SPEAKER_00: One morning I walked into a church, but it wasn't on a Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: I looked around and I saw the empty seats.
SPEAKER_00: The sun glistening through the dust in the air.
SPEAKER_00: At first, I was distraught at the sight of the empty chairs.
SPEAKER_00: But then I was filled with joy.
SPEAKER_00: I realized that the people who were once in those chairs were now outside of the building.
SPEAKER_00: Working at their jobs.
SPEAKER_00: Serving in their communities.
SPEAKER_00: Laughing with their co-workers and growing with their families.
SPEAKER_00: They had the opportunity to be the church.
SPEAKER_00: These holes can't preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But you can.
SPEAKER_00: The building you're sitting in is just a building.
SPEAKER_00: But if you trust in Jesus, then you are the church.
SPEAKER_01: Or you would have celebrated a little harder.
SPEAKER_01: Was that too much of a hard takeoff?
SPEAKER_01: Let me bring it back in for a smooth landing.
SPEAKER_01: We are called to be more than seat warmers.
SPEAKER_01: We are called to be more than churchgoers.
SPEAKER_01: We are glad you are here, but you have a job to do out there.
SPEAKER_01: God has not called you to sit and watch.
SPEAKER_01: There is no retirement plan in the Christian church today.
SPEAKER_01: We've got too much work to be done.
SPEAKER_01: We've got too many lost souls that need saved.
SPEAKER_01: We got too many people that have never heard here in East Texas that God loves them.
SPEAKER_01: And that Jesus came and died for them in the middle of the Bible belt.
SPEAKER_01: It should be on the on the very tip of our tongue.
SPEAKER_01: Every breath that we breathe should be breath of life straight from God.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot breathe out the breath of God if you are not inhaling.
SPEAKER_01: That thinks that the building is the church.
SPEAKER_01: And we miss the mark.
SPEAKER_01: Also known as sinning.
SPEAKER_01: We become stagnant, stale, and disobedient to the voice of God, and we don't even remember what it sounds like anymore because we have so many things pulling for our attention.
SPEAKER_01: We are more inclined to listen to a news broadcast or a radio show than we are to listen to the voice of God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what party they're a part of.
SPEAKER_01: You need to be listening to God.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all can have that one.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to realize today that you are called, we are called to be busy and about the Father's business.
SPEAKER_01: About the Father's business, to be his hands and his feet.
SPEAKER_01: We have to, we must have a go mentality in the church.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't, the people we love and care about and strangers that we may never interact with and become in our inner circle, if we do not go to them, they will go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: You should be.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So yesterday I had the job of cutting onions.
SPEAKER_01: And then and then I had some help.
SPEAKER_01: If they would not have helped me, I would still be there cutting them.
SPEAKER_01: Because there was so many.
SPEAKER_01: And then we thought there was an end in sight.
SPEAKER_01: We thought we chopped the last one.
SPEAKER_01: And then Brother Jeff and Bob came back from Sam's and had more bags.
SPEAKER_01: Bobby and Jeff bringing cheer and popped my bubble.
SPEAKER_01: And so this morning, if you smell body order around me, I promise it's onions.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot get the smell off of my hands.
SPEAKER_01: This morning, the lady yesterday at House of Hope, she said, Oh, well, when you get done with that, I got some lemon juice.
SPEAKER_01: It'll take it right off of there.
SPEAKER_01: Liar.
SPEAKER_01: This morning, I had a bowl full of lemon juice, and I had my fingers and I'm scrubbing I don't know what else to do, so I'm just scrubbing my fingers.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, get off of me, Satan.
SPEAKER_01: It's as bad as glitter.
SPEAKER_01: When my wife decorates for Christmas, glitter gets everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: I won't, I can I came out of my office and I looked and the tree was being put up and it was almost done.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, I'm glad I had to work.
SPEAKER_01: Because glitter gets in places and on things, and you're like, stop.
SPEAKER_01: You'll take a shower and you'll still find it on your hand.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've ever taken a shower before, I hope to God you have.
SPEAKER_01: You know that the hand is usually the most used thing in the shower because you got to use it to scrub and wash and your hair and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta do your shave.
SPEAKER_01: I shave in the shower because it clogs the sink and blah blah blah, wine bags and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: And so I shave in the shower and my hands still, after all of that, two showers later, two bowls of two dippings in lemon juice later.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes sin will stick to you, and it's like something you can't let loose of or get off.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when you serve, when you become the hands and feet of Jesus, your hands get dirty, and sometimes you feel like you just can't get it off.
SPEAKER_01: But we are called to serve no matter what it looks like, no matter how it feels.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but when I step out in faith, I get real uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: When I listen to the voice of God, I don't feel right.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's my flesh saying, Oh, that's not gonna work out, and faith always looks stupid until it doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: You look foolish in front of everybody else stepping out in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Like, why are you doing that?
SPEAKER_01: That's stupid.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you give your money to a church?
SPEAKER_01: You can have 100% of that.
SPEAKER_01: I have 100% because God gave it to me.
SPEAKER_01: 10 is the minimum amount I can give them.
SPEAKER_01: But we're supposed to be giving it all, and it won't make sense to anybody.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard people who are who are tithers and they would give 90% of everything they made and lived off the 10 and lived comfortably.
SPEAKER_01: I would like to try that if I had that amount of money, right?
SPEAKER_01: 10% of$20 ain't that much, but when you get 10% of a thousand dollars, you start to clench it a little harder.
SPEAKER_01: Anyways, let's go on.
SPEAKER_01: But we are to go and obey.
SPEAKER_01: So this morning, I want to focus on, we want to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want to preach eventually on the go part, but today we're gonna be talking about the hands.
SPEAKER_01: The hands, the importance of hands, the the very, very important issues of touch and how it was tried, it was taken from us two years ago.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna be talking about the hands, how we can be the hands of Jesus today through faith.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been with us for the last couple of weeks, the first week was what is faith?
SPEAKER_01: We kind of broke that down and talked about exactly what it is, how it can be used today.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, last week we were talking about action is required.
SPEAKER_01: You have to have action.
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna say you are a person of faith, if you are a faith-believing Bible thumper, if you may call yourself a holy roller, we don't do that anymore because some of us couldn't get back up.
SPEAKER_01: It's harder than it used to be.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, age, it gets us all.
SPEAKER_01: Week two, it takes action.
SPEAKER_01: So today we're gonna be talking about the laying on of the hands.
SPEAKER_01: This is a very detrimental part of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't lay your hands on people, the Bible says that when you lay your hands, the sick will recover.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't lay your hands, you're not gonna have people around you that are recovering.
SPEAKER_01: And week four is going to be called faith to see even when I can't.
SPEAKER_01: Week five is going to be planted in faith.
SPEAKER_01: You must have solid roots in your life, you must watch and guard of what is planting seed in your heart because you will be faithless, you will be merciless, you will be bitter, and you will be angry.
SPEAKER_01: And that is no place in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: You must know what your where your roots are and what is being planted in your heart in week six.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if I'm gonna stop at six.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see how it goes.
SPEAKER_01: This is faithful or sorry, fruitful in faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith must produce the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If it is not producing fruit of the spirit in your life, you have you will always have a fleshly outcome.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not what we want.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't been paying attention in the last year that we've been here, I have been saying over and over and over again, this is my vision for the church.
SPEAKER_01: That the church house must be full of mature Christians.
SPEAKER_01: We must do what Jesus commanded us to do to make disciples, not disciples of flesh, but disciples of people who are being led, who are producing, and who are planting fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Because whatever you have in your garden, it will be either a weed or a nourishment to someone else's.
SPEAKER_01: So week six, fruitful in faith.
SPEAKER_01: We must be producing the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll stand for the reading of God's word, this has kind of been our key text a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read it again.
SPEAKER_01: I'll probably end up reading it every week because it is so vital to the message.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 2, verse 14 through 20.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible, flip to it.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have your Bible, you need it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care if it's an app or if it's pages, you need the Word of God with you.
SPEAKER_01: You need it with you.
SPEAKER_01: I saw a video the other day, I don't remember if it was TikTok or Instagram real, and this these two guys on this little bitty, it was funny because it was a little tiny moped, and they pull up, and there's these two ladies standing.
SPEAKER_01: It was the security camp.
SPEAKER_01: This guy on the back gets off, tries to snatch this woman's purse over here, and he's trying to get it, but he's trying not to get smacked by a purse either.
SPEAKER_01: So he's he's already started off terrible.
SPEAKER_01: He pulls, he's going like this, and the lady on the backside of him that he was not prepared for had a Bible, and she put it on his shoulder and he tumbled to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God bears weight in every situation.
SPEAKER_01: So, ladies, if you're worried about it, you don't want to carry a taser or a gun, carry your word.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you it's stronger.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 2, 14 through 20, our key text.
SPEAKER_01: What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it with your actions?
SPEAKER_01: Can that kind of faith save anyone?
SPEAKER_01: Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say goodbye and good day, stay warm, and eat well.
SPEAKER_01: You're speaking in faith, right?
SPEAKER_01: But then you don't give that person any food or clothing.
SPEAKER_01: What good does that do?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17 says, So you see, by faith itself isn't enough unless it produces, here we go with that produce again, produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
SPEAKER_01: Now, someone may argue some people have faith, others have good deeds.
SPEAKER_01: But I say, how can you show me your faith if you don't have any good deeds?
SPEAKER_01: I will show you my faith by my good deeds.
SPEAKER_01: You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God.
SPEAKER_01: Good for you.
SPEAKER_01: Even the demons believe this.
SPEAKER_01: You ever heard of a setup?
SPEAKER_01: Good for you! Even the demons know that fact, and they tremble in terror.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: How foolish can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you so much for your presence here today.
SPEAKER_01: I pray over every hard heart today, whether here in person or watching online, I pray for every saint here today, a full covering of the spectrum today, that everybody will allow the word of God to plant seeds of nourishment, of vitalization, of joy, and every fruit of the Spirit in their heart today before they leave.
SPEAKER_01: In your name we pray, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So we know very clearly from these last few weeks reading from James that faith without action is useless.
SPEAKER_01: It does nothing, literally has no point if you do not use it and make it into an action.
SPEAKER_01: It's like you have the keys.
SPEAKER_01: Let me talk to you for a second.
SPEAKER_01: It's like you have keys to a 2023 jacked-up truck of your choice, fully specked out with the biggest rims you can find, biggest tires you can find.
SPEAKER_01: It's got it's so tall that you gotta run and jump in it.
SPEAKER_01: But it came with these little steps that come down to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's like the spirit of the Lord that comes down to you when you need it the most.
SPEAKER_01: And you just unlock it, and the steps just go.
SPEAKER_01: And then in your lowest moment, you put your foot on it, and it senses your foot is there, and it lifts you up to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And you get inside this truck and it's got decked-out touch screen, everything is already connected.
SPEAKER_01: You get inside of it, and it already knows you're there, and it moves the seat, whether your wife or spouse or whatever, your best friend borrowed it and they moved it to adjust to them.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it knows your key is there, and it just comes up and snuggles you right on time.
SPEAKER_01: And you get in this truck and it's hot outside, and the seats are cooling down, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Or it's dead middle of the winter and it's cold and there's frost on the windshield, but it knew you were about to arrive, so the seats were warm and toasty, and the defrost was already on somebody.
SPEAKER_01: And you get inside this truck and you say, Yes, Lord, I feel your presence.
SPEAKER_01: I knew it was your spirit that led me here because I feel so comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And then you get back out of the truck, and the step comes out again, knows you're about to step all the steps of faith.
SPEAKER_01: You know it's a Bible truck because your steps are ordered and it just catches you when you step out in faith.
SPEAKER_01: And you step again, and somehow there's a second step.
SPEAKER_01: And you step onto the ground, and there's there's not even a trouble in your mind because the truck just knew, because it's the Lord's truck.
SPEAKER_01: And you go back in your house and you look out that window and you say, Man, that's a nice truck.
SPEAKER_01: And you never put the key in it, you never drive it anywhere, and it sits out there as nice as it is, all the comfort in the world, the warm seats or the cool seats, the cool step that comes down, and when you come back out, the magical one that comes from nowhere, God knows where.
SPEAKER_01: And it moves, it knows where you are, the steering wheel column comes down, and your seat is in an upright and comfortable position.
SPEAKER_01: You can go out there and eat in it, and somehow a magical tray comes out of the console and goes across your lap, and you eat your favorite restaurant right there in that truck in your comfort zone, and you just know that's the best truck you've ever seen in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That right there, that is a truck from God.
SPEAKER_01: And you eat your meal and you get back out and you you step down in the magical step again.
SPEAKER_01: It just, oh, your steps are ordered.
SPEAKER_01: And you walk back inside and you close the door and you look out the window and you say, Man, that's the best truck I've ever seen in my life.
SPEAKER_01: It looks good, it's your favorite color, got the trim on it.
SPEAKER_01: Nice, it's got a cattle guard if you want one.
SPEAKER_01: It's got the tailgate that comes down.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to push a button, you can walk up to it, and oh, it comes down and man, it's got steps too.
SPEAKER_01: Every step you step is ordered by the Lord, and it always leads you to this truck, but the key always stays in your pocket.
SPEAKER_01: And the tires are never worn because they've never been driven anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Now you can wear the inside of that truck out with enjoying the comfort and the luxury of everything you've ever wanted and never go anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: You see, we treat our faith like this all the time.
SPEAKER_01: We have the authority.
SPEAKER_01: We sang a minute ago, we have the authority.
SPEAKER_01: I have the authority.
SPEAKER_01: Say it, I have the authority.
SPEAKER_01: You need to understand that you have the authority in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: By God's mercy and through your faith, you found salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And beyond that, you have the authority in the Holy Spirit to lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us do not have that luxury truck, and we have to lay hands on our car to start it on a cold morning like today.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have the luxury and the steps, but you know God gave it to you, and you need to be thankful.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes you want somebody else's truck.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you want somebody else's gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we want somebody else's pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we want somebody else's worship.
SPEAKER_01: We want somebody else's pay.
SPEAKER_01: We want somebody else's spouse.
SPEAKER_01: We want all the things that we don't have because we in our minds, what God give us is not enough.
SPEAKER_01: There is a reason that I have told you over and over and over the challenge of 17.
SPEAKER_01: You must start your day before the enemy even comes and tries to attack you.
SPEAKER_01: Five minutes in prayer, five minutes in reading your word, five minutes in praising.
SPEAKER_01: Invite one person to church every single week and every single day.
SPEAKER_01: Do one small act of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: You cannot get bigger muscles if you only walk into the gym and say, Oh, this is nice.
SPEAKER_01: That was a good day at the gym, and walk around and turn back out.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is done for you.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't put in the work.
SPEAKER_01: We come in the church house and you only expect to get fed.
SPEAKER_01: You only want to get fed, and you wonder why you starve the rest of the week and you're so hungry when you come into church because you ain't feeding during the week.
SPEAKER_01: We got a bunch of skinny, malnourished Christians up in the church house that are complaining how everybody else ain't doing it right.
SPEAKER_01: And I tell you this because I want you to get stronger.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to have vision for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that people without vision will perish.
SPEAKER_01: It's time for some people to have some vision in your own house.
SPEAKER_01: You need to start seeing what God has available to you through you to do and get some vision in your house saying, Oh, I ain't got it yet, but I will.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't married yet, but I will.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't got things together, I ain't got the job I want.
SPEAKER_01: I hate my job, but in faith, I'm gonna go and be faithful, anyways.
SPEAKER_01: Do what I'm supposed to do, and I'm gonna thank God for the check when it hits.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I'm gonna thank God for the check before it hits.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing in faith in your life?
SPEAKER_01: It is my desire in this church that we get healthy.
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say healthy, fattened up Christians, but you know I'm talking about the other end of the spectrum is malnourished.
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to get you healthy.
SPEAKER_01: I want y'all to get a hunger.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to somebody the other day.
SPEAKER_01: They were talking about the challenge of, you know, I started off with 15 and then I added faith and I added the invited person.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Man, when I first started, and this is the same way in the gym, if you've ever went to the gym for an extended amount of time, you know that the first three months is so hard because you're trying to figure out how to fit it into your schedule.
SPEAKER_01: Because everything will come up when you're trying to go.
SPEAKER_01: When you're trying to live right for God, everything will get in your path.
SPEAKER_01: When you're trying to live in obedience, everything will get in your path so you can't hear him.
SPEAKER_01: Everything will get in your path so that you won't take that step of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Everything will do everything it can.
SPEAKER_01: The enemy will do everything he can to get you where you will not even make it to 15.
SPEAKER_01: Because he knows that when you begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness, you don't start feeding on what the world has to offer anymore.
SPEAKER_01: When you start trying to eat healthy, can we be honest?
SPEAKER_01: It stinks.
SPEAKER_01: If I want a chocolate pie, I should get a chocolate pie.
SPEAKER_01: With all the stuff I want.
SPEAKER_01: But it's processed, it's bad for you.
SPEAKER_01: We have research that shows, yet it's still everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm almost positive God created ice cream.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not having figured it out yet.
SPEAKER_01: But I know we got some low carb ice cream.
SPEAKER_01: What's up?
SPEAKER_01: God created that.
SPEAKER_01: He had a hand in it.
SPEAKER_01: And the hardest thing to do is to tell people no when you're eating right.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, church people that love to eat.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the Bible, man, it's all through there.
SPEAKER_01: They eat all the time, they break bread together.
SPEAKER_01: It's important in community in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you have a meal at the church and you're trying to eat right, you can't stay, or you have to have some serious self-discipline.
SPEAKER_01: I start losing weight and kind of looking better the way I want, and y'all decide to have a meal.
SPEAKER_01: If you can't tell, I'm blaming you for my struggle the next six months trying to get back where I started.
SPEAKER_01: Bunch of church people.
SPEAKER_01: But it's so hard when you're trying to do right.
SPEAKER_01: When you have a goal in mind, it did not make sense.
SPEAKER_01: I've said this before.
SPEAKER_01: When I sold my truck that I loved, I loved that truck.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't nothing special about it, but it was my first truck, it meant something to me.
SPEAKER_01: When I sold that truck so that they would write Big Hughes check so that I can come back home to my wife and say, we are paying off the biggest credit card.
SPEAKER_01: And a few weeks ago, we are now completely 100% credit card debt-free.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I caught a vision in my heart.
SPEAKER_01: I caught a vision in my mind that there was not going to be debt hanging over me that when I want to give, God's called me to give, but I couldn't do it because I kept lending it out to everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: But now, if I want to give, I just ask the boss first and then we talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'll give it all, and she reins me back in and says, okay, we can give this.
SPEAKER_01: This is feasible.
SPEAKER_01: This this is a little bit of a sacrifice, but it doesn't break us.
SPEAKER_01: We'll pay our bills at the end of the month.
SPEAKER_01: Thank God for a wife that balances me.
SPEAKER_01: But we have to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when we decide and we make that choice and we make that decision in our lives, everything will come against you to keep you from doing it.
SPEAKER_01: And then once you do it, you'll carry the smell home with you.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, Why ain't you doing that again?
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesse was like, Why didn't you wear gloves?
SPEAKER_01: Because I didn't know about the gloves and it was already done.
SPEAKER_01: So today's message is laying on of the hands.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you when your hands are involved, this this shows up in touch.
SPEAKER_01: There's this old Pentecost saying, I've been touched by the Master.
SPEAKER_01: I've been touched by the Lord today.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the Lord's touched me.
SPEAKER_01: There's something important and amazing about touch.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what do you do when you meet a friend?
SPEAKER_01: You high-five them, you fist bump them, you shake their hand, and around here, you get hugged.
SPEAKER_01: This guy over here will squeeze the life out of you.
SPEAKER_01: I'll send you the bill for the chiropractor.
SPEAKER_01: And when you give condolences, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: You pat on the back, touch.
SPEAKER_01: You you put your hand on their arm.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you just wrap around and put your, I mean, touch means something.
SPEAKER_01: There is power in touch.
SPEAKER_01: It brings us closer in a relationship that you don't have that real that friendship with or that intimacy with.
SPEAKER_01: You don't touch.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get close to them.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, some of y'all here at this church don't know some other people well, and you go, hey, how you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I see you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't even know their name.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, brother.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, sister.
SPEAKER_01: Have no clue what their name is, but you know their face.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: May shake their hand, but you a little bit of touch.
SPEAKER_01: When you do that touch, it breaks that ice and it brings you literally closer together.
SPEAKER_01: Touch means something.
SPEAKER_01: This is why the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get to this.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't a soapbox.
SPEAKER_01: This is just facts.
SPEAKER_01: The devil tried to rob us a couple of years ago of touch.
SPEAKER_01: This is why the devil uses fear.
SPEAKER_01: The devil uses fear in the church house to separate us.
SPEAKER_01: Because if he can separate you from the herd, he can defeat you.
SPEAKER_01: If he can make you feel, my grandma used to have this issue before she passed away.
SPEAKER_01: She would have anxiety attacks.
SPEAKER_01: She would be in a room of people but feel totally alone.
SPEAKER_01: And in a crowded room, she would feel like she was by herself.
SPEAKER_01: But the power of touch can change this.
SPEAKER_01: During COVID, this made us scared.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us lost some people.
SPEAKER_01: It's a real thing, real issue, real sickness.
SPEAKER_01: But we allowed people outside of this body of believers and outside of God's realm to tell us what to do.
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says, all right, all right.
SPEAKER_01: I told you it's not a soapbox, it's not a soapbox.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, when the Bible says to lay hands on people, you have to touch them.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus promised that we would do greater things.
SPEAKER_01: That still applies through sickness.
SPEAKER_01: If he can touch a leper, I can touch a COVID patient.
SPEAKER_01: And if he chooses to take me that way, my life is his, it don't matter.
SPEAKER_01: You should have that honor and that um glory in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That God is on that throne in that place of your life, that if God says to lay hands on somebody, no matter what they have, you lay hands.
SPEAKER_01: My dad, him and I were talking about this, it was uh this last year, and he said, and he was real frustrated with it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, I understand that.
SPEAKER_01: I get it.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Do you know how many hospitals I went in and laid hands on people that have infectious disease, and I never got a thing?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you got things together in your heart, when you've got the seeds of righteousness in your heart, and you've been in his word, and you've been getting alone with God, and you know that he told you to do something, and it is what his word says, the devil cannot raise up against that.
SPEAKER_01: We need to understand back in the church house that we have the power and the authority through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to speak the things, and they have to leave.
SPEAKER_01: There's power in touch and fear.
SPEAKER_01: This is biblically speaking, it doesn't matter what's going on around us, we are not to operate in fear, in the spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's not of God, and anything that is not of God or does not honor God, we need to get rid of it.
unknown: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get on?
SPEAKER_01: Here's my soapbox, including your TV shows.
SPEAKER_01: All right, I'm back off.
SPEAKER_01: I'm back off.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, listen, guilty, but we let sinful nature we get mad at homosexuality and we want to raise up a stink about it, but we watch shows that have sexual immorality all the time.
SPEAKER_01: All right, all right, that was another soapbox.
SPEAKER_01: I left it over there.
SPEAKER_01: According to dignityhealth.org, touch is powerful and it is a universal way that we communicate.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about the different reasons that you use touch to talk to somebody.
SPEAKER_01: I was told earlier by uh Brother Howard back there that I talk a lot with my hands.
SPEAKER_01: I was asking if I was doing better with the microphone because I'm trying to lock it in and keep it in place.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yes, but you talk with your hands.
SPEAKER_01: We talk all the time with our hands.
SPEAKER_01: We use, even if you're uh holding hands with somebody, like yesterday I was driving.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't have my hand, but I know if she did have my hand, she would have squeezed it where it touched in the middle because I almost hit somebody.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize they were there.
SPEAKER_01: You know that thing between your window and the windshield, it's a big, huge chunk.
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly where that car was rolling.
SPEAKER_01: I had no clue.
SPEAKER_01: I spun the tires on that thing.
SPEAKER_01: That thing's got a good engine in it.
SPEAKER_01: I like it.
SPEAKER_01: But the different reasons, even when you squeeze somebody's hand to support or for sympathy, or during tough times, there was an agent friend of mine, I've told you this before, it's the woman that she let me drive a Range Rover because she something was going on and she was about to faint.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got to drive her Range Rover.
SPEAKER_01: Never been in one of those before.
SPEAKER_01: They have warmed and cooled seats as well.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, drove her to the hospital or the hospitality ER.
SPEAKER_01: But when she started feeling like something was going on, she started looking for my hand.
SPEAKER_01: She was sitting down and she was like, she was sitting on this low chair, and she said, Stephen, Stephen, Stephen, give me your hand.
SPEAKER_01: She needed that touch to feel secure.
SPEAKER_01: She needed that hand in her hand to know that it was going to be okay.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are walking through your life right now and you've let go of Jesus' hand and you're wondering, why is my life going this way?
SPEAKER_01: Peter understood this from a very literal standpoint is that nothing else, nothing else but faith when he stepped out of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: But then he started paying attention to the waves around him, and the storm was raging.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have started to pay more attention to the storm than you are the master.
SPEAKER_01: And he did not begin to be saved until he grabbed the hand of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all today need to put your hand back in the hand of the man who died on Calvary for you.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to stop holding on to the things of this world that don't matter, that do not amount to anything, and you got to put your hand back in the master's hand.
SPEAKER_01: Because touch matters, our hands matter.
SPEAKER_01: This can convey love, comfort, and in frightening situations, you will squeeze somebody's hand so tight or pregnancy.
SPEAKER_01: In each of those squeezes, it says something different, it delivers a different type of message, and each one feels a bit different.
SPEAKER_01: Even when coming from somebody you don't know.
SPEAKER_01: So researchers at Berkeley, they paired up strangers with a barrier between them with nothing but a little hole for them to put their hands in.
SPEAKER_01: They tried to communicate 12 unique emotions by briefly touching their paired-up person's hand.
SPEAKER_01: 55 to 60% accuracy.
SPEAKER_01: In a brief touch through a hole with no facial expression or nothing.
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Science has proven many facts about touch, but perhaps the most important is this that we are meant to touch and to be touched.
SPEAKER_01: We are meant to spend time in the company of other people and to make emotional connections.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: I love technology.
SPEAKER_01: I use technology for business all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It is so cool.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on an iPad right now on something I wrote on my computer, and it just magically shows up in the cloud.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand the cloud, don't ask me questions, I don't get it, I just know it works.
SPEAKER_01: And magically, I have it in front of me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm touching paper with my finger and moving it.
SPEAKER_01: But we live in a time today where we have a Facebook relationship with people and we don't have any depth.
SPEAKER_01: And so we come together on Sundays and we're like, oh, I saw this, I saw this, you think you're a part of their life and you never communicate with them outside of that.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're so disengaged with each other because we don't have authentic, real connection.
SPEAKER_01: We connect with each other from a distance.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great tool if you're not around your loved ones and all this other stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I use it for business and advertising and all this other stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's all great and well, but we have to get back to understanding that touch has a power to it, that a handshake has power to it.
SPEAKER_01: The laying on of hands has power to it.
SPEAKER_01: Stained glass cannot pray for the sick.
SPEAKER_01: Church walls cannot go into the hospital, they cannot be the hands and the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 4:40 says this.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what their diseases were, the touch, turn to your neighbor and say, touch.
SPEAKER_01: The touch of his hand healed everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Touch has healing qualities.
SPEAKER_01: Emotionally, physically, spiritually, touch matters.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus would lay his hands on the sick and they would recover.
SPEAKER_01: Every single one would recover.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 8, 14 through 24.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do a small bit of reading.
SPEAKER_01: But I hope this sets root in your mind and heart.
SPEAKER_01: When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John to powerhouses of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: When Simon saw that the Spirit was given, when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power.
SPEAKER_01: Is this not like our flesh?
SPEAKER_01: We see something God does, and we're like, hey, can I buy that?
SPEAKER_01: Not for sale, bro.
SPEAKER_01: You can't afford it.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19 says, Let me have this power too, he exclaimed, so that when I lay hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Wrong motives, right action.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20 says, But Peter replied, May your Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, it's Peter, y'all.
SPEAKER_01: May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God's gift can be bought.
SPEAKER_01: You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God.
SPEAKER_01: Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps he will forgive you for your evil thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: For I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24 says, Poor guy.
SPEAKER_01: He was like, Oh no, I said the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01: Pray to the Lord for me, Simon exclaimed, that these terrible things that you've said won't happen to me.
SPEAKER_01: So, what does this pattern in the New Testament that we see mean?
SPEAKER_01: With Jesus and then the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: There's power in touch.
SPEAKER_01: There's power in laying on the hands.
SPEAKER_01: This happens when we lay our hands on someone.
SPEAKER_01: I struggle back and forth with titling this message today.
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say put them hands on them.
SPEAKER_01: But most of y'all probably understand that as fighting, and I didn't want y'all to think we were talking about fighting.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to begin to understand that you have the authority and the ability in Jesus Christ to put them hands on them in the spirit, to lay hands on, not the spirit of slap, but to lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
SPEAKER_01: Why do so many church splits happen?
SPEAKER_01: Why do so many falls of churches happen?
SPEAKER_01: Because they begin to raise up a man or a singer or somebody in God's place, and then when they fall and mess up as we all do, oh now it's over.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, oh what's going on, God?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go start my own church over here.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need, do not put stock, and I'm saying this, I'm the pastor here.
SPEAKER_01: Do not put stock in a man that you need a man to come and pray for somebody that's sick.
SPEAKER_01: You have the authority in Jesus Christ, you have the power through the Holy Spirit that when you lay hands on somebody, when you lay hands on somebody, things change.
SPEAKER_01: Darkness flees because when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are now a carrier of the light.
SPEAKER_01: And when you receive the Holy Spirit, you are a carrier of the power, and you have everything you need to lay hands and pray and watch things change, to watch circumstances dissipate, to watch tumors disappear, legs straighten out, eyes to be opened, ears to be unstopped, dumb mouths to be able to speak the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: You have the power, and I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have an answer.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why God chooses to move through his people.
SPEAKER_01: Because if there's anybody else in the house, we are unworthy vessels.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing that I have done in my life that God should say, Oh, yeah, pick him.
SPEAKER_01: I have no clue, no clue, and no true evidence except for the mercy and grace of God that I am standing here with this microphone preaching to you about something.
SPEAKER_01: We are to be the hands and the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm so excited about the things we've been that have been going on in this church about going and serving House of Hope.
SPEAKER_01: And if I don't know, maybe if you look down at those people, you don't want to go get your hands dirty, then you need to pick another church because your pastor was once that person.
SPEAKER_01: I remember nights crying, Hazekite, alone, homeless, everything I own was piled in my car.
SPEAKER_01: Sin is real.
SPEAKER_01: People are lost and dying to go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: Who are we to not be willing to be the hands and feet of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: Because, like I said when I started off, God has not called the church people to sit, He has called us to go out and be the church to the lost and dying and the undone.
SPEAKER_01: To pray for those that come against us.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're right in your heart, you'll pray over your enemy.
SPEAKER_01: That's not me, that's the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for those that persecute you.
SPEAKER_01: Even David wrote about you set before me a table in the midst of my enemies.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to sit down and solve your issues.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to get into some uncomfortable situations because nothing is ever solved by doing nothing.
SPEAKER_01: You will never find freedom if you don't start dancing off.
SPEAKER_01: Those chains.
SPEAKER_01: If you never see that you are in chains, you will never find freedom.
SPEAKER_01: The devil's good at blinding us.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why God does, but he chooses his people to perform miracles through.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that one of the coolest things?
SPEAKER_01: That your hands, that your hands, I believe here in this church house today, there is somebody here who has the gift of healing in your hands.
SPEAKER_01: You may not know it yet, you may not understand it yet, but when you lay hands on someone, I want you to believe.
SPEAKER_01: It says lay hands.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe the people who are newest that don't know all the doctrine bull, they just believe what the word says.
SPEAKER_01: And they don't need all the other junk that comes along with the red tape and everything else in the church house.
SPEAKER_01: They just know that God said to lay on hands and they put hands on them, and things begin to happen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you one story before I before I before we close down.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna open up the altars.
SPEAKER_01: If you have spiritual, emotional, or physical healing that needs to happen in your body, I believe that your redemption and chains are gonna be broken today.
SPEAKER_01: Every person on the sound of my voice, I don't care if it's large or small, God cares about exactly where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Every situation, every season of your life, if you're not making him God over your seasons, you need to find that today.
SPEAKER_01: You need to submit yourself today.
SPEAKER_01: There's a story that my dad told me when I was younger.
SPEAKER_01: This brand new Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Talking about brand new.
SPEAKER_01: Like his wheels hadn't even been worn, never even had an oil change yet.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Brand new.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't even have five miles on him.
SPEAKER_01: And he was told, he was told, he didn't read it himself, he hadn't had time to study the word.
SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes we get caught up in studying the word for new Christians.
SPEAKER_01: You just need to believe that hunger will bring it to the word.
SPEAKER_01: He had no clue, was not read up, was not studied, did not go to a class.
SPEAKER_01: And he heard from a pastor that if you anoint people's heads with oil and you pray for them, they will recover.
SPEAKER_01: That boy took a large sam-sized bottle of Crisco to the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: That's not an exaggeration.
SPEAKER_01: His thought process was well, if a dab will do you, the bottle will make you better.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see things begin to happen and change right now in this hospital.
SPEAKER_01: He got up.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody was sick in the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: He went in there, he popped the cap off that thing, straddled that boy, and began to pour out the oil.
SPEAKER_01: He raised up in his hospital bed and was healed immediately.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we get too political, too smart, too well learned, and we forget that the Bible, it is what it says it is.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need no class to tell you that.
SPEAKER_01: All you need is faith and believe that when you lay your hands on the sick, they will recover.
SPEAKER_01: Not because you studied it, but you know who God is.
SPEAKER_01: If he's big enough to save and redeem you and set you free from your past, he's big enough to heal a hospital.
SPEAKER_01: We'll put all them people out of work.
SPEAKER_01: Why can't he do it?
SPEAKER_01: Why can't he?
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't lay your hands on and have faith.
SPEAKER_01: What sickness?
SPEAKER_01: What mental state?
SPEAKER_01: What relationship?
SPEAKER_01: What disease will not tremble at God?
SPEAKER_01: Tell me which one is so big that when you mention God's name, it will overtake the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing against an Almighty God can stand.
SPEAKER_01: And when you begin to believe, it's not something you just lay your hands on and you're like, oh, I think this is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: You know in your spirit, you know that you know that you know that when you lay hands and speak the name of Jesus, sickness has got to go.
SPEAKER_01: That it cannot stay, that depression cannot stay, anxiety cannot stay, cancer cannot stay, lupus cannot stay when we speak the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God is wanting to do something in this house, but we need people who are willing to lay some hands on them.
SPEAKER_01: Then when God speaks to you in the middle of the Walmart line, turn around and say, I don't know why.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta pray for you, girl.
SPEAKER_01: Let me see your hands.
SPEAKER_01: Because I guarantee you, if you are walking in the spirit and your steps are ordered by the Lord, your path will lead to them.
SPEAKER_01: I want y'all to I want this to resonate in your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to be in such a way in tune with God's spirit that you're just a miracle waiting to happen somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: That you're just a laying on the hands the split second away from seeing somebody being free of addiction in the middle of Walmart to be free of cancer while they're waiting in the waiting room to go see the doctor.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Oh, baby girl, I know a master who, if he can set me free, he can wash you clean.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing with roots too deep that my guy cannot uproot and make you cough out that thing now.
SPEAKER_01: Stand up on your feet if you believe God is the healer.