Sunday Morning Worship Service

well lord bless you i'm going to let you move to your seats we greet you this sunday morning in the precious name of jesus what a privilege it is to be back in the house of the lord here at first apostolic church we welcome all of our guests if this is your first time joining with us in service or if you're a returning guest we want you to know your family you're at home and we're glad to have you worshiping with us to those who are joining us on the internet we thank you for being in service with us thank you for your contact to us and your support and i pray that you will be able to be with us in service real soon i want to take just a moment before we get into the message today to say a special thank you to the mighty men of muscle who showed up at first apostolic church yesterday i i couldn't um i couldn't name everyone because there was such literally an army of workers who showed up and they did an incredible job uh doing some demolition work tearing out part of the events center platform to remodel it just a bit and i think the church family they all know who they are but i think we ought to give them a great big hand of appreciation [Applause] thank you to every one of you who showed up and showed out as they say sometimes uh what a mighty work uh they did and we'd planned on uh about uh uh four hours work and in about two and a half hours they had completed that task uh it's it's amazing how much work you can get done if you'll do it right before kickoff no that's not why they work so hard uh but what a what a great great group of workers and uh thank you thank you and from time to time we're going to be having a few more workings on that facility because i believe god has given us the responsibility to whom much is given much is required and he didn't give us this new sanctuary to neglect the old facility so we are periodically uh upgrading updating different parts uh we have some roofing in our future some different lighting and i won't itemize all of those things but as we continue to add more and more to this sanctuary we are also continuing to renovate and maintenance the older parts of the facility and the campus and god's blessing us and he's blessing you we can't do that without your faithful support and you're giving the first apostolic church so thank you for giving of the abundance and god will reward you for your giving i want to take just a moment as well to tell you about a brand new publication that's on the market he he won't talk about it but i will pastor whitley has just released a new book on hebrews and it's entitled hebrews jesus is superior i want everybody to see that and pastor whitley will have these available at our multimedia tables in the lobby and i encourage you this is an awesome awesome study uh that will give you an outline to understand the book of hebrews and uh pastor whitley is constantly studying authoring uh and uh writing and uh i know this will be a blessed resource to you you will enjoy it i promise you as a great resource in your library so please pick up a copy of this and i know you will be blessed and then let me just pause one more time and say i have this right because i have the microphone happy birthday sister ashley whitley once again happy birthday to you uh she's older than she was yesterday and that's as much as i'm going to say and i'm thankful for my firstborn and i'm thankful for the ministry that she does uh here at first apostolic church in music and bookkeeping and and all the administrative tasks that she accomplishes uh sister jamie and i uh are so blessed to have two wonderful children and uh their mates grandkids i'm not supposed to do all that but uh thank you uh sister ashley and happy birthday to you i want to call your attention to the word of the lord this morning uh i want to read just one verse for our text and uh [Music] y'all like folks to be transparent don't you you don't want me to put on any heirs i have to brag on our media team with all this technology and all the stuff that goes on there's always a possibility of glitches and so uh they don't want me to call attention to anything that breaks down so they're all holding their breath right now but we had a uh a module whatever that is of some type go out on part of the multimedia system this past wednesday and it's on order and as they always give you the uh uh notification it's gonna get here monday the day after sunday and we want it up and running because we have what's called confidence monitors across i know you're wanting to look so everybody turn around and look they're dark right now the confidence monitors aren't working but i have to tell you what happened when those confidence monitors stopped working the tech team started working and i saw brother justin massengill brother derrick daniel put their heads together then i saw brother justin go sprinting down that way and understand that our age brother justin sprinting has a different definition than other times but he was moving quickly all right in just a few minutes he found a spare projector that he had in our supplies and in just a few minutes he put a confidence monitor with the projector on the far back wall until we get that module in and i i just said brother brother uh madison gill and brother daniel uh you guys amazed me all these technicians that they keep things up and around so now you understand give them a hand [Applause] the the praise team wants to give them a standing ovation so because their words are all up there so thank you for your work so now we've been uh uh transparent you know things break down sometimes we're gonna have to keep having church i promise you so thank you so much calling your attention this morning to the book of isaiah the 49th chapter we're going to read one verse isaiah 49 we'll read verse number 8 thus saith the lord in an acceptable time have i heard thee and in a day of salvation have i helped thee and i will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth to cause to inherit the desolate heritages for a few moments this morning i want to speak to you on this this subject my desolate heritage my desolate heritage let's pray savior i'm grateful to be in your house and i do thank you for the many mighty things that you do for us god i thank you for your word for all the faithful workers who afford us the privilege of being in this place today and experiencing all that you have for us now god let us receive your word into our hearts and let it make us grow let it make us better in you in the name of jesus we pray amen and amen lord bless you my desolate heritage if you read isaiah the 49th chapter you would find the first seven verses of chapter 49 isaiah gives a little history of his call he tells about from his mother's womb he was called and he felt that he was chosen to be a prophet and to be a spokesman for the lord and that he would minister to god's people and for seven verses he tells all of this and he even mentions a little bit of criticism that he might get sometimes while doing what he's supposed to do but he's never been deterred he he mentions that he he might even have call to to uh expand his uh prophecies to those outside of god's chosen people but then in verse number eight i found it to be quite encouraging because sometimes isaiah said some things in prophecy that were quite ominous and they weren't always encouraging but in isaiah 49 verse 8 there's some real encouraging things here if you'll notice he said in an acceptable time have i speaking of the lord because he's speaking as the lord's mouthpiece have i heard thee i'm glad to be able to know this morning that god hears when we talk to him i'm serving a god that hears me when i call on him that's encouraging to me that's one good message in and of itself the lord hears in an acceptable time if you have need god hears you if you'll talk to him he hears you but then he goes on he said in a day of salvation have i helped thee not only does god hear god helps i'm glad to know that i'm serving a god that doesn't just hear what i ask for but he helps me in a day that i'm needing salvation i'm needing salvation for my soul or i'm needing saved in a certain situation god helps [Applause] and then he said i will preserve thee that term preserved means to guard protect to keep from decaying he hears he helps he preserves and then he said and give thee for a covenant of the people god makes agreements with people i'm thankful that god still makes agreements you can talk to god and say god i i'm going to serve you all the days of my life and he says i i'm going to be your god that's that's what he said to abram when abram uh first been getting to kevin he said i i you'll be my people and i'll be your god god makes agreements and he keeps his agreements so man i find encouragement in all of that he hears he helps he preserves and he makes agreements and keeps them but you see after reading all of those things the last part of verse 8 is a bit perplexing because it said i will cause you to inherit the desolate heritage after all those positive things inheriting a desolate heritage don't sound like too good a thing i mean that's like the possibility of inheriting debt i i feel like when i read that i might need to go to probate court uh you know there may be an issue here for the term desolate defined means deserted abandoned forsaken lonely dilapidated barren lifeless gloomy that doesn't sound like the kind of thing i want to inherit and your heritage of course defined is your legacy your birthright your inheritance the things that you will inherit are also the way you think the way you feel the way you do the traditions of life it doesn't sound like much of a deal to inherit a desolate heritage as much as i love my family there are some things that i would rather not inherit from my family i don't want to inherit high blood pressure heart disease cancer bad teeth hair loss high temperature some of y'all are saying it's too late preacher i don't want to inherit debt poverty substance abuse mental illness there's things we don't want to inherit yet there are some fairly negative bad things that just by nature itself we will inherit oh i would love to inherit health wealth beauty and prosperity but just what is our heritage what is our legacy what is our birthright well let me tell you what i was born into i was born into the same thing the psalmist was born into psalms 51 5 says behold i was shaping in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me that's the bottom line of my heritage and everybody in this house we were born into sin that's really our heritage and our legacy listen there's no purebred here you don't find a blue blood in the mccool lineage listen if you trace i've said it before but if you trace the mccool family tree back too far you're gonna find a bunch of nuts on that tree i begin thinking back just a little bit about my family on both sides i start looking back just a generation or two i had a great great grandmother whose last name was crank and she was a good woman she was a praying woman she was a bible-believing woman her husband was about as honorary as anything you could ever run into she would try to pray and she was a diminutive little woman he was a good size fella and granny crank would want to pray and he didn't want her praying in the house and they had one of those houses that had a raised porch in the front that went back into the ground and she would have to get up under the porch sometimes to pray and he couldn't reach her and to try to get her out he would throw dirt clods at her trying to get her out from under the house praying that don't sound like too great a folk later on my grandma jesse mccool she got to praying in the house the holy ghost started moving in that little community over in charter oak missouri and she got to praying in the house one day and the holy ghost fell on her and she started speaking with tongues somebody ran out of the house and went to her dad and said hey somebody has poisoned jessie something's wrong with her and he came to the house and she was in the house speaking with tongues and he said jesse i said shut your mouth and she kept speaking with tongues he said jesse i said shut your blankety-blank mouth and she kept speaking with them and he drew back and was going to smack the taste out of her mouth and my papaw mccool who was unsaved but knew he didn't want anybody hitting on his wife grabbed his arm and they tied up in the floor while my grandma was getting the holy ghost her husband and her daddy was fighting in the floor i didn't come from any blue bloods i didn't come from any purebreds i was shaping and formed in iniquity i came from sin and i've got news for you before you get struck on yourself everybody in the house you came from the same stock we were all born into sin that's our heritage and that's our legacy [Applause] yeah it's great great now to say i'm a multi-generational apostolic because god did an awesome work on the mccool side and on the cook side my mom hey the cooks wasn't great folk either i come from a sharecropper and a sawmiller my grandpa right after he started serving the lord his two sons you know my sweet uncle mac that they roll in here every once in a while uncle mackin and uncle dallas his brother now uncle dallas later on ended up pastoring fort mountain baptist church excuse me fork mountain holiness church they got voted out of the baptist church but he started pastoring but before he was a pastor you know what happened my grandpa was trying to start a church in the community and his two sons uncle mac and uncle dallas were selling moonshine out of the back of his house over in north carolina i told you it's going to be transparent today no blue blood here hear me we have all got stories to tell and i don't tell you those things with any pride i don't tell you those things trying to elevate what sin was but i'm here to tell you if you're in this house today it matters not where you've come from and what you are it matters what god wants to do for you and change you into god's got something for you you've got a heritage it may have been a desolate heritage but god knows how to give you the inheritance of a desolate heritage and change it into royalty oh hallelujah [Applause] it don't matter if your daddy was a drunk you don't have to be an alcoholic it don't matter if your mama was promiscuous you don't have to be a harlot your family may have been nothing but sinners god knows how to change some things he can change your legacy he wants to change you brother mccool i was just born this way that's no excuse remember abram came from the lineage of heathens if you read abram's heritage it was a bunch of heathens there was a bunch of multiple wives and they served multiplicities of gods but you see when god began to covenant with him he changed his name you're not going to be abram your name's going to be abraham genesis 12 1 says now the lord had said unto abram get thee out of thy country from thy kindred from thy father's house under the land which i'll show you he said i'm going to change everything about you your name's being changed your lineage is being changed everything about you is going to change he said i will make thee a great nation i will bless thee make thy name great and thou shalt be blessed i will bless them that bless thee curse them that curse thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed he had a desolate heritage to inherit but god's change in his heritage preacher how can that possibly happen it's real easy you need to be born again you just need to be born again oh you know the story but there's some under the sound of my voice may not have heard it so let me read it to them and you just join in john 3 1 said there was a man of the pharisees named nicodemus a ruler of the jews man he thought he was all of that he was part of that that pharisaical bunch and he had all of the pedigrees the same came to jesus by night and said and ham rabbi we know that there are a teacher come from god for no man can do these miracles that thou just accept god be with him jesus answered and said unto him verily verily i say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of god he got his attention real quick nicodemus thought he was a blue blood and already jesus tell them you've got to be born again you've got to get out of the bloodline that you're in if you're going to have what i've got for you nicodemus said unto him how can a man be born when he is old how can he enter the second time in his mother's womb and be born jesus answered verily verily i say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of god that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit of spirit marvel not that i say unto you ye must be born again let me tell you you may have a desolate heritage but god wants you to be born fresh and new if you'll repent of your sins if you'll be baptized in jesus name be born of the water he'll fill you with the holy ghost speaking with tons you can be born of the water and of the spirit let me tell you it's time for somebody to take your deserted abandoned forsaken lonely dilapidated barren lifeless gloomy heritage and be born again today [Applause] there's a a way i hear folks talking now they say he called him out i'm here to call somebody out today could i call somebody else ii corinthians 6 17 said wherefore come out from among them i'm calling you out today come out from among them and be ye separate saith the lord and touch not the unclean thing and i will receive you listen no matter your past no matter your family bloodline no matter what you've come from if you're here today jesus is calling you out separate yourself from sin separate yourself from the uncleanliness of this world he said i'll be a father unto you you've got a new daddy ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the lord almighty heaven therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourself let's wash up from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of god i find that quite interesting that he makes this statement in verse 19 he said cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit i've seen folk their flesh is clean but they got dirty spirits sometimes that's harder to identify but you talk to them much you check out their agenda just a little while you can find some dirty spirits walk around cleanse ourselves from that those old ugly attitudes those old filthy attitudes that causes us to envy have strife in our life cause us to be combative causes us to look for trouble all the time cleanse your spirit oh but bloomberg i appreciate you preaching this message to everybody else but understand i really do have a strong apostolic heritage already isaiah 64 6 said this but we are all as an unclean thing all means all there's no exceptions to all but we are all as an unclean thing and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away there is none that calleth upon the name on thy name that stirth up himself to take hold of thee for thou has hid thy face from us and has consumed us because of our iniquities the thing i see worse than someone who is a multi-generational sinner is one that's had enlightenment and then they start selling their heritage out you remember the story of jacob and esau of how esau was the hunter and jacob was the planter and the cook stayed around the house and esau went out on a hunting trip you can read the details in genesis 25. daddy loved esau mama loved jacob and there came a time that jacob was cooking pottage put cooking a bowl of soup esau went out on a hunting trip and had a bad day he came home genesis 25 30 it said and esau said to jacob feed me i pray thee with that same red pottage because i'm faint i'm hungry my flesh is crying out for substance jacob said no problem just sell me your birthright he was the firstborn he had the bloodline he had the lineage he had all the rights and privilege that went with being the firstborn he would get a double portion and notice what esau did and esau said behold i'm at the point to die what prophet shall this birthright do to me please understand what esau was saying in verse 32 esau was doing what a lot of us do we exaggerate our situations sometimes to rationalize fleshly sellouts when we say everybody's talking about that how do you know if you talk to everybody something well i may have you know everybody knows you don't know what everybody knows i've received a million questions have you is that anyone close to two he saw i said i'm about to die i don't believe he was physically at the point of death but he was like some of us who decided we're going to fast and about two o'clock you start smelling the cafeterias oh god i'm going to die i'm not gonna make it he began rationalizing selling out because of a temporary fleshly desire somebody hear me today i see too many folks that are selling out their birthright to holiness and righteousness to the apostolic message in the apostolic way because of a temporary desire to feed their flesh they have a temporary desire to be like something else in the world they feel like it will help their numbers it will help their immediate success and they begin to rationalize i'm gonna die in this situation if i don't sell out what god has given me hear me first apostolic church we must not abandon our heritage we cannot lay to waste what god has so beautifully given us he's covenanted with us we can't sell out now for you see here's what happened when he rationalized it he sold out his firstborn rights he sold out his heritage for a puny pot of porridge some red bean soup but not only did he sell it out the bible says in verse 34 then jacob gave esau bread and pottage of lentils and he did eat drink and rose up and went his way thus esau despised his birthright the very things that god have blessed us with if we aren't careful we'll sell them out and then we'll despise what we should be don't lay your heritage desolate don't be ashamed what your grandmama was if she was a holy ghost field don't ah that old time stuff that's not gonna make it now you better love what grandmama was what granddaddy was if you've got praying moms and dads don't disdain that thank god for somebody that led you right somebody that taught you brought you up in the ways of god it can be just as damaging to you if you looked with a disdained eye at your past and god was in it all the workers sound techs teachers camera operators school teachers child care workers multimedia operators nursery workers title house workers ushers greeters musicians whatever i left out i give you honor but do your job professionally in winning the lost with our assembly some just have decided they want to relax on the premises instead of stand on the promises i'm here to tell you god's got to work for you to do i called for mighty men of muscle you should have seen that crew that showed up yesterday man there were hammers flying there were saul sawing and uh some folks were ducking you know it was it was beautiful it was awesome brother blevins told me he he divided he organized and we did they organized up in three teams i i was outside on the tractor trying to to keep the uh the the dumpster packed down because they were carrying out debris faster and i could pack it down he said you should have seen it it was almost orchestrated these teams working together these men tearing that may not mean anything to you but there were folks given of their time giving of their expertise and their efforts just as sure somebody walks by the offering pan and puts an offering in the plate there were folks given of their time given to their effort given of what they have the ability to you can do something in the kingdom of god don't sell out your heritage by finding a relaxing pew to sit in you can be seated everybody so many live below their heritage god's got something great for them and they never claim what god's given them i read an article in newsweek earlier this year it said that the police in colombia seized a handgun believed to date back to world war ii from a suspected thief the man was carrying a luger p 08 parabellum pistol when he was detained by officers in the coastal city of cartagena alex perez 21 is accused of using the weapon during an attempted robbery of a woman's cell phone the value of the weapon was 28 000 he had a 28 000 weapon trying to steal a 300 cell phone did you know some of us have a priceless heritage and we're trying to steal a 300 experience in our flesh i mean all he had to do is go put that on the market he was set don't sell out what god has given you don't sell out the beautiful things that god has placed in you if god's giving you a heritage and you're a multi-generational apostolic don't sell those things out don't sell out don't sell out cheap in joshua 18 we read and the whole congregation the children of israel assembled together at shiloh and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there and the land was subdued before them god fought their battle and there remained among the children of israel seven tribes in other words five of the twelve had claimed their heritage but there remained seven tribes which had not yet received their heritage now god had promised the promised land he'd subdued the land they've fought the battles it's time to possess the land five of the tribes they've made their posses but they're seven of the tribes have not possessed the land and joshua said unto the children of israel how long are ye slack to go and possess the land which the lord god your fathers hath given you god gives many of us blessings and they remain unclaimed blessings don't have any unclaimed blessing if you've got a talent that you can use use it for the lord if you've got an ability you can use use it for the lord did you know that serving god's not just about going to heaven i'm thankful for salvation and i'm planning on going to heaven but i'm going to be his brother hera so aptly wrote i'm not only going to make it but i'm going to enjoy the trip the psalmist said it this way psalms 2 bless the lord o my soul and forget not all his benefits here's some of the benefits you get who forgiveth all thine iniquities there's some folks in this house god wants to forgive you and you won't let him forgive you you haven't accepted his forgiveness yet you keep bringing up your past when he's already forgiven your past who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases we serve a god of healing he wants to provide healing for your situation who redeemeth thy life from destruction he is our protector who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies there's some in this house you've been so abused and beat up you can't believe that there could be a god and a group of people that love you and are tender with you we love you who satisfy thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like eagles he has spiritual nourishment for you if you'll stay in his word buy things like brother whitley's book and feast on that it will suddenly put good things it'll renew you spiritually the psalmist said in psalms 68 19 blessed be the lord who daily daily loadeth us with benefits even the god of our salvation praise team musicians get ready if you're in this house today and you haven't claimed your heritage your birthright this is the place to do it an altar of repentance is the place to begin claiming staking your claim on what god has for you joel 2 17 said this let the priests and the ministers of the lord weep between the porch and the altar let them say spare thy people o lord and give not thine heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the people where is their god if you aren't taking advantage of the blessings that god has for you a heathen world's going to rule over you now i know a lot of you are waiting for an analogy simple as this if you'll follow god's financial plan pay your tithe give your offering god will bless you financially but if you sit in doubt and say i can't afford to do those things you'll find your finances serving the heathen world if you can't find honesty and integrity in the way you do business the way you conduct yourself in your everyday life you'll find the pitfalls of illegal things immoral things tripping you up and affecting your ability to be effective and folks say man if that's supposed to be a christian i'm not going to do business with him where's his god if you conduct yourself on the in the gray areas of integrity you're not claiming your heritage in christ if you've got a reputation of being honest that your word is your bond you do good work when you're hired to do something and you look your best to be the best at what you do god will reward that and let you not be servant and ruled over by heathen world stand with me [Music] psalm 16 says this the lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot the lines are falling into me in pleasant places yay i have a goodly heritage hear me you've got a goodly heritage if you know jesus if you're serving the lord you've got a goodly heritage it says i will bless the lord he hath given me counsel man when you're in a difficult situation if you know the lord you've put his word in your heart if you're in a business situation meant to have the lord whispering in your ear this is the right thing to do this is the way to handle that when you can talk to the lord and he answers you back you're you're hearing some things you you've got a goodly heritage i will bless the lord who has given me counsel my reigns also instruct me in the night season he got control he got a hold of my reigns he's directing my paths i have set the lord always before me because he is at my right hand i will not be moved don't move away from your heritage don't move away from what god has given you therefore my heart is glad why do you have this dog to go around smiling on top because we're glad we're happy this world ought to say man what are they up to they seem to be happy all the time therefore my heart is glad my glory rejoiceth my flesh also shall rest in hope for that will not leave my soul in hell if you feel like you're living in hell today if you'll claim your heritage god's not finished working in your life he's going to bring you out he's going to deliver you he's got better things for you neither will thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption that will show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures [Music] forevermore if you're in this house today you want to claim your heritage you want to re-establish your heritage or you want to rejoice in what god has given you i want to open this altar would somebody come right now and say god i want to thank you for my heritage i've got a goodly heritage would you step out and say i want to thank you for what you've given me i thank you for my job i thank you for my business i thank you for my family i thank you for my health if you're in this place and you don't have a heritage you don't think you do god's got it for you if you'll come repenting saying god i repent of my sins he wants to feel you he wants to provide for you step out and come on right now whatever you have need of you claim it in jesus name you have a goodly heritage today hallelujah [Music] and you hallelujah the hopes [Music] more than this [Music] oh [Music] see your family around [Music] thank you [Music] to me [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey [Applause] [Music] would you be [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't let the devil tell you you've gone through bad times these are good times god's got great things for you you've got a goodly heritage don't you sell it out don't you give it up god's got great things for us today hallelujah hallelujah give praise unto the lord once again savior i love you savior i praise you savior i adore you lord i worship you today i worship you today oh hallelujah hallelujah first apostolic church we have a goodly heritage thank you for being a part thank you for your letting the lord be your portion i would remind you we have service tonight we pray first for the ladies is at six o'clock praise team and musicians will meet at 5 15 choir at 5 30 greet everyone as your personal protocols make you comfortable we'll see you tonight for service which begins at 6 30. lord bless you