Sunday Morning Worship Service
by Jason Staten
January 16, 2022 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 2:16, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Genesis 4:9, Matthew 2:1-2

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/jason-staten--sunday-morning-worship-service-172
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 used to sing a song he woke me up this morning and started me on my way amen without god putting breath in our bodies i know we just kind of assumed here's what i'll do tomorrow here's what i'll do the next day but god's got to wake us up in order for all those plans so i want to give him praise just thank you lord for giving me another day amen thank you for giving me another opportunity to praise you and what an incredible honor it is to be here at first apostolic church of knoxville certainly we give honor to your bishop and his wife 65 years of marriage that's incredible amen i i just to live 65 years i'll be thankful but 65 years of marriage is incredible and we give honor to them for this work this work would not be here today if it weren't for their labor amen started this church and all the work they put into it uh certainly we give honor to pastor and sister mccool my wife and i have so much enjoyed getting to be around them and uh i know the name is mccool but they're just cool people and i'm sure you've never heard that before right probably the first one that's ever said that no probably not but uh great ministers and just great christians just getting to be around them has been an honor certainly uh pastor anthony and sister kelly and eleanor we honor their family as well i was privileged to be with on a week couple weeks long trip i don't know 10 days or so with pastor anthony over in israel and we had a great time over there a lot of stories i probably can't tell you all about but we had a good time and uh anyway got to meet him and hang around him and if you look at pastor anthony he's what i think i look like until i look in the mirror i i think i look that cool and now i look in the mirror i'm like i'm not that cool but but when you see him that's what i think that's what i want to look like so anyway just imagine him when you look at me and then of course pastor nate whitley ashley and easton and uh pastor nate has become one of my very closest friends in the last year or so we're on the phone or on a zoom call together multiple times a week and uh just to be around this guy he's a genius he really is he's got such a brain and a mind for ministry and just don't you enjoy all the just the things he puts out there on instagram and social media and uh since amen yeah you can give him honor and of course not long ago james wilson who is he still calls me pastor i'll never see him well not much anyway but uh he still calls me pastor and the plan is he'll be moving back in april to maryland and basing out of there and be there more with us but when the first time he was here i try to watch him as much as i can wherever he's at and so i started tuning in to the services here and uh just the ministry that you all are blessed with and i like to be around things that are beautiful i like to be around other people that are beautiful and things that just makes me look better right that's why i married who i married because i like to be around people that are beautiful and i just i've fallen in love with this little screen you got well not little screen i mean i'm a viewer that's a nice looking screen it just makes you i think i look good i might look like pastor anthony today just for a few minutes today um this great screen and and what a beautiful edifice beautiful building and just give god praise for what he's blessed you all with you might think that every church has it like this but i just want to let you know the leadership that you have the building that you have you are a blessed people amen and you're probably nervous right now you're like if this guy talks this long to introduce himself how long is he going to preach today well i'm not going to preach that long but if we could turn together to the book of genesis chapter 3 and the first verse and of course it is an honor to have my wife with me today i'm going to try to get her to get up here tonight and greet you all even that the look i just got valerie would you at least stand so they can see who you are the folks that work thank you and she did i woke up earlier this morning and was writing in my journal and just i know her dad i told her this and i don't i don't mean to make uh emotional downer for her but her dad would have been so proud of her this weekend and the incredible job that she did speaking she did just an amazing job and i'm honored to be able to be her husband amen genesis chapter 3 and verse number 1 says the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said to the woman yea hath god said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the tree of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god hath said you shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest you die the serpent said unto the woman you shall not surely die for god doth know that in the day that you eat thereof the eyes your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as god's knowing good and evil amen and i want to preach for just a few minutes this morning on this thought called into question amen called into questions amen questions are an important part of our life good questions lead to good answers right questions lead to right answers questions asking questions unlocks the door to increased understanding and opens the door to opportunity the best question i have ever asked in my life led to 25 years with my best friend and four daughters now thankfully the best question in hindsight the best question i ever asked was responded to by what she might think was the worst answer she ever gave but too late she stuck now british philosopher james allen believed that the key to leading a successful life james allen this philosopher said that there's four basic questions that if you simply ask yourself repeatedly these four questions you will lead a successful life those four questions in case you buy into his philosophy or simply why why not why not me and why not now but the philosopher simply simplified success in life to asking the right questions business consultant clayton christensen stated that without a good question a good answer has no place to go the great physicist albert einstein said that we should learn from yesterday learn from today hope for tomorrow but the important thing is that we never stop asking questions and if you're the parent of a two-year-old you know that they believe what einstein believed prolific french writer voltaire stated judge a man not by his answers but by his questions amen questions unlock the door to opportunity and understanding and while right questions and good and good questions are valuable in everyday life there is possibly no setting that the strategy of asking questions is more important and of more significance than in the courtroom it is here in the courtroom as witnesses take the stand that jurors lean in to listen closely to the replies and the responses and so it is of the utmost importance that lawyers on either side of the case ask the right questions so as the witness is examined and then they are cross-examined there is a strategy to the questions that are asked and the examination that is carried out distinguished lawyer by the name of jim perdue not the same guy as the chicken guy but this lawyer from the university of houston wrote in an essay on trial technique and he shared the five question rule for cross examining a witness i'm not going to bore you with legal jargon and probably more than not boring you i'm not going to confuse myself with legal jargon but the premise of the five-question rule was to emphasize the importance of the first questions that are asked as purdue wrote in this paper what he was getting across in this lengthy dissertation was that the first questions that you ask are of the utmost importance the point and the emphasis in this essay is that the five first five questions cannot be random you can't just just walk into the courtroom and whatever comes to your mind you ask that question they cannot be unplanned and unrehearsed but they must be carefully crafted and posed he reasons that asking too many questions weakens the case and trivial questions will confuse the jury he concluded his case for properly planning and strategically aligning those first five questions when he stated that of all of the examination the jury will likely recall best how it began and the first points that were made all of that to say this questions are important if i could today make the leap from the courtroom and the witnesses the lawyers and the jury i would bring us today into the courtroom of the garden of eden no this not the scene of a criminal or even a civil trial there is no jury to appeal to today there is no gavel that will clang against the desk should things begin to get unruly but on trial in the garden of eden was the will of man a trial that is still unfolding in the life of every person that is gathered in this building today you may not know it today but when you woke up this morning you were on trial amen yesterday you were on trial and tomorrow you will be on trial and the trial that we are all standing in this life is my will what will i do with my will will i surrender my will to the will of god or will i do what seems right unto me the bible says that every man is right in his own eyes but i have a decision to make will i surrender my will to the will of god first peter chapter number one beginning in verse number six and continuing on to verse seven speaks to this yet unfolding trial that began way back in the garden and here in this first epistle peter wrote wherein you greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be you are in heaviness through manifold temptations the english standard version of the bible renders that same verse this way he said this in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials and then in verse 7 the writer goes on and says this is the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire that it might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of jesus christ amen this is the trial of our faith we are standing today on trial just as eve was in the garden we are standing on the trial of our faith and as we look at the book of genesis we find adam and eve in the garden of eden and as eve saunters toward the center of the garden and stands there in the shadow of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the trial of faith the trial of the will of mankind begins to unfold and as the sinister serpent steps forward he opens the trial with the first question he has been deliberately plotting his strategy behind this first don't don't mistake that the devil didn't just slither out there onto that tree limb or i'm not sure at least that's what my uh sunday school teacher in first grade that's the picture she showed me was the serpent wrapped around the limb of an apple tree but understand the devil didn't just open his mouth and whatever question came out but with careful consideration he had been crafting the first question that he would pose to eve and to all of humanity he is devious enough to understand that this first question is going to lay the foundation for the trial of our faith not just in that moment in the garden but for all of humanity and for all of time and so very carefully with just the right emphasis on every word and the right inflection of his voice on every syllable satan opens up the trial of our faith when he asks the first question in the bible hath god said hath god said that you shall not eat of every tree of the garden understand this was not the serpent calling for a linguistics expert to come in and cross-examine the words that god had spoken this wasn't about questioning the terms or the phrase that god had spoken no this was the enemy putting the goodness of god in question amen that was the first question of the adversary in the garden and in this building today if he can get you to question the goodness of god if he can get you to begin to question the motives of god amen i want you to know today that god is good all the time in every circumstance and in every situation god is good this isn't about what god said it's about the goodness of god what what satan was asking eve that day in the garden and what he's asking people in this building today eve do you trust the boundaries that god has placed in your world do you trust that god placed the boundaries of this holy book in your life for your blessing or eve perhaps god is just keeping you from something better amen you see the first question of the serpent is a strategic and a seductive question that is purposed to place a question in the mind of eve and just three verses later the serpent would circle back to this carefully crafted question to hammer out the point that he had posed in her mind when he simply says this eve if you eat of that tree you will not die but the day that you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be as a god knowing good and evil and i know it's thousands of years later we don't live in the garden and the innocence of eden is all gone but the leading question of the serpent is still the same hath god said amen somebody in this building today the enemy is getting the quest is leading you to question the boundaries that god has placed in your world and so i ask you today do you trust the boundaries that god has placed in your life do you trust that when god says stay in the church he's not keeping you from something better in this world do you trust that when god said stay in the altar he's not keeping you from something better in this world do you trust that the things that god has said don't partake of that he's saying that for your blessing and your benefits i can't even count on both hands and both feet fingers and toes the number of friends family members good people that i have known that have faltered in the trial of their faith over this question because they became convinced that the boundaries that god had established for them were keeping them from something better the enemy convinced them that it was better off out in this world than it was in the church the enemy convinced them that it was better off out there than it was at the altar he convinced them that it was better off in the blessings of this world than in the praises of the most high god i've come to ask you today half god said i've come to ask you is god still good in your life i've come to ask you today is god still worthy of your praise do you trust that his boundaries are for your blessing do you trust that being in the church is the best place that your family can be i know it's sunday morning but i feel like god giving god some prayer lord i thank you for placing me in the church i thank you for placing me in a good place i thank you for giving me a pastor that will preach to me the word of god because it's better in here than it is out there you need to let the devil know the answer to his question you need to let your praise right now answer that ques it's better in here than it is out there it's better giving god praise than it is out there i'd rather be a door keeper in the house of god than to live a thousand years elsewhere i wish for the next 20 seconds you would answer the devil's question and let him know it's all right in the church it's okay in the garden i'm just going to stay in the blessings of god i'm going to dwell in the boundaries that god has given me hallelujah thank you lord thank you for what you told me not to eat thank you for where you told me not to go thank you for what you told me to stay away from i believe it's for my blessing it was just in genesis chapter 2 verse 16 that god had spoken to adam listen he says you can freely eat of every tree that is in the garden but one every tree but one do you trust that what god has given you is enough do you look at what he has placed in your world through gratitude or grumbling through contentment or complaining through praise or protest do you find yourself focused on the abundance that he has given you to freely eat of or are you fixated on the one thing that he has withheld how many of you believe god's been good i don't know about you but i've got so much more in my life than i deserve i live in a house i never could have dreamed i would live in i'm married to a wife i never thought i would be able to marry i've got children that are blessed beyond anything that i could ever deserve amen i pastor a church that i don't deserve to pastor i want to focus on the abundance of what god has given me because what happens when you can only focus on what you don't have your praise will die in the garden when all you can think about is what you don't have you will no longer give praise i'm telling you but god i want to thank you because you said i can eat of every tree that's in the garden lord i want to thank you today because you have blessed me how many of you can testify that god has blessed you how many of you would testify today that god has blessed me beyond what i deserve over there in maryland where i live we're not always grammatically correct and we used to sing a song that said ain't god good forgiven us so many blessings undeserving that's what we are we ought to thank him love him praise him a little more today and a whole lot more to them that was the words of that song hath god said this was no errant question this was not a flippant frivolous inquiry and i wondered this morning someone today needs to make up your mind i trust the boundaries that god has placed in my life i trust what god is keeping me from that it's for my good and i trust that what god has given me is enough i trust that what god has given me is enough i want to say today the best way that you can stay away from the one that you can have is to focus on what you do have if you want to know how do i avoid temptation then focus on the good things god has placed in your life it's hard to walk away in sin when you're busy praising god for what he's given you it's hard to fall into an adulterous affair when you're thanking god for the wife that he blessed you with it's only when you start to grumble about what you can have that you find yourself eating from the i wish somebody stand today and thank god for what he's given you i thank you for the job you gave me i thank you lord for the car i drove here in today i thank you for the house i live in i thank you for the spouse you gave me i thank you for my children i thank you for my health lord i want to thank you for what i do have [Music] sometimes when i get to preaching i sweat so i went today and got me a little sweat down that wasn't accidental i knew what i was doing when i bought it and as satan arrogantly rests his examination and slithers back into the shadows the almighty steps forward to ask his first question in this trial of the will of man this trial of our faith as eve has eaten of the fruit and then passes to adam and he also eats and now as sin always does promises such wonderful things only to leave us riddled with guilt and shame and now in their best attempt to cover their nakedness and suppress their shame they sow fig leaves together and fashion themselves aprons and here comes the question the first question of the almighty adam where are you now if we're able to give satan enough credit to understand that his first question was not a slip of his serpentine tongue amen to know that his first question was very intentionally crafted they have thought over this question that he had considered carefully before he asked this first question then we must also give enough credit to our god to know that he wasn't just walking out there and saying the first thing that came to mind this was not a glorified game of hide and seek this was not a gps question this wasn't asked god asking adam what tree are you hiding behind wasn't god wondering their location he knew exactly where they were no this question was a question that was probing much deeper it was a question of honest evaluation it's not about location it's about distance and as the voice of god echoes in the garden a trembling man and a trembling woman that are faced with an honest answer to an honest question and they begin to ask themselves where am i how did i get to this place how did i get so distant from a god that i used to dwell in his presence how did i get to this place of loneliness and guilt and shame what has sin done to me why did i ever leave god and why am i running from him that is the first question of the almighty how far has sin taken you and this is the first question that will lead you back to calvary it is the first question that will draw you to an altar of repentance where has sin taken you i know that the serpent promised you that you would be like god but where are you really adam do you feel like a god right now no i feel guilt and shame i feel so much remorse and regret for what i did amen but it isn't just a question that causes us to evaluate where sin has taken us it's also a question that communicates no matter how far i've fallen no matter how deeply i have sunk in the swamp of sin that god is still looking for me amen that god is still thinking of me that no matter how far i've gone no matter how much distance there is grown between me and the presence of god i hear the voice of god saying where are you listen god is looking for me you did not make the first step to find god i promise you amen but god made the first step to find you and he is still searching for you and then he is still drawing close today in this building where are you and all throughout the old testament the response of humanity is framed by the first question of humanity so we've looked at the first question of the serpent we look at the first question of god and now the response of humanity if we look at the first question of humanity ironically framed by the mouth of the murderous cain in genesis chapter 4 verse 9 when he simply says am i my brother's keeper and that was the best that humanity could do in the old covenant the best that we could do under the old covenant was to deflect responsibility to push those sins back one year as that that passover lamb was slain and the sins would be rolled back the best that we could do under the old covenant was to deflect the responsibility of sin and so cain's approach when asked when when after god had come to him after he murdered his own brother his best response was simply this am i my brother's keeper what he was simply doing is pushing away and deflecting responsibility but to find the accurate response of mankind what should our response be to the question of the serpent in the garden and what should our response be to the question of the almighty god as he came walking in the cool of the garden and in order to find the accurate response of mankind we must move to the new covenant and the new testament the making of a new covenant between god and man and here we find the first question posed by humanity in matthew chapter 2 verse 1 has wise men traveling from the east following a star they arrive there and they stand before herod and here's the question that they ask and this is the question that should be in the mouth of every child of god where is he amen where is he that is born the king of the jews where is the hope of our salvation where is the only one that can redeem us from sin where is the only one that can wash away iniquity where is the only one that can put back together our brokenness where is the only one that can remove our guilt and cover our shame i wonder if anybody in this building is thankful that you found jesus i wonder if there's anybody here today that like adam and eve you fell in the garden you failed the trial of the will of man but i'm so thankful today jesus is in the house i'm so thankful today as this worship team joined together earlier and they began to worship i found jesus all over again i walked into his presence and i found jesus all over i wish somebody gave him praise he is here he is here he is in this place today come on we can do better than that he's a great and mighty king he is our redeemer he is our savior he is our strength he is our shelter [Applause] would you stand with me as the musicians come where is he that's the that is the respect that is the the proper response of humanity we've got to find jesus it's the right response for the sinner does anybody have a you have a cry in your spirit for the city of knoxville come on somebody there's what a great crowd here today about how many hundreds of thousands of people outside of the walls of this building right now don't even know where jesus is like adam and eve in the garden the enemy came and posed that question hath god said and they've they've lost themselves trying to find gratification in this world and they've found the only answer that sin can give and that is guilt and shame but we have an answer for them we have an answer we have the only solution for them and his name is jesus it's the right response for the sinner that is far from jesus it's the right response for that one that has wandered away and today is asking how did i get here maybe maybe i'm i'm preaching to a bunch of perfect christians today maybe maybe maybe it's just me today that has ever woken up in a place where i allowed my heart to drift or i allowed this will of the flesh to to dominate me and i made choices that were terrible decisions and i woke up in the middle of the night and i wondered how did i get here how did i get how where did this distance between me and god come from how did i get to the place where i can sit in a service and not even feel the presence of god is there anybody else that can relate to that you've been there how did i get here it's the right question for the child of god that was in the altar last sunday but they recognized this sunday i still need more of jesus it's the right question for the preacher who is pointing souls to calvary where is he come on today this isn't about me it's not about you remembering my name if you forget me and you forget i ever preached here it's okay as long as you find jesus it's all right i don't care if you remember my name there's only one name that can save you and that's the name of jesus and when i leave this place and go home it's okay as long as you found jesus so i wonder today as we conclude as i conclude this sermon but i'm not concluding the call of the holy ghost in this building today the spirit of god today is saying where are you there's somebody in this building today i'm opening the altar right now and the spirit of god searching through this building today saying to somebody where are you come on you used to run to the altar you used to weep when i walked by you you you used to tremble when i touched you but there's a distance now there's a distance between us and i wonder where are you [Music] some of you have let the enemy seduce you with this question the intimacy the enemy has seduced you into believing and and questioning the goodness of god and you've wondered is that maybe there's more out there maybe god is withholding me from some good thing now there's distance i promise you jesus is better than your career i promise you jesus is better than a degree he's better than any of that he's better than anything you'll find in this world and so right now even as the spirit of god is moving through this building saying where are you it's the response of wise men right now today to say where is he jesus where are you how can i run into your presence how can i come and fight lose myself in you would you come today would you come as the holy ghost draws this praise team is going to lead us and we're just going to allow the presence of god come on we're being called into question today what will your response be to the presence who needs me to repent