Sunday Evening Worship Service | Pastor McCool

Lord bless you I'm gonna let you start moving back to your seats Hallelujah we greet you and we welcome you to Sunday night worship service here at First Apostolic Church what a privilege and honor it is to be back in the house of the Lord we welcome all of those who are joining us on all the multiple multimedia platforms I I start naming those and I'll forget something suffice to say if you're joining us in service we're honored to have you and we welcome all of our guests that are here tonight I want to say a special welcome to a couple that's here I want to say a special welcome to Howard and Tanya beers and I hope I'm pronouncing your name right I I told Howard this morning he gets a chance to be a visitor one time and then when you come back to your home folks so Howard Your Home Folks now Tanya your home folk we're honored to have you all can we welcome them to First Apostolic church tonight Lord bless you to any other guests that might be with us for your first time we are honored that you chose to worship with us and we thank you for being here in the house of the Lord I want to say a special uh reminder and amen again to the announcements that have been made before me especially I want to remind all the ladies of First Apostolic church every lady you are invited for a special time this coming Friday night there'll be Fellowship for the ladies from 6 30 to 7 30 there will be uh hors d'oeuvres there will be snacks served and then at 7 30. it's going to be a special time this is a service that is geared for well-being for wellness for our women there'll be a myriad of subjects discussed sister Ashley Grizzle she's an Apostolic pastor's wife first of all she's also a licensed counselor and I she will be talking to Apostolic women about Apostolic women's issues and how Incorporated with the word of the Lord some mighty mighty things that you will want to know and I encourage every woman to be here if you have a friend that doesn't attend First Apostolic church if you have a lady that you know welcome them we're gonna we're inviting all of the ladies from Apostolic Christian school every parent they of the ladies every eight k a parent lady that can be with us so I encourage all the ladies to be in that meeting on this coming Friday night thank you Pastor Anthony for a marvelous word this morning what a privilege it is to hear the word thank you so much for ministering to us I would give you a a word to let you know where pastor and sister Whitley and uh sister Easton R they are in Wilmington North Carolina ministering uh coincidentally for the Grizzles uh sister Grizzle will be with us Friday but they are there for a series of services uh with brother and sister Grizzle and we're praying for them the Lord would would give themselves for their labor and they will be home tomorrow but we're continuing to pray for them call your attention tonight to a special passage of scripture The Book of Mark the 11th chapter The Book of Mark the 11th chapter we're going to begin reading at verse number 23 and we'll read four verses Mark 11 23 for verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he had saith therefore I say unto you what things soever you desire When you pray believe that you receive them and ye shall have them verse 23 and 24 are very special faith building scriptures but I would ask you to notice that they do not stand alone for verse 25 that follows is tied directly to verse 23 and 24 it says and when you stand praying forgive if you have awed against any that your father also which is in heaven May forgive you your trespasses but if you do not forgive neither will your father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses for a few moments tonight I would speak to you on this subject stand up and pray stand up and pray let's pray right now savior I love you God I'm grateful for the opportunity to study your word I thank you for your precious presence that we have so mildly already received I thank you for the praise team the musicians the technicians who have set a stage that we can have our hearts open to receive you now God not of my words but of your word let us study tonight and receive all you have for us in the name of Jesus we do pray amen stand up and pray Alexander Hamilton said those who stand for nothing fall for everything the posture of refusing to stand has been used by many as a statement of disagreement disrespect and dissension Perry Collins a licensed attorney in three United three states in the United States and a judge for many years address this question they asked her what if I refuse to stand for the judge in court here was her answer if you mean that a criminal defendant or a party in a civil case refuses to stand when the judge entered in U.S District Court bad things will likely result quickly it's a federal court where they are quite busy and not inclined to indulge nonsense from anyone if the person's attorney doesn't get them to their feet there are uniformed Federal officers present to get them up or to remove them to a jail cell where they can sit and meditate upon the foolishness of starting their trial by being disrespectful of the Court that is going to decide their case the respect is owed to the court and the physical representation representation representation of that court and the entire legal system is the presiding judge anyone who shows open contempt to that judge is not very intelligent they're not hurting the judge personally although some people seem to think that they are getting the judge in some manner in a civil case contempt is what could get a party in to a jail cell instead of merely costing them money so it's unbelievably stupid to engage in such Behavior it's not like when the judge comes in you're supposed to stand up to me sadly in some recent days some have refused to stand for the national anthem trying to make a public statement about their disagreement with some policy or law of our nation others have refused to stand for the pledge to the flag of the United States of America this is my statement don't attribute this to the Bible this is my statement and these folks do not realize that the symbols they are openly disrespecting also represent the freedoms that afford them the right to be so disrespectful there's some things y'all stand up for our text is one of the greatest faith building texts that there is if you can say unto this mountain be thou removed be cast in the sea if you believe without doubting it shall be done Jesus was making a statement about the importance of complete faith it's the Mountain Moving scripture but it is tied directly to the statement about prayer that talks about when you stand praying now I'm not doing violence when I talk about standing to pray and taking a stand I'm not doing violence or misinterpreting but just stay with me a few moments and I hope you can see where we're going with this understand that the context of Jesus words to his disciple were statements made just immediately after Jesus had taken a stand he made these statements right after he went into the temple and turned over the tables of the money changers he took a stand against their greedy commercialization of the idea of blood sacrifice in the temple and I certainly tell everyone you need to know how to take a stand for certain things in your life we should stand for our beliefs we should stand up for ourselves we should stand for our God we should stand for our rights we should stand up for the less fortunate we should stand for truth we should stand for our families we should stand against Prejudice we should stand Against Racism we should stand against the murder of The Unborn there's some things we ought to take a stand for and stand against but the Don Johnson used to sing a song and said I'll stand for Jesus and let the world go by so tonight in this message I want to encourage us to stand up for prayer it seems that many no longer want to stand for prayer in fact many laws rules and special interest groups are saying we won't stand for prayer let alone stand to pray we won't stand for you praying in our schools we won't stand for you praying at public athletic events we won't stand for you praying at the city council we won't stand for you praying in public places but you see it seems that scripture was giving us an important directive about standing and praying let us realize that verse 25 States a posture for prayer and it states a focused agenda for what you do when you stand pray now let me pause here and let you know that some folks can do the right thing for the wrong reasons Jesus bore this out Jesus said in Matthew 6 5 and when thou prayest thou shall not be as the Hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men verily I say unto you they have their reward they're standing praying but they're standing praying for the wrong reason it's so they everybody can look at me now in fact if you read that entire passage I won't take the time to go through it all but if you read the first part of Matthew 6 from 1 to about seven you'll find out that Jesus speaks against giving for the wrong reason he speaks against praying for the wrong reason and he speaks against fasting for the wrong reason heaven knows that I'm forgiving I'm for praying and I'm for fasting those are tendons tenants of our faith but I'm not for doing it for the wrong way he basically said if you give alms so everybody can see how you're giving that's all the rewards you're going to get out of it he said if you pray so everybody will say look at me what a prayer Warrior I am you're praying for the wrong reason he said if you fast and you disfigure your face and you you go around saying I'm so hungry I said you wash your face said folks won't even know that you're fasting if you're fasting for the right reason but sadly too many find tenants of Faith becoming rules to draw attention to oneself now you got to understand how matter of fact it is to live with Jamie McCool she says things that I think sometimes and then I wish I'd have said it instead of her there's been a few times and maybe nobody else has ever experienced this but me but have you have you ever been someplace that uh you're outside you're near the street or you're near a parking lot and somebody is apparently wanting to be seen maybe they're in a H I'll use one of our words a hopped up souped-up vehicle and they can't just pull out of the parking lot they'll go of course everybody does you know invariably I'll hear Jamie say all right we've seen you go on can I get a witness in the house or when you're also sitting at a traffic light and your windows are up and your air conditioning is going she knows I'm talking about her now and she knows she can't deny it and somebody pulls up and you can feel that's all I got y'all she'll say we've seen you now turn it down and invariable I'll think in my mind man I wish I'd have said that because that's what I was thinking if you pray for the for the reason standing all your the rewards you're going to get everybody saw you but there's really a different reason that we're given that we need to stand and pray and stand up for prayer I contend the real reason we need to stand and pray is a selfish reason because when you stand praying forgive it means you need to pray for yourself and your spirit to have a forgiving spirit you're not praying for anybody else you're not saying oh God let them forgive oh God let them be smitten for what they've done to me when you stand praying forgive you're praying for yourself this is the one time you can be selfish in your prayers you're saying oh God make my spirit right oh god look down inside me I know it's about posture and you can pray that way kneeling or laying flat in your back or on your face but he said when you stand praying forgive it lets me know there's a time I need to take a stand for prayer of forgiveness in my own life some folks don't really know how to completely forgive forgive it's a tough prayer to pray some will say man I'm going to forgive that individual just enough to get to heaven you may need to be standing and praying again I'm going to forgive but I'm not going to forget forget it you're really saying I need a little wiggle room so I can bring the issue back up if I need to to gain an advantage maybe you're needing to stand up and pray again maybe you're needing to say God let me give complete forgiveness God cleansed me completely of the thing I've been carrying for you see if you don't forgive you can't have Mountain Moving faith they're tied together as long as you're carrying a grudge as long as you have unforgiveness in your heart forget Moving Mountains for you see we like to think of being so powerful with God that we can look over toward Mount lacot and say be removed and then jump in the ocean but what figuratively is also being said here the mountain of offense being offended because that's what he started out addressing he talked about that there would be offense when you stand if you have art against anyone you see scripturally offense appears to be unavoidable in Luke 17 1 Jesus said to his disciples it is impossible but that offenses will come but woe unto them through whom they come it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast it and he cast into the seed then he should offend one of these little ones he was talking about being offending a child and he said take heed to yourselves If thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him you don't have an option and when rebuke means that you address the situation that's right that's right that don't mean you go getting somebody's face like we used to say every hair getting their eyes like onions but it means rather than avoiding situations and let them Fester sometimes misunderstandings unaddressed turn into a seething injury that gets infected with bitterness and it grows and grows and grows he said if there's an issue address it and look for someone to say I forgive and say it's over forget it well bring the cool the problem is I did that and he did it again well you didn't read verse 4. for it says if he trespass against these seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again today and saying I Repent Thou shalt forgive him you know what the disciples said when Jesus taught that the Apostle said to the Lord increase our faith I just don't know if I can do that or not I just don't know if I I've got that much faith he said when you stand praying forgive the mountains of fence take a great Measure of Faith to move many pitfalls of sin hear me many pitfalls of sin can be identified and traced back to offended people defended carry a greater weight than a millstone about their neck Paul even addressed the idea of holding grudges in second Corinthians 2 1 he said but I determined this with myself that I would not come again to you in heaviness for if I make you sorry who is he then that maketh me glad but the same which is made Sorry by me and I wrote this same unto you lest when I came I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to Rejoice having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all for out of much Affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears not that ye should be grieved but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly for you for if any have caused grief he hath not grieved me but in part that I may not overcharge you all sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many so the contrary Wise you ought rather to forgive him now what he's talking about is holding grudges and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him for to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you whether you be obedient in all things to whom ye forgive anything I forgive also now Paul's addressing some things here that if you don't read this carefully carefully you'll skip right over it Paul is addressing team grudges I'll call it you hurt my friend so if you hurt my friend I got a grudge against you they never mistake people do form alliances that's in our Humanity now I please stay with me tonight I realize we're not walking the bench backs and swinging from the chandeliers we don't have uh but you better hear me this is what will keep us if we understand if we're going to be christ-like there's some stuff preacher you seem to preach on forgiveness like you know why because we have to do a lot of forgiving because every one of us have flesh and things hurt our feelings things upset us and we constantly seem in our flesh to be looking for a reason to hold a grudge at somebody or something and that limits our faith do ye forgive anything I forgive also for if I forgave anything to whom I forgave it for your sakes forgive out it in the person of Christ lest Satan should get advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices people who hold grudges are miserable they allow their own existence to be constantly affected by the very individual or individuals that they feel wronged by they allow them to affect their happiness their conversations their activities their Church attendance it'll even affect where they shop I started in Walmart and saw him said nope can't go in there in short unforgiveness is followed by bitterness Hebrews said it this way looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness spring up trouble you and thereby many be defiled there's that team Grudge and team bitterness I've been telling you about if you're not careful you'll put bitterness in your children you'll put bitterness in your spouse they don't even have an issue with the situation but you can be bitter enough about something that your kids are holding a grudge at somebody and I don't even know what it's about I just know Mama didn't like them so I don't like them I just know Daddy didn't like them so I'm not gonna have anything to do with them it has been said that bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die the psalmist said in Psalms 119 165 great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them don't afford yourself a temporarily satisfaction of being bitter and offended oh I'm not offended I'm just hurt well potato potato it's the same thing you see the mountains of offenses that we need to remove many times are hurts that we've harbored for a long time James 3 1 says my brethren be not many Masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation for any for if many if in many things we offend all If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able to Bridle the whole body all you perfect people you can leave now you get early dismissal from church tonight all the perfect folks y'all can go on notice I didn't leave either in fact I wouldn't even be qualified to lock up at the end after everybody left for If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man Ecclesiastes 12 9 says or moreover because the preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge yeah he gave good heed and sought out and said it ordered many Proverbs the preacher sought to find out acceptable words you know one of the greatest challenges there is about preaching the gospel is try to tell people when they're doing wrong without offending them it's a difficult tightrope that you walk oh brother McCoo you ought to just say it let it fall where it may I've got news for you God is not looking for us to be boorish and bullish with his word it's his word it's not my word and I want to present it with as much love as I can it's still truth we've got to keep crying out against sin but we don't ever need to have personal agendas that we're calling people names and we're being abusive to people the people of God need to hear the word of God With Love presented listen the doctrine of the Jesus name Apostolic message is the most beautiful thing there is we don't need to abuse people with it we need to tell them what a great life this is we don't need to be condemning people to hell we need to be directing them to heaven oh hear me we don't have time to be bullies hallelujah hallelujah the preacher sought to find out acceptable words oh god look down inside me oh when I prepare a message oh God let me say things the right way I want to cry out against sin I want your word to convict Hearts not because I'm trying to beat somebody over the head but I want to love them into repentance I want them to enjoy the blessings of serving God preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth proverbs 18. I'll skip through just a bit through desire a man having separated himself seeketh thee inter medalith with all wisdom food will have no Delight in understanding but that his heart may discover itself when the wicked cometh then cometh also contempt and ignomy or shameful reproach the words of a man's mouth are as deep Waters and the Wellsprings of wisdom as a flowing Brook it is not good to accept the person of wicked of the wicked to overthrow the righteous in judgment a Fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes a Fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul the words of a tale Bearer are as wounds let it speak to you and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly he also that is Soulful in his work is is brother to him that is a greater waster a great waster and after all of that after all that verse 10 said the name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous runeth into it and is safe if there's something been bothering you start going into the name of the Lord Pastor Anthony had his call on Jesus at the beginning of the service if there's some kind of issue you're having a problem with the first thing you need to start saying is Jesus Jesus it happens when you call on issues start becoming small when I can say oh Jesus help me oh Jesus I'm calling on you oh Hallelujah [Applause] he goes on to give warning in Proverbs of words it said he that answered the matter before he hears it is folly and shaming him this is talking about making snap judgments you know there's some folks that hear you but they don't listen to you because they're thinking up an answer before you ever finish saying what you got to say sometimes you need to hear the whole matter don't make a snap judgment the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity but a wounded Spirit who can bear The Heart Of The Prudent giveth knowledge and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge let me tell us we need to look for wisdom rather than seeking allies a man's gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before Great Men he that is first in his own cause seemeth judge just in other words you're on your side your side's always the right side but his neighbor cometh and search him the Lord causeth contention deceive and pardons between the mighty sometimes you need a holy ghost-filled person to speak into your life before you get too offended you now let me back up when I say you need someone to speak into your life you need to have a holy ghost fill voice in your life your Barber and your mechanic may not be the best person to go to to get advice if you think that works then the next time you need a haircut once you let me cut your hair and For Heaven's Sake if I work on your car you're not going anywhere you need to find spiritually sensitive voices and keep those in your life not somebody that's going to stir you up and give you some advice to cause some kind of War to take place in your life you need to find spiritual folks that take the time to pray and not make snap judgment verse 19 said our brother offended is harder to be one than a strong City and their contentions are like the bars of a castle strong cities of offense we've got to have faith to move mountains men's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled and verse 21 says death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof is it any wonder that the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost is speaking with tongues because if you can't surrender your tongue you're going to have a hard time being obedient to the spirit of God in you but understand faith building in your own life comes from forgiveness praise team musicians make your way I have no advice what you can sing that would be appropriate with such a message faith building in your own life comes with forgiveness Mountain Moving comes with forgiveness the first time I find forgiveness or the word forgive actually in the Bible is used in the Book of Genesis the 50th chapter the first time the word forgive is used is used when Joseph's brothers have approached him remembering all of the dastardly things that they did to him this young child because of their jealousies because they envied and was so jealous of his relationship with their father because of his dreams oh I can't tell you that Joseph did everything perfect God gave him dreams of of him having Dominion and probably some of those things had probably been better off to kept himself but he had told these dreams of how they were symbolism of his brothers bowing down to him and they resented it to the point that they would eventually first plot to kill him a voice of a little reason said don't kill him let's just sell him and they sold him to slavery his journey would go to Egypt through the prison of Egypt but he would behave himself wisely and through all the trials of it being light on in Egypt as well accused of attempting to rape his master's wife once again God's hand would be with him and he would be exonerated and he would rise to second in command in Egypt famine would take place for his natural brothers and eventually the father would send them to Egypt and they would find themselves standing for before a brother that they had so mistreated and utterly changed his life please hear me tonight I don't know what your situation is in your life but there's folks under the sound of my voice there's people out there on the internet someone has wronged you so bad that has changed the course of your life forever and by man's standards and by the fleshy standards there's no room for forgiveness for that individual but I'm here to tell you tonight you need to stand up and pray because that forgiveness is not about them it's about you you're needing a cleansing you need a forgiving inside you so you can go on it's not even about them it's about you tonight verse 17 of Genesis 50 said so shall you say unto Joseph forgive I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren in their sin he had the power of life and death at his command they can be sent away starving or they can be imprisoned or put to death at his command for they did unto thee evil and now we pray thee forgive the trespasses of thy Servants of the god of thy father Joseph wept when they spake unto him and his brother-in-law also went and fell down before his face and they said behold we be thy servants and Joseph said unto them fear not for I for am I in the place of God but as for you you thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive now therefore fear ye not I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted them and spake kindly unto them [Music] this is a call tonight for a standing prayer meeting if Jesus is our example he was the ultimate even as he hung on the cross he said father forgive them for they know not what they do he was that example would you stand I wonder [Music] here in this house tonight that you're needing to have a standing room only prayer meeting I wonder if we can find a time tonight not to pray about anybody else not to pray for anything else but just have a standing prayer meeting and come around this altar and say God I want to have a spirit of forgiveness nothing in particular I just want to have a spirit to forget is there somebody would like to come and have that Spirit tonight would you come standing this in the time to kneel tonight's going to be a standing room only prayer meeting I want you to come and say God cleanse me Lord I want to pray about me God let me have a forgiving spirit this is not a spirit of naivety this is not a spirit of overlooking sin this is not a spirit of overlooking trespass but this is about me tonight Lord God let me be cleansed could we lift our voices in prayer right now as they sing God I love you God I stand before you Lord I pray that you would give me forgiveness God let there not be one minute inside my heart God if there's one thing that I would hold against someone God would you cleanse me God would you cleanse me Lord Lord [Music] God whatever it has been Lord whatever is in my past Lord if there's anything I've been holding God I want to have Mountain Moving faith God I'm gonna let it go Hallelujah that's right right now let it go let it go let it go get it out cleanse me Hallelujah [Music] when you're clean others but the spirit of the Holy Ghost to come in mind that it's true repentance have you given forgiveness [Music] God I pray right now speak through Hearts right now thank you okay [Music] it's all about oh this is [Music] all about now it's all about you about it's not about me now would you lift your hands and love Jesus again Hallelujah savior I thank you for the load that's lifted right now Lord I Thank you for the load that's lifted from my life God let me start fresh and clean before you God let me leave holding nothing back reserving nothing back but your love Lord you have so freely forgiven me God you've forgiven me of so many things God let me have your spirit let me be like you in my forgiveness Lord claim it in Jesus name I claim it in Jesus name hallelujah hallelujah would you go from this house tonight joyous that you're forgiven and you have given forgiveness about everything in your life that's the mountain that's moved look that Mountain's gone look that Horizon it's fresh there's nothing blocking my view that Mountain's gone claiming tonight in Jesus name would you greet your brothers and sisters and love them remember Wednesday night worshiping the word with Bishop McCool gonna have a great time Lord