Sunday Morning Worship Service

aren't you thankful to be back in the house of god today always a privilege always an honor i'm thankful to be here today always great to be home there's no place like home i'm so thankful for fac knoxville and apostolic christian school and what it means to me and the process of my life that this has been so instrumental in and i give honor great honor to the mccool family and i'm thankful for them today you and i wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for the mccoys bishop sister mccoy pastor and sister mccool and their children and and their uh their family and i love and appreciate every one of them all the ministry and saints of god of this church so many people i could call out but i don't have time today but thank you i also give honor to my mom and grandmother that are here today i love and appreciate them my wife is out of town on business my daughter got married back in march so she's not with us anymore unfortunately but both of my boys are with me today grayson and braxton i'm thankful that they're here with me today and on the way here late thursday night braxton my 11 year old he said dad i wish we lived in knoxville and i said well i do too and he i said well why do you want to live there and he said because i really want to sing on the praise team at that church so [Applause] you have your bibles turned with me to revelation 19. [Music] thank you pastor whitley levitt appreciate you your wife and your children brother anthony sister kelly don't they have just two of the most beautiful little girls in the world they're just precious revelation 19 verses 6 through 9 and it and as i heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as a voice of mighty thundering saying hallelujah for the lord god omnipotent reigneth let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife hath made herself ready and to her was granted that she would be arrayed in fine linen clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints and he saith unto me right blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the lamb and he said unto me these are the true sayings of god i want to preach for a few moments this morning to you on this thought on the way to a wedding we're on our way to a wedding today if you set your bibles down lift your hands and hearts to heaven help me pray lord we love you we thank you for your power we thank you for your majesty we thank you for your glory god we're so thankful for this opportunity to be in your house lord i'm asking you to touch your people today god let our hearts and our minds be fertile ground for your word to fall on today god i ask you to anoint me to preach your anointed word god don't let it be my words my thoughts are my sermon but your words your thoughts and your message for your people god i ask you to move in someone's life today let us leave here different than what we walked in challenged and changed by your spirit and by your word in jesus mighty matchless name we pray amen why don't you give him another handclap of praise he's worthy come on the bible says not only to clap but to shout unto god with the voice of triumph hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you you can be seated this morning on july 16 1999 on the way to his cousin's wedding john f kennedy jr died when the airplane he was piloting crashed into the atlantic ocean off the coast of martha's vineyard massachusetts the two passengers on board kennedy's wife carolyn bessette and her sister lauren were also killed the national transportation safety board concluded that the accident had been caused by the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over open water at night which was a result of spatial disorientation spatial disorientation now i'm not saying the east tennessee word for special spatial as in talking about space spatial disorientation is otherwise known as mind wobbling or black hole vertigo it is aviation's top pilot killer with little warning it can attack any pilot when a pilot suffers from this mind wobbling there is no training that can prevent it survival can only come from recovery and recovery can only be learned after a tremendous amount of hours of instrument training as a pilot without much flight time kennedy hadn't had enough of the training necessary black hole vertigo causes a pilot to think he is flying where he is not it makes you begin to question what you see with what your instrument panel panel is telling you the plane might feel as if it's veering to the right or to the left flying up or flying down but the double pointed needle on the artificial horizon dial tells you differently in an attempt to overcompensate the pilot in error eases the yoke control to the right or to the left the first third of instrument training is learning to fly on the instruments the second third is learning to navigate and the last third is learning to trust it all confident the gauges are right and your instincts are wrong the last third apparently is what kennedy lacked and they said to save yourself from this spatial disorientation this mind wobbling you have to ignore the voices in your head and trust the instrument panel otherwise you pass the point of no return and you are heading to the point where black knight meets black sea so the enemy of our souls on our way to a wedding today wants us to start questioning everything that we know they want us to start questioning everything we believe and this isn't a new trick it's as old as time because we find in the story of creation in genesis 3 and 1 now the serpent said unto the woman yea hath god said now that we talk often end time prophecy about the mark of the beast well this is the the original mark of the beast the question mark because he got eve questioning thinking in her head did god really say it and satan wants you to question the voice of god and the word of god in your life today he wants you to start saying things like this but i feel like but it's not about what you feel like because jeremiah 17 and 9 says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it it's not about what you feel it's about what his word says today he wants you to say things like this but the way i see it but it's not about how you see it because we walk by faith and not by sight it's about what his word says today he wants us to start saying things like but i think but it's not about what you think today because proverbs says there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death you can't believe everything you think today another one of the problems in his trip to the wedding jfk jr had visibility problems there were hazy conditions that existed on the night of the crash haze especially at night can lead to spatial disorientation for pilots haze can cause there to be no visual horizon while flying over open water proverbs tells us where there is no vision the people perish the enemy wants us to be distracted from our vision today another thing that he did was he flew over featureless open water after passing point judith rhode island the plane headed directly towards martha's vineyard instead of following the coastline which would have provided visible lights on the ground and kennedy chose the shorter direct path over a 30-mile open stretch of water instead of going the shoreline where he could have been able to tell where he was at the enemy wants you to take the shorter route today the enemy wants you to take the easy route but jesus said enter you in at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and their feud that be that find it today according to the faa airplane flying handbook crossing large bodies of water at night may be hazardous because the featureless horizon visually blends in with the water in which case depth perception and orientation become difficult in first samuel 11 we found nay hatched ammonite and camped against jabash gilead and they were scared to death and he said well i'll make a treaty with you i'll make a covenant with you you men of jabash if you'll let me thrust out your right eye and i've often wondered why he wanted them to thrust out their right eye if you uh if you study it out two-thirds of our population are right-eye dominant so this would cause them to lose their peripheral vision and their debt perception this would cause them not to be able to swing a sword correctly or shoot a bow accurately and that's exactly what the enemy wants to do to us in the year 2021 he wants us to make a covenant with him he wants us to give up our vision he wants us to give up our thoughts he wants us to give up our beliefs in an attempt to do things his way but i've come to tell a church today we're on our way to a wedding and we cannot allow the enemy to distract us or keep us from arriving safely today [Applause] the flight was originally scheduled for daylight hours but heavy traffic and work schedules delayed kennedy's flight and pushed it back until the dark time originally planned to depart at 6 00 pm the flight didn't depart until 8 39 pm nearly a half a half an hour past sunset at that time of takeoff the moon was just above the horizon and provided very little illumination so he took off too late it also caused him to crash and i've come to tell somebody today don't wait too late to take off don't wait too late to come to an altar and repent of your sins don't wait too late to get into a baptistery and to be baptized in the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved don't wait too late to be filled with the gift of the holy ghost don't wait too late to come to an altar and get the chains of sin and addiction released off of you don't wait too late to experience the healing virtue from the stripes on his back don't wait too late to take off today another problem with his flight was kennedy's estimated total flight experience was only 310 hours of which only 50 55 were at night his estimated flight time in the accident airplane had only been 36 hours of which only 9.4 hours were at night approximately three hours of that flight time were with a cfi on board and only 48 minutes of that was flown at night which included just one night landing you know what that tells me is jfk junior shouldn't have been flying alone and we can't be flying alone today we we this isn't about just me today this is about us the psalmist said behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity the psalmist said it's a good thing to dwell in unity it's a good thing to come to the house of god it's a good thing to join with my brothers and sisters it's a good thing to dwell together in unity and then we go over to the new testament and james says in james 4 and 17 therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin so if it's a good thing for me to dwell together in unity and if it's good if i know to do good and don't do it it's a sin then i i surmise from that today that if i'm not dwelling in unity then i'm sinning today that's why i want to be a part of the body that's why i want to be a part of the church i want to dwell together in unity i'm not going to make it to that marriage i'm not going to make it to that wedding to one day if i'm doing this by myself i need you and you need me today another problem with kennedy's flight is he never received a weather briefing or filed a flight plan with any flight service station because he didn't no one knew his exact route or his expected time of arrival except for the takeoff portion of his flight kennedy did not have any contact with any air traffic controllers during the flight he never requested help or declared an emergency you've got to not be too proud today to ask for help the ntsb examiners discovered after the crash that both of kennedy's radios had incorrect frequencies selected kennedy has selected 127.25 for martha's vineyards addis instead of 126.25 likewise he selected 135.25 for essex county addis but it should have been 135.5 notice it was just a little bit off it wasn't even one point off bishop it was just a point of a fraction off it was just a little bit off and it caused him to be unable to communicate with air traffic control just one little bit just nothing major just one little dial off and you know what the enemy wants you to do he wants you to just be barely off today he wants you he he doesn't have to get you to completely backslide today if he can just get you to be barely off that's what's wrong with religions in the world today they all have a little bit of truth but there's something just off there's just a little bit off it and if we don't understand that today we need to get a hold of that truth that the enemy he may not want you to walk completely out of the church and backslide but if he can just get you a little bit off if he can just get you to start questioning and start thinking and start believing something else and believing a lie he will keep us from arriving at that wedding one day another problem kennedy had was six weeks before the crash kennedy had fractured his left ankle in a paragliding accident he had surgery and war cast and walked with a cane up until the day of the accident the ntsb suggested that kennedy's marriage may have been a contributing source of stress at the time of the crash also he had spent the first the last three nights of his life apart from his wife at a new york city hotel additionally kennedy's magazine george was in serious financial trouble and according to the aeronautical information manual stress from everyday living can impair a pilot's performance often in just subtle ways and distractions can so interfere with judgment that unwarranted risks are taken so kennedy was flying wounded physically mentally and emotionally and i read a story one time about general patton the famous general the of the u.s army and he said this he said i'd rather wound the enemy instead of kill them because a wounded soldier takes three to four people to take care of them and i believe that's the way the enemy of our soul is today he wants to wound people because we have to spend so much time taking care of the wounded that we don't have time to worship we spend so much time taking care of those that are being distracted by the cares of life that we don't have time to get our purpose and our goal on heaven don't get wounded today and if you are if you are wounded receive healing you don't need to fly wounded today paul writes to the church in galatians he said brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual you want to know if you're spiritual today or not he said restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself lest thou also be tempted we need to be restorers instead of destroyers today when somebody's wounded i want to be there to help you up but then let's rejoice and let's move on because we're on the way to a wedding today and we don't have time to be distracted we don't have time to stay wounded let's be healed let's restore today [Applause] another problem with kennedy was his he had too much confidence and too much confidence is an issue in this crash kennedy had made that flight many times and because he had made that flight many times arrogance and pride will cause a pilot to begin taking dangerous risk and ultimately crashing isaiah tells us about the beginning of pride isaiah 14 verse 12 says how art thou fallen from heaven o lucifer son of the morning how i thought cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations see if you studied out satan in his original creation his creation of lucifer a a archangel he had if you studied out he had every precious stone and jewel that covered his body so i believe today that when he stepped into the holy presence of god the light that of god would illuminate off of him and satan would look and look around the room and say man look how beautiful i am look how amazing i am and he started thinking that it was him instead of the presence of the lord also if you study it out he had every type of musical instrument inside of him so when he opened his mouth praise would emanate from his mouth until one day satan opened his mouth and it wasn't praised this time because he got full of himself he got prideful and he said this in verse 13 i will ascend into heaven i will exalt my throne above the stars of god i will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north i will ascend down above the heights of the clouds i will be like the most high see we get in trouble when we start saying i i get nervous when i'm around people that start talking about i did this and i did that and i preached this and i ministered this and i did this and now i prayed for this person and they were healed i prayed for this person they were filled with the holy ghost we don't understand what we're even talking about we've got to understand there is an eye problem in this world no wonder we have iphones and ipods and ipads i guess that's why i broke today because we got eye problems but god said in verse 15 yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit satan you started thinking it was all about you not realizing without his light those jewels didn't do anything not realizing without the being able to open your mouth there was no instruments to be played and we've got to understand the same thing in this house today the anointing is god working through us deity three through humanity and if we begin to think it's us he will remove himself from our works because he will not share his glory with another today no wonder the writer of proverbs says that pride goeth before destruction and a holy spirit before a fall a proud look is first on the list of things that god says that he hates today john the baptist said it like this we i must decrease so that jesus can increase why do we get that backwards in the world that we're living in today as a matter of fact i believe that holiness without humbleness is like a counterfeit ticket it may look authentic but it won't get you inside the gate today you may be feeling a little prideful when you compare yourself to the world but what are you feeling like when you compare yourself to his word this morning because i i can never forget that my righteousness is still as filthy rags as a matter of fact if you when we think of sodom and gomorrah what's the the first thing that we think of why they got destroyed the first thing we think of is for the homosexuality that was rampant in that city but that's not what the bible says the first thing was ezekiel 16 49 says behold this was the iniquity of my sister sodom pride before he ever mentions anything else he said it was pride that destroyed them and that's what happened to jfk jr it was pride that caused him to crash and burn before he arrived at the wedding and if we're not careful pride will do the same thing to us we will not reach that marriage supper of the lamb if we allow pride to live in us today and the last thing of his crash according to the radar data about seven miles from the approaching shore the airplane began a right turn and climbed 2600 feet and then it went into a left turn and while in the left turn the airplane began a descent that reached about 900 feet per minute while still in the descent the airplane entered a right turn again and during this turn the airplane's rate of descent eventually exceeded 4 700 feet per minute and the airplane struck the water in a nose-down altitude all on board were tragically and needlessly killed so the report said that jfk went right and when he went right he went up you know that's what happens when you get too far right and too far righteous and too far holy thinking you're better you go up you get full of yourself and pride will lift you up and then he tried to overcompensate and he went too far left and he just began to descend and that's what happens when we get too far left and we get too worldly it'll cause us to fall very quickly and they said that if jfk jr would have just kept his plane in the middle if he would have just stayed balanced and kept it in the middle he would have arrived at martha's vineyard safe and sound but he went too far right and got too far high and went too far left and went too far down and if he would have just stayed in the middle we wouldn't even be preaching about this today a false balance is an abomination to the lord we have to keep the plane in the middle today matter of fact if we study about jesus in john 1 the same chapter that says in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god he also says and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory of the only begotten of the father and this this is the key he was full of grace and truth he wasn't just full of grace where anything goes on the left and he wasn't just full of truth where nobody's gonna make it to heaven on the right but jesus was balanced he was full of grace and truth and i want you to understand something in the old testament there is never a recording of satan entering into the temple we never hear about that but in the new testament we hear about demon-possessed people entering the synagogue the old testament the reason why satan didn't go in there was because in the old testament they had the torah and the ark which represented the law and the mercy seat so satan couldn't enter into a balanced church that had the law and the mercy seat but in the new testament synagogue there was no mercy seat all they had was the torah the law so they had law with no mercy and satan was able to enter into the presence with law and no mercy and we've got to be able to keep it balanced today the tabernacle as you if you studied out in the old testament that same tabernacle of the congregation was always in the middle of the camp that way no matter who you were what tribe you were from every morning when you opened the door you saw the house of god why because it made you realize i don't need to look at everybody else and compare myself to them the only person i need to compare myself to is the god of all glory and his word and his mercy his goodness and his mercy his grace and his truth i've got to get balance today i don't want to go too far right i don't want to go too far left i've got to arrive at a wedding today as we stand as a matter of fact in revelation 1 john c seven golden candle sticks and guess who was in the middle he went on the right and he wasn't on the left jesus was in the middle and the seven golden candlesticks represent the seven churches all of them different all of them unique but one thing they had in common jesus was in the middle of them all we are on our way to a wedding today if we will keep our minds and our hearts balanced if we will keep our mind on him if we will keep our hearts and our minds and our spirits right we're going to make it to that wedding god give us a vision today to make it god give us unity today to make it god give us humility today to make it i don't want to be full of myself i don't want to be full of pride god i don't want to fly alone i don't want to fly hurt god i don't want to lose my vision god because all of those things will distract me from arriving safely at that marriage supper of the lamb i'm on my way to a wedding today and i want to make it all the way to glory so with every head bowed every eye closed all across this house today [Music] i wonder if we could just do something we're not very familiar with doing let's be honest with ourself could we just be honest with ourselves for just a moment today and do something that we don't like to do look in that spiritual mirror today and do a self-examination god search me try my heart try my spirit today lord if there's anything in me that's not like you take it out god because i'm on the way to a wedding god if there's anything that's weighing me down if there's anything that's making me go too far right or too far left god i want to get rid of it today because i'm on my way to a wedding and i want to make it all the way god if there's pride in me god if i'm wounded today god if i if i'm causing things not to be uh for me to live in a spirit of unity with my brother and my sister god help me today to get aligned to be able to fly god don't let me question things the enemy wants you to begin questioning things today just as jfk began questioning his instrument panel we have an instrument panel let's call the bible today and if you're not careful the enemy will start to make you questioning what this bible says it'll say it'll make you say well do i do i really have to repent of my sins yes you have to repent of your sins do i really have to be baptized yes you have to be baptized well do i have to really be baptized in jesus name yes you have to be baptized in jesus name do i have to be filled with the holy ghost yes you have to be filled with the holy ghost i'm not going to let those questions invade my mind today i'm not going to let doubt sneak in i don't want that question mark that the enemy started with eve i don't want him to say half god said i want to hold true to what his word says today so i wondered today is there somebody that'd like to step out of your seat today and meet us at this altar and say god i want to make sure i'm right today god i want to make sure i'm on my way to a wedding today and i'm not going to have any distractions that god i'm going to make it all the way god i'm not going to be distracted i'm not going to be i'm not going to be one a story that of someone who crashed and burned just miles away from my destination but god i want to make sure i'm right i want to make sure i'm holy i want to make sure things are right in my life i want to make sure that i'm aligned with your word i want to make sure i'm doing what i'm supposed to be doing because i'm on my way to a wedding today come on there's a seat waiting on you at that wedding [Music] but we got to make sure our hearts right we got to make sure our mind's right come on everybody that will come on let's just come down to an altar for just a little bit just to make sure god i don't want to leave this place today i don't want to walk out of your house i don't want to walk out of your presence without knowing that i'm ready come on if you've never repented today's your day if you've never been baptized in jesus name right now is your moment if you've never been filled with the holy ghost right now is your time [Music] come on church we're on our way to a wedding today and the enemy doesn't want you to arrive but you got to get a made-up mind today i'm going to make it i'm not going to let anything distract me i'm not going to let anything keep me today [Music] you're the one we're living for [Music] holy spirit lead us to the heart of jesus there is nothing we want more [Music] so strip away my pride and selfishness take me back to my first love falling on my knees now i confess that you will always be enough holy spirit holy spirit us for you're the one we're living for the holy spirit lead us to the heart of jesus but there is nothing we want more [Music] [Music] we want more decrees [Music] i decree [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on would you praise that oh jesus be the center it's all about you [Music] if you feel like praying for somebody i want you to put your hand upon somebody and pray with them for a moment would you pray with somebody come on we're in this together would you pray with somebody when the holy ghost is moving today oh yes in jesus name jesus christ [Applause] jesus be the center it's all about you yes it's all about would you lift up your hands all over the sanctuary i know i know we have been here for a while but i want you to pray the holy ghost is ministering in this room right now somebody needs this word i want you to respond to that word would you just lift up your voice right now i want somebody to pray pray in the spirit if you have the holy ghost i want you to pray in the spirit right now that somebody would respond to this word that we're on our way to a wedding and the enemy wants to distract us he wants to distract individuals he wants to distract families he wants to get our mind off of truth get our mind off the spirit come on he wants us to he wants us to get off the track well i want you to just pray just one more moment would you pray one more moment that god would minister to somebody's heart someone's family oh jesus we need you oh we're on our way we're on our way we're on our way