The Road to De-Mask-Us | Student Pastor Zach Hammond

if you'll help me for a moment we'll go right back to what we were just doing how about that that sound good stand to your feet it is always an honor and privilege to stand before you we're going to go into the word of the lord tonight and i believe god's gonna do something you say he already has yeah he has but he just set the stage for what's gonna happen okay he did it you say well i don't feel like he did it well he can do it for you tonight you can leave here saying he did it whether you walked in here saying he did it or not there is a harvest coming i feel the lord moving today in sevierville we had a powerful brother dillinger do we not have a powerful move of god it's several today it's swept in and i believe god's just getting us ready because he's about to pour out a harvest get your baskets ready there's a harvest coming today i got a text on the way to sevierville sister richmond brother jacob told me later on he said there was somebody dropped a name in and filled out a guest card maybe here tonight and uh looking around he's a coach that i had met it's probably now because of camps it may have been two years ago that i stood on the sideline and invited him to a church service and he came this morning and i i believe that there's just a stirring they hear more and more stories some something just told me to contact you i remembered you from years ago brother reggie was telling me a story the other day about someone that contacted sister bailey that's just from years ago that god's just stirring god's just moving on people's hearts and i believe that god's just preparing the church for what's about to happen amen i give honor to pastor and sister carpenter brother sister erickson in their absence what a great word we heard this morning amen come on give brother erickson a big hand what a great word that we heard this morning the lord's gonna do something in this place tonight acts chapter nine and verse number one and saul yet breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the lord went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to damascus to the synagogues that he would find that if he found out found of this way whether they're men or women he might bring them bound to jerusalem he's going to get any christians he can find in damascus and bring them to jerusalem so he journeyed the scripture says it comes near damascus and suddenly there's a light suddenly shined right shine around about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying to him saul saul why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou lord and the lord said i am jesus whom now persecuted it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and he trembling and astonished said i can imagine so if you could imagine being paul in this situation lord what do you want me to do and the lord said arise go into the city and it shall be told unto thee what you must do and the men which journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man somebody say hearing a voice but seeing no man and saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were open he saw no man but they led him by the hand and brought him into damascus and he was three days without sight and neither did he eat nor drink and there was a certain disciple at damascus named ananias and to him said the lord in a vision ananias and he said behold i'm here lord he was familiar with that voice it didn't knock him off his feet and the lord said unto him arise and go into the street which is called straight which is a good streak to be on and choir in the lord's house of judas for one called saul of tarsus for behold he prayeth and he's seen a vision of a man named ananias coming in and putting his hand on him and he receives his sight and ananias answered lord i have heard many things about this man he's the man that's trying to kill us how much evil he's done to the saints in jerusalem and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind me up and to take me back to jerusalem you remember how it opens but the lord said unto him go thy way for he is a chosen vessel well what in the world ananias is thinking now not only am i going to tell him something but now i'm kind of getting the the excerpt the short version you're going to go tell him that he's a chosen vessel unto me he's going to bear my name before the gentiles and the kings and the children of israel for i will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake for my name's sake so they looked up they didn't see no man they just heard a voice not going to get political with this title so don't worry but i want to preach to you for just a few minutes on the road to de-mask us the road to d-mask us i'm not here to talk about your mask for covid all right so don't let anybody get worried or get on your political soapbox on why you need it or why you don't you need it i believe that we're all just following the right things to be a solution to the problem right but the road to damascus if you've got a moment i know you've been standing for a minute if you have a mask could you get it out you should put it on some of you are representing your favorite college football team i see you know my phone was blowing up last night or yesterday afternoon from about 3 30 brother uh brother white from about 3 30 to i don't know 4 30 or so and i thought it died because i want you to take this mask for a moment and i want you to pull it about two inches up i want you to cover your eyes some of you got the good ones and you can still kind of see what's going on but i want you to just think for just a moment before we pray and i'll let you put those down i promise i won't let you do that much longer but what if i ask you to go out to your car tonight and get something for me bring it back but i'm gonna need you to leave that on huh you might could feel your way out of the auditorium huh but could you really get to your car and get down in there what it feels like to be masked you can br you can pull those down some of you i should have took a picture that was a great you know i felt like it was christmas morning you know you your your mom comes out no peeking she's falling behind you know by the time you know you're not even really well to open presents you've stubbed your toe you've got a gash from her walking you into something you know just think about what it's like to not have sight but god chose a man that would write over half the new testament he said when i'm going to rearrange your life i'm going to take your sight from you the road to damascus could you lay your bibles down lift both your hands and just believe with me that the lord is going to speak to us tonight god i know i've heard from you god i know you've given me god what you would have your people hear god i pray that you would anoint me not by my might my power but by your spirit o god lord i pray that you'd move god from the pulpit to the back door to every soul god every need god you know the answer god and only you can touch only you can heal god only you can deliver god and i've come with faith believing tonight god that you're going to move in a special way god we ask you to touch every single one of us and we give you praise and glory and honor in jesus name we pray and everybody shout amen you can be seated this evening paul sets out on a journey to do what paul does and that is to be a killer of christians he sets out that day with a band of men to accomplish a task that he sent there with approval of the high priest to accomplish paul finds himself leading men and just moments later they're leading him a band of men that's following him now have to guide a blind saw into the city listening to a different voice not his own agenda but listening to the voice of god that has stopped him in his tracks and have spoken to him god took saul's eyesight to give him some insight there was a purpose for masking saul that day you see insight in the bible precedes eyesight insight creates productivity in the kingdom of god it produces wisdom insight tells you when you're to hold your peace and not say anything insight tells you who your friends ought to be young people and who's your enemy insight tells you you ought not go in that room insight tells you there's something just not seemingly right about it you don't need to go there you don't need to hang out there there's many cases in god's word and maybe you could raise your hand and say in my life where i just had a little bit of insight from the lord that kept me from from some things amen in the biblical realm when we're speaking spiritually i'd rather have insight than eyesight i'd rather not know and know that he's working right uh we don't i i've seen insight begin businesses i've seen insight from god start revivals and building programs and missions uh offerings and i've made choices in my life because of insight i've said yes to some things and noticed some things because i had some insight sometimes i could even explain to somebody why i walked away from it sometimes i can't i just had a feeling brother tyler i just had some insight sometimes there's people that try to befriend me and my eyesight says they seem like good people but it doesn't take long for my insight to say you better limit your time there my inside is my protection it's my guard it's my insight that's my guide god's given me insight many times before i hear his voice before i see his hand i'm going to hear his voice before i see his hand there's something about not being able to see that god likes to use there's something about vision that god likes to take isaiah 45 and 3 an amazing scripture just nestled there and i will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest know that i the lord which call thee by name am the god of israel paul got more revelation blind than he did with his sight think about it everything paul needed to empower him happened with his eyes scaled over when god works it's it's a it's an interesting thing to say in scripture when god decides to take the blindness away or take the mask off and it seems that god is consistent with this principle it's when you kick in the other senses that god's given you can you hear his voice when you can't see anything can you find the treasure in the dark have you learned what you need to learn through your masking what did god say to paul he said it's hard when you're kicking against the pricks it's hard when i keep prodding you and i keep trying to wake you up how many times is god shaking your life how many times is you waking you up in the middle of the night to try to speak something to you and you just keep rolling over how many times did he try to wake up paul before this moment would it would it have been the time where it says oh the young man named saul in the early parts of acts that he stands holding the coat of a man named stephen as they stone him for being a christian could god have pricked his heart at that moment could god have said hey this is not what you're meant to be doing you're on the wrong side of this thing how many of us could say this evening that we sit here maybe we have regret because we still even in the later years of our lives continue to kick against the pricks we know we have a calling we know we have a purpose we know there's things in our lives that ought to be different but i'm going to keep silencing that voice maybe you sit here this evening and you know that god wants you to get your life right you know there's some things that you've got covered up and god stands at the door and he says behold i knock and no one will hear behold i stand and knock and no one will open unto me i believe without a doubt that some are kicking against covet 19 instead of learning what god's trying to teach you some of you he's removed you from your work environment some of you he's removed you from specific situations to be able to see what's really happening in your life he's allowed you to really look back and look and and take inventory of your time your talent and your treasures what is god trying to show us right now he can show you the value and the lack of relationship through a mask beckham you care to come up here and help me see us sleep come here buddy can you help me real quick there you go yep we're good can i put this mask on you huh can you turn and wave to everybody say hello huh let's see if this will work on you huh see if that'll is that on there can can you see anything you can you can't see anything no okay all right well you just stay right there all right don't move can you see anything huh can you come come to me huh no oh i want you to do something for me okay i'm gonna explain it to you all right i'm gonna pick you up all right i'm gonna help you up on a surface and i'm gonna count three and i want you to jump to me you do that with the blindfold on is that okay you trust me all right let's see here okay you're good right there huh huh can you see now that the things fell all right put that back up over your eyes because you might want to get down after you see it whoa do you trust me huh even with your eyes closed you're gonna jump you sure all right one two three jump man good job thank you run down there with me i know he i think he trusted me i don't know if his mom did i wasn't going to turn around and look you know i would venture to say that i could call up maybe another three three-year-old and brother perry he's just raised his hand you know if i found another maybe one of your children they may not be quite as apt to let me put them in a very vulnerable position i mean he he got to actually see how high he was now he's not really scared of anything he's he's like the proverb says he's simple-minded he isn't he's have much that's that's what he's referring to his children you know what's sad is you've got simple-minded people that are 30. so he has no experience so he he really he'll jump off things for the pair if i'm not watching he'll be hurt you know but i i believe that just a little illustration here is that when god covers our eyes he wants to engage our other senses number one being our ear that earlier today i walked in a room where the lights were off and the door shut and immediately he looked for me hey dad dad dad dad he's coming to find wherever he can hear that voice because he was he was very very fearful in the dark he couldn't see and i i believe that we can truly evaluate our lives when the mass comes on okay do we trust god can we hear his voice or do we just keep doing what we've always been doing his trust beckham's trust was based on relationship some of us are frustrated with god because he wants you to jump but you don't trust him some of us are frustrated with god because we expect him to be doing things where all the while he's saying why don't you trust me to take that step why don't you trust me to use that ability why don't you trust me to make that decision i've been waking you up why do you keep kicking against the pricks paul why is it that you keep fighting this thing you can trust him but it seems like as christians it's so natural just that when that mask goes on that we want to ask god where are you at i can't hear you it's dark i can't see what's going on could you at least kind of let me in you know i've heard that people that have lost their eyesight or were born blind they have exceptional hearing i believe there's times in our lives where god just wants to pull the mask over so that we can tune back into what he's got to say we can tune back into what he's got to speak into our lives because oh how so quickly when our eyes are open things begin to come into our life you think about all the things that are invoked into our emotions because of our sight a lot of times negativity you know where it enters here you see things and you immediately become negative about him the fear of heights what's that based upon sight some of you god's trying to take you a little bit higher but you just keep taking the mask off god's trying to do some things but we we truly can't trust him things that might be unclear but if we had an ear to hear what the spirit is saying we could just trust i feel like that this whole season that we've been in in 2020 and this masked mandate is not just something that we're dealing with but it's god trying to tell us hey you need to listen up there's some treasure in the dark the prophet said and in the old testament i hear a sound of an abundance of rain i hear some things coming i don't see it yet but i hear some things about to happen and i'm here to tell you tonight from a voice oh from a voice in a dark time where it might be a little uncertain that i i hear some things i know you might not be able to see but if you need god's doing some things there's treasure in the dark before i see the rain i hear the thunder before i see the miracle i'm going to hear his voice before the sun breaks through the clouds the darkness has reigned over my life i can't see i can't see please listen feel after god because there's things to be found when god decides to put the mask on since faith comes by hearing before he says you'll walk by faith and not by faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god the basis of faith is based upon you being able to hear then you're able to walk when i hear his voice though i'm blind and i cannot see i've got to hear before i begin to walk by faith when i cannot see engage your ears you say how do i hear the voice of god you talk to him and you listen so i can't hear his voice so when's the last time you talk to him huh it's a conversation many people aren't going to sit there and just talk to you and you never say anything i know some people that will do that but you know many people are not going to sit there and just have a conversation with themselves god wants to hear from you he wants to see the desires of your heart because from the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks so we want to speak to god he sees the condition of our heart right and then he begins to speak back and then we need that voice and able to be able to activate faith to walk when i cannot see paul he needed some to begin to hear some things right before he could see some things right god says you're not going to understand any of this you're a christian killer i'm going to have to get your ear tuned to my voice because you've been listening to the high priest you've been listening to the wrong side of things so he tunes his voice you know so some of the best musicians are trained by ear so some of the most uh uh most talented people is because they have keen hearing we must be careful that much the more of who is speaking into our life we must be careful young people what we're listening to what's on our cell phones that's playing in those earbuds that we're always bopping around to because whatever speaking is what's in our step right what's speaking into our lives is what's getting into our step matthew 17 and verse number 18. i promised you were going somewhere and jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour and the disciples came to jesus apart and said why could we not cast him out and jesus said unto them because of your unbelief and verily i say unto you that if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed you could say to this mountain somebody say this mountain this mountain remove hints to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible to you how be it this kind not out but by prayer it goeth out not but by prayer and fasting you know in this story we often major on the mustard seed part and minor on the prayer and fasting part you know we want to focus on how just little we got to touch of faith just a little dabble do you right i just have this much faith and move this building he says this kind comes by prayer and fasting why because relationship creates that trust tunes that ear to be able to have that faith ain't no faith he said a baby step in faith but you got to tune that ear with missing some meals and and hearing my voice see see this he's less concerned about the size of faith and more concerned about who it's in right he said your your faith in god cannot increase without your relationship with god increasing prayer and fasting you can't have mountain moving faith and miniature uh minute by minute prayer you can't cast out devils until you starve out yours right he says just just a little bit of faith will go a long ways when you trust him when you can hear him faith oh this this mask is nothing to me because oh i can hear his voice i can follow where i can get wherever i need to go it's like most of you if i put you in your home and blindfolded you you could still probably get around most of you do it at night you have to wake up go to the bathroom right stumble you know all the way you got that memorized right you go to the you can go in there and pour your whole bowl of milk and cereal sit there and eat nobody ever turn the light on some of the scariest moments in your life right you come downstairs turn the light on somebody sitting there in the dark eating cereal i remember the first time we moved in uh with the carpenters we sold our house unexpectedly very quick and i realized real fast brother perry that brother brother carpenter eats at night they come in and the cabinet will be open to be something you know don't go walking through there at the dark with brother carpenter he knows his way around his house just like you do right and now what would it be like if we're familiar with god i know his voice i've got some some of you've been serving god for so long that things like cove had come and i bet you could just say hey he kept me through this he kept me through that hey i am familiar with the blindness i'm familiar with not being able to see exactly what the end's gonna be i know however that the same person that authored this for the josh is the same person that's gonna put a period at the end and say it's finished that i know that he's not just the alpha but he is the omega and i know that he's in control and just because i can't see it don't mean i can't hear him just because i can't see it don't mean i can't miss a few meals and find out exactly what god is up to and begin to hear the sound of rain long before i hear the sound before i see it i can hear it but here's the great thing about this story this mountain go study this passage what mountain this one u9 that i left down here while me peter james and john went up to the mountain of transfiguration you 9 were to stay down here and to cast out demons so you find this story where they stand at the bottom of the mountain peter james and john come down and he said this mountain they're there right and then and we see here that jesus goes into this explanation if you had faith the size of a mustard seed you could move this mountain this mountain the nine stand here at the foot of where jesus has just come down with seemingly his three favorites this mountain perhaps was part of the reason the demon didn't get cast out because they had a mountain of jealousy sitting next to him a mountain of question hey why'd he just take them you don't think he trusted me to go i would love to win up there you know you don't think god feels like i'm worthy to go up dude all of a sudden there's this thing and i i believe that god comes down from the mountain and they're being unsuccessful because they're distracted think about it he said this mountain he didn't just say any mountain he said you can move this mountain perhaps if you trusted me in what i was doing rather than wondering why you didn't go you could have cast this demon out and done the work that needed to be done down here while i was taking care of what i needed to at the top of the mountain if you trusted when something gets betwe gets between you and god there'll be no demon casting out when something gets between you and god you can't fake faith you can't hide being blind you can't hide your lack of insight you might be a brood of a man samson but you can't hide being blind you better stop kicking against the pricks and understand that there's times in your life many people trying to cast out demons of their life but they're upset and why they didn't get to sing many people are frustrated with god thinking i wonder why i didn't get to go to the top of the mountain i wonder why they got a new car why are they so blessed why can't i have those talents and those abilities there's people that if you're really honest with yourself you live in that world teenagers you're put in that that old part of satan's comparison every single day if you're not careful you'll never cast out devils you'll never do mighty works in his name you'll never see the powers and the wonders and the signs and the miracles of god because you've got a mountain standing here of jealousy and negativity that's causing you to devour your brother rather than doing what god's called you to do right where you're at many of us we've got masks on and it don't have nothing to do with faith you're just running into walls i'll never forget the dumbest thing brother nolan i ever did in my life dumbest thing i ever did i was about eight or nine years old we had a gym daycare was an after school and uh we were playing marco polo in the gym block walls concrete floor brilliant right i hear somebody i just take off running oh i blistered my head up against a block wall blacked out and i'm i i'm thinking what are you doing right how many of us i thought about that story the other day and how many times god looks at my life and thinks what are you doing why do you keep questioning that you don't have to keep running into that wall that's self-inflicted blindness you're blinded by negativity you're blinded by carnality you're blinded by lusts you're blinded by pride you need to swallow you need to take those things off because that's the natural thing for us in our flesh is when god covers it up we get frustrated and we get to pulling at it so much and we want to try to get it off that if we're not careful we just put right on the blindfold that's even thicker called our flesh called fear oh that fear is not of god it's a spirit of fear you put that on your self you put that anxiety you put that negativity on yourself we've all of a sudden now put this thing over what god was trying to do and negativity has masked so many people and we we could identify with paul as being the print kickers tonight just constantly fighting against you know what it refers to in another scriptures fight not as one that beats against the air here's out here shadow boxing you feel like you're doing something but you haven't landed a punch in years and you're just like paul kicking against the one that's trying to call you you're fighting against the air that gives you the breath you're fighting against the very god that's trying to use you that's trying to engage you into some purpose you say i'm just so frustrated i can't see what's happening all of a sudden i get hit with this i get hit with that i didn't know that was coming i didn't know i was getting a pink slip i didn't know this was happening my life just seems like a big mask mess you've got to determine tonight whether it's god trying to teach you something or it's self-inflicted blindness that's the first thing you've got to determine but here's the here is the positive powerful thing is the solution to both is one answer because anytime i go blind i've got to listen i've got to listen to the voice of god but here's the domino effect young person things are not going right so i'm going to go listen to somebody that don't have my best interest at heart and all of a sudden you've lived a semester mom dad you've lived a year two years of self-inflicted blindness you're frustrated with everybody you're frustrated with where you're at in life and god's just saying if you just listen you can move mountains with just a little bit of faith sometimes we need to move a mountain and it's not necessarily a mountain of some kind of miracle it's the mountain that we have put there because god didn't put that jealousy in your heart so many times in life it's that masked flesh that keeps kicking against the pricks try your best not to question god why did you not take me just have that grain of faith acts chapter 9 and verse number 17 because look what he does ananias went this way we pick right back up from verse 16 to verse number 17 ananias went his way entered into the house god told him to and he puts his hands on him and said brother saul which had to be awesome right brother saul the guy that's killing all of us i'm gonna call him brother he went paul yet brother saul brother killer of christians the lord even jesus has appeared unto thee in the way that thou came he has sent me and that thou mightest received thy sight and be filled with the holy ghost it's amazing that he immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scaled and he received sight for with as he arose and was baptized and when he had received meat and he was strengthened and saw certain days with his disciples which were at damascus and straightway he preached christ in the synagogues that he is the son of god but all that heard him were amazed and said is not this he that destroyed them which was called by the name in jerusalem and came hither for the same reason that he might bring them bound back to the chief priests but saul has now increased now in his strength and he's confounded the jews that dwelt in damascus proving that he is the very he this is the very christ and after that many days they were fulfilled the jews took counsel to kill him flip the roll here right because there's always going to be persecution when you begin to walk in faith but they're laying away it is known of saul and they watch the gates day and night to kill him they put out a search warrant to kill saul in just a matter of 15 scriptures paul comes to kill them and now they're ready to kill him it's amazing what god can do with a mask the disciples then took him they took him by night let him down by the wall in a basket when saul was come to jerusalem he is saved to join himself to the disciples but they were all afraid of him because they believed not that he was a disciple paul saul gets the holy ghost and is baptized he's now hated persecuted he has to be let down the city walls if you can imagine in a basket and he went and joined himself to disciples in jerusalem and he believed not the scripture says that he was a disciple he says i'm not one of you but i'm going to change who i associate myself with paul is prepped for persecution he'll get in the basket i'll do whatever you say lord because i've learned to hear your voice think about what paul had to go through in just a few opening days of being a christ follower you know why he never questioned the basket you know i never questioned the persecution god had already dealt with the way that we see things my flesh would have been like hey what's up with this huh wow i thought this was a good thing and now they're trying to kill me huh because our cardinal get our cardinal gets in the way and begins to say god i just went through all that just did everything you told me to do and now they're trying to kill me they'll let me down in some basket and make meander back to jerusalem and try to find some people who really don't even think that i am who you say i am it seems to be the story with god's people right but from that point on everywhere he went paul begins to share his story he writes a majority of the new testament when you go through his book he somewhere begins to tell the story that he says in acts chapter 22 in acts chapter 26 he says i'm mandated to preach the gospel paul changes his agenda he changes his company and then he changes his message he says i'm a new man in christ jesus paul writes this in philippians chapter 3 and verse number 10 that i might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means i might attain unto the resurrection of the dead not as though i had already attained either where already perfect but i all i follow after if that i might apprehend that for which i am apprehended of christ jesus brethren i count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind me forgetting stephen that i stood before and killed forgetting the things that i used to and reaching forth unto the things which are before i press toward the mark he went from kicking to pressing i pressed toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus paul is still trying to apprehend what apprehended him paul is still trying to understand or arrest the definition would be what arrested him i cannot forget my conversion i can never forget my conversion if my christianity is going to be contagious we can't forget where god has brought us from can i see myself in the person who walks in the back door that is a mess ashamed and insecure can i see the the thing that god has brought me out of because i'm mandated as paul is just as you are to preach the gospel that brought me out of darkness into this marvelous light it's my responsibility to never forget the dangerous thing in our world today is not its terrible condition but those who seem to be okay with it and do nothing about it we are mandated from god from heaven to preach the gospel the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ it is our commission to be able to share what he's done for you stop inviting people to church and start telling them what god's done for you and see how much more effective it is tell them about your experience i don't want to hear nothing about that restaurant if you've never ate there tell me about my experience oh that those mashed potatoes are good they like mama's mashed potatoes that's gonna make you want to go you know god he pulled me out of a a shy and stubborn state god woke me up one evening and told me he said you can stop kicking against the pricks or i'm gonna make your life miserable god began to speak to me and i was at a service one night where a man preached on hell so hot that it began to stir my spirit and i could feel it seemed like as donald weiner began to preach there and on on 2050 hog mountain road about what god had done for him and if i didn't do what god had told us to do in acts chapter 2 and verse number 38 and received the holy ghost that i wasn't going to make it and i was going to spend forever in a hot place called hell then all of a sudden i was stirred and god began to move into my life and i felt something from the top of my head to the sole of my feet and god filled me with the baptism of the holy ghost from that moment i've never been the same from that moment i've never walked the same from that moment i've had insight when i didn't have eyesight and from that moment i've been able to say hey i don't know exactly what's going on but i know god's in control you've got that story god called you out god saved your soul i i am mandated to preach this gospel young person hear me you're not too young to share your story god's put you here not to just have you here but he wants you to share it with somebody else if there's one thing if there's one thing that we apostolics are really good at but struggle with is the two-fold concept of being in one accord because being in one accord is not just me and god it's me god and my brother because that's how it flows we are really good at apostolics and don't get offended here as giving god what's due to god we'll out praise them all we'll out consecrate them all we're going to dress a certain way we're not going to go to a certain place why because we feel like god's done so much for us that that's the least we can do for him but if there's one thing that maybe another denomination might have on us is the debt we owe to our brother god forbid that we feel like we're giving it all to him but it's god's saying hey if you'd love me in fact he says even how can you say that you love god who you haven't when you can't love what you can see i'm talking about a brother a sister in christ that i'd stand here and see have a conversation with i could see right here what god's doing in his life what god's doing in my life what god can do in their life you've got a co-worker just waiting on you to share your story you've got a family member that it's gonna take more than just hey why don't you come to church on sunday morning it's gonna take you saying hey god moved in my life last week and i never i've never felt this way before there's something inside of me that i want you to have we owe our neighbor the gospel it's the greatest debt in the world our national debt is not to china our national debt as being the united states of america is one nation under god is to share the gospel share what it means to be under god to share what it means to have a life that's changed by the fallon everybody in cleveland's got to know everybody in athens has got to know that god wants to change their life god wants to do something i can never forget that i was blind but now i see that i was dirty that i was filthy but he washed me and he cleansed me he took a mask off of sin and he robed me with redemption he took off my carnality took off that old man he made me a new creature in christ jesus he completely de-masked my situation he completely flipped my world around where would i be without jesus for just a moment as the musicians get ready and could we use that choir song that we had because i told them we were going to pick up right where we left off go ahead and you can just come straight up here you're not going to distract nobody come on just come straight to the platform i ain't worried about it you don't have to sneak around the back hallway everybody knows where you're going come on singers and everybody come on we're fixing to have a little bit more church so i want you to see something i want you to see something i want you to see what paul what happens to paul is paul all of a sudden has this miraculous testimony and i i wonder just just just so we can establish this i know we may have some guests if you need the holy ghost tonight you can get it before you leave if you need to be baptized in the name of jesus we've got water we've got a change of clothes we've got everything you need but if god's ever done anything for you and you have a testimony could you just raise your hand could you maybe wave your hand huh yeah go ahead and stand to your feet if you got a testimony could you wave your hand you say god he i used to wear a mask of carnality and sin but god brought me out oh could you just for a moment just think back maybe you need to close those eyes to revert back to that mass that sin had on you maybe you need to close your eyes to think back to where god brought you out of i used to be an alcoholic i used to be addicted to drugs i used to be in a terrible marriage i used to have anxiety could sleep at night here's the thing is you may be able to raise your hand tonight and say if i'm honest brother hammond i'm right in the middle of that i'm having problems sleeping my marriage isn't the greatest i don't know what my job situation is gonna look like in the next few weeks i'm addicted to something that i'd be ashamed to tell anybody i just seemingly frustrated and i can't get over it and you feel like you're just masked and you can't see and i don't know any way out i want you to hear something i want you to hear something paul writes in hebrews 12 wherefore seeing we also are compassed about what's so great a cloud of witnesses could those who wave their hand earlier wave your hand huh we are so compassed with a grandstand this evening of a church of witnesses it says hey god brought me out he said so if you've got some witnesses why don't you lay aside every weight i feel the holy ghost why don't you lay aside every weight every sin that doesn't so easily besets you and let us run with patience with patience because sometimes you're going to be blind so you've got to stop and listen be patient the race that is set before us looking unto jesus who didn't just start this thing he didn't create you and just send you off as some robot but no he's there writing the story he's there when it's blind and you cannot see and it's dark there's some treasures of some things that god's putting on the pages in red letters under his blood as you can't see what's going on he's writing some treasures out the author the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of god what happened he tore the veil it was the great unmasking of god's presence it was a great opening up of us being able to see him move and not through some tent and not some through some some some priests going in but we this evening are compass for the grandstand of witnesses saying run run run there's somebody in this place tonight and i wish you could hear the sound from heaven as a sister kirby says run run run don't you dare give up don't you dare throw in the towel i'm not gonna lie to you you could say it however you want to say it but there's times where i'm preaching and i feel like i'm just doing terrible and there's just something that gets up inside of my heart and i can hear a douglas hammond sitting down in a chair and in an old rocking chair can't see just says preach the gospel preach what he did for you i can feel it well up inside of me that i've got some witnesses just like you've got tonight that are just saying hey just keep running just keep running don't you dare oh just keep running just keep running i know it may seem dark i know it may not may not feel like it used to feel you may be weary and well doing but just keep running i wonder if there's somebody that make their way out of their seat and say god i can't see but i'm here tonight to listen god i don't understand what you're doing but i believe if you did it before if you did it before come on is there somebody that's got a testimony tonight when you're blind every single step is important it's a blessing it's a blessing every service every time i can stop and hear his voice come on he's letting be the finisher of your faith tonight jesus jesus christ jesus come on right now in this place there's some that have made their way around the front you find somebody praying for the holy ghost i want you to pray with them he's he's done it for so many and you stand in a cloud of witnesses tonight i believe that there's healing in this place tonight has anybody ever been healed before look around if you need healing tonight i want you to step out and try to make your way around this altar god will heal you if you lift your hands and believe god will touch you those that need to do you need anything done for you you got anxiety and fear i believe that god wants to touch you tonight come over just a moment can we stay in the same private frame of mind can we all just close our eyes come on be sensitive to what the lord's doing you say well i don't need anything oh every step is a blessing every step with god is a blessing i'm not saving i'm not i'm not waiting for a victory dance at the finish line i'm here tonight standing in victory and faithfulness come on if you need it tonight god's about to give it to you god's about to give it to you he oh he did all right here's what's about to happen it is totally up to you but god right now we prayed a little bit about the things that we put over our eyes but when paul got the holy ghost he said i'm going to let you see some things so here's what you got to understand there's things that some of you been praying for for a while that god's about to tell you to do something and if you'll do it he's going to let you see it that's how god works the whole thing at the end when we finally get to heaven what's it going to be the great demasking i'm finally going to get to see what i've been living for for all these years what i've been worshipping for for all these years for every service for every trial every temptation i'm finally going to get to see it but here tonight i hear the sound but i'm ready to see it i've heard the sound but i'm ready to see it i wish somebody lift your hands right now i'm telling you right now whatever the lord tells you to do there's faith in this house right now in the name of jesus god you've done it before and you can do it again god i believe in faith in the name of jesus god i'm asking you to move across this place come on listen hear the sound come on listen to him whatever he says whatever he says he wants to do it for you he wants to let you see it is he did it like the weight has been lifted so it's happening all across this place that's it sister back there in the back god's gonna do it god's gonna do it why because he did it and his promises are yes and amen if you need something tonight that's it sister stevens let god touch you tonight let god touch you tonight i see a lot of witnesses from heaven i see a jade stephen saying run run so let's watch the white house is she is is is jesus oh is is he did he did brother tony you can put on there that there'll be no formal dismissal but here's the way i want to stay in tonight if you're worshiping keep worshiping but we're all going to before we leave here tonight you say well i don't know if god heard me i don't know if god answered my prayer but here's what i challenge you to do he says to worship him in spirit and in truth he says that the victory is in your voice that if we could praise him like he's already done it he'll say i don't know if he touched that situation i don't know if he heard my prayer i can't really tell if i've been healed or not i challenge you right now to give god just a few more minutes to say i'm gonna praise him like he's already done it i'm gonna give him oh i'm gonna give him a praise like he brought a prodigal home i'm gonna give him a brain like a hill of cancer i wish everybody god wants to do it okay