Sunday Morning Worship | Dr. Anthony McCool “Such Were Some of You!”

If you have your Bibles, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9- 11. And pastor, I give honor to Pastor Whitley and Pastor Mcool and Bishop Mcool this morning uh for the great teaching we've been hearing was down in Louisiana last Sunday and it's such a blessing. Uh we're an hour behind there. So we got to watch the service before our our morning service and the evening service and the live stream and all of our technical staff and everybody that goes into making. Now what a blessing that is to be in the far lands of uh Louisiana and still be able to tune in. And Pastor McCool preached from this verse a couple weeks ago and uh statement stood out and I want to touch on that statement just a a little bit here this morning. 1 Corinthians 6:9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idoltors, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners. This laundry list of sin shall inherit the kingdom of God. And I want to sit with this statement and we'll finish the verse. and such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. So, we have hope this morning. Thank God. But I want to preach from this topic. Such were some of you. Could we bow our heads and let's pray over God's word this morning. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to assemble together, to lift up your name, to worship together. Lord, your word tells us that iron sharpeneth iron. And Lord, we feel that sharpening as mentioned when we fellowship together, when we pray together, when we give together, when we worship together, when we study your word together, when we hear your word together, we know that you're going to give us a special blessing in the unity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen. Such were some of you. When we open the pages of scripture, we often read it like a great novel. And without realizing it, we instinctively cast ourselves as the protagonist. We place ourselves in the role of the courageous hero or the victorious champion, the faithful saint. Oh, when I read those stories, that's the character traits that certainly I possess. When we read about David and Goliath, we place ourselves in those times where I'm going to exude courage and bravery. walk into the valley in the shadow of an adversary that's a giant and everyone else is fearful but not me and I grab my stones and we sing songs about giants falling. We celebrate the victory. We identify with the triumph. When we read the Psalms, we find ourselves in David's worship. We quote his words. We sing his songs. We admire his devotion. But as I look over the playlist and even in the Christian music industry, there's very few songs about David's failures. you know, there's nothing about like chilling on the rooftop and seeing Beth Sheeba and then uh you know, ruining my calling there. There's no uh worship albums devoted to the chapters where David allowed his flesh to overcome his faith. There's no choirs singing the anthems celebrating the deception and you know conspiracy and treason and having a man killed you. You know the choirs not breaking parts with the altos and uh the sopranos and teners about you. No, there's no like breaking with uh Uriah will be killed and he won't know it. You know, we don't sing songs like that. >> We love the scenes where the hero wins. We often don't identify with the scenes when the hero fails. We see ourselves as the dreamer Joseph, but not often as the brothers consumed with envy. Oh, a few weeks ago on Pentecost Sunday, we talk about Peter, the the rock. Oh, and we see him preaching the fire on the day of Pentecost. But again, not often if we're wanting people to run the aisles do that we talk about Peter denying Christ around the fire. We see ourselves as the faithful disciples, but we would not want to characterize oursel as Thomas in his doubting. The reality is we often read scripture through the lens of triumph rather than truth. But one of the most beautiful realities of the Bible is that God never hides the failures of his people. Because the Bible is not primarily a story about human heroes. The Bible is a story about divine grace. And it's important for us to remember this in the context of our lives. And Paul does exactly this in first Corinthians 6 in his letter to the church of Corinth. He's like, "Let's take a reality check." Such were some of you. And after listing some of the darkest expressions of human sin, Paul says that astonishing statement, "And such were some of you." before, as pastor says, before you start uh brushing the angel dust off your shoulders, said it's probably dandruff. Anyway, such were some of you. Not merely what you did, not merely the mistakes you made, but who you were, who you are susceptible to being in different moments and seasons in your life if you don't keep yourself in check through God's word. The testimony of the church is not that we were always righteous. The testimony of the church is that I have been, we have been transformed, not from a position of posturing ourselves as uh some elitist uh group that has this specialized secret knowledge, but from a standpoint of humility that God looked down on us and gave us mercy and grace. And perhaps no Old Testament character illustrates this better than the story of Jacob and Esau. And you're familiar with the story. It begins with a desiring of the flesh with hunger. Esau returns from the field exhausted. His body is demanding satisfaction. His appetite is screaming for relief. And his brother Jacob is cooking pottage. And Esau says, "Feed me. I have to fulfill my flesh." And immediately Jacob recognizes an opportunity. What should have been a moment of compassion becomes a moment of negotiation. They're brothers. What should have been brotherhood, of course I'll give you something to eat, becomes leverage. What should have been kindness becomes exploitation. And the response in the negotiation is I will give you something to eat. I will fulfill the desire of your flesh if you'll sell me your birthright. And in a moment of weakness, Esau exchanges something eternal for something temporary, a birthright for a bowl of stew, a convenient exchange for a temporary outcome, a covenant inheritance, for a passing appetite. And we preach, I preach, we beat up on Esau and he should. And how many times though could we identify with Esau? How many times have we done the same thing? How many times have we sacrificed our purity for pleasure or sacrificed our testimony for acceptance? How many have sacrificed God's promise because their flesh demanded immediate satisfaction? all the things that have been traded in our lives over a moment of wanting to fulfill an appetite. Whether that be in the lust of the flesh or in our emotions or in our anger or in our pride, in our vain aspirations traded something. eternal for something just to appease us for a season. The flesh is always impatient. The flesh never wants to wait. The flesh always demands now. And we know whenever we allow hunger to become our guide, we risk making permanent decisions based on temporary desires. And some people will quit because they are emotionally hungry or they become compromised because they're spiritually hungry, not staying in the word, not staying fed in the word. And if we if we don't, this is why the Apostle Paul is saying, "Such were some of you." And we can fall back into that laundry list of sins if we don't keep a reality in oursel checked in God's spirit. and live our lives through the filter of the word of God. Esau's problem was not simply hunger. It was a response. His response was based not on God's calling for his life, not on the representation he was supposed to be for someone who had the covenantal promise of God. But his response was based on feeling. His response was based on emotion. His response was was based on the desire of the flesh. His problem was allowing the desire to become lord and master. Some people and this will resonate differently for each and every one of us. And that's why Paul, you know, lists everything. We can allow anger to steer the vehicle of our lives. pride as I mentioned earlier, lust, vain aspirations, and these things can drive us right out of what God has called us to do. Yet, this story is far more than about a bowl of stew. It's a the larger context is a family story and it's a messy one. Isaac the father favors Esau. Rebecca the mother favors Jacob. I don't know about you, but that's going to set up some dysfunction. I don't know about you, but around Christmas time or birthday, if my mom gives my sister $25 more than me, you know, I'm going to say something. Or, you know, you start counting the prices together like everybody's got to be everybody's got to be equal, right? Anybody else other families do that? Good. Callaway and Elellanar Eleanor is not in here. Callaway doesn't understand the the price of things yet. And if if Eleanor gets like five or six small toys and he gets one big toy, you know, even though they're the same price, the the numbers don't add up. And he's like, "How is that fair?" You know, and it's And then it's And then Yeah. And I Yeah. And before I had kids, I was like, "M, I'm never going to let my kids act like that. They're going to be grateful. They're going to be thankful. They're going to be humble." And now, you know what? I don't feel like hearing crying or maybe getting punched the rest of the day. I'm like, "Hey, here's five more things." Okay, so this is a dysfunctional family. Isaac favors Esau. Rebecca favors Jacob. One son is impulsive. The other is manipulative. Trust eroding. Division is growing. Competition is brewing. And the family is a family of dysfunction. The covenantial family. A family of dysfunction. And perhaps that's one reason scripture records it so honestly because God wants us to know that he works through imperfect people and he works through imperfect families. He works through imperfect relationships. He works through people who've made mistakes. He works through people. Such were some of you. Our relationships, if we're honest, can be messy. Our families can be messy. Our friendships can be messy. Our emotions can be messy. Our situations can be messy. Brother Derek, would you put that first slide on the screen for me? I want you to repeat after me. Or we'll say it. Let's read it together. Maybe be more appropriate. Say, "People are messy." We got the >> Yeah, just repeat after me. People get selfish. >> People get selfish. >> People make mistakes. >> People make mistakes. People lose control. >> People say things they shouldn't. >> People have lapses in judgment. >> People will disappoint others. >> And it is the story of every family, every p person touched by the reality of sin. people are missing and nowhere is that more evident than in this family and in the story of Jacob. And while often times we highlight the failure of Esau selling his birthright because it so closely identifies to us in our Christian walk about selling the inherited promise that God has for us to appease our flesh. But sometimes we can overlook old Jacob in the story. Jacob saw weakness and he exploited it. And Jacob saw vulnerability and he leveraged it just to get one up. He he saw an opportunity and he took advantage of it. And if we're honest, many of us, all of us have been there. not as Esau in the story, but as Jacob. We've wanted recognition. We've wanted promotion. We've wanted influence. We've wanted uh position. We've wanted the blessing. Or maybe those identifiers are a little too grandiose. Maybe more applicable is we've wanted the last word. We've wanted to prove no matter what that I'm right. Sometimes we've pursued those things with motives that if we're honest with ourselves are less than pure. We've manipulated situations. We've protected our image and distancing ourselves once we saw things beginning to go ary. Even though I might have had a hand in, you know, creating the crumble a little bit, we've justified our selfish ambition. We've done our fair share of messmaking in a situation. Oh, and then we posture ourself as the victim. How could they respond to me like that after I did thus and that? Poor me. How could Esau act like that after I tricked him out of his birthight, you know. And perhaps we've wanted God's promises without God's process. And I think this morning the God's word and the Holy Ghost would have us move from talking about people to transition even a little more with a little more accuracy to the point of oursel. Could you put that next slide up for me? All right, repeat after me. I am messy. >> I am messy. >> I get selfish. >> I get selfish. >> I make mistakes. >> I make mistakes. I lose control. >> Oh, I was worried that I was going to give this service back with everybody running around. Calm down. I want to finish. I say things I shouldn't. >> I have lapses in judgment. I will disappoint others. >> Man, go back to the people's lie. That one that one feels different when I say it. Oh yeah, preach. It's it's easy to and the people. Oh, the the world. Oh, yes. Sin and the Oh, the th those people they they they did me wrong. Th those people did that. They they people. Oh, but when that changes to I, man, that they say that people still say that hits a little different, don't it? Maybe they don't. Maybe they never said that. Teddy Roosevelt said, "If you had to kick the person responsible for most of your trouble, then you wouldn't be able to sit for a month." And that's why Paul's words are so powerful. After listing fornicators, adulterers, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, extortioners. Geez, Paul, calm down. He doesn't have nothing else to do in prison, I guess. He doesn't say, "Look at those people." He says, "And such were some of you." Don't Don't forget this story is not about you. It's about the God who's able to touch you, who's able to redeem you, who's able to transform you. The gospel begins where self-righteousness ends. The church is not filled with perfect people. The church is filled with redeemed people. People who can testify that, "Yeah, uh, we just made that confession. I was selfish. I was broken. I was sinful. I was rebellious. I was I was proud. But I was washed. And I am sanctified. And oh, heaven, help if I hold a grudge against someone else. I I'm the sinner. I I'm I'm the one that needs God's mercy. I'm the one that needs God's grace. It's my fault. >> Washed, sanctified, justified. Paul does not say, "Oh, they improved themselves." He He doesn't say they fixed themselves. He does not say, "Oh, they had a reinvention of their identity. God did what they could never do and you can't do it for yourself." The gospel is not about behavior modification. It is about divine transformation. And then we arrive at one of the most beautiful moments in scripture. Jacob leaves home now identified as the deceiver, the liar, the manipulator. Relationships broken. A dysfunctional family even in more dysfunction. Future uncertain. Conscious is troubled. And he arrives out in the middle of a lonely place on a dark night in the middle of nowhere. No temple, no choir, no altar, no sanctuary, just a rock. Just a rock for a pillow. Has anyone ever, maybe you haven't laid your head on a literal rock, but have you ever been tr so troubled by a situation that you may or may not had involvement in that you laid your head down and your pillow, if you would described what it felt like, it sure felt like a rock. Or you slept about as good as you would have if you would have laid your head on a rock. a dark night, a guilty heart. Yet, that is where God meets him. It wasn't when Jacob had everything together. It wasn't after. Because sometimes when we think of our Christian walk, we think, "God's going to really speak to me. God's going to really move. God's going to really begin to reconcile and resolve once I get everything together." That's called control on your behalf. God wants to meet you not after you think you've fixed the mistakes. He wants to meet you in the midst of the mistake. Not when Jacob has cleaned up his mess. But God comes when Jacob is running. And Jacob has a dream of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, symbolizing that even on his darkest night, even though he was in the loneliest of circumstances, even though he had no idea where he was, out in the middle of nowhere, that he serves a God who can bring a lifine down to heaven. and ascending and descending were angels letting him know that hey there's a point of communication right here to heaven no matter where you are and above it all stands the mighty God and Jacob awakens not at a synagogue not at a temple not in a place where sacred text was bread or where people gave offerings or where corporate gatherings of worship. He was at a place that no one had probably ever been. And because of the encounter he had, he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place." And I want you to know this morning, First Apostolic Church, whatever situation or circumstance that you might be dealing with, whatever messy situation or circumstances you found yourself in, probably you had no part in. And I'm sure. But I want you to know that you serve a God who's not waiting for you to think that you've got everything together or your family has everything together and then that's when he's going to move. He wants to meet you where you're at right now in this moment. The place was not holy because Jacob was holy. First Apostolic Church is not holy because we're holy. It's holy because he is holy. >> He said, "Surely the Lord is in this place and I I didn't even realize it." You're going to say, "I didn't even know God could work in a situation like this. I didn't know God could work in a family like this. How could God do a work in an absolute disaster, in an absolute catastrophe, in an absolute mess? But you serve a God who is able to meet you right in the middle of the darkest night that you have right in your loneliest place. He's able to have an encounter with you, right in the me midst of the mess of your conflict. And you're going to wake up in that moment and say, "Surely >> the Lord is in this place. Musicians and praise team come." >> The place was holy because God was there. The ground was ordinary. The pillow was a stone. The traveler was a deceiver schemer. The circumstances were a mess, but God. But God. Somebody say, "But God." >> But God. >> But God showed up. And somebody needs to hear this today. You may feel like your life is messy. Your family may be messy. Your relationships may be messy. Your past may be messy. Your decisions may be messy. But Bethl, where Jacob named that place that means surely the Lord is in this place, reminds us that God that you serve a God who specializes into stepping into the messy places. The same God who met Jacob and his failure can meet you in yours today. The same God who transformed Jacob into Israel can transform you and give you a new identity. a new identity that reminds you that your name is no longer just about yourself, but you're now a representation of God here on earth. And you have a responsibility and calling to manifest him through your spirit, through your words, through your conflict resolution, through the way you handle situations, through the way you speak in the midst of a mess. The same God who washed Corinth can wash you. The same God who sanctified them can sanctify you. The testimony of the church, our confession this morning is not look how good we are. It's look what God has done. We were selfish. We were broken. We are the were the proud. We were the sinners. But grace found us. We've got to remember this. Mercy pursued us. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. Shall pursue. Christ redeemed us. Pastor Whitley preached a few months ago. It says we often mistakenly say, "Oh, I found God." Or, "I I found him." And this you didn't find nothing. God found you. Pastor Willie highlighted this. God met you. God found you. God gave you. Our testimony is about what God did for us, not how I fix something. >> Stand with me. The enemy wants to define you by the worst chapter, but God writes better endings than the enemy can even predict. Jacob's story did not end with deception. It ended with transformation. The wilderness, the lonely night became the house of God. The stone became the meeting place. The stone became the meeting place for the encounter with a holy God. And let me say this as a an addendum, if you will. And I know you're standing. Sometimes when we hear a sermon like this, we can begin to examine ourselves. I wrote this on the bus last night. And that's good, okay? Because I feel like we need to I feel like this needs to be said. We begin to ask God to reveal our motives, our failures, and our shortcomings. And that's good. On the other side of self-examination, there is another danger though, and that is comparison. We begin looking around the room. We look at someone else's marriage, someone else's family, someone else's children, someone else's testimony, someone else's life, and they be enemy begins to paint. He's the artist of illusion. I wrote that around Paduka, Kentucky. That was that was pretty good. An illusion that everyone else has it together. An illusion that everyone else's story is cleaner than yours. An illusion that everyone else's family has escaped the pain you've experienced. An illusion that everyone else's life is the finished product while yours is still scattered in pieces. And because either you or your family or your children or your grandchildren, whatever those relationships may be, maybe they made mistakes and something happened and you carry a certain level of guilt about it. You begin to look around and before long, shame begins speaking and guilt begins whispering and regret begins accusing if if you would have done this, had you done this, if you would have only done this. And that's when we need to be reminded. Such were some of you. That's the case with every single person. Every single person is a mess. And suddenly the picture you had for your life or you dreamed of and imagined feels shattered. And the perfect ending you envisioned never happened. And the enemy wants you to believe that because the story didn't unfold the way you expected, no, God can no longer use it. I want you to know that's an absolute lie from the very deepest parts of the pits of hell. Because when Paul looked at the church in Corenth, he he didn't see perfect stories. He saw broken stories redeemed by grace. He saw people with scars, people with failures, people with regrets, people with chapters they wish they could rewrite. And he says, "Yeah, such were some of you, but I've been redeemed. I've been sanctified. I've been washed. God's not done working, but God God's not finished working. Yeah, that situation's a mess. That circumstance is a mess. My family is a mess. And if you think that everything's all good, you're probably the messy one." I close with this. The ground at the foot of the cross has always been level. Don't allow the enemy to steal through his lies what God wants to accomplish through your future. We often use the term, "Man, I found myself between a rock and a hard place." But I want to invite you to flip the script this morning. And if you found yourself between a rock and a hard place, you need to take that rock and you need to begin to build an altar out of it. And instead of that rock becoming a stumbling block in your life, let that rock be a stepping stone to know that when I remember that I serve a God who's chasing after me with mercy, who's chasing after me with grace, who's chasing after me with that crimson blood to wash my sins, that no matter what kind of messy situation I find myself in, right in the midst of that chaos, right in the midst of that mess, there's going to me a ladder that extends up to heaven where there's holy angels going up and down saying, "I hear your prayers. I hear your cries." And at the top of it all is a God who wants to do a work. Is a God who wants to move. Not after you think you've finished it. Not after you think you've put all the pieces back together, but right in the middle of the mess. A God who wants to wash, who wants to resolve, who wants to reconcile, who wants to work through you to step out of your comfort zone and go to your brother, go to your sister, go to your family member, go to that person who there's conflict with or a grudge and say, "I've been redeemed. I've been sanctified. I I I not people, not people, not people. I'm the mess. I made a mistake. I'm messy. But God's going to move. And God's going to do an even greater work in the midst of the mess. What a God. What a Yes, Jesus. Yes, Jesus. What a God. What a God. I feel your spirit. What a God. What a God. Would you cry out to him this morning? What a God. What a God. What a God. What a God. >> I thought I thought you showed up for reflection. those words. >> What kind of God looks for the Lord? >> They say, >> they say it's over for a s. >> You say it's great. >> You say, "No, it's not. No, it's not." You say, "No, it's not. No, it's not. >> Surely the Lord is in this place." God. >> Surely the Lord is in this situation. Surely the Lord is in this mess. >> God, >> I didn't even realize it. I didn't even know it. What a God. What a God. What a God. What a God. >> The highest place in the highest place I reach is your then I've done it all. If you want to elevate yourself, you need to get on your knees and say, "This is the highest. This is the highest place I can ever reach right here." And that's at the master's feet. This is the highest place that I can ever grasp. And that's at the feet of the one who's able to heart your heart. Yes. have it all. No treasure of this life could ever satisfy satisfy. God, you are my everything. >> In closing this morning, I want us to create wherever you're at one long prayer chain. And I know I hate when preachers do this, but I was talking about fellowship and I was talking about unity and all that stuff. And the questions asked in the word of God is Christ divided? And us as one as Pentecostals, we have a special point of emphasis about that. We're like, surely no. We were ready to fight somebody if they said that. But I do believe in my heart, and I have scriptural precedent over and over and over in every single chapter, that yeah, God can meet you when you're by yourself. We just preached a sermon about that. So this is a bit contradictory, but I do believe oh that there's a special blessing when everybody's unified, when everybody's on the same page, you know, uh symphonies and orchestras, they all have to get tuned to the same note before they all kind of split off and start doing the old thing that they're called to do. So, I wonder this morning if we could all just get on this same note and if we could create a unified prayer chain with nobody praying by themselves. If you'd put your arm around your brother, your arm around your sister. Lord, I better not be a hypocrite this morning. And why don't we pray a prayer of unity? Say, "Yeah, Lord, we're a mess. I'm a mess. Lord, I do I've done some things that I wish if I could go back and rewrite the story. My God, I wish I could. But God, I know that you're the author and finisher of my faith and that you're the one who writes the story. And I know that you're not finished writing out the conclusion just yet. I know the the best is yet to come. Oh, I I know I was all those things that Paul talked about. Oh, but God, such were some of you, but God, I'm sanctified. Oh, but God, I've been redeemed. But God, I've been washed. God, I pray a special blessing on every brother and sister this morning. Lord, you're not divided and neither are we. Lord, I'm unified by the name of Jesus Christ. If there's my heart against my brother and sister, sister, or if there's somebody that's not even here today, whatever the case, remove it. Lord, I repent of my wrongdoing this morning. Lord, I step out and acknowledge that I'm the messy one. Oh, but with humility, I say, "But God." And Lord, I go out this morning. God, you commission us to go out today and be the representatives you've called us to be, reconciling, resolving, creating peace, moving forward, building bridges, Lord, gathering more people into your kingdom for your glory. And I seal this prayer in the name that is above every other name. Would somebody say it with me? Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.