What's Haunting Your Heart ?

And the Lord wanted me to tell you something about

all these ghosts you've been living with, about all this

guilt you've been living with, about all this hopelessness you've

been living with, about all this offense you've been living with,

all this sorrow you've been living with, all these threats

you've been living with, telling you you can't, telling you

you won't, telling you you'll never, telling you you're not.

God said, now you know they're there, you got some.

For them, Psalm fifty five, Verse one. Listen to my prayer,

Oh God, do not ignore my plea. Hear me and

answer me. My thoughts trouble me, and I am distraught

because of what my enemy is saying, because of the

threats of the wicked, For they bring down suffering on

me and to sail me in their anger. My heart

is in anguish within me. The terrors of death have

fallen on me.

Within on, he said.

They bring down suffering, and it causes anguish within me,

and now it has overwhelmed me.

It's come on me.

Everything that's on you today is a result of something

that you were allowed to get in you.

We're gonna deal with this today, he said.

Fear and trembling have beset me. Horror has overwhelmed me.

I said, I wish I could get out of here.

I would fly away and be at rest. I would

flee far away and stay in the desert. I would

hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest

and storm. And it kind of goes on and on

like this for twenty two verses.

I want to jump all the way down to.

Verse twenty three, where he declares definitively, but you, God

will bring down wicked.

I need the.

Response of people to pipe up and kind of take

over the atmosphere now.

But you, God will bring down.

Yeah, you, God will bring down the wicked into the

pit of decay. The bloodthirsty and deceitful will not live

out half their days.

But ask for me, ask for me.

If this is the chorus of your heart, point to yourself,

say ask for me.

I trust in you.

Touch ten people, tell them ask for me.

I trust in God, Ask for me, Ask for me.

Remain standing, remains standing. I want to talk to you.

Cut all the music because I want to talk to

you for the remainder of our time today about this subject.

I want to talk about the haunted heart, the haunt

to heart, you may be seated. This guy's struggling.

Could you tell by what he was saying there in

some fifty five he's going through something. He doesn't say

exactly what. I'm kind of glad he doesn't, because if

he said exactly what he was going through, you might

not think that what he's saying pertains to you. But

the fact that he didn't tell us exactly who his

enemies were, but he did tell us how they made

him feel. Let us know that whatever enemies we're facing today,

it's okay for us to tell God how we feel.

Or is it you know?

Is it all right to say things like this, to

say my thoughts trouble me? Is it okay to start

a prayer with God? Why aren't you listening to me?

Where are you? I can't see you, I can't feel you.

Trying to believe in you. Apparently you're busy blessing Bobby,

because I am struggling and hurting.

My soul, my heart are in anguish within me.

This guy probably needed to join an E group, because

if he had joined an E group, then somebody could

have told him, hey, man, come on, have some faith,

you know, Let.

Go and let God ay.

Man. Sometimes you just got to trust his unfailing promise,

for his word is better than life. The grass withers

the flower of faith, but the word of the Lord

will stand forever. And then he would have faith in

his heart, you know, because if you have a heart

of faith in your heart.

Won't be in anguish.

You know, if you have a heart of faith, you'll

have joy and stuff like that, all these goodies that

Jesus comes to bring, like freshly bake cookies for the soul,

you'll be with your own saying, he could have had

a better attitude, and uh, I would like to tell

him that today that you know, Cheer up, man, Come on,

count your blessings, name them one by one, and it

will surprise you what the Lord has done.

He's in here talking about you know, Fear and trembling.

Have beset me, Horror has overwhelmed me. This guy must

not know God very well, you know, because the God

I know, when he comes into your life, he gives

you confidence and strength. This guy, this guy needed to

come to Elevation Church.

We could have told him.

We could have told him, yeah, man, we get happy.

Come on, your best is ahead. They could have told

him all that. And and this guy is apparently apparently

has a kind of a weak heart of faith, because

only a person who doesn't have strong faith says things

like you know, when he says my heart is in anguish,

it literally means I wrote this down because it is

so strong it almost seems melodramatic. It is palpitating like

a woman in labor pains. Give you a second to

have that image right there and deal with that. And

and he's he's and he's blaming his enemies. He's like,

you don't do that either, when you know, when God

is your fortress, when God is your defense, you don't

blame others.

You take responsibility.

This guy needs a heart trans Wait a minute, hold on,

but could you could you come here real quick? Come on,

come on, come, because I saw.

This and I should have studied more before it.

You see on the Psalm fifty five where it tells

us that the psalm is for the director of music

with string instruments, and then it tells us who wrote it?

What does it say? A mess skill of David That

messes up my whole thesis.

I'm a close talk.

About that messes up my whole introduction, because when God

chose David to be king, he said that he was

a man after God's own.

You said, now, now, I just I just.

Need somebody to verify because when I was reading that,

I thought I was reading about somebody whose heart was haunted.

But David, as we learned two weeks ago, had a

huge heart. And how I said that humans measure height,

but God measures heart. And the reason that God could

use David in such a big way is because he

had such a big heart, a man after God's own heart.

God looks at the heart, and now we see the

man who was big hearted enough to fight Goliath in

the name of the Lord, expressing an anguish in his

heart that makes him feel like God isn't even there.

Touch somebody say, your heart is complicated. If I could

see inside your heart, if I could, I wish I could.

You would leave real quick if I started calling out

the contents of all the stuff in your heart, Because

whether you want to admit it or not. And I

know you have the Holy ghost. I know you love

God and with all your heart, with all your soul,

with all your mind, with all your strength, I know

your heart is holy.

But it's also haunted.

It's also haunted the haunted heart. What makes it flexing

is that the same person who would write a psalm like.

This, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall.

Not want That's how he opened Psalm twenty three. Even

though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of death,

I will fear no evil. Now, hold on, that was

David one day. But it depends on which day you

catch me on what's going on.

Inside of me?

In fact, I want to be brutally honest. It depends

what hour of what day you catch me on. In fact,

I want to back it up and really zoom out

and tell you how it is.

It depends what minute, what second.

My heart have some stuff going on inside. I will

fear no evil.

Fear and trembling have beset me, Horror has overwhelmed me.

Same heart, same dude, same God, same promises, same calling.

Holly on one hand and haunted on the other.

It's true, It's true that this stuff happens in our

heart's I just want to pose a question today and

only you can answer. And I don't want you to

answer it outloud, because if you answered out loud, you

won't say the real thing.

You'll say something that's similar to the real thing.

It might be in the same family of the real thing,

but it won't be specific enough to get the job done.

I want to ask you a question. What's haunting your

heart in this season? Late at night, first thing you

wake up? What haunts your heart? Is it something that

already happened? Is it something that might happen? Is it

something that you wish would happen that hasn't.

What haunts your heart? I don't know if you need

a little help prompting to think about this. I think

you do, I really do.

I think you need some help because sometimes we just

live in such a state of denial that we can't

kind of admit things that we're going through. So I

just need a little help. Would you go to the

stage police? And let's see, I need a Would you

go to the stage police. I just need some guys

to help me with this. Would you mind going to

the stage for me? Yeah, I appreciate it.

Would you go? I appreciate that. Would you come? All? Right?

That's five?

I just need five, If y'all could all come up, everybody.

Appointed to just five?

And I know there's a lot of stuff and I'm

hesitant to name it because sometimes if I label it,

you'll disassociate if you don't find the exact label. But

I just figured you might need some help locating what's

haunting your heart, because what makes a heart haunted is

what's hidden.

We used to run a haunted house for my youth group.

Work that out theologically, but we did, and it was

a fundraiser for the youth choir trip.

And so I wouldn't the youth best or anything like that.

It's just a youth and.

And we all had our hiding places, you know, if

we were running a haunted house and we met everybody

at the door, Hello, I have a chainsaw.

I'll be right around the first corner when work. So

what's hidden in your heart?

And just for visualization, listen, I mean, I know that

this is a little silly and all of that, but

just for visualization.

I wondered, would you each would you each represent.

A different thing and move over here a little bit,

if you would, and just back up a little bit

and just standing there going standing a line.

That's good, that's.

Good, if you would, just if you'll put that on,

if you don't mind, I got a whole box here,

let's see.

I wonder would you wear this? Thank you?

And I think you need this guy. You know you've

always wanted wanted to try it.

That's great, and.

Let's see if you can be him just for about

the next twenty minutes, that's all. And this is kind

of cute, just to round it out, if you don't mind. Man,

that one made me think of you. And let's say

that that you each represent.

A different component. Again. I know that we can all

name different things, different.

Different perversions that exist in our hearts, and different proclivities

that exist in our hearts, and different incidents that happen

that are still happening because we keep replaying them. But

I just thought, for the sake of illustration, just to

help you enter that question, what's haunting your heart? If

the Psawmists could get honest enough, If David, a man

after God's own heart, could get to a point that

was tough enough and rough enough, dark enough that he

would say, my.

Heart is overwhelmed with horror.

If the King could get to that point, I gotta

believe that.

This house might be haunted too, this house.

Haunted with what, haunted with guilt? Maybe you could be

guilt over what you did or what you didn't do.

I think a lot of dads and moms deal with

guilt over how they couldn't be there for everything, you know,

couldn't do everything. And it's tremendous the weight of guilt

that people care. You can be guilt because some people's

hearts today are haunted by guilt. Some people are are

haunted by hopelessness. Did you hear the Psalmist's words?

The same psawmist who.

Declared put your hope in the Lord had reached.

A breaking point of saying, I don't see any hope left,

not in my heart, not in my heart, I don't

I don't have any hope left, just a way of

looking at.

Situations that can't imagine they would.

Possibly improve as your heart hopeless.

Or or or maybe we maybe we have a heart

that is haunted with offense.

Offense.

You can be offense the things that people said to you,

not the things that you did to others, but the

things they did to you. Or maybe not the things

you didn't do for others, but the things that others

didn't do for you.

The dad that wasn't.

There, the mom who wasn't kind, the friend who wasn't friendly,

the man who didn't stay.

It can it can be, It can be a little thing.

It can be the way they looked at me, the

way they treated me, the way they didn't recognize me.

I was haunting your heart. Let's see what you because

you U should be. Let me look at you. You

look like sorrow. You look like sorrow. Not really, this

mask doesn't match my illustration too well.

Why don't you switch with Yeah, okay, there we go,

put that on now you you look like.

You look like sorrow.

And I don't get it because Jesus is my joy

and when he comes into my heart, he brings his joy. Now,

how can a heart that's full of joy also still

have sorrow?

And you can be? I know what you are. You're

the threat, he.

Said, he said, he said, the threats of the wicked

trouble me. You know, sometimes nothing bad even has to

happen in your life. It's just a threat that it

might that keeps you up at night. There doesn't even

have to be a bullet in the chamber. It's just

the fact of feeling still.

To your skull that lets you know you can be succeeding.

And afraid of failure, because the higher you climb, the

farther you have to fall.

It's a threat. They might leave me, they might not

like me, they might not accept me.

The threat, the sorrow, the offense, and the hopelessness, and

the guilt of a haunted heart, guilt, ge, hopelessness, offense, oh, sorrows, threat.

To huh huh. That's the ghosts you're living with.

And so the Psalm has thought if he called on God,

that God would chase him away.

That's what we want him to do.

That's what we expect him to do, because we know he's.

Capable of that. That's how I thought it worked.

Honestly, you know, give your life to Jesus Christ. He'll

come in, and he'll when he comes in, everything else

has to go. So I expected you know, dear Jesus,

I accept you as my personal Lord and savior. Come

in my heart, forgive me and cleanse me of all

my sins, and forgive me and all unrighteousness.

And Jesus, they a'men, I thought.

I said, amen, they'd all vacate the premises. I said amen,

and they all stay. So I stopped my foot set

it again. Amen, in Jesus' name. Amen in Jesus' name,

Amen in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen, Still there, Please don't sit.

There looking like the moment that you prayed and gave

your life to God, all this stuff left your heart.

I know that what I'm teaching is a little bit.

Theologically controversial, because some would teach that if anyone is

in Cristi is a new creation, you get.

A new heart.

And that's true, you get a new heart, you get

a new capacity to love. But that doesn't mean that

all the tenants who took up residents are going to

evacuate immediately.

Not in my case, how about yours.

In fact, the only people who will argue that theologically,

the moment you give your life to God, all this

stuff goes away are the people who are.

Really good at hiding it.

There's nobody in this church that got rid of all

their ghosts.

There's just some people who have.

Stuck them in some corners and put them in some

bathrooms and shut them in some closets. Come on, clackman,

I'm telling them the truth. I even got my ghast clapping.

I'm preaching so honestly.

Touch somebody say it's still there, It's still there. That's

the thing that confuses me. I thought that if I

worship God, I could chase it away. Boo fear go,

boot depression go, Boo sorrow go, boot guilt go. And

for a minute it felt like it did. But you're

still here. Still reminded me. Even though that the blood

of Jesus hate for all my sins, even though that

he nailed it to the cross, even though I don't

have to bear it anymore, even though my shame was

trampled on by the finished work of Christ, And you're

still here. If you don't believe it's still here, how

can you still remember what you did when you were seven?

How can a man still remember.

The first time he saw a pornographic image? Because the

guilt doesn't just go away. How can somebody who has

been forgiven of all of their sins still be offended

by the sins of others? What's haunting your heart? It's

just a question. And I can't chase it away. Come

to church, clap my hands and my tie and my heart.

It's still haunted.

So if I can't chase it away, David said, maybe

I can escape it. Put verse six on the screen.

Oh that I had the wings of a dove. I

would fly away.

And be at rest. I can't chase it.

Away, so maybe I can escape it. Only problem with

that is I'm trying to escape something that I'm carrying

with me wherever I go. I change relationships, but all

these jokers showed up with.

Me in the next one too. I changed jobs.

I moved to Charlotte, but all these jokers came to

Charlotte with me, and I would run.

But how can I outrun what's happening with.

That escape mentality?

What's happening in my heart is so hard for me

to deal with that. Maybe instead of living from my heart,

I'll just live from my head because I don't want

to deal with what's really happening within. So I don't

really love anymore. I don't really laugh anymore. I don't

really live anymore because to live and to love and

to laugh, I have to be at home in my heart.

But when the home of my heart is haunted, where

can I go?

If it were an enemy, I.

Could run, If it were a bomb, I could step away,

But what about when the detonation is within?

Can't chase it?

Hallelujah, hallelujah, Okay, I can't escape it. Where can I

go from your presence? If I send to the mountains,

you're there. If I make my bed and he behold

you there. Wherever I go there I am tell somebody saying,

wherever you go, there you are, and all your craziness

function too.

Can't chase it, can't escape it. But maybe maybe I

can expect it and expose it.

Can I preach this?

Please?

Can I preach this?

Ooh, the Lord told me to tell you that fear

only operates effectively by the element of surprise.

I'm gonna say that again.

Fear only operates effectively by the element of surprise. And

this is where I'm smarter than Holly, because.

When we go to a movie.

I have the good sense to discern the genre of

the movie before the viewing experience begins.

There are many areas of life.

In fact, one could argue most where she is superior

in her intelligence to me, and her skill and her ability,

and her goodness as a human being and her virtue.

But when it comes to movies, I don't understand how

she can be in a movie that we knew was

about somebody getting killed and they can be playing music.

Can you play something scary, Brian, Just anything scary, just

really like terrifying.

That's kind of scary, church scary. But how can we

be in this movie? It's dark. They're coming around the

corner and used to ah jump wing.

I don't get it. When we were dating, I kind

of liked it because it gave me an opportunity. You

know what I'm saying. I got you.

We're a buy a little killers baby, I slash a

slasher for you. I'm not even worried about this now

I'm married, and you know that's not cute anymore. Every

time being in a movie, she's gonna jump fingernails, all

my arms and stuff.

Get off me.

I'm saying, we've been married a little while now. Ah,

but you can also have some fun with it.

I found out you can also have some fun with it.

Husbands don't try this at home.

And so the other day I decided I heard him

pulling up in the garage, and I decided to give

him a little something. And I had the presence of

mind to pull out my phone. Thank god for video

capability in your pocket, amen, and I captured the result.

I was waiting on him because my kids always run

in so fast from the carriage, was tearing through it,

taking each other stuff like that.

I was waiting on him a long shell. See what

happened next I got the video. I was trying to.

Scare the kids. I was, I promise I was.

I mean ninety nine times out of one hundred. She's

not the first one in the door. It's just gonna

happen in this time. Let's watch that again, just so

we can appreciate it now that you know what's coming.

It's one more time.

I was trying to scare the kids.

Just maybe one more time, one more time. I want

you to appreciate the nuance of the look on her face.

One more time, just one more time, I was trying

to scare the kids.

I'll put that on Instagram with permission.

As a demonstration of my amazing abilities.

But if you think about that scenario, the reason it

were only reason that created the.

Response it did is because I was hidden behind the door.

Had I texted.

Her, when you come up the steps, I'm gonna be

behind the door, and my objective and aims whoever comes

through the door next, I'm gonna terrify him within an

inch of their life. I'm also gonna video show it

to twenty thousand people at some point in the future,

and on television as well to hundreds of thousands around

the globe.

Her response would have been different.

Now, my action could have been exactly the same.

I'm gonna get you to see something as simple.

But the reason that stuff keeps defeating you is because

stuff keeps surprising you.

Watch this.

If she had known I was behind the door, she

could have had something ready for.

Me when I jumped out talk to me.

She could have had something ready.

They could have.

Turned it on me.

Those were glass milk chunks Elijah was carrying into the house.

You know what they could have done to me had

they known I was behind the door.

It only worked because I was hidden, and the Lord

wanted me to.

Tell you something about all these ghosts you've been living with,

about all this guilt you've been living with, about all

this hopelessness you've been living with, about all this offense

you've been living with, all this sorrow you've been living with,

all these threats you've been living with, telling you you can't,

telling you you won't, telling you.

You'll never, telling you you're not.

God said, now you know they're there you got something

for them. Oh, I got some for you, Kuilt, I

got something for you, hopelessness, I got some for you.

Does somebody say I got some for you? But as

for me, I trust in you? How can you say that, David?

After twenty two verses of disparracy, I walk through the

house enough. Now I know where everything is hidden.

So when it jumps out at me, I know exactly what.

To do with it because I expected it. And since

I expected it, I can expose it.

I can expose it. I can't chase it. I try to,

I can't escape it.

I wish I had wings, i'd leave, but since I

have to live with all this stuff, I might as well.

Here's what it said on one hunted house I drove

by this week.

It said, prepare to be scared. I thought that's a

message for the church. Prepare to be scared.

Arm yourself, put on the full armor of God so

that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Expect it, and expose it. David said, I don't have wings.

But remember, David, in Psalm twenty seven, you said the

Lord is my light and my salvation.

Didn't he say that? Didn't he say that. So I

don't have wings to escape me.

I don't have the power to chase it, but I

got the light to expose it.

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

I'm not scared of you anymore.

I see you there, but I see you.

For what you really are.

Yeah, you don't look so scary like this.

You don't look so scary now that I got the.

Light on it.

Oh man, up under that mask, God was speaking to you,

wasn't he.

That's what happens. When the mask comes.

Off, Everything that you were dealing with in your heart

becomes exposed in the presence of God. And every fear

that helps you captive has to release you and let

you go. When you get the light on it, Come on,

get the light on it. Get the light on a fence.

Before I put the light on you, you look like guilt.

But now you look like an opportunity for grace. It's

not that the guilt went away, It's just that now

I see my guilt as an opportunity to receive His grace.

Talk to me, somebody, We are unmasking things in the

presence of God. Today you still look hopeless.

You you still look like hopelessness. But I see you

now as.

An opportunity for greater faith, because faith is the substance

of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

But I can see it.

In the line.

Everybody say light. God wants to shine light in your

heart today. Search me, Oh God, know my heart, try

me know my ways. See if there's any offensive way

in me.

Put your light on it. God, show me what it

really is. Take the mask off of offish. You're not

my father.

At Every offense that comes in my life.

Is also an opportunity for forgiveness.

Now I see you for what you are.

I still feel offended, but I don't have to be

offended just because I feel offended, because I've been forgiven.

Shout somebody.

You look like sorrow, but I also see that my

greatest sorrow can become my greatest strength.

Don't you understand that what you.

Are going through right now, he's making you stronger for

where you're going. You don't look sorrowful. You look strong

in your Dickie's plaid. You look strong clapping those hands.

You look like strength in the light.

You don't even look scary in the mask.

Because I realized that no weapon, no threat, no weapon,

no threat that has formed against me.

Watch this.

You can stay here, you can stay here and talk

all you want, but you can't scare me anymore because

I realize the threat is empty. I realize that the

devil roar is about like a roaring lion seeking whom

he made devour.

But I found out he doesn't have any teeth.

All he can do is roar, because even if he

kills me, I get to reign with Christ.

It shounds up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get you fired up

about Jesus today.

Yeah.

He is my life.

Yeah, he is my salvation. Who shall I fear? I

am persuading neither light, nor death nor anything else. I'm

trying to say is you can't run a haunted house

with the lights on. Can you imagine how stupid it

would look if they brought you in the haunted house?

And here comes the chainsaw? No, no, your chainsaw sounds scary,

But I happen to notice in the light you don't

have a chain What the light of God in my

heart is? It shines to every darkened place, every horrible place.

And once I've been through this house a few times,

you don't scare me anymore.

It's not that I don't have fear. It's the fear

doesn't have me.

Jump up on your feet. If that's your declaration. Fear

doesn't have me, not anymore. As for me, I trust

in God.

Thank you.

Ghosts.

You can leave now.

You gotta go now.

Give it up for the ghost as they make their

way off this stage, and maybe their exit off this

stage is a symbol of some stuff that's leaving your

heart today, that's been holding you back for too long.

It's here, but it doesn't have me. It's here, but

it doesn't hold me. It's here, but I see it.

I expect it. I expose it. I expect it.

I expose it.

I'm not trying.

I'm not trying to get out of here anymore. I'm

gonna live in this place. I'm gonna live from my

heart because I do have wings. David had wings. He

just forgotten how to use them for a minute. Not

the kind of wings that make you fly away, but

the kind of wings that help you get above. You

got wings. Touch somebody say you got wings? No wonder

you're tired, you know. The scripture says in Isaiah that

those who trust in the Lord will walking knuckrow, weary,

running out faith, they will mount up.

On wings like eagles. What does that mean? What? What

does it mean to mount up on wings like eagles? What?

What wings was he speaking of?

It can't mean that I get to leave every uncomfortable,

every horrible, every heart, every horror filled, every haunted situation.

I gotta live in my own heart, you know. I

gotta live with the memories I have.

I can't.

I can't get rid of them. I gotta live with

the disadvantages that were handed to me. So I got

to live here. But I don't have to live here

at this altitude. I don't have to live here on

this level. I got wings. I got wings. I got

I got wings. I got one wing called the Word.

That's one way I got. I got a word from God,

and no word from God will ever fail. His word

is seated above his name. I got wings, I got wings.

Touch somebody remind him you got wings. I got one

wing called the Word, and I got one wing called worship.

All that I oh, but you do you do? You

just gotta use them. You gotta get a word from God.

You gotta get worship in your heart. You gotta start

singing when you get scared.

Hey, thank you for watching.

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