When Worship Becomes Ritual: A Call to Christ-Centered Faith

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:05:03] What's going on, Multiply family? Welcome to church. If this is your first time and are ready to get connected, all you have to do is download our app. It's one of the best ways to get connected and stay connected. Well, service is about to get started in just a bit. Enjoy the rest of the countdown.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:05:18] Good morning. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Welcome to Multiply Church this morning. You know, we're so grateful that you're here. Whether you're watching here in the house or online, we're glad that you're here with us this

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:20:02] Hey, I had the opportunity last week to meet someone that was here for the first time, and they'd not entered church in over 30 years.
[00:20:14] They began to weep, and they told me, they said, I've never been to a church that loves me like this church.
[00:20:21] And he gave his life to Christ, and he was healed that day, and you know, right now he's in a group because of you.
[00:20:28] So can I say thank you for making everyone feel welcome here at Multiply Church, because it does take all of us.
[00:20:35] But if you are here this morning for the first time, can I get you to take a moment to fill out the Connect card that's located in the seat pocket?
[00:20:42] And on your way out, if you'll stop by the Connect Center, because we can't wait to meet you, and we have a special gift just for you being our guest today.
[00:20:51] If you're joining us online this morning, we encourage you to download the Multiply Church Family app.
[00:20:57] i'm new because we want to connect with you as well so we're so glad to have everyone in the house this morning and online can we put our hands together and welcome all of our first time guests

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:21:12] amen you know this morning we are so honored because we are a part of a family of churches you know there are over 10 churches uh that are meeting not only here in north carolina but around
[00:21:24] the world 10 multiplied churches that have all begun because of your faithfulness and because of your vision to be able to plant uh multiply churches and multiply disciples and one of our favorite times of years happens in march whenever we are able to be able to come together as a
[00:21:39] family so in march we're going to have our our brothers and sisters from france our brothers and sisters from africa our brothers and sisters from around north carolina they're all going to be coming together for our conference our family conference in march on march 13th and 14th and
[00:21:54] we want you to put that on your calendar so if you're a multiplier a member here at multiply church come and be a part of that meet your cousins meet your cousins you ever been to a
[00:22:04] family reunion and met somebody you're related to you never knew you're related to you're going to be able to meet some of your family members from around the world it's going to be exciting day so
[00:22:11] make sure you put that on your calendar and register for that event it's going to be an amazing time together you know it was about seven years ago uh whenever god laid on uh pastor doug's
[00:22:23] heart uh to to begin the cabarrus dream center we'd always had a an area down there we were reaching into the community but but god specifically laid it on his heart and and he tapped on the shoulder
[00:22:34] someone on our staff that god had given such an amazing favor to and over the past seven years god has really anointed her with an amazing uh ability to be able to reach into our community and partner
[00:22:46] with other organizations and with other government agencies to be able to see our cabarrus dream center expand and today we want to give honor to whom honor is due and so would you help me
[00:22:57] in welcoming pastor gwen stowers to the stage today as well as pastor julio it's always such an amazing thing to see the anointing of god as he lays it upon someone whatever he has called
[00:23:12] them to a specific task and over the past seven years we were running some of the numbers people have accessed the services at the dream center almost a half a million times in the past seven
[00:23:22] years. God has used Pastor Gwen to be able to partner, like I said, not only with other organizations such as present age ministries, gay pregnancy, but also with giving us favor with some of the government agencies to be able to create for the first time universal caseworkers so that
[00:23:40] whenever people access services here in Cabarrus County, they don't have to go all over the county to be able to do it, but they can come right to the Cabarrus Dream Center. And God has really used
[00:23:49] pastor gwen in such an amazing way and we as a church just want to say thank you pastor gwen for for just your faithfulness and your heart for the community your heart for reaching those
[00:23:59] who are minimalized many times and are marginalized in our in our community and god has given you such a favor and a blessing and as as you know god has so many things that he has done and is using
[00:24:12] pastor gwen even in this season through missions and through school of the spirit altar ministry And so a few years ago, God brought to us Pastor Julio, who has been running our corner field market.
[00:24:23] We're so thankful for him.
[00:24:26] And this morning, we're announcing that there's going to be a transfer of leadership for the Cabarrus Dream Center to Pastor Julio.
[00:24:33] Pastor Julio is going to be stepping into that.
[00:24:35] And we are so excited to see what God does in this new season.
[00:24:39] And Pastor Julio, we want you to know as a church, we're praying for you and that we are with you.
[00:24:44] We're not just praying for you.
[00:24:45] we're with you, that we're going to serve with you, and that we're believing God in this new season to see amazing things done. Can you one more time say thank you to Pastor Gwen and say
[00:24:55] thank you to Pastor Julio for all they do here at Multiply Church. Amen. Amen. As our ushers are coming this morning to receive the tithes and offering, it's because of people like Pastor Gwen and Pastor Julio who step out and they use the giftings that God has laid on their life,
[00:25:18] But there's so many volunteers that serve, so many multipliers that are serving in our Cabarrus Dream Center each and every week.
[00:25:25] And we want to say thank you to you as well.
[00:25:27] We could not do it without you.
[00:25:29] And we also want to say thank you for your generosity.
[00:25:32] It's because of your faithful giving and the tithes and the offerings, your faithful giving, and through Kingdom Builders that we're able to support all the ministries of Kingdom Builders.
[00:25:41] So thank you.
[00:25:42] You can give yourself a hand as well because it's because of you that so many people are being, come on, give your hand.
[00:25:48] It's for you.
[00:25:49] Give yourself a better hand on there.
[00:25:50] That's right.
[00:25:51] There you go.
[00:25:53] So we're so thankful for you.
[00:25:55] There are several ways that you can participate in giving today.
[00:25:58] You can give online digitally.
[00:26:00] You can go to our Multiply Church app, or if you're in the house today, you can give as we're passing the offering bags today.
[00:26:09] We want to say whichever way you choose to give, make sure that you are giving today in faithfulness and obedience to God as we're about to declare and watch God do amazing things in and through your generosity today. Can we stand together today? And we're going to give
[00:26:24] this declaration together today. Let's say this together. As the creator of the heavens and the earth, you are in control of all things. I recognize that everything I have is yours.
[00:26:37] Thank you for entrusting me with the money I have, the people I care for, and the positions I hold in my life thank you for meeting all of my needs daily thank you jesus for paying all of my debts
[00:26:51] in full i am giving with a cheerful heart and open hands out of faithfulness to my god i declare that according to your word you are increasing my resources and providing me with a harvest of

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_14]
[00:27:06] opportunities to bless others if you believe it say amen let's continue to worship i pressed on

[00:27:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:27:45] As the altar team makes their way forward at this time,

[00:33:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:33:05] this past week, Multiply Young Adults and SU Carolina had the privilege of going to SU Conference down in Lakeland, Florida.
[00:33:16] And together, we probably had over 30 young adults that were there.
[00:33:20] But we got to worship and experience an encounter with the Holy Spirit and the presence of God with thousands of other young adults in the room.
[00:33:31] And something happened that week.
[00:33:35] Something profound has taken place.
[00:33:38] And it's not just in Lakeland, Florida.
[00:33:41] It is all over the country.
[00:33:43] It is all over the world.
[00:33:45] There is revival that is breaking out.
[00:33:48] And you have to be pretty conscientious when you use that word because this is not about a moment that is happening within confined spaces this is a supernatural encounter taking place in people's lives and I want to introduce you to a young adult that came with us on this trip that's a part of
[00:34:06] our ministry that experienced God in a new way there but I believe the reason why we're sharing this is not because God did it there but God wants to do it here Suzette can you tell us a little bit
[00:34:18] about what God was doing, what you were experiencing before SU Conference, what was happening spiritually in your life, what was going on? Of course, so my name is Zach Smith. I'm 20

[00:34:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:34:29] years old. My whole life, I battled anger issues, depression, anxiety. Growing up, I didn't really have the best at-home life. Fast forward to I was 18 years old. I actually wanted to take my own
[00:34:41] life. I went into the woods. I was ready to take my own life. I had the rope around my neck, and right there and then God has saved me and ever since then I started believing
[00:34:49] but I was still I was still living by the flesh for a very long time smoking a lot of marijuana getting into the bad habits and ever since I moved to North Carolina about six months ago I just been obeying the Lord and my life has
[00:35:05] changed just like that so praise to the Lord so Zach I approached you about a

[00:35:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:35:13] a month and a half ago about going with us to SU Conference and you said no initially.
[00:35:18] There is some hesitation, but something shifted and you decided to come.
[00:35:24] What did God do?
[00:35:25] How did God meet you at SU Conference?
[00:35:28] What took place?

[00:35:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:35:30] Yeah, so at first I really wasn't gonna go.
[00:35:32] I didn't feel like it was meant for me, but I prayed about it and God told me to go, so I went.
[00:35:38] And the encounter that I had the first night there, first day. I got on my knees. Pastor Anthony Mitchell was just giving a sermon about God's love. I got on my knees and started bawling my eyes out and it really opened my eyes to what
[00:35:52] God's love is for all of us and I really recommend every single one of you guys in this crowd and online to get involved in community because it just felt so important to have that community
[00:36:04] around me, and God is seriously so great. God is great. Since that moment happened,

[00:36:15] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:36:15] what do you believe God has told you to do now that you're back home? I feel like I really found

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:36:21] my purpose and what I want to do with my life, and I just want to inspire others to follow Jesus and bring everybody I know closer to God, because if God could save me, He could save anybody in this

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:36:34] throne amen come on what we experienced this past week zach is of the thousands that had a supernatural encounter with the living god it sparked out of a moment where the speaker just called a moment of repentance in the room of deep confession in the presence of god in the midst of
[00:37:02] thousands of other young adults what I witnessed was a a generation so hungry and desperate for a move of God that they would do whatever it took to get out of the way and allow God to meet them
[00:37:17] right where they are the beauty of this is that I know that some of you in the room have experienced this before that God there's nothing in this world that convinced you otherwise that God met you in
[00:37:29] a moment, but we're believing that he wants to do it again, not just in Lakeland, Florida, not just the move of God we're actually seeing in New York happening right now, not in the many other countries
[00:37:41] that are experiencing revival in underground churches, but God wants to meet us right here at Multiply Church. This is not, this is not just a movement happening in specific areas.
[00:37:54] God goes where he is welcomed his presence abides where we welcome him I want to encourage you this morning to get down here and seek the living God that wants to meet you with love he wants to meet
[00:38:12] you with mercy I don't care what you did yesterday I don't care what you thought about this morning he wants to meet with you exactly where you are whether it's you personally or a wayward friend
[00:38:26] or a wayward family member, the living God wants to do it again.
[00:38:32] Welcome him this morning.
[00:38:34] Welcome his presence.
[00:38:36] God, we welcome you in this place.
[00:38:38] We welcome you, Holy Spirit.
[00:38:40] Do it again, God.
[00:38:42] Do it again, Holy Spirit.
[00:38:45] We welcome you in this place.
[00:38:47] It's in Jesus' name we pray.
[00:38:49] Let's continue to worship together.

[00:38:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:38:51] ...to start it at 10 o'clock in Lakeland.

[00:50:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:50:44] friends like she said the room was full of thousands of young adults and for 15 minutes they just started confessing their sin like loudly just confessing their sin and something broke out and that was Wednesday at 10 and the service hasn't stopped so for hours they've taken breaks
[00:51:07] and they've been navigating it wisely but just almost around the clock that's just worship and prayer and intercession and it's student-led it's college it's college kids that are leading this what he hear your pastor's heart this this morning we're not we're not trying to copy anything we're
[00:51:28] not trying to manipulate anything or work something up but I also don't want to miss if God's moving if God's moving in a certain vein, my heart's probably like yours. It's half broken and half
[00:51:45] like, dear God, what leader is next? Like, it just feels like leader after leader falling and falling. And I'm not going to go into all of that this morning, but I wonder if, can we just
[00:52:02] for a moment not look at anybody else but ourselves and I wonder sometimes church we're all guilty of this that we have this we feel like there's this public persona this image that we have to keep up in our own lives may that person that we are in public never be different than who
[00:52:27] we are in private. And wait, may we never get to the point in our walk with Jesus that we don't stay humble before his holiness, that we don't come into his presence daily and say, God, Spirit
[00:52:42] of God, like David, search me. Search me, oh God. See if there is any wicked way in me. And can we just take some moments this morning to do that? Can we ask the Holy Spirit to just look in? God
[00:52:57] is there anything sometimes sometimes one of the ingredients of revival is just confession is just repentance the judgment begins in the house of god so can we just take a moment this morning and say holy spirit not in a condemning way but holy spirit in a revealing way
[00:53:16] would you just show me any attitude any words any mindset any actions that would go against your holy spirit that would go against your word that would go against your son and then as soon
[00:53:28] as the lord brings those to your mind would you just say lord forgive me of those i invite the blood of jesus into my life let's just take a moment to do that this morning if there's something
[00:54:21] heavy on your heart this morning this altar is open the altar is a place of sacrifice the altar is a place where you come to die so that the spirit of god can live more fully in you maybe
[00:54:33] maybe some of you just need to bring that thing to the lord in a private moment this is not a it's a public act but it's a private moment the lord would say to you that that which you confess
[00:54:44] privately he won't expose publicly but it's the things that we don't confess privately that then because of his love he needs to expose so just want to open up these altars if there's something that you just need to bring before the lord i need to god i need to die to this i just need i need to
[00:55:00] to die to this attitude. I need to die to this behavior. I need to die to this habit. I need to die to this. Just take a moment before the Lord this morning. The Lord sent not his son into the
[00:55:43] world to condemn the world, but that through him he might be saved. There is no condemnation for

[00:55:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:55:50] those who are in Christ Jesus. So Father, we thank you for the blood of Jesus that washes white as

[00:59:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[00:59:32] snow. We thank you, Lord, for the gift of repentance. We thank you for your kindness that leads us to repentance. And so we call every chain to break, every ceiling to be shattered. In the name of Jesus, God, and I pray for an increase of freedom in this
[00:59:52] house, an increase of freedom of expression, freedom of worship, freedom of demonstration, freedom of manifestation, freedom to lift you high in our hearts and in this house.
[01:00:06] In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, and everybody said amen, amen.
[01:00:12] Come on, aren't you thankful for the love of God this morning?
[01:00:16] And man, as you make your way back to your seats, you say, Pastor, you took some more time this morning in worship.
[01:00:23] You're not going to preach a full message.
[01:00:26] absolutely I am. You owe me. You owe me. I know we had church last week, but the previous two weeks, you know, I figure I got three hours of build-up time. I'm gonna tap into some of that build-up
[01:00:43] time this morning. Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. I'm genuinely excited about the word that I believe that the Lord has for the house, and I believe that He wants to elevate you into accessing higher levels of victory. Amen. I believe that he wants you to access higher
[01:01:05] levels of victory. Exodus chapter 17. While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. And Moses commanded Joshua, choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I'll stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff
[01:01:27] of God in my hand. So Joshua did what Moses had commanded, and he fought the army of Amalek.
[01:01:34] Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites
[01:01:49] gained the advantage. Moses' arms soon became so tired that he couldn't hold them up. So Aaron and her found a stone for him to sit on, and they stood on each side of Moses holding up his hands.
[01:02:03] So his hands held steady until sunset, and as a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle. I want you to pretend like you're on your first roller coaster, whatever that rollercoaster was. We're going to practice this posture this morning. It was just very simple.
[01:02:26] When people's hands were up, hands up. Come on, hands up. Victory. Hands down. Defeat. When Moses' hands were up, victory. When they were down, defeat. When they were up, come on, hands up.
[01:02:41] victory. When they were down, defeat. And so I started, I started wondering, Kayla, I started wondering about this passage from a researcher's point of view. Because what a good researcher will always tell you is that correlation does not necessarily equal causation. Come on, you lost
[01:03:04] points on your master's thesis because you tried to tie something together and your professor was wise and they said there's a correlation but correlation doesn't always equal causation let me give you an example of that in June in North Carolina if ice
[01:03:21] cream consumption dramatically rose and at the same time if attendance at swimming pools dramatically rose and somebody came out and said this phrase which people love to say nowadays according to studies. Studies, studies show, studies show that ice cream consumption causes you to want to go
[01:03:50] swimming. Maybe. Also, say also, it may be warm and the underlying cause of the rising heat and humidity may at the same time cause you to want to eat ice cream and cause you to want to go swimming and so I started thinking about
[01:04:16] that okay there was a correlation between hands up victory and a correlation between hands down defeat but is there causation and so I went back to the scripture and I reread verse 12 and it just says holding up his hands
[01:04:31] so his hands held steady until sunset and then it says these three words read them with me as a result pretty pretty clear from scripture I don't need to do any more research on this God said Yahweh says that as a result of the
[01:04:53] posture of the hands I can hear you even if you are not talking back to me I can hear your thoughts I can hear your thoughts right now as a result he entered into victory. Pastor, lifting up hands in worship. I hear your thoughts. That's just not
[01:05:14] my personality. What is your personality? Stubborn? No, I'm just trying to be a blessing. What is your personality? Prideful? Disobedient? If God says that I have access to a higher level of victory and I don't do the thing that gives me pastor you don't know my heart I believe
[01:05:44] that Moses's heart was victory the whole time I don't think Moses's heart was like I want to win I don't want to win I want to win I don't I believe Moses's heart was in the right place but what God was teaching him was a principle
[01:06:02] that sometimes what is in your heart has to be transferred into the posture of your hands.
[01:06:11] Sometimes God wants to do things to break down the walls of your pride so that he can show you that the battle is not yours and it's not your intelligence and it's not your reputation and
[01:06:25] it's not how you carry yourself, but it's about his reputation. And as we begin to lift our hands and say, God, it doesn't matter how I look.
[01:06:35] It might not be my personality, but it wasn't my personality that saved me in the first place.
[01:06:41] It was you that saved me.
[01:06:45] Let me just, as long as I'm preaching good, let me ask you a question.
[01:06:52] North Carolina basketball fans, it's a good basketball state.
[01:06:58] Let me qualify that.
[01:07:00] This is a good college.
[01:07:03] basketball state and we're praying for the Hornets but if somebody told you if your college basketball team was down by four in the NCAA tournament down by four 40 seconds to go and if somebody told you if you lifted up your hands for the
[01:07:25] last 40 seconds of your of the game that it would guarantee a victory for your team oh suddenly it's your personality because you want you're the other team to win so bad that it doesn't matter how you look it's too many sports
[01:07:50] illustrations pastor all right if you walked into your favorite clothing store this afternoon and somebody told you that if you lifted up your hands for 30 seconds. 80% off and you'll find it in your size. Bless the Lord at all times. Lift our hands
[01:08:22] at a basketball game, but we can't lift our hands to the one who bled for you, to the one who walked Golgotha, to the one who took stripes on his back, to the one who put the crown of thorns, allowed the
[01:08:38] crown of thorns to the one who shed his blood. I'm going to lift my hands no matter what I look like.
[01:08:46] Praise the Lamb of God. We access a higher level of victory. Well, pastor, maybe there's causation there, but maybe this was just a one-time thing in scripture. Because there are some things, let me teach it this way. Everything in the Bible is true, right? Everything
[01:09:07] in the Bible is true. But that doesn't mean that we need to make a doctrine out of everything in the Bible. Can I explain this? So there was a time in scripture where Jesus healed a blind man by
[01:09:22] spitting on the ground, taking the dirt, making mud, and putting it into the blind man's eyes and the blind man saw. Did that happen? Absolutely. Wasn't a fable. Wasn't a parable. It happened.
[01:09:40] But that doesn't mean, and so there are principles from that.
[01:09:45] Principles like Jesus can heal whoever he wants to.
[01:09:49] Jesus can heal however he wants to.
[01:09:52] Principles like sometimes we need to listen to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will ask you to do things that you're not comfortable doing.
[01:09:57] I wonder if Jesus was a little bit uncomfortable.
[01:10:00] God, you want me to do what?
[01:10:03] But we don't make a doctrine out of the practice.
[01:10:08] so we have school of the spirit here where we teach people how to operate in the supernatural how to operate in your spiritual gift and everybody has a spiritual gift you need to learn how to access that and how to operate into it but we don't have we don't have a mud ministry
[01:10:24] so we teach principles in school of the spirit we don't teach spitting in the spirit like that's not it ha it happened but we don't make so maybe this was so pastor maybe even though there was not only correlation there was causation maybe it was just a
[01:10:46] one-time thing in Scripture so let's go back to Scripture is this a practice is this more than a one-time event is this a principle is this something that needs to be passed down well verse 14 says after the victory the Lord instructed
[01:10:59] Moses write this down as a permanent reminder and read it aloud to Joshua. In other words, God was showing Moses a principle that was a permanent principle. And the first thing that he told Moses to do with that permanent principle was pass it on to the next generation. I'm so glad
[01:11:22] that we can walk into the three-year-old's room and that Pastor Nick is teaching those three-year-olds to lift their hands because they haven't built up the layers of social acceptance that we have. That's why we got to teach them. We lift our hands. This is a principle, a posture
[01:11:46] throughout scripture. Psalm 63, so I will bless the Lord as long as I live. I will lift up my hands to your name. Psalm 13, lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord. Psalm 28,
[01:11:59] hear the voice of my plea for mercy when i lift up my hands it's not only a posture of praise it's also a posture of prayer it's a posture of intercession do you know that your hands can
[01:12:14] intercede when your lips run out of words i know the bible teaches that the spirit will intercede through us and he does but sometimes your hands will intercede i loved walking around this room during the 21 days of prayer and there were all kinds of different postures some people were
[01:12:31] sitting some were walking some were standing some were kneeling some were laying and some people were just lifting their hands to the Lord that's biblical Psalm 141 let my prayer be counted as incense so incense is a prayer that rises before the Lord and the lifting up of my hands as the
[01:12:52] evening sacrifice first timothy 2 8 i desire that in every place that men should pray lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling it's a response it's not only praise it's not only intercession it's a response of reception psalm 119 i will lift up my hands toward your commandments
[01:13:13] nehemiah 8 6 ezra was preaching ezra was preaching ezra blessed the lord and the people answered amen and they lifted up their hands the posture of lifting up your hands isn't just for praise and
[01:13:27] worship it's for the preaching if there's a promise that's for you if there's a promise for your family it's okay to lift your hand and say that's for me i got that i'm gonna take that
[01:13:39] spring training is starting and and i love baseball and i was thinking about a first baseman what if there was a first baseman that refused to lift his hand like you better hit me in the chest with the promise every time some of us are lazy about the promises of god no as long
[01:13:58] god as long as you just put it as long as you just but if i gotta if i gotta stretch for it a little bit some of you need the anointing of a first baseman some of you need to stretch for a promise
[01:14:09] a little bit you gotta lift up your hand i got that god i got that one i'm gonna grab hold it that for my family. It's for dependence and desperation. Psalm 143, I stretch out my hands to
[01:14:24] you. My soul thirsts for you like a parched land. For blessing and declaration in Leviticus 9 and Luke 24, Jesus lifted up his hands and he blessed them. In corporate worship, 2 Chronicles 6, Solomon
[01:14:38] stood before the altar and spread out his hands in prayer. Lifting hands means I surrender, I depend, I respond. I receive. I bless. I intercede. I worship. So let's go back to our story in Joshua
[01:14:55] and learn even more. So what really happens? What's going on? I don't want to teach lifting our hands as a posture of emotion. I want to teach you the biblical theology behind it so that you
[01:15:09] are doing it out of a deep knowing, not just when you feel it. So what happens when we lift our hands. Verse 14 says, I will erase the memory. I will erase the memory. I read that, and I thought,
[01:15:25] God, I have faith today that there are memories in the house that you want to erase. I believe that God can still erase your memory. I will erase the memory of Amalek. What was Amalek? Amalek
[01:15:42] is the thing that's been fighting you your whole life. Sometimes you will gain victory over the moment and the devil can't take you back to the moment because it's already, the moment is already under the blood. So he won't fight you in the past moment. What he will do is fight you in your
[01:16:00] present memory. And some of you are fighting things 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago that are under the blood of Jesus, but the devil's trying to fight your memory.
[01:16:13] I pray that it's wiped out from your memory in the name of Jesus.
[01:16:18] I need the children of the 80s to preach this to somebody because we used to have things called cassette tapes and the name of some of those cassette tapes was Memorex.
[01:16:30] It was Memorex.
[01:16:32] And heaven forbid you listen to Casey's Top 40 and hit record on the number two song because you didn't want to spend 99 cents on the single and you wanted it for free and you hit record
[01:16:42] and you got the download, but then your little brother or sister recorded over that.
[01:16:47] You had to go out and you had to buy MC Hammer for yourself.
[01:16:58] Here's what I'm believing for, that there was a way to erase everything that was on that tape.
[01:17:05] The physical tape was still there, but the memory of that tape was erased.
[01:17:11] I believe that what the Lord is going to do for some of you is if somebody, you're like, oh yeah, that happened. You're going to remember it as a fact, but you're not going to have the feeling
[01:17:22] anymore. I believe the Lord's going to reframe PTSD in your life. It's not, we believe, we believe in godly Christian counseling. We believe in hope and restoration and deliverance. Sometimes healing is a process, but I believe that God can also do it in a moment. And I believe God is going to
[01:17:44] reframe PTSD from post-traumatic stress disorder to praise and thanksgiving and salvation and deliverance. If you need something erased from your memory, I want you to lift your hand right now. God, wipe it clean. Wipe the abuse clean in the name of Jesus. Wipe the sin clean. Wipe the
[01:18:06] memory clean in jesus name like an eraser from heaven i know it happened but that's all i'm free from it i'm free from the feeling i know that somebody betrayed me but i'm not angry anymore i know the abuse happened but i'm free
[01:18:27] i know the abortion took place but i'm free i know it took place but you're walking with a great greater level of freedom than you ever have in your life.
[01:18:38] It can erase the memory.
[01:18:40] Lifting your hands, what this does, lifting your hands moves you from seeing glimpses of freedom to living in freedom.
[01:18:49] Verse 15, Moses then built an altar there and he named it Yahweh Nisi, the Lord is my banner.
[01:19:01] Remember, we're learning that how God will often reveal himself is there will be a context or there will be a prophetic act.
[01:19:09] And then God says, because you responded in this way in obedience, now I'm going to give you greater revelation of who I am.
[01:19:18] So not only was God teaching Moses that the posture of his heart needed to transfer to the posture of his hands to access greater victory in heaven, God said, okay, now I'm gonna reveal to you why.
[01:19:32] He says this, I'm Yahweh Nisi, I'm Yahweh Nisi, the Lord is my banner.
[01:19:37] See, lifting your hands accesses victory at a higher level.
[01:19:41] I started thinking about where do you wave a banner?
[01:19:45] You wave a banner usually above your head, right?
[01:19:49] So what the Lord was saying is Moses the entire time, I was winning the victory up here.
[01:19:57] When Joshua was on that battlefield and he was thrusting the spear down here, i was winning the victory up here and we and what he was teaching moses was every physical battle has a spiritual battle behind it and above it and so we've got to posture ourselves some of you are
[01:20:15] only experiencing temporary victory in your life because you're fighting your battles down here you got to fight your battles up here you got to fight your battles up here you have to begin to access victory at a higher level and tap into what the lord is doing in the heavenlies so it can
[01:20:31] be made manifest on this earth in the old testament a banner was more than a decoration it was a declaration banners were assigned to identify who you belong to to rally people together to give soldiers something to look to in the middle of the battle and to mark victory and
[01:20:51] and leadership. A banner was a declaration. This is who we fight under. This is who leads us.
[01:21:01] Verse 16, he said, they have raised their, this is a great principle too.
[01:21:07] There was a lot of lifting of hands going on in this passage. He said, they have raised their fist against the Lord's throne. So now the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after
[01:21:23] generation. We got to, we got church, we got to learn how to fight. We got to learn how to fight.
[01:21:31] We can't cower. We can't hide. We got to fight. But this is how the world fights.
[01:21:38] The world fights with their fist. And if we're not careful, we will counter fist with fist there's a I don't know what the weather is right now but I can tell the climate is angry it's y'all is angry out there and you don't need to I mean
[01:22:00] somebody just cross somebody a little bit and just whoosh have you seen it like ain't our cities are angry our meetings are hang it's angry everybody's everybody's raising a fist and again if we're not careful we'll counter fist
[01:22:18] with fist and what God was saying is they are raising a fist they're not raising a fist against you what's the Bible say they were raising their fist against who against God the fist that is being rate you think the fist is being
[01:22:35] raised against you it's not they're actually daring to raise their fist in in the face of god and so that's why we don't respond with a fist we respond with a lifted hand and what that does is it transfers the battle from your responsibility to god's responsibility
[01:22:54] come on that's a reason right there that i stand on a sunday or i stand in my prayer closet and i lift my hands and i declare not just with the posture of my heart but with the posture of
[01:23:08] of my hands that this battle belongs to the Lord. God, it's your problem. You fight my battles. You fight my battles. The victory is yours. That's what we declare, not just with our mouth, but with the
[01:23:25] posture of our hands. Lifting your hands releases you from fighting the battle and empowers the Lord to fight your battle on your behalf.
[01:23:37] Here's the last thing.
[01:23:39] The revelation was Yahweh Nisi.
[01:23:43] Yahweh Nisi, the Lord is my banner.
[01:23:45] And this is from the Hebrew word Nes, N-E-S.
[01:23:49] And this word meant three things.
[01:23:51] It meant a banner, it meant a flag, but it also meant a signal, a signal that lifting your hands is a signal to the Lord.
[01:24:06] I know that God sees you.
[01:24:10] I know that He sees you.
[01:24:11] He sees your name.
[01:24:13] He sees your pain.
[01:24:14] He sees your circumstances.
[01:24:16] And so it's not that God can't see you, but sometimes God wants us to reach out to Him so that it moves His heart to respond to us.
[01:24:29] And there are some times that I hear a testimony and I'm like, God, thank you for the healing.
[01:24:37] But hey, God, hey, God, over here, I signal you, God, hey, God, don't forget about me.
[01:24:46] God, I'm thankful for what you did in Zach's life.
[01:24:49] But maybe you've got a family member or a relative that you're believing for.
[01:24:54] You just need to flag them down, flag down.
[01:24:56] Hey, Holy Spirit, chase down, chase down my grandson, chase down my nephew, chase down my neighbor.
[01:25:07] Hey, God, over here, over here, God, over here, God.
[01:25:11] And I was thinking about a way to illustrate this.
[01:25:13] And I was thinking about what if you were shipwrecked on a desert island, a deserted island.
[01:25:19] And it was three days and you were out of food and you were out of water.
[01:25:25] and it was kind of foggy and misty and you had got a fire going but the mist and the fog and it was just, there was a little bit of smoke but there wasn't any flames
[01:25:35] and the smoke was getting kind of lost in the mist and then you heard drums off in the distance and you didn't think that there was a concert going on.
[01:25:43] You thought that maybe the natives were getting a little bit restless and you were in trouble and you heard a helicopter off in the distance.
[01:25:50] I bet I bet that there is nothing that you wouldn't do to flag that helicopter down and then I started I started thinking about like if there was a pole there from that ship and and a mass there and and if you like I wonder if you would just like run out onto the
[01:26:09] beach and like with everything that you had I'm being attacked and I'm tired and I'm thirsty and I'm hungry but I need to I need to flag down some help and so I thought I need
[01:26:21] to I need to demonstrate this and we got a good we got this amazing anointed by the way by the way this is a side note but you need to hear this art signals spirit unholy art signals unholy spirits but prophetic art signals the Holy
[01:26:44] Holy Spirit. And we got this amazing anointed team with the banners. And so I said, I need one of those banners. I need a banner. I didn't have Bree's number. So I texted Pastor Jamila. I said,
[01:26:59] Jamila, I need, Pastor Jamila, I need a banner. She said, I got you. And so I went, I went into the green room. She left it for me. I got back from a trip and I, and I took it and I enrolled
[01:27:09] it and it was kind of sparkly i was like nah i can't i can't do that i was texting i said pastor pastor jamila do you have anything she'll show you the text i said do you have anything more
[01:27:29] manly she said no so i thought okay i got i said i got this i got this and so i tore off another corner of my man card and i went to hobby lobby but hold on this is what this is what i made and

[01:27:52] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_11]
[01:27:52] this was pastor doug craft time yesterday and all across this house today i'm not trying to hype you

[01:28:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[01:28:44] up i'm trying to teach you that there is a biblical principle that there is victory the lord is jehovah nisi he is your banner i don't know why you need to lift your hands today i don't know if
[01:29:00] sacrifice or surrender or taking hold of a promise or erasing a memory or saying that I want to live in a higher level of victory but come on I need somebody to access the promises of God at a higher level than ever before come on let's
[01:29:19] declare this with our heart and our hands today

[01:29:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:29:23] speaking of gifts of the Spirit you know that our altar team seeks the Lord and

[01:31:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_12]
[01:31:38] They asked the Lord for words of knowledge.
[01:31:41] And so I got this one this morning, and I went over to Pastor Gwen, and I said, hey, either way is fine, because sometimes you'll get words of knowledge based upon knowledge, right?
[01:31:53] And so this isn't mining or anything like that.
[01:31:56] And so I just said, hey, did this person know what the message was on?
[01:32:00] And she said, no.
[01:32:02] So let me read this.
[01:32:06] It says, I was looking at an old raggedy flag.
[01:32:09] flying, and all I saw was a torn, worn-out flag. The Lord said the flag was torn and worn, but it's still flying. He said that what didn't finish you is time to mend what has been torn
[01:32:28] and restore what has been neglected and raise honor again. The storm left marks on you, but you are not disqualified you're actually evidence that you survived and the Lord is calling you to healing strengthening and renewal with heads bowed if that word is from you I want
[01:32:52] you to lift both hands high to heaven in the name of Jesus God I'm torn I'm a little ragged sometimes a ragged this is this is yeah lift just just lift those hands high I know your shoulders
[01:33:06] are going to burn, but lift those hands high. Sometimes a flag in battle is not torn because it was doing the wrong thing, but because it was doing the right thing and it was staying lifted
[01:33:21] high at the forefront and it was battling and it was on the front lines and it took some bullets and it took some slashes and it became an easy target for the enemy, but just begin to lift
[01:33:35] your hands and say god restore me god i pray i believe you for renewal in the name of jesus i pray for a renewing of minds i pray for a renewing of ministry in the name of jesus
[01:33:50] you're supposed to be in you're supposed to be in ministry that may not be a pastor but there's a ministry that you left because you felt disqualified from it and the lord is saying and jump back in, jump back into that ministry.
[01:34:08] In the name of Jesus, we pray healing restoration.
[01:34:11] You can put your hands down with heads still bowed and eyes still closed.
[01:34:18] Is there anyone within the sound of my voice that would say, pastor, the hand that I need to lift this morning is a hand that's gonna say, I'm gonna follow Jesus.
[01:34:29] You're here and you're not following Jesus.
[01:34:31] You haven't surrendered to Jesus.
[01:34:34] But today you want to give your life to him.
[01:34:37] There's something, I'm telling you, there's something about a lifted hand.
[01:34:42] If that's you, just as a point of reference, I'm going to count to three.
[01:34:45] When I get to three, I don't want you to hesitate.
[01:34:47] I want you to lift your hand high in the air by faith and say, Jesus, I want to follow you for the rest of my days.
[01:34:54] One, pastor, I'm not following Jesus.
[01:34:56] Two, I want to follow him today.
[01:34:58] Three, if that's you all across this house, just lift your hand high to the Lord.
[01:35:03] amen amen let's all repeat this prayer out loud as I say it let's all join our words in faith say dear Jesus I come to the cross and I ask you to forgive me of all of my sin say dear Jesus
[01:35:21] I ask you to come into my life and help me to live wide awake to the love of God and fully alive to my purpose. It's in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. Come on, let's give him a hand clap of praise
[01:35:39] and give somebody a good high five. High five somebody in the house. Thank you so much for

[01:35:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:35:46] joining us today. I hope this time of worship and the word encourages your heart and reminds you that you are deeply loved. My name is Noemi and it truly means so much that you chose to worship
[01:35:56] with us online. You're not here by accident. We believe God meets us right where we are and if today you made a decision to follow Jesus, please know we are celebrating with you. That is the most
[01:36:08] important decision you could ever make, and we would be honored to walk alongside you as you take your next steps in faith. One simple way to stay connected is by downloading the Multiply Concord app and tapping on Next Steps. There you'll find encouragement, helpful resources,
[01:36:22] and a church family ready to support you and pray with you as you continue this journey.
[01:36:27] Thank you again for being with us today, and we look forward to connecting with you soon.