Only A Scar Remains | Pastor Paul McGee

Amen. We can claim our promise today.

Thank the Lord. Aren't you glad that you have a

promise you can claim? Amen.

So glad today to be in the House of the Lord of each one of you.

Amen. Here today, we're so glad to

have everyone of you. I want to make honorable

mention. It's good to have Aaron Brown

swing through here today. This is the only service he's

going to be able to be here. He's got he's got more teaching

to do away and more schools to inspect and such.

But we're glad when he can stop in.

He's worried that he's not going to get a bowl of chili whenever

it's the annual chili supper. And so I didn't, I don't even

know if we're going to even save him one.

I just and I've talked to brother Fred about it and see,

get a committee together and we'll make a vote about it.

Hey, man. But with that being said, coming

up in the month of October and folks October is just around the

corner in the month of October on the 11th is our annual chili

supper and hayride here at the church.

Even invite you to come and be a part of that of that day.

We'll be having our second annual cornhole competition and

there's sign up sheet on the bulletin board.

If you want to put together a team of two people and come up

with a team name and participate in that, you can, Amen.

And that then also kind of springs boards, our fall revival

with The Smiths that will begin on that Sunday, the 12th and go

through the 15th. That Wednesday every night,

we'll be having revival with them.

And so there'll be a great opportunity, Amen, to come.

We're going to be turning to the book of Leviticus chapter 13

Leviticus 13 · chapter mention

today, Amen. We're so thankful for God's hand

on the different things with Brother Mason.

What you don't know when he fell, his head hit the they have

radiator heating in their house and his head hit the radiator

and they had just taken off the cover, which typically has sharp

edges on it just taking that off.

So we're thankful that the Lord Amen kept his hand of protection

Amen upon him and we are we exceedingly glad to have the

Champions man. They just like in my hip pocket

they have helped and it wasn't till today I recognized.

I contacted them late last night probably, I don't know, 7

thirtyish or something or more, which was 830 their time and it

was their anniversary yesterday celebrating 2022 years of

marriage together. Amen.

Let's honor them today. What a great, great Amen couple

and we love and appreciate them dearly.

Leviticus chapter 13. I'm going to read just a few

Leviticus 13 · chapter mention

verses skipping around here this morning, starting with verse 12.

I want to read from the King James Version, and then I'm

going to read it from the contemporary English version,

which is the version that kind of spawned me in this direction

today. All right, Leviticus 13 and

verse #12 the Bible says, and this is all concerning people

who have leprosy, the treatment of leprosy, the all things

concerning leprosy. OK.

And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the

leprosy cover all the skin of him that have the plague from

his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priests look of

them, the priests shall consider.

And behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall

pronounce him clean that have the plague.

It is all turned white. He is clean.

Skipping to verse #2023 today. But if the bright spots stay in

his place and spread not as a burning boil, and the priest

shall pronounce him cling. Verse 28, the Bible says in the

King James. And if the bright spots stay in

his place and spread, not in the skin, but it'd be somewhat dark.

It is a rising. It is a rising of the burning,

and the priest shall pronounce him cling.

It's an inflammation of the burning.

Now if you'll just allow me to read those same verses from the

contemporary English version, and I think you'll see a little

pattern going on here. But if the disease has run its

course and only the scars remain, he will say you are

clean. Verse 23 says, But if if it

doesn't spread and only a scar remains, he will say you are now

clean. Verse 28 says, however, if the

infection hasn't spread and has begun to heal, and if only a

scar remains, he will say only a scar remains from the burn.

You are clean for a little while this morning.

I want to minister this to this precious group of people.

Only a scar remains. Only a scar remains.

Let's ask the Lord's help today. Father, we love you today.

We're so thankful, Lord, to be in your house.

We're thankful, Lord Jesus, for those that have gathered

together. We're thankful God, Lord, for

the baptism that's going to take place at the end of this

service. God's, we rejoice with Brittany.

God, we're thankful for our guests.

We're thankful, Lord, for your anointing.

God, our friends that are here today.

Lord, let your spirit do its work, Lord, in this building

today and will not fail to thank you and praise you God for what

you accomplished in this house. And the lovely name of the Lord

Jesus Christ that I pray, Amen and Amen.

The church say Amen, Amen. You may be seated this morning

in Jesus name now, whereas there are several of you that that

know me and you have a history with me.

But for those that are some of our newcomers here, I am the

youngest of five children. I'm the youngest of five

children, and those siblings that are older than me are all

girls, all right? So I expect some sympathy right

now. And whenever we were young,

whenever we were young. And then you might think that

don't have no stories to tell, right?

Because they're all girls and I'm just one boy.

So there's no such thing as fights or nothing like that

because you don't have a house full of boys.

Well, I'm here to tell you today and I have all four sisters that

are here this morning. All right there, I know my

sister Rebecca looks like the premise and proper thing of

mankind. But when we were young, Rebecca

bloodied numerous noses, all of which were boys.

So she was like, she was like the security of the McGee

siblings. And so she she I mean, I know

she looks sweet, but if she wanted to and needed to, she

could take you out. All right, I'm just letting you

know. But it wasn't always sweet.

There was one particular time I was standing at one of the

dressers and Roberta, I know you think she's sweet, don't you?

And Roberta Mason, Sister Mason was standing by me and she acted

like she was going to slap me. And so from impulse, I just

downward with my head and caught in the corner of the dresser

and, and caused a RIP right above my eye that required

stitches. And as a result of that, and so

they weren't always sweet. You know, they I know they talk

bad about boys, but the girls have the spice and it's not

always everything nice. I'm just letting you know.

But with that then also years years ago been now almost 30

years ago, the night before I graduated from high school, my

girlfriend, who is now my wife right here sitting on the front

row. She and I were getting ready to

jump into my car to head somewhere.

And so I started to get into the car and I had the door just

partially open and of course I was staring at this beautiful

creation that God had get in the car right across from me.

And as I made the movement down Ray into the vehicle, a partial

open door, the back of this melon head hit that, that, that

that door and then it ricocheted my face into the door framing

again, bloody Black Eyed on my graduation day was in the

emergency room late at night getting stitches from that as

well. I matter of fact, I went through

some of the graduation pictures, thought about bringing 1 putting

up there, but you know, photography wasn't as good as it

was today. Today you'd have been able to

see every little tear of the skin.

So I I didn't bring it, But again, it required stitches.

So upon close examination, if you got to my face and you

probably don't want to get that close.

But nonetheless, I have scars from both of those episodes

above my eye. And of course, as I've grown

older, most people know this as we grow older, they're not as

visible today as they once were because now they camouflage

almost as wrinkles on my faces, right?

And so it just matches other stuff that's on my face, you

know, like it got caught on fire and someone stomped it out.

And so it, it just now wrinkles that are upon my face.

It's just, and if you ever wonder why do you, your eyebrows

are so hot, you know, heavily grown.

I don't wax, I don't pluck, I don't trim.

That's because some of the scars are right there in the eyebrow.

So it's my way of concealing them.

But medically, they say a scar is in the bodies.

It's the body's natural way of healing, replacing loss or

damaged skin. They, they say one of our skin

is injured, that whether it be by a cut or a burn or, or or a

sore, that our body works very quickly to repair itself.

There's new little collagen fibers that will form and put a

patch, if you will, upon the wound.

And, and they tell us though, that the skin will, will not

look exactly like it before sometimes in many of you.

How many has a scar on their body somewhere.

And we don't have to have show and tell, OK, but have a scar

somewhere on your body. It doesn't doesn't look exactly

like the rest of your skin. It may may be raised, there

might be some discoloration of it there.

There may be a different texture to it.

But the very presence of a scar signifies that that wound has

closed, that the bleeding that may have been happening has

stopped and that the risk of infection that you had that all

of that is gone. But have you ever noticed,

particularly in our generation today, how people try to hide

their scars, try to hide their scars?

We, we'll go out and we'll, we'll buy lotions, you know,

we'll look on Amazon till our eyes are crossways.

And I'm remember when Moderna came out and everybody's like,

oh, if you get Moderna, put that on there.

It'll take care of those scars. Amen.

As long as you don't go out in the sun.

Now you don't want to do that, you make it worse.

And so we buy lotions and creams.

Some people even have surgeries in order to make their scars

fade away. People try to cover them up.

Some people I see just just an observation of of being a part

of this fabric called life. Sometimes I see them constantly

pulling up their sleeve. They're trying to keep a scar

hidden or they're pulling up a collar because of a spot on

their neck that they had or, or they may be sitting in a public

place and I see them just just consciously putting their hands

in just a certain position because they're trying to keep

anybody body from noticing A scar that they have on their

body. And then we asked ourselves, why

do we do this? Because scars to a certain

degree, I think for all of us make us feel a little bit

self-conscious, just a little bit self aware.

It it reminds us maybe of something painful that happened

that maybe some of us would just really like to forget.

Because the fact of the matter, every scar has a story.

I mean, as a young boy, if you had a good scar and someone

said, hey, what went on? You was ready to tell the story,

You know, because it's boys, the mentality is different.

It's like, yeah, I survived. You know, it was gruesome and

all of that. But every scar has a story.

And some of those stories, the scars of our life, we, we would

though, rather not tell. Sometimes there's just a a scar

on the arm and it might whisper some type of accident or like

Bishop and Sister McGee and now Sister Brenda have that scar

going down on their sternum that speaks of a surgery that they

had and maybe the fear that came with that and the pain that was

experienced from that. Or a scar for sure on on a face.

Someone says, well, that that that's just going to make

everything me going to be a little bit more less attractive

with that scar. Because we live in a culture

that is obsessed with perfections, smooth skin,

flawless beauty, airbrushed images.

And in that world, a scar feels like a blemish.

In that world, a scar feels like a mark against us.

It it tells people, you know, I've been hurt and I've had a

hard life or I've been broken and I've been through something

I wished I'd avoided. And we, the ones having the

scar, look at everybody else. And since we don't see their

scar, it's just the assumption they had the perfect with life.

They've never had any challenges, they've never done

anything wrong, they've not made a mistake, they've never had an

errand. All of that can be very self

incriminating to those of us that know our own scars.

Then there are scars that nobody can see because they're not on

the skin, they are on the inside of us.

There's emotional scars, some here today.

Maybe you've been betrayed in the past and you carry some

emotional scars or spiritual scars, if you will, things of a

failure of yesteryear. And we have been even the shame

of sin. But the Bible speaks of us upon

our lives that leaves a mark of deep in our soul, scars upon our

soul. Amen.

And they're hard to carry because we can't cover them up,

so to speak, with a mask or we can't pull a collar or a shirt

down to cover those. We just try to learn to smile

with a happy face and nod and hope that nobody looks too

closely and sees the pain of where we once was.

Sometimes scars embarrass us, disgust us, make us at times

even feel unclean, like we're damaged goods, unworthy of love,

unworthy of acceptance. That's just how people feel

about scars. People sometimes have the idea,

if they only knew what I've done, if they only knew where

I've been, if they only truly saw what I'm carrying, they'd

never look at me the same way. Leprosy in the book of

Leviticus, in the Old Testament, it was more than just a skin

disease. It was a slow, relentless enemy,

a disease that consumed the body of the individual that had it,

basically from the inside out. It started leprosy started very

small. As a matter of fact, when a

priest was looking for someone that maybe suspiciously had

leprosy, they're just looking for a little, a little spot.

They're just looking for a tiny spot, a slight discoloration of

the skin, almost unnoticeable at first, but I was trained to pick

up on any type of variance. And the fact of the matter is

though, if it was left unchecked, it would absolutely

spread and it would attack the flesh and the nerves and the

cartilage of the one who had this leprosy.

Fingers and toes would eventually rot away off their

body. Their faces sometimes would

become disfigured from this disease.

Their lips would become cracked and they would begin to bleed.

Their eyes would would weaken and become often times blind.

It it wasn't just a painful situation or a painful disease,

it was a deforming. It was a debilitating disease.

It it isolated the one who had it from all of society, from its

family, from its friends. Everybody feared contracting or

getting the disease of leprosy. It affected their body but

affected their social life. It impacted every aspect of

their life. A person that was infected with

leprosy could not come in contact with anyone.

Amen. For the sake of perhaps maybe

spreading the contamination to others.

So that meant anything such as family gatherings or worship

taking place in the Tabernacle when they would have their feast

and their festivals or just simply daily routines from

day-to-day, all of those things were denied to the leper.

All of those things were off bounds to the leper.

And so the priest would come and he would examine a person very

carefully and see if the infection was active in their

body. And if the verdict was clear

that leprosy is raging rampant inside their body, they were

pronounced by the priest that they were unclean.

Not only were they unclean, they had now the due diligence and

responsibility of being a leper that they must pronounce from

themselves to others that may be approaching them unclean,

unclean, stating their state and their situation.

That word unclean them became a word of separation for them.

It was a word of Shane. Can you imagine happening to

emit your own uncleanness to the society in which you lived?

Amen. Unclean.

That word became a word of exile.

Amen to them. And so a leper became a living

reminder to others what sin could do, what impurity could

do, what this disease could do to them.

But spiritually, leprosy is a perfect picture, and it's used

as that in the Bible. Force him because it often

starts small, unnoticed, undetected, unrecognized.

A lie here, brother champion. A little misdeed, a selfish

thought there, a little compromise over here that seems

to be harmless. It, it starts small, but seeing

we know according to God's Word and through the history of God's

Word, when it's left unchecked, sin spreads.

Sin doesn't just isolate itself, it spreads it.

It wants to metastasize. It wants to impact everything

around it. It wants to eat away at all

these things and such like leprosy.

It doesn't just eat away at you, it eats away at the

relationships of people around you.

Have you ever had any sin or infection, if you will, of sin

in your life that it separated you from people you would

normally love and hang out with and want to be friend and be

around? Amen.

It eats at our integrity. It numbs our conscious.

It'll distort our desires. What we used to like to do and

who we used to like to see and who we used to like to hang

around. Now it isolates us and we're

just dealing with this and our souls becoming deformed, if you

will, by the infection of sin. Isolate our body, but in sin as

in our bodies will also isolate our spirit.

Sometimes sin will keep people from worship, keep them from God

himself. Yet when sin is exposed, it

brings shame to it brings embarrassment to, it brings fear

to, and it makes us try out. We're unclean.

We are unclean. The devastation of leprosy in

Scripture was supposed to remind us.

Of the weight of the seriousness of sin.

How it's not harmless, it's not benign, it's not innocent, it's

not something to be taken lightly.

It does spread. It does destroy.

It does isolate. It does.

Sin leaves behind reminders just like leprosy, whether they be

physical, emotional or spiritual.

It leaves back some reminders as well.

Memories of being under sin, consequences from sin, Dare I

say scars from sin? Someone say Amen.

But in Leviticus chapter 13, something powerful is happening

Leviticus 13 · chapter mention

here. Over and over that priest as the

new cases would come to him and he would examine the skin of a

possibly infected or had been infected individual of leprosy

if the infection was still active.

The person was unclean if the infection was still spreading to

new areas of the body, the person was unclean.

If the infection that the the meat or the skin looked raw,

like raw meat, raw flesh, the person was unclean.

But listen closely once again this morning to what the priest

says when the disease has ran its course, When the disease is

no more, can I tell you again? It said if the disease has run

its course and only the scar remain, he will say you are

clean. If it doesn't spread and only

the scar remains, he will say you are clean.

If it's not spread but it's begun to heal and only a scar

remains, he will say only a scar remains.

And you are someone say man this morning, we are in this building

today and has several hands raised about physical scars that

you have in your life. I know we all are here at the

foot of the cross this morning and say I've been scarred by

sin, I've been scarred by mistakes, I've been scarred by

bad choices. But the scar is testifying this

morning and saying what that means is this, though sin is no

longer in your life, that mistake is in your past.

That failure, it's in your rearview mirror.

And if it's not spreading and if it's run it's course, you are

clean. I'm trying to preach to someone

today that's having the nagging mind, Amen.

Voices in your head trying to condemn you and tell you you

can't make it, you'll never be anything, you'll never arrive.

I come to tell you today, if all you have is a star, you are

clean. Hey man, what God's love in is

telling us is having a scar is not the problem.

Having a scar is not the problem.

And having a scar should not be a mark of shame for you, but it

should be a sign of your healing.

I show my star today not because I'm shameful, I'm showing you

I've been healed. I'm whole.

Someone say glory. You don't have to.

If you will pull down your sleeve over what sin had done.

You don't have to pull up your collar over what sin had done.

It's a sign that scars a side. You were delivered.

You've been healed. You've been set free.

Someone say Amen that there's a scar.

It meant the disease was gone. If it was still spreading,

they'd still quarantine them. They lock them up, the bottle

says, for seven days. At the end of seven days they'd

look at them again. But if all they had to look at

in the moment after seven days was a scar, you're free to go re

enter society, go back to your family, go back to regular

activity, enjoy life again. I'm scarred.

That's all right. But you're not infected.

You're yes, scarred.

Just tells us the dangers now passed.

Amen, our sweet Brenda window. That's why here a few weeks ago

she had to go back and have her wound opened more after heart

surgery because she had an incision that was infected and

wasn't healing. Doctor looked at that and said

this, this is getting worse, put a wound back on that to promote

healing. He called me yesterday and

talked to me for a little bit. He said that he was doing a

little better and healing. She'd went to the wound.

Dr. of that terminology went to the wound Dr. Doctor said things

are looking better. Just going to take some time.

As long as she goes back and there's still raw flesh, she

going to be under care of the wound.

Dr. they go keep that back on there.

But the day that that discoloration of skin forms over

that and that different texture, although it may look crude,

forms over that and there's marks that something had been

there, but there's no raw flesh there.

You know what they're going to say?

That's just a scar now. You all right?

She'll be released from that wound, Doctor, because the scar

will be a testimony. There's no more danger here.

There's nothing else that's I'm telling you today.

Some of us might be in the process of healing.

Amen. We're not there yet.

But if you ever get a scar, it's your testimony.

It is your testimony. It is your testimony.

Means there's no more separation, there's no more

spreading, there's there's no more corruption.

The scar is a proof that life can be a begin again.

Let me state in these terms, the scars a proof that they survive,

that they survive, that what you went through that took others

out. You weren't taken out, but

you're still here to tell the story.

You survive. That's what your scar says.

To testimony, a victory, a vote. It is exactly as that Old

Testament priest did for leprosy.

It is exactly what God does concerning our sin.

It may have left scars in your life and me knowing, knowing the

dynamics of sin, I know that it will leave scars in our life,

sometimes in our wake. It will leave broken

relationships many times in our wake.

It will be, if you will, a lot of regrets, Amen, that we have,

Amen. Mistakes that are still back

there with domino effects that are taking place, Amen.

Moments that we wish we could erase.

All of those things, Amen, are the type of scars that sin will

leave if I can this morning. It will tell you, well, you were

a drug addict scar. You were an alcoholic scar.

You did compromise your life with things that were less than

God scar. But when we look into the mirror

and we see all the evidence of our failures and our weakness,

those are not the signs of a ongoing corruption.

They are the signs of his redemption.

They are the signs of his healing.

They are the yes. What does scars say?

Scars say I was hurt, but I'm healed.

Scars say there was pain but the pain didn't destroy me.

Scars say something cut me deep, but grace carried me through.

Someone to say, Amen, they want to get in that pocket.

That's the Mike Penrod candy pocket.

And so as we're maybe attempting to conceal that part of our life

because we're like, well, that that's the part I just choose to

forget. That's ugly.

God says I see something different than you see.

You see something putridden, but I see something beautiful.

We're we're we're considering it shameful, but I see something

different. What you see, I see the traces

in those stretches and that is I see the traces of my mercy.

That's I don't want them. I don't want them to ever know

that I says that's, that's the testimony that I've given you.

And so just as the priest would examine the leper, God examines

our life. And when he looks at us, he is

seen by the scars we have, the areas that are truly healed.

When He has mercy and His grace and His act on the cross for all

of us is the power and the way by which that infection of sin

can be drawn from our life, then the scar that remains has been

just the stamp of His approval. You are clean, you are healed,

and most importantly, you are. That's the why in the spiritual

life, folks. Our scar should never be hidden

in shame because they're proof of God's power to overcome any,

everybody say any, any sin that's been in our life.

It's the sign that what used to separate me no longer separates

me. And it's God saying re enter the

camp, go back and do what you were called to do.

Go back and do what you're called to do, not as a broken

person, but as a person with a scar.

You know what's amazing about Scripture?

And we see injuries and we see mishaps in God's Word, and we

see sin and mistakes and regrets and all these things.

If you look in the pages, your Bible from leather cover to

leather cover cover, maybe it's not even leather, paper to

paper, it don't matter. If you look in your Bibles,

you'll see the stories of those over and over and over again.

And that's a great testimony in the Old Testament with the leper

in the book of Leviticus. But can I remind you today, can

I remind you today that the greatest star in history belong

to a man by the name of Christ Jesus, who after his crucifix

shows up among his disciples? And he said, handle me, handle

me and feel my hands and my feet.

Put your hand over here on my side.

What are you doing, Jesus? I want you to feel the scars.

I want you to feel where the nail pierced me in my hands.

I want you to feel you where the nail pierced me in my feet.

I I want you to feel where the spear went through my side, and

if you'll run your head, your hand along the crown of my head.

I want you to feel the indentations of the scars where

the thorns from the crown of thorns pierced my brow.

Those, those were not his pains or shameful things He had them

handling. No, that was his testimony of

his victory and of his power and of his defeat over the power of

sin, by his scars, by his scars. He wasn't having them feel

weakness when they felt bad. No, they were evidences, if you

will, a failure. They were proof.

You feel that you're feeling victory.

You see that you're seeing triumph because what held me

then means it don't hold me now. It stopped there.

It you want someone saying man, I know we are buried with him

with baptism. I know we are crucified with him

by our repentance. He's like but I got up and

walking in the newness of life and now all that I bear is the

scar of the sin that held me to the cross.

Amen. Brittany, whenever you go down

in Jesus name today and you already received the Holy Ghost

last week. You know what's happening.

You're rising and all you have on you are scars that are

testimony of God's power, God's mercy.

That's grace, that's deliverance in your life, and that's nothing

to be ashamed of. Nothing.

You know what the words that he's going to pronounce, it's

not spreading. It's not raw.

You. All I see is a scar.

You are clean. You are redeemed, you are

forgiven, you are restored. Every scar has a story, let me

tell you. It's a story foretelling that

the reminders of the past sin, past failure, past shame, they

all point to the same reality that stopped, that finished.

That's over. If you, if you've not went under

the careful high of your master today, if you've never repented

of your sins, today, I'm telling you, today there can be a

cleansing in your life. Cleanse.

You might be walking around with daping wounds, but the Lord

wants to turn your wounds into scars.

You may been wounded by a myriad of things in this life, whether

on your body or in your soul. Nonetheless, it's part of your

story, so don't look at it. Amen.

With an eye of disdain. Look at it out of an eye of

favor and thankfulness unto God. Look at the seal of his mercy

upon your life in your scar. It's my here's, here's the fact

of the matter. And we are humanity.

I know, right? The mind games happen.

Mind games happen especially when everybody else is good

about covering up their scars like, well, they've never had to

go through anything, face anything.

They don't know what I have, so that's the reason why they pull

the sleeve, race the collar and are protective.

But what we need in the church today is people that's OK with

someone else seeing the scars. Why?

Because they need help with things that might be presently

in their life and come to an understanding.

It don't always have to be there.

It don't always have to be perpetually just a wound oozing,

spreading, hurting. Be like going up with the wound.

You probably got some, some somewhere.

I know you. You probably got more than, but

it's like saying slap that I don't hurt.

No. See, there is a place in your

future. There is a place in your future.

You might have a visible sign of it, but you don't have the pain

that used to be associated with it.

There is a place in your, remember, there's places in our

future that we won't always have the same pain that we have when

we first did or we first experienced or we're in the

recovery process. There'll be a time you'll be

able to show people the scars, so to speak, of your life and

say, see that that was then, but now touch that.

I don't have the pain that I used to have.

I don't have the agony and the shame that was associated with

that. God did that.

God healed me. God redeemed, only a scar will

remain. Amen.

You stay with me today as scarred people today when we

open this alter and the Champions can come, but when we

open this alter, we have a time to be able to come and pray or

pray in our seat. Those that are starred people

here today, I want you to be able to declare from wherever

you're sitting, standing, bowing, whatever.

I want you to be able to declare to God.

Be simple. We're simple, but sometimes

difficult for us to articulate or put out over our lips.

I want you to be able to say I am clean, scarred, but clean

because the scarring was the proof of the cleanliness.

And I challenge you today, use your scars to help somebody else

that they would be the inspiration to them that you can

make it to. Or if we could all cross this

place today. They're preparing a song.

I want to cross this place today.

If we could just be obedient, just begin to raise our hands.

And as you lift those hands in essence, in a symbolic manner,

you can just lift those scars unto the Lord, lift those

physical scars, lift those emotional scars, lift those

spiritual scars, whatever they may be, just lift them to the

Lord. And no one doing so.

God, I'm not, I'm not lifting something grotesque to you.

I'm not lifting something grotesque.

No, I see today, God, that you see these.

You see these as beautiful because that's all that remains

is the scar. I understand today you see this.

It's beautiful because these are the proofs that I've been healed

by you, I've been touched by you, I've been reformed and

redeemed by you. This altar is hoping for anybody

that would desire to pray today and say, Pastor McGee, I'm

bringing my scar. I bring up my scar.

I've tried to hide it, I've tried to cover it up, I've tried

to make it unknown to others around me, but I understand

today, this scar is my testimony.

This scar is my testimony of where I used to be, but where I

no longer am. It's my testimony of what I

allowed to take advantage of me. But now that has stopped.

It is no longer spreading. It no longer has vitality in my

life. This scar is the proof of my

healing. Don't let the negative voices

speak to you, Sir. Don't let the negative voice

speak to you, ma'am. You can be overcomer through

Christ Jesus and only be left with a scar of the proof of

God's grace, of the proof of his mercy in your life.

Come on church family, can we begin to talk to God?

Begin to pray in your own way. You don't have to speak in King

James Version language. You just talk to him like a

friend, Amen. And cry out to God and say God,

here's my scar. It's been made possible by you.

It has a story behind it, and it's testifying into my future

God. Only a star, only a scar remains

today. Come on, let's lift our voices,

young and old alike. It doesn't matter if you're

young. It doesn't matter if you're old.

There's not a single person here today whose body and life at

some period of their life has not been left with scars.

But we have a mindful God. He's looking over us.