Wednesday Night Bible Study
by Billy McCool
First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: Bible study
Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:7, 1 Samuel 8:19-22, 1 Samuel 16:12-13

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/billy-mccool--wednesday-night-bible-study-73
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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we greet you tonight in the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus Christ as we say so many times the only thing behind to have don't have any microphone at all do I you talk into that house praise the Lord again everyone uh we can see all right we'll see what that one sounds real good right there all right that sounds good too don't it yes all right well we're used to the we're used to a few uh technical challenges I can well remember when we didn't have the challenge of microphones uh going out we didn't have microphones but um in any way we can we can take we can take care of that I want to announce this uh this coming Sunday morning I will be preaching the longest sermon title I have ever preached in my 75 years but I feel very strongly about this subject I've thought much about it I've had it on my heart for some time and you'll listen beware of what may well be the most dangerous destructive debilitating issue ever devised and Jesus said it was impossible to be avoided now I feel very strongly about this and I thought about it and there's a lot of things we preach about and we try to warn and we also try to uh Inspire and talk and preach the positive but it's even positive when you're warned against something that's dangerous and I feel very strongly about this what may well be the most dangerous destructive debilitating issue ever devised and Jesus said it was impossible to be avoided anything Jesus does is all right but I'm going to make others are a crazy statement right here Jesus committed this very thing that I'm going to be preaching about and so uh you'll be here Sunday morning and we'll be talking about this but tonight we're talking about we're in a brand new uh series of our this is normally would be called as a Sunday school lesson but since we have changed our format somewhat uh we're teaching on Wednesday night and this is our series one and it's uh in Tyler it's a concern David and Solomon and tonight's lesson is entitled the unexpected and overlooked the unexpected and the overlooked and I'll read you the focus verse and then I want to go back beyond what the curriculum that took us through but the focused verse was be but the Lord said unto Samuel look not on his countenance are on the height of his statue because I've refused him for the Lord saith not as man saith for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart you already know uh you Bible readers uh this story behind this but we're going to explore some areas and may I say this system was cool and I had the privilege of preaching the 86th anniversary of her home Church in Rock Creek North Carolina and it was uh the pastor's fourth anniversary brother Honeycutt has only been Pastor there for four years but we had the privilege of preaching this uh dual anniversary service and I had different ones to tell me they watch our service online and one dear sister said brother McCool I never miss your Wednesday night Bible teaching and I thoroughly enjoy and so I I don't remember exactly which one her name but if she's watching tonight we dedicate this service to you and to all those that listen to us on Wednesday night now those who are capable are able to be here the Bible said forsake not the assembling of yourselves together it's not God's will for you to stay home and watch the service online if you are able to be in service now we thank the Lord for the technology and the ability we have to sit home and watch it and folks around the world but if you're if you're able to be here you need to be in the house of the Lord now then the unexpected and the overlooked my mind goes back to uh God I told Jeremiah to go down to The Potter's House and and he's going to teach him something and he went down to The Potter's House and the Potter wrought a work on the wheel now the way they they did that back in those days they didn't have electric motors of course and they they out of the paddle that they with their foot they would uh would keep the little circle going and they would just put a a glob of clay in the middle of that round platform and it would begin to spin and they would have a little water there that they could keep it going with the texture it wanted and the the Potter he was he wrought a work on the Wheel and when he looked like he had it almost completed he crushed that a club of other club is not the right word whether I I'll call it a glob that's country's head but anyway and made it the Bible said he made it into another vessel and then God told Jeremiah said couldn't I let cattle Island do this with Israel and will you not submit for God to to make another vessel out of you now what I'm saying that for is uh there's very few of us really have turned out to be what the Lord would like us to be to be real truthful and or what we would like to be we uh often reside Lord forgive me for not praying more Lord help me for not witnessing more and we can always find areas that that we could should and need to improve or change but he made it into another vessel and I'm saying that to say this God is God and it could do anything he wants to he can kill the devil if he wanted to he could he can make everybody serve him whether they wanted to or not a tree can't help but grow and the the tree has no say so about the rain it just simply grows and it can't defy it's just there and God could have made us the same way like angels that would just bow in his presence and worship Him day and night but God wanted a creature that would have his own will and would would be able to love God because he loved God and had a communication so the Bible said he made man in his own image and after his likeness so now what I'm what I'm getting at is uh God could make you and me do whatever he wanted to make us do but sometimes we say God will have his way God will his will will be done no it won't well the Bible said it wasn't his will then any should perish but we do know that there's going to be those that will perish and there's a lot of things God Wills for you and me and I wish I could feel like that I had I had fulfilled the will of God so now as you following me tonight uh we're going to talk about how God submitted to the will of man it wasn't God's will but God allowed man to have his way and I want to tell you something you and I need to think about something very important uh you can pray and there's times that God will give you what you ask for but it may not be what you really you really want now we go back uh to when when I had them uh was a Barren and she couldn't she she was very uh down-hearted and went up with her husband and and Eli the priest uh he saw her her lips were moving uh but no she he couldn't hear what she was saying it was either so lower she was actually praying but he thought she was drunk and he took notice of that he marked her mouth mouth and and this uh man he noticed it he took special notice that she was her lips were moving but she she couldn't hear anything so he rebuked her and and I said woman what do you mean coming into the house of God said put away the the wine that you're on how dare you come to the house of God drinking drunk and she said your servant is not drinking and not drunk I have drunk no strong drink but she said I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit and she told him that she was unable to have a child and she was being televised by her husband's other wife because she'd given birth and so the man of God said by the according to the time of life you're going to have a baby and sure enough according to the time of life she have a baby and she named him Samuel and she said if God gives me a male a child I'm going to bring him back and I'm going to give him to the Lord all the days of his life and sure enough the the child was born and the next year she didn't go up to to the house of God with her husband or elk and all to to worship but she stayed home and took care of of Samuel and she waited until he was weaned and I I think it's somewhere's around five years old it's been determined but she made him a little uh best or made him a little garment just like the priests and she brought him and presented him to the man of God and and I thought about that uh you know we need to be training our children to be like the man of God first of all the man of God should dress act behave and have the temperament that all of our children should be able to to model after him and I think we've got some real good models here for pastors don't you I really I really do and they impress me time and time again not only in the Pulpit but I'm I'm around them in their everyday life I'm around them when they're under stress when they they face situations and I think and we instead of encouraging our sons to want to be like some great football star or some basketball star or the young girls to be like a a some of the cheerleaders and so forth and I I'm not on a hobby horse tonight but I'm I'm teaching going back to get into into the the the curriculum lesson and Samuel grew up under the tutelage of Eli the man of God and Eli had sons of Hope and iron Phineas and they were they were Wicked the Bible said they knew not God and they can you imagine that the the sons of the priests knew not God and Samuel in them in the night God said Samuel and Samuel went to Eli and said Master you called me said no I didn't call you but go back and lay down and the voice called again and he went to Elaine I said if that voice comes again said you say God I here I am your servant hears you and he did just that so it went back and God began to speak to Samuel and though he was a child though he was much younger than the priest I God told him a lot of secret things that was going to happen to the kingdom because the sons of Eli were doing wicked things and and actually Eli was not living up to what he should be living up to to correct his sons but now we jump ahead for many years Eli uh finally when when he was old and blind and and out of shape and uh watching the the battle and uh they they took the ark thinking the ark would save them but the ark unrespected disrespected will be unresponsive we like to call on God when we're in need but let me tell you something you better call on him to worship Him and and serve him rather than just when you're in a battle don't wait till the Bible wakes up before you call on the Lord and and it's it's very very a little Carnival uh Limerick I heard one time it said that you you ought to go to church at least for a visit because at your funeral God won't say who is it well that's a it's a little Limerick but uh God knows us all but no more than we go uh it's it's something that uh you need to stay acquainted with the house of God and the people of God but Eli had drifted and so God told Samuel now Samuel when Eli saw the ark being uh taken a captive by the Philistines and his sons were killed in battle he fell backwards and broke his neck and died and and Samuel became the judge and the prophet and the leader and this is what God wants and God never wanted a king God wanted His prophets and his servants he wanted them to bow down to nobody but him but now then as Samuel began to be the prophet and the judge he did the same thing that Eli did even though he was a great man of God from a child on up he had sons that drifted away from God and they didn't serve God like Samuel did by by the the elders got together and they went to Samuel and they said your sons aren't living the way you've made judges out of them you put them in positions but they're not living the way they ought to live and so what we want is we want a king and and Samuel tried to talk them out of it and he even went to God and told God and this is where I want to read to you and first Samuel 8 and starting in verse 5 and said to him behold Thou Art old and thy Sons walk not in thy ways now make us a king to judge us like other nations now there that that's a powerful statement right there and we are being invaded and we are being influenced big time by well I'm I'll just say it like it is even Apostolic churches that want to be like other churches now that's that that goes over as the old saying like a lead balloon but when we start trying to act like the world be like the world and and and and adopt their ways and I call it making a left turn it's a to one and what it is being like what look what the others do I want the Bible said love not the world neither the things in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him now I'm not up here teaching you to be hateful or mean or uh anything like that to anybody I don't care what they are how bad they are but let me tell you something it's it's it's bad enough to be in the world but when when the world gets in the church and the church gets worldly it's a bad thing we need to hold up the standard of Holiness the standard of the apostolic Doctrine and and let the world see that there is a difference he said come out from among them and be your separate saith the Lord one scripture said medal not with them that are given to change now I wasn't talking about changing from a tent and dirt floor and sawdust floor to a carpet and air condition is talking about when folks are changing changing changing that's the bad thing right there he goes in into town and it starts Digging Up Bones and burning them on their own Altar and he turned and there was an old gravestone sitting there that was moss covered and Vines had covered it up and and he was trying to uh dig up all the bones it could and he saw that gravestone and he said to them and said what what's in our reading I said it only says the man of God that came from Judah don't even say it just says nothing else and they said sir what you just saw that was a gravestone of the man of God that's been there for 350 years and he's the man that came riding he's a man that came out of Judah and he stood against the false prophets he stood against idolatry and he prophesied that you would be born and even told what your name would be and he said that you would dig up bones and you would you would burn them on their own Altar and said that's what you just did all the all the gravestones said was the man of God that came from Judah it didn't have to say anything else they remembered for 350 years they remembered what the man of God has said the old gravestone hadn't changed it didn't say rest in peace great man with great talent this or that he just said the man of God some they changed the wall for you gotta every now and then you gotta check up to see what the latest Revelation is or their latest Doctrine or the latest gimmick or whatever he he's the same yesterday today and for every reason I am God and I change not I want to tell you God don't change he says that's what 75 years ago 11 year old boy got the Holy Ghost right out of the cotton Patcher I was baptized in Jesus name in the flood way did you I started preaching and and I was preaching that bit and I'm preaching that the same thing I preached 75 years ago and this church right here is 66 years old and I want you to know it's the same church as it was when we was under attention to Lee and Baxter it's the same church of when we're at 123 where Colombia and it's the same church at 50 20 and it's the same church at 50 21 I guess that's what we are now somebody say Amen but the thing is please Samuel when they said give us a king to judge us and Sam of prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel hearken to their voice hearken to the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee well they've not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not Reign Over them now remember what I said about Jeremiah and The Potter's House they made it into another sometimes God allows things and you wonder why because God is God and he knows the end from the beginning and he said uh Samuel let let them do what they want to do that's okay they're not rejecting you they're rejecting me and then the verse 19 said nevertheless the people refuse to obey the voice of Samuel and they said nay but we will have a king over us that we also may be like all the nations and that our King May judge us and go out before us and fight our battles and Samuel heard all the words of the people and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel hearken to their voice make them a king and Samuel said unto the men of Israel go ye every man to his City this is something you and I need to ponder very carefully you can press and press and press until you get your way you can pray for something and pray for something and I've seen Paris saying my mom and dad well the children start to they want something and just keep on nagging well go on go on and they you can tell they unapproving but they're yielding now every one of us has done that sometime or another we have we've we've allowed it and well be careful but I but would rather not be done now remember we're in the likeness of God and now God is doing this he's telling the same go in London now Samuel I didn't put it in my notes but there was scripture after scripture of scripted them he said this is what the king is going to do and it told about the king who's going to make servants out of the sons he's going to take your sheep he's going to take 10 percent of everything you got he's gonna make your daughters uh uh that they're going to be servants and you'll be sunny and on and on and on and on he told them what it was going to be like living under a king but they still wanted that well I'm not going to go into a lot of details to keep within my time frame but there was a man by the name of Saul sawkish and his father's donkeys had got out and he was out looking for him and to make a long story short when they he couldn't find them and and finally he's told his servant uh Saul said uh the servant said is there don't the prophet leave it it isn't it true that Samuel the prophet is here in this town and Saul said yeah but he said we don't have I don't have any money I I don't have a thing and he said I've got a little money and I loaned it through so let's go see the because in those days if you want to see the man of God you had to take him a present and so he said I've got a little Maldives and I understand I'm paraphrasing and I'm telling the story for him rather than a word for word well they went to see Samuel and Samuel just stopped him right there and said go here do this you're going to find somebody got so many lobes of bread you're gonna and he he gave him and said to this and said now uh uh Saul you said served you go and he told Saul said you you go with me I've got news for you now Saul left home that days before uh looking for lost donkeys but he came back home with the information that God had made him the king of Israel and sure enough at his coronation when he was to be anointed uh King uh Samuel looked for him and they couldn't find him he was now he was a head and shoulders taller than anybody else but but he was humble at heart he was me he was a kind person and and he loved God he was just the kind of man you would want for a king and they Samuel A New Orleans King and he became king and he kept on the farm and taking care of his farm and and the enemy came that was overtaken the Israelites and the Israelites was trying to submit and they said one thing we're going to do if we're going to have peace we're going to knock out your right eye Every Man's gonna take his right eye out well the right eye is the dominant eye and most folks and it it would render them unable to defend themselves and when they told Saul that he went into a dizzy he wasn't going to have God's people to do this at all and he rose up against it and won the victory for him now I'm telling you all this for a reason and he became a dominant King but something happened to him that humble man of God that was hid among the stuff too humble he wasn't doing that out of fake humility he he he didn't want to be seen but something happened pastors told us this several times I've heard him talk about this when David went down and killed the Giant the women began to sing their song Saul as slain his thousands David is ten thousand and this did something to Saul it changed him into another man let me tell you he started out good Samuel started out good Eli started out good to be here Sunday morning I'll talk more about that but now then God tells Samuel well tell uh the Samuel to a Saul God said I remember the amalekites what they did to my people and I want you to go and I want you to destroy men women yeah big the little older young and everything they got I want you to annihilate them destroy them completely and uh a few days later Samuel goes down to check on the situation and and when he met uh Saul and Saul said blessed be thou the Lord for I have command I have obeyed the Commandment of the Lord Samuel said if you've obeyed the Commandments the Lord said what meaneth the bleeding of the sheep the lowering of the auction always said I kept the good sheep for sacrifice and and and he made his decision upon his own evaluation he didn't take what God Said to do he did according to his own evaluation let me tell you something when you and I get to the place that we can become our own pastor we can become our own leader and the Bible said feeding themselves without fear the D and that day the Bible said and they every man did that's what was right in their own eyes you need to hear from God and then you need to do what God says but but Saul made his own evaluation and he spared the sheep and right there God spoke through Sam and said you've disobeyed the voice of God and because you've rejected the voice of God God is rejecting you from being King and Sam uh Saul said well I I want a little honor I want you he he began he had lost that humility what he started out with he lost it what did Jeremiah learn from The Potter's House he made it into another vessel I know the vessel can be a better vessel or it can be a worse and and solid turned into a different man than what he started out and uh he said well give me let me be and first of all Samuel refused but eventually he's he allowed him to worship God but but Samuel took a sword and he said where's agag the king of the amalekites well they said I saved him and the Bible said that that the king he said surely the bitterness has gone down we hear that the Kings of Israel are are kind but Samuel himself had to slay that Wicked King AG huh and that brings on another story don't make the man of God Have To Do Your Dirty Work uh now Johnny you behavior I'm going to tell brother McCool on you you better behave I'm gonna now dear what's Mr McCool gonna think about you he says but cool don't dress like that you don't need to let the man of God have to do your dirty work you need to take the word of God and let it sink deep in your heart and be what you are you need to believe it for yourself well now what brother McCool don't believe in that he don't well what do you believe the church don't believe in such as well what does the church now who is the church anyway this building does this building believe something that you don't believe this building don't have a thought it don't have a conscience the carpet and and the the lights and my grandma you and I are the church we're the ones that have a conscience and have a consciousness of what God is respecting of us well God said now Samuel I've got me another king waiting and and Samuel cried all night the Lord said to Samuel how long will thou mourn for Saul seeing I've rejected him from reigning over Israel fill thy horn by the oil and go and I'll send thee to Jesse the bethlehemite for I provided me a king among his sons and Samuel said how can I go if I go if Saul hears it he'll kill me kill me keep going anoint a king and we got a King Saul will surely kill me and the Lord said take a heifer with thee and say I am come to sacrifice to the Lord there's some things now he was having an ice cream supper if he's having a watermelon party if he was having a Saul uh Saul would have been there but he's there's some of us will be there if it's a a pleasurable pastime but said if you want to escape the wrath of Saul tell Soldier having the sacrifices now Pastor often he'll make a statement we're going to have a meeting of the Mighty Man and bless your darling heart I want you to know they show up as shovels and Hammers and whatever a Pastor's going to do all he's got to do is say we want to have a meaning of our of our strong man our body man well Samuel said how can they go well and call Jesse to the sacrifice and I'll show thee what Thou shalt do and thou shall anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee and Samuel did that which the Lord spake now God could have said go down to Jesse's house and he's got a young boy that's taking care of the chief his name is David and he's going to be my king but he didn't God leads us step by step do you hear me God don't always let you know what the next step is going to be he could have very easily told Samuel go down to the house of Jesse he's got a young son the youngest of all but it didn't he said go down and and I I'll choose me a king from among his sons and Samuel did that was the Lord spake he came to Bethlehem and the Elders of the Town trembled and is coming and said cometh thou peace and believe showing the reverential respect they had for the man of God they tremble the man of God's here is the judge is he coming to pronounce judgment there was a there was a reverential respect for the man of God and he said no I come peaceably I'm come to sacrifice unto the Lord sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice and is Sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice and came to pass when they were come that he looked on eliab and said surely the Lord's unknown on his before oldest son the biggest a muscular the most handsome the tallest probably spoke with eloquence the man that there is when when Samuel saw him this this is the one right here he looked on alib and said surely the Lord's anointed is before him but the Lord said unto Samuel look not on his countenance or his height of Statue because I have refused him God don't see like you see man sees on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart you can look ever so good you can you can put on the best front you can put on a great facade and your heart could not be right you better make sure your heart is right but the Lord said to Samuel look not on his countenance or the height of his teacher then Jessica abinadam well if it's not it's going to be a bit of and it made him to pass before Samuel he said neither hath the Lord chosen this then Jesse made Shama to pass by and it said neither hath the Lord chosen this one again Jesse made Seven of his sons surpassed before he had eight Sons but there were only seven there in the house and after seven and went by and Samuel didn't the Horn of all wouldn't poor God didn't choose a one of them now why does why does God do things like that I don't know one fella I heard preacher says God would just tell us what he wanted to do he'd get lost when we're done well God does things the way he wants to do it and you and I need to just simply humbly obey him so seven of his sons passed by and they passed by the second time and again Jesse made Seven of his son to pass before Samuel and Samuel said unto Jesse the Lord hath not chosen this in Samuel said to Jesse I hear all my children as God made a mistake here is this all your children and he said they're remaineth yet the youngest now the overlooked the left out there was a young boy out there now contrary to what you and I think of a Shepherd our Good Shepherd is so wonderful and but in in those days Shepherds were not highly esteemed they they were it was a dirty job and they they spent a lot of time in the loan and they were not highly respected as we think shepherds are and so this young boy the youngest one I don't know what seven a husky a strong good looking uh well-trained boys was doing that at home at this time but there was one was out there somewhere go get him okay what's uh I hear somebody playing a little heart somebody's practices when the slingshot somebody's been fighting lines and somebody's been fighting bears and somebody I go get him and notice that came to pass when they were come and looked at any of them through the Lord said over to him Jessica and then in his seven of his sons passed by and Samuel said to Jesse children he said there remaineth one yet the youngest and behold he keepeth the Sheep and Samuel said to Jesse sin and fetch him for we will not sit down till he come hither now think about this for just a minute have you ever felt like you was overlooked and something that's important uh you know David didn't realize what was going on up at the house he was just busy practicing his own his Harps he's shooting his slingshot and take care of her sheep and and scaring off the the varmints but something was going on God had not overlooked the youngest God had not overlooked the young Shepherd and let me tell you something there's not a one of us in this house tonight that God's overlooked he knows you and he knows what you need to be doing I talked to my twin brother the other day and we got to talk to him both got to cry oh and we talked along this line how in the world did we get started in the ministry two 11 year old boys you don't have to be a a genius mathematician to figure out how far we'd gone in school at that time and yet we were cotton Pickers and there was no Evangelistic depart we didn't know anything about the such thing as a religious organization the preachers and and no way to get started and have a daddy there was a sharecropper smoked Camel cigarettes and didn't have the Holy Ghost and we challenge our daddy to start out well we'd preached a few times here and there but we challenged our dad to go with us and my dad said this himself said God if you'll make a way I'll go with my boys and he said God said you don't see the highway crowded with preachers hitchhiking do you and you've heard the story a hundred times about us catching the ride in the cattle truck know how it got started I just know that God don't overlook anyone God knows who you are and what you are now God's not going to call you out of the fifth grade and and now sharecropper and God may want you to get a good education they want you to get your polish and and just you do what God whatsoever your hand finds to do do it with thy might don't do it half-heartedly but do it with everything if you're that one talented servant use that one time at least gain one Talent don't bury it the man who had had the three and the two the five of them they they might they divide they multiply well at least if you've only got one gain one because he's going to say the same thing to you well done my good and faithful servant okay go get him he sent and brought him in now he was ready and with all of a beautiful Countess what he meant by that he was young and and look young he's a good looking young kid but it was a Shepherd boy and Goodland looked to and the Lord said I Rise anoint him for this is he that's all you need to know whatever God has for you to do arise and you can be anointed in the Bible I can't put my finger on the verse right now but there were certain ones that God anointed to do physical things for one thing the levitical person that they can't they cared the the Tabernacle but there were those who were gifted with the with cutting Stones there were those that were skilled at working in iron and God gave them talent and it was Talent just like somebody that stood up and and preached and when David came in God said arise and anoint him for this is he David didn't realize he had been overlooked and they'd tried twice to anoint somebody else but God knew who had a Shepherd's Heart then Samuel took the Horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren and the spirit of the Lord Came Upon David from that day forward so Samuel rose up and went to Rhema and the spirit now whom God chooses he equips he anoints he will what he called you for the Lord will equip you to do that would you stand your feet with us right now we've already heard the prayer request tonight and um we have different ones who need prayer and let's pray a special prayer tonight for uh sister Kelly's grandmother she had a fall and believing in the brain and uh she needs a touch from the hand of God and we believe that she's going to get it let's pray especially for her and brother O'Brien prepare for him pray for brother Jack talk to Sister Betty uh today or yesterday today yes it was and let's pray for her brother Jack sister Betty pray for brother Summers he's uh in the Ben actually uh Soldiers Home let's pray for him father we thank you tonight for the Blessed word of God I pray that you'll let the word of God touch our hearts and may we may we he's submissive may we be the clay in The Potter's hands and Lord if you find any impurity that needs to be crushed out of us do it Lord we want to be willing to let you crush us and put us back on the spinning wheel and make us into another vessel Lord if I've not been the vessel that you chose that you wanted help me to be the one that you're willing to accept now I'll do what I possibly can to be pleasing to you dismiss us from this place but not from your presence bring us back at our next appointed time in Jesus name we pray amen say kids be friendly and you're dismissed In The Name Of The Lord