Am I preaching to Baptists or Methodists? Mark chapter 3, when you've found your place, say amen. Amen. Y'all doing better than I am because I'm in Psalms chapter number 91. At least I was honest about it, amen? All right, amen, I'm there. Mark chapter number 3, verse number 1. The Bible said, and he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day. And they might accuse him. And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth. I like it when God calls you out. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they beheld their peace. And when he looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. Father, we bow in your presence. Thank you for the day. Thank you for the goodness. Thank you for the church. Thank you, Lord, for the word of God. Now these truths that you have put on my heart to preach to your people tonight, I pray the word of God. would have pre-course in Jesus' name. I pray there'd be a liberty to preach and a liberty to listen, and I pray there'd be a liberty to respond to the Word of God tonight, help our pastor and those that are on the mission trip tonight. Lord, would you breathe on them, put your hand on them, your hands about them, and we'll bless you in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You can be seated tonight. I have studied this text and I've looked for somebody to say something about the man's withered hand. But everybody I studied, they all got something to say about the Sabbath, and they've all got something to say about the Pharisees, and they've all got something to say about the accusations, but there really ain't nobody that's got much to say about this guy's withered hand. All we know is that Jesus showed up and these Pharisees are standing around. He sees a man with a withered hand and God gives him a hand. Don't you like it when God gives us a hand? I want to preach on this simple subject tonight. Lord, I need a hand here. You ever get in a bad place and you just say, God, I need a hand. God, I need you to help me. Lord, I need a hand here because the one I got has failed me, has let me down, has left me hanging, has hurt me. My own hand in my own flesh ain't never helped me one bit, but God, If you'll give me one, everything's gonna be all right. Lord, I need a hand here for things that I'll be done. Number one, Lord, I need a hand with my testimony. You check this guy, you think about it. Everywhere he went, he was the man with the withered hand. I don't know what his name was. Do you? No, we don't. We don't know what street he lived on, what address he had, what his social security number was. Does anybody have any idea what his email address was? Do you know what his cell phone number was? Did he have a Facebook? Absolutely not. All we know about this guy is that he had a withered hand. And brother, that's not the kind of testimony we want to have. Amen, we go to the Mount Carmel Baptist Church. Amen, we got a job and we're in the community. And brother, there was one part of this guy that defined who he was and what he was, and that was his hand. If you look up the word withered, it just simply means, and the big definition that it would give, the best way to define it is it was dry. Brother, there was a part of this man's life that had dried up. And it defined everything about him. Brother, I don't want to be dry to you. I don't want to be dry in my preaching. I don't want to be dry in my prayer time. I don't want it to be dry in my Bible reading time. Amen, and every once in a while it's going to be dry. But we do not need to allow that one little part of us that may be dry to be the defining testimony of who we are. Sometimes, and I'm going to be honest with you, the Bible reading does, we get dry up, and not because the Bible's dry, but because we're dry. Sometimes our prayer life will get dried up, and sometimes the church goes through seasons, and sometimes it's just flat out dry. Maybe your marriage is running through a dry spot tonight. Amen. We'll have to face and fight these dry times. But we dare not allow that to define who we are. Amen. It was dried up. Amen. Has something in your life just dried up? Lord, I need to have my testimony. It was dry, but it was almost dead. It wasn't gangrene or it did not need to be amputated. It was dry and almost dead. His hand had, if you can say it like this, his hand had one foot in the grave and one foot on the banana peel, and it was almost all the way dead to bring any life back into it. Hey brother, we don't need to be that way. I don't want to be in between. If we are going to be in between living and dying, I'd like to be toward that living side where we got life in every area of our life. I don't want to be that almost dead crowd. When you look at this guy, you say, hey, that's a part of him. Man, I don't know why they ain't cut that thing off yet. I don't know why he hasn't had it amputated or had a fake arm put on or a hook like Captain Hook. I don't know why because it wasn't all the way dead. It was so close. It almost was. May I ask you tonight, are you almost dead? Oh, Lord, I need a hand with my testimony. Amen. This hand, his testimony, that was that there was a disability in his life. Amen. It disabled him. Are we on spiritual disability tonight? He didn't have the ability to work like others. I mean, he couldn't hold his wife's hand with that hand. He couldn't hug his wife with that hand. Luke tells us that it is the, right hand, it was disabled in his affections, it was disabled in his attention, and spent most of his time giving attention to this hand. It brought distractions to himself. It brought distractions to other people. Now those of us that have raised our children, and those of you that still have small children, doesn't it drive you crazy when you get around and somebody's got a disability, and your children just sit there and stare? I mean, some adults in our midst tonight, you're just like a child, you stare at them too. I mean, somebody's nose, somebody's born with her nose upside down and you just sit there and stare at it. I mean, I've never met nobody like that, but that's my illustration tonight. Amen, it brought a distraction everywhere he went. That withered up hand, that was the first thing anybody's seen of him. You see somebody wearing a cast, he's got a broke arm. That's the first thing. How'd you break your arm? What's going on? Got a cast on the foot. How'd you break your foot? What's going on? Can you imagine having that disability? Hey, man, we don't make fun of folk like that. My wife and Phillip have a brother. He's very autistic and you don't have to be around him two seconds to realize that he's autistic and he can't communicate. And when you get around him, he's He's got the attention of everybody. And I'm not saying that in a negative way, but it just, our disability sometimes, it brings distractions and it gets us focused on the disability. It gets us focused on what's holding us back instead of us having our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and practice in Hebrews chapter number 12, looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith. Amen. off of Christ and get our eyes on our disability. Name a thousand things. Family trouble, church trouble, money trouble, heart trouble, job trouble, we've all had it. There's some part of your life, hey, your church may be going well, and your church attendance may be going well, but there may be trouble at home, and that part of your home is dried up. And maybe it's going good at home and it ain't going good at church and that part of your life's dried up. Maybe it's going good at church and going good at home, but on the job, man, it just stinks. And there's a part of your life that is dried up. There's a part of your life that has got us distracted. Maybe I tell you we're easily distracted sometimes, are we not? Lord, I need a hand with my testimony. See, not only did this hand bring about distractions, but it could have brought about deception. He had been that way so long that maybe he thought this is the way it's supposed to be. Have you been dry? Have you been dead? Have you been distracted so long that you think that's the way life is supposed to be? Absolutely not. And it could get deceptive and thinking, well, I ain't had God touch me in a while. That ain't the way it's supposed to be. I ain't been blessed out of the Word of God in a while. That ain't the way it's supposed to be. I prayed, but God hadn't answered any prayers. That ain't the way it's supposed to be. We do not need to get deceived and deceive ourselves and say, yes, this is the way it's supposed to be. Absolutely not. This ain't the way it's supposed to be. Amen. Well, Lord, I need a hand with my testimony. I don't want to have the testimony of somebody that's got the mully grubs, somebody that's bitter, somebody that's fake, somebody that's deceived, somebody that's distracted. God, I need a hand with my testimony. This guy needed to move on from being the guy with the withered hand. Number two tonight, Lord, I need a hand with my troubles. Brother, you talk about getting in trouble. You talk about being a trouble to him. It was this withered hand. Brother, I tell you, he had to eat with one hand. He had to wash with one hand. Had to comb his hair with one hand. Had everything he did. He was the one-handed man. And brother, this is a very troubling thing in his life. This hand went with him everywhere he went. It went with him to church. It went with him to work. It went with him to the synagogue. It went with him to bed. It got up with him. could not get rid of this hand, even if he would have cut it off, the memory of that hand would have went with him to the graveyard. You know what I'm talking about. Whatever it is that may be troubling you, let's name a thousand things, everywhere you go it's there, ain't it? You go to bed thinking about it. You wake up thinking about it. It troubles and troubles and troubles. God, I need a hand with my troubles here. Amen, and it affected his sight. Hey, brother, may I apply this to our countenance? Brother, and I understand there's gonna be times when we're carrying our cross. when we have a burden for sinners, or a burden for revival, or maybe trouble has come, that our countenance, we're not gonna fake it, and I'm not one of these people that can turn the tear ducts on and cry anytime I want to, okay? And I'm bad to pay attention to people when they're up crying, I'm bad to look and see if they actually got tears coming out of their eyes, all right? I'm not into this fake stuff, I don't like it, I never have, and I don't wanna be that way myself. Neighbor, I'm telling you, you cannot, we cannot, the sight of it, everywhere he went, he couldn't get rid of it. It was a sight, I count this. I mean, I've had people in recent days, and I didn't like it when they did it, speak to me and say, rejoicing the Lord. Do you have anything to be happy about? And I'm sitting there saying, would you shut up? Tell me to smile. Well, then you go down the road or whatever and you get to thinking about it, you know they're right. They're right. What's wrong with my countenance? Why do people look at me and when they see my countenance turn around and walk out the other way? I think I said it the last time I may have preached here, do you know that some people can lighten a room up by leaving it? Walk out and it lightens everything up. Amen. If you're that kind of person, get right with God, please. God didn't design the Christian. I know that Jesus was not shouting, amen, with the cross on his back. He didn't have a smile on his face when the cross was on his back. He wasn't smiling when they drove the nails in his hand. I know there's going to be times when we're under a load that is going to affect our countenance, but neighbor, I ain't talking about that. I'm talking about that withered hand. They're causing us to have a bitter countenance and a bad countenance. Oh, we ought to have a smile on our face every once in a while. The sight, am I telling you right tonight? The sight of it can affect our sight, our countenance. It can affect our spirit, our attitude. Oh, I pray often, God help my attitude. Help me to talk to others right. Help me to think about others right. Help my spirit toward others right. Help my spirit toward you to be right. God would you please with your spirit touch my spirit so my attitude would be correct. My attitude be right. That's easy to preach sometimes but hard to live. Hey man what kind of spirit would it have gave him? It would have gave him an insecure spirit. I can't do it, spirit. Well, I got a withered hand, I can't do this. I got a withered hand, I can't do this. Well, I got problems in my marriage, I can't do this. I got problems in church, I can't do this. Can't do it, I ain't never got nothing done. I tell you what, we better get out of our vocabulary. It's I can't do it. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. We have no excuse not to live for Jesus. I was reminded today of our dearly departed friend, Brother Sammy Allen, in the latter parts of his years. I heard him say it when he was in his 50s. I heard him say it when he was in his 80s. He said, we better do all we can while we can. And he wore his body out for the glory of God. Hey man, we gotta get rid of this insecure spirit that we carry around sometimes and just do and be what God has called and told us to do. Produce a spirit of insecurity, it produce a victim spirit. Man, I do not want to be one of those guys that's walking around wanting everybody and their brother to feel sorry for them. Do you wanna be a victim? Is that the kind of attention that you want? Is you want everybody to feel sorry for you? Put your lips out, somebody's gonna feel sorry for you. That's not the kind of attention the Spirit-filled child of God should be desiring. We're not victims, we're victors. Anybody in here saved by the grace of God? Anybody in here washed in the blood of Jesus? Anybody in here on your way to heaven tonight? We're not victims. We're victors. Amen. And if you're a victim, your children's gonna be a victim, and your grandchildren's gonna be a victim, and you better get rid of that victim mentality. We're not martyrs. We're not victims. We're victors in Jesus tonight. Amen. I'll never forget. I'll never forget. I was playing football for coach Mack combo years ago. I may have told this year before, but it just popped up in my heart and I never forget. We was losing. We was getting our tails beat. I mean, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they wound our clock, cleaned our playoffs, whatever you want to call it. I'm sitting on the sideline. I said coach we can whoop his team. Just put me in just put me and we can whoop him coach I believe we can bring her back. He puts me in one play buddy, and they run over me and buddy I go back over there to the to the sidelines and old coach is laughing me said Morgan if everybody had your heart We might could have won this game, but it ain't happening today, son. I Brother, we are not victims. I'm tired of this losing mentality that we have in our Baptist churches. We are on the winning side, good neighbor. Have you read the back of the book? Thank God we win. Thank God we've got victory at Calvary. Thank God we've got victory in the blood. We've got victory in the word of God. We can have victory in our hearts for the glory of God. Lord, I need a hand here with my troubles. Give you that victim spirit. It'll give you a resentful spirit. Resentful toward others that have it going on like you don't. I don't want to name anything, but you just use your imagination right here. Can you imagine this guy going around looking at people that had two good hands and getting resentful toward them? Hey man, people that got it going on in church, going on in the family, going on a job, and you ain't got it as good as they do, and you get resentful toward that person. It's not their fault you're in the shape you're in. You can't blame this guy's mama. You can't blame his daddy. He was born to probably born like this. We was all born messed up, wasn't we? We was all born crooked, wasn't we? I got a hasten on tonight. I don't get a resentful spirit. Don't get a vengeful spirit hurting others because you hurt. Buddy, I tell you, if you ain't careful, you'll lash out like an old beet-whipped dog sometimes. And you'll bite the hand that's trying to feed you. Get a vengeful spirit, get a fake spirit, a spirit of denial. Why don't we all go around being in denial? I'm all right. I'll never forget it. Some of y'all remember a couple years ago, I let my twins talk me into going snowboarding. Dumbest thing I've done in a long time. I mean, I'm a snowboarder. I can do it. I got it going on. I mean, we've done it for years, and I can do it. I've been 10 years since I went, and surely I can pick it back up like riding a bicycle. And me and J.P. and Michael was on the snow lift there, and I had two big old Goliath men, one on each side. I said, I'm going down the middle. You boys go down, you go to the left, you go to the right. And I mean, I'm going down the middle, all right? Now, we ain't gonna crash. This is gonna work out good. I stood up. I got up and stood up. And I got one in one hand and the other in the other hand, and we all went. It was all my fault, and I done told them how to do it. That lift chair grabbed my board, twisted my ankle. I felt it pop and heard it pop. Had to get on the ride of shame and ride all the way down the mountain where the meds had to take me down. My children, my twins, my loving, precious twins came down, at least came down to check on me, and looked at their clock and said, well, we got two hours, Daddy. You going to be all right down here till we get done? And if it would have been an emergency, I'm sure they would have put their boards up and took me on to the hospital. But I said, yeah, y'all go ahead and have fun. I think I'll be all right. I got home. And when I got home, I got out of the truck. I crawled to the front door. When I got to the front door, I stood up on my left foot. And when Stacey opened that front door, because I had a meeting to go to that I really wanted to go to in the next couple of days. So I said, I'm just going to walk in here. I'll just tell her I sprained it or whatever. And she opened the door, and I took one step, and I fell on the floor. And if you tell anybody I said this, I'm going to get you. And I started crying like a baby. I'm talking about real tears coming out of my eyes. You know what my problem was? I was in denial. I'm not hurt, I'm okay. Do you know that crowd that wouldn't go to the hospital unless they was passed out and had to wake up in the hospital? Hey, we got babies sitting on our church pews. Oh, I'm all right. There ain't nothing wrong with me. Oh, no, no, this hand, there ain't nothing wrong with this. I'm not dry, I'm not back-slipped, I'm not hurt, I'm not withered up. You better get right with God and get real and tell the truth to God about the shape you're in. Until we get honest about ourselves, we're never gonna get help. It would've produced a fake spirit. It would've produced a fearful spirit. Well, I'm scared. Covered with fear. Paul said, told Timothy, for the Lord's not given thee spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. It affected his sight, affected his spirit, but then it could affect your strength. At his best, he was half of what he could've been. And I know people only with one arm and one leg. They're bound and determined to prove everybody wrong, and that's fine. But still, there's a disability. Lord, I need help with this troubled spirit. I need help on my testimony. Thirdly tonight, and I told you I was gonna preach quick, I need help with the truth. Jesus, I need help with the truth about myself. I mean, I got this withered hand, and I ain't seeing it like everybody else is. Lord, would you let me look through your eyes and see what you see? Would you let me see what my wife sees? Would you let me see what my children see? Would you let me see what my co-workers see? Would you let me see what everybody else does? God, let me see it. This is how I am. This is who I am. This is why I am the way I am. Truth about myself. Search your heart, you'll find the answer. Truth about my sin. Not everybody else's, but to mine. Owning up to our own sin. Wait a minute, what if he was born like this? Can we blame it on his parents? No, but we cannot allow bitterness about this disability, about this thing in our life that we can, and name a hundred things. Every one of us is gonna have things come in our lives that we can't control. There's going to be times when God's going to let things happen in our lives. I mean, and I'm kind of wondering, Lord, it would have been nice if you'd have gave me a heads up. Lord, it would have really been nice if you would have asked me if that was okay with me for you to allow that to happen. God don't work like that. never has and never will. That's why we pray for grace. That's why God gives grace. That's why God gives strength is to help us in these things that we cannot control. That's why the Bible said, casting all your care on him for he'll care for you. Lord, I need a hand here with the truth about my surroundings. He was surrounded by false teachers. He was surrounded by accusers. People who would tell him he was all right. Obviously, nobody told him about the pool of Bethesda. All you gotta do is go over to that pool and when the angel shows up and troubles the water, just get in and you're gonna be healed. He wasn't like the impotent man that had to have somebody pick him up and throw him in. I mean, if I'd have been in those days, an evangelist in those days, and all you had to do was throw somebody, I wouldn't ask them if they wanted to get in. I'd have picked them up and throw them in whether they liked it or not. But we're not Calvinists, we're Baptists, so there you go. This guy, boy, the truth about us are people that can't help us but want the truth about the Savior. Lead us to Jesus. shows up right place, right time, providence of God, and there's Jesus. And the Bible said Jesus touched this man because he was angry at somebody else. You read the text, read the context, he was angry, amen, there's a man with a withered hand, he heals him in the face of the Pharisees. It don't really matter why. God's motive's always right. His motive is always pure, and it's always holy. Hey, God, hear me. Hey, Lord, I need a hand here, and last one, I'm done. I need a hand here with my touch. You study it. Jesus never touched this man's hand. Study the parallel Gospels. He never touched him. Never put his hand on his head, his hand on his hand. He just spoke to him and this is what he did. He said, stretch forth thy hand. And that man with obedience to Christ and faith in Christ stretched forth his hand and was healed on the word of God. Everything that God did for this man was based on his word. So now he can take that hand and touch somebody else. Beloved, if you don't get nothing else, I'll preach tonight. God uses us to touch others. I went in a church house that night. I was lost and on my way to heaven. God used them fired up men of God to touch my heart. Time and time again, I'd be needing help. I'll never forget one time I was hungry for God. I mean, I was hungry! And I was so hungry that I knew there's a funeral going on that day. And I didn't even know the person that died. And I went to it. And old brother John Saunders was preaching the funeral. That old brother John got up. I love the Lord. Has God been good to me? That brother, he hadn't been preaching 30 seconds and his spirit touched my spirit and God used him to touch my heart that day. And I walked out of a funeral of somebody I didn't even know. Fired up, revived up, filled up for the glory of God. You, I didn't wake up this morning saying, Lord, who am I gonna touch today? Lord, who am I gonna help today? Who am I, thou great evangelist, am I going to inspire today? No, we don't go around with that mentality, but if we're right with God, we will touch somebody else's life. And I don't wanna touch them with a withered hand. I don't wanna touch them with a dried up hand. Oh no, my beloved friend. He didn't, he did everything. Lord, I need help with my touch. I need a hand with my touch. Why? So I can get a grip on some things. So I can just grab a hold of it and not turn loose of it. I've got to get a grip. God, give me a grip. I'm not turning loose of it. A grip on what? A grip on some assurance. Now you, let's talk, let's compare this guy to Most Baptist and their profession of faith. Do you think this guy ever wondered after Jesus healed him if he ever got healed? Buddy, I'm telling you right now, you get away from God and you get to forgetting He ever saved you. You ain't reading your Bible and you ain't praying and you're living your life in doubt. You need a hand from God to get a hold and be reminded of the fact that God saved you. Get a grip on some assurance. Get a grip on some access to God. Get a grip on my allegiance. I'm staying with God. I don't care what y'all think about this old guy. I don't care what y'all think about him anymore. I don't care what you say about him anymore. You can laugh at me, make fun of me all you want to, but look at this new hand. I'm staying with the man that gave me my hand. Get a grip on your allegiance and stay with God. We don't quit. We don't stop. Brother Sammy taught us well. He said, I've been on the narrow way my whole Christian life. He said, I've never seen nobody coming back going the other way on the narrow way. He said, I see them going both directions on the broad way, but not the narrow way. Never get a grip on our allegiance with God. Get a grip on our associates. I'm hanging with Jesus. I'm hanging with this crowd, his disciples. This is my crowd. I need a hand so I can get a grip. Lord, I need a hand so I can glorify you. If he didn't do anything else other than take that brand new hand and raise it up to heaven and say, blessed be the name of God. God, would you give me a hand so I could worship you? Would you give me a hand so I could praise you? Would you give me a hand so I could exalt you? Would you give me a hand so I could magnify you? God, let me be like the psalmist and your praise continually be in my lips. Help me to always have something good to say, amen, about the church and about God and the Bible. Let me glorify you in my And I'm gonna tell you, I believe that's one of the main reasons that God saves us anyways. And so we can turn back with a loud voice and glorify God. How long's it been since you worshiped? How long's it been since you testified? How long's it been since you got the can't help it? How long's it been since you've been by yourself and you had a good song on or you read your Bible or you was praying and God got real to you and you had to lift your hands up to heaven and praise him for the glory of God. I need a hand here so that I can lift that which was once dry and glorify God. Praise and gobble my new hand. Thank you, Jesus. Lastly, I'm done. I need a hand here so I can give. What do you mean? What'd this guy have to give? Well, I promise you he didn't have nothing in his right pocket. He didn't have nothing in his right coat pocket. Anything he had had to have been in his left pocket. So he could take whatever he had on that left side, pull it out. Huh, wonder what it's like to hold something in this hand now. Put a piece of money in our hand and put it in the offering plate. Can you imagine what it must have been like when this guy went home? He couldn't hold his wife's hand with our hand. Anytime he'd have to hug his wife, it'd have to be from the left side. Maybe this guy went home this time and reached over with his right hand while she wasn't looking and put his hand on her shoulder. And then she got to looking. You've never hugged me from this side. What's going on? And then she looked over. Where'd you get that? Let me tell you about this man named Jesus. Let me tell you about what he just told me to stretch forth my hand, and here it is. Oh, glory to God! And the children, oh, I guarantee you, they're scared of that hand. They wouldn't want to touch that hand. Hey, Dad, they go to school the next day. Y'all ain't gonna believe what happened. My daddy was over at the synagogue and met Jesus, and Jesus gave him a new hand. I can't wait to meet this fellow by the name of Jesus. And brother, God was glorified. Lord, I need a hand here. We're standing all over the building. I preached longer than I promised I was going to tonight.