Pastor Don Dobbins (57:40)
That you cannot be afraid of your wounds Some Some of us are trying to hide our wounds God, why won't you take this away? What God wants you. And God is saying, I left the womb, though I resurrected you. Because just like Jesus, I'm sending you into a place where people need evidence that the only reason that they haven't believed yet is because you haven't showed up. But when you show up with your evidence unafraid and unashamed, that's going to cause them to believe. Because he says in another verse, greater words will you do. We are walking epistles. So what does that mean? We are the evidence of Christ in the earth. So your wounds have a purpose. Your pain has a purpose. Your trauma has a purpose. Your pain, it has a purpose. Don't be afraid of it. Don't hide. Your testimony has a purpose. How will they overcome unless you open up your mouth and testify? I don't care that they said I heard that story over and over again and you're gonna keep hearing it because my testimony is what gives me the power to overcome. My testimony shows my wounds, and somebody may need to hear that in order to believe. We're getting ready to close, but I feel like there are some people who've been resurrected with wounds. If that's you, why don't you stand to your feet? And you didn't know what to do with that wound. You didn't know. You didn't know that God was going to use that wound to help give somebody evidence of what he can do. That scar, that thing that looks ugly, that thing that scares you, the thing that you've been trying to hide, the thing that you've been trying to get away from, the thing that you didn't want nobody to know. God said, I'm going to use just that. I'm going to use that. Jesus being resurrected still left his wounds. I was driving and that came to my heart. And it came to my mind that a resurrected Jesus thought it was enough to still have wounds so that when he Came to Thomas. He came. We were talking about this on our call that he had already showed himself to the disciples. But Thomas mission in life was so important that he came back to show himself to Thomas to say, I know you need evidence to believe. So here it is. I believe God has come into this place for somebody who said, God, I want to believe again. I want to receive again, I want to trust again, I want to love again, I want to hope again. I want to have that same fervor like I used to have. I want to have that same fire like I used to have. He said, I'm here in the room for you. And maybe you are the person with the wound that God wants to send to a place that may feel closed off, a people that may feel closed off. They don't want to hear your testimony. And God is sending you back into a room that almost has shut you out because you have the evidence that they need. We have worshiped, we have praised, we have done all of that. And now the only thing left to do is just to surrender ourselves to God once again. Would you stand all over the building, Everybody standing? Everybody's standing, Everybody. We typically call an altar call and we will. And the altar is always open. But I want to make a special appeal. Always not take for granted that there may be somebody in here who really does not know Jesus, who said, I just don't have enough evidence to believe. But tonight something got into your heart, something slipped into your spirit. The glory broke into the crevices of your soul. And you are here and you want to accept Jesus. If that's you, we just want to give you an opportunity. If that's you, I want you to rush to this altar. If you say, I want to know who Jesus is, I've been following this road. I don't want to be like somebody that's coming and having no relationship. I want to come into relationship. I just want to take 30 seconds and invite you to this place called salvation. Invite you into this place to know him. If that's you, we got ministers, we got elders, we got pastors, we got preachers. We will pray you. But I want to give a moment just to invite you. I know sometimes we give the call out and you can stay in your seat, but I want you to make a decision. If that's you, I want you to make a conscious decision that I want to come into relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ, come on, church, let's celebrate. Not spectate. Let's celebrate. Let's celebrate. Come on, let's Get a minister. Rush, rush, rush to him. Rush to him. Don't make him wait. Don't make them wait. Rush to him. Rush to him. Yeah. Is there anybody else? If for everything we did, it was for this one soul, it was worth it. Come on. Can we celebrate a little more? Yeah. Somebody making a conscious decision decision that I don't want to be outside of the door. I want to come into the room where belief is. I want to make a second appeal that maybe as. As the person who put that question up, maybe, you know, there's something in your life that doesn't match up to where God wants you to be. And you're saying, I don't want to continue on in A, disobedience, B, lack of discipline, or I don't want to be standing outside the door while Jesus is moving. If that's you, I just want to invite you. I want to invite you to the altar. We want to pray with you. We want to make sure you're covered. We want to make. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to celebrate. Yeah, yeah, I know. And it doesn't mean I'm doing something bad or something wrong, all that. I just know I'm not really where I'm supposed to be. Like Pastor Don said, my heart. My heart needs to a little mending. My heart needs a little fixing. My muscle needs a little work. I need more stamina for this fight. I'm getting a little weak along the way, and I need some stamina. I need to be conditioned. If that's you, I just want you to come to the altar. I know that I'm in a fight, and I feel like I'm losing, and I just need somebody to touch and agree with me that God give me the stamina not to quit, not to give up, not to give in. I want to invite you to this session, sacred place for us to pray with you. This sacred place. Just. Just music is good. Just music is good. Yeah. If that's you, I'm. 30 more seconds. I just need somebody to touch and agree with me that God give me the strength I need for this fight. I'm in a fight. I'm in a battle, and I don't want to give up. I don't want to lose heart. We want to touch and agree with you. Yes, we gonna touch and agree with you. While they praying here, let's pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for our brothers and our sisters who are in this place. I thank you for the Thomases who are dedicated to you. But maybe somewhere along the journey our faith was damaged, our hope was damaged, our belief was damaged. God, I thank you that you will come through a locked door for us. You will come to any place, Father, because you care that much for us. That you will come and give us the evidence that we need. God, I thank you for showing your presence in this house. I thank you for the glory that descended in this place. I thank you for the weightiness of your presence. I thank you that you just didn't come empty handed, Father. But everything we needed, Father, we received. When your presence, God came into this place, God, we walked into your presence. You didn't just come in, Father, we met you here. God and I thank you. I thank you that our hearts were made better now. Father, for the souls at the altar, for the ones that came to know you, for the ones that came for refilling, for the ones that came because they needed God a touch, I thank you. I thank you for meeting them where they are and doing what only you can do. And that is be God in their life. Now, we honor you and we praise you and we love you because we receive the miracle. Miracle of the evidence. Thank you for the wounds. Because the wounds will be our evidence to a dying world that Jesus lives in. Jesus. Name somebody praise him right there. Praise him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. If you got, pray. We want to make sure we get information, make sure we connect. Don't leave them out there. Listen, we're getting ready to give and go. It is offering time. It's seed time and harvest. Let's get excited for seed, time and harvest. Seed, time and harvest. Come on. Can we praise God for seed, time and harvest? It is our custom and our tradition that we don't give out of obligation. We give out of discipline and we give out of love. And we give out of devotion. For some of us, we're paying our tithes tonight. For some of us, we're paying, offering as a response to the Word. For some of us, we are sowing a seed because we are believing God to do something miraculous in our life. And some of us believe that when we sow seeds, they come back to us. I'm a witness. I'm a witness that I am believing God to do something and my belief starts at my seed. If that is you, we have our PMTs in the aisle. If you need an envelope, just wave your hand, they'll give you one. We got people that need. If you want to give on your phone, there are giving instructions right there on the screen. In a moment, we're going to stand and hundreds of believers are going to stand because we believe that God sees the sacrifice of our seed. And what the old saints used to say, you can never beat God's giving no matter how hard somebody know about it. No matter how hard hard you try. Some of y' all don't try that hard, but that's okay. You can't beat it. The way God gives back to us, the way God does. Who wouldn't serve a God like this? Pastor Don who wouldn't serve a God like this if you got your seat in your hand. Stand to your feet, everybody standing. And I say this all the time. Sometimes in some giving moments, you are the seed. You're standing because you're saying, God, I'm giving myself back to you again. I don't have it tangibly right now, but what I do have is my. Yes, what I do have is my praise. What I do have is my offering of my life. And I'm standing because I'm the seed that I'm planting in the ground that God, I believe you will develop me, God, and you will grow me and you will use me and you will will break me and you'll give me so that your people will be blessed. I am the seed. Come on, wave it in the air. Wave it, wave it, wave it. Father, I thank you because we're giving into good ground. We're giving God out of obedience because we believe the word that you said. What we sow shall be gone, given back to us. That you give seed to the sower, Father, God, that. That what you have to do for us, God, you will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that we don't even have room enough to receive. And so we give in faith, not trusting the economy, not trusting our bank accounts, not trusting culture, but trusting you. And so we sow God in belief, knowing that you are a God of your word. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Pass your seat all the way to the left. Pass it all the way to the left.