Sunday Morning Worship Service

i'm gonna let you start moving back to your seats and i'll let you be seated here in the sanctuary we greet you in the precious name of jesus we give honor to all of our ministry all of our pastors our elders our ministers and uh i say a special honor [Music] to our bishop uh sometimes it is a bit awkward for [Music] me to brag on my family but i'm not bragging on my flesh and blood i'm bragging on our bishop right now all right i'm changing hats i'm not saying right now i'm bragging on my bishop and i say this not at the expense or dishonor of any other bishop and scripture has requirements for a bishop we might read some of that even tonight but i'm thankful for a man of god who all his life has taught me to have a passion for the house of god it's not about us bragging on what a wonderful facility that god has given us because you are the church family but in turn he has put that in every member of first apostolic church you have a passion for our facility and for the overall outreach and ministry of first apostolic church god called us through our bishop to minister to the city of knoxville and beyond and time and time again i've seen every one of you and oh i will not start calling names to itemize because it's all of you but i've seen you give of what god has blessed you with because you have a passion for souls you have a passion for another generation your children and your grandchildren and for there to be a place that holds strongly to the tenants of the apostolic faith bishop thank you thank you give our bishop a great big hand he go ahead go ahead [Applause] you may be seated excuse my emotions for i am i am just full with joy this morning uh i don't mind telling you first apostolic church is a giving church and you always have been and you've been during all of the difficulties that we need not itemize with the pandemic what a giving church you've continued to be but the passion for excellence started a long time ago i so remember what led up to some of the things that we have now you've got to understand in the 70s there were no churches especially in the apostolic movement that were on television our pastor saw with the inside of direction of the holy ghost that that the media of television was going to be prevalent yes there would be much evil on television but where there's evil there needs to be light and our pastor back in the early 70s said we're going to go on television we didn't know how to be on television we didn't have any training we had all kind of stories told on us during that time all that you talking about a liberal bunch that apostolic church of knoxville they're going on television [Music] we had folks tell that we had makeup artists that were making us up we knew they weren't watching or they just seen our faces all that we were choreographing our worship that we had signs told folks when to worship and praise and but you know what we did we kept on having church we kept being just what we were supposed to be a light to our community and god bless that technology has kept radically changing and i obviously i'm not in my notes here so uh i i will keep that in mind when i do get to preaching but i just feel like i need to say what i'm saying today for uh i have seen again i said not at the expense of any other bishop but i have seen some who would find their niche in time and that is the time of perfection and nothing can advance past that and i don't mind telling you some of the stuff we do in fact a lot of the stuff we do is not essential to salvation [Music] but we are fishers of men [Music] we are competing for the attention of a lost world who the enemies put a lot of little shiny tricketts and a lot of little things out there and you see all the enemy wants to do is steal our kid's soul with a few little flashes of lights and a few little things here and i realized some of these things may not be in your wheelhouse but would you would you just work with us a little bit we're winning souls and you're winning souls i i told everybody here at the end of an altar service here a while back i just made the statement i said i don't want anything for myself and there's not one thing this this church family is always taking care of its pastoral self i said but i sure would like for us to be able to figure out a way and i didn't even know what i was talking about i said i'd just like there to be a way we could cover that baptistry when we uh need to do some media presentations but i want to keep it open so folks know that we still are a baptizing in jesus name church and man all i had to say was sick him you folks in the south know what sicky means and our media staff they started researching and they they came a a few days ago and they made a presentation to me and oh man the presentation was awesome but uh they didn't even know all the price tags yet but it's got price tags on it and i don't care to tell you i lamented about that and i said man we this is we're needing to advance we're needing to continue advancing and so i took a big gulp and i did what anybody would do i said i need to talk to bishop about this and so i had some of our pastoral staff make a presentation to bishop and i didn't know if he was gonna say no we've gone as far as we need to go here i'm satisfied he said let's go let's do it let's let's do it hallelujah i don't even have all the prizes together i'm not asking you to sign a check that i don't even know what the amount is but i'm asking you to talk to god and let god touch your heart because we're going to continue advancing in excellence i want us to advance in excellence thank you bishop for having the the foresight and the the wisdom and allowing my generation and another generation generations to come to keep advancing carrying the gospel the best way we can in fact let me give you some scripture i'll turn to first corinthians the 12th chapter and while you're turning i i i do want to say welcome i'm glad to have uh brother mark and sister pam bryant good to have you folks with us worshiping with us could we welcome them and i'm glad to have sister angel and i believe i saw sister connie come lord bless you this they're not really here to see me uh pastor anthony and sister kelly as bishop has already told you are preaching a youth conference in madrid spain in case y'all didn't get the text message i did get the text message at 3 a.m this morning they did make it and it was 7 50 there and they had to be at church at 10 o'clock he had to be at church 10 o'clock to preach so uh they were hurrying to their accommodations gonna get dressed sister uh kelly was gonna do some teaching to the young ladies on uh sunday afternoon and then they have they're probably headed to evening service about now so we're praying uh for their strength and their protection but as bishop said that's you going but uh somebody needed to be here with eleanor and i i had some some ready volunteers so i'm glad to have some of our family that's from louisiana with us today i want to begin reading in first corinthians the 12th chapter i realize we've talked a lot and had a lot of preliminaries so i will be cognizant of the time but please read with me it says in verse 27 now ye are the body of christ now if you don't know what ye means that's king james version for you now ye are the body of christ and members in particular and god had set some in the church first apostles secondarily prophets thirdly teachers after that miracles then gifts of healings helps governments diversities of tongues then notice verse 29 are all apostles are all prophets or all teachers or all workers of miracles have all the gift gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret but covet earnestly the best gifts and yet i unto you are yet i show unto you a more excellent way for a few moments this morning i want to speak to you on a more excellent way let's pray savior i love you god i'm grateful for the many things that you have already done in this service and i thank you for the miracles that you have wrought i pray that your word would minister mightily to us let everything that we do give you glory give you praise and give you honor for this we're grateful and thankful in the name of jesus we pray amen and amen a more excellent way ironic that we're speaking of excellence today there's an old saying that many of you may be familiar with that says there's more than one way to skin a cat ever heard that there's more than one way to skin a cat and that term or that little statement is generally intended to mean that there's more than one way of accomplishing an intended goal but i was interested in that statement so i wanted to research it a little bit i want to find out what the history of that was and i found out that many do not agree on its origins some say it is derived or is a derived form of a literal interpretation that sounds quite ominous to our feline friends dare i say it would be catastrophic rim rimshot others say it's a shortened fishing phrase that originated in mississippi concerning the preparation of catfish for cooking there's more than one way to skin a cat still others maintain it to refer to multiple ways of accomplishing a gymnastic move which involves passing the feet and legs between the arms while hanging by the hands from a horizontal bar that name may have been suggested by the actions of turning an animal skin inside out as part of the process of removing it from the body i've kept this i've talked about this before there's more than one way skinny cat whatever it's true meaning i'm thankful that the word of god has promised us a more excellent way and a more excellent way of life and a more excellent way to heaven you see there are too many nowadays that are advocating a less than excellent way of living paul told the corinthians but covet earnestly the best gifts and yet shall i unto you a more excellent way words mean something the term excellent defined means possessing outstanding qualities or superior merit remarkably good extraordinary superior i want to be excellent that's what we've been talking about already today being excellent but in front of that is the word more excellent can you be more outstanding more superior apparently scripturally you can it said in greater more defined means in greater quantity amount measure degree or number additionally further more excellent but then it had the word after the word excellent way which is your route your course of action your method your detail your progress along the course i remember a few years back the university of tennessee medical center had an advertisement on sever several of their billboards and it said excellence isn't claimed it's earned you have to earn excellence you don't just proclaim you're excellent you have to do something to be excellent please notice our text mentions in the church it said apostles prophets teachers miracles gifts of healing helps government diversities of tongues i submit to you that this was not a chronology of most important to the least but instead this is an example of the diversity of excellent resources that we the church have at our fingertips if we will take advantage of it we have the words of the apostles and the prophets we have teachers we have those who are are excellent in help you talking about a church full of helps once again if i start itemizing whatever is needed in this body he said you are the body of christ in this body whatever there's need of there are so many folks who have the ministry of helps they'll help do this they'll help do that they know about electronics they know about electricity they know about construction they know about teaching they it's incredible it also mentioned government diversities of tongues tongues and interpretation this was not speaking of the evidentiary tongues when you received the holy ghost but this was speaking of tongues and interpretation prophetic ministry to the church all of this should be in the body of christ but then he went to say are all apostles it's a rhetorical question of course not are all prophets or all teachers are all workers of miracles it's saying within the body of christ there will be a diversity of gifts and abilities but then he said covet earnestly the best gifts what that simply means is whatever god has given you ability and called you to do we must strive for excellence in the call to fulfill what christ has called us to do i don't mind telling you there are some calls that i don't have oh i would love to be able to play the keyboard the way brother nathan several of these other keyboard players can it didn't happen i've told you before i took piano lessons until my piano teacher died and i'm probably a lot what killed her my failure to apply myself i don't mind telling you when i see sister major go into those k-5s and so amazingly teach them when i see sister tiffany go into those first graders and she's got them in line i can name every teacher in their class i'm amazed but god didn't call me to do that i don't have that grace but god gives so many diversities you understand what i'm saying but he is letting us know that there will be excellence in everything that we do but i want to examine just a little bit some of the other characteristics that we as a body he said you the church family that's all of us there are some other things in excellence that we should all strive to attain one should be excellency or excellence of spirit but another should be excellence of speech once one speaks with tongues there should be an excellence of speech that should guide one's tongue colossians 4 6 says let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt that ye may know how you ought to answer every man many loved to talk about the saving grace of god but failed to exercise the grace of speech in their life grace also aside from saving grace grace also means simple elegance courteous good will a charming or attractive trait or characteristic that doesn't mean that you walk around with a boorish tongue that your tongue is filled with expletives and that you go around talking with guttural language a child of god should have better speech than that we ought to have excellence of speech ecclesiastes 5 1 says keep thy foot when that goes to the house of god and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifices of fools for they consider not what they do evil be not rash with thy mouth now i'm still in the bible here i know somebody in here is wishing i would get on something so you could run and dance and huck a buck but this says be not rash with thy mouth you know what rash means rash means displaying or proceeding from a lack of careful consideration of the possible consequences of your actions oh i just spoke before i thought my mama used to say their mouth got in motion before their mind got in gear he said be not rash with thy mouth some of us need to learn it's time to keep our mouth closed [Applause] tough in school available he said be not rash with thy mouth and let nine my heart let not thy heart be haste hasty to utter anything before god you better be careful what these idle promises you make to god god's listening for god is in heaven and thou upon the earth therefore let thy words be few for a dream coming through the multitude of business and a fool's voice is known by a multitude of words proverbs 17 7 says excellent speech becometh not a fool much less do lying lips of a prince proverbs 17 27 says he that hath knowledge spare his words and a man of understanding is excellent of spirit even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise and he that shedeth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding oh god let me hear that today we should have excellence of speech if we're going to live in the excellency of the power of god [Applause] psalms 19 14 said let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight o lord my strength and my redeemer what is what does meditation mean what does it mean to meditate definition of meditation is the act or process of spending time in quiet thought the act or process of meditating see i knew it that preacher's now trying to tell me how to think you're right scripture said let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight o lord how many know we've got too much noise in our lives i mean our lives are filled with lots of noise there's advertisements there's all kinds of things going on could i give you an example and hopefully it won't offend everybody there are some of us in this house today we would struggle to remember the words of amazing grace and the national anthem let alone be able to name the 12 disciples but we could sing and dance all of the applebee's latest commercial some of y'all are praying about that i can see ecclesias ecclesiastes 12 10 said the preacher sought to find out acceptable words i'm wanting to find some acceptable words that which were written that was upright even the words of truth i want the meditations of my heart the words of my mouth i want it to be excellence of speech first thessalonians 4 11 said in that thou study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you now i realize this isn't the kind of word that always makes us want to shout in church this is the kind of word we need to recall on monday morning you want to be excellent in christ verse 12 said that you may walk honestly toward them that are without the the world's not going to see you singing and shouting and dancing and praising but they're going to hear your speech they're going to see what you do they're going to see how you act if you want to be a witness it's not about being a witness in here it's about being a witness out there it's about being a witness to a lost world they hear that vulgar language all the time they hear all that garbage you need to be different you need to be excellent [Applause] first corinthians 15 33 says be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners what are evil communications filthy language full of expletives whisperers slanderers gossipers backbiters we're on the information super highway in communications and a bunch of us are getting run over by it facebook twitter snapchat instagram camera phones luke 6 45 said a good man out of a good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good what's in your heart's gonna come out and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringing forth that which is evil for of the abundance of the heart his mouth tweeted and speaketh hebrews 13 16 says but to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices god is well pleased did you know it's a sacrifice to communicate properly i mean a lot of us we've already learned the rules of communicating with all of these devices you know all caps means you're yelling i have to repeat the story again brother nathan roberts told me his mom was trying to get into learning to text and said she sent him a message she had an uncle or he had an uncle who was at the point of death and the uncle passed away and she sent him a message and all it said it said uncle so-and-so passed away l-o-l and he said mom why are you laughing out loud she said i thought that meant lots of love we got to learn to communicate better we've got to learn to let this world know that we speak a different language there should be excellency of speech that flows out of an apostolic jesus name holiness person every day of your life no matter the situation it don't matter if somebody's been talking about you talk about them to jesus on your knees it don't matter what they tweeted it don't matter what they posted love jesus and you see what it'll do for you it's your blessing your excellency will make you excellent well let me move i've dwelled there long enough another characteristic of a more excellent way is excellency of power acts 1 and 8 said but ye shall receive power after that the holy ghost has come upon you man we like that man i've got power ii corinthians 4 7 says but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of god and not of us [Applause] some folks mistake the power of the holy ghost as it being something that makes humanity human we we want to proclaim that we're almost these spiritual superheroes now i've got power but it said we have this treasure in earthen vessels the treasure of the holy ghost is dwelling in flesh and the excellency is not of our flesh the excellency is as the scripture said of the power of god it's not us it said but we are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed you see we might mistake this power as making us some spiritual superhero i see some folks they they think the holy ghost gave them power man they they're going to discern everything and if there's somebody doing something wrong they've almost got this spiritual power i'm going to zap them i'm going to put pronounce a curse on you that's not what the holy ghost does the excellent excellency of power that the holy ghost gives you will more than likely be a power of spiritual discernment the power of self-control the power of willpower the power of self-discipline you know i'm self-disciplined man that don't sound too heroic does it but yet holy ghost-filled folks should have self-discipline in all walks of their life and then we should have excellency of knowledge and that's the knowledge of jesus christ ecclesiastes 7 12 says for wisdom is a defense and money is a defense but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it don't think that money and wisdom alone will defend you you need the knowledge of who jesus is philippians said it this way yea dallas i count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord when jesus becomes your lord suddenly you have some excellent knowledge and insight that you haven't had before he said for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dunk that i may win christ it doesn't sound like this passage of philippians is stating that there's necessarily going to be success in life because you have the excellency of christ in your life it said you get things in proper perspective these earthy things don't become important to you the psalmist said o lord our lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth who has set thy glory above the heavens first corinthians 2 1 says and i brethren when i came to you came not with excellency of speech if you can't speak before people don't worry about it but he said i came not with excellent speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of god for i am determined not to know anything among you save jesus christ and him crucified i may not be a public speaker who's excellent in public orations and polemics but oh if i have the excellency of the knowledge of jesus christ he can guide every facet of my life hear me today i'm speaking to someone today you've been battling with keeping excellence in your life you have a desire when you're in the house of god there's such a calling such a draw to you and you're that kind of person you've got the personality you can touch others but when you get out outside the confines of the church many times the enemy comes in and he wants to take over your speech he wants to take over your conduct he wants to take don't let that happen say i've got the power of the holy ghost in me i know jesus christ he is my personal savior i've been blood bought i'm going to speak different i'm going to talk different i'm going to be different hallelujah let me hasten to the end praise team musicians get ready and then let me tell you you need to be happy in your excellence isaiah 12 said therefore with joy shall we draw waters out of the wells of salvation if you saved you ought to be happy not sad holy ghost filled folks ought not to walk around with old sad sack faces in the molly grub talking about how bad things are you ought to be happy you have christ living in you there should be an excellent spirit in you and in that day shall you say praise the lord call on his name declare his doings among the people make mention that his name is exalted holy ghost phil folks ought to talk about jesus often if folks get in a conversation with you after not too many moments they ought to find out that's a holy ghost field person that's a person that loves jesus it said sing unto the lord for he has done excellent things he's going to do some great things in your life no this is known to all the earth what are excellent things we'll have excellent marriages we have to have excellent morals we ought to have excellent finances excellent parenting skills excellent children excellent employees excellent employers and we must be an excellent church [Music] but you know what will hinder excellence in the church everybody worrying about who is the most excellent [Music] i said i hasten to close and everybody said thank god but i am going to read you scripture about that first corinthians 12 still talks about this membership deal verse 14 says for the body is not one member but many that means we have a diversity of abilities skills and shortcomings if the foot shall say because i am not the hand i am not the body is it therefore not of the body another rhetorical question of course not and if the ear shall say because i am not the i i am not of the body it is therefore not of the body if the whole body were and i where were the hearing i've heard bishop talk about it before if there was jealousy of the body in this definition oh there's so many wonderful songs love songs that are written about beautiful blue eyes and beautiful brown eyes and looking into her eyes and look but nobody yet is penned a song when i look in your ears i still go crazy [Music] yet that's all part of the body that's a necessary part listen to me the body can't get in an argument with itself over what's most important church family we can't argue over oh i'm doing more in the kingdom of god than him i'm so much better i don't get to do this i don't if you're the ear you got to hear if you're the eye you got to see if you're the foot you've got to walk [Music] verse 18 but now have god set the members every one of them in the body as it has pleased him whatever god's called you to do it's pleasing to him do it with excellence [Music] verse 21 the eye cannot say unto the hand i have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet i have no need of thee you hadn't got the right to disfellowship anybody either nay much more those members of the body which seem to be feeble are necessary and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these we bestow more abundant honor and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness [Music] for our comedy parts have no need but god has tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part which lacketh i dare say most of us spend more time fixing our face and we do fixing our feet but it's all necessary [Music] because verse 25 said there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another what does that term schism mean it means a division among the members of a group that occurs because they disagree on something division separation discord disharmony he said there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another and notice verse 26 stand with me so you'll know i'm closing it said and whether one member suffer all members suffer with it and one member be honored all members rejoice with it simply say we're all in this together we're all part of the body of christ even when we have disagreements we must not be disagreeable and create a division or a citizen for you see when he said there's a more excellent way i give you the more excellent way today john 14 6 said jesus said unto them i am the way there's your more excellent way if you know jesus he said i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the father but by me i ask you this question today do you want to live your life in excellence do you want to walk in the more excellent way he said yet show i unto you a more excellent way i wonder if there's anybody in this house today [Music] that would say i want to live in excellence i don't want to live a mediocre life i want to live in excellence is anybody would step out and say i just want to come around the altar and say god i want to be excellent for you whatever you've called me to do if you don't know what your calling is come and say lord i'm not sure what my calling is but whatever it is i want you to reveal it to me and i want to be excellent that's right step out i want to be excellent in whatever i do for you jesus i want to be excellent in you if you don't know jesus come and get to know him today he wants to make your life excellent hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] now is [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] and now i'm alive in you hallelujah would you lift your hands and love jesus would you praise him for a more excellent way today would you thank him for a more excellent way today hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah first apostolic church thank you for being a church of excellence thank you for striving and thriving in this day with excellence in christ hallelujah i love you i appreciate all that this assembly is doing remind you we have service tonight we will have music practice musicians musicians and praise team 515 choir 5 30 prayer time 6 o'clock evangelistic service 6 30. let's come back tonight expecting a great time in the lord don't forget to pick your children up before you leave you're dismissed in jesus name shake hands and be friendly