Sunday Morning Worship Service

well glory lord bless you i'm gonna let you start moving back to your seats and then i'll let you be seated we greet you on this 4th of july sunday we celebrate what god has afforded us the privilege as a nation to have aren't you thankful to be living in the free nation of the united states today aren't you thankful for that i think that deserves a clap offering of praise no matter the issues we may have no matter the blemishes of humanity we still live in a country that there's a people that's here today that says we're celebrating the independence of our nation by enjoying our freedom to worship god in the house of the lord on the 4th of july what an awesome awesome crowd is here and i thank you for being with us worshiping together i give honor to all those who are joining us by way of the internet thank you for being in service with us and we want you to be here in person with us very very soon and then say i want to welcome another new member of first apostolic church i asked her big sister today what's her name buddy she spit it out she said that's [name redacted] brother hayden and sister maisha would you stand do you have [name redacted] would could we welcome [name redacted] congratulations lord bless you now i would start naming all the grandparents and great-grandparents and nephews and cousins but we want to get through before the fourth of july so uh all the family we're celebrating with you so glad that you are here already back in the house of the lord born just this a week ago or a little less and we're thankful and say i want to say welcome home uh brother taylor hudson wherever you are by the taylor glad he's home folk that happens to live in colorado uh good to have you home with us today all of our guests so honored to have you i don't have the the names that have already been presented uh in front of me but suffice to say i welcome every one of you glad to have you worshiping with us today i want to finally one more time reintegrate i know we're double announcing and i try not to do that because we have pre-service announcements but one event in particular that i want first apostolic church to be ready for i want you to get ready spiritually and in your flesh as well because july the 14th 15th and 16th we will be hosting the tri-state district camp meeting of the assemblies of the lord jesus christ this is our family camp and we have the privilege of hosting that event have for many years we're expecting a marvelous time in the lord and when you host something you know what you're supposed to be there as the hosts so i want to encourage all of our church family we'll have service wednesday night thursday night friday night thursday morning and friday morning at 10 o'clock there'll be great preaching great singing and of course brother matthew ball will be ministering to us as our evening evangelist you don't want to miss tri-state district camp and there will be schedules online let me remind you uh man we're we're getting fancy they used to talk about being up in the papers and i don't even know what that means but you can go online now to our different multimedia outlets and there's a a qr code and you can uh do whatever you do with that qr code and it'll give you the complete schedule you'll have it on your phone or your tablet the device that you have and you can get the complete schedule and keep up with all that's going on for camp meetings so you remember that that will uh be posted uh either today or tomorrow so you be looking for that as we get ready for camp meeting i want to take us to the word of the lord today i would call your attention to the book of first kings the 12th chapter first kings the 12th chapter and i want to begin reading at verse number 28. first kings the 12th chapter beginning to read at verse number 28. this is telling of king jeroboam it says whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and he said unto them it is too much for you to go to jerusalem behold thy gods o israel which brought thee up out of the land of egypt and he set the one at bethel and the other put he in dan notice verse 30 and this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even unto dan for a few moments this morning i would speak to you on this subject a convenient sin a convenient sin let's pray savior i love you god i'm grateful that you have ordained us to be in your house and you have privileged us with the opportunity and made a way that we would be here now god i pray that your word would minister mightily to us today let the power of the holy ghost reign in our lives let's be used of you and changed in jesus name we pray amen a convenient sin the passage that i read in your hearing recalls that tipping point that had was the results of god's people choosing to be king-led versus god-led they had asked for a king over in 1st samuel 8. in fact they were speaking to samuel their prophet who had given all of the spiritual advice and leadership up to that point in first samuel 8 5 it says and said unto him behold thou are old and thy sons walk not in thy ways now make us a king to judge us like all the other nations god's people were desiring to be like everybody else they had lost their appreciation and they had developed a hard heart toward being god-led versus king-led or man-led if you will verse 6 says but the thing displeased samuel when they said give us a king to judge us and samuel prayed unto the lord and the lord said unto samuel harkin under the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that i should not reign over them from this time on there would be tumult defeat recovery other losses constant conflict among god's people saul would be anointed king then david and i need not go through and review all of the divisions that took place there the jealousy the strife the division of the kingdom david would for a time reunite the kingdom his son solomon would be the next in line and solomon and his wisdom would hold the kingdom together for a while but solomon would eventually get old and another generation would come on and now we find that the kingdom once again has been divided rehoboam would eventually become king and rehoboam would have such a hard-nosed condescending haughty arrogant superior attitude toward rooting the toward ruling the people that there would be a revolt in the kingdom the division would take place there would be 10 tribes that would be called israel there would be two tribes judah and benjamin only that would stay loyal to rehoboam and the rest would choose jeroboam to be their leader he was an inexperienced young man and these 10 rebellious tribes have now made him king and he immediately moved to convert his people to a more convenient political type religion adam clark in his commentary on this verse said whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and said unto them it's too much for you to go up to jerusalem behold thy god o israel which which brought me up out of the land of egypt that he invented a political religion instituted feasts in his own times different from those appointed by god he gave the people certain objects of devotion and pretended to think it would be both inconvenient and oppressive to them to have to go up to jerusalem and worship this was not the last time that religion was made a state engine to serve political purposes it is strange that in pointing out his calves to the people he should use the same words that aaron used when he made the golden calf in the wilderness when they must have heard what terrible judgments fell upon their forefathers in this idolatry it's too difficult it's too much trouble too much of a sacrifice to go to jerusalem to the house of god you see a divided kingdom that was now open to the highest bidder and jeroboam's answer was a religion that was more convenient now the term convenient defined is suited to personal comfort or to easy performance suited to a particular situation now please understand this preacher today my premise is not to create some condemning doctrine opposed to the conveniences of life i do not return desire to return to horse and buggies pay phones or record players i'm thankful for electric lights laptops and ipads i love google versus having encyclopedia britannic at my house i love inkjet printers versus mimeograph machines i love microwave ovens instead of wood burning stoves i can sometimes cook things now i love restrooms instead of outhouses i even look forward to camp meeting in a week or so being in an air-conditioned building versus fighting mosquitoes the size of birds i'm looking forward to that i like conveniences don't get me wrong but there are some things that must not be changed especially just for convenience sake jeroboam said it's just too much trouble for you to go to jerusalem going to the house of god in jerusalem is an inconvenience i'm going to create a fast food drive through make everyone comfortable religion you can sacrifice and your attendance will be much easier he picked convenient locations that was closer to where his rebellious people were bethel and dan would be easier locations to reach than jerusalem but life is no different i'm thankful for all who are joining us online and if your situation makes it that you must do that so be it and we're glad to have you but let me tell you that's not intended to replace being in the house of god on the long term i'm glad to have you today but i want you to come and be with us push button church is more convenient having church in your pajamas and drinking a good cup of joe may be fun for a while when we've got coveted going on but i want you to get back to the house it may not be as convenient but something can become a convenience of sin well i'm sure the numbers stayed up now on who's watching let's change our name so we're not so much a churchy church you know let's let's make it a little more comfortable and convenient for everybody so they don't i think oh i'm going to have to have that label of being apostolic listen we are an apostolic church by denomination but we are pentecostal in our experience and in our lifestyle we're not ashamed to be called apostolic we're not ashamed because the people of the name i'm not looking for a convenience change [Applause] hebrews said it this way in hebrews 10 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another telling each other inviting each other and so much the more as you see the day approaching what happens we get together and we keep reminding each other of the goodness of god and we also keep telling each other he's coming back the day's coming jesus is coming back we need to be together the chronology is not by accident for verse 26 states for if we sin willfully it is willful sin when we look for excuses to not be in the house of god rather than excuses to be here after all the old proverbial i'm preaching to the choir is easy today because you're the folks that are here on the fourth of july what a marvelous crowd somebody saw it more important oh it would have been real convenient to say i'm taking the forth off from church but you're here in the house of god because this is where your true freedom and independence lies this is where our freedom to worship our freedom to praise god i don't want to willfully sin by looking for an excuse not to be in the house of god it's not convenient sometimes you see jeroboam was creating an atmosphere of a more convenient way of worshiping and offering sacrifice sacrifice of an animal was too messy too bloody too graphic let's just make some golden images of what a sacrifice looks like and we'll set those up and we'll worship there that's a lot cleaner and more convenient you see what he was doing he was eliminating the blood sacrifice that was mandated in this dispensation to push sin forward and instead he was replacing it with a representative cleaner more convenient sacrifice public repentance is just too messy let's just recite a sinner's prayer in private and all school you mean you've got one of those churches that folks still go down to the altar and repent of their sins you better know that's what we do oh that's too inconvenient someone might see me it don't matter who sees you forget about the convenience if you've got sin in your life you need to come to an altar at the prescribed time and repent of your sins it may be inconvenient but it's the right thing to do you know this baptism stuff it's too much trouble man you're gonna dunk somebody under water you know let's do this at least at least if we're gonna do it let's do it a little more convenient way what did philip say here's water what does hinder thee to be baptized except the calendar no he didn't say well we're going to schedule time so a whole bunch of other folks want to get baptized they can get baptized too he said here's water what doth hinder thee to be baptized let me tell you there's a reason we have a baptismal pool that we keep it full of water it's even heated we've got clothes for men women boys and girls we've got a man that has uh has clothes ready that would baptize you why because we want to make it convenient to get baptized not inconvenient getting baptized ought to be a convenient worship you see now i testified about it last week in my song when i was a seven-year-old boy we used to go out under boyd's bridge and have baptizings man that wasn't convenient that that that was inconvenient sunday afternoon man we were supposed to be having chicken and taking a nap you know but somebody wanted to get baptized we would load up in the cars and here we'd go out to boyd's bridge we'd find some place where the sunbathers weren't and we'd have a baptizing in jesus name i was on the the riverbank at seven years old baptized and started taking place i'd heard it preach i heard him talk about it i said i can't wait no longer i didn't have any other clothes i went right in the water with what i had on and my daddy said i'm gonna baptize you and he baptized me in the name of the lord jesus christ for the remission of my sins it wasn't convenient but it was necessary we've tried to make it as convenient as possible but sometimes if we aren't careful convenience will become a sin we'll start taking things for granted let me tell you what happened to us this week didn't you know it's it's kind of inconvenient to look after a bunch of kids and take them to a camp meeting pastor anthony and sister kelly and all of their i can't name all of the chaperones that went with them but they took a time out of their week loaded up a bunch of kids and took them to youth camp camp strong tower man it would have been a lot easier to say man we've had school all year we've been with kids let's get away from kids i said no we're gonna go camp meeting they're gonna i got the privilege of driving the silver eagle bus bus to asheville north carolina monday morning and going back friday and picking them up there was kids wide-eyed and all excited on on monday as we drove over and there was kids about to die to go to sleep going back on friday they had kept so much there wasn't much energy left but you know what happened i started getting some text messages and reports during the week i got a report they said [name redacted] got the holy ghost then i got another report it said [name redacted] got the holy ghost i got another report it said [name redacted] got the holy ghost oh oh it wasn't convenient to load up a bunch of kids and take but somebody said it's not about convenience it's about an opportunity oh hear me first apostolic church well you know we we could maybe wait some of them are needing to be baptized we could probably wait till we get back to church on sunday oh no i started getting pictures they had a fountain up there at mars hill north carolina i looked and there was pastor anthony and he had [name redacted] and he had [name redacted] baptized them both in jesus name in the fountain preacher isn't that inconvenient did they have baptismal clothes no they had their play clothes for writing down the slides so they put them on and they got baptized in jesus name it wasn't convenient we're not worried about the sin of convenience somebody hear me today [Applause] man this speaking with tongue stuff oh that's just a prayer language that's not essential why do you have to preach that stuff so much well let me ask you in acts 10 46 how did they know the gentiles received the holy ghost it says for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify god if you want the holy ghost you need to get the initial evidence and speak with tongues holiness and lifestyle dress and behavior is not always convenient this lifestyle draws too much attention to me you know yet we will wear the uniforms of our favorite team into enemy territory just to prove that we root for whoever we root for separation from the world just seems to be too inconvenient for too many people a consistent prayer life is not convenient man it cuts into my yoga and pilate time you see when the choir the praise team the musicians the sound technicians the video technicians the lighting crew the greeters the ushers the staff they don't come running in here at 10 59 and say we're going to have church at 10. there's been folks at this place since they opened the doors and brother jim comes in and opens the doors up early early on sunday morning folks coming unlike what are they doing that's not convenient it would be real easy to just get in a habit and do things out of convenience but there's folks here for prayer time before the service begins what's happening it's not convenient but it's necessary to set an atmosphere for god to do a work through us oh god help us when we look for convenience more than we look for doing what will please god and will lead others to salvation you see there are many convenient sins ephesians 5 3 said this but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness let it not be once named among you as becometh saints neither foolish or excuse me filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting matthew henry said of this passage which is it says in the next verse it talks about things that are not convenient matthew henry said but rather giving of thanks neither filthiness by which may be understood all wanton and unseemingly gestures and behavior nor foolish talking it is amazing how convenient it seems to have become nowadays to talk lewd crude and obscene from the president to the entertainers to the athletes to all that would hear it seems that the only way our society now feels that they can communicate is through crude vulgar obscene language it henry went on to say such vain discourse betrays much with folly and indiscretion is and is far from edifying the hearer nor ingesting the greek word you trap ella is the same which aristotle in his ethics makes a virtue pleasantness of conversation and there is no doubt an innocent and inoffensive jesting which we cannot suppose the apostles here to forbid some understand him of such scarless and abusive reflections as tends to expose others and to make their them appear ridiculous this is bad enough but the context seems to restrain it to such pleasantries of discourse as is filthy and obscene which he may also design by the corrupt or putrid and rotten communication that he speaks of in ephesians 4 29 let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to use of edifying that may minister grace unto the hearers we as children of god must not look to fit in by convenience of having smutty vulgar mouths in this world we have a higher way of communicating god has cleansed our palate and our tongue as well as our hearts we must speak in ways that reflect christian character and reflect what god would have us to do it's not always convenient to express yourself forcefully without succumbing to the vulgarities of this world educate yourself develop a vocabulary void of the vulgarities of this world but you see jeroboam wanted a convenient popularity doctrine and if you examine the verse that i read in your hearing it said that jeroboam the king took counsel they were counseling him as to a popular thing rather than thus saith the lord let's do what's popular among the people let's take a vote and see what will make everyone man couldn't we have a great church if we just said all right we're going to take a vote and this is what's right and this is what's wrong that's what he was doing it would be easier to preach a doctrine of eternal security one that once you're saved you're always saved just believing that there's no obedience to the word of god but let me tell you that came from a council could i read you just a little more history today the first council of nicaea was the first ecumenical or worldwide council of the church most significantly it resulted in the first uniform christian doctrine which the which is called the nicean creed historically significant as the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all christendom the council was the first occasion where the technical aspects of christology were discussed and don't that sound let's get everybody together and we're all all going to agree what what what everything means there were some interesting attendees a ubias of nicodemia another ayubius of caesarea who are reported to be the first church historians also circumstances suggest that nicholas nicolas amyra attended if you wonder who nicholas of myra is his life was the seed for the santa claus legends at the council of nicea and there was another troublemaker showed up a fellow by the name of sabellus sabella's taught that god was single and indivisible with father son and holy spirit being three modes or manifestations of one divine person a sebelian modalist would say that the one god successfully revealed himself to man throughout time as the father in creation the son in redemption and the spirit in sanctification and regeneration now the catholic encyclopedia rights of sabelis his opposition to the emerging idea now remember they're getting a consensus here of all the churches for the first time an ecumenical conference but there's always a troublemaker like sebelius sabella's opposition to the emerging idea of the trinity led to his excommunication as a heretic by pope caltius in a.d 2020. waste and bunsen have both suggested that caltius action was motivated more by a desire for unity rather than by conviction what do you get out of that preacher well i get out of the night seeing council that they all agreed on the trinity in santa claus let me tell you sabellus may been called and excommunicated as a heretic but let me tell you there is one god and his name is jesus he was the father in creation he is the son and redemption and he is the holy ghost living inside us don't give me a convenient ideology that some counsel put together let me have what the word says we cannot revise history or revise the word of god preacher you're going to preach this on the 4th you better know i am you see revising history is convenient to make a convenient religion and make folks comfortable see notice the way that jeroboam's new religion developed he made these calves that would clean up the messiness of sacrifice and then this is what he said in our text he said these are the gods little g with an s on the end plural these are the gods that delivered you out of egypt huh i don't remember any gold calves leading anybody out of egypt do you i remember the mighty hand of god parting the red sea i remember the marvelous works that god did for moses and the people of israel as they walked across on dragon i failed to find that in the history where there were two golden calves leading them out yet you see the slightness of just a little change we're gonna make things more convenient for you we're gonna make things sound more poetic to you so it'll cover a greater bunch of folks and folks will be much more comfortable with it unity over conviction if you will for by grace are you saved through faith and not that of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works unless any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus under good works which god hath ordained that we should walk in them men cannot be saved and cannot save each other god's grace is what brings salvation we taught it on wednesday night it's important for us to truly understand the scope of god's grace and then obedience to what he told us to do to enact the plan of salvation in our life but take us home shortly jeroboam's real agenda is later revealed first kings 12 26 and jeroboam said in his heart he didn't publicize this jeroboam said in his heart now shall the kingdom return to the house of david what he was really afraid of was the people that he had led in revolt would start after their anger of the way rehoboam had been so harsh and hard they would start realizing rehoboam's leadership was wrong but the god they were serving was still right and they needed to re-form and they needed to find unity among themselves he said in his heart now shall the kingdom return to the house of david if the people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the lord at jerusalem then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord even unto jeroboam king of judah and they shall kill me and go again to rehoboam king of judah he was practicing proselyte prevention by creating a more convenient message let me tell you the enemy will do anything he can to keep you out of the house of god he'll give you anything as an excuse that'll make it convenient whether it's get hurt get bitter lose your temper get discouraged develop an unforgiving spirit if he can find some excuse to let you stay out of the house of god he's winning he's pulling you away he's finding a convenient way to be lost don't get hurt don't get bitter for you see those who work out of convenience and musicians praise team get ready i'm going to take us home folks who look for convenience over conviction find delay their friend acts 24 says verse 25 and as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgment to come felix trembled and answered go thy way for this time what was happening there was a testimony going on paul was testifying and his testimony was so strong his personal testimony was so strong that felix the leadership the governmental leadership began to tremble and he said go that way for this time when i have a convenient season i will call for thee now's not the time oh i i'm eventually going to turn my life over to god just not right now i believe in righteousness temperance and the judgment to come but not right now when there's a convenient season i'll get things right oh he had an agenda it says and he hoped also that money should have been given him a paul he was looking to be bought off so he could lose him verse 27 says but after two years portius festus came into felix's room and felix willing to show the jews a pleasure left paul bound i find no scriptural or historical record where felix ever found the convenience season to follow jesus judas iscariot the bible talks in mark 14. he sought a convenient or sought conveniently to betray him convenience led by compromise deception and then destruction if you follow the history of jeroboam and reborn divided tribes you'll find that judah reassembled but israel scattered never mistake efficiency is a step toward excellence this is not a message to discourage us from improving and being efficient we need to be as efficient as possible at winning souls efficiency is a step toward excellence but a spirit of convenience is of the devil if i'm looking for a quick way in and a quick way out if i'm looking for shortcuts to salvation let me tell you as we stand we still must take up the cross there's some things that we deliberately do that may not be convenient to others galatians 6 14 said but god forbid that i should glory saving the cross of our lord jesus christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and i into the world in the flesh there should be no shortcuts if you're going to have athletic excellence you got to practice if you're going to have to if you're going to have academic excellence you're going to have to study if you're going to have musical excellence you're going to have to prepare and rehearse but in the spirit we must prepare our children spiritually it was inconvenient to go to camp but look what happened it would be convenient to say oh it's too much trouble to have a christian school and a christian child care center we're not doing that just to be convenient but it's a soul-winning station there should be no shortcuts to our prayer lives there should be no shortcuts to our worship there should be no shortcuts to our commitment there should be no shortcuts to our good name and there should be no shortcuts to biblical separation from the world for there are no shortcuts to salvation i close with this david when he had sinned a great sin looked for a place to build a altar and sacrifice he found the place that god had led him to it was the threshing floor of aruna and arun is saying it was the king said i'll give you the threshing floor what what's a little bit of property among friends he said i'll provide you with the sacrifice i'll give you all you need i'll make it convenient for you and david uttered these words he said nay but i will surely abide of thee at a price neither will i offer burnt offerings unto the lord my god of that which cause death costs me nothing let me tell you there's a price to pray there is a price to pay but it's not about convenience it's about salvation whatever you have need of today would you lay your convenience aside would you step out in the aisle would you step out for a season of prayer on this fourth of july sunday say god let me be committed to you forget convenience i want to be totally and completely committed to you hallelujah [Music] [Music] is it is get ready [Music] hey [Applause] [Music] do you really want the fire and the holy [Applause] ghost [Applause] yes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] get ready lord and glory first apostolic church thank you for being willing to go out of your way to do whatever it takes to be soul winners thank you for your daily sacrifices your sacrifices and giving the efforts that you make time again would not afford us to itemize but god is doing a great work because you're willing to not just look for the convenient path but to look for the right path to being soul winners please remember we have service tonight prayer time at six o'clock we pray first at six o'clock choir will meet at 5 15 we're getting ready for camp meeting camp meeting has already started but i'm expecting a great time and a great move of the lord and camp meeting keep that on your agenda and your calendar lord bless you you are dismissed in jesus name greet each other as your personal protocols affords you to and makes you [Music] comfortable