It's Hammer Time

“ITS HAMMER TIME”

Introduction:

I know many of you know that this is a Hammer and what it is used for. A Hammer is used to build things like buildings, homes, bridges, and many other things. Also, these same things that the Hammer builds up it can also tear them down. The Hammer is used to tear these things down because it has formed some issues that have change it from its original state and must be broken down and restored. The Word of God is like a Hammer as it builds up lost souls from there sinful and lost state. Our souls often become worry and lost because of what we have allowed to penetrate God’s vessel. says, ‘For the Word of God is living and active. Shaper than any double-edge sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’ The Word of God builds us. The Word of God breaks up down when our souls change from the state it was created. The Word of God restores what it has broken down.

Our text today teaches us that the Bible is like a Hammer which rouses and strengthens the life and conscience, crushing everything that is evil within the heart. As we begin to walk through out text today, we will see the power of the Word of God. As we begin to endure the ‘YAS Movement,’ we will be going tint our communities picking up the pieces of shattered lives, homes, and communities. There is an old slogan that says, ‘Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but your words will never hurt me.’ Church I need to inform you that this slogan is not true. See words can be powerful. In God said, ‘Let there be,’ and the rest is history. Words can be weapons, see a careless, harsh word can cut a person like a knife. This is one of the reasons that the Body of Christ must speak the truth in love. If you present God’s Word in the right explanation and interpretation you will always speak the true in love. Yes, love does hurt. My first point is:

Speak The True Word

Doug Logan in his book: ON the Block: Developing A Biblical Picture for Missional Engagement said, ‘We must shepherd and disciple our congregation while instilling within them a relentless drive to move the Gospel outward into the surrounding community.’ Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ The YAS Movement helps the congregation to move the Gospel outward into the surrounding community. God set down one day with Jeremiah and talked to him about the issues within the community. One of the issues that the community faced in Jeremiah’s time was false prophets.

28a. We also have ‘False Prophets’ in our communities. See we have these street prophets with street prophet dreams. The prophies told by these prophets are only dreams because they did not originate from God. Prophies about ‘Jesus is white,’ or ‘African Americans are the true Israelites,’ are dangerous and they are endangering our communities.

28b. “but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.” The church, well I know this church, has been taught the true Word of God and the church should speak God’s Word faithfully because the Word was given to us by God. One Bible version says, ‘the person I gave a message to should deliver it faithfully.’ Church me must be Mission Minded with a Gospel foundation when we go out into our community. See ‘mission without a strong foundation in the church creates wandering believers who roam outside of communities. As a result, their faith rarely reaches maturity and produces weakness of conviction.’ The vison of YAS is to connect with our communities to create positive energy and positive images, so as to provide hope for the hood and help for the hurt.

This lost hope and hurt has produced tension between our communities and the church. The Body of Christ cannot stop speaking the true in love because of this tension. says, ‘and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.’ Church ‘It’s Hammer Time.’ It’s time for us to get up and ‘GO,’ it’s time for us to stand boldly and faithfully proclaim God’s Word. When we begin to put application to , the ‘Hammer’ will begin to shed light on the later part of vs. 28.

‘What has straw in common with wheat? Declares the Lord.” In our communities, the internet, street prophets, and church fallouts have our communities in such a sate that they don’t know straw from wheat. In , Paul was in Athens and perceived that they religious because of all the objects of worship they had in town. Paul also notice that they had an alter inscribed ‘To the unknown god.’ Paul used the worship and the unknown god concept as his common ground factor in building his bridge to ‘the God who the whole world and everything in it.’ The church must use the common ground approach in the community in order to build a bridge to Christ. The bridge building is done through discipleship and growth groups. See when the community begin to learn more and more about God, the Hammer will begin to show them that what He has is wheat and its good for the soul.

Church if you boldly proclaim God’s Word He will bring the Hammer on all of these isms and tisms. God will use His Word to smash all the delusions and misunderstanding about Him. God wants the church to get the Hammer out, God wants the church to know the Hammer. God wants the church to speak about the Hammer faithfully. Church ‘It’s Hammer Time.’ Let’s not just wear the YAS T-shirt, let us live it, walk it, and talk it. “It’s Hammer Time.’ In verse 29, God asked Jeremiah another question, ‘Is not my Word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a Hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?’ My second point is

Pick Up the Pieces

Pastor Harris was once noted saying, ‘We understand that the image and dignity of God in all of us is broken into pieces.’ Our communities are broken into pieces and the church needs to go an pick up the pieces of our shattered communities. Church the YAS Movement is design for the church to build a bridge that connects the community to Christ. says, ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.’ Our communities are burden and we need to pick up the pieces and help the burdens of our communities.

Now I must warn you that when the community begins to connect with Christ, He is going to bring the Hammer. See God needs to put us in this broken state so that we are only dependent on Him. No matter what He wants to do for us or how earnestly He seeks to bless us, He cannot do anything with a person who closes his heart in pride, refusing to bend and break. See when the Hammer comes He will never give up on us until we are broken. So the YAS Movement is not a one time thing as there will always be broken pieces in our communities as He works in the hearts of the lost.

Many churches fail in their evangelism because their missional engagement is not active nor is it an intentional engagement with the world. In , Adam sinned then hid from the God. But God reached out to Adam. God didn’t waste time: man sinned and God sent a message of redemption. Church God sent Himself to engage sinful man. Therefore, we must also follow the call to go to the lost people in the hood. Need to begin to pick up the pieces in our communities by given them a message of hope, the Gospel, and the man of hope, Jesus Christ.

The book of Nehemiah gives us a snapshot of the biblical reality that the people in the community need to be restored before the city can be rebuilt. If you restore the building before you restore the person all you will have is a pretty building on the outside with the same old cracks on the inside. A psychiatrist said that ‘change happens from the inside out. Not the other way around.’ Max Lucado said, ‘When you believe in Christ, Christ works a miracle in you.’ says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Church it’s Hammer time. It’s time for us to change out of that Sunday to go suit, it’s time for us to take off the Sunday to go hat, it’s time for us to grab our hammer and get to work. It’s Hammer Time church. Out in the community you are going to have some resistance and oppositions, but you need to tell them, “Stop, it’s Hammer Time.” In vs. 30 God told Jeremiah, ‘Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another.’ Some of us take sayings and quotes from others and use them within the context of the Scriptures. But there are some who take theses quotes or true messages and turn them around in order to try and make their statement true. This occurs when we don’t know the true story or when we don’t like the true story. My third point is:

Tell God’s Story

Now in vs. 30 God said, ‘I am against the prophets.’ In vs. 31 God said, ‘I am against the prophets.’ In vs. 32 God said, ‘I am against those who prophesy lying dreams.’ I am not the smartest person in here, but I see that there was problem in Jeremiah’s time. They had a problem of telling God’s Story. See these so call prophets were so devoid of divine inspiration that they would steal messages from one another that they supposed were from God. In these three verses we see that God has stepped in and took full responsibility for these lying prophets. If God stepped up to the plate and said, ‘I am against,’ shouldn’t we step up also say, ‘I am against.’ It’s Hammer Time church. Our communities will remain the same if the Body of Christ doesn’t get up, get out, and share the true Word of God faithfully. I heard many say that they don’t know how to do evangelism. The reason for this I believe, is that we ourselves don’t know the story.

Yes, the story. You know the one that I’m talking about. Most of us learned this song when we were little. The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me, I stand on the Word of God, The B-I-B-L-E. The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me, I read and pray, trust and obey, The B-I-B-L-E. We can sit up in here and recite this song and still don’t know the BIBLE. Building the bridge in our communities is done by telling God’s story. God’s story will connect the community to Christ but church we ourselves must know the Bible, the B-I-B-L-E. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

Church the Bible is comprised of 3,116,480 letters. These letters are then condensed into 783,137 words. These words are then belayed over 31,102 verses. These verses are then packed into chapters, 1,189 chapters. These chapters are then captured in the 66 books of the Bible. You know what church; your life is the 67th book. Paul said in , ‘Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And when you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’

You are a living testimony and you need to let your story help you tell God’s story. The real change in the lives of our communities is by God and ourselves so tell the story of how God picked you up and turn you around and place your feet on solid ground. Tell them how God allowed you to go back to the potter’s house more than just once. Tell them how the hammer broke you into pieces and then restored you.

As I come to my close

Closing

Throughout this message I have repeated the phrase ‘It’s Hammer Time,’ several times and many of you have associated this phrase with MC Hammer. Church I wasn’t talking about MC Hammer at all. I was taking about JC Hammer, Jesus Christ the Hammer. See out on Calvary Cross JC Hammer stretched out His arms and took the nails for me and you. JC Hammer rose up on the third with all power in His hands. See when you invite JC Hammer into your life, He’s going to bring the Hammer. This Hammer is going to tear down your old life and then restore it with a new life. , ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’ It’s Hammer Time church. It’s time to tell God’s story, it’s time to spread the word that ‘You Are Somebody, Because God is Somebody.’ It’s Hammer Time church. God’s Word must be embraced and spread by the church because it is the church that has accepted God’s Word and spreads God’s Word.

‘For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.’ Church the YAS Movement doesn’t need to be voted on because God has already but His seal on it through His Word. , “And the Lord answered me; write the vision; make it plan on tablets, so he may run who reads it.” Then God double sealed it in “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” It’s Hammer Time. It’s Hammer Time, because it has been written down and made plain and now it’s time for you to GO!! It’s Hammer Time #YAS.

Please Stand

This is our call to discipleship. If you want to have your hearts renewed, it is the Gospel that must melt them! If you want to be saved, it is the Gospel that must save you! “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

Introduction:

I know many of you know that this is a Hammer and what it is used for. A Hammer is used to build things like buildings, homes, bridges, and many other things. Also, these same things that the Hammer builds up it can also tear them down. The Hammer is used to tear these things down because it has formed some issues that have change it from its original state and must be broken down and restored. The Word of God is like a Hammer as it builds up lost souls from there sinful and lost state. Our souls often become worry and lost because of what we have allowed to penetrate God’s vessel. says, ‘For the Word of God is living and active. Shaper than any double-edge sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’ The Word of God builds us. The Word of God breaks up down when our souls change from the state it was created. The Word of God restores what it has broken down.

Our text today teaches us that the Bible is like a Hammer which rouses and strengthens the life and conscience, crushing everything that is evil within the heart. As we begin to walk through out text today, we will see the power of the Word of God. As we begin to endure the ‘YAS Movement,’ we will be going tint our communities picking up the pieces of shattered lives, homes, and communities. There is an old slogan that says, ‘Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but your words will never hurt me.’ Church I need to inform you that this slogan is not true. See words can be powerful. In God said, ‘Let there be,’ and the rest is history. Words can be weapons, see a careless, harsh word can cut a person like a knife. This is one of the reasons that the Body of Christ must speak the truth in love. If you present God’s Word in the right explanation and interpretation you will always speak the true in love. Yes, love does hurt. My first point is:

1) Speak The True Word

Doug Logan in his book: ON the Block: Developing A Biblical Picture for Missional Engagement said, ‘We must shepherd and disciple our congregation while instilling within them a relentless drive to move the Gospel outward into the surrounding community.’ Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ The YAS Movement helps the congregation to move the Gospel outward into the surrounding community. God set down one day with Jeremiah and talked to him about the issues within the community. One of the issues that the community faced in Jeremiah’s time was false prophets. 28a. We also have ‘False Prophets’ in our communities. See we have these street prophets with street prophet dreams. The prophies told by these prophets are only dreams because they did not originate from God. Prophies about ‘Jesus is white,’ or ‘African Americans are the true Israelites,’ are dangerous and they are endangering our communities. 28b. “but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.” The church, well I know this church, has been taught the true Word of God and the church should speak God’s Word faithfully because the Word was given to us by God. One Bible version says, ‘the person I gave a message to should deliver it faithfully.’ Church me must be Mission Minded with a Gospel foundation when we go out into our community. See ‘mission without a strong foundation in the church creates wandering believers who roam outside of communities. As a result, their faith rarely reaches maturity and produces weakness of conviction.’ The vison of YAS is to connect with our communities to create positive energy and positive images, so as to provide hope for the hood and help for the hurt. This lost hope and hurt has produced tension between our communities and the church. The Body of Christ cannot stop speaking the true in love because of this tension. says, ‘and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.’ Church ‘It’s Hammer Time.’ It’s time for us to get up and ‘GO,’ it’s time for us to stand boldly and faithfully proclaim God’s Word. When we begin to put application to , the ‘Hammer’ will begin to shed light on the later part of vs. 28. ‘What has straw in common with wheat? Declares the Lord.” In our communities, the internet, street prophets, and church fallouts have our communities in such a sate that they don’t know straw from wheat. In , Paul was in Athens and perceived that they religious because of all the objects of worship they had in town. Paul also notice that they had an alter inscribed ‘To the unknown god.’ Paul used the worship and the unknown god concept as his common ground factor in building his bridge to ‘the God who the whole world and everything in it.’ The church must use the common ground approach in the community in order to build a bridge to Christ. The bridge building is done through discipleship and growth groups. See when the community begin to learn more and more about God, the Hammer will begin to show them that what He has is wheat and its good for the soul.

Church if you boldly proclaim God’s Word He will bring the Hammer on all of these isms and tisms. God will use His Word to smash all the delusions and misunderstanding about Him. God wants the church to get the Hammer out, God wants the church to know the Hammer. God wants the church to speak about the Hammer faithfully. Church ‘It’s Hammer Time.’ Let’s not just wear the YAS T-shirt, let us live it, walk it, and talk it. “It’s Hammer Time.’ In verse 29, God asked Jeremiah another question, ‘Is not my Word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a Hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?’ My second point is

2) Pick Up the Pieces

Pastor Harris was once noted saying, ‘We understand that the image and dignity of God in all of us is broken into pieces.’ Our communities are broken into pieces and the church needs to go an pick up the pieces of our shattered communities. Church the YAS Movement is design for the church to build a bridge that connects the community to Christ. says, ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.’ Our communities are burden and we need to pick up the pieces and help the burdens of our communities. Now I must warn you that when the community begins to connect with Christ, He is going to bring the Hammer. See God needs to put us in this broken state so that we are only dependent on Him. No matter what He wants to do for us or how earnestly He seeks to bless us, He cannot do anything with a person who closes his heart in pride, refusing to bend and break. See when the Hammer comes He will never give up on us until we are broken. So the YAS Movement is not a one time thing as there will always be broken pieces in our communities as He works in the hearts of the lost. Many churches fail in their evangelism because their missional engagement is not active nor is it an intentional engagement with the world. In , Adam sinned then hid from the God. But God reached out to Adam. God didn’t waste time: man sinned and God sent a message of redemption. Church God sent Himself to engage sinful man. Therefore, we must also follow the call to go to the lost people in the hood. Need to begin to pick up the pieces in our communities by given them a message of hope, the Gospel, and the man of hope, Jesus Christ. The book of Nehemiah gives us a snapshot of the biblical reality that the people in the community need to be restored before the city can be rebuilt. If you restore the building before you restore the person all you will have is a pretty building on the outside with the same old cracks on the inside. A psychiatrist said that ‘change happens from the inside out. Not the other way around.’ Max Lucado said, ‘When you believe in Christ, Christ works a miracle in you.’ says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Church it’s Hammer time. It’s time for us to change out of that Sunday to go suit, it’s time for us to take off the Sunday to go hat, it’s time for us to grab our hammer and get to work. It’s Hammer Time church. Out in the community you are going to have some resistance and oppositions, but you need to tell them, “Stop, it’s Hammer Time.” In vs. 30 God told Jeremiah, ‘Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another.’ Some of us take sayings and quotes from others and use them within the context of the Scriptures. But there are some who take theses quotes or true messages and turn them around in order to try and make their statement true. This occurs when we don’t know the true story or when we don’t like the true story. My third point is:

3) Tell God’s Story

Now in vs. 30 God said, ‘I am against the prophets.’ In vs. 31 God said, ‘I am against the prophets.’ In vs. 32 God said, ‘I am against those who prophesy lying dreams.’ I am not the smartest person in here, but I see that there was problem in Jeremiah’s time. They had a problem of telling God’s Story. See these so call prophets were so devoid of divine inspiration that they would steal messages from one another that they supposed were from God. In these three verses we see that God has stepped in and took full responsibility for these lying prophets. If God stepped up to the plate and said, ‘I am against,’ shouldn’t we step up also say, ‘I am against.’ It’s Hammer Time church. Our communities will remain the same if the Body of Christ doesn’t get up, get out, and share the true Word of God faithfully. I heard many say that they don’t know how to do evangelism. The reason for this I believe, is that we ourselves don’t know the story. Yes, the story. You know the one that I’m talking about. Most of us learned this song when we were little. The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me, I stand on the Word of God, The B-I-B-L-E. The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me, I read and pray, trust and obey, The B-I-B-L-E. We can sit up in here and recite this song and still don’t know the BIBLE. Building the bridge in our communities is done by telling God’s story. God’s story will connect the community to Christ but church we ourselves must know the Bible, the B-I-B-L-E. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Church the Bible is comprised of 3,116,480 letters. These letters are then condensed into 783,137 words. These words are then belayed over 31,102 verses. These verses are then packed into chapters, 1,189 chapters. These chapters are then captured in the 66 books of the Bible. You know what church; your life is the 67th book. Paul said in , ‘Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And when you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.’ You are a living testimony and you need to let your story help you tell God’s story. The real change in the lives of our communities is by God and ourselves so tell the story of how God picked you up and turn you around and place your feet on solid ground. Tell them how God allowed you to go back to the potter’s house more than just once. Tell them how the hammer broke you into pieces and then restored you.

As I come to my close

Closing

Throughout this message I have repeated the phrase ‘It’s Hammer Time,’ several times and many of you have associated this phrase with MC Hammer. Church I wasn’t talking about MC Hammer at all. I was taking about JC Hammer, Jesus Christ the Hammer. See out on Calvary Cross JC Hammer stretched out His arms and took the nails for me and you. JC Hammer rose up on the third with all power in His hands. See when you invite JC Hammer into your life, He’s going to bring the Hammer. This Hammer is going to tear down your old life and then restore it with a new life. , ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’ It’s Hammer Time church. It’s time to tell God’s story, it’s time to spread the word that ‘You Are Somebody, Because God is Somebody.’ It’s Hammer Time church. God’s Word must be embraced and spread by the church because it is the church that has accepted God’s Word and spreads God’s Word.

‘For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.’ Church the YAS Movement doesn’t need to be voted on because God has already but His seal on it through His Word. , “And the Lord answered me; write the vision; make it plan on tablets, so he may run who reads it.” Then God double sealed it in “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” It’s Hammer Time. It’s Hammer Time, because it has been written down and made plain and now it’s time for you to GO!! It’s Hammer Time #YAS.

Please Stand

This is our call to discipleship. If you want to have your hearts renewed, it is the Gospel that must melt them! If you want to be saved, it is the Gospel that must save you! “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”