"The Importance of God's House" - The Apostolic Connection

and welcome to the apostolic connection the weekly televised service of the First Apostolic Church here in mville Tennessee I'm Pastor Kenneth Carpenter and church family let's give our viewing audience a great big Apostolic welcome for being with us today so glad to have you joining with us by way of television and by way of the worldwide web you can join us any service Wednesday night at 7:30 Sunday morning at 10:00 Sunday evening at 6:00 by way of the worldwide web our church address web address is there at the bottom of the screen FC tv.org we webcast our services and you can join join in with us by way of webcast and be blessed be blessed of the Lord if you have your Bibles turn with me to the book of Hebrews chapter number 10 and verse number 24 Hebrews chapter number 10 and verse number 24 let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to Good Works not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another so much the more as you see the day approaching you may be seated if I knew for a fact that the Lord was coming back in 30 days what should we begin preaching I guess that would depend on your audience obviously if you were reaching to Sinners you would be telling them about the Plan of Salvation but what message would you preach to the church what message to the church I mean after all this week has been a week of breaking news with Israel and the Gaza Strip and missiles it's been such a week with the Malaysian airliner shot down over the Ukraine with 300 or so lives that were lost so what would if I was was going to preach to the church what would be the message well I believe that Paul is already told us some of the things that would begin to happen in the end of time some of the things that we would need to be doing he said in verse 24 that we should be considering one another and provoking one another to love and to Good Works in other words we should be encouraging each other and provoking each other to love and to good works and then he said not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together he said you need to keep going to church you need to keep going to the house of God you don't need to forsake the ass resembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is he said now there are some that have quit going to church they have quit attending the house of God he said don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching in other words going to the house of God has Eternal effects or can have eternal effects upon your life Paul said that as you see the day of the Lord approaching that we should be telling people to go to church more we should not be scheduling less church today we should be scheduling more church today the True Church of Jesus Christ the True Church of Jesus Christ we should not look at busy vacation schedules of our parishioners and see how many people are going to be going on vacation over the summer and say you know what it would be good if we would just cancel out all of our midweek Ser all of our midweek services for the entire summer and and let us go down to just having an hour of of power on Sunday morning I don't find that in the word of God in the word of God I find the opposite going on I find Paul saying as you see the day approaching you need to have church even more you need to have revivals and prayer meetings but I realize today that I'm preaching on television and the Bible just may not be good enough to get you stirred up so how about let's try yo University let's try yo University Yale University concluded a 28-year survey in which it discovered that people who attend church are happier enjoy Better Health and live longer than those who don't the survey involved 28,000 regular Church attendees and found out that they have lower blood pressure and stronger immunity to disease non I'm tell you there's some benefits is serving God non-church individuals had had a shortened lifespan if if you could find a pill that would do the above for you how much would you be willing to pay for it would anyone have to force you to take it now now look at this if you could find the pill that lower your blood pressure and give you stronger immunity to diseases and make you happier and live longer would you have to be forced to take it no you'd gladly take it folks the house of God is not a tedious task that must be perform it's a joy to gather together and begin to Worship the Lord in spirit and in truth no wonder King David said these words words no wonder King David said I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord and also he said I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever is it no wonder people who go to church have more Health prosperity and happier lives the the reason for this is found in Romans 12 and2 be not conformed to this world but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God can I tell you the church is on a different frequency than the world the church you can listen to music in the world you can listen to news and entertainment in the world and it not affect you like a good Apostolic Pentecostal church service with prayer with Bible reading with anointed preaching with Gathering up around the altar we are just on a different frequency we're on a different frequenc we're not singing songs about a tear in my beer we're not writing songs about All My Exes Live in Texas we're not live we're not singing songs I'm laying here with this one and I got you on my mind we sing the songs of Zion they are songs of uplift they are songs that either tell us about a God who has brought us out a God who is bringing us through this songs of Joy songs of Peace songs of Deliverance somebody said do you know what you get when you play a certain country song Back backwards said no what's that says you get your wife back your car back your dog back your job back well I don't know about you but I'm not of this world their music is not appealing to me and the music does very little to me but give me a song of My Redeemer sing me a song that says Jesus Jesus Jesus and I'll tell you there's times I've walked into the house of God weary in My Flesh and weary in my mind but let me take let me take a sedative of a good prayer meeting and a sedative of of a good sermon and I'm ready to get up and say I don't know where this strength has come from but I'm ready to get up and stay in this race and live for God and serve my God I guess if there was only a month if there was only a month to be lived before Jesus is coming and I had the church together I tell you don't miss a service if we just had a month and we knew the Lord was coming I guess I would just get up and say every night at 7:30 church every morning at 8:00 Church 12:00 church I guess we'd just have church all the time because church is a great sedative that lifts us up and puts us on a greater plane if you don't believe the Bible I got yell University to prove it but now there's also a study of negative effects this is a scriptural study you see if you don't go to church it can't have a positive effect on you so it will have a negative effect on you here are some of the negative effects of being unfaithful to the local church number one one is not being obedient to the Lord the Lord says forsake not the emblings of yourselves together number two we are not obeying the Great Commission how can we go into all the world and preach the gospel if we're not connected to a local church number three you are not putting Christ first in your life when's the last time a snowstorm stopped a basketball game over here at Thompson Bowling Arena when's the last time that a when's the last time that inclement weather caused them to call off a football game I've watched television and watched them play NFL football in the pouring down snow I've watched them have to park their car and walk for miles to get into the stadium but let there be fear let there be the hint of inclement weather and our early morning news is filled with churches that are cancelling out as they go across the bottom you may be seated one is not living a sacrific sacrificial life but rather a worldly life yes it takes sacrifice to come to the house of God it takes sacrifice I was recently not on the platform I was recently sitting out in the pews and observed a young mother trying to keep three children orderly during church I have a greater respect for young mothers now than I ever have I I don't I don't I that young mother needs to be given a gold star for living for God I'd have lost all my salvation back there yes it takes sacrifice to come yes it takes sacrifice to stay yes it takes sacrifice here but I'm here to tell you this is one sacrifice that will give you rich dividends those children that she's having to stay put those children that she's trying to make behave those children that she's going to make sure go to a Sunday school class it lessens the chance of the drug dealer getting a hold of them those children that that that their friends are going to be select it helps him have the ability to grow up with other young people of the same values one is a stumbling block to others one cannot edify when he is not being faithful to the church as a matter of fact one can even cause others to fall one cannot be filled with the holy spirit of God when he is Unfaithful one cannot serve God and be a good Steward without being faithful to him one cannot show he loves the Brethren by refusing to gather with them one cannot show he loves the Lord if he does not obey Christ do you know even it said about Jesus it says as his custom was he went into the synagogue do you know that Jesus had the custom of going to church as his custom was so if I had only 30 days before Jesus would come I would tell all of you church people don't miss a service in the house of God stay faithful to the Church of the Living God