Jackie McCullough Preaches at the 61st NC 2nd Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Holy Convocation!

thanking the lord for bringing us here safely and we also thank the lord for being in the presence of great leaders people who have given their life and time for the furtherance of the gospel namely your presiding bishop in the person of bishop powell god bless you oh you can praise god for him amen the lord to all of the leading bishops and pastors and those of you who are in leadership first ladies and leading mothers of the church and deacons all of you let's put our hands together for leaders in the house amen [Applause] and turn around and tell your neighbor i'm glad to see you tonight you may be seated praise the lord [Music] turn your bibles to psalm 27 and i'm just going to read the first four verses that's the 27th psalm very familiar very familiar psalm and i'm starting at verse 1 and ending at verse 4. here begins a reading of god's word the lord is my light and my salvation whom shall i fear the lord is the strength of my life of whom shall i be afraid when the wicked even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell though when host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear the war should rise against me in this will i be confident the text one thing have i desired of the lord that will i seek after that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his temple so father reading and hearing of god's word you may be seated thank you very much for standing i love the psalms and um i love the psalms because it gives me so much information about worship the psalms teaches the psalms encourage the psalms corrects the psalms guide and so i thank god for this book that took that takes us into the life of the ancient hebrews to show you how they responded to god with their emotions with their fears anxiety with their concerns with their love with their adoration and so when you read the psalms you don't have to divorce your feelings from your worship you can be real you can say to the lord exactly how you feel and you don't have to mask it you know the church is an interesting place where we can easily learn how to mask and easily learn how to live a kind of you know performance life but the psalms just take that all away hear my cry oh god which means that saints cry you see we don't always hop on one leg we do cry every now and then hear my cry oh lord attend unto my prayer from the ends of the earth which means from the pit of my belly will i cry unto thee and when my heart is overwhelmed so even things get overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than i for thou has been a shelter for me and a strong tower from mine enemy it talks to us about loneliness it talks to us about fear and anxiety why are thou cast down o my soul and why art thou disquieted within me so even saints depress themselves it's not always things suppressing you we know how to depress ourselves so david was very frank and open why are you depressing yourself and why are you fighting with yourself hope thou in the lord and i will yet praise him for he is the help of my countenance so the psalms really not only allow you to express yourself but it also gives you the solution it's not just for worship and praise and physical expression it is also a book of piety it teaches you devotion it opens up immediately and lets you know where your devotion should be or to whom you should give your devotion so it starts off with psalm 1 immediately blessed is the man that what walk it not in the counsel of the ungodly that means you're not influenced by secular humanism nor stand it in the way of sinners that means that you don't look to the world for your counsel you understand you don't go to the world to define yourself now sit it in the seat of the scornful you don't even have coffee with him but his delight is in the law of the lord and in this law that he or she meditate maul over day and night and this person is a little bit different from most you shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters who bringeth forth its fruit in its season you never go anywhere before the time and leaves also shall not wither you won't be barren and dried up whatsoever you do shall prosper the ungodly are not so they're like the chat that the wind driving the way so the psalm the psalms or the book of psalms psalms teach you it gives you direction it tells you how to point your affection towards the lord now the occasion of this psalm is questionable we're not quite sure who the psalm is about and most scholars say it's a psalm about david and this psalm about david has to do perhaps at a time when he was struggling and some psalmists say it's a time when he was running from his son absalom and there's nothing more horrible than family trouble now church people don't always like to deal with family trouble they they like to cover it over and we just assume that because our children are raised in the church that it's going to be all right but not necessarily so but something happened between absalom and his father you see david was a great king but he was a lousy father when he came to correcting his children or dealing with issues and you know church people maybe not in north carolina but i know in new york they like to sweep things under the carpet and think a good shout is going to take it away they don't know you have to face these things you have to confront them you have to settle them you can't speak in tongues and they fly away tongues is not designed to make things fly away you see so absalom's half-brother raped absalom's sister disgraced her robbed her of her dignity you know we're living in that time now the me too situation and left her for dead and david did not correct his son absalom was so angry that he killed his brother left his father's house and then when he came back he thought he could meet with his father and work it out and david avoided him and because there was no communication it left room for all kinds of anger evil imagination and revenge see when you don't talk about it the person tries to work it out and it's usually revenge and anger so absalom stole half of the kingdom from his father and then drove his father out of jerusalem had to leave his palace but most importantly he had to leave the hill of zion now what was so special about the hill of zion god says out of all the hills in jerusalem i love zion the most because that's where he had set up the tabernacle of david it wasn't a fancy church or a cathedral like solomon's temple the only thing that he had in the tabernacle of david was the ark of the covenant and where the shekinah met where the wings of the angels tip and the cloud hung over it was a place where david would praise the lord because you can't be in the presence of the lord and be mute you see you can't be around the shekinah and be indifferent you can't you can't stand in his presence and have your arms folded so it was a place of active worship it was a place where the people were engaged in worship so when you worship god and give him glory people will get a glimpse of how great god is when we raise our hands and honor him some depressed person will be lifted some downcast person will catch hope so david had that intimate that intimate special place it was there where he got encouragement and direction it was there that he offered music to the lord and the scripture says god inhabits the praises of his people zion was special to david and now he's chased away by his own son he didn't miss his palace you see because david was not so gung-ho about a palace he knew what it was to live in foxholes and praise god he knew what it was to live in caves and praise god some of us would have had a nervous breakdown if we had to leave our plush home and our furniture and you know all the stuff that we that we think is so important all our stuff david was not worried about the stuff he was worried about the distance from god we know in the old testament it's a place in the new testament it's a person so david feels i'm going too far from the place what place are you missing david your palace that harem king of tyra built no no no no no no no so being outside of the palace was not major you see when you when you're not married to your stuff it's not major the thing that he was hooked on was his relationship and so this is why we're going to first four to find out what does that mean and he said one thing i have one request if there's anything that i i would like in the and and the title of this sermon is my mainstay my main stay david is saying i do have other desires we all have desire to finish school some desire to village school some desire to get a better job some desire to get married have children some desire to travel some people have a desire to what take a vacation or retire some people desire to go and get another degree there are many desires that we have and there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with having those honorable noble desire but there got to be a mainstays it has to be a main desire that means it's preeminent it's more important than anything else even if i never get the second degree the main stay is right there i may not get to go on the trip that i wanted but i still have my mainstay i didn't get everything that's on what you call your bucket list but it doesn't matter because i got a chief desire one thing have i desired of the lord and this one main object this ruling desire you see it's it's a ruling desire out of this desire all desires float it's the central of my desire it's right smack dab in the middle of my life it's it's not second place it's not an afterthought it's not when i feel better it's not when i get blessed it's not when i have money it's not when i get a promotion no matter what's going on it's right that ladies and gentlemen unless that's a fixed position we cannot be trusted as christians and the church today have too many mainstays we are easily distracted by the world or we're distracted by ourselves or we're distracted by accomplishment but he's not the mainstay now he's a sidekick you know like when you get sick and you need healing it's a sidekick like when the bank account is low and you need a miracle oh he's a sidekick you know what i'm saying when you wanted to make a way out of no way and then we start crying and worship and we coming to pray a meeting we haven't been there for a long time well we know trouble is here now so we see you at bible study and prayer meeting that means he's a sidekick he's he's only conveniently there but when he's the mainstay you don't even know what i'm going through because he is my desire and it literally means one thing that i desire one thing that i request one thing that i am praying for one thing that i wish one thing that rules my heart there's a ruling drive in my spirit it's the same thing that happened with mary and martha you see it's not that mary was lazy it's not that mary didn't cook it's not that mary didn't help martha because by the time jesus disciples got there the dinner was almost over in terms of preparation what what bothered martha was that mary was not stuck in the kitchen you see it's not that she didn't help martha prepare the lamb stew or whatever else they or bake the pita bread no no no or or get the fish with the head on it if you go to israel that's what you eat all of that stuff probably was done early is the fact that when jesus came when jesus came she reordered her priorities see when you when you've got jesus as your priority you make other people miserable you just they just don't like you around when you're that focused when he is the center of your life when when everything you do focuses on him you make other people who use him as a sidekick upset that mother didn't love her sister she just didn't like the way she was handling her focus her attention her attention was about meat and food there's nothing wrong with that we all need to eat but at this moment at this hour when jesus would not be passing by again mary caught a glimpse of something that lamb still couldn't work it couldn't work oh come on here is that what jesus said my meat is to do the will of him that sent me lord i come in the volume of the book i'm not easily distracted come on disciples you go by me but i got some big business by a whale you see when you're not focused you upset the community church is not that focus anymore because we've got too many mainstays so she went to complain to jesus you know mary why is she in there with you she's not helping me but listen to how jesus phrased it luke 10 42 but only one thing is needed mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her don't ask her to give up her mainstay and many people want other people to give up their mainstay oh it doesn't take all of that or you make too much noise or you praise god too long or or you know you're too extra you too extra come on lighten up lighten up life is about to be enjoyed ah god didn't come to earth to take away your pleasure oh you're too serious you're too serious you pray too long you sing all day you speak in tongues you chase demons you memorize scripture you live holy oh come on here he's your mainstay philippians 3 13 paul had that same problem and many many people here tonight you have that problem so i came to encourage you philippians 3 13 brothers i do not consider myself to have taken hold of it the niv said it means apprehended i don't understand how i got snatched just can't intellectualize it but one thing i do know i don't know why he chose me i don't know why he even wants me but one thing i do know forgetting what is behind and reaching the niv said straining pushing myself toward what is ahead you see he's my main stay now and and the old mothers used to say press your way baby press your weight we used to laugh at them you know because we thought it was just you know pentecostalism but anything it ain't pentecost it's a word i press see when he's your main stay there's a press you don't take things for granted you don't sit up in church like you're an ornament no no no no no you press you don't feel it but your press heart is broken but your press hell at home but your press i press toward the mark or the goal of what the prize for the high calling of god in christ he said when he's your main state you're always pressing you're always moving you're moving toward what he wants you don't sit by as a spectator you don't sit up and look around as if you're special no no no no no no ah you you you keep him right there you keep him right there no matter what anybody beside you doing you came with one determination i came to praise him i came up in here to tell him how much i love him i i came to adore him there's nobody else like him to me there's nobody else brought me this far but him there's nobody else that i have as a center of my life there's no other god like him he's a true and the living god and i'm not negotiating my praise somebody ought to help me right now and give him glory [Music] the church has lost its mainstay we have too many other distractions we have too many other things to focus on we've stopped looking at him and we're looking at other things we're busy we're busy we're busy we're important we're important we're so important and we're so special we our own agenda has replaced him you see we only use him conveniently we have to use him you know because his church so we have to call his name we have to sing a little song about him you know i'm saying sometimes it ain't even a real song but we have to sing a little song about it we we got to give him a little attention you understand but he's not the mainstay because if he's a man say there's a certain kind of song let the redeemed of the lord whom he hath redeemed from the hands of the enemy can't nobody sing that song but redeem people they used to sing there's a song in my heart that the angels can't sing i've been redeemed so when is your mainstay the program flows a certain way the plan flows a certain way the activity flows a certain way because he's right there so that's the one thing that i desire of the lord and the word lord there is jehovah it means my covenant keeping god my contractual relationship i want to make sure that i stay right there with a god that doesn't break his word he said i'm not a man that i should lie neither the son of man that i should repent if i said it i'll make it good if i spoke it i'll bring it to pass i'm not making some some some jack leg my main stay this ain't no cheap empty relationship this is a relationship with jehovah i i'm having a relationship with the creator god is you say no liar or player come on here this is a serious relationship right here this is the god of the universe this is i am that i am i'm going to be what i want to be when i get ready oh i'm not going to fool up with that because i need him to be what i need him to be see the church forgot that you know we we we forget that who he is you know we don't even call him by his name anymore so there's one thing that i keep on my mind i may have to worry about the bills i may have to worry about domestic situations but there's one thing that's utmost and foremost in my mind that i desire from the lord it's a praise a wish it's a driving force it propels me it determines my choices and what is that that you desired david that i will seek after you see what you desire you're going to go after because whatever you seek after that's what you're going to run after whatever your desire is and david it says this one thing that i want to be my driving force and that's what i'm going to spend time going after but david said there's something that i want from god and i'm going to seek after and the word seek there literally means to worship to pray it means to request to go after to inquire it's an earnest desire he says when he from thence thou shalt seek the lord thy god thou shalt find him if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul jeremiah 29 said you will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart like people say i've been asking the lord and seeking him and seeking him for his will and i don't get an answer you're not seeking because when you seek him you do get an answer now you may not like the answer that you get but you when you seek him with your whole heart there's a certain kind of seeking the old folks used to teach you how to seek him you see sometimes you get something and it's not clear but you don't let it go until you get the answer today we want everything quick easy and we get these quicky answers and that's why it's not the will of god because that's not even in the book you ask people well what did the lord say they come up with some kind of confirmation because they've gotten skillful now they googled it they googled it and they came up with some kind of confirmation but there's a searching for it my god like you're digging for gold there's a searching for him because sometimes it doesn't always come clear you see sometimes you get a little foggy answer and you don't let it go you don't let it go you're not seeking him for a sermon you're not seeking him to be intellectual you're seeking him for life you see you you know you gotta get in there in order to get what he's got for you because whatever he has for you that's life itself and the church doesn't have time to seek like that anymore because we don't like to sit and seek we don't like to search we don't even like to turn to turn the pages in our bible we don't even carry the bible anymore and god's forbid if something happens to the phone and we can't click we ain't never gonna get any word we are drop seeking we're seeking the world we spend hours watching television we spend hours getting our cues from those tv gurus we spend hours googling and getting on the spot information but there's nothing like such the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life these are they which testify of me oh come on there's something about searching the word of god and it doesn't always come clear because his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts you got to open a book and then you got to get a dictionary and then you got to get a commentary and then you got to look it up meaning because what it says here may not be the intended meaning you got to dig it and dig it until it bursts open on you and when it bursts open on you it revolutionizes your life tell your neighbor i want a seeking now i want to see king got little sloppy googling every jack leg on there having him tell us something that's not clear but let me seek him for myself writer said i want to seek you i want to go after you daniel showed us how he saw it he said i turned to the lord and i pled with him in prayer and petition and in fasting oh my god that is a forgotten word we don't turn place down no no no ain't nobody stopping eating what what huh anybody giving up no food for what when you can google your answer you ain't going fast to get one ah but sometimes you got to empty yourself empty yourself of your own desires and your own thoughts and imagination empty yourself of the junk that you've accumulated from people from gossip from from bad word from tainted gospel ah you got to empty yourself and come before him daniel said i stretched out because i wanted an answer church don't fast and here is my life's scripture but seek ye first the kingdom of god seek ye first now luke doesn't say first but it's implied seek ye first that means he's the mainstay seek ye first the kingdom of god not your kingdom not your desire his kingdom and seek his righteousness because ain't nothing right in us you see we weren't born right if we weren't for the blood we would never get right if it weren't for the shed blood on calvary if it weren't for the grace that came out of heaven if it wasn't for the fact that god atoned for my sins and washed my sins away i wouldn't be here talking about him tonight but thanks be to god that he stepped out of heaven just for a wretch like me somebody ought to praise him for salvation just plain old salvation just plain old self come on put your hands together for playing [Applause] [Music] [Applause] seek the kingdom first and his righteousness and all the things that we're hustling for you know the church can be a place to hustle you know all the things that we're striving for running after don't have time you know don't have time for the kingdom don't have time to serve that's all i want don't mess with that don't mess with it take the title take everything but don't mess with that one thing take all the importance take all the fluff but don't touch that one thing because that one thing brought me safe thus far and that one thing is going to take me home you see i don't know what's taking you home but i know that one thing that one thing and anytime i feel like i'm losing that one thing every time i feel like i'm getting a little distracted and something and somebody's trying to get in that place i back up and say wait one minute wait one minute no no no no no you're not worth all of that this is not worth all of that nobody should interfere with your one thing hebrews 11 and 6 but without faith it is impossible to please him for he that coming to god must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that what kind of seeking [Music] it's not diligent saying not only do i want to search for him and pursue him but i want to be where he is that i may dwell in the house of the lord and dwell is an interesting hebrew word it's called yashab and your shop means i want to sit down in it that's what god does to your praises he sits down and he he shoves in your praise i want to inhabit i want to abide that's the word i'm looking for i want to hang i want to hang i i don't want to hang anywhere else i want to hang in your house now he's talking about the physical house he's missing zion he's missing the shekinah he's missing the praise but we don't have to have a physical place because you see in the new testament it's not a place it's a person it's not what jesus said to the woman at the well he said your father's worship here and our father's worship there he said it's no longer is no longer a place he's a person so i want to hang with him i want to hang with it unfortunately the mother generation doesn't know how to hang with jesus all day you see it it's a hanging it's a hanging and then the final thing that the millennials want that's why they don't like church we come to get answers see it's no more well why do you do so and so because that's what god said no no there's an answer it's called apologetics it's called a reason for nothing

Channel: The Ministry Of Restoration

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Id: 6tL-wRV6SxE

Length: 34min 15sec (2055 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 31 2020