Sunday Morning Worship Service

and you can start making your way back to your seats and what a great spirit of expectation that is in this room today thank you to our music team our worship team setting the atmosphere i like them being out here like this i like them leading worship like this i like seeing them lift up their hands and sing along with us because that's what we're here to do and this that's a great atmosphere of anticipation and that's what they've done today i want you get your bibles and go with me too john first john chapter number three first john chapter number three [Music] as you're turning there i want to say what great preaching and teaching we've heard over the last several sundays pastor mccool pastor anthony just timely words sister ashley and i were in lexington park maryland with the states who were here just a few weeks ago we were doing their marriage retreat uh last weekend we had a great time and we got to tune in uh to be here with you not necessarily physically but we were able to be here digitally and what great worship and great move of the holy ghost we had here this week don't forget this week is our prayer revival monday night tuesday night 7 30 and wednesday night we'll gather here corporately to partake of the lord's supper wednesday night so don't miss that a church that prays together is going to be a church that stays together and when we pray together and things like this begin to take place god begins to move in a tremendous way first john chapter number three we're going to begin reading at verse number 10 when you're there would you say amen amen in this the children of god are manifest and the children of the devil whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of god neither he that loveth not his brother someone say brother for this is the message that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another verse 12 not as cain who was of that wicked one and slew or killed his brother and before he slew him because his works were evil and his brothers righteous marvel not my brethren if the world hate you we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren someone say brethren he that loveth not his brother abideth in death whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him hereby perceive with the love of god because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren but whoso hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of god in him verse number 18 is where we'll finish my little children let us let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth i want to preach to you this morning from this thought tears of a clown tears of a clown i want you to put your bibles down your devices down i want you to help me pray for a moment father we thank you for your word it's a lamp and to our feet it's a light and to our path and i pray right now that it would illuminate the hearts and the spirit and soul of every brother and sister in this room lord let your word be a hammer that breaks open the heart heart let the word of god be a mirror to reveal ourselves and i pray that the word of god would be bread that we partake of it and eat of it today and be nourished by it and i pray god that you would change us through your word today transforming power not because of me but because of your spirit and your word in jesus name we pray and everyone said amen one more time why don't you clap your hands unto the lord today come on somebody give him a praise you've yet to give him [Music] tears of a clown history in biblical scholars tells us that john the son of zebedee and brother of james the apostle wrote this amazing letter known as first john the apostle john also wrote the fourth gospel two additional letters and the apocalyptic revelation of jesus christ john and james were given the nickname sons of thunder why would they be given a name like sons of thunder it was for their zeal for christ and the gospel they were so zealous that they were enraged at a particular samaritan village which refused to welcome christ and his followers so james and john their response was this was lord do you want us to call down fire from heaven and just burn them all up because if they don't like you they don't like us we might as well just get rid of them and jesus said you know not what spirit you are of in their human zeal they wanted to angrily overtake any who opposed christ but now as potentially an old man john is not wanting to call down fire from heaven to consume anyone rather john is passionate about love love for god love for truth love for holiness and love for one another how can one go from desiring to see people engulfed in flames to desiring to experience love for everyone the apostle paul gave us the answer in romans 5 and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given unto us it is only through the holy ghost that we can go from love from hate to love it is only through the power of the spirit that we can love anybody it's not going to come through legislation or law it's only going to come by the spirit of god and john gives us reason for this change of heart in first john 3 14 we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren being born again through the regenerating power of faith repentance baptism in the name of jesus and the infilling of the holy ghost changes brothers and sisters our affections the test of true gospel conversion is in the alteration of our affections many of you can testify that what you used to hate you now love and what you used to love you now hate but the apostle john in this first letter that he wrote is just it is thick with revelation and soul-searching tests in his little letter here if you want a soul-searching test for your faith and your conversion then look no further than the first epistle of john john repeatedly uses the conjunction if in an attempt to see if you really are converted unto christ let me just read some of those to you chapter 1 verse 6. if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth if verse 8 we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we say we have not sinned we make him a liar if any man loved the world the love of the father is not in him if they had been of us they would no doubt continued with us if that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you ye shall also continue in the son and the father if god so loved us we ought also to love one another if we love one another god dwells in us and his love is perfected in us if a man say i love god and hates his brother he is a liar what a conversion test what a litmus test to your salvation here's a few other ways that john does this in this short letter i'm going to try to summarize the first three or four chapters here today and go somewhere and hopefully you see this as we proceed number one you must have fellowship with god fellowship with god takes more than just coming to church a few times a week the prophet amos said this how can two walk together lest they agree fellowship with god means knowing and obeying the commandments god is light therefore we mustn't walk in darkness to avoid darkness we walk in the light of keeping and obeying god's commands first john 2 4-6 he says this he that saith i know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him but who so keepeth his word in him verily is the love of god perfected hereby we know that we are in him he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked so again walking with christ and the fellowship of knowing him means loving your brother first john 2 9-10 he that saith he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness even until now he that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him so number one you must have fellowship with god and having fellowship with god means more than having your name on the role of a church somewhere it means more than just saying yes i know christ or saying or professing that i am a christian do you have fellowship with him and if you're going to have fellowship with god you must love and obey his commands which includes loving your brother number two conversion test loving truth loving truth there's more to truth than than just simply knowing it paul ii thessalonians 2 10 you must love truth truth isn't just an academic ascent truth has to be lived and loved furthermore truth is a person jesus christ jesus said that he is the way the truth and the life and you must abide in that truth in reality the recipients of john's letters were being faced with a deceptive error that god did not come in flesh but john knew better and he says this in first john 1 1 through two that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled the word of life for life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the father was manifested unto us this is the same john that says in the fourth gospel and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory of the only begotten of the father full full of what grace and truth christ came in the flesh but he was full of grace and truth many want the grace but not the truth some want the truth and no grace but jesus came full of both you can't have grace without truth and you can't have truth without grace if you remove one then you don't have christ first john 2 21 i have not written unto you because you know not the truth he's saying i know you know the truth but because you know it and that no lie is in or of the truth he says this but the anointing which ye have received of him abides in you and you need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it has taught you you shall abide in him we are to abide in christ but we are to abide in grace and truth someone say amen today john realized that there would be some who want to sacrifice truth for love and there would be some who want to sacrifice love for truth but such a notion can be recognized with this next conversion test in first john chapter number three one through four number three a rejection of sin i love grace brother whitley i love grace i love truth brother but do you hate sin behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of god therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not beloved now are we the sons of god and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man hath this hope in him purify himself even as he is pure why what whosoever committeth sin transgressus transgresseth against the law for sin is the transgression of the law can i tell you this truth has purifying power truth has transforming power the truth of the gospel is a matter of forsaking the old life and pursuing the new life the new is a life of holiness and a rejection of sin those who would only want to have grace and no truth would like to remain as they were and continue as they were but john says if you're going to have truth you have to forsake sin and if you're going to have grace you're going to have to be able to repudiate sin it's not enough to simply say well he loves me and he loves me as i am no because this hope is in you should should drive you to purify yourself it makes you want to be better than you were previously you don't want to go back to the old life because you've come in connection with new life oh this is not this is not speaking of a perfection of your of your sin nature john says this it does not yet appear what we shall be meaning you're not going to get there right now he is perfecting us but his perfecting of us does not keep us the same way that we are me ask you this question are you holier today than you were yesterday are the actions and the things you are partaking of making you more holy or making you less like christ because you should be changing every day you should be drawing closer to him every day it's a rejection of the old man every man who has been has come into contact with christ pursues holiness brother whitley i love all that holiness stuff but i'm not so sure about grace grace where's there's just too much talk about grace have you hear somebody say that when they start to say that you your ears need to perk up when they say we don't need all that grace talk brothers and sisters he came with full of truth and grace and there are too many churches among us who love truth but don't like grace let me say it this way they like grace for themselves but not grace for others loving god means loving truth and hating sin a passionate pursuit of holiness is different than just simply quitting some bad habits pursuit of holiness is a pursuit of truth and fellowship with god walking in the light as he is light forsaking the darkness some would like to say just don't go here don't do that quit partaking of this and those are important qualities in our pursuit of holiness but in order to hate sin is to see sin as god sees sin sin in the eyes of god is nothing less than physical and spiritual death first john 3 through 3 and 4 says whosoever committeth sin transgresses the law for sin is the transgression of the law 5-17 says all unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death sin was so reviling to god that he was manifest in the flesh to take our sins first john 4 9 through 10 in this was manifested the love of god toward us because that god sent his only begotten son into the world why that we might live through him herein is love not that we loved god but that he loved us it's not that we were deserving it's that he was willing to come and take our place he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins we can't save ourselves attending a church does not save you being in christ saves you and when you're in christ you're a part of the body and you want to be a part of the body coming together with other believers but you're going to have to be in him and you're going to have to reject sin it's a turning away from sin he came to take your sin but he also came to take away the sins of the world he came as our propitiation he is our advocate if we sin he is our advocate but your sin isn't any worse than someone else's i've heard someone say this before i'm afraid if i go to church the walls will cave in if i walked in there no your sins are no worse than somebody else's and if you think that this church is full of perfect people it's not because i'm here and because you're here and we are not perfected we are not yet as we shall be but we're coming here to say i'm not as i used to be i'm not as i shall be but i'm changing i'm he's making a difference in my oh somebody do you have a testimony do you have a witness to his power that he changed you i'm not the same as i used to be [Applause] but can i also say this someone else's sin doesn't make yours any more acceptable well i'm not doing that well you shouldn't be doing anything bad at least i'm not as bad as they are compared to who compared to who if i did that don't don't say that if it were me don't say that because that's not the standard and that is not the measure the measure of holiness is not the person over here or the person over there the measure of wholeness is him and he is love and he is holy and he is truth and that's what we're striving to be like somebody say amen certainly a majority of believers would pass these three conversion tests of being a true believer but there is one more test that qualifies all other tests if you don't pass the next test the other three are null and void the final conversion test is whether or not you love your brother i love truth brother whitley i love holiness i love god but i sure hate my brother then you don't have the other three i don't care how long you've been here i don't care how long you can claim to be a part of the church if you hate your brother you are not in christ fellowship with god should lead to loving your brother first john 4 8 he that loveth not knoweth not god i love god and i know him but do you love your brother i do except on facebook now there it's off limits i can do whatever i want there and those things which were spoken in the darkness shall come into the light that's what jesus said some of y'all didn't keep it in the darkness you just posted it right there for everybody to see and they shut me and you and and please if you hate your brother and all you do is argue on the internet please take off first apostolic church on your profile because that's not what we're about here we're not about that we're about grace and truth we're about love of god and love of brother that's what we're here for oh somebody don't sit on me now take take hey if you're not going to tip that waitress don't put down an fac card if you're going to be rude and you're going to be nasty don't tell them what church you go to i don't because listen you can love god you can love truth you can love all the things but if you don't love your neighbor all those other things can be erased oh jesus help me right now loving gospel truth should lead to you loving your brother first john 3 23 and this is his commandment oh i love the commandments oh i love the law i love you better obey you better obey you better obey here's the ultimate commandment that we should believe on the name of his son jesus christ and love one another i want all those commands tell me how to live holy love your brother i'm not so sure about that you know what they said you know who they are you know how they treated me come on now it's a command to love your brother it's not a suggestion i love keeping all them commands oh yeah give it to me oh brother now you should preach it harder preach it harder love your brother i'm not so sure about that now hey hey i've been around for a while i've been around for a while i've been in this movement for a long time and there are a lot of people who get up and preach command command command command law law law and you get up and preach grace and love and they're going i think we're compromising around here but i think our bishop taught us a few wednesday nights ago that our compromise is compassion it's showing love towards one another that if you fall i also have the susceptibility to fall as well so i'm going to help you get up i'm going to help you dust yourself off because i love you and i that's a command to love your brother it's not just la la la la around here it's love love love love grace truth come on it's everything he came in the fullness of grace and truth somebody say amen the rejection of sin should lead to you loving your brother as well here it is love that we not that we loved god but that he loved us and sent his son for our sins so aren't we verse 11 love one another he didn't just die for you he died for them and he didn't just die for people who attend this church he died for everybody in knoxville in tennessee in the south mason-dixon line he'd die for everybody he died for everybody it's not just you he came to save yes you're special yes he loves you but he also loves your neighbor and he loves your brother [Applause] if you're gonna say you love god but you hate your brother then you really don't love god you can say you love truth but you know if you don't exemplify the truth that you believe by not loving your brother then you really don't love truth if you hate sin and other people but don't hate the sin within you you really love your sin and hate your brother i'm gonna say that again so you can tweet it if you hate sin and other people but not the sin within you then you really love your sin and hate your brother they just don't sin like you you have a responsibility we have a responsibility to love our brothers and sisters and our neighbors failure to do so reveals our weak confession that's what the world is condemning us by right now that's why the world is condemning us right now it's not that we don't they hate us because of truth they hate us because we don't live what we preach that's why they're coming after us it's because what we say we don't do yeah that's the truth that's not that hey it's not that we love doctrine that they hate us it's that that we don't live out what we say we believe it's got to affect our behavior so let me just give you a few things here four things how you and i can love our brothers number one loving your brother is preferring your brother romans 12 and 10 be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one another our affections change with our conviction we are kindly affection one to another meaning we prefer someone else before ourselves we honor them instead of trying to honor ourselves we promote and prefer them before ourselves we placed their needs before our own i think somebody in here myself included can testify that before you were saved you are quite selfish because it's our default setting isn't it it's our default setting is me me me me i i me first i'm first don't forget me but when we change through the power of the spirit we look out for others before we look out for ourselves that's perfect brother once we have been changed we place other people's needs before our own this is what this is how jesus exemplified that philippians 2 3 let nothing be done through strife of in glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves so christ laid down his life for us we say this i would die for my family i would die for the truth i would die for the church i would die for my pastoral staff but will you live for them you see a lot of us would die for something but we won't live for it chances are many of us won't have a gun placed over our head and many of us won't be at the at the firing squad in the firing line most of us will never experience that and so will you live self-sacrificially for somebody else will you put somebody else's needs before your own that's preferring your brother number two loving your brother is praising your brother first thessalonians 5 11 wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even also you do now most of us enjoy praising god we love coming in and raising up our hands and clapping our hands and lifting up our voices we love praising god but we find it very difficult to praise other people we like praise we like someone telling us encouraging words but we just don't like to do it for other people but the word edify means to comfort encourage exhort and pray for most people don't need a negative word they need an encouraging word most people don't need a critical word they need a comforting word most people deal with their share of low self-esteem they need a word of exhortation what if you went out of your way today or this week and you went out of your way to tell somebody that you don't normally talk to hey i appreciate you i think you're great i think you're doing an awesome job i'm proud of you you're doing a good work for what if you went out of your way to tell somebody who made your coffee this is the best coffee i ever had in my entire life i'm coming back here tomorrow because somebody needs a deal they might be dealing with struggles and negativity and criticism but you come along as a child of god and say hey i like you i love you i appreciate you we got enough negativity in this world say something positive be a light in a world of darkness and you can do that through your actions and through your words it's not very hard for you to say hey i'm praying for you hey i appreciate you have you ever been around two people who make you feel like a million dollars more than bishop mccool and pastor mark mccool i have never heard them say a negative word to anybody if you walk in you are their best friend you know why because they understand the power of edification and praising somebody and we should do that for others and we should certainly do that for our leadership because they do it for us we should say that was a great word today bishop that was a great word today pastor my goodness what a message we heard i appreciate your leadership i appreciate you praying for us give somebody a praise today [Applause] when somebody sees you they shouldn't say oh no here they come oh goodness oh great what are they going to say today oh how you doing well instead of saying hey how you doing today just come up and say hey i'm thinking of you right now i've been praying for you i've been noticing you around here and i think you're doing an awesome job i appreciate you i love you i love your family i love what you do you never know what that might do for them it's praising your brother it can make a world of difference in their life by just a positive word what if you did that at the restaurant today you'd see somebody get what'd you say you said i look nice yeah you look nice in your golden corral outfit you wear that the i mean i've never seen somebody wear that at that uniform like that well that is fantastic just being kind to somebody then invite them to church this is the worst steak i ever had my entire life i've never come back here would you like to come to fac knoxville sometime we're a bunch of really positive people no come on somebody got to love somebody praise your brother number three loving your brother is providing for your brother hebrews 13 and 16 but to do good and to communicate forget not the esv says this do not neglect to do good and share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to god providing for your brother giving isn't just providing for the bills of the local church giving involves much more than that it is providing for your brothers and your sisters when we give to missions we are providing for the work of our missionaries and foreign lands but can i tell you something if you want to give to missions go for it but we have a local mission right here at first apostolic church called p.i.a this is our spanish speaking ministry and they're ministering to a community right here it's not a foreign country it's right here in our backyard you should be giving to them monthly because they're doing a great work to our spanish speaking community and they're making a difference if you want to give if you want to provide for your brother give to pia pray for them encourage them see how you can help them and pastor perez didn't ask me to do that the lord laid that upon my heart this morning because i believe in it i believe we should we have a spanish-speaking community right here and we don't have to go to mexico or south america we've got it right here and all you have to do is provide for it all you have to do is show up and give if you want to do that you can do that through the app just hit down and say other and type in p-i-a spanish ministry and it will bless them and you might just reach a soul because you're providing and you love your brother someone say amen number four loving your brother is protecting your brother philippians 2 4-5 look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others can i just stop and say this church is not about you it's about others it's about serving others and when we start making it about us my songs my pew my air conditioning my heat my comfort of all of when you start doing that you're losing the the whole concept of others it's serving others the esv says let each of you look not on to his own interests but also to the entrance the interests of others protecting your brother is having their back not talking bad about them behind y'all didn't hear me did you protecting your brother is having their back not talking bad about them behind their back telling people about the faults of others isn't loving your brother and sister we should protect them first peter 4 8-9 and above all things have fervent charity among yourselves love for yourselves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins covers sins it doesn't overlook sin it doesn't try to cover up sin rather it's not allowing sin to keep you from loving and protecting your brother and sister in christ they should feel comfortable coming here if they've sinned you know why because this is a hospital and this is where they can find healing and restoration not judgment and criticism we should protect one another we should help one another if they fall pick them up say i've got your back i'm praying for you if you need support i'm here i'm not judging you i'm not talking about you i'm not gossiping about you i'm here to help you someone say man i'm drawing to a quick close if the musicians want to come in chapter 3 he tells us this from our text but he uses an example or the antithesis of this concept of loving your brother he says not as cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore he's wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil his brothers righteous cain was the firstborn son of adam and eve the older brother of abel just stay with me okay just stay with me the elder brother had a responsibility to protect his little brother instead he allowed his rage and jealousy to get the better of him on the exterior cain looks the part of a true brother and believer he brings an offering to the lord just like abel but kane's offering is rejected because it wasn't his best instead of repenting and rectifying his actions he turned on his brother cain's issue really wasn't the sacrifice it was the condition of his heart the sacrifice simply exposed what was on the inside he then had words with abel and murdered him god comes looking for the two boys and god finds cain and he asks him a question where is your brother abel and cain looks at god and says i don't know am i my brother's keeper the answer to that question cain is yes you are the word keeper in the hebrew means to guard protect attend to preserve or regard it sounds a whole lot like prefer praise provide and protect instead cain did none of those things the lord dealt with me about the elder brother takes me to luke chapter number 15. we have the story of what we call the prodigal son and one of these days if i can get my act together and write it out i'll preach a sermon called lost in the house because the prodigal son was backslid outside of the house but there was a brother in the house who was just as backslidden when the father accepts the younger son back into the house full of grace and truth and they're having a party the elder brother comes out ain't nobody ever had a party for me you know we might have had a party for you had you went out looking for your brother but instead you stayed home to pout if we're not careful brothers and sisters we'll love truth we'll love fellowship but we can harbor hate towards our brother and sister and let me just say this and make you just a little bit more uncomfortable your brother it doesn't matter what color their skin is it doesn't matter where they call home it doesn't matter how tall they are short they are your brother is your brother well come on somebody you know we need a revival of we need a revival of love around here we need a revival of loving our brother no matter who they are what they are what they look like we are all stand your feet many years ago i preached for a pastor and he told me a story that happened to him he told me about the sermon the title of his sermon [Music] that he got from this and [Music] didn't hear him preach it but he told me the story so i don't know what his sermon was about i just know the title and the story this pastor was a pastor of a family in his church and this family had a relative who was in the rodeo he was a professional bull rider but he had been tragically killed by one of those bulls in an event so the pastor to support the family he attended the funeral he didn't know the man but he wanted to support them he arrived early to pay condolences to the family but as he was approaching the casket of the deceased bull rider he noticed a man weeping uncontrollably over the casket as he drew closer he put his arm around the crime man and asked him were you related to this man the man lifted up his tear-stained eyes and said i was the clown i should have been better at distracting the bull but i couldn't protect my friend i was the clown now there are some sad things known to men but ain't too much sadder than the tears of a clown let us not have the tears of a regretting a regrettable clown who failed to protect his brother but let us realize we have a responsibility to love our brother just as christ loved us why don't you lift up your hands right now all over this al i know this is not a run and gun sermon i know this is not a shouting sermon but this is a sermon this is a word that we need to change our lives it's the litmus test of our conversion and whether or not we love god yes we love god and we love truth and we love holiness but do you love your brother do you love your sister do you love your neighbor someone had the audacity to ask jesus who is my neighbor and he told a story of a samaritan who went and bound up the wounds of a man can i tell you that's what we're called to do we're called to bind of the wounds of our brothers and sisters we're called to love and nourish protect provide and prefer for our brothers i wonder if there would be somebody right now who would come to an old-fashioned altar and say lord search me i don't want to be the clown i don't want to be the clown that didn't do the job but god let me protect my brothers let me love my brothers let me prefer and provide for them that's our call that's our responsibility that's what we're to do as the church of christ we bear his name so we might love one another this is beautiful this is beautiful this is beautiful as they began to see i wonder if you just cry and say lord let me be a better brother let me be a better sister let me love those around let me love those who are around me doesn't matter who they are jesus we need you give us a revival of love give us a revival of grace and truth come on i love truth but you gotta love grace you gotta love grace and you gotta love truth you gotta love it all jesus