Sunday Evening Worship Service

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory. Give praise to Jesus. Hallelujah. The God we serve is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yet, we got a new thing coming. There's something fresh and new for everybody in this house in Jesus. Glory, glory, glory. I'm going to let you be seated. I want to put your mind at ease. First of all, let me say welcome to all of our guests. This is your first time in an apostolic service. Please, I make no apologies for our enthusiasm, but I ask you if you don't understand, just keep on coming back. This will grow on you. You'll like it more every time you come. For those who are joining us online, thank you on all the multimedia platforms. Thank you for worshiping with us. Come and be with us at your first opportunity. And I told you earlier this is a an unusual progression and chronology of service tonight. And uh uh I believe in letting everything be done decently and in order. We have an order of service. God has already intervened and done mighty works that you may not even know the results. In fact, I may not know the results. But that doesn't matter. God has already done a mighty work of deliverance in this house. Go ahead and give him a great big hand. And I would let you know that I am not a a preacher of such ego that feels like that my prepared message must be given tonight before the service is complete. So, I'm not going to preach, but if I were going to preach, I'm going to tell you what I was going to preach. I I will uh abridge and abbreviate a bit, but I think we're right in order, and God has already done a marvelous work. But had I preached, I was going to use the book of Joshua as my text, the seventh chapter. And I'll paraphrase rather than reading all for it tells of the discovery of the oursed thing that Achen parttook of just after God's people had victoriously defeated Jericho. Now think about it. God had blessed them, had done an amazing work, and had miraculously delivered them. They had obeyed him and all of his commands as they marched around Jericho. And just after that victory, they had as the walls of Jericho fell, they had gone in. But there were some that were so confident in God's victorious hand, thinking it was their ability that they violated God's word and they they ptook, the Bible says, of the oursed thing. And as they begin their journey just after victory of overconfidence, they would come up against a small compared to Jericho city named Ai. And the men would counsel Joshua and say, "Hey, we don't even even need to take a full force." He said, "Just two, three thousand men. We'll go in and take Ai." And the Bible tells us that the children of Israel fled before the men of Ai. And 36 men lost their lives. And Joshua fell on his face before God. And if you read it, and again I I'll if you want some homework to get the details, go back and read Joshua the 7th chapter, you'll find that Joshua didn't understand how could we lose after such a great victory. And he began to whine. He said, "We're going to lose our reputation. And everybody is going to the way the Bible names it, it says environ or dwell around us because they're not fearful of our abilities anymore. And and God, your name is not going to get glory because we've been defeated and we fled from our enemies. God basically chided Joshua and said, "Quit whining. Get up and go find the evil that's in the camp." Joshua did this and Joshua began questioning every leader of every tribe in the tribes of Israel and eventually in Joshua chapter 7 he would come to Achen's tent and he told Achen he said give glory to God and make confession unto him excuse me and Achen confessed He said, "I've sinned." And here's the progression that Achen gave. Achen said, "I saw." He saw the spoils of the Babylonian goods and the Babylonian garments. He said, "I saw, I coveted, I took, and I hid." Remember those four things. He said, "I saw it. I coveted it. I took it and then I hid it. Understand this is the way the progression of sin works in lives. The Bible gives us strict instructions about what we allow our eyes to see. The Bible gives us cautions that we should not even walk by what we see. It says we walk by faith and not by sight. The psalmist said, "I'll behave myself wisely in a perfect way, and I will walk within my house with a perfect heart." And then he went on to say, "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes." I would tell us all if I were going to preach tonight, you better be careful where your eyes lead you. You better be cautious of what you see and how it directs you. Jesus said that the light of the body is the eyes. It said if the whole if the eye be single the whole body shall be full of light but if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness. What you see affects every part of you. And I began reading as I was studying this. This does not exclude leaders. I'm talking to me a preacher. I'm talking to all who have the authority of the word. I read in second Peter it said, "But there were false prophets also among the people." Did you know there are those who will stand and proclaim that they are prophets and I cannot cross swords with them. They are prophets. They're false prophets. For the preceding verses said that knowing this verse that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old by the will of man. But holy men of God spake as they were moved on by the Holy Ghost. I speak to myself and I speak to every person in this house. Don't let your eyes fall on man when man has an agenda separate from the word of God. This is not my kingdom. This is not my church. This is God's church. When we become castle-minded rather than kingdom minded, we are headed for sure destruction. Our eyes have become more interested in what's just here rather than the gospel going everywhere. Yes. Do I want as many as I can get to come to First Apostolic Church? Absolutely. But I want all that's here to be in the will of God. For that passage of scripture said, "There were false prophets among you, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them and bring upon themselves swiss swift destruction." Anybody that prophesies to you outside of the word of God is a prophet. They're a false prophet. Make sure that what you hear and what you let your spiritual eyes dwell on is truth of the word and it's backed up by the word. I'll move quickly. For Achen said he saw and then he coveted. To covet is to feel an inordinate desire for something that that belongs to someone else. Habac said, "Woe to him that co coveteth an evil covetousness in his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from the power of the evil." In other words, when someone desires the things of others to elevate himself, a covetous spirit can take over. I saw it, I coveted it, and then I committed the act. I took it. Achen took of the Babylonian garment. He took of the silver and the gold. He committed the sin. But if you notice, he did not confess willingly. It was only after he was questioned. He didn't step forward in repentance. He was forced to do so. And then the ultimate revelation is there that once he had sinned, the shame and the guilt of sin set in for he hid what he had done. there not been a problem. He would like to gone out in public to wear the Babylonian garment that he w that he had stolen. He couldn't wear it, so he hid it. He'd like to spent the gold and invested the silver, but he couldn't do it. He had to hide it, for the guilt of sin had set in. And so here is where my abridged version would take us. In Old Testament law, in the dispensation of law, Achen and his family were taken publicly before the rest of Israel and they were stoned and then burned. What a horrible ending and example. And this was the law of the day. But oh, there is encouragement for us because we do not live in the dispensation of law. I came to tell everybody tonight, we live in the dispensation of grace. God's grace has been revealed to us and it is revealed through repentance. Aren't you thankful to have a God who will hear your repentance and accept your repentance? What's been going on in the altar tonight? Folks have been getting deliverance. They've repented themselves of any problem. Let me tell you, if you have unrepentant sin in your life, Jesus is here tonight and he loves you. He cares about you. Oh, you don't know what I've done. I don't care what you've done. My Jesus is bigger than anything you've done. I said, "My Jesus is bigger and better than anything you've done." Don't you sit there and lie to yourself and let the guilt of sin beat you down. You need to square your shoulders, stand tall, and say, "God, I repent of my sins. I'm sorry for my sins, and I want your grace to cover me." There's a new thing coming. Listen, if you've been living under condemnation, if you've been allowing condemnation to beat you down and take you low, I've got news for you tonight. Jesus said, "Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish." That mean Jesus said, "You need to repent." Proverbs said, "He that coverth his sin shall not prosper, but whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. I came to tell everybody tonight, we're serving a merciful God. If you'll confess your sin, who do you confess your sin to? Are we going to have a microphone and have public confession? Absolutely not. Because there's not a person in here can forgive you of your sins. But man, when you come to an altar of repentance and say, "God, I'm sorry." You're talking to the man who can forgive your sins. You're talking to Almighty God who once robed himself in flesh and came to this earth and died that I might have forgiveness for my sin. He became the propitiation. He became the substitution. Ephesians said it this way. But God who is rich in mercy, he hasn't got a little bit of mercy. God's rich in mercy. For his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved. Let's talk about real repentance for a moment. Joshua in our text that I would have preached from It was revealed that Joshua was of the tribe of Judah. The tribe of Judah's name meant, "Now will I praise the Lord." Let me caution us all, do not mistake praise for repentance. If we aren't careful, we will mistake, a few chill bumps down our back, and a good worship song, and clapping my hands and patting my foot a little bit as repentance. All of those things are part of praising God. But I've got news for you. You can get a chill down your back. The air conditioning is too cold. Songwriters and skilled musicians can compose chord progressions that stir our soul. But you see, 2 Corinthians 7:10 said, "For godly sorrow workketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world workketh death. For behold, this self-same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness is wrought in you. Yay, what clearing of yourselves?" You see, when you when you really repent before God, it may appear sorrowful, but you're just clearing yourself of your sins. Yay, what indignation. Yay, what fear. Yay, what vehement desire. Yay, what zeal? Yay, what revenge. In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. I'm thankful for a God who is merciful, and he'll clear my sins. He wants to clear somebody's slate tonight. He's already done miracles. He's already brought deliverance. He's already brought fresh encouragement. Stand with me. We define it sometimes as a clear conscience. But don't just get a little feel good. Tonight, I ask you to recall that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. Before he mentioned being baptized in the name of Jesus, before he mentioned being filled with the Holy Ghost, he said, "You got to repent." Repent. Just simply saying, "I'm sorry for my sinning." That's the first step. I said it before and I'll say it again. There's nothing you've done, no place you've been, no sin too bad for the blood of Jesus. Praise team, step out here. Second Peter 23 verse 9 says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." That's me. That's you. None of us are better than anyone else around us. I would like to end our service tonight. Praise team. I want to hear that song again. I want to reprise of there's a new thing coming. And I would like for everybody before you leave this room. Now, you're not going to get repentance if you don't ask for it. As long as you've got doubt, it's not going to be here for you. But I want you to lay aside all of those other things that you've been tempted by, those things that have been putting you down. And I want us to have a repentance service to end this service tonight. I know we've been around the altar, but I want us to clear the house right now and come back to the altar. I want us to have a season of repenting ourselves before God. He said that all should come to repentance. David said, "Hide thy face from my sins. Blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart." This is your time. This is your time. Don't you stay behind. Oh God, renew a right spirit in me. God wants to receive your repentance. A new thing's coming your way. Sing for us. Hallelujah. Would you talk to him for a few minutes? Talk to Jesus.