Sunday Evening Worship Service

calling your attention tonight to the word of the lord ii chronicles the 28th chapter i'll give you a moment to turn there as we do i honor all of our leadership our pastoral staff bishop mccool pastor whitley pastor anthony all of our ministers in ministry i honor all of the faithful workers in ministry and all the different facets and outreaches of first apostolic church our sunday school outreach and there's all kind of different names of different groups and i can't call them all but i just honor you for the work that you do and then the ministry of apostolic kiddie academy and apostolic christian school the outreach uh this week had testimony uh sister dina so blessed me sister dinah luke as we were testifying about the goodness of the lord that the thing that first brought brother and sister luke to first apostolic church was apostolic christian school they brought their their boys here to go to apostolic christian school and that's what and they've been here forever they're just home folk and i want you to know this is truly an outreach of of this assembly this is part of the foundational ministry that the lord laid on our bishop's heart when he came to knoxville 64 years ago well almost 64 years i would remind us the 29th of this month we will be celebrating 64 years pastor steve smith from memphis tennessee will be ministering to us you don't want to miss that sunday morning sunday night but i'm thankful for that outreach and by the way i keep giving this little commercial we're uh we need laborers qualified workers to work in apostolic uh kitty academy we still have a couple of uh part-time positions and possibly full-time work available for anyone who's interested being involved in christian child care please check with the office they can give you all the particulars and all of the information that's needed remember that but god is blessing god is rewarding and i honor all those ministries second chronicles 28 beginning at verse number one ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 16 years in jerusalem notice but he did not that which was right inside of the lord like david his father skip down to verse 27 of that same chapter ii chronicles 28 27 says and they has slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city even in jerusalem notice but they brought him not into the sepulchre of the kings of israel and hezekiah his son reigned in his stead and then i would go to the next chapter ii chronicles 29 and we're going to read one verse verse number 36 ii chronicles 29 verse 36 says and hezekiah rejoiced in all the people that god had prepared the people for the thing was done suddenly for the thing was done suddenly tonight for a few minutes i want to speak to you on this subject let god work suddenly let god work suddenly let's pray savior i love you lord i'm thankful for the power of the holy ghost that we've already experienced in this place thank you for the praise and worship lord i thank you for the faithful saints of god who have been lifting your name up with sacrifices and praise now god let your word remind us refresh us renew us restore us and lord let it be the saving word for those who do not yet have salvation lord for all this we're grateful and thankful in your name we pray the name of jesus amen lord bless you you can be seated let god work suddenly in our fast-moving world we seem to want things done immediately yet it seems most things that happen suddenly have a negative connotation let me give you a couple of examples in athletics if an event goes into overtime many times they have sudden death over time that sounds terrible doesn't it they don't talk about sudden victory they talk about sudden death over time maybe because that losing in overtime hurts even worse than the good feelings of winning in overtime i don't know but they call it sudden death over time i've also heard it said that falling from a tall building is not what will kill you it's the sudden stop at the end that makes sense as well but sudden illness sudden storms sudden breakups or breakdowns seem to all signal the negative and seems in spite of all to catch us and unaware suddenness usually feels negative but our text gives a different slant on god doing something suddenly it said god did it suddenly but let's look back and see what god accomplished suddenly and what suddenly really means in the way god works in second chronicles 29 we read hezekiah has taken over the kingship from his deceased father we read in just a few brief statements that his father ahaz didn't lead as david had led he was involved in the separation and the breakup of the kingdoms between judah and israel and ahaz did a poor job leading the faction of judah that he would lead and when hezekiah inherited the kingship he inherited a mess hear me when a generation of leadership stops following and obeying god you're gonna in entertain and you're gonna inherit a mess so let me tell you a little bit about hezekiah in second chronicles 29 1. it says hezekiah began to reign when he was 5 and 20 years old his dad started at age 20. now he had age 25 is king and he reigned 9 and 20 years in jerusalem his mother's name was abijah the daughter of zechariah and notice he did that which was right in the sight of the lord according to all that david his father in other words his grandfather the generations back had done and notice what he did he in the first year of his reign in the first month opened the doors of the house of the lord and repaired them now there's two things you should gain from this statement number one you realize his dad had shut the doors of the church and number two he realized how important it was immediately upon taking charge to open the doors of the church back up and he brought in the priests the levites and gathered them together into the east street and he said unto them hear me levites sanctify now yourselves and sanctify the house of the lord of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place he said it's time to open things back up it's been shut down long enough my daddy did some things that he shouldn't done now if you take the time to read second chronicles 28 you can read about all the horrible things that ahaz did he closed the house of god he put out the fires of incense he took the all of the pots and precious things that had been put in the house of god to represent different things all of the vessels all of those things that went to the one true god and the bible says some of that stuff he cut it up he destroyed it he built immediately idols to baal the bible even says that he burned incense under every green tree this is what hezekiah's daddy had done but now hezekiah's in charge and he didn't waste any time in the first year in the first month he said we're going to open the church back up we're going to start burning incense back to god as we've been commanded we're going to get the priesthood back together and we're going to clean up this dirty mess that my daddy and his generation made hezekiah acknowledged the sins of his father you know some refuse to acknowledge the sins of their past and their lineage he is now breaking a full generational curse he said in verse 6 for our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the lord our god and have forsaken him have turned away their faces from the habitation of the lord and turned their backs and they have shut up the doors of the porch and put out the lamps they have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto god of israel wherefore the wrath of the lord was upon judah in jerusalem and he hath delivered them to trouble to astonishment to hissing as you see with your eyes man that's bad when you've done so terribly that it astonishes everyone around you you've taken a generation so far down god allowed syria to take them over again if you read more of that history they would fall into bondage to syria and thousands upon thousands would die even their own brothers between judah and israel would take those of judah into captivity and it would cause them to sin with the sin of slavery of their own people he said for lo our fathers have fallen by the sword our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this hezekiah saying an entire generation is being lost and has been lost because of the sins of my father and our fathers let me tell you there are some of you under the sound of my voice that you have been told that because of who your daddy is or who your mama is you'll never be much of anything you've had it repeated to you time and time again oh he'll never be anything he's just like his daddy he'll never be anything he's just like his mama now remember in scripture jesus approached the very elect they claimed that they were the descendants of abraham they were proud of where that came from jesus said no if you came from abraham said you'd do the works of your father he said you you're doing sinful things your daddy's the devil and i've got news for you if you're in a place today and you're living in sin it doesn't matter if you came from five generations of preachers and you're living in sin you're living the life of your daddy the devil it's time that we forget about where we came from and look where we're going it's time we stand up and say i'm gonna make a generational change it don't matter what mama did it don't matter what daddy was good or bad i've got a responsibility to serve god for myself hezekiah started looking around he said we're going back to church we're going to start having church look there's been folks got out of the habit of going to church doing all this pandemic stuff you need to get back into the habit of getting in the house of god yeah i've heard about all the variants and we'll do what we got to do but we're going to do our best to keep the doors open and keep having church we're going to keep we're going to keep sending praise and worship up to god we're going to send holy incense spiritually up to god we're going to get the filth out [Applause] you see i counted the highest of compliments when somebody tells me man you're like your daddy you sound like your father you remind me so much of your dad suffice to say i feel like my natural father is someone to aspire to be like but sadly there are too many men who have fathered children for that matter women who have mothered children who have been less than stellar models for their children not something they should aspire to emulate we have deadbeat dads tomcat daddies and poor excuses for pops that are not worthy of mimicking but you see now hezekiah realizes i've got to turn us back to god i've got to go back where we're supposed to be i've got to fix up what a has messed up so notice his actions the first thing he did he got his life right with god if you're in this house you can't fix another generation until you fix yourself first don't send your family to church bring them to church don't send your kids to the altar lead them to the altar don't tell them what they ought to be doing be an example of what they should be doing the first thing hezekiah did he said i got to get me right ii chronicles 29 10 he said now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the lord god of israel that his fifth wrath might turn away from us i got to clean me up first to fix a generational curse i've got to fix me so my prayers can get through then the next thing he did he started dressing addressing his sons his immediate family he wanted his family to be right ii chronicles 29 11 and we're going to walk through that so stay with me he said my sons be not now negligent teach your kids not to be negligent in serving god don't give them an example that there's anything more important than serving god fame wealth riches accomplishments all of those things have got to take second place behind serving god he said my sons be not negligent for the lord hath chosen you to stand before him to serve him that ye should minister unto him and burn incense he got his family back into doing the things that kept the house of god open he re-emphasized the church with all the people did you know many times we just take the church and its existence for granted first apostolic church i constantly brag on you for your faithfulness and your willing willingness to minister in every situation there's so many ministries and outreaches but sometimes we can take those things for granted some of you who god may have moved you to knoxville and you didn't grow up in first apostolic church i've had some of you come to me in the past brother mccool some of these folks don't really know what they've got sometimes we don't realize just how blessed we are what god has prove we'll take for granted all of the ministries that we can be involved with and we try to become a spiritual sponge that we suck everything in instead of redispersing it and letting god work through us because for the callings that we have he's given us much and it requires us to give much of ourselves and then i even found sister jamie's calling in verse 15 it said they gathered the brethren sanctified themselves came according to the commandment of the king by the words of the lord to clean the house of the lord she has a special ministry of cleaning and i'm thankful for that if sister jamie wasn't here we wouldn't be able to get in some of the closets around here i'm just telling you the truth i can brag on my wife i can pay for this later but she believes the house of god and she keeps a clean house at home but her first love she'll come over here i'll have some kind of meeting and i'll have my suit in town i'll look she's in work clothes what are you doing she said i'm cleaning out such-and-such so-and-so closet now that doesn't mean we're supposed to let her do that we're supposed to not junk those closets up she didn't tell me to say that either but this is more than a spiritual sense this is indicating hezekiah was indicating there should be such a love and such a care for the house of god it wasn't just the spiritual things it was the building itself he wanted all the filth out of the house he wanted the place cleaned up he was sending look when folks walk through these doors they don't need to find an unkept building they they need to find a clean place a place that's organized a place that's prepared for a move of god a church that starts on time some of y'all think i've stopped preaching started meddling but that's okay a church that knows how to start on time to be on time and also a church sometimes knows how to stop on time well somebody should have really said amen you had a chance to run and you blew it right there god will have a clean church the priest went into the inner part of the house of the lord to cleanse it and they brought out all the uncleanness that was found in the temple of the lord into the court of the house of the lord and the levites took it to carry it out abroad under the brook kidron they took it to the water there's some stuff we might ought to clean out of our houses and clean out of our lives and take it to the water and go down in jesus name and be cleansed for the remaining of our sins [Applause] now they begin on the first day of the first month to sanctify they didn't wait till two years into hezekiah's kingship and on the eighth day of the month came made of the porch of the lord so they sanctified the house of the lord in eight days and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end then they went into hezekiah the king and said we've cleansed all the house of the lord the altars of burnt offerings all the vessels there up the showbread table all the vessels thereof moreover all the vessels which king a has had in his reign did cast away in his transgression we have prepared and sanctified and behold they are they are before the altar of the lord i don't care what your daddy might have said wasn't important what does this say that the lord say it doesn't matter what lineage you come from it doesn't matter what traditional background you have what does thus say of the lord what does the word of god reveal to you you better look for revelation of the truth of who jesus is and understand it doesn't matter what your past is you don't have to carry any sins of the past but if god has given you a revelation of who he is you need to follow through and obey his word completely next has a guy he's cleansed himself he's cleansed his family he's given orders and all of the priests the levites they've gone in they've set the church physically back in order and notice what happened verse 20. then hezekiah the king rose up early gathered the rulers of the city and went to the house of the lord and they brought seven bullocks and seven rams and seven lambs and seven he goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for judah and he commanded the priests the sons of aaron to offer them on the altars of the the altar of the lord so they killed the bullocks and the priests received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar likewise then they had killed the rams they sprinkled the blood upon the altar they all they killed also the lambs and sprinkled the blood upon the altar and they brought forth the he goats for sin offerings before the king and the congregation and they laid their hands on them and the priests killed them and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar to make an atonement for all israel for the king commanded that the burnt offerings and the sin offerings should be made for all israel they reinstituted sacrifice i said they reinstituted sacrifice do you know sometimes god blesses us so much that we stop giving of ourselves in sacrifice we give out of abundance let that sink in just a minute there were times in some of our lives that it was more difficult to pay twenty dollars tithe on a 200 check than it is to pay tithe on what god has blessed us with now and to give an extra offering of thanks if we aren't careful we'll find ourselves forgetting how to sacrifice how to sacrifice our time by giving of our abilities and the things that god has blessed us with so some of us the very vocations that we are doing now we got early training working right here at first apostolic church and if we aren't careful we'll forget to give of ourselves anymore into sacrifice unto the lord but i continue 4. in verse 25 it said he set the levites in the house of the lord with symbols with psalteries with harps according to the commandment of david he reinstituted praise and worship somewhere along the way as they praised baal and they built their idols in ahaz rule that lost their praise and worship that forgot what it was like for the holy ghost just to take over in their service if you will god help us if we ever get too formal that we can't praise and worship god god help us in our personal life if we get too formal that we can't personally give god praise and give him worship he it said he he got all of the levites together he started handing out symbols i know that scares some people to death he started handing out symbols psalm trees and harps according to the commandment of david and of gad the king seer and nathan the prophet for so was the commandment of the lord by his prophets and the levites stood with the trump with the instruments of david and the priests with trumpets man he put a band back together hezekiah's band is getting back together hezekiah commanded to offer the burn offerings upon the altar and when the burn offerings begin the song of the lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments and ordained by king by david king of israel they went back and started singing some old psalms you check it out when this praise team gets up here when the choir comes to sing many times if you'll do a little research you'll find that they're singing psalms of david even now oh they may not have the same tune that you expected but there's no written music all we have are the words so if they're if the next generation has a little bit different feel to it i'm going to get with it when they start singing the psalms of praise and start singing the worship songs i want to have praise and worship in my lives and all the congregation and all the congregation and all the congregation worshiped and the singers sang and the trumpeters sounded and all this continued until the burn offering was finished they said we're going to have praise and worship and everybody's going to be involved if i can't sing i can worship if i can't play i can praise i can find someone way to elevate the king of kings and the lord of lords i'm going to worship and when they had made an end of the offering the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped moreover king hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the levites to sing praises in the lord with the words of david and with asap the seer and they sang praises with gladness and they bowed their heads and worshipped someone may need to be reinstituting praise and worship in your life and i won't read the whole thing but suffice to say they now begin consecrating themselves and it gives all of the numbers of how many sacrifices were brought in fact they brought so many sacrifices that verse 34 says the priests were too few they didn't have enough priests so that they could not fillet all the burnt offerings they couldn't offer all the there were so many sacrifices such a free sacrifice it said in verse 35 so the service of the house of the lord was set in order and hezekiah rejoiced in all the people that god had prepared the people and here's what i found so interesting because some of you are wondering what about your title let god work suddenly didn't sound like all this took place suddenly did it let me tell you there's some of us want god to do something immediately but we won't do our part we're looking for this magic potion i'm not going to change my ways i'm not going to consecrate and sanctify myself i'm not going to defeat generational curse that's been on me but i just want god to do something suddenly god can't do things suddenly unless we've prepared for it to take place somebody hear me tonight god can't do a sudden work unless you've already prepared the way unless you've made preparation you've got worship and praise in your life you've cleaned yourself up you've cleaned your life up oh yeah he does miracles instantly but the reason he can do that is because somebody's prepared and made a way for a miracle to take place [Applause] in john maxwell's book developing the leader with nu 2.0 he gives the formula for becoming an overnight success would you like to know the secret to being overnight i want to be an overnight success that's suddenly overnight here's john maxwell's way of becoming an overnight success he said show up every day you work hard try new things you fail and you improve you grow you face countless challenges and rejections you doubt yourselves you want to quit but you don't and you do it all over again and again do this for months years or even decades and you can become an overnight success let me tell you if you want god to do some miracles in your life suddenly you need to prepare yourself for the long haul your commitment needs to be not just long enough to get this prayer answered god's not a spare tire in your when you've got some kind of trouble you can get him out and make it through an emergency situation he wants to to find a people that's praised a people that's prepared a people that's worshipped they said i'm going to lay aside my past i'm going to lay aside those things and i'm going to make a concerted effort do i deserve his blessings no but you see when we prepare god will work suddenly in our when you least expect it i've seen folks come in the first apostolic church their lives so torn by sin so wrecked generational sins have beaten them down their reputation seems impossible to overcome i've seen them with so little to give but i've seen them just start putting their lives under the plan of god and in just a little while i've had him come to me brother mccool i don't know how this happened how could i be like this god's done so much for me god's changed me he's cleaned me up he's provided for me it's because they begin committing their lives to him scripture is full of sudden responses from god you need deliverance acts 16 you can read about it verse 23 we read this is talking about paul and silas when they had laid many stripes upon them they cast them into prison chain charging the jailer to keep them safe who having received such a charge thrust them in the inner prison and made their feet fast in stocks but that doesn't sound like deliverance is coming does it they got put in the inner part of the prison prison's bad enough the inner prison sounds really bad but it said and at midnight paul and silas prayed and sang praises unto god and the prisoners heard them let me tell you sometimes you got to get loud in your praise sometimes other folks are going to hear you praising and worshiping you may be needing deliverance but if you can say oh god i'm going to sing praises i'm going to worship because here's what the bible says and suddenly there was a great earthquake you see they had already prepared they knew how to pray in prison they knew how to sing in prison they knew how to lift their voice and suddenly there was an earthquake god knew how to do something suddenly to bring deliverance if you'll just do your part when you least expect it suddenly god's going to do something [Applause] it shook the foundations of the prison the doors were open everyone spams were there was deliverance preacher i'm needing healing remember the woman in luke 8 who had an issue of blood for 12 years she'd spent all her living on physicians neither could be healed of any but oh when she fought her way through the press and she reached and touched jesus she could have been sitting home saying there's no use to bother anymore i've been to the doctors for 12 years there's a long process but i have a feeling that lady somewhere along the way had some faith built up in her if i can just get to jesus if i can just touch jesus hear me in this house don't you give up if you're needing a healing from the lord keep fighting your way through the press because here's what happened when she touched his garment the bible says immediately that means suddenly something happened keep fighting your way through there's an immediate healing for you god's got a healing in your future if you'll just stay faithful preacher i need forgiveness i need to be forgiven john 8 we read about the woman caught in the very act of adultery she was in the midst of the scribes and the pharisees there was no trial to see if you're guilty or innocent they didn't need to go back and look at the tape there were witnesses to her sin and making support of her they took her before jesus and they pulled the law on jesus humanity will try to pull the law on you when you need forgiveness humanity will try to leverage you to kill you spiritually with the law they said now moses in the law commanded us that we should stone her what do you say and they kept asking jesus they kept pressing jesus he lifted up himself and said he that's without sin among you let him cast the first stone at her again he stooped down and he wrote on the ground scripture does not record what he wrote on the ground so i have as much right to imagine what he wrote as anybody else does could it be that jesus wrote where's the man or could it be he began making a list of names on the ground because he'd said he that's without sin among you let him cast the first you see there was a process taking place jesus was doing something miraculous even among those who were so pious and pharisaical again he stooped down he wrote on the ground and they which heard it being convicted of their own conscience the bible said went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last and jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst because she had put her life in jesus hands suddenly there were no more accusers suddenly that throng of vile vicious rock throwing super pious folks suddenly they disappeared when jesus lifted up himself and saw none but the woman he said in their woman where thine are those dying accusers hath no man condemn thee she said no man lord and jesus said unto her neither do i condemn thee go and sin no more if you're needing forgiveness for sin tonight i'm here to tell you god wants to do that suddenly jesus wants to forgive your sin all he asks you to do is quit sinning you you want some long penance no you want something you need to repeat you want some device that no quit sinning he said go and sin no more would you stand with me the most important thing we should desire in this house is the gift of salvation do you remember how in the new dispensation of grace do you remember how the holy ghost came on the day of pentecost we quoted all the time and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord and in one place and what and suddenly and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared in them cloven tongues tongues like as a fire and sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them entrance that's the experience i want i want that suddenly experience if you want to have that you know what they had to do to have a sudden experience they first had to tarry they had to tarry first because if you go back and luke read in luke 24 he opened up their understanding to scripture he explained the crucifixion he told them that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name the name of jesus among all nations beginning there at jerusalem he said you're witnesses to these things and luke 24 49 and behold i send the promise of the father upon you but tarry ye in the city of jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high the sudden falling of the holy ghost comes from folks who aren't ashamed to tarry and say god i'm repenting of my sins could we bow our heads just a moment [Music] if you're in this house tonight [Music] and you've never repented of your sins that's the first step [Music] in inviting jesus into your life that enacts his perfect grace to say jesus i'm sorry for my sinning forgive me peter preached it on the day of pentecost he said repent be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sin that's the process to repent to be baptized in the name of jesus for the remission for the washing away of your sins and he said you shall receive the gift of the holy that's that sudden experience that's that suddenness of the power of christ living inside you coming in if you haven't had that experience tonight i will pause for a moment with every head bowed and every eye closed i give anyone in this house who's not yet repented of their sins the first opportunity if you would like to come to an altar of repentance and say god i'm sorry for my sinning i want to receive you into my life i i give you that opportunity first please please please i asked the church family to pray for just a few moments savior we're calling on you savior we're trusting in you right now hallelujah hallelujah if you haven't yet repented of your sins you have the opportunity to come first don't worry about what anybody else would think don't worry about what anyone else would say i'm just giving you a head start because we're getting ready in just a moment to fill this altar with believers [Music] then here's what i would like to happen i want every believer in the house [Music] that wants god to continue working in your life suddenly you want the suddenness of his touch when it's most needed i would ask you to step out in the aisle make your way around the altar for a season of prayer to say god i want you to continue moving in my life suddenly i want to be prepared for you to do a work whatever that work would be i'm believing you for it i'm trusting you for it in the name of jesus hallelujah praise team would you lead us in song right now hallelujah [Music] yes lord hallelujah [Music] [Music] suddenly lord would you work in my life suddenly lord [Music] i live to worship you lord hallelujah hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] here i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] lifted [Music] here i am [Music] [Applause] down [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you i'm gonna worship you forever [Applause] [Music] forever [Music] forever [Music] worship [Music] [Applause] would you love jesus would you love him just a few more moments savior i worship you lord i thank you for working suddenly in my life god let me be dedicated to looking forward lord let me be dedicated to keeping my life and my family in the directions that i take in your will savior lord we bless your name we bless your name we bless your name in jesus name we pray hallelujah hallelujah would you give jesus one more clap offering of praise first apostolic church thank you for always providing a way that god can work suddenly in our lives i give you this as well because jesus is coming back suddenly in fact mark said that we should be vigilant we should watch lest coming suddenly he finds you asleep [Music] he's coming back for a church that's aware and working in his kingdom