Sunday Evening Worship Service | Pastor McCool
by Mark McCool
First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Psalm 95:6-10, Galatians 6:7-8, Jeremiah 17:9, Proverbs 22:8, Hosea 10:13, Ecclesiastes 11:4, Hosea 10:12, Mark 16:14, Genesis 2:7, John 14:1-2

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/mark-mccool--sunday-evening-worship-service-157
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
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I want to take you to the word of the Lord tonight calling your attention to the Book of Matthew the 13th chapter Matthew 13 begin reading in verse number three a familiar Parable that we've heard preached about many times but I hope we can find fresh anointing here Matthew 13 Verse 3 and he spake many things unto them in parables say and behold A sower went forth to sow and when he sowed some seed fell by the wayside and the fowls came and devoured them up some fell upon Stony places where they had not much Earth and forth with they sprung up but because they had no deepness and when the sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away some filament thorns the Thorns sprung up choked them verse 8. but others fell into good ground every everyone's a good ground and brought forth fruit some 100 fold some 60 fold some 34. who hath ears to hear let him hear skipping down to verse 18. hear ye therefore the parable of the sower when anyone heareth the word of the Kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in his heart that is he which received seed by the Wayside for a few moments tonight I want to speak to you this subject and if you don't understand bear with me I hope you will I want to speak to you on this subject what is the intelligence of dirt what is the intelligence of dirt let's pray God I'm so blessed to be in your presence once again thank you so much for the wonderful worship that's gone up and your power and presence that has just filled this Sanctuary God let us receive from your word tonight all that you'd have us to receive Lord nothing that I can say or do but Lord I pray that you would let me speak as your mouthpiece in the name of Jesus we pray amen we hear a lot of advertising nowadays and referencing about many items that we can purchase or we can use and they've added a new advertising twist they talk about having smart things we have smartphones smart cars Smart Homes smart TVs smart appliances the military has smart bombs and smart weapons I even was in a store the other day and they were selling smart water now I don't know who gave it the test to see how intellectual the water was but they had smart water that you could buy and I've also come to the determination that while yes I own a smartphone it has a dumb operator when it comes to fulfilling its full potential it is so smart that sometimes I struggle to even be able to make a call with it but in our scripture text Jesus gave a parable of the sower who went forth to sow and he Compares our hearts now not that muscle beating within our chest but he Compares our spiritual intellect our understanding and he calls it good ground he talks about it is ground that can receive the seed he is addressing the quality of our hearts so if if we can update and have smart things I I want to talk about having a smart heart tonight I want now they have food in some of the restaurants I've been in they have it they if you order certain food it's called Heart Smart in other words it it's good for your heart it's good and healthy but I want to talk about having a smart heart tonight good ground a good place to sow he gives us Insight in this Parable that he was presenting and he starts addressing this to those he's speaking to make sure they understand this Parable all that's going on and I would ask myself the question tonight do I have good ground that can be sowed into what's the condition of my heart do I have a good heart do I have a smart heart if you will oh I've heard it's said about certain folks you know she's just got a good heart he's just got a good heart well Jesus parable let us have insight into this spiritual intellect that he's addressing in this example a few verses in he said that the seed fell on good ground and it's also apparent that you can have a hardened heart that no matter the quality of the seed it cannot be sowed into a hardened heart and he lets us know that it is extremely important not just to hear the word but to understand the word the psalmist said it this way in Psalms 95 and 6. oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his land today if ye will hear his voice Harden not your heart as in the provocation and as in the day of Temptation in the wilderness he starts telling the people of Israel their history he said when your father's tempted me proved me and saw my work 40 years long was I grieved with this generation and said it is a people that do air in their heart and they have not known my ways can you imagine they walked with him for 40 Years yet there were some that still didn't get it I'm here to tell you I want to have good heart I want to have a smart heart if you will that I don't just hear the word preached all the time but I start feeling it I start understanding it if I understand it I'm going to react to the word I'm going to obey the word oh Hallelujah it's an error to have a hard heart you know some find themselves sitting in the house of God in hearing text after text hearing people of renowned preach the word and all in their natural intellect they understand what is being presented but too many have hardened their heart and they feel like the word that's being presented is for everybody else but I'm just here as a Critic and an evaluator of the heart sometimes I don't need to worry about what the word is saying to anybody else I just want to know am I receiving it and am I going to understand what God's trying to say to me at this particular time oh God help me to have a smart heart help me to have the intellect in my understanding now I have tried to be as kind and cool and collected and not be good rule or in any way too crude and making the statement what is the intellect of dirt but sometimes I have to talk where I'll understand it have you ever heard it said of someone he's as dumb as dirt I have in fact I've probably been called that before so let me tell you tonight I'm not sure if that's that little phrase being dumb as dirt is a metaphor an analogy an exam or a an adage but whatever it is if you harden your heart to the point that the seed of God's goodness his Mercy his salvation his knowledge his Joy cannot be planted in your heart your heart is dumb as dirt let me tell you tonight if you want to get insulted you can but I'm telling everybody in the house don't let your heart be dumb as dirt Pastor Whitley quoted it this morning Galatians said be not deceived God is Not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life Everlasting please understand in Scripture The Parables put us in different positions at one point our heart is the earth that's receiving at other points we have the choice of what is sown into our hearts I know of no smart soil that tells the seed what to produce it's just dirt I know of no genius ground that dictates the fruit of the Harvest I know of no educated Earth that argues with the sower what type crop is being sowed and I know of no talented terra firma that alters legitimate the genetic make up the grain it's just dirt so whatever is planted is what's going to come up and you see before we start proclaiming I've just got a good heart and I don't need all this religion stuff I don't need all this God stuff Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it don't depend on your personal fleshly intellect and The Wiles of this worth unless Jesus gets in your heart your heart will be hardened and it will not receive good seed to come up it's dumb dirt before we can have good hearts we have to have a heart like Christ that's why the psalmist said it this way created me Clean Heart and renew a right Spirit In Me if you're in this house tonight and something has hardened your heart there's been an incident there's been a situation there's been a trial or a test that suddenly you find that receiving the word just doesn't happen anymore there was a day that it was so freely given to you and you acted and reacted but now because of some situation you find your heart hardened that you've gone through a dry spell in life and it seems like you just can't get anything from the word anymore know that your heart has to be broken sometimes it has to be broken the fallow ground as scripture says has to be broken and we also have to understand we have the ability to be selective as to what's sown into our hearts he said if you sow to the flesh you reap corruption but if you sow to the spirit you reap life Everlasting I'm here to tell you it's not a Time to sow iniquity in your life I've heard Bishop say before said some folks try to sow their Wild Oats and then pray for a crop failure whatever you put in is what's going to come out that's what's going to come listen to me what we allow our minds to Feast on what our everyday diet is we're just an intellect that's without Christ is going to receive some things if you put Bad Seed in bad soil you're going to have a bad crop Proverbs said he that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity that term iniquity means wickedness and a wicked Act don't dwell on wickedness because here's what comes up it says Vanity Vanity defined as empty or useless the quality of futility you see the enemy will try to make us sow things into our life that are wicked and will make us think that that's some stuff we ought to be proud of there's too many folk that are going to too much trouble to bring up some Wicked crops because they find and think that oh something great is going to come out of this this is going to give me a Renown this is going to give me credibility only to find the disappointment of emptiness and uselessness to find they're living a life of futility Hosea said it this way in Hosea 10 13 you've plowed wickedness you have reaped iniquity you have eaten the fruit of lies because because thou did trust thy ways in the multitude of thy Mighty Men immoral or grossly unfair behavior is what iniquity is defined as could I tell us as a church family the enemy would try every way he can to sow into our lives things ideas Direction that would take us down a path of vanity that there's no hope and there's no purpose in and frankly scripture even addresses folks that don't sow at all if you're dumb dirt and all you do is wait for the weather to get better so you can say you know what you're always going to be dumb dirt we need some we need seed Ecclesiastes he said he that observed that the wind shall not sow and he that guardeth the clouds shall not reap we've got to be in his house we've got to receive his word good seed into good ground brings a good crop Hosea said so to yourselves in righteousness reap in Mercy let me tell you I need Mercy I still need Mercy I said I still need Mercy I'm not close to being a a creature of perfection I need God's mercy every day the only way I can get Mercy is to sow into righteousness I I want a crop of Mercy coming up his mercy endureth forever we preached about that recently I need mercy so I've got to sow some righteousness how about you open up your heart I want intellect of this clay to receive something and I'm going to be righteous to the best of my ability break up your fallow ground he said if your heart's been hardened it's time to do some plowing for it's time how do you do that to seek the Lord until he come and Reign righteousness upon you man I'm not looking for a little Mist I want the reign of righteousness to fall on this ground how does that happen what kind of seed do we plant Bishop already mentioned it at offering time Sunday school p180 Pia Christian School Christian Child Care Center bible study on Wednesday night Bible reading camp meeting first Sunday Services Code Orange Revival Church yes on Christmas youth rallies National Youth Conference General Ministry Conference those are sowing grounds that we get involved with we're looking for good seed we're looking to receive some things and you see the only thing in Jesus parable that the good ground influenced was the efficiency of the yield because even when seed was planted in good ground it gave some hundredfold some 64 and some 34. man I remember one of the old spirituals we used to sing a bunch in church said Lord I'm striving to make 100. 99 and a half won't do let me tell you I want to increase my yield this year I if I've been doing a little bit of 30 percent and I need to kick it up a little bit I need my commitment to be stronger than ever before I'm not going to be satisfied with a 30 percent yield oh some folks just starting out that may happen but I'm going to kick it up a little bit brother O'Brien I'm going to pray more I'm going to fast more I'm going to witness more whatever I can do I'm going to kick it up a little bit I don't want to be dumb as dirt [Applause] I gotta Kick It Up you see there has to be some ground preparation if you don't break up the fallow ground a hard heart means trouble remember it was a hard heart that stopped pharaoh from letting God's people go he had to go through a lot of things losing his firstborn losing his army because he had a hard heart when God's word said let my people go remember in Scripture it was Hardness of Heart that caused bills of divorce to be established that was not God's will but hard Hearts brought it about and a hardened heart would not believe in a risen savior Mark 16 14. Jesus was speaking to the eleven Judas had already started hanging out in a bad way he was done he had made his mark on life and now he was hanging from a tree the leaven was gathered together and Jesus had appeared unto them and it said afterward he appeared under the eleven as they sat at me and upbraided that means to scold severely some of your parents can see you got a new word you can use I I was upgrading my children he upgraded them with their unbelief and hardness of hearts can you imagine being of the 11. those that have seen the miracles of Jesus those who have have witnessed the mighty things he's done and it's been foretold to you you've been told you've already been warned that he's going to rise again but when he shows up they've already developed a hard heart we can sit in the church house I said we can sit in the church house if we don't stay in tune with the move of God if we don't let fresh seed come into us we can sit right in the church house and we can develop a hard heart Jesus had to scold them severely for their unbelief and Hardness of Heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen I'm here to tell you don't find yourself having a hard heart keep your heart clean before God sow new things into me every time there's a message I want to hear it every time there's a move of God I need to be in the middle of it what can I do I want my heart to be clean foreign I realized my analogy goes back and forth oh we are is a product of dirt anyway Genesis 2 7 the Lord God formed man of the Dust of the ground we started out as dumb dirt and breathed into his nostrils Breath of Life and Man became a living soul musicians start making your way up and everybody pray for them to know what in the world you could play that'd be appropriate to this oh we were was a pile of dirt you see that's all I'll ever be unless God breathes into me unless God breathes his life spiritually into me into my intellect into my understanding I'm just a pile of dirt but the Lord foreign man of the Dust of the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living soul is it any Wonder that on the day of Pentecost it said when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all in one Accord and in one place and suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing Mighty Wind I submit to you God was breathing into a new dispensation his power if you want to have the Breath of Life in you if you want to be more than a pile of dirt you need the breath of the Holy Ghost to come blowing into you Hallelujah and they were in that house City and the Bible says that they were all filled they were all filled you see God's got big enough breath he can fill everybody if you're in this house tonight and you've been feeling like you've got a hardened heart I'm here to tell you God's wanting to Breathe Into You God's Got Something fresh for you there's life for you stand with me it went on to say there appeared in them cloven tongues like as a fire and it's set upon each of them and what they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and begin to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave the entrance let me tell you if you don't have the Holy Ghost you need it tonight just that simple you need the Holy Ghost to Breathe Into You you need the power of the Holy Ghost breathing into you breathing into your intellect now what I'm telling you should not scare you it should make you excited because the Holy Ghost is for everybody in the house in fact John warned about this John said let not your heart be troubled you believe in God believe also in me Jesus words in My Father's House are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you can you see just how beautiful it is this flesh this Earth that we were formed of the miracle of God breathing into us to give us understanding to give us wisdom to give us intellect to receive his word if you're here tonight and your heart's troubled about something it's time to get a heart mending if you're here tonight and your heart has been hardened by something I challenge you at an altar of praise to break up some fallow ground it one broken relationship with someone that you trusted can Harden your heart it's time to come to an altar of forgiveness and say God I want to forgive that relationship one crossword can Harden one's heart if you don't have the Holy Ghost breathing into you [Music] life's frustrations Satan snares daily disappointments bad seeds that have been sowed in your life it's time to clean those things up I open the Altar for everybody in this house right now whatever you need to make right with God if there's any that you need to make right do it but everything's good pastor then come expecting him to breathe fresh again I want a fresh breath of the Holy Ghost to speak to me I need that insurance and Assurance God that you hear I need more of you this night I'm going to do more I'm going to pray more I'm going to give all I've got I'm going to be a hundred percent Hallelujah could you love me could you love him sing unto the Lord [Music] I can't control [Music] I can't control I want more of you I need more and more and more yeah there is no there's no homemade Sunrise [Applause] God let me receive it God let me receive it Hallelujah God open my heart to him oh God your words it speaks God let me be sensitive to your word Lord Plants and Things in me that are going to come up yeah yeah foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] I want more foreign [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I'm going to receive more I'm going to understand more that you know frankly the one of the greatest ways to understand things is to really listen all you husbands take it from me really listen you'll understand more if you'll really listen sometimes we let God become noise in our life really listen really hear what his word's saying to us don't direct it to anybody else say God speak to me you're servant heareth and I will obey thank you First Apostolic Church What a Mighty time we've had in the Lord this weekend please be here for Wednesday night bible study worshiping the word come expecting a great time in the Lord would you greet everyone make them welcome to this service Lord bless you you are dismissed in the name of Jesus