Understanding the Value of the Church | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter
by Kenneth Carpenter
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Matthew 16:18, Acts 2:47, John 8, Acts 8:1, James 1:2, Acts 8:3, Acts 12:1, Acts 20:28, Romans 16:1, Hebrews 10:24-26, Ecclesiastes 8:10-13

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--understanding-the-value-of-the-church
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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amen if you have your bibles stand with me today if you turn with me to the book of matthew chapter 16 and verse number 18. the devil is defeated only and if we stay connected to the holy ghost if i get disconnected from the holy ghost the devil is victorious and we are defeated but if we can stay connected to the holy ghost god is able to tell us what the devil's plans are and therefore we can be ready for him and see him working stop him amen if you um i do want to make just a quick mention if anybody's wondering what the lumber is in the front yard of the church you drove in saw these sticks the daycare has not been playing out in the yard all right brother's sister pinton brother a bear and brother lay are all working we're going to finally get our church signed and we're trying to get a little mock-up of how tall it is and what it's going to look like we don't want to make it too big or too small and we're tired of people saying oh that's what that building is all right oh that's what that building is or we're going to put a sign out there they'll know what this building is so when you you go you see these little sticks wobbly that's not the sign we're trying to get the height and the length and everything okay i say unto thee also that thou art and upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it we are in the beginning of the end of bible prophecy we preached it all these years that we would be the generation and here we are hearing what we never dreamed that we would hear experiencing what we've never imagined that we would experience and the enemy and it is my spiritual opinion has it the last day rolled up his sleeve and tried to hit the church where it would hurt the church and where we're hurt the most and where we're blessed the most we are blessed the most when we are gathered together what happened in this room the last hour cannot and does not happen in your living room because there's something about being gathered together i hate the devil you ought to be afraid of saying that i hate the devil you ought to really be afraid yeah right i hate him and i personally believe the feeling is mutual i want to preach for a few moments today on the value understanding the value of the church father i love you lord i feel your presence upon me right now lord god these are your beautiful people god you're doing such a wonderful work in each of their lives and we are advancing the kingdom stronger together god help me for the next few moments speak a word to this congregation to help us understand that we the church are more powerful than any government on this earth today we are more powerful than any government or any spiritual force on this world today anoint me and i love you jesus in jesus name you may be seated i believe that we are beginning in the end and the enemy knows that his time is short and he has rolled up his sleeve and he has been allowed to hit us where it would hurt us the most and that is our gathering together never before in the lives of many white-headed saints of god had they ever witnessed a time when they had not been in the house of the lord bishop dennis croucher speaks to me with a cry in his voice a cry in his voice it's all evelyn and i have ever known he's been going to the house of god an earl in a roberta caseboat would tell you today i know there's those that are telling the elderly they should stay out of church and you have to operate in your own wisdom with that but you would hear them say i'm in my 90s and i don't want the last days of my life to be lived looking at a wall we're doing everything that we can to keep the spread we're being extremely cautious here at the church and while i'm on this and before i go to my next point in my sermon i want to thank the i want to thank this church for your tremendous understanding of how to get in this building and the questions that you're asking all the things thank you nobody's copping any kind of attitude or anything i think you ought to put your hands together to my knowledge nobody's turned around and went home and i i thank you for that today i thank you for that but it is my opinion that there will be a lot of people survive covet but not survive the after effects of covet they will survive the virus they will quarantine and recoup breathe deep and move on but i am fearful of the after effects of what it will do to our spiritual life and in order to combat what hell wants to do i must take some time and revisit the value of the church the value of the church jesus said in mark matthew 16 8 that upon the rock of revelation he would build and please notice the possessive word i will build my church it's my church i will build my church you understand when this was written that jesus was talking in future tense he was not building the church the church did not come into existence until the second chapter of the great book of acts with the coming of the holy ghost and baptizing 120 and filling them with his spirit and they spoke in other tongues as the spirit of god gave them the utterance it was in acts chapter 2 that the church was birthed and it is in acts chapter 2 that it says in verse 47 that they were praising god and having favor with all the people and the lord added to the church daily such as should be saved he says in matthew i'm going to build my church he says in the book of acts i'm going to add to my church and i'm glad that god adds to the church somebody said we need to be like the book of acts somebody was getting saved every day i would challenge you to take a thorough look at that verse there the bible does not say somebody was saved every day the bible says that he added to the church such that should be saved now if you wonder who such is i invite your attention to the eight book of eighth chapter of john and they brought a woman that was caught in the act of adultery and they wanted her stone they did not dignify her by giving her a name they did not call her name they just presented her to jesus and they introduced her this way by saying such should be stoned such you see today the church is made up of such it's made up of those whose lives are in the grip of sin agony misery confusion and turmoil but oh thank god for the church because somehow one by one god begins to allow to walk through the doors of the church such that should be saved and god adds to the church in acts chapter eight in verse number one we read another interesting thing about the church in acts chapter eight and verse number one and saul was consenting unto his death and at that time there was a great persecution against the church that which was at jerusalem they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of judea samaria except the apostles so we begin to understand some things about the church persecution should not cause us to doubt the validity of our will of god we should not doubt god's love and we should not doubt god's protection when we face persecution he allows his church to face persecution but the church is the only spiritual body that has the ability to withstand the persecution of hell is a matter of fact my bible reads that when we find ourselves in diverse temptations that when we find ourselves persecuted that we should allow ourselves to be baptized with the spirit of joy and the spirit of praise the apostle james said count it all joy when you fall into divers that means many temptations the bible says happy are ye if you are persecuted for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you brothers and sisters of the first apostolic church persecutions and trials and covets and death and sicknesses should not cause us to doubt our god it should cause us to praise our god things falling apart around us should not cause us to get over in a corner and wonder what's going on it should cause us to come down front and lift our voices and lift our hands and get begin to praise god because of the persecution i heard somebody say once the devil never bothers me well maybe it's because you don't bother him maybe if you don't know what persecution is like maybe you don't know what spiritual oppression is like maybe it's because you're not doing anything to upset him but when you begin to step across the line and you become a witness for jesus christ and you become more than a pew warmer and you become more than somebody just comes to see what they can get out of the church and do i like the sermon today and do i like the words and do i like the music and all of that when you step across the line and you begin to look at who can i encourage today who could i help to serve the lord today what such could i walk up to in this room today and say it's so good to have you at first apostolic church you you know what what person can i look around today i'm glad for the mullins they're going to be baptized in just a few moments but there's more melons around this church there's men and women today oh hallelujah there's men and women today that are sitting right now on these pews there's men and women today that are sitting in front of a monitor and you're wondering how did i stumble across this program how am i in this room today i'll tell you how you're here because you are such and god wants to add you to a glorious to a victorious to a holy ghost can somebody help the pastor today to a holy ghost church come on if you're part of that would you shout the church i know i know that i am going to get made fun of i know i i can see it now i don't care but the other day in prayer i just started laughing you're crazy maybe but i want you to know i just began to laugh at what was happening around me i began to laugh at one servant after another telling me this is going wrong and that's going wrong and i just begin to laugh inside of me i can't help it there was something come over me because the bible said counting all joy when you fall into diverse temptation i'm not looking for a pen to resign i'm looking for the next person god's going to redeem i'm looking for the next person god's going to touch because the joy of the lord hey if you've got problems today you ought to praise him right now if you've got things you can't understand you want to praise him right now come on take a moment take a moment take a moment you ever notice come on check it out my mom praise him right now come on come on take a moment hey if you can spend 10 minutes on facebook writing a post about how lousy things are you want to spend 10 seconds in the sanctuary giving god some praise this morning oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah i know it the joy of the lord is my strength the joy of the lord is my strength the joy of the lord is my strength the joy of the lord is my strength if you want joy you can laugh for it y'all waiting on the latest hill song stuff can i tell you something i'm waiting on the next outbreak of the holy ghost if you want joy you can laugh for it come on now i'm talking about count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations when you're being persecuted and they're saying all things falsely against you for my name's sake rejoice rejoice oh don't you know our church is being talked about get out of your poo pew and cut a rug right now don't you know the people are lying on you and lying on the you want to get out of your pew right now and you ought to just go to shadow you know why blessed are ye when they persecute you and they say all manner of evil against you fastly if you want joy you can laugh for it the joy of the lord is my strength church should be persecuted church should not only be added to the church can be persecuted the devil rode up his sleeve and he said i can't convince them to go worldly i can't convince them to doubt the oneness of god i can see the council of hell say the only way we'll get them we've got to scatter them and then we have to get them to believe that there's something called online services they can watch from their home now the online services are for our shut-ins online services is not for people that live in this county that are healthy well i just like it i can sit in my pajamas and i can just i can just set my pajamas and i can just watch you know i feel the lord no you don't or if you do you're misunderstanding what he's saying to you when you're thinking he's saying saying i bless you my child he's really saying get up go to church now now again now again those that are quarantined those that are shut-ins like sister mary crowder hey don't you dare let that devil come and beat you up today pastor is not talking to you today pastors talking to those that are listening to the enemy say you can just watch it right here right here in the comfort of your own home well see there's a problem with that there's a problem with that god didn't design that god designed for us to come together amen you need us and we need you there are times you need the church and there's other times the church needs you and it's only in that relationship of sometimes i'm given and sometimes i'm getting it's only in that relationship can god begin to grow and birth a church so the church can be added to and the church can be persecuted in acts chapter 8 and verse 3 and as for saul he made havoc of the church havoc means to be made fun of it means to wreck and destroy so the church is something that can be persecuted it can be attempting to destroy it the church according to acts 12-1 now about that time herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church so i don't want you to think this strange the church can be added to the church can be persecuted the church can be made havoc of and the church can be vexed but that's as far as i want to go because remember my opening text whose church is this come on whose church is this please stop saying that's brother carpenter's church it's not brother carpenter's church it's not brother carpenter's church please quit saying that's pr that's brother carpenter's church just say that that's that's where he pastors that but when it's really said and done somebody help me it's god's church it's god's church and because it's god's church there is something miraculous about it it can be persecuted but not overcome it can have attempts of destruction but it'll never be destroyed it can be vexed at times but it will come back to the top of the water every time and it's all because of acts 20 28 take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the holy ghost had made you overseers to feed the church of god that's what he's saying to the ministry feed the church of god it's our responsibility to feed you but it says which he have purchased with his own blood what makes the church something that can be persecuted but not overcome it's blood vault what makes the church impenetrable to the to the assault of hell it's blood bought what makes the church able to withstand demonic forces is because it is blood-bought what causes this to be the body that it is is because it is blood bought and it was blood bought with his blood and satan the blood of jesus is against you i have my spiritual authority upon the blood of jesus christ i have my position as a child of god upon the blood of jesus christ it's bloodballed it's bloodball somebody say it's bloodballed acts chapter 16 verse number one i commend unto you phoebe our sister which is a servant of the church oh wow see i've turned the corner spend very little time on she can be persecuted she can be vexed she can be made havoc of but now we turn the corner and we see the glorious benefit and value of being part of the church is because it was bought with his blood but now we turn around and we see people who were the servant of the church don't know about you sister phoebe but i want to have your title i want to have the title of sister phoebe she was simply a servant of the church was she a singer don't know was she a musician don't know did she keep the nursery don't know did she mow grass don't know did she cook for those that were shut in don't know all i know is this one thing she was a servant of the church that's my heart's prayer for this message today i want to become a servant of the church i understand we can serve god with prayers and fastings i want to be a servant of the church don't let it be said that when the adversary hit us with his most powerful left hook in the last day that it knocked me out of the church it scattered us but it did not destroy us it set us back but it did not put us back we will come back you hear these words we will come back stronger than ever before because we're the church my faith is not in a vaccine my faith is not in an election in november on christ the solid rock i stand all other ground is seeking sand my family's coming back my health coming back my job's coming back oh hallelujah if you believe that shout yes i mean i want to be a servant of the church i submit to you the men that mow the grass around here their title in heaven is not mowing crew but their title in heaven is they serve the church because if there's any piece of real estate that ought to look pretty in blunt county it ought to be the church if there's any yard that ought to be immaculate it ought to be the yard that houses the church of the living god now i know i know and there's been a little bit more tipping this way well the church is not cinderblock and the church is not sheetrock and the church is not a building you're right but we gather in a building and what makes this building special is they don't play bingo here on friday night and they don't have raffling off and we don't do boots boogie dancing in our gymnasium what makes this place special is that it's nothing used but for the church oh hallelujah that's what makes you special that's why our yard ought to look good that's why the pain ought to look fresh that's why the bathrooms ought to smell good is because it's such oh come on now oh my god if ruth chris steakhouse will go to great expense to make sure that their lawn is manicured if ruth chris steakhouse will go to great expense and make sure that their restrooms smell good and that the place is clean and they serve a temporal meal how much more should we serve the church when this service is over today there'll be a crew of people around here with vacuum cleaners they're serving the church they're serving the church when we get back when we get back to where we need to be there'll be a nursery for little babies and they'll be women that are dedicated and they would rather sit in there and let a mother set out here and hear the word of god and have a routine they don't always have to sit back there we got enough ladies in this church if we could understand the concept of serving the church we got enough ladies you know you'd only have to serve once a month or once a quarter but sometimes we can get selfish and we think church is all about what we can get you're us you're you're about to sorry but you're a poor christian if you just come to church to see what you can get out of it the bible said it is more blessed to give than it is to receive what about the night you sit back there rocking that little crying baby and all of a sudden you wonder why the mother's not come back to pick it up and somebody knocks on the door and said the mother just got baptized in jesus name i'm talking oh come on i'm talking about serving the church sunday school teachers sunday school teachers then on saturday night when you got your heels kicked up watching the football game and there's a sunday school teacher got a sunday school lesson out studying it so that your little 10 year old boy or girl can walk into a class and not just be handed some kool-aid some cookies and kept for one hour but somehow on their level they're going to tell them about how god made miracles and how god did all kinds of wonderful things i'm here to tell you thank god for the church my bible study man i got a precious brother that i i latched on to him brother darren i've had you stand once but stand again that's my friend he got to watch him just y'all don't you stand i let the mullen sit down won't you stand while i'm done talking though okay his mom and grandmother go to church here faithfully moved out here from california and attend church here faithfully darren was brought up in the early years of his life to live for god but he got old he got older and left home and left the way and went out in the world went out in the world but he retired he retired and he got to watching this crazy first apostolic church online all the way in california and he began to say i need to come home tennessee wasn't his home but he said i need to go back to what my mom my dad my grandparents taught me you know darren made his way out and and i wouldn't tell it but he's paid a real price to be here today he's not here in tennessee because of the weather he's not here in tennessee because of a job change he's here in tennessee today because of this church because he watched it online long enough to see i think i can go home i think that's a place i can find my way home and we've been we've been we've been in bible study every saturday morning or just about every saturday morning at 8 30 we meet here and we have bible study and he blessed me so much yesterday he don't even know how much he blessed me he said i was down praying and he said i wondered he said something kept telling me your prayers are not being heard your prayers are not being heard but then something inside of him said if god hears every bad thing i say devil you ever notice none of us have ever battled saying bad things and wonder if they got hurt i just said a bunch of bad things i don't think they got hurt we don't ever battle that we we understand that every bad thing we say the accuser takes it right into the presence of god and brother darren said yesterday and tears started filling his eyes he said if god hears every bad thing i say then god hears him good thing that i say lord it bless me brother darren you bless me and i want you to help me pray for my brother darren darren needs to receive the gift of the holy ghost he needs to be baptized with the holy ghost he needs to have that faith come into him and he'll talk in tongues and magnify god but it'll happen at the church church the church the church sister samantha there's no way i'm gonna finish this but could you get me in just a moment that verse i sent you from ecclesiastes chapter 8 i believe it is just a moment because i got one more verse i feel the holy ghost here this morning because we need to get a new and i'm not done preaching this and you may hear it again tonight at six o'clock but the devil knows the only way is to scatter us and to make us think that we can make it without this gathering somebody say let us let me first have thank you for that that is the verse but let me first have hebrews chapter 10 verse 24. and let us consider hebrews 10 24 and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works i've provoked a lot of people before but i hope i provoke them to love you see there's one thing needed in order for you to provoke somebody to love and good works is let us if you're by yourself you you provoke no one to love but yourself i'm looking for somebody to encourage today i think i've told everybody that's passed me today i thank you for what you're doing because a silent saint is an empty check for the devil to fill their ear with whatever thank you for being here today debbie would you stand right now lord i'm just having a good time i lived all of my life people in school one thing i hated in school and tell me what to do now i'm a preacher i get to tell people stand up debbie sister bonnie's daughter god got to dealing with her and she wanted to be baptized and just so happened that when she wanted to be baptized we was up in towns and in the campground and she wanted to be baptized in the river and and and she said brother carp and i just want to be baptized in a river just want to be baptized forever i said okay i'll baptize i have to find a river i have to find a river here i am here's einstein here my camper trailer is parked at the riverside so i said debbie i see come on up on friday we're going to leave on friday and come home i said come on up on friday we'll baptize you now our in where the river goes by my little camper trailer is where all them tubes all the tubers come by all right so i'm kind of thinking i wonder how this is gonna work man would you put your tubes that way would you would you go that way with your head so help me that morning when bonnie and debbie got there there was not a tuber in sight which was i just it blew my mind i walked out and walked out and went and we didn't we didn't start going down the trailer park said we're baptizing we're baptized hey everybody we're baptizing the four of us walking down to the water and i walked out in the water with debbie and when i looked when i looked up people were outside their campers some men had their hats off with their hand over there and i lifted my voice and i baptized debbie like we're gonna baptize the muslims in the name of the lord jesus christ for the remission of sins she had already received the gift of the holy ghost why are you telling that for today because the church is alive and well in the pandemic we are alive and well we are alive and well in the pandemic but we want to re-gather in the house of god so that we can reach our full potential of you thank you debbie you may be seated it was so beautiful i got to witness to a man brother mitchell i got to witness to a man he walked out he was the guy had his hat off he had his hat off and he had a beer in his hand and he walked out and he said tears he said that's the most precious thing i've ever seen my life preacher see you know what i did i said well you rotten low down center don't you know that i'm a holy man of god and how dare you stand here with that can of michelob or whatever it is in your hand i stood there and directed him to an apostolic church found out looked at his trailer he had north carolina plates i directed him told him about apostolic and and all this you know why because the church is more powerful than any hole that can be on our young people if you would understand the power of the church you know why you make me want to live for god we've gathered together you know why you make me want to give because you're giving you know why you make me want to be complimentary because you're complimentary there's something about musicians would you come let us consider one another i want you to see this let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is look at that look at that look at that the bible wasn't even finished being written until people begin to stop going to church the bible wasn't even written yet until there were those finding excuses of why they didn't have to assemble together oh come on now come on i know they're getting ready for baptism right right here come on come on come on the bible wasn't even written until there were those that were saying i don't believe you have to go to church to be saved and you're not reading the same bible i'm reading i don't believe you have to gather together to be saved then you're you're evidently not reading what i'm reading because the bible says not forsaking the assemblings of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching come on i want to preach it to you we don't need to have less assembly in the last day we need to have more assembly in the last day when we see gross immorality being paraded through our streets in a proud fashion i'm not i'm not on the political bandwagon i'm on the bible bandwagon when we see gross immorality proudly displayed as something to be proud of we don't even blast we got to understand it is the last day if god carries much longer god's gonna have to apologize to sodom and gomorrah it is the last day wake up church wake up church wake up wake up wake up it is the last day we don't need to be having less church being we need to have the oven more church can i tell you but karma it's a hard day on wednesday i just don't do wednesday night oh what do you do well you know it's a time of cutting the grass and time of you know family time can i tell you you cannot spend your time any better than at 7 30 on wednesday night you're no busier than anybody else it's not a busy issue it is a priority you see we tell our children more about what we do than what we say you don't have to tell your son that you don't value the church you know you don't have to tell your daughter you don't have to tell your family that you don't value the church you don't have to speak it all you have to do is not go to church when you could go to church you could go you could go you're no busier than anybody else i've heard people say things like well i have to have a job i understand all that but i pray there anybody in the church that has a job that keeps you from one of the services the first thing on your prayer list ought to be god make a way that i can be a church now i knew very well today this this wasn't going to end in a you know a shout but i'm here to tell you this is where the devil is going to feed us now i i didn't finish reading because there's one verse that's attached to this that ought to cause us to sit up today and it's the next verse for if we sin willfully after we have come after we receive the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin he's not changing the subjects this is not proverbs we don't go from one subject to the next in proverb in hebrews he's still talking about forsaking the assemblings of yourselves together and so much the more as you see the day approaching then he says if we willfully sin what is that willful what is that willful sin what is that willful sin not going to the house of god not going to the house of god sure you're the church all by yourself but you're not the totality and the fullness of the church until you gather can i tell you i don't know of one person in this room i don't know of one person in this room that could have wrote a 70 000 check to brother czar but look at what the church did you'd stand with me god i don't want to commit that sin because there's no more sacrifice there's nothing else god's going to do for me if i forsake that sin give me the ecclesiastes chapter eight ecclesiastes chapter 8 please maybe bow your head for just a prayer for just a moment please god lord you know i'm preaching a hard word this morning god you know that minds may not be resisting as much as they they're just trying to grab wrap their arms around this father in the name of jesus god help us today god especially our youth lord not especially our youth ecclesiastes 8 and 10. and so i saw the wicked buried who had come and gone from the place of the holy they had been to church he watched the funeral of a wicked person who had come and gone been a frequent person in the house of god and they were forgotten in the city where they had done so this is also vanity verse 11 please because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil though a sinner do evil a hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely i know that it shall be well with them that fear god which shall fear before him verse 13 but it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not god if there's ever been a verse versus that should shake us the evil person that he that he watched the funeral was a wicked person but what makes it even more troublesome it was a person who had come and gone from the house of god and remained wicked now at this part of the service i'm as helpless as a fish out of water because right now it is your prayer and intensity of prayer that will determine will you leave here different than what you've come today would you just lay your hands on your chest right now pray along with pastor right now father in the name of jesus god oh god in the name of jesus today god lord i ask you to touch my heart today god lord i want to be changed god by this message god i want to be changed oh god lord take anything out of my life that needs to be god take bitterness god take rebellion out of my life god god i ask you today to take things out of my life god help me because i have come to the holy place this morning god help me to allow this to change me lord we are a part of the church god we are a part of your body we are a part of the church god come on let's pray right now let's pray right now you restore every heart that is