Sunday Morning Worship & Word | Pastor McCool
by Mark McCool
July 31, 2022 · First Apostolic Church of Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Micah 7:18-19, Psalms 7:10-11, Matthew 7:7-11, James 4:1-3, Matthew 6:9-12, Matthew 6:14-15, Matthew 18:23-35, 1 John 3:1-2, Jeremiah 50:20, Malachi 3:16-17

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/mark-mccool--sunday-morning-worship-word-8
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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greetings and welcome to sunday morning worship service here at first apostolic church i joined with the voices of those who've gone before me saying thank you for worshiping with us to all of our first-time guests we want you to feel at home and we want you to be comfortable worshiping with us to all of our church family we greet you in the precious name of jesus we give honor to you we give honor to all of our ministers uh and elders to our pastoral staff we give all of you honor i would ask all of us to be in special prayer for pastor anthony i talked with him uh last night and he is in um well he was in augsburg germany uh on saturday night preaching in augsburg and then sunday morning they're six hours ahead of us so uh i'm not gonna try to locate him exactly where he is right now but i know on sunday he was to preach sunday morning in augsburg germany germany and then was going to munich for an afternoon service and then headed to mannheim germany for a camp meeting so he is uh having a great time and of course we do love the saints so much in germany that we worship with we they join us many times on our webcasts and uh we've been blessed by the ministry of uh the uh pastors there and uh we we greet all of them in jesus name and we're thankful that brother anthony is able to be a part of their camp meeting this year so please pray for him that god will give them souls and give him safe journeys and it is again good to see all of you here i do realize that we have been battling illness and sickness and we are winning we're on the winning side and i thank you for all you uh folks who are able to be here today and i want to join with that voice of brother uh whitley's by saying welcome home brother fred farmer good to have you home from seattle washington good to see you here today and glad to have you worshiping with us i want to go to the word of the lord this morning if you might turn with me to the book of micah the seventh chapter the book of micah the seventh chapter and as you're turning i would give the church an update uh we now have the uh cafeteria completely with new flooring so we give the lord a great big hand we we are in the midst of uh upgrade and upkeep on our facility uh you get to adding up the age of part of our facility uh we started this campus building in the early 70s and we are continued to be blessed we've added two and had had several uh new additions but the maintenance is part of that and so beginning a new school year we have a new floor in our cafeteria and our events center and we are blessed beyond measure and we're thankful i want to say a quick word of thank you to brother joseph perez i was out of town last week and helped me stay in touch with and communicate with our installers and i do appreciate it so much brother perez brother wilson thank you and karen's carpet for the wilson brother wilson brother wilson uh all of you uh for helping us uh secure the uh flooring for our uh entire building we're blessed beyond measure to have folks like this that help us calling your attention this morning to the book of micah the seventh chapter we're going to begin reading verse 18 and we'll be read two verses micah 7 18 and 19 who is a god like unto thee that pardon of iniquity and passive by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy he will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will everybody say he will he will subdue our iniquities and that will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea for a few moments this morning i want to speak to you on this subject who is a god like unto thee and i will subtitle it there's nobody like jesus let's pray savior i love you god i thank you for the privilege that we have of caring your word i thank you for every precious saint of god that's in this assembly today lord i thank you that you have afforded us the privilege of worshiping together now god i pray that your word would minister mildly to us let us receive it and let us act upon your word in the name of jesus we pray amen and amen micah asked this question in our text who is a god like unto thee i maintain that this is a rhetorical question it's a question asked to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer it's a question that the only answer can be there is no other god like unto thee when he asks the question we used to sing a song around here that said there's nobody like jesus it means there is none to compare there's none liking his healing power his forgiveness power there's nobody like jesus so micah said who is a god like unto thee the answer is in all rhetoric and all discussion there's nobody like our god and as we begin to read we find out why there's none can compare to our god because i know i want you to notice some of the attributes of god that are named in just these two verses one it said he pardoneth iniquity that means he forgives sin aren't you glad to be servant of god who forgives sin there's no other god that can forgive sin don't tell me about all of the so-called gods of this world they are asked to do a lot of things but there's only one god who can forgive sin we know his name to be jesus as the manifestation in this dispensation which we've been able to be a part of jesus is the forgiver of sins so that's who we're talking about today he passeth the transgression of his heritage those who are his those who are in the family of god he passeth their transgressions again this is that forgiveness business and i love verse number three it said he retaineth not anger or point number three it's not verse three it's still in this statement in verse 18 it said he retaineth not anger now what does that mean that means god that means god gets angry but he doesn't stay angry now listen the god that can do all our god can do can create the heavens and the earth the god who can form the stars the god who can do anything if he gets angry especially if he gets angry at me i hope he don't stay angry at me long aren't you thankful to be serving a god that controls his anger he gets angry but he retaineth it not he doesn't stay angry the psalmist said this in psalms 7 10 my defense is of god which saveth thee upright in heart guard judgeth the righteous god is angry with the wicked every day he gets angry every day but scripture said he does not retain his anger long so how can this be is this a violation of two different scriptures that he gets angry and he's angry at the wicked every day but he doesn't retain his anger i submit to you these scriptures are in harmony because all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of god we've done stuff that makes god angry but i'm thankful that he's not going to hold it against me there's a process that i can go through because i'm serving the merciful god the god that pardoned and sin there's nobody like my god folks hear me today in this day of all kind of holding grudges we've got countries that can't get along with each other we sign treaties only to break them people are fighting and abusing one another but we're serving a god who's a forgiver of sin he wants you to be a forgiver so he forgives you now there's an old message one of the classic messages by u.s standards a united states theologian and preacher from the 1700s and 1741 [Music] jonathan edwards preached his famous message entitled sinners in the hands of an angry god and he preached this message during the so-called great awakening on the east coast he preached this message to try in that time to wake up folks and stir folks into the horrific reality of what hell was going to be like you can read the message for yourself and in graphic details he tells what it would be like for man to be in the hands of an angry god and i cannot dispute that an angry god has all power to do a lot of things in fact his underlying point was that god had given humanity an opportunity to repent or rectify their sins he made this statement in his message and i quote some have imagined and pretended that god's promises are effectual for a man in his natural state if that man is truly earnest in his seeking and knocking but it is visibly clear that god is under no obligation to keep such a person from eternal destruction not even one moment it doesn't matter how religious the man is or how many prayers he makes until he believes in christ god is not obligated in any way to protect him end quote i want you to know he has all power and he can be an angry god but i stand before you today as a witness he don't stay man long if i'll turn my life to him if i'll trust in him if i'll do what he says he's not going to stay mad at me long and please understand this is not a message of compromise this is not a message of making allowances for willful sin but hear me today i want us all to realize that there's no god like our god because it goes on to say in our text that he delighteth in mercy think about that just a minute he's a god who doesn't just mete out just a little bit of mercy he's not a god who begrudgingly is merciful but it said he delighteth in mercy that term delight means a source of great pleasure it gives god delight to show mercy to his people tell me of any other god that has that kind of reputation there's nobody like my jesus there's no other god as unto him you know i have to tell you i'm a father and i understand fatherhood now even more so that i'm a grandfather because as a grandfather i get every opportunity to watch my son and my son-in-law practice fatherhood and i've got three grandbabies now that i as a grandfather can't help but look over their shoulder and make sure they're fathering right you know because if i can be honest with all of us sometimes no matter how much you love your children they'll make you angry but surely i'm not the only one did you know as much as i loved sister ashley and brother anthony there were times that make me angry they did stuff stuff that i said don't do and they did it right in front of me and i could give you a lot of examples but i got news for you i've watched my son and my son-in-law be fathers brother whitley is a good dad i want you know he's a good dad but i've seen him say easton no more you know what easton no more means at least one more see she's not in here now so i can tell this brother whitley and i could see it in brother whitley's face i could see it in his body language i'm a bit angry and he made the correction i told you and he took care of it and i saw a puckered lip you're not going to be able to do this and you're not going to be able to do that you know some of us we've made those crazy statements at least you know you're grounded till you're 37 you know he didn't do that but you know what that guy did after he laid down all of those laws and was so upset you know what he did okay that's enough and the dude went and bought her a present later on i saw you do it he wasn't making up to her but there's something about being a daddy there's something about that care could i tell you we've got a heavenly father we do stuff that he says don't do that quit doing that stop and in our humanity and in our flesh we have a rebellious nature in us and we do stuff sometimes but i know the father is not pleased with and he gets angry and he lays down some things for us but you know what i found out more than anger he delights in mercy he has a forgiveness about him oh hear me in this house the enemy's been trying to tell you that god's some big ogre standing up over the bowels of glory looking to zap you it's a lie from hell he loves you he wants to forgive you he delights in mercy oh hallelujah tell me another god that has that kind of reputation jesus said it this way in matthew 7 7 ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened or what man is there of you whom if his son asked bread he give him a stone or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent if you then being evil that means being in your flesh if this this is the way the flesh works if a dad in his flesh knoweth how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your father my father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask let me tell you i need to learn the secret of asking god for forgiveness some of us have never taken the time to really ask for forgiveness we'll ask for healing we'll ask for blessings we'll ask to win powerball i've heard folks pray over stuff like that we'll ask for success we'll ask even for deliverance but have you said i want to ask you god for forgiveness father i need forgiveness you know why because our old adamic nature our flesh has a hard time admitting we were wrong when you ask for forgiveness you're admitting you've done something wrong now a lot of us we've learned to uh work the system if you will at least we think we have here's the way we apologize we say if i've done anything wrong please forgive me listen i'm flesh it's not if it's i have god i'm sorry i'm sorry for the impure things in my flesh god i need forgiveness remember if you'll just ask you shall receive forget oh god give me more vocabulary to explain as it should be james said it this way here's about the folks that work the system for whence comes wars and fighting among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war that war in your members ye lust and have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet ye have not because you ask not ye ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust now one interpretation of this passage says it this way what causes fights and quarrels among you don't they come from your desire that battle within you you desire to have so you kill you covet but you cannot get what you want so you quarrel and fight you do not have because you do not ask god and when you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasure what a beautiful interpretation of that passage you see when we ask god for forgiveness are we asking because we need forgiveness or are we asking because we got caught we have no other options or do i have an impure agenda when i ask for forgiveness for you see when it comes to forgiveness and mercy there's only one thing god expects of us i label it this way the reciprocity of forgiveness if we're going to get forgiveness from god we must reciprocate forgiveness in matthew 6 9 we read here's how we should pray you've heard it and after this man to therefore pray ye our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts how as we forgive our debtors now look this is not deep stuff but there's a lot of folks that goes right over their head how do we forgive or how should we forgive so god would forgive us jesus was teaching the disciples to pray if you read that entire passage the very next thing as soon as he finished explaining to them what we refer to as the lord's prayer the very next verse is you know what he does he starts teaching on forgiveness notice verse 14 said for if you forgive me in their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses of all that's in the lord's prayer that's what he pulled out first to teach on and to dwell on now we're still talking about there's no god like our god the attributes that make him and separates him from any other god any other idol is his mercy and forgiveness peter put jesus on the spot he said well how many times should i forgive doesn't that sound like our flesh i'm going to forgive but just how many times do i do this it's forgiving stuff's tough business i'm i'm having to take a lot to forgive well jesus began telling a parable and i'll paraphrase i won't read it all but matthew 23 he said the kingdom of god is likened to a certain king which would take account of his servants and you've read it he he brought them in there was one who owed ten thousand talents and the one who owned ten thousand talents fell down on his knees and he said lord have patience with me and i will pay the all and the bible says that the lord was moved with compassion our god is moved with the compassion of asking for forgiveness scripture said and he loosed him and forgave the debt and that same servant got up and i can idealize it a bit and put my own spin on it but i'd say when he walked out he was feeling pretty good about himself but he is one who asked for forgiveness and didn't have the right motives he was wanting to escape the debt not get forgiveness i can imagine he went out strutting just a little bit man i am debt-free and there was a servant of his who owed him a mere pittance compared to his debt that was owed and again you know the story it was a fellow servant and he fell down at his feet and said have patience with me and i will pay the off and he would not but he went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt so when the fellow servants saw what was done they were very sorry and they came and told the lord what was done then the lord then his lord after that he had called him said to him oh thou wicked servant i forgave thee all that debt because thou desires me because you asked should not thou also have had compassion on my fellow servant even as i had pity on thee and his lord was wrought and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due him so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you if ye from your heart forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses we're still talking about there's nobody like our god you see we all expect there to be this list of rules and what's fair for ones fair for listen everything will not always be equal but god will make it fair you know what some of us deserve more forgiveness than others i've got a greater debt than some of you have i deserve nothing but i owe more but you see the god i serve says i'm going to be fair because i know the condition of your heart i know why you're asking matthew henry said of this passage the master's wonderful clemency is preeminent in this parable and then he said every sin that we commit is a debt owed to god for he prepaid everything when he died on calvary he prepared everything every sin we've committed is a debt unto god a debt that we cannot pay back but he lets us know his forgiveness is directly connected to the way we forgive our text even mentioned the special privileges of the heritage of his family first john 3 1 says this behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of god let me tell you when you're born again you're born into the family of god i quote johnny james quite often when i see this verse johnny james said if the church is not your mother then god's not your father i'm glad to be part of the church that god is my father and he loves me he does not retain his anger long we should be called the sons of god he loves me enough therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not beloved now are we the sons of god and it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as his how can i be like god if he's the god who delights in mercy and forgiveness i need to delight in mercy and forgiveness i want to be like daddy i want to look like daddy if i'm his son i've got to have a forgiving spirit see now i know some of you when you saw my title when i said there's nobody like jesus you thought i was going to talk about the miracles he does the signs and wonders oh listen the greatest thing he is is the merciful god that's the greatest miracle of all it it's not blind eyes being open it's not deaf ears being able to hear let me tell you his greatest miracle starts with his mercy he delights in mercy if i'm going to be like daddy i got to forgive like daddy you see jeremiah talked about it when you know the lord that we serve when you're familiar in the family of god iniquity just disappears jeremiah 50 and 20 said it this way in those days in that time saith the lord the iniquity of israel his people shall be sought for and there shall be none now you think of all the things that israel did it seemed like there for many generations every time god said don't do it that's what they did it seemed like everything he told them not to do while he was delivering them they would do just the opposite man he he got angry enough one time said i'm going to destroy the whole bunch moses starts oh don't do that god let me remind you you're the god of mercy he backed up he was the god that delights in mercy you see it went on to say and the sins of judah they shall not be found for i will pardon them who i reserve what does that mean that means he can pardon who he wants to well i just don't see how god can forgive that well tough noogies cry me a river it's not your job to figure out what god forgives and what he chooses to forgive that's not your business he's the god who delights in forgiveness he knows your heart he knows their heart he knows all men's hearts if he forgives say what glory i'm thankful for them i need that kind of forgiveness i want to have that kind of forgiveness that's the kind of god there's no god like that stand with me he said i will pardon them whom i reserve don't you like having reservations it's a good thing to have reservations ever showed up to a motel that was totally full they had that sign out said no vacancy and you walk in say reservations for mark mccool please i mean just saw him tell a guy i'm sorry we're full but man when when i got reservations that's a good feeling listen you've got reservations with the father for forgiveness he's already preserved it for you all you've got to do is ask ask malachi 3 16 said then they that fear the lord spake often one to another and the lord hearken heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the lord and that that thought upon his name and they shall be mine i belong to god said the lord of hosts in that day when i make up my jewels i will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him let me ask you is there anybody in this house today who does not need forgiveness let me say that again is there anybody in the house who does not need forgiveness if you do not need forgiveness for anything hey the surface is already over for you you get to leave first but the rest of us the rest of us who are flesh and blood the rest of us who so many times have come up short the rest of us who need forgiveness are here today to ask for forgiveness i'm here today saying oh god please forgive me forgive my flesh i'm calling on you lord i need your forgiveness godly sorrow worketh repentance brother mccool you seem to preach a lot about forgiveness why because i need it i need to be forgiven and you see too many folks don't understand this idea of repentance when we talk about the acts 2 38 message we and rightfully so preach about the excitement of taking on the name of jesus and water baptism the gift of the holy ghost evidenced with the initial evidence of speaking with tongues and those are extremely important and necessary vital steps of the plan of salvation but we seem to sometimes act like that repentance is not a supernatural act stay with me i'm not going out here in the ozone somewhere but one of the greatest acts of faith that there is is to go before a god that you haven't seen now you think about it somebody walks in this building they know nothing about god and we tell them you need to talk to god and repent of your sins a god they've never seen a god maybe they've never experienced and we're telling them you need to have faith you're talking about a supernatural situation to go before a god that maybe they've never seen and ever experienced and say god forgive me i'm sorry for my sinning but you see when your flesh can make that step when you can have that much faith that first step in the plan of salvation repentance and asking god to forgive you of your sins suddenly enact something you know what you're doing you're asking you're asking god forgive me god forgive me for my sin you know what happens god gets delighted there's another one oh i can't wait to give him some oh look how much mercy he needs look how much oh i can't wait to forgive him god delights it if you're in this house today and you need forgiveness and we all do we'll ask you to bow your heads just a moment brother carpenter mentioned brother whitley mentioned this earlier in the day brother carpenter mentioned and i think it's a great way to pray he said pray loud enough that you can hear yourself pray now let me pause with your heads bowed let me explain that i know that god knows your thoughts god knows the intents of your heart but there's something happens when you start asking and you ask loud enough that you can hear yourself because i've heard some folks i don't think god hears my prayers well lord if you can hear your own prayers you need to learn to open up and pray loud enough that you can hear yourself because number one i'll tell you god hears that prayer and number two the devil hears that prayer and the devil don't like prayer it makes him flee when people start crying out unto god saying god forgive me god i'm sorry the devil says i don't want to hear that i had them bound they couldn't even speak and you see god starts getting delight he says say it a little louder speak it out a little more because when you start letting your tongue go somebody hear me in this house i'm talking to you the devil's been binding you from opening your mouth you think all your prayers have been going through your thoughts open your mouth and talk to the lord because that's when the holy ghost then wants to come in and feel your tongue hallelujah hallelujah i want us to do this praise team i want you to start singing for me go ahead and get the song ready and let it go sing whatever you're going to sing and i want everybody in the house if you need forgiveness for anything i want you to pray loud enough that you can hear yourself pray no matter what anybody around you says or thinks pray for yourself today say god forgive me god i love you god i need forgiveness right where you are would you start praying i want to hear your voices jesus forgive me jesus forgive me god i need forgiveness lord i need you to cleanse me from unrighteousness come on come on don't you be afraid to let your voice be heard hallelujah in the name of jesus in the name of jesus now i'm going to ask you to step out believing come pray come believing the god of forgiveness is in this house he wants to forgive you the god of mercy come on step out church family make your way around this altar hallelujah [Music] [Applause] come on speak it out in jesus name talk to him right now talk to him right now [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yeah that's right that's right talk to jesus talk to jesus talk to jesus [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] um [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] who i am who [Music] [Applause] [Music] let me tell you one more thing [Music] before we go today [Music] if he is the god of forgiveness and delights in mercy and he is and he tells us to forgive like him some of us can forgive everybody else but we have never forgiven ourselves we think i've done too much i've made too many enemies i've hurt too many people and we won't forgive ourselves some of us need to pray a prayer of god you've forgiven me now god i want you to cleanse my mind and let me know that i'm forgiven i want to forgive myself i want to pray one more prayer and that's a prayer you've got permission to forgive yourself today forgive yourself for watching the way you do that you say i'm not going to do it anymore daddy i'm sorry i'm sorry remove this guilt you see that's when guilt starts going away when you can forgive yourself after jesus has forgiven you after you've asked one more prayer could we pray together god i asked you right now to go into my heart and into my mind lord i know that you have already forgiven me i prayed a prayer forgiveness name god i pray that you would buff at the enemy that would trouble my mind and tell me i'm not forgiven lord let me forgive myself today lord let me forgive myself lord i'm changing i've changed direction i'm following you i'm serving you and i'm not going back so savior let me be forgiven completely in you hallelujah now would you give him praise for his forgiveness give him praise for his forgiveness today hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah first apostolic church thank you for being a forgiving church a loving church let's be like christ don't forget we have service tonight prayer time at six evangelistic service 6 30 p.i.a service 4 o'clock going to have a great time of worship and praise this day greet everyone as your personal protocols permit you to thank you for being here you are dismissed in jesus name