Sunday Morning Worship Service
by Mark McCool
November 14, 2021 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Philippians 4:4, Joel 2:21-24, 1 John 4:18-19, 2 Timothy 1:7, Romans 8:15, Matthew 24:4-13, Genesis 15:1, Exodus 14:13, Joshua 10:25, Hebrews 13:6, Matthew 5:10-12, Matthew 5:13, 1 Peter 4:12-16, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Luke 15, Hebrews 12:1-3

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/mark-mccool--sunday-morning-worship-service-195
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
well glory lord bless you i'm gonna let you move back to your seats we greet you in the precious name of jesus it is so good to see every one of you here at first apostolic church on this sunday morning it's good to be back home had the privilege last week of preaching the 35th pastoral anniversary of pastor david adkins over in newland north carolina what a marvelous time we had there and i want to thank our pastoral staff for the wonderful preaching all the staff of the church uh everything that took place in uh our absence sister jamie and our absence we always have good church here and thank you so much thank you saints of god it's nothing compared to being at home it's always good to be back at first apostolic church i want to do something at this moment before we get into the word of the lord i would like if we have any veterans if you've served in the military in any capacity would you stand here in the sanctuary let's give just a moment here and just i want you all to remain standing i want you to remain standing just a moment in 1954 president dwight d eisenhower issued the first veterans day proclamation he wrote in order to ensure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary all veterans all veterans organization and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose on this week of november 11th some 67 years later we are still bound to that common purpose to care for those who have borne the battle to honor their service give thanks [Music] for the freedom that we enjoy for their sacrifice [Music] on this week of veterans day observances we honor the service the dedication and the bravery [Music] of millions of americans who have vowed to protect and defend our great nation against enemies foreign and domestic we would be remiss also today in not honoring the important roles of their families that have sacrificed [Music] the loved ones who choose to serve have loved ones who are praying and who are concerned about them we have active duty members of first apostolic church right now they're all over this world defending our freedom some of them are able to join us today in a different time zone a different part of the world we honor them and today to all of our veterans we say thank you for protecting our freedom we honor you by living by the word of god our constitution and by responsibly exercising the liberty that you have so mightily defended i think now all of us need to stand and honor these folks that are here with a standing ovation and a great applause thank you for your service thank you for your service we love you we thank you for your sacrifice lord bless you you may be seated it is indeed a privilege to be at first apostolic church anytime we have the opportunity to stand in this pulpit i'm thanking the lord for our pastoral staff our leadership for our elders our ministers all of the workers all the volunteers and most assuredly for the saints of first apostolic church we're so honored to have the title of senior pastor of this assembly i say welcome to all of our guests today so good to see every one of you here and i'll repeat just a little bit what i said wednesday night uh i want to thank everyone for the uh many birthday wishes that i received on my birthday and even a few belated sense i would give you this pause if i did not respond to one of your media outreaches it's not because i've ignored it it's because i don't always know how to uh i tried to answer all the text messages and uh somebody said you've got all kinds of messages on facebook and i said i didn't know i could receive messages on facebook so uh let me publicly say thank you to any of you who wished me a uh birthday and it is truly a happy uh season uh to go a little bit older here at first apostolic church uh i i messed with sister jamie just a little bit uh she's got a birthday coming in january and uh i turned 63 and her next birthday she'll be 62. [Music] not really that's also that's a year from now so she corrects me on that and makes sure but i'm not ashamed of my age and neither she i'm thankful to be growing to growing older together with the love of my life and i'm thankful to be a part of this assembly a multi-generational church that does awesome things in the kingdom of god thank you for letting me be a part it's a pleasure to be with you today i want to read two verses of scripture i'm going to read from two passage more than two verses but from two different passages i'll read first from philippians 4 4 and then from joel 2 beginning at 21 philippians 4 4 says rejoice in the lord alway [Music] and again i say rejoice joel 2 21 says fear not o land be glad and rejoice for the lord will do great things be not afraid you beast of the field for the pastures of the wilderness do spring for the tree beareth or fruit the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength be glad then ye children of zion rejoice in the lord your god free hath given you the former rain moderately and he will cause to come down for you the rain the former rain and the latter rain in the first month and the floors shall be full of wheat and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil for a few moments to you today i hope to speak to you on this subject again i say rejoice again i say rejoice again i say rejoice i came to rejoice today i came to rejoice again i say i came to rejoice at first apostolic church today could you pray with me savior i love you lord i thank you for your presence your power and your word lord i thank you for the wonderful fellowship of the saints that we're enjoying today lord for the songs of praise that have so masterfully been presented lord for your precious presence that we feel now god i pray that you anoint my lips that i might speak as your mouthpiece i might say what your word would want us to hear lord we believe you for it and we thank you for it in jesus name we pray amen and amen on sunday march 21st 2020 i read joel 2 21 from behind this very podium i read it as a text for my sunday morning message fear not o land be glad and rejoice for the lord will do great things but it was a little different atmosphere than we face today for this sanctuary was totally empty myself and nine more individuals which was the government mandate were all that were in the building technicians getting us on the air a praise team that was socially distanced and we read fear not o land be glad and rejoice for the lord will do great things we were in the midst of a most uncertain unknown fearful time that most of us had ever experienced i felt that god had given me this passage of scripture that needed to be proclaimed in our houses as we all hunkered down if you will and hoped for another day it was no time to preach fear and i proclaimed just as i did then i proclaimed now it's still not time to preach fear it's time for me to say rejoice in the lord alway and again i say rejoice after a year and a half of different challenges i'm proclaiming it's a day of rejoicing i'm proclaiming some of us have already forgotten the depths that we were in and we need to be reminded again it's time to be a rejoicing church it's not time to be fearful and afraid it's not time to worry about everything around us we need to be a rejoicing apostolic church today yes i realize that those two statements were not from the ten commandments and we should follow the ten commandments and all the commandments of the word in living our lives but if we aren't careful in reviewing law and reviewing commandments we will dwell so much on negativism punishment and consequences that we will forget the exceeding precious promises and benefits that come with serving god i've got no sad stories to tell you today i've got no sad singing and fast digging that's called a funeral i came to tell you i'm here to rejoice today god's doing great things in his kingdom hallelujah both philippians 4 and joel 2 tell us vigorously and insistently to rejoice one says to be glad and rejoice but what does that really mean to be glad means to experience or cause pleasure joy or delight to be very willing are you willing to rejoice today to rejoice means to feel or show that you are very happy about something kids are better at it than we are children have no limitations when they're joyful you know it they don't oh we've grown up and we've we've become mature even when we're happy some of us know how to act like we're not happy if you're really going to rejoice you got to show that you're happy it's not just a state of mind it should involve everything about you if you're going to rejoice every part of you ought to be excited about something he said fear not as we compare and contrast fear is an unpleasant emotion it's caused by the belief that someone or something is in danger likely to cause pain or is a threat right now even some of you under the sound of my voice are struggling in your mind to say do i have anything to be happy about i've been worrying about this situation too much i'm worried about this report i heard i'm worried about this that and the other joel said fear not o land be glad and rejoice but not just out of blind trust there's a promise that goes with it it said for the lord will do great things i've got a reason to be excited today he said fear not o land it would certainly be an understatement to say we are living in a fear-filled land but first john 4 18 and 19 said there is no fear and love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love we love him because he first loved us if you want to get the fear out you need to start loving jesus if there's something that's keeping you worried and keeping you up at night you need to say jesus i love you you watch that thing start disappearing from your memory it doesn't mean it's healed but it means god's going to do something jesus i love you jesus i care about you jesus i want to commune with you when the devil starts bringing fear you need to proclaim the love of jesus in your life more than ever before some of us become paralyzed with fear it's restricting our lives our health and our spiritual well-being second timothy 1 7 says for god hath not given us the spirit of fear but of love and of power and of love and of a sound mind if god didn't give the spirit of fear where else could it have come from romans 8 15 said for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear fear brings bondage freeing br fear brings limitations fear causes us to question everything that we can't accomplish or have accomplished but pastor have you not watched and listened to the news lately have you not been on instagram and facebook things look bad with a bunch of a's in it and a capital d at the end you know what this same jesus of love said it would be so in matthew 24 4 jesus said and answered unto them take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my name saying i am christ and shall deceive many and ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars panic wring your hands worry hunker down no see that ye be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet hear me some of the stuff we're seeing in the news don't worry about it be aware of it but don't let it scare you it's got to happen for jesus to come back don't you get worried now now's no time to have fear rejoice in the lord alway and again i say rejoice for nation shall rise against nation kingdom against kingdom there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes and divers places all these are the beginning of sorrows then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake preacher don't that scare you no that makes me happy and then many shall be offended many shall be offended man you can't scratch your head with your left hand without right he's being offended anymore everybody's so worried about being politically correct and they're going to say a little something and the woke crowd's going to put you away everybody's offended nowadays and then many shall be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another man we've had to pass laws against hate speech so much hate around and many prophets shall rise oh there can't be rather it didn't say prophets it said many false prophets shall arise many false prophets shall arise many false prophets shall arise oh this couldn't be false i read it on the internet got to be true and shall deceive many because iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold but he that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved there's some stuff we're going to be enduring you hear me don't get sad don't get fearful celebrate rejoice in the lord alway and again i say rejoice health issues financial ruin inflation government unrest and distrust weather disasters natural disasters foreign powers rising up fear of global warming i have never figured out the global warming crowd they always announce their reports about the middle of january if they're smart they do it in july anyway it's kind of hard to get my attention we got global warming when it's so cold in the middle of january now here i'm not disputing scientists but i am saying god's still in control god's got this quit worrying about everything if you're not careful everything that pops up on your screen it's going to scare you to death and you're going to be worried you need to start saying jesus i love you you might have to spend a little more time in his book studying the good things knowing what's coming not being fearful and afraid rejoice in the lord alway [Applause] throughout time god's had to deal with his own people because of their fear in flesh and humanity all the way back in genesis 15 and 1 he told abram he said fear not abram i'm thy shield and thy exceeding great reward apparently abram was having a fear problem you go on to exodus he told moses to tell the people moses said to the people in exodus 14 13 fear ye not stand still and see the salvation lord some the reason some folks can't ever see salvation they can't stand still they're always in the middle of something that they ought not to be in the middle of he said stand still and see the salvation of the lord oh little go a little farther he had to tell joshua tell the people again joshua said on them fear not nor be dismayed be strong be of good courage for thus shall the lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight constantly hebrews 13 6 said so that we may boldly say the lord is my helper i will not fear what man shall do unto me put your fears away is there any wonder joel would have to say fear not o land why for the lord will do great things if we can only come to grip with the fact that we are to be glad and rejoice as the lord will do great things we sometimes refer in prayer times to having focused prayer and i believe in it if there's something you're needing to identify as a specific need or solving a specific situation and praying exclusively for it that's a good thing focused prayer but i'm not sure we don't sometimes need to get together and have focus rejoicing focus gladness and rejoicing there's sometimes i need to get in my prayer place and not ask god for one thing but just get with him just have a little church and rejoice a while lord i'm not asking for one thing i'm just happy to be in your presence all right hey thanksgiving is coming won't you get a head start and start trying to count your blessings i guarantee you if you'll have a rejoicing attitude you can't list them all some of the very things we ought to be rejoicing over we find ourselves lamenting over man it was such a dre i had to rush and hurry this morning i i got out of bed and and i had to get the kids ready and we we were trying to rush and trying to get to church and everything and the very thing that you're cursing if you could back up just a couple of steps and say lord i want to thank you that i had a roof over my head this morning i want to thank y'all woke up in my right mind whatever mind i've got i want to thank you for my kids and i want to thank you for my grandbabies all there's a little bit of hassle there we had to clean up some spilled milk oh god but i'm so blessed i want to thank you for my husband i want to thank you for my wife i want to thank you for my family i want to thank you for a church i've got to go to thank you lord thank you lord if you'll do it you keep me still somebody will start rejoicing somebody get so happy you may pass the church and have to come back rejoice in the lord alway and again i say rejoice hallelujah the lord's doing great things in my life [Applause] preacher why should i be glad today well scripture gave us some reasons to be glad matthew 5 10 said blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness for righteousness sake it actually says for theirs is the kingdom of heaven if you're getting persecuted say what glory i'm going to heaven blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad somebody's been talking about me on the internet do you know what they said about me man you ought to have a holy ghost hoe down right there in your house if you've been serving god and somebody's been putting you down saying lord i thank you i praise you for don't worry about them don't spend wasted energy trying to fight back with somebody just start rejoicing the lord say jesus i love you i want to thank you lord i want to be a better witness for you he said you're the salt of the earth verse 13 but if salt has lost its savior wherewith shall it be salted we've got to keep influencing this world with gladness and rejoicing man go around with a smile on your face black friday shopping's coming for some of you son you're really going to need a dose of the holy ghost when you get in line did y'all know there's a shortage of everything you might just have to spend time with your family isn't that terrible we might have to realign our priorities there's a shortage of stuff i'm still preaching somebody better hear me the lord may be trying to tell his church we need to quit worrying so much about stuff and focus on what the important things are of loving each other caring about our family rejoicing the lord always and again i say rejoice listen we've got to be the salt of the earth if you do find yourself in that unfortunate position of being one of those long lines on black friday keep smiling folks will wonder what you're up to let your holy ghost shine through even said in first peter 4 12 beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you i'm going through a trial don't think that's strange as though some strange thing happened unto you but do what but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of christ's suffering that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy now there is a little more definition in that because verse 14 says this if you be reproached for the name of christ happy are you now if you're reproached for your own shortcomings and ignorance that's not what he's talking about oh i've been reproached they possessed my car but it's all for the cause of christ no it's all cause you didn't pay your payments that's not the cause of christ if you be reproached for the name of christ happy are ye for the spirit and glory of god resteth upon you on their part he has evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified but let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or as an evildoer as a busybody in other men's matters preacher you seem to magnify that man i would be worried if i was classified with murderers thieves evildoers because the other classification there is a busy body in other men's matters yet if any man suffer as a christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify god on this behalf listen i'm not telling you that it's going to be a easy road sometime because you proclaim jesus christ we're living in a world that is becoming so secular and turning its back on the real reasons we have christmas the real reasons we have the freedoms that we have but if we most gladly stand and proclaim that we are still children of god we still live by the word we live in the freest nation that there is we're thankful for what god has given us be glad second corinthians 12 9 says and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness most gladly therefore will i rather glory in my infirmities that the power of christ may rest upon me if you'll get happy when everybody else thinks you ought to be sad you can have the power of christ resting upon you therefore i take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches and necessities and persecutions in distresses for christ's sake for when i am weak then am i strong hallelujah hallelujah well let me let me skip ahead i would tell the church you even need to be happy and glad for others when they come home did you know i have seen some even in the family of god and i won't read it i'll paraphrase it you can read it for yourself but you can go back and luke the 15th chapter and read the story that we commonly call the story of the prodigal son we know that he was foolish he had riotous living he did all the things that that he did but when he came home when he came back of all people the one who got their feelings hurt was his brother that had been home the whole time the dad said kill the fatted calf put the robe on him give him a ring my boys come home and the big brother started pounding because he had stayed faithful and he was jealous of the attention that the riotous son was receiving and frankly i have seen folks come back to the house of god man they've been through so much they've lost everything the potential they had has been so greatly abused and used but i've seen a merciful god of restoration welcome them back at an altar of repentance and many rejoice but if you say i'll believe that when i see it isn't that amazing i've been here all this time and nothing's been said about me they come back into the church and one time they go down to the altar and everybody gathers around them everybody's excited for them you know what the whole time you were here the altar's been here you could come to the altar anytime you wanted to you didn't have to go through all the garbage they'd been through you need to sometimes rejoice and say god i want to thank you from for what you've kept me from lord i'm excited for them but god i want to thank you what you kept me from i didn't have to experience all this heartache i didn't have to experience this trouble and god you're a merciful god i'm going to rejoice with those who come back don't be jealous of of someone who god forgives be thankful for it oh and i hasten to the end a couple other things you need to be glad about you know you ought to be glad about going to church is it sunday again seemed like we just had sunday two days ago david said i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord i'm glad to be at church i'm glad to have do i need to go back and recount one more time march 2020 yet some of us who were the most distressed that we couldn't come to church are less than excited about having the opportunity to come to church now i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord it needs to be in our fiber it needs to be in our dna if there's church i'm going to go to church if there's something happening at the house of god i want to be there i want to be a part of we ought to be glad about it i have to quickly recount in the latter years of brother mac arnold over in keegsport tennessee you had to know they called him brother mack in fact they called him brother mack arnold to the point a lot of folks thought it was like mccool it was mccarnal but it wasn't his first name was mack last name was arnold brother arnold but in the latter years of his life his health had gone his mind was coming and going and he was in a care center and more than one of the folks that told about going visiting brother arnold said invariably almost every evening if he could see the clock about seven o'clock said he would start speaking out to everybody it's time to have church it's time to go to church it's time for us to have church now you may see that as sad if you want to but it was so deep inside him even when his mental faculties were starting to fade there was something down inside him that knew there was a time to be in the house of god i was glad when they said unto me let us go to the house of the lord you're not going to hear me complaining about having church i'm glad to be in his house i'm glad i have the opportunity oh stand with me musicians make your way up listen we ought to be glad about giving offerings yes preacher all this is about is about receiving money well listen scripture said but this i say he which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly this is not about taking money it's about sowing and he which so bountifully shall reap also bountifully every man according as he has purposed in his heart what's in your heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for god loveth a cheerful giver what glory we're going to receive an offering hey look look at my money clip i've got something i can give tonight for the next verse says and god is able to make all grace abound toward you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound in every good work one definition of cheerful webster says that word cheerful giver the word cheerful means make or become glad the lord loves someone that becomes glad when they give this is why first john so beautifully stated love casteth out fear so i say to us today if we want to re-prioritize in our life we need to lay some things aside hebrew said lay aside every weight in sin that so easily beset us there are some things that are weighing us down that are keeping us from rejoicing that we need to lay aside there's some things we need to give back to jesus and put them aside he said lay aside every weight and the sin weights of worry weights of hopelessness weights of depression need to lay those aside but you also need to lay aside the weight of sin how do i do that it's just as easy through repentance [Music] for hebrews went on to say looking unto jesus the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despise the shame and sit down on the right hand of the throne of god for considering him that endureth such contradictions of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds jesus went to the cross with joy preacher i've heard you preach about this before you're right but my text said rejoice in the lord alway and again i say rejoice you know what i'm going to keep preaching this i'm going to keep this before the church's face you're going to hear about rejoicing every so often i just don't want us to get too far down i just don't oh we're going to face trials we're going to face tests listen but i want to make the devil mad every time i can every time i get the opportunity i want to make him out by just rejoicing a little bit thanking him for what he's done i'm going to ask us to do this today if there's anybody in this house that you've got anything to thank the lord for would you set aside asking for anything today just just this one this one service but i want you to step out in the aisle and i want you to come to this altar saying jesus i want to rejoice and thank you for all you've done i just want to be happy in you i want to count my blessings that's right look at this throng of people coming i'm here to rejoice today i'm here to be glad i'm here to thank you for all you've done hallelujah let's lift him in praise right now hallelujah thanks thanks i give you thanks [Music] i am so blessed my soul is [Applause] [Music] [Music] my soul is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i am so blessed my [Applause] [Music] thanks [Music] [Applause] [Music] i am so blessed my soul is [Applause] [Music] my soul is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh jesus [Applause] is [Applause] [Applause] first apostolic church thank you for being a rejoicing church thank you for being a worship in church come back tonight expecting a great time in the lord prayer time at 6. we'll meet at 6 30 for our main evangelistic service choir and musicians will meet at five o'clock please be here expecting a great time in the lord would you greet all of our guests you're dismissed in jesus name greet each one as your personal protocols make you comfortable lord bless you