1 Timothy 3:15, "...that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
Author:skuntzman
Jesus Christ is my Savior and I have been born again (John 3:1-6; Acts 2:38). He gifted me with the love of my life, Anita. She blessed me with 2 awesome children, a brilliant daughter-in-law, and the 5 best grandkids in the world. Together, Anita and I are striving to introduce and bring people to a victorious life through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Apostolic Life Cathedral | Aug. 18, 2024 | 10:00 AM
Psalms 127:1, “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
God desires to dwell in the midst of His people.
David – “…when kings go to battle…”
2 Samuel 11:1-18
Put the Ammonite king’s crown on his head
Pride of life
Ammonite king, numbered the people not the fighting men
Human spirit
70,000 people dead
1 Chronicles 20:1
Uriah
Bathsheba
Lust of the flesh
2 people die
Sword never leaves the house of David
Amnon
Civil war
1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
Stedfast – firm, settled
Unmoveable – not to be moved from its place. Firmly persistent.
Always abounding – at all times, to be in excess, exceed, excel.
“…In the work of the Lord…” – “Except the Lord build the house”
Apostolic Life Cathedral | July 28, 2024 | 6:30 PM
Text: Psalms 89:15-17, “(15) Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance. (16) In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. (17) For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.”
Psalms 1:1-6, “(1) Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. (2) But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (3) And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (4) The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. (5) Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. (6) For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”
Go deeper = “to be straight, level, right, to go forward, be honest, prosper.”[3]
The joyful sound is the call to celebrate, to rejoice, to continually delight in:
The Name of the Lord
The Righteousness of the Lord
Tonight, the Holy Ghost is calling you to respond with a joyful sound for all that Jesus did for you and all that His name brings to bear in your life.
Rejoice in all that God did for you to walk a straight, level, righteousness path of prosperity and purpose.
The Samaritans knew about that joy: “(5) Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. (6) And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. (7) For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. (8) And there was great joy in that city.”
“There was great joy in that city.”
How many here tonight want to see that same great joy in Huntington and the Tri-State Region?
It is God’s Will for the The Joyful Sound to echo along the riverbanks, valleys, and hillsides of our community:
God is calling for repentance…to be part of the joyful sound.
Paul was in Athens on Mars’ hill when he saw the altar written TO THE UNKNOWN GOD and he began to tell them of the one that they, in their superstition, were ignorantly worshipping.
Saying, “that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:”
Repentance, led by true godly sorrow, will bring the joyful sound.
The fruit of mercy is restoration. The fruit of grace is maturity.
Unfortunately, life has a way of causing you to lose sight of what originally created the happy condition…the joyful sound.
What was once exciting and revealing, full of life and rewarding, has now become mundane and lost its vitality.
The daily life is at war with the joyful sound: “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah” (Psalms 68:19).
We should come daily to His storehouse of blessing.
The problem is we have become so busy doing the work we forget the relationship with the God of the work.
Oftentimes, people fail because they have their spiritual life, their prayer life, their relationship with Jesus on autopilot.
Like a pilot in a plane, or a driver in a car, you are content to sit disengaged and apathetic.
What once drove your passion has now become drudgery.
The work that inspired is now nothing more than perspiration.
The hope that enlarged your heart and gave you faith is now a vague memory, like the beauty of nature you miss will cruising by unbothered by what is just outside your window.
You have become trapped with the thought that you just need to get the job done.
You have stopped hearing the joyful sound.
This is why you are to become renewed daily in the spirit of your mind.
Turn off the of auto pilot, disengage the cruise control,
Look around you and see all the beauty, blessing, and opportunity!
The need and possibility around you
Paul wrote, “I have fought a good fight…I have kept the faith,” but he did not stop fighting.
It is time to recapture that joy that originally caught you:
Is. 12:3, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”
Is. 55:12, “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
1 Peter 1:7-9, “(7) That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: (8) Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: (9) Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”
Is. 9:3, “…they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.”
Acts2:1-4
You are going to have to press into it. To reach for it. To recapture the joyful sound: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
To press means you will have to disengage the cruise control.
Revelation 19:6-7, “(6) And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (7) Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”
Apostolic Life Cathedral| July 21, 2024 | 10:00 AM
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, “(1) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (2) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (3) A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; (4) A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (5) A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; (6) A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; (7) A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; (8) A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
The Invitation: Matthew 11:28-30
(28) Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
The “with Jesus” principle – they took note of them that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).
Take My yoke.
Transformational learning-by-example
Two oxen harnessed togetherEnter the yoke = submission to the Master
It’s not about your brilliance, but willingness to submit to the yoke
Learn from Me.
Training a new young ox = custom fitted yoke
Emphasis on learning from someone, not independent study
Study, prayer, solitude, fasting, service
Grace is a teacher, and it is not cheap:
“Grace is the treasure hidden in the field…a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price…a man will sell all his goods to obtain it. It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Grace calls us us to follow Jesus Christ, and to willingly yoke ourselves to Him. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.”[2]
You were bought with a price
You will find rest.
First time “rest” is mentioned is in Genesis 2:1-3, “(1) Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.” God rested because He delighted in the goodness of His creation: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen. 1:31).
Our rest today is not about our weariness, tiredness and exhaustion, but to delight in His goodness and provision.
The rest of the Holy Ghost – “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear” (Isa 28:11-12)”
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;” (Act 3:19).
Today, right now, is Your Season of Refreshing
[1] Tom Nelson. (2021). The Flourishing Pastor. Paraphrased
Apostolic Life Cathedral | Aug. 25, 2024 | 6:30 PM
Text: Song of Solomon 8:6-10, “(6) Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. (7) Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. (8) We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? (9) If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. (10) I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.”
The Silver Palace and the Cedar Boards
Eph. 6:24, “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.”
In sincerity = Margin, “with incorruption.” With a pure heart; without dissembling; without hypocrisy.[1]
There is a search going on tonight in this service. Like a detective snooping for clues,
A dog sniffing for that hidden morsel of food,
A child shaking that wrapped gift trying to figure out what is on the inside.
The search is on and Jesus is here, right now, in this moment searching:
“…the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).
The Lord is pursuing men and women, boys and girls, who have decided to totally give their whole spirit, soul and body to Him.
It is a love search.
At the same time, there is in each of us a longing to love and to be loved.
It is part of the divine spark in each of us that we received when “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).
The Lord is still looking for this who will “fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).
When Jesus finds you will He discover that you “love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity?”
No hint of corruption? With a pure heart? No pretend affection? A love without hypocrisy?
Is your relationship with Jesus a firm wall of live, or is there a door, an entrance open to the enemy of your soul?
Tonight, the enemy want to destroy your relationship with God by placing on you the trap shame.
The “disintegrating power of shame began in the garden of Eden”[2] (Gen. 2:25-4:1).
Here was a beautiful garden of perfection and here was where Eve was beguiled, seduced and tricked because of the cunning craftiness of the whisperer – the serpent – who appealed to her desires:
Lust of the flesh – she saw that “the tree was good for food”
Lust of the eyes – “that it was pleasant to the eyes”
Pride of life – “and a tree to be desired to make one wise”
The moment Adam and Eve ate of that tree of knowledge of good and evil it set into motion a satanic plan that has been the spearhead of the devil’s attack on all those who love God and want to be faithful.
They were previously unashamed, but now shame made them run and hide from the lover of their soul.
And the Lord still went searching for them…
You see, “While human guilt reflects the experience of having done something wrong, shame conveys that there is something inherently wrong with us. Shame is a reality we feel deep within us, telling us, reminding us, we are bad, that somehow we are not enough.”[3] It is the lie that you possess a fundamental evil and have no hope.
I want to tell you tonight, anyone who tries to place that reality on you is a tool of the enemy, unsafe and should be avoided.
“By its very nature, shame likes to hide and is often silent and subtle,”
…but “Perfectly secure and safe in the love of Christ, we can choose not to hide…”
“…the more vulnerable I am with safe people around me, the more emotionally resilient I am and the more joy I experience even in times of difficulty and suffering.”
And the most safe person to be around is the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a beautiful integration, an integral union, an integrity of relationship between you and Jesus that the enemy cannot stand.
It is a wall of love that you and God build together.
It acts as a bulwark against the enemy.
Since God’s love never fails, then satan will test your love, or try to divide through tools of disintegration to weaken and loosen the wall.
There is something to be said of this wall of love that stands firm on integrity.
Psalm 101 is known as the integrity psalm:
“I will sing of mercy and judgment: Unto thee, O LORD, will I sing” (Psalm 101:1, KJV).
“I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music” (Psalm 101:1, ESV).
Mercy, Steadfast love, is “sticky love.” “It is the sort of love you can’t shake off. It sticks to you through every high and low, every success and failure, every malfunction and sin,” every victory and defeat.[4]
Sticky Love holds that wall together and helps maintain its integrity.
Shame would try to disintegrate that wall of love, but God’s mercy, His steadfast love, attaches you to Him.
The enemy wants to destroy that attachment by disintegrating the wall of relationship, mutual trust and integrity between the betrothed bride and her Groom.
Remember:
The devil works overtime to steal (by stealth), to kill (slay, slaughter), to destroy (put out of the way entirely, abolish, to ruin, render useless)[5]
The Lord has said:
Deut 7:8, “…because the LORD loved you…
Jer 31:3, “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
Mal 1:2, “I have loved you, saith the LORD.”
Jn 3:16, “For God so loved the world…”
Ro 5:8, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Eph 2:4-5, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ…”
Eph 5:1-2, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”
1 Jn. 4:16, “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
Nothing can separate, disintegrate, remove, or detach you from God’s love:
Romans 8:35-39, “(35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (36) As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the laughter. (37) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. (38) For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.”
The little sister is the gentile bride, the church
The Silver Palace is the blessing and favor of God: strength, beauty, enlarge, adorn
The Cedar Boards God’s attempt to protect you from your own mistakes and shame until you are mature enough to maintain your own integrity:
Weak in faith, but not rejected by God. He encloses, strengthens and fortifies until the bride is mature in faith.“Cedar is a soft and deliciously fragrant wood. The resin and oils in the wood make it inedible to termites.”[6] = Sticky Love
Cedar boards are strong and beautiful and durable.
The young brides reply, “I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour” (SoS 8:10).
Now mature and ready to be married, she has been faithful and maintained her love for the Groom with Integrity.
[1]Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible. Ephesians 6:24.
Back in my student days we were taught that a truly educated person is not one who knows all the answers. We were taught that a truly educated person is one who knows where to find the answers. Well, I for one lay bold claim to being a religiously educated person; better still, I lay strong claim to being educated as a Christian. I know not, I confess, the answers, but thank God, I do know One who knows the answers, who knows the end from the beginning and who does promise to answer if we call upon him.
Taylor, Gardner C., from the sermon “A Cry for Guidance.” The Words of Gardner Taylor Volume 2. Ed. Edward Taylor. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 2000. p. 25
Scripture Text: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).[2]
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
[1] Material gleaned from Ron Wofford’s 2004 series on Christian Character.
[2] All scripture references are from the King James Version unless otherwise noted.
Scripture Text: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).
John 15:1-5, “(1) I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. (2) Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. (3) Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. (4) Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. (5) I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
“Joy is love exalted; peace is love in repose; long-suffering is love enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in school; and temperance is love in training.” -Dwight L. Moody
[1] Material gleaned from Ron Wofford’s 2004 series on Christian Character.
