From the Upper Room to the Living Room | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter

if you have your bibles in just for a few moments you would turn with me to the book of proverbs chapter 31 verse number 1 through 3 and then keep proverbs 31 open we will spend the majority of the message in proverbs 31 this morning proverbs 31 and verse proverbs 31 and verse number 1. begins by saying the words of king lemuel lemieux l the prophecy that his mother taught him what my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows give not thy strength unto women nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings today is the first session session in a family-oriented series from the upper room to the living room we don't live here at the church house we live at our house and so our motive and goal is to take our homes back and to create in our homes a place where god's spirit dominates in our homes would you join me in prayer father i love you this morning i thank you god for everything that has been said and done lord there is an anointing of your presence here today and lord you have drawn people here and people have said yes to an invitation that really didn't know why they said yes and really didn't don't know why they showed up at church today but god you have designed this to be able to meet with them here because you still love them you still care for them you still have a plan for them and you want them to know that in jesus mighty name i pray amen and amen you may be seated in the name of the lord it's an interesting verse here lemuel there's not one king in israel that's named by this you can do great research on lemuel and you will not find a king in israel or judah or even among the canaanites that are given that are given this name the name alone means lemuel means one who belongs to god one who belongs to god as you begin to study out this entire chapter it soon comes into light that the writings here are from david's wife bathsheba and bathsheba is writing to her son solomon well you say why don't just name solomon why not just say his name reason being was that solomon was going down a wrong path in his life he was beginning to indulge in wine he was beginning to indulge in other religions as a matter of fact first kings chapter 11 and verse number three states that solomon had 700 wives princess and 300 concubines and no wonder the latter part of that verse says and his wives turned away his heart he had made to be politically correct he had made alliances with the canaanite countries around by marrying a king's daughter it's one sure way not to have war pronounced against you is if you had married one of the idol canaanite king's daughters but in what he felt like was a good political maneuver soon turned out to be an entrapment because these heathen wives wanted to worship their heathen gods of which solomon obliged and would build them temples until one historian said that the hilltop surrounding jerusalem was sprinkled with temples to idol gods it is believed that when bathsheba wrote to solomon that she didn't call him solomon she wanted to call him and remind him of who he belonged to that he belonged to the lord he was god's he was god's property one jewish legend identifies lemuel as solomon and the advice as from besheba from a time when bathsheba missed solomon at the morning sacrifices of jehovah bathsheba looked around one morning at the morning sacrifices to god and the legend says she could not find her son solomon of which she began to search and she found him in an idle temple with an idol wife using witchcraft to summons their god this soul disturbed bathsheba that she had to write to solomon a letter and in the letter she does not refer to him as solomon my son but lemuel she reminds him you belong to god i want to pause for a moment and scan the audience with my eyes and tell some solomons that are here that have headed down the wrong path you don't belong to this world and you don't belong to the god of this world you belong to jesus christ today you are god's property she gives him a long list of things he needs to stay away from she reminds him that he came from her womb she reminds him that she made vows over him she goes into such areas of women and wine and loose living and then she comes to verse 10 and she's literally saying solomon if you want to find a woman find a woman like this who can find a virtuous woman you see today we live in a world where there's a lot of vulgar women but we don't want our sons to find vulgar women we want our sons to find virtuous women and so a good mother a good mother i believe my wife if i'm not saying it the way if it's not coming out the way that you you used to say to our kids uh i will not tell you who to marry or who to date but i will tell you who not today am i right first lady amen all right that's right i won't tell you who today but i'll tell you who not today because that's a good mother she said solomon i i want to tell you who you should be looking for who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies you see the real beauty of a mother isn't on the surface but underneath in the heart the care and the love of a mother is like none that you will ever experience in all of your life hear me today there's no one that will ever love you like your mother loves you but we live in a world that looks for beauty on the surface not all beauty can be found on the surface she said he said to her to to solomon he said you need to look for a virtuous woman son and said let me tell you you don't find rubies on top of the ground you find them underneath the surface she goes on she goes on and um she's trying to to tell him to stop looking at the surface of life stop looking at things the surface the surface of things robs us of our faith and when we look on the surface we're many times misled by what we can see on the surface the psalmist later i'll come back to 31 in a moment but in chapter 23 of proverbs it's very interesting in verse 31 through 32 talking about not judging things by the surface not making decisions based on the surface it says in verse 31 look not thou upon the wine when it is red in other words don't look up on the wine in the glass when it's red when it gives giveth its color his color in the cup when it moveth itself a right says when you see that glass of wine and it it it's appealing to your sight and and it moves just right in the cup verse 32 at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder in other words the psalmist is trying to say don't make your life decisions based on what you see on the surface don't make life decisions solomon you need to find you a mother you need to find you a wife but can i tell you something solomon what you need to find you won't find by looking on the surface of the woman going back to proverbs chapter 31 now verse 11 the heart of her husband does safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil i'm going to stop here and tell you early in this this message that i'm going to branch out in two ways because i'm here today to honor our mothers but i'm also here today to honor the mother church the mother church can i tell you the church that is filled with the holy ghost you'll never find another people like the church that's filled with the spirit of god a church that is still with the presence of god there's not another like it your first visit you'll try to go other places and you'll make the you'll make the comparison well it's almost like it but there's just something just something missing because let me tell you just like you'll never be loved like the love of your mother once you get in a church that's filled with the holy ghost and fire there's not another one like her there's not another one that can engulf you and love you and bless you like a church that is filled with the spirit of god her husband does separately tr safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life she seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands now watch the avenue that she goes down because all of these women that solomon had married all 1000 wouldn't have hated to pay alimony on 999. all these women that solomon married were saying give me give me give me all these women were a heavy taxation on solomon but bathsheba says the one you need to look for she seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands she is like the merchant ship she bringeth her food from afar she arrives if while it is yet night and give it meat to her household and apportioned to her maidens can i tell you something all mothers are women but all women are not mothers all mothers are women but all women are not mothers because a real mother is not looking for what can come her way but a real mother is looking out as as only she can for how can i better my children how can i better this house how can i treasure my home and not trouble my home since she riseth up verse 15. she riseth also while it's night giveth meat to her household she's strengthening them in a portion to her maidens she considereth a field and buyeth it and with the fruit of her hand she planted a vineyard i don't know why this morning when i read this passage of scripture she consider it the field and buy of it she considereth the field and biafit and with the fruit of her hands what would be the fruit of a woman's hands her children in other words she considers buying into something and then later on she buys this field she buys this field but later on her descendants her children plant a vineyard in that field they turn it from a field to a vineyard but first the wife or the mother bought the field so thankful for every mother that's here today that bought into the plan of salvation when you were a young teenage girl you bought into a relationship with god or you were a young mother or maybe was 10 years ago or 10 days ago you bought into the church can i tell you you may have bought into a field but eventually what what comes out of your womb is going to work in the field and turn the field from a field into a fruitful vineyard i don't know why when i read this verse today in prep in preparing for this lesson that my mind went to kenny and sherry johnson i don't know if brother kenny is here this morning he may be here but if they're here with kenny and sherry johnson stand would you stand right now kenny and sherry johnson would you stand kenny's not here he's at work he's at work sister sherry just stuck stand right there just just for a second just just for a sec this is the principle of apostolic christian academy here our school and she does a tremendous job just stand just stand years ago her and her husband moved down here from michigan as a matter of fact his job didn't bring him here his job was right outside of nashville am i correct right outside of nashville but they came and they bought into the field of maryville but now let me let me tell you something sometimes you might drive by and look at this building or this choir or this church and say well who wouldn't buy into that who wouldn't move their family who wouldn't buy into that but can i tell you what the church can i show you what the church looked like when kenny and sherry came and they bought in they they they bought into the mcginley street church and we we've got some pictures to show you uh and and on on the screen and i'll try to filibuster our head do we have those pictures can you give me thumbs up or thumbs down on the pictures do we have them that's what they bought into that's what that's what they bought into they didn't they didn't come to a 80 000 square foot build they come to a couple thousand square foot building on the corner of monroe and and mcginley street over in alcoa and kenny said this is where we need to go to church you have the maybe an inside picture too this is where this is where we need to go this is where we need to go to church man look at that guy with that black hair and that's our former pastor off off my shoulder there this is where we need oh that was the choir right there you see who couldn't buy into this up here but the real price was when you buy in oh it's a small work and and that's sister carpenter she's leading she is leading the choir there he said although i may have to drive 160 or 70 miles to work sherry will buy in the first apostolic church we'll go there to raise our family that at that time were just little small a little small what jamie was jamie born then jamie and brandon and they bought they bought they bought in they they bought into this field now i want to ask today the family that's here this morning and many of them may be in sunday school but the family that's here this morning sons or daughters or grand grandchildren to sherry and kenny johnson would you stand right now would you stand would you stand over here in this corner right over here that's a son and daughter-in-law over here over here way back way way back way back in the back can i tell you something you know what all of these folks have in common right here kenny and sherry bought a field years ago but now their descendants their sons and their daughters are youth workers they're christian school teachers they're helping out in the kingdom of god can i tell you something we've got a great heritage going on here there's a great mother that's in this place she uh she considered the field verse 17 she girdeth her loins with strength and strengthened with her arms she perceiveth that her merchandise is good everybody say good she perceives that what she's doing is a good thing her candle goeth out by night and so help me when i read that verse of scripture i couldn't help but think that many times before daylight before daylight i witness rachel robles carr who rachel robles serves in the ministry here at first apostolic church she's one of the daycare ministry workers here at first apostolic church she opens the daycare every day at 6 30 and to you young folks that's 6 30 a.m it does come 6 30 does come twice a day she opens a daycare where's rachel at this morning i'm gonna really if i'm gonna get in trouble i'm really gonna get rachel's stand right now i comment she's working in sunday school julie you hear her sister yeah you are i command you to stand back there in the name of the lord this is her sister right here two of the finest young apostolic women that attend first apostolic church rachel that's that's right give the lord a hand rachel rachel every day opens this daycare at 6 30 a.m you know why she perceiveth that her merchandise is good we got a good thing going on providing child care to our community it's a good thing going on that we provide child care from six weeks up to five years old we every day monday through friday 6 30 a.m to 6 p.m the doors of this church are open and the community brings their children we perceive it's a good thing it's a good thing to be in the formal years of those little toddlers it's a good thing to be in the some of them are six weeks old but they're hearing a teacher pray over them some of them are six weeks old and they're hearing songs about jesus they're hearing songs and bible verses and they go from six weeks to three months to six months to a year old to two years do we have any pictures of the of the nursery today because i'm gonna tell you something our daycare is not a trouble it's a good thing we are doing a good thing in a day when the world wants to get a hold of our babies and our children and teach them every ungodly principle they can we are involved in a good thing we've got a good thing oh hallelujah oh hallelujah oh hallelujah they're in an atmosphere of singing about jesus they're in a oh wait a minute look look at this now look at this now that's somebody graduating from k-5 that's somebody graduating from kindergarten class because it's a process we have a detroit assembly line going on here they'll start in six weeks and they'll put the love and the cuddliness of the warmth of the love of god on them and they'll send them all off when they get one year old or whatever we teach them you don't go ahead and grab that graham cracker right now you don't go ahead and grab that grab that fish stick right now we're going to bow our heads and fold our hands and we're going to say lord i thank you for my food i thank you then we're going to bring them into a chapel service and they're going to hear songs of praise and songs of worship songs of adoration they're going to see shouting they're going to see praising we had a daycare parent that goes to one of the nominal churches here in the city and they don't worship the lord quite like we do they're very reserved and the daycare parent came to me and he said preacher you about got me in trouble with my priest i said what he said our little boy come in and stood up on the pew and said hallelujah and said everybody looked around and he said i learned that at school well hallelujah we are doing hey mama we are doing somebody get the word out to our daycare workers we are doing a good thing now see what we want to do can you go back quickly to that picture of that little kindergarten graduation can you go back quickly to that because what we want to do is get them right out of k5 and right into the first grade and then we want to take them right on through the 12th grade do we have any pictures of the seniors the 12th graders graduating do we have any uh of those available because you see mama you see mama we're doing a good thing here we're not just meeting on sunday mornings and sunday nights and wednesday nights and having a few moments with jesus we're in the temple daily we're truly we're truly apostolic we're in the temple daily praising god uh chandler scarborough where chandler where are you at are you in the auditorium this morning would you stand is chandler here this morning huh where's chandler at chandler chandler how old were you i should ask your mama this how old were you when you started coming to aca five or six when you started and you went all the way through aca didn't you graduated here from the school you graduated here friday chandler drove through the neighborhood and he said friday it was thursday night me and since carpenter were walking he said pastor will you be home tomorrow i said sure i'll be home tomorrow he said i got something to bring by your house and of course his mom and grandparent grandmothers are great cooks so i was licking my chops thinking i was going to get something and he called me on friday and he said brother carpenter he said i i've been working for two weeks now down at target and he said he said i got paid today and he said i know we're trying to buy this property beside us over here and he handed me he said the lord led on my heart now this is a young person now the lord led on my heart to give you one thousand i'm holding one thousand dollars that this young man brought me from his paycheck i'm sorry i'm about to get happy right now but we are doing a good thing here come on mama we are doing a good thing here could somebody give him praise and worship right now thank you danielle thank you sherry johnson thank you teachers of aca somebody come and get this before the dry cleaners gets it wait a minute verse 20 she stretcheth out her hand to the poor you see that she stretches out her hand to the poor yea she reaches forth her hands to the needy can i tell you there can be no greater poor in our world than those that do not know the gospel of jesus christ can i tell you there's no greater poor oh we've got people sleeping under bridges absolutely feed them give them a sleeping bag but for god's sake preach to them the gospel there's no greater poor they came and questioned the identity of jesus christ and he sent word back in matthew 11 5 he said the blind receive their sight the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the death here the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them mama we're doing a good work today we're missing one of our members here this morning we're missing brian triplett today is his wife yes his wife and family could they stand right now would you stand right now can you wipe but we're missing your husband today where is your husband at well he's in africa preaching the gospel of jesus christ come on mama we not only got a day care going on here mama we're not only taking babies and seniors but mama we're sending out men to africa we're sending men out this very morning brother snitzer would you stand you and sister snitcher stand right now he has an online ministry a few months ago a young man is in west africa or east africa east africa a young a young denominal preacher his father uh they were all in a certain denomination they did not embrace baptism in the name of jesus christ nor the oneness of the godhead but through the online ministry this man and this woman began to teach brother moses and their eyes got enlightened to water baptism in jesus name and you all made a trip to east africa how many did you baptize 81 they made a trip and baptized 81 in jesus name i think mama's doing pretty good this morning do you have a number of how many we baptized in total 400 have been baptized in the wonderful name of jesus christ now his father his father being a bishop of that church got that revelation and his father has so much clout and authority in that tribe in that region that his father decreed that from here on out they would only baptize in the name of the lord jesus christ brother moses may be watching all the way from east africa your mama's doing good out here in the states we're reaching the poor let me read a net let me read one more verse let me read one more verse that says verse 21 can you give me verse 21. verse 21 could we read it together could we read verse 21 together she is not afraid of the snow for her household wait a minute stop right there she's not afraid of the snow for her household we're honored today to have the stumbos with us brother sister stumbo our missionaries to russia would you all stand right now brother sister stumbo i know they were here they went to see we got and this is why we got folks that leave to go to the cleveland campus in the sevierville uh where's luke at is luke here he went too brother sister uh hammond y'all pretend you're tall enough you stand like you're the stumbos all right over 28 years ago mark and wanda went to saint petersburg russia on a youth trip there was no apostolic church in saint petersburg russia a city of 5 million people while there mark and wanda fell under a burden to start a church in saint petersburg russia they later returned and started the church there and god has been adding to their number 28 years has went by the war in ukraine and russia several months ago they found it needful to leave saint petersburg and come back to the states we made arrangements for mark and wanda to stay at the cano's house throughout the month of may for they didn't know when they were truly going to go back to russia last tuesday night at sevierville campus brother stumbo informed me that they were not going to stay in maryville for the month of may that this coming tuesday they've got their visas cleared sister brenda they've got their visas cleared and they're with tears streaming down their face they want to go back to their calling they want to go back to their mission field and uh i just said marcuana you know how dangerous it is but they said we were waiting for a ceasefire but we feel that the ukraine and russia war could go on for years but when they had said that i stumbled upon this passage of scripture that simply that simply says she is not afraid of the snow she is not afraid of the snow for her household can i tell you whether it's africa whether it's online africa or whether it's russia thank god the church is not afraid of wars and conflicts because who better needs the gospel than a war ridden country that somebody can stand and echo the words repent be baptized receive the holy ghost come to jesus he's the healer he's the way maker can somebody say amen there are many good causes in this world today there's many good humanitarian efforts god bless the red cross god bless the united way but can i tell you the church of jesus christ excelleth them all there's been a lot of negative things said about the church people find fault with the church but i want you to know on this mother's day there's no better mother in your life besides your natural mother than your spiritual mother the church well brother carpenter the church looks outdated to me the church is not relevant in my life then i take you down to verse 30 and our musicians would make their way to the platform favor is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the lord shall be praised give her the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates let me explain to you something today about why i refer to the church is our mother that's because the church is likened to a mother in the scripture it's likened to a mother it's actually compared to another mother you see abraham had two wives one was hagar and one was sarah hagar gave abraham a son through the flesh sarah gave abraham a son through the promise hagar according to paul is a generation of bondage of captivity sarah is a generation of freedom and of peace for paul says in galatians chapter four and verse number 26 referring to the church but jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all can i tell you today that you are in a church that has the arms of a mother that wants to set you free set you free from fear set you free from conforming to this world set you free from all kinds of hang-ups and issues it'll set you free when depression and trouble literally massages your mind and your life is one threat but let the church wrap its arms around you and all of a sudden the gentle breeze of freedom begins to blow your way and you begin to mention the great name of the head of our church our heavenly father whose name is jesus and there's freedom there's freedom the church has a message of salvation the church has a message was reminded of a verse of scripture it's a long list of ugly sins in reality all sins are ugly it's a long list of ugly sins but then there's a beautiful phrase that simply says and such were some of you but you've been washed you've been sanctified you've been justified in the name of our lord jesus christ i know about y'all any of y'all ever had a natural mother that gave you a spit bath my mother gave us spit bats when we come in and our face was dirty you know what it did mama spit cleaned our dirty faces up but can i tell you that the church of jesus christ has a watery grave that can cleanse every inward sin of your life the guilt the shame all of that thank god mama's got water today thank god mama's got a name today mama's got power today would you stand with me right now there's two mothers crying for you today there's two mothers that are crying for you the mother church saying to every person that's here that's troubled please come to our arms this morning our arms are this altar this morning doesn't matter who you are does it matter who you are several years ago we got a letter sent here to the church from a marketing agency and the marketing agency sent a letter here said reverend carpenter we're a marking marketing firm and said we have got we have got the ability to give you the names the addresses and even the income of every person that moves into your community so that you can choose whether or not they will fit in your congregation i told the secretary i said you send this trash back to them and you tell them that everybody fits into our congregation whether you're on welfare or you're a multi-millionaire here this morning everybody fits into our congregation you see they're coming would you come to mama's arms today would you come right now would you make your way down the aisle mama wants to love you this morning the church wants to love you right now come on the church wants to love you right now he wants to love you right now find a place in this altar in the name of the lord jesus in the name of the lord jesus that's right i believe you need to you need to move in as close as you can to the altar i believe there's going to be a great outpouring of people coming to mother today come on mother wants to wrap her arms around you right now mother wants to wrap her arms around you this morning in the name of jesus today in the name of jesus today come on out of the out of your pew come on feel the altar area where the altar area fills up let's feel the pews let's fill the aisles come on oh yes oh yes oh yes church i need you to help me this morning i need you to lay your hand over on somebody right now in part the love of mother this morning in part the love of jesus christ this morning impart the love of jesus christ right now come on let mama love you right now let mother love you right now oh yes god yes god yes god yes god yes god come on let mother love you right now let mother love you right now oh yes lord yes lord yes lord yes lord come on lay your hand over on somebody pray with them maybe there's somebody in the pew that that that you need just to walk over and be mother to them right now oh just walk over and be mother to them right now oh i pray for you today oh i pray for you today in jesus name oh pray for you this morning in jesus name yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes that's right church that's right mother that's right mother lay your hand over on somebody bye ah yes come on mother come on mother come on mother come on mother come on church family fan out across these pews somebody's waiting for your touch somebody's waiting for you to come pray with them somebody's waiting for you to come pray with them you're not going to try to bring them to the altar you're going to meet them right there on their pew oh yes let mother set you free oh yes is and then your children and rejoicing is oh is is is oh um faith these prayers is is is for you god is is oh hand over on somebody come on mama be an extension this morning the power of god is here the power of god is here freedom mama says i'm free mama says i can dance again mama says i can live again mama says i can hope again oh yes god oh i think i believe we got somebody going to mama spit this morning i believe we got one to be baptized in jesus name don't you listen to me for just a moment we're starting revival tonight go home get mother's day dinner done lay before the lord for a few minutes and get back out the first night of revival because it's going to be awesome it's going to be absolutely awesome sunday night monday night tuesday night and wednesday night now two mothers in the bible two mothers one is the voice of freedom saying get back to church get back in the word get back around god's people freedom freedom freedom there's another mother mentioned in the bible she was herod's wife and when herod's daughter danced and pleased her father the father was so pleased with that dance and he said to the daughter he said daughter ask me anything you want up to half of the kingdom she went to her mama she went to her mother and she said daddy has wrote me a blank check what should i ask for and guess what mama wanted her mother said i want the head of john the baptist there's a mother that wants to silence the voice of freedom for your life there's a voice that'll tell you don't come back tonight you don't look like these people don't come back tonight you don't fit in that's the wrong mother's voice you need to listen to today you do fit in here listen to the voice of the mother saying no one would you say that with me no one say it again is outside of the reach of god's hand that's the real mother's voice today now we want what we're going to do first lady's going to dismiss us but just fellowship as they're getting ready to baptize when it comes that time we'll stop the fellowship and watch a baptism first lady who did a splendid job today would you dismiss us in prayer please