what don't get mad when people refer to you as a at some point we've got to learn we've got to know i've got to tell myself i got to stop doing that but we can't make common ground and act like oh this is all okay and again i'm not throwing shade at anybody i'm not talking to anybody but we have men's conferences we have all kind of things going on and we get people to get up here and talk about pornography pornography is sin you are going to hell it is sin it's not common ground everybody's not doing it everybody's not doing it there's some people in the room that say hey i know i was tempted but i'm not going to be drawn into it at some point i don't want that i don't desire that i put enough up here in my mind no i've got to turn away from that that's right i can't just say i'm going to get rid of everything and do away with all the people in my life and look around trying to figure out the easy way no it is the fight of faith it's a relationship built on knowing him and making him known it's not my goal to make everybody feel like my struggle's their struggle everybody's lying everybody look at the statistics everybody's struggling with it i'm not here for statistics i'm here for sanctification i'm here for salvation i'm here to be changed by his spirit i'm here to be a house for his presence you don't have to struggle with it young person right he detective fuller and said it earlier he said that's the number one thing i hear hey why why how did you get pulled into this everybody's doing it everybody ain't doing it that is a lie from satan you can take all the statistics you want my goal in this house is to flip the statistics because of conviction that's the point right let's move on i feel the power of the holy ghost question tonight can you be convicted now that we have somewhat of an understanding of how it works if i could take and put you all of you body soul spirit in the courtroom with god could you be convicted of christianity i don't know why i just feel the presence of the lord just stopping us for a moment here would you lift your hands she pray a personal prayer for you and you alone tonight not for your wife or your husband or your kids but could you pray for you yourself right now say god is my heart right with you are my thoughts is my mind is it pure is it holy is it set apart i don't know if you feel what i feel but i feel a pushing and oppressing in the spirit right now stirring somebody up that's it come on that's it just let it i i surrendered to whatever god wants to do in this room there's a moving of god's spirit right now that's the evidence there's somebody in this room right now if you lift your hands the lord will give you something you haven't had in a while you maybe haven't spoken that tongue in a while maybe you've been bound by fear and anxiety in the name of jesus let that stronghold be loosed right now come well stand your feet right now this altar is open stand your feet a little more see on the boy oh god oh god god purge me god tonight god show me if there's anything in my heart of mine come on you might not feel like you got anything in your heart but it is there a motive in your mind that's wrong hallelujah come on the devil's a liar the devil's a liar his goal is to try to separate your heart and your mind come on that's it come on that's it open up your heart and be known open up your head to know god i want to know you tonight god know my heart know my ways i challenge you to get on your face before the lord tonight i challenge you to get real with god tonight it's been a little while it's been too long maybe god i surrender to you god let us be a culture of conviction they are no more oh there's a young person right now that needs to surrender to the lord you've been playing for too long come on get real with god come on i know you know what to do i know you know where to be but where's your heart god shake us up tonight god shake us up to die god shake something up god shake every father up in this place tonight god shake every mother up in this place tonight god shake up our students god hello oh come on right now if you're having a hard time getting into his presence i want you to begin to think on good things i want you to begin to think of a savior who shed his blood would you just think with me for a moment of a crown of thorns the cat of nine tales oh he shed his blood oh could you just think on good things oh so could we put our hand over on somebody next to us and let's pray together for a moment before we leave here tonight there's nothing stronger than a collective conscience that says this is right and this is wrong the collective conviction that says hey this is right and this is wrong could we stand together tonight as an army a believer saying god i want to serve you oh god god we want to serve