First Apostolic Church Event

praise the lord everyone we greet you tonight in that wonderful name of the lord jesus christ it's so good to see you in the house of the lord and let me uh add my word to that of pastor mccool let's uh remember especially sister brenda wilson who was injured in a she slipped and fell and and she's at ut hospital and we want to hold her up in in prayer tonight and and continue to pray till she's back completely well again um seeing the platform tonight uh and and disarray or honorary or no way reminds me of something that happened many years ago was 1956 the year sister mccool and i was married we held a revival in twin falls idaho and uh there was a family in the church of the stanton family they owned a large cattle ranch and many cattle and their children had a son and a daughter they rode the school bus and when that school bus drove up to their house and there was a barn and hundreds of cattle out there and the other children they love to make a big deal out of it and the stanton children didn't let it bother them they just said hey it smells like money to us and so when i look around at what's going on part of the roof ticking or the ceiling taken down and a and a horse up there it looks like progress to me yes sir give the lord a hand clap i want you to know that that i mean my element when i look at all of this i preached in barnes and preached behind the bell of hay in fact the first time i preached in this uh church right here i i it was a makeshift podium and and we priests had had church right here when there was no no pews and you remember that so i just thank god for the great progress that is uh is being made i'm going to call your attention to the book of matthew chapter 12 and verse 20. matthew chapter 12 and verse 20. a bruised reed shall he not break and smoking flax shall he not quench till he sinned for judgment unto victory and my topic tonight is going to be compassion without compromise compassion without compromise uh two or three scriptures came to my mind after i sat down on the platform tonight ii peter 1 12-15 wherefore i will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though you know them and be established in this present truth yea i think it meet as long as i'm in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that shortly i must put off this my tabernacle even as our lord jesus christ hath showed me moreover i will endeavor that ye may be able after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance and then ii peter 3 1 the 2nd epistle beloved i beloved i write unto you and both which i stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance jude 5 of course there's only one chapter in jude i will therefore put you in remembrance though you once knew this how that the lord having saved the people out of the land of egypt afterward destroyed them that believe not father we thank you for this service tonight we thank you for the blessed word of god i pray that you will anoint the lips of clay with the spirit of god give what you would have spoken for this service tonight i thank god for the great preaching we hear from this pulpit you hear some of the greatest preaching that you will hear anywhere in this this world and uh men of god that that are no that are anointed and have a burden for lost souls and every one of them that gets to this pulpit they amaze me and they bless me and i thank god for there's a matter of fact today brother bobby mccool my twin brother his daughter sheila called and he's having some oral surgeries get getting some teeth heaven he's like me we waited so long till they can't pull our teeth they have to cut them out there's nothing but stubs left and uh he's undergoing surgery and he's already had a stroke not recently but i think about three years ago or so and and they're concerned about having to take him off of the blood thinner during this time and she was wanting to know what all i'd i did to to take care of myself and and so forth and and um uh in in our talk um uh we got i said sheila let me when we we shared the different things that we we were doing to take care of ourselves with the the blood thinners and so forth but when brother spencer mccool uh back in 2009 he put a picture of bobby and myself he did a blog every morning and uh the picture bobby and myself we were uh 12 years old and only and in his blog he got over 600 respondents to that blog and different ones he sent that to me and i i i've entertained myself reading those reports and you've heard me tell about that's getting the ride in the back end of a of a farm truck and one lady wrote in said my father picked them up in a farm train the lady of course those things i recognized and um i i i enjoyed that the many people that we have had the the opportunity of ministering to through the years and being twin boy preachers uh we preached in some very large auditoriums we preached in dixie tabernacle in nashville tennessee that was where the grand grand opera originated many many many years before went to the ryman auditorium and we preached the large crowds conferences camp meetings and so forth and i and i'm not saying that to to be boastful but the novelty of the twin boys like your crowd but as i told her you know it's rather strange that at our juncture and our ministry and our age now brother bob's wife had a very serious stroke and she's on a walker and they have to care for her somewhat like a baby and sheila she helps in a great way and and then and in my case i have a brother-in-law that next month will be 97 you've heard all about that but as i told her the crowds that we've preached to through the years and the important events that we were privileged as a matter of fact i got to stand on that there's a big square a big ground circle that entertainers stand in it and the grand ole opry house in nashville and i was scheduled to preach the youth conference and they overbooked and they traded them the grand ole opera house for the uh auditorium that they had rented to us and so i stood right there and i preached probably the only preacher that's ever preached on that circle in the history of the grand ole opry but saying all that i'm saying this i told sheila that the ministry we had it may well be right now the ministry that is rather unusual that both of us are caring for people that can't one a a congregation of one person and he can't my my my brother-in-law he can't take care of himself my sister-in-law cool sits by his side of the table and feeds him uh like a baby in a high chair but did you know what a god just touched me said you may be doing a greater ministry right now as at 85 than you've ever done in your life and i don't say that to muster any sympathy i said in thanks to god because every time i get down and wash his feet and wash his hands and clip his nails and and take care of him i he said in as much as you've done it to the least of these you've done it unto me don't forget your mom and dad don't forget your grandparents don't forget those that can't care for themselves and so so having said that trying to tie this all together to understand you may hear some things that you've heard before because the things i have read the writers in the bible said i'll put you in remembrance uh paul said as i said before so say i now again if any man can preach in any other gospel then that's which we've already preached letting me accurse he said so and he repeated himself and said so say i now again barbara bowen and her husband traveled extensively in the holy land and she wrote a book entitled strange scriptures that perplex the western mind and uh traveling over there she and her husband spent a lot of time studying the oriental customs and in light of that she wrote a book entitled strange scriptures that perplexed the western mind and this is one of those scriptures that i read to you tonight a bruised reed shall he not break and smoking flack shall they not quench and i've got a copy of that that uh page the shepherd spends much time along with the sheep and desert solitudes and his reed pipe a frail little instrument of two reeds bound together hollowed out and with holes on the sides helps to pass the hours cheerfully he learns to play many little tunes on it it's very easily broken and if it falls and is crushed by a careless foot its music is stilled it is of almost no value a new one could easily be made and the bruised pipe left by the wayside to rot but the shepherd appears to have a sentimental feeling for it he'll not let it go not at all he picks up the crushed reed and so tenderly repairs it sometimes with strings taken from his own garment he binds it up the broken parts until once more he draws from it the music he dearly loves a bruised reed shall he not break what a picture of the sinner bruised and broken by sin of no apparent value lying by the wayside and then god's love and concern and his desire to restore the broken life the smoking flax shall not be quenched shall not be quenched here is the scripture we see a little clay lamp with its wick floating in an hour's supply of olive oil the oil has burned out the wick smokes we would probably say throw it out get a fresh week this one smokes and it is of no value but the owner does not agree to that the old will do all that is needed is oil then the wick will burn as brightly as ever this is just what god does with his grace he restores the smoking flex and refuses to quench it and throw it out so having said that let me say that if years has done anything for me it has caused me to have a greater appreciation for restoration than ever before as a matter of fact i along with brother uh uh eddie bernard and we love to go to see the uh the restored automobiles uh in fact the other day they had a show here at on clinton highway and there was one automobile there it looked like a very very very ordinary automobile it's a ford automobile and um it had not been tampered with that wasn't cut down and made into something else but he said that was the most expensive car there he was offered a hundred thousand dollars for it because it was in its original shape and had not been butchered up and my thought tonight we don't have to compromise but we do need to have compassion that that little reed that makes a a musical instrument it's a very little value they make it themselves and they they blow on it they're out in the the desert country or wherever alone and they they they play it until it becomes a part of them and it after a while it may accidentally get bruised and you could very easily break and throw it away just make you another one but he's become attached to that and he very meticulously and carefully works with it until it starts working again i'm going to tell you something that's the way god is by us a lot of folks might throw us away a lot of folks might would like to just get but i want to tell you something god still loves you and god is tenderly binding up the broken hearts he's tenderly healing the bruise and this is what i want to get to us tonight it is not compromise to reach out the bible said that the goodness of god leads men to repentance and we need to keep in mind our goal our goal is so jeremiah 18 1 the word which came to jeremiah from the lord saying arise and go down to the potter's house and there i will cause thee to hear my words then i went down to the potter's house and behold he wrought a work on the wheels and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter so he made it again to another vessel as seemed good to the potter to make it and he made it into another vessel keep that in mind we we preachers i'm speaking to myself now we preachers would do well to go down to the common place of commerce or daily labor and learn to speak the language of the average person it's not yea and be whole and thus and and sound very monotone and sound like you are a preacher you know i'm go no we need to learn to speak the language of the common man and and uh the one writer in the book said i set where they sit and when we can set where they sit when we can see what somebody else is going through and see what god can and will do the lesson learned was that the potter was in charge and could do as he wished with the clay on the wheel well he had a supply of clay somewhere and he could just throw that aside there must have been a rock or some hard pla something that caused or it might have just simply been his his lack of skill but when it was not turning out to be what he wanted it to be he put it out of shape and then he began to pound it together and then he made it into another vessel now i read my scriptures tonight talking about repeating myself putting you in remembrance through you already i said i read those scriptures i know you heard me preach this before but to keep you in remembrance peter said as long as i'm in this tabernacle i'm going to stir you up by way of remaining remembrance so i want to keep us in in remembrance of what god has taught me through the years the potter had a vessel in mind before he started something marred the clay and caused the potter to change the plan into another vessel now my topic is compassion without compromise now he made it into another it wasn't what he originally wanted i'm not sure that many of us are what god really originally wanted in us but patiently he's put us back on the wheel and he's pounding out the clay picking out the foreign matter and starting over and see if i can't make a a vessel that i want to look at that i appreciate and what i really want i'm not sure that any of us or many of us are what god originally wanted in us but thank god he's willing to take what we're able to yield to and what we become after he puts us back on the wheel in jonah chapter 3 of the word of the lord came unto jonah the second time saying arise go to nineveh that great city and preach unto it the preaching that i bid thee it would be sad indeed if god only spoke to us one time would that be bad how many of us obeys god the first time god sometimes have to repeat that call some of us whether you came by the highway of a holiness or by way of the pigsty the hog pin god's got a purpose in your life and and he loves you like you are give him a handclap you see god has a way of pounding out a plan for your life now i hope you'll get my my my reasoning the it's to be in the vernacular i hope you get my drift it may be by way of the holy house like that of samuel and eli but it may be by the way of a storm like that of jonah or it may take the stink of the hog pen as that of the prodigal son job said behold god exalteth by his power who teaches like him who teaches like god first let me say if you ever want to do something for god there are qualifications and requirements david israel's most prominent king was god's choice to build him a house however david's life left god pounding out an alternative plan david did not get offended and backslide he accepted the fact that god was passing over him and giving the task to solomon david dedicated himself to prepare in abundance material for the building of the temple now if you're going to do something something for god there are some things that you can disqualify yourself from doing the bible said he that committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding he destroys his own soul a wound and a reproach shall he get and his uh the words escapes me but it would be the same as a as a scandal will not be wiped away there are some things you need to watch and be careful but i'll say this if you can't do one thing for god it's not compromise for the church to hammer out an area that you can work in and don't set your sights on i've got to be this or that but the man of god and the people of god will be praying for you that god and be willing to as david god said you can't build me a house you've been a man of blood but i'm going to let you prepare material for the house of god now jonah the bible said the word of the lord came to jonah the second time and you know the story and i'm not going to the long detail of that but in the long run when he when he repented god delivered him from the fish's belly and he preached the city repented the the king repented they put the the cattle in sackcloth and ashes the cattle they didn't feed the cattle they went on a fast and god gave nineveh a second chance did not destroy them at that time but jonah climbed a hill overlooking the city and waited for the fireworks to start and there was a gourd vine that shaded his head and kept him cool and he got mad at god and said god i knew this is what you were going to do you're a god of mercy you let me preach judgment now then you're going to let them get by the goodness of god leads men to repentance and if i'm not careful um in my in my effort to be powerful and emphatic i may go over the line and i might need to throw out the line of love and compassion without compromising and see what it does uh now god spared the city but he let a a worm come underground and cut the gourd vine and two underneath the ground and the gordon wilted right then and jonah passed out from uh either a heat stroke or something embedded up he pat and when he came to god said now jonah you you wanted me to destroy that city of out there was a hundred thousand two hundred a huge city but yet you wanted me to spare the gourd vine if we'll just take a look around us i've heard preachers say that you know i'm going to pray the judgments of god god don't do things i can't pray the judgment down on anybody god's he said vengeance is mine i'll remember god don't even allow me vengeance go ahead and give the lord a hand clap [Applause] if if you want me to spare the gourd then what about this great city here now let me give you another example numbers 20 verses starting at verse 7 and the lord spake unto moses saying take the rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and aaron thy brother and speak ye unto the rock before the eyes before their eyes and it shall give forth his water and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock so that thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink now let's look at that again i want you to listen to this tenderness the lord spake unto moses saying take that rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and aaron thy brother and speak to the rock for before their eyes speak speak speak to the rock rock we need water rock give us some water and it shall be given forth his water and thou shall bring forth to them water out of the rock so that thou shall give the congregation and their beast drink and moses took the rod from before the lord and as he commanded him and moses and aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and he said unto them now what's this now watch this he's getting anointed now he he he's getting anointed a preacher friend of mine you heard me say this before but anyway you like as peter said as i said before i say again he said you get me half mad and half anointed and so i can really preach and some of us don't know the difference between anger and anointing there is a difference you know now i'm not preaching against preaching powerful and straight you know that that needs to be but now i get to get the picture god said take that rod and get the people together all right come on i got something to tell you he used that rod to get the people together and then he said speak to the rock and i'm going to give them water for themselves and their beasts and moses lifted up his hands with his rod and he smoked the rock twice bang bang and water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beast also man when he knew god was behind him he i get a mental picture that don't necessarily mean that it's true in that way but i think he was angry call them a bunch of rebels and he said god am i always going to carry these people to my bosom a bunch of rebels but now then when god told him to speak to the rock now he did smite the rock when god told him to but this particular time god said speak to the rock and and he called him together and he smote the rock twice and water came the lord spoke to moses and aaron because they believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of israel therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which i've given them you need to watch your temper some may not know the difference in anger and anointing now let me deal with the biggest and most infamous downfall for preachers here is the scripture but whoso committeth adultery with a woman liketh understanding he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul a wound and a dishonor he shall get and the word i was looking for and his reproach shall not be wiped away it's a sad thing when you sacrifice your your qualification on personal gratification i want you to notice what moses sacrificed sacrificed by letting his temper he was the mucus of all men the bible said that makes man on earth but yet this one time he allowed his personal views to get in the way or his personal feelings and his personal uh passion get in the way and it cost him the liberty of leading the people into the promised land god left that to joshua ii samuel 13 the bible said and amnon had a friend the story of amnon david's oldest son and the wrathful heir to the throne went from a prince to a fool in one act and signed his own death warrant when his sister whom he his half-sister whom he was desiring and and lusting for and he he the bible said he had a friend he had a first cousin he said well you don't if you want her you can have her you're the king son said tell her you're sick bring come in and need some bread and mix and when she comes into your bedroom then you go ahead and force her and when he started to do that she said and whether shall i cause my shame to go that's what his sister said and as for thee thou shalt be as one of the fools of israel now think of the consequence think of what what what you can do with your life i don't have all the young folks but but by a careless one but we older folks sometimes we call it uh a climbing fools hill and we old folks is coming fools mountain old folks can commit sin same as young folks old folks can fail god as well as young folks and and you can wreck all you've done by one bad mistake now are you going to go to hell that depends on whether or not you're willing to repent but no matter what a person may have done if you're willing to humble yourself and repent before god god will bind up the reed and make it make music again he will put oil in the vessel and the wick will burn brightly again well when uh that that that that friend of of of uh david's son told him what to do and he took his advice but then his other brother said i'm going to kill him and two years later he had a party had it and his brothers got together and he gave commandments to his servants when he gets good and drunk follow him and kill him and when they did they scattered from the party and the word went out that every one of david's sons were dead now whatever happens the devil is going to make it look worse than what it really is one got one died and and and here's here's what happened all of david's sons are dead they said no but no matter how large or small the sin the devil will make it bigger than it is notice the same friend the first cousin jonadab said who counseled amnon into his evil act was the one who succinctly described his downfall and his death in second samuel 13 32 amnon only is dead for by the appointment of absent this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister tamar let me tell you something don't listen to that friend that wants to lead you into mischief you listen to the person that wants to lead you to the house of god and teach you the right way psalms 85 and 10 mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace are kissed adam clark had a most remarkable comment on this verse mercy and truth are on one side truth and righteousness on the other truth requires righteousness mercy calls for peace they meet together on the way one going to make inquisition for seeing the other to plead for reconciliation having met their differences on certain considerations not here particularly mentioned are adjusted and their mutual claims are blended together and one common interest on which peace and righteousness immediately embrace thus righteousness is given to truth and peace is given to mercy give the lord a handclap that god for his mercy [Applause] would you stand your feet with me right now let me i'm not totally finished but it'll give you a change of posture and i'm not going to go that much that much longer um when when absent went away after the murder of his brother david longed for him every day every day he he was willing to forgive his son for killing his brother and finally uh otherwise uh joab sent to tacon and fed sense of wise woman and told her to dress up like a woman in the morning and and when david comes by and asks you what said you you tell him this story that you had a son had two sons and they had got into it in the field and one of them said there was no one there to separate them and one of them slew the other and now then the rest of the family wants you to have him put to death and see what david says and so she did that and and david said uh lady this will never never happen so i'll i'll see that now the hair falls from his head and she said what you're saying is faulty because you're the man right now now here's what she said for we must needs die and are as water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again neither doeth god respect any person and listen to this yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him god devises means whereby his banished be not expelled you've heard me give this illustration before forgive me for continuing to repeat that but i've gone through the down the hall of the school through the years there may be a child sitting in the hallway in a chair by himself and i don't ask i know there's something that child has done something that the teachers put that child out in the hall she or he is trying to come up with something she don't want to expel that child from school she don't want to have to call the parents say come and get john issues whatever because but she's devised a means whereby banished from the classroom can learn a lesson that they won't have to be expelled god allows some things to happen to us that we may be expelled from the classroom but god has got reasons to save us i'm going to close with the story brother paul cook and i shared with me just this very day a seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in gattenburg tennessee one morning they were eating breakfast at a little restaurant hoping to enjoy a quiet family meal while they were waiting for their food they noticed a distinguished looking white-haired man moving from table to table visiting with guests the professor leaned over and whispered to his wife i hope he doesn't come over here but sure enough the man did come over to their table where you folks from he asked in a friendly voice oklahoma they answered great to have you here in tennessee the stranger said what do you do for a living i teach at a seminary he replied oh so you teach preachers how to preach do you well i've got a really good story for you and with that the gentleman pulled up a chair sat down at the table with the couple the professor groaned and thought to himself great just what i need another preacher story the man's star started see that mountain over there pointing out the restaurant window not far from the base of the mountain there was a boy born to an unwed mother he had a hard time growing up because every place he went he always was asked the same question hey boy who's your daddy whether he was at school in the grocery store drug store people would ask the same question who's your daddy he would hide at recess and lunchtime from the other students he would avoid going into stores because that question hurt him so bad when he was about 12 years old a new preacher came to his church he would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question who's your daddy but one day the new preacher said the benediction so fast that he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd just about the time he got to the back door the new preacher not knowing anything about him put his hand on his shoulder and ask him son who's your daddy the old church the whole church got deathly quiet he could feel every eye in the church looking at him now everyone would finally know the answer to the question who's your daddy the new preacher though sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the holy spirit could give said the following to the scared little boy wait a minute i know who you are i see the family resemblance you're a child of god with that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said boy you've got a great inheritance go and claim it with that the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person he was never the same again whenever anybody asks him who's your daddy he just tells him i'm a child of god the distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said isn't that a great story the professor responded that it really was a great story as the man turned to leave he said you know if that new preacher hadn't told me that that told me that i was one of god's children i probably never would have amounted to anything and he walked away the seminar professor and his wife were stunned he called the waitress over and asked her do you know who that man was the one who just left they were sitting at our table the waitress grinned and said of course everybody knows him that's ben hooper he's the governor of tennessee you are a child of god no matter who your daddy naturally is you're a child of god no matter what may be in your past i'm talking about compassion without compromise every one of us needs to say thank god i'm a child of god my sins have been washed away i have been washed in the blood of the lamb pastor we lift our hands and our hearts unto jesus and thank him for word right now lord we thank you for your word lord i thank you for compassion without compromise i thank you for the power of your word this night now savior i pray it would go forward and lord be planted deep into our hearts god let us have the love and compassion that we must have to do a great work in your kingdom in the name of jesus we do pray amen and amen