Sunday Morning Worship Service | Pastor McCool

well Glory Glory Glory I will let you start moving to your seats please we greet you in the precious name of Jesus we welcome you to Sunday morning worship service here at First Apostolic Church what a privilege it is to see every one of you back in the house of the Lord today we give honor to the Saints of First Apostolic Church to all of the workers and laborers in Christ that are here this morning we're thankful to have you worshiping with us and working in the kingdom of God we welcome all of those who are joining us on on all of the multiple platforms that God has blessed us with the opportunity to carry the gospel we welcome you in that great social media world and we thank you for joining in with us today and being here in this place to worship together I want us to get into the word of the Lord here in just a moment but I do want to give honor to our our Bishop and first lady this past Friday night we were at the section A District ministers Christmas banquet and the bishop and sister McCool were asked to address entertain sing speak whatever they wanted to do and all I can say is they did it and they represented First Apostolic church so well but it also reminded me of Our Roots our lineage Our Heritage and our special privilege that we have of being in a long bloodline of the apostolic faith God has been so good to us First Apostolic church so i i honored them I honor our pastoral staff our Minister staff we had so many ministers and their spouses at the event and I they are representing you and they do that so well so I just wanted to say a special thank you to all that was involved with that event I take us to the word of the Lord this morning we are in the midst of the Christmas season we're in the midst of a lot of hustle bustle purchasing buying uh looking and frankly a lot of frustrations this time of year so I want to talk to you about something today that you may not always consider this time of year but I think it's applicable and I think that the Lord would have a study this today calling your attention to the Book of Psalms the 73rd chapter The Book of Psalms the 73rd chapter we'll read three verses Psalm 73 beginning at verse number one a Psalm of Asa truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart but as for me my feet were almost gone my steps have well not slipped for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked for a few moments I would like you to consider this statement it is foolish to be envious of the foolish it is foolish to be envious of the foolish let's pray savior I love you God I'm so grateful for your many mighty blessings for the opportunity that you have afforded me to speak to this wonderful congregation now Lord I pray that your word would Minister to us today Lord in this season that we are in I pray that your word would give us Assurance give us calm give us confidence that you are in charge of every situation we thank you we praise you we love you in Jesus name we pray amen it's foolish to be envious of the foolish I'm going to make a statement now that you will very rarely hear from an Apostolic preacher from the pulpit I don't I don't want anybody to raise your hand or say Amen at my next question usually we're soliciting responses but for your sake don't anybody raise your hands or say Amen to my next question who in this house has ever entertained the possibility of winning the lottery don't even scratch right now but to be truthful if you are like most it's likely that not one of us has not at least indulged our thoughts in the fantasy of winning the jackpot well if nothing else is a child you've played that game when you're as old as I am of when either the JCPenney or the Sears and robot but Christmas catalog came you've played that little game as you went through the special toy section well if I could only have one thing on each page what would it be you you've done that don't raise your hands yet nowadays it may be scrolling a website spending way too much time on eBay looking at the snail mail periodicals that are flooding your mailboxes now and looking at all the advertisements that we're bombarded with you sometimes can't help but have your mind jump started into considering what it would be like if you had the unlimited resources of someone else to get all of those things that you allegedly really need oh I need that what does it do I don't know but it sure looks neat I'd like to have one of those I guess allowing your mind to wander in moderation may be okay but the real Temptation comes when we see the wealth and advantages of others the accomplishments of those who are our peers and our acquaintances and suddenly we feel like that we must have what they have Sister Mary you're a Wilson now but you used to be a Jones I got news for you it's Alive and Well everybody's still trying to keep up with your family everybody's still trying to keep up with the Joneses and they're still keeping up with the Wilsons and the mccoons are trying to keep up with this one and this one's trying to keep up with that one it's in our nature it's something that's down inside make believe is one thing but Envy is something quite different it's not wrong to be ambitious or to model one's aspirations after successful people and their endeavors however the danger does come when we develop a spirit of animosity or jealousy towards someone else's success some of us have entertained even a moment of envy just imagine how we would handle the success of stars and entertainers and athletes and entrepreneurs that are lauded and applauded in our culture well Mama cool what exactly is Envy anyway the dictionary definition of envy says it is a resentful awareness of another's advantage you see Envy is the sin that no one else sees it's convenient to indulge oneself in envy and still be well thought of it can be hidden easily in your heart and among those who perceive you to be Pious and holy it can lie concealed in one's nature for Years yet gradually eat away at the core of one's spiritual existence that's Envy I've seen folks go to the altar because they've committed some heinous observable sin asking God to forgive them for all that they've wronged but I have observed few running to the altar repenting of their Envy I as a minister have preached multiple messages telling everyone about David's sins of lusts and adultery and deceitfulness and murder yes all of these moral failures must be identified and warned about yet the covert clandestine stealthy sin of envy seems to get much less publicity or Pulpit time it appears that most of us feel like we can live within thee I've got breaking news for you you can't unchecked Envy in your heart will eat you alive James 3 said it this way in verse 14 but if you have bitter envying and strife in your heart Glory not don't be proud of having envy and lie not against the truth this wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthy sensual devilish Envy is a sin that has devilish influences Envy is a sin that goes down deep and eats away at the very core of your values and your happiness and your contentment verse 16 says for we're envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work some of the evils that are observable may have started because of an envious Spirit some of the horrible things that we find people doing may have started from the confusion that started in an envious heart apparently Envy has strong allies that comes with it strife the term Strife defined as angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues and conflict the NIV when read of verse 16 said for where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder and every evil practice let me sound a warning from our text from the psalmist for the psalmist was confessing psalmist said I know God's been good to Israel he's been good to his people but as for me personally he said my feet were almost gone my steps were well and I slipped I'm looking at myself I'm not looking at God's people collectively I'm zeroing in I'm looking at myself he said for me there was something inside of me that was rising up he said I was almost gone I was about to slip I was about to fall why because I was foolishly envying the foolish Envy is a slippery slope it will trip you up we may need some spiritual hazard signs that says attention trip Hazard Envy ahead watch your step uneven Envy coming up don't go beyond this point there's bitter envying present danger there's an open trench Envy don't fall in it it could result in injury or death if you've ever entertained Envy show at the door and get it out of your house you see there's another close Ally of envy it's a term called covetousness hey that's number 10 on the top 10 list of the Ten Commandments Exodus 2017 said it this way Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife nor his man's servant nor his maidservant nor his Ox nor his ass nor anything that is Thy Neighbor it would not take a great theologian to reassign the sins that are mentioned when you start coveting those things of others if you read just those words of the tenth of The Commandments you see that violations and coveting envying that his birth can cause to infidelity it can cause to be dishonest it can cause one to enter into a lot of heinous sins it's because it started out with Envy in one's heart Hebrews 13 5 said let your conversation be without covetousness don't even talk about Desiring the things of others and be content with such things that you have where's contentment at in our lives the real problem that most time brings on Envy is we can't find contentment in what we've got and what God has given us and what we've been blessed with we can't find any contentment he said don't talk about coveting anything else or wanting something else of somebody's he said you need to be Contin be content with what you got for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee be confident in that no matter what someone else has what someone else has accomplished find contentment and what God has afforded you and allowed you to have in this Christmas season get your eyes off of what anybody else has got what anybody else is doing and find contentment and what God has blessed you with preacher I don't have much you woke up this morning you breathed God's air this morning some way somehow you were able to get out of bed and get to the house of God there's something you ought to be contented with rather than looking at other people's stuff oh he said don't don't covet anything to covet means to desire what belongs to another inordinately or culpably or in other words with fault don't desire anything of anybody else's those who we would identify as sinners sadly does not have the market cornered on envy and covetousness yes we as the church myself as a minister and ministers as a whole we can even find ourselves envying and coveting as well if we see another work in the kingdom of God and we think that it's being more successful in us with the wrong Spirit we can become competitive and want everybody to see what our church is doing versus what their Ministry is listen God didn't call me to minister into another city or do anything that's happening in another church he called us to be First Apostolic Church of Knoxville be the best fac of Knoxville we can be don't worry about what anybody else is doing what anybody else is accomplishing in fact you ought to say praise God Lord bless them Lord bless them indeed thank you for the opportunity you've given us [Applause] don't you covet even the blessings of God that someone else has a preacher you've identified it how do I deal with Envy it's real easy if you want to eliminate Envy from your existence you need to replace it with something else Proverbs 3 11 says my son despise not the chastening of the Lord the Lord has to chastise us neither be weary with his correction you've got to consider God correcting your heart and your mind sometimes when Envy starts entering in the spirit of the Lord if you will be sensitive to his call we'll tell you you don't need to go there in your mind you need to thank me for what you've got forget about what anybody else has accomplished or what anybody else has done or what anybody else has for whom the Lord loveth he correct if you don't feel the correcting hand of God I'd be worried because you'd feel like you're unloved the Lord corrects folks that he loves even as a father the son in whom he delighteth I've heard my dad say and I promise you this is passed On to the Next Generation he said there was a few times that Papa McCool would have to correct if you had two sets of twins two more boys and two girls you'd have to be a corrector too but he wore overalls and War a belt with his overalls dad said he knew what that built for that wasn't to keep his overalls at and he said sometimes it came to the point that my Grandpa would say boys I'm doing this because I love you and he's taking that belt off Dad said his daddy could love hard so could mine but let me tell you I didn't understand what that kind of love was about then but I do now I guess the only spanking I remember getting from my dad boy he's uncomfortable now because I'm sure there were several but the the one I remember getting we were in the car together I believe we were in Michigan if I mistake not but we were Little Rock Arkansas well that's a little south of there location must not have been real important that's not what I really remembered and see he already knows he remembers it too I guess the hardest living I ever got from my daddy I had seen adults in the car now understand and uh all you another generation this is going to be so foreign to you what I'm going to tell you now we didn't even have seat belts in the car I'm talking about one of my favorite napping places was up in the back window till it got hot you know can I get a witness in the house car seat s what's this seat belt but I I was getting to sit in the front seat with my dad bench seat I was getting to sit in the front seat with my dad but I had seen the adults if the door didn't close good you know it had that first latch and then that safety latch and if the first last latch latched but the second one hadn't it would leave a crack in the door and you didn't have warning buzzers and all that kind of stuff either you know but we were in a parking lot and dad started driving and he was turning left and I was on the right and I realized that my door wasn't latched good so I was going to do like the adults had always done I was going to open it and close it real quick like I'd seen everybody else do when the car was moving I just sent like a cool thing to do but I didn't realize that door weighed more than I did with the centrifugal force of him turning left and the door Wayne more than me Swinging to the right opened the door hanging on to the side and immediately I started out the door and Dad reached and grabbed me by the ankles and pull me back in I was already scared Ted said are you all right all right yeah I think I'm all right and after I he found out I was all right then he started loving on me for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as the Father the Son in whom he delighteth he taught me a lesson I knew not to open the door anymore when the car was moving it's indelibly in my mind I didn't understand it then but I do get it now and I'm thankful for it I'm thankful that I had a daddy that loved me it said don't despise it when the Lord starts chastising you start trying to get your attention you need to stop envying you need to put away those desires that you have for someone else's else's good fortune and fame yes it's difficult to pray the prayer sometimes to say Lord look down inside me if there's anything inside me that does not need to be there take it out God look down inside me if I've been having the wrong desires you can have the wrong desires even to do a work in the kingdom of God if you're trying to look for fame and fortune and be the most successful in Man's eyes you see he goes on to say this here's your replacement for Envy he is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that Gareth understanding you need to get Envy out of your heart you need to get covetousness and strife out of your heart but you can't leave a hole there it needs to be replaced with wisdom and understanding verse 14 starts giving an explanation of what wisdom and understanding does for the merchandise of it what wisdom and knowledge the merchandise of wisdom and knowledge is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof then fine go there's your lottery jackpot you want to be wealthy you want to really be rich it's not what man has it's not what the successful in Man's eyes have but do you have wisdom and knowledge that's coming from God she's more precious than rubies and all the things notice this all the things that thou can't desire are not to be compared unto her man it don't matter what your buddy got under the tree it doesn't matter what your neighbor has sitting in their driveway the wealth and the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God or cannot even be compared to the Earthly earthy things Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches an honor her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace she's a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her happy is everyone that retaineth her verse 21 my son let not them depart from Thine Eyes keep sound wisdom and discretion so shall they be life unto thy soul and Grace to thy neck then shalt thou walk in the way safely the psalmist said my foot will not slipped see when you get wisdom and knowledge and you get Envy out of your heart it said your your step your walk will be safely and thy foot shall not stumble no slipping here your Envy should be replaced with sound wisdom and discretion your your knowledge of God was suddenly eliminate those inordinate desires for the things of this world and the things of your neighbor stay off the path of envy it's a slippery path proverbs 4 10 said here oh my son and receive my sayings and the years of thy life shall be many will live man I won't live a long time well he said I've taught thee in the ways of wisdom and I've LED them the right paths when thou goest thy step shalt be straightened and when thou runest doubt shalt not stumble take fast hold of instruction let her not go keep her for she is thy life man this is not my words these are the proverbs of the wisest from the scripture reminding us how important wisdom and knowledge instruction versus Envy because here's the path of Envy it's an evil path verse 14 says enter not into the path of the wicked go not the way of evil men avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away sounds like he says don't do it don't it don't sometimes we just want to afford US the privilege of a shortcut one time I have been so lost so many times taking shortcuts you hear me oh yes you may have GPS you may have some app that's going to let you know that there's a roadblock ahead but invariably I'll get off on one of those so-called shortcuts and then my GPS wears me out as soon as possible make a legal U-turn as soon as possible make a legal u-turn and I keep avoiding it and ignoring it oh it's got to be right down here and most usually I will have spent more time trying to find the shortcut than if I'd have stayed in traffic and just waited to got through because it was also telling me this is still the quickest route to getting where you're getting but you see when we do that spiritually we try to afford ourselves the privilege I'm just going to Envy just a little I'm just going to covet it just a little bit avoid it pass not by it turn from it pass away for they sleep not except they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence stay on the well-lit path of justice and knowledge and wisdom of God for Verse 18 says but the path of the just is as The Shining Light it's well lit but shineth more and more and a perfect day The Way of the Wicked is as Darkness they know not and what they stumble when you go into the darkness of envy it may not be envy you stumble over but you're going to walk in darkness and it's untelling what you will trip over teach your children not to envy and not to covet let me say that again teach your children not to envy and not to covet how do I do that well TD Jake said modeling is better than mentoring in other words it's not so much what you tell them it's what they see if you are a model of one that does not covet then they won't covet but if under your breath and in your private conversations that are in front of your kids you're talking about well I don't see why they've got this I one of the crazy things that I hear people say I just don't understand how they're so successful maybe you weren't meant to be understand I why God would put your eyes off of them and get your eyes on God and accept his blessings for whatever he's giving you being a mentor means you're an advisor it's one thing that you can advise but when you're a model they see what you do they see how you act they see you at the worst of times you see the other thing besides wisdom and knowledge that it's imperative we replace envying within our lives is godliness and contentment Paul said in his writings Timothy in first Timothy 6 If any man Teach otherwise and consent not to hold some words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness he's proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strives of words wherefore cometh Envy Strife railings evil surmisings let me pause there a lot of folks feel like they've got a spirit of discernment and really they've got a spirit of surmising they like to make predictions of bad things going to happen to good people they like to make predictions they surmise well the only reason that's happening like that and that old quill is going to break someday evil surmisings you see we can find ourselves in such a state that if we don't have the correcting hand of God speaking to us we don't have his wisdom and his knowledge please hear me we start having conversations with our own mind and our own mind will be deceitful in flesh if we don't have the spirit guiding us we'll Build It Up in our mind that this is going on and that's going on that's called evil surmising if the devil will get in your thoughts and your minds and when you don't consider the goodness of God and have his wisdom and suddenly you'll find yourself attributing others success to evil things now I I realize this is this is a different kind of preaching but I hope this will keep you not just today but in the days to come that we understand the battles and the warings that go on within us that we must have spiritual intuition to deal with perverse disputings of men of corrupt Minds buddy that ought to have Twitter and Facebook right beside it because some of us are looking for a dispute with two thumbs I've just got to comment on that one I have just got to let them know what I think perverse perverse disputings of men of corrupt Minds destitute of truth there's no truth in it supposing that gain is godliness from such withdraw yourself if you judge godliness with the gains of the world you're messed up you don't know what godliness is you don't know what the blessings of God really are if you judge it by the success of the things of this world verse 6 said it all he said it says but godliness with contentment is great gain oh God I pray today that I will have a contented heart in you I pray that godliness will enter in to show me the good of what you have afforded me the privilege of having Lord I Thank you for my children I thank you for my family I thank you for my job I thank you for my business I thank you for all the things that you've afforded me I thank you for my health for we brought nothing into this world you came in naked bald-headed with no teeth a lot of us are headed back that way quick verse 8 says and having food and raim it let us be there with content but they that will be rich fall into temptation and snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and Perdition For the Love of Money is the root of all evil it didn't say that money is the root of all evil the Love of Money which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith if you're willing to sell out your faith for your money you're in Gross error and have pierced himself through with many sorrows but thou o man of God flee these things and follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness but if you think this preacher's standing up here trying to say I personify all of those things let me let you know I'm still working on it it's said to follow after righteousness well I do pretty good till it gets to patience and then I catch myself praying oh God give me patience and give me patience right now we're working on us there in our introduction we talked about affording our minds the opportunity to just think what it'd be like if you won the lottery let me give you a couple of facts and figures in fact musicians praise team get ready whether we win 500 million or 1 million about 70 percent of those who win the lottery about 70 percent of those who win the lottery spend all of their money in five years or less let me read you a couple of stories this is from business weekly Laura and Roger Griffiths bought their dream home and then life fell apart before they won a 2.76 million dollar lottery jackpot Laura and Roger Griffiths hardly ever argued then they won bought a million dollar house and a Porsche is it Porsche or Porsche poor the Porsche Porsche I used to have a Toyota uh Porsche Porsche it was a they bought an expensive car okay but six years after their win Roger drove away in the Porsche after Laura confronted him over emails suggesting he was interested in another woman their 14-year marriage was over a freak fire gutted their house and every penny of their Fortune was gone Bud post lost 16.2 million within a nightmarish year his own brother put a hit out on him he won 16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery but was a million dollars in debt within a year he said I quote I wished it had never happened it was a total nightmare a former girlfriend successfully sued him for a share of his winnings and his brother was arrested for hiring a hit man to kill him in hopes he'd inherit a share of the winnings after sinking money into various family business post sank into debt spent time in jail for firing a gun over the head of a bill collector and Bud now lives quietly on a 450 a month payment with food stamps Gerald muswigan ended up feeling sorry for partying he won 10 million dollars in the Super 7 jackpot in Canada but he blew it all on drinking and partying in only seven years filled with remorse must wagon hanged himself in his parents garage you know I found a similar lottery winner in Scripture he got 30 pieces of silver I believe his name was Judas and he had the same Faith he hanged himself in disappointment for the things that he desired at that time the most turned out to be the curse from our text the psalmist said he had his foot had well and I slipped but he gave a conclusion to the matter for Psalm 73 verse 16 he said this when I fought to know this it was too painful for me I mean Envy was eating him up but here's what he did it said until I went into the sanctuary of God then I understood their end let me tell you the thoughts The Temptations of the world that's outside the church when you start Desiring those things this is why it's so important to stay in the house of God the psalmist said I was leaning on my thinking I was had that stinking thinking as they say about all of the things and I was foolishly in being the foolish I didn't understand until I came into the house of God isn't it amazing when you can come and get in a good Spirit-filled holy ghost-filled service how some of those things that have been bothering you suddenly start melting away and start drifting away staying with me isn't it amazing when you can come into the house of God suddenly there's Clarity comes in your life there's a refocusing of the priorities and what's truly important it said surely thou did set them in a slippery Place thou cast them down into destruction the very things I was Desiring would have led to my demise I didn't understand it until I went to church how are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors as a dream when one awaketh so O Lord when thou awake us Thou shalt despise their image that's my heart was greed and I was pricked in my reins he said my heart was smoke with conviction because I'd been Desiring some things that I had no business Desiring so for five [Music] I was foolish to be envying the foolish so foolish was I and ignorant but please notice this last statement he made he said I was as a beast before thee some of us are needing to slay our inner Beast today he said I had become a beast of a person because I was envying the foolish and I was the biggest fool of all here's what I'd like for us to do today for it dwells in every person here the Earth he desires I'd like for us to have a little altar time to just talk to the Lord about ourselves and be able to pray that prayer oh God I need a cleansing inside I'm not saying that you're a gross Sinner and you have some horrible thing in your life but I want to make sure I'm clean I want to do a little maintenance wouldn't you step out if you would like to pray just a little while with me because I'm not going to pray for you today I'm going to pray for me just to come and pray for old self today could we come with the spirit of God I want a cleansing I want to cleanse it inside of me now if you're perfect you don't have to worry about praying you're going to beat us all to the restaurant but let me tell you I want to be clean inside oh God God's means God cleansed me of any Petty desires I have for someone else's fame or for someone else's wealth someone else's good fortune or blessings God let me find Godly contentment this day again in My Heart Lord instead of being jealous God let me pray for others and bless others and thank you God lord don't let me operate out of jealousy don't let me operate out of greed or bitterness God don't let resentment get in my heart forgive me right now Lord forgive me right now cleanse me Lord cleanse Me Lord God if I begrudged anything God if I'm coveted anything praying that you would part me forgive me right now Lord [Music] would you let the holy ghost touch you would you let the holy ghost touch you pray for you right now pray for you right now Jesus in your name Jesus God let me count the blessings God let me thank you for the blessings of others let me let me find pleasure in their success let me find satisfaction In Their Blessings I ask this in your name today Jesus foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] my mind transform it to you my will continue [Music] Transformers [Applause] [Music] would you lift your hand to love Jesus right now would you praise him right now savior I Praise You Lord let me go from this place [Applause] satisfied Lord let me go from this place content in your goodness in your will in your wisdom in your knowledge and savior in your love let me find satisfaction in the daily things you blessed me with Lord I Praise You Lord I Thank You Lord I bless your name Hallelujah would you give that Lord a cleft offering a praise for his word today [Music] please be back tonight service starts at 6 30 prayer time at six let's come expecting a great time in the Lord let's go from this place satisfied with Jesus knowing that he loves us would you greet everyone as your personal protocol affords you the privilege to do you are dismissed in the name of Jesus [Music]