God's House - Where Dreams Come True, Part II | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter

you may be seated this morning i tell you the evident presence of the joy of the lord is in this place today the evident presence of god is here and the singing and the music and all of the things that are taking place here is all a witness is all a testimony that the lord is in this house today are you glad the lord is in this place this morning yet thankful that the lord are you thankful individually are you thankful today that the lord that the lord is in this the lord is in this place in a great and a mighty way and i could not have i i i did not get with the music department and tell them what i was preaching i didn't i didn't do that but every song bear witness and if you're here today and you're a minister of the gospel you know what i'm talking about every song today bore witness to the word to the word of god and i'm glad that in the house of the lord there is joy and in the house of the lord there is peace in the house of the lord there is victory i am so thankful for all of the things they sang about today that had to do with the presence of god say would you give our choir and our music department a big hand would you do that i'm so thankful that they create such an awesome such an awesome opportunity for us to take advantage of and to just slip out slip slip out of this whole world for a few moments and come into the house of god and sing the praises of god would you would you do that one more time for our choir our music would get and then can we welcome all of those that are watching online this morning all around the world we want to welcome you and i thank god for all of that all the wonderful men and women of our audio video department that those that are watching online and occasionally i have watched online when i'm not in town and uh it's more than just an online service it's the the way that they study the way they practice uh the different shots causes you to feel just like almost almost just like you're here and i want to just thank thanksgiving this morning would you give all of the men and women that work in our audio video department would you give them a big hand come on are you thankful for it today so thankful you know i began to uh i wanted to make a few comments before i go into the word of god this morning but first apostolic church of maryville is a world-changing church a world-changing a world-changing church and what i mean what i mean by that is the the influence that this one local church has um in in the fact that we we reach our community we have several ministries to reach our community thank god for our daycare thank god for our christian school five days a week 6 30 a.m 6 p.m daycare and school are here uh this year uh we had a record uh we had a record enrollment i believe the last they told me we had somewhere in the neighborhood of 242 students at aca isn't that wonderful that's k through 12th grade and then kovit pushed us out of the box a little bit and they started a distance learning program for the school and homeschoolers that live and i may miss this by a few miles but if you live outside a 50 or 60 mile radius here you can be part of aca through through a program called distance learning and you can be a part of that and they come in from there's been people coming from kentucky and all around the country that that um that have taken advantage of the the distance learning and then uh six weeks old six weeks old is how young that we take them here at the daycare of the mornings of the mornings i'm i i have the privilege i can i can come some pastors have to get up and go into a neighborhood and knock doors to meet new people all i have to do is get up come over here to the daycare and stand in the lobby over here and i meet all kinds of our community that come through i'm thankful to be a part of a world-changing church not just not just locally not just locally but but across the 50 states and then wrapping around the world this this past week the general board of the assemblies of the lord jesus christ met here for two days of training and we planning on how to take the gospel around the world all kind of wonderful things all kinds of wonderful things took place here at the earlier part of the earlier part of the week and god is just doing i i just want you to know i just want you to know that you are a part of a world world-changing church you you are a part of a world changing whatever it takes to reach people we want to reach people whatever new program whatever new program we're gonna take up whatever new program we're gonna do i ask one question can we reach people can we reach people all kinds of things that are on the drawing board here visions and things that we want to do it all has one common thing we want to reach people people are welcome here at this church all people are welcome here amen we welcome people and uh you're here today and you're a guest we are so deeply honored to have you at first apostolic church to worship with us today church family would you help me one more time put your hands together just tell our guests especially if you're sitting around a guest today please let them please let them know amen the second book of corinthians chapter number three verse number one is where we're going to begin reading and let me preface this as you're looking for second corinthians 3 and 1. what the apostle paul is doing here there have been some that are doubt doubting and false rumors have been spread that paul is not really an apostle all right and he needs letters of recommendation a lot of the false prophets or a lot of the false apostles would have papers they would have papers matter of fact years ago there was a tradition among churches people would talk about they would have their letter moved and that letter would would be from one pastor to the other telling about the saint well in the bible days uh the ministers had letters of recommendation letters recommending them paul was being doubted whether he was truly an apostle so he begins in verse number one of chapter three do we begin again to commend ourselves or need we as some others epistles of commendation to you and letters of commendation from you ye are our epistle written in our hearts known and read of all men for as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of christ ministered by us written not with ink but with the spirit of the living god not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart i want to continue today what i started last sunday morning the house of god where dreams come true if you put your bibles down just for a second let's pray father today i come before you lord god i want to be pleasing in your sight for the next few moments as i minister the word lord jesus help me to feed your sheep today god lord help me god to feed your sheep lord god help us lord as we're gathered here on this sacred morning and this sacred moment god help us lord to receive the word of god into our lives lord that we may be changed god lord i ask you lord to open ears walk the aisles holy ghost move upon us today god god touch the lost person god touched the prodigal god touched the struggling god touched the sick this morning jesus have your way in jesus name we pray give him a hand to praise as you're being seated would you please you read with me as paul was saying to the church at corinth letters letters of commendation letters you want me to produce a letter he turns around and in verse number two a letter can also be referred to as an epistle it can be referred to as an epistle a letter an epistle an epistle we have from romans through the book of jude these are epistles or we would know them as letters letters epistles written to the church paul is quite offended because rumors have caused doubt someone asked for his letter he began in a rebuking way to tell them in verse 2 ye are our epistles you want a letter you want a true you want to prove the validation of a minister don't prove it with some ink and parchment if a minister is going to prove who he is you prove it by the lives that have been changed by your preaching that's what proves it and paul was quite offended i believe because he then says i will produce no letters you are the epistle written in our hearts known and read of all men i look at verse two again if they don't have that on the screen please put chapter 3 verse 2 on the screen because i'm going to make a i'm going to make a statement i'm going to make a statement today and i really want to i really need this to be to be in your hearts you or our epistle written in our hearts known and read of who could you help me who's it known in red how many you are the letter so i say without doing any harm to the word of god today some say there are 66 books in the bible we are mistaken there are 67 books 66 books are here the 67th book is here 66 are here it's what people pick up and read but they also read the 67th book that's us that's us now here's the statement the church the people of god is second only to the bible the word of god as a source of reliable transformational wisdom how many said man this bible changed my life right man this bible changed my life man there's people that get their minds changed they thought they were serving god acceptably until they opened up the bible and the bible has wisdom the bible has wisdom but not only is the bible filled with wisdom but there has been an effect on people by watching the church some people will never pick a bible up first but they'll read the 67th book first that's right that's why it's important today that's why it's very important today that we sandbag our church against the culture of our day that's trying to ever so slowly erode what we do here in this place as important i read some history i do love history and i read history where when they found hitler who had committed suicide in his bunker they also found other papers there they found other papers in his bunker about future plans future plans there was a plan there to kidnap the pope he wanted the riches that were in the vatican and he had had plans and it even had meetings of where he was going to kidnap the pope many of the men that served with him were not for that and so another plan was made that they would capture the pope at that time based on charges of him speaking against germany and that on his way to stand trial they would stage that he had escaped and was shot but not only did he have plans of kidnapping and killing the pope but he also had plans of eradicating erasing not only the jews but he said those christians are friends of the jews he planned to erase all of christianity from the pages of history he planned to tear crosses down and the like well he was not successful and the reason that he was not successful it was not his time to do that but are we not witnessing today as never before a hatred toward anyone that embraces absolutes anyone that embraces an absolute truth then we are met with fierce anger before anyone will pick a bible up most of the time they will they will read your life they will read your life satan attacks the church today the church today one soul at a time it has been said but the carpenter the devil is attacking me in truth the matter is he's attacking all of us because if he attacks you he's attacking me and if we idly set by and let him pick one after the other it won't be long until he'll come for you so i am taking a few weeks on sunday morning and talking about the value the value of the church we live in an individualistic age we live in an age where people want to be connected but they want to be alone but yet we must understand that what the 67th book is in the bible us we are a community we are one we just don't meet in one place at one time we are one we are one body we are the church the bible tells us there's wisdom in our coming together we are not only stronger we've heard it said many times one could put a thousand to flight and two can put ten thousand to fly and we say man we're stronger when we're together that's true but there's much more of the benefits than just being stronger when we're together we are wiser when we are together no one man no one woman has all of the wisdom that god wants to flow through the church we are wiser when we are together it would be proverbs chapter 27 and verse number 17. the wise man writes 27 17 iron sharpened of iron so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof so he that waiteth on his master shall be honored as in water face and answereth to face sow the heart of man to man look at that you take two pieces of iron by the way iron is a symbol in the bible of humanity iron is a man-made thing it's a man-made thing that's why in the bible in the old testament when things some things were being built god would say i don't want iron to touch it because he was saying i don't want a man-made thing to touch this so he says that iron sharpeneth iron we are flesh today we are part of the baptized body of jesus christ a 2 000 year old movement that continues to gain momentum but if i'm going to sharpen myself i have to understand there's nobody in the church the lone ranger god has no superheroes in the church god has sons and daughters as a matter of fact god doesn't even have any grandchildren god doesn't have grandchildren all god has is first generation sons and daughters god has no superheroes so when the iron come together like we are this morning and like we will be tonight and like we will be wednesday night 7 30. you know what's really happening iron sharpened of iron if you think your life is dull try going to church if you're just not cutting it anymore if things are falling apart in your life your family your marriage your children your job i think you can get really sharp if you learn how to come into the house of god and let some iron sharpen of iron in the bible days in the book of acts acts chapter 6 verse number 1 acts 6 and verse number 1. in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied there arose a murmuring of the grecians against the hebrews because their widows were neglected in their daily administration now look at this racial ethnic tension racial and ethnic tension attacked the church evidently they had come up with some kind of plan and paul later talks about widows that are widows indeed he talked about widows that were truly widows indeed they didn't have any children to take care of them they didn't have any kin to take care of them they were truly widows indeed they worked out a program to where the widows would be taking care of food and the the the the things they need for life well in this church there was some uh greek jews that that their culture had come in and somehow they noticed that the grecians were being neglected in their daily administration let me tell you something that's why and i thank god what turns more people off is when a church aligns itself with political parties we are here today to endorse the lord jesus christ and i'm going to go ahead and say this there is no party that can stand the test of even the ten commandments so we're not here to endorse a political party we're not even here for the moral you know oh we're you we embrace the morals sure we do but we also embrace the immoral not in not in in in condoning them not in condoning the immoral but by directing their moral to an altar telling the little girl telling the young girl that three years ago ended a pregnancy there's a god that loves you there's a god that cares about you amen can you say amen they had a that uh they had a racial uh you know tension and all of the all the things that we see in the world today please church let's not let what happens in the world affect us in the church it's murmuring murmuring will kill a church murmuring will kill a family they were murmuring but what do you do what did the early church do when they face this racial ethnic upheaval verse 2 acts 6 verse 2. then peter the star of the show the spokesman of pentecost the leader the star came together i believe i heard a no then the twelve i said then the twelve because there's community there's community then the twelve there's a there's a little missing nugget on the day of pentecost when the bible says and peter standing up with the eleven this wasn't an apostle peter message it was all 11 of them 11 of them standing up saying we're behind this man right here we're behind what he is what he is saying then the 12 called the multitude of disciples unto them then the 12 called the highest tide payers in the church then the 12 called the highest talented people in the church can i tell you there are some places that might be true but in the church of the living god that's not true in the church of the living god everybody pays the same they pay tithe and whether they make a million dollars a year or two thousand dollars a year they all pay the same and they're all equally important in the house of the living god they called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said it is not reason that we should leave the word of god and serve tables can i tell you what the ministry is going to do can i tell you what the ministry is going to do the ministry is always going to keep you focused on the main thing there are so many things today trying to pull the church here and pull the church there get the church into politics get the church into this get the church into clubs and committees and help people find their destiny i am going to help them find their destiny heaven heaven is our destiny i don't know if it's god's will for you to have a job a company i don't know if it's god's will for you to have some kind of invent something and and be worldwide and renown i i don't know all that but i do know this i do know god wants you in heaven and the ministry will keep you focused on what what matters now let me say this i believe this is later in my notes that i put down to say but i'll go ahead and say it now in case i don't get that for today i've heard people say well i don't get anything out of going to church i hear i've heard people i'm not one all right well i don't get anything out of it now let me just share this with you if you're not focused on jesus christ and living and pursuing a life for him i hope you never get anything out of this church i hope you always come aside i don't get nothing out of this because the very day that we lick our finger to see which way the wind's blowing and we scan the audience to see what we need to preach today is the very day the church loses all the power that it's got because our soul message today jesus christ jesus christ our soul message today is really can be summed up not even using all my fingers jesus christ being a witness for him being ready for the rapture living for god that's the hope that's what i'm going to keep my mind focused on well they came they came and they said the 12 called the multitude together and they said it is not reason that we should leave the word of god and serve tables it's not that's not right wherefore brethren look you out seven men of honest report for the holy ghost and he tells he tells you you all take care of this find seven men full of the holy ghost they gave the requirements the leadership of the church will always set requirements on those who serve in the church there are requirements to serve in the church should pick you out seven men pick you out seven men of honest report full of the holy ghost and wisdom notice that can i tell you something this doesn't even have anything to do with my sermon today there's a lot of folks can be full of the holy ghost but no wisdom being full of the holy ghost doesn't necessarily mean you have wisdom now our beloved dr hughes right y'all remember him from marriage retreat right he's coming back i want you to know that all right but he said to us men and the men said in the men's session he said brothers if you as a jerk before you got the holy ghost you'd be a jerk after you've got the holy ghost oh no i got the holy ghost spoken to they did too but evidently full of the holy ghost and wisdom but guess where you get wisdom from in the community you don't get wisdom all by yourself you get wisdom when you come to the house of god attend the house of god as a young man young men you want wisdom stay here and watch other older men don't get the direction for your life based on your peers look to the older men that's the bible doctrine look to the older men i had a we had a young lady a couple of young ladies one time that wanted to date out of the faith and uh you know they were using the old flirt to convert method you know and me and sister carpenter had them in the office and we just wasn't getting anywhere with them we just we was trying every angle and we heard it you know well this these boys were wanting to date they loved god more than the boys here at church and you know you know how it is they'll take the best they've got out in the world and judge it with the worst we got in the church and so we sat there for a few moments i said wait a minute i said can i wait here just a second can we all just stay here for a second i went out in the auditorium and i got a woman who is a young girl married out of faith she had been raised up in a pentecostal church and she married out of the faith and she lived to regret her decision her and her husband had nothing in common we had talked to her many times when she would say you know it's so hard when you go home and and you want to talk about the great service that you had but but he don't understand where it's so difficult we always argue over money we're arguing over money all the time and we're arguing now over the kids what the kids will be allowed to do and not do i walked out in the auditorium and i got the woman i told the woman just a snippet of what i was dealing with now i could not get one wet eye out of them girls i couldn't get anything out of it but when that older lady come in and sat down and say i was your age when my pastor tried to tell me not to do this and boy she just i mean for his old wiz empty and kleenex boxes left and right in that office and i'm glad to report i'm not going to name them but i'm glad to report that those those young ladies married great apostolic men they've raised families today that was several years ago and they've raised families today can i tell you something you can get the holy ghost by yourself but you can't get wisdom by yourself you got to come into the body and let the body begin to help you oh i hope i can preach to you see i got to have the church honey we got to go to church because i don't have all the answers for you and i and our four children we got to go to the house of god we got to move we got to mix with others because we got out we need we need can somebody just say praise the lord this morning we'll give ourselves to prayer and fasting the word of god the church brings fullness and focus to our understanding and it also brings the application of truth the church is always refocusing you on what really matters paul said in first corinthians 12 14 through 12 chapter 12 verse 12 for as the body is one and have many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is christ for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be jews gentiles we'll be bond or free and have all been made to drink into one spirit for the body is not one member but many you ever ever notice we are a body we are a body today ezekiel had a vision of heavenly visitors from heaven and he noticed one thing about these cherubims they were all locked arm-in-arm and they all went the same direction all right and when they turned they turned the same direction and ezekiel said i noticed that wherever they were they were locked and they were all work walking together god help us as a youth group god help us as a church that we would lock our arms one to another and let's go the same direction we are the body we are one body we need each other we desperately need each other we are the body i know this is elementary today but we are a body one way to begin to grow cold on god is to think that you don't need the body hebrews chapter 10 verse 21 hebrews chapter 10 and verse 21 and having a high priest over the house of god hebrews 10 21 and having a high priest over the house of god who is that high priest would you call his name i'm going to keep doing this because i want to keep you engaged because it's never before a culture has whittled away at our attention span it is whittled away at our attention span unless it's football and having a high priest over the house of god who who is a high priest so we got a high priest verse 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water verse 23 let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promise and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works we've got one high priest jesus but after that it's us it's us it's us that need to draw together it's us that need to provoke one another what to love and to good works how will i know what love looks like unless i read the 67th book how will i know how to behave unless i read you how will i know what a good work looks like unless i see you doing a good work i know pardon the personal heart and the personal reference but i know where she got it sister franklin i know where she got it how old is london seven i know where she got it she heard her papa talk about what meticulous notes sister gloria that you make of my sermons she heard her papa talk about these notes that you make she might have even seen the the book that we at your grandson's weddings that we've that we've given them and notes and i y'all know what i'm talking about sister franklin takes better notes i promise she's got better notes right now than i've got of my sermon i know we're london seven years old but now i have it i'm collecting them she takes notes of papa's sermons i mean they're pretty good notes too amen i mean she does know the subject that i'm talk and all the scriptures she'll write down the scriptures i you know now you know she's seven she might spell fast uh you know different she might spell some of the words different but where did she know to do that somebody and could we all vote today how many votes all in i did this all week long all in favor of this say i all in favor that taking notes of a sermon is a good work say i any opposed same sign past all right so now now we know all right but how did she know that because somebody in the church did it how we know what love looks like somebody better model love how we know i'm going to tell you something i've been through some things i've been through some things and i fear going through things i think every parent here would be would be transparent say today that you fear losing a child you fear that but you know what if that day would ever come you would not be the first person in this church to lose a child i promise you i promise you and i hear this all i hear this all the time do you know that steve and pat wilson stop what they're doing anytime they hear of a minister losing a child or a grandchild tragically steve and pat stop what they're doing they're doing they've flown across the country they've driven across the country they've showed up at people's houses in the middle of the night that have lost a son or a daughter you know why because one sunday afternoon life's skies were blue and the future was in patrick patrick had got home from ibc patrick was going to be the next pastor of the church his life looked secure until patrick went on a sunday afternoon for a swim and tram and steve wilson had to set out on the bank while they probed the bottom of that lake to try to find his son stephen had brother wilson had to watch him pull his body up and put in a boat can i tell you that that that causes some of you today and myself to stomach to tighten but can i tell you what we've got if ever tragedy comes to your life aren't you thankful that being a part of a church that you can look at somebody and say how did you make it through how did you make it through there there is power in the church all kinds of tragedies from divorce from all kinds of things but we've got somebody in the church don't you think you're the first person that's had trouble don't you think you're the first person that lives turned upside down they're sprinkled all across this auditorium today and they made it somebody say praise god praise god they they made it let us consider one another to provoke verse 24 unto love and good works not forsaking the assemblings of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much that the more as you see the day do you see why do you see why as we see the day approaching stop looking for a mark of the beast stop looking for a sign of tribulation and start looking for what's happening in the church do you know just prior to the rapture the devil will work overtime on trying to belittle trying to get people stopped coming to church the devil work overtime he'll try to convince you you can stay home and watch it online he'll try to convince you that you really don't need the church and all of that but how am i going to know what love looks like if you don't come to church how am i going to love know what a good work looks like if you don't keep on coming somebody's counting on reading you come on lift your hands up and praise him right now lift your hands up and praise him right now the wisdom of god is revealed the wisdom of god is revealed in the weekly attendance of the house of god the weekly attendance of the house of god gives tremendous blessings to your life the old testament the old testament was full of feast days read the old testament those old testament jews were busy keeping feast days they had all kind of feast days passover all kind of feast days you know why they had all those days guess what happened we have men's conference we have men's conference once a year huh right every thank you for the clarity i love my wife but we ought to have them every year okay can i just say that you know how you know how many times they had them in the old testament three times a year every man had to come to jerusalem and present himself to god passover feast of tabernacles man they had a calendar you know why they had all these feast days to keep them tethered to the god that brought them out of egypt no feast days no remembrance of what god has done for you no feast days there's gonna be a generation gonna forget we were we were slaves in egypt no feast days we're going to have a generation raise up and not know that god can bring water out of a rock no feast days we're going to have a generation no not know that god can bring bread from heaven no feast days now can i tell you something the world can have all the days it wants to you know why there's money attached to it we have mother's day oh well now wait a minute wait a minute blood carpenter yeah mother's day is a man-made day that might have started off honoring your mother but hallmark sure has got a good cut of the deal it's mother's day father's day valentine's day memorial day veterans day national donut day national women's day oh serious national donut day national book day national take your children to work day national secretary's day on and on and on and on grandparents day on and on and on it goes and the world don't write one bit about it but i'm here to tell you god has a day in the new testament and now every day is a god day every day is a god day and we take sunday as a sabbath to keep it holy to the lord there was a day in it as a little boy i remember this nolan i remember this as a little boy i remember when banks and businesses closed early on wednesday can i get a witness why mid-week bible study that wasn't just apostolic that was everybody now i'm going to tell you something too we were a lot better nation when we did that but oh somebody had to have a little league game and somebody had a beauty pageant game and somebody had to stay open i'm sure they they justified it somebody's got to stay open then sunday sunday sunday is not the holy day in america anymore sunday's not the holy day in america it is the holiday in america i submit to you this morning take a day off and go to cage cove on monday but don't do it on sunday you don't need listen you might need you might need a break from your job but you don't need a break from your church i tell you a man that got wounded and he convinced himself i'm not going to get out of church i'm just going to take a few weeks off we're not going to go to church for just a few weeks this family didn't plan they just plan to take a few weeks off from church they got wounded we just want to have a few weeks pastor we're not leaving the church we just need a few weeks off a few weeks turned in to that man serving about 14 years in prison just let me tell you don't let the enemy don't let the enemy brother tyler i'm going to use what you said you know everybody everybody loves tyler here at the church you know you can't you can't not love tyler all right i love that boy but i said last sunday that people complain he'll say well we go to church it's the same old thing same old songs same preacher same same old same old he came with me at the church he said brother carpenter he said a football game's the same old thing too come on give it up for tyler right now isn't that great we might have the same method but it's another opportunity to give our lord and savior praise and honor and glory and let him begin to shine through our lives the church will your dreams come true would you amen this statement we live in a world that knows no limits but can i tell you there's limits in the church there's boundaries in the church and i am set free from a limitless limitless life because i have been placed in something that has boundaries we have limits in the church you're not going to live just any old way you want to live because we have limits in the church we're not just going to we're not just going to do whatever we want to do because we have limits in the church i i caught this this morning as i was studying matthew 16 18. look at this closely with me they'll put it on the screen matthew matthew 16 18. jesus said and i say also unto thee that thou art peter and upon this rock and that word this stuck out to me up on this rock not up on a rock but upon this rock can i tell you this morning you are not in a church you are in the church we are not serving a jesus we're serving the jesus we are not in a way we are in the way hallelujah you hear me today this church has limits this church has boundaries this church has dues and this church has don't this church has has boundaries and all the boundaries are good even when god gave the ten commandments and folks want to put a negative slant on the ten commandments thou shalt have no other gods before me god was not trying to protect you because there are other gods god was trying to protect you from wasting your time because there is no other god when god said thou shalt not steal god was not taking something easy away from you to get that god was going to teach you the honor of working and the value of working when god said thou shalt not commit adultery he was not trying to keep you from pleasure he was trying to get you to understand that your marriage can just have the finest of the fine confined within it oh thank god for the church with limits thank god with the church with boundaries the wisdom of continuity in the midst of a changing world aren't you thankful that the church continues we continue too many churches and just listen to this this morning too many churches are consumer minded there's a lot of folks shopping for a church there's a lot of there's a lot of shoppers that's why you'll have a lot of what's called church plants pop up you know um and even terminology that i i don't really understand some of the new top terminology and church growth they'll talk about launching a church pray tell i thought you i thought you grew a church i think you launched missiles i think you i know i'm just i know but you got to study wording out because there's a reason they change names well anyway um so there's churches of all denominations launching places you know why there's more shoppers than they've ever been you know why there's less committed people to a church to be a part of a church you've got to be committed that's right just like being married you've got to be committed to it when you get married you got to know better for worse richer for poorer sickness and health and all those things are going to come and a whole lot more that's not included in the vows and if you're not committed to that marriage that marriage will fragment and you'll go your own way and you'll be shopping for another only to go through another and there's church shoppers just like you shop you shop and they come up can i help you and you will say to them i'm your shopper there's a multitude of people here in town we can launch a church we can launch one and we can put in a paper we're starting a church and we're going to have a launch day and we want everybody interested in a church that edifies christ to come and you'll have a mob of people because most of their launch days they talk about having three and 400 people there but you truly got the uncommitted because they have taste tested every church in town and they can't be committed to a church you find you a church that edifies jesus christ you find you a church that preaches the word of god it's not always going to be in revival they're not always going to make the decisions you want them to make things are not always going to go your way but you bolt yourself down to the pew and you be committed to that church i promise you the sun's going to shine again i promise you you're going to see the benefit of being committed to a church oh my goodness constant changing world constant changing so yeah pastor things sure have changed yeah this place looks like nothing this place looks nothing like mcginley street those of you that worship at mcginley street this church looks and nothing you could probably put that entire building a few times in this room alone it doesn't look anything like it doesn't look anything like it this church doesn't look anything like the church one mile on the left up the hill doesn't look anything like it but can i tell you what we had on mcginley street and what we had up on the hill that we still have here preaching the word of god same requirements what it took to be in the choir 501 mcginley what it took to be in the choir 1723 william blood is the same thing it takes to be in the choir 1331 william blunt drive thank god it's continuing on now here here's the difference some of these new churches and they don't even want to identify themselves with a denomination they don't even want to they don't even want to put a name on it and buddy i fight it i fight it in the home mission churches i can't i don't i don't have that much authority but i do tell them put the name of apostol at pentecost somewhere on that side i don't care if you call it the twig the river the bin the smoke the mountain the cove the nest the huddle i don't care what you call it but would you just put apostolic on the side you know why we're looking at the future to see how we're going to build our church that's the difference we're not looking at the relevant now we are turning around looking back at our great forefathers the apostle peter the apostle john the apostle paul we're looking at our great forefathers that's what we build the church on and if you're here today and you think we're ever going to change you might as well give up because we're always going to be this because this is what we are oh i love you lamb of god i love you lamb of god i love you lamb of god i love you lamb of god i shouted at mcginley street i shouted up on the hill and i'm gonna shout here i love you lamb of god don't you remain standing with me oh god oh come on worship with me yes yes yes yes yes yes oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh hallelujah come on worship with me for a moment here's the church oh if you'll worship god little mother if you'll worship god god will help you with your bitterness oh sir if you will worship god he will help you to be delivered from pornography if you will worship god god will help you god will help you if you will worship come on worship come and worship come on worship come on worship some say i won't beg my church to worship i'll beg you to worship that's what i'm here for i'm here to remind you to worship come and worship come on worship come on worship come on worship come on worship hey oh my god i feel the holy ghost sweet lamb of god do your work right now lord sweet lamb of god let's not change sweet lamb of god sweet lamb of god sweet lamb of god would have ever thought who would have ever thought that mainstream denominations would now be licensing homosexuals god please today see what the what the church world of today wants you to see this he's judging he's j i am i i really am judging because the word of god says it's an abomination are they welcome in our church absolutely but not here wake up people wake up people mainstream denominations as a matter of fact it's already it's already leaked a couple of times it's already leaked a couple of times but there's mainstream well-known denominal preachers that are entertaining away to heaven by just being a good moral person won't bring a whole lot of people in going to be able to minister to a whole vast crowd if you word your message to where oh it's about jesus but let's just live right let's do right let's love our neighbor let's love our brother i'm here to tell you today the only way you'll get to heaven is through jesus christ it's going the landscape is changing the landscape is changing i wonder today how many of the word of god has touched at 14 minutes to noon how many of the word of god is touched i am free i am not in bondage i am so free this morning i am free from false doctrine i am free from the fads of this world thank god we are free from the fans and the fashions the ridiculous fads in fact is anybody come on i'm so glad somebody told me about one lord one faith one baptism one god who's lord over all and in you all i'm so glad somebody taught me then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of your sin and you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost somebody shout free somebody shout free come on shout free the church's freedom for whom the son is set free is free indeed now here's my altar call today here's multicall it's happened two sundays in a row normally i plead for the the prodigal and i plead for the sinner to come but the last sunday and today i plead for the church to come i think if we can get the church in the altar the prodigal will come i think if we can get the church in the altar the center will come i want to call for those of you that are thankful you're moving to the front will be a vote that you want this church to stay the way that it is right now because this church brings freedom to us this church brings freedom to us i am free yes i am yes you will see yes yes i am we are one we are one would you man to man and woman to woman we are one all over this building in the altars up the aisles would you let your hand over and lay hands on one another we are one we are free we are free the church will free us from our past the church will free us from the moment we are free we are free we are free the victory because of you my heart i am i am is i i am i am i'm so thankful because yes i am yes i am and i am free to dance i am oh if you're glad to be free this morning would you give him a shout would you give him a shout to pray come on give him a shout to pray are you glad you're free this morning glad you're free help me with this scripture they overcame him by the brother lamb and the does anybody know what the rest of that verse says do what now and they loved not their lives unto the dead isn't it amazing how we just know one part of that verse we were overcomers by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony well it took it took more than the blood of the lamb and the love and and the word of their testimony it took an attitude that they were not individuals and they loved not their life unto the death in other words it wasn't all about me wasn't all about you know some folks only come to church when they have an issue in their life some folks and that's why this is one of the reasons we have all this gallivanting in our county is because they're going somewhere for them they're a guest they get to hear their name called and they get to stay there long enough that nobody you only see their pretty side but if they stay too long you see that ugly side so they have to jump somewhere else somewhere so someone just sees their pretty side you know that i'm going to be back here tonight at 5 30 for prayer to my knowledge life's going good for me i'm not here because i have something falling apart i'm here because there's a lost world that deserves an on-fire apostolic praida church thank you thank you so much thank you so much for responding to the ministry today uh tonight 5 30 please be back for 5 30 prayer here in the auditorium and then i'm glad to be announcing that global grounds are as it reopened some of the most delicious food you ever want to eat is in global grounds go by there today have lunch go by there today and have lunch and it's a win-win it's great food all the profits go to our missionaries god bless you today shake hands you're dismissed in jesus name