Wednesday Night Bible Study

praise the lord everyone we greet you tonight in that wonderful matchless all-powerful magnificent magnanimous name of jesus what a joy it is to be in the house of the lord tonight we greet each one in that wonderful name of jesus we have enjoyed every service we've been able to be here i thank god for the online capabilities and i enjoyed it so very much this past weekend thank the lord and may i say too brother kennedy it's good to see you here good to see all the rest of you here tonight what a joy together together how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity and i invited you to be here tonight to help me celebrate mine and sister mccool 65th wedding anniversary and i remember distinctly two years ago let's see 63 64 that's two years ago i i felt especially inspired to write a song and have a sister dawn widener she was such a helpful person getting the roses together and put together 63 roses and sister widening one out i told her to pick me out of a beautiful vase and she did about that about that tall a beautiful vase and she put together 63 beautiful red roses but i said to put them together in uh dozens and nobody will know but it's just one big bouquet but uh actually it's several bouquets that make up 63 roses and at the i remember distinctly saying that i probably should wait until a special date like our 65th wedding anniversary and do what i'm doing tonight but i said 60 at two years i i may not be able to do that well a lot of things has changed in the last two years and sister mccool and i do not get to be together at church very much once in a great while but she of course is taking care of her brother and my brother brother mike cook she couldn't be here but honey if you're listening um i didn't compose a new song in fact i don't even have the roses here tonight but if you were here the little song i composed was 63 roses a problem it poses in trying to say i love you a rose for each ear that has brought us such cheer and made my life a heaven on earth their colors so brilliant but they lack resilience compared to my love tried and true roses are pretty but they're so temporary but my love is forever brand new young love was exciting with you there beside me facing the challenge of life second date we were on i said i love you do you love me too and i coaxed her into saying i love you too i said then honey will you be my wife god made you for me so sweet and refined that i held my breath and she softly whispered yes anytime i'm going to stop the song right there but two phrases she used first and the second date were memorable statements i'll never forget only she would be witty enough to make those statements and it helped blow me away the first night when i got her to her mother's house and father's house and she walked me to the car and uh i asked her when will you be back to the tent revival and she said i'll be there thursday night if i can get my boyfriend to bring me now can you imagine such a statement here i thought i was doing great well those were memorable words and magic words because my reply was well if you have to bring him just don't come we both kind of was feeling our way and seeing where we stood with each other and then the next date we were on we were sitting in her brother's driveway and i said girl i don't know why i use such romantic language girl i like you she said i like you too just about like that i said honey i love you it got deathly quiet and i said well can't you return that she said i love you too and when she said that i felt like i was on a roll i said honey i'm going to ask you something i have never asked another girl in my life will you marry me and i had no idea she might be going to say get lost i who do you think i am the second date but when i said will you marry me she said yes anytime and from there on it's been one glorious courtship and we've had a great and wonderful life together the song said young love was exciting with you there beside me facing the challenge of life i said i love you do you love me too well then honey will you be my wife god made you for me so sweet and refined i held my breath and you softly whispered yes anytime over 60 years later our love just grows greater and i'm thankful each day of my life that god thought enough of me to create you for me and give me the world's greatest wife our love so enduring continues to grow day by day flowers are pretty but so soon fade and die honey that's why i say flowers are pretty but so temporary but my love is forever brand new honey if the internet's letting you hear me i still say that tonight you are indeed the love of my life i love you more every day to see you take care of your 96 year old brother which says love and care to spoon feed him like feeding a an infant in a high chair and to see all that you do it's washing and washing and washing and cooking and i read something a lady said there's got to be more people that live in this house than what i know about with all the washing i do so she does so much and i appreciate her more than words can say and before i begin my message let me ask special prayer for her and for her sister we got word today that her sister is not doing well at all and they're having to make some very important decisions and please be praying for sister arjuli we love her dearly but now let's get into the message tonight's message is entitled rightly dividing the word now brother derek since i sent you my lesson i've added a subtitle from rightly dividing the word to rightly remembering the word rightly dividing the word and rightly remembering the word father we thank you tonight for the privilege of standing in this pulpit one more time we thank you for the good report that pastor anthony has given us about world missions and about all the good things of baptizing coming up we thank you for the liberal faithfulness of the people of god that's standing by the work of the lord bless each and every one of them and father this message i pray that you'll give me the words to say they're in my heart they're in my mind but give me the ability to speak the words that you would have spoken in this service in jesus name we pray amen thank you pastor anthony and as he's already told you uh pastor mark mccool pastor nate whitley third conference thank god we have talented men of god that's in demand and positions they are needed and they're being used and you and i will share them with others and god will bless us for so doing rightly dividing the word rightly remembering the word it's important that something so urgent and something so strategic as words that will take you to heaven you need to be able to understand them and to rightly divide them now that don't mean to divide them as to make them of less effective but the word of god is a great and complicated book but yet a great and simple book and i hear preachers all the time on the radio and tv who do not rightly divide the word of god and don't put the emphasis in the right place so it is important that we rightly divide the word of truth the focus thought to know jesus in his fullness we should be diligent in studying god's word i'll never forget that i've repeated so many times bishop j.t payne one of my dearest friends was going on to be with the lord he would ask the congregation if god wrote you a letter would you read it everybody yes yes said he has the bible are you reading it daily well when i was away traveling before sister mccool and i got married uh we would write each other we didn't have this internet stuff like we've got now and we use snail mail and i'd get a letter from her and i wouldn't just open it but i'd carefully raise the flap and i'd look under the flap sometimes under the the stamp itself and and many times there would be a little note that says s-w-a-k that means sealed with a kiss and that meant much to me i'd look for those little hidden notes and it meant much to me well the lord has given us a great letter of instruction and it's a a marriage manual it's a road map from earth to glory and we should be so interested in that that we read it we study it daily the word rightly dividing that word there's a lot of words there but we need to rightly divide them and we need to rightly remember them the focus thought to know jesus in his fullness we should be diligent in studying god's word i i have found that even to use your so-called smartphones and your ipad you have to do a lot of studying now because i don't know why they i figured out why they update them every so often because they're had they're putting more advertisements on it and so there you we updating it uh tonight between 12 and 4 o'clock they're going to update your phone and and the next day you open it up it's not like it was yesterday you got to learn how to use it all over again and your ipad the same way and your laptop the same way so you've got to keep on studying it'll come up with a new version and then what does this mean this mean this mean there's so many things on that that you've got to study well if you're going to use it you have to study it and you have to do what they tell you to do or you won't get any results well how important is it to us today the word of god never has to be updated but there are 66 books with words of life and we better study every word and every line because these are the words of eternal life the focus verse is second timothy chapter 2 verse 15 study study to show thyself approved unto god first of all god is not going to approve me if i don't study his word the first little spat that we had you've heard all about my love life but that that time i left and went off to arkansas and because i thought she didn't wouldn't meet me to have suffered with a bunch of working men she didn't look like she was chasing after me and i felt like she wasn't being obedient and i went to the tent and got out on my knee i really did got down on my knees at the altar and asked god to help me to forget her because she was disobedient and she wouldn't be a good preacher was i ever is it wonderful god looks over ignorance and aren't you glad god don't answer every prayer i i'm glad of that but uh when i got out of town i got to arkansas my heart felt like it weighed tons i was brokenhearted and i tried to call her and she back then you literally called and leave a message and they'd return your call and you called person to person and so forth she wouldn't return the call and so i found a little card he's on a little piece of wood cedar wood had a picture of a little donkey kicking up his heels and it the caption on and said why be difficult but the little effort you can be impossible well i thought that was cute and that would really uh suit her fancy and but i wrote on the bottom of that hot petite i'll bet you're a kiss you don't answer this i won the bed but these are some things that that i am remembering and for me to read and respond i wanted her to read the little card but i wanted her to take the light side and respond well eventually she did and we got back together and tonight makes 65 years the lesson text is found in ii timothy 2 14-19 of these things put them in remembrance remembrance of these things put in remembrance you know we remember so many things we remember the statistics of the baseball players and football players basketball players and we can the the great sports fans they can uh they can tell you all about this one that one how many touchdowns they've thrown and this that and the other and but that's but the word of god they they can't remember much of that because they don't dwell on it of these things put them in remembrance charging them before words to no prophet the charging them before the lord that they strive not about words to no prophet some folks use the word of god as a game or as something to argue over i've had poster quiz me not because they really wanted to know but wanted to have something that we could disagree on there you can use the bible to non-effect but of no prophet but to the subverting of the hearers study to show thyself approved unto god a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth but shun profane and vain babblings so they will increase into more ungodliness shunned profane and vain the word of god is too important to use as a joke or as a tool of argument study to show yourself approve words that are not vain and not babbling but they will increase into more ungodliness if you do that and their words will eat as doeth the canker of whom is harmonious and felidus he he cites two different characters that have used the word of god to non-effect throughout the bible you find those who were supposed to be of the faith but they really were not because they would use the scripture but they used it in the wrong way we're talking about rightly dividing the word of truth and you you need to be able and paul is writing to his son in the gospel to know how to lead a congregation to know how to be able to read the word and then properly explain the word you can you you can read the bible and not get the right meaning and you need to have a man of god in whom you have uh respect and and and and whom you have trust because that word he's going to be preaching to you it's going to take you to heaven or it's going to cause you to be lost that's why the bible says obey them but have the rule over you and cement yourselves unto them as they must give an account for your soul now listen to that that's a powerful scripture study to show yourself approved the work went under god no wonder obey them that have the rule over you and some folks refuse to outlive anybody to have rule over them but it said to obey them that have rule over you as they must give an answer for your soul it's a it's a established fact i'm going to answer before god what i preach or congregation i i you heard me tell the preacher i heard him on the radio was a well-known preacher he said i i don't preach what my folks believe and i don't expect them to believe what i preach and i thought man what a statement i don't preach what my pe my people believe and i don't expect them to believe what i do preach what you believe and i expect you to believe what i preach because i'm going to preach and study and show you the word of god and i'm going to rightly divide the word of truth and put the right emphasis in the right place i taught a bible lesson some time ago about things that are preference but they're not a commandment the paul writing to the corinthian church he said this right eye not the lord and then he said this i write by permission uh there are there are things that heard a preacher then the other day he preached he said now you have a right to dress like you want to dress and this particular time he was using beards as a he said uh they may have a rule against you uh wearing a beard where you work and you can tell the boss well now uh i'm an american citizen that's my right you can't tell see that's exactly right you do have that but he's the one that writes the checks too and so there's a great emphasis there in the choir there are certain requirements we have there's no bible that says you're going to go to hell to do this or do that on some things but there are certain traditions and certain rules that we have as a matter of fact the the very first choir manual we had uh uh jay lamb started to work for mcdonald's and he brought me one of their employees manuals and they sound like a pentecostal preacher's writing about the way they dress and where nate and so forth and so on and we literally used a whole lot of that in our first choir manual well what i'm talking about now there's some things you need to entrust your soul with a man of god that will tell you the truth and there may be some things that you may not want to do or like to but it's for the betterment of everybody and we need to give such respect and honor to the word of god and we need to have enough faith in the man of god that he is going to tell us the truth who concerning the truth have erred saying that the resurrection has passed already and overthrow the faith of some there are some folks it's amazing how quickly they can be overthrown from the apostolic doctrine nevertheless nevertheless the foundation of god standeth sure having this seal the lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that nameth the name of christ depart from iniquity the foundation is going to stand no matter what the false prophets say or do no matter about those that leave the faith no matter those that leave the tradition of apostolic of pentecost the foundation is going to stand true malachi 3 16-18 says then they that feared the lord spake often one to another and the lord heard us them now those that feared the lord spake often that talked about it to one another things that you love and you enjoy and that your delight you like to talk about it uh our family doctor uh he amazes me uh he loves to talk about cooking and he'll he'll start getting our blood pressure and doing this and that and he'll ask system cool do you know about this recipe well and i he has left the examining room and gone in the other and going by and brought back recipes he he's he's such an interesting person but he'll he'll talk about these these these things well the things that you love and you like you're going to talk about it next thing i know sister mccool and doctor of all things his name is john law and he's not a policeman he's a doctor but he is a great man a great friend but they talk about others will get around that if they're great football they'll talk all about that and basketball players uh there was a gentleman here the other day uh we met with him in in this in the uh conference room on business come to find out his uh his brother played basketball with steve hamer his his brother-in-law went on to harvard law school is he's now on the staff of governor lee and we just had that they just had some things in common to talk about now if you love the word and you love god and you like you you're going to get around to talking about it you're going to get around to talking about what god can do what god has done it said they that feared the lord spake often one to another and the lord heard us god is going to hear when you're talking he also hears who you're telling a filthy joke too he also tells when you're listening to a dirty joke he's listening and he heard it and a book of remembrance was written before them before him for them that feared the lord and they thought upon his name what i'm trying to say tonight is we need to focus our attention we need we need to think about things that that that are an inspiration my my was it was brother reed that talked about the uh 24-hour news stations and how depressing it was to listen nothing but bad news bad news shooting killing fighting and and one political party is or the others run the other down after a while you just get so depressed you want to hear some good news look at that old book it said the lord is my shepherd i shall not want oh let the redeemed of the lord say so read the book of philippians and rejoice to the lord and again i say rejoice there's so many good things in that book that if you'll read it now then they talked often not once in a great while but they talked often of the word and they shall be mine saith the lord of hosts in that day when i make up my jewels and i will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him oh praise god talk about good things what several things are good what's the things that lovely whatsoever things of good report if there be any virtue think on these things control your thinking you can let your mind think all the time i believe i'm coming down with this or i believe if i'm coming down with that or and just but put your mind on what god is doing and what god can do and don't let the devil keep your mind in the gutter or keep you in a depressed mood and a depressed attitude the bible told about one woman the bible says she had a spirit of infirmity i think sometimes folks may not have an infirmity but they may have the spirit of an infirmity they're always worried about things that never come to pass but they worry worry i'll tell you what to do standing on the promises standing just just sing a good gospel song that encourages your heart now sometimes you'll get so happy you'll want to cry here's what peter said in ii peter 1 12-15 it says 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 peter he wasn't exactly apologizing but more explaining but he said i will not be negligent i am not going to neglect to always put you in remembrance i've heard folks make such statements says here we go again acts 2 38 acts 2 38 we hear that oh one one dear sister tony at our conference we shouldn't be preaching doctrine if you don't preach doctrine at a conference where do you preach it you see we need peter said i will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though you know them and be established in the present truth yea i think it meat i think it important as long as i am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance listen you've heard me say it again and again and i'll say it again tonight as long as i am in this tabernacle i'm going to stir you up about acts 2 38. i'm going to stir you up about the godhead i'm going to stir you up about getting the holy ghost i'm going to stir you up about jesus being the healer i'm going to stir you up about wholeness i wrote an article about holiness what's wrong with homeless there's nothing wrong with homeless it's good it's great it's holiness is god's lowest standard he said knowing shortly i must put off this my tabernacle meaning his body even as the lord jesus christ has showed me moreover i will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance i hope over the last 73 years and the last 64 years being a pastor of this church affiliated with the church the leader that's your founder of this church that after i am gone you're going to still remember what i have preached through these years and i know you will because i've got somebody right did you hear him preach on they get in the holy ghost the other day did you have you heard pastor mccool pastor mark have you heard pastor whitley they're all three are deep in the word they're well educated and they're rooted and grounded in this apostolic faith moreover i will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance there's an old saying repetition repetition repetition repetition that means repeating a word or phrase in a sentence it can put emphasis a point of help to make sure it's fully understood and here's what the dictionary encyclopedia had to say about it here is a sentence a statement without repetition it's an example the soup was stirred until thickened but that same sentence with emphasis the soup was stirred and stirred until thickened it was stirred and stirred acts 2 38 you miss must be baptized i said paul said i i thought we've said this i'll associate i now again as i said before so say i now again if any man can preach in any other gospel unto you then that which we've preached let him be a curse the opening of charles dickens novel a tale of two cities used repetition to emphasize the contrast between positives and negatives it was the best of times it was the worst of times that was his uh catchy phrase that made you remember what he had said after staying up until 4 00 a.m to craft a speech he hoped would have the same impact as the gettysburg address dr martin luther king went off script for his most iconic words dr king almost didn't deliver what is now the most famous part of his speech dr king had used this phrase [Music] in another speech his advisors discouraged him from using the same theme again i have a dream and he had apparently drafted a version of the speech that didn't include it but as he spoke that day to over 200 000 people the gospel singer mahelia jackson prompted him to quote tell them about the dream martin abandon his prepared texts king improvised the rest of his speech with electrifying results in his most famous speech martin luther king repeats the phrase i have a dream eight times in succession leaving the script he used the term eight times in succession i have a dream had he not used that phrase we would probably have forgotten about his speech it would just been another speech but he emphasized this with our following remarks but ever you don't remember exactly of what he said after that or before that it was a very lengthy speech but everybody knows that speech it is considered one of 20 of the greatest speeches made in the last 100 years one of 20 that is the greatest in the last 100 years i have a dream it's what they always remember uh brother uh brother holland was in uh i saw him at a funeral in blue mountain mississippi and he told me he was driving from florida up to the northern states and he took the back roads instead of the interstate stopped a little country store to get gasoline and he said he went in and there was oh there's a crowd in that little country store service station they was all gathered around listening to the radio and he said they couldn't hardly get their attention to pay for his gasoline and finally he got the attention said and said um uh uh who are you listening to and they they kind of shushed him down and then the preacher on the radio started quoting the scripture and they all joined in with him then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the and the priest said who is that they said that's billy mccool and said he quotes that every time we listen to it so we were just sitting waiting for him to say it and he said it again every let me tell you something if i'm going to be repetitious if i'm going to say something to be remembered by i want it to be by acts 2 38 repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ father of mischief says and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost for the promises unto you and to your children and all that are far off even as many as the lord our gods are called remember it repeat it are you getting what i'm saying deuteronomy 6 6 through 9 and these words which i command thee this day shall be in thine heart not just in your ears but in your heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children and shall talk of them when thou sinners in thine house when thou walkers by the way when they'll last down and when they'll rise up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand and they shall be as frontless between the eyes and thou shall write them upon the post of your house and upon thy gates we we teach our children a lot of nonsense sometimes and we teach them a lot of statistics about sports and and all these other things and but listen we need to be teaching our children how to be saved the word of god he said tell them when they get up in the morning tell them whether they go to bed at night and they had a little thing that they tied around their their wrists or their hands that i say heroes israel the lord our god is one lord and they put it on the doorpost of their house i haven't got that far yet but i've seen a few vehicles around i believe it was brother uh roger miller used to have a good looking pickup truck and i think he had actually 38 all over their big it wasn't scribbled it was professionally painted acts 2 38 verse 7 and thou shalt teach them diligently to their children and shall talk of them when they sent us in thine house and when you walk by the way and when thou last down and when thou riseth up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be as frontless between the eyes and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates in the book of esther chapter 4 verse 5 then call esther and well one of the king's chamberlain's whom he had appointed to attend upon her and gave him a commandment to mordecai to know what it was and why it was i'm going to preach on that some of these days what it was and why it was you see uh haman had given an order to murder all jews if you kill a jew your reward would be his house or whatever he owned and they were slaughtering the jews and what haman didn't realize is that esther the queen was a jewish herself and when mordecai heard about all this he sent word into her and this is what they boiled down to and then called esther one of the king's chamberlains whom thou was appointed to attend upon her and gave him a commandment to mordechai to know what it was and why it was i wonder what's going on and what's going on and that statement right there brought the message to the king and let the king give a command that that haman would be the one that would be hung on the galaxy and it would be the enemies of the people of god that would be slaughtered and settled instead of the people of god psalm 66 16 come and hear all you that fear god and i will declare what he had done for my soul proverbs 13 20 he that walketh with the wise men shall be wise but a companion of foods shall be destroyed you hang around with people that talk about god talk about good things you're going to be talking about good things and and you're going to be wise if you walk with wise people but if you hang around with joke telling fools folks that make fun of god folks that don't believe the next thing you know you're going to be getting that same attitude he first wait a minute john 1 40 41 one of the two which heard john speak and fathered him was andrew simon peter's brother he first fought with his own brother simon and saith unto him we found the messiah which is being interpreted the christ you know what we need to be so wrapped up with i've got to tell somebody i've got a brother i got a sister got an uncle got a neighbor got somebody that i needed hey i found the christ i i found a church that preaches the message i found the friendliest church in town i found the best choir in town i've found a place you can go to and you leave that uplifted and feel tough come and go with me to the house of god one creature one character said cometh us and we'll do you good somebody say man and then i like this one ephesians 5 19 speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the lord singing making melody this old house i'm living in is needing repair the windows and the shutters and letting in the cold cold air i tell myself i need to fix them when i can get the time but all i'm getting lately is leaving on my mind oh hallelujah that gives me a a a longing for heaven i've got a longing we sing the song uh the lights of home we're singing a song if you speak to me and i don't seem to notice and you see a far away look in my eyes oh please don't be offended don't be i'm just thinking about heaven oh hallelujah i've got my eyes on the other side that's the first thessalonians 5 11 wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also you do there's a phone number ring and you you look at it oh no you look at that oh no and then there's other times it rings oh and you're tickled to see that that number come up and well uh wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another when we talk to one another we don't need to be talking about negative things and how bad things are and how bad this is how bad that is i want to tell you about heaven i want to tell you about jesus i want to tell you about that home we got waiting on us and we beseech you brethren to know them which labor among you and are over you in the lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake and be at peace among yourselves and then but exhort one another daily do you get the overall thought repetition repetition repetition just keep on telling it keep on singing it keep on telling about the goodness of the lord keep on telling it say what a joy it is and to exhort one another while it is called day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin would you stand to your feet with us please rightly dividing the word and remembering the word i'll tell you this it's there it's it's there if you'll if you read it apply it to your heart it's there father we thank you for the word of the lord we thank you for this congregation of people i pray lord you'll let the word of god sink deep into our hearts and may it take root and grow and may we remember the word may we continue to repeat it to our loved ones our children teach it to them bring them to church have them have memory verses memorizing the word of the lord committing these things to memory and to our souls i pray o god that this message will touch our hearts tonight dismiss us from this place but not from your presence in jesus name we pray amen