Sunday Evening Worship Service
by Mark McCool
June 27, 2021 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: 2 Kings 2:1-2, 2 Kings 2:9-18, 2 Kings 2:19-22, Romans 7:10-13, Proverbs 14:12, Hebrews 11:24-26, 2 Timothy 3:4-5, Matthew 23:25-28, Matthew 5:13-14, Colossians 4:6

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/mark-mccool--sunday-evening-worship-service-186
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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lord bless you i'm going to let you move to your seats greetings again in the precious name of jesus welcome to sunday night here at first apostolic church so honored to have all of you in the house of the lord what a marvelous crowd on this sunday evening i would echo the words of pastor anthony what a marvelous message we heard from our bishop this morning the old man's still alive and i'm not talking about the bishop i'm talking about his message i want you to know what a powerful word we heard from him this morning i want to take that and apply it in my life i say welcome also to everyone who's joining us in that great uh internet land who's joined us by facebook and all of those things that i don't even know how to uh remember to announce but thank you however you are joining us in that great electronic world we're glad to have you with us here at first apostolic church and uh i want you to know brother anthony you stirred my soul when you told about someone seeing sister maisha i'm happy to announce she's been delivered hallelujah if you hadn't heard and if i know uh maisha uh we're gonna have to hold back her she'll be back up here in the praise team next week uh we ought to give her at least a week to recover uh but uh congratulations to them we look forward to seeing that new addition uh to the briggs family and i'm so glad to see every one of you in this house tonight i'm uh i'll let you know pastor whitley is out doing the work of the lord he's up in ohio uh preaching the great church in the dayton area where pastor coogler pastors and we're praying for them the lord will give them souls for their labor i'll let pastor anthony by by welcoming you to wednesday night service uh he's been in church all week long literally uh he and sister kelly uh taught one day at the camp he preached every night and then drove about nine and a half ten hours yesterday to get home for uh eleanor's birthday party uh so if you don't know what day it is you get a pass pastor anthony you got it right eventually so i do understand and uh i'm thankful that we can just be in the family of god and god is using first apostolic church here in our community in our region and around the world finally let me also echo pastor anthony's words to the remainder of the church all workers and departments be ready we are privileged to host tri-state district camp meeting for the assemblies of the lord jesus christ and pastor anthony's already addressed all the staff but let me address all the saints we've got company coming uh it'd be terrible to invite company to your house and then leave wouldn't it uh i want everybody to be here we're expecting a great time the lord i don't get as saul when he was anointed saul got lost among the stuff you're anointed and i don't want us to get lost among the stuff by not showing up to camp meeting don't assume that well there'll be so many folks there they won't miss me i want everybody here why because god has something for you pastor ball will be ministering to us and we're excited to hear what the word of the lord has for us this is our opportunity to host camp meeting and i want everyone to also be on your toes we'll have guests they'll have questions where are the restrooms where's this where is that what's going let's have an answer and welcome everyone make them feel a part of first apostolic church the week of camp meeting gonna have a great time in the lord i know we've been standing quite a bit and that's a good thing but i'm going to let you keep your seat but if if you'll keep standing in your heart okay when you need to to worship but i want to take you tonight to the book of second kings the second chapter second kings the second chapter as you're finding that in whatever mode that you use uh let me give honor to all of our pastors our elders our ministers and the saints the first apostolic church thank you for your continued commitment and support of the ministry and outreach of this assembly god is up to something he's doing something through you thank you so much second kings the second chapter we'll begin reading at verse number nine and i'll comment just a bit as we go and it came to pass when they were gone over that elijah said unto elisha ask what i shall do for thee before i be taken away from thee and elisha said i pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me and he said thou has asked a hard thing nevertheless if thou see me when i'm taken from thee it shall be so unto thee but if not it shall not be so notice verse 11 and it came to pass as they still went on and talked that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder and elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven everybody say whirlwind and elisha saw it and he cried my father my father the chariot of israel and the horsemen thereof and he saw him no more and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them into two pieces he took up also the mantle of elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of jordan for a few minutes this evening i would bring this title and this thought to your mind life after a whirlwind life after a whirlwind let's pray savior i love you god i thank you for every individual that's in this house lord i thank you for the faithful saints that are in this place tonight who have been here 30 and 40 and 50 and 60 years faithful in your work lord i also thank you for the first time guests those who have been here just a short time lord those who have recently started attending first apostolic church lord whatever season of commitment we're in right now lord i thank you that you have ordained it to be so that we're here now god i pray that you would touch my lips and open my understanding in my mouth that i would speak what you'd have me to say to first apostolic church tonight let's minister to all through your word in the name of jesus we pray amen last sunday i had the privilege of preaching at a great church down in lake charles louisiana living way pentecostal church i flew into lake charles last friday friday a week ago for a men's conference and special events that they had and had the privilege of preaching there on sunday morning but i noticed something quite unique when i landed and we were approaching lake charles i looked out my window as the pilot announced we're getting ready to land in lake charles i looked out my window and i thought for just a moment wow this city has an unusual amount of swimming pools in it because that's one thing you can spot from there that great big blue but the closer we got to the ground i realized it wasn't swimming pools at all instead house after house building after building business after business had great big blue tarps on their roof many of those still as we got closer to the ground and then we begin to drive through the community in the city you would see these blue tarps on top of the buildings and you would see great big piles of rubbish and rubble out in front of the buildings some of the places that we would go through you would see just a shell of a building other places you could tell there was the footprint of a building that had been there but something catastrophic had happened so i began talking with pastor keating and he began to tell me what it was like in september of 2020 they got the warning that a category 5 hurricane was headed their way and sure enough hurricane laura made landfall right at lake charles they're just 23 miles from the gulf coast hurricane laura landed with category five winds there was widespread roof damage structural damage down trees power lines loss of electricity and there was extensive flooding from the storm surge after all that he said they had a mosquito infestation in the most of the residents of lake charles were without electricity for several weeks needless to say laura did considerable damage to homes businesses and the infrastructure of the city but that wasn't good enough for you see just six weeks later still another hurricane began bearing down on lake charles and in just six weeks after the original storm hurricane delta a category three hurricane would also make landfall right near lake charles and the damage that had been done was now being complicated by additional winds blowing the debris and insurance companies were now asking which storm did you receive damage from was it the first storm or was it the second storm or did the debris from the second storm damaged what you had left in the first storm and there was a lot of confusion add to that the wintertime came and they were part of that freeze that hit in dallas texas hard freeze that hid in the south that they weren't expecting on top of that just a little over three weeks before i arrived down there they had a day that they received 17 inches of rain in five hours needless to say if there's anybody in the house that's been thinking about moving to louisiana i'll pray for you no the real truth is and that's sister charlotte ledbetter's home church that she's out of but notice she is in east tennessee we don't have hurricanes here sister charlotte i'll just let you know that but i told you all that to tell you this those folks truly have had multiple whirlwind experiences a hurricane is the ultimate whirlwind but you see the passage of scripture that i read in your hearing also tells of a whirlwind experience for you see this is the very moment that the prophet elijah wants to be taken by a whirlwind into heaven and translated rather than by death but by a supernatural whirlwind into heaven but let me give you a little bit of background for you see if you read second kings to the entire chapter it was common knowledge that this was going to take place we read in verse number one of second kings two and it came to pass when the lord would take elijah into heaven by a whirlwind i mean the forecast was there it was coming that elijah went with elisha from gilgal and elijah said unto elisha terry here i pray thee for the lord hath sent me to bethel and elisha said unto him as the lord liveth and as thy soul liveth i will not leave thee so they went to bethel now i will paraphrase rather than read reading the entire passage for here's what happened elijah the word was out the forecast was there that the whirlwind is coming and he's going to be translated elisha at this point had been only his servant he had done menial tasks he had poured water on the hands of elijah but he had performed no miracles god's hand was on elijah not elisha elisha was a servant at that time but elisha had enough sense about him and spiritual understanding to know i need to attach myself to elijah and i'm going to go wherever he goes and very likely he had experienced many miracles that had been wrought under the hand of elijah by god and he made the determination he said i'm not going to leave you wherever you go you can read it for yourself elijah tried to lead him at gilgal elisha said as my soul liveth i will not leave thee so they journeyed to bethel they went to bethel he said won't you stay here at bethel he said wherever you go that's where i'm going they went to jericho he said why don't you stay here at jericho he said nope wherever you go that's where i'm gonna go and the bible tells us that elijah took his mantle and he smote the jordan and it was parted and the two of them crossed over now this was life before the whirlwind now during that same time if you read this passage you'll find that viewing from a distance there were 50 men who were referred to scripturally as there were 50 sons of the prophets i find it interesting that the bible didn't call them young prophets or another generation of prophets it said they were sons of the prophet it kind of lets me know that they were in the bloodline to be a prophet but for some reason they haven't answered a call to be young prophets they just had that pedigree but they were kind of holding their distance from becoming prophets they'd figured things out they had a little more of a committee since we're going to put form a a committee of 50 and we're going to look after and we're going to inform elisha what's going on and you read it every time they the sons of the prophet they'd show up said you know your master's going to be taken away in a whirlwind yeah i've heard about that they weren't spiritually apparently equipped to be prophets they were only in the bloodline their daddies had been prophets so get the picture everywhere elijah went elisha was walking down the back of his sandals i'm going to stay with you i'm going to be wherever you go because that's the place that i find my solace that's the place i find i need to be to get what i need from the lord scripture records if you look at many bible scholars that in elijah's tenure as a prophet that he had some 14 prophecies and miracles that took place at his hand there were things like he stood in the face of jezebel and ahab and prophesied against them he prophesied jezebel's demise that the dogs would would uh lap up her flesh and he prophesied the illness and the demise of ahab he stood in the face of false prophets and he called down fire from heaven there was another time that he was bid or commanded by 50 soldiers to come and he called down fire from heaven those 50 soldiers were consumed so they sent 50 more and you know what happened he called down more fire and then consumed him man elijah was a tough prophet i want you to know if you were going to be under his leadership there were some difficult things that he he didn't he didn't mess with and he said lord burn it up but you see now there's a whirlwind coming it's been prophesied and you see life after the whirlwind would not be the same as life before the whirlwind i also while i was in lake charles noticed that many things had changed and the pastor told me they were seeing a lot of change there were buildings that they their own sanctuary they had to demolish it completely they're having service right now in their gymnasium but he showed me great plans that they have for building a new sanctuary as i drove through the city there were businesses that had been closed down and they had left there were other places that you could tell they were trying to rebuild there were still other places that there was new construction taking place and i drove across one great big long bridge in lake charles and as i went across that bridge there were aluminum telephone poles now this is from september of last year there were aluminum telephone poles that were literally bent in half and laid over from the strong winds i'm telling you a whirlwind changes things a whirlwind mix mixes things up and as i thought more about it i couldn't help but think about the whirlwind experience first apostolic church has had everybody remember when the ominous report started coming in in february and march of last year we never thought that anything could stop us from meeting and having church we never thought that any of the things that we do could ever be changed because we're first apostolic church we've gone through a season of moving from our old sanctuary to a new sanctuary we got things going our way we're excited about what god's doing but i've got news for you all of a sudden there started being a forecast they're closing down things in these cities they're closing down things in that city this is happening that all of a sudden the coveted whirlwind swept in to our entire world i've got news for you we've been through a whirlwind experience there's some stuff being tore up there's some stuff's been changed there's some stuff that's been blown away you see we had added new procedures that we as a church had adapted to in a move from our previous sanctuary but if we aren't careful we can get blown away rather than adapting and thriving after the whirlwind remember elisha in our text asked for one thing when elijah said you followed me around what do you want he asked for one thing he said i want a double portion of your spirit and elijah told him he said that's a hard thing but if you'll be here when the whirlwind takes place somebody hear me tonight if you'll stay grounded when the whirlwind takes place when something starts blowing in when some kind of storm starts blowing in that upsets our apple cart that changes a few things if we don't bail during a whirlwind experience god has a double portion of his spirit to be poured out us if we'll just be there some of us need to realize i just need to be there i just need i've been praying for god to send a beautiful young apostolic lady to our church that i can date oh my god she showed up you were running around the country someplace else i've been praying that god had sent some handsome apostolic young man you ought to stay home he may have showed up and you were someplace else hear me if we'll just be there if we'll just be there after the whirlwind god's got a double portion blessing for you god's got something special that the church may have never experienced before we've been through the winds of coving we've been through some winds of change now let me show you what happened just after the whirlwind what was life like right after the whirlwind verse 13 says he took up also the mantle of elijah let me pause here just because the mantle fell elisha had to do something he had to go pick it up there's some stuff that another generation you're gonna have to pick up and run with there's some stuff that ain't gonna be handed to you you're gonna have to pick up some things he took also up the mantle of elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of the jordan but he didn't just pick it up he used it it said and he took the mantle of elijah that fell from him and he smoked the waters and said where is the lord god of elijah and when he also had smitten the waters they parted hither and thither and elisha went over you see the last miracle that elijah did save being taken up was he parted the waters the first thing that elisha did was the same thing i came to tell another generation after the whirlwind there's still miracles going to take place [Applause] after the whirlwind takes place don't dwell in the past say god what are you going to do for me now i need that mantle i got to pick it up and i got to use it somebody hear me tonight now notice and when the sons of the prophets which were to view at jericho saw him that 50-man committee they had kind of standing back the waters parted here comes elisha by himself he's got the mantle on and they said the spirit of elijah doth rest on elisha they acknowledged it that that spirit that they had felt an experience from elijah it was on elisha and they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him and be great if it stopped there but i want you to notice what happened and they said unto him behold now there be with thy servants fifty strong men let them go we pray thee and seek thy master lest per adventure the spirit of the lord had taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley and he said ye shall not sin get the picture they acknowledged that elijah's spirit was on elisha but immediately they formed a committee after the whirlwind to put a search party out to find elijah i got the news for you elijah ain't coming back god's already taken elijah what are you saying preacher let me tell you there's some procedures and some things the way we used to do things that are never coming back oh somebody's worried where i'm going now i'm not talking about holiness i'm not talking about jesus name apostolic ministry but what i am talking about sometimes we can get nostalgic about the past our bishop when some wanted to pursue and find the steps that he's testified about so many times that god miraculously provided concrete for it our old assembly there was some said i heard they're tearing that out and they're doing some remodeling we want to go get those steps bishop said i don't want those steps he said i don't want to dwell in the past i don't need to look at last year's miracle right now the whirlwind's already gone through some things have changed i'm expecting a double portion right now in the name of jesus oh please feel what the preacher's trying to i don't need a committee of 50 to take us back and do things like we used to do some of our procedures have changed bishop decided we're going to start teaching bible on wednesday night instead of sunday morning oh brother mccool i remember when it was like this like that and we'll get nostalgic you know you can study the bible study on wednesday night just like you can on sunday morning oh brother mccool i i miss all those elders chairs up on the platform they ain't coming back we're doing things different there's no bible for that we're just doing some things different why because a whirlwind blew through and we had to change some things never did i think i would stand at this pulpit and preach to an empty sanctuary but you know what we did we adapted and we thrived and god has rewarded that we're reaching people that we never thought we could reach we're not changing the message we're not changing holiness it's unchangeable but somebody here this preacher when we get nostalgic and we get too attached that there's only one way to do things did you know the choir don't sing in the middle of the service anymore they're singing at the beginning of the service we're after the whirlwind there's some things that's been blown out and blown away we're going to do some things a little bit different some of you are scared to death right now because you're trying to read into something that's not there now i would remind you they tried to appoint a committee we need 50 men to go look for elijah and it's they they pressed elisha they said we this whirlwind probably took him up in the mountains or dropped him off in some valley he said you don't need to go looking for elijah and it said when they urged him they came back we've got to do this we've got to do this thing there's some things that that that we we've got to go back and find elijah it said they urged him till he was ashamed and he said sin he said all right let your committee of 50 now you got to understand remember how elijah dealt with committees of 50. what he did elisha was a whole lot nicer than elijah was twice he he had a committee of 50 gobbled up with fire at least he said all right you've asked him go looking for him and notice what he said they sent there for 50 men and they sought three days but found him not elijah's not coming back the whirlwind's gone now we're in elisha's reign and remember what elisha had asked for elisha asked for a double portion let me say we must honor our past accomplishments and the miracles that god has wrought but if we try to go back and recreate them we will be just as those men will find nothing because god's got something to do for us today in a double portion fashion if we become too sentimental about the events and the styles of music and the procedures of the past and we try to resurrect elijah's spirit we've got to realize that after the whirlwind elisha is now now don't try to think i'm metaphorically referring to our bishop versus me it couldn't be farther from the truth i got a bishop that's behind us saying go go grow do it do it look as your pastor let me be playing with you i understand and i hope there's a generation that's of mine and generations that are following that we as a multi-generational church i understand i'm getting to glean from fields that i didn't plant i get that man i the the hard and difficult times that our bishop and sister mccool and some of you founding saints the difficult times the if i could coin the term stick-to-itiveness that you have been through you planted some fields that i haven't had to do any cultivating all i've had to do is enjoy the fruits of it but my generation and another generation another generation until the lord comes let me tell you we didn't plant the field but we have a responsibility to increase the yield of the field let me say that again we have the responsibility to increase the yield of the field you see elijah could have said i just want your spirit but he didn't say that he said i want a double portion of your spirit see a lot of folks view that double portion of the spirit as all gravy oh we're just going to have more spiritual services and more exciting more blissful worship and we're going to have that kind of double portion let me tell you with a double portion of god's spirit there is a double portion of responsibility as well some want a double portion of spiritual bliss but do not want a double portion of responsibility of increasing the yield of the field as pastor of this church i'm here to tell you we're not here to sit static and be happy where we are we've got to grow this place our goal is so there's lost men and women there's lost families in our community it's our job to increase the yield of the field we may not do it the same way a previous generation did we don't bark at that but we're serving we're working in a different world we're we're dealing with things bishop dealt with stuff that i'll never deal with and another generation's dealing with stuff that i don't know how to deal with social media has taken over it i got to slow down you can understand me if i talk i don't always have to spit and yell and sweat somebody hear me i don't understand all the communications with the cell phones and the ipads and if i'm not careful i can develop an attitude of well bless god that's all of the devil you know that'll that's anything i don't understand is automatically of the devil i got news for you we're reaching out to folks that i could never reach because there's another generation they'll two or three clicks and suddenly they're going into the homes of multiplied thousands taking this apostolic message we're seeing fruits of that we're getting contacts that folks are showing up i saw your service online [Music] oh brother mccool i i i don't know about some of this stuff bible scholars say in identifying the miracles and prophecies that were fulfilled under elijah's ministry that there were some 14 miracles and prophecies fulfilled and you know what the scholars also will tell you that under elisha's tenure there were some 28 miracles and prophecies fulfilled he got a double portion blessing elijah dealt with jezebel and ahab so elisha didn't have to but let me give you an example and oh i hasten i hope you'll stay with me just a bit longer bef because after the first miracle that elisha and his after the whirlwind experience took place was he parted the water just like elijah but the next thing he faced as soon as he came back across the jordan it wasn't a jezebel spirit wasn't an ahab spirit but instead i want you to notice ii kings 2 19 it said in the men of the city now we're speaking of jericho said unto elisha behold i pray thee the situation of this city is pleasant as my lord saith well they don't sound like they're at odds at all but the water is not in the ground is barren and he said bring me a new cruise and put salt there in and they brought it to him now very likely if i could use my imagination he was likely speaking to the members of the chamber of commerce of jericho look at our beautiful city in our city lovely let me this pla this is a pleasant city that no longer was he dealing with an ahab or a jezebel spirit now he was dealing with the spirit that was redefining what pleasant is our bishop so beautifully taught on wednesday night about those who take the grace of god and turn it to lasciviousness our missionaries who go around the world many times have to deal with unchurched people folks that know nothing about the lord and they witness to them you know what our biggest challenges in our communities dealing with folks that are churched you know what i'm talking about you look at the obituary column in the city of knoxville there hadn't been an unsaved person dying years they were always a member of this and such and so church you see it's it's a new challenge the the whirlwind has blown through but now we just have a pleasant doctrine i may have a shattered life of self-destructive self-deprecating behavior but hey i'm okay somebody told me i was saved i may have a marriage crumbling because of infidelity broken vows and lascivious attitudes oh but everything's great everything's pleasant i may have a christian walk that's void of a prayer life or an intimate relationship with god but hey all school is pleasant i may live a grudge-filled life with relationships that require me to keep score of who i can talk to and who i can't talk to but all is well i may have an unforgiving spirit that seethes and rumbles in the deepest recesses of my heart but i'm just fine i'm pleasant the continuous attempts by lust of the flesh to fulfill the void inside me that can only be replaced by having a spiritual relationship with god is void yet i'm telling you everything's pleasant i've got news for you everything the world calls pleasant is not pleasant we're facing a new challenge nowadays first apostolic church after the whirlwind is blown through you're running into a lot of folks that'll tell you they're saved but they're not happy because they've never really reserved a relationship with christ they've never really repented of their sins they've never taken his name on in baptism they've never been filled with his spirit they're just saying everything's pleasant somebody found a doctrine that they can proclaim things but to be to be pleasant now that's what these guys said they told him he said everything's pleasant well except the water's poison i get worried what some folks define as pleasant don't you you know i looked up that term pleasant pleasant means having qualities that tend to give pleasure and agreeable having or characterized by pleasing manner behavior or appearance there's some things that just aren't pleasant romans 7 said it this way verse number 10 it said in the commandment which was ordained to life i found to be unto death for sin taken occasion by the commandment deceived me and it slew me sin will kill you never mistake don't let you don't let anybody tell you that sin is pleasant and you can coexist living in a life of sin with god it said wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good was then that which is good made death unto me god forbid but sin notice this that it might appear pleasant sin that it might appear cool and okay no sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful let me tell you first apostolic church we've got to after the whirlwind keep crying out against sin we can't develop doctrines that make folks feel okay in their sin and make folks think it's pleasant sin is not pleasant sin is ugly sin will kill you sin will destroy you [Applause] and the new john gill exposition of the entire bible this commentator writes concerning second kings 2 19 but the water is not in the ground bearing that is the part of it where this water was or ran from thence it became barren or caused to miscarry as the word signifies not only trees cast their fruit which it watered but women became abortive that drank of it as josephus says and so the cattle let me tell you first apostolic church when we adopt the idea that living in sin is a pleasant thing we're not going to bear new children in the church we will become an abortive group we're not going to bear new babes into the kingdom of god instead we'll be running folks off and trying to make folks feel good about a horrible not pleasant situation jericho it doesn't matter how fine your architecture is it matters not the sales pitch that the president of the chamber of commerce makes your citywide advertising cam campaign may be a claiming this is a pleasant city the real truth is the water makes you barren unable to reproduce incapable of reproducing habitually failing to produce fruit not productive you see sin and its logic calls a lot of things pleasant that aren't pleasant proverbs 14 12 said it this way there's a way which seemeth right unto man but the end there are of the ways of death hebrews 11 24 by faith moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of god than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the reproach of christ greater riches than the treasures in egypt for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward the treasures of egypt a sin are fool's gold it's not pleasant sin will try to make the ugly normal sin will try to tell you that a fleeing a tryst or an affair are now winked at and even encouraged by the world's elite it's a pleasant situation sin will say this preacher's here to tell you it's the doorway to death it's the doorway to destruction well let me move quickly you see perversion is now being advertised as normal behavior for humanity legalize murder perverse unions in relationships that are called so-called marriages adulterous relationships are lauded and called pleasant by this world but let me finally warn us of this if we aren't careful we can find ourselves among those who claim to be pleasant churches they look like a church they have great social programs they have departments and committees they're striving to be relevant in the community and in the mainstream of the nominal world but they're afraid of things like holiness second timothy 3 4 says traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of god having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such have fellowship no from such turn away yet somewhere along the way they can develop the same pharisaical self-righteous attitude that jesus dealt with in the bible jesus said in matthew 23 25 whoa unto you scribes pharisees hypocrites for you may clean the outside of the cup of the platter but within they are full extortion in excess thou blind pharisees cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter that the outside of them may be clean also woe unto you scribes pharisees hypocrites he repeated it man jesus got rough sometimes for ye are likened unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful on the out beautiful outward but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity preacher what are you trying to get at if we aren't careful we'll become an assembly that all we want to do is wash the outside of the cup just as long as everybody looks okay we're cool now again if you're anticipating i'm going some left direction you missed the turn completely stomp the brakes and back up and hear what the scripture says what the scripture says is clean the inside first then we work on the outside get the outside it look if i go in a restaurant i don't like a dirty cup that's dirty on the inside or the outside but he's giving you an order of operation he said what we need to do when we win a lost world let's get the essentiality of salvation in them let's let's oh please hear this preacher's heart tonight [Applause] we're not dropping one standard of appearance in any way but that can't happen properly until we start cleaning up the inside getting folks in an altar repenting of their sins getting rid of some old ugly nasty attitudes in fact some of us may need to go back to the dishwasher again while we're looking in the mirror forget about the outside and say what's down inside me what's been seething and dirty and filthy down inside me oh hallelujah he said clean up the inside and the outside will take care of itself because we'll clean that as well we're not going to ignore it but he said first to the inside then take care of the outside you see the lost are looking for a church that's clean on the inside and the outside not just the spiritual relationship of looking holy and going to holy places but being holy having spiritual integrity having the the spirit and the loveliness of god not being grumps gripes complainers and having ugly spirits about us god deliver us from doctrines that teach pharisaical ideology i don't want to be a hypocrite i want to be clean before god on the inside and outside praise team get ready notice after the whirlwind and the need for a cleansing what took place second kings 2 20 he said bring me a new cruise put salt there in and they brought it to him and he went forth unto the spring of water and cast the salt in there and he said thus saith the lord i have healed these waters there shall not be from things any more death or barren land so the waters were healed unto this day according to the saying of elisha which he spake i want you to notice he asked for a new container but he said they wanted the same salt we may do things a different way we may have the choir sing at a different time we may teach bible on wednesday night instead of sunday the sunday school outreach classes we may change the name of it we may meet with a group here in a group there and we may change the order of the way we do things we may have a new cruise but we're going to have the same old salt you hear me we're going to have the and notice he didn't want the salt change he said i just need salt he didn't ask for garlic salt he didn't ask for butter salt he didn't ask for seasoning salt he didn't ask for rock salt he didn't even ask for tony centuries you see i have been to louisiana he said just give me salt give me the same salt and notice when he did what god had told him to do the waters were cleansed it said unto this day i had the privilege of going to jericho about 10 years ago you know what i had fresh water when i was in jericho there's still fresh water in jericho matthew 5 tells us this ye are the salt of the earth but if the salt has lost its savior wherewith shall it be salted it is fence is rather it stands forth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trod under foot of men ye are the light of the world a city that's set on a hill that cannot be hid you see salt the church we should be the influencer not the influenced you you put salt on meat it ought to make the meat salty not the salt meaty we need to be the influence in this community we need to be that seasoning that cleansing agent for knoxville and all that will hear colossians 4 6 said let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man stand with me our way of communicating should be above any other way that the world has we certainly should not be a group that outside the confines of the church every other word is a four-letter expletive or a by-word and swear word good rule and boorish brutish in our communication but with that said our communication should always be communications that represents christ some folks don't cuss but they sure do have an honorary way of saying things we as representatives of christ in our community our speech should be with salt the seasoning of the holy ghost in us [Music] one writer said metaphorically speaking in the bible salty signifies permanence [Music] locality durability fidelity usefulness value and purification i need some salty saints that's going to minister to our community it's time for us to show the world what a real pleasant place is not something we're calling pleasant but it's barren and poisonous but this world needs to find a pleasant place when they come to pleasant ridge road [Music] if you're in this house and you've been calling your situation pleasant but you know deep down inside that your void and bearing of the blessings of god [Music] god's doing something he's up to something right now if you come to an altar of repentance and say god i'm surrendering you he wants to fill you with the holy ghost he wants to give you that salty agent if you will he wants to give you that cleansing in your life some would say preacher i've done too much i've been too deep into sin my life's terrible now i can't have a cleansing it won't work i would remind you in closing see i closed i would remind you what jesus did sister you're not going to come alone there's going to be some prayer warriors going to join you hallelujah you see jesus went to the well and the samaritan woman was there she'd been married five times and she was shacking up after that oh preacher don't say stuff like that's what that's what happened she'd been married five times and jesus said the man you're with right now is not your own don't you tell me that god can't take care of your situation if you've been living in an unpleasant situation god wants to fill you with the holy ghost and he wants the salt of the holy ghost to come in and change you jesus told her he said if you'll break give me natural water he said i've got water that you know not of the water that you've got if you drink it you're going to be thirsty again but the living water that i've got you'll never be thirsty again there's living water for you there's salt and light for the saints i'd ask the church family to step out of the aisle would you come for a season of prayer would you come send god let me be the salt of the earth if you have need in this place i've got a sister wanting to be baptized in jesus name hallelujah we'll get her ready i want the ladies that help me brother blevins will be getting dressed for baptism we're going to baptize her in jesus name she's wanting the salt she's wanting the salt of the holy ghost whatever you have need of would you come and receive it hallelujah hallelujah [Music] [Music] let them [Music] is [Music] and what does it mean to be his to be formed in his know that we have a [Music] purpose [Music] [Music] the lord says [Music] the church would arise [Music] is [Music] [Music] to be so in the world is say so let the redeemer [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] the lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] i [Applause] [Music] i [Music] in jesus [Applause] hallelujah yes hallelujah yes lord go on that's it that's it let the holy ghost speak to you that's it go on go on yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's it jesus i love you jesus i praise you that's it go on go on let it speak to you right now hallelujah yeah that's it go on that's it go on sis go on that's it go on go on that's it yeah yeah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh the holy ghost is falling right now that's it go on yeah yeah yeah yeah let him speak let it speak let him speak yes yeah yeah yeah that's it that's it that's it [Music] say say so [Music] hallelujah glory glory glory glory this is why we're here somebody said i'm wanting to be the salt of the world i want to be a light to the world could we pray and thank the lord for our sister right now mighty god we come before you grateful and thankful for our sister who has seen her need to take on your name and water baptism lord i pray as she goes down in the water lord that you'll come up out of the water to walk in newness of life lord i pray that you would enlighten her lord that you would give her wisdom and knowledge of your word lord that you would fill her with your spirit lord we're believing you for it and we're thanking you for it in the name of jesus we pray amen and amen amen on the profession of your faith and obedience to the word of god i now baptize you in the name of the lord jesus christ for the mission of your sins yay hallelujah yes i am say so hallelujah lift your hands and love jesus right now lord we praise you lord we praise you [Applause] hallelujah as we go from this place tonight let's go determined to be the salt and light to our community to our families to our co-workers to everyone that we come in contact with let them know that there's something special about you we're going to have a closing prayer and in that prayer i want us to pray especially for our young folks who are going to strong tower camp this week we have a great number pastor anthony is leading a group of young folks and chaperones to strong to our camp we're praying that god will bless them keep them safe and give them great holy ghost revival a strong tear camp let's pray together right now mighty god we love you lord i thank you for your word and i thank you for the power of the word god i pray that it would stay deep in our hearts and let us be the witnesses that you would have us to be lord as we and elisha generation step forward god let us take the responsibility of gleaning from fresh fields and lord let us increase the yield of our outreach and grow your work god now pray a special prayer of anointing and protection for our young folks who will be journeying to camp this week let the power of the holy ghost minister mildly to them and through them bring them back home on fire renewed and refreshed expecting a great time in the lord in you lord for all this we're grateful and thankful in the name of jesus we pray amen and amen lord bless you you're dismissed in jesus name greet each other as your personal protocols would allow you to do