The God Of My Father

praise god and it is a joy to serve the living god while you're standing let me point your attention to just one verse of scripture acts 24 and verse 14. and as you're preparing to hear that it's great to see everybody on god's house on this night and because of the missouri district youth convention i think we have some of the 220 students with us those that normally are in that service who are glad that you're a part of this this evening acts 24 14 this is the apostle paul speaking to felix a governor he says but this i confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy so worship i the god of my fathers believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets and the quick background of this verse is that paul had been accused of sedition or rebellion against the government and they had taken him to felix the governor and there was an accusation made and it was after the accusation that paul was given the chance to defend himself and in his defense he declared his innocency of sedition he wasn't trying to overthrow the government at all but in this verse he does confess this one thing he says after the way which they the religious leaders call heresy so worship i the god of my fathers he was saying i do adhere to the faith of the god of my fathers all the way back to abraham isaac and jacob and of that i am not ashamed and if you want to put it that way of that um guilty and so this evening i want to use this for a launching pad of a message i have but first would you lift your voice and let's ask god to help us and talk to us through his word lord we thank you so much that your presence floods this house and more importantly our lives thank you that you've been faithful to us through this day and now we have this place of assembly that your word which is alive already let it come alive in our minds and hearts to the faith that we mix it with let it be a strength to us each one let us be a strength to one another and most of all let your presence give us strength as your people and i ask these things in jesus name and everyone said amen you may be seated i'm taking a little bit of a risk with this subject tonight and that's for at least a couple of reasons one is you may be once i get into it a little bit disinterested and you'll understand why in just a moment and i hope that's not the case but it's possible and then the other risk that i think i'm taking is it could seem a little bit self-serving or opportunistic of me to present this so if either or both of those things happen i'll just apologize in advance and say i hope to do better next time how's that but i'm going to bring this thought to you based off this verse in acts the god of my father the god of my father and the reason i say it might seem a little opportunistic it was this past sunday that my own father passed away two years ago april 10 2020 it was good friday 1 38 in the afternoon he drew his last breath my brother and mother and i were able to be with him thankfully despite the lockdown and then on this date april 13th was the date that we had a funeral for him and because the lockdown was new and people were still trying to figure everything out with the pandemic we could only have 10 people in the service there at cuda's funeral home and the fact some of the folks that came we had to rotate them in and out and they had to go to their cars once the service started it was a pretty awkward deal and a little disappointing but thankfully later that year at my mother's passing we were able to honor my dad and so that's why i say this is a little bit opportunistic but with the lord's help i think i have a couple of points i can make when i talk about the god of my father and before i talk about him let me acquaint you just a little bit with my dad for those of you that didn't meet him or maybe didn't know him too well he was born back in 1924 in southern illinois a little beaver creek township there in hamilton county and then when he did pass away two years ago this past sunday he was 95 years of age his mom and dad passed away in 1930 and 1931 so when he was five and six respectively so in effect uh he kind of was an orphan he went to the care of his grandmother his two sisters went to other family members so all three of them grew up in separate households uh they were in the greater region together and despite that though it was pretty amazing growing up i was well acquainted with both of my aunts and we were a very close family and he close to his sisters despite them growing up as it were in different households when he got a little older he was a member there in springerton illinois just a little town i guess south of interstate 64 these days and he was a member of the christian church uh that was the first real experience and faith that he had he had different jobs he'd tell us about arriving early to shovel coal for the furnace he was attendant secretary at times helped lead service superintendent i read some of this in his diary he would also serve communion but in 1942 my dad came to visit his sister marie who had since moved to university city and he attended a church service at sister swanson's on sunday september 13th and i've tried to do some research googled it and i can't find anything about her i even put in a a message to a historian robin johnston but he doesn't answer his messages so but uh i'm kidding he's my friend don't be upset but uh nonetheless in my father's diary it was noted here and he attended that service and on that sunday received the gift of the holy ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues and in his diary he marks it as a red letter day and he noted this i'm quoting him i can really feel the power of god and he closed that day's entry with i love jesus he's all the world to me and then the following wednesday september 16th is also marked in his diary as a red letter day uh he his aunt stella on his dad's side and she was a minister of the gospel and one other person attended a mission overseen by ben pemberton and i think that's a name that a lot of you will recognize and thereby brother ben pemberton my father was baptized in the name of jesus christ for the remission of his sins and the closing diary comment that night was praise jesus holy name i want to love him better and then he joined this church apc at the time of his marriage and was a member here so from 1953 i think it is until the time of his passing and during his membership uh he served a lot of different roles i i think it's safe to say he endeared himself to a lot of the apc members here and then also because he went to work for pentecostal publishing house in the late or mid to late 1960s and served there for 38 years until they hauled him off on a stretcher at the age of 78. he got to know quite a few of the upci members and ministers and i think endeared himself so many of them as well

he was famous for his notes uh in fact i can't tell you the number of ministers i've met over the years that i've seen in various meetings and such that tell me on the literature they would order he'd always scribble a little note uh to them as a friend and then of course he'd do that some to people here he was famous for giving coupons vernon dennis told me just this past saturday night that he'd give him haircut coupons i don't know if he was trying to did he do that for you too adam he gave you what was it sam's sayings or some fantastic sams that's what it was so i guess he always thought adam needed a haircut i don't know but he loved to save money and if he could help you do that that that delighted him and so he'd hand out coupons all of that had nicknames for people uh best spa roger's wife uh texted me earlier this week just saying she was thinking of our family at this anniversary of his passing and his nickname for her she told me was macbeth a little bit of shakespeare there he called hannah cramper who's in the children's ministry tonight trouble i'm not sure where that came from somebody he called illinois i don't know who that was was that you illinois okay christie i knew it was somebody illinois that was his name and i don't know anybody did everybody have a nickname you know just way behind wills back there i think or willie which one of the two he called you but he just that was him and of course he had a dry sense of humor and loved to tease people i remember one note i came across he wrote to my wife i forget the context but just to show you his sense of humor he wrote to her somehow he led into this and said as i sat sad and lonely i heard a voice say cheer up things could be worse so i cheered up and sure enough things got worse that was just him and he was uh he had his homespun wisdom lots of quips and uh quotes uh he'd say things with respect to food i'm a firm believer you don't have to like food to eat it or he would say i eat to keep from getting hungry so ministers he would always ask how come the will of god is near your mother-in-law which if you think about it often happens this was one he was famous for don't confuse me with facts i've made up my mind and that was true uh he pays to worry he would say what you worry about never happens no oh yes this was one good i forget again what was going on but my mother was advising him on something and he finally when she got done talking he said do you charge for your advice and she said well no i don't he said i think you have it priced about right which explains his next statement i don't get in the doghouse i stay in it and then here was one uh his some of you know marvin curry robert fuller they've both gone on to their reward too but um they were his bosses and they were standing in his area there in the shipping department at pentecostal publishing house and he saw them there and one day told them if you guys don't have anything to do don't do it here his bosses and then he'd say anytime i wake up i'll have a good day and then i remember him quoting lots of poetry over the years and and this was one a little excerpt uh there's a poem that a line that says if you can't be a muskie and not being a fisherman i had to look that up it's a large freshwater fish up in the especially the northern part of the united states so i guess rather big and majestic but it says if you can't be a muskie then just be a bass but be the liveliest bass in the lake and that was kind of his outlook and mentality on life just wherever you're called to serve give it your best

but after the way called heresy the apostle paul said so worship i the god of my father and in this defense that he gave to felix he was in effect saying that the the jews in the old testament time were set apart by from other nations by their worship of jehovah the one true god and their lifestyle beginning with abraham they were called out to serve the lord and had a distinction about them and the apostle paul was saying i'm going all the way back and worshiping or living for that same god and likewise apostolics are set apart in their worship of the one god revealed in jesus christ that is many times if not the only distinction between us and many in the religious world and the pentecostal world that we believe that jesus christ is the lord of lords and king of kings and our lifestyle of service to him due to being called out of darkness into marvelous light does set us apart and what transforms us is a new birth that's something we all have in common tonight we've come from all walks of life in fact somebody received the gift of the holy ghost here this past sunday morning and he's now our brother in christ we come from all walks of life but we're transformed by a new birth and it's the same phenomenon think of this the same phenomenon that our spiritual forefathers starting with the day of pentecost experience themselves i think that's significant it has not changed 2021 here we are declaring the very same message and i know we've got the electricity and the modern conveniences and amenities and all of that but it's the same gospel jesus christ died for our sins we repent we're baptized in his name filled with his spirit and it changes our life transforms us and turns us into a new creation and through the centuries since the day of pentecost that's been preached and practiced i don't have uh proof of this but it is my uh deep feeling that somewhere uh there has always been a people that held to this message they might not have been in great numbers and we might not have documentation for in history but i just just instinctively believe that knowing god as i know him uh there is there has always been a people down through the centuries and we know in the 20th century that there was a revival 1901 the outpouring of the holy ghost there in topeka kansas and then they move down south to texas and eventually out to california for the azusa street revival you know six i think it is 1913-14 somewhere there all right mc r.a mcallister preached his revelation of jesus name baptism message and it spread and got to the midwest and there are all kinds of wonderful things that that would be a separate lesson in itself but the point being that's the foundation that's the the god of our fathers if you will the way that we worship here yet today at apc and i'm very thankful that my parents were among those that encountered that message that made its way across the states in the late 1930s my mother received the holy ghost when she was 14 and within about 10 years she graduated in 1947 from apostolic bible institute that was run by brother s g norris and of course i told you about my father's conversion so they were you know one on indiana one in indiana and then up into abi there minnesota but uh he in illinois but they had in the st louis area had their experiences but they met and married the mom came here for work in 51 and they met and married became members here and

i'm so thankful that they brought up my brother and me to worship this god of our fathers uh this one true and living god and dad was very comfortable in his relationship with god and i kind of i guess i just kind of see that as i don't know if it's old school not that anybody doesn't do it today but just just a comfort i can remember him doing dishes at the house just singing away worshiping god and in later years over at the tessan heights apartment he'd be wheeling through the place saying thank you jesus praise the lord and just his way of of praying and i remember tim brady told me he called him quite often in his later years and uh one day tim needed something so my dad just started praying for him and within seconds was speaking in tongues and uh praying for tim bratty in that manner and then all of a sudden with a split second he stopped and said all right that's enough tongues for now click that was my dad he just very comfortable when he was in the hospital and and we thought uh he was really coming near his end it didn't end to be that way but uh had a very difficult time and his niece judy was there he started coming out of uh oh it was a urinary tract infection that affected his mind and he was very disoriented in that but he started coming out of it and she was we were all gathered in a room praying with him and she was feeding him something and and he had us all pray and he'd be praying and talking to god he said give me some more judy and then go back to praying some more right in the middle of everything so and then i remember i checked out with uh phil williford whom he called will uh he went and visited him in the hospital this was the prior time he starting in 2015 he really had a rough year that year but phil visited him and as they were getting ready to leave he told me they prayed with him he and angie both and i guess phil wasn't getting with it quite enough he said turn it up will i can't hear you and so phil afraid a little bit louder and he said he told me he said my dad started swaying in that wheelchair and talking in tongues right there in the hospital room uh and just enjoying jesus and as he was known uh for his worship and the god of our father is worthy of worship isn't he our wholehearted worship and my dad i'm not gonna demonstrate just because i feel a little bit of reverence for it but but he had a way of uh in his earlier years of shaking his hands like he was trying to get something off of him uh and then he'd also sway back and forth i even saw him dancing in the aisles a time or two but i know i'm preaching to the choir tonight but i know you agree that the god of our fathers is to be worshiped holy w-h-o-l-l-y with all of our heart soul mind and strength and also heartily that's the way the experience on pentecost began wasn't it it says the people saw them and heard them as they were experiencing what god had done in their life and all the way back to the psalmist david who was a man after god's own heart there's been heartfelt and demonstrative worship and we know in psalms it says this let the redeemed of the lord say so that in itself lets us know and maybe there's some figurative aspect of that but in a literal sense that means we need to use our voices don't we to lift up the name of jesus christ and if there's any place where it's safe and comfortable to do that it's the house of the lord and i know we don't like to draw attention to ourselves especially if we're squeezed in but it's important that we use our voices to praise the living god it's important that we use our voices to magnify him and let him know of our love and i know the way in which we worship it's going to differ from person to person but just going on record it's important that we keep clapping our hands right it's important that we keep lifting our arms and in some cases leaping or dancing or running with our feet all of that is in order as long as we're bringing glory to god and not to ourselves right as long as we're not being an interruption it's all in order and that's the way pentecost started and that's the way we're going to continue worshiping the god of our fathers with hands and arms and legs and feet and voices lifting up the name of jesus christ we may never see the shaking hands or swing head of my father in anyone else but that's okay as long as we're expressing our worship from our heart that's the key express your worship from your heart and we'll maintain this worship of the god of our fathers that started way back on the day of pentecost

and the god of our father also responds to faith and prayer my dad was perhaps a little more sensitive to the spirit than some might have thought there was one occasion when his brother-in-law harry hibbert and this would be the husband of aunt marie that i mentioned earlier he had been in a coma for 10 days 10 or more days and i got this from my cousin his daughter harry's daughter following the repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm bleed and in those years and i didn't get the year but most people died from that condition they just hadn't developed enough things to do about it and remaining in a coma certainly would have destroyed the use of harry's legs but i i wasn't there for it but i've heard the story reminiscent of when jesus put everybody out of the room where the daughter of jairus lay dead in mark 5. there was a point where the hospital room was mostly cleared and my father went in there to pray and shortly thereafter harry regained consciousness and it was just a mighty and miraculous turnaround because of the faith of my father and on another occasion um his daughter-in-law that'd be my sister-in-law christina david's wife she had been in labor about 15 hours to give birth to their first child brooke and given that length of time the medical team was considering uh stopping the inducement and just wait till the next day and try it and for most of the day in fact chuck carr our district secretary he'd be the brother of christina he told me he was in the waiting room my dad if you ever saw my dad in his comfortable sitting position he'd like to slouch and he said he was just slouched in that waiting room most of the day and while that plan of waiting to the next day was being discussed to try all of that my dad just chuck said just got up and walked down the hall it's the first time he'd been in the uh delivery room there he just appeared and without greeting anybody in the room he just lifted his hands there in the doorway prayed in tongues for a little while and then walked out without a word and in a matter of minutes during a routine visit the nurse has announced this baby is about to arrive and at 1006 that night brook was born as his granddaughter because of faith in the living god and i say that to say this though it's the 21st century and many of our elders have passed on god still responds to faith and prayer still responds to those who will put their belief in him and in his power he's alive is he not he's real is he not and the faith of those here now in this service the faith that you've offered for other needs uh earlier in this service and that you will as this week goes on and god tarries your faith counts your faith matters your faith reaches god and today's generation i'm glad there are a bunch of young people at the missouri district youth convention who are being instilled and infused with the power of god and great faith and they're going to be changed they're our future and we need to encourage them do we not and uplift them and stand with them that their faith does make a difference the prayers are still answered by god according to faith in his faith of his people in him and when the child of god enters his closet of prayer in secret god still rewards openly that's not changed that's not any different and when the church unites in prayer as they did for the deliverance of peter in prison god still hears an effect can be made i was thinking a recent example of that though we weren't physically in her presence and there were many others praying this church united in prayer for sister drost down there in mexico doctors weren't giving her much hope at all but because we joined we united with many others in faith god heard us and things turned around and she is not even suffering anything to best to my knowledge any lingering effects from those strokes god does reward faith it's 20 21 i know and the mind of science the secular mind might scoff at all of this but faith works and don't let go of your faith in the living god who has all power all authority in heaven and in earth they may call it heresy but after that way we worship the god of our fathers we worship him literally with our praise and adoration and we certainly live for him and use our faith to touch heaven's throne

and this sunday as was mentioned so aptly by brother bowie and even amber the commemoration of the resurrection of jesus christ is coming and in light of all that i've been saying about faith and god rewarding it it is the resurrection of jesus christ that makes our faith valid if there were no resurrection i don't mean it unkindly but we're wasting our time tonight aren't we we're just a little social club we're getting together meeting our friends if there isn't a resurrection because everything about the christian life is based on faith hebrews 11 6 says without faith it is impossible to please god you have to have faith to please god and we're asked think about this we're asked to believe in a god we can't see i've not seen him we're asked to put our faith in the sacrifice of jesus christ on calvary for our sins we weren't there we didn't witness it we didn't see it firsthand all we really have going for us is our faith and if christ be not raised the apostle paul said your faith is in vain and you're still in your sins if you put faith in the death of jesus christ as the sacrifice for your sins and he didn't rise from the dead then all that's for naught and we're still in our sins we've not been forgiven if that were the case and also those which have fallen asleep or have died in christ or perish there's no more hope for them because if in this life only we have hope in christ we are of all men most miserable but now paul says christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that have slept so our faith is not in vain tonight it's not meaningless it's not empty all because of the resurrection of jesus christ it's validated our faith because jesus is no longer in the grave he is risen and what other religious faith can claim that its founder has come back from the dead when you think about it what other religious faith can make that claim that our god is alive and jesus said this i am he that liveth and was dead and behold i am alive forevermore amen and have the keys of hell and of death thank god he's risen because our faith has meaning tonight we are not in our sins because jesus christ is alive forevermore thanks be to god

and that resurrection does give us meaning to death too that's not a pleasant subject and and again i i apologize if this has seemed self-serving or opportunistic just kind of my way of honoring dad but also reminding us of our great heritage in jesus christ and i'll insert this too you don't have to have a natural family in this faith to be a part of the heritage that's apostolic if you've come into the church first generation and don't have natural family members don't let that bother you one bit because you are very much a part of this glorious kingdom because the gentiles were not a people but we were grafted in right to make be made a part of israel as it were a spiritual israel and in the same way when we're born again we're brought in this glorious kingdom and we have an ancestry a heritage all the way back to abraham isaac and jacob all the way back to the apostles in the first century of pentecost so don't think for a moment if you don't have natural family in the church that you are not a part you are connected to it when you're born of water and spirit you're grafted in you're made a part of this glorious church and you've got a heritage you've got a history in fact you'd do well to study it both from the bible and even 20th century history to find out what you're a part of because it's glorious and it's wondrous and everybody is a part of that regardless of your status of a natural family and i'm thankful that we have the resurrection of jesus christ to give meaning to death and it's not a pleasant subject it's not something that we uh like to talk about in fact as much as we believe in the afterlife no one seems too eager to go do that when you think about it we're just not that eager but the empty tomb shows us that death is a doorway it's a transition from this life to the next life and jesus only took up temporary residence in the tomb and his vacated grave means that death is only temporary for those who are his own so that's our hope tonight and death even has meaning because of the resurrection of jesus christ and the dead the bible says in christ shall rise first so if you've got a loved one that's gone on before you died in the faith of jesus christ you can have that comfort that the dead in christ shall rise first for if we believe that jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in jesus will god bring with him for this we say to you by the word of the lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the lord will by no means precede those who are asleep for the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of god and the dead in christ shall rise first so i'm a little sad i've lost my parents but i know they lived a good life and i'm sure you've got loved ones that you're mourning their loss but if they died in christ they're going to rise first and we have that hope and we have that assurance tonight and the same is going to be true for us whether we go by the way of the grave or get translated out of here when we're still alive we have a hope beyond this life because of the resurrection of jesus christ and i like what you said brother we can work ahead and celebrate on sunday i'm glad to know he's alive i'm glad to know that he's real i'm glad to know that his power floods this house tonight he is alive amen paul went on saying in another passage i show you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed that's our promise in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptable and we shall be changed for this corruptable must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality and when it happens then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swaddled up in victory and i love this passage oh death where is thy sting o grave where is thy victory and i know i'm probably talking of a little different generation but when i was a kid we used to play outdoors a lot more and sometimes the old-fashioned game of tag and when the person who was it missed us we were known to do a little taunting sometimes and it might sound something like this miss me and off we would run and i don't mean to make light of scripture but it's kind of like that's what's going on here there's some taunting going on oh death where is thy sting oh grave now where is thy victory it's been secured for us in jesus christ the resurrection means we shall see our loved ones that have gone on the resurrection means that we shall live forever with him and i'm glad for it tonight that resurrection gives meaning to death there's something beyond this life just think of it without it death is final we live we die and that's it the apostle paul even asked what advantage is there in living our lives for god if the dead don't rise what advantage is it what's the point of this life if it just ends in death he said if that's the case we might as well eat drink be merry enjoy the best life the best we can and that's it let's live any way we want because there's nothing beyond this life but the dead do rise don't don't they there is a resurrection starting with jesus christ and because he lives we shall live because jesus is alive the message of our forefathers apostolic forefathers and even natural forefathers it's validated our faith works and death does have meaning and the scripture says this but thanks be to god which gives us the victory through our lord jesus christ i'm thankful to know jesus and to know victory in him tonight and it might be called heresy by the religious world it might be scorned by a secular society but let's combine let's continue to worship the god of our fathers honoring that heritage and clinging to the truth that's been handed down from generation to generation if you'd stand with me once you've done that i'm going to invite you to lift your voice your hands or however you choose to do it but let's give some response to the presence of the lord and the resurrection power that we're feeling in this house tonight lord we praise you exalt and magnify your glorious name we love you lord we love you lord and thank you for resurrection power thank you that you're alive and that we can experience you encounter you lord god we thank you for our rich heritage whether it's through natural families or just being grafted in part of this spiritual family either way we have a rich heritage and we celebrate that tonight and we want to cling to the truth and cling to the apostolic lifestyle and we ask lord that you would honor that desire and help us day by day to be lights and darkness to our community and our others that don't know you and we pray these things in the precious name of jesus christ amen and amen and everyone with faith said amen amen thank god